Halford & Brough in the Morning - Pumped For The Four Nations Cup

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with Boston Globe national NBA writer Gary Washburn about the NBA Finals, as the Celtics took a commanding 2-0 series lead last night (3:00), they do a bit of Canada Soccer Talk (15:00), they discuss Gary Bettman's State of the Union address with Sportsnet NHL writer Luke Fox (27:00), plus Brough rants about the BC Lions (48:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

701 excuse me on a Tuesday 701 I don't know why you need to draw attention to that you know what I mean when little boo-boos happened when Jamie

was here we just moved past them collectively as a team a group yeah he's a good guy no little boo-boos happened yeah there was several

on Friday a unified front did you let him do the reads I did he's excellent at those you let him do the reads? I did. He's excellent at those. You let him do all the reads? The Kintec one he did.

No, but I'm talking about driving. You still drove the bus. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He just became rough, but a better, more handsome version. Oh, I see. Okay. Because I let him be Halford when he's on. So he does all the reads and there's no complaining about it.

Have you noticed that, Lanny? He doesn't complain that he has to do a read here. How many reads do we have? He gets them right. He just does it. He just does it. Anyway, it's nice to see you too, I guess. Missed you guys.

Do you know how I had a dream that we had a fight? A fist fight. A fist fight. A fist fight. Who won? We've never had one of those in our 15 plus years of working together. We've never struck each other. Who won? Well, who was doing the dreaming?

Wasn't a nightmare, I'll tell you that. You had a dream that you pummeled Mike? It was more of a one punch knockout. Yeah, dreams can be kind of confusing, right? I might have punched Alfred Allen. I'm like, why am I wearing clown shoes? There's a deeper meaning here.

Yeah. Again. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough of the Morning is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Acura dealers. Experience a Dilawri difference today by visiting your nearest Dilawri Acura dealer today. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Gary Washburn from the Boston Globe is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour two. Hour two is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer, meticulously brewed for

quality and taste. Primetime is full flavor without compromise. You can get some, get some at a liquor store near you, or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Rafit, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. The Boston Celtics are up 2-0 in the NBA Finals. Joining us now from the Boston Globe, Gary Washburn here on the Halford & Brough Show

on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Gary. How are you? Good, guys. How's it going? Good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So, Boston up 2-0 after taking the first two games in Boston. Teams leading 2-0 in the NBA Finals are 31-5 all-time. And the Celtics have a 43-1 series record when leading a best-of-seven,

two games to nothing. So I got to ask, Gary, are we witnessing the halfway point of a coronation here, or do the Mavericks still have something to say about this NBA final? Yeah, I don't think you can count the Mavericks at this point. I mean, now they return home. Now, if you probably had lost the first two games

at home and you're going on the road, that's a dire situation. But I do think the Mavericks still have a shot here. It's a remote shot. Beating a team four out of five, that's one now, 10 consecutive playoff games and undefeated on the road. But they've got obviously game three is a must win for them.

They've got to play a lot better. And it's kind of discouraging considering the Celtics were really poor from the three-point line, did not play their best game at all, and were still able to win game two. But for Dallas, your hopes are fainting at this point. So with regards to the Celtics, you alluded to it there. They didn't shoot the ball particularly well. Jason Tatum's line from the field was kind of ghastly. Yet, they won both games in Boston.

What is it about these Celtics that make them so good and so versatile that they can have poor shooting nights and really off night from their star player and still emerge victorious? Nine straight wins now for the Celtics. Yeah, they're just deep. They have the ability to get production from a lot of different players. Last night it was Drew Holiday. They got a little something from Chris Tapps-Forzingas.

They got Derek White, great Derek White minutes in the fourth quarter. Jalen Brown made his contribution. They're a team that's six or seven deep of guys that can make plays, and they play so well together and so cohesively that it kind of shows. I think what we're seeing in this series so far is how much luca donchus does for dallas and how much he's kind of an engine for them and he's not getting much help at all and it's killing their offense i mean they scored a 98 last night 89 in game one and this is a team that has a better offense than that. But Doncic has been doing all the scoring, all the passing,

and damn near all the rebounding, and he's not getting any help. The Celtics are kind of the polar opposite. They have a lot of weapons, so you don't need a 40-point game from Tatum or a 35-point game from Jalen Brown. They can get it done in other ways. You led perfectly into my next question, which is, how surprised are you at how quiet Kyrie Irving was in the first two games of this series?

He hasn't been quiet to where he hasn't been able to, he hasn't gotten shot. He's been quiet as he hasn't made those shots. So I just think his performances have been disappointing. I do think the Boston crowd and the whole atmosphere is getting into his head.

I think he'll be better in Dallas. But, you know, we heard that Dallas was going to be so much better in game two, and they learned from game one, and that was an aberration. And they won all, you know, they won game two against the Clippers, and they won game two against Oklahoma City and the same against Minnesota. And then they come out and they just don't play all that well, especially in key moments. So Irving's got to do something.

He's got to be dynamic. He's got to make shots. He's got to make some plays other than, you know, on defense. He's got to be the spark plug because Luka desperately needs help here. And Kyrie was assigned to be that guy but he hasn't been. I just want to go back to the preseason for the Boston Celtics because the Celtics went into this year with championship aspirations they might have at some sports books been the favorite to win it all how much were you guys discussing the teams that they ended up playing in the playoffs?

Like there probably wasn't a ton of discussion about, can the Celtics get past Indiana or Cleveland, maybe a bit of Miami and probably not Dallas in the finals. I imagine it was a lot of, you know, Denver talk or Phoenix talk or Milwaukee talk. Maybe just some comments or thoughts on the schedule and the opponents that the Celtics have ended up playing in this postseason. Yeah, it's been an unusual postseason because the teams that were supposed to be contenders didn't contend. Milwaukee was injured in the playoffs, lost to Indiana. Philadelphia had an in-beam plate on one leg, and they just never really got it together in terms of just having a cohesive team.

Miami did not have Jimmy Butler, and they struggled pretty much all year in terms of being near.500 and just not being that team coming back from a finals appearance. You know, the Knicks were a team that people were talking about as the season progressed, the Knicks get hurt. So the Celtics road here has been very pleasant for them. You know, it's been very, I wouldn't say easy, but it's been less than difficult. And so there was this concern, I think, that, okay, now they're facing a real team in the Mavericks.

The Mavericks are playing better than anyone in the NBA. They've won, you know, three series in a row without having home court advantage. And they got the best player in the league in Luka and all this. And suddenly, and they got the best player in the league in Luka and all this, and suddenly the Celtics have met and exceeded expectations, I think, so far in the series. I don't think a lot of people had the Celtics up 2-0. They thought this would be a dead-even series so far.

So they've met the challenge. It's not their fault that they faced a bunch of shorthanded teams and Cleveland without Donovan Mitchell and Indiana the last two games without Tyrese Halliburton and Miami without Butler. They've just beaten who they've played. They're 14-2 so far in the playoffs, which is a pretty impressive record so far. We're speaking to Gary Washburn, Boston Globe NBA beat writer here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet

650. Gary, I do want to ask you about Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla. So at 35 years old, the youngest head coach to make the NBA Finals since, Bill Russell did it back in 1969. So obviously, there's a historical context to him. He's also a very unique character in the way that he discusses the game,

analyzes it, explains it to reporters. What's it been like covering Missoula last year and this year and getting to know him? And of course, 35-year-old head coach in the NBA Finals. Yeah, he's definitely walks to the beat of his own drummer. He's a very faithful man in terms of

a God-fearing man and and a guy who you know goes against the grain in many ways he practices jiu-jitsu uh and is off time he's very much into competition and very much into the the mental aspect of the game and that's what you learn about when you talk to him um you know he has taken a major step forward this year with his ability to reach his players, his coaching ability, just learning some of the idiosyncrasies of being an NBA head coach that he didn't know in his first year that he's learning now. And I think that's really, really helped the Celtics in a great way.

And the players, you know, when you're 35 and your players are 27, 28, you're more their big brother than you are their father figure, as most coach-player dynamics are. And I think he's come across to them like that. He's not trying to tell them what to do all the time. He's trying to get their suggestions and have their input. And it's more of a big brother, little brother relationship. And I think that's really helped him with some of the main players that they know he's unusual. They know he's a little cuckoo here and there, but they also respect him for his passion. And I think

that's what's been important. As the series shifts back to Dallas, and it's pretty much a must-win for the Mavs here in Game 3, what's the one major adjustment that the Mavericks need to make, aside from get Kyrie Irving going, to get back in this series and not go down 0-3? They have to give contributions from someone other than Luca and Kyrie. They've got to get an X-factor, a guy who can knock down some threes. They've got to just play more passionately. It's

sort of like their shell-shocked. I think they fully went into this series believing, yeah, we got this. Now they've been punched in the mouth twice, and we'll see how they are when they're desperate. They've got to play with more know but they've got to play with more passion they got to play harder they got to cut down on the turnovers some of the other

players have to hit open shots just overall just playing better and the problem is um the Celtics haven't played all that great I'd say they played a b minusminus game in game one, and they played probably a C game in game two, but it's been good enough to win. And that's the discouraging part. You catch the Celtics when they're not shooting well from three, which is rare, and you still lose that game. So it's probably a reason to be discouraged, but you can always come back.

Five teams have come back 0-2 to win the finals. So there's hope, not much hope, but they just have to overall play better. Game three of the NBA Finals goes Wednesday, 5.30, tip our time. Celtics looking to take a stranglehold 3-0 series. Lead Mavs look to get back in it. Gary, thank you very much for doing this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the remainder of the series, and thanks again for coming on.

All right, thanks, guys. Thank you. That's Gary Washburn from the Boston Globe here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I really hope, really, really hope that the Mavericks can make this a series because I had a lot of optimism going in, and actually when you were gone, I was

encouraging a lot of our listeners that, like the Andrew and Victoria's. Were you selling them on the NBA? And did you succeed in selling them on the finals? Selling is a strong word. I basically was trying to point out that it's a terrific matchup narrative wise. Right. And you go in with Boston being, I mean, if you just go back and look at it.

And yeah, I know that they've had some, I don't want to call them inferior opponents, but it wasn't the road, the difficult road they expected to go to the NBA finals, right? It was, you know, Miami, Cleveland, Indiana. So it is what it is. As you mentioned, and you brought up a good point, no Milwaukee, no Phoenix, no defending champion Denver Nug nuggets in the final like it just wasn't that they went they won 64 games during the regular season they were dominant regular season team they've been a dominant postseason team so there was that there was also this mavericks

team which i thought had a puncher's chance if if kairi and luca were going. Yeah. And what's happened? Luka barely made the lineup last. I know he was going to play, but he wasn't cleared to play until two hours before. He's got a chest contusion. He's got a knee sprain. He's kind of hobbling around. Kyrie's just been bad.

I mean, there's no other way to say it. He had 12 points in game one. He had 16 in game two. He hasn't hit a three-pointer this series. He's 0 for 8 from three. And he's only been to the free throw line twice. So I didn't get to watch any of the games. What was the reaction to him in Boston? He got booed repeatedly and incessantly in game one,

right from the tip, every time he touched the ball. And then we had on another writer from the Boston Globe, actually on Friday, names escaping me at the moment, and I apologize, but he said that it felt like it was more like out of obligation. Performative. Yeah, like there wasn't a huge outrage and outcry. And Kyrie didn't really poke the bear that much. He did say after game one that he thought they'd be louder.

Yeah. He kind of took the air out of the balloon with some of his comments before the series. He did. And then he's taken more air out of the balloon because he hasn't played well. Yeah. There just hasn't been the Kyrie. Like, he had an opportunity in game two to go in and deliver some daggers because that was a winnable game.

Okay, so you weren't successful in getting the listeners excited about the NBA finals. That's fine. I learned my lesson, though. You learned your lesson. I did not hype up the Canada-France game. Can you get listeners excited about Canada's result

against France? 0-0, granted in a friendly, but in France against one of the top teams in the world. I'm sure you watched the game. What did you think about Canada's performance

coming off the heels of a 4-0 loss to the Dutch? So for those that don't know, sometimes scoring no goals and conceding no goals in an exhibition match is a really good thing. It might sound, I don't know, boring, or as Laddy put it this morning, like nothing happened. But you have to learn how to do it,

especially for a tournament like the World Cup. So right now in the FIFA rankings, France is the number two ranked country in the world. Behind Argentina, which will be Canada's next match. So to get this kind of result. Imagine being a new manager, which Canada has like, who we got on the docket? We got the Dutch.

Oh, that was going to be a tough one. It it gets tougher so i'm glad you mentioned the manager so jesse marsh now who just the he's an american he just took over the job prior to the dutch match in three of the four halves that he's been in charge canada has been pretty good they held their opponents goalless yeah they created some chances. Yesterday against France, Liam Miller had a great opportunity to score, rang a shot off the crossbar. That was a great shot.

Yeah, beat the keeper, Mike Magnan. So it was good. Yesterday's match, if you're Canada, it was interesting how they approached it afterwards because Marsh is like, look, it's a draw. It was a goalless draw. It was a friendly. And maybe France wasn't as into it as we were.

But we are taking away from this that we improved from the Dutch match, especially in the second half. And more importantly, there's a sense of belief that comes along with being able to battle the likes of Kylian Mbappe and N'Golo Kante and Kamavinga and everyone else that they had in their lineup. William Saliba, high-end, best of the best, top-quality players. Mbappe came off the bench late.

Maxime Krepon made a great save. And by the way, he is absolutely locked in that number one job now to be the goalie for Canada when they take on Argentina. He was fantastic. I'm very happy for the guy. No more sweatpants. No more sweatpants and no more Dane St. Clair,

who got that first game against the Dutch. And to be honest, in the second half when they conceded the four goals, he was on the hook for, I'd say, two of them. He did not have a great second half. Craig Poe came in, took on a very difficult opponent, made a ton of saves, was man of the match. Very happy for the guy, even though he forced his way

out of Vancouver with a trade. I'll put that aside for now. Here's what this group needed. Something positive to happen for them. Because since they qualified for the World Cup, positives have been very few. They had not really any good results at the World Cup.

If you want to count the 1-0 loss to Belgium, maybe. It's not a good result, though, because they got zero points from it. Post-World Cup, I'd say it's been more disappointments than positives, both on and off the pitch. Even qualifying for Copa America kind of came with an asterisk because they had to backdoor their way in against a very inferior trinidad and tobago team yeah they needed something positive and they needed a result that kind of caught the attention of the footballing world and drawing france nil nil in france with the kind of quality that france

has in its lineup was a good thing what were the french press saying after this do you think just a shrug yeah just whatever it was they just needed a tune-up yeah they know what they've got france has enough quality that they can put out a b team and we'll probably beat a lot of high-end countries but it wasn't a b team though wasn't it like mbappe played did he did he came on late he came on in the 74th minute right he's basically they held him scoreless right that's that's pretty that's good and crepe home made a great save off him at the end. Yeah. So say what you will about how seriously the French took it, what their line, I mean.

England lost Iceland in their last warmup for the Euros, right? They got a real problem with Iceland. Friendlies can be. They were a problem in Mighty Ducks too. Yeah, right. That Iceland. They're from the, from, yeah, they got good hockey up there in theory. But this is totally unrelated to anything, but we are talking about football.

Did you see that the country of Greenland is trying to join CONCACAF? What? Really? Yeah. Yeah. Because technically it is closer to North America than it is to Europe. That's very interesting. Yeah.

Denmark controls Greenland, right? That is correct. Right. Denmark's like, no, we're getting all you guys so they can't actually become a FIFA member because I don't think they have the proper

like sovereign status yeah one of the things they're missing is people right that's a big part of it and good soccer players also that most of their players

do live in Denmark they're Greenland Nationals but anyway this is now we're getting like really far afield someone's tuning in right now he's like are they talking about the Greenland National Soc. But anyway, now we're getting really far afield. Someone's tuning in right now. He's like, are they talking about the Greenland National Soccer Team?

Yes. Yes, we are. Anyway, to my point, originally, we are now 10 days away from one of the biggest matches that Canada is ever going to play World Cup or otherwise. They are going to be playing Argentina, the number one ranked team in the world. And Lionel Messi will play. He's not going to skip this one. They are playing in front of 70 plus thousand people

at the Copa America in Atlanta. It is going to be such a big test. And they did a really good job of prepping for that test on Sunday. Which loss was worse? Canada 4-0 to the Dutch. England losing to Iceland in a Euro warm-up. In their last Euro warm-up, or the Americans losing 5-1 to Colombia over the weekend.

Well, America losing 5-1 to Colombia, that one got a lot of attention because Greg Berhalter, whose son, Sebastian Berhalter, plays for the Whitecaps, he's the gaffer for the U.S. men's national team. And a lot of people don't want him to be the gaffer and he retained manager manager he retained his position after um there was like sort of an open competition to fill the spot because he was embroiled in some personal controversy that might have kept him from keeping the job i don't want to go too far down the road. Let's just say that that loss to Colombia really drew the ire

of U.S. men's national team supporters and is not boding well for them as they also go into Copa America looking to make a statement. Poor Andrew in Victoria. I know. He's going to get a lot of soccer talk on Sportsnet 650 next

weekend, right? June 16th. Is that the Sunday? Starts with Canada and Argentina, and then England plays their first match against Serbia. I think. Yeah. Or maybe the other way around.

Canada and Argentina is on the 20th. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. Euro starts next weekend, though. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

15th, 16th is when we're going to get. I think it's. Anyway, point being. There's going to be a lot of soccer in the next little while. Yeah, okay. Yeah, 15th, 16th is when we're going to get, I think it's, anyway, point being. There's going to be a lot of soccer in the next little while. Well, yeah, two major tournaments. I mean, you know, it's the equivalent, but it's the continental championship for both.

And we wouldn't normally pay any attention to Copa, but because Canada's not normally in it, it doesn't have quite the, I don't know, it just doesn't have the gravitas of Euros. Like, Euros has such... The Copa... It's a confusing tournament because you never really know the format

or even where it's going to be played. It seems more like kind of a random tournament that they play whenever, as opposed to the Euros, which is on a strict every four years basis. Well, just to continue along this, they've expanded the field to go beyond just what it used to be, which was traditionally a South American competition.

It was a continental competition meant to see who was the best team in South America, and that's where you'd get the heavyweights that would go. You've got Uruguay, you've got Brazil, you've got Argentina, you've got Chile, but then the tournament needed to grow and to expand, so they started bringing in CONCACAF teams. They started inviting overseas teams to experience it

because everyone understood that there's two major competitions in the summer. It's Euro and it's Copa. And if you're outside those regions, you're kind of on the outside looking in without getting – and they're great preps for the World Cup. Sure. There's the closest thing you're going to get to World Cup-level competition

without being in the World Cup. So Cop There's the closest thing you're going to get to World Cup level competition without being in the World Cup. So, Cope America side beneficial to them as well. Like, oh, there's added interest and especially the U.S. The U.S. was a huge market for them to try and go into. Okay, before we go to break, it is time now for the Canadian Football Report

brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. Cameron Dukes, who? yeah, Cameron Dukes, threw three touchdown passes and ran for another to lead the Toronto Argonauts past your BC Lions, 35-27 on Sunday night in the season opener for both teams. Dukes, who is replacing the suspended Chad Kelly, the reigning most outstanding player,

21-27 passing for 254 yards. Toronto with a fourth straight home victory over BC. Vernon Adams, quarterback for the BC Lions, finished 25 of 33 passing for 363 yards with two touchdowns. That was the Canadian Football Report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life partner of the CFL. We've got a lot more to get into on the Halford & Brough Show.

I have some more thoughts on the Lions because I want to talk about the Lions and maybe we'll save that for what we learned because to make a long story short, this team needs to find an identity. What are these guys about? Because they're hosting the Grey Cup this year

and I know Toronto's good and it was a tough start, but there are a lot of the same issues in that game against the Argos as there were last season, especially the latter half of the season. So Luke Fox is going to come up on the other side of the break to talk about the business of the National Hockey League, including the cap going up. 8 o'clock, Kevin Woodley, and then at 8.30,

we can do what we learned and dive back into the BC Lions. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650 or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app Maybe it was the happy gods getting us back for that game six where we probably didn't deserve to win. Tonight maybe we deserved at least one goal or two goals

and we don't want to let it go. I know this group will stick with it, bounce back. That's what we take a lot of pride in doing, and we'll gear up for a big one on Monday. 732 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning

is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Acura dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today by visiting your nearest Dilawri Acura dealer. Today we are in Hour 2 of the program. Luke Fox, NHL writer for Sportsnet, is going to join us in just a moment here. Highlight of Hour 2. Hour 2 is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste. Primetime is full flavor without compromise.

You can get some at a liquor store near you or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. To the phone lines we go. To Sunrise we go. Luke Fox from Sportsnet joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Luke. How are you?

Doing pretty good. It's 5 billion degrees in Florida and I'm off to a morning skate. So, yeah, still hockey being played, guys. Hey, Luke, how many sunburned Oilers fans are running around in Florida right now? You know what? That's a fine question because it's not an easy location to get to. There's no such thing as a direct flight from Edmonton to Fort Lauderdale, which is something I found out when I was planning this trip.

But there is a pretty good contingent of Oilers fans. I've ran into a few of them, and they made the journey, and they're excited to be here. What I would say is it's nowhere close to the amount of Rangers fans that were here last year. I covered the Eastern Conference final as well, and that was probably like 30-40% in the building. They kind of

took over. And it's not quite like that, but it's not hard to spot an Oilers jersey in the Amaranth Bank Arena in Game 1. So, it's pretty cool. Oh, I think we lost Luke. Hey.

Hey, you back? We lost you for a bit. I hear you. We lost you for a bit. Oh, sorry. Oh, okay. No, I was just saying it's pretty cool that Oilers fans are making the effort. And I guess they can just say, hey, it's a trip to Florida.

And I think when you you do the the ticket price conversion you're probably uh you're probably not too much in the hole because i think they're cheaper here than they are in edmonton it's more much more in demand ticket there so the trip to florida doesn't just include the games of the stanley cup final it also includes gary bettman's annual state of Union address. And there was a lot to get through after he spoke with the media on Saturday. You know what I actually want to start with? And we haven't even mentioned it yet,

but the Four Nations face-off, highly anticipated. We've kind of gotten, you know, dribs and drabs and bits and bytes of what is going to be happening. Can you run us through the details that were announced on Saturday and what more we learned about the Four Nations face-off that's going to go in 2025? Yeah, it's pretty awesome, right?

Because last time there was anything close to a best-on-best was 2016 at the World Cup, and it wasn't even quite a true best-on-best because we had that awesome Team North America, which was really unique, because we had that awesome uh team north america which was really unique and we had team europe but we didn't have you know the best of canada the best of u.s going against each other so it's canada u.s it's finland sweden nhl rules all nhl players taking place in February. And basically it's a round robin.

Every team plays three games. They all play each other once. It's going to be at the Bell Centre in Montreal for the first few games. And then the tournament shifts to TD Garden in Boston. And they're not doing a semifinal. They're not doing a consolation. It's just the two teams with the best record after the round-robin will face off in one championship game in Boston. And the reason for that is because basically they don't want to take up

too much time. This is in lieu of the All-Star weekend, it's it's more of a just a teaser i i think to to get fans ramped up for the olympics which will be obviously a a much grander stage but i can't wait i i love international hockey and it's like we've been deprived as as fans of not having conor mcdavid and sydney crosby on the same team, of not seeing Canada and the U.S. go head-to-head now that the Americans will probably have a much

stronger team. I think it's going to be fantastic hockey. I don't think it'll be much more competitive than the Ulster game was, that's for sure. Why Montreal and Boston? Was that explained at all? I imagine the people in toronto are like what about us aren't we the center of the universe yeah yeah and i i actually heard a

rumor that toronto was in consideration um but basically they wanted to have the games in both countries uh they didn't and and i wonder if if part of that is because they want to appease rights holders in both countries. And then they wanted to, you know, cities with strong hockey fan bases, traditional hockey cities. So that's what they decided. Yeah, and maybe they wanted to spread the love a little bit. It wasn't explained explicitly, but Toronto did host the World Cup in 2016 exclusively. So selfishly, I love it because I live in Toronto and I want to get out of Toronto.

I love Montreal. I love Boston. So I think I'm not complaining about these jerseys. No, they're two great towns and two great hockey markets. I was just curious. What do you think the toughest question Gary Bettman had to answer was? That's a good question. I mean, no matter how tough the question is,

he's pretty good at dodging it, right? I would say one of the toughest ones might have been about Russia. You know, you got four nations, and traditionally we think of Russia as one of hockey's superpowers. And basically, you know, he just said, we're not at a state to include them. You know, I'm sure there's, you know,

cause there's a chance, you know, the best, best MVP of, of the, the year might go to Nikita Kucherov. Right. We have,

we're here at the final. Sergei Bobrovsky is standing on his head so far. He's been the story of the Stanley cup final. And then you're not including this country. And there's good reason for it. But I think it is a little bit uncomfortable for the league that they do have a lot of proud russians i talked to kusharov actually at the all-star game when the the four nations was was first announced and he was ticked off he's like how could you even call it a best on best if you don't have russian

he's like it doesn't even matter uh So the Russians feel very strongly about it. I was talking to some people from Finland and Sweden last night, actually. Our countries feel so strongly about the situation over there that if Russia was included in the Olympics or in this tournament, those countries would probably boycott it entirely. So it's a very prickly political situation in terms of who to include, who not to include. So yeah, maybe there's an asterisk because you

can't dispute the fact that some of the best hockey players in the world still hail from Russia. What about the stuff with Joel Quenville? I mean, we don't even know if Joel Quenville was, were there, I mean, I mean, no one, we don't, we don't know, even know if Joel Quenville has been offered a head coaching job. Um, but, um, how did the, how did the back and forth go between the media that was asking about Joel Quenville and whether or not he was even eligible to return? And how was that answered by either Gary Bettman or Bill Daly?

Yeah. So he's not eligible. Him and Stan Bowman are not. And they both want to come back. Bowman wants to be a GM. Quimble wants to coach. Absolutely. They've made no bones about it. And there's frustration on their part, for sure.

And right now, Bettman just says they're not eligible. It's something we have to consider. They both talked to the league and made their pitch and basically gary has not put a timeline on it uh he's just said it's something we're gonna have to consider but not right now so right now they're just in a holding pattern we're speaking to luke fox sports net nhl writer here on the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650. One of the big takeaways from the State of the Union address was that the salary cap is going up and you wrote salary cap spikes, get used to them. Can you explain a little further for us? Yeah, well, basically it was, we were kind of in a holding pattern due to the pandemic. There was an agreement that, you know, the salary cap

would remain relatively flat there for a few years while the players paid back their escrow debt. And, you know, while they wouldn't go into detail on the numbers, the sense definitely was that that debt's been repaid and there may even be a surplus you know that wasn't denied so the fact that that escrow is taken care of the fact that fans are coming to the buildings they're raving about the tv numbers they're raving about the revenue and and how it's the best it's been in probably a decade uh we're gonna see these these cap jumps. So it jumped about 5%. We could see another 5% jump the next year, another 5% jump the next year,

provided things keep going the way they are. And I also think the fact that they got the Coyotes out of Arizona, finally, that's going to be a nice little boost because now they're going to have full buildings. They're not going to be having gates of 5,000 or less at Mullet Arena. Ticket sales are through the roof in Utah. So that's a help. So the league is relatively healthy compared to where it's been.

And the salary cap is entirely based on HRR, hockey-related revenue. So now that the business is thriving, the cap is going based on hrr hockey related revenue so now that the business is thriving the cap is going to go up the gms can make more silly mistakes on july 1 it's good for everybody you know you mentioned the arizona coyotes are the former arizona coyotes anyway and uh you know marty walsh the pa head who was up there there with Bettman on Saturday, that was one of his sort of more demonstrative public statements earlier was about his displeasure and how he couldn't even get in contact with the Arizona Coyotes about the situation that they found themselves in. So a two-parter here. What did Walsh have to say about the Coyote situation being resolved?

And what was the vibe like? What was the dynamic like with Walsh and bedman up at the podium together it's unbelievable like at one point uh walsh's microphone cut out and gary lent him his and just the mere fact that they're sharing a podium together and making little jokes together is something we haven't seen quite honestly honestly, guys, the Donald Bear era was bad, I think, for the PA. To be honest, I don't think he did a great job. And I don't know how much he cared or how involved he was. The amount of work that Marty Walsh has gotten done,

less than two years, a little over a year on the job is pretty remarkable. Like fans have been starving for an international calendar. So they got that locked down right away. They got the four nations face off. The NHLers are committed for the next two Olympics. It's like significant things that matter to the players, that matter to fans, that weren't accomplished in the whole tenure of donald fear uh and and there seems to be way more synergy between the league and the pa and the other big

thing is is the coyote situation like that marty walsh made that a priority you know he one of his first trips as soon as he got the job was to fly out to arizona and talk to the players and find out about their concerns and you know i'm sure you guys saw the interviews it's not as if a bunch of arizona coyotes were slagging mullet arena it publicly after games or anything you know they're they're kind of towing the company line but when their union boss shows up they tell them the truth and then they were not happy they were ticked off. So after the press conference ended, you know, Marty Walsh made himself available to myself and a couple of other reporters. And he was just saying, like, how excited the Utah guys are now to be out

of there and so encouraged by Ryan Smith and the plans there. And it's finally a franchise that's going to pump a bunch of money into the team. So everything's a lot better. And it's pretty remarkable. Like, those were two of the biggest things, international competition and getting the Coyotes a new home. And he fixed that, or helped fix that, I would say, in just over a year's time. So the labor relations between the league and the team are in a great place,

and that's a good thing because in two years, the CBA is up and they're going to have to negotiate a new deal. Yeah, that's why you shouldn't get fooled by the friendliness between them because there are going to be things that come up, and there will be some strong words spoken. Hopefully they can get that new CBA done without any work stoppage. And I expect they will. But you never know until you know.

The one thing that I wonder when it will happen, because I'm pretty confident it's going to be happening. Sounds like there's a push among the general managers to close some of the LTI loopholes. Did that come up in Gary Bettman's presser? Because I think Elliott Friedman's been reporting that it's been starting to gain some momentum, but they don't know whether or not they can fix that during the CBA or they're going to have to wait to the new one. Yeah, no, you're exactly right. It did come up and Bill Daly addressed it. And the sense was that there is an appetite amongst the teams to revisit this,

but it's not so strong that I don't think it'll be status quo. I think it will be status quo for the next couple of years. Reading between the tea leaves, the sense was this is a bit of a complicated issue, and no one is so furious over it that it needs to be addressed right away. So I think what will happen is the language around long-term injured reserve will probably be different in the next CBA. Nothing will probably change for the next two playoffs. So teams will probably, if I were to guess, teams will probably be free to pull a Nikita Kucharov, a Mark Stone,

for the next two years. But I think they're going to structure the language around that differently in the next agreement. It's not so urgent that it'll get remedied before next playoffs, I wouldn't say. Luke, this was awesome, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it. We'd love to do this again next week, as long as it jives

with your travel back and forth between Edmonton and Florida. Alright, sounds good. Thanks for having me, guys. Yeah, thanks for coming on. We appreciate it. That's Luke Fox, Sportsnet NHL writer, live from Sunrise here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

You would like, Jason, to take the floor, in this instance, the microphone, and continue on your BC Lions run. Well, I have a question,

I guess, for the Lions or the fans. What is this BC Lions team going to be about? Football What's their strength going to be? What is their identity going to be?

Because that game against the Argos You saw some flashes of Maybe they can be a high scoring offense at times I know they lost some of their receivers. There's been some turnover in the receiving core. But I think they've still got a strong group of receivers. And when Vernon Adams is on, you can rack up the yards and you can rack up the touchdowns.

And, you know, I wouldn't put any of the – well, some of the decision-making from Vernon Adams needs to be better. But the offensive line against the Argos yesterday looked completely out of sync. Six sacks for Vernon Adams Jr. You can't have that happen. You can't have Vernon Adams sacked six times. You've got to keep this guy healthy, and six sacks,

it's hard to win a game when you're getting dropped that often especially in the cfl when you're like okay we got one last chance here and it's second and 20 or whatever first down some people are going to say it's the first game of the season and that's fair i'm i'm saying that however um not good signs. One of them was that without Chad Kelly behind center, the Argos were a touchdown underdog at home. They were not supposed to win that football game. I know that Dinwiddie, after the game, was like, oh, we expected to win that game.

But they were a significant underdog at home without Chad Kelly. And it looked good for the Lions early on. They had a big lead. Yeah. And then, you know, the pressure that the Argos were bringing on Adams started to influence the game. And the big one for me is the Lions defense got chewed up again, especially against the run, and that's really frustrating.

By Cameron Dukes. Well, Cameron Dukes as well. But the run, you know but being able to stop the run in the CFL maybe doesn't get as much attention as it does in the NFL. Certainly, as a Seahawks fan, I've been watching other teams run the

ball down the Seahawks' throat for the past few years, but it's a problem for the Lions or it developed as a problem last season. Do you remember last season when they started the year by going into Winnipeg and just absolutely dominating the Blue Bombers? And I was like, oh my God, this defense is going to be something special. And then it just kind of petered out.

That's the year one. I was like, what happened to that defense that was so good? You know, as the Lions do get more attention in the market and their ownership is doing such a great job and BC Place, I guess it's going to be sold out for their home opener next weekend, they're going to get more expectations to, you know, deliver results on the field.

And so far, under Amar Dolman, it's been good but not great. They've made the playoffs, but in each year, they've gone to the Western Final and I think been fairly outclassed. But this year, that's not good enough because there is a trip to the Grey Cup on the line if they get to the Western Final again, which hopefully they can.

So there's a very awkward dynamic that's at play with the football team, and that is that the Grey Cup is hanging over them. Like J.J. Adams had a really good piece in the province. Go check it out. And he said, like, the ever-present conversation with the BC Lions that's not going away is Grey Cup. Like, you're hosting it.

You've got all this momentum. The fans are back. And Rick Campbell actually alluded to it. He's like, the majority of the talk about our football team right now is about the opener, 50 Cent, and hosting the Grey Cup. There's the actual job of winning the football games to compete in the Grey Cup, which is his responsibility. But at times, those two things bleed into one another

because there's such a sense of excitement around. Now here's the important thing, the organization because of what they've done largely off the field. So there's still some work to be done, I guess, because we just got a text in that said CFL preseason talk bros. Really?

It was a regular season. It was the opener. They're now 0-1 on the season. Yeah, they did the preseason. This is the regular season. It was the opener. They're now 0-1 on the season. Yeah, they did the preseason. This is the regular season. The home opener is the second regular season game for the BC Lions. Just a reminder to get your What We Learns into the Dunbar Lumber text line, 650-650.

We'll start reading your What We Learns in the 830 segment, which is segment six of our show. Dunbar Lumber with three stores to serve you in Ladner on Bridge Street, Dunbar Lumber Express at Ladner Center or Arbutus in Vancouver. Online at dunbarlumber.com. Kevin Woodley is going to join us now. We'll talk about Sergei Bobrovsky

and his performance in game one for the Florida Panthers and whether or not the goaltending story is going to be an ongoing story in the Stanley Cup final. And if it is, are the Edmonton Oilers in big trouble? You're listening to the Alfred Abruf Show on Sportsnet 650.