Halford & Brough in the Morning - Randip Talks Canucks + What We Learned

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

In hour three, Halford & guest host Jamie Dodd preview tonight's Canucks road matchup at Utah with analyst Randip Janda (1:55), plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). 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.

It's Rand Deep, Rand Deep Janda time. It's Rand Deep Janda. It is Rand Deep, Rand Deep Janda. It is Rand Deep, talking hockey now. Oh! It's the oh that always gets me. It's the best part of the jingle. It's the oh that always gets me. It's the best part of the jingle. It makes the jingle. It does.

You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It is hour three of the program. This entire show, this whole big mess of a show, is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly,

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the commercial ads and get us to break on time. I don't even do that very well. We are an hour three of the program. You have two jobs. You do one of them moderately and the other one not well at all. Thank you, Andy. And that's been Alfred's performance review for the year.

Have a good 2025. Okay, we are an hour three of the program, as mentioned. Hour three is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. Of course, we're coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.

Sore feet. What are you waiting for? Kintec, to the phone lines we go. Our next guest is a presentation of bells and whistles. Your new favorite place to catch all the action, hockey, football, soccer and more. 3296 Fraser Street. Randy

Janda joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Randy. How are you? Good morning, gentlemen. I'm doing well. How are you? We are well. We just spent about a half hour talking to Matt McConnell, the play-by-play voice of the Utah Hockey Club, setting up tonight's game between Utah and the visiting Vancouver Canucks.

I asked this question of David Amber earlier in the show. I'll ask you as well. Do you have a handle on what Vancouver Canucks team we might actually see tonight in Utah? Will it be the good Canucks or will it be the bad Canucks? Well, it's the road, so obviously they're going to be the good Canucks. Exactly. 10-2 in a one, right?

So this is a team that delivers on the road. Listen, they do play differently on the road. They play a more, you know, there's more urgency in their game. There's more directness. Sometimes even a more simplified game north-south. So based on the track record we've seen, I would expect them to play a good road game. Is that, you know, you used the word urgency there.

I look at the Florida game and the Colorado game. Were they able to capture some of that urgency that they've shown on the road and finally bring it to Rogers Arena? Is that kind of the difference that stands out in those two games in contrast to, obviously, the Boston game in between them? Yeah, I think in those two games, and specifically the Colorado game, guys, you know better than anybody, there's a lot of noise in the city,

there's a lot of conversation going on, and it felt like Rick Tockett had reached a point where he needed his guys to show up and bring that urgency. And for whatever reason, you know, on home ice, we hadn't seen it. But in those two games, against the opposition that they were playing, two of what, they won the Cup two of the last three years, they were able to bring that effort. And it's interesting, when you're in the room,

when you're talking to the guys, the opposition, anytime you bring up the opposition, if it's a good player or a good team, every single player will say it's not really about the team we're playing. It's about us. It's about making sure we play our game. But without a doubt, I think those teams did bring something out of the Vancouver Canucks. And that urgency, A, of, hey, we got to do better because on home ice

we haven't been good enough. But also, I think that challenge from Colorado and Florida is something that they looked internally and say, hey, we can't do this again. We can't have a Boston or New Jersey game. So that urgency and that good start and really setting the tone throughout the lineup, it wasn't one line doing it.

It was all four of them. They needed a team effort, and they brought it into those games the boston one we can um you know you can kind of ignore that because it wasn't there but absolutely i think the urgency was something that they needed like you need to get started on time something they haven't been able to do consistently this year at home yeah and it's a good point about playing up to their opponents that would be a welcome change right because i mean we've seen earlier in the season games against good teams right edmonton new jersey carolina

the performance just wasn't there so i mean hey sometimes you it can be frustrating when you play to the level of your opponent but if they could start raising their urgency level to match the quality of opponent that would go a long way i think Yesterday, just a little bit of news around the team. They send Friedman and Shelovs back down to Abbotsford. Phil DiGiuseppe and Linus Carlson come up the other way. So a couple of new forwards in the mix that we saw last year haven't yet seen for the Canucks this year. And my first thought was this could spell trouble for Nils Hoaglander

staying in the lineup. Do you think that's a fair guess on my part? Is there a chance he comes out for one of Carlson or Giuseppe tonight I think it is a fair guess seven minutes and 50 seconds of ice time against Colorado he's got no points in the last 20 games guys so this is a player that sure he might be playing in the bottom six but you chip in with points you chip in with consistent effort uh i'm not questioning the effort with neil's hoaglander i think it's a trust thing with him where um you know are you able to influence the game are you able to make in a positive way are you able to bring your style of play and with the struggle with neil's hoaglander has been it's just the inconsistency some games or some shifts you have it or he brings that tenacity. He brings that ferocious forecheck.

The wall valves are being won. In other moments, you're questioning a play, whether he's kind of diving in too deep, whether, you know, potentially, you know, giving the puck away in a bad circumstance. Earlier this year, we saw some penalties as well. So when I look at both of the players that they've called up, Linus Carlsen and Phil DiGiuseppe, two players that Rick Tockett loves.

First of all, they've got the size, which is important to this coach. They are players that are tough to knock off the puck. They play a style that he really likes. And with Phil DiGiuseppe, he's mentioned a couple of times this year when DiGiuseppe was injured that you know Phil being in the AHL and when he gets healthy he's an option so this has been kind of a long time coming I think with Phil Di Giuseppe this is a plug and play type of player that's what he's been his entire career so if I'm Nils Hoaglander no doubt I think this is definitely you're on watch right now I mentioned

the lack of point production but that ice time when you're on watch right now. I mentioned the lack of point production, but that ice time when you're hovering less than eight minutes and you've got a veteran player like Phil DiGiuseppe being called up, very much on watch. Vincent Desjardins, the game against Colorado, relatively good one, one of his better games in the Canucks uniform, I thought. Did you see enough or have you seen enough recently to have a little bit more optimism around the

players? Is this jury still very much out on Desjardins? I thought it was a great game. He was doing a good job of getting in the lanes, guys. That's one of the areas, I think one of the frustrations with Vincent Desjardins this season has been, you understand there's going to be problems moving the puck. That was something

that was the MO coming out of Edmonton. When we talk about his game being a work in progress, that was the mo coming out of edmonton uh when we talk about his game being a work in progress that's what you often think of but is he hasn't been as physical as i thought he'd be this year and you know that's when one of the areas where you're saying okay you need to see a little bit more there you need to use that you know six foot seven frame uh to break the cycle to be know, separating man from puck a little bit better, winning battles. In that game against Colorado, we saw a little bit about that. You know, we saw him be a cycle breaker in the defensive zone.

We saw him also stand up guys at the blue line. I mentioned getting his stick in the lane and breaking up passes. He did that. So if he can bring that, he can bring that consistency, this is going to be a situation where he's going to get more looks. He's going to get ice time. But is he there yet? No, I wouldn't say so.

I think that was a solid game by him. That's why Adam Foote and Rick Talkett gave him more ice time. But he's got to string games together like that. He's had a good game here with Eric Brandstromstrom in the past as well but we've seen a couple of games later he was scratched ever have after having a dud of a game so it for me i think with vincent day harney he's showing you what he can do well he's just got to do it game after game after game and that's the challenge that's the you know being called the ultimate pro and a everyday defenseman in this league is tough day harJarne isn't that far right now.

He's got to show something. You know, the other forward that came to mind for me, Randip, when I saw the two call-ups yesterday, and he was second lowest ice time against Colorado, it's Dakota Joshua. And I understand this is a bit of an awkward one to talk about, right? I think everyone understands there's very legitimate, very understandable reasons why maybe it's taking him a little bit

of time to to get back up to speed and have close to the same impact he did last year so you know the idea of him potentially coming out of the lineup i don't think it would be like with neils hoaglander where it's almost a punishment of the player right but i i do wonder as the going forward for the canucks you know they made made the investment in Joshua. He was such a big part of the team last year. I wonder what the path forward to getting him back to that is. And could it include, you know, Hey, we've got back to backs here, maybe day off rest chance to reset something like that for Dakota Joshua in the near future.

Yeah, it is a tricky one because you want to give the players much time and opportunity to get back up to speed. But at the same time, if you're not able to click on the ice, you have to make a choice if you're the coach here. And 16 games played, he's averaging about just shy of 13 minutes. But guys, the stat that really jumps out to me is four shots on goal right this is a guy in those 16 games he just hasn't been able to generate or get close enough uh to to the middle of the ice and he's got that one goal that was scored in transition playing alongside connor garland but i think the last game showed us that when he's playing away from connor garland that impact isn't quite there and even though you know when he is playing with connor garland uh that he's not able to hit that ceiling yet. So it is a tricky one. It's one where you're just looking and saying, Hey,

you want to give him time to wrap up. You want to give him time and a chance to get up to speed. But at the same time, Rick Talkett needs to build out a bottom six that he can be comfortable with. And if that means Linus Carlson and Fildi Giuseppe are able to get to those spots a little quicker and Fildi Giuseppe are able to get to those spots a little quicker. And Fildi Giuseppe is an interesting one because if it's not a Hoaglander, are you able to swap him in for Dakota Joshua because he can make a greater impact on the four-track?

And that's really Dakota Joshua's bread and butter. Is he able to get home? Is he able to make an impact? And if his timing is not there yet, if his conditioning is not there yet, I think you do have to consider it. I would give him a little bit more of a runway here, to make an impact. And if his timing is not there yet, if his conditioning is not there yet, I think you do have to consider it. I would give him a little bit more of a runway here, maybe a couple more games just to see if he can pick up the pace a little bit. Of course, you issue a challenge in the next couple of games. But I agree with you.

I think for the good of the player, obviously you want to give him time to ramp up, but he's just not getting home right now, and you do maybe have a couple of options that might be able to do that more effectively at this moment. We're speaking to Randeep Janda, Canucks analyst here on the Halford & Breff Show featuring Jamie Dodd

on Sportsnet 650. Who do you think gets the start in goal tonight, Randeep? Because of course it is a back-to-back situation with the Canucks playing in Utah tonight and then in Vegas on Thursday night. I would guess it would be Kevin Lankanen. It's a couple of days. Hopefully he's over that flu

and the fact that Shelovs was sent down obviously tells you that you've got a pretty good situation there. And listen, if you're Rick Dockett, you've got a great situation based on the fact that one of your goalies had a near shutout in Thatcher Demko in the final minute of the game. Matushkin scores there.

And Lankanen is coming off that game against Florida. So I would go Lankanen here just based on the fact that, you know, Demko's had a couple in a row. He played really solid. He looked big. He was excellent rebound control. But this is still a guy that's coming back off that injury. If you can give him an extra day,

maybe get some reps in, get some rest and you start them against Vegas. I would go Kevin Lankan in here, but I think with Thatcher Denko, it wasn't an ideal circumstances with Lankan and slew, but he was tested and he showed you something in that game that you give him more reps. He can be that guy.

And I do think that the Canucks figured out something in that game as well. David Pasternak mentioned after the Boston game where, hey, this is a goalie that's coming back. We want to get bodies in front of him. We want to make his life difficult. To me, that quote was a challenge for the Vancouver Canucks to say, you've got to do a better job of boxing out. So whether they go Lankanen or Demko,

I think that Colorado game showed something about Demko's game right now. But I would go lankanen or demko i think that colorado game showed something about demko's game right now but i would go lankanen here yeah if they can get something close to that level of performance from demko the rest of the season i mean they're going to be in a really good position in the crease with him and lankanen and lankanen of course shut out in his last game you know misses one with the flu and now he's eligible for an extension on on january 1st and it's such an interesting issue right because he's an earned raise with his play you still have thatcher demko under contract for another year but obviously there are question marks with his health how much of a priority should extending lankan and be from a canucks point of view once we click

over into 2025 i think it has to be a priority because, you know, we're still looking at the future of Thatcher Gemco, and he's going to be a player that has UFA status. So, of course, you have to consider that in a couple years' time. But, of course, it comes down to Kevin Lankan, and what he feels his number is. This is a player that's never been a starter, and this is the closest he probably will be

i believe his career high in games in the season is 37 so less than a 50 50 split so are you are you going to try to get you know a long-term deal what's your annual average and with vancouver jim rutherford mentioned on after hours that maybe that spend on goaltending is a little bit more but this guy's giving you quality starts. And over the next couple of years, I think you do need a quality 1-2 tandem. The way that the NHL has changed, you can't just go after the big name, the number one starter, and have a backup that still has to prove themselves. We've seen that in Vancouver a couple of times over the past four or five years, guys.

And that's a lot to throw in a young goaltender as they're working their way up. And, you know, this year has told us that Archer Shelob has some ways to go. And Kida Tolopilo, although he's been a great story this week with back-to-back shutouts, assuming a goaltender is going to take over a backup spot is, you know, that's a very risky proposition in today's day and age. So Lankanen is a priority, but it always comes down to this could be the biggest deal at Kevin Lankanen's group. It probably will be. So does he see this opportunity as, hey, I want to be a starter somewhere?

Is there a team out there that maybe doesn't have a starter locked in and he can go compete to be that starter if that's the opportunity at hand uh it's going to be a price that's probably maybe out of vancouver's reach but i think it has to be a priority in getting that discussion started what did you think about jt miller bumping down to the second power play unit against colorado now five on five i thought it was great uh with jt miller physicality. Power play, something looks amiss there. When Miller was away with his lead, the Canucks were able to actually be quite successful. On the power play, too, for JT, it just, you know, when you've got a highly skilled player, a player that was fourth in the league in primary assist last year behind guys like mcdavid and kucherov and and

that level of player on your second power play playing 30 seconds it is seems like it's you know not the ideal use um but here's the thing they do play more direct they play more fluid when jt's not there in the power play so how do you couple both of those things together together it feels like they defer a little too much to JT when he's on the power play where he's the guy that has to start everything. And, you know, that mechanical power play kind of really gets going where you're essentially saying, okay, you can telegraph the moves that are coming. So I get why they would look at it for one game.

I don't feel like it worked at all. I think the stats back that up as well. So I'd expect to see him back on power play one. But, you know, that's an area that they do have to improve. They have to, that assertiveness that Pedersen has when JT's not there on the power play, or maybe if Quinn Hughes has, they have to replicate that when JT's there as well. Because once you start that, then you've got three or four

really solid threats on that power play. JT Miller on power play, too. I'm not going to lie. I'm not a huge fan of your leading point getter from last year being on the power play for the final 30 seconds. Randeep, this was great. And before we let you go, can you tell us a little bit about your friends at Bells and Whistles? All right, boys. That's right.

Bells and Whistles is my favorite spot in the city. It's located on Fraser Street just off of Kingsway in Vancouver. Great food, big screens to watch all the sports with the sound on. That is key. And they have the best craft beer selection in the city. So it's the place for the real sports fans in the Fraser hood. So come watch the next big game at Bells and Whistles, 3296 Fraser Street. Can confirm.

It's a very good spot. Thanks, Randy. Appreciate this, bud. Cheers. Randy Bjanda connects. Color analyst here on the Halford & Brough Show featuring Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet 650. I've watched many a hockey game at Bells and Whistles. It's a good spot.

It's a great spot. Love it. Great burger. Very, very delicious burger. Now I'm getting hungry. It's almost lunch time which is followed by nap time in halford land they got great desserts too that's true we took andy there once to watch a seahawks game i love how you guys like

you know we went there with andy is we took him there we took him there like we took him there like he's your nephew you're doing a big outing with him well because he ordered a gigantic sundae like a child you had to let him out of his car seat when you got there. Gave him some tokens for the pinball machine. He had like donuts on the straw or something like that. Yeah, you remember it? I do. I still think about it. It was a good time and he had

a good day. Okay. We're going to do some What We Learns. I'm going to start and I mentioned this earlier, but I want to circle back on it because I've been thinking about it all day. Big news, the National Football League, late in the season for a quarterback change of this magnitude. And it hits close to home because it is a former UW quarterback.

Michael Penix Jr. is the new starting quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, taking over from the struggling Kirk Cousins. Now, if you've watched Atlanta Falcons games recently, one, sorry, that's been a real slog. That game on Monday night against the Raiders was a gross football game, but it was also a win. It's not very often that you see a starting quarterback get benched after a win, but that's exactly what the Falcons did.

Kirk Cousins has thrown one touchdown and nine interceptions in his last four games. While he is completing nearly 65% of his passes this year and has thrown 18 touchdowns, he also leads the NFL in interceptions with 16. He also has a very problematic 12 fumbles. If you do the math, that's close to 30 turnovers. That's a lot. And the Falcons decided that it's 7-7, and facing the lowly New York Giants this week,

it was the time to make the switch. Now, some of you might be saying, hey, I kind of remember Kirk Cousins signing a massive, big money deal to join the Falcons this past summer. That's right. They did. He signed a four-year, $180 million contract. About $100 million of that is guaranteed. He gets $62.5 million dollars this season not bad moving ahead now

they're gonna have to pay out whatever's left to get him flush to the 100 million but his time in atlanta is essentially over and this was a bizarre situation coming into the season right because they signed him this offseason then they went and and they drafted Michael Penix Jr. out of Washington with what, the eighth overall pick? Without telling Kirk Cousins they were going to do it. And people tried to, well, hey, you're grooming this guy to be the successor to Cousins, so it actually makes a lot of sense. Like, Penix is already 24.

You know what I mean? So it's not, now, quarterbacks can play for a long time, but it's not as if he was this super raw young prospect that needed a lot of time necessarily behind an established veteran. And either way you slice it, right? Okay, you invest in Kirk Cousins. Wouldn't you rather then improve your team on the field with the number eight pick to help Kirk Cousins?

Or the other way, if you're going to take a quarterback at number eight, wouldn't you rather have that chunk of salary cap space to play with to improve the team for Michael Penix? And it was just always going to end in this position where you'd be caught in between wishing you had done the other thing. Right. It just happened to end on December 18th of 2024. It's interesting because the way that they structured his contract, it's not actually that terrible.

Most of the money comes off the books by 2026, so it's not like they've got this dead cap for forever. But it's just, I mean, if you're the owner of the team, you're like, you know, I am made of money. I'm Arthur Blank. But still, this is a lot of cash. Still, what are we doing? Yeah, throwing around frivolously.

Now, what'll happen is he'll finish out the year with the Falcons. They'll cut him loose. He'll probably land another deal because the NFL is so quarterback starved. And if you look at the draft this year, there's about five quarterbacks that have first or second round potential. Shader Sanders kind of highlighting the list. Then it gets thin. And then the free agent quarterbacks right now, it's kind of like Sam Darnold, Derek Carr, maybe.

And then Kirk Cousins. So the great part about all this is he's probably going to get paid a whole bunch more money, which is great. That's what he does best, man. That is the dream. The dream is to just keep signing these ridiculously egregious contracts and get paid and get paid and get paid. Anyway, best of luck to Michael Penix Jr.

He will get the start this Sunday when the Falcons take on the Giants. Moo, Calmy. All right, I have a what we learned here, and it's that Vernon Davis, former NFL tight end, as well as former NFL player Omar Bolden. I don't remember him. I don't remember so much. I don't remember. I don't remember so much him. Vernon Davis was awesome, but they are going to star in a mockumentary

comedy TV series about podcasting. They're going to play two former tennis stars who are launching a new podcast together. I guess poking fun at the incredible, incredible deluge of athlete-led sports podcasts

that we've seen in recent years. I saw this story. Jamie pointed it out to me earlier. And the premise is fine. It's actually kind of amusing that they would poke fun. The athletes that have a podcast or the ex-athletes that have a podcast the question is why would they position themselves as tennis players i mean i guess for

for humor purposes like in the screenshot it looks like vernon davis has slimmed down from his playing weight so it's like because it would be hard to picture you know like a guy at 250 being a tennis star but why not go with what you know? They're like, can you imagine the pitch? And you're in the green room. And he was like, and here's the thing. They're former tennis players. And then the one TV executive is like, could we not just go with the football thing?

It seems much more natural. We're only doing it if it's tennis. And it's called Match Point. So it's like themed around tennis. It's the hill that I will die on. And I brought this up to you before the show. It's just like that's a wild collection of words together in a sentence. And you made the point that apparently there's an Entourage reboot in the works

where they're trying to start a podcasting company. I can't really tell. So Doug Allen, the executive producer of Entourage, put something out. He put a trailer out on social media yesterday. And as I understand it, it's also doubling as a pitch to potential studios. And it's got a couple of the Entourage characters. It's got E and Johnny Drama.

And I couldn't really tell if they were reprising their roles from Entourage or they were just like hey you're the guys from Entourage like I don't know anyway they're probably just happy to be working again right like E isn't exactly knocking down batting away roles with a stick people remember me yeah so

anyway the premise of this one on the podcasting theme is that they are working or they own a fledgling podcast company that's not doing well. Yeah. I'm a little concerned as somebody. Yes, it's a radio show, but also a podcast and, you know, industry moving in that direction. I'm a little concerned that it seems to be now like the go to. Wouldn't it be like, wouldn't it be pathetic if these guys had a podcast in your TV show? What's the most pathetic, funny job we can think of for these people?

It's like podcasting. The only more pathetic job of being on the radio. It's not a great sign for my career. I don't love that. Anyway, there's a whole bunch of podcast stuff coming out, which is great. Now it's a mockumentary. Mook, how all that? Adog, before we go to break, announce the winner of the PWHL

Takeover Tour Tickets. Congrats to Aaron, the Assistant Cruise Director in Coquitlam. Congratulations, Aaron. Enjoy January the 8th at Rogers Arena. A-Dog has a very good What We Learned, by the way. I just want to hype it up a little bit. It's a nice tease, laddie. Well done. You're a good radio host, you guy.

Okay, we're going to go to break. When we come back, A-Dog's Very very exciting what we learned. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show with Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Vic Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets weekdays 3 to 4 on Sportsnet 650

or wherever you get your podcasts. Now for my favorite part of the show. What'd I say? Talk to the audience. Oh, God, this is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time It's what we learn time On the show

834 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford and Brough, Sportsnet 650, along with Jamie Dodd. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for,

sales, financing, service, or parts. We are at Hour 3 of the program. It is what we learn time. Hour 3 is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. Showing Jamie how it's done. Greg loves it when I do that.

When you time it out like that. I hit the post every time. Nothing gets Greg more excited. Mr. FM radio over here hitting the post. I am extremely lame. Greg loves that. It's sweet potato yams. Korean baseball.

That's a teaser. Okay. So the show is super dumb. We just spent, we should have been doing all kinds of important prep work during the break and setting things up. It's a very complex final half hour of the program because we have to do reader submissions

and we have business to attend to. Didn't do any of that. We spent the entire time looking up YouTube videos spawning from the Vernon Davis, what we learned that Jamie did. So Vernon Davis, who, by the way, when I was a boy, he used to be Vernon Davis Jr. Yeah.

Then he, along the way, he dropped the junior. I don't know why. I didn't do that research. He's a grown man now. I was busy watching videos, but Vernon Davis spawned two fantastic memeable clips. The first is old school. When Mike Singletary coached the San Francisco 49ers and benched Vernon Davis, then junior, during a game,

and then afterwards unleashed one of the greatest coaching rants in NFL history. I'm sure you all know it. If you don't, now you know the backstory. Vernon Davis Jr. caused Mike Singletary to do this. I cannot play with him. Cannot win with him. Cannot coach with him. Can't do it. It is an all-timer. I say it all the time. I used it on the kids one time. I'm like, you, Marcus, can't play with you, can't win with you, can't do it. That's a good one. Now, this other one that I was unaware of is, you know, every NFL Thanksgiving, the slate of games that they have,

they always ask the players what their favorite dish is for Thanksgiving. And guys will be like, you know, I love my mom's mac and cheese. Americans love mac and cheese for Thanksgiving. Yeah. Not with real cheese either. Processed cheese. What? Really?

They love their creamy processed cheese. It's not great. Not alone there. Green bean casserole. Love my aunt's green bean casserole. Mashed potatoes. Whatever. Mounce, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, whatever. I did not know that this existed, but Vernon Adams Jr. loves sweet potato yams. Yams.

Sweet potato yams. I didn't even know this existed, but it lives in infamy on the internet. The smile on his face while he's saying, he is like in heaven thinking about sweet potato that's enough of that that's the first thing that pops in my mind when i think about vernon davis and you know i feel like showing some showing some charisma riz, I dare say. So maybe he can carry this Match Point mockumentary. He brings that energy.

I didn't think he had it in him. All they do is talk about sweet potato yams. Sweet potato yams. Yams. Sweet potato yams. All right. This show is so dumb. Let's go to A-Dog.

Yeah, this one we learned is far more intelligent. Yeah, Laddie going to break said, and I believe I'm quoting you correctly, A-Dog's got a really exciting what we learned. It's a good one. Okay. Yeah, I almost have two. Should we do the second one?

You know what? Why not? We're almost on vacation. Okay. Screw it. Last day of screwing up. Yeah. Okay, so it. Last day of screwing up. Okay, so I learned that Austin Matthews doesn't know how to pronounce the word pizza.

Pizza. Yeah, but like, I don't know if I want my pizza to be made in the back of the van. Boston pizza. We're not eating pizza right now. We just straight up. Head down to your local Blockbuster, pick a movie,

family would order some pizza. Pizza and ranch. Is he calling it pizza? Austin Matthews pronounces pizza, P-E-E-K-S-A. P-E-E-K-Z-A. Pizza. Pizza. Or Zed-A.

Hold on. Like peekaboo. Pizza. Pizza. How do you get that wrong? So that's crazy. He should be on the Halford and Brough show with that kind of pronunciation. So let's play this again. This is a compilation of Austin Matthews saying the word pizza.

Pizza. Yeah, but like, I don't know if I want my pizza to be made in the back of the van. Boston pizza. We're not eating pizza right now. We just had down to your local blockbuster, pick a movie, family would order some pizza. Pizza and ranch.

What is happening? That's why he disappeared for a while to do some like pronunciation training. It's like an Arizona thing. Is that how they say pizza in Arizona? I've never, ever. It's a regional dialect. It's a pizza.

I've never ever heard anyone say pizza. They don't say that in Mesa, I'll tell you that. It's very strange. That's bizarre. Isn't it? I'd never heard that before. Can't win a cup. Neither have I. Can't win a cup. And it wasn't just like a random slip up. This is multiple clips from very

different sources. Who actually thinks that's how it's pronounced. There was at least eight pizzas in there. That is crazy. Okay, good one. We have to mook out the pizza. You have another one? Imagine AJ's Pizza. It's called AJ's Pizza.

Can he have an Austin Matthews pizza on the menu? If you're a Toronto pizza shop, you got to do like the Matthews pizza on the menu. 100%. That would be a no brainer. Find out what he likes on his pizzas and add it to the menu. Okay. This one, it was going to be my first one. DMX, the great DMX.

He would have turned 54 years old. Rest in peace DMX. Passed away a few years ago. And of course he has a very famous rendition of a Christmas song. You know, Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Come on!

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Had a very shiny nose And if you ever saw him You would even say it closed Come on! Come on! All of the other reindeer Used to laugh and call them names. They never let poor Rudolph

join in any reindeer games. Then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say, come on, Rudolph, with your nose so bright, won't you ride my sleigh tonight? They were good.

I think we got, I don't know. We got the gist of it here. Rudolph the red-Nosed Reindeer. You're going out of history forever. You're going out of history forever. You're going out of history. What?

Had to get the what in at the end there. So, again, what was the learned part? R-I-P-D-M-X. I learned that he covered Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Oh, you didn't know that before. I'm pretending for the sake of it. Or, no, you learned that he would have turned 50 today. I learned he would have turned 54 today.

54. Well, whatever. Close enough. Any excuse we have to play that clip, we are going to take it. Clearly. Yeah. All right. You're questioning the intelligence of my what we learned after your sweet potato yams.

It's been an incredible six minutes for audio here on the show. I've got to say. You don't run, we're on. I'm'm gonna let it go because it was some good audio. It went a little long, but he really kicked it up at the end there. Anyway, MooCow DMX. Is everyone good? Does anyone else have one? Jamie? No, I'm good. Jamie's fine. He's like, oh god, no.

Please move along. Okay. Fire of the Dot Matrix. Humanoid submissions. What we learned is brought to you by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Try AJ's Mini Roni Detroits. Andy, tell them about the Mini Roni for 22 bucks. Is it a lot of pizza? Yeah, it's not mini.

That's a lot of food. You can get them today. It is a Wednesday. So, yeah, the $ 22 mini detroit's on now go visit them at 325 east broadway or order online at aj's.pizza now jamie why don't you we've got well before we get into the um the strictly speaking the what we learned here we've got a lot of reaction to everything we've done already a lot of people asking and saying hold on a second i thought sweet potatoes and

yams were the same thing some people going as far to say definitive or were different some people going as far to definitively say that sweet potatoes and yams are in fact different i don't know they are i have no idea no they're two different things oh well you love so they do taste they say they taste similar as i could see how one would put the two together. As I understand it, when you say you're having candied yams, that is when you par cook a sweet potato in boiling water, then place it in a baking dish, then top it with a mixture of butter, sugar, and spice,

thereby making the yam. So yams is what you make from sweet potatoes? That is one explanation as to why. Because I thought the same thing. I'm like, well, sweet potato yams, what you make from sweet potatoes? That is one explanation as to why. Because I thought the same thing. I'm like, well, sweet potato yams, like those are... Well, that would make a lot of sense. He's like, I like the yams that you make from sweet potatoes. I just Googled it. Google said, no, yams and sweet potatoes are not the same thing.

Right. But what I'm saying is how he's explaining... Because he called them sweet potato yams. That's what I think he's talking he's talking yeah i see how i stress the word think but you can't hold on hold on hold on you can't make sweet potatoes into a different vegetable by cooking them in a certain way i'm aware that's not how that works you can't make a mushroom into a carrot yeah i mean like well i prepared it in such a way now it's a carrot a yam is dry and starchy and brown and a sweet potato is red with softer flesh.

Gentlemen, I'm aware that there are two different things. So there are two very different things. I'm trying to tell you why the man said. I'm trying to tell you why I think the man called them what he did. I realize you can't transform one into the other. It sounds like you're doing. It's like turning the Alfred and Ruff show into a competent radio show. You can't

do that. It's impossible. Yeah, those are two separate things. Okay. Do we have actual what we learned? So're ready to go jamie yeah i'm sure we do a bunch of people have texted this one in um and most recently from dalvier uh what we learned i learned that last night the milwaukee bucks won the nba's second annual in-season cup tournament he goes on to say how long do you think before people really start to care about this tournament? I doubt it will ever rival the prestige of winning

an NBA championship, but could it get to the point where it's what the FA Cup is to the Premier League, for example? How long could that take? Will it even last long enough for that to happen?

I would love for it to get there. My big takeaway from last night was the Bucks didn't celebrate. no the nba has the whole the champagne in the locker rooms and all of it and they were like no thank you we're good and i saw doc rivers said i think darvin ham who was coaching the lakers last year when they won it he's on the buck staff now and he was like well they celebrated and then their season didn't go so well so we didn't want to do that but then i saw some LA beat writers pushing back on that, being like, they had a photo op with the champagne

and then they hightailed out of Vegas to back to LA. So the NBA provided boxes of champagne and they went untouched and it made the social media rounds that they were left there. If there was ever a bigger condemnation of the NBA Cup, it was the players not giving, or not handing out the free celebratory champagne instead of leaving it in the box. It's a fun little thing that they've done to put kooky colored courts out there for the public view and to kind of draw attention to otherwise meaningless regular season games, but it'll never get to the prestige, I suppose, of the FA Cup because one, the FA Cup includes every team that's in the country

and it's designed to have minnows taking on giants, not to have the Hornets taking on the Bucks on a random Wednesday night that also doubles as a regular season game. I get what they're trying to do and it's a neat little endeavor and I don't hate them for it, but it's never going to go anywhere beyond what it is. And also the FA cup's been around what, like 150 years. So that helps.

Yeah. But the, the way it would even come close to that is if the players decided it was a big deal. So the fact that now the tradition has been started of we don't celebrate, right? Like that's a very, very bad sign for the future of the NBA Cup. If it had become the norm right away that, hey, we're celebrating, we're partying in Vegas tonight.

This is a big deal. We won the in-season cup and we're really happy about it. I think that would go a long way to building it up. But now nobody wants to be the first team that acts like it's a big deal to win, right? You're going to look like losers then. So it's tough that they've decided the right thing to do is not to celebrate here. We got one here from Basketball Phil, always in tune with the collegiate sports landscape in the United States.

Phil texts in, hashtag WWW, what we learned. Michael Vick is joining the hoodie coaching college football. The hoodie, of course, Bill Belichick. Michael Vick is going to be the head coach, head coach. Sorry at Norfolk State. So this is interesting because Michael Vick was in the running for this job, despite having no previous head coaching experience at that level. And then in what many believed as to be a negotiating ploy,

had it leaked out there via Adam Schefter that Sacramento State was also involved in his services with $50 million of NIL money. That was later sort of poked holes through, in which was a subplot to this story that Michael Vick, who's had a colorful career, to put it mildly, will now be joining the coaching ranks. So all of a sudden, the college football landscape next year, including Bill Belichick at North Carolina, obviously a much ballyhooed hire there, and then Michael Vick going to Norfolk State. So that is a historically black FCS school

in one of my favorite conferences, the MIAC, the Mid-Eastern Atlantic. The Mid-Eastern Atlantic. Athletic Conference. I love the Mid-Eastern Atlantic. The Mid-Eastern Atlantic. Athletic Conference. I love the Mid-East Conference. I love it. It's the best. So anyway, good luck to Michael Vick on coaching,

which I think is wild because he's never had a head coaching job at that level before. But there he goes. Good for him. Here's a soccer one for you. All right. Dylan the Plebe with what we learned. FIFA just announced their world's best 11 i saw the players i don't know if it's because i'm getting older but i was not

impressed by the current crop of the world's best compared to 10 years ago and he says he loves the footy talk are you are you dismissive of the current crop like dylan is i mean i guess 10 years ago though you'd have messi and Messi and Ronaldo guaranteed in it, right? So that's a little tough to compare to two of the greatest of all time. So this is, I mean, part of this sounds like someone who just maybe isn't necessarily, how do I put it, like in touch with the modern players

and watching the modern game very often. I mean, it's the, it lacks the star power. And I think part of it is that we're in that post Ronaldo messy vacuum. I mean, Erling Haaland still on it. Lamin Yamal, who is one of the brightest young footballing talents we've seen in an awfully long time is on it. Vinny Jr., who quite famously didn't win the golden balloon, the Bellandor. Rodri's in there who did win it. It does sort of lack the star power, but it's reflective of a year in which, I mean,

quite frankly, these were the guys that got the job done, so you have to celebrate them as such. It'll be interesting in the next couple years to see where the game goes globally, because I think, of all the guys, Haaland seemed most likely to take the reins, especially

after his first year in the Premier League, but City's fallen on such hard times lately, and he doesn't have the success internationally that his predecessors have had. It's going to be interesting to see who takes the helm. It's very similar to that NBA conversation they always have. It's like, who's going to be the next face of the league? Because it's been generational, right?

It went from, I got to try and do the chronology right. It was like the Jordan era kind of fed into the Kobe and Shaq era that then fed into the LeBron and Steph era. And I'm sure I'm forgetting people in the moment. Please don't skewer me on social media, but they're always looking for the next face of, and because Ronaldo and Messi were the face of and did it for so long, two decades plus, it is going to be a while before we figure out who the next wave is. Here's what we learned from Chet in Burnaby. He says, I learned Canucks legend Luke Shen

recorded six shots in three seconds last night against the Rangers. Of all the players to do it, to rack up six shots on goal in a span of three seconds, Luke Shen takes the honors. You know this one. I posted the clip on my Twitter account. It's hilarious.

He skates in from the point. The puck kind of gets funneled to the side of the net. And then he's just on his backhand, basically lumberjacking Shesterkin's pad with his stick six different times. So he got credit for six shots in three seconds. I did the math. So the max amount of saves any goalie could make in a 60 minute hockey game 7200 there you go with six

and three seconds with six and three if we use that as the guideline now the most saves a goalie could ever make my only issue with that is you got to factor in the time you got to knock some of those off right factor in the time from the puck drop into every period. We'll say 7,000. Getting it to the net and just whacking away at it for the remaining 20 minutes of the period. Great for Shusterkin's save percentage, though. Really great. I've never seen it jump so high. This is awesome.

Keep it going, Shed. Unsigned what we learned. Hashtag WWO. What we learned must be from Gary. The letters OEL are not in Halford's vocabulary. I actually said alphabet. They're not in my alphabet. This was earlier when we were talking about Dylan Gunther.

I almost called him Gillen Dunther. Gillen Dunther. You also said croach earlier instead of coach. But that's close enough. And I refer to it as the Connor Garland trade, which I think is an important inflection point for everyone. And that's how we should refer to it as the Conor Garland trade, which I think is an important inflection point for everyone. And that's how we should refer to it as such moving forward. Because it really is the Conor

Garland trade. Good luck with that. Yeah, it's not going to work. But it's no longer... It's the OEL trade. And Conor Garland's been really good. And he's turned fan opinion around. It's never becoming the Conor Garland trade. Here's a question you can all think about as we leave and you can come back for tomorrow. What would it take for Garland trade. Here's a question you can all think about as we leave and you can come back for tomorrow. What would it take for Garland to do

to have it no longer be the OEL trade? They've got to win a cup. 50-goal season. No, they've got to win a cup. And he's got to be a big part of it. 50-goal season. I honestly think Garland has always been the prize in that deal. He was...

Well, yeah, he's the good player they got back, but it's still the OEL deal. He has to win the Hart Trophy. I'm trying to change narratives one day at a time. Thankfully, there's only two days left in the week. We got to get out of here for today. It's been a lot of fun, and we will be back tomorrow. Same crew, including Jamie Dodd,

for more Halford and Brough silliness. For now, though, we got to say goodbye. Signing off, I have been Mike Halford. He's been Jamie Dodd. He's been A-Dog, and he's been Laddy. This has been the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.