Halford & Brough in the Morning - Randip Talks Game 7 + What We Learned

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

In hour three, Mike & Jason preview tonight's historic Stanley Cup Final game seven with Hockey Night in Punjabi and Sportsnet 650's own Randip Janda (3:00), 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 Randeep, Randeep Janda time. It's Randeep Janda. It is Randeep, Randeep Janda. It is Randeep talking hockey now. Oh! 805 on a Monday. I forgot you threw that little oh in there. Like that? Very Sopranos-esque. That's good. Oh! Hey! You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough of the Morning is brought to you

by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is 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 in hour three of the program. 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. 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, our We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider,

powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soar feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. To the phone lines we go. Randy Bjanda joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Randy. How are you? Good morning, boys. Now that you mention it, that jingle is kind of like the Sopranos.

Every time you listen to it, you know, like the Sopranos, every time you watch it, you discover something new. And I can see, I can hear the Richie April and Andy's voice when he does that. Good pull. Thank you, Richie. Unfortunate demise, but I like Richie. Randy, big game seven tonight.

Who are you thinking about tonight? It could be McDavid. It could be Paul Maurice. It could be Barkoff. It could be Roberto Luongo. Who it could be paul maurice it could be barkoff it could be roberto luongo who's the first guy that comes to mind and you try to put yourself in in his shoes yeah being in vancouver here obviously the the popular answer would be roberto luongo but i'm actually thinking about the guy that works for him sergey bobrovsky this is a guy that this is

has been the sergey bobrovsky experience where in the first three games, two games and two periods, he was a Vezna winning goaltender. And in that third game, where it looked like it was such a comfortable win for Florida, allowing a couple of goals late. And then what ensued after that, the Oilers figuring out how to essentially solve Sergei Bobrovsky and going high blocker on him, going high glove, essentially aiming high for the rest of the series. And there's a lot more going on than just Bobrovsky. The way that the Oilers are playing, the way that they're hitting Florida with speed has totally changed the series. But I'm thinking about Sergei Bobrovsky because at the beginning of this series he looked like he wasn't going to be beat. He looked like the way that the Panthers were playing defense

and he was stepping up in big moments that he was going to be the consummate winner and now all of a sudden you're wondering game seven, the most important time of the season for both of these teams. This is the game of their careers. Which Sergei Bobrovsky are you going to see the

one that gives his team you know that faith and that trust and that confidence or the guy that is looking lost right now especially up high if you're Paul Maurice what's your message to the Panthers you have to forget what's happened really you know you have to have a very very short memory and we kind of saw that in the practice yesterday where going up to every single skater and having a one-on-one conversation of this is one game you haven't you know lost that many games in a row this year i'm not mistaken the last time they lost three in a row was in march so it's been a while um go back to what you were doing at the beginning of the series go back to you know hitting home with that forecheck.

But I think the X's and O's the players know at this point. It's just about keeping positive and essentially saying, yeah, the other team on the other side has done a bunch of things right, but remember, we're dominating the series. This is one game. You've played this game thousands and thousands of times in your life. And forget about the past. Forget about the historical

ramifications and that's something that maurice has been talking about in media as well guys to say yeah we don't care about that internally every single one of those guys is thinking about that but maurice's message has to be you got to play this game that you played so many times and play your way play to your style that's the way you're going to end up beating this edmonton team you can't get in a shootout with them. You have to kind of be that blanket over them defensively, and that's the way that they're going to have to play here. I asked this question of David Amber earlier.

I wanted to get your take on it as well. Do you think there's a favorite going into the game tonight? From a sports betting perspective, like a play now, they're dead even on the money line, the game tonight. From a sports betting perspective, like at play now, they're dead even on the money line, the two teams. A couple books have Florida as a slight, and I mean slight, like marginal favorite,

and I'm sure that's due to Game 7 being on home ice for them, but do you think there's any favorite for tonight's game? The way that the game has been going, I know we talked about momentum from game to game in the playoffs, and players have mentioned as well

that it's not a thing, but in this series, it certainly feels like a thing um with edmonton and the way that they've been able to simplify their game especially in their own zone to get the puck out before the four check hits i feel like there is a favor right now in edmonton and let's break down the numbers a little bit guys through six games five on five it has been even this ozone possession time know, you look at the rush chances, you look at expected goals, you look at actual goals. Five on five, it's right down the middle, and it goes both ways.

A little bit favors Edmonton, a little bit favors Florida. But the game changer in this series has been the special teams. The power play for Edmonton, we know what they can do. We know how good they are and you know florida's pk uh alex barkov was talking about how good it's been but you know we know what they're capable of but the pk for edmonton has been unreal we've seen what they've been able to do in pressuring the the blue line and really making florida look disjointed so i look at this series five on five you're right right. If you know, we can, it's a pick them,

but what really turns the series in my opinion is the special teams. And historically we talked about Edmonton and that power play right now, that PK is being, it's a power kill, so to speak, with Yanmark and Connor Brown doing what they're doing. So I would actually lean in Edmonton's favor, which is wild because last, you know, week, this time last week, I thought they were done invested. Can you ever remember a PK being more impactful during a postseason run than it has been for the Edmonton Oilers?

Yeah, thinking back, I don't necessarily remember one that has been as potent as this one. And oddly enough, the Vancouver Canucks were the team with the most success against that PK. And they looked awful. They looked awful for half the games. And guys, we talked about how putrid that power play was and what needs to change.

And I think a little bit of this conversation has to go back to Edmonton and say, all right, it wasn't only the Vancouver Canucks. Clearly, they had the most success out of, look at LA and what they were able to do. Look at what Dallas was not able to do. So I look at this PK, and I don't recall one being so dominant in the playoffs to this level.

And they're all essentially depth guys, players that we've criticized in the past, whether it's a Warren Fogle, whether it's Derek Ryan, Matthias Janmark, and yeah, Connor Brown. Connor Brown is the most criticized player on the Edmonton team earlier this year when he couldn't score a goal. So yeah, they've had a huge impact on the PK. And I think one of the stats that really is impressive

to me in this season, in this round specifically, guys, is zone denial rate. And they've been really, really good. Against Vancouver, they were hitting at about a 38.9%, which was fifth out of eight teams. Here, they're denying the zone 48.8% of the time against the Florida Panthers, the highest rate that they've had all playoffs long.

And if you can't set up, that's the problem. And guys, we were talking about that in the Vancouver series of what's wrong with Vancouver. They can't enter the zone cleanly. Clearly, that was a Vancouver issue, but it's also a reason to praise the Edmonton Oilers because that's been the key for them all playoffs long. How good is this for the NHL as a league?

I think it's great. This is going to hurt hearing in Vancouver because Vancouver was so close to getting it done against this Edmonton team, but eventually, you know what happens.

But when you have McDavid, when you have Dreisaitl to the best players on the planet and you have your marquee player, let's be honest, Connor McDavid is the greatest player that a lot of us will ever see live, right? Maybe we weren't around for the heyday of Gretzky.

Maybe you're young enough to not have watched Mario Lemieux play. This is some unreal stuff that Connor's doing at a speed and skill level that very few people... I've never seen this, right? And we can argue that, you know, the numbers and the talent level of Wayne Gretzky, he was dominant like nobody else.

The stats back that up, but it's kind of the argument of, was he this fast? Nope. The skill factor, maybe, maybe not. But the fact is, I think anytime you have your best player and widely acknowledged the best player by his peers in a final showcasing this, it's great. And the other thing is, I'm very, you know,

when it comes to Canada's team and all that stuff, I'm a fan. I'm like a soccer fan, right? The example I use is there's six teams in London. I support one of them. If Arsenal loses, guess what? I'm not cheering for Chelsea. It doesn't work that way. That's the way I operate. So for anybody

that ends up saying, hey, I cheer for Canada's team, cool. That's how you fan. But I will say this, guys. Having a Canadian team in the final with the best player on the planet is excellent for the league. So the league, yeah, I would imagine is doing cartwheels. And remember, this is leading up to the Four Nations faceoff next year

where it's going to be best on best for Four Nations. So I think the league is extremely happy. I realize that the key player for the Florida Panthers is probably going to be Sergey Bobrovsky. I mean, I don't think that's a hot take. But what do you expect out of Barkov tonight? Because, you know, you don't want to be the Selke Trophy winner, and then in the same year,

your team blows a 3-0 series lead in the Stanley Cup final. Totally, and this is a player that, you know, when I talked to him about two and a half weeks ago, he was saying, hey, we're ready for this. This is something that we learned from last year. So to be back in this position, I know he takes it personally. But looking at his matchup against McDavid, I think the Oilers have done an excellent job of getting away from him when the games are in Edmonton. They've only, through the games in Edmonton thus far, guys, and there's no more left, obviously, five on five, McDavid's only had to play against Barkov

for about 14 and a half minutes, which in Florida, it goes to 22 minutes. And when they've been on the ice together, Florida's outscored Edmonton 1-0. Think about that. For all the goals that have been scored in the series by Edmonton, five on five, Barkov versus McDavid is still Barkov's line outscoring Edmonton and Connor McDavid when they're on the ice together.

Have more chances in the middle of the ice. And Edmonton has more shots, but it's by a difference of three. So I think Sasha Barkov, when the games have been in Florida, he's been able to find that matchup, and he's been able to really shut down Connor McDavid. The problem is, when those games go back to Edmonton, Chris Knobloch's done an excellent job to get away from that matchup, and he's been able to really shut down Connor McDavid. The problem is, when those games go back to Edmonton, Chris Knobloch's done an excellent job to get away from that matchup. So one thing is for sure, defensively, you can count on Barkov to do his job,

but I think he needs to do more. That last game was an example of the one goal that was scored was an unbelievable goal that Sasha Barkov scored, but where else was the offense? And, you know, Stuart Skinner's played well, but the Edmonton Oilers have done an excellent job of keeping everything to the outside. And you start looking towards, okay, if Barkov is going to be tasked defensively, and that's where he's doing a lot of his work,

you need other players like Matthew Kachuk, Sam Bennett, that second line, Carter Verhage, who has been, you has been a real no-show in this series. Sam Reinhardt hasn't had a good one either. So I think for Barkov, this game means a lot, not only just as a selfie winner, but internally as a leader on this team, as a player that could be the first finished player to captain the team to a Stanley Cup final or final win sorry but I think it's beyond him too or this is where Matthew Kachuk needs to lean in you got a Edmonton Oilers team that is clicking at such a high level right now that you know the top two lines at the very least

need to be clicking for the Florida Panthers otherwise it could be lights out early in this game. Randeep are you ready to pivot after this game is over? Arguably one of the biggest games in NHL history. Some people say it's the biggest game in NHL history. And after it's over, everyone's going to be like, oh, what's my team going to do at the draft and free agency now? Well, Vancouver Canucks fans don't have to worry about that until the third round.

So at least you have that grace period. But yeah, it's going to be a change of pace like this week is so jam-packed when you start you know looking at this and i was kind of i'm i'm kind of conflicted here because it feels like the season has gone on way too long right the nba wrapped up last week they had their parade the boston celtics and they're probably in the bahamas right now chilling somewhere on a beach. But at the same time, this has kind of worked in the favor of the NHL to say,

they've got everybody looking at them right now. Prime time is theirs. They've got Connor McDavid. So the fact that North American syndicated radio shows are talking about them, whether it's the shows on ESPN south of the border, there's going to be a lot of talk about Connor McDavid and this three Oh comeback.

Um, I, they've kind of owned this space, but even beyond this guys, you've got the draft, you've got free agency. It's going to kind of feel, um,

kind of like a soccer kind of transfer deadline kind of period where everything's jammed in the season's over. And then all of these things happen and then it kind of stops. And for a couple of weeks, you probably don't hear much of anything. So I'm excited to see how it goes because originally I hated the idea of the Cup Final going well into June like this, but you've got a flurry of action rather than being spread out. I don't mind it in theory.

Let's see how it plays out. Randy, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it. Enjoy the game tonight. It should be a lot of fun we'll do this again soon all right guys take care you too thanks that's randy janda uh hockey night canada punjabi broadcast and sportsnet 650's very own right here on the halford and brett show what do you think the atmosphere is going to be like tonight in florida how many oilers fans do you think are going to be there that is a very good question i don't know how much nervousness and trepidation is going to be in the building.

There's going to be some, without question. Then there's going to be the Oilers influence, right? Because that's a thing. The ticket price, it seems crazy to me. It sounds crazy to say this, but when I saw the get-in price of $1,500, I was like, that's not that much. No, not for a game of this many. That's doable.

That's doable if you're a fan of the team. You got to get on a plane and go. If you're talking about maybe the greatest, most important, biggest game in NHL history, $1,500? Cancel Christmas and just do that. I'm surprised. I'm surprised. I am surprised. It's crazy that the biggest, most important, most profound game in perhaps the history of the league is being played in Florida.

That's true. Yeah, right? Like you figure it would be in a different market, but alas, here we are. I don't want to act like $1,500 is nothing, right? I'm just, you know, what is Taylor Swift? What's the get-in price for Taylor Swift? She's a singer. I know.

But what is the get-in price at BC Place? Like, what's it going to be? Three, four grand? I have no idea. You guys, you, dogs, Andy, your music. It's a lot. It's a lot. You're a musical dog.

Do you know the going rate for Taylor Swift tickets off the top of your head? I do not. I'm not a Swifty, unfortunately. It's in the thousands. It's in the thousands. Yeah, for sure. It's in the thousands. I don't know how high that would get.

I mean, it's the most profitable tour in music history for a very good reason because the tickets are astronomically priced. Astronomically, yeah. But it's almost the ideal if you're going to travel to go see your team in a game seven. it's the ideal place. Because first of all, you get to go to Florida and that's, maybe it's a little hot now, but it's still, you know, it's fun. It's Fort Lauderdale. You can have some fun there.

But also there are probably, let's be honest, there are more season ticket holders in Florida that would be willing to give up the ticket than there would be in a place like, I don't know, New York. Okay. Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to tell you really quickly about the BC Lions. The roar is back for the BC Lions. You can get your tickets now,

visit them online at bclions.com. Coming up on the Hellford and Brough show on Sports Night 650, we're going to dive into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. We're undecided. We're undecided. We're undecided if we're going to go outside the realm of Game 7 because we said at the beginning of the show, Game 7. This is a Game 7 show. We've talked for days and days.

We've spent hours of Halford & Brough programming talking about the significance of a game seven should it get there and how exciting it would be and how dramatic it would be and how unprecedented it would be so we i i haven't i haven't talked a single single stitch of footy on the show i haven't done it i don't know if we'll do it there's lots of depends what the listeners want to text in if you want to text in what we learn that's not about game seven by all means but we might not read it we might not read uh here's one from amro the actor to get the the juices flowing and this is interesting because we just finished talking about what lebron james did in 2016 in the nba finals down 3-1 to the buzzsaw golden state warriors that were 73 and 9 during

the regular season amro says hashtag wwo whatO. What we learned, what we learned, McDavid pulling Edmonton through the fire for a comeback will be greater than LeBron with the calves against golden state historical context. Now this series is in the greats of sports, like the Pantheon of great sports greatness. Yeah, it's gone. It's transcended hockey. It's transcended the NHL.

I went back and started looking at the Red Sox 0-4 comeback against the Yankees. And the one thing that sticks out is that there were so many key contributors to the comeback. Right? It started with Dave Roberts and the stolen base. I mean, don't get me wrong. I think if you're going to point to one Boston Red Sox player

that embodied the comeback, it was David Ortiz, right? Just won the series MVP, numerous big hits, walk-offs. Schilling, though, with the bloody sock. I mean, even when they ripped Pedro out to try and exercise the demons and it didn't work. Rough talk? Sorry? No, Pedro Martinez. no Pedro Martinez different Pedro

yeah yeah both equally talented human Pedro but this is a human Pedro but with this you you would make the argument that in a very if it happens if it happens you're gonna say that in a very crazy and bizarre way but like

McDavid will have something over gretzky in in oilers lore sure it's like gretzky won cups a lot of them and he's the definitive all-time oiler well 87 was remarkable but nothing like that nothing like this this is mcdavid you know being held off the sheet for a good chunk of the early part of the series and then exploding when his team needed him the most. The greatest championships are always won. And in hindsight, you look back and go, man, look at all the moments

that just happened to go our way. Yeah. When if that moment had not gone our way, it was over for us. We were out. Sure. And listen that moment had not gone our way, it was over for us. We were out. Sure. And.

And that's kind of. And listen, I know no one wants to hear about it, but the Bruins run in 2011 could have been easily over in the first round. They went to overtime in game seven and then they won that. And then, you know, you think of all the moments that, well, that Canucks had two games

to eliminate them. Didn't happen. And that Red Sox run, four games when they could have been eliminated. And that's what the Oilers are looking at right now. And the Oilers can look back and say, we could have been eliminated against the Canucks as well. Get your texts in. What we learned is Dunbar-Lummer text message in basket, 650-650.

You are listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. Hey, it's big nazar have your say and join me on the people's show with big takes and even bigger bets weekdays three to four 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. On the show 8.32 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough, the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda, North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts.

We are in hour three of the program. It is what we learn time. 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. Nice. Kind of had to speed up a lot at the end there. I had to get it going.

I had to get where I wanted to go. Excited. We only got, what, 23 minutes left in the show? Game seven awaits. There's some football in the interim. But game seven's tonight. I can't believe, honestly, I know that I've been asking and wishing and wanting

for this game, but now that it's here, I actually can't believe that this happened. It still really defies logic. The numbers... I enjoy people blaming you for making that happen. ADOG's been doing it a lot. Just blaming you.

It's true. There's some people on Twitter that are like, I will never forgive you guys for wanting this to happen. I'm like, we had very little to do with it. Absolutely nothing. We don't even work in the market of either of the teams involved. Yet you're going to win the cons, Mike? I might.

I love some of the magical thinking we convince ourselves, as sports fans. We are six-year-olds. The way we think our thoughts and our actions and our words can have anything to do with a sports series. Absolutely nothing. It is just the most self-centered, magical

thinking way of going about life. And I love it. That's why we're sports fans. We actually do think that we can have an impact on these things. way of going about life. And I love it. Like, that's why we're sports fans. We, we actually do think that we can have an impact on these things. Okay. Uh, before we get to the humanoids, we are going to do our,

what we learned. We also made the decision at the break. We are going to open it up to non game seven. What we learned. How many? I don't know. That's why you got to listen to the show. Laddie's going to lead us off with what we learned last week.

It was a dog that every, every, what we learned off, right? It was the A-Dog week. Now it's Laddie week. The pressure's on. I was feeding him some of those. That's true. Okay.

The dogs. They just felt like more of an A-Dog. Dogs, yeah. Anyway, you're up. He was a great lead off, though, wasn't he? He was Ricky Henderson, basically. You're saying the- I am the greatest of all time.

The Pringles, what we learned, felt more like an A-Dog. Yes, the Pringles, what we learned, definitely felt like- What is me, exactly? Head real A-Dog. Same, Laddie. Ah, there's some cartoon thing about Star Wars. You take that an A-Dog? Yes, the Pringles over there definitely felt like it. What does it mean exactly? There's some cartoon thing about Star Wars. You take that, A-Dog. Fair enough to that. All right, Laddy, go.

What we learned, the seventh overall pick in 2023, who everyone thought was going to take years and years and years to come on over, is apparently signing with the Philadelphia Flyers and coming over from Russia, Matvei Michkov. You may have remembered that name, the 2023 draft. A lot of teams thought very highly of him. Maybe he was a top three, four pick, but he ended up slipping to seven because they thought he was going to be in Russia for the next three or four years. But he's going to get out of his contract with SKA and he's going to come over and play

for the Flyers. I guess he's just a really big Torts fan, you guys. He really wants to play for Torts for the Flyers. Do you think Habs fans will be watching this a little bit? A little bit. They took Reinbacher, the defenseman, the Swiss defenseman. Good name. San Jose as well. They took Will Smith

and I didn't even know he played hockey, but he's going to be part of that group with, well, Celebrini when they draft him in a few days. And Barclay Goodrow. Right. Yeah. And Tide Delight.

The big three. Yeah, the big three. So according to ESPN, there was, quote, buzz building over the last few weeks in Philadelphia about all the work being done behind the scenes to get Mitch Koff over. And then there was an allusion to the fact that I forgot. You might know more about this because it was the goalie fed atop. Yeah.

I guess maybe they're trying to make the illusion that like Philly had some experience with how to navigate the KHL defection waters. Yeah. And that sort of was like briefcases of cash. Right. I don't like, what do you, I don't know how it works.

I'm assuming briefcases. Do people still do briefcases of cash, by the way? I don't know. do you I don't know how it works I'm assuming briefcases do people still do briefcases of cash by the way I don't know it's briefcases of Bitcoin yeah it feels like an old movie trope you know it feels like no one like no one uses cash anymore period right yeah the Russians would be like US dollars please yeah right but they did manage to get Fedotov over you know before the season finished which nobody yes saw happening and they were able to do this so I wonder if maybe that kind of gave them the blueprint, as it was. Who are their Russian agents working for them? Right.

They have somebody, clearly. That's pretty interesting for Philadelphia, so he can come over and then be ruined by John Tortorella. Moo cow. Anybody else got one, or do we want to jump straight to the humanoids here? Let's go right into the humanoids. What we learned, humanoid edition is brought to you by GetFirePlan. Protect what matters most with comprehensive fire safety plans,

monthly audits, and risk mitigation at $200 off. Visit them at GetFirePlan.com. Oh my God, we're having a fire. Plan. This one came in, signed Anonymous Dread. Sounds like an internet name. What we learned, today is the last day I will be content as a hockey fan. Oilers win is just depressing.

Hey, they haven't won it yet. Suri Ryan sent one in like that at 6.10 in the morning. So bookending the show, the sense of dread and illness. Suri Ryan writes, hashtag WWE, what we learned. The worst feeling in the sports world currently is conceding the Oilers are likely winning the cup tonight i'm gonna be sick i would not like to both our texters i would not go there mentally right now i think i still firmly believe that everything is on the table tonight but

ross keep bouncing back and having a 38 save a shutout or like a you know a tremendous performance i could see that. The Canucks got it done in game seven against the Blackhawks. They didn't get it done in game seven against Boston though. No, but they were banged up.

Yes. They were banged up. Right. I don't think the Panthers are, but they're mentally banged up. Yes, they are. They're mentally banged up.

Yeah. Big time. Here's, here's one. It's not a, what we learned, but I wanted to read it. The only thing worse than the oil winning the cup is if the Canucks have to suffer a banner raising at the Edmonton home opener.

Oh, I didn't even think about that. Yeah, the Canucks often play the Oilers to start the season. Yeah, that is a- Oh, God, that didn't even occur to me. Well, it's not like the Canucks have to wait on the ice and be like, oh, that's a nice banner. That would be awful, though. We have to watch that? You don't have to watch it. Yeah, you don't have to. You have choice. Yeah, but it's not like the Canucks have to wait on the ice and be like, that's a nice banner. That would be awful, though. We have to watch that? You don't have to watch it.

Yeah, you don't have to. You have choice. It's on the TV. The TV says to watch it. Yeah, I can't look away at that. I don't watch it. J and OK Falls, what we learned, if the Oilers win, I assume that Nugent Hopkins would be handed the cup first after McDavid,

but who on the Panthers would be handed the cup first after the captain? Tenure would point to OEL or Bennett, but what about Bobrowski after what he's been through in the final? Oh, no, Tenure's Ocpozo. And Ocpozo, by the way, is going to play tonight. Yeah. He's coming in. Cousins is coming out.

I think it would be Bobrowski. Come on. It would have to be Bobrowski. I don't know. I don't – I've never really... There's no hard and fast rules, right? We're clear on this. Everyone just sort of makes up their mind. But I always thought that if there was a book, that

it goes to the guy that's played the longest that's never won it. Just seems like the most obvious one. So that's Ocpozo. He's been in the league a little bit longer than Bobrovsky. But... Oh yeah, and someone... Corey Perry probably gets it relatively early in the process. a little bit longer than Bobrovsky. But, oh yeah, and someone was like,

like Corey Perry probably gets it relatively early in the process. Or he just grabs it. Starts gnawing on it in the corner. I want to read a couple golf ones. So we're going outside the hockey world. Sam the Werehorse texts in, what we learned in the PGA Tour is continuing their effort to make

Scotty Scheffler a more interesting person by using a climate protest group. Dave from Victoria, what we learned, even with the protesting of the Travelers on Sunday on the 18th grade, Tom Kim was still able to make the putt to force a playoff with Scotty Scheffler. Kim's luck

ran out on the first playoff hole. Scheffler wins another trophy. That was crazy. They had pitch invaders in golf. Yeah. You didn't only see them in the football. So I was flipping back and forth between a couple of channels. I think I was watching soccer at the same time as the Travelers.

So I knew that I was basically waiting for the guys to walk up to the green on 18 after they'd hit their shots. And this is in regulation, not sudden death. And I flipped back to soccer. And then I quickly flipped back to golf. So I actually missed. The pitch invaders. The pitch invaders, the pro pitch invaders,

the pitch and putt invaders. And so I saw the green. I was like, what has happened here what is going on and and i was so confused by it um and yeah they came on and they they either it was either paint or powder or something they put on the green and then tom cam walks up and he still jars it and then they had to they had to switch the hole location for the sudden death. And Scotty Scheffler ends up winning it. Yeah, his sixth win of the season.

And he did it in bizarre fashion. So some golf stuff came across my TL. That's timeline, by the way, over the weekend. Was there some sort of consternation among the golfies that four guys finished at 20 or under or lower? Like that the course was too easy? They carved it up too much? Yeah.

I mean, I don't know. Is that really a thing? I don't know. They're the best golfers in the world. Some courses, they're going to be able to chew. Well, no. Oftentimes, it depends on the conditions. It looked like it was playing a little soft.

I didn't watch much of it, to be perfectly honest with you. There was a lot of sports on this weekend. I can't tell. Did you watch Scotland get their hearts

ripped out yesterday? God, you know what? I was actually, I was thinking of Ryan Gould while I was watching that Scotland match, and I don't know how he compares

to the players on the Scottish team, and I know there the players on the Scottish team. And I know there's players on the Scottish team that are playing in better leagues than MLS. They have good guys in their midfield where he would play. Right. But Scotland and Hungary played a match where both teams needed to win. Yeah. And it looked like none of them had any answers.

It was pretty grim. And it took, what, 10 minutes into stoppage time for Hungary to finally score. I don't know someone texted and said um oh here it is Scott what we learned is there a worse combo than being a supporter of both the Canucks and Team Scotland I don't know man that's hard that's hard you know uh Scotland the people were so excited to see them in the Euros, and then they just went. First game, get embarrassed against Germany, the hosts, and you're kind of like, okay, fine. Second game, did well to get a result against Switzerland, tied that one all.

And then this third game against Hungary, they just came up so short. I mean, not to spend too much time talking about the Scottish national football team, but our good buddy Mike Martinego, I'll give him credit for this one. They don't get enough scathing critiques for being as bad as they are. And actually they've got players like McTominay's at United, Billy Gilmore's at Brighton, John McGinn's at Villa. Like they have,

we're going too far into the Scottish team. They have, they have primarily quality guys in a lot of key spots. There's no reason you should be that bad. Okay, there's going to be a lot of time for soccer talk later this week. Canada's going to play another game in Copa America. England's got a game they've got to figure it out. I hope that guy that said goodbye forever is listening right now.

He's like, damn. He's like, now I want to text the guy. I have some thoughts on Scotland. West End Mike, what we learned, seeing as how the NHL is a copycat league, if Edmonton wins their blueprint this year will be impossible to copy. I don't know about that West End Mike. I know, I think that's a funny joke, but they

are kind of copying the blueprint of a lot of cup winners in that they fired their coach. Yeah. Partway through the season. Really good point. This will be yet another team if the Oilers do pull this off. And even if they don't,

I mean, they fired a guy who was fairly well regarded in Jay Woodcroft, who will probably be back coaching in the league again at some point. I'm surprised he didn't get back in on this cycle. Because Sheldon Keefe got back in

right away. Yeah. Like right away. Sheldon Keefe was unemployed for like two weeks. Yeah. I was surprised. He had time toeefe was unemployed for like two weeks. Yeah. I was, I was really a time to post his little video with the waves going off in the

background. Oh my God. Yeah. That was so awesome. That was like an old date. His happy place. Yeah. It's like Gilmore.

But you know, expectations with Sheldon Keefe. If you're an NHL head coach right now, you're like, God, I hate this. Yeah. Right.

I'm like, Oh, by the way, how much does Bob Stauffer like Chris Knobloch? Oh, he's done a pretty good job. Effusive in his praise for old Knobby. Go back to his Kootenai days. Yeah. Chris on LTIR, what we learned is that I booked my campsite in a dead zone,

no cellular, not thinking this series was going go seven games chris i made a similar mistake i booked a golf game today for i think 1 30 so i might you'll be okay what time do you think puck drop will be 5 30 pretty close yeah it's five o'clock i like that a lot of people that i've tuned in closely realize that uh estimated puck drop times are really just that estimated yeah it's not even close to five o'clock i think the last one was 5 25 so i think you'll be fine you'll miss like i'll miss you'll miss a couple minutes but i'll be okay yeah you'll be fine but i remember i remember making the time and going like ah there's no way the others are gonna force seven i'll be fine don't you know i mean you're also not in a dead zone you could just watch on your

oh yeah yeah you'll be fine yeah it's amazing technology today the things you can do amazing the things you can do uh austin and langley what we learned best part about this condensed schedule is that if the oilers win there won't be a lot of time for them to gloat we will be arguing about if joshua three and a half is an overpay or if losing zudorov will be the worst thing to ever happen to the franchise. That's a good point, Austin. When you're stressed out about something, the best thing to do oftentimes is just think about something else. There's no way.

Distract yourself with something else. There's no way the NHL and its stakeholders can look at this and be like, this is a good way to operate. Am I wrong? Stupid as hell. Am I wrong? So dumb. You're handing out the Stanley Cup on Monday.

Your award show is on Thursday and the drafts on Friday and free agency is on Monday. Compared to how the NFL does things. Or any league. The NFL season is so much shorter. It should be handed out like early June at the very latest. Even mid-June at the very latest. And then you sit there from

the second week in July through to basically the third week in September, and it's dead. In a perfect world, the season. But that's only a couple months for the players and everyone to get a vacation. They need to figure something out here because it's getting more ridiculous. The season should start. It's not getting better. It's getting worse.

The season should start October 1st, and the season should end, i.e. the cup being handed out June 1st. How do you make up the revenue shortfall that you've got? I know why they don't. Pay them more money. I don't think you understand business at all. Just print more money. It's easier. October 1st season starts, June 1st season ends.

No American owner wants... Pay them more money. Pay who more money? Okay, pay them less money. It has to do with money, though. Look, there's money involved. Look, I don't know how you do it. Just make it work. We, the fans, demand it. So you know why the owners don't

the American owners specifically don't want to start earlier because they don't want to run up against the NFL because they'll get murdered in October. I do understand that. But I do think that someone... I also don't care. There's going to need to be an adult in the room and be like, we can't keep doing this. Having all of these key off-season dates in the span of like, can you imagine

being... Suck it up, go against the NFL, who cares? You ride it out for a few weeks, everyone will be happier for it, except the owners, but who cares about them? Go up against the NFL, who cares? Famous last words of any league. Just do it. Just do it. Go against the NFL, who cares?

YOLO, don't worry about it. it yolo is a good approach to this though when you're saying like what's your what's your alternative you're like well yolo can you imagine being in like the the oilers have had all their um scouting meetings and everything they're they're pro scouting meetings they're amateur meetings during and the panthers i imagine too during the stanley cup final can you imagine doing those meetings? Like how distracted you are? Guys, guys, pay attention. Guys, very low attendance. Explain to me why.

Remember the Caps when they won the Cup? Yeah. I saw a tweet, whatever. We even talked about this show like a couple weeks ago. The Caps Cup was handed out, I think, two and a half weeks ago, something like that. So where is that two and a half weeks going? Like why is it so much later this year than it has been even just a couple years pre-pandemic?

What's going on here? Why is it so late? So they baked in those bi-weeks pre- and post-All-Star, right? So remember, you either get 10 days off before or 10 days off after. Did they not have that then? No. No, that's a new addition. It's relatively new.

Get rid of those then. Players bargained for it. Yeah. And the other part of this too, A-Dog's really anti-worker right now. It's really annoying. You've got to remember, the Stanley Cup Finals,

there's never been a Stanley Cup Final gapped out like this. No, it was a whole week off. That's the other part of it too. Which also is terrible because that kills momentum. What's the Canucks Bruins? Did they have two games off

on travel days? I feel like they did. It was very close in distance between Boston and Vancouver as we are getting Edmonton, Florida. So they should have. I want to read one from Rob in Surrey. Game seven. I have not been this nervous for a hockey game since game seven

against the Hawks, as I had also given in to the fact that the Canucks were done against the Hawks, as I had also given into the fact that the Canucks were done against the Bruins. Tonight's game reminds me a lot of game seven in 2006, in which my friends and I took the day off to desperately cheer for the Canes in the hopes the Oilers lost. The Oilers also won game six in a blowout at home, then lost in Raleigh after the Canes got off to a quick start. This is the key to tonight's game. However, the Panthers will not be the first

team to blow a three nothing lead in the final in the modern era. A little confusing for Robin Suri at the end of the however threw me off. But the emotions for this game, it's funny how they've extended so far beyond the individual fan bases. Because you've got this argument

in all the other NHL cities in Canada, whether or not you should be cheering for the Oilers or cheering for the Panthers. And listen, I think, I hope, I hope we've done a good job in saying, Hey, this is who we're cheering for. But if you're cheering for the Oilers, cause you want, cause you like McDavid or you think,

you know, you want the cup to come back to Canada, you know, I'll lightly make fun of that and I'll push back and I'll, I'll lightly make fun of that and I'll push back and I'll, I'll reason you give the reasons why I don't like that. But, um, you know, I understand it. I get it. I understand that people want to witness

greatness. And if what, and if Connor McDavid gets this done for the Oilers tonight, that is witnessing greatness. But what I don't like are tweets like this from Sid Cicero, who is a, I guess a colleague. And he tweeted out over the weekend, I understand why any hockey fan from Calgary

isn't rooting for Edmonton in game seven, but any other Canadian hockey fan who's rooting against the Oilers because your own incompetent favorite team has made you completely jaded is one of the dumbest takes out there. What is fandom? It's just like, it's just like, like go and, you know, Randy made the best point, like go

to England and see if Liverpool supporters would be happy for Everton, if Everton did well. Or do you think Manchester United fans, this is the same city that they're in. Do you think Manchester United fans are sitting there going like, boy, I hope city has fun in Europe. I hope they win it all.

It's sports fandom. This is not the Olympics. No. This is clubs, and this is teams. And we, as a country in Canada, we are a great country, and we all support each other in things that matter. But in hockey, which in the whole scheme of things

doesn't really matter, we want our teams to do well. A texter made a good point. If the Oilers win tonight, do we see another Boston Pizza ad campaign? Like they release a new one? Just out of spite? We finally unified the country. That would be amazing.

Then Boston Pizza dusts off its hands and goes into the offseason. Okay, we got to go, folks. I don't need to tell you this, but enjoy Game 7 tonight. Signing off for now, I have been Mike Halford. He's been Jason Brough. He's been A-Dog, and he's been Laddie. This has been the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet.

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