Halford & Brough in the Morning - Running Back Roulette + WWL

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

In hour three Jamie and Dan are joined by Cameron Van Til to dissect the lingering questions at Seahawks camp, including the murky running back situation and Zach Charbonnet’s rising stock. Plus, a look at the defense’s upside and whether this group can elevate Seattle’s ceiling in 2025. Later the fellas tell us what they learned!    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.

All right. to Halford and Brough here on a Eurodance Wednesday on the show. It is sports 10650. Can every day be a Euro dance Wednesday? You can petition. Oh, you're in for something tomorrow, Reach. Can we go away? Can we extend it?

Can we eliminate thrash Thursday for this week only? Oh, what's thrash Thursday? It's thrash metal. Oh, great. Yeah. Your big thrash metal guy, reach? Sipping your spro. Listening to some thrash metal.

I'm like, you know, I think I'm the typical, like, mainstream metal guy. You know, like, there's a couple of Metallica songs. I like, you know, a couple of those big time system of a down songs were fun. Iron Maiden. Maybe like one slip-knots song. Sure. I thought for sure you were a grindcore guy. That's the impression I was getting.

There's too many terms. There's too many subgenres now. Stupid. Are you a melodic death metal guy? Oh, my God. Or a black death metal. Lena was trying to explain like all the variations of house music to me once. I was like, I have no idea what you're talking about.

I barely even know what house music is. Now there's like, well, you're like, well, you're like, well, I don't know what you're saying. I got to say I'm a fan of your dance Wednesdays as well. Yeah, it's great. It's fun. It's bright, peppy. I don't know what grind core is. Don't know.

Don't know. I don't want to know. It's none of my business. Whatever they're doing over there. You'll find out tomorrow. Honestly, it sounds like something I'd be scared to Google. So I'm not. Not at work, certainly.

Wait until you get home before you go about Googling Grindcore. Halvard and Brough is brought to you by Sands and Associates, B.C.'s first and trusted choice for debt help of over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit sands-dastrustee.com. This hour of the show, it's brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit Campbell-Dash-Pound.com today. And, of course, we are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio, Kintech Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you in step. Still a chance to send your What We Learn submissions in 650, 650 is the Dunbar Lumber Text Line.

I would say we could use a few more. We have a bunch prepared. I'm excited to hear Lena's. It's going to be one of the best What We Learns of all time. I'm very excited. The most anticipated what we learned in show history, possibly. Is this your first time sharing of what we learned? No, when Halbro are actually here, I try a lot harder.

You raise your game for them. You're like, oh, man, they're here. I got to be good. I don't want to disappoint them, but as your regular producer, you know what you get. You're like, I'll disappoint him. That's fine. You know what? I get it.

I get it. Summer Sports Radio at its finest. You're always on your best behavior around people. You don't know that well. And once you get familiar of someone, you're like, I can just be a slob. The voice goes up an octave, you know, like you let the gut hang out a little bit. You change your tune a little bit, change your mindset a little bit. It's going to be the most, like, it.

In Vancouver sports, it's going to be the most anticipated what we learned since, well, how we anticipated the Nikita Tramkin debut. Really? At least don't set that. No, that's the bar we're setting for this. You will laugh so hard when you know what my... Oh, man. I'm so excited.

Can't wait. All right. I was teasing it on the other side of the break. But as mentioned, you know, we got the report from Drance yesterday that the Canucks not feeling so hot about Jack Rozovic or any of the other options that are out there that might address their need at center that is still lingering.

So unless something unforeseen unexpected comes along and changes, it looks very, very likely that going into the season down the middle it's going to be Aalias Petterson, Philippeitel, Atatur, Ratu,

right. And Teddy Blugur. It's a solid. solid center group. I can build an upside case for all of those players. Yes. I can also tell you a lot of reasons why you should be concerned about that group down the middle. And look, we can

talk about the rest of the roster and you brought up the power play stuff earlier. I think that's a really interesting area of of conversation and kind of curiosity for me about how it's going to look. But really, the discussion around this team and what to expect and if we're talking about evaluating the front office and what

they did over the summer, it begins and ends with the center position. And I still think to kind of set the terms for this talk, we have to go back to what Jim Rutherford said in his own admission that we could use two or three forwards and it might be painful to go get it done in terms of what we have to give up, but it might be even more painful not to go get it done. And they basically swap out Pew Souter and Evander Kane comes in his place, but there's no meaningful editions at center. I get all the reasons why. You know, hey, the price wasn't right. We decided to make the 15th overall pick. The market kind of evolved in a way they didn't expect. I understand all that. It's fair. In such an important season, though, we all know the Quinn Hughes situation.

We all know how desperate they are to bounce back and erase everyone's memories of the disaster off the rails year last year and all the drama and all of that. In such an important season, And man, it is a big, big risk to go into the year with Pedersen Heidel, Ratu, Bluger down the middle. It's unfinished. The roster feels unfinished. And that is concerning going into the importance of this season, as you mentioned, with Quinn Hughes and that and his future hanging over the future of this franchise as a whole. At the same time, I can't see. here and say that it would have been prudent for the Canucks to come up to Minnesota's ask for

Marco Rossi. I felt I too like the Canucks would have been willing to give up the 15th overall pick, but not much more than that for Marco Rossi when you consider not only is it the trade acquisition cost, but then you're also having to give up a new contract to him and what that's going to mean for your salary cap picture moving forward. Mason McTavish could be a different conversation, what that trade acquisition cost would be if Anaheim is even willing to move that player, which is a bit of a gray area right now. I think there's a lot of people and hockey fans that think Mason McTavish is more available than what he actually is to the Anahun Ducks. So there's that. And the center free agent market was essentially non-existent. So what are, like, what are you

supposed to do if you're Patrick Alvin and Jim Rutherford? You can't force something that is not there into existence. So leaving the roster unfinished to me is a better outcome than overpaying for a suboptimal solution. What happens during the season? How do you go about addressing this issue? And is it going to be a similar result as to what happened last year where it's like, we're going to figure out our defense once the season starts, we'll be active on the trade market. And then it's like, oh, the season's gone, hey, why?

we've got no chance of the playoffs, so we can't do this. And that's how the season played out. You want to be able to fill this position as soon as possible, but you can't force it. So I can't really critique the way the front office has managed this off season too much because I just don't feel the options have been out there for them to add at the center position. It's fair. It's just, as you said, unfinished. incomplete. It's not as if they did anything clearly wrong. It's just that we all know what the

stakes were. We all know what the goal was. Yes. Because they were very to their credit. They were opening up front about it. And they didn't accomplish the goal. And again, it's exactly like it doesn't mean that they screwed up. It's just the goal wasn't accomplished. Yes. And so how you want to, you know, a portion blame or judge them is up to you. But we can't deny the fact that the goal was left incomplete and unfinished. And at least they've got cap space that if something does come available in season, that's not necessarily an issue for them to address. Now, I know it's only three in change, but once that starts to accumulate during the season, you're going to see that accumulate pretty quickly, given where they're starting at, if they go into the season

with this roster as it is constructed. On that same vein, you know, if you were to tell me at the start of summer that the Canucks biggest acquisition of the offseason would just be Evander came, I'd say they didn't have a good enough offseason. So I know I understand people won't like hearing me be very on the fence about this because it's, yeah, the offseason has not been quite good enough to really give me a ton of confidence going into this year. But I also just don't feel like the options were there for them to have much better of an offseason than they did.

Rocket and Langley texts in, hey guys, you just said they didn't straight out. straightened out the defense last year. Well, they didn't do it at the beginning of the year, agreed, but they eventually straightened out the defense. He says, I think we've got one of the best defense in the league. Well, they did. They brought in Marcus Patterson, and they shipped out Vincent Dayharnay,

but the cost of bringing in Marcus Pedersen was J.T. Miller. Yeah. So you're right that they did add to the blue line and they fixed it, but it was at the cost of creating a massive, massive hole in the forward group, and there's no obvious way to repeat that. Like, unless you're talking about trading Philopronic to bring in a top flight center of some sort. which just opens up a huge hole on your blue line then.

Like there's no way to repeat that process but addressing the defense. And so it's going to have like this is why the Marco Rossi thing always made a certain degree of sense to me because given your situation and the demand for centers around the league, you're going to have to make a bet on someone that has flaws that the rest of the league isn't that high on. Because if the rest of the league is really high on the guy, you don't have the cap space or the assets to win the bidding. So you're going to have to find, you know,

like this is classic money ball stuff, right? You're going to have to find the undervalued asset. The player that hasn't gotten the opportunity, hasn't broken through, that is being overlooked for the wrong reasons, and you're going to have to roll the dice on that player. And I guess it's just a question of, does that player hit the market?

Do they become available? Do they shake loose at some point in the early part of the year? But the chances that they get someone and everyone looks at it and says, oh that's a clear cut number two center with upside like that's not going to happen because that player is going to be so in demand around the league it's uh that player's not available because teams don't make that player available yeah it's why minnesota even with their lukewarm love for marco rossi is still hesitant to trade him they're like well what we need a center though they're like they don't even like the guy and they still don't want to trade them

They're like Bill Garens, I see a ton of flaws in this player, but I also don't want to trade them for nothing. So it creates a real issue for anybody, and there's a lot of teams that are looking to add a center. I know somebody brought it in on the Dunbar-Lumbar text message inbox earlier. Connuch should acquire Nazim Codry. You know, Cadry, even if he does become available at some point this year, he's got three years left at seven million per as a mid-30s player. I believe it was in relation to our Max Scherzer conversation, the veteran that the Canucks could bring in to help their situation. Scher, a Hall of Famer, don't think Codry is quite on that trajectory. But I get the point.

And Codry could fit that role because he can play a gritty style of game, be a second line center. But what this does, what this roster construction does do is put a bigger emphasis on Elias Patterson. Absolutely. And you know what? If I'm the Canucks trying to frame this in a sense of like, okay, putting myself in Patrick Alvin's shoes and thinking about it, it's like we have an $11.6 million center. We should be able to put more trust and put more pressure on that player to carry our forward group if need be while we play this out and try to find, you know, the Robin to that Batman. of our roster. And because that second line center hasn't been there for them, it puts more pressure on Elias Pedersen to bounce back. It puts more pressure on him to lead this forward

group. But you should want to put more pressure on an $11.6 million man. That's what you paid him for is to be that star player, that pillar of your roster. And I know Pedersen hasn't shown that since getting the contract, but he should be that player to this team. And if it takes some time to still fill out that second line center position so be it just more pressure on alias peterson to perform and it's really the kind of thing where if he doesn't bounce back if he doesn't have a monster year it almost doesn't matter what the rest of the centers do yeah you know what i mean like if alias peterson is 60 point pace alias peterson and not really dominant from a play driving perspective anymore okay hey philippo stayed healthy and scored 50 points who cares you know atu rochu had a really nice

breakthrough year and scored 15 goals, all right, it doesn't matter. It's not going to matter if you don't have the legit clear-cut number one center doing his thing at the top of the lineup. On the flip side, if Elias Pedersen is back to vintage Elias Pedersen, if he is the 100-2-way player that we've seen at points in his career, well, then it makes everything else just makes so much more sense. And then you start to look at the way the roster is built. And you think, okay, let's say for the sake of argument, you have elite Elias Pedersen back. So you've got Elias Pedersen and Quinn Hughes as elite talents leading the way at center in the blue line. You've got a deep defensive group with a mix of veterans and young players with upside.

You've got Demko and Lankin and in net. If Demko is healthy, you like your chances of having good goaltending. That structure finished off with Elias Pedersen up front leading the way. I'm not going to say that's a Stanley Cup contender because you can't rely that much. on one player to be a Stanley Cup connector. There would still be things you need to add for that. But that's absolutely the formula to be a good playoff team. Like no doubt about it, right? If you play to an identity, rely on your defense and goaltending,

and have the superstar stenter up front to kind of drive your offense and carry your offense, you can have a really good record built around that. But it's so reliant on him being that player, on him being the kind of talisman up front who makes everything else makes sense. It's, Pedersen is the key to everything that happens here in Vancouver moving forward. I know, like, because you know Quinn Hughes and what he's going to give you. You know he's going to be one of the best defensemen in the league.

That's not, there's no question marks there. No. With Pedersen, there's a massive, massive question mark. And everything that this whole season, even if you were to go out and get Marco Rossi, it's like, that doesn't solve your Pedersen question. No, you still need Pedersen to be amazing. Right. So, like, no matter how you.

it maybe puts a little bit. You need him to be elite. You just, because you're not going to find that elite player anywhere else. You have to do it through the draft. You have to do it in that way because you just don't get those players outside of the draft. They don't get to free agency. We saw it with Marner this year. We're going to see it this upcoming year.

McDavid's not getting to free agency. Jack Eichol's not getting to free agency. It just doesn't happen. So when you can't rely on that playing out, and you're not a free agent destination anyhow, you have to do this through the draft. And Pedersen is that guy. They need him to be that guy. And I'm confident in his bounce back. But of course, is he ever going to live up to this contract is still something that a lot of Canucks fans worry about.

And it's essential for the future of this team. But this is sort of what has been the issue for. this roster and this organization in the post-Sadine era. Everything feels because they rushed through the rebuild or they were forced into the rebuild and then they rushed through it once it was eventually happening even though they were forced into it and kept trading draft picks, didn't accumulate assets, didn't build the army as the term goes. You're always robbing Peter to pay Paul.

And you get Marcus Pedersen, but you get Marcus Pedersen. you had to trade J.T. Miller to do it. You always feel like you're a first round pick short of being able to acquire something. You always feel like you don't have a deep enough prospect pool that you're comfortable trading away one of your top prospects to add something to the roster. And that's why it's like one year, oh, we're stuck. We need to fill on defense. But we'll do it eventually. But then you had to trade from your forward group to add on defense. And now are you going to trade from your defense core to add to your forward group

because he'd probably have to trade Willander to get Marco Rossi or Mason McTavish if that were actually available? You're always taking away from one area of your roster to add to another and for the Canucks it just always feels like you're again robbing Peter to pay Paul

in order to get the best possible roster. You've never taken the time to build up the surplus right so where you're like hey we actually have a surplus of assets or draft picks that we can deal from to go out and be aggressive and feel good about it. And now you're at the point where like even a prospect like Jonathan Leckermackie, I like a good prospect, but you know, he's also a winger. It's not a clear cut star in the NHL or anything, but it would feel painful to deal him, right?

Whereas I think a lot of other teams would have a much easier time parting with a prospect of Lucker Mackie's caliber. The other issue. As good as you feel about Elias Pedersen and Tom Vlander on D, you trade one of those guys and all of a sudden your future on D looks a little bit more murky. I think the other element that you're talking about in that time frame, the kind of post-Sadine era too, is that there's always been, it feels like from the organization's perspective, a re, like a crisis on the horizon, a reason why they couldn't. Yes. Take the time to make that surplus, right? And right now it's Quinn Hughes. And I get it. I agree with this one. It's a, well, we can't, like, all we can do is try to be as good as possible right now because we need to

convince Quinn Hughes to stay. Fair enough. That's totally legitimate. But you go back even to the past and you know, when Quinn Hughes and Elias Peders were coming off their entry level deals and needed new contracts, it was well, you know, you can't take a step back or those guys want to get to stay here long term. It's like now you look at it and if they had just not tanked, not torn it down, anything like that,

but just pumped the brakes a little bit. Yeah. How much better of a spot could they be in right now? And it's just there always been these kind of self-created reasons, pressure points, right? This year we couldn't possibly be a little bit more patient. It just wouldn't make any sense. And, you know, we're into another one of those this year.

This one happens to be one I agree with. But you look at all of them in the past. And it's like, if they had just exercised a little bit of patience in like 19, 2019, 2020, things could be very different right now. The crossroads of the, you know, sticking with the Benning era for a year or too long. Right. And what did it, what did it result in forcing a trade for Oliver Ekman Larson? Now, yeah, you got Connor Garland out of it who, you.

you know, all told after his contract extension is going to be, you know, one of the more, uh, is one of the more longer tenured Canucks. He's going to end up, you know, is one of their higher scores in Canucks history, given the length of time he will have played for this franchise and all those things. But trading away that ninth overall pick, um, and Dylan Gunther and adding this Oliver Ekman-Larsen anchor of a contract that you had to buy out that everybody knew at the time was eventually going to be bought out. It felt like and what it's meant to the roster now and how that is even part of the hindrance on the roster, that it's a four plus million dollar cap charge that they're taking for this year and next. All of those things

add on to this. And it all leads back to the same decisions that you made three to five years ago before the Jim Rutherford era that are still affecting this roster today. Just quickly, while we're doing way too early Canucks training camp and season preview stuff here. You know, you brought up the point about the power play. And we were talking, you know, Max Scherzer comparables in hockey that the Canucks could bring in. And I brought up Stephen Stamco. And part of it was there's a need on that side of the power play on the left flank for

either a shooting threat or someone, right? That was where J.T. Miller was always stationed. He's not here now. They're going to have to figure something out on the power play. And for the first time in a while now, I think the power play has a lot of uncertain. around it for the Vancouver Canucks. We know Quinn Hughes is going to be up top running the show. I'd be very surprised if Elias Pedersen isn't over on the right flank where we've grown used to seeing him. Brock Bester's going to be involved in some capacity. I don't know in what position.

After that, I think there's two pretty open spots. I would think Jake DeBrusk is going to figure in, especially you think about the work he did net front, both power play. Let the team and power play goals last year. Power play and even strength. He really showed that that finishing touch around the net and in the goal crease last year. So I think he will be. be part of it. I don't think he's a lock. That fifth spot, though, seems completely wide open to me, especially when you think like, okay, you got Jake DeBrusk, you really like what he did net front. Brock Bessor's been really good net front over the last several years. If Evander Kane was going to figure in, you're probably putting him at the front of the net. So you've got even the logical

options all kind of thrive at the same position. I think Kane is your bumper player because he's got the good shot. Sure. Good left shot that we saw be such a factor for the Canucks a lot of years when Bo Horvatt played in that position. My biggest thing with the Canucks power play is you've got to get Pedersen on the puck more and become that secondary power play quarterback to Quinn Hughes. Yes. Now, I know that wasn't his role because J.T. Miller was that guy for a lot of years. And, you know, J.T. Miller is one of the best left half-wall players in the league.

So, of course, he would be that guy. But too often, and I think this is partially on Pedersen himself, because we've heard coaches sort of mention it in the past. Guys get too stuck in what their role is and they get too stuck on the plays they want to make and they don't react in the moment. For me, Pedersen has been too stuck in the idea that he has to be the one-time trigger guy.

And you're too good of a playmaker. You've got, I know it didn't show last year, but his handles are too good to be a guy that just posts up and is a one-timer on the power play, especially when that hasn't been a threat for a couple of years now for the Canucks. So to me, Pedersen, like the biggest key of the power play this year is Pedersen developing into the secondary quarterback beyond the puck more and put defenses under duress with more than just his one-timer and be more of the playmaker that we know he can be.

I almost wonder with the absence of Miller if you move Pedersen over to that side, right? If you want to run things from that side, get in the just like get him out of his comfort zone. get him doing something different so he's not just sitting there hanging out for a one-timer. So he is on the puck more skating downhill. Maybe it encourages him to move his feet a little bit more on the power play. But just get him in a different position where he is able to be more of a playmaker and have the puck on his stick a little bit more. Because him over there on that right side, it hasn't worked very well. It has not worked very well for quite a while now.

Even really, to be, if we're being honest, like dating back to his overall struggles, it's not like he was a massive part of the power play. Really? Even when he was playing well, it was Quinn Hughes, J.T. Miller, doing their thing more so than it was, Olius Patterson. All right, it is Halford and Brough here on SportsNet 650. 650 is the Dunbar-Lumber text line. We all have some what we learns prepared, including a big one coming up from producer Lena Satagian. Everyone stay tuned for that. We will take a break and we will dive into yours after we do ours on the other side as well. It is the final segment of Halford & Brough here on Sportsnet, 650. Now for my favorite part of the show, what 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. A-Dog should make versions of the What We Learned theme for every theme day you have. So today should be a Eurodance Wednesday, What We Learned song.

Tomorrow should be a thrash. You're talking about editing the, you know, famous texts here. You can't go messing around. Yeah, the sacred text. You can't mess around with it. I think it would be fun. I think listeners would appreciate it. And A-Dog's so talented, he could do it. Now that you've put this idea into my mind, I don't think we could ever do what we learned.

Wednesday without a Euro dance Wednesday. Next summer when I'm on the show, I expect this to be in place. Yes. Are you footing the bill for the production cost? I am not. This is a passion project by A-Dog. It is Halford and Brough here, Sportsnet 650

with Jamie Dodd and Dan Riccio. Halford & Brough is brought you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit sands dash trustee.com. This hour of Halford and Brough is brought to you by Campbell and Pound

real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit Campbell-dash-pound.com today. We are live from the Kintech Studio, and of course, 650, 650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and rental warriors for over 50 years. Visit them

at one of their three locations to serve you or online at Dumbar Lumber.com. It is what we learn time. Before we go into the inbox and and get to the listener's submissions will go around the room here. I'll start. What I learned is that new Vancouver White Cap, Thomas Mueller, still very much in his classic stereotypical Vancouver tourist phase. I also realizing he is like a social media content machine. Yes. Yesterday he was posting a video of him biking the seawall, you know, goes down,

rents a bike. I guess he has like his own social media videography team as well. So they're there. they posted and he's raving about how beautiful the city is, going for the bike around the seawall. He's got like 800,000 followers on YouTube. I'm just wondering like, so he's done the seawall. You know, he's with the statues down there on

English Bay and posing with them. What are the other classic Vancouver tourist activities that we're going to see? Like, are we getting the video from Granble Island? He's got to be doing the Grouse Mountain, I feel like is up there. Yeah, Granble Island I think for sure.

Do you think he's going to make the trip to Honey's Donuts in Deep Cove? He's going to do the Deep Cove. The Dane Deep Cove. Corey Rock. A hike as well. You know, I get it. He's in a new city. He's moving to a new place.

He's been with Byron Munich for his entire career. He wants to see his new surroundings. But are you playing for the White Caps or are you a tourist right now, Thomas? He's doing both. can we make sure that you get things right on the field before you continue focusing on your YouTube channel? The heel turn from Dan Riccio. Are you working for tourism Vancouver? Do you work for the Vancouver Whitecaps? You really are channeling Jason Brup here. This is like Brough getting mad at PD for being on social media too much. Get in the gym. Work on your game. He's Thomas

Mueller. He's a legend. He knows what he's got to do. He's going to be fine. You're using your off days to cycle around Vancouver right now? You should be resting. It's exercise. he's exercising it's not like he's sitting on the couch if he does the gross grind yeah that's exercise that's fair he's seeing the city he's getting outdoors I love it I'm into it all I know is the white caps gold difference

with Mueller on the pitch is minus one reach you okay so is Mueller hater over here by the way everyone's texting in that the next thing he's going to do is Gastown and the steam clock.

So don't look out for that video from Thomas Waller next. Well, that one's not, it's like, oh, yeah, there it is. Steam's coming out. All right, where are we going for lunch? I always find it funny when people come to it. I saw this steam clock on, on Instagram that I want to take a pick. It's like, who cares? It's like, oh, okay.

I feel like it's always the way I definitely. You realize it's just a steam clock. I think this summer more than ever, I've seen a lot of tourists around, like clearly, you know, families here, they got the map out or whatever. And I don't know, I love Vancouver, but I also, maybe everyone feels this way about their own city. I'm always like, really, you chose Vancouver? Like, what do you do? What do you do here as a tourist? And again, it's probably just my blind spot as someone who's grown up here and lived here.

But I'm always just like, I don't really get it as a tourist destination. Yeah. You know what? It always, it is weird about that. I think that's for every city. It's like you don't think of it your own city as a tourist destination, no matter where you are. Vancouver though, uh, like all of the top tourist destinations are like the worst. No, no, like Stanley Park. Um, Stanley Park's awesome. Stanley Park's good, but like

Capilano suspension bridge. That sucks. Extremely overpriced. Yes. Okay. I grew up like you're gouging people. It's like 70 bucks now. It's just a bridge. I grew up like three minutes up the road from the Capilano suspension bridge. I went once when I was five years old. I've never been back. My family was like, nope, not for us. Honestly, I mean, I grew up in Toronto, as everybody knows, and I never went up the CN Tower until I got invited for MLS Cup Media Night. See, and I'm like, the CN Tower's awesome. You're so high up, the glass floor and everything.

Like, who cares? Similarly, the Vancouver Lookout, I mean, come on. Well, no, that's nothing. That's nothing. Let's be honest. What is this? A wannabe space needle? I don't even understand what this is.

That's absolutely nothing. You're right about that. All right. Oh, are you going to me? No, I thought you had something to say. No, I'm nodding my head in agreement. I was laughing at Breaches coming that, you know, no matter where you live, you don't see it as a tourist town. Yeah, people in Bali going, why would anyone come here?

Like, there's so many places in the world and they come here. By the way, Matt, not on the island, says, just a steam clock? It's one of six in the world. I'm sorry, I besmirched. Well, there's six of them. name? Yeah. Isn't it electric powered anyway? Yeah, I think so. It's not even a real steam clock. It's like every

city's got a hop on, hop off us, right? Hop on, hop on. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Hop on. Why can't I say that? I don't. I will agree, though, but the most overrated tourist destination the city is the suspension. It has to be. Absolutely hands down. The city is known for its trails

that are free. Yes. Yes. And you're going to pay, what is it like? There's also a free one. There's also a free one on the North Shore in Linc Canyon. So there's that too, which is beautiful. Hey, when Mario Kart made their Vancouver course, Capilano Suspension Bridge, Stanley Park,

two steam clocks for some reason. In Rogers Arena, where the four major landmarks. So there you go. There you go. That's the Thomas Mueller itinerary, I'm sure, up next. All right, give us a moo cow there. All right, Reach, you got what we learned here? So I do

have a couple, but I'll start with my more sports-related one. trouble brewing with the Yankees after Aaron Boone mentioned that Aaron Judge probably won't be able to throw at 100% again this year. And then Aaron Judge responded via Brian Hawk. I don't know why he said that. He hasn't seen me throw for the past two weeks. So I'm pretty confident I'll get back to 100%.

Ooh. Whoa boy. For somebody who's, I don't know if it's like New York. driven that he's on the hot seat. Picking a fight with your star player in this manner, which I don't think he intended to, but it is now being played out that way by the New York Yankees media and all of baseball media. Probably not a great idea by Aaron Boone to be poking fun or to be picking this fight, I should say, with the best player in baseball right now.

This is definitely not a fight you can win, Aaron Boone. You are not coming out on top in a popularity contest in New York versus Aaron Judge. Yeah, of the two errands in this conversation, Aaron Judge is winning the battle. This is like if the new Pittsburgh coach starts taking shots at Sidney Crosby. And it's like, I don't think you're going to win that one, pal. He's pretty popular here.

Probably don't do that. Give us a moo cow there. There was a while there in Boone's stat that was going around too because the Yankees hit nine home runs last game. He's been involved in three of the four most home runs hit. There's been three teams that hit nine in a game and then the Blue Jays hit 10 in a game. Yes.

And the three ones that hit nine, he's been involved because he hit a home run and the one for Cincinnati, and then he's managed the Yankees for two times for nine home runs. They also did it, they've done it twice this year, which is wild because it's very rare. Super rare. To hit nine home runs in the game. But they did it at the Tampa Bay Park. Yeah, which is also bizarre that, like, Tampa is hosting the Yankees in the Yankees minor league park or spring training park.

That's a weird situation. I wonder what the fan support was like. Pretty embarrassing for Tampa Bay, but what isn't embarrassing? Do you want to do your other one here, Reach? know you were pretty excited about this. Well, there's so much anticipation around. All right, let's go to Lina. Let's go to Lina.

Oh, okay. Way to sell it. This is great. There's great start. People in the inbox, I'm already catching strays. Everyone's like, oh, I hope she doesn't have my WWL. I'm like, don't worry. Definitely not tour de France related.

This is feeling like the moment you get to the Capilano suspension bridge and regret paying $70. I do have two. I'll go with my sports related one. Now, the Buffalo Sabres have concerns that go beyond their roster. Okay. Key Bank Center is leaking. Oh, no. They just had their roof replaced.

Brand new roof last season. There's a video showing a large piece of the roof near the 100-level concourse coming down with water. And lots of it. a new water feature for the uranium It's not ideal Sounds like it was built by Buffaloians Yes

And the What? You're just taking a shot at everyone Who lives in Buffalo? Yes, they can't build things? No, they can't What? If you're from southern Ontario

You have a built-in hatred For Buffalo It's just there I trust the good people of Buffalo To build a stable secure rank But apparently they didn't in this instance The real lunch pale

Blue collar They can't build a stable team, why would they build a stable arena? They can't build the foundation of a good hockey team. How can you expect them to build the arena? Not ideal for the sabers and kind of you love when like

the bad thing is also just perfectly symbolic of the team as a whole. There was also a dumpster on fire out back. They didn't report that. Yeah. Big tire fire over next to the stadium as well. Like oops. All right, give us a moo cow there. You got another one, Lena?

We're going back to back. This one is just to irk Ritchio. Okay. Because he did go on a rant about going to winners and seeing all the fall items that are already there. We don't need the park is out. It's still August, okay? Can you wait a month at least? Well, I thought I would share Starbucks's new fall menu that is set to release in six days.

Six days. The pumpkin spice latte, of course, is going to be back. In six days. It's not even September. Does anybody know how the calendar actually works? Like, you know when fall actually begins? September 21st, okay? It's still summer.

I agree. There is an Italian aspect into this. So you just wait. Now, they're going to come back with the pumpkin cream cold brew, the iced pumpkin cream chai, and the Piccan Crunch oat milk latte. Got to have it. Starbucks also announced two new items coming as well, a pecan oat milk cartato, and Italian sausage egg bites.

Oh, okay. Well, now what was the cartado? What is that? What does that mean? Does anyone know? I don't know. No. I just drink espresso.

Okay. I don't need any fancy coffee. All right. So a mystery drink coming to Starbucks. Yeah. I'm not a big pumpkin flavor guy. There's something about it. I don't know.

It doesn't do it for me. So you don't like to see it. I'd like to see. I'd like, no, I don't mind pumpkin. pie. Although sometimes you are a pumpkin flavor. No, but when you try to transport that to other dishes, I'll care for it. Although even if it's

like the classic, you got pumpkin pie and apple pie at Thanksgiving, I'm going apple pie every time. Okay. Easy. I vehemently disagree with that take. Wow. All right. But pumpkin pie is elite, especially with some vanilla ice cream.

By the way, Mike, the urologist from Brockville texted in that Josh Elliott Wolf should get in touch with the Buffalo Sabres to figure out how to manage leaks. You know Josh's apartment has sprung a leak like three times in the last 18 months? It happened like 14 times already. And then he just casually mentioned, we were talking about that. And then he was like, oh yeah.

And then one time my childhood home flooded too. Oh, well, I was like, are you like haunted by a water demon or something? What's going on here? Why does this keep happening to you? Anyways, give us a moo cow there. Laddie, you got one? Well, it's going to late, but I can, I can do mine. Well, relax.

Just do it. Don't need the commentary. Do you want to do it or not? I know the listeners get the hate on when we don't get the most of the missions, but I'll do it quickly. This story sort of missed my radar, apparently, but they've been digging up a whole bunch of artifacts at the P&E. Have you guys seen this? Yes. And not just any artifacts.

World War I guns and cannons and all sorts of other military equipment that the more I read into it, the less info I seem to get. The reason it's in the news again is because they just don't. a bunch of the items back to the Canadian military for display purposes and museums and stuff, but they're consistently at the Hastings Park are digging up all of these World War 1 artifacts, like old German guns, old British weapons, and they knew that they were brought to Vancouver, but they still aren't sure why that spot was the dumping ground. And yeah, so apparently if you want a really old artifact weapon, it's at the P&E, and they continue to dig it up because they're making the amphitheater there.

I guess they're coming across all these things. Excavating all the World War I equipment that was buried there. Bizarre story in my eyes, but cool to get to see these artifacts again. There's a couple of videos online. You can actually see the refurbished artifacts. For some reason, in my basement growing up, we had a World War II era bomb, like the kind that would be dropped from a plane. What?

Because my grandpa, apparently, he served in the Air Force during World War II. And I guess when he was discharged after the war, he was just like, I'll take it. take this. That's a souvenir. And we had it. It looked like a bowling pin, a big bowling pin. And it was in our basement. I was like, that's kind of weird.

I took a mic flash from Sportset 590, the fan when I left. Very similar. I did not, I don't think it is. It's not a bomb. I've seen like hand grenades and stuff that are diffused or whatever. No, this was like a full-on bomb. Wow. Well, we learned.

Jamie's got bombs in his basement. I don't know what we did with it. You're going to go to visit from somebody, I think. I don't know if we just, like, left it in there for the next inhabitants or what? I'm just going to leave this. The moving guys, we would be like, oh. I don't know what you do. Like, who do you call to dispose of it?

But anyways, we used to have a bomb in the house. All right, give us a moo cow there. We will go into the inbox and print out the listener's submissions. What we learned, of course, brought to you by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway, homemade dough, premium local ingredients and authentic cooking methods. AJ's is for diehard pizza people dine in. or order online at a.j's dot pizza. Woodrow the eligible bachelor. What we learned we can call Jamie the sad club commission today. Aruba has eliminated Little Mountain from the Little

League World Series. Yeah, they're out. My boys from Little Mountain, um, 6-1 lost to Aruba in a double illumination format. So that does it for them. I did think it was honestly closer from the score indicated there was, it was classic baseball where there's just some key moments, you know, bases loaded for Little Mountain, couldn't cash them in. Similar situation for Aruba. They get the big two out hit. So good performance. I knew it was going to be a tough opponent for them, but still nothing to hang their heads about. Just awesome to get there to represent Vancouver and Canada at the Little League World Series. And certainly with the showing against Australia, but really at the whole tournament. Awesome stuff from Little Mountain. So I am sad. Still wrapping the hat. Still

always rep in Little Mountain for life. But they are out of the Little League World Series. Aruba now known for more than just being part of a Beach Boys song. That's right. It wasn't Sidney Ponson Ponson from Aruba? I think he was. Nice pull. Sydney Ponson is an Aruban former Major League Baseball pitcher.

I also pulled Nick Antropov as being from Kazakhstan earlier. So if you want obscure nationalities of early 2000s and late 90s sports figures, apparently I'm your guy. Okay, well, what we learned on that note, yesterday I was golfing. I got paired up with a couple of great guys

in Isaac and Darren. And Isaac is a team. teacher in Kazakhstan and he's a BC, like he's a BC certified high school teacher and he teaches in Kazakhstan and apparently they just plop this school into foreign countries and Kazakhstan is one of them. And it's like a full BC curriculum and it preps these students for, for, uh, potential college in Canada or maybe the U.S. I've heard of American schools of course around the world. And there's, especially for like American expats living there. There are people working there for their kids. Apparently there's like 80 of these.

BC schools sprinkled around the world in different different So there is interesting though I don't know like you say it's the BC curriculum So we're like the kids in Kazakhstan learning about like confederation and like Louis Rial and the the Red River Rebellion and stuff like it's BC curriculum so it's very relevant to their life Sir John A McDonald all these all these all the touchstones of of Canadian history absolutely yeah um all right more more listener submissions yeah what we learned um this one from Bobby in the Okanagan, Nikolai Goldobin led his Russian team in points and was

claimed off waivers by ska St. Petersburg. Now, why was he claimed off waivers? If he led his team in points. Because he's Nikolai Goldov. What's going on here? He led the team in points and they were still like, we don't want you. We're putting you on waivers. Sounds like Nikolai Goldoban.

Hey, they brought back Vitali Kravsav, so maybe Nikolai Goldobin is next. It's unlikely. Are you on the Craftsov hype train? he's worth a shot Oh yeah Absolutely worth a shot

What's the worst that can happen He gets sent down to Abbotsford And he lights up the HL for the Abbey Canucks Yeah Ryan and Black Creek Reach and Jamie are incredible Incredible ambassadors For the city of Vancouver

Look I said I love Vancouver It's just I think And again I think it's universal That you don't see your own city As a prime tourist destination But as I said I've seen lots of tourists around So we're doing something right

we keep attracting people. Good for us. Somebody was yelling at us. Rick and Richmond, Vancouver, not a tourist destination? What are you drinking this morning? There are many reasons. Tourism is our number one industry. Forty years ago, it was the forest industry, mining, and fishing.

That's Rick in Richmond. Sure. There you go. Again, it's not a slight against the city. Born and raised here, I love it. But it's just, you know, sometimes you're like, really interesting. Vancouver. My other what we learned was an Australian scientist says he solved

the Bermuda Triangle. Okay. What's the solution? There's no solution. There's nothing. The myth isn't real about the Bermuda Triumph. What a thought.

I could have told you that. The answer is there's no magic in the world. Yeah. No kidding. You mean it's just a thing that like... There's no sea monsters or aliens that are just gobbling up planes. We can't confirm. Thanks for solving that scientist.

That must have been a really difficult process to figure out. Actually, but for probability's sake, a totally normal amount of ships and planes go missing in the Bermuda Tri. Hey guys, I've made a big breakthrough. This stretch of ocean isn't haunted. Thank you. Thank you for that scientist. We'll end on that note.

We're back tomorrow for more Halford & Brough here on SportsNet 650.