Halford & Brough in the Morning - Team USA Embracing The Villain Role

Episode Date: August 9, 2024

In hour one, guest hosts Jamie Dodd & Israel Fehr look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk a thrilling Team USA semi-finals basketball comeback win at the Olympics (6:00), plus it's Ask Us Anything Friday! (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.

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Two words for you. Steve Nash and Chris Paul. Must see TV. That's more than two words. Good morning. Happy Friday, everybody. Welcome to Halford and Brough. It is, of course, Jamie Dodd and Israel Fares still filling in for the fellas here, wrapping up the week on an Ask Us Anything Friday. Izzy, what's going on, man? One more for me.

You're still in the long haul. You've got next week as well. But, yeah, it's been a good week. Let's close it out with a good show. My wife last night, I was like, oh, man, I'm tired. I'm really looking forward to it. She's like, hey, you're almost done the morning show. I was like, I'm not, actually.

I'm on it next week as well. Thank you for reminding me. I'm not even halfway done yet. But, all right, here're almost done the morning show. I was like, I'm not, actually. I'm on it next week as well. Thank you for reminding me. I'm not even halfway done yet. But all right, here we are. It's Friday. I'm excited. Hey, Doug. Good morning.

Good morning. Laddie. Hello, hello. Oh, you blew it again. Oh, sorry. That time you didn't even give a pause for me to say good morning. Yeah, Halford doesn't usually pause. So that's, you're throwing me off again.

Like you, you just, as soon as I said, Laddie, you got in there with hello, hello. I'm ready to go. You love your catchphrase so much. I'm just fired up to go. I'm here early. This is the midpoint of the peak of my day. Yeah, sure. So I'm just amped up.

A little too amped up. I'm glad. Bring that energy for the rest of the show. Good morning, Laddie. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet, what are you waiting for?

And, of course, health and brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. As I mentioned, it is, course an ask us anything Friday, the concept I'm sure you're familiar with it, but I'll spell it out. Anyways,

it's pretty simple. You can text in, you can ask us anything on your mind, sports, non-sports related, whatever you want to run by us. And we'll do our best to get to as many as we can throughout the course of the show.

And on top of that, we're giving away a hundred dollar gift card to AJ's pizza on East Broadway in Vancouver for the show. And on top of that, we're giving away a hundred dollar gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway in Vancouver for the best Ask Us Anything. So get them in now. 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. The best Ask Us Anything today wins a hundred dollar gift card to AJ's Pizza. We'll do that at 830. We will announce the winner. Before that, let's run through the guest list. Open first hour. So we've got lots of time to get into those Ask Us Anythings,

to dive into them. Make sure you get them in now so we have a chance to do them in the first hour. At 7, AJ of AJ's Pizza will stop by for a quick chat. Tell us about what's going on at the restaurant this weekend. 705, Nick Shook of NFL.com. Preseason action in full swing now in the NFL. A couple of games last night. Full slate on the weekend. 705, Nick Shook of NFL.com. Preseason action in full swing now in the NFL.

A couple of games last night, full slate on the weekend. We'll talk to Nick about what he's looking, what he's curious to watch as exhibition play gets underway in the NFL. 730, Ben Steiner from CBC Sports. We'll take a bit of a look back. Not quite done with the Olympics, but we're going into the final weekend here. So we'll do a bit of a summary of Paris from a Canadian perspective

with Ben, and at 8 o'clock, of course it is, the Moj radio play-by-play voice of the BC Lions. They look to snap a two-game losing streak. They're playing Edmonton on Sunday. Working in reverse, the Moj at 8, at 7.30,

it's Ben Steiner of CBC Sports. 705 Nick Shook of NFL.com. And 7 it is, of course, AJ of AJ's Pizza. So lots to get into today. Lots to do. Before we do anything else, let's talk about what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What happened? Brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction

companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit bccsa.ca. And Izzy, we will start at the Olympics, but I'm not going to start with a Canadian-centric story here because pretty clearly the biggest event, the most interesting event at the Olympics yesterday was Team USA coming back, surviving, erasing a 17-point deficit against Serbia,

winning 95-91 in the men's basketball semifinals. I don't know about you, Izzy, but I was fired up. I was doing the whole pacing around the living room, clapping at the TV. I thought we were going to get a chance to see, I don't know about an all-time upset, but a really, really big upset. You're a TV clapper?

It was not to be. I'm a TV clapper. Big TV clapper. I'm a yeller at the TV. Okay. I'm pacing around. I'm fully, likeapper. Big TV clapper? I'm a yeller at the TV. Oh, okay. I'm pacing around. I'm fully, like, not for every game that I watch, obviously. But when the...

But you get into it. The rooting juices start flowing, right? And you're like, oh, I'm into this. I'm invested in this. And there's an American League record on the line. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Or when you have a chance to see a big upset, a big time upset at the Olympics.

But sadly, it was not to be. Yeah, it was awesome. It was an awesome game. It looked like Serbia was going to pull it out. They were hitting everything to start the game. The U.S. was drowning. They were underwater. But it turns out that LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and yes, even Joel Embiid are pretty good at basketball. And that fourth quarter was dominant. I thought Serbia changed a bit when Jokic got his fourth foul. They got a little tentative. Yes, for sure.

And it was on both ends of the court. They just really let the Americans grab control of the game. The play he picked up his fourth foul on, too, right? So I think it was Serbia's up 12. Jokic has a pretty much wide open three misses us takes it the other way katie hits a three there's an off ball foul by yokich which is his fourth foul so the u.s keeps possession after the three counts they hit another three so it's a six point possession yeah you factor in the missed three on the other end it's like a nine

point swing the lead goes from 12 all the way down the old six point possession six point possession and that was like that was pretty early in the fourth and then as you said he's on four fouls everything becomes a little bit more tentative you've just given up a six point possession it kind of felt inevitable at that point like that was the pretty clear turning point where it's like ah yeah this is probably not going to happen and you know i will say as much as i was rooting against the u.s right because they're the u.s they're the villain and they're they're leaning into the villain role a little bit more i mean they have joel and he's crotch chopping the crowd at the olympics which is absolutely incredible she's like what

what is this event about like brotherhood and the spirit of international friendship? No, it's about DX Crocs. I was going to say like a wrestling move. Yes. Bringing it back. That's like a signature Joel Embiid thing. I love that. Yeah, it's incredible.

And he brought it to the Olympics. So it's pretty easy to root against the US. But I will say as a basketball fan, it was pretty special to see kind of the old guard and probably the three greatest players of their generation. Yeah, totally. LeBron, Curry, KD lead the comeback. And I know Embiid was involved, too. He did play really well in the fourth quarter.

But it was LeBron. It was Curry. It was Kevin Durant making big plays, kind of putting the team on their back. And ultimately, as much as I wanted Serbia to pull off the upset, this is kind of what this tournament is about. It's the same thing in international hockey, right? It's a chance to see guys who would never be on the same team together in any other circumstance get put in these really intense, tight games

and do something special. And that's what those three did and kind of reminded everyone like, yeah, we're old. We're not. We're the old guard, very much so in the NBA. But we still might be, when the game is on the line, the guys you want to be taking care of business for your team. Absolutely.

And I had the exact same thought watching the game. These are the three generation defining players, and they stepped up to the moment and did it in their way. Curry hit some massive threes. Durant, when they needed a bucket, and it's the classic basketball scenario. If you've got one possession, who do you want to have the ball? What kind of play are you going to run? You know what's been a good play in the NBA for the last 15 years

when you need a bucket? Give the ball to Kevin Durant. Let him do whatever he wants. Let him cook. He hit some massive shots. They're not the prettiest shots in the world. They're a lot of mid-range, but he hits them. And they are hugely impactful on the game.

And a triple-double for LeBron. Just another classic LeBron performance. Defending Jokic in the post down the stretch. Just doing everything you could want. Yeah, taking body blows. there was one possession in particular where Jokic went in the post and he was banging against LeBron and LeBron stood his ground and stood his ground and that was like hey yeah I still got this when 39 years old 39 I mean they were talking on the broadcast this guy's almost 40 yeah and again a, as you said, I think it was only the second triple-double for a U.S. player at the Olympics,

and he has the other one on the men's side, right? So just kind of reminding everyone. Also, 40-minute game. Triple-double in a 40-minute game. In a 40-minute game is pretty wild. So, like, again, as I said, I was full-on rooting for the upset. It would have been really, really special to see. It would have been a cool moment for Serbia,

but it was also really, really special watching the talent, the incredible all-time type talent take over. It did get me thinking also, like, this is probably the last Olympics for all three of these guys, I would assume. LeBron has said that he won't be at the next ones. Yeah, he's going to be 43.

KD, I guess. Curry had never played in them before, which is kind of a weird statistical anomaly,, I guess. Curry had never played in them before, which is kind of a weird statistical anomaly. But I guess in 2016, he was coming off back-to-back finals runs. They had lost, right? They lost to Cleveland in 2016 after having the best regular season ever. And probably a little bit of a disappointment. And then the last Olympics were not quite as hyped as the previous ones.

And he really hit his stride in that 2014, 2015 range. So I guess he wasn't, you know, like an automatic lock until now. Yeah. So I don't know. Maybe he'll want to be the old guard. The U.S., these dream teams have always done a pretty good job of having a couple of old heads to use. I mean, speaking of old heads, the number one fan,

I think the guy having mellow mellow he was he was he was reacting like you were on the sidelines a lot of clapping he's a big mellows definitely a big clapper i did love people also uh being like oh carmelo was like orchestrating that big that possession where katie hit that big shot it's like you mean he told katie to isolate and hit a jumper like yeah wow he really got basketball genius basketball genius right there cooking that play up hey give the ball to kd and clear out guys wow what a play from carmelo anthony i did also love i have to say kevin durant great quote after the game someone just asked him about like you know being patriotic and loving the

country and he said uh a lot of bs he didn't say bs he says a lot of bs happens in our country but a lot of great things happen too which i thought it's just a great motto to really sum up the usa well put it's kevin durant it is extremely extremely apt uh they advance win 95 91 over serbia to the gold medal game where they will take on the host country france who took care of germany in the other semifinal, does that make you feel worse or better about Canada losing to France? It's kind of the same thing Canucks fans went through with the Oilers, where it's like, oh, we were so close, but then they are going to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, and you think, oh, man,

if we had just got past them, what we could have done, but it also makes you losing to them look better. For me, especially, man, if Serbia had knocked off the U.S., I would have been furious that Canada had lost, like absolutely furious. With the U.S. still advancing to the gold medal game, I think you can kind of look at it and say, look, France playing at home might just have been

this kind of team of destiny that Canada ran in. I don't want to make excuses, but I think it makes me feel slightly better about Canada losing to France that they're going to the gold medal game. I feel worse because it's not like the way it, if it had been Wemby just dominating Canada, I would have been able to get behind that.

But when it's role players and guys that have pedigree and were considered decent NBA prospects and have had really good careers in Europe, I'm not denigrating their accomplishments. But when you're the Canadian team that's supposed to be the one that was going to challenge the U.S. And it's not like France then went out. And Germany's a good team defending World Cup champs, and they clearly play a really strong team game.

But it's not like France blew the doors off Germany. Yeah. Right? So it does feel like a huge missed opportunity. And you are right. I was thinking the same thing. Well, it would look like Serbia was going to waltz to the final. Oh, that would have been a tough one to take.

That would have been devastating. Because then you would have thought, for as good as Jokic is, you'd have a chance at gold. A gold medal opportunity was on the line. Yeah. They could have had the reputation that the Manu Ginobili Argentina team did. Yeah, exactly. When the U.S. won bronze.

The previous time the U.S. choked. All right. So the final will be France versus the USA for men's basketball gold in Paris. From a Canadian perspective yesterday, Maud Chiron wins silver. This was happening kind of just as we were going off the air yesterday. Wins silver in weightlifting. Of course, she was the defending gold medalist. Perspective yesterday, Maud Charon wins silver. This was happening kind of just as we were going off the air yesterday. Wins silver in weightlifting. Of course, she was the defending gold medalist,

but she had to lose weight, shed weight, to get into the new weight class in this year's Olympics. Also dealt with injuries. So going from gold to silver, but still a really, really impressive, incredible performance from Maud Charon just to do that and to make it back on the podium. Also, our women's beach volleyball team playing for gold today. The Humana Parity's Wilkerson duo. They beat Switzerland in the semifinal.

They were facing a match point at one point, and they stayed alive, and they came back to win the match. So impressive performance. They're going for gold today. Also want to mention Skylar Park winning bronze in Taekwondo for Canada yesterday. And this morning we picked up gold in canoe sprint, I believe. Yeah, women's canoe double 500 meters. Sloan McKenzie and Katie Vincent.

So there you go. We continue to rack up the medals at Paris. Some people are saying, and we'll talk to Ben Steiner about this at 7.30, you can make the case that this might be the most successful Summer Olympics that Canada has had. We'll see where the final medal count and everything ends up, and there are some high-profile disappointments mixed in there as well. But overall, I think you have to look at it and say,

it's been a really impressive performance. I also want to mention Sarah Minton in shot put has a chance to be on the podium or even challenge for gold. That's happening today as well, as well as the men's four by 100 relay. One other note from the Olympics yesterday. This is a wild story for me. Noah Lyles wins bronze. The American sprinter wins bronze in the 200 meter.

After the race, he's in a lot of distress. I think he ends up leaving in a wheelchair, right? And people are kind of like, what's going on? What's happening here? And it comes out shortly after the race. He has COVID. He was racing with COVID. And obviously it caught up to him at the end of that 200 meters.

And then initially there was a lot of confusion. People being like, what the heck's going on? Why was he racing with COVID? And it turns out they're just treating it like any other respiratory illness like the flu or a cold uh at these games where it's your choice hey then we'll take precautions to kind of keep you isolated in the village on the way to the event and all those but if you want to compete go ahead so that's the choice that noah lyles made i'm honestly just wildly impressed that he was able to win bronze in the 200 meter sprint while having COVID.

If you've ever had COVID, you know what it can do to your lung capacity, right? And sometimes even light exercise has your lungs burning. So for Noah Lyles to take home the bronze with COVID is like one of those sneaky, wildly impressive Olympic feats for me. I thought he was just a big fan of Paul Pierce. He was just throwing back to Paul Pierce pierce coming off on the tribute paul pierce tribute yeah it was that was no nobody's that big a fan of no one had uh no one had it on their radar no it came out of nowhere kept quiet for two days so that these opponents wouldn't know that he was he was running uh he was running a little behind and it it was kind of funny, too, because, of course,

Noah Lyle's not shy about pumping himself up, about boosting himself. And, you know, before the games, he'd kind of said, What a freaking boost. Yeah, that's right. Before the games, he'd said, you know, I'm going to win four golds, right? I'm coming for all these different events. He won the gold in the 100 meters, loses this one, or finishes third, gets the bronze.

And the initial reaction was kind of, oh, he was talking such a big game. He couldn't even win two of them. You know, he finishes bronze in this one. It's like, well, he did have COVID. So I feel like there's a bit of an asterisk on that. It would have been interesting to see what he could have done if he didn't have COVID. He did end up withdrawing from the rest of the Olympics after that race. That's the Olympic picture from yesterday.

Again, we'll keep you updated on everything happening while we're on the air. We'll dive more into the Olympics with Ben Steiner from CBC Sports at 7.30. To the Diamond last night, massive, massive result for the Seattle Mariners. And Robin Suri, who loves to stick it to the Blue Jays, has already texted in. ask us anything for Jamie.

How does the crow taste this morning after that walk-off three-run RBI double for Mitch Hanegar that moved the Mariners back into a tie for first place last night? That's from Rob in Surrey. Oh, they scored that a double? He didn't touch the ball, so what are you going to do? Yeah, if you weren't watching, and you texted me, actually, I think in like the sixth or seventh inning, it was, what, 3-1 for the Tigers.

The Mariners had two hits, and you kind of said, like, oh, Mariners fans are doing great right now. And it looked like it was going to be just another classic, incredibly frustrating, punchless offensive performance for the Mariners. A bullpen game for Detroit. I texted back to you, like, hey, two-run deficit, insurmountable for this team.

The night before was hard scooble. This was a bullpen game for the Detroit Tigers. Guys who had like, I looked it up, the first two pitchers in the bullpen game had a combined like 10 innings pitched in MLB, in the bigs, before that last night. These were inexperienced bullpen guys that the Tigers were throwing out, and they were two hitting the Mariners through like seven or eight innings, and it was a 3-1 game.

And again, it looked like this was going to be their fourth loss in a row, you know, falling further behind the Astros who were idle last night. It felt like it could have been, I don't necessarily want to say a tipping point game, but the kind of thing that really throws fans into a frenzy, right? And instead... Oh, the vibes were bad on social media, Jamie. The vibes were very, very bad. And then what happens is

they load the bases in the ninth inning. Mitch Hanager steps up, line drive to right field, and as Laddie alluded to, I would say misplayed by the Tigers outfielder. It gets behind him, gets all the way to the wall, and it's a base-clearing three-RBI double for Mitch Hanegar. Walk-off 4-3 win.

Now, I will say for the Tigers outfielder, it was two outs, right? So the runners are running on contact. So if you don't catch that ball, it's probably a tie game anyways. So I understand he's trying to win the game. He's saying, you know what, I don't want it to be tied. But still, you probably have to keep it in front of you uh in those circumstances however you score it however you assign credit or blame or whatever it's a massive massive hit a desperately needed hit for the mariners and it feels now like it could be a bit of a catalyst type win for them right like maybe that's what

they needed they just needed something to go right like that to get a little bit of the mojo back. They're now tied with the Astros and one of the subplots in this whole division race is the Astros aren't that great either. So the Mariners don't have to be exceptional to keep pace and edge out the Astros in the AL West. They just have to be good.

They haven't been good at the plate in a long time, but that's the type of win that maybe could jumpstart their season and push them into a playoff spot at the end. Yeah, they've got the Mets coming in this weekend, and they've got a very rare Sunday night baseball game on Sunday. The Mariners rarely, rarely get an opportunity to play in the marquee weekly game,

and I'm assuming there's going to be some juice at the park. The Mets rarely come to Seattle as well. And that'll be – also, they play Detroit again next week in Detroit. And they've got a bit of an easier schedule to finish out August. So they do have the opportunity to put themselves in position to be in first place to start September and then go from there and try to stave off the astros because we know we've been saying it all week their pitching staff is about as good as it gets in the league

right now whatever julio rodriguez and jp crawford can give them when they come back will probably be better even though they've both had some down years relative to the year before they'll probably give them a little bit more than what they're getting although victor robles has been been quite good filling in in center field and he'll probably just move to playing some right field and getting some some positional or some situational at bats that's that's the bar and you're right jamie the bar is not they don't have to be an elite team they just have to do enough yeah and i mean we could be having a completely different conversation if cal raleigh's line drive to center field the night

before is not five five feet higher and then they end up winning that game but it is the margins that they're playing with right that we're talking about a home run robbery late in the game the night before and then the game last night uh a guy you, an outfielder trying to do a little bit of a hero play in the ball. Basically, you know, landing in the middle of right field and going all the way to the wall. Yeah. Hey, you take you take what you can get. Right. And as you said, it's not as if they had been super lucky the night before.

So they pick up the win. They're now in basically a dead heat for the Astros with the Astros for top spot in the AL West. Meanwhile, Jays win 7-6. Vladdy finishes a single shy of the cycle. This was against the Orioles, by the way. He is on an absolute tear right now. Even for, you know, you go back to his 2021 season, which was off the charts. It feels like we're getting this version.

Another lost season. Another lost season. That's what it is, right? He's on a 20-game hit streak. He's hitting over 500 in that span. And it's not just singles. He's hitting for power, racking up extra base hits in a big way. He had a big opposite field home run last night.

But as you say, Laddie, it's just like, well, this amounts to nothing. It's fun to watch. It's a nice little consolation prize for jay's fans it's fun to see a hitter with his type of talent put it all together for a stretch but as i was saying to izzy before the show i just feel like the jays are going to come back with an improved team and next year and vladi is going to go back to like 2022 vladi and it's going to be all for naught and we're going to be wondering like hey where was this guy where's this guy when we actually need it when the team is competitive, you hope from the start of the season.

Well, does this give you any sort of thoughts that he might have a little bit of trouble when he has pressure on him, perhaps? Because every time he has a good team around him, he seems to falter a little bit. And then now when he's the guy, games don't really matter. All of a sudden, he's back to that 2021 Vlad again. You're saying he's the Elias Patterson. Well, I'm not saying he's that close of a comparison. Maybe Bruff would make that comparison a little bit more than I would. But, yeah, it feels like when the pressure is on, he's not the same guy.

Just wait until he gets the big contract. He'll disappear for months at a time. Well, the pressure will be off at that point. He'll have the contract, so maybe he'll be fine. But he won't be playing for a big contract. He won't be playing for a big contract either. But he won't be playing for a big contract. I will say, I think that at least he's demonstrated enough this year that you can buy, okay, it's reasonable to expect him to be

one of the best hitters in the American League, which is all of a sudden what he has been this year. And then you can feel good about giving him the type of payday. Now, as you said, look, are you going to have questions? He's not established himself in that upper, upper echelon of players where you're kind of locked into elite performances year after year. But I think he's at least done enough, answered enough questions that you can say, OK, we feel comfortable paying this guy.

We could feel comfortable investing in his future. And I think the Jays need that. So it is frustrating to see him turn it on now when it doesn't mean anything. I don't know. I'm not ready to go there with the, oh, he can't do it under pressure thing. Like, I think we need more evidence.

I think it's just for whatever reason, he's been very, very inconsistent. Maybe it happens to track with whether the team has been good or not, but I'm willing to write that off as a coincidence and hope there are better days ahead. If,

and when the Jays put a more competitive team around them, six 50, six 50 is the Dunbar lumber text line. Lots of good. Ask us anything's coming in already. Make sure you get your ask us anything submission in. We'll read some of them in the next segment. And of course,

at eight 30, we will award a $100. AJ's gift card to the best Ask Us Anything. Oh, Jamie, they have to include a pizza emoji. Oh, of course. Very important.

Of course. Administrative nonsense. I see only one pizza emoji. That's my bad. I didn't let you know. No, no, no. I've done the show enough. I should have remembered that.

I should have remembered the emoji system. Pizza emoji if you want to win. Include a pizza emoji in your text, in your submission. If you want to be entered to win the AJ's $100 gift card. With the hashtag AUA. With the hashtag AUA. That's right.

That's right. And we will award that gift card to the best one. And usually it's one that stimulates a good conversation. So keep that in mind if you're really gunning for the $100 AJ's gift card. Alright, open segment up next. We can chat a little bit more Olympics, some other random stuff happening in the world of sports, and then also some of your Ask Us Anythings.

That's next here. Halford & Brough Sportsnet 650. welcome back to albert and brough sportsnet 650. It's Jamie Dodd. It's Israel Fair filling in for the guys here on an Ask Us Anything Friday. 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome details at DunbarLumber.com. Half and a Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today.

As I mentioned, it's an Ask Us Anything Friday, so get your questions in. Include the pizza emoji for your chance to win a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway in Vancouver. We'll announce the winner. It goes to the best Ask Us Anything. We'll announce that at 8.30 a little bit later, but get your questions in now. Before we dive into the inbox, I do want to update something we touched on briefly yesterday, which is one of our texters, I believe it was Justin and East Van, alerted us that NHL.com would be publishing their list of the 10 best goalies in the NHL.

And he asked us roughly where would Thatcher Demko place on this list? And we kind of said probably four or five, right? Not top three, but he's coming off a Vezina runner-up season. You probably think that's enough to get him into the top five in one of these lists. He ends up coming in sixth in the list. And that's not a slight on Thatcher Demko. top five in one of these lists. He ends up coming in sixth in the list. And like, that's not a slight on Thatcher Demko. I think it's just telling about the depth of goaltending in the NHL right

now. Could you quibble with East coast bias? I don't watch the games. That's right. Could you quibble with him over, you know, have them over Jeremy Swayman or Ilya Sorokin? Yeah,

you absolutely could, but I don't think it's outrageous to have those guys slightly ahead of Thatcher Demko. But I'll read off the list just quickly here. So number one, Igor Shosturkin. Two, the Vesna winner, Connor Hellebuck. Three, Andre Vasileski still, which is interesting given his injury history, but the resume is unimpeachable for Vasileski. Four is Jeremy Swayman. Five is Ilya Sorokin.

Six, Thatcher Demko. Seven, Sergey Bobrovsky. Eight, Jake Ottinger. And then UC Soros at nine and Linus Allmark rounding out the top ten. So one takeaway is Thatcher Demko's six, which again, slightly lower than we were projecting him, but still really, really good. If they had Bob ahead of him, then I'd be like, okay. That would be a problem. Yes, that would be a problem.

But the other thing that stood out to me, the top eight names on that list hail from exactly two countries, Russia and the United States. Four Russians, four Americans in the top eight. Hey, shockingly, two countries that have heavily invested monetary in their gold tending development in the last 10 years. You could say there's the fruits of their labor right there. Do you want to get on your soapbox here? Well, no. Russia, they went out about 10 years ago

and basically hired every Swedish goalie coach they could think of, rewrote their goaltending development plan, and now we're seeing this pipeline of goalies coming through. The USA, much of the same thing. That's why they're the two leaders, and that's why Canada is starting to fall behind a little bit. Yeah, and of course, there's not even really a Canadian you could make a case for as a top 10 goalie in the NHL.

So it's one ring room, baby. Conor Ingram. That's right. Like top eight goalies are going to be left off their their country's Olympic teams coming up. Right. Because you're only going to take three goalies. So like one of these American goalies is going to be left off the four nations team and then the Olympic team. Russia, of course, not participating in the four nations, but they have an embarrassment of riches while Canada.

We're going to cross our fingers. Is Demko a dual citizen by any chance? Has he been in Vancouver long enough? Can he be a naturalized citizen? Can we look into that? We should look into that. I saw Joel Embiid today, by the way, saying, because he, of course, had the choice about where he wanted to play, which country he wanted to play for at the Olympics. And he said, you know, this might be my last time with the U.S. Maybe in L.A. I'll play for Cameroon.

Go back. Go back to his roots. I was like, you can do that. You can just switch. I thought he would. Wouldn't you have to declare, OK, this is the one I'm going to play in. But I also love Joel Embiid as the troll he is coming off a historic, incredible win for the U.S. in the semifinals. I was like, yeah, I'm probably not going to play for them again.s in the semifinals it's like yeah i'm probably

not gonna play for them again this is a one-off for me i'm gonna play for some other country in a few years that's uh it's it's pretty on brand classic classic joe lmb yeah i don't think the olympics there are some uh you know qualifications but it's easier to country it doesn't like tie you it's not like fif FIFA where you become country tied. But even in FIFA, if you play for the youth setup, there are a couple of players who were on the England team who played for Ireland and they're under U16, et cetera, et cetera. And before getting country tied,

getting your first cap at the senior level, they jumped to Englandland because they were also they grew up in england that they i think they both qualified to play for ireland through grandparents or something like that and it's it's pretty intense in soccer once you make your choice you can't you can't really go back but in the olympics i guess it's pretty rare that you see it actually play out but but we've seen it before. Yeah, so interesting. So Joel Embiid might just be team hopping for the rest of his Olympic basketball career. Okay, let's do some Ask Us Anythings.

And I want to start with one here, actually. And this, I guess, is for the listeners. The listeners can chime in here as well, but I'll direct it to the dogs also. So an Ask Us Anything. Of course, I mentioned it yesterday. I've mentioned it a couple of times. Izzy is a newly engaged man now.

Recently popped the question to his girlfriend. So he's going. Are you going to ask these guys about the plot of Heat? No, no. You're not trying to marry them. They're not the ones who need to know about Heat. That was your girlfriend. Dan Virk is informed of this and then just for about three and a half minutes starts listing

his favorite scenes from the movie. I was so excited to ask that question and it delivered delivered beyond my wildest expectations. But I believe correct me if I'm wrong, but the three of us are all married, right? So is he's the only one who's not actually married yet. He's just engaged. So I'll throw it to you guys to laddie and a

dog. What marriage and or wedding advice would you give to to our newly engaged friend here, Izzy Fair? Definitely a great silence falls over the control room. What are you thinking is the first question? No. Get ready to plan a lot in the next, I don't know how long you're planning to wait does your wife listen to the show not at this hour yeah i was gonna say that was that was a free shot that was that was a 6 40 a.m weddings are a lot of planning and a lot of money so

get ready for that i'm sure you've been told a ringing endorsement for the concept of marriage from laddie it's a guy a guy who sounds well i'm just thinking of his next step you know what's the next thing on his very practical very practical all right all right a dog you got anything uh compromise is the key to success did you google that no okay i'll say for the wedding just like try to keep the focus on fun as much as possible there's always other demands right your family's gonna have ideas and you're oh we have to accommodate this person we want it to be like this like just make it fun for you and your partner that's the most important

thing that's the only thing that you're gonna remember looking back to me bar as opposed to help you recoup yeah help you recoup a little bit of losses help people from going totally nuts at your wedding but also don't feel like a total cheaps losses. Help people from going totally nuts at your wedding. But also, don't feel like a total cheapskate making people pay full price for their drinks at your wedding. I just go open bar. That's risky. Yeah, whatever. He did say his emphasis is on fun. Who cares if somebody goes...

It's not your problem if they go crazy at your wedding. Unless they're violent or something. It depends on the group of people that come into your wedding. If you know the crew well, then... Sure well sure go for it i don't know all right if you have uh if you have wedding advice uh hit us up in the uh or marriage advice either one 650 650 for izzy in the dumb bar lumber text line uh we'll dive in we'll do a few Ask Us Anythings here from the Dunbar Lumber text line. Already lots coming in again. You can send your submission in here for Ask Us Anything. Include the pizza emoji to be eligible to win a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza.

This one came in from Tyler. Ask Us Anything. If you had to order two pizzas, so it's pizzas themed. If you had to order two pizzas for a group last minute, what are you going with? Are you going safe or are you trying to blow minds? I don't think there's ever a reason if you're ordering pizzas for a group, why the bulk of the pizza should not be pepperoni. Just why are you trying to improve upon pepperoni pizza? It's the best pizza. Every other topping you add detracts from the pizza experience and i know there's some people who've convinced themselves like oh i like supreme i gotta gotta get those vegetables and those

olives on there they're fooling themselves you can pander to them and you can help them delude themselves and order one of those for them if you're ordering enough but frankly if i had to order two pizzas i'm going to pepperoni why are we doing why are we deviating from the king of pizza come on you have to have another option you can't go double pepperoni absolutely my second option would be obviously aj's detroit ronnie i bring that pepperoni yeah but i mean it's a it's a really the ronnie stands for specific style it's the... What do you think the Ronnie stands for? Specific style. It's the guy who invented it. Duh. It's a specific style of pizza that you can't go wrong with the Detroit Ronnie. I like that.

Two varieties of pepperoni. Yes. But really, that's all you need. You don't need anything else. You have the lower layer of pepperoni, and then you have the cupped pepperoni on top. I guess you could go all cheese, like the margarita stuff. Yeah, margarita would be the other one. I mean, that's a pretty safe bet. Most people love lots and lots of cheese so I mean it's

it's you'd be hard-pressed cheese is good have yeah people rarely are disappointed by cheese pizza but if I was at an event and somebody ordered pizza and there wasn't pepperoni I'd be very disappointed yeah I'd be very disappointed and very confused somebody points out J.D.

says Jamie has never heard of vegetarians. Like, I get it. That's why you can include the margarita. Yeah, exactly. But if dietary restrictions are an issue, No, you're sticking to your guns. You're going pepperoni. Double pepperoni pizza.

You're a vegetarian. You get cheese. You don't get any vegetables. Not only do you not get a vegetarian pizza, you get Jamie giving you a lecture about why pepperoni pizza is the only pizza worth ordering. The king of pizza. The rule is you save the crust for the vegetarian friends and they can eat the crust.

Everyone wins. You throw your crust at them. Yeah. Everyone wins. From across the room. Is it gluten free? Here you go. It's got to be gluten free.

We'll make sure that it's gluten free. Yeah. See, that's the thing. Dietary restrictions aside, pepperoni is the king. Pepperoni is the one you have to have to go with. 650-650 is the Dunbar-Lumber text line. Get your Ask Us Anything submissions in right now. I was going to read another one from Tyler because it's a good one,

but I'll try to space them out from Tyler a little bit here as well. Another one came in that was – I've lost the actual text, but if you could participate if you could be an olympic participant in one sport in one discipline which one would you choose now i guess the question is is it like me trying to prepare and and become an olympian or am i snapping my fingers and like magically and you become you saying having the athletic skill to participate in one of these sports because if it's the latter, if it's like you are a legitimate competitive athlete in this sport, I do think it's the hundred meters. It's a sprinter like the prestige of that event, the adrenaline, the focus.

Not forget meddling just to like like to be in the hundred meters this year, and it was so close. It was so compelling. Obviously, you're incredibly frustrated if you don't medal, if you don't make the podium, but that's just a really special experience as an athlete, as a person, to be one of those guys, one of those 10 guys in that race, lining up with all the eyes of the world on you.

So I think, again, if we're talking like snap your fingers, and you become suited, and you're in the final of that event, I think it's got to be the 100 meters for me. Me too. But the thing is, you can also, if you are that level of sprinter and you do the 100, odds are you can also do the 200 and you'll certainly be part of the relay team. So you can also, it's not quite like the pool where you have the top swimmers have like five or six opportunities to medal. A really, really top level sprinter is Usain Bolt. Right.

Three Olympics. Yeah. Nine golds. Technically eight golds now. But let's for the sake of when he won the races, nine golds. Even Andre de Grasse, who had a disappointing showing in paris six medals in two games right so you you can also have the really cool photos with multiple medals if you're talking about some of the more niche sports you're you're getting that one opportunity to to get your

medal although i i always go like you michael phelps is like 1920 medals and it's just like well he did the same thing over and over again just different strokes yeah and different strokes different lengths relays all of it there's so many opportunities to medal but whatever i mean again i'm not for us mere mortals just the thought of being in the olympics is like so incredible but i'm not even in these questions i'm not even concerned about like my podium chances right because it's like you're at the olympics whatever it would be amazing to be on the podium but you're just there you're participating in the event is pretty much special enough so i i think i'll go uh 100 meters for sure in that one uh somebody else kind of similar harry and new west ask us anything would you rather have the world record in the 100 meters

and live until 70 years old or have the world record for 100 meters for men over 100 years old and live well until 105 years of age that's an easy one man i'm taking the 35 years if you're saying i'm in like relatively good health until 105 uh 105 years old i don't care about holding 100 meter world record who cares i want to live i want to experience life that's an easy one harry who's taking are you who's such a glory how they're taking the 100 meter record over an extra 35 years too many years of good life it's 35 years yeah if it was like 10 or 15 then maybe you consider it yeah 35 that's because i mean this me this means when you're 100, you're not too worried about what the actual time is,

that you could actually run or, I guess, maybe speed walk 100 meters at 100. That means you're doing great. Yeah. You're doing really well. Sign me up for that. That's incredible. That means you're in great physical health,

probably great mental health as well. The next day, I'm going to just see if I can cover 100 meters. Set a record? That's amazing. You get people doing stories about you in the local paper and stuff. Cause you're setting these records. I think that, that sounds like an amazing life.

That's a, that's an easy one for me. Somebody else texted him. We were talking about if you could be an Olympic athlete, if you kind of snap your fingers, which one would you choose? Somebody said, wouldn't basketball financially change your life?

That's a good point, right? Because presumably if you're good enough to be well so olympia this is about most of the people are going with that we've had a few of those texts and it's team usa so we can't play for team usa that's a good point and yes now canada has a number of nba so if we but that's a good point though if you were as a Canadian, good enough to be on the Canadian Olympic men's team, presumably you'd be good enough to be in the NBA. You'd be making a lot of money, probably more than you would

as a sprinter with endorsements. Yeah, but are you the star? I know a guy like R.J. Barrett, he's more of a depth player. I mean, he was a starter, I guess. But he's not the star. He's not Shea Gilgis Alexander. But he's signed some pretty major contracts now in the NBA.

But, I mean, Usain Bolt did pretty well for himself financially. Yeah, but are you Usain Bolt? Or are you the guy who finishes like six? You know what I mean? Because even like Nikhil Alexander Walker, he's on a two-year contract, 4.5 million a season, right? So he's probably, I don't know, one of the ninth or tenth guy on the Canadian Olympic team. That's life-changing money.

It's not 100 million, like some texters are suggesting, but that's pretty good. Now, I guess you have to commit to playing in the NBA, too, in this scenario. So you got to do that part. Well, that's a real hardship, Jamie. I don't know. What do you got other? What if you have other things uh like what trying to lift a 105 training for the 100 meters when you're 100 exactly trying to trying to live my best life jd and kukulam texan jamie i'm not a glory hound also jamie they'd write stories about me in the newspaper

that's just a side benefit that's a side jayme also taking strays in the text box for his pepperoni opinion i'm right i'm not saying i never eat another type of pizza but like guys we all know what the best pizza is it's pepperoni that's it you treat yourself do a little different here or there but we all know why are we fooling ourselves barbecue chicken is definitely up there for me as well. I don't like the barbecue chicken. I find the barbecue sauce they put on is too sweet. No, that's the best part. You need to douse it in barbecue sauce. No. Yes.

Says the guy who had a blizzard for breakfast yesterday. You told me I'm right! That's Jamie right now. I am right. Pepperoni is the best. Come on. Everyone knows that. $6.50, $6.50, ask us anything. It's an ask Us Anything Friday. Include the pizza emoji to be entered to win a $100 gift card from AJ's Pizza.

We'll announce the winner at 830. By the way, just some wedding slash marriage advice. One that came in, which was a good one. Somebody said, order pizza for around 11 30 or like midnight even so well after the dinner or if it's not pizza have some sort of like late night snack i'm sure you've been at weddings you've seen this right so people are have they've been imbibing they've been on the bars i've seen slider bars they've been they've been using that energy on the dance floor they need a break they need to fortify themselves if

they've been crashing the open bar too hard maybe get some grease in there to help you're talking about the wedding i thought you just talked in general rule just order a pizza for 11 30 i thought that every night you guys gonna be exhausted just order some pizza i like that rule somebody else says small wedding don't break the bank pick your battles i do agree like no i don't know about small small but don't go nuts don't go nuts again as i said like there it's so easy for the guest list to get out of control and all these different things to you know oh we got to buy this we got to do this like don't worry about that stuff just keep it focused you know small people have different definitions of small i understand that but i would say just keep it focused and a lot of people texting and with

variations of pick your battles sunny says to make your life easier agree with everything a lot of people saying smile and nod yeah there's some pretty funny some funny texts that have come in here people are so mad about about pepperoni i don't get it i don't get the blowback jay and red deer pepperoni pizza is so overrated hawaiian king. Somebody else says, come on, adult pizza is not pepperoni. Why not? I don't know. What does that mean? Another one from Terry. Imagine living a hundred years and only eating pepperoni. Sounds incredible.

What does adult pizza mean? Explain adult pizza to me. What does he mean by that? Well, I get people say like cheese pizza is kind of for kids, right? If it's not like margarita, it's just like cheese from a chain restaurant. We should have a honey drizzle and some kind of special crumbly cheese on top that's what they're talking maybe they're looking like the gourmet pizza stuff yeah like yeah but like i i'm a blue collar stick to the classic people pepperoni people think like adding toppings is increasing like your maturity

level yeah it's more complex and it's more complicated. So that means I'm more of an adult for eating it. And that's what I'm saying. I have a broader palate. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's like, no, sometimes you just want to go with what works with what's proven to work and be delicious. And that's pepperoni pizza. Don't fool yours. This is what I'm saying. Don't fool yourself into thinking it's inherently better

to pile on the obscure fancy toppings and think that that makes a pizza better. Sometimes simplicity is where it's at. Keep things simple. Roshan and Burnaby, pepperoni is the Gretzky or Jordan of pizza. Yeah, you can have your favorite players or maybe make an argument for another player topping,

but at the end of the day, we all know who the goat is. Thank you. Thank you, Roshan and Burnaby. That's a great way of putting it. I'm not saying you can't enjoy other pizzas, but why are we talking around what the best one is? What the ultimate, if you

could only have one pizza, we all know it's pepperoni. I've just accepted. I'm shocked at the blowback that we're getting here. It's because you're five years old, Jamie. That's been an accusation that's been made multiple times here. I did have a blizzard for breakfast yesterday, so you might be on to something.

Get ready for the ultimate sports fan trip to Michigan from September 27th to October 1st. Experience games at the Big House, Comerica Park, and Ford Field. Contact Neil Chark at neilc at uniglobecarefree.ca for details. We will speak to AJ of AJ's Pizza. I'll get his thoughts on, is pepperoni pizza appropriate for adults? If he could only order one pizza for the rest of his life, what would he be ordering? We'll get AJ to weigh in on that. Maybe a little Olympics as well.

And then Ben Steiner at 705. We'll go deep on the Paris Olympics from a Canadian perspective. That's next year on Half the Brough Sportsnet 650.