Halford & Brough in the Morning - The BC Lions Are Dropping It Like It's Hot Tomorrow

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with The Athletic PWHL's Hailey Salvian (1:41) about Vancouver's new team, as well as their big signings yesterday including Sarah Nurse, plus they preview Saturday's BC Lions season & home opener that includes a performance from Snoop Dogg, as radio commentator Bob "The Moj" Marjanovich (32:23) joins the show.  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.

What's up Vancouver? Wow, I am so honored to be bringing professional women's hockey out west. The city, the fans have already embraced us with open arms and the Takeover Tour was any indication our fans are going to show up and show out for us. I cannot wait to kick off our inaugural season after talking with Kara and the rest of the squad. We're bringing a pretty special group to a pretty special place. So I cannot wait. I'm so, so grateful. We will see you in November. 702 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. That voice you just heard, that of Sarah Nurse,

one of the four newest members of Vancouver's PWHL expansion team. The team was being built out this week. The build will continue in an X week with the expansion draft and the entry draft and everything else that's on the horizon. Haley Salvion from the athletic is going to join us in just a minute here to talk a little bit more PWHL Vancouver. Before we do that, we need to take care of some business. You are listening to the Halford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650.

Halford and Breff of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first entrusted choice for debt help. With over 3,000 five-star reviews, visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominuk at jason.mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at jason.mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics, we're gonna get together with you in step.

Our next guest comes courtesy, the hotline powered by Power West Industries. As mentioned, it's Haley Salvian from the athletic here on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Haley, how are you? Good morning. It's been a little chaotic, but it's good. I'm doing well.

I was going to say it sounds very tentative, but I'm like, I'm fine. Well, it's a good time. It's busy times for the league. Like we joke that the NHL decides to jam all of its offseason content in two weeks in late June. And the professional hockey women's hockey league is doing somewhat the same granted expansion process is a little bit different but big build outs for Seattle and Vancouver but we'll focus on the Vancouver side of things.

Big picture the four additions yesterday you've got Sarah Nurse, Claire Thompson, Sophie Jacques, Emirance Meshmeier So walk us through big picture, what Vancouver was able to do, and the origins, the start of this roster. How big a build and how impressive a build it is this early in the process? I think it's actually a pretty near perfect start if like, if there is one and it's funny,

my colleague, Shayna Goldman and I did an expansion mock draft a couple days ago before the signing window opened and we did it in a way of like i'm not trying to predict what's going to happen here but this is what i would do if i had five signing slots and i could do whatever i wanted and i signed claire thompson soph Sarah Nurse, Jen Gardner, and Emerance Meshmeyer for my five. So I'm feeling a little like biased because I'm like, yeah, that's perfect. That's exactly what I would have done.

And I just think the reason why that makes so much sense as an original five is you leave this signing window where these teams have been given an opportunity to have like five cornerstone foundational pieces, right? And now they leave that window with a superstar forward, like both on and off the ice, two of the best defenders in the league, a local player who is younger, who can grow into a bigger star over the next couple of seasons and a legitimate number one goalie. Sarah Nurse will be a face of the franchise wherever she plays and that will be absolutely true. In Vancouver, Sophie Jakes and Claire Thompson

were two of the three Defender of the Year finalists this season. Sophie just won back to back Walter cups with the Minnesota frost, Claire Thompson won her first. So that's a great start for a blue line. And Emrynn Smashmeyer was the starting goalie for Ottawa before she got hurt and Glenna Phillips took over and went on a playoff MVP caliber run, which kind of gave Ottawa no choice but to protect her. So this is a goalie who was probably an MVP candidate

in the first couple of months of the season. She was really, really good. So I think like my own picks aside, I think it's a perfect start for laying the foundation because there's still gonna be so many elite players available in the draft and so many role players that Kara Gardner-Maurie is going to be able to select.

So yeah, I thought it was, um, that's exactly what I would have done with my five picks. So. You mentioned Sarah Nurse as the potential face of the Vancouver franchise. Are the women all comfortable? Not all of them, but do they feel the responsibility to go kind of above and beyond with the promotion

and getting out in the community and talking to people about the team and talking to them about women's hockey and making sure that they're behind the effort to make this league successful? Yes, absolutely. And nobody is better at that than Sarah Nurse, in my opinion. Like she is somebody who understands the role she plays in growing the game, not just generally, but also for like minorities. You know, she is a biracial black woman and she has, you know, these nursey night events that she hosted last year in Toronto where she brought in I think over 200 young girls and boys from underprivileged communities in Toronto to get them to come

in and experience PWHL hockey games and provide mentorship and she did meet and greets with the with the kids after games so I think Sarah Nurse specifically when we're talking about like a foundational player. She is high end elite. She had a slower back half of the PWHL season. After she came back from injury. But even with that, she's fifth in points per game in the PWHL all time over her first two seasons. So on the ice, you're getting a really high end player who can play on the wing.

She can play at the middle, she can score, she's got great hands. But off the ice, this is somebody who, like there's no player better suited to be the face of a new franchise. Like personable, charismatic, she's marketable, she grows the game, she puts in the work, like she does all of the

things to like she's got this unwavering commitment to growing the game which is what makes her such a perfect signing because you're gonna get a lot out of her both on and off the ice and but that goes for a lot of these players too a lot of these women understand the role that they play and in truly getting butts in seats and growing the sport. There's going to be a lot of grassroots initiatives with these new franchises. So I think these, this is a good starting group

that are going to be really open and unwavering in their support of, of doing those things. We are speaking to Haley Salvian from the Athletic here on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. How have the existing PWHL franchises reacted to the amount of talent that they've lost in this expansion process? Yeah, it's, it's probably come in waves, right? Like I think a lot of the general managers are taking it in stride or at least trying to. And it goes for the players too.

Like there's some, I'm sure some of these players didn't want to be on the move, especially after only one season in a market. Like we're looking at second overall picks that are signing with these franchises. Even Claire Thompson played one year in Minnesota. So I think this whole experience has been very bittersweet for everyone because there's so much change these original franchises are not going to look the same whatsoever next season but especially for the general managers it's like okay so you did this great job building a good franchise and now what?

Like now you have to make these terrible, difficult decisions. If you're the Boston fleet, do you want to protect Hillary Knight or do you want to protect the younger player and Alina Mueller? And obviously we saw them go with Mueller and now Hillary Knight's a foundational signing, the first ever signing in Seattle. So a ton of difficult decisions that I think a lot of these general managers have had a difficult time with, but it sounds like most of them are trying to take that in stride and balance the loss of this talent off their roster with the fact that expansion means the league is successful and that this is a good thing for the PWHL in terms of Mark Walters continued commitment, thing for the PWHL in terms of Mark Walters continued commitment, in terms of the interest in professional women's hockey just two years into the league. So I would say Better Sweet is the

biggest reaction I've gotten. Okay, final question just to explain to the listeners the process and all this. This wasn't the actual expansion draft. This was the exclusive signing window. So the expansion draft is on Monday. How does that work? Yeah. So we actually don't have the draft format yet. Well, the draft order, I should say. So like, will Vancouver pick first?

Will Seattle pick first? Will it be a snake? We don't have that information yet. So what we do know, like this signing window was just kind of the pre-draft area where free agents or unprotected players could sign. Each team was able to sign up to five. So Vancouver has their five,

which means they will draft seven times in the expansion draft. Seattle's signed three players. They get to five, they'll also draft seven players, but if they enter the draft with fewer than five signings, they will get a couple more draft selections. So essentially both of these teams will just need to get to a 12-player roster by the end of the expansion draft, either whatever mix of signing in the draft they get. So whatever mix of signing and the draft they get. So yeah, and they'll just get to take,

it doesn't go in like an order of team. It's not going to be like you have to take one player from Toronto. You have to take one player from Ottawa. It's going to be a draft of the best available players. And then they'll need to keep in mind like who has lost what. So each existing team's only allowed to lose four pieces. So the Montreal team can only lose two more players. So they're going to need to be a little bit strategic on who do I want to take and when, because then once there's two gone, then Montreal is off the board. And then once teams lose two players, they get to protect a fourth. So we've already seen some of that get triggered around the league. So those would be the big rules I'd say. It's interesting in a league where it's just one entity owns the entire

league because you can do this sort of stuff. Like I can, can you imagine if they try to do this in the NHL, they'd just be like, franchise owners would be like, no, we're not doing this, but, but doing this. But this one, it's like, it's a dictator league. Yeah. It's a little bit of like the format is interesting because it's like, yeah, you play for Vancouver and you play for Toronto, but like you technically all are playing and paid by Mark Walter by the single entity because of that lack of the individual ownership. So yeah, the league can kind of just say no, this is what we're doing and in the collective bargaining agreement there is a clause that just says like we have

specific managerial control that we can exert and when like so that the players association can go to the table and say, nope, or yeah, we're okay with that. But at the end of the day, the league really does have a ton of power in dictating what happens. I think the PA did fight for some things and get what they wanted in some areas. They were able to protect free agency. I think there was a world in which free agents could just get drafted, and you would have to be there, so you'd like lose

your free agency. But I think that was something the PA was like, no, that's not happening. And the league was, you know, the league and the PA have worked together on a couple of things, but yeah, at the end of the day, the league kind of just gets to decide how things work. Is the plan eventually to monetize the league by

selling off franchises and be like, okay, we're ready to get to the point where we're going to bring in individual owners for the team, or is the plan to have it like this for eternity? That's the big question, right? And that was the question when expansion first got announced of like, what is this going to look like? Are they going to start selling these teams? It's going to still be Mark Walter, his wife, Kimbra, who are bankrolling everything. And anytime

I've asked, you know, the, the, I've asked Dan Caston, the president of the Dodgers, who's on the executive board for the PWHL, and they're really happy with the way that this is working. And I don't think they don't see a world in which they're gonna go away from this Structure anytime soon. What about future expansion? How quickly do they anticipate growing even more? I Think there's a world I asked and cast and like are you guys gonna add two more next year? And he was like I will never say no to any expansion timeline that you throw at me. Like, OK, so two more next year. It seems like they might want to see how this works first.

Like, I don't think there's anything set in stone. It's more like, let's see how adding two teams right now works actually in practice. Like, is this going to be a success? Is this going to be a disaster? But I think if this is a success, there's probably a world in which we see another team or two in the next. Like, I would say if you want to capitalize on Olympic attention, we could probably see them at another team post-Milan.

And then I guess at the end of the month, there's also just the good old fashioned entry draft. How much talent is available? Oh yeah. Yeah, that as well. June's a busy month. How much talent is available in that draft compared to other entry level draft classes and how big an impact is it going to make on the league this year? This is going to be the, I don't want to say the weakest, but it's not as deep as last year or the year before. There's some good players at the top

of the draft. Casey O'Brien's really exciting. She broke Hillary Knight's records at the University of Wisconsin in terms of her scoring and winning championships. So she's someone like, I'm excited to see how she does as a pro. Hillary Knight's one of the greatest players of all time and Casey O'Brien was a more productive college player than she was.

So she's someone to look out for. She'll likely go first overall, depending on who the New York Sirens lose in the expansion draft. Maybe they'll decide to draft on need. And in that case, they'll have Haley Wynn as a great option. She's a top pair defender for the U.S. Women's National Team. She's been on that team for a couple of years now,

even though she only just graduated from college. Right shot, really good offensive defender, led Clarkson in scoring from the blue line. Couple more defenders, couple Canadian defenders, but I would say outside the top two to three rounds, you're probably not getting like top six, top four players in the draft, unless you are really sneaky

and you find some value deep in the draft. Haley, this was great. Thank you very much for taking the time to do it. Enjoy the month of June. It should be busy, but a lot of fun. Yeah. Thanks so much guys. Have a good one. Hey, you too. Thanks. That's Haley Salvin from the athletic here on the Helford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

Just a little tidbit that I'm going to add. I guess the, I think the senators are having some sort of media availability, might be at a golf course. Michael Andlour, the new owner there, began his media availability by denying rumors that Drake Batherson might be traded. And then Steve Staus, the general manager, said, there's no truth to that. Fatherton. Yeah. So-

I was told Batherson was on the move. Mm hmm. They also said that they are working on a contract extension to bring back Claude Giroux, the ageless wonder Claude Giroux, who actually had a fairly integral role in them making the playoffs for the first time in a long time. It was good for them. Yeah. I mean, it's been they needed a guy like that because it was there was almost too many young guys, right?

Too many inexperienced guys. And you know, as you came in, it was able to settle things down. And you know, at this stage of his career, he's going to be more of a complimentary guy than a driver. But overall, that was a good year for Ottawa in large part because they were the one that broke free from the shackles of the playoff drought. If you look at it, they've now jumped ahead. They've jumped the queue ahead of, and they've always been lumped in with Detroit and with Buffalo is those teams

that were waiting to get over the hump. Like congratulations, you were able to do much rather to a lesser degree, right? Their, their drought didn't last as long, but those were sort of the big three of bad in terms of like those lengthy playoff droughts where the fan bases were starving to get back. Tambo in East Van has an ask us anything. K Tambo.

Since I don't play golf, I have a golf related ask us anything for bruff. I played yesterday. Turn my microphone off. I played yesterday and I don't know if you want to ask me anything about golf, because I do not understand the game. Why do the overwhelming majority of golfers shoot right?

Most, if not all of my buddies shoot left in hockey, but they shoot right when they golf, I myself shoot left in hockey, I bet left in baseball. And if I had to use a golf club, I'd use left handed clubs. Okay. There's a reason why Canada produces the most left-handed golfers, because of hockey. Also baseball hitters. Yeah, and baseball. All lefty hitters.

But I think there's two reasons, I think. Number one, they just make golf clubs right-handed. Sure. So there aren't many... There are more and more now, but I think back in the day it was like, do you want to play left handed? Like. I'm a lefty golfer. They're hard to find. They're hard to find.

They're hard to find. Right? That's the devil's hand. And I think the other thing is you don't necessarily have to have your dominant hand on the top of the club in golf, like you're supposed to in hockey and like you're supposed to in baseball. Right.

I wish someone would have told me that because my dominant hand is my right hand and I shoot right in everything. If I had been given a left-handed stick or a left-handed baseball bat. Yeah. Maybe I'd be professional by now. Probably not, but maybe. You don't know that. You don't know that. You know, when I first picked up a hockey stick, I was just like, well, okay, it just seems easier to shoot because like your bottom hand is gonna be the pushing force.

The driver, the driver hand. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's all, like I don't think there's a 100% right philosophy in any of this stuff. Right. I would say for non-stick and club swinging sports, I would actually encourage left-footed soccer players and left-handed like basketball players. They come at you at such odd, unique angles. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's actually really difficult to defend.

There's been a lot of a lot of studies on it, as a matter of fact, that the lefties just come at you in a way that you do so much training as a youth almost exclusively against right footed and right handed players. And when you see one, you actually have to change your entire approach because you've been trained to deal with righties. We got another ask us anything here from Noah in the whack. This is a good one. Let's think about this. Let's dive in. Noah writes Brad Marshawn is in his third cup final since 2011.

He lost his previous two. Corey Perry is in his fifth cup final in the last six years. He's lost each time. Who would you prefer to lose again? Noah then writes, I have nothing against Corey Perry. And as much as I'd like to see Marshawn cry again, I think it would be hilarious if Perry lost again. Maybe I'm dead inside.

Noah, you very well may be. But this was a fantastic what we are ask us anything. Corey Perry losing a Cup final again would be hilarious. It would be. So he's lost it with. So they've each only won one, right? One each? Yeah.

One for Marshawn and one for Perry. Who's Corey Perry lost with? He's lost with Montreal. Dallas. Dallas. Obviously one with Edmonton. why am I missing the other ones go someone fine bring up Cory Perry's hockey I know Chicago and then this it's amazing the run that he's on though, right?

Now I think he did he win one with Tampa Bay I think he won one with Tampa Bay, but the rest of them have been losses for him. No, I think he lost, no, I think he lost. Was he on the losing Tampa Bay team to Colorado in 2022? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That was the one. So he's only won one Stanley Cup

and it was in his second year in the league. Oh, seven in Anaheim. Yeah. Yeah. So he lost with Montreal, Dallas, Tampa Bay, Edmonton. Who am I missing? Anyone? Anyone? Is that it? It would be it would be amazing if he chalked up another loss. He had three straight losses, right? Dallas, Montreal, Tampa Bay. Yeah, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie.

Edmonton losing aside from fulfilling the Halford and Brough thing about, you know, not wanting a Canadian team to win. Edmonton losing, aside from fulfilling the Halford and Brough thing about, you know, not wanting a Canadian team to win. Edmonton losing has so many potentially delicious storylines at the end of it. One, this Corey Perry one, which would actually fall second in line. I know I mentioned this the other day, but I want to reiterate because we are in and if you, I've talked to enough, like I've individually texted a few pundits that have been covering the Stanley Cup Finals

in their totality. We are kind of in the McDavid is the MVP winner lose conversation right now. The prospect of Edmonton going to consecutive Stanley Cup Finals and losing consecutive Stanley Cup Finals and McDavid winning the Con Smythe in both of them. You keep bringing this up.

This is your thing. It's great. It's possible, but I am, I am always a fan of stuff that we've never seen before. Right. Whenever like there's been a couple of crazy. Did that get to the point where you wouldn't want the cons might like, please don't give me the cons might. Yeah. He didn't want it last year.

And as a matter of fact, you didn't come out for it last year. I think he was okay with getting it, but he didn't actually get it. He stayed in the room. Well, he still wanted. I know. But they mailed it to him.

Again, the ultimate, if you're a junk, if you're a salty, bitter, schadenfreude driven Canucks fan, and you want to see Edmonton suffer, there's probably no greater suffering out there than Edmonton going to game seven, but this time at home, losing in game seven to Florida. And then while the Panthers are celebrating on the ice,

the announcement that Connor Mcgivitt has won his second consecutive consmite in a losing effort. And it'll never be done again. I will confidently state that if he wins back to back on Smites on the losing team in the Stanley Cup final, it'll never happen again. I think the Oilers are gonna win the cup though. I don't know, I don't know.

I really don't. 50-50. I know the game. I think it's, well, after Edmonton took game one, I don't think it's 50-50. Because here's the thing. All Florida has to do is win game two and they've accomplished, mission accomplished. And honestly. You haven't lost it's 50-50. Because here's the thing. All Florida has to do is win game two and they've accomplished, mission accomplished.

And honestly, if Florida wins game two, they get to, and that's a classic narrative when you get out of a split and you win the second one, you're like, and we were one shot away from winning the first one too. So advantage us, or I mean, an overtime game. I know that Edmonton outplayed them. It's still an overtime game.

Yeah, someone said back to the question, answer the question. Well, Halford, I think just did. I think he, it would be Corey Perry because the Oilers would lose. I mean, doesn't everyone love Brad Marshon now? Yeah. People aren't there with Corey Perry yet. Oh, lovable Brad Marshon.

It would actually be. Seriously though. You know what? It would be fun to bring the Oilers into the like, he's hurt us too conversation because that is the one thing that Canucks fans and Leafs fans have in common. We'd be like, I know, he's heard us too. And then you bring in the Oilers and we would

be like, he's pretty clutch, isn't he? Okay. Here's like a follow up question. Who do you. Although Marshawn has lost a lot of big games and I think that's why he's so comfortable playing in them. He, he, he had a good quote the other day. He was just like, you know, one thing we learn.

One thing we learn is, you know, one team wins and one team loses. He's lost, he's lost some big games. He lost some big games with the Bruins. So he's kind of like, yeah, I know that life just goes on after that. And it's really the competition that you should love. Brad is so wise now.

Well, he's been able to do that. It's easy when you get off and you re like it's when you start off your career. Pretty much by winning the Stanley Cup, you're like, well, that's done. I mean, Marshawn and Perry do have that in common. Yeah. They won their cups and their only cups early. And I think it's easier then, because one of the things with the Leafs

was like we've never even had the good stuff. All we've had is the bad stuff. So yeah, of course these pressure games are hard for us. If you were just to ask me straight up who I dislike more though, I'm not gonna lie. I would say Perry. Why do you dislike Corey Perry? He's the, right now, right now I find him the more annoying of the two.

Like I have. I think hilarious. I think he's absolutely old man. Hilarious out there. I he let's put it this way. He feels like he would still dive into the antics that identified him early in his career, whereas Marshawn feels like he's evolved from them. OK, we got a lot more to get to on the Haliford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650 as everyone's

yelling in my ear to go to break. We cannot keep Moj on hold. Bob the Moj Marjanovic is going to join us next. The BC Lions opener is tomorrow. So too is the concert kickoff series with Snoop. Snoop-a-loop, bring your green hat. You're listening to the Haliford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Strance.

Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650. Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. It's the moach. I did not eat four burgers. Yes it's the moach. I don't want to go to Winnipeg, nobody wants to go to Winnipeg! Yes, I love food! I went online and kinda did a little surfing.

Halifert's fine, but, you know, Bruffa's just grumpy all the time. Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj 7.35 on a Friday. Happy Friday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are now right at the midway point of the Friday show. It is our two of the program. Bob the Mojmarjanovic is going to join us in just a moment here.

The highlight of our two, our two of this program is brought to by Jason Hominuk at Jason.mortgage. If you love paying two and three your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Just kidding. Let him do exactly that. Visit him online at Jason dot mortgage. Couple of reminders for the remainder of the show. We are giving away a $50 gift card to White Spot. We've been doing it every day this week.

We're going to continue to do it today. Caller number five at 815 this morning is going to win the $50 gift card to White Spot six or four two eight zero six fifty is the number that number again six or four two eight oh zero six fifty. Now I know Moe's is waiting patiently on the line, but we have some pretty significant breaking news from the National Hockey League Sportsnet six 650 breaking news. Attention, workers, we have completed our evaluation of the plan.

We regret to announce the following layoffs, which I will read in alphabetical order. De Boer, Peter. That is all. The Dallas Stars have just announced that head coach Peter De Boer has been relieved of his duties after falling short of advancing to the Stanley cup final, falling in the third consecutive Western conference final just when we thought that all the NHL head coaching gigs have been sorted out after the carousel

stopped spinning. Dallas said, ah, one more rotation. Peter DeBoer out as head coach of the Dallas Stars. Adog? Told ya. All right. Adog on our text thread, which we will never reveal to the public for fear of being canceled.

Our text thread, after the Stars were eliminated and all the Ottinger drama went down, Adog said, they're gonna fire Peter DeBoer. and all the Ottinger drama went down. A dog said. They're going to fire Peter to bar. I asked you guys, do you think Pete DeBora will get fired? Just knowing that you both in unison said, no, yeah, I didn't. And I didn't either, which which I think goes to show you how bad it must have gotten. One of the reasons why I think one of the well, I think it was probably

lots of stuff, but that was the catalyst. Well, it was also the way they played of the, well, I think it was probably more than that. Lots of stuff, but that was like a catalyst. Well, it was also the way they played in that conference final, I think. But yeah, the Ottinger thing probably. Tipped it over the edge. Yeah. One of the reasons I said, I don't think they'll fire him is because it's a really tough position to be in the conference finals firing your coach because then

you're like, okay, who are the candidates? Hope they've all been hired. Yeah. You can't get Dan Muse anymore. He's been hired. Marco Sturm, he's off the list. I know that De'Boro's only had one year left on his contract.

So I think he might've fallen into that trap as well of, well, if we're thinking about firing him and we've molded over, have we already kind of made up our minds because he's only got one year left on his deal anyway. It's a tough businessman coaching in professional sports, Tom Thibodeau and Peter DeBoer take their teams to the conference finals and they're both looking for work a week after being eliminated. And I think the, I think if you want to compare those two situations, embarrassing losses. Yeah. I think if you want to compare those two situations, embarrassing losses. The Knicks had two very embarrassing losses in the conference finals at home and they

should have won game one and they blew it. Game seven for the Stars was embarrassing. The way the whole thing went, right from the start, was like, oh, boy, this isn't going well. And then he pulls out and during a very it was a weird, it was weird how it went down and then throws him under the bus after the game. And then they had the exit interviews and apparently some of the players spoke up during the game. Five of that series, not game seven.

Game over. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was over pretty quick for DeBoer and the stars. Yeah. So anyway, there's your breaking news. Peter Boer out as the head coach of the Dallas Stars. Big news on a Friday. We now turn our attention to the other big news of the Friday. We got Moj right here. A presentation of the Clayton Public House.

Bob the Mojmar Johnovic here on the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. What a mojo? How you doing? Small factoid of the day, Peter DeBoer, former Knut farmhand with the Milwaukee admirals. Did not know that. I, you know what? I didn't know anything about DeBoer's playing career. I only really know him as a coach because he's been doing it for forever, but good, good tidbit there Moj. Well done. What do you think about DeBoer getting the boot?

It doesn't surprise me. Um, you know, when you reach a conference finals three years in a row you got to get over the hump and clearly Dallas didn't get over the hump. The comments with Odinger were clearly another sign of the frustration level there and you know it's funny people look at and say wow after the Odinger comments you know you probably had to let him go. I'm almost thinking to myself maybe he knew he was gone. Throw out in general, out in turn of the bus before he left. So, um, yeah,

like I said, it's, it's a situation where they need to make a change. Clearly, they, they need to do something to get over that hump and get it in the finals. Okay. Uh, we're going to keep it on the hockey conversation here before we pivot over to the lions opener tomorrow. But so we understand it that you are pretty familiar with the newest member, one of the newest members of the Canucks assistant coaching staff, Brett McClain. Let us know how you know him, how well you know him and a little insight you can give

us about the former Iowa Wild bench boss, who's now going to be working alongside Adam Foot behind the Canucks bench. Yeah, Brett McClain actually won the playing in my tournament. He's the former Kelowna Rocket. His wife's family is from Kelowna, spends its off seasons in Kelowna. And I got to know Brett probably like 15 years ago and actually wound up hosting one of his charity events that his family had. I don't know much about his coaching style, but I can tell you one thing. He's a quality human being. He's just a great guy. And I think the Canucks found themselves a really good coach and

Brett McClain in the sense that this is a guy who has a lot of integrity, has a lot of character. And he's one of those guys that people gravitate to. So I think it's a great hire, really excited to see Brett come home. Talked to him yesterday for a bet. He was clearly excited. Like I said, his wife's family's from Kelowna. His brother-in-law, big shout out to Kyle

and the folks at BNA Brewing. They run that establishment in Kelowna. And you know, it's interesting with Brett, he kind of knew that even back in the day, I remember him telling me that when the players would get together in Kelowna to get their off ice, or pardon me, get their on ice workouts in, he'd be the guy that'd be setting up the drills

and kind of putting the guys through their paces and organizing everything. So he kind of had the coaching bug, I guess, early and kind of gravitated toward it. He finished his career by playing like, I don't know, six or seven years over in Switzerland and Austria. But you could tell that that coaching bud was kind of in him even from the start.

How do you think things are going to change for Adam Foote just in the way he goes about his business on a day-to-day basis going from an assistant coach where maybe he's a bit of the good cop role or what you call or what he has deemed the glue guy to going to the head coaching role. I think it's always a tough transition and probably something you could ask him in about an hour or so when he's a guest on your show. But you know, I've always said that going from an assistant coach and to become the head coach on the same team is difficult.

Even when you're a coordinator, say, with a NFL or CFL team or a college team, and you become the head coach, it's a tough transition for the reasons you stated. But I think those that are successful are those that hold true to themselves. Don't become somebody or not, right? Just because of the title.

Just keep being who you are and what made you successful in the first place. And you should be all right. Uh, let's talk about the lions. How excited are you for the lions home opener? I'm going to be there Moj. I'm going to be in the press box, uh, for the game, but also for Snoop Dogg as well.

Yeah, it's going to be a great night. Um, you know, there, there are a lot of people that look at for Snoop Dogg as well. Yeah, it's going to be a great night. You know, there are a lot of people to look at the Snoop Dogg concert. There's critics of it to say, well, you know, a lot of the fans are going to leave, but you know, here's the thing. When you're running any sort of promotion, you're not expecting to hit a hundred percent

in terms of who you recruit or who you have gravitate towards your product, right? Even if they get five or ten or fifteen, whatever the number is, percent of those fans that come for the Snoop Dogg concert that aren't CFL fans but maybe leave as Lions fans, it's a win. And you know, like Pratt used to say back in the day, if you want the truth, follow the money. Well, if this promotion, if this concert series wasn't doing what it was intended to do, why are the acts getting bigger every single year? Right, I mean, you look at started off with,

you know, LL Cool J won Republican, now it's moved up to 50 cent, it's moved up to Snoop Dogg. So the acts keep getting bigger, which lends me to believe that, you know, Amar Doman is happy with what's going on moved up to 50 cent. It's moved up to Snoop Dogg. So the acts keep getting bigger, which lends me to believe that, you know, Omar Doman is happy with what's going on and just wants to keep this thing getting bigger.

Okay, the game itself, we had Nathan Rourke on the show on Tuesday, and I asked him a little bit about his limited, but I say pretty successful preseason appearance where I think he was perfect on his passing. I think he went eight for eight, but he sounded like a guy who was both comfortable and excited about what Buck Pierce has brought to the table as the new head

coach. Your thoughts on what Nathan did again limited exposure in the preseason and then how he's gonna be one of the keys to the game on Saturday. Yeah I mean like I've said before fellas the big thing with Nathan work is the fact that he's having fun again right I mean's, that's something that's evident. It just watching him practice, watching him deal with the media. Um, Dick Kowalski does an unbelievable job in terms of, uh, covering the lions for social media. He had a new arrow up episode that released yesterday and if you haven't seen it,

I suggest you do because it's got some great behind the scenes stuff. And one of the things that Nathan talked about in that video, in that documentary was the fact that he just feels comfortable again. He's having fun again, right? It's not like, you know, and I know I've touched on this in the past, but it's not like he's, you know, worried about making a bad pass and, you know, that affecting his status on the team. He, he just seems rejuvenated and it's going to be really excited to see how he takes this offense because I love what Buck Pierce does in offense. I love what he

did when he was in Winnipeg. I love what they did on offense. There's so much misdirection to it. There's so much motion to it. You have players playing a variety of roles in that offense and I'm really excited to see Nathan Rourke execute that offense Saturday night. It sounds like the quarterback room now with Mazzoli, there is a more, how should I put it, a traditional structure than last year, which obviously it wasn't a traditional structure last year because of the fact that one quarterback came in midway through the season from the NFL while the other one was hurt. Like I was a once in a lifetime kind of thing, I think.

But it feels like everyone is a little bit more aware of where they're at in the pecking order and where their roles is that might make for a more calm situation at quarterback this year. Yeah. I mean, last year was awkward. Look, look, you know, it was an awkward situation. It's not like Vernon Adams, junior, Nathan rook didn't like one another along with one other, but it was just an awkward situation in the sense that it was Vernon's team.

I think if you want to talk about how awkward it was prior to the playoff game in Saskatchewan, if you saw that hype video where, you know, Vernon was getting the players hyped up and Nathan was kind of standing in the background. Well, Vernon wasn't playing in the game, right? I mean, and Nathan, like, you know, it was just, like I said, it was just an awkward situation to see how it all went down last year and of course, you know, this year, it's Nathan's team, there's no doubt about it. So like I said, you're right, it's a more fluid situation.

That's more hierarchical, so to say. You have Chase Bryce, who of course, I believe it was in his third or fourth year with the team. And Jeremiah Mazzulli, the veteran who's kind of transitioning into becoming a coach down the road. So yeah, I think it's like, it's going to be a good room. But I'm really, like I said, I'm really excited to see what Nathan can do this year. It's pretty cool that it's going to be an all Canadian quarterback matchup against the Elks. Because Trey Ford, I believe is going to start for

Edmonton and Nathan Rourke for the BC Lions. Do you ever think you'd see this Moj? No, I didn't. I mean, you know, for so many years having a Canadian at quarterback was just an afterthought. But, um, and we're not talking about two quarterbacks who are starting because of injury or starting because of just, you know,

certain set of circumstances either to franchise the faces of the franchise quarterbacks, right? So yeah, it's pretty cool. It tells you a little bit about the development of the Canadian player over the last few years and how they've become, you know, much better in terms of, um, certain positions and what I'm trying to say is just their availability in certain positions. I mean, look at Curtis work, right? I mean, getting drafted by the national football league, San Francisco 49ers to have a Canadian

kid drafted by a, an NFL team who's a quarterback. Right. I mean, think about the fact that we talked about, you couldn't find a CFL quarterback and probably a Canadian quarterback at the CFL 10 years ago. Now you're talking about a Canadian quarterback being drafted by an NFL team. So it just tells you the level of talent and how

it's risen over the last decade or so. I guess it's a credit to, uh, you sports as well. Cause he didn't, Trey Ford didn't go down South to school. He went to, uh, he went to Waterloo, right? Yeah. I mean, if you look at U sports, even the talent level has increased and it's, you know, it's better coaching, it's better training. It's a whole bunch of stuff.

But I mean, you know, you look at the two kids from UBC, one of them got drafted by the Lions last year. The other signed a free agent contract with the Chicago Bears. So, you know, you're starting to get players from you sports actually get looks, uh, in the national football league as well. So like I said, the talent level, the coaching, all of it, it's kind of seen that those players become much, much better over the years. Okay, Moj, before we let you go, we got to ask us anything.

A food bracket here from Justin and East van hashtag a UA moge. If you had the power to make one food item, zero calories, but still equally delicious as it was previously, what food would you choose? Oh, wow. Yeah, that's a good one. That's a great question. Justin and his family, by the way, if you don't follow him on Twitter, he does some amazing things. I would probably like. I don't know why it just popped into my head, but fried chicken, right?

It's inherently bad for you. That's right. I've got a bit of a sweet tooth. So chocolate wouldn't be bad either. Right. Ice cream for me. I ice ice ice cream had no calories. I would always be eating ice cream. Yeah. Right? Ice cream for me. Ice cream had no calories. I would always be eating ice cream.

Yeah. Okay. I don't know. Fried chicken is a good choice. Well, you're sitting around eating fried chicken all day. I would if I don't want to see your place. Like, yeah, I'd probably have to go with fried chicken because I love fried chicken.

I mean, oh, so good. In that similar vein, I would go fish and chips. If it was zero calories, I would eat fish and chips. You would always be so sluggish though. At least I'd have the sugar high. You'd be sluggish, but you wouldn't have any extra weight. What, are we taking health out of the equation as well? I mean, zero calories.

Yeah, I guess. Yeah. So is it just in and out? You know what the question would have to be? Do you still have the same feeling in the aftermath? Zero calories. I think everything is held, like there's no consequences to eating it, but there is the normal reaction.

Okay. See, I don't like the ice cream after, I don't know what it is about ice cream, but like if I eat ice cream, I just don't feel good afterwards same with fish and chips I might be lactose intolerant your whole life This is how I find out What? All right, Moe dropping it super time buddy. We gotta get going. This was great. Enjoy the game tomorrow and snoop

It should all be a lot of fun. We'll do this again next Friday. No worries, let's have a good weekend. Yeah, you too, thanks. That's Bob the Moj. Mark Janovich here on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. And in case you missed it, prior to the Moj hit, big news out of Dallas regarding the stars and their now former head coach, Peter DeBoer.

Funny wording on Elliot Freeman's tweet. The Dallas stars have fired Peter De Boer as head coach, right? But they're gonna keep him around as a consultant. No, Peter de Boer is out after an Incredibly successful run as a head coach It must be said but ultimately falling short in the Western Conference final in three consecutive years now I wonder when Jim Nill addresses the media, if he's going to go down the road of how much of this had to do with the fact that Deborah couldn't get them

over the hump, because the Tom Thibodeau firing in New York, a lot of people did say, Tibbs was a great coach. He's gonna go down as one of the most successful coaches in Nick's history. He took them farther in the playoffs than they had in the last 25 years, but we felt as an organization, we were going to go as far as we were going to go with Tibbs. That was the ceiling. He had reached his ceiling. I wonder if they're going

to say the same about DeBoer in Dallas that he had hit his ceiling, or if they'll go down the road of the Ottinger situation, his remarks near the end of that series, and what he said in the aftermath and in his player meetings Led us to believe that we couldn't bring him back because maybe some of the relationships were too fractured. Two hours we'll have an answer. They're gonna make press conference in Dallas. Is the next head coach of the Dallas Stars currently coaching against the Abbotsford Canucks? Right, who is it? Neil Graham.

Neil Graham? Graham. I don't know. Neil Graham. Neil Graham? Graham. I don't know. Neil Graham. Graham? I don't even know him. I'm just reading on social media. Could it be the guy?

But I mean, that would be the easy thing, right? Could it be the guy that's coaching against the Texas Stars right now in the Dallas AHL affiliate? Man, he goes out for game five wearing like a tuxedo just to get noticed. Is that a Dallas Stars hat? In his sixth year as head coach of Texas, Neil Graham. He's only 40 years old though.

Born in 1985. You know what? Manny keeps looking at the camera and pointing at his stars. As much as I don't really care about the Dallas Stars, this is huge for a couple of reasons. One, how many teams right now that hired a head coach are thinking, didn't think DeBoer was gonna shake loose?

Secondly, what head coach do you bring in there? Because all due respect to Dan Muse and the Pittsburgh Penguins, you're not bringing in, I don't think, an inexperienced head coach there. I don't think you're bringing in a first time NHL. You're not bringing in Neil Graham? I'd be shocked. Mm-hmm, he's got a good track record.

This is a knee-jerk reaction to it. I would say that you're bringing in a guy that wants to win a Stanley Cup, or is in a position in his career where it's like, that's the next step. So I'm thinking, honestly, first guys that jump to mind, Peter LaVillette, Gerard Gallant, that type of coach. And I know it's not super inspiring,

but I wonder if that's the direction that Dallas is gonna go, I really do. I know we gotta get to break, well, Rick Dollywell, but DeBoer's legacy is becoming complicated. Sure. You know, like he's now known as the head coach who's won a lot of games but never won the big one. Yeah.

Also the coach that fights with his goalie. Yeah, and also the one that like, it never really ends that, not that getting fired. It's going to be usually ends well, but like these ones in kind of spectacularly. It's still a blame game a little bit. It's going to be tough for him to right now with this many stops and this many same thing, it's going to be tough for him to reconcile anything other than being, I know he's had a lot of success, but right now when you think about it,

or you think about a goalie killer, like he's, he's the guy that goalies don't want to play for cause he's just got such a knee jerk hair trigger. Like he goes, yeah, you're lashing out again. Right. That's what he does. I mean that, I think that was game five. That was a lashing out pull of Jake Ottinger and look where it landed him. Okay. We got to go to break. When we come back, Rick Dollywell is going to join us on the other side for some Canucks talk. You're listening to the Hal Ferdinand Bref show on sportsnet 650.