Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 10/11/24

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they get the latest Canucks news from Donnie & Dhali's Rick Dhaliwal ahead of tonight's home matchup versus Philadelphia, plus the boys tell us what they learned. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Ball game over. American League Division Series over. Yankees win. Da! Yankees win. I mean, fired up. Had a couple IPAs with the boys.

Ran some champagne. I mean, like, you know, this is the greatest. Keller, just named captain of this Utah Club hockey team. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday.

It is Halford. It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. And we are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dog. Good morning to you.

Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough for the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program.

Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Rafit, what are you

waiting for? Kintec, what a day, what a night, what a Friday we have in the world of sports. Another Canucks game. Game two of the season for the Vancouver Canucks. Tonight, 7 o'clock from Rogers Arena. Game one, Jason, of the season for the visiting Philadelphia Flyers. And Matvei Michkov. And Jet Lachenko.

Okay. Two teenagers in their lineup. Jet Lachenko sounds like a figure skater. Kinda. Right? Yep. Got a 5.4 from the Latvian judge. Lachenko sounds like a figure skater. Kind of. Right? Yep. Got a 5.4 from the Latvian judge. Lachenko?

It actually sounds like a figure skating move. He pulled a Lachenko. Yeah, yeah. I'm looking forward to seeing what is the deal. Maybe we'll find out about Lachenko, but Mishkov is the guy that I'm excited to see tonight. And also, you know, a Canucks win. Ah, yes.

And some new wrinkles to the Canucks lineup as well which we'll get into in a sec but the guest list the guest list because tonight you've got a very pivotal game five in Major League Baseball of course between the Padres and the Dodgers you've got the Canucks there's a couple other NHL games as well it's a good night for sports leading into a good weekend for sports at 6 30 we will look back on last night with Brady Henderson from ESPN our Seahawks insider another tough game for the Seahawks and their beleaguered defense they lose to the 49ers Brady

will join us at 6.30 to talk about that 7 o'clock it's AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway we will set up the weekend at AJ's good place to go if you want some cheap pints tonight if you want happy hour on Sunday and watch a bunch of sports that's the place to go 7.05,

Kevin Kurz from the Athletic in Philadelphia, brackets, maybe. We're working on some technical things, specifically his phone. So we'll see if Kev can join us to preview tonight's opponent, the Philadelphia Flyers, at 7.05. If it doesn't, don't worry, we'll handle it

ourselves. 7.30, Moj, 8 o'clock, Dollywall. Today, the best what we learned gets a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Let me repeat. The best what we learned, as AJ is now the presenting sponsor of what we learned. So it can't be an ask us anything? It's got to be a what we learned.

We're flipping it up a little bit. Hashtag it WWL and put a pizza emoji into your, what we learned and tell us what did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports? As Jason mentioned, though, it is also ask us anything Friday. So get those in throughout the show. We'll answer as many as we can on this very busy day where we have many things to get into.

So busy. In fact, that I will not do the reverse rundown. Let's just go laddie. Let's tell everybody 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?

Did you miss that? What happened? What Happened is 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 them online at bccsa.ca. After that season opening overtime loss to the Calgary Flames, Bruff and I came into this very studio and wondered, maybe even opined,

if there would be some lineup shuffles for the Vancouver Canucks. Yeah, so based on the Dunbar-Lumber text line yesterday, I'm just looking at the lines I had to practice yesterday. And nope, Pedersen was still in the lineup. Still in the lineup with DeBrusque and Sprong. The top six remains the same with Miller between Besser and Heinen. There are some changes on the third line. Ratu is still in there as the center.

Yep. the third line. Ratu is still in there as the center, but Suter is in on that left wing where Hoaglander was. Garland still on the right wing. Hoaglander dropped down to the fourth line. He takes Nils Amon's spot with Bluger and Sherwood. Amon was an extra skater. Archdeep Baines was called up,

and he was an extra skater, so they're like, do you want to practice with us and that just sounds good and then he practiced after practice you get the money for this yeah uh and then uh the d had some changes as well at the bottom um are we looking at day rna as a healthy scratch in his second game. Yeah, possibly. Julsen was skating with Forbort on the third pair. The top two pairs remain the same, Hughes and Hironix, Soucy and Myers.

Now, that could be one of those things where it's a bit of a kick in the pants for De'Arne. I don't know if Julsen's going to play tonight, but probably not a great sign for De'Arne that his spot is, at the very least at practice getting replaced by Noah Julesen this early in the season. He has looked struggly. Struggly.

Yeah. Now let's not bury the lead here and forget about possibly the biggest change of them all in net where Arthur Silovs was out working late with goalie coach Mark Witerranius, leading many to believe what we all thought was going to happen anyway, that Kevin Lankanen will most likely be your starter tonight when the Vancouver Canucks take on the Philadelphia Flyers.

Our first regular season look at old Kevin Lankanen. Let's hear now from the head coach, Rick Tockett. There was an interesting bit where someone asked that if Juleson, who seems like he may draw in tonight in place of Desjardins, was actually the blueprint for Desjardins and to a lesser degree, Derek Forbort. By that, I think the question was meant to ask is the work that you did and specifically, I guess, Adam Foote and Sergey Gontar did with Noah Juleson last year, kind of what you're envisioning for Forbort and DeJarne.

Because, I mean, look, they did a pretty nice job with making Juleson a, not every night, regular NHL defenseman, but a guy that could come in and step in and contribute. And as Rick Tauket called him, a good player. Here's what Rick Tauket had to say about the idea that Juleson was a blueprint for Forbort and DeJarne. A million percent.

You know, I think that whether Vinny sits out some games, he's going to work with our guys, work with Hockey, work with Dakota. Like, you can't be afraid to have that. Jules can come in, I don't know if it's tomorrow or the next game, and we can have a little bit of a rotation, and guys can work with the coaches. I think that's important. I think he understands, by he I mean, talk it, that

it's going to take a little bit or maybe a lot of work with those two guys to get them where the I think D'Arne more than Forbort. I think D'Arne is the project that they brought on and they kind of said, we see a little bit more in this guy.

Now, not all projects work out, but it's only been a little while that dana has been working with this coaching staff and you know the canucks as an organization whether it's the management or the coaching staff it's weird to say but right now they get the benefit of the doubt yeah and you know i i don't necessarily hate the idea of internal competition and a rotation in either the bottom six forward group or the bottom pair on defense. I think that's probably partly why Archdeep Baines was recalled and thrown back into the mix and why Juleson's there. Maybe at some point we'll see Mark Friedman or maybe even Eric Brandstrom, right? You want to have guys pushing from within to try and make everyone not uncomfortable but understand

that you know the spots those top six spots or those bottom whatever spots uh they're not just given they're earned right that sort of thing uh it also goes in and that goes for being a net as well because rick talk it did address arthur silaves and the rough game that he had allowing six goals against the calgary Flames on opening night. Now, Tuckett said he spoke to Seelovs following the game. Here's what he had to say. Yeah, I talked to him after the game. I said, listen, if you're going to be in this business a long time, those games are going to happen.

You know, he's a really good goaltender. And to be a really good goaltender, you're going to ask Debra, you're going to have a night like that. Where, you know, he said, I could have this one. He's just going to practice the next day and you work out your game. He's fine. We've put him in tough spots and he's responded, so I'm not worried about him. And then he yelled at him sternly to never do that again.

I thought he was going to say, if you want to be in this business, don't do that again. Won't be in this business for long. He's like, did I say everyone has bad games like that? Because I mean, games, singular as in don't do that again. Won't be in this business for long. He's like, did I say everyone has bad games like that? Because I meant games, singular, as in don't do it again. I don't, again, I think I tried to frame it as non-inflammatory as possible yesterday

where I said I'm not concerned about the Canucks goaltending after one game. I am slightly concerned about Archer's sea loves, though, because in that one game, it sort of crystallized a lot of the problems that we saw dating back to last year, right? The inability to track long shots and track pucks. God bless you, Kevin Lankin, and do not go out there and land egg tonight. Just don't.

Just don't. You can't have both guys get off to suspect starts. Could you imagine? No. Well, I mean, one, yes. But two, no. Oh, the responses, the replies. You know, just go out there and hold down the fort and look very calm and composed and collected and all those things that we liked about the preseason.

So what else are you looking for tonight? Well, one, don't allow six goals. And maybe that's not necessarily just a goaltending thing. I listened to all the practice audio yesterday, and Tuckett spoke about getting back to meat and potatoes hockey, right? That was one of his lines from yesterday. He once again, and he did this in the postgame as well, shouldered a bit of the blame for how they addressed their approach in the preseason.

He said we focused a lot on like transitional play. And I think he meant essentially like, let's get up the ice and be aggressive and try and get some odd man rushes and rush chances and all that stuff. And maybe they got a little bit away from their staples. Since Noah Juleson is going in the lineup, I expect one big explosion at one point tonight. I don't know when, I don't know where,

but it's almost guaranteed that it's going to happen. That guy coming in on a Friday night in front of the home crowd. So what else are you looking for tonight? Do you just want me to say Pettersson? Because no one else on the show will. You're just dangling the bait in front of me.

Well, it was a pretty big story after game one, especially the response from all the fans. I mean, whether he played, I don't think he played terribly at all. And we talked about it yesterday. So what else are you looking for tonight, whether he played, I don't think he played terribly at all. And we talked about it yesterday. So what else are you looking for tonight, Michael? Well, I'm looking to see how he, if he can take it to another level,

because I don't think he played well. I just don't think he played as badly as some people thought he did. So when Drance came on the show yesterday and he made mention of the fact that the frustration among the fan base was, not palpable, butpable but no he said it was he was like you could feel it in the rink when he made a mistake at the end well it wasn't

that you could feel is that they did a bronx cheer yeah right and that is the bronx cheer is a tough one because it means that the fans have enough savvy to give you a sarcastic sort of hey way to go there buddy yeah way to way to try and i that to me is that's where you start to worry right because it's getting toxic it's get it yeah and this is a canadian market and this is where it goes beyond oh the classic media trying to stir up controversy for clicks or whatever else and this is where it gets into the fabric of the market and that's the fans right when the fans start getting irate and they start getting frustrated and they start bringing up the this guy makes 11.6 million and this guy is not giving the kind of effort and trance brought up another

really good point now it's always going pet's, however you want to classify his effort, is going up against the foil. He's the foil to Miller and Hughes. Yeah. They're chanting JT Miller's name. He's a juxtaposition to that. They're chanting JT Miller's name in the first period of the opening game of the season.

Like that's how much he's turned things around. Because things are happening with Miller. Some of them good. Most of them good. Most of them good. Some of them bad. Like, Miller had two bad passes in that game yesterday, but he made up for it with the good. You know what he is?

He's visible. He's a gunslinger, man. He's a gunslinger. But he's visible at a time where a lot of people are saying that number 40 is invisible. I mean, think of the things that he did. He scored that goal. He had a great assist on Brock Besser's goal,

and he dropped the gloves, and he had a big hit. He was everywhere. Right? Like, he was everywhere. Scored an amazing, like, old-school slaper to tie up the game at 5-5. And who's the guy that set that up for him? Quinn Hughes. Yeah.

After making a great defensive play because of a gunslinger pass by JT Miller. So sometimes I like to sit back and take a look at what's going on temperature wise. Right. And good on transfer pointing out like, yeah, there's, there's a sense of, Hey man, the other alphas on the team were stepping up and doing alpha things.

You're the biggest out here. The financial alpha, you make all the money. Financial alpha. The financial alpha is a good one. I'm your financial alpha. That's a good one. Call me today for your latest alpha plan. But you've got it.

There is that sense of now do the stuff that the other guys are doing, right? That you're a leader on this team. And the expectations from within are very high, right? We've talked about this before. Talk gets spoken on a number of occasions about, you know, Pedersen has to go out there and dominate, right? We've talked about this before. Talk gets spoken on a number of occasions about, you know, Pedersen has to go out there and dominate, right? He has to go out there and dictate play. Yep, and be a guy that makes things happen.

So tonight is another opportunity to do that against a Philadelphia Flyers team that I know absolutely nothing about. I know the guys on the team. Some of them are new, though. They are an incredibly young team. They have 14 of the 23 players on their roster are 25 or younger, including a pair

of teenagers. An 18 year old, as we mentioned earlier, Jet Lachenko, who was their first round pick this year. And we're going to get our first look. And as you mentioned, you're very excited. 19 year old Matt Vaymichkov. We thought we were going to have to wait years to see this guy. So good on the Fly flyers i don't know if there was a little bit of subterfuge there or i don't know what happened with them frege kind of explained it in 32 thoughts

we've got some 32 thoughts audio and thatcher demko as well we'll play in a second um he said that mitch koff really wanted to be a flyer and that there was some maybe like behind the scenes maneuvering and manipulation where this whole idea of him spending like a decade in the KHL before he was going to come over and be ready to play might have been a bit of a smokescreen to land where he wanted to land because lo and behold he didn't take 10 years to come over from the KHL he came over pretty quickly and now as a 19 year old he's playing for the Philadelphia Flyers. I did mention Elliott Friedman and 32 Thoughts. We've got some hot audio here from the most recent 32 Thoughts.

Brief aside, those guys record at crazy hours. So they recorded last night after the Sharks game, which based on my math. So it was like 2 in the morning in Eastern time? Must have been because that game between the Blues and the Sharks game, which based on my math... So it was like 2 in the morning in Eastern time? Must have been because that game between the Blues and the Sharks went to overtime. Spoiler alert, Macklin Celebrini really good in his NHL debut, but the Sharks still stink. They blew a multi-goal lead and lost to the Blues.

So anyway, Freed and Kyle recorded late, and they eventually got around to the subject of Thatcher Demko and his workload now moving forward and what the Canucks have expectations wise and how things are going to change now that Ian Clark is no longer in charge. Here now from 32 Thoughts, the latest on Thatcher Demko's workload. One of the things that they are doing is they are changing his workload. You know, Ian Clark, who was the great goalie coach in Vancouver, who's now no longer in that day-to-day position, he was a hard work guy. And it was very successful. You look at all, like Bobrovsky never wanted to take a day off and he's going to the Hall of Fame.

Luongo never wanted to take a day off and he's in the Hall of Fame. Luongo never wanted to take a day off. And he's in the Hall of Fame. And, you know, it was the same kind of thing with Demko. And he has the kind of talent that would eventually take him potentially to the Hall of Fame. But I think that now in this day and age, I think you're seeing a lot of more teams starting to say that can't do this anymore, that there has to be more rest. And it's maybe it's it's it's sort of like exactly what's happened in pitching with goaltending. You know, now, you know, I get annoyed when pitchers come out of games. I think there's too many pitching changes. You know, a couple of years ago that Dodgers-Rays World Series,

I wanted to see Blake Snell keep going. But I know it's like old man yelling at clouds. The game is forever changed, and that's going to happen. We're seeing that in hockey. And this is where I think the change is coming now, Kyle. We know that guys aren't going to – there's no more brodures. Nobody's playing 75 games anymore. But in addition to going to be like between 45 and 55 games, the starters, the other thing

I think, and I think Demko is at the flashpoint of it. And now you're talking about wool is I think they're going to say no more practicing as much as you do that. You even have to start taking like basically already there's already four four days off a month each team gets four days off a month that's cba mandated but i wonder if you're going to see it even more i i do believe that that's one of the things they're discussing a dog actually came to us after the show and said um i would like a similar plan yeah i'm working too hard.

Yeah, how do I get that? Yeah, it needs more days off. You old men don't really understand rest and recovery anymore. So, you know, I'll work two shows a week. It's the first time I've ever been the Ian Clark in a scenario before where I worked. I work too hard. I'm a hard work guy. It's interesting, right?

Because when he does come back, you're going to have this great litmus test about his play on the ice. It's going to be, well, was his fantastic efforts in Vesna caliber play a result of this incredible grind that his goalie coach put him through? Or is it going to be like he's fine without doing all of that? And he's staying healthy. Uh-huh. Or is he going to be an inferior goalie who's healthy,

but not put an 897 save percentage? Yeah, give him some more rest on the bench. Yeah, because he's not sharp, right? If this is how all the teams are talking, though, about their goaltending, why are we beating around the bush? Can we just get that third goalie roster spot already? For the practices? Yeah, for the practices, because it just makes so much sense.

Every team seemingly wants it. Counterpoint. That'll be something probably that'll be done in the CBA. Counterpoint, if you do that, then are you now paying your number one goalie less? Like, it's Shisterkin's ask crazy now, because you're not going to play him as much. No, because when they do play, they play 100% of the minutes. I think they can

carve out that third goalie from the actual salary cap and just have a third goalie. But the NHLPA wants it in. Somehow. Anyway, we're not going to get bogged down in the details of that. No, no, let's spend more time on that. So last night in the NHL, there were some bounce backs. The Boston Bruins

bounced back after that loss to Florida. They beat the Montreal Canadiens. The Toronto Maple Leafs loss to Florida. They beat the Montreal Canadiens. The Toronto Maple Leafs bounce back after the loss to the Montreal Canadiens. And they beat the New Jersey Devils. The Pittsburgh Penguins, after that horrific start to the season, they got smoked by the Rangers. They beat the Detroit Red Wings. So the Red Wings are off to a tough start at 0-1.

But no team is off to a tougher start than sad club brethren, the Buffalo Sabres, who went over to Prague. They lost two straight games to the New Jersey Devils. They came home and they said, all right, fine, we're back in Buffalo. And L.A. coming to town. They don't even have Dowdy on the team. This team, I don't know. Yeah, they lost to the Kings 3-1.

They don't have Dowdy, but you know who they still got anjay kopitar darcy kemper natural hat trick for anjay kopitar last night three one loss for the buffalo sabers the sabers are already in a hole that's man like lindy ruff this team has tried everything yep winning. That's true. They brought back, they fired Lindy Ruff ages ago. Went through, what, like 20 coaches or whatever, and then they finally thought, okay, fine, we'll just bring Lindy back. No answers for Lindy Ruff either. 0-1-3 for the Sabres.

The Senators got off to a good start. Yeah, man, that's what I wanted to focus on. Greener, 3-1 win over the defending Stanley Cup champs, the Florida Panthers. What was the story from that game? God, take your pick, man. First off. Stutzla.

Stutzla gets a goal. Barkoff suffers a pretty serious injury. Has to limp off the ice in the third period. Not putting any weight on his right leg when he was helped off the ice into the locker room. No update from Paul Maurice afterwards. That would be a massive loss for the defending Stanley Cup champs. And, of course, kudos to Greener.

Travis Green, former Vancouver Canucks head coach, gets a win in his Ottawa Senators debut. So I watched this game yesterday. The amount of CanCon, by that I mean ex ex canucks content in this game was off the chart so you got greener and mike yo behind the bench for ottawa ottawa also features a roster that has adam gaudette and travis hamannik two of my favorite canucks of all time on uh healthy scratches for the senators last night matthew highmore and zach mckeown another two of my favorites and then on the the Florida side of things, you had Jonah Gajevich

and Gustav Forsling. There was all of these famous, famous ex-Canucks out there last night, but good on Greener for getting the win. Speaking of former Canucks, did you see the Oliver Ekman-Larsen breakaway from the other day? That was against Montreal. Yeah, that was yesterday. Yeah, coming out of the box after a penalty.

He tried. He didn't really do much. He coming out of the box after a penalty. Yeah, he tried. He actually didn't really do much. He tried. He was out there a lot, though. Yep. I just noticed him as Ekman-Larsen, Ekman-Larsen. I'm trying to figure out how many. Yeah, he played over 20 minutes.

20 minutes and 34 seconds for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Had one assist. It was a plus two, so it was a good start. Speaking of the Leafs. This was last night against the Devils. You know what I learned about the Leafs last night? That Dennis Hildeby is Swedish. Yes.

I had no idea. He's also extremely, extremely tall. The tallest goalie in the league now. Dennis Hildeby is a Kitchener name. I thought Dennis Hildeby was an 84-year-old former army sergeant from Windsor, Ontario. Yeah, like he's Swedish. Oh, you notice the old man Hildeby's in there. He's very Swedish.

Old man Hildeby. That sounds like something like a story that Norm MacDonald would tell. He'd be like, oh, an old man Hildeby. That's right. So I'm looking at it, and they're like, yeah, he was playing in Sweden. I'm like, was he on vacation? Like, why was he there? And then I realized Dennis Hildeby.

And all the stars are there, like old man Hildeby. So back to the goalie guru on this one real quick. Do the Leafs have good goaltending now? Yeah. That's their third guy. I said that on the last show. I said their goaltending isn't their problem anymore now. They just can't score.

It's crazy. They got four last night. Yeah, but if Hildeby's here. Is Hildeby a bit old for the league, though, at 84? Yeah, it's true. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Rick Dollywall.

Rick Dollywall. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Dolly.

Rick Dollywall. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Dolly. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. 802 on a Friday.

Happy Friday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. In order to appease our next guest, I'm going to skip over the business at hand. We're going to go right to the phone lines. Rick Dollywalt joins us now on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Rick? 8 o'clock. Bang on.

Way to go, Mike. Thanks, buddy. I appreciate it. It's actually 802. I know it's 802. I'm looking at my clock. I'm just trying to be a nice guy. You two are the veterans of that radio station.

Everyone else in that station is 19 years old. They look up to you guys, and you guys got to hit the button. You got to hit the clock, Mike. You got to hit the clock. Got to set the standards. Standards got to be set high. They look up to you. We don't have a great culture here, I'll be honest with you.

There's not a lot of leadership. Everyone else is 19 years old. Tell us about Nils Hoaglander and how the Canucks got him signed because I think that contract for a lot of people just like, oh, they were talking? Interesting. Absolutely. I was really surprised at the Hoaglander signing. Why now? Why so quick?

The guy's an RFA. You don't really have to make a decision until way later in the season. He's not a UFA. So what I found out is the two sides started talking in the summer. It was hard to put a value on it because he was coming off a 24-goal season. So they put it aside in the summer. So then comes training camp. Hoaglander shows up in great shape, number one in fitness tests.

And the Canucks are like, okay, this kid is serious. So the Canucks picked up the phone and reached back out to his agent. Okay, so this is in camp. They get the test results, and they call the agent. What it does is sends a message to the rest of the young kids in Vancouver and Abbotsford, see what happens when you show us you're committed. Now, from the Hoaglander side, he really wanted to stay in Vancouver. It's a team that drafted him.

He never wavered on that. He never even wavered on that when the Canucks sent him to Abbotsford. The other thing is Canucks have a lot of good players, and if they keep signing forwards, it's, you know what, sign now or you're going to lose your seat at the table. There was a bit of that. He didn't give up any UFA years, which is always important, or obviously he would have been higher if he did give up any UFA years. He got his term, he got his big raise. He was like, if they want to commit to me for three years, I'll commit to

them. I will say this, the help of the Sedin twins, and they gave to Hoaglander when he was in Abbotsford, on the ice, video work, they speak the same language. That really helped him in a tough time in Vancouver. This is a really humble kid from just a small town, a small, tiny village in Sweden. He informed his agent, get the deal done in a city that he loves. But the moment he showed up in great shape is when the negotiations really took off. We discussed this a little bit on the show when Carter Verhege signed his big contract extension. Do you think that's a comp for Brock Besser? And I heard you guys talking about that, so I went digging around,

and I don't think it is, and I'll tell you why. Verhege signed for eight years and $7 million per year in Florida this week. Is that a comp for Besser? Verhege has done most of his damage in the last three years. He's been a great playoff performer the last two years. Go look at his stats in the playoffs. Unbelievable. The two do have pretty identical goals per game. Besser has got better points per game,

has played 150 more NHL games. Verhage just won the Stanley Cup. But the big thing to keep in mind here is the Florida discount. They all take it. It's a huge part of the negotiation. It's a no state tax. It is hard to use player signings in states with no taxes as comps. If a player was making $7 million in a non-state tax market, that would equate to $7.7 million in a market that would have 10% state tax. Now, both contracts allow the players, we're talking about Sam Reinhardt, Bo, they did some tremendous work. Verhage and Sam Reinhardt at 8.6, that's a significant discount for the North Vancouver native. In a Canadian market, Reinhardt at 9.5 million would have been just the starting point contract tax. So Florida's got two things going for them right now. They got

the no state tax. They just want the Stanley Cup and everybody wants to return so they take a discount, right? So that's not going to apply to Besser. But Besser and his agent, Ben Hankinson, are in a great spot. Two goals in the opener. All he has to do is keep scoring. The longer the Canucks wait, the higher the price goes up. Look at the chemistry between Besser and Miller. Look at it. Look at the second goal the other night. Miller knew exactly where he was. To have Miller and Besser do their stuff for many, many more years in this city would be ideal for the Canucks. It is hard to believe Besser's number in this city won't start with an eight if he keeps scoring. Not hearing of any negotiations between the two sides. And Ankinson, but the two sides keep in touch, okay?

So the Canucks decided in the summer not to negotiate, right? So the number in the summer for Besser would have been a whole lot lower. The number in the winter for Besser is going to be a whole lot higher. Do you think it will get done? Yes. And here's a scary one for you. Did you hear yesterday, Frank, reporting Alexis Lafreniere, eight years and eight million in New York. The guy's had one good year. He's been a healthy scratch. He's been on the fourth line. He had 28 goals last year. His previous high was 19. He's been relatively known before

last year as a bust in New York, but to give that guy $8 million over eight years because he had one good year at 28 goals last season, I'm sure that Besser's agent will look at Lafreniere and go, are you kidding me? That guy got paid eight times eight for one good year? A lot of interesting contracts lately in the NHL. Different ages between those two. The Rangers might be making that bet that he's finally found it and now we're going to get all his prime years, as opposed to if you're giving Brock Besser eight years, you might have to accept that a few of the years on the back end

might not go so well. I'll give you that. But Lafreniere is coming off a $2.3 million contract, Brock. I mean, to go from 2.3 to eight is, wow, that's a hell of a jump. And how many articles have been written? Remember the Canucks were after Lafreniere when Rutherford and Elvin first got here? And there were rumors that, you know, the Rangers might trade him. And the Canucks have a history with him because Emily Castonguay was his old agent.

So it's just, to me, one good year and $8 million when you're making $2.3 million. But I understand your point about the age. But I think Besser's going to do fine. All Brock's got to do is keep scoring at the clip he's scoring at and show them that last year wasn't a one-year, you know, just a one-off, 40 goals. And then he led the team in the playoffs, and now he's starting pretty good as well. I think this guy is showing them that he's going to keep producing. So I know you want to talk about the goaltending situation,

not a super encouraging performance from Archer Seelov on Wednesday against the Calgary Flames. Only one game, but what did you want to discuss when it came to the goaltending situation? Well, I'll tell you what, Jason, can you imagine if the Canucks did not go out and get Kevin Lankanen, and they went with Seelovs and Patera to start the season? Like, I mean, if that was the case, Seelovs and Patera,

I mean, are you not freaking out if that's the pair? But it's all starting to make sense to me now, because the Canucks called Casey Dismissed, agent at the NHL draft, after not contacting him for three months. Then they called Lankanen's agent mid-August. The two reasons why they shifted their thinking

about a veteran goaltender was because they knew Demko's rehab was slow, but they also had concerns about a Seeloff-Patero duo to start the season, and now you're understanding why they went out and got Seeloff. Three goals from long range a Seeloff-Potero duo to start the season, and now you're understanding why they went out and got Seeloff. Three goals from long range on Seeloff against Calgary, that's not a good showing by the

youngster in Game 1. But the same people who were loving Seeloff in the playoffs last year, you've got to be the same people who show some patience with him. He's a young kid, and you know the Canucks goaltending coach, what it got to him yesterday at practice, video work, the whole nine yards. Shelovs wasn't the only player who had a rough night in the opener. Now, the addition of Lankanen was smart. It was needed. He may have

to be the guy here who carries the load for a while. He's the only veteran guy. His career high is 37 games in Chicago. Five years ago, he had a decent save percentage in the goals against average in those 37 games. Lank and his agent called the Canucks on July 1st. They felt it was a good spot for him. Lank has got a history of Canucks goalie

coach Marco Tornoyas. Tornoyas. I was going to go the whole. I was going to do the whole. I practiced it last night, the whole nine yards. I wrote it out phonetically, bruv. Anyways, Marco.

Terraneous. Marco. Just call him Marco. Just call him Marco. Let's move on. I'm going to call him Marco. Marco T. Marco T.

Marco T. Here we go. Thanks, Holford. See, there's that savvy veteran, Holford, coming in. Let me restart. Lankanen has got a history with Canucks goalie coach Marco T. Going back years in Finland, the two worked together this summer two to three times a week. So it's going to be interesting to see what Lankanen can do until Demko gets healthy.

And as I told you guys last week, everyone's going to have to be very patient with Demko. He's working out daily with Dakota Joshua. They're both trying hard to get back in the lineup. Quickly, I want to give you a Joshua update. He is doing, Dakota Joshua is doing whatever it takes to get healthy. But it's a process. Getting his cardio up to the NHL levels is not going to be easy, and I'll tell you why.

You have to remember he was in game shape, training camp shape, when he arrived in Vancouver in early August. Then he had the surgery, and then full stop. He couldn't work out for a couple of weeks. So getting back into pocket shape for Joshua is not going to be easy. It's going to take time. The Vancouver forward group looks small to me without Joshua. I think they missed him the other night.

He will be a welcome addition when he gets back. He's going to bring you the size, the grit, the penalty killing, the block shots, hits leader. He's going to lead the team in hits. He scores nice goals. He's going to bring so much to the team when he's back. But I think he's probably around three more weeks away. But I think getting his cardio up to the NHL levels is going to take some time. Might be a change on the Canucks defense tonight

against the Philadelphia Flyers. It's possible, at least based on what we saw at practice, that Noah Juleson comes in for the new guy, Vinny Desjardins. What do you think about that storyline? Because the Canucks fans might need to have patience with Desjardins as well. Oh, boy. So Forbert and Desjardins are not Zdorov and Cole. When the Canucks signed Desjardins and gave him $2 million a year, I had a lot of people reach out to me and say,

what are they doing? He's 28 years old. He's only played 114 games in the NHL. He was a late bloomer for the Oilers. He struggled at times in Edmonton in the playoffs, but he's got two very important things that hockey people absolutely love. And he's got size, and he's

a right shot D. I am surprised. The Canucks are already thinking of healthy scratching De'Arne. He was an extra defenseman at practice yesterday. Julson took his spot. Tauket admitted yesterday De'Arne could sit some games. He could be in a rotation with Julson. He'll work with foot and gonchar. You saw foot right off the bat at practice yesterday.

The whiteboard was out. He was working with defensemen. Clearly, the Canucks signed him with the notion of getting him better throughout the year through coaching and teaching. But at $2 million, that's an expensive project. Also, the Canucks don't have a right shot defenseman close to cracking their roster in Abbotsford. There's not a guy down there that you can just call and say, okay, insert, plug, and insert. So we don't know how long Tom Willander is going to take, right? Everybody's thinking Willander is going to come out after another year at Boston University, and then let's see how Willander looks at Canucks camp next year. We don't know if he might need another year in Abbotsford. We don't know that. That right side third pair may be one of the improvements

that Canucks might have to do at the trading deadline. Time will tell, but I am very surprised that they are in A already after one game. Could be a possible healthy scratch. Dolly, enjoy the game tonight. Enjoy all the sports that are going on in the world right now. Hey, I feel for your Seahawks last night. What was Geno doing on the pick with seven minutes left?

What was he thinking? I think that was a Metcalf. I think DK ran a lazy route. Geno didn't look good, though. But his offensive line stinks, too. The Seahawks have a lot of issues, Dolly. They've got to figure this out. The defense, the offensive line, the future at quarterback,

all things to consider. But at least we've got the Canucks, so hopefully the Canucks can bounce back. And you've got the Lions. Nathan Rourke in Saskatchewan. Big game tomorrow. That's going to be a big telltale for me, okay? Seahawks need some of that Lions defense scoring touchdowns all the time. Yeah, but no, no, no, no, no.

You're wrong, Holford. The Lions need Nathan Rourke. He hasn't thrown a touchdown pass in three weeks. Stretch the field, man. Come on. Stretch the field. Every pass last week was six yards. You know what?

They did six field goals last week. I mean, come on. And, you know, 0-5 in the red zone. Where's the Nathan Rourke that extended drives? Every time it's second and four and second and six, he's not converting. They need the difference maker. And for those of you that think that Vernon Adams is going, forget about it. This guy, Nathan Rourke, they've got to get his confidence back because they've got to pay him $700,000 next year. And then they've got to pay him $800,000 the year after. They need the old Nathan Rourke to come back. And they need him tomorrow night. And you know what? You win tomorrow and then you beat Montreal at home. At least you go in the playoffs.

But they need the old Nathan Rourke. Stretch the field. Cut out these five, six-yard passes. They just need that magical guy that was here a couple years ago when he went to the NFL, and tomorrow would be a good start for him in Saskatchewan. And the Whitecaps, $30,000 Sunday, that's going to be huge. So it's a super, super weekend for Vancouver sports fans, Canucks, Lions, Whitecaps.

Slam that phone, Dollywall. No, no, no, I got in trouble last week by the owner of this place. I'm not doing it. You guys sucked me into it last week. You know what? He came up to me and goes, what happened with the phone? And I was, you know, for the first time in my life, I was speechless. No more phone.

I can't do it. Hey, he's coming. The boss is coming. I got to go. Rick Dollywall. Just everywhere on that hit on the Halford and Brough show who's in town to play the Whitecaps

LAFC LAFC it's the makeup game they had to punt on a game because LAFC made the final of the league's cup and then they couldn't

come to Vancouver so they thought what if we reschedule this on Thanksgiving Sunday and what if we put the game at 4.30 in the afternoon on a Sunday? Does anyone have dinners there?

So that should be a lot of fun. Okay. I got, I got what we learned. I'm going to get the ball rolling here. Reminder, today is our $100 gift card giveaway, not giveaway,

contest to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. The best what we learned and or ask us anything will win $100 for the best pizza in the world at AJ's pizza on East Broadway. The best, what we learned and, or ask us anything. We'll win $100 for the best pizza in the world at AJ's. Downbar Lumber text line is 650-650 hashtag it WWL or AUA and put a pizza emoji into your text. And I'll get it going with what we learned. Cause earlier I brought up something that I learned that made me feel very

old. Jet Lachenko is going to play for the Philadelphia Flyers tonight. Okay? This is their first round pick from this past NHL draft, the 2024 NHL entry draft. Lachenko is 18 years old. He was born on August 21st of 2006. Okay.

That should make everyone feel old. Yeah. Right? It does. Thank you. I have more stuff that's going to make us feel old. Great. You remember Carlos Boozer?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The basketball player? He played for Duke. Yeah. Won the national title in 2001 with Jay Williams and Mike Dunleavy Jr. They beat Arizona in the final. He went on to a very decorated NBA career, Carlos Boozer. Is his grandkid in the NBA now or something?

His twin kids have just committed to Duke University. I'm looking at it. I'm going through the list. I'm like, who are Cameron and Caden Boozer? That's a familiar name. They're twins. And then I look. I'm like, Carlos. Because and Caden Boozer? That's a familiar name. They're twins. And then I look. I'm like, Carlos.

Because we were talking about this earlier last week when Carmelo Anthony's son was talking about committing to his school. And he was thinking about going to Syracuse where Carmelo Anthony was a star. Yeah. Now we got Carlos Boozer's kids coming back. There's nothing that hits you smack in the face when you recognize the surname and you're like oh maybe it's his younger brother yeah or a cousin it's like nope that's their kid and i realize we've been in this business for a while now like we went from being the fresh-faced these guys are bloggers and they're kind of irreverent yeah and now dollywell is calling us like the veterans of

of the show and when we bring up stories i have this assumption that well okay people know what we're talking about when we had mike keenan on yeah and i just realized there's a large segment of the population that were not either alive or old enough to really watch or understand hockey when mike keenan came in and like decimated the Canucks. And some people would say like it was much needed. Maybe it, maybe it was, but it doesn't really matter.

That's besides the point, you know, and I was talking about, uh, when the jets moved to Arizona and they played in America West arena and laddies like, I didn't know that. No,

I remember that. Well, I don't, I wouldn't know that you didn't know the details of, you know, like Well, you didn't know the details of the whole arena. And, you know, yeah. So every show, basically, you know how every day is what we learned for A-Dog? Yeah. Every day doing this show is a realization that we are now some of the older media members.

It's like when you guys told Horvat that his career was half over on the air. He had that moment of realization. He had 500 games. Yeah. He was like, womp, womp. Yeah, he had his hello, dark smile. Paul, you've been in the league for like 500 games. A lot of guys don't even get – most people don't get to 1,000 games.

What have you done? You've made one playoff series or something like that and you lost it? The camera's just zooming in on him like a PTSD dog. It's just like, oh no, God. So instead of... I was thinking... Reality just comes crashing in on him.

We're trying to freshen up the show and come up with new segments. Instead of a What We Learned, we could do a How We've Aged. And we could every day another reminder of how we're that much closer to death. Moo, Calmy.

It's How We've Aged time. Yeah, yeah right we don't have to jingle the same thing every time but i get i appreciate your enthusiasm for it uh who else has what we learned they can dive into real quick before we turn it over to the human i got some with some audio if you want i love audio well the nhl europe account uh the start of the season i guess players want their names pronounced correctly by announcers so they go through all the player pronunciations. This is a nightmare for our show. Let's see if you can even understand what the names are when I play the clip, but there were

two Canucks in the clip. Let's hear how they properly pronounce their names. So there's no arguing after this. This is how their name is pronounced. Pius Suter. Pius Suter. So it's pretty easy. You gotta have the extra accent on the Suter. One more time? Can we do that? Another Pius Suter? Pius Suter. Pius Suter So it's pretty easy You gotta have The extra accent On the Suter One more time Can we do that

Another Pius Suter Pius Suter Pius Suter Suter Okay Okay And then the second one In the video

Philip Hronik Philip Hronik Philip Hronik So we had one Slow down there Philip We had a texter Telling us that Everyone's been saying

His name wrong But it sounds pretty close One more time Philip Hronik Hronik Yeah Hronik He just says the H

Really quietly But it's in there One more time Philip more time he just says the H really quietly but it's in there one more time one more time the H is definitely like it's accentuated yeah it's not a silent H put it in H it's not

a silent H and then I have a favorite name that I have to get from the video okay and he does this little like bobbing head thing as he says it so you know he enjoys saying

his own name he does have a fun namebing head thing as he says it. So, you know, he enjoys saying his own name. He does have a fun name. It's very fun. So is he Finnish? Yes. Okay. So do you think his name is even... Hi, nice from Jersey, bro.

Do you think his name is even funny in Finland? Probably, yeah. Yeah, I don't think... No, but like a lot of that, it sounds like that, right? Yeah, it's got a sing song. Ukkonen probably is pretty common, but the Ukkapeka, I think, is not as common. Yeah. One more time with that?

Ukkapeka-Lukkonen. Yeah, he knows it's funny. Yeah, he knows it's funny, for sure. That classic Finnish sense of humor that we all know about. Hey, he's a goalie, so he's probably a little out there.

Actually, there is a really funny stand-up comedian, a guy named Ismo. Ismo, like, you can check it, I-S-M-O. Yeah, he's been on Conan's podcast. If you're tired of listening to our show

and you want to listen to something incredibly funnier, check him out. He's really great. And it's funny because he's Finnish, right? You don't normally associate Finland with the land of laughs, right? But here we are, one of the better comedians going from Finland. Okay, we're up against it for time. Well done. better comedians going from finland okay uh we're up against it for time well done um some sad news

the um fire plan drop is no longer our our uh our program director cam barrett came in yesterday and he was like guys the show has how do i put this a lot of noises they don't make sense we're afraid it's turning off new listeners yeah they're like you don't explain them they come from out of seemingly out of nowhere and then you guys just move along as if it's part of the show and i'm like i can i can understand that right what a freaking booze dog was like you're stifling me and i normally let me work normally when someone has a suggestion for the show i slap them across the face i'm like get out of here. Don't talk to me. But Cam is usually, he's such a reserved guy. I don't think he's ever offered any sort of like guidance or feedback or critique. He's not a leader at all.

Yeah. You sit there. What do you say? Lifeguard at the pool, basically. Oh God, how frustrating. The fact that he decided to say something led me, I took it more seriously. Because, you know, it took it more seriously because you know it's like

the quiet guy when he doesn't talk very often when he says something you tend to pay attention I'm taking my drops man yeah and I was like you know what

I think we can maybe edit one or two he's gonna throw it to Jared he did like that one actually I do like the Jared one that one's not going anywhere so rest in peace to the fire plan drop

which lasted much longer than the advertiser itself. We are going to go to break. Should I give it one more go for old time's sake? The old fire plan salute. Oh my God, we're having a fire plan. Goodbye, old friend. Goodbye, fire plan.

You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Quinox goalie coach Marco Tornoius torre torre no yes terranious terranious i was gonna go i was gonna do the whole i practiced it last night the whole nine yards i wrote it out phonetically breath anyways marco uh torno anyways what we learned on sign, I learned we haven't been using Alex Edler's legal name. As we celebrate him tonight, congrats to Ulf Niklas Alexander Edler. Yeah. I didn't know his name was Ulf. Well, according to Wikipedia,

he's never wrong. Should have gone with Ulf. Ulf Edler? Ulf Edler's pretty good. He played like an Ulf. Ulf did. I don't even know what that means, but it works, right? No, he's right. He played like a bit of an, did. I don't even know what that means, but it works, right?

Yeah, no, he's right. Yeah. He's like a bit of an old vibe. So he signed the one day contract. The Canucks fit him in under the cap. This show has given us financial alpha and old vibes.

Didn't make old vibes. You know what I'm talking about. He's like, yeah, no, I give him off. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.