Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 10/1/24

Episode Date: October 1, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they chat last night's Canucks pre-season shootout  loss to the Oilers in Edmonton, plus they talk the latest hockey news with NHL analyst Ray Ferraro. 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. Now for Daniel Strong, left wing, side of the goal for Sherwood, in front, beats, he scores! What a pass from Kiefer Sherwood. We were working so hard sometimes we'd grip our sticks, but that'll come. We have to embrace the hardness. Gives it to Amin Ra.

He's going to throw it to Jarrett. It's a goal! To the end zone! Jarrett, goal! Oh, baby! On the receiving end of a pass from Amin Ra. St. Brown! Oh, no!

We suck again. Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford and his bruv. It is Sportsnet 650. He's going to throw it to Jarrett. And guess what?

Spoiler alert. He did. You are listening to the Halford and his bruv show. And Jarrett has caught it for a touchdown. What kind of name is Jarrett? Apologies to all the Jarretts out there. You are listening to the Halford and bruv show on Sportsnet touchdown. What kind of name is Jared? Apologies to all the Jareds out there. You are listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. What was that?

Was that the Lions call? Yeah. I hope it wasn't the Seahawks call. I sound very excited when I'm calling the other quarterback by his first name. Halford and Brough in the morning is coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brougham of 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 Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar 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. Soar feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec. He's going to throw it to Jared! Jared! Hello, Jared! This poor guy. We probably caught this otherwise good broadcaster at a bad moment. One more time. Come on, Jared, catch it!

He's gonna throw it to Jared! Come on, Jared! Jared, do it, man! Catch that football, Jared! So whoever that guy is, I don't know who he is. Normally, he's the thrower, and now he's the catcher. He also called him... Football catcher. He also called him... Football is crazy.

He also called him Amon Ra. So I guess he's a first name guy, right? Which is fine. Anyway, I feel bad. We shouldn't make fun of broadcasts. Yes, we should. Who are we to make fun of anybody? Do you think he calls every football player by their first name?

I'm kind of wondering now. I'm not too sure. That would be kind of funny. Andy. What? First off, before we do anything, I know this is a big day for you because it's the start of October. Yes.

Which, of course, is National Chili Month, where we all celebrate our favorite spicy Mexican stew. We could do that as well, yeah. But it is also the month of Halloween, my favorite holiday. Adol gives out chili on Halloween. Gulp. Yeah. I don't know why you're looking at me about this. i don't know what you're going on about chili for i don't know why you had your microphone on

isn't this when you normally talk about who we're gonna have on the show yeah we are 6 30 greg wischinski's gonna join the program from espn uh we're gonna spend so here's what we're gonna we're not gonna go too deep on the uh the hilarity that's going on in boston right now we're going to spend so here's what we're going to do we're not going to go too deep on the the hilarity that's going on in Boston right now we're going to talk to Wish and we're going to talk to both Ferraros about this

yes it's Ferraro Tuesday on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650 Ray Ferraro is going to join us at 8 Landon Ferraro I already got it wrong Ray Ferraro is going to join us at 7

Landon Ferraro is going to join us at 8 there you go Landon Ferraro is going to join us at. Ray Ferraro is going to join us at 7. Landon Ferraro is going to join us at 8. There you go. Landon Ferraro is going to join us at 8. Ray Ferraro is going to join us at 7. So this is going to be a thing that we're going to do throughout the year. You all know Ray, of course, long-time NHL player. He's going to serve as an NHL analyst for our show. Landon, also a former NHL player, 77 games, 7 goals, not a big deal.

And then we're going to talk to him. He's going to be doing a bunch of work this year as a Canucks analyst on Sportsnet and Sportsnet 650. Also at 730, our weekly BC Lions guest is kick returner Terry Williams. We're going to do what we learned in the 830 hour. And by the way, Major League Baseball playoffs start today. Hard lines for the Arizona Diamondbacks yesterday, who had to sit there and watch them get eliminated after the mets and brave split but we're not gonna gloss over that because

the playoffs start today i liked all the uh jokes that mets fans were making after they'd won the first game in very dramatic fashion by the way and then they were all coming up with their lineups for game two i was like oh bobby benia to get in there. We still got him on the payroll. We may as well play him. Good on that, yeah. So working in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock, Landon Ferraro, 7.30, Terry Williams, 7 o'clock, Ray Ferraro, 6.30, Greg Wyshynski.

We got a lot to get into. So without further ado, 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 busy. We know how busy your life can be. what happened? Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened?

You missed 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. We begin with the Vancouver Canucks. It was a valiant effort from the Vancouver Canucks on Monday night in Edmonton,

but that valiant effort, it fell just a bit short as they dropped a 3-2 decision in the shootout to the Oilers in, thankfully, their penultimate preseason game. So I'll just say really quickly, the Canucks were playing without the likes of Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, JT Miller, Brock Besser, Tyler Myers, Connor Garland, and Phillip Hronick, to name a few. And those shorthanded Canucks did well to keep pace with an Oilers team that had the likes of Connor McDavid, Leon Dreisaitl, Jeff Skinner,

Victor Arvidsson, Corey Perry, and of course, our good friend Vasilipad Kolzin in the lineup. So not too much to be taken away from the game, other than it was a very good effort from the guys. I will actually throw very quickly to Canucks head coach Rick Tockett, who emphasized that despite the fact the Canucks had a shorthanded lineup on the night, he thought it was their best effort of the preseason. Here now, Canucks head coach Rick Tockett following a 3-2 loss in the shootout to the Edmonton Oilers.

Well, I just, no, I thought we played solid in Calgary too. You know, obviously we got to make some plays, you know, hold some pucks. I think there's some plays there to be made. I think sometimes we're, you know, we're working so hard. Sometimes we grip our sticks, but that'll come. You know, that's still a little bit of that summer hockey in us a little bit. But tonight, today was our best effort, I think. A solid effort tonight.

Yeah, it's not about the wins and losses. I really, the group really did a great job. I'm really proud of the way they played. I just like the way that they stuck with it. It's a good hockey club over there, you know, and I think we did a nice job. So before we get into talking a bit about what happened last night in Edmonton, just to set you up for the week, the Canucks have one preseason game.

Right. That's it. And that is Friday night at Rogers Arena against the Edmonton Oilers. And then they have a few more days off and they start the regular season next Wednesday. They are going to practice today. So we'll see if they come up with some lines

that might be interesting. We will also, I guess, start to see if they start cutting some players because they're going to get down to their, you know, by all accounts, certainly J.D. Miller has said this, that they're probably going to play with pretty much their full team Friday against the Oilers in their final dress rehearsal,

and they all get very excited for dress rehearsal. Very excited. Who doesn't? And there are still some things that we don't know for sure. We don't know who's going to start the season on a line with Petey and DeBras. So maybe we'll get some clues at practice this week as they continue to work on things. Yesterday, they released Sammy Blais from his PTO.

I don't think anyone was super surprised by that. In theory, it might have worked with Sammy Blais coming in and providing some physicality, especially early on if Dakota Joshua misses a bunch of games. But I don't know. He just didn't show enough. And the Canucks have – the Canucks already are at like 48 out of 50 contracts. So it was going to be tough for Sammy to get a contract with the Canucks.

I think he would have really had to stand out. And I don't know if he's in any contract with anyone. He already has a contract with Abbotsford, yeah. Oh, with Abbotsford. Oh, right. Okay. Okay. So, okay stand out. And I don't know if he's any contract with anyone. Cause I don't have as a contract with Abbotsford. Yeah. Oh, with Abbotsford with Abbotsford. Oh, right.

Okay. Okay. So, okay. Perfect. All right. Well, good for him.

Um, so, uh, the Canucks will practice today, 12 o'clock at Rogers arena, and then they'll have a media availability, um, after that.

So we'll see if there's anything to come of that. As for last night, the story of the game, Halford already kind of mentioned it. The Canucks had a bunch of guys that are either fighting to make the team or will be in Abbotsford for sure. And they did pretty well. You had Max Sasson getting a lot of minutes out against Connor McDavid

and Atu Ratu as well. Atu Ratu had a big night, like in terms of responsibility. He was out for a lot of draws. He was playing against McDavid and Dreisaitl pretty consistently. And I think it was the Corey Perry goal that Connor McDavid assisted on. Atu Ratu looked like a lot of NHL players out against Connor McDavid. He was like, what just happened? Why am I standing this way?

What am I looking at here? I have no idea what's going on. But overall, the Canucks, I thought, they brought a really gritty effort. And I'm sure a lot of them before the game were looking at their lineup and they were looking at the others' lineup and going, oh, we're going to have to bring an effort here. And they did. They weren't overwhelmed by the moment.

And probably most importantly, if we're going to talk about anything, they got a really solid performance from Kevin Lankanen in goal. Yeah, that was the big takeaway for a lot of people. And I know on the postgame show, kudos to our postgame show. Bick sat and ran deep, doing the roundtable, and Bick asked a big question. Who's your opening night starter when the Canucks open their regular season next week?

Because Kevin Lankanen, although it's been a very brief appearance, plural, there's been two of them. That was his second yesterday. Everyone was pretty impressed, including the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, Rick Talkett. Here's what Talkett had to say about Lankanen following the shootout loss in Edmondson last night. Very well.

Solid. I just like his, he was really good at handling the puck for us too on dump ins. That really helps. I think he helped our D a lot. Made some great saves when we needed to be. And I think the guys in front, when we did give him stuff, was usually on the outside. I love hearing coaches squirm when they're asked about goaltenders.

It was pretty good. It's so funny. Talk brings out some good cliches. He's like, you look big in there. He was moving well. Good puck handler. That was pretty good analysis. I don't know how comparatively Cee Love's puck handling is, but maybe that's one of Lankanen's strengths. Can help him on

the dump-ins. I don't want to go down... The relationship between the Canucks and Ian Clark is so bad now that Ian Clark actually gives Rick Tuckett bad notes to say about the goalies to make him sound bad. He was wobbly out there. And that's what you want. You want

a wobbly goalie, apparently. I don't know. Okay, so I don't want to go down the road too far. I appreciate what Bick was trying to do yesterday. And it's been like a week since we've had a goalie controversy. Maybe not even that long. Maybe it's been a few days. So drum one up about who's going to be the night one starter. I don't

necessarily want to go there. I think the focus should be that the Canucks waited an awfully long time to get Lankanen in. He obviously hasn't had a lot of reps with the team. He doesn't even have proper equipment. He's still wearing his National Predators gear, which looks very garish alongside the Vancouver Canucks colors.

It's very clashy. It's not good. So outside of that, it is a positive that he looks this good. And I think what we're going to end up seeing, aside from the nominal like your night one starter means something, represents something, and I'm sure it'll be Seelov's going in to game one. I do wonder if this is going to be a true 50-50 split until Thatcher Demko is going to return whenever he's going to return.

I think it just depends how they play. I think you have to. I mean, there's going to obviously be a schedule in terms of workload because I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but it sure seems that the Canucks are a little bit more interested in managing their goalies' workloads, Thatcher, Demko, or otherwise moving forward. But if they can pull a rabbit out of their hat

and get good, solid rotational goaltending from two guys that are making, what, less than a million dollars each, that is some fine cap finagling from the Vancouver Canucks. Guess when their first back-to-back is? Start the season October 9th. They go Calgary-Philly

to start, right? Yeah. So they start the season October 9th. Guess when their first back-to-back game is where they would essentially

have to play both goalies. It's in October. It's not. It's not in October. No, it's mid-November. Really? Yeah.

Oh, wow, that's way later than I expected. Yeah, so they go a long way without any back-to-back, so that's not. It's not in October. No, it's mid-November. Really? Yeah. Oh, wow, that's way later than I expected. Yeah, so they go a long way without any back-to-back. So that's good in terms of not having to force anyone into a game. But I think the Canucks should feel pretty good about their goaltending heading into the season, all things considered. Sure. Obviously, you'd like Thatcher Demko in there,

and you've still got the big picture worry about the injury and how it's going to affect, let's be honest here, his career. We still haven't seen him come back and play a game. So we don't know, first of all, how he's going to look with this injury. And the main line of thinking that everyone has been putting out there is he's going to have to get used to this. And it's not something that you can just like, and the main line of thinking that everyone has been putting out there is he's going to have to get used to this. And it's not something that you can just like, it's cured, right? He's just going to have to get used to this. There's going to be some discomfort

and maybe he'll have to affect some things with his style. I don't think he's going to be like, I don't go down anymore. I'm a stand-up goalie now just like the old time because of this popliteus in the back. But there might have to be some adjustments. We'll have to see about that. That big picture thing is still hanging out there. But in terms of how the organization has, number one, had Artie Seelov in the organization and developed him nicely. And, you know, he looks pretty good. And then bringing in Kevin Lankanen,

I think they did as well as they could have, all things considered. Other takeaways from last night. Goal scorers were Arshdeep Baines on the power play. And Nate, don't call me Schmidt, Nate Smith for the Vancouver Canucks. Atu Ratu, and again in the postgame, the guys were talking extensively about the work that he put forth, especially in the face-off circle. The debate really, I don't think, is whether or not Ratu deserves a crack

at the NHL level. I think he does. I think the question is with everything as it pertains to trimming the roster down to 12 or 13 forwards, and we don't know what they're going to keep yet, whose waiver eligible and who's not, and we all know the situation's there. It might not necessarily about that he deserves it. It might be that it makes more sense for the team to make other decisions to keep guys up. And, you know, there was a good point brought up yesterday.

Like, if Ratu deserves to be on the team and you keep him as a 13th forward that he's in the press box, does that help him any? Should he just be down in Abbotsford playing as much as possible as opposed to being with the NHL? Because his waiver is exempt too. Right. So just send him down. Being with the NHL club is great for him.

He gets an NHL paycheck and it's a feather in his cap. But if he's not playing, it's not helping his development any. Well, let's see if guys like Teddy Bluger are going to play on Friday against the Oilers. We'll see how much he practices this week. There's a lot of practice time this week for the Vancouver Canucks. Let's talk about the Seahawks. Yeah.

Last night in Detroit, they lost a very entertaining 42-29 decision to the Detroit Lions. This was always going to be a tough challenge for the Seahawks going on the road against a very good Detroit Lions team. Maybe the number two team in the NFC. A lot of people are picking them to go to the Super Bowl. So this is a team on the rise. It sounds weird to say the Detroit Lions are really good, but the Detroit Lions are really good. And the Seahawks also went to Detroit with a ton of injuries on the defensive side of the ball. And the defensive side of the ball, of course, is the side of the ball that Mike McDonald, the head coach, was brought in to fix.

And even though they got three victories to start the season, they were 3-0, this is still a work in progress for the Seahawks. And I think we saw that last night, especially on the defensive side of the ball, because the Detroit Lions at times looked like they were going to do anything that they wanted. Okay, get the Mike McDonald audio ready. I do want to play it because I get what you're saying. I think everything you said was right about that game. That was a tough game.

I don't think the Seahawks were expected to win. It was their first significant test against a good opponent, let's be honest, this year. They ran up their 3-0 record against inferior opponents. And the defense was very, very, very banged up.

They were missing four starters. Detroit's defense didn't play too well either. No, they had problems tackling. Boy Mafe and Uchenna Nwosu. So you lose your two best edge rushers. You also lose maybe your two best D linemen in Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II. So you're decimated up front, okay? I get all that.

That being said, they were completely permissive yesterday. We're not talking about a bad defensive performance. Their defense at times was non-existent. Jared Goff completed every single pass that he threw yesterday. Jared. Jared, the guy from the intro, did not miss a single pass that he threw yesterday. And it wasn't like all dump-offs. Nope.

He was making every throw that he wanted to make. Sometimes he was catching them. Not his throws, but other guys' throws. So, here's Mike McDonald after the loss, a 13-point loss on the road in Detroit, talking about his football team falling to 3-1 on the season. It's obvious we're not the team

that we want to be yet, and we shouldn't be the team that we're going to be. You know, we have time to grow as a football team. We have a short week. We have to have a sense of urgency about it. And we need to take the next step. You know, as many problems as they had on the defensive side of the ball,

I do want to point out that I think the key play of the game happened early in the game. And it was when DK Metcalf fumbled. Detroit was up 7-0 at the time. And Seahawks had the ball and they were driving. And Metcalf made a nice catch. And then he just tried to do too much after the catch. And he didn't protect the ball.

And the Lions knocked it out. And it was returned all the way down to the Seattle 14-yard line. And then with the Seahawks defense on display, the Lions quickly made it 14-0, and that could have been a 14-point swing there. It was a costly fumble. And it was going to be really hard to come back and win after that. You're down 14-0, and I will compare it to the president's cup where on day one

you're losing five nothing and even though there was a valiant effort to come back it was early on in the game that it was really like the the realistic chance of coming back and winning that was lost because the seahawks chased the whole game. And it looked at times like, well, if they can get a stop here, maybe they're going to catch them. But they never came up with enough stops. But they were in this position basically where, you know, it was going to be really tough to come back.

And I don't want to sit here. I'm not going to say DK Metcalf cost them a game because he didn't. He was otherwise brilliant. I mean, what was it, seven catches over 100 yards. He was incredible. Geno Smith, Geno Smith threw for almost 400 yards. It was an offensive performance almost for the ages for the Seahawks in terms of yards gained.

But because they were constantly chasing, Detroit probably made some adjustments on defense and they were like, all right, fine, rack up these yards. But we're just going to get the ball back and we're going to score a touchdown of our own. The thing that bothered me about, I think you're maybe right about Metcalf. I'm not sure yet.

I'm still working that one out. Because I don't think that was the decisive play of the game. I think the decisive plays of the game were the 70-yard touchdown that Detroit scored and the wide receiver pass to quarterback. Yeah, yeah. There was a lot of big games. But I'm just, you know, if you're in a tight game on the road against a good team and you're the underdog

and you've got all these injuries you can't you can't make a mistake like that you gotta protect the ball right you gotta protect the ball they made countless mistakes on defense like not being able to pick up jared goff in the flat and prevent him from catching a touchdown i guess my point is this it's frustrating from the standpoint that if your quarterback goes on the road into a hostile environment and throws for 400 yards, and you put up 29 points, so they put up 30 points with 400 passing yards, you should win that game.

You definitely should not lose that game by 13. And I know that they were decimated on defense. That's why I give them a break. And I know that this probably isn't that good of a team at the end of the day. That That's why I give them a break. And I know that this probably isn't that good of a team at the end of the day. That's also why I give them a break. This is a process.

But sometimes bad teams get results and they win games. And that was frustrating. But overall, I think they probably got there. The most alarming thing for me is that I don't... Jared Goff set a passing record yesterday.

Jared Goff, no one has ever gone a perfect 18 for 18. He's going to throw it to Jared. And caught a touchdown. Yeah. He was perfect. They had no pass rush whatsoever. No.

They had no turnovers. They had no turnovers at all. It's like getting upset at the Canucks for losing a preseason game. Oh, no. No, no. It's not. When you don't have that many guys in the lineup. It was not doing anything, even schematically.

If you're getting torched, change something up. Every time that they brought pressure, it got completely nullified because it was like the play calling was a step ahead. I don't know. Maybe I've just mellowed in my old age that I'm looking at the team and I'm like, yeah, they're banged up.

Detroit is good. I think a lot of us are having trouble with coming to grips with the fact that Detroit is good. And they're a very creative offense, as you saw. And they've got a very creative play caller. They do some fun things on offense. And unfortunately, if you're a Seahawks fan, they did them against the Seahawks last night.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. I know this is hard to believe, but sometimes when you get up early in the morning and you're not very good at broadcasting, you trip over some words. You create some words. It's like an amalgam of other words.

I believe I created the word unseedly. No, unseedy. Unseedy. That's what you called Pete Rose's life, unseedy. I wanted to say- It was kind of like that poison song, Unskinny Bop. Unsightly and seedy mixed together? No, I wanted to say unseemly.

Or unsavory. No, unseemly. That's the word. Not appropriate. Yeah. Unseemly. I was like, I saw Pete Rose's life. It was not unseedy.

It was, in fact, quite seedy. There were some seeds. I met Pete Rose once. Actually, I had a... What was that experience like? You saw him in Vegas, right? Was he signing autographs? That's what he did, right?

He was only in Vegas for a handful of things. Was he next to a slot machine? No, he was on the floor. I can't remember what casino it was in, to be honest. But it was 2006. I remember this because we were down there right around the same time that the oilers were playing the carolina hurricanes the stanica final and so there was this i don't want to call it an aura

because that's probably not the right term but there was a certain aura it was still pete rose still very here's the thing when i was talking about aside from the unseedly part from earlier when i was what i was talking about was for people for people of our age and our ilk pete rose was he kind of was an oj type figure and that he crossed over from sport into um infamy infamy yeah right all the characters that were involved right bart giamatti the the commissioner that ultimately had to ban him right yeah? Yeah. Father of actor Paul Giamatti, which is very interesting. The Dowd Report, which was the multi- Jim Dowd wrote it.

Nick Dowd wrote it. Nick Dowd wrote it. All of these things were like, they were on CNN, and it was just like common parlance. It wasn't just about sports. And Pete hung around some interesting characters too. And he was defiant, which was the crazy part. Like he was dead to rights by the Dowd report, but he refused to acknowledge certain...

He never really took responsibility for any of his actions. Except when he wrote his book, right? Let's bring in Ray into this conversation. Joining us now, and we're very happy to have him on the show, not just this week, but this entire season, our NHL insider, Ray Ferraro, joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Ray. How are you?

I'm good. Morning, guys. How's everything? Things are good. We're going to start with Pete. We're going to throw you right in the fire with Pete Rose. Obviously, for those that are tuning in, they they're like why are they talking about Pete Rose Pete Rose passed away yesterday at the age of 83 and we were talking about it prior to going to break

there was a time in the late 80s and early 90s where he was maybe the most famous and infamous athlete on the planet when that whole story broke, you know, to all of us that were, you know, we're just fans or whatever, like it seems so unbelievable and then, Oh gee, how bad can it be? And, you know, because there is no information, you think, you know,

things, but you, you really don't. And then as more and more evidence came out and you mentioned the dowd report when when that came out it was like man they have the betting slips they you know they they have the phone that he that he called from in the clubhouse and or just up the walkway and it it was i felt anyway like i i almost didn't want to believe it because he was such a great player. And there is like, we see it all the time now, it was less then, but the intersection of what you build a person to be and what he really is.

And there's such difference to all of that. And for Pete Rose, for me, I couldn't stand him like as a as a player i'm a red sox fan so you know from the 1975 world series i just couldn't stand him because he was so good and he was so relentless and he was so in your face all the time and he played his whole career like that he managed like that when this story broke he attacked the story like that you know like his defense was to attack and it it was sad to see because if there was a point at the in time when if you went to vegas and you went into i forget which hotel it is he was sitting in like a corner he had a friend that ran a memorabilia shop and he

was sitting in there signing whatever people would bring like that's how he was making his income it was really uh just an unbelievable story that took on like decades and decades and decades of of time and it just never went away it was a a, it's a sad, sad story really. Is there an NHL comparable to that? Or maybe a guy that you played with, it doesn't have to be to the extent of Pete Rose, where he was so driven and so obsessive about the game, so competitive and so much of his self-worth came from being admired for the way that he played. And he was good, but ultimately his ego proved also to be a bit of a downfall as well. I don't think like this.

I think if you get to be lucky enough to play at a pro sport, there is certainly an ultra-hyper-competitiveness. I don't know too many players that play golf for fun or play cards for fun. It just doesn't happen that way. There's also an ego to it because the better you get, the more people pay attention to you, the more people are kind of interested in everything that you do. Some guys just can't turn it off ever.

And like, there's, there's all kinds of stories. I mean, I'm not going to, there's, there's no names to mention, but there's guys that,

you know, guys that are like,, their compulsiveness, like they can never shut it off. And whether it's, you know, gambling, playing cards, just like constantly, like, you know, like I, I go to Vegas. I love it. I love it, but I can leave there and leave it there. And back then, there was no internet gambling. There was no internet, really.

So, guys, everybody was with a bookie if they were going to bet. And if you were with a bookie, like Pete Rose was, then it wasn't legal. So, you've got this ego and the competitiveness and the fact that you're doing something that everybody knew was going on, but it wasn't really altogether okay. Like Pete just never could shut it off. I mean, it's very clear. He just never, ever could shut it off.

And so as for it being in hockey i mean i'm sure there's stories in the in the alumni of of guys that were similar i mean there has to be like what why would why would sports be any different than anybody else yeah right it's like it just wouldn't be and you mix in the fact that guys have money, they had time, you would be interested in the other sports. I mean, like, now you can see how, when it's available, how pervasive it is. Like, it's everywhere.

I mean, you could have bet on that Dolphins game if you wanted last night. I mean, I don't know what the hell you would have bet on. But, like, for the first time, I'm like, oh, my God, look at this. There's two lousy games on. At least I can change. Oh, good, the Canucks started. I can change over. Like, it was, like, but it doesn't matter.

People will bet on whether that guy could throw a six-yard completion, right? Like, it was out of control for Peteete most people could put it back in the box and he just couldn't i sometimes wonder what it's like for young players to go into an nhl room for the first time maybe they're rookies and even if they're pretty competitive guys just to be hanging around with the guys that have made it right these are the these are the guys that are in the nhl they're making a living in the nhl some of them might be stars it must be very intimidating at times with some of those personalities in there do you have any any memories of of your first time in an nhl room meeting some guys and being like oh my god

these guys are gonna rip my head off if I cross them. Yeah, my first day. My first day, I got called up. Nobody knew I got called up. Of course, there was no news. I was in the locker room, and one of the guys walks in.

I'm sitting in Mark Johnson's stall because Mark was hurt. I got called up when he was injured, and so I'm sitting in the stall, and the guy walks in. He goes, what are you doing here? And I was like, I don't know. Mark got hurt.

They called me up. And everything was to, I felt like I was on my back foot the entire time. Like I was scared to death of these guys. I was 20 years old. They were all these men and I was just like a kid.

And it's terrifying. Like it's not just the, it's how much older they are. And just think like when you're, when you're our age, five years, doesn't matter when you're 20 years old, five or six years is forever. Like they're in a different part of life. Like I remember thinking, you know, one of my, in the group of guys that I played with right away was Joel Quenville. And I always felt Joel was like so much older than me. He's like five years older than me. Right? Like I had no idea.

He seemed like he was 15 years older than me. And it wasn't just him. It was like guys like greg malone and pat boutette all these guys that i was just starting at you go into that room there is zero chance most players feel at all comfortable none you don't know who to talk to you don't know who to sit beside then you start you know guys are starting to get prepped for the game and you're with one eye you're kind of watching around. What's everybody doing?

Like, are they going to think what I'm doing is goofy? At least that's what I was like. I was, I was terrified. It was not, it was not an easy, it's not an easy transition because as much as guys, hey, welcome to the team. Immediately, it's like 20 individuals because everybody's got to do their own thing to get ready. Yeah, I remember we had KJ right on of the Seattle Seahawks and we were talking about it was at the time when Russell Wilson was really going through his divorce from the Seahawks. And I think we can

all admit that those Seahawks teams, even though they were great and they won a Super Bowl and they should have won another, they have a lot of big egos on that team. And I asked him a question. At the end of the day, is an ego good for a professional athlete or bad? And Alfred, do you remember his response?

He was like, totally stumped. He was like, Hmm, wait a minute. Like, that's a really good question because in a lot of ways, your ego is what drives you to get to where you are and drives you to keep being competitive,

but it can also lead to a lot of issues. It can lead to almost some delusion, and I sometimes wonder if that happened with a guy like Russell Wilson. Where do you stand on that ray well uh ego is ego is everywhere um and in in sport like you have to remember there's you're you're the only defense you have so in in most cases if somebody's criticizing you or which when i say criticizing you it's about your play right like hey you're you're not doing this or you need to do that or the ego in you is always to fight back it's always because that's how you got to the point

to be in that room is that you always fight you you never it i had a way, I'll get to this in a sec, but I had a way that everybody that I came across, I was fighting. They didn't know it, but I was in a fight with them. And that was great for 18 years in my career. It was great. And then it took me 10 years after I retired to realize this is terrible to live every day with. Like I literally like Jason,

we played golf. Like, yeah, I know you fought a five iron once I saw it get beaten into the ground. It lost. It lost. And then I never used it for a while. I really taught it a lesson,

but the energy that you need or that I needed to fight every day and fight everybody is not good. It was good to survive in pro sports as long as I did, but it's not good. And so in a locker room, if you have enough of that

and you have enough guys, like you said about delusion, there are guys, there is self-importance in a locker room, if you have enough of that and you have enough guys, like you said about delusion, there are guys, there is self-importance in a locker room that guys don't understand until when they leave. And they're like, what was I doing? You know, like you're, you, you're the most important thing. And yet really you're not. And so the great leaders of the sport are able to lead. They all have ego. Of course they do. But they're able to park it and to be part of the group.

Like, they don't stand out. I played for a short time with the Rangers, and I know Vancouver fans don't have much fond to think about Messier, but he never did anything that, when I was there, that made you think he was above in stature. He just was. He just was. And so while his ego would have helped drive

the way he played and the way he went about things. It wasn't like that in the room. He did not treat you like that. Not in the time I was in New York. And so in a football locker room, could you imagine the ego and that energy in a 53-man locker room? Like, it would be really hard for it to be in check so ego ego is everywhere in sport i think it's everywhere probably most places but it's hard to check it it's really hard to check it and for some it never stops it seeps over like

i just said it seeps over into your personal life you don't even know what does you don't even know what does i look back honestly like six seven eight years ago and i'm like what the hell was i doing what the hell was i doing and there's there's very little now that pisses me off compared to you know compared to just about everything that did, including change of wind direction a while ago. We're speaking to our NHL analyst, Ray Ferraro, here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650, talking about the internal fight and the competitive juices still flowing. Maybe even some ego. I want to turn our attention to what's going on in Boston right now.

Did, I guess, to a lesser degree, Don Sweeney, and to more of a degree yesterday, Cam Neely, did they overstep by what they're saying and doing about Jeremy Swayman and the contract negotiations? I don't know about overstep, but, man, somebody's playing semantics here, right? Like somebody's splitting the hair. Yep.

Because they either offered him $64 million or they didn't. And that's really up to the agent and the team. However, the team brought it out into public. So that offer, if, if the ask for Swayman was eight times eight, like if that's what it was, then they should call today and say, yeah, done, deal's done. If that's what their ask is. If it's more,

well then they have a difference of opinion still. Now, this is where I stand on this. They had this goalie duo that incredibly fit as well as it did. We know that doesn't always happen, right? Like you get, you know, here we are back to ego, and part of it is ego, part of it is, hey, my career's sliding by, and I need the net.

I'm good enough for it. So it fit. They traded Allmark. Now you've got one option. They can tell their fans and anybody they want that they're going to be fine with Jonas Corpus Allo, and he will be better than he was because the Bruins play such a good team game,

but he's not even close to where Jeremy Swayman is. The people that argue that, oh, he's only played 132 NHL games, what gives him the right to make this big stand dylan gunther just signed for eight times it not at seven or whatever in in utah like this happens with players all the time it players used to go from entry-level contract bridge contract big contract now they go entry-level contract big contract sway swayman's one of the best goalies in the league. I do a lot of Bruins games.

I think this guy is fantastic. I think they've boxed themselves in a corner here. And I don't know Jeremy Swayman particularly well, but I do know that he's a pretty strong kid. Like, he's not going to be shoved into the corner here and say, oh, I better take this or I'm not going to get anything else. I was quite surprised that the Bruins took the tact that they did publicly. I mean, they can do whatever they want in the negotiation.

They're trying to find you for as little as they can, and you're trying to make as much as you can. It's just the way it is but i found it really odd that they came out as as angry and whether they appeared to be or wanted it to to appear to be it comes out as angry and there's now you've pitted the player against the team i don't mean the guys in the room the guys guys are fine. They'll all get by that. But you've pitted them against the team. And now you've got the fans will always support the team over the player

because you're a fan of the team, not the player, not necessarily, because players change. I mean, people have been Canucks fans since 1970. Players have come and go, and they are Canucks fans. And so I think it's a dangerous tact, and if they get to the point where they have to trade Jeremy Swayman, they're going to spend the next decade looking for Jeremy Swayman. Did you ever have a really tough or contentious contract negotiation? Did you ever send Steve Bartlett in there with knives and daggers

and get the job done? Was it loggerheads or a stalemate? No. I am the worst. I was the worst guy to have to negotiate for because I always had my big year the year after I signed. Come on, Ray.

Come on, man. Come on, man. You know, like, what a dummy. You know, I signed my first contract, and actually, so I signed my first contract. My entry-level salary was 70, 80, 90 grand, and 20,000, 22,500, 25,000 in the American League. So Alan Eagleson somehow was my agent. I don't even know how he was my agent, but he was my agent at that time. And one morning I'm lying in bed, phone rings, and he calls, he goes, and you know, he never talked to me. And so I'm like, what's going on? He's's like uh yeah the deal's done three years at 125 grand per year i didn't even know i was negotiating like he just did the contract

and i was like so i hung up but i'm like well i guess that's okay or good or i you know i didn't know and then the next year i scored 40 goals. And so they made a rule. Well, they had a rule. I fired him. Well, I fired him. He went to jail. So I didn't think he was going to use my one phone call to negotiate a contract.

So I hire Steve Bartlett, one of the great people in the game. Steve is just a wonderful man. And so this is when you say, were we fighting over a contract? They came up with this rule that they couldn't double my salary. There's no rule.

They just said, we never double salaries. So I couldn't get to 250. They said they could go right around 200. I was in camp and they were arguing over $8,000. Could you imagine? And so I thought, well, we've got to stand firm for $8,000. So I got $200,000 with my next on-track. There were no – the only negotiation I had was when I was a free agent

after leaving the Islanders. So that was fun because I actually had a couple of teams bidding and, and they weren't bidding a hundred grand anymore. So it was, it was kind of night, but nothing like this, man, I would have,

I would not have been what, I would not have been as well suited as Jeremy Swayman is for this. That's for sure. Right. This is, this was awesome. This is going to be awesome. We're very excited to have you on the show this season. Enjoy the

rest of the day and the rest of the week. We'll do this again next Tuesday. You betcha. It looks like last week of weather for a bit, so got to get going here. 9-18 on the tee. Got to squeeze it in. Play well, buddy. And be nice to your clubs, okay? Always good to them now.

Always good. See you, guys. Thanks, Ray. That's NHL analyst Ray Ferraro here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Ferraro Tuesday on the Halford & Brough Show because Landon is going to join us

at 8 o'clock. He's going to be more of the Canucks analyst and insider for the show because he, of course, is going to be working here on Sportsnet 650 across a few of the different shows. He's also going to be doing some TV work with Murph on the panels as well.

Ferraro Tuesdays. Yep, we can definitely work on a jingle. It's not like we don't have any in the rotation. So instead of looking back on what the Canucks did or didn't do last night with a lot of regulars out of the lineup, let's look ahead to what's coming this week, both decisions and the final regular season game, which is going to be yet again against the Evan Throilers.

Final preseason game. What did I say? Regular season game. Final preseason game. Yeah. So the Canucks are going to practice today, and I do wonder if we'll see some decisions on cuts, waivers. The waivers thing is always interesting

because you want to time it the right way, especially if you're worried about losing particular guys. But there are just so many things that are in flux right now for the Vancouver Canucks. Like, I'm not worried that JT Miller hasn't played a preseason game. I think he'll probably play on Friday

against the Oilers. And even if he doesn't play Friday, I'm pretty sure he'll be ready to start the regular season. He's probably dealing with some sort of bump or bruise, but nothing serious if he's still out there practicing. Maybe a bump and bruise.

Maybe, yeah. Maybe there's two bumps and one bruise. I don't know. I'm not too worried about that. But a guy like Teddy Bluger's a little bit different because he actually like Canucks came out before training camp and said, well, this guy actually had a procedure and he is week to week with a lower body injury.

So you're a little less certain about that. And whether or not Teddy Bluger could be in the lineup on opening night has a huge effect on whether a guy like maybe Atu Ratu makes the team or not. Yeah. I'm trying to. And then if you're talking about, well, we still want to have Ratu on the team, but Bluger's ready to go, then are you willing to do something like put Nils Amon on waivers?

And I know we had a lot of people texting into the Dunbar Lumber text line and saying like, you know, Nils Amon, he's a dime a dozen type of player. Put him on waivers. If you lose him, fine. Okay. But then if you run into more injuries with your centers, then you've depleted your organizational center depth. And I think Nils Amon, he might not be the flashiest player, but I think he's an NHL player and he can go out there and do things like kill penalties. And I think you want to have more of those than less of those talking about 12, 13 forwards on the team, there's two schools of thought that you have to kind of present here. One is what's best for Ratu, who, let's make no mistake, has been the best story of this preseason. Is that fair to suggest?

That's fair to throw at them. I don't think with any hyperbole or anything like that. That has been the best development of this preseason. The dangling carrot for a guy like Ratu, and this is really an organizational thing as well, do we reward that guy for the work he put in in the offseason and then coming in and kind of kicking the door down by allowing him to walk through said kicked door? Do we give him a shot in the NHL out of camp?

Has he earned it? Because it's not really, in that conversation conversation it's not just about ratu it says it to the rest of the guys i mean arshdeep baines kind of did the same thing last year he forced his way into the mix to get a handful of nhl games right there's also the reality of managing a team in the salary cap era and hence comes the other part of the conversation here, which is, are you willing to potentially lose a player for nothing, Nils Oman, if you make this decision where he gets scooped up off waivers and other teams are like, sure, we'll take a shot on the guy. It's easy money and an easy decision for us.

And we need a center. Right. Those are the decisions that happen at this time of the year. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.