Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 10/2/24

Episode Date: October 2, 2024

Mike and Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk some big roster moves yesterday for the Canucks with radio commentator and former NHLer Brett Festerling, plus they speak to Vancouver Giants bench boss Manny Viveiros, as his club's new season is now underway. 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. I am a sad front-running loser. Harlan times his run. I think he's timed it well. Round the goalkeeper. 3-0 Manchester City. He's going to throw it to Jarrett. Good morning, Vancouver 601

on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It's Halford and his brother, Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Andy, good morning to you. Good morning. Greg, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brad 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 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. Sophie, what are you waiting for? Kintec. I'm going to suggest that everyone start getting their What We Learns in right now.

Dunbar Lumber Text Line 650-650. We had a super early submission. 5.49 AM. Lance, the lone listener in the Mac. He texted it. He was so excited to tell us what we learned. He couldn't even wait for the show to start. 549 AM.

He texts in. What we learned. After listening to your podcast yesterday, Halford couldn't figure out what season any sports were in or just any words in general. Maybe if he wrote it down and practiced it like Dollywall, he could still struggle and still get it wrong. But at least he would have practiced first. Sounds about right. That's a nice way to start your day, huh?

I replied. Some harsh criticism. That's one of those semen submissions I was talking about yesterday. Boy, you just said it rather starkly there, didn't you? Anyway, get your all we learns in. Submit away. Dunbar Lumber text line, 650-650. That's something to hear in the morning.

602 in the morning. Bam. You can get away with it in the first like 10 minutes. No one's listening. Look, let's be honest. There is a cutoff though eventually. That'll wake you up. And everyone that's listening is like, I know what he's talking about. The purge. The first 10 minutes of the show like 10 minutes. No one's listening. Look, let's be honest. There is a cutoff though eventually. That'll wake you up. And everyone on this list is like,

I know what he's talking about. That's the purge. The first 10 minutes of the show, no rules. Big show ahead on a Wednesday here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. David Amber is going to join the program

at 630 Sportsnet Hockey Night in Canada. Host, we've got to talk about the most injury riddled preseason in NHL history. Another wild game last night between the Habs and the Sens. A bunch of guys got hurt in that one as well. Makes sense that JT Miller doesn't want to participate in this thing. We'll talk to David Amber at 630.

He's terrified. Yeah, I wouldn't want him either. There are bloodbaths out there. 7 o'clock. Now, this is kind of cool. A gentleman by the name of John Parato is going to join the program. He's a baseball writer for Pittsburgh Baseball Now. Now, you might

be thinking, wait a minute, Halford and Brough. Why are you talking baseball in Pittsburgh? Because there's no baseball in Pittsburgh right now. They didn't make the playoffs. There's barely any during the regular season. John Parato has covered the Pittsburgh Pirates for 37 seasons.

In those 37 seasons, they have had 30 losing seasons, seven winning seasons, and not a single postseason series victory. They've not won a series. Well, he did win. Well, the Pirates, while he was covering them, did win one wild card game. But that doesn't count as a series. It was like a single game series.

So he's not counting that. So as the commissioner of the Sad Club, known for losers, thought, wait a minute. We should talk to this guy. He said, and I quote, I may be the losingest baseball writer in history. So what better guy to get on the Halford and Brough show than John Prado? He's going to join us at 7 a.m.

Would you like to join the sad club? Let me show you what it is. No, the Pirates won the World Series in the 70s. And I think this is actually going to be a conversation beyond just talking to a guy that's covered a losing team. And it's almost central to if you're a Seattle Mariners fan, you might want to listen to this because we're going to talk about an organization in the Pittsburgh Pirates, nice stadium, the owner makes money every year.

They got a superstar player. You know, well. For now. Yeah, but, you know, because of the way that baseball's economics are set up with revenue sharing, what is the motivation for some teams to win? Yeah, why bother even keeping Paul Skeens? If the owner doesn't really care about winning a World Series, and if the owner is just happy to keep making a nice little profit every year as franchise values keep going up. What's the solution there?

So John Proud is going to join us at 7 to talk about that. Very fitting because it was the opening day of the Major League Baseball postseason yesterday as well. 7.30, Manny Viveros, head coach of the Vancouver Giants, is going to join us. Giants' regular season is underway. They lost their last game 6-3 to Prince George. They're back in action this Friday at the Langley

Events Center against Kamloops. We'll talk to Manny about that at 7.30. We can also get some intel from Greg, who's been out there at the Langley Events Center as well. 8 o'clock, ex-NHLer Brett Festerling is going to join the program. Sportsnet 650 Canucks color analyst. We'll talk to him about some pretty significant

moves that the Canucks made to their roster on Tuesday. We're going to get into that in What Happened. As a matter of fact, I'm not even going to work in reverse on the guest list. Let's get into it right now. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What Happ 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. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. The Vancouver Canucks, as I mentioned off the top, announced a series of roster updates on Tuesday. Sad news for A-Dog and A-Dog Nation. Jonathan Leckermacki on his way to Abbotsford. He will not make the opening night roster. He, along with Elias Pettersson, the defenseman version,

Linus Carlson, Elias Pettersson, Ty Mueller, Max Sasson, Christian Felton, Cole McWard, Kirill Kudryatsev, and Nikita Tolopio. Now, the big news of the day, probably that forward and veteran forward Phil DiGiuseppe has been exposed to waivers for the purpose of trying to get him down to Abbotsford. No clear sign that PDG will make it down there. Aaron Portsline of The Athletic in Columbus already making note on Twitter that Columbus is scouring hard on the waiver wire looking for NHL caliber

forwards and PDG could be a fit there. We'll see what happens. Well, Portsline actually, yeah, he name-checked PDG. He said, keeping a close eye on the waiver wire this week, looking for a veteran NHL forward. Columbus is doing that. And then Aaron says, one name caught my eye on Tuesday Phil

DiGiuseppe who was waived by the Canucks has played in 282 NHL games with Carolina Nashville the New York Rangers and Vancouver so the biggest news as far as the Vancouver Canucks roster year over year goes because PDG was a pretty regular fixture last year 51 regular season games the most he's ever played in a regular season, 11 playoff games, including that sort of famous goal in Game 5 against the Oilers, which was followed by his very emotional interview that he did talking about the difficulties of the birth of his second child. So let's go to Rick Talkett now because Talkett acknowledged yesterday it was a difficult decision to part ways potentially with PDG,

who is on waivers, may or may not be going to Abbotsford. Here's Rick talking on the move. Yeah, I mean, he's a solid guy. He's had a really good camp. There's numbers involved. There's a lot more to it. You know, the cap and this and that. There's a lot of, you know, LTR is over my head.

But, you know, I don't think, you know, I hope he doesn't get picked up, to be honest with you. But he's a guy that I know I hope he doesn't get picked up to be honest with you but he's a guy that I still think if he doesn't get picked he's in the mix like you know so you know he's a he's just an unreal guy so that's a tough one. Talk it sounded a bit like you trying to explain all the complications with setting the opening day roster he's like LTI is it LTI LTI is that what they call it? There's escrow involved. I don't know that either. We're accruing cap space as we speak.

So I do feel bad. Like DJ Seppi was a nice story last year. He's been a nice story for a while. Yeah, quite famously, he broke camp and was all of a sudden the winger with Besser and Miller and was producing at a fairly healthy clip at the beginning of the year and then sort of tailed off. The pace wasn't sustainable. He did appear, as I mentioned, at about two-thirds of the playoff games and scored in the playoffs. His first ever Stanley Cup playoff goal. But, as Rick Talkett said,

one, it's a numbers game. And two, he talked about the depth and how maybe a difficult decision like this wouldn't have been on the table a couple of years ago because they didn't have guys pushing internally to force guys like PDG out yeah do we have that audio right now let's play that right now from Rick Talker where he's talking about how things are different now in Vancouver well yeah I mean Ratz Centerman takes draws you know he's you know you look at guys like can it be sustainable you know there's a couple of

coverage things he made it wasn't mistakes it's stuff that he's going to have to learn so whether it's here or in average you know he's making hard decisions that's the one thing two years ago you know there wasn't really hard decisions now there are so I gotta you know you gotta credit Jim and Patrick for creating it,

and RJ, Dwayne Johnson, creating more depth than harder decisions. Two years ago, I don't think there was many hard decisions. So some guys that are still left, still fighting for a spot on the opening night roster are Atu Ratu. Rats. Rats. Rats. Ratty, as Taket mentioned. But Archeteep Baines is still with

the team as well. He of course got a little bit of action with the club last season. He scored in the preseason. It's funny we were talking about this the other day. We almost forgot about him because we were so focused on the other young guys that are now with the club well ratu's been with the club but we're now just talking about him because he's had such a good off season and he's come in his skating looks better and he's been playing a lot better and he's put himself into the mix to to make this team uh leckermack a story, uh, early on at young stars and early in the preseason. I don't know if the Canucks ever really seriously considered having him on the team to start the season.

Maybe they did, but, um, you know, I think the best move for him is to go down to Abbotsford and see how he does get used to North America, um, and North American style of hockey. And maybe he's a mid-season call-up. Maybe he's a guy that, you know, you can say, well, he's their trade deadline pickup or whatever. I mean, that's getting ahead of ourselves. He's got to go down there. He's got to play.

And Rick Taka mentioned, you know, he needs to win more 50-50 puck battles. And that makes sense. Look at the guy. He's not massive, right? He's going to have to get a little bit stronger, get a little bit smarter when it comes to the North American AHL, NHL game. And hopefully that will come because we all know what he does do well, and that is shoot the puck. and I think he's got a future here in Vancouver. He's just going to take some time. So the Canucks only have one preseason game left, and that's going to be Friday at home against the Edmonton Oilers, and they still have some decisions to make because it could be.

Now, there's all sorts of complications here because now we hear like Suter didn't practice yesterday. So what's his status? Is he a little banged up? We know JT Miller still hasn't played a preseason game. He's expected to play Friday. Hopefully, he'll play Friday. We haven't spent a lot of time on this topic because we don't think it's a particularly big deal.

But if it does become a big deal, we definitely will. But if you're looking at numbers on the Canucks, if they don't want to go into LTI and they will essentially be carrying injured players like Thatcher Demko, Dakota Joshua, and Tucker Pullman on their roster. Right. What people are speculating about, and it just makes sense from a numbers perspective, is they could open the season with just one extra healthy player. So it could be they've got 12 forwards to start the season. No extras there. And remember

they play their first two games at home. Seven defensemen and then two goalies. Possibly. They might go into LTIR. They might feel that they have to do this in order to set their best

possible roster and get off to a good start to the season. But if it is that 12 forwards thing, then to me, I'm looking at the math and I'm going, okay, well, there's one spot probably for either Atu Ratu, Nils Amon, or Arsh Steve Baines. Right. And that's kind of what it's going to be.

It's not a set roster yet. And like you said, it's not the most exciting radio to talk about the one-man roster permutations or a guy getting sent down or papered down the day before the season starts and then magically reappearing the day after. But the big takeaway, and this is interesting because Mike, the urologist from brockville texted in he pushed back a little bit on pdg being a great story last year and said pdg's success last season was a reflection of the lack of depth on the wing rather than his ability

there is i disagree with that i think pdg did a good job of helping set the new culture under rick talkett i think i I push back on it as well. I do think there's probably something to it, is that part of the reason that he was able to play in the most games that he's ever played in the NHL at the age of 30 had a little bit to do with the opportunity that was in Vancouver. And by that, I mean, we talked at length last year. How many good wingers does this team have?

How much depth do they have on the wing? How much depth do they have at forward? Period. And we didn't exactly know where it was going to come from. We hoped, I think everyone hoped, that it was going to come from within because that was sort of the program that Alvin and Rutherford built in Pittsburgh.

Someone texted in, can you guys explain the reasoning why Tucker Pullman wouldn't be on LTIR? I don't understand the reasoning for that when he's definitely not going to be able to play. This is something that we've been talking about way too much for two guys that barely understand the salary cap. The Canucks don't really want to go into LTIR because then you can't accrue cap space. And if you don't spend to the limit, then you get to accrue cap space and it builds up and it builds up.

And it may be a minimal number at the end of the day that you've accrued. It might be less than a million dollars, but it's still something. And then at the trade deadline, what you could in theory do is then go into LTIR and then you've got that space for Tucker Pullman so if they if they don't have to they'd rather not but I suppose it's not the end of the world if they do the Edmonton Oilers are in a similar situation with Evander Kane you know a lot of people might think well he's automatically going to start the season on LTIR, right? Not necessarily. Right. Not necessarily. Okay. So there's your Canucks story as we kind of wait now. I do want to touch on one other thing, though, before we move along to injuries, because this is a nice bridge, as a matter of fact.

JT Miller did speak yesterday about what's going on, because people, I wouldn't say that it's like a full-blown crisis or anything like that in terms of like concern or worry from media and fans. We've mentioned it a couple times, but sort of with a shrug of our shoulders. And even when we've done that, people have pushed back being like, there's nothing to shrug about. It's no big deal. A couple things happened last night or yesterday that put this picture into some clearer context. One is Miller talking about exactly what's going on himself. So without further ado, here is number nine for your Vancouver Canucks,

JT Miller talking about why he hasn't played so far, when he's going to play, and what's going on with his health. Just kind of been taking care of something and not forcing it. We've had a luxury of having some time over the last two weeks, so I'm just trying to be smart. Should be good to go Friday. I've just been taking care of myself and not forcing it, and I'll be ready to go Friday.

That's me being about as honest as I can. So there you have it. Now, I do wonder if part of this has to do either with an abundance of caution or looking around the league and seeing what's going on right now and realizing that abundance of caution is absolutely the way to go because the preseason is too long and means nothing to nobody. So, for example, yesterday, the Montreal Canadiens played the Ottawa Senators in a game that means nothing in the standings and counts for nothing at the end of the day.

A bunch of guys left that game injured because a bunch of guys were going around headhunting each other because bad blood spilled over. So it all began in the first period when, remember Ridley Greig? Ridley Greig, however we want to pronounce his name? Remember? Doing the slapper into the empty net? Right, yeah, yeah. Well, he decided to get under the skin of the Habs yesterday with a very high hit on Kirby Dock.

That drew the ire of Montreal for a couple reasons. One, Dock's had a long history of injuries. He missed almost all of last year. Two, in their previous game, the Habs watched Patrick Leine get taken out with a very questionable hit. So they were already on tilt, right? They were already on edge. So they chased Greg around for the remainder of the first period.

They tried to exact their revenge. Doc actually fought him later in the game, and then Greg had to leave because he got beaten up pretty bad. But they weren't done there. Midway through the second period, Arbor Jack guy decided that he was going to take matters into his own hands again. Because remember, he was

the one that jumped Cedric Paré after he hit Patrick Lynette. Jack guy hit Tim Stutzle with an incredibly vicious chicken wing elbow to the head. Do you know it's being reported via Frank Cervalli? No discipline on it.

That's crazy to me. That is crazy. So Stutzle has to leave the game with a head injury. Brady Kachuk, who jumped into the defense of Tim Stutzle, he got hurt fighting. Arbor Jack guy. So Jack guy takes out two of the Sens best players in one instance. So you're talking about a game in which three players leave due to injury.

And that was after the Montreal Canadiens announced that David Reinbacher was going to be gone for five to six months because he had knee surgery. And Patrick Laine was going to be gone for two to three months. Not a torn ACL on the hit, but a knee sprain that's going to keep him sidelined. Drew Dowdy got hurt in the preseason and late last night in San Jose. The first overall pick in the NHL draft, local boy, Macklin Celebrini. Did he take a fall into the boards? Yep.

They were playing against Utah in an exhibition game, 13-minute mark of the second period. Celebrini went in for a breakaway. He was tripped from behind. He crashed into the boards. He returned to finish his shift, played another minute, and then left the game entirely. He was wincing in pain on the bench. There's another injury. Oh, but wait. We're not

done yet. Another preseason game. Another key injury for the Rangers this time because Artemi Panarin exited Tuesday's game against the New Jersey Devils with a lower body injury in the first period. This is the second time in the preseason that Panarin has left a game with an injury. So this translates nicely into our next topic and that is the Board of Governors meetings because they were asked, Gary Bettman was asked yesterday down in New York, would the NHL

consider shortening the preseason? And to make a long story short, I think the answer is going to be yes with a but. And the but would be that the regular season would be longer. And that's exactly what happened with the NFL a little while ago. They shortened the preseason by a game, but they added on a regular season game. And that's why we now have a 17 game NFL season. Perhaps the bigger picture news in all this is that the NHL's CBA doesn't expire until the summer of 2026. So that's like almost two years from now. But the league is hoping to start negotiating with the PA as soon as this new year, January 1st, 2025. And Gary Bettman even said, if we had this thing done by the Stanley Cup final,

he said, my media availability at the Stanley Cup final. He does that big media thing ahead of game one of the Cup final. He said everyone would be very happy, but he also admitted that it takes two to tango here, and said, that's not a discussion in terms of the timetable that I've had with Marty Walsh, who's now in charge of the PA. And he said, so I don't want to put any unfair parameters on it. It'll be what it'll be. But I think based on the status of our relationship, this will be fine. Now, I think the only thing that could throw a wrench into any possible CBA negotiations would be the topic of expansion fees.

If the players go for them, if the players say, we want a cut of the expansion fees, there's going to be a problem. If they don't, I think they should be able to get it done. When they cut the revenue share, you remember the original salary cap, they had the revenue share something like, I don't know, I can't remember what it was, but it was like, I want to say like 57% towards the players and 43% towards the owners. That caused, you know, that was the lost season. And they came back with that. And then the NHL and the next CBA went, we want even more.

And they cut it down to 50-50, which in hindsight was probably a good thing because it's just easy. You know, it's hard for any side to go, well, I want more than 50-50, right? 50-50 just seems like a good split. Owners get 50% of the revenue. The players get 50% of the revenue. But the expansion fees have always been outside of that. They've always been outside the hockey-related revenue.

So if the players want that, and that could possibly come after this new CBA, there could be a problem. So I think that would be the thing to keep an eye on because I don't know if they're going to expand the NHL. I don't know if they're going to expand until they get a new CBA. And also, Gary mentioned this, the Canadian TV deal is up in a couple of years and that, of course, features our company, Rogers, and how will that look for the league?

And the NBA, you'll remember, said, we're not going to do any expansion until we figure out our rights deal and our CBA stuff. Well, of course, they did that, and then there's still no expansion. So that's why a lot of people expect expansion to come kind of suddenly in the nba it's like i thought you weren't doing this i was like yeah we lied to you we were secretly doing this we're absolutely gonna do it i do wonder if the nhl wants to take care of business first their cba and the tv rights deal but i think it's going to be interesting to see if the players try and go for any of this expansion money.

Yeah. Because if I was the owners, I'd be like, no. No, that's our money. That's our money. That's not hockey-related revenue. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. Let's go to the phone lines now.

We are joined by the head coach of the Vancouver Giants, Manny Viveros, here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Manny. How are you? Morning, guys. I'm doing fine, thank you. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So you've got your fourth game of the season this Friday against Kamloops at the Langley Event Center. You guys are 2-1 to start the season over those three games.

You were a 4-3 win over Seattle, another win over Everett, then a loss to Prince George last Friday, 6-3, but as I understand it, it was a good rally from being 4-0 down. You guys cut it to 4-3 before a couple of empty netters seal the deal. Walk us through your thoughts on the first three games of your season.

Well, no, certainly really pleased that when we started, we won our first two games and and how we did it we really uh you know a lot of our uh our all our nhl guys are still at camps and uh so i was pretty really happy the way uh you know or some of the other players had stepped up and uh you know with some increased ice time really came up and and you know helped us get those two wins here um we had a bit of a hiccup against Prince George having our first game with our NHL players

coming back from camp. But that's to be expected. That happens quite often when you get your guys back from NHL camps. There's a little bit of an adjustment period there, but we've had a really good week of practice here, so we're hoping to rectify this on Friday. Tell us a bit about this Cameron Schmidt kid.

Six goals in three games. That stands out on the score sheet. No, it certainly does. He's been pretty dynamic. You know, Cameron has done a really good job this year. Obviously, he's going to be under everybody's radar on the opposition, so they're playing him really hard. I really like the way Cameron's responding

and dealing with that type of extra workload that the top teams are keying on to the top matchups. He's done a real remarkable job with that. Obviously, when he has the puck, he's really dynamic. Not the biggest guy. Does he have the type of frame that is going to allow him to to put on weight i'm just wondering you know if he keeps scoring like this obviously there's going to be talk about where he's going to go in the nhl draft what does he need to do in order to move his way up that draft well you guys as far as strength wise and size wise like Cameron pound for pound

testing that we do with our groups his explosive power is I think it's I think it's one or two on our team it's right off the charts his his his quick twitch explosive power is is outstanding and and it reminds me when I was with the Oilers, and again, this is not a comparison by any means, but there was another guy who had world-class explosive power on these tests that they do, it was Conor McDavid. And Cameron has, I'm not saying he has Conor McDavid's speed, but he certainly has next-level speed and separation speed.

So as far as being, you know, they say, so to speak, undersized NHL-wise, he's got some strength and some power to him, too. So he's not a kid that if he goes into a corner sometimes that there's going to be contact. A lot of times he's ending up on the positive side of that, too. So that part I'm not worried about and as a you know as a 17 year old he's just going to continue to get stronger and stronger too so one of the some of the stuff that he has naturally physically he has already which is

remarkable the only thing that like anything a young man at that age is that we're trying to teach him what Cameron does with the puck is is, and that's something that a lot of it just comes natural. But for me, it's a lot of things for the young kids going to that next level. He was always playing away from the puck in that 200-foot game here. And Cameron has done a real good job this year. We challenged him at the end of last season. Coming back, this is an area that you need to work on, and he really embraced it and done a remarkable job so far.

Hey, Manny, this is something we've been talking about on the show. And we often make fun of ourselves for having, you know, no ability to focus on anything for more than like three minutes. I don't know if we're on our phones too much or it's just the nature of our business. We're constantly on social media. We got TVs in the studio. So, Halford is constantly distracted by the TVs. Ooh, baseball. Yeah, like he's watching baseball highlights right now.

No offense, Manny. That's what he does. I'm doing the same thing right now. See, he gets it. When you're coaching kids, like, is it – you know, we were talking about a few of the Canucks and, you know, Daniel Sprong's name came up as a guy that it seems like sometimes his challenge is staying in the game. When the puck's not on his stick, he can kind of fall asleep for a second or two. And if you fall asleep for a second or two in the NHL, you're going to get burned. How much of that do you talk about with the kids and just like staying in the game and making sure you have that focus?

And is it harder now than it used to be? Oh, really good question. I totally agree with your analogy. That's certainly a challenge for the young players, you know, coming from the CHL or college, going to the next level as far as American Hockey League. And it's such a huge jump from these levels to the American Hockey League here. But what I found through my experience here is what separates these players

or makes them stay at that next level and not just stay, but thrive at that next level is exactly what you're talking about too. So these kids are all talent. They're coming from, you know, a lot of these kids from the Western League and the CHL, they're coming here and they're used to scoring maybe 50 or 60 goals at this level there. But that doesn't automatically translate, and very seldom does it translate

to that next level in the American Hockey League. So you're going to get everybody bumping up to that next level who have that capability at the level that they were the year before. But what separates is your complete game. And that's something, you know, you look at the, you always model yourselves up to NHL hockey teams. You look at the complete teams and, you know, their core, their main core are some of the best two-way players in the world. And that's why they're so successful here.

So that's something that we try to help our players with from day one and continue stressing that throughout there. I'm fortunate to have been at those levels where I've seen that firsthand, and our kids really embrace it and they understand it, and they try to really improve on it. Everybody wants to score goals. Everybody wants the flashy plays and stuff like that, but it's that complete game that's going to give you an opportunity for your team to

win first and foremost at this level, but also get to that next level. Manny, when you start a season, do you have a theme to the season? Something that, whether it's a slogan or something that you really want to hammer home with the team and maybe you and the coaches get together and say, okay are the three things we're gonna we're gonna keep repeating um do you do something like that uh because sometimes it's just easier if you have you know it's almost like political propaganda you get three short messages and you just keep repeating them over and over again hopefully you win some people over yeah no, no, we certainly do. We certainly, you know, this year, having last year

coming in so late, just before the season last year, and there certainly is a grace period from my part of getting to know the kids and getting to know the league again. And having that full year under belt, I really thought that towards the end of last season we were starting to create our own

identity within our group and stuff. And obviously every year you have a different turnover that gap, but from day one, or even the summertime, we start talking with the kids periodically is that we're trying to get that message through and how we want to play. And, you know, for one of the, you know,

one of the words that we use is relentless puck pressure. That's something I think that, you know, we want to be, style ourselves after as far as a real hard forechecking team and a track team that's always coming back. And we don't want to sit back by any means. So that's something that we've been driving home with our group, and especially in the starts of practices.

And a lot of our practices are those types of drills where we're relentlessly pursuing pucks and everything at over speed, so to speak. And our kids, I can see since a month of training camp of how much they've improved in that area like that too. But it is a mindset. It takes time, but I'm certainly encouraged by it. Is there any other way to play the game these days? Relentless puck pressure.

I see this at the minor hockey level, 13- and 14-year-olds, and I'm shocked at how quick the game is and how quickly they'll stop on pucks and just be constantly moving out there. We all remember the days of the left-wing lock or whatever it was when you're sitting back and waiting for the team to come at you. It doesn't seem like there are many teams that play that style anymore. No, I think if you do, you know, if you do play that kind of that old style, there's

always a bit of a blend and a mixture of everything also to the fine lines, certainly, though. But I think you get left behind. And if you just, again, if you look at all the National Hockey League teams over the years that have won Stanley Cups, that's probably one of their staples of their group or their identity of their team is how they pursue the puck. And Florida was last year probably the best forechecking team in all of NHL last year, which obviously finished off with a Stanley Cup final or Stanley Cup championship.

It's the same thing. You know, there's speed and, you know, there's what you call a collective connected group altogether, a group of five working together here. So I think that's something, the way the game has been trending over the last five or six years, I think it's made the game that much better. It's exciting. It really is exciting. There's always a, the game is fast paced. And that's the way I think it should be played. The kids must have to be incredible shape to play that style.

They, they are, you know, the, the way the, well, you know, guys, there's an example of self, like, you know, going back even 10 years or, you know, how these, the kids have changed their training and how dialed in and professional they are at their training. These kids are off-season. They're spending it with qualified, high-end, off-ice trainers, and these kids are coming into camp,

and they're fine-tuning their conditioning, but for the most part, they're all coming in in excellent condition. We're speaking to Giants head coach Manny Viveros here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Manny, how closely are you following the work that your former captain, Sam Hanzik, is doing at Calgary Flames camp in preseason thus far? Oh, yeah, we're watching all the time. We were really impressed and not surprised either.

You know, Sam with us last year came off a pretty serious injury when he came back from Calgary last year. It took him a long time to get going. And then with, you know, with the World Juniors and everything else, you know, for a long time, it was a lot for him just to get settled in again. But he's had a full summer of training and getting himself in great condition. It's one of the things I heard he came back in outstanding physical conditioning here. And what I like about more than anything right now is he looks like he's got his legs back.

And we talk about a guy that, you know, he's going to make his money with his legs. He does have that extra gear, that separation speed, so to speak, and there's something that if he continues to develop like that, he's going to be a pretty formidable player in the National Hockey League. And finally, before we let you go, Kamloops comes to town on Friday. For those listening, it's a 7 o'clock puck drop at the Langley

Event Center. Let's set the stage for that one. What are you expecting from the Blazers on Friday? Well, I just think what we played them, I don't know how many times last year, it was eight times for sure. They might have played them in the exhibition also too, but with their team and their identity, they were last year in, I guess, a rebuild, so to speak,

and they're going to be a pretty young team again though, but you wouldn't know the age with their group. That's how hard they compete every single night here. So we're playing there or here we know we're in one every single night here and if you're not ready to be prepared and get physical and skate so to speak then you can get left behind here so it's always an exciting game against Kamloops and it's certainly obviously a rivalry that's been built up over the years. Manny we both checked our phones approximately four times during this interview. We have a problem. We need coaching.

Hopefully you can help us out with that one day. But thanks for taking the time to join us. Always fun to chat hockey with you. Good luck on Friday. Thanks, guys. Always a pleasure. Manny Viveros, head coach of the Western Hockey League's Vancouver Giants here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. To the phone lines we go. Brett Festerling joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. To the phone lines we go. Brett Festerling joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Morning, Brett. How are you? Hey, good morning. Thanks for having me, guys. Yeah, thanks for coming on. We appreciate you taking the time. So the big news for the Vancouver Canucks yesterday, Phil DiGiuseppe gone, placed on waivers with the hope of getting him through

to Abbotsford. No sign that he will do that, at least not yet. We won't find out until 11 a.m. our time. So it was an interesting conversation that Rick Tockett had about this. It's tough for him because he said Phil is a quote-unquote unreal guy and he'd love to have him stick around in the organization. Tockett also astutely pointed out that a couple years ago, maybe when he first got on the job,

they wouldn't have had these kind of tough decisions to make because there wasn't the depth in the organization. Based on what you've seen from the preseason so far, how impressed are you with the depth that the Canucks have that they might not have had in previous seasons? Yeah, it's trending in the right direction, that's for sure. I think it's a harsh reality for those guys that it is a business in the end of the day, right? You put in a storybook year like Phil had last year, and he was a heart and soul guy and a fan favorite, I think,

by just his work ethic on an daily basis. So it was fun to watch and then to see him maybe just get pushed out. I'm not necessarily because he played bad, but just because of new additions and young guys coming up. It's a tough pill to swallow, but hopefully somebody saw that on another team that is part of the business

is there's opportunities elsewhere when you do put in that effort to get those eyeballs. We'll see at 11, I guess. Brett, do you think Autu Rodgers is going to make the team? I like him I mean I think it comes down to

I guess you've got five serviceable lines right now if you put Suter and Joshua back in so Ratu is essentially for me competing for that fourth line center spot against Oman so where do you think he slots in?u has doesn't

have waivers so that helps omar but his i think face offs have been kind of his intangible so far he's been so good on draws in the preseason that does add a lot to especially a puck possession game now so he showed maturity you know there was a lot of talk in past years about his speed and his feet. That seems to improve, and he's worked on that. He looks good. I wouldn't be surprised if they do keep him around to at least give him a shot. But, again, that goes to who do you send down and who do you subject to possibly waivers.

And is it worth Ratu getting a shot over possibly losing an Oman or somebody like that? So I don't know. I've been impressed so far. I think he's looked very mature for his age, and I really love the Finns and Swedes in that age group because of what they've done in the minor hockey in the last, call it, eight to ten years.

So we'll see. It's exciting times. Again, yeah, you're right. There's hard decisions there that the coaches have to make. It's exciting, but it's a tough part of the job. Do you like the idea of Daniel Sprong with Petey and DeBrusque? I do to start, definitely. I mean, we always knew, or it seems like everybody's always known,

he has this offensive upside. I think it's nice for Petey to get guys with creativity. I don't think he's just got to play with in terms of how he sees the ice and how skilled he is. And to have a guy that does have that creativity level to keep up is not easy to find, especially at that price point. So if Sprong can hold his own there i think it's great to try give him the shot see if he can run with it you know um but again

those it comes down to those non-negotiables that we've heard week in and week out for over a year now a year and a half from from talk it so sprung's definitely going to have to dig into that part of the game from what i've seen small sample size and pre-season he's been pretty good at that side and and is committed to that side but when the puck drops regular season here it's a different ball game and and the consequences go up so give him a shot and see how he does. What are the alternatives to Sprong with Petey and DeBrusque? I mean, Hoaglander looked good. I mean, he was serviceable last year. I think maybe the playoffs left a bad taste in people's mouth.

But then if you go Ratu, Hoaglander, and Garland, that's probably been my favorite line to watch in the preseason. They've had a lot of chances, a lot of energy. Hoaglander's been that wrecking ball where he's still playing physical and seems to have that edge and always seems to be in that pile in front of the net or in the wall where Myers is coming in and putting guys on the glass. I don't know.

Dude Hoaglander or somebody like that sure would look fast. You could maybe try to put him on the wall, but that's probably the kind of a Lafferty replacement in terms of trying to get speed and open space along the walls and go to the net. So I think Sprong's probably your best option right now. Then you got Hoaglander in the wings

and then see where you go from there. But yeah, it all comes back to more depth and more options. We're speaking to Canucks radio analyst, Brett Festerling here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Brett, let's turn our attention to the blue line here. Thoughts on the play? I know it's been a limited sample size,

but Vincent Desjardins, kind of an interesting character, a bit of a late bloomer. We talked to a couple of people out of Edmonton who were quite high on his potential moving forward. What have you seen out of DeJarne that you either liked or don't like, and how do you think he will pan out this season and beyond for the Canucks? Well, he's big. I don't know if you guys saw that part.

He's big. He's a big boy. And four of it, too. I mean, they've been okay. Like, you watch Calgary games. i can't even tell if he's in the calgary game now to be honest with you but i think as a whole that bodes well for day or nay is the simplicity they played with last year i think there's so much talk about guys like myers and some of the size and not being able to be mobile or fast or whatever you want to call it. And then last year you saw the simplicity of the D and just boxing out, getting plays going north fast, not overcomplicating paths,

making play when it's there. And they seem to speed up. The game seemed to go faster. They did a really good job of boxing out. They took care of simple jobs that allowed forwards to support or break pucks out. So I think as a group and leaning on their system, it may be really simplify their games,

but it elevated the overall play of that group of six or group of seven. So I think Darnay and Forbert too, you can throw in that. Once they get more acclimated to this system as a team and simplifying it and really boxing out, I think that's where they have problems against the Calgary game. But once they dig into that, I think those guys will be very solid back there and just fall into that culture that Canucks keep trying to build here.

So I've liked the size. I think the mobility was better than I expected, and I expect expected to improve especially as a group just because of that system that they have implemented and then foot back there and then the whole group you had depth on the forward group which should be your support down low and just skill moving that puck out of the zone I think that whole group should get better with that. It does sound like, though, that Token and the coaching staff wants to get the defensemen more involved offensively.

And I suppose the challenge for them is to not harm all the success that they had last season by simplifying the game, by then asking them to do too much. Is there a way that you can balance that, keeping the simplicity that worked last season, but also asking them to do a bit more? Yeah, I think it's just little details, following up plays,

to maybe add that second or third wave, and then having the proper support. I think that doesn't take a huge change. It's just a mentality of, okay, I need to be another wave here, so let that go up, but not kind of be slow up the ice, make sure I'm supporting up there and finding those lanes. I don't think I want, you you know they're in a leading rushes i don't think that's good for anybody to be honest with you but but yeah i think they can

just jump up and be a part of the play and really just add a depth to that that's not going to change too much but should at least pull back checkers off or give you that extra call it you know one or two goals or opportunities per week per four games you're just looking for a slight edge just to get a little more offense make sure that forwards are worried about that that that do over back check and make it hard on your forwards for the rush game or getting penalized by another wave of D-men coming in. So it just helps balance out the attack. Again, it all goes to depth and just trying to build on what they did last year because you're right, they were so good in their simplicity last year.

I don't think they want to mess that up, but they can add just a slight level that shouldn't overcomplicate it. Brent, in your experience, you played for a few coaches during your pro career. What is the variance in terms of coaches allowing their players to play freely versus really being micromanagers? Like, you know, I mean, we often talk about the difference between, say, Bruce Boudreau and Rick Tockett, but, you know, and Bruce was known as the guy that lets his players play, and Rick Tockett came in and, you know, kind of gave them a little more direction,

and there were some more non-negotiables. How far does the range go among the typical coach? Well, I think it's like anything in life, life really you have the outliers that are on each side where you know there's very structured system 2-1-2 la and then there's bruce budros that are kind of let's let's play free and you know chains are off go to you guys are the hockey players and i've played for um yeah i've played for both i've played for don hay that's super structured and i've played for um i can't even pronounce the last thing gus swedish uh coach that that did was the coach for the gold medal team in 2006 oh my history's terrible for this but uh but he was completely go play. He wouldn't even bring a board out and draw a plan.

He's like, you guys are the hockey players. Go score a goal. So it goes each way. I think you need a fine balance like anything in life, and most coaches are going to fall somewhere in between, and that's where your assistant coaches come in too. You can play the good cop, bad cop. One guy's more structured.

One can let you be a little more free. But Tuckett seems great in terms of if you have the play, make it. You have the skills to do it, do it. But there's going to be certain circumstances that we need certain plays to happen throughout the lineup.