Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 10/25/24

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they talk the latest around the Canucks with Donnie & Dhali's Rick Dhaliwal. 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. Even though the Canucks signed Pedersen, I think they felt there was another level that they felt they needed to get him to. You get a nice soft bun, and then it just kind of accentuates the meat. Within five minutes, Niagara Falls comes right out of your butt. Straight water, 100 miles an hour. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Friday. Sweet, the weekend. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brougham 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. Soar feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec, the guest list today begins at 6.30. Brady Henderson, our NFL Seahawks insider from ESPN, is going to join us. It's the Seahawks insider from ESPN is going to join us. It's the Seahawks. It's the Bills. It's maybe the best game of a pretty lame weekend slate of NFL games.

Not going to lie. This one is probably the marquee game of the week. The Bills come into Seattle as three-point road favorites. We'll talk to Brady Henderson about that at 6.30. 7 o'clock, AJ from AJ's Pizza. The spot to be tonight for Game 1 of the World Series. AJ's on East Broadway. AJ, big Yankees fan.

It's a shrine to the Yankees in there. We'll talk to AJ at 7. 7.05, Sean Gentile from The Athletic in Pittsburgh. Penguins are in town tomorrow night to take on the Vancouver Canucks. After being in Edmonton to take on the Oilers tonight, we'll talk to Sean about all that. 7.30, it's the Moj. Yes, it's the Moj. Yes, it's the Moj.

Bob the Moj Marjanovic. No Lions game this weekend. The Lions will find out who they are going to play in the Western Semi-Final. And Moj has an interesting take on where he wants to go for that game. So we'll talk to Moj about that at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall for his usual hit

where he yells at us about this and that. $50 gift card to White Spot is up for grabs today. That'll go to caller number three at a time we choose. We're not going to tell you when. We're just going to pop it on you. We're just going to announce. We're going to throw it right at you. The only key to this thing is that you can't have won anything from Sportsnet 650 over the last 90 days.

If you call in and you have, you will be punished accordingly. If you haven't, you'll win $50 to White Spot. Finally, finally, it's Ask Us Anything Friday. So that means we're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's for the best Ask Us Anything or best what we learned. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. Text in throughout the show. Hashtag it WWL or

AUA and put a pizza emoji into your text. You'll be entered into the contest to win a $100 gift card to AJ's. That is what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? 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.

It was a day off for the Vancouver Canucks yesterday. Didn't have to come to the rink. They could stay at home. Except Eric Brandstrom and Arshdee Baines, who were sent to Abbotsford. Although maybe just in paper form, because we're not sure if this is a demotion just for salary cap purposes,

or if there'll be roster tweaks today when the Canucks return to practice. Do you remember when everyone would talk about weaponizing cap space? I do. Those days are gone. It's about accruing cap space now. You got to accrue it.

You don't want to weaponize it. That's for rebuilding teams. I'm just doing hand gestures over here. You don't want to weaponize. You just want to accrue it. Which is, I guess, what you get. What's the hand gesture for accrue? Just bring it together.

Bring it together. Bring it together. Yeah. Bring it together. Accruate. Gotcha. Accruate. So, yeah, I think Sat said yesterday, or someone on the station said that they're expected.

One of those other people that work here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bick? Is that someone? Eric Brandstrom will get recalled before the game on Saturday against the Penguins. I don't know about Baines. I don't think Baines, well, based on the Dunbar-Lumber text line,

I don't think Baines has won over a lot of the fans with his play. But Taka and the coaching staff and management really have clearly seen something that they like from him. At the very least, it's certainly possible that Talkett might trust Baines defensively more than he does a guy like Daniel Sprong. I know the last practice that they had a couple days ago, Baines was skating on the fourth line and Sprong was an extra with Dakota Joshua. So I don't know what this means for saturday's game against the pittsburgh penguins baines might stay down in the hl he might come right come right back up uh it doesn't really matter i suppose uh it'll i guess it does but

we'll figure it all out um i'm gonna be curious to see if um derrick forbort is back with the group today at practice and what that means if he is back. I know there were some reports out there that he might be ready to return to the Vancouver Canucks. So we'll see if he shows up today at practice and whether or not he would play right away for the Canucks because he has been away for a little while for a personal reason. So we'll see if he's at practice.

I know that a lot of people see Forbort and De'Arne as kind of like the same. You're like, yeah, they're those two new guys that we don't like as much as Zdorov, Vini, and Cole. Yeah, they're both tall. I think Forbort is different than De'Arne. I think Forbort is a more established NHL-er than De'Arne. So I don't think you should necessarily treat those guys the same in your mind. Look, so I listened to and followed along on social media

everything that was said about the Pedersen, JT Miller, um, scuffle at practice. For Fuffle. And I didn't really want to come in today and talk more about it because I think everything's been said. Um, the consensus among the fans I've seen is that it wasn't a big deal. Nothing to see here. Lots of, uh, you know, there's guys in my work that it wasn't a big deal. Nothing to see here. Lots of, you know, there's guys in my work that I don't get along with,

and sometimes we have a fight, but we respect each other. So, you know, I've heard all the takes. I've heard what was reportedly said, and, you know, I was going to come in here and say, like, Halford and I fight all the time. Like, we, you know, but I don't think that was going to add anything. It's kind of funny. Like, but we do like we have big time arguments. I punched him in the face the other day.

Yeah. Right in front of HR. Yeah. And you know what? Nothing about it. He's got such a weak punch that nothing on my face. It's more of an open-handed slap. It was a slap.

It was a slap. Use the glove and challenge him to a duel. People do argue at work, but by me saying that doesn't really add anything to the conversation. I did think that I was like, if it was a couple other players, not a big deal. But we all know that Miller and Pedersen are kind of, they're different personalities, right?

And they've even had to come out and say, look, in the past, like, look, we're not best friends, but we can work together, et cetera, et cetera. And then I wake up this morning, and apparently Elliot Freeman has talked about it. And he added some, I think, important context to the situation around Elias Pettersson.

So whether you like it or not, we're going to talk more about this guy. We're ready to talk about Peter. Okay, so let me set this up. 32 Thoughts dropped. I actually think it might still be like cooking up in the lab. I don't know. No, they just released it 10 minutes ago.

Okay, so 32 Thoughts has dropped. Because we're such valued employees of the company, they let us listen to it ahead of time. Freed starts out the pod by talking about that he's noticed there's a rise in temperature and a lack of patience and there's a lot of angst around the nhl that even though we're only two and a half weeks into the season yeah bruins maple leafs and by the way those two teams play on saturday so that's going to be interesting but you saw jim mont Jim Montgomery yelling at Brad Marchand

and then Brad Marchand afterwards saying, hey, it's not a big deal. Like, I don't know why everyone makes such a big deal out of this. People are soft now. Y'all are just soft. Soft. Brad is like the boomer of the NHL now. It's hilarious.

Which I respect. And then Craig Berube yesterday lit up his first line after, and he said afterwards, we're getting too cute out there. And suddenly the Leafs have had a couple of stinkers in a row. So it's interesting here because in those two instances of this, temperature rising, anger rising, patience wearing thin, it's the head coach delivering the message. In this instance in Vancouver, Freed notes, though,

it's not the head coach or the general manager or the president of Hockey Ops that's delivering the message to Elias Pettersson. So you're saying there was a message being sent? I thought it was nothing. I thought it was just a couple guys that were practicing hard, practicing with an edge. I thought there was nothing more to see here.

Let me set it up how Freach set up. He started out with this anecdote about sales and service. Nicole's Notes version is, when you're trying to woo someone's business, that's the sales part of the process. You tell them how much you love them. You tell them how great the relationship's going to be. You're going to tell them all the things you're going to offer. You're selling yourself, and in turn, they're selling themselves to you

in a way. That's the sales part. That's the dance. That's the love in part. Then there's the service part. And that's after the sale is complete. And that's when it's harder to get someone on the phone. Maybe you're not feeling the love all the time.

Maybe the relationship isn't as rosy as you made it out to be during the sales part of it maybe there needs to be some work on the relationship that you don't mention during the sales part that's the service part so in setting all that up i'm now going to turn the microphone over to elliot friedman discussing what's going on with the canucks elias petterson and some of his teammates even though though the Canucks signed Patterson, I think they felt there was another level or two levels that they felt they needed to get him to. I think it was felt that as great as he is, they needed him to be tougher.

I don't know if meter is the right word, but tougher. Now, some people are not wired that way, but I think they felt he was wired that way and is wired that way, but they had to encourage him to get there. And what I also believe, young Bukaskas, is that they didn't want it to be up to Rutherford or Alvin or Talkett to do it. They really believe in their leadership group. They believe that Hughes is a strong captain. And they believe that Miller is a strong alternate captain. And that their group is a strong group. And I think they said,

you guys are the ones that are going to have to do it. And Miller's obviously taking that very literally. I think in that practice, and I think there have been some talks off the ice, but I think Hughes is involved too. I just think that Hughes would take that so seriously as a responsibility of his is, I think you're insane if you don't think that he is trying to do that too.

Now, I think there are limits. You can't go too far, but we've seen Montgomery push Marchand. We've seen Berube push the Maple Leafs. I think the Canucks see it as it might be better for Pedersen if it comes from his teammates as opposed to the coach or the GM. I think what the Canucks have said to their leadership group is, Elias needs to get to another level you all see it and we want you guys to get him there and I think they see it they understand it and they're

trying to push him there and I think the message comes harder from some guys Miller as opposed to other guys like Hughes but I think that's the goal here so when we talk about the current makeup of the team we've discussed this on a number of occasions there are the leaders on the team and through the first handful of games in this regular season Hughes and Miller in particular have really stamped their authority on a variety of games and have been directly involved in like wins and losses in the case of Miller there was that one one where it went the other way and it was a bad play but I digress the interesting wrinkle now is that on top of being tasked with you know carrying the team on certain occasions they're also going to be

propped up with having to get the third member of the triumvirate up to that level. What did Freach say, though? That was like, they don't think he's tough enough. Yeah. I mean, I don't think that's anything like revolutionary. I think toughness in that instance probably means a lot of different things. Physically tough, mentally tough. I think it's probably like your approach to the game.

You know? The toughness to block out the noise and handle the pressure. I say the latter more than the former. Like the mental toughness angle. Probably. Because, I mean, Petey's like shown physicality. He throws hits on occasion.

Like he's not that, Bobby's not the biggest guy, but he can play with an edge if he so chooses and he has in the past. It sounds like it's more of like a mental toughness thing. The most interesting thing to me about all of this is that it's not going to be Tuckett that's doing it. So now I'm on watch,

and I want to see that dynamic play itself out, because you know what's going to have to happen. If it's not going to come from Tuckett, he's going to have to be restrained, he's going to have to show restraint when it comes to talking about the player. Are he's going to have to be restrained, restrainful. Like he's going to have to show restraint when it comes to talking about the player. Are he using Miller, good cop, bad cop?

Is that the scenario? Maybe. Yeah, maybe. Miller's like, come on, play harder. He's just like, he didn't mean it. He just really loves you

and wants you to do well. It could be, but they're being tasked with it. Yeah. You know, and that's an interesting dynamic. Yeah. I've never,

I've never, I've never come across this. It's very strange. This whole thing is just very unusual. To be fair, this is- Well, it's probably because they're getting desperate. They're like, we just signed this guy to a really big contract. We need him to play better.

Please help us because we don't know what to do. You know what we're going to have now. We're going to have this whole debate about how you quote-unquote toughen up somebody is it through actions like you know you know show me show me show me like like what maybe what JT Miller was doing a practice or does it come more from for certain personalities does it come through positive reinforcement yeah I mean look it's not like this is the unheard of dynamic before. It's just basically, do you let the coach coach? I mean, A.V. used to do this all the time where he's like,

you guys figure it out. Like, the players are going to lead the way here, and I'm not going to be the one to come down, fire him brimstone, and say, you got to be better, and you got to do this, and you got to do that. You know why? Because it's easy to tune out a coach, and also, players got to be better and you got to do this and you got to do that. You know why? Because it's easy to tune out a coach and also players can get coaches fired. Well, I don't think you should run with this angle too much.

Like I don't think Taka is going to be hands off with Petey. I don't think he's not going to try and coach him. But I'm not saying that. I don't think he's going to leave it all up to the players. I know Freed said he wants the players to do it and not the management and not the coaching staff. But I think the coaching staff is still going to be very much involved but the players I think have been tasked with this assignment as well and I don't know how Pedersen is going to feel when he hears all this

and you know he's going to hear all this that why does he listen to this stuff yeah apparently like how would you feel if it came out that uh your teammates don't feel you're tough enough so i mean that's that's the whole thing like i know we often bring it back to like uh coaching kids because that's what we do and you know but but like you've been coaching kids long enough that you know that sometimes yelling at some kids some of them i think the minority of them will actually be like all right i'm going to show you now this is young kids granted but most kids i would say will shrink from that yep they will they will big time shrink and i know a lot of them will be like i don't like hockey anymore i don't i don't

i don't like soccer anymore because i'm getting yelled at can i can i throw something else you know is this is this a wrong way to go down it like i i you know you know what i mean like are we tackling it from the wrong perspective am i tackling it from the wrong perspective here no i don't know if yelling at pd and and and barking at him in practice and calling him names and practice is gonna is gonna bring out the best in him but you know what else we've done coaching kids especially when you get to an age where they take it a little bit more seriously and they're playing at a higher level is you say uh name a captain of any team because what it does is it puts one kid in the position of oh wow i have

i have to take charge of things or i usually did like two or three the interesting thing is to watch kids respond to when one of their peers is telling them something as opposed to when a coach is telling them something because it's a totally different dynamic because also it's the way that the quote-unquote leaders of the team deliver your message you don't know how they're going to do it you can tell them how you want them to but they're kids you don't know what they're going to find do you find it as the kids get older is it more effective when one of the peers delivers it yes a hundred percent there's something different about being yelled at by one not being yelled at but being told something by someone that

if for kids is the same height as you has the same like yeah physical dimensions and everything that it's just different and i don't know i can't really explain it i'm not that good with the words but um it's pure pressure it's pure pressure part of it is pressure but also part of it is that's when they feel the sense of letting somebody down yeah because it's a teammate. If it's a coach, it's like, well, I think subconsciously kids can figure out like,

well, you're a grown adult. You, how much skin do you really have in this game? They've already let you down like 10 times. It's like, I've just been a constant disappointment based on everything you've told me this season.

So why would anything change? So we got a lot of texts into the Dunbar Lember text line. One text asks the question, is Friedman just speculating hard to imagine he is getting inside info on something like that. No, it's not. It's a lot of speculation if so. It's not. It's not hard to imagine whatsoever.

I trimmed that down for 12 minutes. That he's getting inside information on that. I'm sure he's like, have you heard Rutherford speak? Like he can be pretty candid. Here's the thing. The Canucks are, if they're not worried about this situation. They are very worried about it. They're clearly like, oh my God, we just made this massive investment in this guy.

And so you hear all the analytics guys coming on and going like, this is unprecedented. We don't see this sort of thing from a 25-year-old. Maybe if he was 30 years old and you'd be like, oh, maybe the aging curve has hit him like extra hard or early. Like this is not typical of anything. So when he, when, when Brough keeps saying like, I've never seen anything like this and it's unprecedented, he's right in that, what he just said. The timing of all this is so bizarre and so unprecedented

because they just made, just made a long-term commitment. It's like proposing to marry someone and then a month later being like, do we want to talk about that guy you're seeing on the side? You know what I mean? It's like you made this huge commitment

and then you're going to go back and work out some of the very big details, right? Is this not similar to what happened with Pierre-Luc Dubois? Big contract, totally different player once he started playing. Kings, the Kings contract. Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. I would say it's unprecedented.

Well, it's unprecedented because there wasn't this very public splash where the team was trying to work out Pierre-Luc Dubois because he plays in Los Angeles, right? They may have been doing it behind the scenes. They may have had Kopitar and Dowdy like poking and prodding them and cross-checking them in practice, but we never heard about it. Okay, help me figure this out here then. Okay.

Why did they sign him to this deal then? If they knew that this was... As Freed said, they thought that the skill level and the talent were there, which they are. Yeah. And they thought that there was another level to get to. So I think the thinking was, however flawed it might have been, that you sign him, you give him that security and you let him know that he's here for the long haul.

And then you start the process of, OK, let's get him to the point where when we talk about this team, the big three equal in terms of how they drive the team are Miller, Hughes, Pedersen. That was my take on the whole thing. Now, it could be way off. It seems like kind of a gamble, though. I mean, if you know that he's maybe not fully mentally engaged. But what was the alternative was also a gamble, which was trade him.

And when you trade him, obviously, you probably lose that trade. Yeah. It just, it's the, you know, with contracts and with extensions, this is the, it's all inherent risk. There's no layups except for McDavid, I would say. That's the only one where you're like, I think we know what we're getting here. Let's give them all the money. We don't have any worries.

And then this is different. This is something that they are... Obviously, obviously, there's a level of concern. I think that goes without saying distraction that's i am very curious to see how this plays out mostly from a coaching perspective i always find the coaching the most interesting part right because talk it is going to have to walk a fine line here because given talk its personality especially you know that he is a straightforward hard-ass old school i played in the, I know what it takes, I did it this way, I won cups. And what's more, he's got a guy on the team that he sees those values in,

in Quinn Hughes. We played the, he reminds me of Sidney Crosby audio the other day. That's the highest compliment he can play. So that makes it even more, if he had a team of rudderless ships, talk it, I think it might be a little bit easier to step back and be like, all right, we're all finding our way. But you've got a guy in Hughes

that is young, that is matured, that has grown into all the roles that he's been handed. Number one defenseman, captain of the team, in a Canadian market, and he's thrived.

Maybe glass half full as this works. Like it does light a fire under Pet P and it does get him going. Oh, I mean, I hope so. I very much hope so. But we'll see what happens. This is going to be an interesting game on Saturday, isn't it? Yes. Because the Canucks have been off for

so long. I wonder how the Penguins are actually going to show up to this one because they play tonight in Edmonton, and there's a lot of hype around McDavid versus Crosby, and you probably heard yesterday those two throwing roses at each other, McDavid being like, oh, Sid's the obvious captain for Team Canada, and Sid saying that's very nice, and Connor,

you're a good hockey player too, and you mean a lot to the country, et cetera, et cetera. So obviously, you know, Friday night, that's going to be a big deal in Edmonton with Sid in town. And I'm just wondering, you know, how much the Penguins are going to put into that game because it's Connor McDavid. And then they also have, you know, Saturday night, there are two very high profile hockey games.

One at four o'clock our time, Boston and Toronto, and both those teams have really run into issues. The Boston fans are pissed at their team right now. Yeah, they don't like them. They don't like Zdorov, that contract. I don't think they're particularly in love with Lindholm either.

They are not. They don't like the way their team is playing right now. And then the Leafs, who I think started out really well. I know they lost to Montreal in that first game, but that was all Montembeau. They dominated that game, and then they... Did they win their next four or something? Four or five

or something like that? They started 3-1, and now they're 4-4. They've lost two straight and three or four. So they got blown out by Columbus, and then last night, they got, at least on the score sheet, they got blown out by Columbus and then last night they got at least on the score sheet that got blown out by St. Louis in Toronto and that's Craig Berube's former team and he lit up his first line and he's saying how they're playing cute hockey and this is kind of like what we all predicted what would happen when Craig Berube started coaching the Leafs he was gonna be like

all right he's gonna try and turn these guys guys into just more of like a hardworking blue-collar type, and we'll be curious to see if he's successful in that regard. So you've got Leafs and Bruins at 4 o'clock, and then you've got Canucks and Penguins at 7 o'clock our time. Both those games, like the attention on pedersen in that game you know the broadcast is going to go out of its way to really make pedersen the story oh dude it's my first game of the season i'm going to be watching that canucks bench with a fine-tooth comb if that's the saying i can't watch anything with a comb in it's extremely difficult yeah you just comb

will block your eyes you don't see anything anything. I'm not seeing very well. That is one thousand percent not the way... Watch this bench with the fine-tooth comb. Guys, I can't see anything. Want some binoculars, Andy? Nope, I've got my comb.

It's really dark. Let's go out on a high note with that. I don't know what to say. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Rick Dollywall.

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

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

Happy Friday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda, North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a... Sorry, go on. The Dunbar Lumber text line is an absolute mess. Why did you pause?

Because I'm reading something. I thought Frank Cervelli was on. I'm reading something. It's just standard pause. I was also trying to catch my breath. I'm reading something. It's just standard pause. I was also trying to catch my breath. Halford likes a dramatic pause. That's how you really hammer home the Pacific Honda part.

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There's no argument. Okay. Rager is a peasant trying to compare a potato tureen to scallop potatoes. Go eat your potatoes out of a box, Rager. All right. We're coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.

Sore feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec, to the phone lines we go. Rick Dollywell joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Rick? Gentlemen, how's it going? Good, how are you? Lovely. Couldn't be better. What did you make of the scuffle?

I know you wanted to talk about it. This isn't just me bringing it up. I know you wanted to talk about it. Well, do you really believe that in a Canadian market, when two high-profile Canucks get in a tiff at practice, that we're not going to talk about it? Like, this isn't Columbus this isn't Carolina come on guys and I'll tell you something else Canucks are very lucky

there's no video of them going at each other because it would have been blown up 10 times more nationally a story with video breathes a whole lot more fire 10 times more than a story without video so the Canucks kind of lucked out there. But look, rumors of these two players having a rift has been out there since the Travis Green days. Boudreaux as well. The team's well aware of it. The agents are well aware of it. The media is well aware of it. You have to live under a rock if you haven't heard, you know, that a possible rift with these two guys. And Miller acknowledged as much in an interview with Ian McIntyre last year saying you know he's still working on his relationship with Pedersen most people I talked to last night in the hockey world didn't have a problem with it

did we not see a fight in Buffalo in practice a couple of weeks ago yeah we did it happens in minor hockey junior hockey at all levels I guarantee you, though, next game, Miller will be the first one to defend Pettersson if needed. Most did not think it was a big deal. The more pressing issue right now, Jason, for me, is not the fight. It's getting Pettersson playing like he's a difference maker. His interview a couple of days ago with Farhan Lalji, it looked like he'd rather be in 40 other places. He needs to smile. He needs to laugh and enjoy the game more.

I've not seen that lately. He's had a rough start to the season. Production's down. Then free room reports. He's letting the media and social media get to him. And now the Miller thing. By the way, somebody said to me, look, you've got to get thicker skin. If you're going to play hockey in Vancouver,

and look, you guys and myself, we have public jobs. We get it. You know, we've got to have thicker skin, too. Twitter is a vicious animal. It's a vicious place to be sometimes. But guess what? We have public jobs.

We get ripped, just like, you know, the players do. You've got to get thicker skin. If they can't get him back on track, playing like he was before the Neat 10 to Nice last year, that's where the focus should be. Right now, they're spending too much time on this guy, whether it's the coach saying he's got to move his feet more, he's got to win more battles of practice, he's got to take more shots on his own. Now Miller's trying to get him going. I just see a guy right now that, you know, Donnie said he looks defeated. You know, and you can't have your $11.6 million player look defeated. You've got to have him leading,

and you've got to have him being the guy that you can count on every single night in a close game or that we're not seeing that right now the focus should be not on Patterson and Miller it should be on this player and getting him back to having fun in the game of hockey and back to where he was a difference maker. I don't know if you've listened to the latest 32 Thoughts, but we played a clip of Elliott Freeman, and this just came out this morning. And his theory, and his theories are always supported with actual reporting, but he's essentially saying that the Canucks have tasked Miller and Hughes, and this is Freeman's word, with toughening up Pedersen. What do you think about that? and this is Friedman's word with toughening up Pettersson. What do you think about that? I talked to Elliot last night. That's the leadership group.

Quinn Hughes is the captain. Your emotional leader, the guy that wears his heart on his sleeve is Miller. And why not? Management, what can you do now if you're management? He signed for eight years. What can you possibly do? I mean, this is up to the coaches and the leadership group to get them going the other thing that petterson or sorry elliot friedman said that caught my eye this morning um is that friends and i'm going to go back to social media and twitter because it is a at times there's a lot of good

people on twitter but there's a tons of bad people on Twitter, but there's tons of bad people on Twitter. His friends are sending him stuff. Here's what the media is saying. I'm going to give you a story of an agent and a player in a Canadian market. I'm not telling you this is Vancouver. I'm telling you this happened in a Canadian market. So the player calls up the agent and says, you know, I'm getting killed on, I'm getting killed in the media, I'm getting killed on Twitter.

And the agent says, well, how do you know you're getting killed? He says, my friends are sending me texts. He says, do me a favor. He says, tell your friends to stop sending you stuff. And guess what? He did that, and his play improved. You can't have family and friends sending you texts saying, hey, look at this, this guy's ripping you.

Look at this, this guy's ripping you. Your focus should be on the ice, but we live in a world now where absolutely unequivocally we have our cell phones, and we're looking at our cell phones 24-7. Elliot's right about that. I've heard it from numerous numerous players and agents that the friends are standing and saying look at this guy in the media is ripping you cut it out get off social media get thicker skin that's that's something that and petey's got peterson's got you got me calling a pd now peterson's got two pretty incredible powerful agents in jp berry

and paperson they're very well aware of what's going on they did they're going to guide this But two pretty incredible, powerful agents in J.P. Berry and Pat Bresson, they're very well aware of what's going on. They're going to guide this guy through it. They guided him through everything that happened last year. But it is true. That part of that story, what he said this morning, about friends sending texts to players in Canadian markets is very accurate. And it's one thing that agents of Canadian players

are working with their players all the time. Get off the phone. Get off Twitter. Don't care what the media is saying. But it's a part of life right now. Anything on Demko? I saw that you wanted to talk about it, but I'm just not sure how much more we can talk about this injury

that he's working through, and it seems like there's no hard answers on it. Yeah, the reason I want to talk about it is because the Demko injury is one of the more baffling injuries I've ever, ever had to cover. It's all over the map. So a couple of weeks ago, I started hearing he might be out until December, but I didn't read too much into it because I was always told late October or November.

Earlier this week, I was told progress was being made with Demko and they were going in the right direction. Sources say the timeline hasn't even been discussed. I don't know how people are coming up with December. He is clearly week to week until told otherwise. That's the best way to say it, week to week. Who's the last goalie to have his injury? Nobody.

This is the first goalie to have it so what was the timeline no one no one knows it so how do you know what the time frame is when there's nothing to compare it to so if he had a torn ACL we know it's four to six weeks or whatever four to six months there is no end date on an injury like this because there's no cases for him to follow. Like, we can't say the previous goalie that had this was out nine months. Okay, so we have a date. Timelines are pointless. He just has to keep plugging away on the drills that he's asked to do. He clearly hasn't turned the corner to ramp up his workouts until he does.

He's not close. You see Dakota Joshua right now, right? He's getting closer. So you're seeing signs. He's starting to skate with the team. We're not seeing that with Emco. So because it's clearly taking a whole lot longer than anyone expected. But when there is no injury, there's no other goalie that had this

that was out four to six months. So it's virtually impossible to say a timeline. And sources tell me that a timeline hasn't even been discussed. They are just taking it week by week, practice by practice, and hopefully he gets there. But everyone's going to have to be patient. And I've been saying this week after week on your show. There is nothing else that you can do but be patient for this guy. That's it.

You know what? I don't know if we said this on air or off, but you know what could be interesting? Would the Americans play the Swedes in the Four Nations? Does every team play their round robin first? Is that how it works? JT versus Elias Pedersen in a game? That could be interesting.

Hey, that's a good, how about the gold medal game? No, absolutely they could play each other. Absolutely, unequivocally. And if you're getting at the four nations, Jason, the Canucks could have, and this is pretty impressive, the Canucks could have up to eight players in this tournament. But it's that American team that's going to have the most Canucks. Quinn Hughes already on the team.

So I talked to a USA hockey source who said they are following the Canucks around for a very good reason. They watch the Canucks in Philadelphia. So I'm going to go through this. You've got Miller, Besser, Garland, Demko, right? So I'm going to start with Miller. The way the source was talking about Miller, this is what he had to say. He's a hell of a player, plays on the inside, brings the snarl you want,

hard to play against, and when he puts on that USA jersey, you know what he's going to do. He's going to do whatever it takes to win. I will be shocked if he's not on that team, Miller. He'll be a big part of that USA team. Most people think Miller's a lock. Now let's go to Besser. Definitely on the radar.

They are watching him closely. Pure goal scorer. That skill is hard to find, and they love the fact he's a right shot. He's going to have to earn it, but they like what Brock brings, but he's definitely on the radar. Garland. I heard you two talking about Garland earlier this week, so here's what I'm going to tell you on Garland.

He's going to be in tough. They are aware of his good start, but the talent pool the Americans have to pick from is very, very, very deep. Wait until you see the names that don't make the American team. The good thing for Garland is he's going to get a ton of looks because the American staff is all over Canucks games, but I see him right now on the outside looking in. Let's go to Demko. They're going to need to see him play. They're waiting for him to return. The USA's got four very good goalies to pick from, including Demko. They can only pick three.

So they're just waiting, waiting on Demko. Dakota Joshua's not on the radar. I'm going to go to Sweden now. I talked to Swedish coach Sam Alam, who's been in North America, Toronto the past week scouting. He has not seen a Canucks game live. He's watched the Canucks on TV. He plans to see them live down the road.

Halam on Elias Pettersson. It's early, way too early to put weight on his slow start. We know what he's all about. I'm confident in his game and the person. He's very well aware of the heat that Pedersen is on in the Vancouver market. Now, keep this in mind. When all you people, I'm not talking about you two, that don't think that Pedersen is going to make the Swedish team,

keep this in mind. Who was Pedersen's coach after his draft year in Sweden? It was Alam. Was it Sam Alam? Sam Alam. What am I saying? I just like that. I like hearing you say it. Is it Sam-a-lam? Sam-a-lam. What am I saying? I just like that.

I like hearing you say it. Sam-a-lam. It reminds me of the song Black Betty. Bam-a-lam, bam-a-lam. Anyways, they have... Black Betty's a great song. Sure is. It is a great song. Bam-a-lam.

Yeah, but when you see the guys who sing it in the backyard there, I'm shocked that that is not what I thought the singers would look like. But, man, that's a good song. Imagine Swedish head coach Sam Halam singing the song. Sam Halam, Bam Halam. It's great. Let me get going here. They have a good relationship.

Alfred, listen to me. Let me finish. They have a good relationship. Sam Halam. Now you got me going. Okay, one more thing on Sam Alam. On Hoglander. Hoglander.

Now you guys got me rattled. Okay, I knew Donnie and Ryan do this to me every time I say Sam Alam, and now you guys are doing it. Okay, on Hoglander, very likable player. You can play him up and down the lineup. He's on the radar. He's had a good start. Let's see where he is in November.

And one more guy. I talked to Yuri Lettin, the GM of Finland. Kevin Lankanen, very, very much in the mix for Team Finland. And they are very impressed with Lankanen's start in Vancouver. Okay, which team? I know you want to talk about the Whitecaps and the Lions. Oh, yeah. So neither of these teams finish the season strong,

and yet they've given us that hope because Vernon Adams' performance against Montreal, you're like, oh, maybe it was just a quarterback problem and the team is going to rally behind Vernon Adams. And then the Whitecaps, who rather embarrassingly couldn't play at BC Place, have to play in Portland, go down to Portland and they beat Portland 5-0. Now they got this matchup against LAFC, which they will be decided underdogs in. But we're wondering maybe that's going to give them the jumpstart that they need.

Which team are you most excited about heading into the playoffs? Well, first of all, the Whitecaps, huge win. I'm just glad I was able to see the game on TV, on cable. Wasn't that great? Right? I didn't have to go to this Apple and all this other crap. So anyways, Ryan Garland will not get the attention in this market he deserves because he's not a hockey player.

That's reserved for the hockey players. But, man, this guy's fun to watch, right? Donnie asked me if that game on Sunday in Portland was the best moment in Whitecaps history. I don't think so. For me, it will always be the 79 Soccer Bowl until they do something of that magnitude. They beat, the 79 team beat Giorgio Canelli and the Cosmos in a

huge upset, and then Trevor Weimark, two big goals against Tampa. I'll never forget those two goals by Weimark. That was a special team. NASL was way bigger in my mind than MLS right now. The things can change. Things can change. Now, if the Whitecaps ever win the MLS title, that could change my mind, but that 79 team, that's the best moment in Whitecaps history until I think there is a championship here. So let's see what they do against L.A. The fact they whipped Portland after getting ripped in the media for blowing the home game at B.C. Place and having to play a home date on the road,

that was a character win. Vanny got the guys going. Let's see what they do against L.A. I'm not sure. Maybe Holford knows better what their chances are against LA, but I want to see them be competitive. I don't want to see this go out in two straight, but

absolutely phenomenal win by the White Caps. Absolutely phenomenal. You know sometimes in the playoffs where we've seen it with MLB in the wild card and certain other ones where a team has to sit and wait while other teams get that first playoff game and get to build up a bit of momentum I'm kind of hoping that that's what the Whitecaps can do here because I mean how could you have more momentum than what they did in Portland but if they were going to a

different place I'd have more optimism it's just LAFC is such a buzzsaw they're so good and there's a reason that they were the first overall seed in the West. It's because they're the best team in the Western Conference, so my hope here would be keep it reasonably close, try and get something out of that game in LA, but the thing with the best of three is

even if you saw them off to a nil-nil draw, it's still got to go to a shootout, so it's still a coin flip. Come back to BC Place, win that match at BC Place no matter what, and that way you're either going to the second round and probably,

or you force that final third game in LA. Because that's what they couldn't do last year, right? And that's when Vanny kind of quite famously went ballistic

on the referee and in his post-game media and got that lengthy suspension. They weren't able to do the business at home in front of a big crowd at BC Place. I think you're right. I think it's very imperative now that they've got this extra home date. They need to do something with it. They need to put on a show for their

fans. Absolutely. And the Lions are in the same boat. They're in tough. But boy, did that team look different last week. The energy, the passion, and the enthusiasm, it was different. And it was because of Vernon Adams. And by the way, Montreal didn't sit 10 guys at BC plates. They sat two. So that game was more indicative than a mean nothing game for me. The Lions looked much better under Adams. They threw the ball deep for the first time in five weeks. They're using this bye week to get healthier. Now I would prefer Saskatchewan in round one. The thing the Lions have going for themselves is that every team in the West this year has looked good. They've looked horrible at the same time.

Winnipeg started 2-6. The Riders were 4-0. Lions were 5-1. They all went up and down, right? So the Lions can run the table and get to the Great Cup game. My only worry is Winnipeg, and I'll tell you why. They've got the best coach in the CFL in Mike O'Shea. This guy's a sharp dude. He makes the changes ing, and I'll tell you why. They've got the best coach in the CFL in Mike O'Shea. This guy's a sharp dude.

He makes the changes in game, halftime. I'm telling you, he's better than the rest of the coaches in this league by a mile. Lions are back in a good state of mind, but the rest is up to them. If the Whitecaps and Lions can somehow get past LAFC and the Lions can get to the Great Cup game. Boy, what a magical next few weeks we could be in store here for those two teams. I'm excited, Rick. You got me fired up. It's a Friday. Thanks for doing this, Dave. We appreciate it.

No, no. You guys got to play Black Betty. Your producer should have it ready going right now, but listen to that song. You should play it. If you can't move your feet to Black Betty, you'll never move your feet to any song anywhere. Oh, Black Betty!

Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty!

Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty!

Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty!

Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty!

Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty!

Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Oh, Black Betty! Rick Dollywall. That's the three slams of the phone. When it just started singing it,

you got him going. I knew, because we have a talk bag button, so while Rick is going, I'm like, someone please, and Ladi was like, I'm already on it.

I'm like, okay, good. And then sure enough, can you play it one more time for everyone? Because I know the listeners. Whoa, Black Betty. Shyamalan. Whoa, Black Betty. Shyamalan.

It's pretty good When he started singing it himself It was amazing I was thinking of Shamalama Ding Dong Do you remember from that movie Animal House Cool Runnings

No it was in Animal House The band Played Shamalama Ding Dong. I don't remember. I've seen Animal House, just so we're clear. Okay. But I don't remember that particular scene. I don't have all of the 80s movies committed to memory.

1978, actually. There we go. By the way, you asked a lot, which was a great moment in show research. Do all of the four nations face off teams play each other well i didn't know well there's only four teams how long do they have a round robin and then semi-final we didn't canada never met we didn't run into each other how many teams are there for well that stupid world cup that they played. But there was more teams than four. So anyway, to answer your question, Sweden and Elias Pedersen, brackets presumably,

and USA with JT Miller. Now I'm really intrigued by this. February 17th. Monday, an 8 p.m. game from Boston. So that's 5 o'clock our time. Are they going to throw down? Could you imagine? Could you imagine? Could you imagine?

If they get into it? If they were like, you know what? Go time! There would be zero fights in this tournament. You realize that, right? There should be one. There should be one. That would be amazing.

I would, it would be. And Petey just cleans his clock. Could you imagine? I would imagine. Wow. Just dusts him. Looks like GT was successful in toughening him up. And then does the like wiping of the hands celebration

and the Aaron Asham nap like I put him to sleep. Could you imagine? This show. GT Miller out for the season. We would have content for years. We would never have to do another bit of research for the rest of our lives. By the way, tickets for the Four Nations Face-Off

go on sale October 30th. There's going to be all these Canucks fans traveling to Boston for Canada versus Sweden. Or sorry, the Swedes versus the Americans. Yeah. Now I'm very invested in this right now. It's pretty great. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.