Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 10/7/24

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports including a big Canucks win and an even bigger Canucks signing, they speak with former NHL head coach Mike Keenan, plus they talk the latest Canucks news with NHL.com & In Goal Magazine's Kevin Woodley. 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. Whoa, wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose to the f***ing Canucks? You're listening to Halford & Brough.

Kick is blocked. It's picked up and run the other way. Oh, my word. Played it down the wall for Hoaglander. In front for Heinen. And it beats. He scores. Honestly, when it gets hard, it's when it becomes the most fun. As you mature as a player, you enjoy it being hard.

You have to embrace the hardness. It's going to get really hard. But I thought in the second and third, we started to come. Good morning, Vancouver 601. On a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. This is Alfred. It is Ruff.

It is Sportsnet 650. The show did not change over the weekend. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello. Halford and Breath of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program hour one is brought to you by north star metal recycling vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal north star metal recycling they recycle you get paid visit them at 1170 powell street in vancouver we are coming to you live from the kintec studio kintec canada's

favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec. So, yesterday, on the old Twitter machine, made a joke. I said, it feels like there's almost, almost too much sports right now. Feels like there's a lot going on right now. And you know why? It's because there is. Everything is happening in the world of sports right now. It's a beautiful time to be alive. It's just a little more difficult than usual to cover all of it.

So yesterday I'm like, wake up in the morning. I'm trying to watch the footy. Canucks are making trades. Then we get into some baseball and some football. Let's not forget. Well, I mean, the toughest thing about putting a show together too is what to put first um what to possibly ignore if you have to ignore something so we've put together the hierarchy of things of importance uh it's been very tough but we will start with the whitecaps one no loss to minnesota united where

else do you begin where else do you begin we have else do you begin? We have a lot to get into on the show today. Okay. We're going to try and get to everything that happened in a absolutely awesome weekend of sports. And it rolls onto today. Cause there's a ton of stuff happening today as well. Uh, six 30 Kyle Bukakis is going to join the program.

Uh, he host of the 32 thoughts podcast with Elliot Friedman Bukakis. I said his name wrong. Okay. You're really getting close. No, I'm not. It's not going to happen. Don't say that.

No, I'm not. You'll get in his head. Kyle Bukaskis from the 32 Thoughts podcast. I left out an S. That's all. That's all. Just left out an S.

Never do that again. It's getting real close. It's not. It is. It's not. Keep going. Promise it won't happen. Kyle will join us.

Kyle B. Kyle B. from the 32 Thoughts podcast. No, that's too't happen. Kyle will join us. Kyle B. Kyle B. from the 32 Thoughts podcast. Oh, that's too obvious. Is going to join us. Hey, Bukaskas. They recorded overnight. They have updates on the Jeremy Swayman contract resolution in Boston. Thoughts on the first two games?

Yeah, in case you didn't see it, NHL season's already underway. Buffalo Sabres already stink. We'll talk to Kyle B. about that at 6.30. 7 o'clock, Mike Tanney, our NFL insider, from the 2 Deep Zone, another wild day in the National Football League. That was one of the more maddening performances from the Seattle Seahawks in recent memory.

What a disaster. What a nightmare. Where did their offensive line go? Has it ever shown up? We'll talk to Mike about that and everything else that happened in the NFL. We'll also look ahead to Monday Night Football. You got the Saints, you got

the Chiefs in a tantalizing affair tonight on Monday Night Football. 7.30, another Mike. It's Mike Monday here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Mike Keenan is going to join the program. Former head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. I'm not sure if you are all aware that he coached in

Vancouver for a couple of years. We'll talk to Mike. He's got a new memoir out. We'll talk to him about that. We'll talk to him about his time in Vancouver. Talk to him about his coaching career. I'm going to check in on his health. He underwent some pretty significant surgery this summer.

So we'll talk to Mike Keenan at 730. It's not going to be combative either. What happened in Vancouver between Mike Keenan and the Canucks happened, frankly now, it's a long time ago. What happened? I don't know. Did something bad happen? So Bruff's texting me over the weekend and he's like, can you get me up to speed on this Mike Keenan era?

I was like, yeah, we can do that. You're like, it's all kind of a blur. It's kind of a blur to me because I kind of checked out on the Canucks during the Keenan and Messier era and all that sort of blur. It's kind of a blur to me because I kind of checked out on the Canucks during the Keenan and Messier era. Let's be honest. And all that sort of stuff. I was just like, yeah. So to me, that whole era is just like, Keenan was there.

Messier was there. Linden wasn't there anymore. And that's kind of like the story. So I'm glad you brought this up. I was like, and they weren't very good. Because it was 30 years ago. Yeah, it was a while ago. It's almost 30 years ago. Yeah, it was a while ago. It's almost 30 years ago.

There are some people I know have got all the details screwed up. All of it. Like the timeline, the chronology, who was coaching when, who caused what. I've had some people tell me some wild stuff. They were like, did you know that Mike Keenan fired Tom Rennie? I'm like, that's not how it happened. Jim Benning should never have hired Mike Kean you know massive mistake but yet another mistake there were a lot of benning bros loved it there were there were a lot of characters all overlapping

quinn keenan renny burke buray all of them lyndon messier all these guys were there at the same time so we'll talk to mike keenan about that at 7.30, 8 o'clock. Kevin Woodley, NHL.com and InGoal Magazine. We'll do our usual goalie rundown. We'll go around the NHL and look at some big stories. We'll talk a lot of Canucks as well because the Canucks made some moves of significance on the weekend. So working in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock, Kevin Woodley, 7.30, Mike Keenan, 7 o'clock, Mike Tanier. 6.30, Kyle Bukaskis is going to join the program. That's 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? 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. With all due respect to Jason's clever gag off the top, we are not going to start with the Whitecaps' loss to Minnesota United over the weekend at BC Place.

Instead, we're going to start with your Vancouver Canucks. This is your home of the Canucks Sportsnet 650. Chef Alvin, Patrick Alvin, kept cooking over the weekend at BC Place. Instead, we're going to start with your Vancouver Canucks. This is your home of the Canucks Sportsnet 650. Chef Alvin, Patrick Alvin, kept cooking over the weekend, made a pretty significant trade, even though most of the parties involved may never play for their new NHL clubs. The Vancouver Canucks acquired defenseman Eric Brandstrom from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Tucker Pullman,

more specifically the contract of Tucker Pullman, and a fourth-round pick in the 2025 nhl draft almost immediately after acquiring brownstrom they waived him for the purposes of sending him to ahl abbotsford so this was one of those math trades a lot of math involved uh there's even when they retain 20 on tucker poolman and there's there's a lot of math going around. It's good math, friend. By trading Pullman, the Canucks will not have

to use LTIR to start the season, which means they can, so here's the word of the year, accrue. Accrue. There's a lot of, there's a lot of accruing. The Canucks want to accrue cap space. My crew, your crew, my crew. They can accrue some cap space through the

season that could in theory be deployed at the trade deadline or even earlier. Brandstrom could also be a useful depth addition, even though they're going to send him right down to Abbotsford. Assuming he clears waivers, he may not. It wasn't too long ago that he was a big part of the Mark Stone trade between Ottawa and Vegas. Ottawa sent Mark Stone to Vegas and Vegas said,

hey, we got this good young defenseman. You want him? They're like, yeah, we want him. Obviously he didn't pan out for the senators like they hoped they would. The senators actually let Branstrom walk this summer because he was arbitration eligible and made $2 million last season. Uh, then he signed a one year deal for like what?

$900,000, um, with Colorado and apparently didn't impress very much. Yeah. Never, never participated in a regular season contest as a member of the Colorado. Like, ah, yeah, actually we want this guy's salary. So it's a bit of an odd situation because Pullman's traded by the Canucks because the Canucks don't want to go into LTIR. But Pullman works for the Avs, his contract, because they want the optimal LTIR capture.

Yeah. Even Rick Talkett yesterday, like I feel good about this because even Rick Talkett after practice, they were talking about the decisions that need to be made with Patrick Alveen and Jim Rutherford. He said they're all going to get together and they're going to go through the decision-making process. And then he's like, all this LTR stuff.

You missed the I. LTI-R. All this LTR stuff is kind of above me, but we got some decisions to make. Yeah. I mean, the cap calisthenics at the beginning of the season are always drancy. Yeah, it's a little dry, right?

I mean, if you want to know the Coles Notes version, the Canucks wanted to move Pullman's money. They wanted to free it up. They were able to free it up. It cost them a fourth round pick in the upcoming draft, but it also allowed them to take a flyer on a guy that does have good draft pedigree. That's a pretty Coles Notes, bare bones, stripped down version.

They retained 20% of Pullman's contract too, I believe. That's correct, 20% of Pullman's. Not all of his contract, but most of it. Just like the first three letters of Pullman or something like too, I believe. That's correct, 20% of Pullman's. So not all of his contract, but most of it. Just like the first three letters of Pullman or something like that. Right. That's what they were taking. They kept that on their mind. Yeah, anyway.

If you want to look at it in terms of how it sets him up for the season, nicely, because of the ability to not have to start the season on LTIR. And I started, everyone is very happy with the work that Patrick Alveen did here. And everyone seems very happy with a lot of the work that Patrick Alvin has done, including his second move of the day, which was signing Nils Hoaglander to a three year, nine million dollar contract extension, average annual value of three million. Going from being one of the lowest paid forwards on the team to a notch above. I didn't realize that this was in the works. I guess it kind of makes sense because he was going into the final year of a deal that he was already on.

And it seems as though Hoaglander gets rewarded for a good regular season last year and coming into camp this year in tip top shape and having a very good training camp in preseason. Should we read the quote? We always read the quote. He also got a quote. Well, he's definitely this is definitely a quote worthy contract and in the press release Patrick Alveen said we were all impressed with the way Nils came

into training camp and approached the preseason. His work ethic, tenacity and motor have helped him establish himself as an NHL player and we feel with our continued support and development he has a lot more room to grow both on and off the ice.

So by all accounts, and including this one, but Rick Tockett has also talked about it, Hoaglander showed up to camp in terrific shape. We'll see where he starts the season, but it'll probably, probably be on the third line with Connor Garland in the spot where Dakota Joshua would usually be on the left wing.

Maybe Atu Ratu at center. Now when Joshua is back, and hopefully he's back soon, who knows where Hoaglander ends up. That might depend on other players like Daniel Sprung and how well he gets along with Petey and DeBrusque. Ideally, big picture wise, ideally, Hoaglander plays so well that he demands a spot in the top six and gives the Canucks

tremendous value over the next four years. But even if he tops out as a guy, that's just doing his job and doing it well as a third liner, the contract is fair value. And we got him locked up now for the next four years because he's got one year left on his current deal. This is a three-year extension. I like the deal.

I like the decision. The Canucks all of a sudden, though, have a bunch of wingers locked up now, right? They do. I wonder what Brock Besser is thinking. You got to score 50 this year. That's a whole separate issue, but it is one that is going to be. Nah, I really got to score 50. It. Yeah. That's a whole separate issue, but it is one that is going to be...

Nah, I really got to score 50. It is one that's going to be facing the Canucks this season because I wonder with Besser if they have to make a decision before the trade deadline. Yeah, I mean, the deals aren't onerous or anything, so they're all very flexible and, dare I say, movable. I think with Hoaglander, it was funny because remember when we were talking a couple weeks ago,

we were talking about, is this a make or break season for anyone on the Canucks, and we kind of said, not in the classic traditional pressure situation sense. If Pod Coles was still here, it would have been him because his NHL career is hanging on a lifeline. But then we dovetailed off into a conversation about

Hoaglander, and we said, well, in terms of guys that have something to prove this year, he's definitely high on that list because of how sour things went in the postseason where the production dried up and then he was a healthy scratch and you just wondered where he sat among the coaching staff like what the coaching staff thought about him after that postseason and more importantly how he was going to respond to some adversity after a good year, right? Well, he definitely ticked the boxes early by, as mentioned in the quote, coming in in terrific shape and really impressing in the preseason. Every time I watched him in the preseason, yes, it was the preseason,

but he looked like he had a ton of energy and looked highly effective. His goals are going to be try and, one, match what you did in the regular season last year, and then, two, when the playoffs come around, be a much more effective and trustworthy player, I would say. Those are the two big goals for him now. And he's been given the financial reward to go and do that. So today at two o'clock our time,

that's the deadline to submit rosters for the NHL season. The Canucks practiced on Sunday and Garland wasn't there. If you're asking like who stays and who goes, it's a very complicated question. Mike and I don't have all the injury information. A lot of moving parts. At hand.

The Garland thing doesn't seem serious though. Yeah. Just get that out of the way. There are just going to be some decisions that they have to make. Some based on health, some based on waivers, some based on how many players, like the actual number of players they want to have on their opening night

roster. You know, like they might get Yuri Patera back because he's back on waivers now because Boston solved their swimming problem. So they put Patera back on waivers. So they might have him back. But here's how it looked at practice. Again, no Garland.

So Suter, who's also, was he wearing a red no-contact jersey? Right. So he's hurt, but he was practicing. Right. He was on a line with Ratu and Hoaglander. DeBrusque was with Pedersen and Sprong. Heinen was with Miller and Besser. Nils Amon was with Bluger and Sherwood.

And then Baines was the extra skater. They had eight defensemen. The extras were Friedman and Juleson. We don't know if they're going to keep eight defensemen, seven defensemen, 12 forwards, 13 forwards, 14 forwards, three goalies. I don't know what they're going to keep eight defensemen, seven defensemen, 12 forwards, 13 forwards, 14 forwards, three goalies. I don't know what they're going to do. And some of the transactions might be paper transactions when they actually submit their roster. Like, Ratu might get sent down.

Baines might get sent down. But they might be back pretty soon. And the same goes with Seeloffs. I don't know how they're gonna submit this roster but you know i think it's a it's a good problem to have because if they send down for example baines people would be like what he like he deserves to be on the you see him like he was scoring goals in the preseason he looked good um but But Rick Tockett said yesterday, he's like, look, you just have a conversation with these guys.

You explain the situation. They know it's a business. They know there are these, like some people would say like, oh, if you don't find room for Ratu and Baines, it's like, it sends a bad message. I'm like, no, not if you explain it. Like this is a situation and, you know, we like Nils Amon and we don't want to expose him to waivers because we think we might lose him and we want to keep Nils Amon. Do you not like Nils Amon? be hopefully one of their strengths this season so there are tough decisions to make and sometimes just whether or not they are eligible for waivers is a factor in that decision okay let's keep

firing through some of the big stories from the weekend and the next one it's an ugly one it's the seattle seahawks and laddie i'll get you to get the audio ready here because it was a weekend an entire week of blocked field goals in the national football league but none of them perhaps as profound as the one at the end of the giant seahawks game this is bryce ford wheaton he of the hyphenated surname returning a block by isaiah simmons one of the best kick blocks you will see or hear in this instance. Here is the Giants sealing their win against the Seahawks on Sunday with a blocked field goal. This to tie the game at 23, and it's blocked!

Isaiah Simmons! And picked up by Bryce Ford Wheaton! And he is going to go! 29-20 the final. It was 23-20 with Jason Myers lining up to kick what would have been a game-tying field goal. I'm not sure if you saw the blog. I believe you were on the golf course

and you texted me while listening to it. I was listening to it. One of the more athletic things I've seen on an NFL field. Isaiah Simmons, who was put in because he's such a freaky athlete. He can run fast and he can jump high. He did both in this instance he leapt over push down he didn't push down nope that was the so the nfl released the ruling

afterwards because if he pushed down but you're allowed to push down no that's called leverage you get a penalty and that's pushing down on your player isn't it you can't push down on the office he just jumped i it was remarkable what he did. He leapt. Some people are going to say there was contact. Yeah, there was contact, but he leapt. It was pretty damn impressive to see what he did. But they were having the debate over whether it was legal. At any rate, I don't even care about that because it never should have been to that point. It honestly never should have been to that point.

And from Mike McDonald to Geno Smith, everyone on the Seahawks was like, yeah, we were bad. Mike McDonald said, they outplayed us today. Geno Smith said, we played bad. That's the reality. Played bad.

I don't think we executed well. I thought we came out slow. That's now not how we want to start. Turn the ball over, not finishing drives. I mean, all of the above, that will get you beat in the NFL on any given Sunday. The Seahawks were not good., I mean, all of the above, that will get you beat in the NFL on any given Sunday.

The Seahawks were not good. And for me, like, I know you want to still talk about this blocked field goal or whatever, like it doesn't, like it should have never, it should have never gotten to that point. No. At all. The Seahawks were what? Seven point favorites.

And the Giants come in there with Daniel Jones and missing a couple of their weapons on offense and control the ball. The key stat for me was time of possession, 37-22 to 22-38 for the Giants. Now, granted, sometimes you lose the time of possession battle because you're too efficient on offense. We're scoring too fast. We're scoring too fast. And then this was not the case for the Seahawks who didn't play well on either side of the ball, especially given the opposition. And I was willing to give them a pass for the loss in Detroit, especially on the defensive side of the ball, because I think you've got a very creative Detroit Lions team that was playing at home. They were very motivated to beat the Seahawks, and the Seahawks had a lot of injuries on the defensive side of the ball.

So he went, okay, it wasn't good defensively, but tough opposition, tough situation, come home and beat the Giants. That was concerning against the Giants. So I said it after the Lions game. I said, I know that they've got injuries on defense, but I remember asking Brady Henderson, and we talked about it, and I said, I feel like this is more than just missing some personnel on defense.

When Jared Goff goes a perfect 18 for 18 against you and you don't breathe on him all day, there's something more than just not having a couple of your pass rushers and a couple guys in the secondary available. I think there's something fundamentally than just not having a couple of your pass rushers and a couple of guys in the secondary available. I think there's something fundamentally flawed. They gave up 420 yards to a Giants offense that wasn't very good to begin with

and was without Malik neighbors, their star wide receiver, and without Devin Singletary, their starting running back. They got dominated again. And their defense cannot get the opposing offense off the field, much like the problem was in Detroit. And I would say right now, Mike McDonald, who is a defensive guru and who is responsible for the majority of this unit, has some major questions to answer. Because in the first three weeks of the season, he didn't go up against great offenses.

Then he went up against one in detroit then he went up against a mediocre one and it seems like the defense is going in the wrong direction here and now the offense wasn't great yesterday either no but at least they put some points on the board late well they can't run the ball or they refuse to run the ball that was weird the offensive line i don't know what was going on with the offensive play calling because you came off a monday night game against detroit where ken walker got back in the lineup and looked great it looked dynamic three rushing touchdowns they couldn't get anything going on the ground and now they've got a game in four days they play on thursday night against a niners team who also suffered a very disappointing dare i say

embarrassing loss also a loss with a blocked field goal in it the seahawks are still first place in the division. I know. That is crazy. They're 3-2, and then the Niners and the Cards are 2-3, and then the Rams are what, 1-4? Rams are 1-4. They lost again yesterday. So this is a massive game for both the Seahawks

and the 49ers on Thursday night. Massive game for the division. Yeah. It's nothing in the end. I mean, the Cardinals could win this division. Kyle Murray looks good. Oh, yeah. Did you see him yesterday when he ran for that touchdown?

He got a step past his defender and then pointed to the end zone because he knew he was going to score and he was still 50 yards away. That's awesome. He is the fastest guy alive. Okay. We didn't get into everything. We didn't get into the Lions and we didn't get into the Whitecaps, although we did pass along the score of the Whitecaps game.

So I'll do it for the Lions. Kudos to the BC Lions. Wasn't pretty on Friday night, but they got the job done with a win over the Calgary Stampeders, 32-15. A couple big defensive scores in the second half paved the way for the Lions there. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

To the phone lines we go. Our next guest is the former head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, the co-author of his new memoir, mike my life behind the bench mike keenan joins us now on the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 good morning mike how are you i'm doing well how about you guys uh we are doing well as well thanks for taking the time to do this before we get into any of the hockey stuff i have to ask you you underwent some pretty significant surgery this past summer just wondering how's your health how's the recovery been how you doing mike i'm doing really well thank you yeah open heart surgery uh april the second so we're into almost six months and it's gone well uh you have to follow a certain discipline in terms of your recovery and rehab, but I'm feeling great. Thank you for asking, and thanks for mentioning that.

So why the book? Well, it started with Jay Greenberg. God bless him. He passed, of all things West Nile disease. And he was poking me to write the book, and I was really reluctant. And then Hall of Fame writer as well, Scott Morrison, agreed to pick it up. And he was actually editing the book at the time, so he was well aware of what was transpiring between Jay and I. And then it really was something I was really reluctant about. But finally they convinced me, the publisher convinced me that you have to tell some story.

So therefore the book is now on the shelf. Well, let me tell you, Mike, when we told our listeners that you're going to be on the show. Well, let me tell you, Mike, when we told our listeners that you're going to be on the show today in Vancouver, there were some people that suggested that they don't like you very much. And they wanted us to ask

all these tough questions about your time in Vancouver. You know, why did you treat Trevor Linden the way you treated him, et cetera, et cetera. What did you write about your time in Vancouver? And what are your memories? Do you have any regrets?

How you went into that situation? Well, it was a difficult situation. First of all, I went in the middle of, I believe it was around November. So anytime you go into a season, it's already begun. It's difficult to sort things out and I think that

trading Trevor Linden was something positive for the Vancouver Canucks I know he's a very popular player and was and it was very difficult to make that decision but the acquisition of players and then He's a very popular player and was. And it was very difficult to make that decision. But the acquisition of players and then there was a dichotomy in the room amongst the leadership groups.

So it was, you know, getting McCabe and Bertuzzi and eventuallyutsu that eventually turned into the Sedin twins. So it parlayed pretty well, and then Trevor was able to come back. So I think in the end, it was good for the franchise. Tell us about the dichotomy in the room in terms of leadership and how you improve leadership and empowering your leaders? Well, there was obviously Mark Messier was there

and Trevor and there seemed to be a split amongst the group, amongst the team in terms of those two individuals. That's the one thing you cannot have in a dressing room is a break like that amongst the players. It just doesn't work, and you're not going to have ever had success.

So I know it was a very unpopular move to move Trevor, but as I said, in the end, it worked out extremely well for the franchise. Brian Burke was able to acquire the Twins because of that trade, and obviously the Twins, the Sedin brothers, did amazing things for the franchise. So the split in the dressing room was difficult. In fact, it was called impossible after a while.

And I wasn't a GM, but I was empowered with the responsibility of being the pseudo-GM, I guess, amongst our staff that were there. We had Hanlon and Shamil as our assistant coaches. Mike Penny was part of the process as well. And Steve Tamburini was part of the process. So it was a group decision, but one that we thought was necessary. We're speaking to former NHL coach, former Vancouver Canucks head coach,

Mike Keenan here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I imagine, Mike, that when you're writing a memoir, it would be hard not to look back on everything and not have some regrets along the way. I know that you wrote in the book, you were talking about your relationship with Brett Hall and how maybe you wish that would have gone a different direction or you would have handled it differently.

Was there anything in Vancouver that you wish had either gone differently or that you would handle differently? Well, I wish I would have been able to stay. But Brian Burke was hired as the GM, and he had different feelings. Obviously, he fired me. And, you know, when you – I would stick by my principles in coaching, but maybe the methodology, I could have been a little bit – turned the fire down a little bit.

It was fiery at times and throughout my career. But if there was anything that I would regret, it would be that kind of methodology that I used. I could have toned it down a bit. I think that I would have still had the same results. And I was driven by the notion that it was important to the ownership and to the franchise to win. And I pushed the envelope and set the bar high in every situation to try to succeed and to win.

And winning is not easy in the NHL. It's very, very difficult. And to win a Stanley Cup is even more difficult. So, yeah, there are things that you wish you could take back, but all of us in our lives, I'm sure, have moments that we could all say, I wish I could have taken that back. We're on the subject of winning. You wrote in the book, winning requires abnormal behavior.

Can you explain that a little bit further and give us an idea of exactly what abnormal behavior looks like, coaching to win? Yeah, that's exactly right, and I believe in that. And if you take the standard of the NHL competitors, that means each team that's in the NHL, they all have the same kind of driven notion, and they're competitive people, very competitive hockey players. And you have to find a difference.

What's going to make your team better than the rest? What's going to make the difference? And it's dedication. It's communication. It's preparation. It's a lot of aspects that are involved individually and collectively as a team. And to be able to succeed and to get beyond your opponent, you have to be different.

You have to have something special, and your team has to be driven to succeed because all these teams in the NHL are pretty closely competitive. But as a coach, you have to find something that will separate you from the group, from the teams in the league. How did you prepare your players for the big pressure moments? We all know in Canada we haven't had a Stanley Cup winner since 1993, and a lot of people think that maybe the pressure of playing in Canada has contributed to that and I just think of the big pressure games

that you played in on 1987 Stanley Cup final game seven when you were coaching the Flyers you lost that one but then I guess a short time later you're behind the bench during the Canada Cup huge pressure 87 Canada Cup, you get it done with Gretzky and Lemieux. And then, you know, seven years later, you're responsible for the New York Rangers who haven't won the Stanley Cup since 1994. You face a game seven there. And I imagine that might've been the most pressure you ever felt because if you had lost that one to the Canucks, great for Vancouver, real tough for New York. What was your philosophy on pressure

and how you prepared players for that? Well, I think that there was enormous expectations because we did end up winning a president's trophy for the regular season play marginally over New Jersey. We ended up beating marginally in the playoffs that go to game seven against Vancouver. And again, that's a real close difference. But the pressure, I didn't particularly feel pressure. That was the bar we had set.

That was our expectation. And as I said to the team prior to that game, a couple of days prior to that game, if anything, I would have said at the beginning of the season, you can play game seven at Madison Square Garden for the Stanley Cup, but you take it. And the response was absolutely. So I think it's not a one-and-done deal. It's something you prepare for all season long.

Every team meets pressure points. And you have winning streaks, losing streaks, and you have to be able to overcome the expectations of your fan base, of your franchise, and that's just part of being a professional. And you train yourself to accept that responsibility, and that's part of, as I said earlier, preparing a team to win. You have to learn how to win. You just don't win by putting people out on the ice and playing.

You have to have the preparation, which involves many things, the mental, the physical, the emotional side of all of your game, plus your team play. Plus you have to have talent. You have to have skilled players. You have to have role players. You have to have special. You have to have skilled players. You have to have role players. You have to have special goaltending. So there's a lot of things that go into making a team extraordinary.

And to deal with it, I don't think it's pressure if you're ready and prepared to play at that level and to take on that responsibility. Mike, what are your memories of young Rick Talkett in Philly? I love Rick Talkett. He was a player. I can tell you a little story. He came in, and I think I played him every preseason game that year. We might have had 10 or 11 games, and I said,

Rick, did you play in this league? He said, absolutely. I absolutely I said well let's give it a try we'll go from there and of course the rest is history he was actually a great physical player he found his way he pushed his skating to another level and I can also tell a story one time we were flying out west and he said mike i'm ready and prepared to move up for more ice time if you're willing and ready to give it to me and of course you mentioned the 87 canada cup well we had a lot of players out tim burr right winger and rick played with kelly ecklund and brian prompt because d Poulin broke his ribs. So there was a lot of injuries,

but Rick was really a forceful presence in the dressing room, as he is now a leader. And he took that role on with authority, and he made a difference for our team. He's a real great team man and a good player as well. He fought himself in space, fought for space, literally, and had a great career.

What do you think of the NHL now? He's doing a super job, by the way, in Vancouver as well. I hope the fans appreciate him. Oh, the fans love him. The fans absolutely love him. He came into a tough situation, but he's done a terrific job. And being named Coach of the Year is a nice feather in his cap. But the expectations now are raised.

And now his message for the Canucks is, like, it doesn't get easier. We had one season that was better. We didn't make it out of the second round so you know I hear you know I was doing some research for this interview I was reading a lot of your your old quotes talking about preparing your team to to meet expectations and how to deal with pressure and it actually sounds quite similar to what Rick Talkett is is saying to the Canucks right now. I just wonder, how do you think coaches today are different than they are when you were coaching in the NHL? And do you think if you were coaching in the NHL today, you would have to change some of your methods?

Oh, absolutely. But I coached in five decades. So I didn't coach in the fifth decade like I did in the first decade, and I was successful in each decade. We won. My team won a championship in each of those decades. But the message that Rick would be giving now, and the players have to now step up to another level

is that we had a certain amount of success but to get to the next level we're going to have to make some adjustments maybe some personnel changes but our play has to be intensified and to be able to create that environment and to build that culture, it takes time, but Rick is in a position now where he can command it, I'm sure that he has the respect of the players

and now he's going to have to raise the bar even more and expect more from them and sometimes that's fearful for the players because they don't know whether they can do that or not. And you have to instill a confidence in them and set short-term goals that are achievable that helps build their confidence so that they are playoff ready come next spring to go a step farther.

And that's a very difficult challenge because there's a lot of teams in the league that are on par. So as I just said a little while ago, what can you do to separate your team from the rest of the teams in your division, your conference, and the league? This was a question I was going to ask you before. What do you think about the evolution

of the NHL and and and where it's gone the skill of the players is obviously off the charts but you know there's some people that look back and kind of miss the the days of the 80s I mean you look at Rick Talkett the guy had almost 300 penalty minutes and he also was a 20 goal scorer um that when you watch the NHL what do you think of the game? Well you know fans in Vancouver can go back and watch games with the New York Rangers

for the Cup in 94 it was vicious you could have called a penalty every shift and competitive but I would think if you look at the Stanley Cup winners this last spring,

Florida Panthers, they had a little bit of an old-style system put in place, and they played hard-nosed. More hard-nosed than any other team in the league. And they tried to be disciplined enough to stay out of the penalty box and did, and were able to win because they had,

that's where I can give you an example, they made a difference. And the NHL today, it's a league where you're going to follow suit. Many teams will follow suit now because that was successful. That brought them the ultimate prize, the Stanley Cup. So I think, yeah, it's a little softer, the league, skilled. But if you look back at the players that we had, and even at 94, they were super skilled players. I can mention on both teams, we had so much talent.

Pavel Burry, Trevor Linden, you can go on and on. Cliff Ronnie and Bill Cardinal. And we had Kovalev, Messier, Beach, Keegan, Barmer. You can name them. A lot of talented, talented players that would thrive in today's game as well. Mike, this was great. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it.

Great to hear that you're feeling well and you're in good health. Best of luck with the rest of the recovery and best of luck with the book as well. Thank you so much for having me and best of luck to Rick Tockett and the Vancouver Canucks. Still cheering for them.

Thanks, Mike. That's Mike Keenan, the author of the new memoir, Iron Mike, My Life Behind the Bench, and of course, former head coach to the Vancouver Canucks from 1997 to 1999. Yeah, lots of interesting feedback. A lot of people actually enjoyed it. Dalvir, this has been a great interview,

really enjoyable lesson. Another one that says, you're dead to me. Yes, because we didn't ask. We didn't ask Mike Keenan who was faster, Alex McGilney or Pavel Beria. I'm sorry. Oh, someone wanted that question? And because we didn't?

Yeah. He said, please ask him And because we didn't? Yeah. He said, please ask him this. I don't have much. Please give me this. Then you dead to me. Love our listeners. Anyway, that was. How dare you not ask that question?

Oh, I think he's joking. Anyway, that was interesting. You know, it's funny. So he's done the media tour, the carwash, if you will, the last little bit, because obviously when you put out a book, you do a lot of,

he's done breakfast television and there's a big article in a Toronto star. They just sit down with a fest check and everything. And when you're right, like I, well, that's why I asked when you write a memoir, I mean, there's going to be parts that you look back on and you're like,

like no one is is no one's pitching a perfect game in life no one is yeah looking back and saying I didn't do a single thing wrong I have no regrets laddie is actually he tells us every day except for laddie yeah I am perfect so you know and it's funny because if if there's someone that's probably got a lot of individual situations to look back on it's mike keenan not only that's such a great quote that you brought up where winning takes abnormal behavior yeah yeah because it's kind of true because you you read a lot of like stories about champions let's take the whole tom brady baker mayfield thing? You know, Brady's like, yeah, it was hard on

guys and maybe not politically correct in how I went about my business. And I'm sure Bill Belichick wasn't always politically correct, but guys were trying to win a championship here. We can't, we can't have things that were too nervous to address or like, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but you got to do your job a little bit better.

Could you do your job a little bit better? Our next guest will be part of it. Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and Ingle Magazine joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. What are your general thoughts on the tandem that the Canucks are going to head into this season with? And that is Seelovs and Lankanen. Like if you, let's, let's do a little thought exercise here.

Let's pretend that Demko was traded or left the organization and the Canucks entered this season with Seelovs and Lankanen as their goalies. What would you be thinking? Ooh, I got to rank the Pacific Division goalies for another city hit that I did in another city today. Ooh, I got to rank the Pacific division goalies for, for, uh, for another, um, city hit that I do in another city today.

And I probably should have done it ahead of time. I'd still have them ranked really high in part because Kevin Lankin and his underlying numbers the last two years, I've talked about this a lot. Like he looks like a guy that's ready to pop into a one B and maybe a stronger role. Um, we've seen the upside in Arturs. So when you look around the tandems in the Pacific Division, I think I'd still rank them pretty high. But the ceiling just isn't the same as it is with Demko.

As good as Lankanen was last year and his adjusted save percentage was 12th in the NHL, he's still almost a percentage point behind Thatcher Demko. There's quite a drop-off because Demko's in that category of elite, right? That's a high bar. So you're not replacing him. And there's still room to grow for Selahs for sure, but it doesn't look right now based on track record to date,

like you can replace him with what you have. I still think you're very capable of winning on an every night basis with the two goalies you have. And we've seen that out of Seelovs already in the playoffs, like he just, he rises to the occasion. He's not phased by this stuff. There are elements of his game that will require some experience and adjustments. We've talked a lot about the traffic management and things like that

that are some of the toughest things to adjust to in the NHL. But in terms of where he's at right now, the fall-off, it's there. It's just like it's not huge between, you know, what they have now and what they'd have with them. They just don't have that elite number one upside. A guy who could take an inferior team and lead them on a playoff run. But the guys they have right now are more than capable of taking a good defensive team, which the Canucks have become,

and getting them into the playoffs and challenging for the Pacific Division. I'm not worried about their goaltending going into the season. Do you think the book on Seelovs is like you just got to take away this guy's eyes and then try and get pucks through from the point? I mean, not that that isn't the book on a lot of goalies to try and take away their eyes, but it seemed, as you mentioned, that especially last year in the playoffs, that he he struggles sometimes picking up point shots when there was traffic in front yeah and then part of

it is how the Canucks defend traffic too um you know I've talked about this before it was in the playoffs last year and it cost them some key goals especially in game seven and we saw it a little bit in the preseason too like there were some screen goals on him in his last start or it's not his last start his second to last start and some of them you know the last one uh on the road he got caught behind a screen rather than late looking short side on it because he was late coming to his short side he didn't have time to find the release and adjust to a shot that was in the far side lane even though the far side lane isn't his responsibility um their high forwards have to do a better job of blocking some of those shots at the point uh they were in position to do so again in that preseason game and didn't they were in position to do so in game

seven last year and didn't so sometimes it's the high forwards as well like there's a very systematic approach to all of this um and then there's also the element of just learning to find a release, to find a lane where you can have eyes on a release. And that's going to take a little time in terms of it being a book for sure. Like after the first three games, the Oilers were averaging through the first couple of games, just over one screenshot per game. The rest of the series,

they averaged close to five. They clearly identified it, targeted it. And part of that is how good he is down low. Like you think of low slot line plays, lateral plays across the middle of the ice below the bottom of the hash marks is like one of the key ways to score goals in the NHL today. And the Oilers generated a ton of those looks, but they also played to his strengths. Like, so trying to get backdoor tap-ins on Archer Shelob's is not easy because he's got that

length and that athleticism to get across, not just with a pad, but build vertical coverage with his hands. And we've seen that in the preseason, too. Like, so I think that focus that we saw and that shift in focus from the Oilers is a lot less likely to occur on a night-in, night night out basis during a regular season. Like, yes, there are pre-scouts and yes, there are scouting reports on how to score on goalies, but when it's a best of seven teams really pay attention to those details. And when it's a Tuesday night or a Wednesday night in Vancouver for the Calgary flames, I don't know that you have the attention of your group quite to the same

degree to try and, you know, grind out those types of goals instead of trying to score the way you do every other night, which is to create laterals across the middle of the ice below the top of the face off circles. And again, it's really easy to sort of focus on that one area as a, as a relative weakness, but there's so much on high danger chances that this guy does so well.

Let's not lose sight of that and i don't i think he'll learn on the screen stuff but i just don't know at least for the first half of the season that teams are going to be like you know really dialing in on trying to exploit that you're listening to the best of halford and brough