Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 6/17/24

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at a busy sports weekend including the BC Lions winning their home opener over the Stamps, they talk some Canucks with analyst Randip Janda, plus the boys tell us what they learned. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. So you're telling me there's a chance. We got to go to Florida and do a job and, you know, drag them back to Alberta. Oh! Bryson DeChambeau now has two. Good morning, Maker Room 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. This is Halford.

It is Bruff. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios, the beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dawg. Good morning to you.

Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Bruff in the morning 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 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 also coming to you live courtesy of Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver, uh, Honda's premier or Vancouver's premier Honda dealer. Wow, I screwed that one up. Visit their award-winning showroom today. Visit them online at vancouverhonda.ca.

It's Honda's premier Vancouver dealer. Yeah, that was wrong. Well, it sounds nice. 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, that's what you're waiting for.

You know who's waiting for Kintec? A-Dog. A-Dog needs some shoes. A-Dog needs some shoes. Yeah, his dogs are barking. Kintec, please help. Please, please help. I was hoping we could make it more subtle than that,

but alas, here we are. Kintec, please. My feet are dying. We went to begging right away. So A-Dog wants some free shoes, basically? So I said they're not just a client. They also help out some of our on-air staff, including yourself. You went in, you got custom-fitted. You got orthotics and shoes, right? Yep.

And look at him. Look at him now. I know. He's walking great. And he's got a mustache. Yeah, you have to have a mustache, just so you know. Big show head, James Sharman is going to join us at 7 a.m. He is our Sportsnet Euros plural analyst.

We'll get into all the excitement and action from the first three days of the tournament. In case for our Romanian and Ukrainian listeners right now, it's six o'clock in the morning. They are underway. Two minutes into the match. We'll keep eyes on that and everything else that's going on today. I bet it's scoreless. It is scoreless. That's why I didn't even bother giving a score update.

Although, if you were watching Italy and Albania over the weekend, you wouldn't have been able to say that because Albania scored the fastest goal in Euros history over the weekend. 23 seconds into their match. Anyway, James Sharman is going to join us at 7 o'clock to talk a little Euros here on the Halford & Brough

Show on Sportsnet 650. We'll also look ahead to Canada at Copa America. 7.30, Hart Levine is going to join the program. He is the founder of Puckpedia, which many people are anointing to be the new salary cap tool website of use for fans in light of the fact that CapFriendly is going to go dark in the beginning of July.

So we'll talk to Hart Levine about his website, founding Puckpedia, how they are going to step into the big shoes, the big shoes that are going to be left behind from CapFriendly. 8 o'clock, Randeep Jand is going to join us. Sportsnet 650, Canucks analyst. He's also working the Hockey Night in Punjabi broadcast. We'll talk to him about the Stanley Cup final, the Oilers.

He's got a new intro today, too. Oh, that's right. The dogs are also introducing Randy Steve's new intro. Rapphorns away. We'll talk to him about a big win for the Edmonton Oilers, 8-1 against the Florida Panthers on Saturday night, extending the Stanley Cup final

by another game. And Jason, I know and you know that the Panthers are gonna win, but what if? What if? What if? Yeah, we'll get into that. We'll get into it.

Rand deep's up at 8. Hart Levine at 7.30. James Sharman at 7 o'clock. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the B.C. Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools,

resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Connor McDavid had a goal and three assists. Dylan Holloway, two goals and an assist. And the Edmonton Oilers stayed alive. They staved off. They stoved it off. Elimination.

Defeating the Florida Panthers 8-1 in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday night in Edmonton. 8-1. That's a familiar score in a Stanley Cup Final. I believe that was the score in Game 3 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. There's our 2011 reference. Out of the 2011 Oh that's right Stanley Cup Final There's our 2011 reference Out of the way Real early I know

By the way I know I'm still traumatized By that because When Bobrowski Got hooked After allowing 5 goals I immediately thought Of Luongo staying in goal

For all 8 goals Of Game 3 In Boston Come on AV Get him out of there buddy You know what Well the camera did Panda Luongo right

They did show him looking. He's like, unlucky, Brobroski gets to sit on the bench. He's mouthing the words. He's like, get him out of there. Yeah, well, we all know the story. It was Luongo, apparently, that went to AV and said, no, I can stay in there. To which I always replied, who's the coach here? Do you think, now that we're on a tangent, do you think that if Luongo could do it all over again,

he'd be like, yeah, I should have probably left that for four or five. Maurice said that five was Bob's limit, by the way. And after that, he's like, we got to get him out of there. So I'm 99%. Well, 95%. Sure. The Panthers are still going to win the cup. But it's boring to say that.

Right? It's boring to say that. Yeah. So just for fun, can you imagine if this is the way the Canadian drought gets broken? Shades of the 2004 Red Sox, who came back from 3-0 down to the Yankees, albeit that was in the ALCS, but they did do it on their way to breaking the curse of the Bambino. And I always kind of wondered like if there was going to be a Canadian team ever that breaks this drought since 1993, isn't it probable that it's going to be in some crazy fashion? You know, the more that you-

Like the Red Sox, right? Yeah. Like the Red Sox in 2004, they had the curse of Bambino, 86 years. They were down three nothing to the Yankees and everyone was like, oh, well, I guess it's just-0 to the Yankees, and everyone was like, oh, well, I guess it's just another year where the Yankees are going to get

the upper hand on the Red Sox, and they come back and win four straight. I mean, it was, you know, they still have to go and win the World Series, but it was like, you know, it was just, if it was going to get broken, it was going to get done in some sort of weird, dramatic way. I get what you're saying because, as you mentioned with the Sox.

But I still think Florida's going. Well, okay. I'm just going to I want to put this out there to the listeners because I was asking Laddie and a dog this morning. Do you think that they did enough to break maybe a little bit the mentality of the spirits or the vibes and the mojo and the juju of the florida panthers or did they go too far in scoring eight there's a limp there there's a line where you put up enough offense that you throw doubt into your opponent but then when you push it too far too far you piss off your opponent i i know nobody

wants to hear this like oh i'm not surprised that happened but i i'm not surprised that game four went the way it did it's the same thing that happened in the nba finals anyone watch game four that like the babs dominated the celtics the celtics didn't play anywhere close to the normal basketball they played and the panthers didn't play anywhere close to the normal hockey they played, and the Panthers didn't play anywhere close to the normal hockey they played. Yeah, the NBA Finals could wrap up tonight in Boston. I'm sure the Panthers had all their families in Edmonton for the potential cup win.

That was probably a distraction. Brady Kachek was there. They probably weren't as focused as they needed to be. I think they'll be a lot more dialed in Tuesday after, frankly, getting embarrassed in game four. Now that being said, if the Oilers win Tuesday, all bets are off on this series.

That's the game. That's the turning, that's always the turning point game, right? Because the way it's done with the 2-2-1-1-1, you get a game six back in Edmonton where it would be absolutely wild. And I bet the betting favorite in that game would be Edmonton.

And then if Edmonton, the favorite in that game, wins, then you get a potential game seven in Florida. And even if the Panthers are favored in that game, anything could happen. So what the Oilers are trying to pull off here, even just getting it to game six, is super rare. So there are only three teams in Stanley Cup final history that have gone to game six after losing the first three games.

And the most recent one was actually a series we covered. It was the 2012 New Jersey Devils against the Los Angeles Kings. I remember everyone was furious after the one because they had to go back to L.A. Everyone was looking at the Devils like, what are you doing? You guys are done. Just stop winning games. And then our old friend Steve Bernier took a major early on in that game.

A five-minute major for body splashing. Yeah, that's right. It was boring. Didn't the Kings score like three times on that power play too? Yes, and they just buried them. And it was just like, all right, well, that's over. But here's the crazy one with this is that no team has ever done what Edmonds has done and gone down 0-3 and won game five on the road.

So they are trying to do something that no other team has done before. And again, it's so difficult to read a lot into Saturday because you could tell at a certain point Florida punted on that game. Totally. I mean, they acknowledged it. They said they played terrible. They put it this way. After a certain point, they just stopped defending the rush altogether.

Like, whatever. Just get your points. It's fine. I bet they were kind of thinking, like, maybe Edmonton will just roll over and accept that they're dead in this series and we'll win the Stanley Cup here. And when that didn't happen, it was kind of like, oh, we are not prepared for this game. No, and they absolutely weren't.

And I'll say this, because we played the audio. The audio that we played was actually of the eighth goal. And that's the thing is you can't control the crowd. Like, the players did nothing. When McLeod scored, he just kind of skated away. And he knew, like, I'm not going to sell you hard. I'm not going to make eye contact with anyone. Like, it's 8-1.

But the fans were going crazy, and fair enough. Willers fans had, like, nothing to cheer about in the Stanley Cup Finals. So I don't know what it's going to do. It was so weird and so unique. That's never been done before. A team having that lopsided victory, down 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals, never happened before. So you're looking at it and you're saying,

well, there's no sort of precedent to fall back on. I don't know if this means anything. It'd be nice if the Canucks had blown out the Islanders in 1982 in Game 4 just to give the fans at the Pacific Coliseum something. Instead, they celebrated on the ice at the Pacific Coliseum. Okay, we can come back to the Oilers-Panthers series later in the first hour.

We've got an open segment on the other side. So if you've got any thoughts or comments on that series or anything in the world of sports, get your text in now to the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650-DUNBAR-LUMBER with three stores to serve you in Ladner on Bridge Street, Dunbar Lumber Express at Ladner Center or Buda's in Vancouver online at dunbarlumber.com. So, uh, there was a busy sports weekend. So we want to get over to many stories in the first segment as we can. The BC Lions

defeated the Calgary Stampeders in front of a packed house at BC Place. Vernon Adams threw for 277 yards and most importantly was not sacked a single time.

He had two touchdowns in the air, another on the ground. BC defeats Calgary 26-17. The attendance, many of them there to see and only to see 50 cent, 53,788, setting multiple records in the process. Lions hold up their end of the bargain. They get a win, which they needed desperately.

Calgary, who's actually had two good performances from their quarterback, Jake Mayer, and back-to-back weeks, not John Mayer. He's a different person entirely. Good singer though. They go to a one-on-one on the year. So the,

the Lions got a bunch of people in the door. Yeah. They put forth a victory. They looked pretty competent in doing so. So they ticked a lot of boxes on Saturday night. I guess they look pretty confident. Conf so. So they ticked a lot of boxes on Saturday night. I guess they looked pretty confident. Confident. Or competent.

I know a lot of negative Nellies were focused on all the people who left the game early or maybe even didn't stay for the game at all after the 50 Cent concert. But it's kind of missing the point of doing a promotion like this. The idea is to get people in the door, not all of them, but some of them who might end up seeing something they like and come back for another game.

The issue I think the Lions had was they started badly. It was a really bad start to the football game. Overall, there was like 10 putts, putts. I'm thinking of Rory already. Yeah. There was like 10 putts. Putts. I'm thinking of Rory already. Yeah.

There were like 10 punts, it seemed like, in the first five minutes. The Stampeders watched the Lions' first game. That's called a pre-scout. And they watched it against the Argos, and they're like, this offensive line is no good. So they pinned their ears back and went after Vernon Adams and had some success. They didn't sack him, but man, they got after him.

And Vernon Adams had some incredible escapes from pressure to avoid sacks. There were times where guys were just like either going unblocked or it looked like they were going unblocked. But no sacks. But no sacks, no bad turnovers. It was just like a bad start to the game. And I do wonder if there have been a few people there that were like, eh, well, the 50 Cent concert was good.

This is not good. And we're leaving. But, you know, credit to the Lions who realized, like, you know, our only job here is to win a football game. And they got the job done. Yep. So moving ahead now, it's going to be a really interesting season to follow.

I know we say this all the time when we're trying to hype things up, but there's such an interesting dynamic of all the successes and all the interesting, intriguing things that the Lions are doing off the field. And it's very obvious right now having spoken with neil mcavoy and everyone else involved in the organization that there's a pressure now for the on-field product to match what they are doing off the field with the 50 cent concert and the touchdown pacific and of course hosting the gray cup it's almost as if they've raised the bar and said, Hey,

we're doing all these great things. We're having all these big events. We've got the opportunity to make a statement this season. All the football team needs to do is win football games. I don't think they look, they look that good. Like the, I really don't.

I mean, I watched the game and I was happy. They, they won and Vernon Adams made some nice plays, but in the receiver core, you know, we asked Mojo on Friday, what's the strength of this team? And he's like, the receiving core. I'm like, aren't they, like, all new?

They are. But they did look good. There's some players that can make plays, but I don't know. I think they're going to need to do a lot of improvement along the way in order to be participating in that great cup game. Speaking of interesting and intriguing, I've often bemoaned a lot of the most recent golf majors because they just didn't have a really great ending.

Well, Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy threw that narrative out the window on Sunday. Bryson DeChambeau won his second U.S. Open title on Sunday with a fantastic up and down. Yeah, look at me using golf parlance out of the bunker to deliver an unforgettable finish at Pinehurst. And Jason, I know you were glued to the television watching that one.

You really should have just called it a sand save. Oh. Yeah, it wasn't up and down technically, but a better term would have been a sand save. Okay, I'm putting that one on the old mental back. Yeah, so there were two stories here. One was Rory and one was Bryson. And I'll start with Bryson who made an incredible sand save on 18 or up and down,

whatever you want to call it. Long bunker shots where you have the option of either exploding the ball out of the sand or trying to clean pick it out of the sand are really tough. Might be the toughest, you know, I mean, there are tougher shots. Like when Bryson was right up against a root,

a tree root. That was a tough line. That was crazy, right? But of all the shots that you're going to typically get, the long bunker shots are the toughest. And I know, you know, a lot of people who are watching and even some of the analysts were being like, I would have clean picked that thing over the

clubhouse. And there's no worse feeling in golf than taking a big swing because you need to have a big explosion out of the bunker. And all of a sudden you're like, oh, I got all ball there. Goodbye. It was an incredible shot.

The stats said that there was about a 1.5% chance of getting that up and down, and Bryson DeChambeau got that up and down for a U.S. Open title. Incredible finish. But perhaps the bigger story, even bigger than that, was Rory McIlroy,

who has not won a major in a decade now, looking like he was going to win that, looking like it was his day to do it. And then he had two short putts in the final three holes, and he missed them both. He had a 30-inch putt on 16. He had a four-footer on 18 on 18 the 18 that was a tough putt because unfortunately his chip left him a slippery putt like his chip was so so it got pretty close

to the hole but it was above the hole and you could tell when he hit that putt it was like oh he's scared he's scared of that putt and the greens at Pinehurst were making a lot of people scared of, well, everything. But it was that putt on 16 that first of all got in his head. That caused him to be so tentative on 18. And then when he realized that he wasn't going to win, he didn't even talk to the media. He basically got into his SUV that everyone, I think everyone gets like a car there, or at least the top players do. And he was like,

goodbye. Yeah. I wanted to play on the tires and was like later. I wanted to play some Rory McIlroy audio this morning on the show thinking, Hey, we can hear from Rory in the face of another disappointing, incredibly disappointing loss, but no,

just peeled out of the parking lot, didn't speak to the media. I'm sure there'll be a fine coming from the PG. He yelled goodbye, stink town. Yeah, pretty much. I felt almost sick to my stomach watching that because I had a chat going with my buddies. And when he missed the pot on 16, we were all like, none of us were like, it wasn't like we were all cheering hard for him, but it was just like, oh my God, did he just miss that putt? And then on 18, before he was hitting it, we were all texting like he could easily miss this putt because it was, and I know I've said this a few times, it was a slippery putt. And you could see the way he was set up to hit that putt.

He knew it was going to be left to right. And then, but he almost was like, oh, I don't want to hit this too hard. I don't want to put, I don't want to, I don't want to hit it through the break. So he didn't hit it at all. They just quit on the putt halfway through. And then it just like, it went. Every weekend hack golfer has seen that putt and made a putt like that. The problem is Rory isn't a weekend hack golfer.

And that was, it was a bad stroke. It was a bad putt. To give you an idea. No confidence. To give you an idea of the, the unlikelihood of watching what happened on Sunday unfold. You mentioned the stat on bryson sand save it was one and a half percent likelihood yeah rory mcelroy prior to yesterday putts inside of three feet tracked by pga tour stats was 496 for 496 so he had made 500 putts at that length on tour.

So of all the times to miss, it's Sunday, final round, major. And then for Bryson to pull this out, Sunday, final major. The drama was off the charts. Well, the golf coverage needed Johnny Miller out there. Johnny Miller's retired from broadcasting, but he would always just be like,

pressure, that's the pressure. And it was. It's the pressure. And it was, right. It's the pressure of not only the U S open for Rory, but breaking this decade long drought without a major. Um, and he's just been through so much off the course as well, either business wise with the whole live golf thing where, you know, he stood up

for the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour was like, actually, we're going to make a deal with this out here. Sorry, Rory. And then, you know, personally, it was a few weeks ago, he's announced we're getting divorced. And then the week before the US Open, it was

like, no, we're not. We're not. We're going to reconcile. And I was kind of thinking afterwards, he was peeling off. He's like, I thought divorce It was like. No. We're not. We're not. We're going to reconcile. And I was kind of thinking. Afterwards. He was peeling off. He was like. I thought divorce is back on.

Yeah. You know. While I was playing. We were getting divorced. I do think. That he probably. Just saw the enormity. Of what that press conference.

Was going to be like. And he's like. You know what. I'll take whatever punishment. Is coming my way. Totally. I'm not. I'm not talking about this.

I'm not. I'm not talking about this. And you know what. I'm not dealing with it right now. I'm not talking about this. I'm not dealing with this right now. I'm not talking about this. And you know what? I'm not dealing with it. I don't blame him. I would have done the exact same thing. I was actually thinking when they showed him in the room there

watching Bryson finish off the tournament, that he's thinking, oh my God, I'm going to have to face the damn media. You could see it. And they're going to be like. Face in his eyes. They're going to be like, do you think those two misses cost you in the end? You'd be like, yeah. Yeah, I feel like they hurt.

Okay, before we go to break, the European Championship, the Euros are underway. Kicked off on Friday right after we got off the air and rolled through the weekend. Three major storylines from early days at the tournament. One on Friday, the hosts, the Germans, looked fantastic. Throttling Scotland 5-1. Scotland looked awful too, by the way.

Did Scotland even attempt a shot? Scotland's only goal was scored by the Germans. Rudiger put it in his own net. I believe they finished with an expected goals of.01. They did nothing. They didn't know how to defend. They didn't know how to attack. They didn't know how to attack. They didn't know how to high press. They didn't know how to play

in a low block. I don't even know if they recognize what the sport looked like. The anthem was good. The anthem was good. The bagpipers were going as loud as they possibly could, but it was not good for Scotland. Fantastic start for Germany, though. That was on Friday. We obviously, one of the major talking lines, especially given

Bruff and I's longstanding support of the English national side. England got off to a winning start yesterday, courtesy of a Jude Bellingham goal, 1-0 over Serbia. Another ho-hum performance from the English. They got the result. Do you remember when Moj was asking us for, we wanted goals on the bet?

Hashtag Moe Deneu. And then I said, well, I'm not giving you a full goal. And he's like, well, you got to give a full goal. You eventually gave him a full goal. And I was like, England wins 1-0 all the time, which is why I don't want to do that. You want to get them out the air. Yeah.

Let's wrap this up. Yeah. And England goes out there and wins 1-0. They look pretty good to start, but they did not look great to finish. So you said traditionally, historically, England always wins 1-0. The only thing that might be different about this English team is the guy I mentioned, Jude Bellingham. He is a special, special player.

The kind of star quality at a young age that is breaking into superstardom right now on the international stage that england hasn't had maybe ever in this in this trajectory in the way that he's going he just won a champions league with real well i mean they've had lots of young star players i don't think you should say that but not not at this trajectory like they've had like when michael owen broke in he was still like uhutious, young, like he hadn't really burst onto the stage. He burst onto the stage at Euro, but he was still trying to figure everything out. Right.

When Beckham went to international competitions, I mean, be dead honest, Beckham was a bigger star domestically and didn't really perform on the biggest stages. I mean, it was largely known for his failings at international tournaments. Bellingham right now has got the experience of having played in a couple big tournaments. He's in the conversation of one of the best footballers alive right now. He's in the top five. He just looks like he has so much composure. And that's the thing.

He looks like he plays on a different level. And that's kind of what I'm talking about. It's very rare that you get a guy who feels like he's coming into superstardom in that moment on this big of a stage. And the other one, obviously the defending champions, Italy, I mentioned it earlier. They avoided a scare because they gave up a goal 23 seconds into their

match against Albania on a gaff, on a throw in, and then just showed tremendous composure, came back, scored twice within the first 20 minutes of the match. They went to one. So the defending finalists and. So the defending champion and runner-up both win their opening matches. The host Germans win their match.

And then we've got a few more today, including Romania and Ukraine, which is still tied at 0-0 in the 25th minute. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. It's Brand Deep. Brand Deep Janda time. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. It's Randy Janda. It is Randy. Randy Janda. Talking hockey.

It is Randy. It is Randy. Randy Janda. It is Randy. Talking hockey now. Oh. 8.02 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford, Bruff, Sportsnet 650.

That was the Randy Janda intro. The newest addition to the Halford and Bruff lineup. Hey, dog. You are the songbird of our generation. Thank you. What was the lastbird of our generation. Thank you. What was the last one that you did? The Adnan one? The Adnan.

Yeah, you'll hear that this week. We had the Merrick one, too. Yeah. Yeah. It was kind of similar, wasn't it? No. Very different vibes. Was it?

Yeah, the Adnan one was like a crooner at the ballpark. This is like dance fest. Oh, okay. Right. Okay. Different vibes completely. I'm just looking to Criticize them now Yeah yeah

I'm kind of like Pick them apart The whole The whole like You changed me That's great I'm just like Aren't you gonna

Reinvent yourself a little bit You used to all be About the music I feel like you're In a bit of a rut We just did like an art Technomeric song Yeah

And the admin one Actually had lyrics How dare you How can you go more I'm gonna There's no winning with me. I'll be like, I don't like your new stuff. This is kind of how it works.

We build an artist up and then we look for reasons to tear him down immediately and make him question his own self-worth. Halford and Brough in the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. You don't have to compromise power or performance with Vancouver Honda. You can visit them online at VancouverHonda.com for more. We are in Hour 3 of the program. Randy Janda is going to join us in just a moment here.

Hour 3 is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. 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, that's what you're waiting for. To the phone lines we go. Randy Janda joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Randy. How are you? Good morning, boys.

First of all, awesome to have that intro. Thank you very much to the dogs. And I can't wait for your guys' Juno win. Like, that's worthy. Give them the trophy right now, boys. I love it. We're going to be up on Sunday. What's the category?

Yeah, best jingle by a dog. It's a very narrow category. We do keep submitting. Best Jingle by A-Dog for Randeep. The winner is. I do keep submitting them, and they keep telling me to not do that. Please don't submit these. Randeep, the Oilers stay alive on the weekend.

A-1 victory on Saturday night. When you're watching this go down, are you thinking, maybe they got a chance, or are you still pretty confident that it's going to be Florida hoisting Stanley's mug in a short period of time? I am definitely in the latter group, just based on what the stats say, right? 28 teams in Stanley Cup history have been in that situation of being down 3-zip, and 27 of those teams have lost. Three of those teams end up – 20 of those teams got swept as well.

So they've crossed that first hurdle of not losing all of the games that they played the first four, but this is a heck of a hill to climb. And listen, they were desperate. They end up winning eight one in that game. And the Panthers were not their usual cerebral selves. They were looking disjointed. They looked like maybe they were looking... They had a lot of things going on in situations like that.

You're probably thinking about a lot of things. The family's flown in. You're not focused. Sometimes having your eyes on the prizes is something that they all talk about, but it felt like in that game for the Panthers, they were just maybe they're just not there and credit to the earlers they were cerebral in in their own way they had a lot of speed but when i look at this series um looking at game five like if the oilers win that one then all of a sudden the pressure is

entirely on the florida panthers and then we're talking about do they they have a chance? As of right now, I still think Florida, what they've shown us in these playoffs, they've shown us the ability to be so, to have a resolve, guys, and have a focus. This is a blip for me. I still would say Florida, at this point in time, still the likely one to win. But game five, if the Oilers win that, then it's game

on. And ever since we've seen a few teams in the NHL come back from a 3-0 deficit and actually win, it is in the back of our minds that it is possible because before, what was it? There was one team way back in the day that had done it and then it didn't happen for a long time. Then it happened a couple of times. So, you know, the situation that you're laying out is always the classic example because if you can force a game six in Edmonton, then in your brain you're like, oh, well, the Oilers will be favored in that game. And then if you get to game seven, well, then you've got a game Oilers will be favored in that game and then if you get to

game seven well then you've got a game seven and anything can happen in that game for sure and you know I think a part of this is the Oilers aspect where in that last game you see McDavid pick up his four points you see the bottom six actually lead the way for the first couple of goals and you feel if you're an Oilers fan you're feeling optimistic after that game but the other part is Florida's character in these playoffs guys hasn't been what we saw in that game like they are not that team and if that is backed up that effort on Saturday night is backed up by a second game where you know the Oilers look that much better than the Panthers then you're starting to okay not only not only potentially have a belief

in the Edmonton Oilers game and them to be able to play with speed, something that they haven't been able to do this series, it's also the Panthers of saying, oh, okay, wait a second, have they cracked this team? Is this a team now that was so strong in the four check for three games in game four they couldn't do it? They got to Bobrovsky. They forced some mistakes.

So I think having that home ice advantage in game four, they couldn't do it. They got to Bobrovsky. They forced some mistakes. So I think, you know, having that home ice advantage in game six, obviously something that is going to be something that we look at and say, okay, that sets up well because you get that game at home. And in game seven, the pressure is on both teams. No doubt it's the Stanley Cup final, but it's mostly on Florida for saying, are you going to be that team that does this? You don't want to be that team, right? And that's why I think game five is going to be you're back at home for Florida.

If you see a composed team that is led by Barkov, that is on the right side of the puck, which is something that for Sasha Barkov in that last game, he wasn't, right? His line, the Kachuk line got shredded. That's out of character. So if we see him two games in a row, then all of a sudden going back to Edmonton, that's a very difficult proposition for Florida. So, Randy, I do want to talk a little bit about the Canucks with you.

I assume you heard Rick Tockett's interview with Darren Millard on the Chirp podcast. If you didn't, one of the things that he said was that he feels the need to reinvent himself a little bit in the offseason, not because last season went so badly. In fact, kind of for the reason that it went so well, that he can't just come to camp next season and preach the same thing because the players will tune that out. They've already heard it.

And frankly, some of his best material was about meeting pressure with pressure and getting off to a good start. That was the focus, you know, don't run away from the fact that we need to have a good start. Don't downplay that. Accept the pressure and deal with it.. Accept the pressure and deal with it. Talk about the pressure and deal with it. There isn't going to be that same level of pressure

to have a good start for the Vancouver Canucks next season. It won't be the same because there won't be that narrative of the past few seasons, the Canucks burying themselves in the first two months of the regular season. What do you think he might bring to training camp this time around as something that the players can grasp onto and buy into? Yeah, first of all, I wasn't surprised to hear that because this is a coach that understands the importance of communication in today's coaching, right? This is a guy that during his days, obviously the style of coaching was extremely different.

And I think Rick Tocantin is probably a player that we see thrived with maybe the old school mentality, but he understands that that doesn't necessarily fly in the current day NHL. You have to tweak that message you have to make sure that that message is not stale so not surprised at all to hear that comment uh on that podcast with rick talkett because he has been so you know on top of it and i think the media experience also helps with that now you know looking ahead to next year though and looking ahead the next camp last year was as as you said, pressure meets pressure. They had it in the locker room as a slogan.

They had it a lot of places in the building. That was his thing. And it still may be to a certain extent. But I think the focus for next year is going to be, hey, you've built a standard. You have to maintain that standard. You have developed the culture. You're not taking a step team. But that's really the entry-level aspect of it to say,

okay, you understand what it requires. Now, not only do you have to come back stronger, but at the same time, as the leadership group gets in there, it's no letoff, right? Like this is a team that is well-oiled. Sure, there's going to be changes. Sure, there's going to be some element of turnover, how drastic it is. We'll see in the next couple of weeks, you're probably starting in the next couple of weeks, but in terms of, I think that message has to be that internal standard. You said it last year. All right. Now that is the, the bare minimum and you build from there.

So I think the message is going to not necessarily be pressure with pressure and, and, you know, structure and all those things that we, the slogans that we heard last year, I think there's an element of, all right, you take that next step and you maintain that standard and you elevate even more so that you're ready to play in April, May, and ideally June for this team next year, because we did see some guys hit a wall and that really, we're talking, it starts in the, you know, the offseason and in training camp to say, all right, you know what the next standard is now.

When you watch the Florida Panthers play, what do you think about the Canucks needing to do in order to reach that level? I think, first of all, it's the understanding of what it takes i had a conversation with alex barkov a couple of weeks ago and i asked him one of the first questions i asked him was what was the message and the mood in the room when you guys started up again you lose in the stanley cup final and the first thing he said was it was a great thing that happened to us when you lose in the cup final usually it it was tough you know that sucked it. I didn't sleep for weeks. Barkov started off to say, no, you know, obviously losing stinks. But we came in so motivated that the internal standard was so high that we wanted this. And I think more than anything with this team,

it's an understanding of things will be difficult. That series against Edmonton was not easy, and it did not end the way that they wanted to, but that's the norm. Embrace that norm, embrace that uncomfortable feeling. And some players on this Canucks team are their guys. Some guys have been through the battles. JT Miller obviously has a greater understanding and appreciation of what

playoff hockey is now based on his, you know, experience in New York early on in his career. There's a number of other veterans that played in the playoffs. Some will be back, some won't be. But there's some young guys that this was their first experience. And what I think with this team, that next step is to say, hey, the 82, managing your minutes, managing your efforts and getting the job done, beating teams that you need to beat, which they did this year. They beat the good ones and the bad ones.

That's why they won the division. But that next step of being hungry after falling short and, yeah, being outplayed and, you know, essentially, you know, failing on the power play and all those things we talked about in the playoffs, coming back hungrier to say, all right, we learned from that that and we want to we want to lift off from that point it's not taking a step back and and resetting and that's the

championship mentality you know that's something that Barkov mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago and I think the Canucks that's the next step for them to say we got to this point all right we're going to build off of that and we're not going to take a step back we're going to embrace the uncomfortable and playing through, whether it's pain or tiredness or all of those things we talk about in the playoffs. You know what I find interesting is that we've seen the narrative play out countless times where teams are full of young talent, and they run and gun, and they play entertaining hockey,

and they score lots of goals. Sure, they might give up a few, but they score more than they give up. And then they get to the playoffs and they realize that that style doesn't work. The Florida Panthers are just the latest example. Last season, they allowed 270 goals during the regular season. This season, 198. That's a goals against average that went from 3.32, which is not very good, to 2.41.

That is an incredible defensive adjustment, and we've seen teams do that. But the Vancouver Canucks almost need to do the opposite, don't they? Their defense was good, but they need to score more goals and that was their problem is that harder to do because you know defense is is like a mindset right you you just need to do the little things with offense a lot of the times it's like do you have enough talent to actually score that many goals and are you in your current system are you sacrificing talent to a certain degree because

you want to protect the house that much right it comes down to a couple of things you're right the talent um in some ways you can call it deficiency we talked about Ilya Mikheyev and we've been talking a lot about him in the offseason as well and Patrick Alvin admitting that hey it's not Ilya's fault that he was playing in the top six. It's mine, essentially saying, I need to get more guys there in that spot that can thrive. And flipping that switch to go finding those players and getting more out of them,

yeah, that's a challenge. And Florida didn't get there overnight. They had a lot of guys that put up points. Remember when Huberto was there, that Barkov, of course. But they go through the names. They had a lot of guys that could put the puck in the net, but they didn't have commitment on that side. So, sure, they had to tone down the offense.

For Vancouver, it's a couple of things. And I think this is where we were talking about Rick Talkett a little bit earlier on. It's an element of trust to say, how do i open this up a little bit more i understand i need to protect the house structure is important but if you go back to rick talk at hockey even arizona he didn't have as much talent on that roster it was low event hockey where you're grinding out games so in terms of improving and you know going back and and kind of resetting what he's doing and thinking about the game differently it's how do i open up more offense from this roster i think it starts here guys we can talk about adding skill but it's to say all right if you have a healthy

thatcher demko can you potentially you know take a few more chances can you strike off the rush and i think that's where it starts this is the team that the possession numbers when you start looking at that they had their that's how they played they're going to lean on you and they weren't going to attack off the rush but that is such an important part of today's game where we saw it in that game for the stanley cup final edmonton absolutely shredded a team like flor in transition, and Vancouver was really lacking that this year. So how to find offense, of course, you've got to find those players that can bring it,

but I think there's some coaching that, and Rick Talkett has admitted this, to say off the rush, we've got to find ways to attack, and that was a real area where they didn't have much of anything. So I think that's where you get the offense from, guys, in addition to adding skill. Do you think they've got the speed up front to be a good rush team? As of right now, no.

You're going to need a few more speedy wingers, and you're going to need a little bit more confidence in your top six to do that. But the current makeup of the team, we've seen these guys to a certain degree you know score goals and in transition the lotto line a few years back now when they played together they had their moments whether it was sorry the petterson bank path to brock fesser uh against colorado i remember that high scoring game like there are certain moments that stand out but do they have it consistently enough no there's

there's um that's lacking on this team right now. And when we go back and we make the comparison a lot to the Pittsburgh Penguins teams of Jim Rutherford, there were straight line burners, right? There were guys that, sure, the defensive unit outside of Chris Lutong, they played a certain way. They moved the puck up the ice to the wingers and to the centermen, and they just attacked. And they processed the game

really, really quickly. They did have a transition attack. This team, in my opinion, you know, Mikheyev, we know what his injury has been all about. He doesn't have that same burst as of right now. But even beyond that, the team's speed is not quite there. Lafferty brought that.

Hoaglander brings that to a certain degree but we're talking about bottom six guys in the top six you know we've been talking about that winger i think you need a guy that a can do well with retrievals but you need a guy with speed playing next to petterson okay randy if i need to ask you about this you got a chance to play some cricket tell us about that tell us about the whole the whole experience that you had with the canadian cricket team yeah so i anybody that knows whole experience that you had with the Canadian cricket team. Yeah, so anybody that knows me knows that I'm not a big cricket guy. I went to India when I was a kid, and I kind of messed around,

and I picked up a bat. The fellow kids in India laughed at me, and that was my cricket experience. But this kind of cool opportunity came about with the ICC and the NHL. And they said, Hey, we'd love to do kind of a cricket me talkie experience with yourself. And also of course, Anton Carter, who's of Caribbean background as well. So we're like, you know, there's a, there's a cultural kind of component there and it'd be cool to be caveats to

combine both of these experiences and our, our backgrounds and shoot some content for the nhl and the icc and i gotta say so we hung out uh with team canada a lot of guys uh based here in bc as well they play their club level and some fantastic individuals so they kind of put me through the paces a little bit and uh i'm not gonna lie like i was terrible my bowling was absolute trash but i just saw i just saw an attempted bowl on your Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi Twitter account. It needs a little work. Your spinner needs a little work there.

So I was going faster originally. And they're like, no, no, you've got to focus on the seams. You're not spinning. I was like, okay. What that did was that really slowed me down because I was so aware of my and how i was holding the ball and it was just it was a wreck but it was fantastic experience first time i checked out live cricket i was uh at the pakistan canada game as well um got to meet one of the former captains of pakistan a real appreciation for what they do because being in front of 150 mile per hour bowl and trying to hit

it that ain't easy right like and some of these guys are big big dudes so uh really cool experience i embarrassed myself which i have no problem doing but got a much greater appreciation for the sport of cricket and and what those guys do do you think the t20 game could make inroads in north america because it's i think it could yeah Yeah, because cricket is confusing, right? I've got some friends that know cricket pretty well. And I mean, the first time I ever picked up a cricket bat was my dad's from England and we were visiting England and I'm like, what is this thing?

And they were like, yeah, it's like baseball, but you bounce it beforehand. And you're like, you bounce it? Like, I don't know, it seems pretty complicated. And there's, you know, the the the five-day test there's the one-day test and then there's t20 um i sometimes wonder if just the the simplest form the fastest form of cricket is the one that's going to be the most successful in north america i'm with you i as a kid and you know being of uh ind background and Punjabi background originally my parents are from the the country of India test cricket was the one that was on

TVs in the background you're like man that's going on forever they're having a tea break like what's going on here it's a tea break right yeah like like what's going on here test cricket is is not for everybody t20 for me it was the match is over in about two and a half to three hours. It's high energy. It's easy to follow. So I agree with you. Like, the in-match experience as well was, you know, just being there and the energy of the fans. They bring their own kind of personality, whether it's the Pakistani fans. I flew into town in New York on the day of the India-Pakistan one, which is the big one, right, in cricket.

And the energy, they were talking about that two days later, where North American fans had never seen anything like it. So in two hours, you can pack that in. It's kind of a great experience. It's high energy. You watch a bunch of sixes. And, you know, I think it's a way to bring a new fan so i'm with you i think t20 uh it was my first experience and i i thought it was a good one i think uh the test

cricket was originally just invented because the english one is something where they could just drink all day like they didn't want they didn't want the the the game to actually end because they just okay well the sun's down i guess we've got to stop now yeah i don't want to go work hang out with my kids so i'm just exactly three days at a time right hey randy thanks for doing this today bud we really appreciate it appreciate it boys take care thanks randy janda connects radio analyst here on the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 the canada india match got rained out over the weekend oh really torrential downpour yeah we got a text in i went went to the Ashes in Australia.

It was amazing. So for what reason was it amazing? Was it, I'm asking the texter here, was it amazing because- Don't ask me, I didn't go to the Ashes. Was it amazing because of the longstanding rivalry between England and Australia, or was it amazing because you had a good time and you were partying the whole day? You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.