Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 6/19/26

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk Canada's big 6-0 win over Qatar at the World Cup, plus they discuss the latest Canucks news with Donnie & Dhali's Rick Dhaliwal.  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. In it and Sweet the Series. Here's one of those lovable high schoolers from TV's Springfield Heights 90210. He's cool, he's sexy, he's 34 years old. Let's hear it for Darren. Braddard shoes, it's the most hated per. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Friday.

Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford, it is brough. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming to you live, not from the Kintech Studios today, but live on location at the showroom at Duocon Marine 400 Southeast Marine Drive in Vancouver. I'm Mike Halford. Jason, good morning. Good morning, and I loved that Blue Jays highlights intro.

I know everyone in the country was glued to the Blue Jays game yesterday. Well, friend. There's only a certain amount of things that we... It was amazing. It was amazing. First thing in the morning. Laddie is live on location with this. Laddie, good morning to you. Hi, I was watching the Blue Jockey. What are you saying?

Adog and Zach are back in Mission Control. I'm not sure if they can hear us. We'll move along anyway. We are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halverdard of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. They're open seven days a week and they're open late to help you get debt-free with no judgment or up front fees. Visit them today at sands dash trustee.com.

We are an hour one of the program. Hour 1 is brought to 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 Pall Street in Vancouver. Okay, I'm going to call this the Mobile Kintech Studio. We are coming to you live from the Mobile Kintech Studio. Step Strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. It is Ask Us Anything Friday on the Halford and Brough Show. So please get your Ask Us Anything's in, include the pizza emoji if you want to be entered into the contest for Best ask us anything, $100 gift card to AJ's on the line.

The Dunbar Lumber Text Line 650-650, trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online today. It is time now for our morning guest list. That is the Duick Morning Drive brought to by the Duick Auto Group. A reminder, it's the Duick Auto Group's 100th anniversary sale this Friday, today through Sunday. We will begin the show today at 6.30 this morning. Gareth Wheeler is going to join the program from one soccer. What an unforgettable Thursday it was for Canada at the World Cup.

The country's first ever win, an emphatic blowout to boot, but also a horrific injury suffered. We'll look back on all that and look ahead to the Swiss match with Gareth Wheeler at 630 this morning. 7 o'clock, or sorry, 7.30, Luke Fox is going to join the program. NHL writer from Sportsnet. If you were wondering about that radish gag off the top here, we originally booked Luke as a sort of NHL generalist to go around the league. But early this morning, the Toronto Maple Leafs fired the first big shot of the off season pulling off a big sign and trade with Tampa Bay.

We'll talk to Luke about that and more at 7.30. 8 o'clock Rick Dollywall is going to join the program. Our Intrepid Canucks reporter from Donnie and Dolly on Czech TV. We'll talk about Canucks high ranks, Canucks free agent targets and more. Rick is back in his usual slot at 8 a.m. on a Friday. Speaking of Fridays, we are still doing the $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway for the best ask us anything as Jason mentioned earlier. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, 650, 650.

Get your AUA's in. Hashtag at AUA. Put a pizza emoji into the text and you'll be entered into the grand prize contest. Best Ask Us Anything gets 100 bucks to AJ's. Finally, finally, the last prizing and giveaway of the day for the final time this week. We're giving away a pair of tickets to the outdoorsman and conservation festival. It's going to be in Squamish next weekend, June 26 and 27th. Visit them online at OCFFest.ca for more.

Call her number 5 at 8 a.m. So right before Dollywall joins us, we'll win the tickets. The number is 604-280650. That number again, 604-280-0-650. We got a lot to get to. We got a big show ahead. So without further ado, Zach, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I'm losing. We know how busy you are. What happened? Missed it? You missed that?

Whoa! What happened is brought to you by ATS Traffic. Safety is not a shortcut you want to take. From design to execution, ATS Traffic is your full-service traffic safety provider. Visit them online at ATSTraffic.ca. What a day it was yesterday, Jason. Jonathan David, with the Hatrick. Canada won its first ever World Cup match.

But in typical hard luck Canadian fashion, it always comes with an asterisk because they lost this Malconi to a devastating injury. Where do you want to begin? Yeah, I want to begin with about how I felt yesterday during that match because, you know, we went into that match against Qatar and both of us, well, maybe me more so than you, were confident that Canada was going to dominate that match and Canada was going to do pretty well.

We knew in the back of our minds that Switzerland only got a draw off Qatar, but we were at least hoping that with the home crowd, with the nerves out of the way from the Canadian team, which I think they showed a bit of in Toronto in their draw with Bosnia, that certainly the odds were stacked in Canada's favor. And you could tell right from the start that this was going to be a match that was going to be played with Canada possessing the ball and Qatar mostly defending.

And that's the way it started, and that's the way it went the whole way. But none of us really predicted it would go particularly like that. I thought Canada was going to win and probably going to win by multiple goals. But after the Switzerland match against Bosnia, where it became clear that Canada was going to, going to have to win by at least four goals in order, this is confusing, in order to only need

a draw against Switzerland to win the group. I was kind of like, I don't know if they're, I don't know if they're going to do that. I think they can win by two or three, but asking them win by four was a little much. So as the match started, they get the two-nil lead. I'm feeling pretty good about it, obviously pretty good. And then Qatar goes down to 10 men, and I'm like, okay, they're going to do that. So I went into the halftime. Canada's up 3-0.

Jonathan David has scored. BC Place is buzzing. I'm feeling serious jealousy for not being at BC Place. And all my friends that are texting me saying, like, this is amazing. I've never been to an event like that. I'm like, shut up. Just shut up. Let's just enjoy it for Canada.

and then you go into the second half and Kone gets hurt. Yeah. And I could not enjoy the second half. I don't think the Canadian players could either. I couldn't enjoy it. And I'm kind of like, I was actually thinking, okay, on the show tomorrow, don't be too down about Kone, because this is still a very exciting time for Canada. This is awesome.

And they go on to win 6-0, which guarantees them, you know, this match against Switzerland, which had been my expectations. Going into this World Cup, I was like, okay, here are my expectations, all right? I want Canada to be able to play Switzerland for the group in their final match. And they are. And not only are they doing that, they don't even have to win. They have to draw, which will do. discuss later.

But we never expected to go exactly the way it is. And honestly, like, the back of my mind, I was kind of like, this game was definitely in Vancouver, because in Vancouver, we could never have anything 100% nice. Yeah, that's right. But I'm still. But I'm still very, very excited. And I'm very proud of that Canadian team. And I'm proud of how they responded.

after the injury. And I'm proud of Kone because he was so courageous going off the field. And, you know, by all accounts, you know, I've seen some pictures of him even in the hospital. He's got a smile on his face. And there might be an element of shock with that because it was such a horrific injury. I'm very proud and I'm very, very excited about the Switzerland game and what could be coming after that. But it's kind of like a tax on that happiness, you know, the the Kone injury, and I just feel, I feel awful for him, and I'm a little bit worried about how they're going to replace him. Okay, well, let's go right into that conversation then, because I think everyone understands that the win was massive, both in terms of the lopsided

score line, and it's the fact that Canada's first ever win at a World Cup. That almost got overshadowed, honestly, and I think part of it had to do with what you were saying that everyone expected them to beat Qatar. I also want to add, by the way, that this Qatari team in the previous World Cup and then the first game of this World Cup was by, they weren't a pushover at any of their match. The last World Cup, they didn't win.

But the scores were 2-0-0 to Ecuador, 3-1 to Senegal, 2-0 to the Netherlands. There wasn't one of those like lopsided scores that got hung on them. Part of it had to do with the fact that they weren't reduced to nine men, but also had to do with the fact that they defended stoutly

like they did in the first game against the Swiss. Canada scored what? Two goals against 11. They were two to the good before the red card started to happen. Think of it that way. They were pretty dominant

before the red started to happen. I think there was a combination of two things there. One, the Qataris weren't ready to deal with the pace of Canada, and especially, honestly, the inclusion of Ali Ahmed, even though he was kind of lousy on set pieces, he was very dynamic going out of them. And Buchanan... Buchanan was incredible in the first half.

This is crazy to say because Jonathan David had a hat-trick, but I thought from match-over-match, I think Tejohn-Bukhawked his game more in the second match, and Jonathan David did in the second match. Jonathan got hat-trick, just to put this in perspective. Buchanan was feeling it He was kind of unstoppable at times There was no one on the Katari team that could

Could stop him So the pace was one thing they couldn't deal with Very clearly the other thing they couldn't deal with Was the atmosphere And the intensity and the ferociousness of the crowd And the energy that the Canadian team got from that That first match against Switzerland Where they managed to get a draw

It was largely a pro-Swiss crowd But it was very much a neutral right It was there was you know I know there was probably more Swiss fans there than Katari fans, but it was played in a quote-unquote neutral location for both. This was going into the Lions den, going up against the lion in Canada being that in this instance.

You know, the Qatari manager, Yolen Lopitegi, he said afterwards, like, it just all became unraveled for us. Like, sometimes in football, everything goes against you. And this one, it was, we weren't ready to deal with the pace of the opponent, we weren't ready to deal with the crowd, and then we started getting the red cards. And it just became a complete,

completely unglued, and that's how you got the 6-0. So let's put that aside for a sec. Ismail Kone. You could make the argument right now that Canada is currently without its three best players. That's with Bombito coming back in and not starting. They're starting 11 could theoretically not have Bombito, Kone, and Davies, and you could say those are their three best players. It is damaging to put it mildly.

Yeah, people are texting in and saying, like, I'm a hockey fan. I don't really know soccer. Can you put this in the, in hockey terms, the depth chart, where Coney would be and maybe talk about his replacement, a name I like. Saliba. Natanz Saliba. Okay, so Coney's importance to the squad, him and Eustaccio were the two center midfielder's

and a 4-4-2. Called the engine room. They make everything go. Box-to-box. Midfielers, I guess you would call them in hockey parlons centers, right? They do a lot of the heavy lifting. They have a lot of touches.

A lot of touches and a lot of responsibilities, both in attack and both in defending. Kone has a lot of different tools in his tool bag. He's an incredibly athletic guy is one thing. And there's certain things that he can do that other guys on the pitch can't do because he's got great power, great pace. He's got the ability to go 1V1. He can finish.

We've seen it before he scored at the national team level, some pretty impressive goals. He's a very do-it-all player. And they relied on him extensively to the point where we said, well, they can survive the Davies loss, and they can survive the Bombito lots because they've got Conan and Eustaccio in the middle of the park. And they were going to play 90 every match.

Now, losing him, you don't really replicate what he brings. He plays in one of the top leagues in the world. It's Sariawa, Sasuolo. He's very talented. They are fortunate because Saliba is a very talented player. Also playing in Europe. He plays in Belgium for Anderlach, which is one of the power clubs there. And we've seen lots of Canadian guys use Belgium as a stepping stone

to bigger clubs before, like Jonathan David. Saliba does not have the ceiling that Kone has. Let's just get that out there right now. Kone's got the ability to do things at a very high level that I don't think anyone else on the team. Maybe outside of Davies physically and Bombito they're able to do. Saliba's probably going to be a little bit more consistent in terms of he doesn't have the highs and lows. You heard Jesse Marsh talking about. Coney's saying he's an imperfect player.

That's a good way to describe him because sometimes he can lose his head a little bit. Siliba's only 22. he doesn't have a ton of big match and professional experience. Like four years ago, he was still playing in Montreal for the impact, then impact, now CF Montreal. And he was playing with a reserve squad four years ago. So from there, he's gone to the first team in Montreal to Europe. And now, welcome to the, you're the starting midfielder for Canada in a crucial World Cup match.

A lot of Canadians on this team have taken that jump, though. Similar jumps. And the one thing that's cool is that he has a similar point. profile to some of these guys that have taken the big leaps and thrived with him. His first year in Belgium, he's done exceptionally well. And Stefan Eustacchio was talking after the match. And he's like, look, we got a lot of faith in Saliba because he's a guy that we saw go to Europe, take on the challenge, and really thrive, not like some of the Canadian guys who have

a hard time adjusting to a new league. So I'm optimistic for it, but I'm also realistic. You can't just replace Conan. Okay. I want to go pretty fast on this because we've got so much to get. yet to after that incredible day at BC Place. Is this going to force Alfonso Davies into action? I'm not saying he's a replacement for Coney,

but you know, you got this match. This is now going to become the biggest match in Canadian men's national team history against Switzerland. And, you know, he was available for the Qatar match. I don't think any of us really expected him to come in. Maybe if they needed a goal late and they wanted to bring in someone, he would have played. But does this make it more likely that he plays against Switzerland?

See, I think Bombito coming in as a sub was the tell that these guys are ready to go. They wanted to get Bombito minutes. So they brought him in for about 30 yesterday. I think you could see something similar with Davies in the Swiss match, him coming off the bench and giving that jolt. Okay. Because right now, they are going to be thriving on vibes a little bit, Canada. They're going to use this Kone thing as a rally and cry.

Jesse Marsh, there might not be a gaffer in the world more equipped to deal with the adversity and using it as a rally and cry. He loves that stuff. I'm not saying he loves the injury, obviously, but he loves these moments where he can try and galvanize the team. And I think having Davies, even just as a presence in that match, would do that. And again, I think Bombito was a talented thing. getting him in, having been cleared earlier. Yeah.

And now Davies got cleared midweek. He doesn't play for guitar, but it kind of sets itself up that the captain is going to make this return in a match where there's all to play for. But also, you've got the safety of going through to the round of 32. Okay. So we've talked about Buchanan. We've talked about Saliba Jonathan David. Gets a hat trick. What more can you say?

I mean, and they're like, the last player. to score a hat trick as the host country was Jeff Hurst in 1966. And I was like, oh, was that a big game? I remember that one. I don't remember that one. I wasn't born. You were 23 years old. I mean, that was the game where England won the World Cup of Wembley.

And Jeff Hurst forever immortalized is like an English hero after that. Right. So what did you see from him that was different than the Jonathan David that got subbed off? the what, 60th minute? Against Bosnia. First match against Bosnia had a chance fall to him early in the first half, scuffed the shot, put it into the keeper's arms on a dive.

He gets a chance. One falls to him in the box, similarly against guitar on the volley, smashes it home. Didn't scuff it. That's what I saw. I saw a guy that was... Yeah, even his first chance that was stopped.

Like, it was like a half volley. I saw a guy that was much more ruthless in front of goal. Even the one where Laren headed down and the keeper made a save, and David was very opportunistic. on the rebound. Those are strikers instincts, and sometimes it's just a matter

of, I hate talking like a 16-year-old going to high school, but like locking in. You just become supremely focused on when there's a chance, I have to make this good. It's not like there's going to be another one coming. You have to make good on those. I liked his hat-trick goal. He's like, actually, I'll take this shot. Who shot it?

Saliba. Saliba shot in and saw it. Let me just stop this, and I'm going to put it in. And at that point... And it was the right play. Well, if you look at the Katari backline at that point. They are stretched all over the place. They all turned for an off side. And then the guy that turned for an off side was like,

I am the one keeping Jonathan David on side right now. What's that mean? That was me. Yeah, like they were in such disarray. But it was the first goal that was the most important for David. He was fantastic. And one final guy I want to talk about is Alistair Johnston because I think he's a favorite of yours.

Love Alistair Johnson. Did a great job yesterday playing for as much as he did on a yellow. We kept yelling at each other because Martinago and I did the pre-match show. We're like, it's like, 5-0. Get him off. right why is he still on there because he can run hot sometimes and that match was running a little bit I thought him and lorrea not getting cautioned in that game was a minor victory to be honest because they were running was rattled they were both running hot and I understood how controlled and composed alistair Johnson really is by getting through that match without picking up a second nail so he's now eligible to play in the final match against the Swiss I thought look there were a lot of guys that put in a shift yesterday I kind of look at the matches like what did they

do in the first 25 and around that first hydration break because that was a real snapshot of what the match should have looked like once Qatar went down to 10 and once they went down to nine it's hard to really analyze it like when they were down to nine I thought it was hard to analyze it but you know Keith the water guy texted in earlier he's like I thought they should have done more when they were 11 v9 and I was like Keith there's a lot of extenuating circumstances there they just lost one of their brothers to a broken leg yeah they're up four or five nil they're trying to put the pedal down but they've also already put it down a lot, so I don't really think there was much...

You could tell Buchanan wanted to score, though. He did, for sure. He wanted to score. He's like, I'm going to take this chance. I'm going to take this chance. So there wasn't much to read from the match. And when we get into the Bosnian-Swiss match, if we ever... It was tough to gauge that match, too,

because it was scoreless for 73 minutes, and then it opened up, and then when Bosnia took the right, it really opened up. Okay, we're going to have... We're going to continue this conversation with Gareth Wheeler. So I just want to tell you that yesterday, after the match, I did a little... little dreaming and um dare we dream about a potential path for canada if they manage to draw

switzerland or beat switzerland and they then they they win the group do is it is it yeah are we getting ahead of ourselves it doesn't matter not at all okay let's let's let's let's get nuts and do this yeah okay now the round of 32 match at bc place could still be pretty tough even though it's against a third place team from groups EFG, I, or J. That could be... This is a July 2nd match too, right? Yeah.

Yeah, okay. I'm actually not 100% sure. I think it is. If you win the group, you go to July 2nd. If you finish 2nd, you don't get as long of a break. But, you know, I mean, that could be that could be anyone right now. So it's, you know, like I was looking at teams like,

maybe it's Ecuador. I don't know. Maybe it's a million permutations. Yeah, right. Okay. But being able to stay in Vancouver and get the home field advantage could be massive. Because they've been in Vancouver, obviously, for a few days now.

They get to stay in Vancouver because they're going to play Switzerland at BC Place. And then just not having to travel, you train, the excitement in the city builds. And, you know, I think that's a huge advantage for, because some other team that they're going to play is going to have to come in here from another group, another part of North America, and get used to Vancouver really quickly. Now, the round of 16 match, which if Canada wins that round of 32 match, is again at BC place. Now, that round of 16 match originally looked like it would be Portugal would get there. That was the favorite team to get there.

And it still could be. But Portugal have work to do now because they drew the Democratic Republic of Congo. Dr. Congo. Dr. Congo. Right now, Colombia is in first place in the group. So obviously the Columbia Portugal game is going to be crazy. Now, let's say they win that one. Dare to dream, buddy.

I mean, we've seen host countries go on these crazy runs. I think about Korea when they hosted alongside Japan. Best friends forever, I think, according to history. So let's get crazy and imagine that Canada wins both the knockout stages, games at BC place. That would have them heading to Kansas City where they could, could face the defending champs from Argentina. So this is all obviously crazy excitement talk. Let's, you know, we're just, you know, we're allowed to do this. We're not on the team.

Okay. We don't have to stay focused. by the way, if they lose to Switzerland, and that is a possibility. Okay, Switzerland came in as the favorite to win this group. They obviously did not play well against Qatar, but we saw yesterday what they could do, and they beat Bosnia 4 to 1. If they lose to Switzerland, Canada,

they will likely be headed to Los Angeles, where they'd play the runner-up from Group A, and right now that looks like probably Korea. Yeah, and that was a couple of buddies threw that out there yesterday. It was after Korea lost last night to Mexico. And that clinches the group for Mexico. And that puts Korea in the, I guess

it's a dog fight to finish who finishes second or third in the group. So there's still lots to play for in that group. But it's not outrageous to do what you're doing right now. Because as of today, Canada is tops in the group. They have the Swiss on goal differential. And again, I'm having

a really hard time getting a proper read on the Swiss team because they went 160 plus minutes without scoring a goal from open play. Remember the penalty against guitar was the only time they found the back of the net. Yeah. And that was it. And they went 73 minutes against the Boszians without scoring as well. So I still have a

tough time getting a read on exactly where this Swiss performance is out. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Intrepid Canucks reporter from Donnie and Dolly on Czech TV. It's Rick Dollywall here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Ricky?

I did the wave in those Western finals in the 80s, Jason, and I'll tell you something else. Dave Richie, Don Matthews, some of the greatest games at BC Place, and you're bang on. The wave was big back then, and Little Ricky was sitting up in the upper deck, $8 seats. Oh, memories. Brough, you just made my day.

I called the upper deck. Fight Central. Oh, I saw a great bra one time at a Lions game. Oh, man. Holy smokes. In the 90s, it turned into, like, guys. Guys would go, do you want to go the Lions game and get in a fight? It was unbelievable.

It was, and I remember I saw one, 15 people. It was just, and this was back in the early 80s. It was phenomenal. But BC Place yesterday, guys, okay, let me get into this. We're going to talk soccer first. The Canucks got nothing going on that compares to what soccer did yesterday. That was spectacular. And fans started gathering around BC Place at noon.

I was just leaving downtown. You saw the sea of red before the kickoff. The P&E Fan Festival, Jammin, last night, Granville, you don't even have to like soccer to understand how a World Cup unites countries. Very few sports have this power and ability. It's truly a world event. The grass at BC place guys, stunning. Like, I'm sure the BC lines would love to play on that.

Not going to happen. Vancouver may be a hockey town and always will be, but yesterday they showed up for soccer on the world stage. and I hate to bring up the white caps. I hate to bring them into this, but how can they leave town when Vancouver does what they did last night and support soccer the way they did? It's only going to get stronger and bigger for the Switzerland game.

Now, I'm going to tell you right now, and I thought of the Canadian team in 1986, and I'll tell you why. Because it was in the 80s? No, no, because of the late great coach, Tony Waiters. I was very lucky to interview Tony many times, a class act. the happiest guy in Canada last night would have been Tony Waiters. He did so much for Canadian soccer.

And for him to know that Canada won their first World Cup game ever, he would have been the happiest guy. Bob Leonard Uzi, Valentine, Dale Mitchell, Ian Bridge, from Victoria, Randy Samuel, he was so good, Colin Miller, Paul Dolan, Annette. Those guys paved the way. And we can't forget about that 86 team. Those guys paved the way.

And just like the 86 team, this is a very, likable Canadian squad. I heard you guys talking earlier this week. Jonathan David's got to wake up. Woody only played 61 minutes in the opener. I mean, he did wake up. He got the hat trick. Kyle Laren scores again. Just a blast to watch. A fun day. And Vancouver showed the world yesterday that it's a world-class city. There was so much to like. There was so much to like. It's not even funny. It was an absolute, wonderful event. I have two problems. with yesterday, okay? Okay.

You guys ganged up on me. You guys tagged me a couple of weeks ago on the screaming. Please don't say that. Don't do it again. Don't ever say that again. No, you know what I mean? You're ganged up on me. Don't do it again.

Anyways, first you have 52,000 people wearing red in a building. And Canada comes out in black uniforms, ugly black uniforms. There is nothing in those uniforms that screams Canadian. It's a horrible decision. The color of the uniform in the field should match the color of the fans. and the stands. Every single country does it. Let's hope they go back to red uniforms

against Switzerland, because it wasn't a good look last night. I don't know what you guys thought about it. What color do the Swiss wear? Yeah, they got white and red. We only got a couple choices because they got white and red. You know what I will? I like the black jerseys personally, but more importantly, there have been some massive Canadian soccer moments over the last

four years. Actually, Duthy mentioned this on the broadcast yesterday, where they've been wearing the iconic black jerseysies. maybe the best one of them all was the Ice Teca game where San Matacoubae made the leap into the snowbank and they were wearing the all-black kids then. I did wonder if it was something about luck or history or vibes that they went with the All-Black yesterday

because they had so many good moments wearing the all-black kits in previous iterations of this team. Yeah, I just, look, Canada, you can go back to the hockey teams of the 60s, 70, the Canada Cup, Phil Esposito Coliseum, come on, Canada. It's always been red. I'm not a fan of these black uniforms. I'm just going to flat out.

What was the second thing you didn't like from the six-no-win? Second is Donnie and I pay $18 a day to park in downtown. We're right by B.C. Place. Yesterday, these guys charged a $63 bucks. That's a, that's BS. The balls on these guys to charge that, it's ridiculous. I didn't, okay, why should I pay $63 bucks for a game that I didn't go to? I mean, that's money that could go to Zone.

Don't get no I'm not going down. We're not doing it. We're not getting him up today. Then you guys tag to me. Listen, these parking guys are the worst, and you can't even call them because I tried to call them. You've got to email these idiots. Anyways, they're lucky because if I would have got them on the phone, it wouldn't have been pretty. But to charge 63 bucks when you charge 18 the other days is just ludicrous, and you guys know it.

So outside of those two things, it was overall a lot of. a good experience. Oh, I loved it. Yeah, it was fantastic, right? It was, and look, I didn't like the game because it got out of hand early, and then they started getting red cards.

Oh, the Coney Andrew was a real damper. I mean, 79% possession, and thanks to the two red cards, but at the end of the day, you want to see a more competitive game, but you take it any time. Obviously, the next game is going to be more competitive, but

Here we go. We got the first win for Canada ever at the World Cup. Huge sign. It's absolutely what Canadian soccer's done in the last three to four years is pretty phenomenal. It's very, very, very good. I wanted to mention when you mentioned that 86 team, I mean, that's 40 years ago now. That was a long time ago. But the change is unbelievable.

Like half of those guys on that 86 team were unattached. They were actually, like, they were unemployed. Who was the guy that was like a water meter? George Pecos. Yeah, like on the island. Like, these guys really had regular jobs, and a bunch of the teams that they were on had folded because that's what soccer teams did in the 80s.

So they were like, okay, well, I guess we'll stick around and train for the World Cup. The difference now in the quality of the players, I mean, Kone is playing in. in Syria in Italy, the top league. You know, you've got players like Alfonso Davies playing for Byron, who's one of the biggest clubs in the

world. It really is incredible how far it's come not just in soccer knowledge among the fan base, but just in the quality of the player in Canada. It starts with the academies.

It starts early, and the academies are way better. The kids are getting great teaching. I mean, it It starts early. It's starting early. Why are there so many NBA players from Canada? It starts early. The kids are getting better at an early age.

They're eating right. You know, they got, in hockey, they got a, what do they got? The skating coaches, this coach, that coach. Kids are getting better coaching a younger age than they did 20, 30, 40 years ago, and that's making a massive difference in all sports. It's all sports. But to watch Canada do that on the world stage yesterday was absolutely phenomenal. Okay, the draft is a week away.

I know we're all World Cup crazy right now, but I actually said to Halford this morning, I'm like, thank God we've got this World Cup, because right now we'd be going over should the Canucks draft Caleb Malhotra for the millionth time. But what are the Canucks doing in terms of hiring and free agents or anything else? What are you hearing about the Canucks a week away from the draft

and then July 1st, of course, is free agency? Let me get into, there are some stories with the Connects. Let me get into the free agents because July 1st is right around the corner. So when I checked in on Teddy Bluger and Derek Forbert this week, I was told it was pretty quiet. I don't sense any urgency there, but, you know, one phone call changes everything. Now, the old regime really liked Bluger a ton. We'll see what the new guys think of him. Forburt was injured all last year.

There were whispers. He may retire, but I was told this week that's not the case. I think that guy's going to find a new home. Danila Klamovic's agent, your buddy there, Danny Millions, he's going to talk to the Knox after the NHL draft next week about Klamovic. Second round pick four years ago. We all know the Kinnock took him five picks ahead, the kid from Kammloops, and we all know how he's doing in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

He has played in Abbispert four years. He's never played a game for the Vancouver Canucks. I don't understand the Kinnock's have signed three Abisbury. guys. Not sure why Klamovych is taken so long, but we're going to, we'll get some clarity on him next year. One thing the Kinnocks did this week, they gave their Abbisford captain

Chase Waters, a huge deal, $425,000 next year in the American Hockey League. This guy's a great captain, better human being. One thing to keep an eye on Abbisford next year. Our steep Baines is going to be on a one-way

deal next year at $850,000. So that means if you, He doesn't make the Canucks. That's a massive contract for a farm team. Okay? So 8.50 one way for Baines. Waters just got 425. So that's almost $1.3 million on two guys in the American League.

That's pretty significant salaries for me. But Baines obviously is going to try to make the Canucks out of camp. But keep an eye on that. That's 851 way. Now, as of this week, I'm not hearing anything negative in terms of Philippeal's health. Okay, so Heedles had nothing but concussion issue since he got here, but as of this week, and I don't know, things can change in July, August or whatever, but I'm just not hearing anything negative or bad. Brendan Gallagher, Brennan Gallagher update, his agent keeps in touch with the Vancouver Canucks. He keeps in touch with the Montreal Canadians. Pretty quiet on that front. I checked the other day. It's a big contract, money-wise, that's going to take time to figure out.

and they figure it out at the draft in Buffalo next week. And there's more than just everybody thinks, oh, my God, the Canucks in Montreal are just talking. Well, it's more than one team involved here. It's just not one team. You don't pigeonhole yourself and say, okay, well, Gallagher's agent is not going to say, okay, just get them to Vancouver nowhere else. That's not the way it works.

There's other teams involved in Gallagher as well. So let's see if they can make some traction and get home. but I know his agent continues to keep in touch with the Canucks and the HABs. Now, the other thing is we had Maddie Mahaltra on yesterday. He's looking for assistant coaches, okay? He's looking for a combination of experience and maybe a young and upcoming coach who's hungry. The most important thing Mahalta told us, he is looking for guys who can communicate and teach what they are teaching.

Okay. He also said, I do believe he should have a say in the, Abbottesford coach. He's looking for the same thing for the Abbey coach, a guy who can teach, a guy who can manage personalities. Mahaltra can show tough love when he needs to, and he showed tough love to some guys in Abby. Don't think he's a pushover or anything. Now, the other interesting thing that Mulholtra said, he had 13 coaches in his playing career. He learned the most from Ken Hitchcock. He said Hitchcock opened his eyes to the game and taught him a lot. Maholtra talked about communication a lot in our interview.

If you can't communicate the plan to the players, what's the point of having a plan? But I'll tell you one thing that the media and the fans are going to absolutely love about Malau-Tra is the clarity. When he talks, he speaks clearly. He conveys his message with thought. I think everyone's going to like that because I don't think that was the case last year. Okay. Spending and the lack of it and the word budget has come up a lot. it comes to the Vancouver Canucks.

And in some ways, it's understandable. You go into a rebuild. You expect revenues to be down. Maybe you've got to, you've got to pair some expenses while you're at it. What are you hearing on that front? Okay, so Patrick Johnson, he had some good information this week saying that the ownership wants to spend less and less and less. And you saw that with the front.

or the upper management hires, like not expensive. Like Ryan Johnson, like we've been saying from day one, is not the highest paid GM in the NHL, not even close. Like, he didn't get a ton. So we do know that. The owners are looking at a rebuild. They're looking at a practice facility that might cost $25 to $30 million. They're looking at buying out a brother in ownership

that might cost $200 to $400 million. It's all adding up. You're starting to see it. There's no need for a huge payroll in a rebuild. The most important thing in a rebuild is draft and develop. That's where the money should go. You know, when you see that the Cedine twins are not going to be on the ice with those kids in Abbotsford, you better find somebody good because there's a wave of young kids coming in the next three drafts,

like a wave of them. We were just talking about how player development might be the most important thing for the Canucks. Like even more important than drafting because drafting has become more efficient. You know, there's so many eyes on these kids that you might even be able to find fewer diamonds in the rough compared to, you remember back in the day, like the Red Wings would have their scouts go and scout in Sweden or something like, we saw a kid that, you know, no one's seen before as like Nick Lindstrom or something like that. I think there's fewer of those out there because there's so many scouts and there's so much streaming video. You can watch all these kids play when you bring analytics into it as well.

I'm not saying it's perfect, and you still will find the odd diamond. the rough, but maybe how teams can differentiate themselves now is player development. One of the teams has spent the most on player development is Toronto. And the Canucks have got to find a way with so many young kids coming. Look at the first and second rounders coming. You've got to draft those. You've got to develop those guys. All rebuild teams reduce costs.

That's just like, let's be honest. The revenue is going to be less. Canucks are a mid-packed for projected capital. space next year. You know, what could have been a selling point for this owner to go to rebuild? Probably less money spent on player salaries. You can see why the Canucks wouldn't mind moving off of contracts like Patterson, Besser, and DeBrusk. But one more thing. You say put money in the development, I do too, but put money in analytics. Did you hear the Carolina GM this week talking about Stan Coven and why they acquired him from Dallas? Because their

analytics department said, hey, get Stan Coven. You know, when an adult, when an The analytics department says, go get Stan Kovin, and they trust that analytics department. Stan Kovin is just lit it up in the playoffs. And again, I hate to say it, that's the kid that Kinnock's passed on and took Klamovic five picks earlier, right? So I want to see money invested in analytics because apparently their analytics department is nowhere near some of the top analytics departments in the NHL. And you want to see it.

They got to listen to them, too. That's important. You got to them. They got, and if you're not going to, if you're not going to listen to them, then all you're doing is just window dressing just to say like, yeah, we got an analyst department, really smart. But you have to have the belief in that. And from what we've heard, I think sad has said, you know, there have been times when, you know, and could you see, like, Jim Rutherford, like some analyst kid comes up and says, I got this great idea. It's like, awesome, I'm Jim Rutherford. I'm not listening to you.

Yeah. Jim looked like to me an eye test guy. You know, one of these guys that, you know, just all his life. And look, I know people rip Rutherford, but he is a three-time-the-cup champ. He's an eye-test guy. Okay, so let's look at Carolina's front office. The GM's got a Ph.D. There's lawyers there.

There's legal cap experts. There's great analytics department. None of those guys in Carolina's front office played in the NHL, but they're educated, sharp people. The hurricanes consistently find the smartest people, operate efficiently. Another aspect to Carolina's success, I had an agent tell me this week that a player

on his client on Carolina told him, there's an incredible family field of that team. They care about each other on and off the ice. They do things together as a team. It's a great culture. Then you've got a player's coach and Rod Brindamore. You know, people say oh, what can we learn

from Carolina winning the Cups? There's a lot of things you can learn from Carolina win in the cup. But their front office, like honestly, Jason, is the way it's structured is a really good front office. Be smart and get good players. Is that a good idea? That sounds like a plan, right?

Seems solid. And to win the Stanley Cup and have $12 million in cap space, that tells me there's not a ton of bad, other than the cock, the cock and the Emmy guy, that's the only bad contract they got. I was close. Don't say that. I was close.

I was in the neighborhood. But listen, other than that guy, There's no other, very few bad, they don't have an 11.6 on their books, do they? No. What's going on there, by the way? We got to ask you about that because I know you were talking about that this week. And, you know, the game-changer bit of information for me, and I don't know if you can confirm this, was when LeBrun said that the Kinex would be willing to retain on Pedersen.

Have you also heard that? I haven't heard that we just talked about the owner cutting back cutting back you honestly think that he wants to pay even if it's $2 million six years $2 million

I don't think so I time will tell all I know is this if teams are calling on Pedersson which we do believe they are the Canucks have to listen they have to listen look I'll tell you one thing

his Asian J.P. Barry he'll yell at me when all these Pedersen rumors start I'll tell you something. The moment they signed him to that new deal, they've been trying to offload him right after, right? Ever since they signed him, agents don't like that. If you sign, if they commit a great year...

You know what hockey teams don't like? As soon as a player signs a contract that's massive, his game goes to hell. I get it. I get that, and I understand it. But also, he did the same thing happen with Myers. Myers got here, and I remember JP telling me, you know, they've been trying to trade him since the day they got him. Well, they eventually did trade him.

But look, if teams are calling on Petterson, it's the job of the Canucks to listen. But the thing that's interesting for me, will he even waive? He's never asked for a trade, even after the J.T. Miller feud, even after all the losing in the city, even after all the criticism for medium fans, even after the team said we're in a rebuild, this guy has never asked for a trade. Like he's got a million reasons to ask out. Like he's got a million reasons to say to his age, who are pretty powerful, hey guys, get me out of here.

But the guy has never asked, oh, Quinn Hughes, tired of losing, get me out of here. Larkin, tired of losing, get me out of here. But this guy has never, ever, ever once said to his agents, get me out of here. It's a really interesting scenario. We'll see how it plays out. But at the end of the day, if he wants to stay, he wants to stay. He's got the ultimate power. He can wave his no move.

But the way it was told to me is if the Canucks think they have a deal for Patterson, that makes sense, then I'm sure they're going to pick up the phone and call the agents to see if he'll wave. But that, you know, that's only time we'll tell. Hey, I want to get one thing in quickly here. There's a local kid I want to talk about. 32-year-old and possible UFA Center, Colton Sizzins from North Vancouver. Great kid. He's going to have a lot of teams after him if he hits July 1st. He made $2.8 million this year. I'm not hearing as of this week that the Canucks have him penciled in with interest. Things can change. When I checked in earlier this week, I don't think I was told the Canucks had not shown interest,

but the Michael McCarran contract is going to help him. McCarran did a lot of centers of favor heading in July 1st, a lot of centers of favor. And don't forget, Colton played ahead of McCarran in Nashville. So if he doesn't resign in Vegas, he's going to be a kid that's going to get a lot of attention. You know, do the Canucks call him? As of now, I've been told that, you know, there isn't any interest there, but that could change. But that's a kid to keep an eye on on July 1st as well. Oh, and Curtis Douglas, everyone asked me about Curtis Douglas.

While we were talking, his agent just called me. I couldn't take it, so I got to call them back when I get off the air. But when I checked in earlier this week, if it's quiet on Bluger and all those other guys, it's quiet on Curtis as well. How they get their toughness, and we know they were interested in McCarran, how they get their toughness will be very interesting to me. The only problem with Curtis, and we've mentioned this quite a bit, is he an everyday player, is he an everyday player. Okay, Rick, we'll let you go.

Call Curtis Douglas' agent back. Enjoy the weekend, buddy. Thanks for doing this. We'll do this next Friday. All right. Okay, real quick before we go. I didn't have the bandwidth or quite frankly the patience to go through this with Rick. the reason the Canada wore black jerseys

has nothing to do with their choice. FIFA selects the jerseys for the teams. FIFA does it? FIFA makes the picks? So they've already made all three. They did it prior to the tournament. They got three jerseys? They got the reds that they wore against Bosnia. They got the black uniforms that they wore yesterday.

They're going to wear whites against Switzerland. And Swiss are going to wear the reds. Yeah. The reason that they have black. That's going to be confusing for people that turn on the game. I had it. Okay, look, and I'll throw Rickabone here. he was not the only person to say that,

not about liking the jerseys or not, but someone who was beside me yesterday was like, which team was Canada yesterday? Okay? I'll just say that. I mean, white and purpleish or whatever Qatar is kind of close. Right. So the reason that Canada has black kid, period,

is because the players requested it prior to the World Cup. Yeah, they were like, we liked, they wore the black uniforms at 2020 in Qatar against, I want to say Croatian, the second match. Well, the match didn't go that well, they really liked them. They used them in qualifying. They've used them in something. So that's why they have a.

like it, period. Yeah. But FIFA makes the decisions on who wears what for what match, so they don't have a choice in any of that. May you guys tagged me a couple of weeks ago on the streaming? Please don't say that. Don't do it again. Never say that again. Other than Cock, the Cock and the Emmy guy.

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