Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 6/23/26

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they chat the latest World Cup news with CBC soccer analyst Ben Steiner.  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. Surging forward with real menace here. Brilliant from Messi. With the outside of his... I believe the Ottawa Senators got hosed. Whoa. What? Hose.

Good morning, maker. 6-1 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford and his brough. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming here live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Adda, good morning to you. Good morning to you as well. Oh, it's Zach. I'm my apologies. Regular Zach, good morning to you as well. Good morning. It's almost like you're on kind of like autopilot sometimes. I was just excited to get going, you know.

Congratulations, regular Zach. That was a very good intro. Halford and Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. You drowning in tax debt if you are. Sands and Associates can often. reduce your debt by up to 80% with the upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com. We are in Hour 1 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 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech studio. Step Strong with Orthotics and footwear from Kintech. If you want to text into the show today, the Dunbar Lumber Text Line is 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. Big show ahead, beginning with our guest list. It's the Duick Morning Drive brought to by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 6.30 this morning.

Greg Wischinski is going to join the program. Our NHL insider from ESPN, tons and tons of news. Heading into draft week for Friday's draft. There was the Brady-Kichuk trade still being unpacked. The Hockey Hall of Fame announcements yesterday. All that and more. We will discuss with Greg Wershinsky at 630. 7.30, Julio Caravetta is going to join the program.

BC Lions Radio Color Analyst. Ugly start to the year for the Lions. Yeah, the Lions are kind of lucky that everyone in Vancouver is pretty focused on the World Cup right now. See, when I say ugly start to the year, other people are saying, oh, they started the year. And that may be a good thing. 41 to 27 loss in Hamilton over the weekend. Do you remember when Ryan Rig Maiden came on our very show and came to the defense of Mike Benavides, which is kind of funny way to putting it.

Embattled defensive coordinator, Mike Gennavides. No one right now is coming to the defense of the BC Lions. They've only given up 72 points in their first two games. I hardly understand why anyone would be criticizing the defensive coordinator. The BC Lions are back in action this Saturday in Calgary. Julio's going to join us in 730 to talk about it. No, no. They're going to Colona now. Oh, is it Colonna this weekend?

I thought they were playing Calgary this weekend. It's Colonna. It's Colonna. They've got Calgary and Edmonton in Calgary. Touchdown. Colona begins. this weekend. My apologies. So Julia Caravetta is going to join us at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Ben Steiner is going to join the program. Canadian Soccer Reporter for Sports Illustrated and Goal.com.

Another star-studded day at the World Cup yesterday. Tomorrow, Canada, back in action for an absolutely massive clash to decide who tops the group. Ben Steiner for some footie talk at 8 a.m. So we got a lot to get into. We got a big guest list ahead. Without further ado, Zach, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened is brought to you by? ATS Traffic. Start with a career path in traffic safety, receive competitive wages, and training at one of Canada's best managed companies.

Visit them online at ats.s.TRAffic.com. We will begin the show. With the announcement of yesterday, the National Hockey League, once again, deciding to cram all of its pertinent news into a three-week window in the off-season. The Hockey Hall of Fame, 2026 class got announced.

Patrice Bergeron, Carrie Price, Keith Kichuk, Pecoranay, and Cindy Curley, were elected as players. Brian Burke, former Vancouver Canucks General Manager, will be inducted as a builder. A lot to unpack from this one, Jason, as well. Yeah, well, it kind of coincides with a lot of news

that's happening right now. What a time for Keith Kachuk to get in with the Ottawa senators vowing on the very same day to keep pushing forward after his son Brady forced his way to the Florida Panthers to play with Keith Kachuk's other son, Matthew. I wonder how much of a driving force Keith Kachuk was in getting Brady Kachuk to Florida, not in telling the Ottawa senators what to do, but in advising Brady what to do. Now, are you suggesting that a podcast co-hosted by the two brothers that often featured the father as a guest,

a podcast on which the dad openly asked about Brady's contractual situation in Ottawa, and how many years he had left on his contract? Are you suggesting? Are you suggesting at all that hockey hall of famer, Keith Kachuk, might have influenced Brady going to Florida. Yeah, I mean, there's lots of rumors about legal online one. Yeah, Keith Kachuk kind of wanting this to happen. and you know, I guess I don't blame Keith Kichick-Itchuk.

Well, I guess I don't blame Keith Kichuk for wanting that to happen. Who wouldn't want, you know, his two sons to play for a team that may very well go into next season as the Stanley Cup favorite? I haven't looked at the odds yet, though. They have to be, you know, with the return of Barkoff, the addition of Brady Kachach. once they figure out their goal-tending situation.

I'm sure they're the favorites. Keith Kachuk was one of the major faces of American hockey in the 90s, part of that 1996 World Cup team that beat Canada. And, you know, until recently, it was the miracle on ice, and it was the 1996 World Cup of hockey win for the Americans. Those were the big two. and we heard about the miracle on ice a lot. And now we're going to have to hear about another game that happened,

but we'll skip past that. Cichuk like Jeremy Roneck, though, who was another face of American hockey in the 90s, and Roneck was inducted two years ago. Those guys both never won a Stanley Cup. And I also wonder how much that has driven Keith Kachuk in his retirement. Like, he wanted to get his boys. a Stanley Cup. I mean, yeah, you got to think it's a major, major factor.

Yeah, yeah, without question. Okay, speaking of never winning a Stanley Cup, a couple of elite goalies who never won the cup were inducted as well in Kerry Price and Pecker-Renay. They joined recent inductees Roberto Luongo and Henrik Lungquist, who never lifted the cup despite getting very close. All four of those guys made it to the Stanley Cup final and lost. to take anything away from those four guys. Nope. But I think we're just, we're just seeing more and more of it now. We're seeing these guys get into the Hall of Fame and, and it's harder and harder

to win the Stanley Cup now. Sure. And there's going to be a lot more of them. Connor McDavid. Which goalies playing today, I'm wondering, are locks for the Hall of Fame. Ooh, that's a great question. I think you've got Brozky. Yeah, he's in. Basilevsky. He's in. Is Jonathan Quicks still active? He just retired. He was active last season. He's in.

I think he's in. Connor Hellebuck is on pace. Never won a Stanley Cup, though. But I think that Olympic gold is going to help him a lot. Don't forget about the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That's true. That helps.

I'm not sure he'll lock yet because he hasn't won as much in the playoffs as the other three I mentioned, Bobrowski, Vasilevsky, and Jonathan Quick. I mean, all three of those guys have won Stanley Cups. I was looking at the stats last night, and I was like, I bet there's someone who would make the case for Freddie Anderson

just because of how much he's won. And actually, his numbers are, if you look at his same percentage, it's pretty high. But that person would not be me. Not today. Who would make the case for Freddie Anderson. Okay, let's move on to Patrice Bergeron, because I have a question. Does Patrice Bergeron getting in on the first ballot

make us feel any better or different about 2011? Not that this was unexpected, but now that it's official. Because I've always maintained that people never really appreciated how good that Bruins team really was at the time. Sure. In large part because guys like Bergeron and Brad Marchon were still pretty young and maybe a bit

underappreciated at that time. Erzoran didn't win his first Selke until 2012 the year after and then he went on to win like six of them and was largely considered the best two-way player at the time.

Certainly there were some others but six Selkees says a lot. There were five first ballot Hall of Famers in that 2011 series. Three on the Canucks, the Siddins and Luongo, two on the Bruins with Chara and Bergeron. And then Marciano one day get in. He's going to get in one day. Will he get in on the first ballot? I don't know. That's what, I mean, that's the difference. I mean, five first ballot Hall of Famers in a Stanley Cup series. And I still think Tim Thomas makes a strong case,

although his career was relatively short. He's a weird one. You could make the argument that in a small window. He was the best of all of the Hall of Fame goalies in his peer group. Luongo Lundquist, now Renee, now Carrie Price. There was, I mean, it was a small window, but when that, I mean, you consider over the course of

two years, he was the elite of the elite. Now it was a short, short run of dominance. And you've seen this in other Hall of Kings. My trophy was, you know, like a no-brainer that year as well. Yeah, without question. And to use that to circle back to you earlier, point, I do think sometimes

that's part of the reason why when we look back on 2011, we look at it from a multitude of different angles because we've dissected it every imaginable as a market. One of the things that I think you're right about that we don't often look at and give credit to is how good that Bruins team was. They were very good team.

I mean, tremendous, right? They should have won more than one Stanley Cup. Absolutely, right? When you consider that at that stage... When you think about it, they were failures. That's a good way looking at it too. You know, they failed just as much as the Kudox, I would say. Equal failures.

Like, Bergeron was 25 and Marchion was 22. And then it took Marchion to go to Florida before he won another cup, and Bergeron never won another one. But both those guys scored massive goals in game six and seven. Yeah, it's just interesting that that was their Bruins peak. Yeah. It was in 2011. Okay, we got to mention Brian Burke to one of the more compelling figures in Vancouver sports history.

It wasn't just that. was the general manager who pulled off the trade that brought the Cedines to the Canucks. It was the way he carried himself. It was the way he was so outspoken with the media, how he would pick fights with reporters and kind of relish the fight. You don't really, you don't get guys like that anymore. No. That type of freewheeling personality,

doesn't exist as much anymore in a league where everyone seems very careful about what they say. And I kind of hope it swings back to the Brian Burke style where guys aren't afraid to be outspoken and demonstrative, bold, maybe not necessarily picking fights with people. I mean, back then you didn't have the whole notion of going viral. No. And I think that's, okay, because I'm going to play a clip from,

and some of you might actually like, you'll be almost offended. by this clip. This is, this is Brian Burke who used to go on with Dan Russell, who was a fixture in the Vancouver Sports Media. He had a, he had one of those late night call-in sports radio shows

that little Jason listened to. And, you know, and once a week, and this is another crazy thing, Brian Burke would go on with Dan Russell, Brian on line one from Vancouver. And he would get interviewed by Dan Russell and he would take callers.

And by the way, Brian Burke was not the general manager at this point when he started doing this. He was working under Pat Quinn. I can't remember what his title was. Probably the director of hockey ops or a citizen general manager, whatever. It doesn't matter. But let me just repeat that.

the Vancouver Canucks had an assistant general manager who would go on a sports radio show once a week and mix it up with the fans. It was a different time, man. And the things that Berkey would say on that show, he did not care for a lot of the Vancouver media. And one in particular was Tony Gallagher. And I want to play a clip that is going to bring you back to, well, a time some of them if you're if you're a younger listener you won't remember this time and the older listeners will be like kind of miss these times it doesn't matter with tony galliger like i said before in the air tony galliger's idea of an ideal assignment would be to cover a famine in the

ethiopia because he would love the suffering i i don't really respect tony as a person or as a reporter i don't like tony i won't talk to tony why not take the high road why not just ignore them and uh and just do your business as per usual. To take the high road and stay out of the gutter, you have to have someone that will do the same. Great example. We draft Alex Stoyanov. Now, you asked me on the show, Dan, who do I think we'd get?

And I said, I think we'll end up with Richard Vanticock, which we did. Now, the Philadelphia Flyers, the last team in the world you think would take a suite, takes Forsberg, and we end up with Alex Stoianup. And what's the comment? Not like, isn't this a break for us? The comment is, they lied to us.

That's Tony Gallagher's attitude. Tony Gallagher is a guy that if he found a wallet with $200 and it would be mad that there wasn't $300 in it. That's his viewpoint. So how much slack will I cut Tony Gallagher? Zero. I have no respect for him. Burkey, you're in the Hall of Fame. Better times.

Better times. I mean, a lot of people are going to focus, obviously, on the comments that he made about Tony. But how about that comment? It was like, the Flyers, the last franchise you'd think would take a swede. Yeah. I mean, that brings you back. So that was the 1991 draft, by the way, case you're trying to put a timestamp on when this was.

So it had to be somewhere after the 91 NHL entry draft. I assume it was either late in 91 or 92. So just a totally bygone era. Yeah. And I think it's great that Burke is being celebrated in the manner that he is because at times, even during the Wild Wild West days of the National Hockey League and outspoken. spoken executives and

guys shooting from the hip with what they had to say, he still stood out as being a maverick. Like even in that environment, he was very much the guy that probably said more, spoke more. And here's the thing that I always appreciated about him. He had

very hard opinions, very strong opinions, but they were always backed with evidence and facts because he was a well-research and well-schooled guy. Can I tell you a Brian Burke story? You can. I don't know if I've even told you this. I think maybe I have. We're this deep into the relationship and we don't have stories to share? Or we do have stories to share

that we haven't told each other yet. I was either in high school or in, I think it was in high school. And I was obviously pretty into sports as a high schooler. And I like to write. And once in a while, little Jason. Well, he's getting older then. Medium Jason. I would already have back problems. I would write letters to the newspaper. And I wrote a letter to the newspaper that had something to do with, like, the unfair tax situation that Canadian hockey teams have to deal with, right? Whatever.

Sure. It was like you could get your letter printed in the paper, something like that, right? I either ced Brian Burke on it or the Canucks on it or the letter found its way to him. But I was at home. I was, again, I can't remember. I was either, you know, late in high school or early in university.

The phone rings. I pick it up. It's Brian Burke. You've never told me this story before. And I was like, he's like, there's Jason? I was like, hello, sir. He's like, it's Brian Burke here. I'm like, okay.

And I do not remember our conversation. at all. And I think it was a very short conversation because he was like, this kid is like, does nothing to say or whatever, you know? Right, right, right, right. But he just said, called and wanted to, he said he appreciated the letter.

And like, that, that my friend is a bygone era. That's really cool. That's pretty great. Yeah. And you'll be right, it is a bygone era. Like things like that, we need to find somebody from the Canucks front office

that'll agree to come on and just get in fights with you guys, just have strong opinions on something. That'll definitely happen. Yeah. Once a week. you think has been one of the Sadiens. Yeah. Yeah. Turn one of them against you guys.

Just turn one of the Siddians into a burkey-like character. Open up the phone lines. They used to be so friendly in the telemetry guys. They can talk to Andrew and Victoria and enjoy the experience that is. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, it's, again, we're going way down memory road here, but that's part of part and parcel with doing the Hockey Hall of Fame announcements is you're doing a retrospective on everybody's career.

And of all of the inductees yesterday, Burke's the one that has, I mean, even to this day, still the most tangible ties to Vancouver, right? You got to remember, and by the way, I did look it up when we played that clip and he was, again, going on local sports talk radio to answer calls from callers, he was the director of hockey ops for the Vancouver Canucks, a super prominent position.

Just going on and taking stick from the listeners and giving it back as good as he was getting. Well, he was on with, he was on, Berkey was on with Donny and Dolly a few years ago and I listened to a clip last night. And he was expressing, how he came to take that spot on Dan Russell's show. And, you know, Dan offered him the job.

And then Pat Quinn, who was his boss, obviously had to give him permission. And he was like, yeah, sure, like, go for it. Like, because at the time, the Canucks were, so I think he got hired in 1987. The Canucks were an afterthought in this market. Yeah. This is when Dolly would be like, the BC lines were the big the big team in town they were the Canucks were not and when Pat Quinn was hired he told Berkey listen we're going to be bad for a few years so um you know

let's get the profile of the team up and I think fans did appreciate it that and then the conucks drafted Trevor Linden they got Pavel Burry and really things haven't been the same in Vancouver since then. Because the Canucks at that point graduated to being a big boy team. And really, ever since then, they've been the number one team in town. Okay. I want to move on to the fallout from the Brady Kachuk trade. Because Pierre LeBron, who originally broke the Brady Kachuk trade, wrote about it for

the athletic. and he got some pretty good quotes, anonymous quotes, but still, one team executive said Sunday night in reaction, this is going to be a crazy summer. Another exec said to Pierre LeBron, we're becoming the NBA now. Now, LeBron said that wasn't a positive thing or a negative comment. It was just the reality that the players are more and more,

in control of their futures and willing to be in control of their futures. Big part of it. As opposed to being like, well, I was drafted here. I'll play here. I have a contract. I guess I'll play here. I'm a hockey player. I play hockey.

And Pierre noted a bunch of different players that could be moved this offseason, starting with Dylan Larkin. He added Connor Hellebuck, Jason Robertson, Bowen Byram. and one name that is increasingly making the rounds. And believe it or not, this is an American player not playing in a Canadian market, but it is an American player. And Zach Werenski, apparently, lots of rumors about him. And LeBron writes he has not asked for a trade,

but teams around the league believe that's coming over the next 12 months. Now, did Zach Werenski play for the U.S. Olympics? Yeah. And is Columbus a very good team? Interesting. That's a game. So there is the going back to America element in all this. And that's going to be debated a lot, especially in Canada and on Canadian Sports Talk Radio.

And it's a valid conversation to have for sure. There's also the line that Pierre had here, we're becoming the NBA now, which he got from an anonymous team executive. It might have not been said with disdain there to Pierre, but I've heard it countless times. and I think it's it's small-minded thinking to be like, oh, we don't want to turn into the NBA. Not because you want to emulate the NBA,

but because this was, I felt like this was always an inevitability that players were going to take more authority and they were going to dictate where their career was going to go more. Yeah. And that isn't an NBA thing. That isn't a culture thing.

That is a, my shelf life in this league could be short. my chances to win, and we talked about this in the Hall of Fame conversations, it's very difficult to win a Stanley Cup. If I want to achieve these things, I cannot sit there and be patient. I need to be more assertive. I would call it an assertive.

Proactive. Yeah, and, you know, again, I don't begrudge them at all. I was listening to all. I don't begrudge anyone that, if your main goal is winning and you've given it an honest effort with your team and you look at your team and go, where are we going to be five years from now? And if your answer isn't anywhere different than you are,

I don't blame you. But it also, to that point, though, like, even if you do hold some animosity or a grudge as a fan base, sure. That's great. It's great. That is, that means that, one, you care and you're emotionally invested. And two, it's the drama and theater of this whole thing

that we spend so much time covering. I don't need to have a, league were a bunch of guys who played endless, you know, reps together in summer hockey and youth and junior and are all buddies and all really like each other off the eyes. I think that, you know, having fans dug in and genuinely disliking other guys for being traders and backstabbers, that's timeless stuff in sports, right? And the Sends hate Brady right now. And it's a, and it sounds like it.

And it's a great thing. And I know it sounds weird because the Ottawa senators and Zasai, Correct me if I'm wrong, but they're a worse team today than they were yesterday because they don't have Brady in the lineup anymore. But do you think that game against Florida when Florida visits Ottawa next year? You think that's going to be a big deal? 100%. Those players are going to be playing with a bigger fire under them than they ever have. And that's already Florida usually mops the floor with Ottawa, even with Brady in the line. Who are you going to cheer more against next year?

Florida or Vegas? Florida. Yeah, me too. Florida. I would cheer for Toronto if they were against. I'm going to be like, I'm going to go back to hating Brad Marchon. because in the last few years, I've kind of developed a grudging respect for him. Not anymore.

And there are times that I'm just like, I, damn it, I might like this guy. By the way. But now I'm just going to go back and I was going to hate them all. Even Barkoff, it was like, you're overrated. You're no Bergeron. Never cared for you in first place. Damn, no, I like Bergeron. So I'll say this just to put it.

And this is the perfect accentuation on this and encapsulation of everything that we're talking about is Brady and Matthew Chuck are going to appear on the Pat McAfee show today to talk about all the things that happened to them and their family over the last 24 to 48 hours. So I just want to address one text that came in. It said, great attitude, bruff. Let's just tell all the kids if you can't win, then just joined Johnny's team. They won it all last year. I said that if you've given it an honest try and you look at your team and you see it's a disaster,

you only get one career. Yeah, they're not kids. Right? They're not kids. I don't even know what the point of this text. is. Like, no, don't tell your kid to join Johnny's team. But if your kid makes it to the NHL, yeah, tell them to join Johnny's team and go win a Stanley Cup. Like, what are we talking about here? Yeah. It's, it's, it's not a, it's not a kid's sport. It's, it's a multi-billion

dollar business that these guys are dealing with. And, um, you know what? If your kid worked for a company that was as dysfunctional as the Vancouver Canucks have been and had an opportunity to join a better company? Would you as a parent say, no, stick with this company that is super dysfunctional and everyone's fighting and it's not really succeeding at all. And your son is miserable. But there's an opportunity to go to a better company. Would you be like, no, stick it out with this company because loyalty is important. Come on, man. Grow up. Kids are in sports to learn life lessons. Adults are in sports to make money. Keith Kachek, went through an entire career where he didn't win a Stanley Cup and he wanted it for his kids. I mean, I don't see

100% like that. It's not just making money, but you're in sports. You're in sports to have great experiences as well. And guess who wasn't having great experiences in Vancouver, a guy like Quinn Hughes? Yep. Look, am I, am I a fan of Quinn Hughes? No, because I think there were, you know, I don't think he was a terrific captain. And I'm a fan of the Vancouver Canucks. Unfortunately, I Can't get out of this. No. But let's not compare kids' sports in multi-billion dollar businesses like the NHL, which are as cutthroat with the players as the players are now being as cutthroat

with the teams. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Mike Babcock is back in the National Hockey League. Just moments ago, the Edmonton Oilers have officially announced that Mike Babcock has been named the club's 19th head coach in team history. The 63-year-old joins after a whirlwind last week and a half, two weeks in which he was rumored to be in line for the job, then put under investigation from the NHL and

NHLPA, cleared for hire. And now just moments ago, Mike Babcock has been named the newest head coach of the Evan Turner. Well, that's going to be a very interesting press conference today. You did half of it already. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, we will get into this in a little bit.

We do have Ben Steiner. He's going to join us in the Able Auctions hotline in just the second here for some Canadian soccer talk. But again, breaking news in the sense that it's officially done now. We kind of knew it was trending in this direction. But just a wild offseason in Edmonton, and what's been a wild off season in the National Hockey League, we will pick up this story on the other side.

But again, just to reconfirm the breaking news, Edmonton has named Mike Babcock, their newest head coach. Let's go now to the Able Auctions. outline our next guest, Canadian soccer writer for Sports Illustrated, and goal.com. Ben Steiner joins us now on the Halford & Breff Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Ben. How are you? Morning, boys. It's certainly an exciting time in, I guess, every sport at this point with the news coming out of Edmonton, but Canadian soccer on an absolute high right now. Yeah, so let's talk about the match against Switzerland, all to play for in the group tomorrow.

let's start with the two biggest potential inclusions into either the starting 11 or maybe coming off the bench. What are you expecting, based on what you know right now, what Jesse Marsh will be able to get out of Moise Bombito and Alfonso Davies on Wednesday against Switzerland? I was at training a couple times this week, and both these guys looked quite good. The difficulty with both of them is how do they look in a match? And I don't think we can really consider what Moise Bombito did against guitar. as a proper runout because there wasn't much defending to do in that game when he came on in the second half. So I wouldn't necessarily start either of them. Jesse Marsh did say last week that Alfonso Davies

wouldn't start against Switzerland and they were targeting the round of 32 for that. Of course, they are now going through to the round of 32 barring anything absolutely exceptional. I think would have to be a round of seven-nill win for Qatar for them not to get there and that's not going to happen. But with Davies, I think you still want to be careful and the same with Bombito, but you do want to get both of them significant minutes because as high stakes as this is, it's still the lowest stakes because there's not a elimination on the line at this point. So I wouldn't be surprised to see both play the majority of the second half, at least coming on in the 60th minute, maybe even half time. Remind the listeners what injuries those two are dealing with.

With Moise Bombito, it's a broken leg. that he suffered in October. And it's been a very slow recovery for his broken leg. He has a metal rod in his leg and looked poor in his first minutes against Uzbekistan in a pre-World Cup friendly. And that does not give you much confidence where he said at that point that he was ready and healthy to go back in. And then it was very clear that he wasn't. And he's saying that he's ready and healthy again.

Well, is he actually ready and healthy this time? With Alfonso Davies, it's a hamstring. and that's going to be very crucial if you're trying to rely on his speed, especially if he's a left back where you don't want to be overwhelmed in wide areas against the Switzerland team. So in a hypothetical world, let's just say both were able to start. Davies would probably plug straight in for Richel Luria, who's played very well, I might add.

He threw no fault of his own. That's a straight swap. Would it go that way? At centerback, in this hypothetical world that I'm throwing out there, who would Bombito replace right now? Would it be the Fuzerol or would you maybe consider moving Cornwall? Elias out of there. Well, how complicated do you want to get with Davies?

Because I think you can see him at various points of this lineup. And I think there's actually a crucial factor to having both Richel Larea and Alistair Johnston in this team. The question is, Alistair Johnston has a yellow card. If he gets a yellow card in this game, he misses the round of 32. So I would actually put Richie Larea on the right and then put Davies on the left if you're starting. But the centerback is a big question because Luke de Fugier-Roles.

He's 20 years old. He's lived up to every task that he's been given with this Canadian team. It started at the 2024 Copa of America where he played against Eurgoe in the third place game and he's thrived at this World Cup. Maybe not surprising to people that have followed the Canadian national team closely. But when you see this kid that looks like a kid at centerback and bossing around some of these big forwards that Canada has played against, it's been very impressive. And I think the future is going to be Bombito and Defoeuvres when both are healthy. and I think I'd go to that right now. I think Luke DeFuge Rolls has given us enough confidence in his play,

and Derek Cornelius is at least at a point where if you start Bombito, Cornelius, I think with the maturity, can come off the bench and be that next night up, whereas I don't really believe that Luke DeFuge Rolls at this point can step into a game in the same way that Cornelius can. So I've kind of got a question for both of you guys, Ben and Mike. Who is the best player on Switzerland? who should we be worried about.

You want to take it first? I'll go first, but it's probably not the player that is going to be starting the game. It's 20-year-old defensive midfielder, Johann Manzambi, who scored a brace against Bosnia and their late onslaught there. But he hasn't started either game, so he's potent.

Maybe they've been saving him, but it's a bit of a confusing look for what they've been able to do. Yeah. I would say the guy you're going to recognize the most and the most prolific is Granite Jaka. Yeah, he's a captain, right? is Sunderland?

Yeah, the attackers that they've got, like Dan and Doi, who plays at Forest, and actually Vargas coming off the bench has been really good. Menzambi's been really good. They've got I Briel Ambolo. There's probably more attacking prowess in the four or five top guys in Switzerland, and this is, it's going to sound disrespectful

than anyone combined from Qatar and Bosnian. Like, they've got really high-level guys. You know, so it's interesting. They've got a couple of guys from young boys. Yeah, Andy's favorite club. You know, when we look at this squad and the way that the manager has been able to have impact subs, and I'm not trying to steal Ben's thunder here because I know he's the guest, but the manager has talked repeatedly about how he's used the hydration breaks strategically

as resets for his team to implement subs to give teams the 15 or 20 minute boosts as opposed to maybe trying to get them in at the 60 minute mark. So I think that's something else interesting to watch your Ben, because with the amount of attacking options that Switzerland has, finding areas and opportunities to get all of them involved in the match is pretty important from a managerial and tactical standpoint. And we've seen the hydration breaks be used as a tactical approach for coaches at this World Cup. And Jesse Marsh, I don't think has used them completely to what he can.

I think for the best use, you probably have to look at both Switzerland and the U.S. and what they've been able to do where they're pulling out a tablet, they're going full-on tactics meeting for three minutes, whereas Marsh, sometimes there's an intensity to how he's speaking during these hydration breaks, but I'm not sure he's using these to the same advantage.

The thing with Canada, though, is this team doesn't really lose games. They have put two very good performances against Argentina and lost both of those two nil, but this is a team that has grinded out nil-nil-nil-draws with some big teams. France, Colombia, Ecuador, Tunisia, Mexico, Ivory Coast and Chile are all teams that they've grinded out,

no-nil draws with. And of course, that would be good enough. So I do think this Canadian team is good enough to get a draw. I'm still hesitant about them saying maybe we can get a win in this game because this Switzerland team is very good. I'm glad you brought this conversation out because we were talking earlier about what the tactical deployment and what it's going to look like for Canada in a match where a draw wins them in the group.

And there's the one. argument that Marshball is Marshball and he's not going to deviate from what's made them successful and what makes them a unique challenge. At the same time, the best countries and the best gaffers do

have adjustments that they make into the formation or the styles of the tactics depending on what the tournament puts in front of them. You brought up a good point that Canada's shown the ability to grind out these kind of results when they need to and maybe play less high event football. Do you think that's

what we're going to see on Wednesday against the Wes? What we've seen from Jesse Marsh throughout this tournament is the fact that he's really doing in-game management. We haven't necessarily seen that in his time with Canada because everything has been leading up to this World Cup. There was a great example of that being the Bosnia game and what he did with Jonathan David after he wasn't performing.

The big call, of course, is how he fits in the midfield with the Ishmael-Kone absence. That's probably going to be Nathan Saliba starting there just because he performed so well last time, but I am worried about Nathan Sileba under a moment like that, given the experiences he's had in his career, I would be more comfortable possibly with, you know, Jonathan Nizorio. I think he can handle this moment, but I don't think he's a good enough player to start in this moment. So that will be the first big call that he has to make, and there has to be a quick adjustment there if it's not working.

If Nathan Silibe goes in there, he looks overwhelmed. He's not focused. He's getting overrun in midfield. Okay, then you have to make an adjustment, and I think that's probably, Nico Seguer going in there because he's been exceptionally good with Haidu split as essential midfielder. But it's those quick adjustments that Marsh will have to make. And I think it really starts with that Kone Void and midfield. Hey Ben, what's it been like for you covering the World Cup in Canada?

What have you done? Where have you been? You're relatively young guy in this industry, at least compared to us. It must be a pretty cool experience that you're having. It is pretty cool. I knew that going into that first game and I was in Toronto for the game, against Bosnia. I knew that I would get emotional at some point, and I wasn't sure when it would happen, and it happened literally as I walked out the door to make my way to the stadium, because it was just, you know, a different experience going to the stadium. And then, of course, you know, I grew up in Vancouver, but to go to a World Cup game at BC Place. And it almost

set in maybe a little bit more being at the Egypt versus New Zealand game that this is the World Cup. Like this is something that you posted about it, like it impacts the globe. Whereas we've seen, big Canada events in Vancouver before and it's amazing. It's awesome, but it affects what's happening outside our doors here. But it was that Egypt, New Zealand game where I was like, wow, this is the World Cup and that's pretty cool. Can you even imagine what the atmosphere is going to be like tomorrow at BC Place? I'm curious what it's going to be like because it's noon on a Wednesday.

It's not exactly. Yeah, that's true. So I'm sure it'll be rocking. I'm sure it'll be sold out, but I think it might have hit, I don't want to say a peak because there's a possibility of around a 16, and I think that takes out all potential scheduling issues, but that would also be noon on a weekday. So I think the pre-match lead-up and the march might be a little bit smaller,

but inside the stadium, it is going to be tense, I think. I think last time it was just a party until the Kone injury, whereas this time it will be tense. This is the biggest game that Canadian men's soccer has ever played. Yeah, I've got to be honest with you, I'm already nervous. Like I know Canada is going on in this tournament. Like they're going to advance out of the group and, you know, great.

That's awesome. That was that was goal number one. Advance out of the group. Get your first win. They've accomplished all that. But now I'm getting a little bit greedy because I'm thinking about what it would be like for Canada to play at BC plays in a knockout stage, maybe two knockout stage games at the World Cup. And to be perfectly honest with you, I mean, Halford. tell you 10 years ago that Canada was going to be playing in a knockout stage game at the World Cup.

Oh yeah. Where are they playing? BC Place. The cathedral? I mean, it is a wild notion. And I don't want this opportunity to slip through our fingers because I ain't going to see it again in my lifetime. I mean, I'm probably not going to see it again in my lifetime either. Like the opportunity to play to like up to a quarter final effectively at the,

BC place for this Canadian Men's National theme with a coach like Jesse Marsh with the team like this players like this is I think more than once in a lifetime I don't know if this ever happens again period with you know where Vancouver is when it comes to stadiums

where Canadian soccer is who knows what the future holds like I don't think this team goes back to 120 second in the world but I don't know if this is a team that you know the next generation is going to be as good kind of thing So leaving this opportunity on the table would be a disaster,

I'd be prepared to say, just because this is such a golden ticket to maybe not, I'm saying they're winning a round of 16, but heck if, I mean, Portugal has to do a little bit better. But if you get to a round of 16 against Portugal, whether you like Ronaldo or not, I think we'd all be fine losing that game, because that would be Canada's World Cup final.

Well, I think one of the things that we saw against Qatar, before everything kind of unraveled for them with the red cards and everything else was how overwhelmed an opponent can be by playing a host nation in front of a massively partisan Canadian crowd. I know that there was a lot of Canadians in Toronto, but I think, you know, not Toronto's fault, but there were a lot of Bosnians there, more so than they'll be Qataris and I think maybe even Swiss at BC place. But also the players have spoken about the nerves and the anxiety of being in that first World Cup match as opposed to being in the second where it's like, okay, we can take a deep breath. We've played one.

Now let's get down to business. Marsh's style, especially in the first 25 or 30 minutes, that's kind of what everyone envisioned with the energy and the frenetic nature that they're going to have with a home crowd. I'm hoping that they're going to be able to bottle that up and use it again in the early stages

against the Swiss because, again, there's no telling what the future has in store. You know you've got this match at BC place. It's been on the docket for a while. This is supposed to be your big, big advantage as being the host and playing on a home pitch. They really need to be able to try and make that

an identifiable strength of them to start this match against Switzerland. And I think it will be because the host nations in this tournament have outscored their opponent 16 to 2. There's been a real advantage. I'm glad you brought that up. It's a huge advantage.

Like playing a home game in a World Cup is not something that happens for most teams ever. And Canada's getting the chance to do it at least until this game. And if they come out of this game on the right side of things, then they get to do it. a couple more times.

Like I think it matters a ton because sometimes you, like you will have fans at World Cup games, but it's at most half the stadium. Like this is going to be 50,000 Canadian fans and maybe 4,000 Swiss fans where you're not going to be able to hear Switzerland. The weird dynamic is going to be Switzerland's wearing red.

The stadium will be red and Canada's wearing white. So I, unfortunately, that's the way it was planned out before the tournament. It's a slightly different shade of red, slightly. I don't even know if it is actually. Different pantone. Yeah. It's about the same.

There's only so much you can do with red and white, right? But I think it's a massive advantage to be playing at home for this Canadian team. Ben, this was awesome. Thanks for doing this today, man. We appreciate it. I don't need to tell you to enjoy the match tomorrow, but what the hell? Enjoy the match tomorrow, man. It's going to be a lot of fun.

I hope I can. It's going to be a little bit nervous. Yeah, for sure. Thanks, Ben. Ben Steiner from Sports Illustrated and from goal.com here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. So I'm reading the press release from the Oilers announcing the hiring of Mike Babcock as head coach, and that is official now. No quote.

There's no... It starts with, please don't get mad at us. It's the first words are, don't freak out. But we have hired Mike Babcock as the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers. They're going to get everything they deserve at this point if this goes completely perishing. Okay, but imagine. Just imagine it somehow works out and the Oilers win the cup. because I'm just saying like he's a bad coach I mean I think he's a good coach yeah I'm just saying like

there's a holy but there is a world where that happens can you point to one bit of statistical evidence in the last eight years that suggests that my babcock is a good head coach what's he done in the last what's like riding a bike I mean in eight years I mean in eight years I said in the last eight years 2018 as head coach of the blue jackets he did not lose a single game thank you sad good good Very good. Thank you, Zach. Thank you, Zach. Yeah. We're talking about it.

Laddie never comes to my rescue. I think there's, I think this is a desperate organization making a desperation play. I mean, there's no question about that. And how often does that work out? We're like, you know, remember when we had that really desperate moment? I know it's not. And we were grasping at straws and everything turned out great for us. I know it's probably not going to happen.

Work tough for the Cucks, didn't it? Yeah. Remember that? Remember when they were desperate? super desperate to keep Quinn Hughes and they did everything in their power to keep him. Including resigning all of his buddies and hiring his favorite coach as bad coach. Might work for us. Desperation is a stinky cologne and often not a good motivator for decision making. But imagine it works.

The resignings of Dickinson and Connor Murphy, not that those guys are bad players, but it also, I think that was a signal that it might be tough for the Oilers to get talent this season because they were like, all right, we're locking these guys up. Connor Murphy is, how old is Connor Murphy? He goes a six-year deal or something like that? He's 32? He's 32. And he's going to play for six more years.

And I realize maybe the expectation isn't there for the... 33. He's older than I thought he was. And Jason Dickinson gets that contract. And I know, Drans will say like, oh, the salary cap doesn't matter and all that sort of thing. Dickinson's 30. And, you know, it's a race for talent now.

Like, I think it is. But I'm just not sure how much talent. talent, emigens can be able to attract to a roster that needs help. You know, if they trade darn-all nurse, you might say, well, that's, that's a good idea. You know, he, he's, he struggles at times with the puck on his stick and his contract isn't great. He's getting a little bit older. How are you going to replace those minutes? Like, how are you going to do it?

And I'm not saying you can't or that, you know, in some ways it might not be addition by subtraction, but you're still going to need to go out and get a defenseman to replace those minutes. How are you going to do it? Well, they don't have to because Mike Babcock's going to solve everything. This is systems? They finally got, I don't know. With pushing them harder, that's yelling at them? I genuinely think that that's what Stan Bowman and the owner, Daryl Cates, believe,

is that what they are not able to make up roster-wise, they're going to make up with having a coach that I think they see as a, like, a depreciated asset or something that they were able to buy low on. And this was going to be their big gain, as opposed to we're going to try and actually surround Connor McDavid and Leon Drysidal with better players. Well, they're going to try. They're just can't.

And most importantly, a better. goalie. Oh yeah, that thing. I forgot about the goaltending, too. I mean, I forgot about that completely. The reason, I know you did. The reason that I mentioned eight years in particular

is that takes you back to 2018. 2018 was the year that they had Todd McClellan in his final year and they got rid of them. This is the list of coaches that they have brought into Edmonton since then. Todd McClellan,

Ken Hitchcock, Dave Tippett, Jay Woodcroft, Chris Knoblock, all different styles of coaches, all very well regarded and well thought of coaches, all of whom had varying levels, but all successful in Edmonton. None of them won the Stanley Cup. This has never been a coaching thing in Edmonton.

I cannot stress that enough. When did the Oilers have good defense? You just finished saying that they don't have the roster to win, that they're not good enough, but now it's a coaching thing? It is partly a coaching thing. Who is the bad coach? Don't yell at me.

Who is a bad coach? Who is the coach that let them down? Of that group I just mentioned. Well, I think their last coach clearly lost the room. He took them to two Stanley Cup finals. Yeah. Did you watch them last year? They were horrific defensively.

Because they're horrific defensively. I think something happened in the room. No, they aren't because they are, they have shown the ability to play better defensively. They have. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.