Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 7/11/24

Episode Date: July 11, 2024

Mike & guest host Josh Elliott-Wolfe look back at the previous day in sports, the boys discuss more Canucks hypotheticals, they chat with iconic Euro 2024 PxP man Peter Drury, plus the boys tell us what they learned. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Clement lifts one to left field, he's tagged it pretty well, and he's done it again! Ernie Clement with his second three-run homer in as many games. It was unbelievably hot yesterday. I saw a dog chasing a cat yesterday, and they were both walking. It was really hot. I mean, we all want to be loved, right?

Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford, it is Brough, it is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. It's not quite Halford and Brough. It's Halford and Elliot Wolfe.

Josh Elliot Wolfe is here. Good morning, Josh. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brougham of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda.

Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec,

Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet. What are you waiting for? Kintec. That's what you're waiting for. Okay, to the guest list we go. It begins today at 6.30. Ian McIntosh from the Athletic FC. Their football vertical at the Athletic. I thought you were going somewhere else with that. Ian Mc...

Nope. McIntosh. McIntosh. It's been confusing me for the last 24-ish hours. Totally different iMac. This is another iMac. This is the British iMac. Yeah, that's right.

Ian spelled the same way. Spells the same way. Yeah, it is. Good insight, everybody. Should we just call him iMac? We is another iMac. This is the British iMac. Yeah, that's right. Ian spelled the same way. Good insight, everybody. Should we just call him iMac? We got to the bottom of it. We did our research yesterday when we found out who were out on the show. We're going to ask Ian McIntosh from The Athletic about Jake DeBrusque's new number 74 with the Vancouver Canucks. Imagine if he's incredibly knowledgeable

about hockey. Which is his old number 74? No, we're going to talk to him about uh the euro final now booked it is england it is spain on sunday after another dramatic late victory for the english yesterday ian mackintosh at 6 30 7 o'clock adnan verk is going to join the program from mlb network 7 30 michael grange is going to join us i believe he's live on location down in Vegas for Canada and the U.S. last night in International Basketball Exhibition.

A star-studded affair in Vegas at T-Mobile. We'll talk to Michael Grange about that and preview Canada's Olympic men's basketball team. 8 o'clock. This is the big one. Peter Drury is going to join the program. He, of course, one of the most iconic play-by-play voices in the world. Global football presence. He calls games for Sky Sports. He, of course, one of the most iconic play-by-play voices in the world.

Global football presence. He calls games for Sky Sports. He calls games for NBC Sports. He's also, for many of you, the definitive voice of the 2024 European Championships. He was on the call yesterday for England-Netherland. So we'll talk to Peter Drury from Berlin. Right, Andy? He's joining us live from Berlin.

Yeah, Dortmund or something. It's Berlin. Oh, it's Berlin. Yeah. Somewhere in Germany. Cool. Very good. So that'll be good.

Duncard. I don't think it's Duncard. Yeah, Duncard. Peter Drury at 8. Michael Grange at 7.30. Adnan Virk at 7.00. Ian McIntosh at 6.30. That's what's happening on the program today.

Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that?

What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Josh, how much are you loving this hot footy summer? Oh, well, I'm a big football guy, so it's been great. Before we get into the England game, in all honesty, did you play growing up at all? Nope.

Did you follow it at all? Sometimes. Yeah, right, so that's a no. Are you surprised at the vigor in which we have, and this collectively as a station, because it's hard even getting guests because all the other shows are aggressively chasing. Can I just say thank God for soccer? I mean.

That's the first time anyone's ever uttered that on the air. It warms my heart. What are we talking about right now if it wasn't for Copa Nero? Blue Jays baseball. So part of it obviously is that the European Championships are on, but also the rise of Canadian soccer is forced. And I use the word forced a lot of people to pay attention because Canada is now a major player,

including going to the semifinals of the Copa America. But I'm curious because I always love asking sort of like a neutral's perspective on this because, one, the sport can be incredibly difficult to watch aesthetically. Oftentimes there are goalless ties, which everybody loves. And then secondly, there's the sense of you got to get caught up, right? Like you're pretty well versed in sports. You're like, I'm good on my sports knowledge. It's what I do for a living professionally.

Yet there's one that I know a lot about. Yeah. living professionally yet there's one that i know a lot about yeah so with soccer it's it's i do think it's the the main catalyst has been canada men playing better and being in these major tournaments but even the euro like i'm fully tuned into the euro and i've been following at the whole tournament so i'm it's it's definitely i think for casual fans that I would put myself into, it's taking people by storm a little bit. And the further Canada goes, I think the further people get invested into other teams and other tournaments as well. I will say this.

The ability to watch and the widespread coverage is like when I was growing up, as we go way back in the day, there was an hour long program early on Saturday mornings on TSN soccer Saturday hosted by Graham Leggett. That was like an hour long and it would run through all of the English premier league highlights from the week. And then he'd throw in some Scottish premier league. And that was your soccer coverage.

There was nothing televised. You get the odd Canadian soccer league league game with the the 86ers and now we live in a world where two major tournaments every single match is broadcast and in the case of the canada games of the copa we're talking like an hour pre-game show and an hour post-game show dedicated and that's how you get the casual viewer in is it's if someone was sitting around on friday night and just wanted to watch some sports that was front and center canada venezuela the on last friday was front and center primetime viewing it's held in north america so it's a really interesting dynamic that's at play because more casual people are just seeing it readily available for the first time ever on sorry go ahead Sorry, and I think that's kind of been my hold up with soccer

in general is how difficult it's been to watch. You used to have to go seek it out. I know. And now it's easy. Now it's right there.

Except for like EPL and stuff, but that's fine. So yesterday's match, Ollie Watkins, another dramatic goal for England. This time,

Ollie Watkins, the hero. This time in the first minute of stoppage time, England 2-1 victors over the Netherlands on Wednesday. With that, England books a place in Sunday's Euro 2024 final. They also advance to their second consecutive European final and the opportunity to win a major title for the first time since the 1966 World Cup. When people compare England to the Toronto Maple Leafs

and their supporters to Leafs fans, part of the reason is that the Leafs have not won anything of significance since 67 and England since 66. It's been an awfully long time. Really, that long? Yes. Wow. Yes, it's been a long time.

They should try to win more. They should try and win more. I thought they were supposed to be good at soccer. You'd think with the amount of time and effort dedicated to it, the amount of coverage, the amount of pundits. So what's the deal? They just choke a lot? They do choke a lot.

Okay. They get to major tournaments and they fall flat, although that narrative has reversed course under Gareth Southgate, the new manager, who has come under incredible scrutiny this tournament. And we'll get into this more with Peter Drury and Ian McIntosh Gareth Southgate, the new manager, who has come under incredible scrutiny this tournament. And we'll get into this more with Peter Drury and Ian McIntosh at 8 o'clock and 6.30. But I want to get this interview out there. So following the win over the Netherlands, Gareth Southgate, who has been heavily, heavily criticized this tournament.

A very weird juxtaposition where his team keeps winning and advancing yet the calls for his head were loud throughout they're starting to get a little bit less now because you know they're in the final but Southgate had a very emotional presser talking about the gift that he gave to these English fans yesterday by getting his team to the Euro final the same fan base that has been you know cleavers out knives out for Southgate for large chunks of this tournament. Southgate says, at the end of the day, we all just want to be loved. Here's what the England manager had to say following a 2-1 win over the Netherlands on Wednesday,

booking a place in Sunday's Euro 2024 final. Yeah, I mean, we all want to be loved, right? So when you're doing something for your country and you're a proud Englishman um yeah when you don't feel that back and when all you read is criticism it's hard so um yeah to be able to celebrate a second final is very very special and you know especially with fans that travel, our travelling support is amazing, the amount of money they spend to travel, the commitment to do that, to be able to give them nights like this and I think we have given them a few over the last six

years from Russia onwards. It, it means a lot. So if I hadn't been on the grass, I'd have been watching, celebrating like they were. So we're kindred spirits in many ways. But of course, I'm the one that has to pick a team. And yeah, so to be able to give them a night like tonight very very special he's a far more gracious man than I would have been I would have been like to all of you that are cheering me on remember when you hated me I hate you all goodbye and then I would have walked off and the press conference would have been over and that's why you don't manage England that's why I don't

manage England the main reason probably One of the main reasons. Again, we'll talk to Peter Drury and Ian McIntosh more about that narrative and then everything going in to Sunday's final, including the fact that Spain have been the best team in this tournament by a large margin and England's going to have its work cut out for it on Sunday. Let's

go down to Vegas here. From a Canadian perspective, we've all been very excited about the Canadian men's national soccer team, but the Canadian men's national basketball team got its pre-Olympic games underway yesterday by taking on a star-studded

American team down in Vegas in an international friendly, as evident by the fact that Canada played every single guy on the roster and significant minutes. 86-72, the Canadians lose to the U.S. A lot of people in attendance, including Barack Obama, was in the house yesterday for that one.

Star-studded affair, as I mentioned. Josh watched it. What was your big takeaway from yesterday's game? The U.S. is scary was kind of the first one. And also terms of like hey takeaways from what canada can do in this tournament in the olympics moving forward is there wasn't really a big takeaway right because it was a friendly but i saw the minutes distribution from canada yeah like i mentioned earlier like i don't think anyone played more than 17 and i don't think anyone played less than seven it was very elementary school basketball

where like, well, you joined the team, you get to play. Yeah, you got to play some minutes. Everyone played yesterday. And Jordy Fernandez said he wants the team to be physical and that he wasn't going to run players into the ground in the game,

so it was expected. None of the starters played in the fourth quarter as well. The difficulties, I think, and the one thing maybe you could take away from last night that started to be evident especially when bam and bio and anthony davis are on the other team is canada does not have a lot of size and especially when zach edie also isn't playing for the team they lack some height some of the people into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket the hoopie heads uh that listen to the Halford and Brough show have made mention on a number of occasions that the one Achilles heel for Canada might end up being their bigs or their lack thereof because they started Powell

yesterday they put Olenek on the bench and those are are the two guys. That's it. That's it. And again, you mentioned the guys that the U.S. can roll out. And not even just the bigs for the U.S. Every time I'd flip over the game, there would be moments where I'd look at who was on the floor for the Americans. And it is kind of overwhelming. It's scary. Yeah. At one point, I

flipped over and they had a four-man unit. I can't remember who was playing in the post, but the four guys on the perimeter were LeBron steph curry devin booker and ant edwards like that is for bonafide first team all nba all-star type guys all they really need to do is to figure out the chemistry part of it yeah and like maybe they won't but it won't matter because they're all five amazing players. But the thing that I always think of with Canada basketball is there's some similarities, I guess, between them and Canada soccer. Where it's like, man, you've been so underwhelming for so long. And now you kind of have this moment where there are now expectations on you.

And we'll see how they do. I mean, they have the second best odds. So theoretically, they should be competing for a medal. By the way, they haven't won a medal at the Olympics since 1936. That's right. I mean, they haven't been at the Olympics in over 20 years. It's been a minute.

Yeah. And they're in the group of death as well. Yeah. So they've got Spain, Australia, Greece, and Canada, of course. So Spain's ranked second in the world. The FIBA rankings are a little skewed, though. Australia's fifth. The Australians are going to be a very difficult team, by the way.

They've got a lot of NBA talent as well. And then Greece, I'm still not entirely sure what to make of them because they've obviously got Giannis Antetokounmpo, but he's the only NBA representative. I know his brother has played in the NBA. He's been there watching, clapping, occasionally taking off his tearaways. He wants to trade though.

He wants to bloom somewhere else. So I'll be very curious to see how that plays out when the teams get to Paris for the Olympics at the end of the month. We did have some NHL news yesterday, everybody. Yeah, we have some NHL news yesterday, everybody. Yeah, we had some NHL news. Two stories of note that I want to pass along.

Didn't need the rap horns, but that's fine. Big news. Is Ryan Suter signing with the St. Louis Blues? Big news. Yeah, because another central team has agreed to pay him money. It is to one listener in particular that keeps trying to get me to book a blues guy to specifically talk about this. The Radek Foxa trade? Yeah, I'm really really stoked about this.

So, this is more of a comical note than an actual news story. Ryan Suter now Living the dream. He loves the Central Division. Josh and I were talking about this earlier and Josh pointed out Ryan Suter hates coasts.

East and or west. He's afraid of water. Not a big water guy. Just wants to stay landlocked. Imagine if that was the reason why he has a big fear of water. He played in Minnesota, some land of lakes, I guess. But coasts. Yeah, but coasts.

Ocean specific. Saltwater, he is not a fan of. That's the headline here. Ryan Suter hates saltwater. Yeah, he doesn't like sharks. There's no sharks in Minnesota. So he's played for now four. There's eight teams in the NHL Central Division,

and he's played for four of them. Nashville, Minnesota, Dallas, and now the St. Louis Blues. What's more, he's going to be paid by three of them at the same time. His buyout from the Minnesota Wild is still going on. His buyout from the Dallas Stars is still going on. His buyout from the Dallas Stars is still going on. And now he's going to get a base salary of $775,000 with the St. Louis Blues, but could get

up to $2.25 million with performance bonuses. Is 39-year-old Ryan Suter living the dream right now? Yes. That is wildly impressive. It's the OEL move. But OEL kind of wasn't in control. Yeah.

But it's... I don't even know. Is he going to make an impact in St. Louis? No, that's the best part. He's just going to get paid. He can go. He can hang out. He can stay in shape.

He's 39 years old. He gets some good exercise. And then he gets paid. Even if it doesn't work out, he can sit there and collect his royalty checks from the Wild and from the stars. There was another bit of news from the National Hockey League yesterday as well. The Alex Morello era is officially over.

What an era it was. Good work by PHNX Sports' Craig Morgan, who reached out to NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daley yesterday and said, Hey, can I get an update on what's going on with Morello and the inactive NHL franchise that is the Arizona Coyotes? And then Daley confirmed that after that latest land bid auction went kaput and Morello had no new place to build a friend, build an arena. He relinquished his rights to the arizona coyotes franchise um he made the decision for stop looking for another arena apparently shortly after the bid fell through he didn't even try and pick up the pieces and go find another one shocking yeah and so as for the future of hockey in arizona betman said at the NHL Board of Governors meetings

that it's not something that the league has on the front burner or that it's focused on. So if they do ever end up going back to Arizona, one, it's not going to be with Alex Morello involved in any capacity. And two, it might not be for an awfully long time. So the Arizona Coyotes doggone acid logo might just be sitting in cobwebs for a while.

Ah, nuts. And it didn't even like move to Utah with them. All the franchise rights. Would you not want to wash that stink off your franchise? Right, I do wonder if the new owner, Ryan Smith, kind of had that as part of it. Like when Gary Bettman proposed this entire thing, which was we're going to do this very unique step of making a franchise inactive,

meaning that they still exist. They're just currently on pause. Like, we hit the pause button on the VCR. Oh, also, you can take all of their players. You can take their players, and you can take some stuff. But if you don't want to take some stuff, Ryan Smith, what do you think about that? And he'd be like, well, great.

You're right, because it is the stink of the organization. Yeah. It was a – it's definitely – if you're taking an organization, He'd be like, well, great. You're right, because it is the stink of the organization. Yeah. Definitely, if you're taking an organization, you don't want to take the history of the Arizona Coyotes. And I guess that's fair, but it's weird, I guess, more than anything. I don't know. I kind of just always thought the Arizona thing would just work out eventually. Well, it might still.

I would not be surprised if they will go back back but we're talking decades down the road yeah and I think that it's a market that almost needed the reset to alleviate itself of Morello first and foremost and then I think a lot of people are to want to just rid themselves of the Coyotes existence entirely and say there's Arizona. There's there's hockey fans in Arizona. They would like a team to come back, but not that team, because the stain of Glendale and Moyes and everything else that they had to deal with over the course of three decades there. It just was more bad times than good. And when and then I think that there was a love for the sport in certain pockets, but maybe,

and this works on two levels, the franchise, and I think there was some angst with the NHL as well as to how the whole thing was handled. And I do think that, yeah, just having a break from it and taking your time if you're going to go back and making sure everything is perfectly set up to have potential success when they or if they eventually

go back is crucial because it kind of feels like everything for the last two decades almost has kind of been like I guess this is going to happen next and then it's not really going to work out and then we'll try to do something else and oh man that didn't work either for 20 years so we'll move we'll finish

here with the blue jays josh is wearing his blue jays hat today and laddie is also wearing his blue jays hat but he's got a cool backwards hat yeah i have my headset on i don't want it to i can't do a backwards hat yeah i look like a dweeb i always clank it off the microphone if i have just do it for a second just turn your hat back right now okay let me see this is good live radio here, folks. Ooh, he looks instantly cooler. Yeah. Yeah, look at that.

We rastified him by 10%. There's nowhere. It's not so bad. Watch.sportsnet.ca. Hey, look. He looks like Fred Durst. He looks so rad. Yeah, you're right. Man.

Just wants to break something. Speaking of the Blue Jays, Ernie Clement, as heard in our intro, hit a three-run homer for the second straightays, Ernie Clement, as heard in our intro, hit a three-run homer for the second straight night. Ernie Clement's on fire right now. Jays get back on track. I'm using air quotes so you can't see that because I'm on the radio, but the Jays get back on track after a

walk-off wild pitch loss in the opener to the Giants. They win 10-6. Real quick, Laddie, Josh, Laddie, start, thoughts on the game last night. You were very excited when you came in this morning, well I didn't get to see a lot of it, I got to see the end, see how excited you are we're on the west coast though, so I can do stuff come home and the Jays are still playing, which is pretty

exciting, but yeah, it was nice to see the offense rolling, when the Jays have a 6 run inning, that's like a 12 run inning for most normal MLB teams, I like how you described it as a normal, like as if they are a not normal, they are a not normal team, I think Josh will agree with me on that one. But yesterday they look kind of normal.

The thing is, they score 10 runs, they win, but also everyone got injured in every part of the organization. So Bo Bichette left with a calf injury. Dalton Varshow left with a knee injury. I do like that. That wasn't it. Oh, I missed another one? There was also Jimmy Garcia, supposed to pitch in AAA.

He had a stiff neck, so he did not do that. Top prospect, Ricky Tiedemann, he started, left to start with forearm tightness in his start. And third base coach, Carlos Feebles, also left the game. He had a stiff knee. Not Feebles. He felt a pop in his knee. Yeah, felt a pop in his knee.

So even the coaches weren't. Not a banner day health-wise for the Jays yesterday. But they did beat the Giants 10-6. But they beat the Giants. After that horrible game one in that series, it was. The walk-off wild pitch and Dan Shulman's dejected call. There were two real big highlights for me. You don't see a lot of walk-off wild pitches.

No. It was a good one. And just don't see a lot of walk-off wild pitches. No. It was a good one. And just the lead-up to the walk-off wild. The walk-off wild pitch was bad enough. Yeah. Blowing a two-run lead in the ninth inning. That was bad, too. That's also bad.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. We are doing an exercise throughout the week. We have asked listeners, hey, we know it's slow. We know Daily Hive wrote a 2,000-word think piece on the new Canucks and the new numbers they're going to wear. We get how slow it is right now.

But there's still an opportunity for some entertaining and intriguing, thought-provoking conversation on your beloved hockey team. So I asked earlier before Josh took over for the back half of the week here, send in your Mount Rushmore ideas hypotheticals

what ifs bar room debates anything that you want us to sink our teeth into it can be alternate universe and reality stuff whatever we'll try and attack it with our wealth of Canucks knowledge because I don't know if the listeners are aware

of this now but we're probably a little bit more versed in Canucks knowledge than the history of the English national team. A little bit. Yeah. Me personally, definitely. So what do you got for us? I like this one. So which of the Stanley Cup finals would have had the biggest impact

had they gone the other way? Oh, that's a great one. Okay, so we got to set the table here. 82-94-2011. We should probably make the case for each. the other way oh that's a great one okay so we gotta set the table here 82 94 2011 we should probably make the case for each before we start breaking down which one it is so really quickly the obvious 82 is obvious because it eliminates this cursed franchise narrative right you win one you win it early you get it out of the way you're not a loser franchise not that i'm calling the franchise a loser franchise they're a loser i just did call them a loser franchise you don't have the 50 plus years of angst you don't have the mounting pressure

for 94 in 2011 because you've already got the cup in 82 94 that's an interesting one because that would have been the butterfly effect one for me. And by that, I mean, the NHL was in such a unique place at that time. There's that infamous Sports Illustrated cover. Why the NHL is hot and the NBA is not. The NHL was hot back then, Josh. I know you weren't born yet. It was hot in the States.

I was not born yet. You weren't born yet. No, but i remember um the rangers were everyone's sort of pre-ordained choice to win because it was a big market team and they had their own lengthy cup drought that one would have been super intriguing because of what it would have meant for the league i'm not sure necessarily for the franchise that actually probably would be number three on my power 2011 plain and, that's the best regular season team to never win a Stanley Cup.

I will fight anyone aggressively and with a knife if they try and tell me otherwise. I'll take a knife fight. There was a good Tampa team that didn't win, but then they eventually won. That's fine. Okay, my bad, my bad. And it would have been the coronation

of the best Canucks team would go on to have won a Stanley Cup, the best regular season team to never won a Stanley Cup. They would have righted that wrong. And also it would have ended the angst that had been building for a long time. So take it away.

Where are you going with this? Maybe I'm biased because i have only been alive for one of these i'm going to say 2011 it's totally valid the the way i interpreted this is what would have the biggest impact afterwards okay so in the next like decade after the cup and i i kind of wanted to make a case for 94 because hey maybe you don't sign mark messier and maybe that whole thing doesn't happen and but also it kind of went into a nicer period of canucks time quicker than it did after the 2011 loss like Like you got to the West Coast Express quicker than the Canucks got to their current era. 13 years.

13 years. 13 years. And so the thing about 2011, I think if they win, like does that give Mike Gillis some time to maybe do a rebuild if he wanted to do a rebuild, whatever it is. And hey, maybe that would have gone worse. Would have been hard for it to go worse,

but maybe it would have gone worse. Sure. And hard for it to go worse, but maybe it would have gone worse. Sure. And then maybe you don't have this whole Jim Benning era as well. So that's why I'm going 2011. The butterfly effect for 2011 is huge. Yes. Because it does alter. It alters a lot of things because you've got to remember

how profoundly broken that team was after 2011. They were like chasing ghosts for a decade. Yeah, it was a dysfunctional franchise. I think mentally they were shook for at least one calendar year after that, if not two. And that would be the great one where you're looking at it and saying, what if? What if?

I mean, for me, it would be more the coronation. Someone just brought up a very good point to move the 1994 team maybe to the top of this is that if if they win in 94 do we avoid not one but two riots in the aftermath that's I do you know what I will admit I thought about this one for a long time and I never thought about the riot angle. But that's something to seriously consider, is that if they win in 94 and there's no first riot, there's probably no second riot. Because you're just content? And all of a sudden, Vancouver internationally isn't even known as a riot city. You guys are the ones that riot after the Stanley Cup. Bruff always tells that story.

When we used to work at NBC and we'd go on the road, and they'd be like, where are you guys from? Vancouver. And you're like, ah, you're the guys that burned down your city after you lose hockey. The riot place. Yeah. And then we'd have to make a joke and then go quietly sob in the corner.

But it's – As one does. I didn't think about that. You know, that's really interesting. Because, again, the 94 team for me was sort of – it's physically sandwiched in the middle of these two and then for me it was like well it's always the one you kind of like uh they overachieved to get there not like they didn't in 82 but um you know it was a bit of a cinderella run

and it provided so many good memories that's actually the one where it's like yeah like that team got so close and it was disheartening to lose, but there were so many good vibes in the aftermath. Linden cemented himself as a folk hero. Bure became this electrifying presence if he wasn't already. And I think the table was set that, oh, they're going to be good for a few years here. It didn't end up exactly working that way. The other thing, too, with 2011 is I talk about it being

the greatest regular season team. And if you go back and look at it statistically they tick all the boxes like they were amazing best penalty kill best power play every single major award that year had a canuck in it right it was either they were going to be nominated for it or they were going to win it um so there's that part of it i i also would have like if they had won maybe you would have gotten to see what that group would have been like at its quote unquote powers for a couple more years. This is kind of what you're talking about. It Gillis would have had more leash unquestionably AV probably too.

He's not fired two years after. And it was the way that they lost, right? And is they broke a lot of people mentally on that team because that entire post season was such a roller coaster bookended with the crazy series against chicago and then the crazy one against boston and then yeah 2012 like it's you you kind of mentioned it but then for that next calendar year it was like oh man they're just completely in their heads and hey look 2012 it also had the

daniel sadin injury too and that plays a part, but maybe they do have more confidence as a team moving forward for the next couple of years to potentially make it more than just a one-time thing. Yeah. A couple of people, and understandably, are pushing back on my notion that the 2011 team is the greatest regular season team

to never win a Stanley Cup. I think, I mean, that was dominance. Dominance, dominance, dominance. Just pick any facet of that team that wasn't at the top of the NHL and point it out to me. They had everything that you possibly wanted. And from a managerial perspective, they had Lawrence Gilman at his peak powers, st you know guys on ltir and

adding at the deadline to put together just a very thorough and competent and loaded lineup right uh up until stanley cup final operating where everyone was healthy and ready to go um dispatch and then i thought that the the dominance in the western conference semi-final against a good sharks team where they wanted to five i thought that was dominance in the Western Conference semifinal against a good Sharks team where they won it in five, I thought that was where I was like, okay, they're cooking and they're going to have the coronation be fitting of a team that that's good in the regular season. That's a good choice there, Josh.

Well done. That's your choice too? My choice is going to be 82 just logically. Because, I mean, sometimes the most obvious answer is the most simple one yeah which is it's the least fun though it's the least fun and it's the it's the one that you're going to talk about the least in part because it was so long ago and uh everyone does remember that that was also a miracle storybook run as well but when you talk about the ultimate butterfly effect if they had just won the cup way back when and gotten it i hate saying it like it's a to-do list but gotten it out of the

way but if they'd gotten it out of the way the mounting pressure wouldn't have been like what it was right i don't know if it would have been the ultimate uh alternate path for the organization and there also would have been like that that would have affected how the 94 team was constructed. I assume as well. And like there, there would have been different butterfly effects too, or just in terms of like, it things change if you want to come,

right? Sure. But yeah, it's, it's just kind of like the most boring one. 8 o'clock on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 3 of the program. Peter Drury, one of the definitive voices of this European championship from Germany, is going to join us in just a moment here. The highlight of hour three.

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that's what you're waiting for to the phone lines we go you heard him yesterday on the call for england's dramatic victory over the netherlands you'll hear him on sunday for the final as well joining us now very excited to have our next guest on the program peter drury joins us here on the halford and brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Peter. How are you? Good morning to you. Good afternoon from Berlin. I'm good, thank you, and I hope you are too. We are very well. Very excited to do this and very appreciative of you taking the time.

What a match yesterday. I have to ask right off the bat, you're calling the match as a play-by-play and you're looking down the road and you've seen how England has played, especially going to penalties against Switzerland in the previous round. Were you anticipating extra time and penalties before Olly Watkins smashed home to win the match for England? There's a very short answer to that, yes. Yes. It felt as though it was a near certainty um england and england have played

a game of jeopardy throughout this tournament uh taking everything to the very edge uh and leaving us um with our nerves frayed um time after time so uh in that sense i guess it was a relief it was all over. I have to be a little bit careful about how I articulate this because I was and am and continue to be a neutral commentator for the global feed of the game.

So in no sense was I trying to view the game as an English supporter, but as an observer of the England team, it would have come as no surprise at all to see that go to extra time and penalties. Well, on that note, what is it like watching an English national team have these big heroic moments in pivotal moments,

win on penalties in clinical fashion, I might add, and pull results out of games, especially against Slovakia, where it looked like it was all done for. It's almost the inverse of everything I know about the English national team prior, and it's all coming together in this run at this tournament. Well, that is exactly right. I mean, you sort of define the history of, or at least the history of the last half century plus of the English national football team really nicely there in one sentence.

You know, we've been used to these moments going against us. We've been used to building ourselves up as would-be champions of the world and would-be champions of Europe and finding that when the event comes around, we're not quite there. But in the last four, five, six, seven years, under the current coach,areth southgate who is a

terrific individual um we've got closer and closer you know we've been in semi-finals we've been in finals and we're in another final um and and being someone of my age you know i i wouldn't want to take for granted necessarily that that your Canadian audience would follow English football, obviously, in the way I do. But they may or may not know that England's only triumph was winning the 1966 World Cup. We've won nothing before and nothing since. And I was born in 1967. So, you know, like everybody of my generation, I would love to see something happen, you know, whilst I'm treading the earth. And, you know, we've got a chance that that might happen on Sunday.

You mentioned Gareth Southgate there, and we've spoken about him at length throughout this show. We played his post-match media availability where he was incredibly gracious to all of the England supporters that had made the trek to Germany, and many of whom were probably had, you know, the knives and the cleavers out for Southgate

at certain points during this tournament. What have you thought of the job that he's done, both tactically in terms of making adjustments and changes on the pitch, but also how he's dealt with the criticism throughout this tournament? He is a man of immense dignity. I mean, extraordinary dignity, because I'm sure you have parallel posts in in Canadian sport, the ones, we have a population of something like 60 million. And that's 60 million opinions of what he should have done,

what they would have done, who he should have selected, what formation he should have adopted. And of course, he's the only one who picks the team. And I don't think he or anyone else would argue that for the first two or three games, four games, England weren't great.

They weren't great, but they did enough. They got through. And during that period, they attracted immense criticism from within our country. And all I can say on behalf of the coach now is that he's won. He's won. And what's so great about him is that he isn't someone who, when he sits down in a press conference and addresses, as it were, not just the press, but via the press, the whole nation,

he isn't someone who says, told you so, or I'm right, you're wrong. He has a great self-awareness. He understands that the people who come to watch England want England to win. And he understands he feeds off their support and the team feeds off their support. And he has to nurture that relationship and for the best part of his tenure that relationship has been very good but it it has been frayed at times over the course of the last month um and and the the diplomatic um manner in which he kind of re-engaged with them last night following a triumphant evening was for me typical of the man

we are speaking to peter drury ahead of the euro 2024 final on sunday here on the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 uh peter as we do another brief history lesson we spoke earlier in the show about uh southgate how he was forged for this moment and it came from his playing days and of course the infamous penalty miss at Euro 96 and I do wonder if going through those tribulations as a player maybe uniquely forged him to be able to handle the criticisms of as you mentioned a job that everyone has an opinion about and everyone has a criticism of I think that's undoubted um and it's given him not just an empathy around those pressure moments. And of course, as you're knowing, they've lost the last European Championship final on penalties.

And so two or three of our players went through the same sort of experience that he went through in 1996. But it's not just that empathy. It's created in him, if it didn't already exist, a kind of emotional intelligence that is so much better than average. He gets people. He manages people. He relates to people. There's nobody he speaks to disrespectfully. There's nobody he thinks he's above he he has as you say felt the most crushing of crushing sporting moments and i think we always have to be careful to frame

this correctly because sport is only sport you know it's only it's only kicking a football around a you know park um it really isn't the end of the world but sometimes it can feel like the end of the world and that time he missed the penalty in 1996 the English nation was at a point of delirious euphoria you know it was our home competition we were playing superbly whether we were going to win the thing and then he missed

and the weight that must have fallen down upon him then can only have impacted on him. It can only have done. You know, he is a very human human. And it will, without question, have formed the man he is now. I do want to turn our attention to Spain, who have been the best team in this tournament. They've won all of their matches.

I believe they're one goal away from matching France's total from 1984, which remains a European record. You, in the early days of this tournament, called the 3-0 victory, if I'm not mistaken, where Spain really dominated Croatia in one of the early games of the group stage. When you saw Spain at that moment, early days of the tournament, did you already get the sense that they might be a force to be reckoned with

and someone you might be seeing in the final? It's really easy to sound smart after the event. Just go for it. I'm going for it because A, yes, and B, listen, I am the worst tipster in the history of sports and sports broadcasting but i've got to say to you somebody said to me before the first ball was kicked okay who are you going for and i said spain um so i'm quite proud of that funnily enough because normally you know normally whoever i tip is it has gone home you know within a week um so um

listen they've been terrific. And we've talked about the trials and tribulations of England, but a lot of the major nations have had those. You know, the French public haven't been thrilled with the French. The Portuguese public weren't thrilled with the Portuguese. The Dutch public, even though, you know, they gave England a very good game last night, weren't thrilled with them.

Italy, obviously, went home much sooner than they expected to go home. And there's a lot of criticism. Really, the only major nation who've come here and delighted their own people throughout without reservation have been Spain. And without question, that renders them favourites in Sunday's final. They've got a fabulously entertaining team.

This kid, Lamin Yamal, who scored that wonderful goal in the first semi-final on Tuesday. I mean, he's special. He is special. And there's a beautiful innocence about the way he plays and the way he looks. He looks like a boy who's 16. He actually turned 17 on saturday the day

before the final so he's almost an adult but but they tell me and i think it's true that he's he's brought his school homework with him on this trip after training he goes and sits down and you know does his maths um homework i mean it's it's crazy stuff but it's a beautiful narrative. And I don't think anybody anywhere would begrudge Spain winning it because the football they've played has been delightful. And maybe it's too early to draw this comparison, but 2008 for Spain was the start of a really good international run in tournaments for them. How does this team compare compare and is there a comparison

to be made around this team and and maybe everything surrounding them well there's always a comparison to be made isn't it i mean this is this is the very stuff of sports conversation we we we love to make these comparisons um whether they're valid or not i suppose time tells um you know as you say 2008 2008 kicked off a Spanish era. And only if this era lasts as long and successfully as that one will we really know. But, you know, that Spanish team of Xavi and Iniesta, two of the most beautiful ball-playing midfield players the world has ever known, you know, was remarkable. And they won the European Championship and then they won the World Cup and they won the European Championship

and then they won the World Cup and they won the European Championship again. And people use them almost as a yardstick, whether the team is Spain or another country. Are they as good as Spain were in 2008, 10, 12? And I do think that this Spanish team has a chance to be that good because it's not just Lamar, it's Williams on the other side And I do think that this Spanish team has a chance to be that good.

Because it's not just, you know, Lamar, it's Williams on the other side. And Fabian Ruiz has been terrific in midfield. And they have a set and stable back four. Actually, they won the other night with two of the back four missing through suspension. But they're a really, really good team. And I think if I strip away any sort of partisanship, or if anybody strips away any sort of partisanship, if I was watching or preparing to watch the game from Mars, it would be hard not to favour Spain in every way

because they've decorated the thing. It is a very compelling final for that reason, but also all of the history that England brings into this. So there's the chance to atone for that heartbreaking defeat to Italy a few years ago. It is the first time, as you mentioned, to win a major

trophy since the World Cup in 1966. It's also the first title match on foreign soil, because 66, and then obviously the last loss was at Wembley as well. So there's a lot going into this, Peter. As you prepare for the final, what are sort of some of the things that are running through your mind and the things that you're looking to see play out, both in terms of a narrative and on the pitch?

Well, the narrative you've nailed. I mean, the historical narrative from an English perspective is that stark. The history, the context is huge. I mean, it's absolutely huge. It's very nearly 60 years since England won anything. As you say, also, the first time they've attempted to win anything, as it were, by being in final um outside of our own country everything we've come we've done or come close to doing has happened at wembley um so this is this is very very big for english football um and for the individuals involved and for every supporter and and that in a sense is is the narrative. Although every sportsman I've ever worked with and spoken to has constantly reminded me, and they're all right,

that when the ball rolls for the first time, history has absolutely nothing to do with it. It's not this bunch of English players who haven't won anything for 58 years. Some of them were born after the year 2000. So this is their moment, this is their chance. But none of them met Bobby Moore, who lifted the World Cup in 1966. For them, it's fresh. And actually, one of the thrills is that we do have young people in the team, Kobi Mainu, Bukai Osaka, whose conduct and whose profile is somehow so fresh and so invigorating that it kind of throws off the baggage of history. And that would be a lovely thing if they were able to see it through. From a Spanish perspective, obviously we've just mentioned that within the living memory of most Spanish supporters,

not all but most, there is and has been a great, great team. So maybe there's a greater weight on their players' shoulders. Maybe there's a more sort on their players shoulders maybe there's a there's a more sort of current awareness of of the bar they're attempting to reach or pass um but again ultimately you know you and i we're both in the same business we're we're in the business of talking about it and hot air and and discussing it and theorizing and so on. When the game kicks off, it's a game. It's a game between two teams, each of whom has at least a puncher's chance of winning it, and it will create its own narrative and find its own place in history.

Sunday will be great, and this was also great as well. Peter, I want to thank you very much for taking the time to do this. It was a highlight for all of us here to get you on the show and to be able to talk ahead of such a monumental final. Best of luck with the call on Sunday and please enjoy it. And thank you once again for doing this. Well, thank you so much. It was a real pleasure chatting to you.

Thanks a lot. Thank you, Peter. That's Peter Drury who will be on the call for the 2024 European Championship final on Sunday when England takes on Spain. It's a noon kickoff.

All right, Tom. That was pretty cool.