Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 7/17/25

Episode Date: July 17, 2025

Mike Halford & guest host Jamie Dodd look back at the previous day in sports, plus they discuss the highlights of next season's newly-released Canucks schedule with radio commentator Brendan Batchelor. 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. Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa- You know, I'd much rather be a great father than I would be a great golfer. You know, at the end of the day, that's what's more important. SGA is here. Give it up for SGA. Hell yeah, bro. And now everybody sitting around him is in foul trouble.

Good morning, Vancouver. 6.01 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. It's Halford and his bruh. Oh wait, it's Jamie Dodd. Hello. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios

and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jamie Dodd, good morning. Good morning. A-Dawg, good morning to you. Good morning. And basketball, then. Good morning to you as well. Good morning Mike. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3000 five star reviews. Visit them online at Sands-trustee.com. And we are broadcasting live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear

and orthotics working together with you in step Jamie Dodd. Yeah, welcome to the program. I pulled out the Murphy bed in the studio last night got off the air at six I was like, you know what? Just gonna set up camp here and be ready for the morning. Is this your first time together you two? I can't remember you've worked together before even facetious right now. I just can't remember There's some Dodd the Halford connection is one of the more storied ones in Sportsnet 650 history. Is it?

Well, it's there anyway. It is a connection. Mike and I did private, like, out of work events together last time we hosted. We have seen some events together. Not a big deal. Don't want to brag. OK.

We got a free hot dog out of this. That's right. The scheduling gods did not look upon you favorably. As mentioned, Jamie was on the air a mere 12 hours ago, but he's back. He loves it so much. And we have a lot to get into on the show today. So I'm glad that he's riding shotgun.

Absolutely. Yeah. Guest list today begins at 6.30. Adam Stanley is going to join us. Sportsnet Golf Reporter. First round of the Open Championship at Royal Port Rush in Northern Ireland is underway. Some familiar names near or atop the leaderboard early Matt Fitzpatrick, Lee Westwood, Phil Mickelson, Scotty Scheffler, basketball Ben. Who are you

paying most attention to right now in the early stages of the Open? Scotty Scheffler is one under par, three off the lead. He's got a birdie puck coming up on hole 12. Once again, he finds himself in the mix in horrible conditions. He somehow still finds a way to just hang around. And that's a name that all these guys are like, get away from me.

So it looks gross, as you mentioned, in Northern Ireland. Jamie asked the question prior to coming on there. Do they get summer then? Yeah, what's the deal? It's the middle of July. You would think it wouldn't be disgusting all the time. Oh no it's horrible though. And wasn't it like this last time

they were in Northern Ireland too? What's the deal? It's just permanent twelve months rain and wind. And they love it too they're like welcome to the convent. They want it to rain. We live for this. Everyone's wearing a vest. I haven't even thought about wearing a vest in at least three months. It's amazing. Anyway we're going to talk to Adam Stanley at six 30 all

things golf is the open championship is now underway in Northern Ireland. That's at six 30 at seven o'clock. Adnan Burke is going to join the program. Our insider from MLB network, all star game in the books, quite a historic couple of days given the accomplishments of Cal rally at the home run Derby. And then Kyle Schwab, we're at, I guess the sorta home run derby at the end of the actual all star game. We'll get into all things baseball, including a second half preview with Adnan at seven o'clock seven 30 Brandon bachelor is going to join the program play by play voice to the Vancouver Canucks right here on sports net six 50.

As you've probably heard throughout the last 24 hours, the Canucks full 82 game schedule is out. It dropped yesterday. Lots of feedback locked lots of takeaways. Who better to talk about the schedule than the guy who's going to call all 82 games on it batch is going to join us at seven 30 here on the program. Eight o'clock we're going to go down to Seattle. Tim Booth is going to join the program Seattle times sports reporter at what's going on with NBA expansion. I know we talked about it on the show yesterday.

Tim has a big article out now in the Times. The question just be like, when are the Sonics coming? That was essentially the genesis of his article. Yeah, when do we get the team? The answer was, doesn't sound like anytime soon. We're studying it. We're starting a committee. We're going to investigate.

I also want to talk to him about the summer of Cal Raleigh, which we talked about earlier, and where he sits on the current Mount Rushmore. It's summertime. Everything is a Mount Rushmore of Seattle athletes currently. So we'll talk to Tim Booth at eight o'clock working in reverse on the guest list. It's a four guest there today. Eight o'clock. It's Tim Booth, seven 30, Brendan Batchelor, seven o'clock Adnan Virk, six 30 Adam Stanley. That's what's happening on the program today.

Ben, 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 messy 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. There was a local team in action yesterday and there were some sports going on. MLS chock full of games yesterday, including your Vancouver Whitecaps, Emmanuel Savvy scored a goal in the fourth minute.

Sebastian Bearhalter added the insurance marker and then Brian White kind of scored from the penalty spot shortly thereafter. Whitecaps beat Houston in Houston three nil on Wednesday night. And I know you were unable to watch. Yes. Working at the time. Exactly. I gave everyone an update on the savvy goal when he scored it. So I was doing my duty there as the as the sports host but three nil result for the Whitecaps and we chatted with Jesper Sorensen last week or earlier this week I guess it was myself and Jason Brough and you know it was a pretty dour interview for most of it but we did wrap up by saying like well you know you guys are still third in the Western Conference you're still actually in a pretty

solid position. You know you can cry. Actually and it always felt like the question was going to be, OK, they're in this rut, they're in this downturn. Does it spiral or is it just a blip and then they're able to kind of right the ship? Did you see enough last night in the results, which was desperately needed, to say, OK, this is the start of the turnaround, they're getting their mojo back? Yeah, it was a very, very solid performance right from the get.

By the way, for those that don't watch Whitecaps games with any regularity, they either score or concede in the first five minutes of every match. I don't know what it is. I don't know if this is a game plan or stylistic thing, but they are either up one or down one within five minutes and lo and behold, Savvy scores four minutes into the match yesterday.

So they got off on the front foot, the right foot, if you will, and they carried that throughout the match. So that was good. Houston's not good. So everything has to be taken with a bit of a caveat here. Still, I think in MLS, anytime you go on the road, no matter what team you're playing and have that in, right? It's like, okay, yeah, you can discount the opponent, but it's still tough to travel. The conditions were crazy in Houston yesterday, right? With the heat and the humidity. So it's 52% humidity yesterday.

At the first hydration break, guys came over to the pitch, and they looked as though they had all taken showers in their uniforms. Just drenched head to toe with sweat. So it was very difficult. So I don't want to take anything away from the performance. I just want to contextualize exactly Sure. Exactly what it was. The other thing I'm interested in with the Whitecaps and you had it in your

notes that it was the first match of the post Pedro Vite era. Of course, he's been sold. And one of the things Brough and I were talking about is there's so many unique challenges managing an MLS team, right? With guys leaving on international breaks and the weird roster rules and the travel around the continent which is different from other soccer leagues and now losing a player to it on a transfer period midseason isn't unique to MLS but it is one of those soccer things you have to manage around he was such a key player you're already missing a bunch of guys with injuries now he leaves the lineup I know there's reports they might be

bringing in a replacement from Peru but, we'll see if that you know If he's able to hit the ground running so what in the short term? What is the loss of Pedro Vitae? How do they handle it? How do they manage it handled it brilliantly yesterday? Because they were able to still play with the three in the midfield bear halter was there savvy was there Kubas didn't even play so when this team was at its best was there. Kubas didn't even play. So when this team was at its best, it had Bear Halter, Kubas and Vite in the middle of the park is the three. And a lot of people that cover the league far more closely than I do considered it the best midfield in MLS, especially when they were rolling. It's funny, I have a

Whitecaps chat. It's an exciting one, folks. If you want to join me, just send a text. Anyway, I actually screen grabbed their lineup from a game earlier in the year when they beat the LA Galaxy 2-1, when they were at as close to as full health as they have been. There are, I would estimate, at least six starters from that game, either unavailable due to injury,

rest, or in the case of Pedro Vite, Vite have been sold. And it's a pretty dramatic drop off in season. Every team goes through lulls and injuries. And yeah, and especially with a sell on league like MLS, you do moving on from guys. But to think of where this team was at its heights this year, where it was clearly, clearly the best team in MLS. There wasn't any decision to be made. They've lost a lot. And Vite's part of that. Sorensen does a really nice job of finding the right moments

to either change the formation or change the personnel. Now in this most recent stretch, he's gotten it wrong a couple of times. The three no losses to Colorado and the galaxy were examples of that. But yesterday, he pushed all the right buttons and moved a guy like Ocampo up into a more attacking role. And he was going crazy last night running down the line. Big picture stuff. It's something that they can absolutely build up. They've got a massive match coming up next where they're going to be taking on Western Conference

leading San Diego. San Diego had a very bad loss last night to Toronto FC in San Diego last night actually broke great for the caps There you go, Minnesota and San Diego lost So the caps ended the night in second place with a match in hand on San Diego and Minnesota So it was a good night for them overall the big three of the Western Conference San Diego, Minnesota, Vancouver Did you know that San Diego had a team you do now? You learn something there. There you go. Okay, so I think that's good on the whitecaps talk for the morning. We should turn our attention now

to the biggest talking point from yesterday. And I'm aware that because this broke shortly after we got off the air yesterday, that Sportsnet 650 dedicated a lot of coverage and a lot of programming to the Kinect schedule release. But we're gonna go through it rather quickly. We're gonna come up with a couple of fun, fun as in brackets, and maybe with air quotes,

but we're gonna give some fun takeaways on what the schedule is. So obviously there's a bunch of takeaways with regards to individual games, large sections, the Olympic break, all this kind of stuff. So real quick running through it, we broke this on the air yesterday when it came out. It's the, the opener is gonna be October 9th

against the flames for the second consecutive year. After that, in the immediate aftermath, uh, they're going to be playing the Edmonton Oilers and that of course will be a Vander Canes homecoming after spending a couple of years in Edmonton. After that, and this is all hashtag the start stuff, the Canucks are going to go and take on St. Louis while they'll have another homecoming because that'll be their first game against former teammate Pugh Souter. Then, hashtag the start, they're going out on a five game road trip through Dallas, Chicago, Washington, Pittsburgh, and Nashville.

So that's the start of the season and that Pittsburgh game is also a bit of a reunion game because they'll get to see old friend, Artie Silovs. We can run through all of this, but I asked all the guys here that are currently in studio to come up with two things as It pertains to the upcoming season now that we know the schedule What are you most excited for and what are you most worried about? We're gonna start a dog I'm throwing you on the spot. I don't think he can hear me his ears are filled with gauze a dog

He did not look up when you did not even register. It was a blank stare What are you most excited about with regards to the? Vancouver Canucks upcoming season and what are you most worried about I had to write it down so I'd remember but that's great Tuesday October 28th at home versus the Rangers why that one a dog you had to write that one down It's play a team Miller game named JT Miller is coming to town and You know hopefully lewis peterson's in the lineup and should be a lot of fun fun is like you said in quotation. Well, okay hold on Yeah, what do you want to see at that game? Well, I want to see the Canucks kick the poop out of them. Okay, and an open ice hit

By Petey on Miller that knocks me Out of the season. Maybe ends his career. You're rooting for the injury. Yeah, yeah. Hey, hey, Don. Rooting for a career ending injury. Old take at 6.13 in the morning.

Okay, another question. Before you move on, question. Do you think JT Miller will be received more with cheers or boos from the Rogers Arena Faithful next. Thank you. I think probably like Slightly more cheers than booze, but I think the reactions will be mixed because he was a polarizing player What do you think? Well, you can find out what I think on a Twitter video and the sports 50 feed from yesterday, but we're gonna pretend like yesterday there will be a I think it's gonna be very similar to the Bo Horvat return

He will be booed when he touches the puck. They'll show a tribute video He'll get a massive standing ovation and I called the yesterday He will get a JT Miller chant the lure of the chant and how much the crowd loves doing the chant will be too much Sure, even if people are on the fence, they're like, you know what? I like chanting and I'm gonna chant so there will be a JT Miller chant Yeah, I can see that I could see that can I I can ask another question here and it you mentioned Horvats return Yeah, can we just put into context that Bo Horvat? I think maybe did one thing Kinda yes wrong Not capital W wrong

No Kinda wrong and it wasn't even that big of a deal to me and that elicited boos From the crowd which is still to this day. It actually kind of bothers me He was like when he was here. He played on bad teams He grew up in the organization I'd say he wasn't the greatest captain ever but he was pretty exemplary in terms of fulfilling the rules But it was always like, is he doing enough to single handedly turn around the situation?

And but he was never going to be that player. That was unfair to put that on him. The projections in that regard were way beyond what he was going to give you as a player. Right. I think a lot of people were hoping for something that wasn't necessarily going to be there. But in terms of showing up and putting in a shift, all of which I think is admirable work, I felt like his return should have been warmer. There's like I didn't I didn't understand. I get boo. I mean, I don't know.

The I'll tell you that for free. Like whatever. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. It kind of I thought the reaction to it was outsized. I get that anytime someone leaves and they're perceived to be taking a shot at your market, that gets people's backup. I understand that. I was glad, I had less of an issue with the booing because he got the reception with the tribute video. So that was like, okay, fair.

They showed the respect, then do whatever you want after that. I don't have a problem with it. Now I am putting it within context of JT Miller's return. Cause if you want to stack them up side by side, Miller's behavior was far more damaging to the organization than anything, anything Horvat ever did

over the course of his Canucks career. I mean, say what you will about who's to blame or who's at fault. Pedersen and Miller shoulder equal blame for a rift that don't forget. The president hockey ops has said multiple times, rip that team apart last year. So each guy needs to shoulder that. That was something that never happened on Horvats. Well, Matt and Surrey, and I think this is a good point. He texted,

Hey guys, I think how Miller will be received when he comes back to Vancouver could also be tied to how well Petey is or isn't playing. I bet if Petey has a great start, the booze are going to rain down on Miller, but if it's not not that way it might be a little more jaded towards him. I do think those those game 11 that he comes to town rights or those first 10 games like if PD is on one goal for assists it's going to be an awkward atmosphere. It's a good point. He's crushing it. Then I think it's like no problem and people might as he says be even a little more aggressive towards Miller but if it's if we're still waiting to see the PD bounce back that could be a very very interesting awkward

uncomfortable atmosphere Rogers a dog What are you most concerned about Sunday December 14th at the Devils? The other Hughes brothers will kidnap Quinn or lure him away and Ultimately convince him like this is where you want to be in the beautiful beautiful state of New Jersey Yeah, the Garden State they call it. Yeah, they do call that so that's Hughes of Palooza the next iteration of it Yeah, which the first one did not in New Jersey in New Jersey specifically, right? Yeah, the kidnapping angle correct. So you're hoping slash predicting a career ending injury for JT Miller and he's kidnapping all right you know I'm glad we started

with Andy that was good really good napping yeah okay Jamie what are you most excited about for the upcoming okay I this is seems like kind of a cliche answer but I am most excited for game one and not just because it'll be like a drought finally over your own. We all hate pre-season, so we'll be desperate for the regular season to start. But if you look back, we now have a three year sample size of the first game of the season telling us pretty much everything we need to know about how the season is going to go. So last year they blow a four one lead against Calgary lose sex six five.

And of course that set up just a wildly frustrating season that featured way too many brutal disasters, home performances to count. They also finished behind Calgary in the standings ultimately in the playoff chase the year before that, of course they blew out Edmonton eight one. It's the start of this dream season. Everything goes right. They win the division over Edmonton. Ultimately, Besser scored four goals in that one on route to his first 40 goal season. It was like, Oh my gosh, this is an incredible game. And guess what? We're going to have

an incredible season. The year before that they blew a three, nothing lead on the road in Edmonton. That was the Boudreau year. Remember they like set records for blowing multi-goal leads and it all started in that first game. Their defense was disastrous. He gets fired eventually and Rick talk. It comes in. So last three years, game one and we'll all come in the next day and I do this on Canucks talk.

It's like, Oh, we can't overreact. We need, we need a big sample size. This doesn't tell us anything. They're not all going to be like this. We're wrong. The it actually tells us everything about what is going to happen. So I'm excited for just whatever bizarre turn of events positive or negative game one takes because that is

going to be the roadmap for the rest of the season. Game one Thursday October 9th against the flames as Jamie mentioned for the second consecutive year. I got I can buy that. I can absolutely buy that. We talked about that a little bit yesterday when we got word that that was going to be the first game is that last year's Was a harbinger of what was to come and let me tell you it was not a hard Good so you want like the PD three-point performance in game one. That's right. Okay, good. We're good We're fine. This is how the rest of the year is gonna go. Everything's gonna be great What are you most concerned about it? So there's been a lot of talk about the Back heavy home schedule and we'll get into that

But of course the flip side of that is they're on the road a lot in the first half of the schedule and not just on the road but specifically cross Continent travel so I'm worried about the sheer number of miles They're gonna log in the first three months or so of the season. The last game they play in the Eastern Conference is January 15th. They play January 15th in Columbus. They do not travel to the Eastern Conference after that,

which is great for the final stretch of the season, right? Like they don't, I think the farthest field they go is Winnipeg or Chicago after that. I think you're right. But before that, it means like almost every couple of weeks, they're going out East, right? Like they get back, play a couple of weeks weeks at home and then they're back going out east so they're basically crisscrossing the continent for the first three months

of the season and look that's not necessarily a new experience for the Canucks they've got they've always got a difficult travel schedule but I think it is a little bit more condensed with the Olympic year just with the way their schedule sets up so they're gonna be logging a ton of miles We know that puts stress on the bodies That's less practice time all of that how they manage that how the depth holds up under that strain I think is going to determine a lot about how the season goes and it's gonna be a huge challenge It's gonna be a huge challenge for Adam foot coaching the team for the players

How they manage all of that travel early in the season on a back to backs to yeah with a condensed schedule Okay, so my turn now Ben. Did you participate in this by the way didn't post anything on the chat? No, okay That's great It's no, it's good. We're right up against it for time. So I'll go ahead so I am Excited about the two big home stands on the docket this year There's two eight game home stands coming up this season First reason is hey, it's when all the good opponents come to town. That first one in particular in January, you're going to get McDavid of Etchkin,

the Hughes of Palooza Vancouver version. We all know how great that goes. Sidney Crosby comes to town. Also you get the Leafs game to cap it off. That's a lot of fun. That's an awesome home. Also the Ducks. And the Ducks. You get to see Radko Gudis. Yep. Radko Gudis? Yep. Radko Gudis.

Chris Crider. Yeah, right. Who else plays there now? Oh, Grandland. There's also no way that the Canucks could be as bad at home as they were last year, right? There's no way. 17, 16 and eight was a pretty putrid home record

for a team that, you know, should have the advantage of having a lot of teams going on that rest or Western road swing. So I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful that a team who, yes, went three, five and three after 11 home games to start last year. And I did not realize this one to straight at home twice. Last incredible.

That was the those home winning streaks last year to two home winning streaks, two the home winning streaks last year. That's so bad. Two, two home winning streaks, two game home winning streaks, two all of last year. That's unbelievable. They've got to be better, right? To your point, Mike, I just want to say too, like usually we always kind of say at the station by American Thanksgiving, you usually have a pretty good outlook of if you're possibly going to be a playoff team. And with what Jamie was saying with the back heavy home schedule, I don't think with those

teams that they're playing it in late January, you can make too many decisions until you get through that homestand. Like you look at a lot of those games, you're like, this should get B6 wins for the Canucks. Yep. Like the Jersey game, that's a bit tough. Leafs, they always play the Leafs very well,

especially here in Vancouver. There's a lot of winnable games in that eight-game stretch. And then after that homestand, you're going to have a good idea. And that's a month before the trade deadline. So the thing I'm most excited about are the two big homestands. The thing I'm most worried about are the two big homestands. Because if you look at where they're at in the schedule, especially that second one in March,

if this team is out of it early, with all of the reasons Jamie mentioned earlier, aforementioned about very compact first half of the schedule, very road heavy, there is a possibility that this team could be sunk. And I'm not trying to be glass half empty here, and I'm not trying to be super negative, but there is a possibility that come American Thanksgiving or come the turn of the calendar from 2025 to 2026.

This team could be in a tough spot. That's just the reality of it. And if those home stands come in front of a ticket buying crowd who for the second consecutive year is disenchanted with its team, those are going to be ugly home stands. Those are going to be playing out the string home stands,. Those are going to be ugly home stands. Those are going to be playing out the string home stands and those are going to be irate homes. They had I believe didn't they have a nine game home stand or something similar last season or they

had a misremembering but they had a long one. He had a leg was or maybe this was a few years ago when it was like oh and they were just completely out of it. But it's happened before what you're describing right where it's like it looks like this incredible promising thing on the schedule we're like oh my gosh they're great they're at home for so long this is amazing late in the season it's going to be perfect for a playoff push the city's going to be fired up and then it rolls around it's like oh no these are just these games are nothing and it's all horrible. I had to go back into some of the notes from last year's shows. And the amount of games at home where the team laid an absolute egg is still shocking, even though I've had all this time to process it

and go back over top of it. We put together, speaking of Mount Rushmore's, a Mount Rushmore of the worst Canucks home losses of the season last year. I think we made three Mount Rushmore's. There were so many contenders. There were so many options. We need to do I think we made three Mount Rushmore. There were so many contenders. There were so many options. We need to do a Mount Rushmore, Mount Rushmore. Yeah. Just build another one, guys.

That's our favorite Mount Rushmore. There was so many of them to choose from. Number one, the real Mount Rushmore. Yeah. It stands the test of time. But it kind of was reflective of a few narratives from last year. One, obviously the team wasn't good at home.

I think the second thing is like, if you look at the two wild card teams from last year, Minnesota and St. Louis had pretty good, not great home record. Like to give you an idea of what you need to do just to get into one of those two wild cards, they had 23 and 24 wins at home. The Canucks had 17.

They weren't slightly off the pace. They were way off the pace. I think the Canucks had four more home wins than the Chicago Blackhawks last year. Like it was pitiful, but the other part of it is that they weren't losing nail biters at home. Like some of these games that they lost at home were awful, dreadful performances. As Tony Gallagher used to say, they were terrible. To the point where you kind of wondered,, do they need to actually adjust pregame

rituals, tactical adjustments at home to start games, to start periods, to figure out how to not get blown out in front of your ticket buying public. And that is something that is going to be hyper-focused. It's a big, big challenge for a first year head coach who was also on the bench to witness all of this last year. So the schedule, it does do the Canucks some favors. There's no question, right? If they are able to keep their heads above water, the second half could be very advantageous for them. But again, as we saw, I think so much of next season really hinges on what they're going to do

at home. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Brendan B listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks joins us here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Batch, how are you? Good morning, how are you guys? And we're good, thanks for taking the time to do this.

We appreciate it. I'm going to throw you right into the fire here, Batch. The schedule came out yesterday. I believe Sportsnet 650 dedicated about eight hours of original programming to it. And a couple more this morning. What are you most looking forward to or most anticipating having gone through the entire 82 game

Canucks regular season schedule? Well, you know, when, when the schedule comes out my first thought is to look at like when the breaks are or how long they are. So I was like, oh, four days of Christmas, that's good. Oh, nearly three weeks for the Olympics. That's awesome too. And then you sort of start getting into the minutia of the schedule. So the two eight game home stands in the back half of the season stood out to me for a couple of reasons. One, because that's a lot of time with the team at home. And that's a good opportunity in the second half

of the season. You know, either if you haven't had a good start to make up ground or to build on a strong start, but it does mean that the first half of the season is more road heavy. And so you know, I circle back to something that we talked a lot about two years ago, which is the start is going to be really important. And even though they're on the road a lot early in the season and a lot right off the bat, what I think it's only two of the first counting here, one, two, three, four, six, seven, two of the first eight games are at home.

Four of those first eight games are against teams that missed the playoffs last year. And there's another one against St. Louis who snuck in by, you know, tying with Calgary for that last wild card spot. So in spite of the, uh, the road heavy schedule early, there is an opportunity with games against teams like Calgary, like St. Louis, like Chicago, like Pittsburgh, like Nashville in the first eight games of the year to get off to a strong start and feel good about yourselves when you come back from that

first lengthy five game road trip in mid October. And then the other thing that stood out to me is more four o'clock starts on Saturdays than I think we've seen in a Kanak schedule in a long time, which I love. I'm a big fan of four o'clock home starts and I don't know why more people don't like them. I know it's, you know, all the Leafs come to town and so we change for them, and that's kind of the mentality there. But four o'clock start, you can go out for dinner

after the game, you've still got the whole night ahead of you if you want to get up to some trouble downtown. So, you know, I like that we're seeing a couple of extra four o'clock Saturday starts. I think that's a good change. Okay. I'm glad you mentioned the two big home stands right off the hop, because when we did our thought exercise earlier about what we're excited about and what we're worried about, my answer to both was the long home stands.

And part of that has to do with the fact that obviously everyone's excited about it, especially that first home stand, the teams that are coming in, right? You're going to get to see McDavid, Ovechkin, you get the Hughes of Palooza game in there, Crosby, Leafs to cap it off. I mean, that's great. The reason that I'm worried about it is that given how difficult the first half of the season is,

and if this team doesn't get off to a great start, and I don't even want to think about this, but possibly plays its way out of contention, having two big lengthy home stands in the second half of the season when they may be not playing out the string, but maybe playing from a position where the playoffs are looking less than us likely, I am a tad concerned. And I got to also acknowledge like their home record last year and some of the performances at home were so concerning that I did throw it in there is why I'm a little bit worried about those two big home stands as well. Yeah they have to be,

they have to be a lot better at home. If they're not then you're right those home stands you know may be a negative rather than a positive in terms of you know having to play that many games at home with a team that isn't in the situation that you want them to be. But I think ultimately the Canucks will be aware of that. They've got to find a way to be better at home. They've got to find a way to be more consistent on Rogers Arena ice. And it's kind of funny that this season will begin

the same way last season did with the Calgary Flames on opening night and that game kind of set the tone for the way everything went last year in terms of having the lead and then coughing it up and um you know some of the some of the the issues with the team i think began right there on opening night it's easy to forget Archer Shielovs was the opening night starter last year uh they hopefully won't have that issue with a healthy Demko and Langton this time around, but the home ice record is crucial. And even though it may not be stress tested to a great degree until the second half of the season, although there are, as I'm scrolling through here, what?

Six home games in November. They've got six more in December. So they'll have played, you know, 15 ish of their home schedule before they get to that big road trip in the second half of January. But yeah, absolutely. You know, for, for those home stands and, and I think it's a lot less likely that we're talking about them playing themselves out of contention by the January Homestand they should still be in the mix and and be battling for something even in a worst-case scenario at that time And there are some winnable games on that homestand as much as there are marquee opponents like you alluded to they've also got

San Jose Anaheim the Islanders the Penguins all coming in on that homestand. So You know again, it's about opportunity and this time of the year as well. And this is something, you know, kind of a spoiler alert. I'm hosting this afternoon with Izzy on the People Show. And one thing I wanted to get into is, are you glass half full or glass half empty on this team? And if you're glass half full, you can say, wow,

the schedule sets up well for them. If they have a good start, you know, they've got a big opportunity to make hay at home in the second half. And if you're glass half empty, you say, well, they need to have a good start because if they don't, then that's a lot of home games that, you know, may not be as significant as you would like them to be. Yeah. And I almost feel like I would rather be have the quote unquote easier portion of the schedule early and try to build up maybe a bit of a cushion and then hold on for dear life down the stretch rather than try to maybe make up some ground down the stretch.

But we'll see. There's there's pros and cons for both. And one of the highlights of the early part of the home schedule is going to be the October 28th game. JT Miller returning with the New York Rangers to Rogers Arena. Of course, they played in New York against JT Miller returning with the New York Rangers to Rogers arena. Of course they played in New York against JT Miller post-trade towards the end of last season, but his first return to Vancouver. What are you anticipating from that game from crowd reaction of fireworks on the ice all of it? What are you expecting from that night? Yeah, I think in terms of fireworks on the ice, probably not a whole lot, you know, as

much as, you know, it's JT Miller coming back to Vancouver and I'm sure he'll get a tribute video and the fans will give him a really good reaction like they always did when he was here. I think, you know, at the same time, that's an October 28th game and that's the Rangers, you know, coming through on a road trip. I guess a lot of it will depend on context, right? There might be more of an edge to that game in the rink if the Canucks have struggled out of the gate. Whereas if they have a really good start, then maybe it's more of a celebratory atmosphere and an opportunity to get one over on a guy that used to play here but not necessarily have an edge to it. And it'll also depend on how the Rangers start

too. I mean if you look at two teams that took two of the biggest steps back in the NHL last year in terms of results from the year prior to where they ended up last year. The Canucks and the Rangers are both those teams and they're probably both talking about we need to be more consistent this year. We need more things to go right. We need to find a way to have stronger starts. So a couple weeks into the season in late October, we'll kind of have an idea at least early on of where both of those teams are trending. And if one or both of them are trending in the wrong direction, then maybe it takes on higher stakes

than just a regular season game. But in terms of the fan base, I'm sure they'll welcome Miller back. We heard the chants whenever he played here for the Canucks, and I'm sure that won't be any different when he comes back wearing the New York Rangers jersey. Now I said the same thing about not expecting on ice fireworks yesterday and then a bunch of people texted in bringing up the fact that Evander Kane plays for the Canucks now and

I said you know what that's a good point. Does that change your opinion about what could happen on the ice? Not really. I mean Evander Kane does play for the Canucks but I don't think he's going to cause chaos in 82 of 82 games this year. So, you know, maybe if he says, I want to make a statement to my new teammates, I'm going to take a run at the guy that left here and, and, you know, under some circumstances that weren't ideal, then, you know, maybe I could see that happening. But, you know, ultimately, I think

oftentimes we get the schedule and we spend so much time, you know, picking the games that we're going to build up and talk about. And oftentimes those games don't deliver in terms of what you're expecting. Like I saw someone on Twitter yesterday had a list of games, but it's like, this is the day they get revenge on Tanner Janow. This is the day they get revenge on Jason Dickinson. the day they get revenge on Tanner Janell. This is the day they get revenge on Jason Dickinson. This is the day they face JT Miller. And ultimately, oftentimes we don't get the fireworks we're expecting from games like that. You forgot the Yakov Trennan revenge game as well, by the way.

Oh yeah, there you go. We're speaking of Brendan Batchelor. I can't even remember what Yakov Trennan did. He's like, why are we mad at him again? I'm on my radar. He fractured forwards oral bone remember oh So we need to get ready for that we need we need our pound of yack off dreaded and flesh

We're speaking to Brendan bachelor play by play voice of the main career connects here on the health of the breath show on sportsnet 650 you know any time that you get one of these benchmark moments in the offseason, it always circles back to the challenges that are going to face the new members of the team, maybe not the existing guys, but the new guys. And then you've got the head coach, Adam Foote, who's in a pretty unique position because he was there for everything that went wrong last season. And actually, you know, in the aftermath of his hire, Jim Rutherford and Patrick Elvin said like part of the reason that he was brought on board is that he saw firsthand some of the things that he's going

to need to address and fix moving forward. Now I don't know, and I still haven't really come to the exact answer as to what a head coach can do to alter the team's performances at home, but I've got to imagine that at the very least, it's got to be somewhere near the top of the priority chart for the organization and obviously foot by extension to get better performances on home ice this year, get more wins. But I think even equally importantly, not have so many awful egg laying performances at Rogers Arena. Yeah. And I think the key to that is starting games better, right? That was something that we talked about a lot last season in terms of, you know, the Canucks struggling out of the gates. And, you know, as a result, when you chase the game, much like we talked about when you chase a season, it's that much more difficult for you. So I don't have the exact numbers in front of me right now. But you know, I don't think they were, they were nowhere near as good as they were two years ago at getting a lead and building on it and holding onto it last year as opposed to the year before.

So you know, that's where success on home ice or on the road begins for me is be ready to go at the drop of the pocket. I think that is something that Adam Foote and the coaching staff can help with because that's about preparedness of your players. And ultimately a lot of that onus falls on the individuals to have themselves ready to go at the drop of the puck. But that's something that the coaches can highlight and focus on because at times it was an issue last year.

And then I think especially with the way this team is constructed and the way we expect them to play to a certain extent if you get off to a good start you get the lead you feel you know that you've showed up on time you have a good first period however you want to characterize it then the strength of your team is your defensive core and your goaltending assuming that Demko stays healthy and Lankinen comes back and builds on what was a good year for him last year. So, you know, you can feel comfortable protecting a lead with the way your team is constructed and, you know, the strength

you have in terms of defense. And, you know, as we saw with the Caddox last year, when a team's trailing, it forces them to open up, it forces them to take more risks, and that's where you can take advantage. So I would imagine that, you know, yeah, the home ice record specifically has to be better, and they'll be talking about ways to make sure that they're better on home ice.

But to me, it all begins with the beginning, and it begins with the start, not just to games, but of the season. And if they can have a couple of good results on home ice to defuse any tension that might be created in the building, if they don't, then, you know, it's easier to come to work. I imagine when you know that the home fans are just going to be behind you and cheering you on rather than waiting for you to give up the first goal or waiting

for you to make a mistake that costs you the game. And, you know, I wouldn't surprise me if that played into it a little bit last year as well. So, you know, I think all of this starts on opening night, right? As I alluded to last year, they blow a lead on opening night, lose it over time. And you know, not that one game can dictate the way your season is going to go, but it kind of was an early marker of some of the issues that the way your season is going to go, but it kind of was an early marker of some of the issues that the Caddocks were going to have going forward last year. So get off on the right foot on October 9th against those Calgary Flames, have a good

confidence building win, have a good start to the game, have a good start to the season, get the fans onside early. And then, you know, ultimately, as we've seen many times in this market, and I think it was most evidenced by the year, two years ago when the Canucks were really good and went to game seven of the second round, if you take care of business on the ice, then the off-ice noise is quieted, right?

Like the years the Canucks have struggled are the years we're talking about, oh, JT Miller and Elias Pedersen don't like each other. Or, Oh, JT Miller didn't back check on hockey night in Canada. And now he's arguing with Luke Shannon. They like, you know, those were the storylines that got so much focus and have the Canucks in the national spotlight for all the wrong reasons. So ultimately it comes down to just win and all of that stuff will go away.

And I think that's, you know, still true for this team heading into this season. So I've got a glass half full schedule take for you here, batch it's an Olympic year, three weeks off for the Olympic break for the NHL, which means more condensed schedule on either side of that more back to backs, three and four, that type of thing. My glass half full take is the Canucks are very well situated to deal with that because of investing in the goalie tandem of Kevin Lankin and Thatcher Dempko a better situated than a lot of teams to deal with the condensed schedule

Are you buying that glass half full take? I am yeah, just because of all the back-to-backs they have where you know, you're gonna need your backup to play and in a scenario where you didn't have going to need your backup to play. And in a scenario where you didn't have full faith in your backup or you're debating and we've had this talk in Vancouver quite a lot, like, oh, do you need to play your starter in both games of the back to back if you're in a tight playoff race? The fact that you should be, at least as we sit right now, comfortable with both of your goaltenders in a lot of those situations means

that that doesn't become a talking point, doesn't become something you have to worry about where you trust Kevin Lanken into play, you trust Thatcher Demko to play, you don't need to overwork either one of them because as you allude to, with how condensed the schedule is, especially in the second half of the season,

if you're chasing in a playoff position, there would be a temptation to run your starter to try and get into the playoffs. And ultimately that's where the Canucks have run into trouble with Thatcher Demko in terms of some of the injuries he's suffered when they've overplayed him. So there's no excuse for that this year. They can't overplay him. They've got to manage his starts, especially with how condensed the schedule is.

And the fact that they've got a guy in Kevin Lankin and who is more than capable of carrying the ball if he has to, sets them up well. And I agree, it does set them up better than most other teams in that situation. Now the small glass half empty caveat that I will provide to that is as long as Demko stays healthy. Because if Demko doesn't stay healthy, then Archer Shilovs isn't here anymore. And we're talking about needing to use Nikita Tolopilov, who is untested

at the NHL level in a lot of those games. But, you know, assuming full health for Demko, and it sounds like he's had a good summer to this point. So that's something that we can all certainly hope for. Then yeah, absolutely. With the number of back to backs they have and how condensed the schedule is in the back half, having both of those guys and hopefully being able to get them both off to strong starts and having them feeling confident about their games in the first half of the season is something that would set them up well down the stretch for sure. Patch, this was great buddy. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

We appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week and the summer. We'll do this again later on in the fall. Sounds good. Thanks guys. Have a good one. Yeah. Thank you. Brandon Batchelor, play by play voice of the Vancouver Canucks here

on the Haliford and Breft show with Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet 650. I want to set the stage for the final hour of the program. We're going to talk to Tim Booth out of Seattle, Seattle Times Sports Reporter. We're going to ask about NBA expansion. We'll talk about Cal Raleigh as well. And then at eight 30, we're going to do what we learn is hashtag them. WWL, get them into the Dunbar Lumber text line at six 50, six 50. Here's one from Mike. And this was in the wake of an interview that we did earlier in the program with

Adam Stanley, talking about the remarks made by Scotty Scheffler ahead of the currently ongoing open championship from Royal Port Rush in Northern Island. Scheffler, and I will paraphrase to move this conversation along, essentially said that his validation in life isn't from, you know, being the best golfer on the planet, winning all these tournaments and winning majors and making lots of money. Said it's more about being a great father or doing something a little bit more whole

than just the sporting achievements and accomplishments. So Mike writes in, what we learned slash ask us anything one day ahead of ask us anything Friday. Scheffler talked about how family is more important to him than golf. Current day top tier athletes like Jokic and Scheffler seem to be focusing on a work-life balance in contrast to past athletes like Kobe, Peyton Manning who live and breathe their sport.

So it begs the question, do today's athletes lack commitment because they're just lazy Gen Z kids? Very well played. Okay, there's a couple things here In the case of yokich and Scheffler, I'm not sure that they focus on Making a work-life balance. I think it just comes naturally because of their personality I think anyone that has to work at it

Doesn't actually have the balance. If did you, does everyone? If you're trying to, if you're trying to like enforce it and you're like, Oh no, I've got to leave practice or I've got to get out of the gym because I've got to go spend time with my family. Right. If you're scheduling time with your children, I'm not sure you have work life balance. What's interesting. And you know what, if you go look on X right now and you, everyone's saying, Jokic is the Scheffler of golf and Scheffler is the Jokic or whatever, however it works. I think I'm screwing that up. But regardless, there is a commonality there where they understand that their personalities just don't derive joy from what they do in their jobs,

because that's what it is at the end of the day for them. Jokic's passion is going back to Serbia every summer and being with his horses, because that's what he loves doing. And Scheffler's is being with his family, because unlike some of us, he genuinely loves his family and wants to spend time with them. Whereas some people use golf to get away from their families,

but that's a different conversation. With guys like, and I know we all look at, I think the ones, you know, he mentioned Kobe and Peyton Manning, Tiger Woods is another one where they're hyper-focused on the sport and the craft and blocking everything else out. That's also a personality thing.

Yeah. It's just type A. It's that this is what I do. And there is a sense of the most enjoyment and the most fulfillment I'm gonna get is through doing this one particular task. And that's fine. I don't think there's a,

and I know this might be a cop-out answer, but I don't think there's a really right or wrong way. I just think that what we're seeing right now, and another good example from the footballing realm is Ben White, who's a defender for Arsenal and the English national team. And he quite famously has told people a lot and he's not afraid to say, he's like, this is a job for me. This is not something that I love doing. This is something that I understood at a very young age that I was

good at and I could be very good at, but he doesn't watch football in his off days and he's got a lot of other interests. There is an inherent sense of jealousy that goes along with that because some people stare at it and they're like, how can you be so good at something yet not be totally consumed by it? I think like Matt stares was like that. I think he liked hockey more than baseball. He was like, you know what? I'm really good at hitting dingers. I like Jeff Kenton baseball as well. I do. And you know, Mike kind of tongue in cheek makes the generational question, but I think back even famously now I don't know about his training habits or anything, but like Joe Montana famously incredibly chill, right? Like the story about

him pointing out John Candy in the stands or in either the Superbowl or the championship game. And I think it's just, again, it's just, that was just his personality. Like he, he obviously worked hard at football. He, he, I'm sure he liked it. And he was incredibly successful, but it wasn't this kind of domineering. I'm so intense all the time way of going about it. And I think there's always been those types of athletes and those types of differences. The interesting thing, especially with Scheffler is that right now,

you could make the argument that he's the most dominant golfer since Tiger Woods, which is a very rare air and like highest of the high elite level pantheon that you can be at, but their approaches couldn't be different. And the other interesting thing is that you know, Woods became a much more intriguing figure in terms of personality because of his relentless desire and that sort of cutthroat nature that to be the best golfer you have to be willing to sacrifice anything. And now you have almost the antithesis of that

where you don't have to do all those things to be the best golfer. And it's fascinating to watch it play out. I don't know how it'll end for Scheffler. We didn't kind of know how it ended for Tiger. So the story is yet to be written there. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.