Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 7/22/24

Episode Date: July 22, 2024

Jason & guest host Jamie Dodd look back at a busy weekend in sports, they talk the new Canucks acquisition in Daniel Sprong with Donnie & Dhali's Rick Dhaliwal, 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. Sprung's got it. Shot back to the floor. He's got it. Oh, boy. Daniel Sprung. Someone put something wrong in our drink, unfortunately, and it's not our fault. And another high fly ball to left.

And he has done it again. Since I've achieved all my goals as president in one term. There was no need for a second. Good morning, it is Halford and Brough, but as you might be able to tell, no Halford today. I'm Jamie Dodd filling in for Mike. Brough is here, though. What's going on, man? Good morning. How are you, buddy?

I am doing very, very well. Always a pleasure to be here. Hey, dog. Laddie, how's it going, guys? It's going well. Hello, hello. That was a good clip there, Laddie. That was a good one to wrap things up on. A little relevant, I think. Why? What happened? What happened over the weekend? Well, you know, Mike decided that it was time for him to move on.

Welcome some younger blood into the show. Yeah. He'll be back tomorrow. Mike will be back tomorrow. Just one day for me here on the show. Of course, it is Halford & Brough, and it is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today.

Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Orfit, what are you waiting for?

Kintec! You can text in 650-650 to the Dunbar Lumber text line. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park.

More room, more product, more awesome details at dumbarlumber.com Yeah, it was a newsy weekend, to say the least, around the world. But it was also actually a really busy weekend in sports.

So we got a lot to get into coming up on the show today. I'll run through the guest list here quickly. 6.30, Shai Davidi, Sportsnet MLB Insider and Jay's Insider is going to join us. I'll run through the guest list here quickly. 630, shy to VD Sportsnet, MLB insider and Jays insider is going to join us. We'll look ahead to the trade deadline a little bit for the Jays, maybe around the league a little bit as well. Uh,

at seven, John McCarthy, national golf writer for post media. We'll join us to wrap up the open is Andrew Shoffley gets his second major win of the year, uh, at seven 30, more baseball talk with Mike Lefkoe. He does the Mariners pre and post game show. Xander Schauffele gets his second major win of the year at 730. More baseball talk with Mike Lefkoe.

He does the Mariners pre- and post-game show on Seattle Sports Radio. And the Mariners won yesterday, so the panic might be temporarily off in Seattle. But they set a not great record over the weekend, blowing a 10-game division lead in record speed against the Houston Astros. So we'll take the temperature of the Mariners and the fan base with Mike Lefkoe at 730. over the weekend, blowing a 10-game division lead in record speed against the Houston Astros. So we'll take the temperature of the Mariners and the fan base with Mike Lefkoe at 730. Are they out of the wildcard position, too? If they drop out of the division, they are, because the AL West is so weak relative to the Central and the East

that there's probably only going to be one team going to the playoffs. That's why you've got to look at run differential, people. You've got to look at run differential. They are very, very nervous right now. So we'll talk about that with Mike lefkoe at 7 30 at eight o'clock the one and only rick dolly wall hit on a monday coming out of summer hiatus to do a hit because i'm sure he'll be thrilled some massive well he agreed to do it he did but i i can't get i can't get i got the vibe of the text though really you should have just said no, then. You'll be hearing from him. Rick will love it.

No, he'll enjoy it. He'll enjoy it. Rick loves radio. He does. Any chance to come on the radio, he's excited. He'll be happy to do it. And, of course, we're talking Daniel Sprong and what else the Canucks might do with Donnie and Dolly's Rick Dollywall coming up at 8 o'clock.

Should I do the guest list in reverse to make everyone feel comfortable? I don't normally do that, but that's a Halford signature. You can do it if you want. What do you guys think? If you want to try. It's pretty tricky. You got to go backwards. It's like doing the alphabet backwards.

All right, here we go. It took Halford years to master this. This is going to be my first time trying it. Working in reverse. Nice. At 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall from Donnie and Dolly. At 7.30, Mike Lefkoe, Mariners pre- and post-game host on Seattle Sports Radio. At 7, John, Mike Lefkoe, Mariners pre- and post-game host on Seattle Sports Radio.

At 7, John McCarthy, National Golf Writer for Post Media. At 6.30, Shai Davidi, Sportsnet Major League Baseball. Well done. Wow. I'd like to see you do it. What a thrill.

I'd like to see you do it a little more robotically. Like you're not really thinking that you're doing it. Kind of like your soul has left your body. You're just leaving your eyes. Just doing it to say something.

And then you say, laddie, without further ado, let's get into What Happened. Make sure there's a big sigh. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Did you miss 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 bccsa.ca. And yes, there was the Open over the weekend. The Whitecaps played. The Lions played. But we're the home of the Canucks, Prof.

You know where we're starting. And that is the Canucks signed winger Daniel Sprong to a one-year 975,000 AAV deal over the weekend. So, looked like they might be done. But the Canucks, as they did last summer with Pew Suter, move a little bit later in the summer to make another addition to the team ahead of training camp. Patrick Alveenen in a statement. I actually, most of the time those statements are like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. This one I thought was a little bit interesting.

First of all, he started out bringing in another solid winger will be a boost for our club this season. Fine. Daniel has matured. What a freaking boost. Daniel has matured a lot as a player and has shown he can contribute offensively

When called upon his addition up front Will give us better depth and should help with more Balance scoring throughout our forward group Why did Patrick Alvin Have to put in that part You don't usually hear that Like it's almost like It's almost like

I don't know It's like defending the signing in some way. Daniel has matured a lot as a player, and I think that's interesting that he put that in there just because I think a lot of people's questions about this guy is, hey, if he's such a good offensive player, why has he bounced around so much? Yep. And Patrick Alveen and Jim Rutherford and Rick Talkett even are probably in a pretty good position to answer that because he was drafted with Pittsburgh way back in 2015.

Right. And I remember that his draft year, he was really, really hyped, but he ends up slipping to 46. Right. Like I think a lot of people thought he could go kind of in the 20s in the first round, falls all the way to 46, actually played NHL games right out of his, like, in his draft plus one year, which is pretty rare for a second-round pick. But then, you know, back to junior, AHL time. Gets, like, some cups of coffee with the Penguins, but doesn't stick as regular and eventually has moved to Anaheim.

And that was kind of the theme of the early part of his career so they I guess have a baseline for like okay he needed to do some maturing we saw him for three or four seasons at training camp and at different stints with the Penguins and there were obviously flaws in his game that caused them to move on and apparently Patrick Alvian thinks at the very least those flaws have been maybe not erased but improved enough where he can be a contributing member. And, you know, really broke out in Seattle a couple of years ago, 21 goals, 46 points in 66 games.

Pretty good year of his last year in Detroit as well, 43 points in 76 games. I think the question has always been one, maybe some of that maturity that Patrick Alvin alluded to, and then the defensive side of his game. So it's going to be really fascinating to see how much has his defensive effort improved or his defensive attention to detail improved. And will it be enough for him to get reliable minutes under Rick Talkett? Where does he fit in this Vancouver lineup, both at even strength and well, I assume he's not going to be penalty killing. But could there be a fit on the first unit power play or is he mostly a second unit guy it seems likely he's gonna be a second unit guy to me just be if he was left-handed i'd say yeah he's got a really

good shot to be on the first unit power play i don't really see the spot for him as a righty on the first unit power play in terms of even strength like is he the favorite to open next to petterson and debrusk if he if he can impress talk it defensively enough i think he's got a In terms of even strength, is he the favorite to open next to Pedersen and DeBrusque? If he can impress Tocket defensively enough, I think he's got a really good chance to do that. Yeah. The other thing that Patrick O'Brien said. Do you think Nils Holglander was thrilled that the Canucks signed Daniel Sprong? Probably not.

I don't think Vasily Podkolzin probably was either. Yeah. Right? Because you go through the wingers and Besser, DeBrusque, Garland, Joshua, Heinen, Holglander, Sprong, Sherwood, Pod Colson, that's nine guys I just named. Only eight wingers can be in the lineup, right? So one of those guys is not going to be in the lineup on opening night. And I think Alvin's right that it gives Rick Tocan and the coaching staff

a lot more options, someone who can maybe bring a bit of a different element in terms of that scoring punch than some of the other names. But I think it's a very open question now. Will Podkolzin, one, will he be in the lineup? Will he even break camp with the team? Nils Amon's probably more likely to be the 13th forward as a center. What's Podkolzin's

waivers situation? He has to go through waivers. So if he's going to have a third, they've got to put him on waivers. Or they're trading him. And we've seen that happen. I was going to say, now would Alvin feel more comfortable dealing Hoaglander for a competent defenseman? Maybe get a number three guy in there or even a number four.

Yeah, I think he'd still have to get something pretty significant in return for Hoaglander because Hoaglander had a tough playoffs. We all know that, right? But sometimes you'll allow that to happen one time for a young player. He had a very impressive regular season in terms of his goal scoring. But Hoaglander to me is kind of like, I also

struggle to find like where exactly does he fit in the Canucks lineup. I know there were a lot of people that at times had compared him to, well, maybe he can be Yannick Hansen and play up and down the lineup or be a fixture, start out as a fixture in the bottom six. But I don't know if I've seen that.

I don't know if he has the defensive game that Yannick Hansen had. I don't know if he's got that. He doesn't. He doesn't. He just straight up doesn't. So there are a few players that will come into training camp in the preseason where we're kind

of looking at them and going, I wonder where they're going to fit. And that goes for the new guys, right? Oh, yeah. Like Danton Heinen, where's he going to fit? I suppose he's a candidate to go into the top six. He's at least a candidate to be given a shot. Jake DeBrus, we've all got our fingers crossed

that he does have some semblance of chemistry with Pedersen, because if he doesn't, you're in that same situation that you were last year. You're like, well, there's no more Mikheyev, but who else fits with Pedersen? If you're putting somebody like, we don't really want this guy in the top six, at least it's like Daniel Sprong, somebody like, we don't really want this guy in the top six, at least it's like Daniel Sprong, who's a shooter.

You know what I mean? So it's like, okay, it's not Mikheyev. It's the opposite of Mikheyev. He might not do anything else well, but he's going to shoot and score a little bit. But couldn't you have said that Hoaglander was a shooter last year based on your shooting percentage? He absolutely was. Yeah, he didn't have much power play time,

and he was scoring a fair number of goals. Yep. So it's a bit of a mishmash, I would say, up front for the Canucks. And Rick Tockett has some interesting decisions to make because whatever lineup he puts together, and I think this is true for every team in the NHL, you know, with a hard cap, this is just the reality of, well, I'll say it because Halford's away. It's the reality of the situation.

There aren't many perfect teams in the NHL. Actually, there are none. I think the last time I really watched a team that I was like, wow, those guys are like super, super complete. It was either the Vegas team that won the cup or the Colorado team that won the cup the year before, right? Like even was kind of like oh all right there's a couple things there

that you're not 100% about uh certainly Edmonton Oilers uh had a few weak links in their team the Canucks nearly beat those guys um so I think heading into training camp you're going to be like well let's what's the best possible lineup we can put together? It might not be perfect, and some guys might not be thrilled with their line mates, but it is what it is. Yeah, and I think, you know, of course, Rick Talkett, as we all know, big puzzle guy, right? And he's got a lot of different puzzle pieces to play with here, and Sprong is the latest one, and I like it because

he's a big puzzle guy, and he's like, can I get some better fitting pieces, please? No, but I think he has. It's Homer with the Battlestar Galactica puzzle. Fit, damn it. He has different types of pieces to play with, though, now, right? Like, Sprong is different than Sherwood, is different than Heinen. So I think one thing is, let's say Sprong opens next to Patterson and DeBrusque.

He's not going to be stapled there for the whole year, right? Like, you're going to see guys cycle in next to Miller, cycle in next to Pedersen. And, again, I think Taukett has different options to play with. What if that becomes the second line, though? What if it does work? Well, I mean, then great. Then you have the second line and the third line.

Yeah, the third line is still together. And then you don't – Holden is in the fourth line, I guess? Yeah. Yeah. Poor guy. But that's good. Well, I heard a few people –, like I saw it on social media,

it was like, what does this mean for Pod Colson? Well, it means Pod Colson has to show up and play really well. It means Pod Colson's playing in Abbotsford. Yeah, or in the press box. Or somewhere else. Or some other team. Some other team. Like this is his make or break year.

And that's what happens. It doesn't matter where you draft it. You still got to make the team not by the time you're five years on from your draft it stops mattering like you don't have to talk yourself into pot colson like it just it doesn't make you a fan i mean there were some people and certainly a lot of people that watched him in abbotsford all year that were really looking forward to seeing him with the big club and And I don't think he played badly for the Canucks when he was put in there in the playoffs, but I don't think he stood out either.

No. He was treading water, you know? And that's kind of been the thing with Pod Colson. Outside of when he, more closer to his NHL debut, where he was actually doing stuff out there and he was scoring some goals. The problem that they've had with Pod Coles and is really, you know, not just trying to fit in and not make mistakes there.

Like you want to go do something like you're a big boy, take the puck, go to the net, do something, hit a guy. Don't just survive. Don't just survive out there. And that's all he'd been doing. And that, you know, that doesn't really help all that much. It really doesn't.

And that's really been the story of Pod Colson's career going back to before he was drafted is, you know, the, even if like you were doing a shift by shift breakdown, you'd see a lot of shifts. You're like, oh, I like that. Right. Like he got the puck in deep, hard on the forecheck, you know, like being active, all these things. What's the bottom line? Yeah. But then you look and you're like oh i like that right like he got the puck in deep hard on the forecheck you know like being active all these things what's the bottom line yeah but then you look you're

like wait he hasn't scored a goal and he played 19 games didn't score a goal at two assists do you remember the narrative is like he's making great passes his teammates just aren't finishing the puck yeah like i don't know about that not so sure about that one guys um so let's move on to a few other local teams. We can get back to the Daniel Sprong signing throughout the show. If you're going to text or comments about where you think Daniel Sprong will fit into the Canucks

lineup, text into the Dunbar-Lumberts text line at 650-650. We're going to start with the Whitecaps game on Saturday because that was wild. The Caps fell behind Houston 2-0 in the first half. Houston scored a couple of goals that were aided by deflection. The second one certainly was a nice goal, but they got a little bit lucky,

and the Whitecaps were perhaps a little bit unlucky not to score. The goals did come for them in the second half. Three of them, all involving my favorite player and my favorite name, Fafa Pico, who scored twice and assisted on Brian White's header. Who's that? Fafa Pico. Fafa Pico, who I don't know if you believe the rumors

may not be long for the Whitecaps. We'll have to wait and see on that. Apparently, Halford had Axel Schuster on the show while I was gone. I was on the show with, yeah, me and Halford. And he shot down those rumors about Fafapico. At any rate, the Whitecaps fought back to take the lead, 3-2 over Houston.

There was even a chance they could make it 4-2, but the referee didn't think after a long think that there was a foul in the penalty area against, you guessed it, Fafapico. And that was a turning point in the game because yada, yada, yada, Houston put two scorching shots past keeper Yohei Takayoka.

And the Whitecaps lost the game 4-3. We've got some interesting audio from Vanny. That's one way to put it. And Vanny was asked, we're going to include the question. Let's just go here because this is some interesting analysis about the second half of the Whitecaps-Houston game. You described the first half of Wednesday's game as champagne football. Yeah.

What would you describe the second half of this game with a similar word? I would say probably, I don't know, like a crazy, you know, it's like a crazy night when you go out that is very funny and then you wake up with a big hangover because it was very beautiful until a certain point and at the end we got there because someone put something wrong in our drink, unfortunately, and it's not our fault. So the Whitecaps should possibly go to the police, but that was a very interesting way to put it as the Whitecaps lose 4-3 to Houston.

The BC Lions also lost. You don't want to do more Fafa Pico? I thought you had a big breakdown on Fafa. I leave this stuff to Halford. It makes his tweet make a lot more sense because he just tweeted randomly, Fafa yesterday. Halford did? Yeah, I was like, what does that mean?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now I understand. Now you know. What's this Fafa Pico? He had a big game. Yeah. I want to get to a few more things. All right.

So we'll leave the Fafa Pico analysis for Halford when he returns. The Lions, that was an ugly one in Calgary yesterday. They lost by a point. Wally Bono was honored by the Stamps at halftime. He went into their wall of fame. They don't have a ring of honor. They have a wall of fame at McMahon Stadium,

which is frankly close to falling down. It seems weird that he wasn't already honored in some way. Like why did it take them this long? I know. Is it because he went to BC? I don't know. It's bizarre. Did they forget?

They're like, I don't know. Right, Wally Buono. But the Lions lost, and I don't know. If you're going to use excuses, you can say it was windy, and maybe the ball was sailing on Vernon Adams, but it wasn't a great game from the quarterback and we'll allow that the BC Lions have a bad game. It's a team they should have beaten in Calgary, but you know, they're on the road. I think the Lions have a bit of a break

coming up, so maybe they're looking forward to that. But I saw some video that the Lions released of Rick Campbell talking to the team in the locker room afterwards. And he said, you know, like, get away from football for a few days. But then he kind of added on, if you're upset about this, you should be because we are a better team.

And then what we showed, there were all sorts of mistakes. We already had an early, what we learned into the Dunbar-Lumber text line. And it was the BC Lions looked like the Keystone Cops against Calgary. It was one mistake after another. And it really was. It wasn't, even though it did come down to the wire and the Lions had an opportunity to even win the game,

they couldn't fall on a fumble. Like there was a fumble right there for them and it fell on it and then it somehow squeaked out and it was just, it was a bad football game overall. Poorly played. Congrats to the Stamps, I suppose, who won that poorly played game. But not a good game for the BC Lions,

but they are still 5-2 with a pretty good record in the CFL. Yeah, Vernon Adams, under 200 yards, a couple of interceptions as well. He's been so good for the Lions this season. So hard to win on the road when you're getting that type of performance. I mean, they were close, which you can kind of, if you want to put the silver lining on it, say, well, hey, even with that performance, we almost beat them. But you know what?

We talked to Julio Caravata on the show last week, and Suk Chung as well when I was on with Halford, and both of them said, like, look, this team is 5-1, but there's lots to improve on. There's lots they can keep building on. Suk was saying, we see tons of things on tape we can do better. So sometimes it's easier to really knuckle down and work on that stuff after a loss, right?

After it's actually come back to bite you. You haven't skated by on it. So I wonder if this will kind of prompt, as you said, Rick Campbell is saying like, hey, you should be mad about this. If this will actually help the team get to work on some of those things they knew they needed to clean up. Thank you from Nate from Comox

who texted in and said, Wally asked to not get honored because he thought it would be awkward when he was still coaching in the CFL. Someone else on the station talked about it last week or Donnie and Dolly. That's from Nate from Comox.

I think it's also interesting. Wally sat down with Farhan this week and he said that the CFL should expand back into the United States. All right. And here's a quote. It's on threedownnation.com. Honestly, you asked that question.

I would expand in the States, and the question was, what would you do if you were a commissioner for one day? I believe if the Cleveland Browns didn't move to Baltimore in 1996 because Baltimore had a great franchise, San Antonio had a great franchise, Birmingham was a good franchise. If expansion had had an opportunity to continue and Vegas had gotten behind the league, I think this league would have exploded.

I don't know if I agree with that, but I certainly, I certainly respect Wally Buono's opinion. So maybe he's correct about that. I mean, he had the experience of being in the CFL when they were, uh, when they were expanding. I don't know all the steps that the CFL would have had to take because I always thought they were in an awkward position because in Canada, one of their selling points would be this game

is really Canadian. It's our game but as soon as they went to the states it was like we're the cfl what does the c stand for it doesn't matter don't think the echl yeah right yeah yeah yeah we don't we don't call ourselves the east coast hockey league anymore it's just the echl right like they made that official right yeah ECHL EC stands for nothing yeah yeah it's like it's the EC hockey league yeah cool yeah um it was always I thought just just weird and uh when it didn't work the CFL had a bit of a resurgence when it came back to Canada and made it Canadian only and I've you know we've made fun of and even railed against the CFL's global ambitions. And I know that if you're a league, you always have to be looking at new revenue opportunities,

new profit opportunities, and there's only so much you can expand in Canada. Yep. They can't get a stadium in Halifax. Quebec City, probably not going to happen. You know, I don't know where else you could put another team in Canada, but I've always just felt like there's so much more that they could be doing in Canada to get the job done. And sometimes it feels like they spread themselves too thin in terms of their goals, but how much they actually have in resources to get behind those goals. They couldn't get stats going for a long time.

So fix that stuff and then maybe think about expanding. International expansion. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Dolly Wall. Rick Dolly Wall. It's time for Dolly. Rick Dolly Wall. It's time for Rick Dolly Wall. Rick Dolly Wall. I'm Jamie Dodd filling in for Mike Halford. This hour of Halford & Brough is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit campbell-pound.com today.

And of course, the whole show brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sorfy, what are you waiting for?

Kintec, 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. Text in on the Dunbar Lumber text line. The Bridge Street, Dunbar Lumber, and Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at Dunbar bar lumber.com still a chance to get your what we learned in include the ticket emoji for your chance to see tickets or for your chance to win tickets to see billy idol july 30th at rogers arena uh we do have

some submissions now so it's not a completely open field but you still got a chance billy idol and who platinum blonde yes brough's favorite band adog and Laddie have some great What We Learns to Read coming up. Right, guys? They've really put a lot of work into these. Absolutely. Yeah. So you've got 15 minutes for that research while we talk to Rick Daliwal. But first, before we do that, from Donnie and Dolly, of course, he is Rick Daliwal.

I bet he's a big Billy Idol guy. You a Billy Idol fan, Rick? Oh, Rebel Yell, are you kidding me? Like, come on, man. And dancing with myself. Billy was great in the 80s. There's nothing better than Billy Idol. What about Platinum Blonde?

Do you remember them, Rick? Oh, are you kidding me? Are you going to get me going here, Bruff? I am. Is it Monday morning? Yeah. You know, Honeymoon Suite? You want to meet John Cougar?

Bruce Springsteen. You want me to keep going? Born in the USA. I'll be here all day long, buddy. Are you just going to name 80s stars? Let's see how long

you can go. Why not? Duran Duran. 80s, the best decade for music and I'll fight anybody anywhere that says otherwise.

Worst decade for music. Wow. Wow. That was Laddie, by the way. Don't make him hang up on me. Worst decade? Worst decade? Worst decade for music. Wow. Wow. That was Laddie, by the way. Don't make him hang up on it. Worst decade? Worst decade?

Worst decade? Wow. I said the best, the Vladdy guy, he's 21, two years old. How the hell would he know the 80s? It's the decade where the music industry

sold out, Rick. That's where the 80s is. What do you know about music? Rick, before we start, Rick, what's your favorite 80s band? I just need to know. If you had to pick one. The 80s was a top 40 decade, right? And it was just top 40, top 40.

We had Dick Clark. We had LG 73, top 77. It was just, it was hard to explain, but it was just top 40, top 40, top 40. Okay, but do you have one band that you like the most? But not one that sticks out, but I think John Cougar, Bruce Springsteen, Purple Rain. It was just a decade where you loved everything all the time. That's it.

I'll leave it at that. Rick, are you going to see Bruce when he's at BC Place in November? I'm trying to get in. I'm working on it. I'm working on it. Okay, if you get a hookup, let me know, okay? I will let you know. Rick, tell us about Daniel Sprong and how this deal came about. A couple of weeks ago, I was told

the Canucks were still sniffing around trying to add some more offense, which surprised me because everybody thought they were looking for another defenseman. What was the huge problem in the playoffs for the Canucks? Lack of goals, especially from wingers. You know, after Besser and his seven goals in the playoffs, they didn't have a winger who consistently scored.

Hoaglander was at one goal, McKay at zero. They had Lafferty in the top six. They didn't have enough wingers producing, and Sprong's going to help in that area. This guy can score. He's got a great shot. 21 goals in Seattle two years ago, 18 last year in Detroit. Heavy, heavy shot.

A former teammate of his told me, this guy shoots the life out of the puck. Another former Penguin, are you surprised? No. So Jim Rutherford drafted him in Pittsburgh, right, I think in 2015. So Agent Pat Brisson says, of all the teams that were talking with the Canucks, or were talking with Sprong, the Canucks were the right fit. He's excited to come to Vancouver.

I think the lack of right shots in Vancouver played a role in their decision to come here. So Besser, Garland, and Sprong. So the Canucks are really solid on the right side. This guy's also great five-on-five. He's 11th in the NHL five-on-five scoring in the last two years, so that's going to help. So everyone asks, what lines are you going to play on? Well, that stuff gets sorted out at training camp.

Impossible to know where he's going to play in July. But I don't think he signed in Vancouver with the fourth line being the focal point of contract talks. I think this guy gets a good shot to crack the top six. And you got to remember, this is a goal scorer. So the agent is not going to put him on a team where his offense is going to go down. It's a one-year deal.

This guy's going to be looking for a contract again very soon. So you want to go to a team that gives you a good chance to produce. So keep that one in mind. And one last thing. This is the second straight summer the Canucks have added a forward in the summer. If the Canucks had two to three forwards from Abbotsford that were absolutely close and knocking on the door to play in the NHL. You don't make these signings. But again, six years of trading first and second round picks and the talent pool on the farm has suffered.

Let's be honest. There's nobody knocking on the door from Abbotsford. And that's why for the second straight summer, they've signed a forward. I know people are saying, and I think you mentioned this, Prof, I know people are saying this is his sixth team, I think in six years. He may be a bad apple in the dressing room. Well, as far as I'm concerned, I'm not in the dressing room. That's hearsay. Unless you played with him, you really don't know. I texted a former teammate of his and he said, and he had nothing but good things to say about this guy. He's bounced around.

But all I can say is as of today he's excited to come to vancouver and let's see where this goes for the record i did not call him a bad apple in the room but that is the rick died didn't i well i i think it's fair to ask the question why is he bounced around yeah six teams is it his defensive game i mean i don't think his defensive game is, you know, anyone's writing home about it. No, and you know what? Only he would know why he's bounced around. But I know I do remember watching him in Seattle and saying to myself,

hey, this guy's a player, right? And then last year he goes to Detroit. He scored again. Look, he's bottom line. He's brought to Vancouver to score goals. And we'll see. But I just like the fact that Canucks have more options on the wing. They didn't have that last year, especially in the playoffs.

You saw in the playoffs the lack of production. McKev was in the top six. Lafferty was in the top six. The whole lander became a healthy scratch. Look, you have just added, the Canucks have just added DeBrusque, Sprong, and Heinen. I mean, those are three guys that can score. So I think their situation on the wing scoring-wise is much better.

This makes it less likely, too, that the Canucks will be in a position to try and make Lekker Mackey an NHL player in his first season over in North America. I mean, I talked about this in the past, and I said, look, if he comes in and even if he plays well in training camp in the preseason, you know, a lot of young players do, especially the really talented ones, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they should make the team because sometimes you need to go and experience the everyday life

of North American pro hockey. A lot of these young guys come in, ton of adrenaline, and they play well and they stand out in training camp preseason. You know, we've seen it in Vancouver. They make the team and then the league gets pretty hard for them. Does this affect Jonathan Larkomackie in any way? No, I don't think so. He's just got to go to camp and show them what he's got.

Like, I just think that kid, I'm just, like, he had a great year last year. Let's be honest. I mean, he got to Abbotsford late. I don't really count his time in Abbotsford last year. I know he didn't rip it up, but that that kid finished a long season you know and then all of a sudden they decide hey why don't you come to avisburg and then he goes back for the world that kid played a lot of hockey last year world juniors all that stuff he did a lot of travel that kid needs a good summer rest and rehab or not rehab but a good summer rest and getting ready

for training camp it will be a bonus uh jason if that kid plays games in vancouver um we have seen the struggles of hold letter we have seen the struggles of pot colson the last thing you want to do is put pressure or uh you know just say hey look here mackie you know show up in vancouver you're going to be in the top six that kid's going to develop at the rate he wants to develop that he He had a horrible year two years ago. He bounced back last year. And I think this – I am very interested to see LaCarimacchi's training camp with the Canucks.

I think they're going to do what they did with Pod Colson and Hoaglander last year at training camp, to put them in the top six on day one. I could see them saying, okay, Jonathan, we're going to give you every chance to make this team. But I, I, I think this kid's got a bright future,

but I, you don't want to rush him. You've seen this franchise rush a lot of players over the years and it doesn't end up well, just let him come to camp and he himself will decide what team he plays on Vancouver, Abbotsford. Rick,

are the Canucks sniffing around anything else? Well, you know, it's interesting. They got 15,000 left under the cap, but you can put Tucker Pumann on long-term injured reserve, so that'll give you cap relief. I do believe that the Canucks need a puck-moving defenseman. After Hughes and Aronik, there's not much there. And that third pair of Forbert and Desjardins,

lots of size, tons of size, but not much skill there at all. Now, there's two defensemen I get asked a lot about, Tyson Berry and Oliver Shillington. The Canucks are showing no interest, and they have showed no interest in Shillington. There hasn't been any talks with Berry's agent, but things can always change. Barry's a veteran guy who won't cost a lot. He would solve a lot of those puck moving

issues. The Canucks don't have to necessarily sign another USA. They can make a trade. Doesn't have to be always in free agency in the summer. They have plenty of time left, 79 days, I think, until the season opener. But I think a lot of people would like another puck-moving defenseman. I do know they're not showing interest in Shillington. Barry, for me, I like that's a guy maybe to check in with later on in training camp. I don't know. Tyson Barry's a guy that I would, you know.

Do you remember the game when he was in Colorado and he was in Vancouver and he had five points? I think they were all in the power play. I think it was two goals, three assists. He's a power play guy. But the only problem for Berry in Vancouver, he wouldn't see a lot of power play time, not with Hughes and Aronic here. So I'm trying to see the fit.

He's a veteran defenseman. He's not going to cost you a lot. I would certainly take a look at that, but time will tell to see the fit. He's a veteran defenseman. He's not going to cost you a lot. I would certainly take a look at that, but time will tell to see if they add another defenseman here before training camp. Rick, you mentioned the possibility of a trade for a defenseman as well, and just with the number

of wingers they have with the addition of Sprong, I mean, I think a lot of we're getting texts in about Hoaglander, Pod Coleson, could they be trade bait now? Is that something you see the Canucks exploring or considering, given the state of the roster at the moment? And you know what?

I saw a lot of that. Pod Coleson, Hoaglander. Okay, so are you really going to move to high draft picks for a guy who signed for one year? Hoaglander's got 38 goals in his last two years. He's 23 years old. He's a former draft pick. He's at a very good price point. He just scored 24 goals this season.

Yes, he had a tough playoff, but you've invested a ton of time and development in Hoaglander. Do you want to just move him now because you signed a guy forward for one year? This is the player, whenever I ask, the Canucks don't want to get rid of. Yes, his name pops up in trade rumors.

It pops up at the trade deadline. It pops up all the time. Things can change, but this is a young player you drafted that's coming into his own. I don't know why there's such a thirst to move that guy. But anyways, that's that. When it comes to Pod Colson, you've got Bluger, Garland, and Joshua on the third line, Heinen, Suter, and Sherwood

on the fourth line. I've got Pod Colson as an extra forward right now, fighting to make the team with Amon and DiGiuseppe. But he could have a great training camp and take a spot. It's a very big year for him. I mean, this is the year I want to see Pod Colson not go to the minors. I don't want to see him be a healthy scratch. It's time.

It's just time for this guy to take off. And we all see the potential. We all see it. But, you know, this is a big year for him. And I just hope he gets a good shot at camp and he comes into camp ready and shows what he can do. Yeah, I think everyone hopes that for Pod Coles. He's going to have to beat out an established NHL player, though,

to do it, right, Rick? Especially to avoid the press box. You just laid it out. It's a crowded bottom six now. It's a crowded bottom six. And the Canucks did it. The best thing the Canucks did was to get Joshua back to have that line, right? And with Bluger, Joshua, Garland.

And then the fourth line can be Suter, Heinen, and Sherwood. I've got him as an extra right now. But, I mean, there's going to be injuries. Let's see how he does at training camp, but it's time for him to become an everyday NHL player, I think, for sure. Rick, really appreciate you doing this on a Monday.

Thanks for chatting with us. We'll let you get back to enjoying your summer. All right, guys. Take care. Have a nice one. That is Rick Dalywall, of course, from Donnie and Dolly and a regular contributor here on Sportsnet 650. Ryan Henderson just tweeted, I get in my car to take Max to daycare and flip on Sportsnet 650

and Dollywall's on. I'm supposed to be on holidays and away from this guy. Sorry, Henderson. Rick, who is your favorite 80s band? Dick Clark. Yeah, that was some politics. Well, there's just a lot of top 40. It's like, what?

Yeah. You just said you love 80s music. To be fair, I did put him on the spot. Name one band. It's like, ah! He likes them all. Okay, let's do some What We Learns here. I've got an extended audio clip that I want to play.

And it's John Harbaugh, the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, going to bat for Lamar Jackson, who we all know has had some terrific regular seasons and some less than terrific postseason performances. And I'm going to play the clip for you, but I want you to keep this question in mind. Do NFL head coaches sometimes just go a little bit too far? That's the question. And at the end of this clip, I think you'll know what I'm talking about. Here is John Harbaugh coming to the defense of Lamar Jackson. Lamar, for whatever reason, you know, there gets a lot of great things said about Lamar,

but there's a lot of stuff that said you got to just scratch your head about and kind of wonder what's that person even thinking, you know, so but we take it personally. You know, Lamar's a guy all his life. Lamar Jackson has been a guy who's been answering those same questions. I'm talking about since he was a kid, junior high, high school, college, the draft, the success he's had in the national football league, and it still comes up. Okay? He's still growing.

He's got a growth mindset. He's going to get better and better, no doubt. But what does he have to do to prove himself to some people, right? And so the thing for me is, talking about vision again, you know, there's a vision. And I believe the Ravens and we've always had a vision for Lamar Jackson. It started with Lamar's vision and his mom's vision when he said he was going to be a quarterback. He was going to be a quarterback in high school. He's going to be a quarterback in college. He's going to be a

quarterback in the National Football League. And we bought into that. We embraced it. We built an offense for it at 19. We're building another offense for it in 23 and 24 going forward, right? The next iteration of our offense around Lamar Jackson, because in my opinion, the vision, the vision for Lamar Jackson, and it's a vision, it's something you see it like it's already happened. You can see it like it's already been done. The victory has already been won when you pour into a vision. And the vision that we have together is that Lamar Jackson is going to become and be known and be recognized as the greatest quarterback ever to play

in the history of the National Football League. That's the vision, all right? It's going to happen by Lamar, his work ethic, and his brilliant talent, by all of us pouring into that effort together as a team, teamwork, and by the grace of God and God's goodwill. That's how it's going to happen. And I believe it like we've already seen. Do you now understand why I asked the question,

do NFL head coaches sometimes go a little bit too far? I love the reporter following up like, coach, my question is about the offensive line. Yeah. Oh, the protection though, coach. That was like asking Dolly Wall to ask. It just goes on and on and on. This is a Wendy's.

Here's the quote. Here's the quote. The vision that we have together is that Lamar Jackson is going to become and be known and be recognized as the greatest quarterback ever to play in the history of the National Football League. So that's a high bar. With God's grace. That's a high bar for a guy who is granted still young.

He's only 27 years old, and that is pretty young in the NFL considering you go to college for four years but it's also a guy that has already been to the postseason four times and hasn't played particularly well in any of those games it's just like why don't they just say like just like it might even win a Super Bowl Do you remember when Russ went to Denver and he's like, he's like multiple Super Bowls, you know, like let's start with one. Start with one. Yeah. Let's get to the playoffs.

Let's get to the playoffs. And I understand the whole vision thing. And it's almost like a negotiation where you start high and then maybe you're satisfied with being like, I don't know, the fifth greatest quarterback in NFL history. But all this stuff, it just makes people go like, are you crazy? There is this sort of stuff. And then it's fodder for when Lamar Jackson has a bad game and people go,

oh, is he the greatest quarterback ever to play in the history of the National Football League yet? Has that happened yet? Because I heard that that was the vision. I think the coaches just get so worked up on the role of hype man too, which they play internally for their team that they can't turn it off. Everything is so over the top right they use so much hyperbole when they're talking to their team and then they're talking to the people on the outside and we're just like normal people like what are you talking about this is crazy this is not how

people talk right and he's you could hear him getting himself worked up Think about the bar that Lamar Jackson has to jump over. And again, the greatest quarterback ever to play in the history of the National Football League. How many Super Bowls does Tom Brady have? Yeah. So Lamar's going to have to get hot. He's going to have to get real hot. He's going to have to do a lot of winning. How would you feel if Cam Barra told everyone that his vision,

and they're building a program around it, was for you to be the greatest sports radio host of all time? Would you feel honored or would you feel a crushing pressure to the bottom of that? I'd be like, I'm going to need a raise, man. Like a significant raise. If we're going to do this together. Oh, my goodness. Bruff, I know you'll appreciate this as a big Eminem fan. The news yesterday, Eminem has dethroned Taylor Swift

to claim the number one album in the country. The Death of Slim Shady, in parentheses coup de grace, or coup de grace, if you will, marks Eminem's 11th album to top Billboard's 200 albums chart and it ends Taylor Swift's 12-week Tortured Poets reign as the number one album.

She was just about to pass Stevie Wonder and it stopped it from passing Stevie Wonder's record. Was it Superstition? Whatever record Superstition was on, yeah. Eminem's back.

Eminem's back? I haven't really listened to much of his new stuff. I haven't either. I'm stuck in the old days. I liked him when I was a kid in high school. Obviously, he was huge then,

like Slumshady LP, Marshall Mathers, et cetera, et cetera. I did read something where your brain, and maybe you're different, but your brain, as you get older,

becomes less open to new music. Yeah, I mean, well... Like there's something about... I don't know, man. I just, I mean, speaking of new music's something about... I don't know, man. I just, I mean, speaking of new music, Japan Droid's newest single is insanely good.

So, I mean, I still discover new music all the time just through the... It means nothing to me. For me, it's the time spent. And they're local, too. They're actually... I want to say one of their songs

was the Knapsack Gold song. It was, yeah. You need to spend time searching for music. No, no, they're a local band. I think they're from Victoria originally, but they hail as a Vancouver band. It doesn't really matter. Yeah, I is where i said now i'm pretty open

to new music whatever the algorithm throws in my face i'll usually discover something once i just find i have less time to seek out new that's what it is yes if i am introduced to it i'm open to it but i just like can't invest time and try i'm not as good at finding new artists as i used to i try not to live in the old days too much but i did enjoy the experience of going and buying an album and going through the entire album reading the album dude i love that i loved reading the album liner notes when i was a kid i remember being very disappointed i was like this one doesn't even have the lyrics or anything remember you'd feel cheated by an album that didn't have like a big fold out or whatever that came with it you'd feel cheated by it yeah um i don't know i guess

that's i remember a trip to like the big virgin records downtown when it was still there that was like a big deal i was exciting man like and then they got tvds and everything that was great i bought my first ever album at london drugs oh van halen for me van halen 1984 the one with the smoking baby they don't even let babies smoke anymore. That's true. Because of woke. Because of woke. Because this world got too safe. And helicopter parents won't let the baby smoke anymore. Since we're talking about Eminem, can I bust out this little classic that I have saved in our folder?

If you guys had one shot or one opportunity to seize everything you've ever wanted in one moment, would you capture it or just let it slip? That was awesome, Bruff. Someone texted me saying, Bruff doesn't actually like Eminem, does he? I mean, I did back in the day when he first came out. Yeah.

It's not to like. I know it's a big like, oh, you like Eminem, and people do, and they have a big fight about it online, and I'll be like, I'll be on the golf course. Are there really people fighting over Eminem? Oh, yes. What what there's a new generation of like hip-hop fans apparently that just don't get him he's seen as cringe nowadays yeah but yeah he's seen as old and cringe yeah yeah he has the number one album in the so i mean he clearly has a lot of fans still but i think there is a generational divide a little bit there yeah who cares with every with every musician there's got to be that one guy be like you don't really like them do you

i'm like yeah a little bit when you're older everything you do is cringe so who cares yeah that's the thing it's like they change what can't hurt me they changed what it was you should have seen me and you should have seen me in europe i was dressed cringe real comfortable shoes and just like like i am not trying to stand out what kind of socks what kind of socks were you wearing were you wearing shorts no i was wearing ankle socks okay so that is cringe i am out i thought you might be like oh so cringe i had the high socks i was like no that's it i tried to wear um the i guess do you call them calf length socks when you crew socks crew socks is that normal socks yeah but like those if you would have been seen in crew socks 10 years ago you would have laughed off the street but then the

kids bring it back ironically and then it becomes you know popular and then all of a sudden i'm sitting here with 600 pairs of ankle socks from winners and I'm like, alright What the hell am I supposed to do with these? A wholesale pallet of ankle socks? Yeah, I mean damn kids and their socks Stupid kids and their socks

Give us a mookow 600 pairs of ankle socks You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough