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

Episode Date: July 24, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss the Canada Soccer Olympic controversy, the boys hear from Jim Rutherford, plus they talk some 'Nucks with The Athletic Vancouver & Canucks Talk host Thomas Drance.  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 & Brough. You're listening to Halford & Brough. This one is hit high and deep to center. And Garceau's got another one. Chances are, at least Guerrero and Bichette are going to walk, and then where are you? A member of Canada's staff used a drone to record their practice on Monday. I think that guy's a spy. Well, of course he's a spy.

Such a song called the Spy School. Good morning, Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. This is Alfred. Good morning, Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. This is Halford. It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda, North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service.

You can visit them online at Pacific Honda.com. We are in our one of the program. Our one is brought to you by North star metal recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal, North star metal recycling. They recycle, you get paid, visit them at 1170 Powell street in Vancouver.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Rafit, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. Wednesday's show, the guest list begins at 6.30 with Dan Robson of The Athletic. We're going to talk taxes with Dan.

Figured we'd get some real juicy, meaty content right off the hop. Dan has a piece in The Athletic titled Anywhere But Canada, How a Tax Ruling Could Hobble Pro Teams North of the Border. I haven't heard about this, Jason. Is there a tax discrepancy between Canada and some American states? No, you haven't heard about this?

John Tavares being in hot water with the CRA? What does CRA even stand for? Okay, well, that is the Canadian version of the IRS. And John Tavares. Now do IRS. So, okay. The Internal Revenue Service. They're in charge of taxes.

And now taxes. Anyway, we'll talk to Dan Robson about this. Talk to Dan Robson about this. John dan robson about this uh john tavaris is involved in a case uh with cra the cra says he owes more money and john tavaris says uh no i don't uh and how this ruling goes and why this ruling is even a thing right now or this case is even a thing right now could determine um well let's put it this way. It could further give an advantage to the Americans when it comes to signing free agents. So Dan Robson at 630 from The Athletic is going to join the program.

7 o'clock, Nick Shook from NFL.com. NFL training camps are now all officially open and underway. I'm going to do a QB carousel with Nick at 7 o'clock. I want to know, is Aaron Rodgers ready to play football? Is he good to go? Is his mind in the game? He showed up the other day. He did.

Yeah, good for him. He decided to come back from Egypt. He's like, I'll play some football. I want to know about Caleb Williams. He was dressed kind of like a hippie. Yeah. Is that his thing now? I don't know what his thing is now.

I didn't know what his thing was before. Yeah, yeah, yeah. His thing can be a new thing every week didn't know what his thing was before. Yeah, yeah, yeah. His thing can be a new thing every week? He feels like one of those guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like next week he could show up dressed as a Sherpa. We'd be like, okay, that's his thing now. So Nick Shook.

Yeah, do some Sherping. Yeah, he's the Sherp guy now. So Nick Shook, it's 7 o'clock. I want to ask about Caleb Williams. I want to know about a lot of different quarterbacks, but we'll begin with Aaron Rodgers. That's 730. Dan Shulman, normally the play-by-play voice of the Blue Jays,

but I think we've exercised all the Blue Jays talk we need to on this show. All due respect, Laddie. How dare you? And Tiedemann going for Tommy John evaluation. I think we're going to put the Blue Jays on the back burner. We're going to talk some Canadian hoops with Dan Shulman. He'll be on the call for CBC when the Canadian men get things underway

for real. Speaking of Aaron Rodgers, what's up with Aaron Rodgers? I've got to ask him what's up with Jamal Murray because Jamal Murray has almost been a non-factor in the early days of this Canada camp. Is he hurt? Must be, right? I kind of wonder if because he was coming off a pretty big injury last year.

He only played 58 games this year. He had hamstring and shin injuries. He was kind of hobbled during the playoffs. Didn't they say he missed a game for personal reasons? Yeah. He's also got a contract extension looming. The general manager in Denver, Calvin Booth, has been talking about it. They want to try and start talking about that as soon as the Olympics are done.

Yeah, I mean, he needs to be front and center for this team. He's one of the big reasons why Canada is a metal contender in this because everyone's like, look at Canada's backcourt, right? Like, you know, if SGA plays and Jamal doesn't, you're still kind of like, well, SGA's still pretty good, but if they both play together, that's even better. So Dan Schulman's going to join us at 7.30 to talk some Canadian hoops ahead of the Olympics.

8 o'clock, Thomas Drance from The Athletic. So he's written about Daniel Sprong as we continue the third day of uninterrupted Daniel Sprong discourse here on Sportsnet 650. Didn't he just have a sit-down interview where we were not supposed to say this? Yes. Or was this, okay, he had a sit-down interview,

or not a sit-down, an interview with Rick Tockett, so he might have some stuff coming from that as well. Yeah, so Drance is going to join us at 8 for your Canucks talk for the day, 7.30, Dan Schulman, 7 o'clock, Nick Shook from NFL.com, and 6.30, Dan Robson from The Athletic, where we are giving away tickets yet again to see Billy Idol and Platinum Blonde, your 80s extravaganza, on July 30th at Rogers Arena.

If you want tickets, there's only one way to get them. Actually, there's multiple ways to. If you want tickets, there's only one way to get them. Actually, there's multiple ways to get them, but here, there's only one way to get them. I mean, you can buy them, of course. You can buy them. If you wanted to. There's probably some sort of bartering system on Facebook where you can trade them for old glassware or something.

But if you want to win them on the Halford & Brough Show, Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. WWL, what did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports? Hashtag WWL. Put a ticket emoji into your text. Make the what we learned good because this is a contest, not a giveaway. And you could win tickets to see Billy Idol and Platinum Blonde on July 30th at Rogers Arena. Again, text line 650-650.

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

What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Just days ahead of the start of the Olympics, 2024 Summer Games in Paris, the Canadian women's soccer team has been rocked by scandal. A drone scandal.

Overnight and early stages of this morning, the Canadian Olympic Committee announced that women's soccer coach Bev Priestman has removed herself from Thursday's Olympic Games opener against New Zealand after a cheating scandal in which Canada was revealed to have sent a drone over the New Zealand practice, not once, but twice in the past week. Is that not allowed? That is not allowed.

And why would they be spying on the New Zealand practice? They're in the group. They open against New Zealand. Right. And they'd be spying on what? Tactics, lineup formation, set pieces. Yeah, okay. Not an entirely uncommon practice. He's spying on what? Tactics, lineup formation, set pieces. Yeah, okay.

Not an entirely uncommon practice. The drones is an uncommon thing, but there have been longstanding scandals and incidents of coaches trying to get some sort of tactical upper hand by wearing a fake mustache and sitting in the stands with a cap on, trying to take it. I remember Marcelo Bielsa when he was at Leeds. He talked about this quite openly because he said in certain communities of the coaching realm, this is kind of like something that they did.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was understood as being like dark arts and underhanded and everything. But this obviously takes it to a whole new level because flying a drone twice over a visiting team's practice and training session uh is highly frowned upon now i so i have a i have a real real curiosity about this because the canadian olympic committee released a statement on the drone incident and it named names and it said, um, number one, Joseph Lombardi. He, they called him an unaccredited analyst with Canada soccer is being removed from the

Canadian Olympic team and will be sent home immediately. And then Jasmine Mander, an assistant coach to whom Mr. Lombardi reports to is being removed from the team and will be sent home immediately. And then it says the Canadian Olympic Committee. Remember, this is the Canadian Olympic Committee. This is in the IOC. This is the Canadian saying this, has accepted

the decision of head coach Bev Priestman to remove herself from coaching the match against New Zealand on July 25th. And then finally said Canada's soccer staff will undergo mandatory ethics training, which is hilarious. So my big question with this is what did Bev Priestman know about this? Because this reminds me of the scene from The Godfather when Congress is grilling them and they're they're interviewing the the soldier and they're going to you know did the family have a lot of buffers he's like yeah yeah yeah the family had a lot of buffers right because

bev priestman even though she she's kind of like the way she makes it sound is like she's an she's extending an olive branch to new zealand going like, oh, I'm shocked this happened and I'm embarrassed this happened. And, you know, to try and make it better, I will sit out the match against New Zealand. But my question is, do bad priestmen know about this? Because it seems like this Joseph Lombardi guy, he's unaccredited.

I don't even know what that means. What, he doesn't have, like, an ID or something like that? He's being removed. And then, of course, the assistant coach to whom Mr. Lombardi reports to is also being removed. But, like, doesn't Jasmine Mander report to Bev Priestman? Well, to be fair, to what's going on here to the to the comments that from the statement that you were alluding to uh there's nothing that really

distances her that she says publicly i think this that's what i'm saying right just hold on i don't even think that they're going to try and distance her from this i think that sanctions are coming down further from the IOC. And don't forget, FIFA is also going to be involved in this as the governing body of soccer globally. And I got a feeling that this is the Canadian Olympic Committee trying to take a first step, not in distancing themselves, but in trying to levy a punishment in the hopes

that there won't be more severe punishment. It's a pretty good punishment, right? It's a pretty good punishment. Joseph Lombardi, who I think very foolishly is trying to be described as an unaccredited analyst. When he's a soldier. Right. He's a soldier.

But he's also a soldier. In mafia terms. Yes. But imagine the mafia had a website and he was prominently displayed on the mafia's website. Imagine the mafia did have a website. Mafia.com. You're welcome. Canada Soc soccer did not take the logical step of scrubbing him from their website because if you go right now joseph lombardi has a a very

very prominent and public page highlighting all of the things that he's done for the canadian women's program at the senior and youth levels as soon as i saw an unaccredited i was like we are distancing ourselves from this guy as quickly as possible. We don't know who he is. Not sure how he got in here. Do you think it was a bad call that on the website he bragged about his drone ability? I was going to say, they should remove the part about how he's a drone.

His staff photo is just him with an Xbox controller. I got this. Anyway, this is really embarrassing for Canada. It's horrible. Can they get disqualified? They're the defending Olympic gold medalists, right? But can they get disqualified for this? I don't think so.

Not for this. Okay, I have no idea what the punishments will be, because here's the thing. I suppose it's possible. The IOC loves to cloak itself in the integrity and honesty and purity of what Olympic sport is supposed to be, right? That's why there's all these endless, you know, that's why doping scandals exist, because the IOC wants to hold itself up as this paragon of this is the most pure and honest mode of sport on the planet and i would suggest that a cheating scandal involving drones ahead of the

opener in which canada would play the team they were spying on is go i mean here's the thing too this also rises to a uh very high level of prominence because of the team involved right this i mean women this is worldwide right if you go to espn it's in the top headlines canadian coaches kicked out of olympics for spy drone yeah and i mean that doesn't even really encapsulate the story because the canadian olympic committee was the one that chose to withdraw the coaches and then and the wording is important accepted priestman's decision so what you were saying earlier is relevant. Like she's trying to extend an olive branch of sorts,

being like, we screwed up. Here's what I will do as a self punishment. So here's Priestman's statement. On behalf of our entire team, I first and foremost want to apologize to the players and staff at New Zealand football and to the players on team Canada. This does not represent the values that our team stands for. I am ultimately responsible for conduct in our program.

Accordingly, to emphasize our team's commitment to integrity, I have decided to voluntarily withdraw from coaching the match on Thursday. In the spirit of accountability, I do this with the interests of both teams in mind and to ensure everyone feels that the sportsmanship of this game is upheld. That's like laying it on a little thick to me. I mean, the only thing I could, and I agree with you, the only thing I could say is that they feel like they are profoundly screwed right now. Those are pretty serious steps to be taken by your own Olympic committee

without an investigation coming from the IOC and FIFA. None of that says whether or not she knew this was going on. It does. No, it doesn't. Yeah, come on. She's not voluntarily withdrawing herself from the opening match against New Zealand. It could kind of be read as like,

there's a 0% chance that she could go publicly and say, I didn't know about this and not have everyone laugh. It's the assistant coach. I know. And a long-standing staffer that i mean come on right there was an enormous there was an enormous amount of pressure on this group to perform at these games not only because they were coming in as the defending gold medal champions but priestman was feeling okay when she says sorry to cut you off here though what she says i am ultimately responsible for conduct in our program that's the type of thing that you would levy on like that's the type of thing you would levy on on a coach that maybe

didn't know about it you'd be like well you should be responsible for the conduct in in in your program we've seen this in things like college football and college basketball right if she put it this way if she didn't know this was happening i'd have even more questions doing his head coach right okay i'd be like what's going on but do you know when they they they uh use that thing lack of institutional control they can in the nca, they'll use that phrase to suspend coaches whose programs have kind of gone off the rails. Yeah. Like she doesn't, what I want to know is, and I

want to get an answer from her, you know, like, did you know about this? Yeah. And if, and if, and if you, and if you did know about this and this is blown up in your face, then we appreciate this grand gesture that you seem to be thinking this is to step down from coaching this first game. And I want you to go home as well.

Because if you knew about this, that means that you endorsed it, if not told your assistant coach to go do it. And the assistant coach told the soldier to go do it. And then someone got whacked i mean and then a drone flew right two people got whacked technically speaking because they sent home the assistant coach and the unaccredited analyst joseph lombardi okay the only reason where i was going with that before you jumped in was um if you want to sort of paint the backstory to see how we got here i mean if you want to talk about would priestman know or how much was she involved she was under a lot of pressure going into this

tournament because i mean everyone's talking about defending the gold medal but you got to remember she took that team to the 2023 fifa women's world cup and they were bad they were out in the group stage they didn't look good there were people questioning the tactics there was people wondering if she was the right person to be in charge anymore and she was lucky it was in it was in new zealand and australia right so not a lot of people actually back here watch the games because they were on a really inconvenient times there were a lot of articles out there if you want to go back and look at them talking about how bev priestman felt like she had lost her way and she was undergoing some stuff that maybe distracted her from being the coach that she thought she could be.

She's held the job for a long time. They had an opening match against an opponent that they were somewhat familiar with, but I think that they knew that if they were going to get through the group, that the most difficult match might be against the French and the winnable matches were going to be against New Zealand and Colombia. So there's a lot to unpack there, But all of it points to the next 48 hours, or really next 24 hours, being very uncomfortable for the Canadian women's soccer team. So Jim Rutherford went on the Bob McCown podcast,

and it was Bob McCown and John Shannon who were interviewing Jim Rutherford. And we've got a bunch of clips that we're going to play throughout the show. And why don't we play one now? Because I think this was interesting stuff. And Laddie, since you're the one that presses play on this audio, let's start with Jim Rutherford talking about Demko. And the underlying thing here is that Demko was hurt for the playoffs and he's had injury issues before and you know if the Canucks make the playoffs again next season they're going to

want him ready to roll healthy not injured not overworked and Jim Rutherford kind of came at it in a bit of a different way because we'd all been talking about, well, maybe he needs to play fewer games. The backup needs to play more. But Jim Rutherford had another take on that. And this is that. I think there needs to be some adjustments in how he approaches his workout. He is probably the hardest working guy that i've ever seen i mean he he's on the ice before the players come on the ice he's worked he's he's almost he's probably

put in enough work when he works directly with ian clark before the players come on the ice. So, so maybe between Thatcher and Ian and, and Rick Talkett, um, looking at, at how much work he's putting in, in between games, uh, might be able to help him because I, I just think he pushes himself too hard. Uh, so that is obviously something that the show is accused of quite a lot. Too much, really.

Caring too much too. And just working too hard. Pushing ourselves to the brink, some say. Pushing ourselves too hard. And I'm sure all the listeners listening right now, that's something that your bosses at your work accuse you of. And, and they ask, you know, why are you so tired once it comes to the weekend you know are you working too hard maybe you need to take some more days off down and then you go to them well no because i'm so competitive you know i just want to be the best at everything every day

is the rocky workout montage brother's like yell at him stop turn off that music but this is a narrative that we're gonna be seeing playing out throughout the entire season, like straight from training camp, because we all want to know that Debko's, first of all, recovered from that injury. I assume he will be. I mean, there were reports that he could have even been ready to go in the third round if the Canucks had made it that far. Although I sometimes wondered if the Canucks were just using that.

Smokescreen? Smokescreen. He better play way less games, though, like really. that far. Although I sometimes wondered if the Canucks were just like using that smoke screen. He better play way less games though. Like really, like he better play way less games. Yeah, I think he will. And hopefully he won't play way less games because he's injured for those games. Hopefully it's because, you know, the Canucks are getting good performances from either Sealobs or Patera or, you know, they just

bite the bullet in some way. Maybe they have such a good playoff cushion that they can allow a backup in there, even if the backup isn't playing that well. But I really do think that this last season was, there was this constant fear that it was going to implode. You know, like throughout the year,

just because there still wasn't that trust in the group maybe. And they wanted to make sure that the good times didn't end prematurely. And it ended up maybe that Thatcher Demko played a little too much. Yeah, we talked about being in prove-it mode all season, right? Even when everyone was like, I think you guys proved it. And Casey DeSmith had some rough outings mid-season. When he went into Minnesota and they lit him up there, I think that really affected the coaching staff's instincts on who to play.

And if Demko was available and technically rested, I suppose, which would be like one day of rest, he was going to go in there. So I don't like from that Rutherford quote, though. He was more worried about the practice, like the level of intensity and practice. And we've heard Kevin Woodley come on the program and talk about the need for a third goalie. And it would be so nice to have a third roster goalie spot on these teams for moments like that,

where Demko could just step aside, don't even practice, and have the two other goalies on the line. Demko could do his work with Ian Clark. And Ian Clark is a taskmaster, right? He's going to make him work in those one-on-one sessions. But then for Demko to have to go and then practice again with the full team. Get 200 shots from his teammates. Yeah, maybe that's a bit much. Hindsight being 2020 for last year,

it was really a shame that they didn't have the faith in Seelops to bring him up in the regular season. When DeSmith sputtered a little bit trying to go that route and see what they had there earlier in the year. Because he didn't end up playing a regular season game until it was March or April. I remember he came in against, I think it was Anaheim, I want to say. And then he actually did pretty well in the regular season to the point,

and then you obviously saw in the playoffs what transpired. So, you know, again, it would have been really difficult for a team in prove-it mode to be like, we're going to try our third string goalie now. Like, they're not going to do that. They're going to go back to the number one. But with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been pretty good to see Seeloff's play more games to try and stem those bad dismiss starts during the regular season.

So we've got a few more clips to play throughout the show. There's one on Daniel Sprong and the addition of Daniel Sprong that I want to play. There's another on how he sells players on coming to Vancouver. And he mentions the lack of practice facility there. And then there's one on Elias Pettersson where he talks about the experience that Pettersson gained in the playoffs.

And he expects that Pettersson will take that experience and learn from it and be better next season if the Canucks make the playoffs. Other things just to note, we might not play this audio, but Rutherford said or accepted that the Sedins are effectively on Talkett's coaching staff.

Right. That might not reflect in their titles. Like they're still development guys, and they'll still be down in Abbotsford working with the players on the Abbotsford Canucks as well. But he effectively said that, yeah, they're on talk at staff if he needs them. And obviously the Canucks need to figure out their power play.

So I imagine the Sedins are going to be involved in the planning for that. He credited the Sedins with helping Hoaglander with playing more responsibly. And he had a lot of really, really good things to say about Henrik and Daniel. He said they've been wanting to trade for DeBrusque for a few years now. Patrick Galvin was always like, can we get this guy? Can we get this guy? If he's available, we got to get this guy.

And Rutherford said he thinks Deabrowski is a 30-goal scorer if he takes his game up a notch. And then he added, he said losing to the Oilers was more of a, quote, experience than a, quote, failure. And usually you have to go through that once or twice before you break through. At any rate, if you want to listen to the whole interview, it's up on YouTube. You can just find it, Rutherford with Bob McCown and John Shannon. It's a good interview.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Jim Rutherford was asked, how do you sell players on signing with the Vancouver Canucks? You've got to show to the players where the team's at, what we've got, where we think we can get to, and also the reasons why they would like to play in Vancouver. And we have a lot to sell, uh, wonderful city. Um, we have an owner that, that gives us everything that we need. The one thing we're

short of right now is, is a practice rink, uh, which we are making headway on that, but we totally redid our dressing room. have a good coaching staff we have a good organization and uh and we we found out through free agency this year that there were a number of players that wanted to come and play in vancouver which was a real positive sign for us the city sells itself okay everybody is aware of the. Everybody's aware of our fan base. And if for people that weren't quite sure or needed to be reminded, when you look at our fan base, what they did during the playoffs,

that, uh, our, our building was electric and, uh, just, uh, uh,

great support from our fans. Um, but when we, so those are the things that the players already know. And then of course our coach was coach of the year. That's a big selling point where we have a very strong coaching staff. We have a very strong organization and we have some, we have enough players.

Our core players are good enough that players understand that our team should contend. So one of the things that Dan Robson notes in his article is that, you know, the tax thing is, is significant and it's important. And it is for sure a factor when you're talking about millions of dollars in net pay that you're essentially getting. Of course, it's a factor. There are other factors like team competitiveness and how a player fits into a roster or even the appeal of playing for a team they grew up cheering for. And that was one of the things that led John Tavares to Toronto. And that was a trap by the CRA to get him. And they got him.

But when you think about team competitiveness, how many times did we hear when the Canucks were down in the dumps, well, you know, if you want to bring Jay Beagle to the team, then you got to overpay him, right? And I remember always thinking like, no, you don't. You don't have to do that. You really don't. But also how a player fits into a roster, I think is one of the things that honestly doesn't get discussed enough. And we saw that with the Elias Lindholm decision to go to Boston. And while he may have considered signing with the Canucks, you know, I think one of the big reasons he didn't ultimately was he wanted to go somewhere and be a top six guy. He wanted to be a number one center. You know, that's what he was in Calgary.

He was the guy, he was the man there. He played on one of the best lines in the NHL there when Kachuk and Goudreau were still there. And he wants to go play with Marchand or Pasternak in Boston, in Vancouver. No disrespect to Dakota Joshua and Connor Garland, but they're not Brad Marchand and they're not David Pasternak. He wants to be playing up in the lineup,

and the Canucks deemed him a center, and they deemed JT Miller a better center than him, and Elias Pettersson, look at the commitment they've made financially to him. They're going to do everything they can to make sure that Elias Pettersson is still a top center in the NHL. So with Elias laying home, they were kind of like, well, you know, this is the way we see you. We'd love to still keep you.

But really, you know, while money might have been a factor, and I'm sure it was a factor, role and his fit on the team was an equally big one. Yeah. I mean, if you want to look at it in a glass half full kind of way it's part of the reason the canucks made the move for lindholm when they did early in the buying process was so that they could get an extended look and figure out what the fit would be because there was a thought at the beginning that maybe as he gets a little bit older and we've seen other centers do it as they transition and start playing the wing i mean that's what Steve Stamkos has done right he started out as your traditional center and then

slowly moved to the wing and it became pretty apparent with Talkit that he's like no this guy's a center so when that decision was made I think the writing was pretty much on the wall that the marriage wasn't going to be long but they were going to have a fruitful regular season and playoff and then like many other players that get the opportunity to go to free agency he just found a different fit that and it was like you said it didn't have much to do with the market or the city or anything it was just he wasn't going to be a 1c or a 2c in vancouver and and that's fine um it ended end of the day it cost a lot to get the rental in the door. But I think when we realized that Talkett saw Lindholm as a center, probably more importantly, Lindholm saw Lindholm as a center.

Yeah. Boston was the fit. It was obvious. Everyone knew that he was going to Boston. Yeah, it was obvious. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with it. I think the most telling thing from Rutherford was that he found out

just how much in this free agent period that people wanted to come to Vancouver because last year last summer I imagine it would have been a more difficult sell they weren't good going into last summer they didn't know exactly what they had you knew talk it came aboard and had some success but those were in meaningless games and it was a small sample size and getting people on board I think probably would have been a more difficult task last summer. At least this summer, you had proof of concept. Where it's like, look, we've got the reigning coach of the year. We went to the second round of the playoffs.

We were one win away from taking Edmonton out and possibly moving on really far further in the playoffs. For wingers, you've got opportunities to play with some pretty good centers uh it's a competitive group and then all the other things they mentioned we're making headway on the practice facility yeah you can slide that in there at the end that one day we've been hearing that for a while haven't we a lot of headway a lot of headway a lot of headway when are they when are they going to actually do something i don't know i don't know i i kind of i asked a couple different guys that work the beat regularly. Have you heard anything

at all following the end of year media availability? And it was kind of crickets. It's in Rutherford's backyard. Just building it there. Everyone come over. Have a barbecue. Or practice. Yeah. That'd be awesome. I mean, that

is the one thing that would be funny, that is the one thing that... That would be funny. That is the one thing that they really do need to get done because, I mean, again, coming from Pittsburgh where they have this great setup in Cranberry. Well, Calgary's new arena's got the practice ring adjacent to the new arena in the bunker. It's underground, right?

It's underground. Can the Canucks just build theirs under the arena? Like, just dig a tunnel? That's what I was wondering, yeah was wondering yeah just underground practice rink just feels like it might be a lot come on i don't know i know as much about what was the song in the simpsons when the when bark got fell down the well sending our love down the well yeah all the way down dig up stupid what we just have to to call Thomas Drance erotica. Thomas Drance erotica.

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Thomas Grant's Erotica. P.D.O. Thomas Duranica 802 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda, North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers.

Visit them online at pacifichonda.ca. We are in our three of the program. Thomas Drance from The Athletic Vancouver, who just dropped a new piece, a one-on-one interview with Rick Talkett. Drance is going to join us in just a moment here. The highlight of our... The headline is called Talk Talk. Talk Talk.

Yeah, we haven't done enough talk pun headlines called Talk Talk. Talk Talk. Yeah, we haven't done enough talk puns. Talk Talk. Talk Talk. Hour three of this program. We're going to do some Talk Talk in hour three. It's brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com 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. Sophie, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. To the of five-star Google reviews. So, Orfee, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. To the phone lines we go. Thomas Drance joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Drancer? Gentlemen, good morning.

Good morning. The headline is Canucks coach Rick Talkett one-on-one. We want to give the guys a little bit more rope. Ooh, intriguing. And then the lead, just one simple sentence. Rick Talkett isn't satisfied. What were some of the takeaways from your chat with Rick Talkett, Thomas? Well, yeah, I mean, a number of them. I think the first thing that stuck out to me, right, because I started by asking him sort of about the process of getting into off-season mode for a head

coach and some of the commentary that he'd had earlier in the offseason about doing a deep dive on how this team could be more prolific off the rush and you know answer after answer i thought was really revealing for the level of self-criticism that talk it has undergone since the canucks fell short against the edmonton oilers in game six and game seven you know in mid-may and when you consider what we saw last season, right, when you consider the tone in this market, the day Rick Talkett was hired to today, right? Like, I don't think it's a stretch to say that his 18,

20 months in this city have been transformative in terms of how this team is discussed and looked at and viewed both within vancouver and without and you know 50 wins uh the jack adams right the the a playoff run that sort of galvanized the city and you know answer after answer he's sort of going over what could i have done differently should i have practiced before game six of that Euler series? Because that game was really a burn the tape game. Could we have prepared differently? Could I have made different lineup choices?

Was our conservatism as a team, is that a product of the players we had, or is there something that I need to change in terms of what I'm emphasizing to, to get us to really focus on scoring off the rush and really sort of dial that in, right? The idea that there's like, obviously it's a player's game, but if there's a loosened reins, if there's a little bit more rope given to the players, can you get a more creative

team? Can you get a more aggressive team with the puck as opposed to just being, and not just being, I mean, it's commendable, the super disciplined club that overachieved so successfully last season. You know, so I sort of get three, four questions into the interview, and I just kind of throw that at him, just like, hey, like, you know, not a lot could have gone better for your team than it did last year. What does it say about you that you've sort of spent a lot of this summer really criticizing your own work?

And so, yeah, so that gave the lead to the piece because I think it says a lot. I think it says a lot about who this guy is that following up on, you know, a dream campaign, this summer has really been about improving, really been about taking a hard, long look at what this team did and trying to figure out how to do, sort of address, shore up the areas of weakness without necessarily sacrificing

some of what this club did well, right? Defensively, in terms of conservative puck management and racking up zone time as a result. Keep that identity, but find that extra 10%, as he put it, that this team is going to need to climb the ladder. What did he say about the offseason changes, both the losses and the additions to the roster? Yeah, I mean, look, there's no sugarcoating it,

and some of this didn't make it into the article, but I think there is some concern about the team's lack of center depth in the wake of Elias Lindholm's departure. Obviously, the team did make a push to keep Lindholm in Vancouver, not having a right-handed centerman, needing to find another fifth guy on the power play, or on PP1 again, after Lindholm kind of found a home there, actually led the team in power play or on pp1 again after lintone kind of found a home there actually

led the team in power play goals in the playoffs um you know suitor and bluger um i do think garland and joshua are going to enter the season you know drawn up as third line wingers on rick tockett's whiteboard and it's sort of about interchanging bluger and Suter until you find a fit there, until you find, you know, some chemistry, find that hot hand. Now, Garland and Joshua played well with both, but I think there's an understanding. Like, can Teddy Bluger sustain 50 games as your third line center? Or did he have a really good 30-game stretch there? Right? Like, that's an open question, I think.

One that I think the club will have to wrestle with. There's going to need to be some interchangeability and i think in terms of toying with and trying to figure out who the right-handed shot's going to be like and and again i'm uh unfortunately this one didn't make it this one this answer ended up on the cutting room floor but like i think the canucks are going to consider seeing what brock besser can do in the face-off circle at training camp. That's going to be part of how this team potentially considers going about addressing not having a right-handed centerman, at least to begin the season. And so, yeah, he talked about it. I think he's very happy with the club's center depth overall.

He's very happy with the new additions overall. But when you look at the Lindholm departure and its sort of knock-on effects, I do think losing that right-handed centerman and then opening a vacancy both on the PK and on the power play, the special team side of it, I do think those are going to loom large in some of how Canucks coaches prepare

for this upcoming season. What did talk say about elias petterson yeah so um you know there was a big focus i think in multiple answers in this about wingers to play with petterson right because i threw at talk it directly the hey like it really seems like was designed in a lab to play with miller andesser, right? And I wouldn't say he disagreed, right? He talked about sort of why that fit would make sense. The north-south guy with the speed to stretch the zone and on and on, why that would fit with nine and six, why it makes sense.

And yet, you know, he was pretty unequivocal. Like, I need to get Pedersen a winger of that caliber, period. Like, we need to get Pedersen a winger of that caliber, period. Like that, we need to get Pedersen a winger of that caliber to play with. And then in discussing sort of his struggles, he talked about the relationship, the trust, the process of building that, you know, how excited he is for Pedersen. Noted that Canucks strength and conditioning coach Alex Trinka headed over to Sunsfall to work with Pettersson this offseason.

And, you know, noted that part of Pettersson's struggles truly was that he played with this, you know, rotating or roving cast of wingers last season. I think we know that the quality of those players wasn't necessarily up to snuff, right? And he gave Pettersson a lot of credit a lot of respect for for sort of keeping his head down playing the game and not complaining about it and yet also noted that one thing he wants is that relationship evolves is for petterson to feel comfortable coming and knocking on his office door and saying hey talk come on i need some different line mates um and then talked about the cost of that right talked about what you owe um in a world where uh you're giving your star player that type of latitude right the idea of

what they need to do to do the right thing the idea of uh the knowledge that talk it has uh that petterson can tap into if he wants to be one of the best players in this league um and and that he thinks petterson understands that after last season uh one thing that didn't make it into the piece but i i can tell your listeners here um it's not 100 and and i think talk it's still working through exactly what it would look like schedule wise given his other commitments this summer um but it does sound like it's in the works for talk it to potentially go over to sweden before the start of the season and spend some time with Pedersen. I don't know if that would be on ice or off ice,

but presumably on ice given how NHL players tend to be training come August. So an interesting wrinkle and sort of shows you the mind share that making sure that Pedersen's at his best, that sort of eliciting a star-level performance from Vancouver's top-paid player, the sort of mindshare that that's occupying for Talkit over the course of the summer. Without giving away the entire article to the listeners, but there was the quote from Talkit about Pedersen that just jumped out right off the screen at me.

This is talking about Pedersen. He took a bullet because sometimes he played with a rotating cast of wingers. That was just the way our team was going. It was nobody's fault. And for the most part, he kept his mouth shut in the sense that he just played. I give him a lot of respect for that. That's pretty illuminating from a head coach because not only are you praising

Pedersen in saying that you're also kind of, I mean, you're slamming the guys that he was playing with to a certain degree, saying that he was playing with a cast of guys that just weren't up to the level that he was at. And I know he doesn't mean it in that way, but it's hard not to infer that. And I mean, again, I've talked to Jason about this countless times, and rattling off the top of my head, I can remember the chances

that were falling to guys in the playoffs last year and Mikheyev and Lafferty and D Giuseppe. It's like, you know, I mean, I guess they really do believe that they genuinely needed to get Pettersson some much better line mates this season. Yeah. Well, and I think if you consider like who are the most likely players to play with Pettersson, you know, day one of training camp. I mean, I'd say the three guys that I'd give the sort of shortest odds to it's,

it's DeBrusque, it's Sprong and it's Kiefer Sherwood. None of those guys were with the team last year. Right. Right. Pettersson's four most common linemates. Only one is still with the team. It's Nils Hoaglander. The other guys, Kuzmenko, Mikheyev, and Lafferty are all departed. Right? And I think you can see it too with like Sherwood's scoring profile, especially in the American League, but even over the last couple of years in the NHL,

you know, Sprong is instant offense. Jake DeBrusque certainly has more finishing ability than Ilya Mikheyev. You know, I think this team felt that they needed to get more efficient, more dangerous off the wings. And one thing I'd add to you, gentlemen, right, because as I'm analyzing this team, as I'm thinking a lot about this team, as I'm having conversations with people involved in building and running this team, you know, I mean,

I do think one of the big interesting challenges of this offseason is I kind of buy that the Canucks can be better next year than they were this year. But that doesn't mean that they'll get the same results, right? Like it's going to be hard to beat 109 points, even if this team gets better, which I think they could. And so, you know, part of this here is like, you know, teams don't typically repeat shooting the lights out at a historic clip the way the Canucks did five on five. Right. Like no other team was within the half percentage point of them in terms of their five on five conversion rate. And I think that may be hid to some extent, the quality of certain depth players.

Right. The fact that they got 13 goals from Lafferty doesn't mean that he was a full-value 13-goal scoring winger in terms of the danger that he provided. And as this sort of playoff run went along, as the offensive struggles mounted against Nashville and as Edmonton really shut them down at the pointy end of that second-round series, I mean, you felt it, right?

You felt those moments where the Canucks just didn't have enough offensive punch. Have they made enough additions to sort of address that? Have they made enough additions to offset the loss of Zdorov and Lindholm and sort of the powerful force that is expected regression? Maybe. I mean, honestly, maybe. They've given themselves margin for error.

I don't think we're going to enter next season and think of this team as an everything needs to go right for them to make the playoffs side. But, you know, that is a sort of fat part of the bell curve outcome to keep in mind here, that this team gets better, materially better, is a tougher out come April and May, and yet struggles to win 50 games and have 109 points just because of how high they set the bar this past season. Is there an acknowledgement of all that within the organization? Because I think the last management group, what was the phrase we came up with them?

Recklessly optimistic? Right. Do you know what I mean? Reckless optimism. Reckless optimism, is this management group and coaching staff, is it, do they recognize the, the risks a little bit better than the last one? I think so. Yeah, I think so. And, and I also think there's a huge difference in approach. I mean, think about how this team was built last year, right?

Where it was like going into the season, we're like, eh, they're a little light in goal. And then they go and do the DeSmith deal, right? And, you know, I don't know, do they have enough size and speed on the wings? And then they do the Lafferty deal before the season begins. And then Soucy gets hurt and it's like, yeah, we better make sure we have another top four caliber defenseman. And they go out and they trade for Zdorov. um you know they just like ruthlessly pecked away at the floor right we sort of thought we might be in a world where like it was akito harose pressed into

big time duty on the third pair and that was true for two games and then they swung the trade for mark friedman right like they kind of didn't take chances with their floor the same way. And so I think philosophically, that's kind of how they look at it. I mean, even with, you know, once Lindholm departed and they ended up sort of deciding that they'd spread that money around and bring in multiple pieces to address their wing depth. I mean, you sort of look up and down this lineup. It's like they signed Pod Coles in at one times one, and now you kind of look at what you might expect their depth chart to be, and there's no space guaranteed for him in the lineup, right?

I mean, they're not even leaning on a guy that they signed to a two-year, one-way contract before the playoffs, right? That's not even a bet they're willing to place in any sort of substantive skin in the game way. They're still loading up this team so that even if Pod Coleson hits, it's gravy, right? Like, that's the huge difference. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.