Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 8/15/24

Episode Date: August 15, 2024

Guest hosts Jamie Dodd & Josh Elliott-Wolfe look back at the previous day in sports,  the boys wonder if the Canucks coaching staff will alter their approach for this upcoming season, plus they chat with comedian Gerry Dee ahead of his show at the PNE on August 24th. 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. Cut out and missed and that'll do it. Tommy Nance strikes out Mickey Moniak and the Blue Jays complete the three-game sweep here in Anaheim. You know, I wanted to be in a situation where I felt like I could move up and there's so few opportunities in the league. There it is, a little number.

That might work. Victor drops down. Victor scores everybody up 90 feet. RBI single, Julio Rodriguez. Good morning. It is Howl from Ruff here on Sportsnet. 6.50. Jamie Dodd, Josh Ellery is here once again.

What's going on, Josh? Good morning. How you doing? I'm chilling. How are you? I'm glad to hear that you're chilling. That's fantastic. I'm glad you're relaxed at work.

Do you want me to be stressed out? Well, I want you to be engaged. I'm engaged. Okay, good. My headphones were a little weird to start. I want you to be taking it seriously. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to a little professionalism.

I didn't mean to insinuate that. Oh, I'm just kicking back with my feet up at work here. We do that often. You do that often. That's true. I do do that often. A-Dog, good morning. Good morning.

And a very special good morning to Basketball Ben. The last shift ever for Basketball Ben at Sportsnet 650. How are you feeling, man? Bittersweet. Like, excited for what's to come, but it was definitely a weird drive in this morning to be like, wow, this is kind of the last dance. The last dance. It'll be the last dance.

It'll be. It'd be funny if he was like, oh, man, I'm super stoked. So excited. Not even going to lie to you guys. I can't wait to go. I got to be honest. I've never had a job where the last day was bittersweet i've only ever been excited so everybody has said this

they're like this is crazy dude this is not normal and i'm like i'm quite sad to be leaving that's how you know you have a good job yeah it's seriously it's the dream job normally i'm like sprinting out the door like bye see you suckers i'm out of here when i finish a job when i left best buy i was a, I was a little upset. Mainly because I had a lot of friends there, though. And I believe it's probably the same with you, Ben. Yeah, I mean, I got friends here, too. I was like that

at EB Games, but mostly just because I couldn't get cheap games anymore. You missed the discount. That was the other part of Best Buy. Leaving Best Buy, I was like, oh, discount gone. That would have been nice. Halford & Brough 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. Sore feet. What are you waiting for? Kintec, that is what you're waiting for. 650-650, of course, is the Dunbar Lumber text line. Get your

submissions in now. Never too early for what we learned. Hashtag WWL. What you've learned over the last 24 hours in sports. We got a big guest list on the show today. A diverse guest list, I would say. At 6.30, our Thursday

regular Adnan Virk joins us from the MLB Network and Cineph 6.30, our Thursday regular, Adnan Virk, joins us from the MLB Network and Cinephile podcast. Lots to talk about with Adnan around the world of Major League Baseball. Josh debuted a scorching hot baseball team. I want to walk back immediately. I did more research. I'll take mercy and I won't bring it up on air to Adnan, but we'll talk about it.

Is this his Elias Pedersen take of baseball? It might be. We'll talk about it at some point on air, but I won't bring Adnan into it. Okay. That's my olive branch to you. But anyways, we'll talk to Adnan about baseball. Seven o'clock. Nick Shook from NFL.com.

730. Pat Coyle. He's the head coach of the Junior A Coquitlam Adanax. Coquitlam hosting the Minto Cup in lacrosse coming up this week. So we'll talk to Pat Coyle about that. His squad had a really, really successful playoff run in the BC Junior A Lacrosse League as well. So

exciting times for lacrosse. Pat Coyle's at 730 and then at 8 o'clock comedian Jerry D. He's going to be, imagine this, the first ever comedian to be a part of the P&E Summer Nights concert series. I just imagined it. They've never had a comedian.

They bent their rules. Only music acts until Jerry D. Wow. Incredible. Wow. Canadian. That's right. That's right. So we'll talk to Jerry D at 8 o'clock. Working in reverse at 8. Comedian Jerry D at 7.30. Pat Coyle, head coach of the Junior A,

Coquitlam Adinax. 7 o'clock, Nick Shook from NFL.com. 6.30, it is Adnan Virk from MLB Network and the Cinephile podcast. Before we do any of that, let's talk about 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 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 we'll start local here and we've been following the story obviously obviously intently all week nathan rourke is back with the bc lions he practiced with the team for the first time yesterday and of course as part of that uh spoke to the media as well and you know we've had a chance to hear from rick campbell both you know in scrums and interviews neil mcavoy was on our show yesterday as well so we've gotten the team's perspective and and kind of some insight from them into maybe what was driving nathan rourke's side of things as well

but we haven't really had a chance to hear from rourke specifically so interesting to hear him take some questions from from the assembled media after practice yesterday. We'll play a couple of clips here, and we'll start with, I think, one of the, you know, understandably one of the first questions he was asked, because it's one of the most interesting ones, was just why was this the right time for him to come back and join the BC Lions? You know, I wanted to be in a situation where I felt like I could move up, and there's so few opportunities in the league. You know, I think in 23, it was,

we look back on that and we see it as a success. And I moved up. I was able to go to a team that, into a position where I was, you know, I was the second guy and that was an improvement from the beginning of the year. So, but, you know, as soon as 24 moved around, I was in some tough situations with the coaching changes

and kind of moving around, never really got settled. And was at that point realizing that, moving around, I was in some tough situations with some coaching changes. And kind of moving around, never really got settled. And was at that point realizing that I was missing some reps and missing some opportunities. And felt like that might be a good time to start considering other options. So that point there he makes at the end where it's like, okay, I've gone so long now that it might be hurting my development at this point right like as he says missing reps and good situation to start with with the jaguars but then the nfl it can be a tough world right as he says coaching changes personnel changes all of this and then all of a sudden you're on this kind of carousel that he found himself on where there's no real opportunities presenting themselves and i think you know part of what he's talking about there is just like okay i want to compete as well i'm not getting a chance to compete but then also

just purely from a developmental standpoint you got to play you got to take snaps you got to be making throws or you're not going to be getting any better yeah he's not like an old quarterback like he still has time to develop and that's why when he went to the nfl it was like hey maybe he finds a team that gives him time to develop and he can grow into a role obviously that didn't happen this time going south of the border but it's it's difficult too because you you kind of need someone going to bat for you yes when you need someone really invested yeah who's like i've identified this guy i see something in him he is worth having around and giving a chance to and most of the time for nfl teams that's a guy they just drafted or or someone that whoever's coaching a team like coached in college

or or whatever and obviously rourke wasn't able to find that so now he has to prove that his talent is so undeniable that a team has to give him a shot and the only place to do that because he wasn't getting that opportunity would be in the CFL and that's why it makes a lot of sense for him to come back to BC and like even if he doesn't ever end up going back down to the NFL it's still like hey you at least gave it a shot yeah and this is you coming back trying to like he wants to go back to the NFL in the long term if we're all being real so this is you giving yourself the best chance at possibly doing that in the future yeah and he's also like again he's he's getting paid you know what i mean and i mean i don't know what the exactly what the minimum salary is in the nfl

right now but it's probably right around what he's going to make uh in the cfl right and so uh in 2021 it was 660 or sorry last year it was. Yeah, so it's probably gone up slightly since then. But, again, that's basically what he's going to be making in the CFL. And that's USD. Yeah, that's a good point. So that's fair enough. So he's taking a pay cut. Yeah, he's taking a pay cut.

But, I mean, I don't know if you get that if you're on the practice squad, though, necessarily. I'm not sure that you would. Yeah, that's just the minimum salary probably for a roster spot. Anyway, so it makes a lot of sense from that frame, right? Where it's not as if you're taking a big financial pay cut to come back and you get the chance to actually compete, which is so important for professional athletes. And you get a chance to maybe remind some people around the NHL or NFL. Hey, there's a reason actually why a lot of teams were interested in signing me, why the Jagars did decide to sign me uh and see if you can create an opportunity that way by the way practice salary

for uh or practice squad salary last year was 300 000 so he's making significantly he's making more by coming back to the cfl right than hanging around uh on a practice squad so i think that is a big deal for him as well the other part of this of course that's really fascinating it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out. I do wonder if we'll hear from Vernon Adams on this at some point as well. But anyways, of course, with two of the best quarterbacks in the league, arguably the best two quarterbacks in the league on the roster now, of course, that's going to be a conversation point.

Nathan Rourke asked about the situation with Vernon Adams. Here's what he had to say. I've got just the most amount of respect for V.A. He's such a pro ever since I've known him. When he came in for me in 22, at the end of 22, he was a pro. Everything he's done up until this point, he's been a pro about it. And he's a guy, type of leader, and type of person that I aspire to be in the locker room.

He's he's been he's been great. I think the timing is good in terms of him not being 100 percent. We need him for this playoff run that we're hopefully about to go on. And, you know, we're going to need everyone healthy. And he's not he's no exception. So for I think let him rest rest and kind of see what happens. But at the end of the day, I think he's done a fantastic job, and I respect the hell out of him for it.

That's Nathan Rourke talking about Vernon Adams. And again, I think the key there, and this is something we've heard from Neil McEvoy, Rick Campbell as well, is just that focus on kind of having the ultimate insurance policy, right? This is a team that is dead set all in on going to the great cup, competing for the great cup this year. And look, is it how you would draw it up on your roster? Not necessarily, but both of these guys have been injured before, right?

So keep them around, try to keep everyone as happy. And if you need somebody in the playoffs, down the stretch, whatever it is to take a few snaps, you've got a really, really good backup in-house. if you have to go that route yeah it's like the greatest insurance plan you could have and that's like i i still question like hey having two quarterbacks of this level on the same roster if that's the best use of talent i guess and if there's a better way to allocate that via trade whatever it is but regardless if this is how you're going to roll for the rest of the season i there there is a world where hey like these guys do get injured at times obviously vernon adams is currently injured and there is a world where it makes sense to have two elite

quarterbacks like this especially when you're a team again great cup at bc place you want to be there there's so much kind of like internal pressure i'd assume on you being there at the great cup so you kind of got to do everything in your power to make sure you have the best shot at making it and if having two quarterbacks of this talent level is what makes you believe you have your best shot then i guess it makes sense a couple of other just quick highlights from nathan rorke said i feel like I'm a better thrower than I was two years ago which should be scary for CFL defenses uh to hear considering what he did to the league a couple of years ago also said he's doing his best quote to get acclimated as soon as possible didn't confirm I'm going to be starting the game against

Winnipeg but he sure sounded that way right just like kind of a relentless focus on preparing for Winnipeg on Sunday. Also, the Lions released backup quarterback Jake Doligalo yesterday who started their last game. So they released the last guy who started. Vernon Adams is not 100% healthy. You know, you can connect the dots there. Nathan Rourke is definitely starting on Sunday.

I'm pretty sure Nathan Rourke is going to be starting that game on Sunday, and it's going to be fascinating. I'll throw it to you. We talked about the most outstanding player odds thing yesterday. What are your kind of immediate? Should we expect him to just come back and be peak 2022 Nathan Rourke right from his first snap on Sunday? I don't think so. I kind of think we should, to be honest.

That's a really high bar. I'm totally expecting it. It's not like he's been away from football. I know he hasn't been getting the reps he's wanted to and stuff, but he's still been in camps. But you've got to get chemistry with your receivers and everything. He's really good. I don't think he's going to be bad.

Yeah, fair enough. I don't think he's going to be bad on Sunday, but I just don't think he'll be most outstanding player level Nathan Rourke on Sunday. I think he'll be passable and just fine on Sunday and he'll show glimpses of like, hey, the following weeks of what he will be. But I think this week it's like, hey, if you can win the game, that's a huge win. Do you think he can win most outstanding player? I 100% think he can get like 10 wins.

There's not enough time. Rattle off a massive win streak And he's racking up numbers like he did in 2022 He's probably going to win it Josh he comes out there on Sunday Throws for 400 plus yards 4 or 5 TDs Lions win like 9 games

10 games rest of the season How do you not give it to him That's my bar My bar is like That's amazing you're an amazing player you're a very important player you got to play more than half the season to win mvp in my eyes and that's like if that's not how people look at it when they're talking about most outstanding player that's fine but i think the other part of it is its most outstanding

player not most valuable player and you got to be outstanding. Like if you're going to be the most outstanding player, I think you need the full season. Whereas you could be the most valuable player to a team in half a season. So I don't know. I don't know. I'm not there. This is a completely, I mean,

like it should always be called most outstanding player. That's a good point. That's a separate conversation for everything. But that's one of the things the CFL absolutely gets right compared to other leagues. In Major League Baseball, Mariners lose in extras 3-2 to the Tigers, and almost simultaneously as that was happening, the Astros win in extras against the Rays. Those games ended just moments apart.

So we'll get to the standings implications of that in a second here. But I think it's worth kind of drilling down on the loss from a Mariners perspective a little bit here. Familiar story for the Mariners. Their starting pitching was excellent. And it was Brian Wu, not even one of the big three, right, of Castillo, Kirby, and Gilbert, who they're kind of counting on to carry them. And if they do get to the playoffs, it would be so dangerous. Like, again, not even one of their best three starters,

but a really exciting young pitcher they have. Through seven shutout innings, he was fantastic. Six strikeouts, no walks, only four hits in those seven shutout innings. Mariners go into the eighth with a 2-0 lead. Blue Jays sleeper agent Jimmy Garcia comes in, blows the lead. I'll show you. Gives up a pair. So it's tied going into extras.

And then the Tigers win it in the bottom of the 10th. And it's, again, just the same problems over and over and over again, continuing to plague the Mariners, a lack of hitting and the bullpen. Now, I will say yesterday, as frustrating as it is to blow a two-run lead in the eighth, it's also hard to blame the pitching staff. I get it. That sucks. But the lineup scored two runs. So, yeah, relievers aren't going to be perfect.

The standard cannot be perfection from your bullpen. They're going to give up a couple of runs here or there. And if that is such a problem that it completely torpedoes your chance to win that's not so much on the bullpen that's on the lineup and after that 12 run outburst on sunday they've gone on to score three runs in the next couple of games another piece of bad news for the mariner yesterday julio rodriguez his third game back uh after being out with the high ankle sprain leaves the game after apparently re-aggravating the injury. Now, this is an interesting one.

It doesn't sound like he's going to miss time. Scott Service after the game, though not exactly encouraging, he says, Julio wants to play. He's not going to hurt it any worse. That's what I've been told. So he's going to have to grind through it. So it sounds like you can expect him to be a fixture in the lineup, but if he's grinding

through coming back from a high ankle sprain and he might have to leave games here or there, how effective will he really be? And, you know, I think like a lot of people, I've been expecting Julio to get hot, to go on a tear at some point. We know he has that in him. Look what he did around this time of year last season and how much it meant for the Mariners. And I think like the Mariners are going to need him to do that. they need him to be one of the best players in baseball for a stretch like he's shown he can but can he do that while battling a high ankle sprain and that's really the biggest question in the mariners season remaining for me and it's almost gone the opposite way too where it's like detrimental to have him in the lineup at times for the mariners

and it's like we've seen this if you're a blue jays fan with vladdy and bo bichette at times bo bichette especially this year um where it's just like man you are just having no luck at all things are not going your way um but for the blue jays at least you're like well that didn't make the playoffs like not going to make the playoffs so i guess at this point it doesn't matter whereas with with Julio, you look at it, you're slowly slipping out of the playoff picture. And you know the one thing you need is just to score a few more runs a game. And your X factor is Julio Rodriguez.

And he just – and look, I'm not fully blaming him for being injured right now, but he also just hasn't really been good. He wasn't good before the injury. Good at all this year. And so it's really frustrating if you're a Mariners fan looking at this, and I don't know if you can really buy stock in Julio

fixing any part of his game this year. It's tough. Yeah, I think your best case scenario of Julio probably at this point is okay, this is kind of a lost year for him, and then he gets back on track going into next season, and it's not fair to pin the offensive struggles and the slide and the standings for the Mariners on Julio individually because there's so many other problems with the lineup, right? Like, he's far from the only issue with their offense.

But at the same time, when you emerge as the face of the franchise, when you sign the type of deal that he did, there's an expectation that you're going to be able to carry the team through rough stretches, right? That you're going to be one of the solutions and not one of the problems. And unfortunately, he has been one of the problems for the team this year. Now, again, through no fault of his own, dealing with an injury, man, I have major, major questions about what that's going to do for his effectiveness down the stretch here.

And that's tough for the Mariners because, as I mentioned, the Astros win last night. The Royals win, too. So the Mariners now two and a half back of the Astros in the AL West. They're three back of the Royals in the wildcard race. They've also got the Red Sox in between them and the Royals. So they'd have to jump over both of those teams to make the wild card spot Fangrass have their playoff odds at 38.4 percent which is not inspiring no that's well off their peak there are more than a 91 chance to make the playoffs back in June of course

when they had that 10 game lead so that is a big big time slide in a couple of months here and they've got to figure out something there's been kind of ups and downs in that period right there's been times where i mean just earlier this week we were talking about hey the vibes have really shifted they've got some momentum here they found something all of a sudden it looks a lot more positive boom you go out and you scored three combined runs in the next two games and it feels a lot worse than it did even earlier this week yeah but it can also go the other way just as quickly right um the and you play the pirates there you go from friday to sunday so that's nice make up some games there but then you play the dodgers and giants and that's a little more difficult i it's um yeah

the vibes have shifted rather quickly but that also happens for any team at this point of the season in Major League Baseball, especially when you're trying to climb back into a playoff spot and you're in and around the wild card. You're going to have to get some luck as the season goes on, and you're going to have to have, especially if you're the Mariners and you need runs, somebody random is going to have to emerge on your team.

But the tough part is that Victor Robles has kind of already done that yeah and it hasn't been enough you gotta do it again another victor robles to emerge yeah out of nowhere and that's why it's like man like the the nice part of all of this is and we can maybe talk to adnan about it is if you can find a way into the playoffs pitching is what wins playoff games so if you can get there maybe you can like legitimately have a shot in the postseason but you still have to get there yeah and that's kind of the that's obviously the most difficult thing in their path right now uh elsewhere in major league baseball uh doesn't really mean much at this point but j Jays win 9-2. They sweep the Angels in L.A. Vladdy stays absolutely red hot with a double and a home run.

He was three for five on the night with a couple of extra base hits, as I said. So, you know, it's kind of weird. Like, would you rather the best player in your team be having, like, a Vladdy season where he's been amazing, but it doesn't matter because the team's not going anywhere, or like a Juladi season where he's been amazing but it doesn't matter because the team's not going anywhere or like a julio season where it's like ah he could be the difference between us going to the playoffs or not it's just like two different flavors of frustrating i'm enjoying watching vladi hit like this but a part of me is also like who cares yeah like do it do it in april and may and june next year and try to put this team actually in a playoff position

or at least a position to compete for the playoffs. That would be awfully nice. But anyways, Jays beat the angels nine to a quick update from the little league world series, which got underway yesterday in Williamsport in Pennsylvania, a little Timmy do. You're the little Timmy.

I'm still looking good. I don't want to talk about it. Nevermind. Shouldn't have brought it down. You know, consult your notes on little Timmy Wally who i'm focused on of course bc's team representing canada at the little little league world series uh tough first game for wally this was always going to be the case as i mentioned they were playing chinese type a that is a

historically excellent team at this tournament they win a lot they're always very very good they're a powerhouse. So they lose 8-0 to Chinese Taipei. Look, again, as I said, a little bit to be expected here. Wally's next game on Saturday against the loser of Japan and Puerto Rico. So that's probably going to be a tough game, too, but still time for Wally to turn their tournament around and have a good showing at the Little League World Series. And really, I mean, they're at the Little League World Series.

That's cool. That's cool. Clutch up. Clutch up right now. I know you have it in you, Wally. Represent Surrey. Come on. Do it. Don't embarrass us on the world stage. No. No. We're proud of you guys. The big takeaway being like, ah, man, that was embarrassing. No. Never. Get out of here.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. We'll talk a little Canucks here. We've been doing this throughout the week, kind of picking one aspect of the team, doing a little deep dive, kind of summarizing what's changed from last year, looking ahead to what we expect to see going into this new season for the Canucks. We've done the forwards, the blue line, the goalies.

So we're moving off the ice now. We're going to talk a little bit for the Canucks. We've done the forwards, the blue line, the goalies. So we're moving off the ice now. We're going to talk a little bit about the coaching staff. And it's an interesting topic on the Canucks, right? Of course, the coaching staff just blowing expectations out of the water, right? I mean, Rick Talk is the Jack Adams. To me, clearly, they've done a lot of things well, hiring Rick Talk at the best move, bar none, that Patrick Albion and Jim Rutherford have made since they've been here. I think you look at Adam Foote and the role he was able to play helping the defense. We all know what Ian Clark can do. Really up and down, a huge success story for the coaching staff last year, but there's been some changes mike yo is out yogi shavkoski gets elevated from skills coach to be an assistant coach he's going to take over at least partial responsibilities for the power play so they're they have this really impressive kind of foundation of success

to build on but i also think there's some really interesting questions about how the coaching staff is going to function going into next season and one nice thing about rick tocket as they has been that he seems to like he talks about it a lot and he seems to continue to want to get better not only as a coach but like hey improving this team and what they're doing as well um it's interesting when you kind of like step back and look at it and you're like wow what a what a great hire rick tocket was like stroke of genius like this is maybe the best thing they did when at the time it was like why are they doing all this to bring in rick talkett well and i still think the way it was handled was weird oh yeah you can separate the two things but decision to hire talk it specifically

was amazing yes the preceding stuff was weird yes i i think when we think back to it people kind of conflated the two and they kind of blamed blamed Rick Tockett. 100%. And now, obviously, we're at a point where it's like, okay, we can all agree that Rick Tockett was the right coach for this. And that would have been unfair. That was unfair at the time, before we even knew what a good job he was going to do. You know what I mean? You always had to separate Tockett from the Boudreaux stuff and just judge Tockett on his merits.

And now, obviously, everyone's been able to do that. We've all seen what he's capable of, seen how he communicates with us, with the players, gets buy-in, all of that. He's been just absolutely phenomenal. I mean, you've got to think even better than they were hoping for. I don't think they were like, we're going to hire the Jack Adams winner next year. This is so easy. Why aren't more teams doing this?

Definitely. But when you look at this upcoming season, and we talk about the biggest storylines with the coaching staff, I think one of the biggest things that Rick Tockett has talked about has been trying to create more offensively. Because, yes, they scored a lot of goals last year, but it was also, to an extent, some fluky numbers and maybe a little inflated and we saw as the season went on as the playoffs went on especially they struggled to create a little bit and i think specifically they struggled to create off the rush and when you have someone like a like your forward group is so talented you have eliasas Pettersson, you have JT Miller,

you have all these pieces. You should be able to create more offensively while still being responsible defensively. So I think the biggest thing this year is finding maybe a bit more of the balance. And I don't really blame the Canucks for, like, look, it worked out offensively last year, so you don't really have any complaints. But I don't blame the Canucks and Rick Tockett for going so hard on the offensively last year so you don't really have any complaints but i don't blame the knucks for and rick talker for going so hard on the defensive end last year because they were

horrible before that there was no structure you had to focus on that but i think you can continue to take steps and you can continue to kind of mesh things in and now that the players have fully bought into what you're doing defensively now you can start to maybe be a bit more creative offensively, and I think that's mainly what I'm looking for this year. Yeah, I think you make a really important point that it's not as if it was a bad decision by Rick Tockett to employ the system and the tactics he did last year. He got basically everything he could have out of that team, and one of the reasons, it's not as if he is inherently opposed to teams

being creatively offensive and scoring off the rush. He could have out of that team. And one of the reasons it's not as if he is inherently opposed to teams, you know, being creatively offensive and, and scoring off the rush. It's just like, did he have the personnel necessarily to, to consistently do that? I think that's a fair question to ask. And it is going to be interesting this year.

And he's mentioned this repeatedly, right? Whether it's, you know, interviews with trance or end of season media availabilities, the idea that, okay, now we've established our defensive identity.

Now we can maybe loosen things up just a little bit. And there's a very fine balance to be had there. You don't want to throw out what worked, but you can kind of introduce some additional things. It almost had to start with the defensive side of things. Like, as you said, they've've been so bad we have to clean that up now they have that foundation the question is what can you add on top of that without completely sacrificing and i think the some of the additions offensively will help right i think jake debrusk

will help i think daniel sprong who's a really talented scorer off the rush uh will help so the personnel may be a little bit better but how much can you tweak things while maintaining that really reliable defensive game on the back end? And the other thing about most of the additions, at least, is that they are guys that you can clearly see fitting into a Rick Tocket system, especially Jake DeBrusque. It's like, man, this guy might be one of the most perfect Rick Tocket players you can find in the league league especially of players that were available and you look at it and you can see the potential of all of this working you just got to figure out

a way to loosen the reins a bit to to allow guys especially i i think about elias petterson allow guys like him to create a bit more offensively and i don't think Rick Tockett was stifling him at all, but just make sure that he has the tools, at least, to be able to do that stuff. And that kind of leads into the next storyline is ensuring that Elias Pettersson has help throughout the season. And obviously, this is a big talking point for a lot of people on the 650-650 Dunbar-Lumber text line, too.

They're going to be like, why does he need help? He's Elias Pettersson. He gets paid a lot of money. He should be good. And I get it. Sure. That's fine. That's such a weird attitude to me.

It's like, do you want to win or do you want to punish Elias Pettersson? Exactly. You know what I mean? Why are you against the idea of him playing with good players? The other thing is all these other players around the league nathan mckinnon has miko ranton yes conor mcdavid has zach hyman who's a very good player like every elite player has a an elite player that they play with or at the very least a very good player that they play with exactly and if jake debrusk can be that guy and again

we're all looking at debrusque as the guy who is going to get the majority of the opportunities to try to fit with Elias Pettersson before they go to other pieces to try to figure it out but I think the biggest thing from Rick Tockett's point of view is making sure that there is a consistent winger that can have a higher ceiling or a higher floor even than Ilya Mikheyev and Nils Hoaglander. And I do think from a coaching perspective, that should be pretty straightforward, right? Like you got the option. You almost have too many pieces now for it not to be easy.

It's like, okay, we're going to put Jake DeBruys there. And something really either bad with that duo or a hole elsewhere in the lineup, like something pretty significant would have to happen for that not to be the solution. And if it's not the solution, right, if those guys don't fit well together, okay,

then the coaches have to go back to the drawing board. But at a certain point also, like that's a little bit on the players themselves at that point. Like that's where I do agree. Okay. If you're playing with Jake DeBrusque, you not that he's, you know,

elite, like some of those other sidekicks you mentioned, but he's good enough. And we've seen Elias Patterson have success with players not as good as Jake DeBrusque. You should be able to be very productive with Jake DeBrusque alongside you. To me, that's not so much a conundrum for the coaching staff as it is it's up to the players to make that fit, make that work.

One thing I'm really curious to see from the coaching staff this year is if you look at the blue line for the Canucks, we all said it right when they made the moves. Okay, hey, you lose the door off, but you get Deharnais, you get Forbort, you've retained that size element on the back end. Is there enough puck moving? And you read some of the reporting coming out about their decision-making in free agency.

It does feel like Rick Talk at an Adam foot really, really pushed and said, we need to have this big physical style back, right? That was such a part of our identity. We need to have these types of players. Don't worry about the puck moving. We'll make it work,

right? Whether it's systems, whether it's, you know, coaching Vinny day, Harney up a little bit, we will find a way to move the puck well enough to justify going so big on size and toughness on the back end. I think that paired with the how much more offensive creativity can they allow the players to have is kind of the biggest coaching-related

question for me. Can they make, especially the bottom four, right, beyond Quinn Hughes and Filip Ronic, now maybe Filip Ronic is in on the second pair that's another question to talk about but can they make their team move the puck well enough with Susie Myers Forbort and Deharnais if they are able to that's a that's a master stroke from the coaching staff because I don't even know how you do that to be honest because you look at these guys yeah you look at the track record of these guys and not that they're bad players but generally you don't look at them and you're like oh yeah these guys are excellent puck movers it's not going to be a concern whatsoever it's a big bet for not only the coaching staff but management to make to be like hey we believe so much in the system and so much in a certain player's identity that we're just going to commit to,

like for the Canucks on the back end, it's finding size to surround Quinn Hughes and Philip Peronic, who aren't huge dudes, and just making it work. And we'll see if they can do it with less talented players. Because again, we talked about the defense a couple days ago, and obviously the loss of Nikita Zdorov is a big one but I think Ian Cole the loss of him is going to be a bit underrated as well because realistically I think even at this point in his career he's more talented

than Vinny Desjardins and Derek Forbort have been in the past in their career but there is a world where Forbort and Desjardins come into career, but there is a world where Forbort and DeJarne come into the system in Vancouver. Maybe they get coached up a little bit and they can unlock a little bit more in their game. DeJarne specifically is the most intriguing one to me, just because Edmonton fans seem to be like kind of high on him and and it was a little divisive but at least some of their fans liked what he brought to the team and i wonder getting a closer look at it here in vancouver what parts of his game are going to stand out and if this connect coaching staff can get more out of him like they got more out of guys like zadorov when they came to vancouver so yeah that is a

that's a that's a big storyline going into the season as well. And, I mean, part of that storyline is do they split up Quinn Hughes and Philip Roenick, right? And that might be the most interesting lineup decision the coaching staff has to make, right? As much as we're curious about, you know, who's going to play alongside Miller and Besser, will Jake DeBrusque and Elias Patterson work, right?

There's lineup questions up and down the roster, as there always are. But I think the most interesting one is, do they find a way to successfully split up Quinn Hughes and Filip Ronick? Because if you're able to do that, the puck moving question becomes so much less significant. All of a sudden, you're like, OK, at least we have one of those two guys out there for 45 minutes plus in the game. And we can make the remaining 15 or whatever work. We can get through it.

And to me, what it probably looks like is they still play a lot together, but then at different points in the game, you find the situations where you can split them up. And you do more. Because remember, going back to last training camp, it was, well, Quinn Hughes' partner is going to be by committee, right? That was what they were saying at training camp. It didn't work out that way, of course,

but I wonder if they kind of go back to that idea a little bit and say, you're not going to be stapled together. You're still going to get the time, but we're also going to rotate guys next to Quinn Hughes and move Philip Pronick around the lineup a little bit too. Yeah, other storylines. So we talked a bit about it yesterday, but balancing Thatcher Demko's workload is going to be important. You you got to resist the urge to look I know Thatcher Demko he's a very good

goalie and if I was a coach I'd be like you know what I want to do play Thatcher Demko every game because he is very good and he can help you win games but you got to find a way and hey maybe this falls more on Archer Shelob's and and what he's doing or yuri patera and what he's doing but you got to find a way to get some of these backups into more games and again i think just having a level of trust in your backup is going to go a long way and we i i think we all assume rick tocket does trust archer she loves based on the postseason what and what he was able to do so that's going to be a big storyline as well. And then also the big thing, the power play getting better.

Yep. And Yogi Sveikovsky, we'll see what he can bring. It has to be better than it was last year. And that's a huge coaching story, right? Because, of course, Rick Tockett was the head coach and also running the power play, which is very, very rare, unusual. And so they're changing that up, although it does sound like Rick Tockett

still wants to be really involved with the power play. Now, I don't know. It's as simple as like, well, Rick Tockett wasn't doing a good enough job because he had too much on his plate. There's lots of other things you can point to. I think Elias Pettersson needs to be a lot better, but they haven't really found a way to consistently click.

There's been moments where they've run really hot, but to consistently click and look dangerous been moments where they've been, they've run really hot, but to consistently click and look dangerous since Bo Horvat left, right? And I think what's happened is I know Rick Talkett is not a plays guy, right? He has said that over and over again. I understand that. He's a lot of blank guy, but he's not a plays guy.

But I think you need to have a bread and butter look like something that's like, okay, it's not all we're going to do, but this is kind of our key play that's going to keep defenses honest and let us to look for other things and they haven't really had that they had it with Bo Horvat from the bumper it's been missing since he left so whether it's replacing him in the bumper whether it's figuring out a different look on the power play I think that's going to be a key thing for Yogi Shikoski in his new role, elevated from skills coach to figure out a way to get the power play clicking because they're going to need it.

I mean, we're talking about the goal scoring. Even strength is part of it. Power play is a big part of it. And you look at all the pieces on the power play too, the theoretical pieces they could put out there. Man, it should be like a top five power play. They have all the talent they need to make it a really good, a really intimidating power play. We are very, very need to make it a really good uh a really intimidating

power play we are very very pleased to be joined by our next guest he is performing on august 24th at the peony as part of the peony summer night concert series he is comedian jerry d jerry thank you very much for doing this today how are you my pleasure yeah good to be here uh so how does it feel to be the first ever comedian to be a part of the P&E Summer Night Concert Series? They'd never allowed a comedian to perform until they booked you, Jerry. I never knew that. I never knew that. There you go. That's flattering. Yeah. No, I'm excited.

I mean, I love, I've been back and forth to Vancouver quite a bit lately, lately with a show I'm on called Animal Control. Love the city. I'm never there very long unfortunately because it's in and out but uh always look forward to coming back and you know this is a special event as you said and and i'm excited to be a part of it you know i know you were on tour earlier this year and you've been doing some shows like this as well kind of around the country uh how's being on tour how's kind of you know getting to see all these different events around the country i love it i mean stand-ups the first well you know in entertainment it was the where it started for me um i love it it's like it's the truest form of comedy for me is stand-up and i uh you know

it's it's the first thing i did when I got in the industry so anytime I can you know get back and do that I I love it it's uh yeah it's like you know I love acting too so it's hard to pick one but I love having both and uh this is just one half of what I do. I was going through your Twitter and a lot of tweets about Canada at the Olympics what did you think of uh Paris 2024 and everything going on there? I really liked it. I mean, I'm such a sports fanatic. I always miss it when it's done. And, you know, I'll watch cycling. I'll watch, you know, synchro swimming if Canada's in it. Right. It's just and that was just kind of what I did. So I was really into the

beach volleyball, obviously, with, you know, my kids all play. And the first time that, you know, Brandy and Melissa had ever, you know, they were in the gold medal match. We'd never had anyone go that far. And it was exciting. And it's an exciting sport. And I think any time, you know, like summer and swimming, like any time you can do that for the sport, it just grows the sport for Canada. So, and we had a lot of, you know, I think we had 20 plus medals, 27 or something I saw. And in various different sports, you know, throwing the hammer is our thing now. That's our thing.

So you're going to have a bunch of kids throwing the hammer now. Like it's great, right? I, I'm a big believer in kids and sports, and I think the Olympics just helps with that. Breakdancing maybe may not take off as quickly. Well, I was going to ask you about that. I mean, we won the gold medal on the men's side, so that's pretty special. But what did you think of the debut

and possibly also the last appearance of breaking at the Olympics? I think it's unfortunate because you saw the real breakdancers there yeah and ray gun unfortunately was not um and i didn't watch all of them so maybe there was others but she certainly was the worst of the worst and uh when i saw the best of the best i'm like yeah that's what i expected and um you know it was a skill i grew up with and i could never do it but it was kind of broke out with when I was in high school. And so I loved seeing it and, and sadly it's gone. Is it a sport? Uh, no, it's not, but it's certainly, you know, it certainly takes all the, uh, the

difficulty and attributes of, of a lot of sports. So maybe it is a sport, right? Like, you know, it's got a lot of components of things, you know, but shooting is shooting a rifle a sport. I don't know. Some people would say is golf a sport. That's my favorite sport. People would say it's not a sport.

So I think the definition is very loose of what the sport is. To me, breakdancing is incredibly difficult, artistic, you know, as a creator, I love the creation of it. That's what Raegan said. She was like, I'm not about the skill and the physical moves. I'm about the creativity of it. I was laughing. Yeah, we noticed. We noticed that you're not about the physical moves.

Yeah, who knows how to do a kangaroo pose? That's hard to do. I got excited there. When you said you grew up with breaking, I thought you were going to reveal a hidden talent that the world didn't know about Jerry D. No. No, I couldn't do it. I remember doing it.

I couldn't. This is always a fun kind of hypothetical that we kick around around Olympics time. What would be your Olympic sport? If you were forced, okay, hey, you're going. You're competing in something. What would set you up for success the most at the Olympics? Golf, probably golf. That was the closest I, that was the one I was probably got the closest, not the closest.

That was the best. Like if, you know, I would, I would probably not look too out of place, but, um, hockey in the winter Olympics, but never to the level of these people, like not, not, not even close. But if I could go in one, it would be, the only one would probably be those two. I don't think there's anything else I would even be remotely good at. Like, even some of the lesser-known sports.

Break dancing, I guess, if she did it, maybe break dancing, because I was probably as good as her. It's about the confidence in breakdancing. You just got to go out there and look like you know what you're doing. It's not even, it's the confidence of her was fascinating. It's just the belief that, she's like,

what is everybody talking about? That was great. I love people like that. I'm fascinated at people that, you see it in comedy too. Comics will go up and just bomb miserably. And they are like, oh man, that crowd was rocking. I'm like, what crowd did you see? And it's like, it's just anything, actors, dancers, singers,

like people don't see themselves, you know, honestly. And that's, she exemplified that. Sorry, go ahead. She's probably walking around very famous now. I don't know. Infamous, famous, who knows? Infamous, yeah. I think Australia isn't super high on Ray Gunn right now.

But that kind of attitude is something that, I mean, I feel like a lot of athletes have or have to have, really. Like Noah Lyles, to an extent, too. And obviously he backed it up. But yeah, I think it's too much. I think even Noah Lyles, he does back it up. I just come from a bit more of a world of like, what do you gain if you don't win it? Like, yeah. Yeah. But sometimes people like that just don't care. And, you know, I saw an interview with Andre DeGrasse talking about Noah Lyles, just saying, like, you know what, he's good for the sport.

And I can see that angle too, right? We're all talking about it. I come more from the world of, like, being with my kids. Like, you know, you want to pump your tires in front of me, you better, because I'll tell you, you were terrible. Like, don't stop acting like you're good. You weren't. And I just think you've got to be self-aware at some point.

Same with stand-up. Like, I can't come off the stage and go, I killed every time. I got to be honest and go, that did not go good, especially when I was starting. Yeah, I mean, I guess you learn from that, right, if you're honest with yourself, especially in stand-up. Well, it makes you better. It makes you go get better. If you always think you killed, why are you trying to get better? Yeah.

So for me, bombing was like, okay, I got to get better. Because the self-realization I bombed, I knew, okay, that was bad. But there's comics we'll look at like, right now I did a couple dates with Nate Bargatze, who I think is the best right now, out there. And there's comics would go in front of Nate and go, I'm better than him. I don't get it. That's a lot of comics, sadly. They don't have a self-awareness.

How did Jerry D make it? He sucked. He sucks. You see it in hockey in Canada. How's that guy in the NHL? I was way better than him. It happens all the time. That's the way it is, I guess.

Yeah. As you mentioned, you're a sports fanatic. And I was combing through your Twitter feed a little while. And I guess this would have been right around when the Stanley Cup final ended. And you called your shot. You called a Leafs-Oilers Stanley Cup final all-Canadian matchup for next season. Are you sticking with that? Yeah.

I mean, obviously, it's really hard to predict the two finalists, but I think it's a reasonable guess. You know, it's like they've got to be, like obviously the Oilers have proven it's very reasonable. The Leafs, something's got to change.

Like they just have too much talent on that roster and maybe the coaching change. You know, I know Vancouver, I don't know how they ended up and how they're building for next year but i would just love a canadian final i'm not an oilers fan but i was cheering for the oilers right like it's just i i just think an all canadian final would be so good for for the country you know it would be like there'd be chirping there'd

be back and forth there'd be so many people focused it's great for the the bar industry and the restaurant industry and the industry itself so i just think it's great when you don't have a canadian in the final it really kills uh kills the buzz of hockey so glad we had one and of course being a leaf fan i'm gonna throw shade on stuff and go hey leaf soilers and then i gotta watch all the hate tweets come, and that's fine. That'll be fun. As a Leafs fan, how do you feel about the captaincy switch? Austin Matthews getting the C now. I don't think.

I mean, I'm sure they handled the process very well. I'm sure Tavares is very aware of, but I don't think. Are we winning now because there's a different C on a player? I don't know. I don't know. I don't think it, are we winning now? Cause there's a different sea on a player. Like, you know, I don't know who, I don't know. I don't think it's gonna, I think it says a lot, you know, was Tavares all for it? Probably if he wasn't, then it's weird, but I'm sure he was like, no, this makes sense. And you know, it's, maybe, maybe it's a good thing. Maybe Matthews is more like, okay, now I gotta like, I'm the leader now. And, you know, it's maybe, maybe it's a good thing. Maybe Matthews is more like, okay, now I got to, like, I'm the leader now. And, you know, and I think of the best captains in hockey.

I think of, you know, Eisenman, Messier, Stamkos. Like, I think of guys like that, right? I think he was a cat, like, just guys that got you to a cup final or got you a cup. And you need that presence. So maybe Matthews will, you you know he's the best player on the team and a lot of times that goes hand in hand but davis was he was good he was no i had no complaints about it uh so jerry as mentioned you're going to be performing august 24th at the pne for people who haven't had a chance to to see you doing stand-up just tell us a little bit about

what uh what they can expect of the show it's uh you know i've been working on a lot of new material so i've been in van a lot of new material, so I've been in Vancouver in a while, so it'll feel like a very different show if you've seen me there in the last, you know, five, six years. So, yeah, I'm excited. It's, again, it's always fun to go back to a city I haven't been to in a while, and, you know, I'm not a dirty comic,

I don't really swear, so if you're worried about that, you don't have to, and'm not a dirty comic. I don't really swear. So if you're worried about that, you don't have to. And nothing's wrong with that. It's just sometimes I do a little. But for the most part, I'm trying to go the other way even more now. Just kind of comedy for everybody type thing. But it's a little edgy. So don't bring your 10-year-old.

10 is probably too young. 14. 14, I would say. 14 and up. That's fantastic too young. Okay. 14. All right. I would say 14 and up. That's fantastic. Hey, Jerry, really appreciate the time. Looking forward to having you in Vancouver.

Thanks for doing this. Okay. Bye. Thanks guys. That is comedian Jerry D who, as mentioned, will be performing August 24th at the P and E first ever comedian to be part of the P and E summer night concert series.

You can get your tickets now. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.