Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 8/21/24

Episode Date: August 21, 2024

Jason Brough and guest host Josh Elliott-Wolfe look back at the previous day in sports, things get heated when the boys compare the intensity levels of the  World Cup of Hockey and The Olympics, the great Tik Tok versus Vine debate rages on, plus they chat the goalie market with NHL.com Canucks reporter & In Goal Magazine's Kevin Woodley. 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. What I am hearing on Demko is that he is progressing, but no timetable as to when he's going to be 100% healthy. Would you say it's time for everyone to panic? Yes, I would, Ken. It was reported that I wouldn't have done this to Kenny Hall, and that's the furthest thing from the truth.

But honestly, I'd do it to my mother if she was managing the others. You'd step over your own mother just to get one. We're still going and digging on Saturday, right, mother? Good morning, Vancouverouver six o'clock on a wednesday happy wednesday it is halford and brough josh elliott will filling in for mike halford and uh jason brough still here good morning good morning josh how are you do you do you understand the simpsons bits or are those a little little i a little old for you some some of them i get those ones ones, I did not.

I do put in an effort, I will say, when I'm hosting the show. Josh is like, that's funny. It's an animated TV show. It's still on. They're all yellow. That's the gimmick. Yeah, fair enough. The main character is Homer.

Simpson? Yeah. Oh, good morning. Never heard of him. Good morning. Laddie, good morning. Hello, hello. It is Halford and Brough.

Halford and Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. Text in 650-650. The Dunbar Lumber text line. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at dumbarlumber.com. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio.

Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soar feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. Today on the show, another full day, another very hockey-filled day as well. At 6.30, Marc-Antoine Godin covering the hockey for Radio-Canada. He will join us to talk about the Montreal Canadiens. They traded for Patrick Laine. Where's that team at?

It kind of feels like what I've seen from Canadiens fans on Twitter is that they're really hyped up about what the team can be. And I don't know if I'm there with them yet, but we'll see. They're in such a different position than, say, the Vancouver Canucks in that if line A doesn't work out, it's not great because they've wasted that cap space, but it's kind of like, meh. Yeah, it's fine. It's not like, oh, oh no we won't win the cup

right like they ain't winning the cup yeah and they probably ain't making the playoffs uh seven o'clock andy strickland blues ringside reporter for ballet sports midwest we'll talk about the blues they get philip broberg and dylan holloway and uh we'll see where they're at because they are another team with uh I just don't understand what they're doing I guess with the Blues and so we'll get to the bottom of what they might be doing and what they might be with Andy Strickland at 7 at 7 30 Matthew Futterman sports journalist for the athletic really excited for this one he had a an article up about um kind of the organ organizers of the la 2028 olympics and how they're approaching it and i've like talked about it on the show the

last few weeks i love the olympics and i think paris was amazing and i'm even more excited for what la could be well it's a much more reasonable road trip for people living in Vancouver. If you want to go down and watch Summer McIntosh dominate the 2028 Summer Olympics, one of the interesting things that we'll talk about in this interview is that they're going to do the swimming at SoFi Stadium, but also

the opening ceremonies. Like that stadium is incredible, and the facilities that they've got generally in Los Angeles are incredible, so that's one of the interesting things about these LA games that we'll talk about with Max. 8 o'clock, Kevin Woodley, NHL.com, InGoal Magazine. What's going on with Thatcher Demko? Should the Canucks be looking at a veteran backup or someone to bring in on a PTO and's going on with thatcher demko should the canucks be looking at a veteran

backup or someone to bring in on a pto and everything going on with the canucks goaltending situation that is at eight o'clock so working in reverse eight kevin woodley 7 30 matt futterman uh seven o'clock andy strickland and 6 30 mark antoine godine that's what's happening on the show. 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? 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 bccsa.ca. So yesterday. What happened is that we had Rick Dollywell on the show, and he reported some news about Thatcher Demko, and then it officially became hockey season in Vancouver. I honestly feel like that. Like yesterday was the first time, you know,

like the weather hasn't been as good. We're starting to see some cloud. We're starting to see some rain. It's getting, you know, it's still nice out, but it's getting a little chillier. Yeah, I love it. And we're starting to think about the Vancouver Canucks, and not just because this was potentially negative news.

I honestly don't think it was like earth shatteringly negative. It is possibly a bump in the road that the Canucks will have to deal with heading into training camp. But it had all the people on social media talking, and it had a few reporters making some calls. I know Patrick Johnston at the province, he reached out to Patrick Alvin. He reached out to Thatcher Demko's agent about those reports and trying to get more information

on what's going on with Thatcher Demko. Has he had surgery? Has he not had surgery? Is he going to be ready for training camp? What's going on there? Nobody responded to him. And it was reminiscent of Rick Dollywall coming on the show yesterday and saying he got radio silence when he reached out to the Canucks

and his various sources and asked if he's had surgery. Now, Patrick, in an article in the province, noted the Canucks could simply put an end to all this with a statement about Demko's status, laying out Demko's recovery timeline going back to the original injury in late April maybe they'll do that maybe not but again welcome to Canucks hockey 2024-25 season is officially underway yes we have we have started semi-panicking about one thing and it's so much fun i missed it so much but the uh it's it's difficult because it does kind of feel like yes it would all go away if they came out well actually it probably would not all go away if they came out and they were like hey no it's fine he didn't have surgery whatever because we've seen teams. Will he need to? Yeah.

He should have. Yeah. So that's what's going on with that, Joe Demko. I'm interested in talking to Kevin Woodley kind of about what, like how difficult is it to be a goalie? I may be glad that you know as well, about coming back from an injury like this. And he's had multiple kind of similar injuries.

At a certain point, how much of a backup plan do you need for Thatcher Demko, and is Artur Shilov's enough of a backup plan, or Yuri Patera enough of a backup plan for where the Canucks are at? And how do you separate injuries that are just normal injuries that happen, might be unlucky, versus how do you, as a team, look at a guy and say, we like the guy a lot, but we have an honest question

about whether or not he's going to be durable enough. What kind of things do you have to look at? Do you have to look at his specific style of play? Do you have to look at his body type? I don't know. Aren't all goalies the same now? They're like tall guys? Laddie, you know this stuff better than we do. Is there anything

about Thatcher Demko that stands out to you besides his history that says this guy is going to be an injury problem? I think it's a risk with any goalie like you said but uh he's bigger he's on the bigger side like he's he's taller and a little heavier than most goalies so you are going to get some more wear and tear and as we've seen he has had injury issues in

the past which generally means in the future you could see those injuries popping up again so like i said yesterday it's it's kind of my only concern with Timko because you're not worried about his ability. It's just about his ability to stay on the ice. So let's table this topic until we talk with Kev at 8 o'clock. There was some interesting news in the NHL yesterday. Local boy Ryan Johansson was cut loose by the Philadelphia Flyers, and essentially he was put on waivers for the purpose of termination of his contract,

and this is not something that Ryan Johanson wants, and it's possible this could lead to a grievance. I'm sure most of you have seen this news, and what do we think happened here so the the speculation i guess from from elliot friedman or his reporting was that uh the issue is the injury that prevented johansson from playing games for philadelphia after being traded from colorado so basically it kind of feels like johansson when he got waived was expected to report to the AHL. And Philadelphia, if we're reading between the lines here, probably assumed or knew that he was healthy enough to report. He didn't report because he maybe felt he was injured.

And then now maybe... Yeah, he was like, I'm not going to Lehigh Valley. Which, hey, fair enough, Ryan. That's a good call. But now you're in a situation where are you healthy enough to play? And if the team believes you are and you are saying you're not, then you're breaching the contract. When you get traded from Colorado and you've played for them.

Yes. And then you go to Philly and you're quickly put on waivers for the purpose of sending you down to the AHL and then all of a sudden you're like, oh, my hip. It's a little fishy, man. Right, but I will be very curious to see how this plays out because whether or not you're injured, it's kind of like, you know, what's the difference between hurting a little bit and being injured.

So, um, we'll see how this one plays out. I mean, I think you've pretty much nailed. I, I reached out to a few guys yesterday and I don't think this is anything like there. I know there were some, some uh some fun conspiracy theories out there that it was like almost like an insurance scam or something like that like they caught him like jet skiing or something like that he's like are you supposed to be hurt and he's doing like uh hey he's like tubing or something in the summer i i don't think it was that i think it was probably going back to originally when they acquired him.

But what happened in the meantime? What happened in the meantime? Like why now did that decision come down? So we'll keep monitoring that situation. The Seattle Kraken locked up one of their core players, giving Matty Beneers a seven-year deal. I saw this come across my headlines and I was like, man, I wish I was interested in the Kraken. Dude, like I might actually be interested in this. And I am so disappointed that I am so disinterested in the Kraken because like I wanted this to be a rivalry and maybe one day it will be

but I honestly think that they are the most given their potential the most boring team in the NHL even their off-season acquisitions you're kind of like yeah Chandler Stevenson's a good player and I guess they got Brandon Montour, and he's a good puck mover. He was good for Florida. Maybe he'll help their power play, but I still look at this team, and I'm like, you got no star power. You're boring.

You're boring. They are. Everything you do is boring and conservative, and I don't know. Maybe us in Vancouver calling them boring will make this more of a rivalry. Like, oh yeah, that boring team down in Seattle. It's just nothing happens to that team.

Nothing. Nothing goes on. All their moves going forward are dictated by this morning show. Yeah. Oh, they made an aggressive move. Boring, are they? They were boring. But listen, how many times have we had people on from Seattle?

Yeah. And they're kind of like, yeah, they're kind of boring, right? We have a hockey team. We know that much. And it's a risk, man. It's a risk because the Sonics are coming back. Seattle's already packed marketplace in terms of sports. Hockey has a bit of a tradition down there.

There's some hardcore junior hockey fans. I realize that there are bit of a tradition down there. You know, there was some hardcore junior hockey fans. Like I realized that there are some, you know, some kids play hockey down there, but it's completely different than Vancouver. It's completely different. And they really have outside of that blip where they made the playoffs and they upset the abs and there was some excitement in Seattle. The problem was that they didn't follow that up with anything, right? They followed it up with just like a boring season. Yeah, they kind of immediately found themselves in like the aggressively mediocre territory where you can like sometimes some years you go and you make the playoffs, you barely make the playoffs, and then you can maybe upset a team, but you're never a

legitimate threat to go further than that. But also most years you're going to find yourself kind of on the outside looking in of the playoffs and you look at it now and it like the additions they made you look at the the standings last season they were 17 points out of the playoffs last year are the additions they made enough to close that gap like i don't look at them as a playoff team this year and i don't look at them as a bad enough team i mean i think they could be a playoff team but they're not going to be so bad that they're going to get the first overall pick exactly and that's that's kind of the issue when you're stuck in the middle and i i kind of immediately stuck in the middle and that's why right off the bat i feel like when we talk about this this expansion draft and kind of the new format the

nhl had for vegas, it hit to an extraordinary level that probably would never be matched. Yeah. And we were like, it's so unfair. They're just giving the Stanley Cup to Vegas. But I guess the point you're trying to make is sometimes when you have an expansion draft and you give the team a chance to be okay and to be competitive

you can end up right away in the mushy middle yeah and it's really really hard to get out of it and you look at their like bringing it back to maddie veneers like is he enough to when you look at him does he have you know what he is he's bohor that's exactly what i was gonna say he's can he be more than that? Probably not. And I look at him and he's maybe the second or third best guy. He could be your second or third best forward on a cup winning team, probably third.

Yeah. And they have – I don't see him as a superstar. Yeah. I see him as a local star. He's a local celebrity. Right? He's a good player.

He's a local celebrity in Seattle right like he's he's a good player yeah he's a good player but I think um when you looked at what they could have had you know the potential when they drafted Matty Beneers second overall in their first round in their first pick and then they drafted Shane Wright fourth overall you're kind of like, potential down the middle looks pretty good. Beniers has panned out, but not overly panned out. And Shane Wright is still to be determined what he is. And then you look at, you know, there are other prospects. You know, in 2023, they drafted 20th overall

because they had a pretty good year. They made the playoffs and they upset the Avs because they had a pretty good year. They made the playoffs and they upset the Avs and they ended up with, I don't know, some guy named Edwards Saleh. And last year, I mean, Laddie's going to be like, oh yeah, he's a Czech player. He's pretty good. I've heard about him.

Laddie, I mean, you follow the dub more than we do. They got out of Spokane, Berkeley Catton. Is that how you, I don't even know how to pronounce his name, but eighth overall. I mean, at good points, like is he, what's his potential?

He's pretty special. He's pretty special? He's a guy who just sees the ice really well. He sets up his teammates well and he was in the talks for being like right up there in the draft class. So maybe he can pan out

and be the real star they need but but it's also like it's not just the way they've drafted it's the way they've built the team which is like vince dunn's our star right you're like okay all right at any rate like i don't want to i don't want to i'm been droning on too much but josh texted me last night he's like we should talk about the kraken and how boring they are. Yeah, people love talking about boring things. But as a Canucks fan, I'm upset that they're boring. I wanted them to be exciting.

I wanted there to be rivalry there. And I probably knew in the back of my mind that that wasn't going to happen until they met in the playoffs or something. In, you know, a real rivalry. It won't happen. That's what it'll take. That's what it'll take, you think? Yeah, season rivalry is not the same thing.

You need a playoff battle. Yeah. Like once they have their first true, whenever that happens, if it happens, true playoff battle, then there will be a rivalry, you know, 30 years from now. Do you think Sonics fans back in the day were like, man, I wish the Grizzlies weren't so bad? Probably, yeah. That would have been fun to have a rivalry with

Vancouver. They were probably having the exact same conversation 30 years ago. Here's the difference. I wish the Grizzlies were good. Here's the difference. Seattle already had some natural geographic rivalries. Yeah. Right? They had Portland. Right. And they had the whole West Coast and they'd been established.

Right. And, you know, when Vancouver came in, they were probably like, eh. Yeah. Right. Like we'll see you when you guys are good. Yeah. It wasn't that big a deal.

Um, I think the excitement for Canucks fans when the Kraken came into the NHL was like, here's, here's like a drivable game that we can go down and we can cheer for the Canucks in Seattle. I still haven't been to that arena. I've heard it's real nice. I've heard it's real nice. I'd like to go, I don't know, I always say this, I'd like to go this year.

I think it's cool that it's underground. I've never been to an underground arena. Well, yeah, they had to dig it out. That's sweet. I mean, I've been to that arena before a long time ago. I saw the Boston Celtics play the Seattle Supersonics there. It was like the Larry Bird era. Damn.

Thank you. That was my first ever NBA game. TV was still black and white then, Josh. It was. It was. None of the games were on TV. They were all, yeah. It was, at any rate.

You know, like, but do you know what the big attraction to, to go down and watch the Canucks in Seattle? Number one, the Canucks. Number two, the arena. Like I want to see the arena. Ticket prices too, maybe. Yeah, the ticket prices maybe too. The Canucks ticket prices this year is like, oh geez. But it's not like, I can't wait to see if Brandon Montour

can help the puck moving abilities of the Seattle Kraken. Chandler Stevenson. I'm so excited to see his impact on the second line. Kraken superstar Chandler Stevenson. Do you think they have those guys? It's like, you know how the Canucks and all the arenas have the posters of the star players around the city and littering the arena and outside?

Do you think the Kraken have those banners of Chandler Stephenson? They must. It's got to be like superstar players. Like Beneers, McCann, Stephenson, Finster. Their marketing team's like, what the hell are we going to do? How do we make this into things? Maybe the first year is like, look at Brandon Tanev. Look at his mugshot.

Yeah, his mugshot's the marketing problem. He's got big eyes. He's got big eyes. He looks surprised. He looks surprised. I've actually, I've seen, speaking of Brandon Tanev, I've seen Kraken fans online being like, oh, do we got to trade Brandon Tanev now?

Like, they feel like they have to trade somebody. And Brandon Tanev, if he was available, very interesting to me from a Canucks point of view. Not that they would trade with the Canucks, because I think they did. Well, the Canucks, how are you making all these moves? I know you want to talk about Patrick Laine. Oh, okay.

And whether or not the Canucks should have done that. I live in a fantasy world. How are you making that happen? The Laine thing? Yeah, the Laine thing. The Laine thing – Because Columbus clearly wanted to get rid of the entire cap hit and they were willing to send away a second round draft pick in order to convince the Habs to do that.

So how, like, when line A, when it became obvious that line A wanted out of Columbus and that he was likely going to be traded this offseason, I gave it like four seconds of thought in terms of the Canucks because of cap hit also the way the like the window that the Canucks are in right now where they can't afford to like take a massive swing on a guy that has had some issues and also you know like we saw how not that they're same player but like we saw how a guy like Kuzmenko fit with rick talkett patrick liney is

not exactly known as like this hard-working guy that is a 200 foot player and takes care of every area of the ice patrick liney is known as like he's got a good shot yeah you know but so the the way i would have fitted in and this is like completely hindsight uh you wouldn't have been able to sign debrask and joshua and that would have been the exact amount of cap you needed and maybe like hey that's inherently a risk but i also look at jake debrusk and dakota joshua both of those contracts it's very very risky and arguably i would say because of the term because of the dollars committed they might even be more risky than patrick linea for you would have picked linea over debruskin now i'm not saying i would pick linea but i could make the case that linea

might be at not as risky of an option as people might think it's not even the what do you think is going to happen to him it's the mental game though man it's not the con like for me it's not the contract it's it's what's going on upstairs's going on upstairs. I kind of believe that he might be able to get back to that form in Montreal. I think he has gone through the steps now and gone through the experiences. But Kuzmenko scored 35 goals for the Canucks, but

wasn't really a fit with how they play. And how they want to play under Rick Tockett. And Laine, to me, is just more talented than Kuzmenko to the point where I think Rick Tockett might just be like, hey, if you can hate your potential, then you can do, like, you'll be with Pedersen, it's fine. You can do what you have to do.

And he'll accept the negatives that come with. Line A and PD on a line together would be fascinating to watch. Yeah, exactly. That could be that good of that. That's like the highest of high ceilings, but also the lowest of low floors, right? And that's the thing to me that was so intriguing. Both crying?

Do they like hockey? What's happening right now? Canucks locker room. Oh, my God. Miller just in the corner. He's like fuming. He's not even saying anything. We got another one.

How did they do this? But anyway, I just think it would have been fun. It's a big bet. And look, to be fair. I mean, I understand what you're saying. Theoretically, if Lainey is like... Talent is enticing. Yeah, if he gets back to his form on the Jets,

he was like, for those couple years, he was one of the best goal scorers in the league. He would have been a perfect fit for Patterson. If you get Lainey at his best years, best years liney then he's totally worth the money i just don't think it's worth the risk and it's a big risk i really do hope it works out for the habs and i think the habs were the perfect team to take a risk on that um i guess the only thing that people might say is like that's a lot of attention for liney in that market but listen he's gonna have to if he's gonna come back into the NHL, he's going to face some

challenges. And, you know, I watched his entire presser and he seemed like he was in a better place. And I hope he's learned some good lessons and I hope he's learned some coping strategies for how to deal with the pressure and the tension of being an NHL player, which I can only imagine what that is. It's immense, especially when you have the expectations that Patrick Laine has. I hope it works out for Montreal. I think the Canadians were the perfect team to try and get him, also considering the fact that they haven't had many elite offensive players in a long, long time.

He was perfect for them. I just did not see how that would work for Vancouver. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Is Jordan Binnington the favorite to be the goalie for Canada? Let's talk about the Four Nations before we get to the Olympics because a lot can happen in a couple of years, but the Four Nations is coming up this season.

The candidates, I suppose, would be Bennington, Aiden Hill, and Stuart Skinner for the Edmonton Oilers. Tristan Jari. He's been a... Sorry. Yeah, I don't think... Connor Ingram needs to be thrown into the picture as well if he has another good year with Utah.

So it's up in the air. I don't think the Canadian goaltending is as bad as people are making it out to be. I think four out of the top ten adjusted safe percentage goaltenders were Canadian. So you don't get the big names. It's not the carry prices that we're seeing anymore. But I think Canada will do just fine in an international competition, regardless of who they are. But just fine isn't good enough, right?

They need to win, right? And I look at the goaltending, and obviously I think there's a concern there too. I don't love the blue line as much as I used to. With Canada's blue line, you're always like, man, that thing is stacked, at least compared to the Americans. And I remember in Sochi, which was the last time we had true best on best,

people were all talking about the Russian team because you're playing in russia and you had all that star talent up front and you're like you got khl players on the defense like you're not winning it's got canada's got prime down winning prime petrangelo like suban was in his prime and he couldn't get in right because babcock didn't trust him right And now you're looking at the group and going, you love Kael McCarr. Like, you know, people call him a generational defenseman, right? And when he's on, you know, I don't think you're wrong to do that. And you're probably going to take his D partner, Devontaeves. But, like, after that, what are we talking about?

Josh Morrissey, Noah Dobson evan bouchard but like evan bouchard what kind of role does he play if you've got kale mccarr on the team are you is who's running the power play there it's got to be mccarr because you're not well maybe it's but but they didn't my point is you know like i look at that blue line i go i don't i like it maybe it's, but my point is, you know, like I look at that blue line and I go, I don't, I like it. Like, it's really good. There's a lot of countries who'd be like, I'd love to have that, but like we're Canada and we should be stacked in every position. And we're going to be stacked up front when, you know, you got, you got McDavid and you got Sid and like, you forget about, you know, you can put Braden Point in like a bottom six role if you want,

right? I mean, it's going to be stacked up front and Nathan McKinnon, I'm not worried whatsoever about the forward group, but the defense group and the goaltending, I'm kind of like, oh, the bar's pretty high, right?

That's why LA might be the favorite. I mean, actually, I think they are the favorite. LA and the Americans. LA, sorry, specifically on paper i look at that american team and i yeah i wonder if they are the favorite i think they are i mean canada the only thing is they haven't done it correct right and canada does have i guess the canada's deeper offensively but i mean the americans still have incredible offense too so So, I mean, Canada might have more like... And they have centers now, right?

Back in the day, they had great wingers, but their centermen were not good. And Canada was always the team that had like, you know, there's 12 forwards. We've got 10 of them are actual centers, but they've got to kick them to the wing because we're personal. And Toronto's like on the fourth line.

I mean, we've talked about it before, but I think that Canada has the game breakers. Like that's still their weapon. Like they the they got mcdavid they got mckinnon and i mean maybe bedard i mean like so they got those guys that i mean yeah the americans have like matthews and stuff but i think canada's got the edge in the game breakers category so they have the guys up front i don't maybe steal the game up front but i would still pick the americans personally yeah i don't i don't even know if they have like a, like they probably have the edge in the game breakers category,

but you still- But not by much. Yeah, not by much. Like Austin Matthews, Jack Hughes, Jack Eichel, like Matthew Kachuk. And then like they have a lot of really good wingers too. I can't wait for the first Canada-US camp. Like I know there's a lot of people

that are kind of down on this and the players are definitely going to have to step up and provide not only the play when it happens, but I would like to see them hyping it up and getting excited themselves and wanting to be part of this because I think it's going to be really cool. And I actually think having the finals is in Boston, right?

I think that's a really good idea because i think if you have this canadian team that let's say the finals is canada and the united states which you know everyone organizing this tournament is praying it is but if you have that in boston i think that will be an awesome atmosphere atmosphere. And there's just something about games in Boston where you're like, this could get nasty. It's always in Toronto, hopefully, too. But Boston... Hey, I would say that.

I was waiting for you to say it, but I had to jump in. Here comes the text from that one guy. From that one guy who is crazy. Yeah, but... Boston, yeah, it will be fun and i i think people right now some people look at it and they're like this is dumb only four countries playing and it's like in the middle of the season but once it starts i feel like it might be like the last world cup hockey and what was it 2016 yeah when it started and people were like this is kind of dumb people were fully invested

in everything that was going on. The last World Cup of Hockey? Yeah. Were you not? Not at all. Final against Team Europe? Not at all. I think a bunch of people were invested. Invested how? What did it prove? What did that World Cup prove? How can you be invested if it

didn't prove anything? It was an exhibition. I get what Josh is saying and I've argued with these guys before, too, because Halford and Brough were both very against that tournament. But I agree with Josh. How were you invested emotionally? Were you like, oh, boy, I hope Canada wins. I don't know if emotionally is the right word, but it was entertaining.

How do you get invested? Did you have money on it or something like that? It was entertaining to watch. The games by the end, you were entertaining. I do think people were. Not to the level of an Olympics. Tell me, what was the finals like? Tell me that.

It was too long now. Oh, but it was so entertaining, though. Yeah, it was. You must remember it. No, I don't. I don't remember what happened last week. But it was entertaining. I remember I enjoyed it.

I had a good time watching it. It was fun. Ultimately, it was fun. I think that's all that matters. We're not looking for fun, buddy. We're looking for. Well, I think you just have a different. I think we are time watching it. It was fun. Ultimately, it was fun. We're not looking for fun, buddy. We're looking for... I think we are credible. No, no, no.

When hockey, when the stakes are high, it ain't fun. It's nerve-wracking and you feel like you're going to throw up. That's the way it was in 2010 and that's the way it was in 2011 and that's the way it should be when something matters to you. The Olympics are a different thing.

You're trying to compare them. They're not the same thing. What are you talking about? The Olympics, it's a different feeling. Like, that World Cup wasn't like, I didn't go into it and be like, oh, man, this is going to be like the Olympics. I was going to be like, no, this is going to be a fun tournament. I don't even know if I expect the Four Nations to be, like, nerve-wracking.

I mean, I expect it'll be fun. Well, I don't think it will I expect the four nations to be like nerve wracking I mean I expect it'll be well I don't think it will be I think it'll be a fun but I think it's a warm up for the Olympics yeah it'll be a fun enjoyable time but I just don't compare it

to the Olympics the Olympics is it's own thing I just don't it's it's own thing I was triggered the Olympics is the Olympics I was triggered by you saying you were invested in it

what part of your ego was invested in that that's what we mean when we're invested in it I just had a good time watching it. It was fun. I just more mean that like I expected the players. Well, you have a good time watching cartoons, right? Yeah, they're fun too.

Okay. I'm not necessarily invested in it. Yes, you are. Yes, you are. Ado, you're invested in the Marvel universe. It's true. This whole show revolves around a cartoon. But I understand, Josh, we're getting the youth perspective here, which we seldom have on this show revolves around a cartoon but i i understand josh we're getting the youth perspective here which we seldom have on this show as a like my peers with your

vapid interests wait see josh is not hasn't hit the old and bitter phase of his life did you did you see my little bitter um aside on twitter the other day when i read that article about how young kids are now on tiktok showing off how they they are using old stuff that they have like their camera what is it called under consumption under consumption under consumption like core right i'm just like it was like the article said something like, young people are on TikTok showing off that they have a 12-year-old water bottle. I'm like, congratulations on saving money. Yeah, I know.

Congratulations on not having to go out and get the latest water bottle. Ruff, I'm with you. That's my old man yells at cloud thing. I think TikTok is one of the worst things to ever happen to humanity. It is so, so bad. There's some entertainment. No, no, no. It's not entertaining. Vine was entertaining. TikTok is...

TikTok is horrendous. That's the oldest you've ever sounded. Congratulations. Vine was awesome. We have meetings every Sunday. Vine was awesome. When we lost Vine, I got so sad. Go back and watch Vines and you're going to be like, oh, this is bad bad This is really bad

No there's some funny stuff That happened TikTok is all about The culture And trying to get people Eyes on your page So you can sell products now And that's all it is

TikTok sucks And yeah It's the worst The whole world's sold out now bro I hate it It's the worst thing that happened We got as a society You end up celebrating authors

Like Colleen Hoover As a society Do you even know her Who that is No No As a society Because of TikTok

It's rotted my brain As a society, we got... Do you even know her who that is? No. No. As a society, because of TikTok. It's rotted my brain. As a society, we got progressively stupider once TikTok came around. Okay. That's my old man take. On the other side. I don't think it's a hot take.

I'm right. Welcome to the club, A-Dog. Why are you booing me? I'm right. You're not going to be able to eat sugar cereals anymore. Oh, no.

You know what's already happened, I'm afraid to say. A lot of fiber. Yep.uderman sports journalist for the athletic is going to join us i'm trying to get out of this thing sports net 650 kevin woodley and he is a presentation of white rock hyundai appreciate you taking the time kevin. The news that Thatcher Demko may not be ready for training camp or maybe his rehab hasn't gone perfectly, and the idea that we actually don't really know if Thatcher Demko has had some sort of surgical procedure?

Yeah, certainly it's hard to envision the forget from here. If not, uh, just given, I mean, he was literally flying in the crease, morning skate game seven, second round of the playoffs looked like he was ready to hop on the ice and go. I was shocked by how good he looked. So how do we get from there to here? Um, without a procedure, there's certainly been a lot of talk in the goalie world that there has been one, but I'm not able to confirm that. I guess we'll have to wait to see if Thatcher

or the Canucks confirm that. In terms of timeline, I don't... Actually, for NHL 32 and 32 project, I talked to Patrick Alveen on Monday, and when I asked about it, the exact quote was, Thatcher's in town, he's working here,

and our hope is that he will be up and running and ready for the season. And my bad, it was pre-Dolly Wall tweet. So I did not follow up with, does that mean training camp? But certainly since Rick's report poking around a little bit, I don't expect that he would be ready for training camp, but that doesn't mean he won't be ready for this season. What can the Canucks do or what do they need to do as an insurance policy, I suppose?

Well, I guess it depends what you're insuring for, like you know and again like rick reported pto and listen like that that's the one thing here like dolly wall's the insider here i don't pretend to be an insider on this stuff more of the analyst role have relationships around the league with most of most of the goalies and most of the goalie coaches um so i get stuff that way but i'm not really inside but everything everything rick reports tend to tends to be pretty darn accurate so i trust him there's a reason reason the market trusts him because he's so good at it so when he says pto that kind of screams to me that situation that i just talked about not ready for training camp but expected to be ready for the season And so that's more of a short-term fix. If you're looking for a long-term fix,

the irony is the list of free agent goaltenders is almost non-existent, but it still contains a guy that I had at the top of my list when free agency started, and that's Kevin Lankanen. His adjusted numbers over the past two seasons in Nashville put him, like he was my breakout candidate for this season. I've said it in multiple markets since the start of free agency, even predating free agency as a predictor. And I did this with Charlie Lindgren when the Capitol signed him, said that we'd look back at that as one of the best signings of the offseason and now he's an nhl number one making

1.3 million in the final year of that deal uh same numbers that connor ingram presented the underlying numbers at clear side analytics uh when i suggested that he's a guy you should target off waivers and now he's a starter in the national hockey league like lankan and looks ready to pop statistically i'm shocked that he's still a free agent uh i think maybe it had to do with price range and probably not enough teams have access to those statistics um and some of the other stuff isn't isn't as flattering it doesn't dig into the minutiae to see how good he's really been uh he made two million in nashville last year so maybe the price tag was high in that you know outside of brossois and stolars nobody was going that high for a backup so for whatever reason he's still available i just don't see him as a pto guy like he's a guy who you know i believe has offers and so the the options beyond that are carter hot

heart which is not an option. And it gets pretty thin, right? And, you know, it's funny. Martin Jones, my understanding is he's retiring. So I don't think he's an option either. And ironically, he's probably in North Vancouver right now. But he hasn't been training. I do not believe he has any intention of continuing to play. So I don't think he becomes an option. And so, yeah,

you can go find a guy to plug a hole in training camp, but I just don't see it being of the pedigree of Lankan and it, and it falls off from there. The good news is if you don't get the answers you want in the next month and a half heading into the regular season in terms of where your number one goaltender is at there's a little thing called the waiver wire and there are a bunch of teams that are three deep with nhl proven guys that i would have you know not ahead of lankanen but ahead of anybody else on that list, like like I think Chris Driger ends up on on on waivers in Florida. I think that James Reimer ends up on waivers in Buffalo unless teams decide that they're going to run a three goalie system.

And certainly Buffalo's done it before. The Red Wings have four NHL guys, although you could argue over Jack Campbell being one of them. But Alex Lyon, for all he's done in the NHL, could also end up on waiver. So unless some of these teams hold on to three goalies long-term and in the NHL, there are going to be options on the waiver wire if you think you need help for the start of the season, maybe more so than what you're going to be able to get on

a pto basis because i just don't see lincoln and it's he's just too good for pto yeah one of the things that uh we promised the listeners we'd ask you is um is there something about thatcher demko the way he plays his body that makes him more injury susceptible than others that's such a tough question listen the way he plays the way they play um the amount of pace uh it's very demanding uh the style that they play they're in and out of the post they're down and on the knees like it's a It's a very demanding physical style. And I do think up until the last year or so, I'm not sure that the training that was being done was goalie-specific enough. And so the human body was not designed to drop into a butterfly.

It sure as hell wasn't designed to do it at six foot four with levers that long internal rotation of the hips and all the stress that points on the joints around it and so to do it at the pace and the speed and the power that thatcher operates under and that's what allows him to be so good puts even more stress on those joints so i i'm not ready to say that like thatcher demk i i know that that talks out there i do think a lot of these injuries have been one after the other and related and i don't think it i mean you spin it however you want different part of the knee whatever but it's not coincidence he came back from one and got the other one right away in the

same knee and they were they were working so hard to bring him back yeah and he was flying out there right and so but there's a difference between being ready to play and being healthy. Right. And so I don't know what's happened in the between time and we'll have to wait for the Canucks, you know, again, whether they do or don't inform us, is their prerogative, whether it gets out, whether it's answer Thatcher wants to answer that question, that's up to them. And I don't know, you know, what changed or what had to be done and whether that included a procedure.

But like in some ways, to me, from the outside, it would be almost reassuring. Like that comes with a more fixed timeline and a more like if a surgeon's been in there and had a look, you know exactly what's going on. As opposed to, oh, he had two injuries and it's just taking longer to come back from the second one. Do you know what I mean? Like it's, you know, I'm not a doctor. I just play one on the radio. But it feels a little less nebulous. It feels like you have a little more concrete answer,

even if right now there's uncertainty about the timeline. I mean, the reality is it's the human body and it's being asked to go in a position and into positions that, as I just said, are not natural for the human body. So maybe it takes a little longer to get comfortable after the trauma of two injuries in the last six months. How much trust should the Canucks have in the goalies in the organization beyond Thatcher Demko? And I'm not, you know, I'm not being like, what if Thatcher Demko misses the season?

I'm just saying, you know, the backups probably need to play a little bit more um Artur Silov's um I mean for me he was very impressive in the playoffs given the situation he was put in yeah you can look at his overall numbers and say they weren't that impressive but I think he was an impressive um given where he is at in his career given the situation he was put in he was impressive but he obviously has things to learn so i guess the question is like how quickly can he learn those things where the canucks once they have to make a decision on thatcher demko's contract situation can actually make an informed decision and maybe go with one over the other well and let's not forget

that as of nine minutes before I went on the air, let's add to that equation, making that transition to full-time NHL or no longer having the guidance of someone who most people would categorize as a top two only coach in the NHL, top two or three. So add that to the mix. There's still lessons to learn obviously managing traffic um and how to navigate that it became pretty clear in the playoffs right and the Oilers went to town on it like barely a shot a game in the first three with traffic from the

point and almost five a game by the end of the series and and a number went in when they when it was important um is he our team's going to target him that way in the regular season do teams pay that much attention to a pre-scout in the regular season like they do in the playoffs probably not but he's going to learn he's going to have an opportunity to learn and that's the thing i've always loved about our tours is even when he got called up a couple years ago for the first time first game like a lot of people forget the first game didn't go well um and you're like oh but he bounced back like his ability to manage the pressure, like, the mental side of it, which is often the toughest thing to measure, we've had so many signs of how well-equipped this kid is to handle it.

And so it's just a matter of having a little bit of patience and giving him the time to learn some of the other things. The physical tools are there. The mental tools are there. It's just a matter of experience and putting it all together. Don't forget, like, this is another guy who, you know, we,

we lamented the Michael D Pietro loss season, but I think in that same year, he barely played and ended up at the very end of the season down in the ECHL for a little while. Right. Like, so he, he's still really young and he lost development opportunity,

you know, in part because of decisions made by the organization at the time and in part because it's just COVID. But so he's a little behind on the games played scale. There's a goalie there. I mean, we all saw that in the playoffs, how ready he is to step into this role right now. Again, it's just experience and time and putting the patterns together. And that's what a lot of this is at this level.

It's recognizing patterns, anticipating patterns, and having enough structure in your game to be in the right spot and then build off that awareness as you get better at recognizing it, learning what side of the screen to look around. To look, yeah. That happened a few times in the playoffs that I remember. Oh, you looked the what side of the screen to look around. To look, yeah. That happened a few times in the playoffs that I remember. Oh, you looked the wrong side

of the pucks in the net. By the way, Kevin, I'm going to rudely interrupt you because there is some official news now from the Vancouver Canucks. They have announced that Marco Terenas has been... Am I pronouncing that right?

Marco Terenas has been promoted. If people want to get to know him we had him on the Ingo Radio podcast before that. Don't be promoting yourself while I'm doing breaking news. This is very rude. I'm trying to be rude here. He has been promoted to the goaltending coach of the Canucks. Current head

goalie coach and director of goaltending Ian Clark asked for a new position with the team and will now work as a goalie scout and director of goaltending, Ian Clark, asked for a new position with the team and will now work as a goalie scout and goaltending development coach. So he asked for a new position with the team. He's now going to work as a goalie scout and goaltending development coach.

Here's the quote from Patrick Galvin. When Ian approached me to say that he needed to make a change in his role to transition off the ice, we quickly went to work to find a solution. Sounds exciting. With Clarkie wanting something different at the hockey club, we were extremely fortunate to have Marco in the system and ready to take on the responsibility of becoming our new goaltending coach in Vancouver. Unfortunately, Ian can no longer go on the ice regularly to do the things that have made him successful but this new role will fit with his expertise and having clarky

going out to find and develop talent will be a big asset to the organization kev this seems like a big deal like this does i know they're gonna spin, but this seems like a big deal that Ian Clark will no longer be working on a day-to-day basis with the Canucks goalies. Yeah, and you obviously caught me a little off guard there because everything fit to what we had discussed earlier. Terranious, sounds like health in terms of not being able to go on the ice. And like I said, there's just a toll that gets taken. Right up until you told me the new role, everything fit. And so the question that I guess would have to be asked is, I mean, listen, he's absolutely right. You know, trying to remember what that quote was.

If you look at the track record, even when he was a goalie coach in Columbus, he had a heavy influence on the scouting. I think they picked seven goalies in the years he was there. Six of them played in the NHL. That's almost unheard of. And a lot of them at a really high level. Certainly above the draft pedigree. And so that does fit. Like, he's really good at that, right?

Like, even if you look at, if you take a look at Seeloff, right? Like, not a guy that a lot of people had eyes on, and here he is getting the Canucks to the second round of the playoffs this year. What was that worth to the owner? But the part I'm left scratching my head on is the natural transition would just be to make him the director uh i talked at the beginning of this interview about how many teams have moved in that direction uh how common it is for teams to um you know expand the department i guess they are expanding it because in theory they now have to hire for abbotsford because he's not going to be

a coach there so they'll. So they'll have three. They'll add a body. I just can't figure out why you wouldn't put him in a director role and allow him to work with Marco in this transition period. Maybe there's a reason that I'm missing in terms of why Ian wouldn't be able to be around. But without that, yeah yeah those questions i talked about you know take a look at the history of goalies the first year he's gone if he is removed

more than i expected uh i'll be curious to see how that goes it adds a layer of challenge although he's never gonna like just bail on thatcher and like he I'm sure he'd be there to help but um yeah that's um you've got me in a bit surprised and uh I would have to struggling to make sense of why you wouldn't take advantage of that resource directly um but who knows like maybe in under that new role there's still a window there um to have some type of you know know, not say, cause that's the wrong word, but to be able to be there in that, in that mentorship guidance role as Marco transitions up to the end. And again, this is not, Marco's an excellent coach and was even before he came over here and he's learned in system since he got here. But yeah, that's that's a bit surprising. And again, we just saw Benoit Allaire, who's in that echelon in terms which predates this regime, that was sort of the expectation was towards the end of it.

And like I said, next year more than this year, I expected this transition to happen. And now it's happening early and it's not happening into a role I expected. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.