Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 8/29/24

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

Mike and Jason look back at the previous day in sports and talk to Thomas Drance about the Canucks goaltending situation. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. You're listening to Halford & Brough. Dempster was in town working with the team and they were still hopefully be ready for the start of the season. Day one. I don't want to go really hard. I want to go really hard. The second day is going to be really hard. Oh, I really hard. I want to go really hard. The second day is going to be really hard. Oh, I'm hard.

Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. This is Alfred. It is Bradford. It's Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios. Your beautiful Ferry Slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Lena, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you. Hello, hello. You've got the giggles this good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you. Hello, hello. You've got the giggles this morning just because you're a child. What?

And you know how last year, and I'm talking to listeners here, was meet pressure with pressure. I think this year is embrace hard. That's the slogan from the Canucks. Meet pressure with pressure was last year. Meet pressure with last year. That was so last year. This year, embrace hard. Embrace it. With two hands.

It's not the embrace hard part. It's the degrees of hard. Should we all go around and talk about how hard we are? No. Maybe. I want the degrees of hard. Should we all go around and talk about how hard we are? No, because maybe. I want to go medium hard. Yeah, like I don't... I mean,

it's just funny. There's soft hard, which is soft or not that hard. Then there's medium hard, which we've all struggled with. There's hard hard. Especially after a big night. Right, and then there's hard hard, which we've all struggled with. There's hard hard. And then there's hard hard. Especially after a big night. Right.

And then there's hard hard. What is soft hard? Soft hard, I don't know. You lost me. Probably just soft, right? It sounds like a, it's like, how do you want your eggs done? Soft hard. You're like, excuse me?

Can we do, it goes back to the chef. They're like, we can't even do that. It's the oxymoron. Do we have a clip to play later in the show? No, that's the only reference we're gonna have okay hopefully we do people are probably wondering where that came from what are we talking about you'll have to find out before we do any of this how rude of us um intern zach is here but i realized he can't no longer be intern zach no he can no why not because he's not an intern

anymore yeah but that's what he's known as i I was workshopping some ideas. I came up with regular Zach as a nickname. Pretty great. Anyway, throw him on the microphone. Good morning, regular Zach. Hello. Good morning. Good morning. Great morning. There you go. Medium Zach. Or medium. Medium Zach is also the running. Those two are there. Okay, we got a big show ahead on a Thursday. Guest list begins at 6.30. Steven Wino from the Associated Press is going to join us. So when we were talking about international hockey and the return to best on best,

Four Nations face off Olympics, we were looking forward, but it actually begins today. There are three spots up for grabs for the 2026 Olympics, and that tournament gets underway today. It is a crazy tournament. There are 12 teams. They're broken up into four groups.

Sorry, three groups of four, and they just play each other one day after another. So three games in three days, and then that decides who goes. Wow. So I imagine Artur Silas will be a big piece of the puzzle for Latvia, right? Jason, you are very good at this radio thing. That was an excellent tease because Artur Silas will not be a part of the Latvian team, which is hosting their group.

Why not? We'll get into that and what happened. Maybe with Steven Wino. I don't know if Steven Wino, who's like an American Associated Press writer, went over there and was like, so he was probably over in Europe just for the big Euro media tour. In Prague, right. And just decided to write a story on this. But I don't think he was like headed over there and being like,

I got to find out what's going on with Latvia. He's digging into the sea logs. Just to make sure that Arter Sea Loves is healthy. We should ask some wino about the Washington Commanders. Absolutely, yeah. Because that's his regular beat. Yeah. So some Wino about the Washington Commanders. Absolutely. That's his regular beat. Yep. So, Stephen Wino.

Two things we want to talk about with you, Stephen. Latvia trying to qualify for the Olympics in hockey and Jaden Daniels. Yeah. Related stories. The symmetry there is off the chart. 6.30, Stephen Wino from the Associated Press is going to join us. 7 o'clock, Adnan Burke, MLB Network, Shohei Otani Talk, and Aaron Judge Talk with Adnan. At 7, we can get into some other topics as well.

7.30, Adam Stanley for a little golf talk. Okay, correct me if I get anything wrong here because I tried to research as best as possible. Tour Championship begins in a matter of hours from the oldest golf course in Atlanta. Eastlake Golf Course. Eastlake. Eastlake. But they've done a bunch of hours from the oldest golf course in Atlanta. Eastlake Golf Course. Eastlake. Eastlake.

But they've done a bunch of changes there, so it's newer. So new Eastlake. And Victor Hovland is the defending champion? I don't remember that. Okay. I think it is, yeah. But remember, this is the tournament where they get a head start. Oh, right.

Yeah, it's based on your FedEx Cup standings. That's right. So it's like that guy's already been good. He's played no holes and he's 10 under. So Adam Stanley's going to join. What a great, he must have been amazing on the range. Adam Stanley's going to join us at 7.30 to explain this very, very confusing golf tournament that will be starting today in a matter of hours from Eastlake Golf Course in Georgia.

At 8 o'clock, Thomas Drance, the Drancer from The Athletic. We'll talk to him about any Vancouver Canucks news, goaltending and or otherwise. So working in reverse on the guest list. 8 o'clock, Drance, 7.30, Adam Stanley. 7 o'clock, Adnan Virk, 6.30, Steve and Wino. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, tell everybody what happened.

Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... Hey, Laddie, tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I'm... 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 them online at bccsa.ca. More big news out of the Canadian Football League yesterday, and it comes yet again from your British Columbia Lions. Now, the signing has not been made official by the club yet,

but according to multiple sources, Matthew Betts has agreed to a one-year contract, that year being the remainder of this year, to return to the BC Lions for the remainder of the 2024 season. We're just talking about this guy. We were on Monday with Moj, as a matter of fact, because that was the day prior to NFL cut-down day. Matthew Betts, the 29-year-old lineman who last year was the CFL's most outstanding defensive player, was trying his hand at the NFL with the Detroit Lions.

And he made it all the way until the final cut down day before the Lions released him, opting to go with other options on their defensive line. And then shortly thereafter, Betts reportedly signed with the Lions. The CFL does not have a hard salary cap, does it? I can't really tell how it works. I know that if you go over it's just a soft

salary yeah you go over you pay a penalty but i don't know if it's like dollar to dollar like every dollar you go over sometimes it can involve in draft picks and yes sometimes they're just like hey don't do it again yes all right you scam i'm a loony over oh no well i mean farhan pointed out on twitter like this won't be the first team to go over the cap in a year they host the Grey Cup. There's a lot on the line for the Lions this year. If they weren't hosting the Grey Cup, there's a chance that Nathan Rourke wouldn't be with the team right now.

I agree with that. Because they're paying him a lot of money. Now, they might feel that Nathan Rourke is a guy they want to keep for the future. They might feel that, well, he's probably not going to try the NFL anymore. So maybe we can keep him as our quarterback for a long long time Matthew Betts was definitely related to the Grey Cup like adding him was the Lions by the way like they didn't maintain his rights or anything like they

didn't have his rights so he could have signed anywhere he could have signed anywhere but they were probably like as soon as he was cut by the NFL Lions, they were like, we got to get on this guy because I don't know if anyone's noticed, but our defense stinks. Yeah. And you know, he's going to make a difference because he's going to be one of those guys that

can just make plays right now. He's not going to solve the tackling problem that the Lions have. I mean, he might by himself, he might make some tackles, but they might still have some issues with that, and they've still got to get better as a unit. But I think you're just looking for someone who can go out there and make a play, and he can make a play.

There's a reason he got a chance in the NFL, and that's because he piled up a ton of sacks for the Lions last season. Yeah, I mean, he's good as... I don't want to go out and proclaim too much because as we saw with Nathan Rourke, it might take a little while to get up to speed, but he's going to be expected to fix the pass rush, which has been not good.

And we talked about that with Moj. We referenced Farhan's lengthy breakdown on Twitter over the weekend where he was talking about just the lack of playmakers and big playability guys on the defensive side of the football. The tackling thing is one thing. They don't do a good job of tackling, especially in the secondary.

But then more savvy football coaches will tell you the units don't exist in vacuums. Part of the reason why the secondary might not be great is because these guys are getting to the next level. So how do you stop that? that well you rush the quarterback more effectively the lines have to make sure that they at least host one playoff game too yeah you know like it's not i know we went into the season we were like oh that would be awesome they get the west final and then go to the gray cup and they would essentially have two playoff games and they

would both be at home right i mean that would, that would be incredible. Right now, I know the West Division is still very tight and the Lions have, you know, look at the standings and they're up there with, they're around Saskatchewan and Winnipeg. But right now, the way things are going, Winnipeg is probably the favorite to win the division and then it might come down to the Lions and Saskatchewan for who hosts that uh semi-final like make no mistake this is a massive massive addition this is like this is a i don't want to get too hyperbolic but this is like a league this was the best defensive

player in the entire canadian football league last year he was averaging a sack a game i mean this is this is a profound move midseason to have this caliber of player come back into the fold and to join a team that made the other biggest splash of the CFL season already, bringing Nathan Rourke back. So this is going to be a huge game on Saturday in Victoria too. Yeah, it's not just expected to play. Yeah, it's not just one of these like,

won't it be cool that they're going to Victoria? I mean, that will be cool. And I'll be curious to see how it looks on TV. And it sounds like it's going to be nice weather-wise. So I hope everyone that attends that game, I hope you have a good time. But this is a big game for the Lions. You know, they're going to be hoping to use this to catapult them back into a good season. Because remember, this is a team that started 5-1.

And they didn't look great at team that started 5-1. And they didn't look great at times on that 5-1 start. But they've looked a lot worse as they've lost five in a row. And Nathan Rourke needs to play well. Otherwise, you've definitely got a quarterback controversy looming as Vernon Adams gets back to healthy. I think he will. The defense has to look better, and hopefully it will, especially with the addition of Matthew Betts.

They just need to win because they've got some tough games coming up. They've got Toronto. They've got Montreal coming up. I don't think Montreal has lost in years. They're 9-1. They haven't lost a game on the road yet. Yeah. I think they're 18-1 in their last lost the game on the road yet yeah um i think they're

18 and one in their last nine or something like that they're on fire they're very tough to beat but that can also be one of those games where if the lions go and win that game then all of a sudden you're feeling a lot better about the team now before we move on to the rdc love stuff i do want to say like we are routinely praising the work that Amar Doman and the ownership and the executive have done since taking over but it's moves like this which reinforce why we speak about them in glowing terms like this I mean there are not a lot of teams that go over the salary cap in the Canadian Football League. Last year, there was three. There was...

Oh, that's like half the league, so there are quite a few, too. Okay, but I mean, Hamilton... This is kind of funny. I don't mean to poke fun at the CFL, but Hamilton went over by $2,000. Like, I thought maybe they bought a couple extra plane tickets. I don't know. But that's not a lot of money, right?

Like, they didn't break the salary cap. They just slightly nudged it. Compared to the Lions... They actually made nudged it compared to the Lions. They actually made that up by selling their Honda Civic. Right. The team Honda Civic. They rented it out on Turo, and they got the money back, but not all of it.

And then the Lions went over by $85,000, which is a significant amount, and the leader of all the CFL teams that went over the cap by a fair margin the close next closest was Winnipeg and they were over by 25k the numbers don't necessarily matter so much as the fact that they're willing to spend and they're willing to go out and do things like this and willing to say it's a five and six team it's flawed but that's not even going to stop us from spending the money and bringing back very good and very important players to try and get to the great cup in the year they're hosting like i admire the it's i mean because there would probably be people to be like i don't know if you

want to do this like from a financial standpoint like even i think it makes a lot of sense especially if they get a home playoff game it makes makes sense financially. It does, but it could also not work. I mean, Betts could come back and be all out of sorts because he's been trying to focus on the National Football League where they have bigger players and an extra down and all these different things, right? This is what the CFL needed in this

town, though. Narratives. 100%. Reasons to follow along on a week-to-week basis. And that's what we have with the Canucks for pretty much every player on the roster, right? And this is what the CFL needed in this town because there just wasn't enough storylines to get invested in for so many years.

They were like, the Lions are, you know, eight and five. And you'd be like, okay. Is it week 14? Is there anything interesting about that? Well, and this is like, I don't, when we talked to Moj on Monday and I brought up Matthew Betts, just kind of like, I mean, it was just. There's some people that aren't like down with him for some reason. I don't know if they were just, I don't know if they kind of talked themselves

into not being into him when he left the team and they were kind of like, ah, we'll be fine without him. He took a lot of penalties. Wasn't great against the run either. Yeah, and I was like, but he was really good. Look at all those sacks. Yeah, you know when he won the best defensive player, he was really good at defense. That's why they gave him the award.

Yeah. Kind of goes hand in hand. Do a lot of bad players get a chance in the NFL? Right. I don't know. I think part of it is like maybe there's a bit of being jilted and jealousy. Like you had success here and now you're trying to go score somewhere else. But at the same time, from a narrative perspective, which we've talked about at length this week, everyone should have been on that from Monday. Like NFL cut down day is coming.

Yeah. The reigning defensive player of the year in the league might be cut loose. That's a story. That's a story that everyone should have been focused on. And it just sort of seemed like everyone was taking too much of a wait and see approach. Whereas I was like, if Betts is cut on Tuesday,

you should be on the phone. Like the moment after he's released. And some people are like, I don't know how they're going to fit it in under the cap. I'm like, who cares? That's a CFL. That's a kick the can down the road problem. Like some people are like, I don't know how they're going to fit it in under the cap. I'm like, who cares? That's a CFL. That's a kick the can down the road problem.

Like you'll figure that out later, right? They can dock you draft picks or knock you out. Like who cares? Fine you $4. That's right. Okay. We do want to turn our attention now to the other story from yesterday. Kind of a weird one and it might take some explaining.

So I'll go ahead and start. Yesterday afternoon afternoon Latvia released its roster for the upcoming Olympic hockey qualifiers that's not the story okay we're not talking about the Latvian roster at 6 16 in the morning the interesting they snub Zemgus Gergensons again yeah so so that that's a good point to bring up there were several Latvian NHLers that were expected not to play in this tournament, including Vancouver's Teddy Bluger. The Vancouver Latvian that was expected to be in this tournament was the goalie,

Artur Silovs, who you remember is like a national hero in Latvia. After backstopping him to bronze at the 23 Worlds, he won the MVP, whatever. Out of nowhere, Latvia releases their roster for the tournament that starts today. No Silovs on it. So that raised the eyebrow of a lot of people because it was assumed that he was going to go and he was going to play. As a matter of fact, in a Latvian news outlet's story last week, Silovs was quoted talking about how excited he was for the tournament because it was being played in Riga. So he's out. Now, this is where it gets kind of sticky because we're relying on Google Translate and a couple other machine translations of what the head coach was saying.

But I'll just read what it says from a translated version on Google. Arters is in good physical condition. He is currently overworked and the medical staff determined that the danger limit of turning this situation into a chronic injury is high. We decided to protect him a little. Now, we've got to be careful with how this sounds and the way the words work.

And this could be a situation where he had something that might have been an injury and they didn't want to aggravate it, or they're worried about him getting injured because Vancouver might be calling and being like, hey, Seelovs, can't get hurt, can't play in these next three games. We have a training camp coming up, and our other goalie is also hurt. I need to get a real translation on this because that word overworked to me stands out.

And it might be a total red herring in all this, but when the that word overworked to me stands out and it might be a total red herring and all this but when the translation is overworked and we've just had this whole conversation about a goalie coach ian clark and the work level that they've done with i don't know what do you think laddie you think this is related to the the clark stuff no i've just i heard the overworked i was like are all the canucks goalies overworked he hasn't been working with ian clark in the last few months so he shouldn't feel overworked. I was like, are all the Canucks goalies overworked? He hasn't been working with Ian Clark in the last few months, so he shouldn't feel overworked. He's been getting ramped up for this.

Because this tournament, and I kind of took a closer look, probably closer look than anyone outside of Latvia did at this. They play three games in three days. It's a real quick, real fast tournament. I'm just picturing Jim Rutherford calling up the whoever's in charge of Latvia and be going like ah we just got rid of their goalie coach who overworks all the goalies and then like he just puts it in there

I mean it's a ridiculous you know it's a stretch I know but as soon as I heard that I'm like why it overworked like how is he overworked maybe it was a training injury during the offseason maybe it could have been anything it could be but it's I do wonder if the Canucks had been in touch with Latvia and just been like, listen, we can't lose this guy too.

So for a little backdrop to this story, we've got audio from Kevin Woodley yesterday who appeared on the station, and he mentioned as an aside that he actually did talk to Patrick Alvina a couple weeks ago for a 32-and-32 that he was doing for NHL.com on the Vancouver Canucks. And Alvin actually referenced Silov's playing in this Olympic tournament, how it would be good for him. For more, here's Kevin Woodley from yesterday right here on Sportsnet 650. I really hope that Google Translate butchered some of that. Because we talk about Canucks fans and ominous and being a lot more stressed about thatcher demko than i am um but that didn't sound

like a great translation no i mean i think it says like all the work and chronic injuries for a guy you're gonna have to maybe lean on for the first month of the season like that's a little and anyway that's interesting yeah and i talked to patrick alveen for an NHL.com series. We run 32 and 32, look through every team. It's a three-parter that NHL.com does. I actually think the Canucks come out on August 29th. I followed it last week. I talked to him two Mondays ago. And when I asked him about goaltending,

the one thing was that Demko was in town working with the team, and they were still hopeful he'd be ready for the start of the season and the other part was he was excited about our tours and the opportunity to play an Olympic qualifying as part of his process to get ready for the season so um you know that doesn't match the buzz of the team maybe pulling him out unless there is something bugging him I'm gonna go out on a limb, read some tea leaves here, and just suggest that the Canucks called over and were like, you're not playing in this thing.

There's just the juice is not worth the squeeze. The risk is not worth the reward. Joel Seeloff's that. Yeah. And then it's kind of, you know, I imagine they probably had to stick handle or tap dance a little bit over in Riga to try and get some wording out there.

But it makes no sense if everything that we know reportedly, allegedly, about Demko is true, that if he's not ready to start the season, there's a 0% chance that you're still interested in having Artur Seelov gain the valuable experience of playing in three Olympic qualifiers in three days. You're still interested in having Archer Seelov gain the valuable experience of playing in three Olympic qualifiers in three days.

You're putting him in bubble wrap and flying him back to Vancouver. So how does this tournament work? Who's in the running? There's 12 teams. I'm not used to the whole qualification for the Olympics. As Canadians, we just get to go. Okay, let's see if I can remember. Yeah,

we qualify. They're like, please, please come. We don't have to qualify. Just show up. It'll be great for the tournament. Let's see if I can remember it off the top of my head. In Latvia's group, it's Latvia, France, Slovenia, and Ukraine. So it's a lot of fledgling hockey nations, I would say. I believe Denmark and Norway are in the same group,

and that's actually considered the group that you're going to want to watch because there's quite a few NHLers participating in that. Japan and Great Britain are also in it, and they're expected to be minnows in that one. Who else is it? Slovenia is in. I think Slovakia has to qualify through this tournament as well. But the interesting thing,

and the reason that we're getting Stephen Wino on the show in part is that when reporters went over and did this European tour with all the NHL players in Prague, they were super, super excited at the return of best on best international hockey. And a lot of them were saying, like, this starts for us now because a few of these guys are going to play beginning now to try and qualify for italy and there was a lot of finnish guys who were very excited for the four nations face off in february um the czech players all kind of have a chip on their shoulder because they kind of got frozen out yeah of the four nations and they just won the world i know posturnak um has been pretty vocal in his chirps and especially on social media about how like we just won the World Hockey Championships and we can't get into this Four Nations face-off. And people are like, David, come on, man.

Just calm down, all right? It's the world. Yeah, so it's an interesting time, though, because we, as we continue to forge our narratives here on Sportsnet 650, we're going to keep getting excited about international competition because the way I see it right now, um, the four nations face off, even though

it's, it's a made up tournament and they're just trying this out. Um, it's very clearly an appetizer for the entre, which is the Olympics. And that's, that's a really good thing. I think. So here are the groups. Um, Slovakia will be favored in a group with Kazakhstan, Austria, and Hungary. Latvia will be favored at home in a group with France, Slovenia, and Ukraine. And then there's Denmark favored and also at home in a group with Norway, Great Britain, and Japan.

Okay, so we will talk to Stephen Wino about that and the natural pivot to the Washington Commanders, all on the same hit. That's coming up next. We've got a big show ahead. A reminder, get your What We Learns in. We're going to ask, I think we need to ask for more with regularity throughout the show because 8 o'clock rolls around and we're like,

oh, we don't have any. So Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. Hashtag it WWL. What did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports? We will talk to you, Adnan Virk, Adam Stanley, and Thomas Drance on this show before we get to what we learned at 8.30. But a reminder, get them in. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650.

You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Thomas France Erotica. Corsi. Thomas France Erotica. Expect goals. Thomas Grant's erotica.

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Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Ruff, Sportsnet 650. Halford Ruff in the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing,

service, or parts. We are in Hour 3 of the program. Thomas Drance from The Athletic Vancouver and Canucks Talk is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour 3 of this program is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.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. So, our feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec. To the phone lines we go. Thomas Drance joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Drancer.

How are you? Gentlemen, good morning. On your bingo card for the Canucks offseason, did you have an August, or sorry, back half of August, filled, littered with goalie-related news, drama, and controversy? Look, nothing could be less surprising than the sentence you just uttered. So I feel like that's the free square on Canucks bingo, right? It's like mid-August drama involving goaltending you know that's just like assume that

you get that every year um but no i i would not have thought so and and you know i think a big part of the reason why is how close thatcher demko looked when i last saw him on the ice ahead of game six in edmonton right i? I mean, you know, I watched, I actually filmed a little portion of it so that I could send it off to Woody, who obviously has a keener eye for this sort of stuff than I do. You know, push-offs, post-integrations, lots of up and down from his knees. I mean, he looked like an option for game seven,

to be totally honest with you. Like, to the point where even when Talkett announced ahead of Game 7 that Shelovs would start, like, I made sure to be there for walkouts. Now I'm always there for walkouts, but sometimes I'm there in a more perfunctory way because there's no lineup suspense. And that night, like, I really thought until I saw that Demko wasn't the first guy out, I wasn't going to be certain that he wasn't going to play. I mean, this is game seven.

This is, you know, there is no tomorrow potentially. And he looked so close to the game before, or the day before, two days before. So, you know, I guess I'm surprised in the context of, man, it looked like he'd done it again, like he'd pushed, he'd worked, he'd, you know, rehabbed aggressively, and it looked like he was an option. So I think that's the context through which I think this is a bit of a surprise to me. But, you know, it's Vancouver. I mean, we've covered this team for long enough to know that, you know, the soap opera is never ending, ceaseless.

What did you make of the news that Artur Silovs was not on the Latvian roster for the Olympic qualifiers to get underway today in Riga? Well, I mean, interesting. I think you're relieved to see that and then concerned when you see the commentary from the head coach, which I know Arsati Arsha posted a Google Translate to it on Twitter, or X, excuse me. So everyone can go check out that. Look, I mean, she loves stars for his country. He's obviously had a sterling international resume like a storied

international resume at this point in his career which is amazing given his youth um certainly you hope there's nothing there uh or nothing significant there i i don't know if there is like i haven't i haven't done that work yet because i've been on vacation this week but um you know i look the fact that the canucks have been making offers to the likes of kevin lankanen and sniffing around on the goalie market certainly makes even more sense um with sort of the decision to hold she loves off of uh the labian national team this week we're speaking to thomas trance from the athletic vancouver here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We had Justin Pogge on the show earlier this week, which was actually a very cool

conversation. In part because of, like, he's got a full-time gig now and he's taking the next evolution in his coaching career and what have you, but we went back and talked about a lot from his playing days. You didn't talk about the comeback.

Which? The World Junior comeback. The Russian one. What? You'll have to get me up to speed on what you're talking about. Oh, no, that was Byzantine. That was Mark Byzantine. Yeah, yeah, no.

We talked about Pogge. That was a 5-0 win over the Russians. I was like, what comeback? I'm pretty sure it was a very comfortable victory if I'm not mistaken. I don't think they pressed in the end actually. I think they gave up. They hit Gino all the way back to the dressing room, if I recall. Jason was really good about it because

we waited and waited and waited and then we're like, okay, now we're going to talk about 2006 because I feel like, you know, if you're going to have Justin, Justin Pogge had a long storied career in Europe and did a lot of things beyond 06, but everyone thinks about Justin Pogge and they think about Pogge, 06, Tuka Rask, Andrew Raycroft, and then the Leafs. Right. And it was right. It was funny because, I mean, I think part of he was very gracious in answering and everything. And he remembered back in the day and when he used to drink Pepto Bismol before every game because the nerves were so bad going into those games.

But it was interesting to talk to him that he comes from it from a very unique perspective, a very unique career, and now is going to start working with young goalies like he was so many years ago. Yeah, I mean, you'd think there's got to be some level of utility in having had that experience in just an extraordinarily high-strung hockey market like Toronto and then sort of the legacy of the RASC trade and how that trended badly almost immediately.

It's easy. As dark as it's been in this market, the last 12 months excluded on occasion occasion like i i lived in toronto in in 06 right like i went to university there 05 through 08 and then lived there thereafter for five five years and like those pre babcock announcing that there was going to be pain years like i've never seen anything that grim, right? Like ever. And it was incredibly predictable. The, the, you had,

that was like the Muskoka five era through to like the, the Toronto sun running the headline when the Leafs signed Jeff finger and free agency, right? The Leafs Leafs gives their fans. What about the Mike Komiseric signing? That went well. Yeah, Komiseric and Beauchemin, right? It was just so grim, so unrelentingly grim through the whole thing, right?

Like literally Don Cherry kissing Nazem Kadri prompting tons of Southern Ontario families to drop Gretzky comps on Nazem Kadri was like the highlight of it. I mean, it was just brutal. So, you know, to have come up in that milieu with pressure that sort of applied to you the way it was on Pogge as a result of an external factor that really has nothing to do with you right like rask raycraft that has nothing to do with him and yet you know was sort of the prism through which his early career and the start of his professional career and like every up and down in his professional career was judged i mean that was like if it felt dark in Vancouver, I promise you, like that was midnight at an almost different level.

And so, you know, there's got to be utility as a teacher and having gone through that as a player, especially now that, you know, you're going to be a guy working in a madcap hockey market of its own. Right. There's got to be something that you're able to draw from that, that either informs your own calmness and your own perspective in working with the young player or or you know that you're actually able to pass along is like hard experience hard examples um and to better understand what what you know your pupils are going through so um you know a really interesting a really interesting signing for the Canucks in replacing Marco Trenius with Justin Pogge.

And, yeah, that Ghosts of 06 sort of side of it is fascinating. Yeah, we'll see what the milieu is like in Abbotsford this season, I guess. Did I say milieu? Yes, that was a good one, though. That was good. Yeah. Yes, that was a good one, though. That was good. Drancer, is it fair to conclude, or is it fair to wonder, if there was some disagreement between management, including Jim Rutherford and Patrick Alveen,

and Ian Clark about how hard goalies should be pushed, how hard they should be worked during the regular season? You know, I think it's fair to sort of wonder about it. I'd be surprised if that sort of extended to like how often they start or sort of the workhorse thing. You know, there's a lot of things that are sort of part of the very Clarkian notion. I'm going to I'm just going to give him that the Clarkian notion that a goaltender's job isn't just to stop pucks at like an above average rate by save percentage, but is also partly to inspire the team, right? So this is one of the things that Clark demands of his goalies, for example. Clark demands, or the expectation is, that, you know, you should be the goalie who inspires your team.

You should never be the reason as the goaltender. And we see it 50 times a season across the league, especially with those teams where the puck's not being stopped, where a goal goes in and the whole team slumps. You're supposed to be the reason that everyone believes they're going to win every night. That's one of the expectations of what Clark teaches. And so what does that require? Well, it requires a certain, you know, body language.

Right. You don't overreact to goals against. Right. It requires a certain level of work, a certain, you know, understanding among the group that like this guy is working harder than everyone else. So we owe him in this moment. You know, we need a goal. We're going to press. We owe our goalie for that letdown we had. Whatever. We're going to block this shot for our goalie because we know how he works. We know how he carries himself.

It requires that if you're a little dinged up, you don't show it. Right? Like there's a stoic approach that's sort of part of Clark's like holistic view of, of how a goaltender fits and what their role is within, you know, the context of a, of an NHL environment and look, it's worked, right. I mean, there've been a lot of goalies that have gone through, gone through Clark, have worked with Clark and have gone on to be that guy. You know, we, we don't have to list them.

Some of them are in the Hall of Fame. Others will be, especially now that they won the Stanley Cup. So, you know, there's that sort of force here, right? That sort of paradigm from Clark. And then, you know, I'm sure there's some sense that like, okay, well, do we have to have our goalies, you know, do this specific positional reaction that might be a strain on their lower body when we're up to by two goals in the last minute of game one, right?

Like does, does, does he need to, like, we have possession with the puck and we're skating around the net, it's a nothing play. This is the play that Demko actually got hurt on. Like, does he have to go into that specific stance and push off in that moment? Or are there moments where we can chill, right? Like, are there moments where we can ease off, where we can sort of look globally?

You know, I do think's uh some source of tension um but i you know i don't know that that would be decisive and sort of shaping the outcome we got to here so what do you think happened in all this what did we learn yeah no i look i think i think the i think the fact that that Clark needed to take a step back from the day-to-day goalie coaching on the ice for physical reasons, I think that's true. Everything I've heard is that that was true and that had sort of been long considered. I think it was a surprise that it happened this year,

when it happened to me anyway. I thought that was a little further afield. And then the way that he was sort of made just a scout as opposed to retaining his director of goaltending title, that one's a little harder for me to parse. Like, I'm not going to build a theory when I don't know for sure. You know, I think the, I think the club, like, I just think the club sort of reacted to it and said, you know, okay, we want to keep you in a more limited capacity, you know, in titles or whatever.

But, you know, certainly there's implications from doing it that way, including that Clark, who's, you know, part of what he does is he has this book, Scouting Goaltenders, right? And there's, you know, he's been a huge part of Vancouver's goalie scouting process on the amateur side over the years. You know, Shelob's the famous, there's a famous story that every round, every pick from round three before the pick got made, someone at the Canucks draft table would get a text from Ian Clark banging the table for them to take Shelob's, right? Like, you know, he's been very involved. And so, you know, there is now a risk of sorts at play here that another team could step in and make him an offer

and offer him the director of goaltending title, which he lost in this sort of reorg. And that would be something that the Canucks would have a difficult time sort of standing in his way on, given that it would be a promotion. So, you know, look, I get it. We're all going to connect dots. This is Vancouver. But until I sort of have a really good sense of, you know,

some of the real politic dynamics, I'm not going to suggest any theories so much as just sort of look at the board and the consequences. Does it change the approach for Rick Talkett and the coaching staff heading into training camp in the preseason and the start of the regular season? Well, I don't think so. I mean, I look, it's a, it's a, it's a change for sure um you know and it's a change too in terms of like who you're getting commentary from uh at intermissions right

like clark serves as the eye in the sky and obviously his main focus is going to be his goaltenders but there's also a pre-scouting element right there there's also um you know an overall hockey knowledge element that, yeah, that's going to be an adjustment for sure. But I don't think it changes, I don't think it should change sort of the overall approach or the overall approach of how this team is going to need to play. I'd add this, like, Vancouver's goaltending,

or sorry, specifically Vancouver's defensive environment, I think got to a point, you know, it'll talk a lot about making the goalies only play half the net, right team has gotten to a point defensively where I do think you can survive for sure. Yeah. If you have to start the season, even if it goes, you know, a little longer, like even if it's like the first six weeks with a Shelob's Patera or maybe Patera and veteran goalie X or Shelob's and veteran goalie X.

But do you rob Peter a little less to pay Paul when you're talking about one of their focuses on – What's that? The creativity side? Yeah, getting more opportunities on the rush. I'm not saying that they were going to go into this season blowing the zone on every opportunity, but I think they were – I mean, those were Talk It's words, by the way.

Sometimes you have to rob Peter to pay Paul a little bit. Maybe they dial that back a little bit. opportunity but i think they were i mean those were talk it's words by the way you know sometimes you have to rob peter to pay paul a little bit maybe maybe they dial that back a little bit um i don't think they should honestly i don't think they should because i think this team's defensive game sustainably too right like sustainably i think hit a level where you know they still need to evolve right Like this team was generating shots on goal and at five on five, like they were Chicago or Arizona, right? Like Detroit, Montreal, right? Like no good teams, no good teams that, that needs to level up. Like, I don't care who the goaltender is. That's, that's like,

what does this team need to do to be elite because they're already pretty much elite at at sort of restraining what teams generate against them um but if they're going to be an elite team they need to be able to generate scoring chances like they need to have a more reliable source of like offensive pressure put on the goaltender that's not just shots from the point right that's not just um second the point, right? That's not just second-stick opportunities. Like, they need to evolve off the rush. And, I mean, it's one thing if you start 0-5 in October or something like that, then maybe it's time to batten down the hatches.

But I don't think that's going to happen to this team. There's too much talent, and there's too much of a defensive spine. Like, I think this team needs to continue to evolve. And, like, Talkett and company can't go in coaching scared. offensive spine like i think this team needs to continue to evolve and and like talk it and company can't go in coaching scared you know you can't go in and and coach like you have no trust in your goaltenders in my view you have to trust that this team can figure it out that this team can defend well enough and i think there's lots of reasons for us to believe that they can't based on what we saw throughout last season like i think you just got to go full steam ahead. And more than anything, more than anything, you know,

like, is this an opportunity where, you know, look, it looks grim, and I know I see a lot of Canucks fans talking about, like, oh, you know, that old feeling, right? Like the, like, Barry Bo Burnham, like, there it is again, that funny feeling. Yeah, well, that's called being a Canucks fan. Right. But there is a way, in my my view anyway to take a long view like do exactly what you did if you get average or even slightly below average goaltending um you know in in games that Demko

doesn't play so be it but maybe this is an opportunity to sort of really keep your starter fresh right like maybe this is an opportunity to go into the season and you know take the cap that you had on his games maybe it was 55 and reduce it by 10 um we've seen it we see it we literally see every year that demko has these like six to ten week stretches where he stops everything like he looks completely unbeatable you're in the the rink the Canucks take a lead and you almost feel sorry for the other team and it's like if you could ever get that six or ten week stretch in May and June right then there's going to be a lot of happy Canucks fans right it's like is this an opportunity to work toward that right right? To keep that as your primary focus as opposed to continuing to try and sort of operate in a world where Demko

is a workhorse starter. Something that, you know, just hasn't worked to this point. It's not to say it won't, right? Like it's not to say it's fate that it won't, but to this point, when this team has played him 60 plus games, like toward the end of the season, there have been sort of diminishing returns.

You know, there's an opportunity in this, one that could even be turned to the club's advantage, I think, depending on how they manage it. Drancerp, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it. Enjoy the rest of the week and the weekend. We'll do this again next week. Thanks, boys. Be well. Bye.

You too. Thanks. Thomas Drance from The Athletic Vancouver and Canucks Talk here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We got a little bit of time before we go to break, so I'll kick things off, get the ball rolling with what we learned, because I learned this morning that

the last and final NFL starting quarterback vacancy has been filled. Congratulations to Jacoby Brissett, who has officially been named the starter in New England. You knew that was going to happen because the coach was, he didn't want to announce it because he knew everyone was going to be upset.

Here is the least encouraging vote of confidence in a starter from Patriots head coach Gerard Mayo. We have decided, or I have decided, that Jacoby Brissett will be our starting quarterback this season. In saying that, as an organization, we are 100% behind Jacoby. There is no, you got a guy right here, you got a guy right there. We're 100% behind Jacoby. He then went on to say that what's good for the team right now might not be what's best for the team a few weeks from now. So congratulations to Jacoby Brissett.

You have this game against the Bengals on Sunday, September 8th, and then maybe two more before Drake May becomes the starting quarterback. I don't really know. So Drake May was the only guy right? Yeah. Well. Panics. Panics and then J.J. McCarthy got hurt. Yeah. McCarthy would have been the guy. Right. I assume. And then everyone else gets to start.

But nobody's sitting there in Atlanta going what are the Falcons doing? Because they signed Kirk Cousins. Okay. Eliminating that with regards to What are the Falcons doing? Because they signed Kirk Cousins. Eliminating that, with regards to May, it's a bit strange because there are other rookie quarterbacks in this class that are going maybe not necessarily as grim because the Patriots look like they're going to be really not good.

It just seems like the common path right now with rookie quarterbacks, despite Tom Brady's protestations, is you may as well find out what they're made of right away. That just seems to be the norm. I know what Atlanta is. I kind of disagree with that. I think you need to know what you have as a team as well. If your offensive line is a problem and you're not a very good team,

I wouldn't be putting a first overall pick out there. I absolutely have time for what you're saying. I think you might be right to a certain degree. I'm just saying the norm in the NFL is you draft this guy. He's going to be the franchise. You're ready to anoint him. You embrace the hardness. You embrace the hardness.

You tell this guy, listen, it's not going to be easy. Go out there and find a way. Let's see what your man is. You don't make it medium hard or soft hard even for Drake, man. You make it hard hard. We'll explain all this on the other side. And then he dislocates his shoulder on the first play. You're like, you're right.

That was hard hard. That was hard. That's on me. That's on me. Yeah. Okay. So Mook how that. When we go to break, we'll explain what like hard hard is and all these other things.

You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.