Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 9/13/24

Episode Date: September 13, 2024

Mike and Jason look back at the previous day in sports, the boys do some Ask Us Anythings, plus they talk the Canucks Young Stars with Donnie & Dhali's Rick Dhaliwal. 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. Looking over the middle, pressure coming, has to heave it, and it's intercepted! Coming the other way, and going for six is Jamarcus Ingram! A 30-yard interception return for a touchdown! Tua's third pick of the night! Springfield Police, Chief Clancy Wiggum speaking, how can I help you? People are eating dogs and cats in Springfield.

Are they good? Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford and his Broughan Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning. Good morning. Laddy, good morning. Hello, hello. Halford and Broughan in the. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning. Good morning. Laddy, good morning. Hello, hello. Halford & Brough 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, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Well, they pay the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live

from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soar feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec, you know what else I'm waiting for? This weekend. More sports get underway this weekend. For the first time in a long time, Jason, I can say it.

Tonight, there's Canucks hockey. Brackets, sorta. Too early for that. 7.30 tonight. 7.30 tonight. You can hear it on the Sportsnet 650 alt stream. That's got all of our controversial programming on it. It's like, oh, I only listen to alt 650.

That's where we put all the opinion pieces and editorials. As opposed to the regular stream, which is more like top 40 sports radio. Yeah. We're going to be intro'd by the Incel Hour. No, it's not going to be that. What? It's like an alt-right stream. Oh, okay.

Make radio radio work. It does. No, we're not going to be intro'd by that. It's 7.30 tonight on our alternate stream. Go to sportsnet.ca forward slash 650. Brendan Batchelor and the crew are going to be up at the South Okanagan Events Center in Penticton for the Canucks' first

game of Young Stars tonight. It is the Canucks and it is the Oilers. Note the start time, 7.30, and note that it is on our alt stream. The alt right stream. That's right. You see how the Canucks stack their top line for the Young Stars? The Ratu, Baines, the Karamaki. You were excited by that, were you not? That's going to score 50 goals.

Tonight? Yeah, the score will be 50 to 1. Have you ever actually watched the Young Stars games? No. No, I have. It's been a while since I've been really invested in them, but I do watch them, yes. So you're a quote-unquote really invested in this Young Stars tournament?

No, I'm not. I mean, should I? No, I am. I shouldn't act like this. If you're excited, that's awesome. That's great. Maybe some of your excitement will rub off on me. I'm excited in the sense that it just brings me this much closer to Canucks hockey.

And you're also excited about the alt stream. Yeah. Can't wait to watch it. So that's tonight. As for the show today, guest list begins at 630. Brady Henderson, ESPN, NFL Nation, Seahawks Insider, is going to join us. We will talk about the Seahawks and the Patriots live from New England on Sunday, 10 a.m., because it's in New England.

Seahawks are three-point road favorites. The over-under is a spicy 38.5 points, Jason. Well, Patriots fans after last night, which we'll get into, are probably suddenly thinking, maybe we can win this division or at least finish second. Do you know what they're doing on the weekend? It is the 10-year anniversary of the New England Patriots Super Bowl XLIX winning team. They're all getting back together.

I mean, if it were, it makes sense, right? You're playing the Seahawks. You're going to bring Pete Carroll out there? No. Former Patriots head coach and... So Brady's not going. Former Patriots head coach. Brady's not going. And Mole.

Brady's not going. Belichick's not going. But Malcolm Butler is going to be there. So that'll be fun. So anyway. Seahawks, Patriots. I will talk to Brady Henderson from ESPN at 6.30 about that. 7 o'clock.

It's AJ from AJ's Pizza. We're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway, the best pizza place in the world. We're giving that away to the best Ask Us Anything, because it is Ask Us Anything Friday on the program. Hashtag it AUA. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. We have one already in the in-basket, so people are working hard.

They're grinding. They want that pizza. 730 Moj is going to join the program. Again, brackets, we hope. You never know with Moj on a Friday, right? You don't know what's going to happen. It's early in the morning. Sometimes his phone is on vibrate.

It's a real adventure. It is every time. Sometimes he's on the tarmac. Anyway, Moj is going to join us, hopefully, because tonight, BC Lions, the 7-6 BC Lions look for their third straight victory. They will take on Chad Kelly and the visiting 6-6 Toronto Argonauts. So we'll talk to Moj at 7.30 about that. 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall.

This is his first hit, right? After a couple months off, his first hit back in the saddle. Yes. Got a lot to get into with Dolly. A little rusty. He was very excited. I was like, so you want to join us when the preseason starts? He's like, no, let's go today.

It's his first regular season game with us. He's been on the show. I mean, he kicked off all the stuff about Thatcher, Damko, and Clark. But moving forward, Rick will be our regular Friday insider joining us at 8 o'clock every Friday, and that starts today at 8 o'clock. Again, I mentioned the $100 gift card to AJ's for the best Ask Us Anything. So, working in reverse

on that guest list. 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall. 7.30, it's the Moj. 7 o'clock, AJ from AJ's Pizza and 6.30,

it's Brady Henderson. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance.

Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Before we dive into the start of the Canucks Young Star Tournament and the big top line, they loaded up their top line, we do need to talk about the National Football League last night. Thursday night football, a much-anticipated matchup, a clash of what we thought was going to be the top of the AFC East, did not materialize that way.

You know, we had Matt Vertoram on the show yesterday, and he said the Bills have dominated the Dolphins recently and the Dolphins really need to try and win one of these games because the Dolphins never show up against big teams and

good teams. Well, that's exactly what unfolded yesterday. The Buffalo Bills routed the Miami Dolphins 31 to 10 and that scoreline actually took a backseat by the end of this game

because the big story in the aftermath was Tuatunga Vailoa, the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins, suffering another very serious head injury, later diagnosed with a concussion. This is now the third or fourth one of his professional career, and it does put questions about his future playing the game. Yeah, I don't know if this guy should keep playing football.

I know that's easy to say about someone else's passion and someone else's, you know, I imagine for a lot of these guys, it's outside of family. It's their main purpose in life. I feel awful for the guy. He's only 26, but that looked really bad last night and it looked bad on, frankly, an innocuous collision. It looked that way. Like I know close up, it looked like, oh, his head went into DeMar Hamlin's chest and obviously got knocked. It looked like Tua hit DeMar Hamlin more than DeMar Hamlin hit Tua. Well, that's because 100% what happened.

But it wasn't helmet to helmet. Tua just lowered his head and drove into Hamlin's chest, and Hamlin was just there. Hamlin was there too late because Tua got the first down. It was a fourth down, fourth and four, I think. Tua got the first down by, what, two or three yards? Obviously, obviously, in hindsight, he should have given himself up once he gained the first down or frankly even before that,

considering what happened, but maybe he wasn't 100% sure he had got the yardage required or maybe it was too late to slide or maybe he just didn't think it was all that dangerous to go into DeMar Hamlin's chest like that and be the aggressor as opposed, like again, it's go into DeMar Hamlin's chest like that and be the aggressor as opposed, like, again, it's not like DeMar Hamlin smoked him and then come

over the middle and just like hammer him. I think Hamlin realized like, well, he's got the first down, so I better not take a penalty on this. Now, there is going to be a big debate about whether or not this guy should continue to play football. If you want to know the rules on all this

sort of stuff in terms of how he gets paid if he were to retire, if he were medically clear to return, he would not get what's remaining on his contract. And that's a big deal because he just signed a big contract and it's worth a lot of guaranteed money. He's already paid. Now, he's already set for life unless his spending gets out of control. Right. Unless his spending gets out of control. Because he's already received, I think, $43 million of the $167 guaranteed that he gets in this, that he just got.

What was it, a couple of weeks ago? Just no Fabergé eggs. Got to stay away from the Fabergé eggs. But he, yeah. True. But he, like, he's still got a decision to make because he admitted last year that he considered retiring due to concussions that he received in 2022 and received two of them. And he said, yeah, I think I considered it for a time, having sat down with my family, having sat down with my wife and having those kinds of conversations.

But really, it would be hard for me to walk away from this game with how old I am. He was only 24 at the time. With my son, I always dreamed of playing as long as I could to where my son knew exactly what he was watching his dad do. It's my health. It's my body. And I feel like this is what's best for me and my family.

I love the game of football. If I didn't, I would have quit a long time ago. Do things change now though? Do things change now that he's got a lot of money in the bank, that this is his third concussion? And again, you know, some people are just more prone to these concussions. They get them more easily. And with Tua's style, too.

You know, he's a mobile quarterback. With his style, I don't know. It's hard to watch because of, I mean, if anyone didn't see the visual last night, one of the recurring things that happened in, I think, all three of Tua's concussions now that we've seen on TV is his arms end up freezing in the fencing position, which is a sort of neurological response to suffering massive head trauma. He was later diagnosed with a concussion, quite obviously. I think that kind of went without saying. Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel was asked about this right away in his post-game media availability. So here is the question and answer period.

We just took a snippet of it, of what McDaniel had to say about Tua Tungavailoa following Miami's 31-10 loss to the Bills on Thursday Night Football. Mike, obviously it's very early in the process with Tua. Do you foresee a trip to the injured reserve list, or do you have any insight on that? You know, right now, you know, I'm not really, it's more about, you know, getting a proper procedural evaluation tomorrow and taking it one day at a time. I, the, the furthest thing from my mind is, you know, what, what is the timeline? You know, I want to know. I, I, we,

we just need to evaluate and and, you know, I'm just worried about my you know, my teammate and like, like the rest of the guys are, but we'll, we'll take, we'll get more information tomorrow and then take it day by day from there. This is going to be fascinating to watch the decision that he makes. You know, there have been players that suffered concussions early on in their careers and kept playing, and it wasn't a problem.

Sidney Crosby. There was talk that Sidney Crosby, early on in his career, a lot of people saying, this guy should retire. He's got a whole life ahead of him. Kept playing, and I don't know. It looks fine to me. Interim conversation, watch him on the ice, right? He took a long time away from the game, though.

I mean, the issue with Tua is that he keeps getting the concussions and yes he went through the entire 2023 season with that one yeah he was fully healthy last season but um the question now is it's also a different sport and this is so early in the year yeah we're talking game two and you gotta wonder like what does that matter does is he done for the rest of the year oh for the year yeah i mean I'm just having a conversation about his career. Yeah, from the football side of things, and there is a football side of it. I mean, there's no other way to look at it.

For sure. The Dolphins, the year he got hurt, remember, still made the playoffs. And it was the guy with the replacement we saw last night, Skyler Thompson, that eventually came in. And, you know, he filled the spot, but it wasn't good. And it was obviously not a long-term solution. Last year with Tua Healthy, they were 11-6.

And remember, if it wasn't for that late season swoon, they had a lead atop that division. It looked like they were going to win the division. They finished second. And then, of course, they went to the wildcard game and lost in the wildcard. So there were big expectations for this year for Miami. They were expected to challenge Buffalo, fourth first in the AFC East.

They were expected to be back in the playoffs, and they're a win-now team. Tyreek Hill. They could also easily be 0-2. Yeah. I mean, Tyreek Hill, Jalen Waddell, all the guys that they have in the skill positions. It's been an eventful couple of weeks for the Miami Dolphins. Crazy.

I kind of feel for Mike McDaniel, who is just trying to coach a football team at times, and he's got a lot of, how would you say, extraneous things that he's, and let's be honest, not equipped to deal with. You heard his answer with the concussions. Yeah. I mean, he's very concerned about his guy. He was brought into Miami. But he received criticism for the way that he treated tua or treated the situation in

2022 oh i remember people were blaming him for not protecting his player so now he's got to be in a position where you know for him for the sake of his reputation but mostly just for doing the right thing like don't rush this guy back so i mean the one question that was asked like is it a trip to the ir everyone would assume yes but mcdaniel wasn't going to say anything publicly yesterday but we'll keep an eye on it today i imagine more news will come out once uh he goes through baseline testing and everything else so let's uh turn our attention now uh to young stars because there was some news yesterday i guess the big story out of the camp is there a training camp for young stars let's just call it a practice, shall we?

Young Stars Training Camp. There you go. We've got Lekra Mackey. They're loading up the top line for young stars. I respect it. You know, you put all your best, young, brightest prospects on a line together. So Lekra Mackey with Baines and Ratu.

And we've got some audio here from the new head coach of the Abbotsford Canucks, former Canuck, Manny Malhotra. Greg, do we have this at the ready? Perfect. Let's hear it now on Lekera Maki being given the opportunity to play with Baines and Ratu, hopefully starting tonight against the Edmonton Oilers.

Well, the main goal for all these guys is to set them up and put them into situations where they're going to be successful and put their best foot forward. With all eyes of the organization on them, you want them to show well so yeah by putting them with putting him with rats and and Bainsey it's it's going to put him in a good situation obviously two very offensive-minded guys but at the same time they have the the wherewithal to to be smart defensively and make sure he's in the right

spots and communicate with them they call them rats so rats. So I have a question for A-Dog. Because A-Dog's the guy who's excited about Lekker Mackey the most. He's going to win a caller trophy. There's a hot take button. A-Dog's hot taking now. Now A-Dog's scoring on me. That is a double hot take because for the first hot take, the first hot take would be that he's going to make the team.

Yes, well, that's a minor issue. And the second hot take would be that he is so good as a rookie that he wins the rookie of the year. So, A-Dog, I have a question for you. If you've – because you've obviously thought this through, right? Oh, of course. You've obviously thought this through, right? Oh, of course. You've obviously thought this through.

I think everything's through, Jason. It's not just like, off the cuff, you know, 10 year old, 10 year old excitement, right? Well, if Lekermacky makes the Canucks, where

does he fit? Second line. Well, I mean, he can't be at the bottom. He's the top six guy. I mean, ideally. So obviously if he makes the team.

So who's he, who's he playing with? Oh, I don't know. Well, I mean, well, Patterson would be great if he, okay. Patterson and DeBruyne. I mean, ideally. So obviously, if he makes the team. So who's he playing with? Oh, I don't know. Well, Patterson would be great. Patterson and Nebraska? I don't actually think he's going to make the team. Let's be clear.

This is a bit. I don't think he's going to make the team. I would love it if he did. I hope he gets a bunch of preseason games at the very least. Maybe he gets a few spins

in the NHL. That'd be great. I don't think he makes the team, obviously. But if he does, he's a top six guy, so he'd probably put him with Petey, I assume. Could a line of Petey between DeBrusque and Leckermackie work? I mean, that's the dream, right?

If Leckermackie's the real deal. The PL deal. I don't know if he's the real deal. He's got an amazing shot. That's what he's got going for him. I think what you can clearly see by this is that the Canucks want Lekromackie to have a good Young Stars. Sure.

And they want to catapult him into the training camp. And maybe he starts training camp up the lineup. Who knows? Because they were the ones who keep mentioning his name. And by that, I mean, Patrick Galvin. It's not the fan speculation. And they're saying, you know, they kept on saying, well, we want to see Lekromackie.

We're willing to give him a shot. And if you think of the top six, there's no guaranteed winger to play with Miller and Besser. Now, I don't think that would be Lekromackie's spot because Miller and Besser get so much of the tough matchups, but don't forget the Canucks have a really good bottom six. It's weird to

say that still, but they do. You could argue it's one of the best in the league. If you've got, let's say, Bluger back with Joshua and Garland, there's a line that can take tough matchups. And the fourth line could be a checking line too.

In theory, you could say, all right, well, let's put Petey, Petey's line out there. Let's say you're at home. Get them the softest matchups possible. And you got a rookie with a really good shot. And then you've got Pettersen and DeBrus together. That's how it would work in theory. Because the candidates to play with Pedersen and DeBrus,

it's not like they're super obvious. We've been through them. Yeah, Heinen is probably like the most likely. Heinen would be the safe. Yeah. Heinen would be the safe option. I mean, I guess Sprong, theoretically. Sprong, Hoaglander.

Hoaglander played a lot with Pettersson last season. Hoaglander's probably on the top line with Bestner. No, he is not. Miller. No, he is not. Well, who would you put with them? Suter. Suter?

Oh, yeah, I always forget about Suter. I just always think of Suter more as a center, though, like the third line. He could be. Yeah, Suter's weird. But that could be Nils Amon. That could be Nils Amon. Do you want Suter on the top line with Bestner and Miller, though?

I mean, I'm sure he'd be fine. Who else is he going to be? It's not going to be Hoaglander. The coach doesn't trust him. That's true. Defensively, are you going to put him out there? I guess it would be Suter, yeah. A McDavid's in town.

Here's, you know, like Miller's out there and Hoaglander's all over the place. You know, that's spinning everywhere. Everyone on the Miller line, in my opinion, unless I'm missing something, unless Tuckett is completely rethought of the way he coaches, everyone on Miller's line, in my opinion, unless I'm missing something, unless Tuckett is completely rethought of the way he coaches, everyone on Miller's line needs to be defensively responsible. Well, then Hoaglander is one of the more likely candidates with Pedersen then, right?

I mean, assuming Leclerc doesn't make the... I think there's three or four candidates to play with Petey. One of them is Leclerc, though. If Sprong doesn't show what he needs to show if Hoeglander doesn't have a good camp if they want Heinen as a possibility to play with Miller and Besser he's a very versatile defensively responsible guy

I think he could bring some speed to that line it's not like Besser's a burner on that line so maybe Heinen plays with those guys this is the fun part of heading into training camp by the way there are a lot of good players among the Canuck forwards, but we're not quite sure how it's all going to fit. So it's like there's too many options.

No, there's not. There's not. No, no, no, no. There's not too many options. No, no, no. It's a trip to the overall lineup. So what? So Kiefer Sherwood and Sprong and, like, theoretically,

who is the fourth? Like, the fourth line is going to be. They've got good depth. It's crazy depth. They've got good depth. I'm glad you mentioned Sprong because there is a historical context here with Leckermackie that we have to at least consider if past behavior is indicative of what's going to happen in the future.

So when they drafted Sprong in Pittsburgh, and this is the Alvin and Rutherford duo, and Rick Taka was around as well, they forced Sprong into the lineup as an 18 year old well management did coaching staff didn't exactly what i just said yeah yeah so and they and that was predicated on the fact that sprung had an nhl ready shot yeah and that's interesting because the one thing like ramaki has is an elite level shot yeah and it's going and I think that they and it didn't work in Pittsburgh so maybe it's going to be one of those like well we learn from our

mistakes type things but they saw an opportunity to put a finisher in the lineup and that would sort of um make up for the fact that the other parts of his game weren't rounded out it's like well but he's scoring goals and that's what need, because scoring goals is hard at the NHL level. So I'll give it a sliver, like a very, very tiny sliver of hope that that might somehow open up an opportunity for Lekromackie, but let's be real. The general path since this management group has arrived in Vancouver has been put these guys in the American League where they can learn

and they can grow and they can get better. Realistically, he's probably getting a couple seasons in the AHL, you'd assume. So the second line was Max Sasson, a guy who I'm going to be looking for more at the actual training camp and maybe hopefully some exhibition games because in my mind, he's a candidate to be the 4C as well. He brings some speed. But I'll be honest with you, like I haven't seen him play. I've just heard the Canucks talk him up a lot.

He's a guy at the end of last season who the Canucks talked up a lot. So you listen to those things. He's going to be playing with Riley Patterson, who we talked a little bit about yesterday as one of the young guys to watch at this tournament. He's also going to be on a line with Klamovich. And I feel like – Oh, yeah, that guy. This is – this has got to be on the line with klomovich and i feel like oh yeah that guy this is

this got to be it for but we we should have put him in maker break he didn't make the maker break should have been in the maker break conversation because um it might just be that this guy isn't a player i think that's very likely i don't want got to say likely. Well, it is likely. It's likely. Probability-wise, it's likely. Well, he's also a – it was a reach of a pick from the previous regime. And they probably didn't develop him the right way. If we're going to be honest, he probably should have gone back to junior hockey

instead of going to the AHL. You know what I mean, right? It's not like he was a holdover from the previous regime where everyone was like, yeah, like this was a great pick. And it was speculative at the time. And now you're looking at a first rounder. Right. And it was high for where he was like taking 41st overall. That was considered high.

And it was largely based on based on the strength of one tournament. When you look at it, if you're coming in to clean up the previous regime's mess, because that's part of your job when you come aboard, you're probably going to look first and foremost at the most egregious mistakes or the biggest misses or, you know, the biggest errors. And that might be one of them. So I would definitely put him in the category of make or break for this season. And I mean, for him, it's not at the NHL level. It's going to be at the American Hockey League level where the team's depth will have a trickle down effect and there'll be competition for minutes and spots on that American league team. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

Steve from Burnaby with an ask us anything. Oh, and don't forget if you want to be entered into the contest for a hundred dollar gift card from AJ's pizza, include the pizza emoji with your ask us anything. Steve from Burnaby. How long does it now take you to prepare and stretch for rec league games? So I guess it can be soccer for you. It can be hockey for me. Steve says, I've recently turned 30.

Oh, you're so old, Steve. And anything less than 30 minutes means body aches the next day. So Steve, I've reached the point, almost 50, where I don't stretch because I'm getting those body aches the next day so steve i've reached the point almost 50 where i don't stretch because i'm getting those body aches regardless i think i had a three minute stretch in my rec league game the other day i go out there and i handled the puck a little bit stretch a little bit but honestly i'm getting that uh i'm getting that what's, what do they call it? Dom? Doms? It's like the delayed onset muscle soreness. I'm really dealing with a lot of doms. That dom is catching strays here.

It's worse than actual dom. Doms and subs. It's more annoying. Every day I wake up, I got the doms. So to answer his question, prior to tearing my Achilles, which probably was a direct result of not stretching enough and not being limber enough. You must have a lot of doms now.

I got a lot of doms. They're everywhere. I had, you know what I started doing was going in the steam room and stretching in the steam room because I was like, this is the ultimate way to warm the muscles is be in the hottest environment imaginable get the blood flowing and circulating and then stretching um the issue was is that my body got used to it so when i didn't do it i was like a plank like yeah it was impossible to move so i was like how can i because i couldn't make it to

the steam room all the time a bunch of different things going on. So I'm like, how can I try and replicate this? So I bought this stuff. It's called Cryoderm Heat. It's a Canadian company. You're just trying to cheat, aren't you? Yep. I was trying to take a shortcut. Cheating.

I don't know what ingredients they put into this deep heating rub. It is the kind of searing, painful burn, the likes of which I've never felt in my life. There's obviously- Yeah, the nerds used it in Revenge of the Nerds. Remember, they mixed it up, mixed up the jocks. You know, okay, so that's funny. Jock straps. It was-

Rob bomb better work, nerd. It was exactly that. So I had to use it on my hamstrings, and then I put on my gear and went in the car and drove to the field because i was like i was running yeah and then about halfway on the right now i'll never forget it it was on the ride to ambleside and west van i realized that the heat rub had sort of like migrated from my hamstrings into the groinal area you You know? Yep. It was. Groinal.

It was searing, searing pain. I had to shower before the game to try and remove some of the heat rub. Oh, showering makes it worse. But I had to. I had to try and get it off my skin because it was that hot. Well, that's been a great story. This whole thing about you preparing for your. It was the Ask Us Anything. For your games and...

So many images swirling through my head now. The word groin all came up. Thank you for that. Someone said, did it work better than Tiger Bomb? A hundred times stronger. I never put anything on my skin that strong in my life. It's incredible. I still use it, just sparingly now.

And you steer free of the groin all air. You steer, yeah. I had never been in that much pain before. Never? In your life? Even when your Achilles burst? No. The Achilles was a walk in the park compared to this.

You couldn't escape the burn. There was nothing you could do. And I was sitting in it. Sitting in it. Mike Dural is just from Brockville. Ask us anything. Which player or prospect were you convinced was going to figure it out and become an NHL-er but never did?

Mike says, when I was a gullible teen, it was Federer, Federoff. He made me realize prospects don't always turn out. Sometimes they get punched out. Yep. I think that was a little bit about the name, perhaps. And then basically every single Canucks prospect after that until Brock Besser confirmed this. The one guy that I, and this is fairly recent,

the one guy that I thought was going to be a player was Adam Goddard. Yep, me too. Me too. It looked like he had an NHL caliber shot, and maybe we were a little bit swayed because there was that run of hockey players from the Northeast that won the Hobie Baker. It just felt like a fit, right? It just really never materialized.

Cody Hodgson. Sure. I was like, oh, he's an NHL player. But he did turn into a player. He just had injury issues. Yeah, but I mean, well, I guess I just assumed he'd be a long-term NHL player. Yeah. Putting up points.

Right. He just didn't. Yeah. I mean, obviously, there was some bad luck there, but I don't know. It just didn't obviously work. Gaudet was definitely a guy that should have spent time in the American League. Yeah. He was rushed.

Right? Yeah. He was almost on the McCann, Vertanen, like, erroneous path, I think. I just watched him play and kind of liked his work rate, and maybe I was just fooled by that. He was the. Right? He was almost on the McCann, Vertanen, erroneous path, I think. I just watched him play and kind of liked his work rate, and maybe I was just fooled by that. He was the difference, though. I think he was one of those guys that looked like he was working hard. Not that he wasn't, but there's some guys that...

The George Costanza? Walk around looking flustered all the time? No, no, no, no, no. But that's putting it on. There's some guys that look like they're working hard, and they are, but then you realize that they have to just to get to that level. Do you understand what I'm saying? Wow, he's really putting in a shift.

It's like, well, yeah, he has to. That's how hard he has to work, right? But he did look like he had good energy and he really liked to celebrate. For me, it was a guy that we had on a week and a half ago, two weeks ago, Justin Pogge. I thought he was going to pan. I thought for sure he was going to be a guy and then he just never got that second opportunity.

So nothing happens. Speaking of goalies, Jason the Killer Goalie texts in with an Ask Us Anything. Being that today is Friday the 13th, what is the biggest superstitious sport in your opinion? I don't know why baseball came to mind. I think there's a lot of guys that have superstitions at baseball. Omar Garcia-Para.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Adjusting his gloves every pitch. But you know who's really superstitious? Sidney Crosby. Very. We actually met. Who mentioned that the other day when they were talking about him on whether or not.

Zeisberger. Oh, Zeisberger, yeah. It was like, it's a superstition to stay in Pittsburgh? Yeah, that's not really a superstition, but I get it. The eight and seven, the numerical, the numerology. Do you remember in the cup finals, you would never go to the podium?

So they would have a podium set up for the players, and it would make it a lot easier for the media because you would just be in essentially a theater or a room where they would have chairs set up and the players would be mic'd up and the coaches would go there and the guys that like Sid or the stars or the players that everyone wanted to talk to would go to the podium. Sid would not go there. Sid would say, I do my media at my stall in the dressing room. So there would be a hundred media, all of them smelling great, obviously,

just crowded around Sid at his stall. And I think he kind of enjoyed it because it was like, look at these leeches. Do you remember the hat he used to wear? They would try and get him like a new not sweat stained pittsburgh penguins cap and he would always wear the same like really old ratty sweat stained pittsburgh penguins cap i think the superstition in sports lends itself more to the ones that are super habitual and repetitive like i don't know golfer but i'm assuming there's tons of superstitious golfers in the way oh Oh, yeah. Baseball, because baseball is such a... But a lot of it, they tell you also, like, you need a pre-shot routine.

Right. And then sometimes that turns into a superstition. And it also turns into six-hour rounds. Right. And that's part of baseball as well, right? I mean, there's all the sort of things that go into doing the same thing for 162 games during the summer that lends itself to the superstition. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Dolly.

Rick Dollywall. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Dolly. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. 802 on a Friday.

Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough 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. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour three of the program.

I'm so excited to get to this massive scoop that Rick Dollywall has, but I need to pay the bills first. Halford and Brough in the morning, hour three 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 today. Jason, go ahead. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. I'm really excited for this scoop, too. It's all about the goaltending, apparently, according to Marge. Moj, or Marge.

So, Rafit, what are you waiting for? Kintec, there are certain moments in time that you remember. Those where were you moments. Where were you when you heard the biggest scoop in Vancouver Canucks history while you were listening to Sportsnet 650 at 8.03 on a Friday? Rick Dollywald joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Rick. What's going on?

Stop with the scoop stuff. I called Moj this morning to see if he had used my CAG gift certificate I gave him for his birthday, his 60th birthday. I think Moj is hearing. That's the scoop. He used it. There's no scoop. I don't remember telling Moj I got a scoop. That's the scoop. He used it. There's no scoop. I don't remember telling Moj I got a scoop.

He's getting old. You know what? Moj is 60 now. I called him. We were mostly talking BC Lions this morning, Rourke and Adams. I don't remember telling him I got a scoop. Moj is getting old. Old.

So you're saying you don't have a scoop? I have some tidbits. Let's do it. Give us a Demko tidbit? I have some tidbits. Let's do it. Give us a Demko tidbit. Give us some tidbits. Well, I don't think the tidbits with Demko. I think it's with Lankanen. I'll get to Lankanen in a moment.

But what I want to say about Demko is the great unknown for the Canucks is his status. I can report progress being made, but it's low. Not at the pace that everybody wants. But here's the thing. Why would they rush this? Your starting goaltender is recovering from back-to-back knee injuries. Do not let this guy play again until he's 100%. No shortage of people feel he was rushed to play in the playoffs.

That's why he got hurt the second time. They're going to have to watch his practice and games workload this season much more closely. We will all know more next Thursday at training camp. Is he on the ice by himself? Is he with the other goalies? Can he take shots yet? Preseason games, the regular season opener,

they all seem to be up in the air right now. Here's a key for me. Every coach loves to get off to a great start. Remember the Canucks' great start last year? Oh, my God, they're in first place and this and that. That first 10-game segment is so important. You don't want to play catch-up right out of the gate. If Demko is not ready for the first regular season games,

they better have a good backup. And I will still say this. Not re-signing Casey to Smith was a mistake. A veteran backup would look good right now, wouldn't it? And as for those saying we got Seelovs, the Canucks went to dismiss agent at the NHL draft and showed interest in trying to re-sign him. There was a reason for that.

They were concerned with Demko's rehab. They got to come up with a plan for Demko. Goalie coach, trainers, doctors, all of them together. How many games can he play in a year? The sweet spot for him is not over 60 anymore. It's 50 to 55. That's the sweet spot. Rest.

The Canucks are one of the most traveled teams in the NHL. Days off, back-to-backs. A big part of Demko's workload is having a capable backup who can deliver 15 to 20 starts. There is a lot to think about when it comes to Demko right now for this franchise. What's going on with Kevin Lankanen? Oh, yeah. Well, this is it for me because the Canucks' pursuit of Lankanen has not stopped.

They have had talks with his agent this week. There just hasn't been any progress. The Canucks made Lankanen an offer believed to be under a million dollars. Canucks could sign Lankanen in about 10 seconds. All they got to do is put Tucker Puman on LTIR. They're not willing to do that. They want to do that closer to the trade deadline. There is no doubt in my mind that Lankanen is their number one choice. All UFA players got to get going. The pressure point's coming up.

That's training camp. They got to make a choice real quick here soon. Sign or sign a PTO. I believe the Canucks are trying to wait Lankanen out. See if he takes their offer closer to camp under pressure. It was funny to me. They leaked out Antti Ranta's name last week. Well, I'll tell you, they called Antti Ranta a couple of weeks ago, and Ranta said, I'm not willing to take a PTO right now.

So they can sign a PTO goalie any day. They can sign one today if they want. But I got a feeling Lankanen's their guy. Most people feel the Canucks want a goalie on a PTO, but the fact they keep pursuing Lankanen tells a different story. Lankanen makes sense if Demp goes out longer than expected. I'm not sold on Seelovs and Patera to start the season as a duo. What happens if Seelovs get hurt? Are you really comfortable with Patera starting a game for the Vancouver Canucks?

Might explain why the Canucks keep going after Lankanen. But how long do they wait on that guy? They could sign a goaltender, honestly, guys, any day, any minute, any hour. Is this a case of Lankanen wanting, say, $2 million a season and the Canucks saying, we don't want to go into LTIR so we could give you league minimum, but it would have to be variable in the AHL. Is that accurate? That's not what I've heard. He's not asking for $2 million.

The number is lower than $2 million, but it's over $1 million, and the Canucks are under $1 million. It's very interesting to me that the Canucks' interest in Lankanen continues. It's been about three, three and a half weeks they've been after this guy. And I think that is it a situation where they think Demko is going to be out a little bit longer than expected? And because I'm going to tell you something right now, Lankanen, by the way, the Canucks' new goalie coach, his name is not on top of my head right now, but he's worked with Lankanen before.

So there is familiarity with him within the organization. But right now, the Canucks don't want to go to LTI or Tucker Puhlman, and they don't want to do that to get Lankanen. There's a bit of a gap there. It's a waiting game right now. I mean, I do believe when the Canucks leaked out Antti Ranta's name to the media, I think they did that for a reason to put pressure on Lankanen. But then the Canucks leaked out Antti Ranta's name to the media. I think they did that for a reason, to put pressure on Lankanen. But then the Canucks might change course here and just sign a goalie to a PTO. But I can confirm talks with Lankanen's agent again this week continue. Marco Tarinius.

Now you can see why it's not on the top of my head. It's a tough one. It is a tough one. Now, in the notes that you sent me, you said this is a very broad topic. You wanted to talk about expectations for the Canucks this season. Well, the season starts tonight. And, you know, I always find, remember a year ago, and we did expectations and everybody, nobody even thought the Canucks would make the playoffs. And then all of a sudden, they're in game seven against the Oilers in round two. And I just wanted to get it out there that, you know what, the expectations around the league for this organization have changed.

First off, I want to say a general feeling I get is management thinks this is going to be a good team again. As soon as Jim Rutherford got a sniff the Canucks were going to be good last year, he quickly pulled the trigger on that Lindholm trade and got the door off. I expect nothing less from Rutherford this season. If the Canucks are going to put together another 100-point season, expect another aggressive management team. Rutherford would not, he would have done more at the trading deadline last year, but he ran out of money and he ran out of high draft picks.

There is a reason, guys, why they just won't put Pullman on LTIR to get the goaltender. They want that money for the trade deadline. That's going to be very important money. Canucks did try and trade Pullman this summer, and some say they're still trying to, but that's going to cost a sweetener, and right now, sweetener is just too much right now out there to move Pullman. If the window to win is now, you have an owner who spends to the cap, you have a president who is not scared to make bold moves, that's a good combination to have. So when you talk to people around the league, they think Vancouver is going to be strong again,

but not as strong up the middle of the ice because Lindholm's gone. Third pair on defense is a concern for me, and I think Zdorov's really going to hurt them. The backup goalie situation's up in the air. But the reason people around the league, like Vancouver, is the core. Good young core, which is the coach of the year, Rick Tockett. There's no question, guys, Tockett's the best coach this city has seen since Alain Vigneault. It's not even close. The other thing I want to say to you,

agents are noticing the effect that Talkett's got on players and how he improves them. For me, Brock Besser and Tyler Myers, two players who benefited from Talkett's teaching big time. I've heard from more than one agent this summer raving about Talkett and the job he's done. Agents and what they think, you guys may think are not important,

but it is important. They have clients who could be available on July 1st and push push their players to vancouver because of the job talk it is doing winning is the best marketing tool in the world but the second best thing is when an organization does right things it spreads via word uh via mouth and that's what's happening right now is in vancouver right now i think the feel about the organization is totally different than it was a year ago um the funny thing is too when you're talking about trying to find salary cap space there's no obvious candidate to dump yeah do you know what I mean like we went into last season like uh well you know know, could they dump Garland?

Could they dump Besser? Now if you were to suggest that, especially with Garland and Besser, you'd be like, what are you talking about? Those are the two of their best wingers. Well, the biggest thing they have in their pocket is the Puhlman and the LTIR. And it's funny that, you know, they could get their backup goaltender, a veteran guy, in two seconds, but they won't do it. And this is why I keep saying if the Canucks have a good start,

like last year and Rutherford got aggressive, he'll do it again. You know, the one thing about it, and that's the other thing, you know, people around the league have noticed about Vancouver is Rutherford and how he's, you know, he's just a shrewd customer. He knows what he's doing. He's aggressive. The window, you know, how is management not thinking the window right now for Vancouver is right now here in the next two to three years. And you're right, though, there's no candidate to dump right now. There isn't. You know, Brock Besser and what happens with his contract is going to be interesting. I can tell you there were no talks over the summer.

I can tell you the two sides probably had a chit-chat, but I can tell you there were no contract talks. And what happens with Besser and the waiting game is going to be very interesting to me. If he shows signs of scoring 40 again, Canucks are going to have to redo that contract quick because the price is going to go up the more they wait. And if he does well, because I got to tell you 40 goals last year,

and then he led the team in playoff goals. And again, let's not discount the goals that Besser scored after he broke his finger in Nashville and practice off a JT Miller shot. You know, he scored a, I think three or four goals after he broke his finger. So,

uh, what they do with Besser is going to be pretty very, very interesting to me this year. You wanted to give a little update on Tom Willander. Yeah, I just wanted to say, look, Willander's not with the rest of the Canucks prospects in Penticton this weekend. Obviously, he's in NCAA. He can't go there. He's been in Boston for the past three weeks, getting ready for his second year at Boston University. Wallander worked out with his dad, who's a skills coach in Sweden,

all summer long. The reports I'm getting, he's much stronger, put on a lot of muscle. This is a kid who never stops working on getting better. The desire to improve for this kid is a massive part of his makeup. A big summer for him. He had a really good summer. Now, the big question for me is, will the Canucks sign Willander after this season? His advisor, Todd Diamond, tells me last night, let the season unfold. There's lots of time. The plan was always for Willander and Diamond to let's see where we are after the second season. This is a part, a big part of the Canucks' future on the right side.

There is no other defenseman, Brough, in the Canucks' system remotely close to Willander in terms of importance and potential. This franchise has not developed a right-shot defenseman in 10 to 15 years. Take a look at their right side the way it's constructed right now. Hronik, Myers, Desjardins, and Juleson, what do they have in common? None of those guys are drafted by Vancouver. They all got here via trade and free agency. So it's time to change that.

Well, Lander hopefully will be that guy. But they're going to take it step by step this year. They're going to monitor this season. And towards the end of the season, they should have a pretty good idea if he's going to come out this year and sign with the Canucks or possibly go back for one more year.

Rick, I hope we were nice enough to you. You're always nice to me. You drive me a little bit nuts. The bruff, Holford never drives me nuts. But I'll tell you, I'm really looking forward to another great season with you guys.

Every time I get off the air with you guys, I feel good, like warm and fuzzy. And whenever I get off, when we do a hit with Drance, I feel like I just walked in the rain for six hours and just mucky. But you guys, I feel good. And Drance, I don't feel as good talking to him. We're excited that this is back and rolling, Rick. Great start to the regular season. Let's get this thing going.

All right, boys. Have a good one. Thank you, too. Thanks. That's Rick Dollywall. Good phone slam. I missed that. I missed the phone slam.

Rick Dollywall, Canucks reporter. The king of the scoops, they call him here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet. You make him feel warm and fuzzy. It's nice. It's good. It's like those potstick Show on Sportsnet. You make him feel warm and fuzzy. It's nice. It's good. It's like those potstickers in the fridge. They make you feel something. Should we do some What We Learned here?

I'll do a quick one here. Yep. The Vancouver Canadiens won last night in their championship series with Spokane. And they got a game. Sorry, that was on Wednesday night. They got a game tonight in Spokane. The series is tied, one all.

Yeah, they split in Vancouver. It's a best of five. So they got to win two games in Spokane. Tough place to play. Yep. We were thinking about making a road trip down there and see if they can bring home the Northwest League title. But I got busy this weekend.

But hopefully they can pull it off and go back to back in the Northwest League title, but I got busy this weekend. But hopefully they can pull it off and go back-to-back in the Northwest League. Give me a mookow on that. Okay. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.