Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 9/16/24

Episode Date: September 16, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, they talk NFL Week 2 action with Too Deep Zone's Mike Tanier, plus they chat the Young Stars tournament with Canucks Talk host & The Athletic Vancouver's Thomas Drance. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Dixon puts it down, Myers gets it away. The Seahawks win the game in overtime against the Patriots. We knew the game was going to come down to the fourth quarter. Didn't expect it to come down to the fifth quarter. Patterson long shot to the right. He scores! What a response from the Canucks as they score twice in under two minutes.

Did we just lose the f***ing Canucks? Good morning, Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brough. It is 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 to you. Good morning. And Laddy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and 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, be it 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 pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec, we're dressed alike again today, except we're wearing our navy blues today. We're wearing our navy blues in studio here. It's a blue day. Blue sweatshirt and blue hats. The Sunday creams yesterday and the Navy blues on Monday.

Monday blues. Believe it or not, we do not coordinate this. We just have sad wardrobes. Sunday creams we do coordinate. We got it. Okay. We got a lot to get into on the program today. Big guest list ahead on a Monday.

Tons to get into. Lots of football talk. 630, our NFL insider. From the too deep zone, Mike Tanier is going to join us. What a weird day. What a weird, weird day in the National Football League yesterday. I'm at Vegas. There was a bloodbath out there in the desert.

There was a lot of surprise results. A lot of things I didn't see coming. When did the New Orleans Saints become the best team in football history? How did this happen? It's been a weird first two weeks, to be honest with you. The Bengals are 0-2. The Ravens are 0--2 those are two teams we're talking up in the preseason and I want to have a shout out to my man Bill from Buffalo who last year him and I didn't get along we had we had beef me and Buffalo beef that's what I called him um I was down on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

at Baker Mayfield last year I want to write that wrong by being the biggest bandwagon jumper in sports history. I am all about it. So Baker Mayfield, great leader, great quarterback, great person. Bucs are 2-0. I love it. This is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan show now. I should have probably apologized to a listener. I think his name is Sonny, who's a big Packers fan.

And I said, I replied to him. I was like, buddy, the Packers are done. That's right. You did do that. After Love went down. And then Malik Willis won them the game. Wow. He didn't win.

You didn't lose them the game. At the very least, they had a good running game. I didn't watch it, but they won. We've got some funny audio from that game as well that we're going to play later in the show. Greg procured it this morning. So as I understand it, we might be doing a guest hit early in the morning here. So we're going to audible on Mike Tanier.

He's going to be on the show in 12 minutes at 6.15. So we'll do a little bit of a different first hour of the program. We'll try and get through as many of what happens as we can in this first segment. Then we'll go to Mike Tanier, and then at 6.30, we'll we'll pick it up so anyway Mike Tanier now joining us at 6 15 here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650 7 o'clock JC Abbott from Three Down Nation BC Lions beat writer will join us after just a a stink of a game an absolute disaster a debacle not good at all from the BC Lions on Friday losing to the Argonauts and on top of

everything else managed to wedge in a quarterback controversy as well on Friday night. So we'll talk to JC Abbott about that at seven o'clock. 7.30, Thomas Drance, the Drancer from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks talk right here on Sportsnet 650. He is up in Penticton for Young Stars. The Canucks are undefeated. They got one more game today to hopefully run the table. We'll talk to Drance about who stood out for the Canucks at Young Stars. And then at 8 o'clock, I've always wanted to say this on the air, venerable sports scribe. How's that?

Ed Willis is going to join the program. He formerly of the province. He will join us to talk about his new book, a Vancouver Canucks book. That's cool. That's two guys that are going to be about his new book, a Vancouver Canucks book. That's cool. That's two guys that are going to be on the show that have written Vancouver Canucks books.

Hopefully, Ed's is better. We'll talk to Ed at 8 o'clock about his latest endeavor. So, 8 o'clock, Ed Willis.

His book is called Never Boring, which I think is a pretty good way to describe the Canucks. Yeah, the history of, I mean, he covered the Canucks

closer than him. Good or bad, they're never boring. Always a shot, it's a shot at Halford's book too, Always Boring. Yeah, the history of he covered the Canucks closer. Good or bad, they're never boring. It's a shot at Halford's book, too. Always boring. Underhanded shot. It was one of the headlines that we rejected. Somehow the never boring book outsold the

always boring book. I'm not sure why. So 8 o'clock, Ed Willis. 7.30, Thomas Dran. 7 o'clock, J.C. Abbott. 6.15, Mike Tanier. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? 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. Let's begin with the Vancouver Canucks stuff before we turn it over to the National Football League. The Canucks are undefeated through two games at their Young Stars tournament up in Penticton. They opened Young Stars on Friday from the South Okanagan Events Center. Wow, so much for that regression theory. No, they're on fire. The Canucks are 2-0.

And they've got a chance to go 3-0 today. Like undefeated. They're going to win the Young Stars Tournament. And the way they're going to do it is on the strength of Max Sasson and Christian Felton. They scored on Friday with Nikita Tolopio getting a shutout in a 2-0 victory over Edmonton. And then they followed that up with a 4-2 win over Sunday afternoon

against the Jets. The goal scorers, real quick, Josh Bloom, Elias Pettersson, no, not that one, Anthony Romani, hey, and Vilmer Ulriksen, my favorite Vilmer, and 30 saves on 32 shots from Ty Young in net for the Canucks.

Yeah, I had Adog texting me videos from young stars of Lekker and Mackey nearly scoring a couple of times. You like that? Yeah, look at this guy. Nearly scoring. Looks pretty good, eh, bruv?

How do you feel now? We'll talk to Thomas Drance about this. I didn't watch any of the games. I didn't. I mean, I was watching. The most dismissive review. I did not watch any of them. I didn't watch it. Well, the stories are from, you know,

the talks that people are having up in Penticton, not necessarily these games. Although, you know, it should be noted that Bucker Mackey was on a line with Baines and Aturatu, and they dominated as they should have, honestly, as they should have. One of the things that, you know, is kind of being whispered is like the Canucks sure sent a lot of AHL players, like experienced AHL players to a young stars tournament. Didn't Keith Baines was in the NHL last season and he's playing in the young stars.

Matt Stavoy was in the NHL last year and he's there for Edmonton. Yeah, okay. Why did they do that? They wanted to dominate's playing in the Young Stars. Matt Stavoy was in the NHL last year, and he's there for Edmonton. Why did they do that? They wanted to dominate in front of the home fans. Specifically the Oilers, too. They're going to keep raising the bar each year in a few years. Like, JT Miller will be playing in the Young Stars. Why is Brayden out there? Hopefully his penicillins are going to be there.

JT Miller looks very annoyed right now. This is the way that you embrace hard. We'll get to that in a minute as well. Oh, my goodness. Other news from the Vancouver Canucks, in case you missed it last night, the Canucks have signed a goalie to a PTO in time for

training camp. Dylan Ferguson. Fergie Ferg. Fergie Ferg. Hamlet Blazers legend. Yeah, he's from Lanceville, right? We have a listener from Lanceville, a painter from Lanceville, if I'm not mistaken. Two very prominent Lanceville natives on the Halford and Brough show. Anyway, Ferguson, 25, spent last year in the KHL. This is a body for camp.

I think the bigger story isn't necessarily Ferguson, but then it seems pretty obvious that Thatcher Demko isn't out to Antti Ranta for the possibility of him coming in either on a PTO or to be that sort of number three slash four guy. He had an interview with a Finnish news outlet over the weekend and actually said he talked to Alvin and to Marco Terenius, the goalie coach, and said that he wasn't interested in what they were offering. And now he's on his way to Europe. So there you go. So we'll talk a little bit more about the Vancouver Canucks throughout the show, perhaps in about 15 minutes or 20 minutes after we talk to Mike Tanier. We'll go into an interview that IMAC had with Rick Tockett where he talked about what their slogan is going to be for the year. See if you can do better than embrace the hard,

because that's what talks come up with so far. Is it embrace the hard or embrace hard? No. Embrace the hard. Embrace the hard. That somehow makes it worse. Embrace the hard. And I love the thing

Bruv sent the chat. Hold on, hold on. We're going to get into this later. We're going to get into this later. We're going to get into this later.

We'll embrace it later. I don't even know what I sent. It's probably good if I sent it. You made me laugh. You've got to embrace the hard now.

Yeah. No, I can't. It's like, I just took the pill five minutes ago, so I better get going. Embrace the hard. We've only been on the air for nine minutes. Let's talk about these BC Lions. We're gonna have a more extensive

set of coverage coming up at 7 o'clock with JC Abbott, but the BC Lions two-game win streak came to a screeching halt on Saturday against the Argos, a game that I watched in great detail and actually got more intrigued despite how bad the Lions were playing because they decided to play Vernon Adams for the first time since August 1st,

midway through this game. A move that apparently surprised all the quarterbacks on the team, including the guy that got taken out, Nathan Rourke, and the guy that got put in, Vernon Adams. It was a 33-17 loss. It was actually probably not even as close as the score suggested because they got a cosmetic touchdown like it was not a not good for the bc lines whatsoever by neither adams or rourke no they were terrible i don't even know who that third string guy was okay but god bless him he came in and got a touchdown at the end he'll be

starting the next game they made the joke on the broadcast, like, maybe he'll be starting. And then they're like, that's not funny. It was a disastrous performance all around, offensively, defensively, missed tackles all over the place. And it was frustrating because we thought the Lions had turned a corner. We thought they had found their game in Victoria

when they beat Ottawa. And then we were almost convinced of that when they go to Montreal and beat the best team in the league. God smokes the best team in the league too. And maybe they got cocky. Maybe that's what happened. Maybe they came back. They're like, we got this figured out.

We got a bye coming up. We're going to look ahead to that bye, maybe get some time off. And they just didn't show up against a very good Toronto team that was in bounce back mode after not playing very well. Like they were, they were the desperate team. They were the ones that were going to come into BC and where they hadn't won for a while and they were going to be focused.

But the whole thing was a disaster, including the coaching job by Rick Campbell. A lot of people pointed out like, Hey, I know that Nathan Rourke didn't really start that well, but he looked like he was finding his game. And then you yank him. And then as JC Abbott wrote, and we'll talk to JC in just a bit,

in Three Down Nation, Rick Campbell said, well, we were looking for a spark. I was like, well, you just found the spark because Nathan Rourke found his game and found the end zone. So here's what I wonder. Okay.

This is pure speculation. Oh, good. And this is the stuff that Sports Talk Radio gets to do with absolutely no information behind it or no evidence behind it. I wonder if there's some dissension in the room. And I wonder if Rick Campbell's just trying to prove a point that Nathan Rourke isn't, like, he's not being guaranteed the job here. And he almost wanted to get VA into the game. You know, like he had kind of convinced himself,

like, I'm going to get this guy into the game one way or the other if Nathan isn't completely balling out against the Argos because I want to show maybe them, but also everyone else that we have two quarterbacks here and Vernon Adams isn't forgotten and Vernon Adams is still going to get an opportunity because the whole thing just seemed forced. It seemed like he had his mind made up that Vernon Adams was going to come into the game. The whole thing struck me as weird.

I don't know if my theory holds any water. I don't know what Vernon Adams thought when the BC Lions went out and got Nathan Rourke, but I heard a few rumblings that he wasn't thrilled. Okay, so we're going to talk to JC Abbott at 7 o'clock. No thoughts on he wasn't thrilled okay so we're gonna talk to jc abbott at seven o'clock no thoughts on that nothing well we're gonna move along because we got uh a couple other things i want to get to before i just put out a pretty good conspiracy theory and you're like we're gonna move along um okay i think it was bad coaching i think it was really bad coaching

i think that it was a ridiculous whatever it was whatever, whatever the impetus was for Rick Campbell to make that decision, I think it was very bad coaching. Vernon Adams Jr. didn't take a single first team rep during the week. Yeah. So he got no practicing opportunity with the guys that he was supposed to go out and play with. Secondly, he hasn't played since August 1st, and I don't know why you would put him in this sort of not advantageous scenario for a guy that hasn't played in six weeks

to try and get back into game form without having taken any first-team reps. He clearly didn't tell either guy that he was anticipating or even suggesting this move because it caught both Vernon Adams and Nathan Rourke off guard. Nathan Rourke said after the game he was surprised by the decision. So why didn't you say that the first time? That was terrific. That was way better than what I said

with my weird conspiracy theories. I just, well, because I, well, one, I was trying to save it, but two,

I think that this is bad coaching. I think this is, I think it's just, if there is a conspiracy that I'll align myself with on yours, I think maybe he thought that this might have been like keeping guys on their toes or no one is safe or everyone has the possibility of being benched. And if that's the case, it makes a bad coaching decision even worse because this might have ruined it.

I mean, this is the Canadian Football League. A nine-point lead is not insurmountable. You can make that up in the last 90 seconds of a game. Like, I don't understand. In any football league. Yeah, I don't understand why. It almost felt like it was a predetermined act from the head coach. He was going to go to Vernon Adams in the second half,

regardless of what was happening. And that's a very strange move from a veteran head coach who's got a team that has a great cup aspirations. A-Dog is furiously working the phones here, trying to get a hold of Mike Tan here. I don't know how much Mike covered the Seahawks game, but we will mention really quickly, 23-20 victory in New England.

Just two games now in the Seahawks where you're like, they got the win. You're happy with the result. Maybe a bit of a flawed process, but at the end of the day, you can't really argue with the fact that they're 2-0 and they're just kind of... And now they got Miami coming to town

and Miami won't have Tua. Now they're going to be a 3-0 football team. I think the Seahawks are six-and-a-half-point favorites against the Miami Dolphins. Six-and-a-half-point favorites to go 3-0. Do we have Mike Tanier on the line now? To the phone lines we go. Our NFL insider from the 2-Deep Zone, Mike Tanier,

here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Michael. How are you? I'm doing great, but that's a perfect lead-in. There are going to be some weird 3-0 teams next week, and the Seahawks may be one of them. I was reading the Too Deep Zone this morning. By the way, everyone should go to miketannier.substack.com and check it out right away.

You mentioned that this is the Monday where we all go in and we talk about which teams are 2-0, so let's do exactly that. We're trying to figure out what's going on here because I don't think anyone expected the Vikings to be 2-0 after two weeks. I don't think anyone expected the New Orleans Saints to be 2-0 and have the best offense possibly in NFL

history at this stage of the game. So let's start with the Vikings though because that one as it pertains to the Seattle Seahawks. 23-17 win over the 49ers without Christian McCaffrey. What did you learn from this one? You know, a resilient effort by the Vikings. And one of those games that the 49ers have, and then, you know,

you can dismiss it to a certain degree. You know, they have a Monday night win, then they go on the road. And teams, yeah, the Monday night win, and they go on the road. Sometimes they're flat. And the 49ers looked a little flat. But, you know, I was most impressed by the Vikings. They get this 98 yard touchdown by Justin Jefferson. And it's like, okay, well, if Justin Jefferson goes ham,

they can beat anybody. Jefferson gets hurt and the 49ers start roaring back, but it was still a tough little game. You know, the Vikings defense looked very good. Brian Flores had Brock Purdy confused. Darnold was doing just enough. I don't know if it's sustainable, and I think it's a problem, even if Jefferson misses a week.

But I'm impressed by how hard the Vikings are trying to salvage this season. It looked like it was lost when their rookie quarterback got hurt. I have to ask the question. I know it's out there, and I know it's obvious, but is Sam Darnold for real? No. Come on. I know it's out there and I know it's obvious, but is Sam Darnold for real? No. Sam Darnold was slipping into Darnold mode in the second half of that game. But they had the lead and then they got a couple sacks on Purdy and a couple turnovers the other way.

And he made just enough plays in the fourth quarter to salvage that win. Darnold's going to be Darnold again in two weeks. Now, is he like the 27th best quarterback in the NFL or the 24th or the 33rd or something? Yeah, he's definitely in that range.

Are we going to be talking about him in November? Chislet, we are not going to be talking about Sam Darnold as a serious quarterback in November and December. Are we going to be talking

about Carr and the New Orleans Saints in November? That's different. Because the Saints, first of all, the Saints obviously look in November? That's different. Because the Saints, first of all, the Saints obviously look better than the Vikings right now. They steamrolled. They steamrolled the Cowboys yesterday. You know, the Saints have a lot of assets right now.

They have a lot of speed on offense. We start looking at Olave and Rashid Shaheed and a rejuvenated Alvin Kamara. Their offensive line is not that bad. Their defense is full of veterans, and their new scheme is really good. If you watch the Saints, and if you remember them last year, and they were just dumping the ball to Kamara 23 times a game, and you're like, this is horrendous. Now Clint Kubiak has them motioning guys all over the place.

You know, Taysom Hill and Kamara and Jamal Williams and Shaheed are in the back field, and then they're shifting out, and they're faking a hand off the one and pitching it to the other. It really has defenses off guard. It's kept the Saints on schedule. And what does that do for Derek Carr? Derek Carr is handing off, pitching the ball, dumping it, and then it's a play-action

bomb. And when it's a play-action bomb, it's a clean pocket, because the defense is confused. They don't know where the ball is going. And that lets Carr do what he does best, which is distribute the ball. Saints have a pretty easy schedule. Saints are playing extremely well. Watch out for this team. It looks like right now they're a playoff

team. We're speaking to Mike Tanier, our Monday morning quarterback here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Mike is a presentation of the Clayton Public House. Pre-game to post-game, the Clayton Public House is your home of football. Catch all the action on 15 screens and two giant projectors. Visit them at theclaytonpub.com.

The Pittsburgh Steelers, I love this because they're 2-0 on the strength of defense and field goals. Although Justin Fields hasn't been terrible. They really won that one for the Gipper. The Gipper in this case being Russell Wilson. What did they call the ball that they gave him? The petty game ball. Which needs some work.

Yeah. Which needs some work. Right. I appreciate the effort. It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, the petty game ball, but it's an interesting team. They're 2-0. They gave Russell Wilson a ball for being petty?

Yes. Justin Fields said, everyone knows that Russ got done dirty in denver last year so we wanted to give him this one because it felt good to go in there and get the win for him i guess it has tom petty's picture on it that would probably be the only explanation but if it is defense i thought it was petty like petite like it was a french thing i guess it's not okay so so defense' defense looks very very good as always. Fields is not

terrible, but he is just handoff and dump in the flat, handoff dump in the flat, and then he finds pickings for it, like a catch, that's it. They have not played anybody. Like, if you look at the Seahawks and you're like, I don't think the Seahawks have played anybody. It was the same Broncos team the Seahawks beat last week, where they don't throw

the ball downfield at all, where Boenex goes out there and tosses the ball across his living room in the flat to a guy who gets tackled right away. And the Steelers hung on for dear life in that game. The thing is with the Steelers, Steelers did that. The Chargers went out and beat the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. I mean, the Panthers are horrendous right now. Both of those teams are 2-0.

So we talk about the Seahawks, maybe they get a win because of the depleted 2-0-less Dolphins. Either the Steelers or Chargers are going to be 3-0 next week, and I don't know if either of them really has an offense. Hey, Mike, we were talking about this offline in the wake of Christian McCaffrey's injury and then the Niners lose to the Vikings. And also, I mean, in week one,

I was really talking up TJ Watt for the Steelers, and he's such an important part of their team and their 2-0. Who do you think is the most important or the best non-quarterback in the NFL? Tyreek Hill. Yeah. Tyreek Hill. McCaffrey would be in the top 10,

and Watt would be in the top 10. It would be a bunch of all-purpose playmakers and probably edge rushers at this point. If you saw Aiden Hutchinson with four and a half sacks yesterday, he's climbing into that list. But it's got to be Tyreek Hill. And then again, you're facing that Dolphins team next week. What you're probably going to see with Skyler Thompson, that quarterback, is reverses to hell, screens to hell, pitches to hell, all trying to just get him the ball and say, well, go make eight guys miss,

and that's the way we can generate offense. So what are your thoughts on the Miami Dolphins quarterback situation right now? You can go in either way you want, whether it's Tua focused or what they can do in the meantime to hang on. I think it's going to be Skyler Thompson for the foreseeable future. I don't see like Ryan Tannehill coming back and learning that intricate system. So that's what we're going to see for a

while. Tua Tongavaila meets with his doctors, not his doctors, he meets with neurologists this week, and he's going to get a little more information there. I think he's done, I'm going to say he is done for multiple weeks. And I hope that as he moves forward, he gets the best neurologists, he listens to their advice, he listens to his wife's advice. And he makes decisions based on that, not on some need to rush back, not because he's getting texts from Mike McDaniel or whatever, and he makes his choices. I'm not going to be one of these guys who says he needs to retire right now because I don't know all the implications.

I'm not a 26-year-old athlete with a $100 million contract. I don't know all of that. I'm not going to tell someone else how to live their lives. I don't want to be sitting at my desk when he takes the next hit and have to worry about what I'm going to write about if the next hit is really the last one. Before we let you go, normally we do a Monday Night Football preview, but I wanted to focus on the teams that aren't 2-0,

but rather the ones that are 0-2, the two big ones, and we mentioned them earlier in the show, Baltimore and Cincinnati. If either one is in big trouble, which one is in the biggest trouble? Gosh, they both are i lean on baltimore because i can see cincinnati getting t havens back maybe getting jamar case straightened out and then they were winning for much of that game they they were in that game it got very strange at the end uh so i would say the bengals can turn things around the ravens just have a problem where they they don't have a lot of wide receiver don't have a lot of wide receiver. Don't have a lot of wide receiver.

Don't have a lot at the edge. Don't have a lot of guys at safety and in the interior offensive line and left tackle, Ronnie Stanley, and defensive tackle. If you're not really good on the edges, you're not going to be able to compete against your top competition in the AFC. They're already falling behind the Chiefs and the Bills. And if they've got to fight an uphill battle to get back there, I don't think they're well-equipped to do it.

Mike, this was great. As always, thanks for taking the time to do it. Enjoy the game tonight. We'll do this again next Monday. Absolutely. Take care and enjoy the week. Thank you. That's Mike Tanier,

presentation of the Clayton Public House here on 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 Show on Sportsnet 650. Trans Erotica Corsi Thomas Trans Erotica Expectant Goals Thomas Trans Erotica Tom's Bottle

Thomas Trans Erotica Red Ration Thomas Trans Erotica PDO 733 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Brough, 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. So the Canucks are 2-0 at the Young Stars tournament this weekend. Rolls on today. They got a game this afternoon. It's the finale for the Canucks. A chance to go 3-0 against the hated Calgary Flames prospects.

Ooh, I hate their prospects. Vancouver, Calgary, 2.30 p.m. our time. You can hear it all right here on Sportsnet 650. Our next guest is joining us live on location. Our Young Stars insider, Thomas Drantz, here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Drantzer. How are you? Gentlemen, good morning.

Yeah, up here in sunny Penticton, spending most of my time at a rink. Classic. Beautiful. Yeah, and I'll be here for 10 days. Like, it's 10 days in this cheery double queen bedroom at the Fairfield on Eckhart, because, of course, the Canucks do main camp here.

So, yeah, great way to kick off the season. Do you just put your luggage on the other bed, or do, the Canucks do main camp here. So, yeah, great way to kick off the season. Do you just put your luggage on the other bed, or do you like to use both of them? Oh, I'm so, so unpacked. I'm so unpacked that I moved in. I moved in unpacked, and then I went back down to the lobby, and I was like, hey, I'm here for so long.

Can I take five more hangers? You're introducing yourself to everyone in the hotel. Hi, I'm Tom. I'll I'm here for so long. Can I pick five more hangers? You're introducing yourself to everyone in the hotel. Hi, I'm Tom. I'll be living here for a couple of weeks. 100%. Okay. Your standout player so far through two games for the Vancouver Canucks would be? Atu Ratu, I think. Atu Ratu.

You know, there's, the fact is, is that it could be any of Max Hassan, Atu-Ratu, or Arshdeep Baines. Like, there was... There's a sense around Baines, for example, when you watch him at this tournament, that, you know, I think if he was going 100%, he could dominate at a ridiculous rate. You know, these guys are guys with multiple years of pro experience baines was a ahl all-star last season right they have the look of like a ringer like you do you know did you guys ever play um like softball or anything yeah guy who played left give one at your buddy's office would like come out every couple weeks just because

he liked drinking and it was just hilarious go full tilt but every now and then when you like really

needed a run you just went out of the park so we're gonna call you back and your your line is

a little garbled a little garbled Thomas Trance from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks talk here on the Halford and Brough show on

Sportsnet 650. Fear not. I think he was comparing Baines to a softball ringer. I couldn't tell. I think that's where he was going with that, though. Yeah. We will talk to Thomas Drance. Hopefully, he can just, I mean, he must have a landline.

He lives there now, right? So, hopefully, you can call him right at the hotel and we'll get back to him. I have, again, I didn't watch a ton of the young stars this weekend there was a lot on the sporting ledger this weekend right and uh they so the the messages that we were getting and the feedback that we were getting was that um they loaded up the top line with baines ratu and like oh by the way pronunciation lecker mackie there's no lecker right it's lecker yeah yeah i saw that too. And not like we're going to adhere to this pronunciation, but I thought it was worth putting out there.

Okay, Dranzer, I think you were comparing Baines to a softball ringer. Yeah, a softball ringer. Okay. Like, that's sort of the level that those three players are at in this tournament. The difference being that Ratu's 21, right? Like, Ratu's one year older than leckermacky right so you know he's he's at a different age so the fact that he looks like that the fact that he's also at that level like sasson's 24 baines is you know mid-20s as well ratu's a little more age appropriate but

has that same sort of vibe to him, that same level of preparedness. And to me, that's actually pretty exciting, right? Like it means a little bit more to me when I evaluate players in a pretty difficult sort of environment to do so, given the disparity between ages and experience levels that are sort of on display in Penticton. So he'd sort of be my pick. You could pick anyone from that top line.

They've been phenomenal. In terms of less experienced players on the Canucks roster, you know, we've seen some great And I do think he looks super dynamic when carrying the puck downhill, but there's some stuff in terms of supporting the buildup that, that, you know, I think is going to take some work. It just, just looks like a guy who's probably going to need some time, but remains, you know, the top prospect in this organization. And then I've really liked Elias Pettersson. Or, sorry, Elias Pettersson. That's how you're going to differentiate it, right? No, no, that's actually

in fact how he says it, right? He's Elias Pettersson. So we do have a slight differentiation in pronunciation. His team needs more John Smiths. It's not like the Canadians or the Americans. It's not an anti-European thing. It's just like I'm tired of names that I can't pronounce.

Well, with Elias Pettersson and Elias Pettersson, it's like having a John Smith and a Jan Smith, right? So anyway, I really liked his game. Scored a goal yesterday, but he's looked really good, man. He's even looked really mature at little things like fronting flanker shooters on the penalty kill. He looks great at that. So yeah, that's a pretty unique profile to have in a 20-year-old defenseman about to play his first year of a first full year anyway of north american pro hockey imac had an interesting conversation with ratu and you can read this on sportsnet.ca as well ratu was saying that he's actually had a few light bulb moments when it comes to his skating

and i don't know if he did a scrum or if this was just imac talking to him but you know he thinks that his skating has improved whether it's to the level it needs to be yet um he wouldn't say but how has he looked to you and where do you think if he were to play with the Canucks this season he would play well this is where I think the Ratu conversation gets interesting because Ratu does look faster to me. And he definitely has pro details, right? But if I watch him play, I think, man, I think this guy has a shot. If you were to audition him as like a third-line winger,

I think this guy has a shot to be, and I'm not saying he's going to do it, especially with the depth that the Canucks have. But if you were looking for like a bottom six winger, left bottom six left winger to play with Suter and Daniel Sprong on the fourth line or whatever, like I think, I think he'd be a candidate to be able to do that and do it well right now, right now. But he's a really good faceoff guy. And the Canucks don't have a lot of center depth and we know how valuable it is to have centermen and it's easier for a player to you know at the age of 22 sort of

an organization decides hey you're a winger and move him to the wing than it is to be like you're a winger now and then wait we want you to move back to center. And I think the club, well, I know the club, is intent on giving him as much runway as possible at center as opposed to where I think he'd be more NHL-ready today, which would be on the way. So that's sort of an interesting wrinkle here. I think they're going to go into main camp and treat him like a center. And if that means that he spends more time in the American League,

I think they're comfortable with that. So, yeah, I mean, Ratu, I think, has improved as a skater. Whether he's improved enough as a skater to stick in the middle of the ice, right, is really the question because that's a higher bar. But I think his skating is already at a level where he could play in the NHL and be effective in the NHL. It's just maybe on the wing as opposed to in the middle. So how do you think they go into camp in terms of lines

and who's going to play with who? Do you think they're going to give guys like Ratu and Lekarimaki opportunities with veterans that are definitely going to make the team, or are they going to keep the veterans together and have the kids playing with themselves? Yeah, the kids playing with themselves. They'll be supervised, don't worry.

Yeah, okay. I think the, so hard for me to know. I haven't had a chance to chat with Rick Talkett while I've been up here, but the sort of thing that I'd monitor or note here is when they went into camp last season, right? It was kind of duos with a tryout youngster on each line to open camp. So we had our steep banes with, I think it was Miller and Besson, right. We had, you know, I can't remember what, one of the other young guys was playing with,

it was, I think it was pod Coles in open camp or whatever it was with, you know, Pedersen. And I think it was so glad to, right. So they had young guys interspersed across their lineup at the only training camp connects to training camp that we've seen Rick talk it run to this point. You know, I, lineup at the only training camp connects training camp that we've seen rick talk it run to this point um you know i i wouldn't be stunned by any means if we saw something similar especially because you know i think we have a decent sense of of three duos that you know in talk it's mind's eye he's going to enter this season with in terms of his forward lines right like i think we have a good sense that it's going to be Garland and Joshua on the third line, Miller and Besser on the top,

and that DeBrusque is going to play with Pettersson, right? So we sort of have those duos. Now, could we see Ratu start camp playing between Garland and Joshua while Suter and Bluger play elsewhere? Like, sure, right? Like, could we see Baines start with, you know, Miller and Besser or with Dabrowski and Patterson and LeKarimaki start with one of the others?

Like, that wouldn't stun me by any means, right? So I think we probably will see sort of a mix. You'll sort of, my guess would be we'd start to see sort of the contours of what Vancouver's lineup is going to be, but perhaps with duos and then some young players, you know, intermixed to test their readiness and to give them an opportunity to make it that sort of competitive camp that teams often talk about and that I know the Canucks want to prioritize. What is the main thing that this Young Stars tournament accomplishes? Yeah, I mean, it gets the season started off right. You've got this sort of opportunity to evaluate players in a different type of environment.

It's a challenging environment, right? Like if you're the Flames team, for example, the Canucks will play in a couple hours, has eight guys that were picked in 2024, right? So that's eight teenagers, right? Eight players who have never played pro hockey. And

whether it was their first game lining up against guys like Brad Lambert and Chivrikov out of Winnipeg, or the game that they won against the Oilers where you've got Matt Savoy, right? Or today where you've got, you know, Vancouver's sort of collection of softball ringers.

You know, that's an eye-opening experience in terms of the level of play, right? Like, if you're planning to stream that Canucks game on Canucks.com today or, you know, listen to Batch, call it on Sportsnet 650. Like, the amount of times that an experienced pro just flat-out pickpockets an 18-year-old or a 19-year-old, like, as they're along the wall

trying to clear the zone, right? Like, it's incredible, right? Like, it's incredible the level that these guys are at. Like, you've had these sequences where in the first game the Canucks played, like two Oilers youngsters, right, are basically both actively engaged in a puck battle with Atu Ratu and there's no chance, like there's no chance that they're taking the puck from him, right? So that disparity in levels, I think, is a good thing for the players who are going to be at training camp

for like a day or two to go through, especially in a competitive environment, right? So to have that understanding, to come in from being the best player on your OHL or WHL or, you know, QMJHL team, and then be like, oh, I'm the 15th best player on the ice. Right. And there's 100 players here. Right. I'm in the middle of the pack and that's not going to be enough because only like seven of these 100 players,

even at this level, are going to make it to the NHL and have long careers. Right. Like even at this level. So I think that's a good experience for players to go through, you know, in a beautiful spot in the world with all the player development staff around, with the opportunity to make an impression on American League and NHL coaches and build that relationship. You know, plus it's fun for fans. Plus it's a great spot to be at for hockey operations staff for these teams as they kick off the season the

Canucks have been super busy like they've had massive um you know sort of organizational meetings all week um you know Rutherford, Alvin everyone's here they're they're sweet at these prospect tournament games is packed like to the brim um so you know i i think there's a i i think it's just a smart way to kick off the season and all of that said you know these teams all signed a two-year agreement for this tournament to return well this is year two a new agreement will be needed um and you know i am curious to see what sort of happens next crowds have been good here but you know we've seen this tournament um go away in the past because some teams weren't as bought in or specifically the alberta teams were like why don't we do it in

red deer yeah um and you know ken holland who is from vernon who set up the traverse tournament and who is no longer pointedly no longer the edmunds and oilers jam is no longer in that seat and so you know this tournament has lost a huge supporter that works for one of the clubs. Sounds like all four of the teams want to keep doing it. I hope they do because I love it, selfishly. But, yeah, so we'll sort of see what the future holds for the Penticton Young Stars tournament.

There's definitely going to need to be conversations and an extension worked out, you know, between the arena and Oakview group and the four teams themselves on the tail end of this. We're speaking to Thomas Drance from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks talk here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Obviously training camp will also be in Penticton in a few days. You'll be up there for it. So too will journeyman goalie Dylan Ferguson,

who will be joining the Canucks on a pto as they break camp um you want to take a stab on what this means for gold as the goalie drama turns the latest development ferguson and i guess there was also a report out there that anti-ranta was being considered and possibly extended invite that he eventually turned down right yeah and sounds like you know i mean in an entourage's case he just talked openly about being on a zoom with connect staff right as he signed in europe um you know the ferguson thing so the canucks have an ahl goaltender named jonathan lemieux in addition to the names you're familiar with right tola pilo ty young their draft pick, Demko, Selovs.

And then, you know, there's a, anyway, with Ferguson, you have seven. You have seven bodies. And so what does this tell you? Well, a training camp has three groups. Each group needs two goaltenders. So you need six goalies to go through training camp. You wouldn't really bring a PTO in if you had six goalies ready to go. So this tells you that the Canucks have one goalie that probably isn't going to be skating with any of the main groups when camp begins.

And I don't think that's a surprise to anyone. But I do think we should look at this as some level of confirmation, even if the club itself, you know, isn't going to confirm anything until they go through player medicals on Wednesday. Drancer, you're the best, buddy. Thanks a lot for doing this. We really appreciate it. I enjoy the remainder of your stay in Penticton. I joked with someone in the text message in basket that you're getting your mail there now for the rest of the week.

That's how long you're going to be in Penticton for. We'll do this again next week. All right. Sounds good, boys. Yeah, I'm just going to go down to the front desk and pick up my Amazon packages. See you, pal. Have fun. Thomas Drance from The Athletic Vancouver, now a full-fledged resident of Penticton here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. If you're interested in this kind of stuff, you should go read IMAC's article where he spoke with Atu Ratu about his skating.

Because it is interesting. He said, he told IMAC that he had some light bulb moments when it came to his skating. And whenever I hear that, I'm like, oh, that sounds promising. Because you can imagine them being like, why wasn't I doing this before? But he had some, he added some details. Because IMAC asked him the obvious question. I'm like, what were those light bulb moments? And he said, there's a lot of things, a lot of body lean.

My crossovers were horrible. That's what he said. My crossovers were horrible. And then he said he switched his blades because in Europe they have a lot of glide in their blades for the bigger ice surfaces. So I switched them a little bit and said it gave him more confidence to have that body lean

required for those cross crossovers. And he added, if you look at those good players, they get the speed from crossovers and then they get the puck. If I can get my speed faster and kind of get through some guys, I think that's going to be the difference. That is interesting. And everyone will bring up, like, remember when Bo Horvat went from not a good skater to a good skater.

I'm sure he had some light bulb moments so it's funny right like people talk about Ratu and it's hilarious I was reading that I was like wait a minute you got a lean you're supposed to lean when you're supposed to

just try to run on yeah yeah yeah that's not what you're supposed to do weird yeah I'll try that at 48 years old so Laddy got in my ear when we were talking about

cool wet sack yeah he's like how old is Ratu isn't he like how'd you He's like, how old is Ratu? Isn't he like, you thought he was how old? I joked that he was 27. No, no. 21. Right.

Yeah. I think it's- They gave up on him early in New York. Right. It's instructive to remember that for all of the prospects that hit the ground running and burst onto the scene and look great, there's a bunch of other ones that are going to take some time. And I think we're probably as guilty as anyone.

We're pretty quick to write people off across the sporting landscape. You did it with Shane, right? When he was like 13. And then he's still written off. So it's funny. The only reason I bring this up is I'm watching Sunday night football last night and Caleb Williams is out there, right? You're writing them off.

No, I'm not. I wrote him off when he was at USC. So I don't like usc so i was like this guy's not gonna make it right however i thought there were two things that were really interesting one um chris collinsworth was bending over backwards to point out every little nuance that he said that this guy had learned from week one to week two and it was almost like baked into the narrative that it was like Caleb Williams is struggling, but or that wasn't a good play. However, like they were. How about that sack he took right at the end of the game?

He got he got drilled. There were some big hits in that game. I was watching TV and just like, watch out. The Texans were like pedal to the metal the whole game like we're just gonna blitz and just try and hit anything we can find they were very physical cole comet the wide receiver got blown up a lot of it had to do with the anyway i bring this up because um you know we're this quarterback class right now much ballyhooed much celebrated i've watched it pretty close to the first two weeks.

There are not a lot of positives to draw on. Nope. Find me one. Prove me wrong, children. Find me one. But it's been tough. And it's funny. If you go on social media, the cesspool that is social media,

there's people ripping on Caleb Williams last night. And I'm like, that's tough. Do people not remember Peyton manning's first time in the nfl when he was thrown pick after pick after pick there i just i think that um i don't want to start like waxing too poetic here but it's a like appeasement now i want the results today i don't want to wait there's no patience do you also think there's been so many busts in the last little while that people are just like, oh, God, we've got one now. I feel like the NFL did Caleb Williams dirty last night by putting him on primetime Sunday football against C.J. Stroud.

Because C.J. Stroud, let's be clear, that's the anomaly. That's the exception, not the norm, right? To have the kind of shot out of a can an amazing rookie year makes the playoffs looks like a polished pro that's the exception to the rule but i mean and then you mentioned it because we were talking about bryce young who by the way like that's unfortunately for him like that's a career that's in a bit of a tailspin right now but you know who might be turning it around kyler murray right and that's how many years down the road right yeah and then i go back to my favorite quarterback baker mayfield i mean he's 29 and he's 29 he's 29 years old and he's almost

as old as atu ratu right according to laddie yeah but it just goes to show like these the the projections and the trajectory is not always linear. It doesn't always follow a straight pattern. And maybe you don't have the patience to wait until the guy's 29. But sometimes guys just get there just a lot later than you would like. Anyway. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.