Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 9/20/24

Episode Date: September 20, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, Laddie and Brough fight about how good of a player Radko Gudas is, they get a Canucks update from Donnie & Dhali's Rick Dhaliwal, plus the boys tell us what they learned. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. You're listening to Halford & Brough. On a one-two, Otani sets one in the air. The other way. Back it goes. Gone! One of a kind player. One of a kind season.

Shohei Otani starts the 50-50 club. That's really what this season's about. So higher expectations. It's going to be hard. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver. It's 6 o'clock on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody.

This is Alfred and his bruv. 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.

Laddy, good morning to you. Hello, hello. Get a rash. It's our final day together. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddy, good morning to you. Hello, hello. Get a rash. It's our final day together. Good morning to you as well. 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,

sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar 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. Sore feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec. We've got a big show ahead on a Friday. We have a lot to get into. Guest list begins at 6.30.

Brady Henderson, our Seahawks insider from ESPN, is going to join us, talk about the Seahawks game on Sunday. Seahawks are going to look to run their record to 3-0 against Skylar Thompson. Skylar Thompson and the Miami Dolphins. Seahawks are four- a half point favorites at home. Don't know if Kenneth Walker III is going to play. Kenneth Walker III.

So we'll talk to Brady about all that at 630. More Jose Charbonneau, I guess. That's a good pull. A deep cut. Not a lot of people are going to know what he's talking about, but I do. And that's the important thing. 7 o'clock, AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. We will talk to him about this upcoming weekend.

I'm going to go by AJ's on Sunday. We're going to watch the Cowboys game together. His beloved Dallas Cowboys. Who are they playing? They are playing the Baltimore Ravens. Oh, that's an interesting matchup, actually, because the Cowboys just got pumped by New Orleans, and Baltimore's looking for its first win.

They're desperate. Desperate Ravens. Thanks for the invite. Appreciate it. Would you like to go? I can't. I'm busy. Oh, God. 730 Bob the Moj Marjanovic is going to join us on the program.

No Lions game this week, but we will still talk to him. We haven't really had a chance to catch up from last Friday's debacle against the Argos. Yeah, we can talk Canucks, too. Moj, remember, he's like a beat reporter. I wonder if he's in Penticton. I don't know. We'll find out. Moj is everywhere. That's true. He's omnipresent.

He's everywhere you want to be. 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall is going to join the program. Did Dolly send you the talking points for this? He doesn't send them to me. Him and Brough have an interesting relationship. They fight. They're itchy and scratchy. They argue, but then they love each other in the end.

Love might be a strong word. Yeah, believe it or not, Dolly wants to talk about the Dakota Joshua situation and the Thatcher Demko situation. Okay, there we go. We now know what we're talking about with Rick Dolly while I'm eating a clock. He actually, I think he might have a little tidbit or two on Vilmer.

Okay, so. Vilmer. Ulrichson. Yes, but Oh, God How do you spell it? Please tell me Is there a Q?

Wilmer Arklesson Arklesson Arklesson That's not as bad as I thought it would be He's a different player Arklesson How this kid improved to get noticed by Tuckett

Yeah, but not enough to have his name spelled correctly Demko spelled right Joshua spelled right Honestly, this is surprising. Taka has spelled right. Atta boy. Three out of four. Rick.

It's a passing grade. It's getting better. Yeah. How old is he, 60? All right. And we got Dolly Wall at eight. We're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's. We mentioned AJ's going to join us at seven o'clock.

For the best, ask us anything. The concept, as always, very simple. You ask us something. We answer it. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650 650. Send them in as well as you're what we learned. We'll do all those in the final half hour of the program.

Working in reverse on the guest list. 8 o'clock, Dollywall. 730 Marjanovic. 7 o'clock AJ630 Henderson. Brady, that is. That's the guest list for today. 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? 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. So if we're not going to start with the Vancouver Canucks on day two of training camp with all these stories and narratives and big news items, you know something special had to have happened. And if we're starting with baseball, you know something very, very special must have happened. And Shohei Otani is very, very special.

Shohei Otani etched his name into Major League Baseball history on Thursday, becoming the first and only member of the 50-50 club against the lowly Miami Marlins. Otani earlier this year became the first guy in recent memory to get to the 40-40. And then yesterday, he got there after stealing two bases and then hitting his 50th home run in the top of the seventh inning. Here's what it sounded like. Shohei Otani making history.

On a one-two, Otani sends one in the air. The other way. Back it goes. Gone! One of a kind player. One of a kind season. Shohei Ohtani starts the 50-50 club. So you could make the argument here that Shohei Otani had the best

and most efficient single game offensive performance in MLB history in a year where he might be having the best offensive season by a player in MLB history. And that's not hyperbole. Do you think Big Papi was watching that game and like, damn it, he tipped his cap. He's like, to you, Shohei. Six for six. You can be MVP.

Six for six. Three home runs. Ten RBI. He drove in ten of the Dodgers, 20 runs on the game, and of course he swiped a couple bags as well. Only 50% of their runs? Come on, Shohei.

It's unbelievable. You know what I was happy about? I'm just glad that it happened in such a special place and that 15,000 people in Miami were able to witness that. Another tip of the cap to you, Miami. When I saw that final home run ball sailing

into the empty seats out in right field, that was truly a special moment. Did you see the guy that almost caught the ball? No. He wasn't going to catch that. It was going to ricochet off his hand. There was truly a special moment. Did you see the guy that almost caught the ball? No. He wasn't going to catch that. It was going to ricochet off his hand. There was a dude hanging over the railing and it nicked his fingers. The 50th? Not the final. Not the BP

one? No, that was stupid. The 50th was the one that everyone was going for. And then Darren Revell was right there on his calculator anticipating how much it was going to be worth. Where did the ball end up? It ended up, so there was a table section.

Yeah, it looked like some sort of picnic section in the outfield at ground level. So did a fan get it? Yeah, a fan got it. It was a massive dog pile. Massive wrestling match ensued. So we should point out that the Dodgers also clinched a playoff. It'd be funny if Otani's translator got it.

No, he can't because he's incarcerated. No, I know. Yeah, it'll be tough for him to do things. He has like a day pass. You know he's getting 33 years in prison? Ipe? Remember Ipe? Mm-hmm. The answer is no, nobody does.

But your show, he's killing it right now. Poor Ipe's sitting there. What does Ipe think of all this? I don't know. No one's going to find out either because Shohei's going to the playoffs, baby. That's the great part of all of this. This isn't just a regular season exploit.

We're going to get to see him in the postseason, probably rewrite some more record books because at this point, I am not putting anything past Shohei Otani. And he might pitch in the playoffs, too. Did you hear that? That would be remarkable. He is maybe,

well, he's certainly the best natural athlete i've ever seen in baseball yeah and so what about the kid i was like better than him um he is he is having this conversation with some guys on my hockey team and it was like you just watch him running the bases or swinging the bat or doing whatever it's like he's perfect it all looks too effortless it does it does it doing whatever. It's like he's perfect. It all looks too effortless. He's perfect. It does. It looks too.

He's just like, he's just made for this. Yep. That's exactly it. He's built for this. He's perfect. Yep. And I don't know. I mean, there have been some great natural athletes that we've all seen over our lives,

but he is up there. It's incredible. And the way he hit the 50-50 was was it sounds like he won the 50 50 that's true uh it was reminiscent of for me when gretzky um had five goals in his 39th game yeah to hit 50 and 39 it's a really you know like it's a good pull the people the people showed up to the game and they were like, nah, he's not going to do it. What do you think the people that had tickets to Otani's next few games

were thinking watching that? They're like, come on! You couldn't save one of them? Like, you could do it. Walk him! Yeah. Walk him! When Gretzky hit five goals to hit 50 in 39,

there was a sense that he understood what he was doing. The closer he got to it, he realized... Well, the game was in Edmonton too, which was kind of cool. But his fifth goal was into an empty net. So there was that moment too, right? Things broke his way. Yeah, the Flyers didn't play very well in their Cooper Halls that day. They did not at all.

How did he score five goals in a game that required a goalie poll at the end? What was the score of this game? It's the 80s, man. Was it 9-8? Probably like 9-8. Yeah, 9-8. It was a tight one. Tight defensive affair.

Like, what happened? So there are certain superstars. And when we talk about generational athletes, this is maybe how we should talk about them. That they do the really, really rare things and have a sense of occasion and moment. Like, you can't, and I know that there's been, not allegations, but they're like, it felt like the Marlins were grooving them after a while. Because some people said, and astutely pointed out,

like, if a guy's going like that, maybe just pitch around him. Maybe don't let him hit the baseball. Maybe don't let him drive in 10 runs against you. Like, that seems like a good baseball strategy. They said, no, you know, and actually the manager said, we're not going to mess with the baseball gods. We're not going to go against this. Like, we're going to try and go after him.

And then he put a position pitcher, a player up there. Anyway, I digress. With Gretzky, there was a sense of moment. And I was like, this is the time to do it. And it's very difficult to actually follow through and have this kind of performance. Because like you said. That's why the comparisons to McDavid weren't,

McDavid didn't have those moments. Yeah. Until I suppose you could say this year when they went to the Stanley Cup final. Right. But all these greats had these moments. Exactly. Lemieux in 87 at the Canada Cup.

Sid even in 2010. He had these great moments, and that's what we were waiting for from McDavid. I don't know if he had that signature moment, though. Right. Did he have the signature moment in the playoffs? He had some great games. One defining moment? I don't know.

Probably not what we're talking about. Mario had that goal in the Stanley Cup final final against uh minnesota too super mario yeah against yeah and that was and that was like in an eight nothing game too um and that's why mcdavid isn't very good yeah that's how we wanted to turn this we wanted to reignite somehow turn shohei into the vancouver edmonton rivalry no but but Shohei could have very easily done the two stolen bases last night and got to 50 and then done the homers the next game or something. Yeah, spread them out a little bit. But he understood the assignment and he understood the moment.

So very cool. By the way, if you want to weigh in on the Dunbar-Lumber text line, something we're going to try and do throughout the show, other individual sports records that could fall in the next decade that we never thought were going to fall single season or otherwise, because I'm going to be honest. I did not think a couple of years ago that the 50 50 was attainable. I didn't remember the stolen base had gone like completely out of vogue and

it was not happening. There were steals were not happening with any regularity. The 40 40 seemed really difficult. The nerds took stealing away from us. Right. And now it's back because we pushed the nerds in a locker and we're like, steal those bases. And Shohei was like, all right, let's do it. GMA is asking, can you explain to some of your listeners what the

50-50 means? And it was like me asking to Greg yesterday, explain this in hockey terms. So he wants to know what the action is. So you know when David got 100 assists, he's like, well, imagine if he also got 100 goals. See, I saw that. I'm not sure that's even right. No, it's not. There is no hockey.

There's no hockey equivalent. Because it's the mashup of strength and speed that has not been seen before. Yeah, that's the thing. It's like you're the fastest guy and you're the strongest guy. You hit 50 home runs and you stole 50 bases. Okay, what if David stole 100 goals? Yeah, that would be it. 50 goals and 50 fights.

I'm not even joking. The old 50-50 club. That's a good, and that's a hard one to get into. I bet Tocant came the closest to anyone to doing that. Yeah, Tocant's like, I did that. I was doing that in the 80s. So records that you think might fall over the next little bit. I mean, we all know the one that we're keeping an eye on,

and that's Ovi catching Gretzky. By the way, Ovi's had kind of a painful start to the season hasn't he had to miss a few days of skating yes um so we'll monitor that he's got uh 41 goals to go to catch gretzky's overall 894 he's gonna break it i don't think it's guaranteed i think it's i think it's 90 i think it's guaranteed i think it's a 90 guaranteed 90 but but i never thought that would be broken likewise and i think a lot of it has to do with just well everything has to do with um the game has goals now so all of a sudden you know the things that we're seeing mcdavid do in terms of point totals in a season and goal totals, things seem possible again. Now, I don't know. It's going to need to take maybe a further step of the scoring evolution in order to really ramp up again, but I would love to see someone take a

legitimate run at the 92 goals in a single season? That would be crazy. Or get back to maybe someone has a run at 200 points? 92 goals in a season would be... Can you imagine the pressure on that player down the stretch? No, I could not. Because Gretzky, when he was sending that, he had blown the record out of the water so far that it was just kind of like, whatever, I'll just keep scoring here.

So the one that's on this, there's a list here that we kind of like scraped off the internet. And there's one market. Actually, I doubt a lot of people even really know it. And I think it's the one that's probably always going to be unbreakable. It's Wilt Chamberlain averaging a cool 50.4 points in 1961-62. You don't think that can happen in basketball? No.

No? No, I don't think that can happen in basketball? No. No? No, I don't. The scoring is going way up. I know, but I mean, look at the scoring leaders from last year. Well, what are they? I don't even know. They're still in the 30s, right? And this is with, I mean, how many more points can we jam into a basketball?

How many more threes can you conceivably shoot? Yeah, that's true. I mean, we're not at maximum saturation for threes but 50.4 like when a guy scores 50 right now it makes the top of esbn.com what was that adam sandler bit about wilt's 100 point game he does the impression of the coach and the coach uh the coaching against will chamberlain is like hey, someone get on that guy. He's on pace for 100. Pay a little more attention to him. Seems to be having a pretty good game. So again, if you want to weigh in on any of this,

we'll go back to it throughout the show. It is Ask Us Anything Friday and what we learned as well. Dunbar-Lemmer text line is 650-650. Okay, Canucks training camp. Day one on the ice. Thatcher Demko was on the ice he stopped all the shots that goalie coach Marco Terrania shot at him so that's a positive

goalie coach shots those are the best shots hey be positive obviously the big story of the day was Thatcher Demko addressing the media about his quote unquote rare and unique injury for more let's just turn everything over to the man himself.

Here is Thatcher Demko, about a minute 48 of audio that we've compiled, talking about this rare and unique injury that's going to keep him sidelined for the time being. Thatcher Demko from yesterday. Yeah, definitely been a little bit frustrating at times. You know, I think, well, I mean, when I first injured myself in the playoffs there, there's such a rare case, such a unique injury that we didn't really have a lot of, you know, readily available research or case studies or really any information to have a concrete timeline. And, you know, we were told that this might be a situation that we might find

ourselves in, the one that we're in right now. And, you know, I've told that this might be a situation that we might find ourselves in, the one that we're in right now. And, you know, I've been able to rehab a ton this summer. And I'm sure it's taken a little bit longer than obviously I would have liked. But, you know, especially the last couple weeks on the ice, I've been feeling a lot better. And there's definitely some light at the end of the tunnel for me now. And, you know, full confidence that I'll be back out there. When I first felt the injury, obviously I wasn't too sure what it was. And as we kind of dived into some research and things, it was a little ambiguous.

And it's been, like I said, a little bit of a frustrating summer just trying to get some answers. And obviously we've talked to all the specialists that we can around the world and North American and even overseas and you know this is the information that we've we've kind of gathered and you know myself and the staff in the organization are fully confident that that we're on the right track it's it's it's been wild you know it's been part of the frustration is just not having a ton of information and you're kind of just going into it blindfolded and And, you know, it can be scary at times. And I think we've done a good job handling that as a group with the medical staff and the organization

and doing the best we can in that front. But, yeah, we haven't found a single hockey player. We've found, you know, maybe less than five soccer guys. You know, just random things like that. You know, it's not too concrete. Okay, so yesterday when it was announced that Demko would speak, or two days ago, when Alvin said, I'm not going to say anything, but Thatcher is going to speak,

I actually didn't take that as super bad news. A-Dog was freaking out. He's like, oh, my God, he's going to retire or something like that. I was freaking out. You were freaking out? A little bit, yep. Really? Yeah, I felt felt it was unusual and i don't like unusual when it comes to the i thought here's here's how i thought i was like if it was super bad they probably wouldn't put them out there at all sure i'm talking about at all right right just keep them

under wraps alvin wouldn't say anything about it or he would tiptoe around it, tap dance around it. It's still pretty bad. And Demko, hold on a second. And Demko would just be like, because he didn't have to talk, because he's not participating in camp. He wasn't obligated to do it, really. And yes, A-Dog, thank you for stealing my thunder.

It's not great. Just reading off my tweet, gotta love it when your star goalie gets an unprecedented injury that no goalie has ever had before. But he sounded confident. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, he was like, I'm 100%. I'm going to get back to full health,

except for all this stuff that I just said. Sure, it's unprecedented. Sure, no goalie's ever had it before. Sure, we don't know what it is. Sure, we had unprecedented. Sure, no goalie's ever had it before. Yeah, sure. Sure, we don't know what it is. Sure, we had to travel the world to talk to doctors who had even heard of it. Sure, it might get named after me, but no big deal. It's fine.

There's like five soccer players that had it. Soccer guys, too. And I don't even understand, and obviously he's not obligated to go into a full explanation of what it is. It'd be funny if he pulled down a chart and had like a little pointer. Yeah. Prepare some slides. It's like the guy from the game Operation.

Yeah. See that part? Every time I go in there, it goes, eh. It's a weird injury. I mean, I don't like even joking about this because Halford and I were talking about it last night and even if he does,

and I think he will, get back to a point where he feels he can play this season, and it might happen in a couple weeks, who knows. How many of us are going to feel comfortable with this guy in net? Do you know what I mean? It just seems the whole thing is just weird. And if you don't know, it's like typically these injuries, they just have tried and true methods of getting over them. Right.

It's like you do this, you do this, you do this, you do this, you're good. Right. And that's why they're able to give these timelines. They're like, yeah, it's four to six weeks or it's six to eight weeks. We've seen this before. Even the most serious injuries, like the one that Mikheyev had, you have some sort of timeline where you're like, yeah, you can probably play when you get back,

but you're not going to be 100% for 12 months to 18 months, whatever. You know, like that wasn't encouraging when we heard that about Mikheyev and I think we saw the Mikay-Evon, that whole thing. But at least there was this timeline. With Demko now, because it's so unprecedented, for me, and I don't know, maybe I'll just be able to push this out of my mind, and especially going up to the playoffs, we'd be like, come on, man. Just stay together.

Okay. And I think it very much could affect the decision the Canucks have to make about whether or not they re-sign Thatcher Demko. I'm going to read a text from a doctor, Mike, the urologist from Brockville. This is a very, very timely, important, and I think relevant text as to what we're talking about. So what we learned. Mike writes,

I've heard from sports medicine doctors that professional athletes can be challenging to manage. They expect perfection, understandable, because that's how they got to where they are. But medicine isn't black and white, and sometimes they have to play through nagging pain or residual discomfort, and that's life for the average person. It can be hard for players to wrap their mind around that and figure out how to adapt to that. I do wonder if that might be what we're talking about here,

is that, hey, you got dealt a bad hand you got an injury that's super rare and you're right there's not a lot of case studies and medical journals and history and treatment plans because it's very rare you might have to live with it as opposed to the usual course of action for a hockey player which is doc like get me fixed where do i need to fly what clinic do i do is it the mayo clinic yeah go there you'll get it fixed i'll rehab and then i'll be back to 100 that's what that's the goal well when you're when your movements when you when you're mindful of every movement you make as professional athletes are you don't want to feel any pain in any sense

because it's just, it might get you slightly off your technique. He might have to change how he plays his game because he has to play with this injury now. Yes. And that's a big thing especially in going into the playoffs. Well, not just to play through but also prevent it from happening again. He won't be able to use his knees.

It's going to be real tough. Another one through the five. Now, are they important? We'll find out. Okay, we've got a lot more to get to on the program. Brady Henderson is going to join us next to preview the potentially 3-0 Seattle Seahawks. We are so jinxing them right now. I'm having a hard time.

The Dolphins are coming. Skyler Thompson's the quarterback. I'm not ready. Rack up a win. I'm not ready to go there. So I watched Thursday Night Football and I saw the New England Patriots last night and that really took some of the

shine off the Seahawks win in New England on Sunday. And by a little bit of the shine, I mean a fair amount of it because that was horrible last night. Some would say all of it. The New England Patriots looked terrible. They got picked apart. Picked apart by Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets.

Yeah, because the Seahawks showed the Jets the way. Yeah, I guess. It's a blueprint. I'd like to do an impression for you. This is the four other fellas on the team would wilt during a timeout. Hey, I'm open, man. What are you doing? Pass the ball.

I got my family here. You got like 94 points already. Ed has two. That's because you bounced it off his head. Just to share the wealth a little. Here's my impression of the coach on the other team. Who's covering wealth? Well, stay on him.

I believe he's hot. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Then there's Radko Gudis. He's a good player, though. He is a good player. He's a legit top four guy. He's played 66 games with the team. Yeah, I know. It is weird. He is a good player, though. He is a good player. He's a legit top four guy. He's played 66 games with the team.

Yeah, I know. It is weird. He is a good player. Is he a good player, though? Yeah, he's... Well... Is he a good... Yeah, but he's dirty and everybody hates him.

And he's your captain? So there's that. But he's probably as good as Biexa was. Oh. He's a legit shut down... He's a really good defenseman. Have Adam Dunbar done our text line, 650-650? I don't think so.

Okay. Offensively, even. And Bieksa wasn't that great of an offensive player on the blue line. I think he was. Radko Gudis was, at one point, I think the most reviled player in the league. Oh, yeah. Super dirty. Yeah.

Also. Oh, no. Fans hate. Super dirty. So? Also, also. Oh, no. Fans hate those guys. Also a journeyman. Yeah. And as Greg mentioned, like, no standing in Anaheim. Like, he came there last year. I'm not saying it's not weird.

When I saw Ratko Gudis was the captain, I'm just saying he's a good player. He's not a scrub. That's all I'm saying. He's a legit, very good defensive defenseman. They don't want no scrubs. Alright. That's almost as timely a reference as I would bring up.

He what? 41% Corsi. He's not good. That's not good. For who? For Goudas. For what team? Anaheim. Yeah. He was getting pummeled in his own end. Well, that's what happens on bad teams, Greg. He's not so Guttis. It's what happens on bad teams.

Well, bad teams are bad because they have bad players on them. Yeah, what was Chris Tannev's Corsi when he was playing his final years with the Vancouver Canucks? Look it up. It's like these guys that's where the analytics fall woefully short. It's like, oh, these guys are these guys, this guy's pinned in his own Radco baddies. It's like, oh, these guys are,

this guy's pinned in his own end the whole time. It's like, yeah, because he gets the toughest assignment and his four teammates suck. Yeah, no, I know. It's really unfair to these guys to paint them, and that's why, you know, you see these player cards, and it's kind of like, oh, this guy's numbers are terrible. Yeah, his team was too. Like the Red Wings guy's numbers are terrible like yeah his team was like

the red wings guy for me morris cider is his first name moritz i forget his first name moritz moritz cider right he's like considered to be like the red wings next great d-man right and he's got like terrible coursey like his numbers are just brutal yet every wings fan loves him and they're just like well he's just giving tough minutes he's put in bad positions he didn't play as great last year as he did in his rookie season, but he's still considered to be like this incredible elite like defensive talent. Yet, if you looked at his player card, you'd be like, wow, this guy's awful. So the text

message in basket doesn't love the Gudis BXA comp. Unsurprisingly, this is Vancouver. They're also pointing out, do you know who Kevin BXA landed his Superman punch on? Was it Googudis? Googudis. That's pretty funny.

Everything comes full circle here on the Halford and Brough show. I was just thinking of the types of players. If BX had been named captain in Vancouver, people are like, there's a good hard-nosed guy. He's a leader. He plays a style that you'd want as a leader. If I was going to compare Rad Go Gutis to a former Canucks defenseman, I would have said Brian Allen.

That was the first one that jumped to mind. Brian Allen? I haven't thought about that. Captain Brian Allen. Kind of a plotting pylon. Played for a bunch of different teams. Was big. He's not as dirty as Gutis, though.

I think the BXO comparison Was You're wrong again for the second time this week Second time this week I want the soundbite Say you're wrong We need your wrong music to play Perhaps He can't do it

He can't do it I perhaps I heard perhaps it was not entirely accurate in how I portrayed that comment and that one of the great things about BXO was how loyal he was to one organization

there you go and at his height he was probably a better player than Gudis has ever been so i guess in hindsight that was wrong lots more to get to on the halbert and ruff show i've been seeing a therapist this is so great this is so great and i'm trying to embrace being wrong a little bit more but this one was very in the moment normally i like to be defensive for at least three days. Wrong. And then admit, maybe in hindsight, that was the wrong play call by the Philadelphia Eagles.

Yeah, I was going to say, you can come back on Monday and be like, you remember that BXA thing I said on Friday? I regret that. I have a what we learned. Laddie is a liar. Oh, it's Radko Gudis conversation time. So Laddie throws out this stat that Radko Gudis had a 41 Corsi. And that was all situations. The guy doesn't play the power play. He penalty kills.

If you go at even strength, his Corsi is actually quite respectable, including his relative Corsi. Laddie? And then Laddie. Still an 8% drop off from the year before. And then. Playing that one? Yeah, because he went from Florida to Anaheim.

Also, he could potentially be, I don't know, getting worse as a defenseman. You know what? That's also a reality. And then so I went back and I was like, all this stuff. And then Laddie just goes, I still think you're wildly overrated. Well, yeah, because I was telling you to look at how it is relative to his teammates. You know what?

And relative to his teammates, it's positive. If you look at even spec, do you understand how analytics work? I understand that he's probably pretty bad on the penalty kill, yeah. Look, guys, do you think he was going to have a high Corsi on the PK? No, but I didn't think it was going to sink his Corsi by 8% or whatever it was. He kills penalties. That's what he... Not well.

And that makes him not a great defenseman. Are you kidding? Do a lot of defensemen have high Corsis on the PK? No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying it... Oh, look at this guy. He's got a positive shot share on the penalty kill. Wow, what a great player.

If your Corsi is falling off a cliff like that, regardless of the situation... Oh, my God. We all have regrets. This is crazy, man. Mine is bringing up... I don't think Oh, my God. We all have regrets. This is crazy, man. Mine is bringing up. I don't think he's that good. We all have regrets today. Mine is bringing up Radko Gudis in the first place.

Sorry for thinking Radko Gudis is not a Captain Calabro defenseman. Well, I'm sorry you're a liar. I'm just sorry that you. I wasn't a liar. I showed you the screenshot. And then I was like, you're doing all situations here. Have fun with your 41% defenseman out there, Bruf. You'll win a ton of games.

God, if you didn't have to kill penalties and you got power play, it'd be different. He's taking half the penalties of the teams. Oh, now he's taking too many penalties. He's got 128 penalty minutes. Yeah, because he's tough. Something you wouldn't know about. Look, guys, we all have regrets about today.

I'm getting a Gouda's jersey. Sometimes life is about regrets. You should, and you should wear it tomorrow. And if I could grow a beard like him. Sometimes life is about regrets. You should, and you should wear it tomorrow. And if I could grow a beard like him, I would. Arash has been furiously gesticulating. The man that finds testosterone. Something Lattie wouldn't know anything about. To the phone lines we go. Rick Dollywall joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

What up, Rick? Gentlemen, all good, all good. Let's go. Let's go. Thatcher Demko, what did you think of what he had to say yesterday? Well, I'm going to tell you something. I got a ton of respect for Demko. It was his idea to address the media about his injury.

It was to set the record straight and take all the guessing about his injury and when he's going to be back out of the equation. It eliminated mixed messages, misinformation. It's coming from the horse's mouth, so you can't beat that. Demko has been in this city long enough to know about Canucks media and Canucks Twitter and how they work. He knew what was being said locally and nationally about his injury since August when it was reported that Canucks were going after Kevin Lankanen

and that Demko's rehab was way slower than expected. And don't kid yourself. Canuck players are very well aware of what is being said about them in this market. In his interview, Demko was honest. He gave way more information than the team would have. I'll tell you this much right now. He disclosed that he had another medical procedure,

something the team very likely would not have released. So I think a lot of people got way more info yesterday from Demko than they would have ever got from the team. The only thing he didn't give was a timeline. Now, no one's given that, and there's an explanation. Nobody knows exactly when he'll be 100% healthy. Anybody that says they know when Demko's going to return is guessing, or they're just making it up.

The team and Demko literally do not know when he will be ready to go 100%. That is a fact. Like, it bothered me as well, guys, we're not getting a target date because Demko's had injuries in the past, four to six weeks, one to three weeks, one week to ten days, and we're not getting that here. But also by the same token, he was out say like if they thought he was back in a week they would have announced it one thing we do know is that he's getting better and better in mid-august when he hit the ice demko didn't take shots at rogers arena yesterday in penticton he took shots that's

a massive improvement in my eyes will he be ready for the regular season opener? Nobody knows. Maybe he is, maybe he's not. But there's progress, and he got his message through, and hopefully that will quiet the noise, the outside noise. You always hear that, right, the outside noise? And he can get back to work. And it's not a story that distracts the team.

Because clearly, guys, the last six weeks, Demko's been the number one story in the city. And maybe, you know, that doesn't sit well with everybody. The way Demko looked yesterday, it doesn't look to me like he's going to be out much longer. Demko's agent, Jordan Newman, you know, he watched that. Demko, he was pretty proud. He thought Demko handled himself great. I'm going to get into agents and players and two messages sent by Demko and Joshua this week, which were very important.

And I think the agents played a big role in both. It was a pretty gutsy effort by Demko to address everyone by himself. And I thought he passed with flying colors. If Demko returns and when he, well, I'll say when he returns and he'll, he said he's confident getting back to a hundred percent. I guess the big question that I would have is, does he know how to manage his body so it doesn't happen again? Because there's not a lot, there's not a big book on this injury. Do you know what I mean? And I think the worry for Canucks fans would be that something happens again with him right because it's about reliability we just went

through a playoff stretch where he wasn't available to them and now he's gone through a whole summer with this mysterious injury nobody has a timeline on it so it's great that he's making progress it's great that he believes that he can get back to 100%. But I guess the key is staying at 100%. 100%, you're bang on. But this is where the goalie coaches come in, the physicians come in, management comes in, the doctors come in, the trainers come in.

Look, he's on one of the most traveled teams in the NHL. And in defense of Demko, he's had three coaches who have traveled teams in the nhl and in defense of demko he's had three coaches who have overplayed him the last three times green mudro was it really necessary to play demko in chicago last year could you not have beaten the blackhawks who had eight goals in their previous nine great nine games you know can you not beat the blackhawks 32nd in the league without him you know they have got to, they've got to change his habits. You know, practice, rest, all that's got to come into play now. In his defense, go back to Boudreaux.

Remember the New York trip? I think it was the Devils and the Rangers. He played back-to-back. Like, you know, when you're overplaying the guy all the time because the teams were losing, he was on losing teams a lot, so you rely on your starting goaltender. They're just going to have to, the whole organization and Demko and his agent and everyone, they've just got to come up with a plan for this guy to keep him

more healthier and recognize rest is important. Recognize his sweet spot for games is 50 to 55 a season. It's not over 60. He can't do over 60. So they're going to have to, Jason, it's up to them as an organization to come up with a plan for this guy to make sure he's well-rested. And his practice as well. Maybe less training.

He talked about that too. Maybe he needs to be a little bit more mature in his prep. He didn't say it like that. He just said this is the maturity of an athlete as I'm getting older. Let's talk a bit about Dakota Joshua. The Canucks have not been saying much and citing Joshua's privacy and certainly understandable, but I think a lot of people want to know, first of all, how he's doing, and second of all, when he's going to be back.

Okay, how do you not feel for this guy jason last year he was called out of camp by talk it for being not in great shape so joshua made sure he was one of the first canucks in august to arrive in vancouver he was skating at eight rinks with other local nhl players in mid-august and then the tweet from joshua this week that just caught everybody off guard. Joshua, missing training camp, surgery to remove a tumor related to the diagnosis of a testicular cancer. He needs more time to heal. Now, here's where I get into what Demko did yesterday and what Joshua did this week. Instead of a generic tweet from the Vancouver Canucks that Joshua's out,

Joshua and his Asian, Rich Evans, crafted the words for that tweet. They got together. They both said that the main message that we want to get out, and especially Joshua, Joshua wanted to make sure the main message in the tweet was get checked out. If you feel there is something is not right in your body, get checked out. And I really give the player and the agent credit here. It wasn't just Joshua's going to be out, this is it.

This really hit home hard with him. And the message from him and Rich Evans was clear. You know, get checked out if something's not feeling right. Now, the surgery for Joshua, I think we know a lot of people who have gone through this. You know, you can always ask a doctor as well. It's usually a two- to four-week recovery period, depending on what you do for a living, I guess. But Rick Tauka did tell the media yesterday, guys, Dakota's not going to be out long. No target date, but he's going to be back soon, which is great.

I think Joshua and his camp and the Canucks have their number as to how long he's going to be out. Evans told us yesterday, he came on our show, that Joshua's statement has had a far-reaching effect, very positive. It's been a lot for him to take in, Joshua, this last couple of weeks. He's pushing through. He's in Penticton. He wanted to be in Penticton with his teammates. That's two Canuck players as opposed to the team talking about it. I don't know if this is a new trend in the future,

but certainly props to both those guys. A couple other players I want to get to. Vilmer Ulriksen, the big kid, the big Swedish kid who played in Guelph last season. What's his story? Because I think Rick Tockett noticed him at the Young Stars and was like, that kid has made progress. Boy, is he ever. And I'll tell you, I knew that LeKarimaki and Pettersson, the defensemen,

were going to get a lot of accolades in Penticton. But when Tockett praised six foot six Vilmer, Alrickson, that perked my interest. Fourth rounder, 2023. Two goals in Penticton. Canucks Swedish scout Bobby Hagelin followed Alrickson very closely in Sweden. Very closely. His agent Peter Wallen moved him to North America a couple of years ago to play on a smaller ice surface.

Felt he was better for him. The kids put in a ton of time, strength, and conditioning. Those tall kids in minor hockey, Jason, they got a bigger boot, no coordination, no core strength. They're gangly. Those kids take longer. This kid's got skill, size, and CGI swell. I talked to his GM in golf in the OHL yesterday, George Burnett.

Remember him? Coach the Oilers way back when. This kid scored 17 goals in golf last year with limited power play time. Where have we heard that? Oh, gladder. Anyways, Burnett says in his first scrimmage at golf this year at camp, the kid took the puck wide, took the ice he wanted, and he drove hard to the net.

He saw the improvement in golf at the training camp that the Canucks saw in Penticton. He's going to be on the top line in Guelph most likely this year. I think a lot of people, including Burnett, think this guy's going to have a really good year. Not every kid and junior's got pro potential. When I asked Burnett if he's got pro potential, one word, absolutely. This is a power forward in the making here if he keeps improving, guys. And because the Canucks have traded so many first and second round picks in the last five years,

they've got to have some guys in the fourth, fifth, sixth round make it. Guys like Ulrichson. Guys like Pettersson. Guys like Mineo. Guys that they have got because they've given away so many first, second round picks, including this year's draft or last summer's draft they have got to have some guys hit in the later rounds it's going to be fun watching this kid uh lecker mackie what do you think about all the attention that he's getting at this training camp okay i heard you guys this morning yeah all right yeah

we're on the air i I heard you ogling and... What is the word? Just loving. The word you're looking for is ogling. Ogling over the Karamaki. It's a dog. Odling. Just give me the word.

I don't care what the word is. I heard you guys. Keep going. Kids in a candy store talking about the Karamaki on a line with Pettersson and DeBrusque. I got to tell you a story. So a few years ago, Pod Colson, okay, he's on the Russian junior team,

and I called Igor Larionov in Russia to talk about Pod Colson, and I asked Larionov, I said, hey, who does Pod Colson remind you of? And he said, Mark Messier. I'm like, what, what, what? Messier. That clip took off in the market. We got the next Mark Messier because Igor Larionov said that Pod Colson reminds him of Messier. Pod Colson ended up in Edmonton like Messier, but he's not Messier.

Now Le Caramacchi's the next David Pasternak because he skated on the top line on day one of Canucks training camp. Come on, guys. Pump the brakes. That's Jacob Russ said that, not us. I know, but now we're running with it. And we're running with it. And he's the next Pasternak. We got to allow these draft picks, especially the high picks, to organically climb the ladder.

It doesn't matter what you think or the fans think or what other players think. They got to grow at their own rate, their own development. Don't rush them, push them. We've had a million first-round picks in the city not make it. Three big ones in the last 10 years, Vertanen, Ulevi, and Podkosin. You know, Vertanen was supposed to be the next big power forward, right? Ulevi was supposed to be the next great defenseman,

and Podkosin was supposed to be Marc Messier. And the Canucks did this with Hoeglander and Podkosin last year. They played them up high at camp. They didn't last the week. But I will say this about Makara Mackey. I talked to his agent last night, Scott Bonner. This kid's going to be given every chance to make it. Most first-round picks are afforded that.

Great young talent. Just let him be. He might end up in Abbotsford, go down there, rip it up. First-line power play. Do you want him in Vancouver on the fourth line, or do you end up in Abbotsford, go down there, rip it up, first line power play. Do you want him in Vancouver on the fourth line or do you want him in Abbotsford on the first line of power play?

I want him in Vancouver on the first line. Yeah. Yeah. That's a tough, tough thing to do at his age. I want to really force the minutes on him in the NHL in a tough situation.

I think that's probably the best way to develop players. Rick, I got a question. What do you think the Canucks are doing here situation. I think that's probably the best way to develop players. Rick, I got a question. What do you think the Canucks are doing here then? I think they want, the Canucks need to know what this kid's got. And I want to see him play a ton of preseason games for the Canucks. I want to see them make, I want to see LeKarimaki force the Canucks to make a tough decision.

Damn, should we send him to Abbotsford or do we keep him? I want, at the end of the preseason, for the Canucks to sit down and go, damn, this is a tough call. This is going to be really, really, really tough. Really, really, really, really tough. That's what I want. And, you know, he didn't score in Penticton, but I talked to a pro scout, said don't worry about the goals.

His playmaking ability he made a ton of plays his hockey sense is there his shot is there he's got the pedigree and he played pro hockey here's another thing guys he's not coming out as junior this guy's coming out of pro hockey that's a big difference right but I just want to see him make the Canucks think man are we going to keep him or send him to Abbey you know the name that we should use the most when we talk about this situation is not vertanen it's not ulevi it's not pod coles and it's jared mccann yeah mccann that was the guy that well they really screwed up his development and eventually lost him and now he's a player because he had a really good training camp and preseason and scored a bunch of goals early on.

And then he ended up that season, 2015-16, nine goals in 69 games. So he never played for the Vancouver Canucks in the AHL. He was eventually traded to Florida and then had troubles in Florida and kind of had troubles in Pittsburgh too and really didn't find his way in the NHL as a top player until he arrived in Seattle and ended up scoring 40 goals for the Kraken one season. That's the guy that I always think of where the preseason hype and the early season hype convinced the Canucks that,

oh, we got to keep this guy, even when their head coach at the time, Willie Desjardins, was clearly uncomfortable with that. Oh, big time. And you know why they got rid of him? Because they were looking for size and grit in Eric Gabranson. Florida knew it. Florida called Vancouver.

And, you know, he wasn't being shopped around. They just loved Gabranson, fell in love with the size, 6'4", 220. And I think McCann wasn't being shopped around. They just loved Gabrans and fell in love with the size, 6'4", 220. And I think McCann wasn't mature enough to be on the team. It wasn't just like a physical thing either. There was a maturity thing. At any rate, I know you have a Kevin Lankanen

update, so please share that with us. Yeah, I made some calls this morning. This is the stuff I do for you guys, nobody else, but don't tell Taylor and Henderson. But listen, the Canucks are still showing interest in Lankan. And I find this fascinating. Even with Demko improving and not too far away, the Canucks continue to pursue this goalie. First of all, it's a freebie. You don't have to give assets up to get in because he's a UFA. But the gap in contract talks is not improving.

The Canucks clearly don't have the cap space to give Lankan what he wants. Their offer is under a million dollars. It's not going to do it. They don't want to put players like Neil Zeman and Noah Jules in all waivers to make room. I'm going to guess that their continued pursuit of Lankan and his for security are the Canucks worried about Demko's durability during the season? They want to make sure they have a veteran backup like they did last year with Casey to Smith. If they would have re-signed Smith, they wouldn't be in this mess.

Clearly, they're trying to wait Lankanen out because guess what? Training camps have started. He hasn't signed anywhere. And they're basically, okay, you haven't signed. But here's the thing. The goalie market is quiet in terms of goalies being traded, cut, yada, yada, yada. So because the goalie market is quiet, Lankan is kind of stuck because people aren't moving goalies to make room for him.

We'll see where this all goes, but I found out this morning that they still are poking around Lankan. Rick, this was great, bud. Thanks for taking the time to do it. We appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week. Enjoy training camp this weekend. We'll do this again next Friday.

All right. Adios. See you, Rick. Rick Dollywell from the Donnie and Dolly show on Check TV. Our Canucks insider here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.