Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 9/2/25

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, they talk yet another Blue Jays ninth inning collapse, plus the boys make their predictions on how this upcoming Canucks season is going to go. 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. Ground in. Throw the basset. We're celebrating as a team, because I think that's way more intimidating than a quarterback doing his six-shooter guns and pointing up in the crowd and doing all that other. Good morning, Vancouver, 6-1 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford and his rough.

It is SportsNet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adah. Good morning to you. Lattie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello.

Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are coming to live from the Kintech studio, Kintech, footwear, and orthotics working together with you and step. You can really tell that we are back. Now we're really back. Last week we were back, but this week we're back back back. You know how I know?

seven, seven what we learned submissions already prior to 6 o'clock into the Dunbar Lumber text message in Basket listeners are fired up it's the first day back at school maybe many of you are returning to work It's cold in the morning now? It's cold in the morning now It's a little bit cold in the morning now it's dark

It's dreary but it's exciting here We have a big show today on a Tuesday It's a three guester We have a lot to get into over the long weekend A lot of guests on the horizon as well Shai Davidi is going to join us at 630. Our MLB and Blue Jays insider for Sportsnet. Another game, another blown save for the Jay's bullpen on Monday.

This time, my favorite closing duo, Greg, of Tommy Nance and Brendan Little. That's who you want to trust. Nance, man. What happened? I had so much confidence in Nance. Another ninth inning collapse for the Jays. You know, you thought when the calendar turned from August to September, things would change. No, no.

We'll talk to Shai about the Bullpen. old prime problems for the Js at 6.30. Hoffman got booed in our kitchen. Oh, yeah. In the two home run. Brough sent a text. Yeah. Sometimes we'll go a couple days without speaking.

And then you'll get a text and you'll have to contextualize what it means. So I didn't hear from you for a day. And then all I got was Hoffman's getting booed in our kitchen. I'm like, what is he talking about? Do people get booed in your kitchen often? The whole family was booing Hoffman. I wasn't watching. The boy was like, bow.

I wasn't aware. Peter, Boobo. I wasn't aware. Pedro was barking out of him. No, Senor Hoffman. No. I didn't know that the Js were even playing at the time.

So I'm like, what's a Hoffman? Why is he getting booed? Whose Kitchen are you in? Dustin? Yeah. He's such a nice guy. Anyway. Watching Rain Man, he does not care for him.

We're going to talk to Shai DeViti at 630 about all things, Blue Jays. 7 o'clock. Mike Tanier, our NFL insider, from the two deep zone substacks. We are now just two. Two days away from. the start of the NFL season. We actually haven't spoken with Mike since the big Micah Parsons to Green Bay Trade. Maybe we can get some early week one picks and predictions from Mike. Maybe, I'm sure he watched it last night. We can get his thoughts on Bill Belichick's collegiate

coaching debut from last night. Spoiler alert, if you didn't watch it, it went horribly from the Belichick and the University of North Carolina. Did you see the background of Belichick's press conference after? It had like, it had obviously the UNC stuff. But it had, like, balloons as well. Oh, I didn't see that. You've got to see a picture of it. I'll take a look later. It looks like he had, like, you're a brand new papa as well.

You're celebrating a birthday. Also at 48 to 14 loss to TCU. Okay, that's at 7 o'clock. 8 o'clock, Dave Softie Mahler from KJR Sports Radio in Seattle. Softie's going to join the program, one of our favorite guests. Very busy times in Seattle sports. The Mariners are clinging to their playoff lives. The Seahawks open at home on Sunday against the Niners.

How about the Sounders? They beat Messi in Miami and won the league's cup on Sunday. And then they got spit on. Everyone see that? Crazy times in Seattle. A lot of good Seattle sports stories there. So I'm excited to talk to Softie at 8 a.m. Hawk Tua.

Yes. There's got to be like a Spanish version of that. Why? It'd be great. Anyway, Softie's going to join us at 8. Mike Tannier's going to join us at 7 Shai Davidi's going to join us at 630 There's a lot to get into on the program

So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No, no. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? 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.com. We got about five or six different things we want to run through in the first half hour of this program in what happens. So we'll try and get to them rapid fire. But we are going to spend a fair amount of time here

leading off and talking about the Toronto Blue Jays, who on Monday had another game for the annals. It was entertaining. It was wild. The ninth inning was crazy. But we're going to fast forward all the way to the bottom of the ninth. The Jays, after taking a two-run lead in the top of the ninth,

looked as though they were going to be in decent shape to come out with a comeback victory in Cincinnati. But everything fell apart, thanks to the aforementioned closers. Here is the game-winning hit from the Reds. We're going to play the Reds call because there's a real sense of excitement here. Noelve Marte, as we work on our Spanish here on the Halford & Brough show, game-ending two-run single. Reds win, Jays lose. Here's what it sounded like.

Ground is through the basic. McLean scores. Friedel home. Thrown from left is Glade Rans win. Marte rises to the moment. And the Rents come up off the mat. They gave it away.

They take it back from Toronto. Five, four. I will say this for the Js. They always make it entertaining. Yesterday was wildly entertaining. And there were about eight different stories to take away from this thing. But at the end of the day, it's the same story that we talked about throughout almost all of August.

This team has serious issues in the bullpen. Serious, underline, underline, underline serious issues in the bullpen. It's not like there's a total team collapse right now. If you look back, you know, they, well, it's not. It's a bullpen collapse. Yeah, it's a bullpen thing. And it's not totally taking down the team. team. They won two of three against Miami. They won two of three against Minnesota. They took

one out of three against Milwaukee, but to be fair, Milwaukee is a very good team. And they've only played one game against Cincinnati, so they could easily win the next two and still take this series. But it's like, it's just a major issue. I mean, they're not going anywhere in the playoffs if this issue continues to the extent that it is you you can't you can't win the you can't win the world series with a bullpen that you cannot rely on whatsoever the crazy part is that in the playoffs this might follow the script where the jays do most of if not all the things right up until the ninth inning and then it or up until like but the problem is is up until like the even seventh inning or something you know well here's here's the issue right now as I see it is that they're

getting good contributions from everyone else. Even yesterday in a game where they had a hard time generating hits, Boba Shett comes up with a monster game, right? So sort of the same script for the Jays, they get someone to step up when they need it. This might not be like playoffs past where they were either outclassed or made a bunch of mistakes along the way. One of the scariest things,

Jays or other market otherwise, is when you get to the postseason and you have to hang your hat on a closer that you have no faith in. We've seen it happen before with teams, where you know, you're looking at it. Schneider in the 8th and he's already chewing his nails down to the nub and he knows that right now they have to go with Hoffman there's not another choice you can rearrange the deck chairs and put them in different order and try different guys in different spots but they've got what they've got

and they have to roll with it moving what if they um just hyped up Hoffman more when he came in from the bullpen you know how some some teams have or some some players have like a really cool entrance I play enter sandman or something like that could they just pretend that he's amazing like the lights go

Why can't we be friends Why can't we be friends That's what it is right now Yeah But if they could I mean just like You know like fake it till you make it Kind of an idea with Hoffman

He might pick him They'll get pumped up He's like oh people are pretty pumped up For me to come in you know It's just drowning out the booze of him. Well, you know, that's another thing, right? Bring up the music.

Bring up the music. Yeah. I want to play some audio here from Ben Nicholson Smith after the game yesterday because the other J's, one of our many Jays insiders at Sportsnet, but he's not even really trying to dance around the issue anymore in talking about this. He just acknowledged like, this is the pen, this is what they're going into September and October baseball with, and they got to try and figure it out. Here's Ben Nicholson Smith from SportsNet after another blown saved by the Jays on Monday.

Such a frustrating day for the Blue Jays that went to Tommy Nance and Brendan Little to close this one out after a big comeback and then just couldn't get it done. Now, this was a day where Jeff Hoffman, Sir Anthony Dominguez, and Louis Varlane were not available, partly because those guys have been used so much. And their results haven't necessarily been effective to the extent that the Blue Jays would have wanted. But when they are down, it even puts more strain on the bullpen with guys like Nance and then Brendan Little being thrust into big spots and it just didn't work. So they need results. These are the guys that they're going to have to depend on one way or the other. There is no question of, you know, turning to different names. You can put them in different orders, but one way or another, they need this group to turn it around.

So just in case you think that we might be overstayed or overblowing the narrative here, just to put this in perspective, little's blown save yesterday, which was the first day of September, new month, new calendar, all that stuff. that was the idea was let's put August to bed because August was a month in which the Jay's relievers had an MLB worst 14.2% walk rate. They also had one of the worst bullpen ERAs in baseball at 476 and they blew five saves in the month.

So you're not talking about... That's crazy. You're not talking about a pen that's kind of underachieving. You're talking about the worst bullpen in baseball on a team that's going to the postseason. You can understand this from the Rockies, the White Sox or so. these guys can't close games.

They're terrible. But this is a team that otherwise is on its way to playing good quality caliber playoff baseball. Can we talk about another team that people watch pretty closely in this market that is going through some tough times in the Seattle Mariners? Their quote-unquote ace got hit pretty hard yesterday in Tampa. Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers won that.

they're six straight, the Mariners only have a one and a half game lead on the Texas Rangers now for the final playoff spot. Yeah, Castillo got roughed up pretty good. Five runs and six hits and four innings. Ten to loss to the raise. And one of my favorite pitchers, Shane Baz, Shane Baz, Laddie. It was, the boss. It was, uh, they also have a, a guy named Jake Mangum, one of my favorite names as well. What flavor is that gum? Uh, anyway, I I would be And we're going to talk to

Softie about this at 8, right? Because this would be It really just the man. Yeah, was an older young. Keep going, hey? What? Anyway,

we're going to talk to Softy at 8 about this because while the Jay's are, granted, the Jay's lead in the division is now down to 2.5. We didn't mention that and we were going through after the loss to the Reds.

But the Mariners being down to a one and a half game, lead again the the numbers and if you play it out and you extrapolate it over the final i think they've got 24 25 games left in the season uh statistically and percentage wise they're still more likely to make it than not but it is not exactly the most confident baseball that they're playing right now this would be a special kind of pain because of what they did at the deadline because you know they you know depoto answered everybody's calls and was like we're going to do it we're going to go on we're going to get Josh Naylor.

We're going to bring back Eugenio Suarez. You know, neither have been great. We're going to win 56% of our game. Yeah, the magical 56% number. They were going to hit it. And lo and behold, they are now just one and a half games up on the Rangers. I'm going to be very curious to talk to Soft Day 8 and see, like, are they still got the confidence because it is a good lineup? And they do have the talent in Cal Rally's having this monster year.

Or has the sort of traditional Seattle fan experience seeped in where they're like, we're going to blow this. and this is going to be another year of disappointment for the M's. And it looks like we're going to have to watch some tennis this week. I watched. They just have paid attention to. So here's the thing. Last week I actually watched a fair bit of tennis because they were the late night games and I was watching them while I was working.

I was kind of, I was like, okay. While you are working. Working's a very, very gratuitous term, right? Like it's doing a lot of heavy lifting. But I was working. So I'm watching the draw unfold and I watched the Zverev melt. Or sorry not Zveravrev. Medvedev Meltdown when he got knocked out

and I was kind of paying attention to the top seats and then going into this weekend I was like this is great. Talk about an opportunity for the Canadian players. Chapo is going up against the world's number one in Yannick's Center and I think more importantly in the aftermath of course Felix Oje Aliasim

has got a road now. He's got Zverev followed by a potential matchup with Rublev. Although historically he'd done very poorly against the both of them, he went out and got a pair of victories over the weekend to catapult him into the quarterfinals of a grand slam for the first time, I think, since 2021.

Not only did he beat guys that he traditionally has not had a lot of success with. He beat him pretty emphatically. The four-setter against Veravis, straight sets against Rublova. And now you're looking at a guy. This is going to be another tough match like the previous two for Felix going into the quarters.

He's got de Minor. I think I pronounced that right. I think it's more like OR. I think it's minotaur. It's not minotaur. What's a minotaur, Andy? It's a cow with a human head. The Spaniard Diminari is going to take the mind.

Retired cow with the human head. Not quite yet. But yeah, the weekend was awesome for Felix, and he's now carrying the Canadian flag at the U.S. Open on the men's side. 756364 over number 15th C. Andre Rublova of Russia. Let's play the winning point because one of the things that lot of the announcers that the Open are coming away with

for isn't just that he's winning matches, but it's just how dominant and how effective Felix Felix OJLASM-SIM 75-6-3-6-4 over Rublev this weekend to advance to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. Yes, a match on Gillesim. Recess to Love, 756, 3. a nice smile over to his people.

Any coach in the world would be proud and happy at the effort that we just saw from the 25-year-old Canadian in straight sets. Felix Léjeet Ali Assim is in the quarterfinals. So Felix

has been further in the U.S. Open before because he made the semifinals back in 2021. Yeah, that's his furthest run. But the funny thing is like 21 and 22 when he peaked. Seems like a long time ago. It does feel like a long time ago. He actually mentioned it in his post match remarks.

Because some people are trying to say, like, it's Felix 2.0. And he's like, no, no, no. Like I learned some things when I had that early run. And he's come back incredibly strong this time around. Again, the thing that I kind of was most intrigued by wasn't that he was just winning the matches, but the emphatic nature in which he was doing.

Now, it's a tough road from here. As you would expect getting into the final eight of a grand slam, He's got Deminor next and he's on a crash course with Sinner who is blowing away the competition in this tournament. Chapo took a set off Sinner over the weekend which was actually

a victory in itself. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Sinner's last win over the weekend. You should have been like this is a one set match, right? Chapo could have patted himself on the back with taking a set off center. Yeah, because Sinner won his last match and I forget the opponent in the moment,

but he won 6-1-6-16-1. So, I mean, we're talking about a dominant performance from a guy that's at the top of his game right now. if Felix can get there and that of course would be in the semifinals would be a great accomplishment and a great achievement but it's a tall order to try and get through the center after he lost the chapeau he's like

oh what I forgot to take my steroids time to wake up and take some steroids you were okay yeah what I I watched a bit of CFL over the weekend you were very excited about the Canadian Football League on the weekend it was I wasn't very excited about the Canadian

football league you were very excited about the Canadian Football League you tweeted on Labor Day. It's supposed to be a day of rest, right? But you were out there working. It was an incredible finish in Laddie's hometown of Hamilton because the play, and I'm sure a lot of you saw it, either you're watching or you saw it on Sports Center or Sports Nets Central. Yes.

The better of the two highlight shows. Wow, this is a TSN thing. So anyway, as I dig a further hole. Dig up. So Brissette The Argos receiver

was one second away from having completed the dumbest play in Labor Day history and John Arbuckle I mean Nick Arbuckle not Garfield's owner but Nick Arbuckle

was like he was he said he said he didn't think his receiver got out of bounds in time and he was like so mad he was unbelievably mad but the replay showed that even though he was trying to go for a touchdown

and he admitted after he was like touchdown or nothing I was like that's the wrong play buddy should have got out of bounds but he did just and then the Argos pull it off with the field gone the Argos had been awful in those types of situations like, you know, game decided in the last three minutes of the game.

And I think they were like 0 and 6, so they finally got it done. So, yeah, it was an exciting finish. And it was a CFL Labor Day game. And still, I am almost 50 years old. Every time I flip on the CFL Labor Day game, I get the back-to-school feeling. Yeah, that's what it's there for. I mean, also the football. You're almost 50 years old?

Yes. I'm almost 50 years. You're almost 50 years old. I am not. Yes, you are. 19 over there? 40 years away. You want me to give you the cold slap of reality?

No, I don't want that. You're closer to 50 than you are to 30. Hey, you've got to stop talking right now. Hey, hey, dog, you're closer to 60 than you are 20. Oh, dear. And I've seen your diet. Hey, I only eat healthy cereal now. What you're more closer to is dead.

So the... I'm on the sugar-free count charlieu, okay? That's good. It sounds really well. It was a very, I'll admit, so for those of you that want the full recap of the game, the Hamilton Tiger Cats looked through though, they had won that game. They were up 33 to 32 with 12 seconds left after a Bo Levi-Mitchell touchdown light. And that's what you were talking about.

It was another one of those instances where the Argos lost the game or seemingly lost the game in the dying moments. But then the Argo's got a nice kick return that put them at the 44-yard line with 12 seconds left. The play that Brissette made was kind of in a short. It's inexcusable. It shouldn't happen, right? He went up and made a nice catch for sure. He did it in traffic. But the ability to come down and then scamper the amount of yards that he made.

And as you pointed out of balance, just get out of bounds. Just got out of bounds. Made the wrong play. The step out of bounds was inadvertent. He wasn't trying to step out of bounds. He said, I was trying to go for a touchdown. But it left them with, it was actually the perfect play, an 11-yard field goal attempt after that. And boom, through the uprights.

Argos win, Argos win. What a wagon, by the way. They've almost put up 90 points in consecutive games because remember they put up 52 against the Lions. So the Argos coach, here's a quote. Is it Ryan Dinwiddie? Yeah, yeah. He goes, I was screaming, get out of bounds.

That's a tough situation to teach going into it. No, it's not. Pretty easy. There's one instruction. Just get out of bounds. You've got time. You know what? I take issue with that, Ryan Dinwiddie.

I feel like it's a really easy thing that you could do. Okay, finally, because we're up against it for time. We managed to get through everything in what happened, which is very good. I do want to pass along what happened on Sunday between Inter Miami and Seattle. Now, normally, I don't really care and you don't really care. None of us really care about what happened with MLS games outside of White Caps games, right? But this one was interesting.

So Osazi de Rosario, the son of former Canadian international Dwayne de Rosario, scored what proved to be the eventual match-winning goal on Sunday in the League's Cup final down at Lumen Field in Seattle. Seattle got to host the League Cup's final. they sold out, it was 64,000 people in attendance, and that crowd pushed them to a very emphatic 3-0 win over Lionel Messi and Inter-Miamy on Sunday. Messi's like, I hate the Pacific Northwest. Can't win here. Can't do it.

It's too, I don't know what, but he can't do it. And Inter-Miami couldn't get any kind of result from the Pacific Northwest this season. But the difference between this match and their loss in BC Place earlier this summer was that they completely lost their minds in the aftermath. punches were thrown, headlocks were gripped, and the Inter-Miamy players were about as poor a losing group

as I've seen at the professional level in quite some time, especially given the caliber of players. Like, if you've won titles, you know, Champions League and the League of titles with Barcelona, I don't know why you're getting still bent out of shape out of losing the League's Cup in Seattle. Yeah. You feel like you'd be like, okay.

That's just who Suarez is, though. So this is the key part of all of. of this is that Luis Suarez, the very controversial Uruguayan striker who is most famous for the biting incident at the 2014 World Cup spit very

clearly on a staff worker for the Sounders. Now, the idea of digging, that guy actually is their head of security. He's a former cop. He's former Seattle PD. And he has been with the club since 2009 in the director of security capacity.

And they've not made him available for public comment. Still in the shower. Right. I gotta wash this off. When he was walking past the mix zone, he made a real brief joke about how he thought that he was going to get bit instead of spit, right?

That was only, huh, that's clever. Did you see what Suarez did, though? He stepped on that guy's foot. Yes. To keep him there. I haven't seen that move before. The old step and spit.

It's rare because of how incredibly dirty as a human you have to be to do it. Yeah. I think like, oh, I just got to step on the guy's foot so I doesn't leave so I can spit in his face. I have a fair bit to say about this because this is a bigger picture story with this is the dark side of what MLS has done with Miami. Is that they've kind of seated everything to them without any sort of like punitive like they can do whatever they want or they have done whatever they've wanted for a long time now without any sort of punitive things. It's disgusting. It's disgusting behavior. It's disgusting behavior. It's it's just so bad and so embarrassing. for the league. It's pathetic. Have we heard anything about a potential suspension?

They are, yes, they are reviewing. He got a, shouldn't even be be able to play a game for for a long, long time if ever in MLS. He got a he got a four month ban, four months for the biting incident and that was over a decade ago combined with what we know, I mean, you know it's funny, like in rec soccer, I know that after COVID, the punitive for spitting went off the charts. Yeah, yeah. Right? It went from being like a pretty egregious penalty. to like you're going to miss an incredible amount of time. So I'm really curious because this is a flashpoint moment for MLS. If they suspend and have one of these gargantuan

and appropriate suspensions, it's going to draw a lot of attention and it's going to draw the eye of Miami without question, right? So I'm going to be very curious to see. Even Miami though must be kind of like, that's gross, dude. They've thumbed their nose at the league so many times. Yeah, I know, but that's an embarrassing moment for the franchise.

And if, I agree, you know, if I'm the owner there, it's Beckham, isn't it? It is Beckham. Yeah, like, even Beck's must be like, ew, do we want this guy on the team? Very gross. And it's pretty old anyway. Yeah, I know. I mean, they might never solve like a couple problems here. Totally.

Think about it. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. 7.33 on 8 Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Alfred Brough, SportsNet, 6.50. Alfred in Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. visit them online at sands

dash trustee.com we are now in hour two of the program we're at the midway point of the show hour two is brats by Jason hominock at Jason dot mortgage if you love paying too much for your mortgage then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you

visit them online at Jason dot mortgage do you follow Jay Fresh hockey on social media I don't engage in social media all right yeah it's not good for my mentals

well Jay Fresh I'm sure you're familiar with him. Patrick Johnston. Who's he? At the province wrote an article about J. Fresh, and now we're going to talk about it because that's how the sports thing goes. That's good broadcasting. Jay Fresh has predicted with his model, it's not just him like,

he has an analytical model, and he predicts that the Canucks will finish with 98 points And finish fourth in the Pacific Division, which will be good enough for them to make the playoffs. I like this model, Jason. Yeah, it's a good model. The ones that, where the Canucks miss the playoffs, it's a bad model. Tell me good things, model.

It's a bad model. I don't want a model telling me bad things. My response to all of this, though, is that I don't know if analytical models are the best way to predict what's going to happen with the Canucks because there are just so many wild cards. Like an analytical model cannot capture

what's happened to Ilius Pedersen. It can't accurately predict injuries. Well, maybe it does. Who knows what Jay Bruck's model does? And how does it predict the effect of a new coach staff led by Adam Foote. Despite the Canucks returning of a very similar roster, there are a few changes. Of course there were, but it's quite similar.

They have to be one of the hardest teams to predict in the NHL. You could easily talk yourself into them bouncing back and being a playoff team because they've got, they do have elite talent at all the key positions. And potentially, I would say the most talented blue line in franchise history in terms of what they've got from some of their veterans, but also some of the youngsters coming along, which is another wildcard. Young players, you never know when they're going to pop,

or if they're going to pop. But there are also huge question marks around two of those elite players that they've got in Pedersen and Thatcher Demko, Demko, just his health and also his play. Management did not manage to upgrade the center position, which they said was absolutely vital and in fact it got downgraded

because they lost Pew Souter and again they've got a rookie head coach in Adam Foot and you don't know how he's going to handle the pressure who knows the Canucks play six of their first eight games on the road

which may be a good thing based on how things went at home last season but they'd better not be as bad as they were at home last season that's kind of another wild card. And don't forget, the starts to the season seemed to be especially important for this group. Two years ago, it was 12, 3, and 1 out of the shoot.

And the vibes stayed high for most of the season. They really did. There was a few ups and downs, but for the most part, they stayed high and they even won a playoff round and push the Oilers to 7. Last year, they blew their first game badly and didn't get their first win until their fourth game. And after that, actually their longest win streak was right after that start, because it was four straight wins.

They didn't manage to do that again for the rest of the season. Oh, I remember. They never gained. They were never able to gain any positive momentum. And there were all sorts of things that went wrong last season. So we threw it out to the listeners. You know, are you optimistic? are you pessimistic or do you have no idea?

And I know that as a sports radio guy, he's got opinions. Like I have no idea what to expect out of the Canucks isn't the best answer, but I'm just honest. I have no idea what to expect out of the Canucks this season. And a few people agree with me. Christian from Tuas and Texan, guys, I have no idea.

Just ready for more Canucks stress, I guess. Lucas the fuel guy texts in, every year I start out optimistic and then over my 30 years of fandom, that slowly gets beaten out of me. With that said, I think they beat out LA for third in the division and make the playoffs. Lucas said every year,

he starts out optimistic. And, you know, a few other people are like, okay, I'm going to read this one here. On sign, I'm in the no idea what to expect category The reason for that is because there are just so many variables. Will Dempco stay healthy? Will PD bounce back? Can Bester score 30 to 40 plus now that the contract uncertainty is behind him?

Can depth like Hoaglander and Carlson step up and make a difference? Still not sold with Heidel is number two. But this texture is excited to get to training camp and get camp started regardless. There are a lot of people that are optimistic. and their reasons are kind of like it can't go any worse than last season and a lot of people expect a Pedersen bounce back and in some ways that's tied to well he can't be any worse than he was last season whether it was the strain that was brought on by the J.T. Miller feud or whether it was injuries you know J.T. Miller's gone now and by all accounts

Pederson is healthy and we heard a report from his trainer of the series has he's got his flowback He's swolled. So yeah I mean Let's choose to be optimistic About Pedersen Now my whole thing is that Like I think injuries were maybe a minor factor

But I think when I watched him I'm like That's a guy that is Latt's confidence So for me My first test isn't going to be how he looks in training camp or anything It'll be like how he looks in a game situation Are you willing to rip the puck? Are you willing to go make plays?

Are you willing to move your feet in an attack space? That's when I'll know if Pedersen is back or not. But do you agree or disagree with the notion that this team is incredibly hard to predict? Toughest team to predict in the last 10 years, I'd say. Because last year, it was such a bizarre year when now that we've had, a couple months to digest everything that really happened and you've got like a you've got

a lifetime NHL executive in Rutherford talking about how this rift in the room was like the worst he'd ever seen couldn't be solved and saw it all and in spite of that and the litany of injuries that they had last year they still got to 90 points and were grasping at playoff air for the last

three weeks of the season before it was ultimately snuffed out so could it get worse absolutely. They didn't deliver on some of the promises that they made as an executive group in terms of roster reconstruction. If you look down the middle, they're really weak. Really weak on paper,

compared to some of the elites. That's honestly my biggest concern. I would pick that over PD and Demko would be the Knoch's center depth. Like if there's one thing... But if PD is good, then your center depth doesn't look so bad because you've got an elite number one center. Yeah, but even if PD is good,

Heedles your 2C and if one if he's injured again, then who's your 2C? Yeah, I think they're going to miss suitor. I think they're going to miss suitor in situations. Like center depth after PD is the biggest thing I'm concerned about, by far. Yeah, yeah. By far. What about injuries and health?

There's some wild cards there. Well, that's what I'm... Like, Evander Kane is another guy that has, you know, not questionable health. He's just a wildkees. He's an older player. He's an older player, but it's not the way of put it. He's an older player, and we don't know how many games he's going to play.

I'll say it. Okay. I just, I'm pulling. up the numbers here with regards just to making a point about healthier. When the Canucks had that great year two years ago where they finished

with 50 plus wins and 100 plus points and won the division and made it to the second round of the playoffs. Hughes played 82, Pedersen played 82, Garland played 82. Miller, Besser, Heronik all played 81, Hoaglander played 80. So they had an incredible

run of health during the regular season. All their top guys were available all the time, all the time. Thatcher Demko played in 51 regular season games. So your number one goalie was available for a good chunk of time

as well. Health with this group really does matter. And I think part of the reason it's so tough to make a prediction for this year is you can't predict health. You can say the most obvious thing, which is if they stay healthy they're going to be good. If they don't stay healthy, they're going to be bad. But that goes for every NHL team.

Heedles had eight NHL seasons and he's never played a full one. Yeah. He's had two seasons in the 70s. I think, I know what you're saying like the health. You can say that for any team, but there are some teams.

I wasn't done. Yeah, the point is that there are some teams in the NHL who can withstand the losses of players and withstand injuries a lot better than some. And I would put the connection in the category of a team that can't. Yeah, but my point was something different. Thank you for finishing, though. Is that there.

Yeah. We are so back. We are so back. That some teams are more injury prone. For sure. That's what that's another valid take on this whole thing. I don't know if the kind of are. Like Demko, we don't, I don't know what his health is going to be.

Demko is now in the category. I have no idea what his health is going to be. Demko and Kane are now in the categories of you've got to prove that you're healthy. Heedle as well. He's always been like that. He's never been in the category if you've been healthy. And also the concussion issues are always scary because you're worried about the guys. actual quality of life,

but also you know it's one hit away. Can the Canucks make the playoffs if Teddy Blugers are 2C for the bulk of the season? Because that's a realistic possibility. It's something we have to prepare for. You got me... Because like if he'll goes

out, which he tends to, then Blugers your 2C. Yeah. I feel like... I have nothing against Blugers. Like Blugers, you know, he's Teddy Blugger. I don't have a problem with him. I feel like... I shouldn't be your 2C. I feel like they're going to address the debt. I don't think it's going to be a big move,

but I feel like they're going to address the depth either prior to the start of the season or within a couple weeks or month of the season. You think really? Well, look at their track record. No team over the last couple. They waited too long to address the defense last season, though. Too long.

And it bit them, right? Because previously they had done good work in that early stage of the preseason. Like, you know, when you guys are showing up and it's like, is it a rookie camp, do I need to be here? That part of it. And then you saw, I think it was two years ago, they were the most active team in the early. stages of the year, right?

So there's a track record. They got Zadour off pretty early too. They got, they did the shopping early. Training camp tap and line shuffle. But when they got Zadour off, they were also off to a good start. I don't know if it'll be a really like eye popping, you know, headline grabbing move, but I think that they're going to address that position in some fairly meaningful.

Well, if it's not eye popping or headline grabbing, then is it really going to address the issue because the issue is really at 2C and that's going to. and that's an eye-popping position. I think it might be a guy that they bring in that's like if he gets elevated, it might not be as damaging as having Bluger be that guy because Blugher is so limited offensively. I mean, again, it's just me spitballing,

but I look at a couple things. One, track record, two, lack of depth of center and three. It does seem as though that we've had a offseason that's been a virtual standstill across the league. Something's got to give at some level. I can't imagine all these teams going into the summer. By the way, did you see these on the dark

corners of social media? All these talks that the habs are lining up a trade to move Kerry Price's contract because they want to start making their deals now? Yeah, but that just makes sense because he's owed a bonus. I think the point I was trying to make was like I think that things are just going to kind of start to move now like everyone's getting back from the cottage.

Trading a Hall of Famer. I know. I know. You used to be able to dump that contract in Arizona. He can't do that anymore. So I don't know. But anyway, back to the Connock's conversation. Unfortunately,

there's going to be, you know, there's going to be the two things. I know you've got it in the notes, but it's, it's, if PD can bounce back and the team can stay healthy. Okay, can we have, can we, are, we're going to need some sort of, um, counter. Some sort of sound effect. A bell. Uh, every time we say, if PD can bounce back and they can stay healthy.

Like we, we need, I know Lattie's. I don't know what he's doing right now. He's, like, looking at the Blue Jays depth chart or something, looking for a closer. But we need some sort of sound effect every time we say that because... I like that. Is that the one? That's not a good.

That's not terrible. Turn it up a bit. You know, like, with this team, like, I know I know we say it all the time, but if PD can bounce back and... No, no, no, no, it's too early, too early, too early, too early. Okay, you need, there's two things here. All right, working on the timing.

Two things. Well, premature. And you're going to have to, you're going to have to be ready to go here and you're going to have to put that on the hot keys, but because we can't have you searching around for this because we're going to say it a lot. And also, by the way, it's going to apply to guests. They won't know it, but it's going to apply to guess.

What the hell is that? If Petey can bounce back and rediscover his old form and the team can stay healthy, I think they've got a chance to make the playoffs. Too late. Too late. Too late. Too late. After healthy. I didn't know when you're ending your sentence.

After healthy. But you got to cut me off sometimes. Yeah, it's good. Okay, it goes, okay, we're going to try it one more time. All right, we're going to have these problems with clutch. But that's fine. Wow, throwback. Yeah, that was a throwback.

We also did. Yeah, all the time. Repeatedly. My first day training with him, he was playing stuff on the air while he was editing the audio. He was like, I wasn't supposed to be doing that. Yeah. No, it's not a high-paying position.

So you get what you pay for. Sorry, Lattie. We love you. Okay. That was pretty good. All right. We're going to, we're going to, we're going to, we're going to, we're going to nail it this time.

Okay. You know, there's a lot of question marks about the Kinecks this season, but I truly do think that if Petey can bounce back and they can stay healthy, there you go. Okay. Like it. Right?

Yeah, because it's the healthy part that you can't go past that. Yeah, everything hinges on the health. I thought it was the bouncing back PD part, but it's the healthy. No, it's both of them together.

Because those are the two things. Those are the two things for the series. If Petit bouncing back isn't enough. Yeah, yeah. If PD bounces back, but they don't stay healthy, then that's a, But a PD doesn't bounce back, even if they stay healthy.

I don't like the chance. You need them both together. I can't believe that this is our new version of hashtag the start. Because now you've got two clauses. There's two things that the entire season is hinging on. And when it comes to predicting, and we asked countless people to text in, Dunbar Lumber Text Line is 650, 650, so weigh in on this. There's been a million texts already.

having a prediction based on two things needing to come true is tough but the two things cover a lot of stuff but most teams have one key to the season but the health but the health covers Demko Heidel and Kane and then just overall a lot of guys that weren't healthy last year yeah yeah no I know Ronuk missed a lot of time mentally as well

well yeah mental health I mean Hughes is health, right? He played 68 games last year. I don't even say that. Wait, he only played... Can't even... I think a lot of people, maybe because you look at some of the bigger, more catastrophic injuries from last year,

I think a lot of people kind of forget that Hughes only played in 68, and of those 68, how many was he less than well less than 100%? No, that's a very fair point. Yeah, because... He still had a great year. He still put up 76 points, but you could tell his play wasn't as dynamic

and as great as we're accustomed to. teams target him so much too and he's going to play he is going to play a lot you know he's going to play for the americans at the olympics if he can stay healthy yep and a p.d. can bounce back no no that doesn't cover that one um you know so that's going to be a lot of games for him and a lot of travel they're going to go over to Italy he's going to be he's going to be tired and and again it's mentally taxing he's in a situation where probably every road city he goes to he's going to be asked about his future, when they go to Italy for the Olympics, they're going to have a few days where the media just gets to ask questions.

I've been a part of this, and you talk a little bit about the Olympics, but then you're also like, okay, I've got access to this guy. Let's talk to him about its future as well. Yeah. They've also got to come up with 25 goals of offense. That's another number that jumps out last year. It's like Souter, in addition to being the Swiss Army knife, not the fastest skater, but a bright one, a cerebral one.

He was tied for the second leading goal score on the team last year. Don't forget the PK. Kane is going to, in their minds, let's say, Kane is going to replicate some of that goal score. I'd say probably 80% of it, what 20 of the 25 goals? You should probably try and pencil him in for if you get

what you're expecting. But he hasn't played a full NHL season in over a year. Like, I don't know how he holds up over the course of an 82 game grind. But again, that goes back to the health thing. Conceivably, you're making up. that offense with Kane, not positionally, it's going to be the winger rather than the center, but you're going to make up that offense there. I'm just glad they have a strong,

calming locker room presence like a Van or Kane help this team through these dark times. Personally, I'm just happy that that's here for us. All joking aside, I'll go back to your original point. When you're looking at these statistical models and things that are based on advanced analytics, there is no metric that takes into account what a first time head coach and a brand new head coach behind the bench

is going to do with a room that had very public issues last year. Did it get solved with the Miller-Petterson trade? That's to be decided because it didn't feel like

last year like getting rid of Miller solved everything. No. Did it? At any point last year did after the military be like, oh, they figured it out. They are rolling.

And now you're bringing in another big personality in Kane into a room that's now spearheaded by Adam Foote. I think that adds to the uncertainty and why, again, I'll say it, I think of the last 10 years

going back to 2015, this is the toughest team to predict. Other teams you could kind of see like they're not going to be good, they are going to be good. This one, I just don't know. Yeah, I don't know about the cane thing. I just think if PD can bounce back

and they can stay healthy, that they can make the playoffs. to the best of Halford and Brough.