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

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they set up tonight's Canucks pre-season opener with radio commentator Brendan Batchelor, 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 and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Allen back to pass, looking right, now over the middle, complete to Shakir, races away from the defender, 10, 5, spins into the end zone for the touchdown. What a race to the end zone by Khalil Shakir. The final, six, and, right now. We can't have anyone freak out out there, okay? We've got to keep our composure.

We've gone too far. There's too much to lose. We've got to keep our composure. We've gone too far. There's too much to lose. We've got to keep our composure. My top is here. Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Alfred. It is 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. Hey, dog. Good morning to you. Good morning. Hey, dog. Good morning to you. Good morning.

Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brother 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 One of the program. Hour One is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Well, they'll pay the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.

Sorfy, what are you waiting for? Kintec. Can they help my popliteus? Who knows? That was funny yesterday, by the way. I'm not going to lie. When Kevin Woodley came on and delivered some good, solid, breaking news on our show, I just kind of was like, all right, cool. Thanks, Kev.

I did not realize that every media outlet in the city was going to become familiar with the Popliteus shortly thereafter. Were you listening? Yeah. Were you actually listening? Remember, I looked it up. Right. And I was like, the key to the knee. I thought that was a clever little bit.

I just didn't. I mean, maybe I underestimated. How long have you been working here? I guess I underestimated Vancouver. Again? Good job, Vancouver. I was very happy that the Popliteus is now on the tongues and keyboards of everyone in the Lower Mainland. Do you think any city in the world knows more now about the Popliteus than Vancouver?

There's no chance. No chance? There's no chance. Yeah. There is no chance. That could go on our sign. Ask us about our Popliteuses. Actually, what's the plural?

There's a Popliteus Plaza opening up downtown. Poplitei. Poplitei. Poplitei? Popliteusai? We can work that into the city name. Vancouver. The Popliteus to the north.

Big guest list today on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Greg Wyshynski, our good buddy from ESPN. NHL coverage for ESPN is going to join us. His first hit of the new season. And it's a game day of course. The Vancouver Canucks are in action tonight. 7 o'clock from Rogers Arena. First

preseason game against their hated I-5 rivals, the Seattle Kraken. So we'll talk to Wish at 6.30. We'll kick off our NHL coverage with him. 7.30, quarterback of your BC Lions, Nathan Rourke, is going to join the program. We'll talk to Nathan about Nathan. We'll also talk to him about his very famous brother,

Curtis Rourke, who's tearing it up in NCAA football. Best quarterback in the Big Ten, maybe. And NFL draft eligible this year, could be going in the upcoming NFL drafts. We'll talk to Nathan about all that. We'll also look ahead to this weekend's game for the Lions. We've got to ask him, right? We've got to ask him if he's been told if he's the starter this weekend.

He has been. He has been already. Don't need to ask him. We can confirm. You want to confirm? Still ask him. We can ask him anyway. He's like, it was all over the news.

Second story after the popliteus, whatever the hell that is. 8 o'clock. Brandon Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks. He'll be on the call tonight. Canucks cracking a reminder. It's all right here on Sportsnet 650. We are giving away another four-pack of Monster Jam tickets. Monster Jam, that is a monster truck rally.

It'll be this Saturday at the Pacific Coliseum. If you want to go, you have to give us a good, what we learned. Hashtag it. WWL. Let us know what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. Send it to the Dunbar lumber text message in basket at six 50,

six 50 monster jam, a four pack of tickets this Saturday, your chance to win today on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 6.50. So working in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock, it's Brendan Batchelor. 7.30, Nathan Rourke. 6.30, Greg Wyshynski. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened.

Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You? 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 It was a Monday night football doubleheader last night. Some very interesting developments at the quarterback position

in the National Football League. We will begin with the rookie, Jaden Daniels, the second overall pick in this year's draft, threw for a mere two touchdowns, ran for another one. An elite performance from Jaden Daniels. They win 38-33 over the Bengals on Monday Night Football. The other one from the quarterback position, now all due respect to what Josh Allen did, he was great.

But I think the big talking point from last night's 47-10 loss for Jacksonville was the ineffective play of Trevor Lawrence and the major, major red flags that are going up in Jacksonville now. If they weren't already raised, they are now at full mast in Jacksonville. Did you ever unload Trevor Lawrence onto Drance? I did. Nice. I got Matthew Stafford and Derek Henry in return.

I love it. It's called a good old-fashioned fleecing. It's been a lot of fun for me. It was good. Not so good for Drance. Let's start with the Bengals-Commanders game. The Bengals are now 0-3. Yeah, that's another big storyline.

And I know Cincy kind of makes a habit out of these slow starts, but, man, they are digging themselves a hole. And you know what's kind of funny is their next game is against the Carolina Panthers, who you would be like, oh, that should be easy. No, no, no, no. They changed their quarterback to Andy Dalton, who was really good in week three, and the Carolina Panthers got a win.

And, of course, Andy Dalton, who did most of his years come with, the Cincinnati Bengals. He was pretty good with them. Bengals legend, Andy Dalton. So I'm sure Sports Talk Radio, I don't know if it exists. I'm sure it does. And Cincinnati is going to be very interesting this week. But yeah, Jaden Daniels, the second overall pick out of LSU,

Heisman Trophy winner. Just like a clutch, composed, accurate performance on the road. Late in the game, they had a fourth and four. And now it eventually did lead to a touchdown. But the fact that they went for it and didn't punt, trusted Jaden Daniels in that situation, went for it. This was a series that was originally second and 20. And it was a one-score game. I think the Bengals were

down five. It looked like the Bengals would get the ball back with time to score a winning touchdown. I think in a lot of people's minds, they were thinking okay, well, the Bengals have Joe Burrow and I know they're 0-2. They've had a tough start, but that's the

commanders we're talking about here. It's the Washington commanders we're talking about. These guys always lose. Nope. Jaden Daniels makes a pass, converts that, makes an even better pass on a touchdown pass. They make it a two-score game and it was over.

The game was over. And, you know, we're now looking at back-to-back seasons where it's the second overall pick, not the first overall pick. CJ Stroud last season, Jaden Daniels this season, that they've impressed the most. While the first overall pick was Bryce Young last year

and Caleb Williams this year, they're kind of like, well, Bryce Young is in big trouble, but Caleb Williams will give him more than three games, but it hasn't looked terrific. So that's the real talking point today is like, I know you don't love saying the word takes, but you know, sometimes you got to go in the lab and you got to cook up.

Let's call it a hot opinion. Okay. You could make the argument right now. A hot opinion. Just say take. I'll have three hot opinions, please. You can have them. I'll give you one right now. A hot opinion. Just say take. I'll have three hot opinions, please. You can have them. I'll give you one right now.

I think you can make the argument that for two years in a row, the team with the number one overall pick got it wrong. Now you can definitely say it in the case of Bryce Young or CJ Stroud, right? I think it's fair to say at this point, it's been a year. Yeah. I don't think anyone's going to argue that most people would take CJ Stroud

on their team over Bryce Shaw. I'm not ready to make that same. All teams would take him. How many? All of them. I'm not ready to make the same argument yet. However, that was pretty damn impressive last night. I watched that game tip to tail.

And Jaden Daniels, I got to give him one of these like the shack meme i was not that familiar with your game i didn't watch him a ton at lsu and when i did i saw one thing a guy that could run the ball a lot he was a very mobile very fast very effective quarterback and he did that he's skinny he is he doesn't i saw him in the post-game interview i'm like are you a wide receiver he's not as physically underwhelming as Bryce Young, who looks like, why does that little kid on the field, right? But he's not like Anthony Richardson or anything like that. So I'm watching him, and the first couple weeks in Washington,

he's running around, he's scoring running touchdowns. He wasn't throwing the ball all that much. Last night, my God, it was unbelievable. He had a 55-yard ping downfield. I think it was Terry McLaurin 55 yard ping downfield i think it was terry mclaurin on the end of it that should have gone for a touchdown the throw that you're talking about on fourth down was huge the throw into the end zone where he dropped it in the bucket to give him the 38 points was amazing he went 21 for 23 he completed 91 of his passes for a rookie in his third game. Now, Caleb Williams with the Bears.

Like, I'm not ready. It's too early. It's too early to say. Way too early. But I'll say this. Right now, Jaden Daniels looks like the best quarterback in that class, which is something. Okay.

So, the Jaguars won real quick. Don't start yelling at us. We will talk about hockey. But it was Monday Night Football. Come on. And there's good talking points out of this um so jacksonville stinks i don't know what's going on with trevor lawrence but um for a guy that was supposed to be a generational talent and let's make no mistake that's what he was tagged when he came out of the draft he was the best draft

prospect at quarterback since andrew luck can't miss guy. Right? He had everything. The size, the pedigree, the winning pedigree as well at Clemson. It's a disaster. And I'm not even going to bother playing the audio because we can just go over it. Doug Peterson, after the game yesterday, the head coach said, everything's on the table. We might have to make a change at every position. And that included the quarterback.

They should go to Nathan Rourke at quarterback. They should go to Nathan Rourke at quarterback. Oh, no, no oh no no we'll ask him at 7 30 he's not there anymore we could we should ask him about i mean i doubt he's going to be super candid about what he learned during his time in jacksonville anyway um our good buddy mike martinego threw this question out there to us on via our text thread yesterday and it got me thinking right let's go down the road let's let's think about this if you're the seahawks and things don't turn out well for trevor lawrence in jacksonville in a hypothetical world would you go after him as a reclamation project or are you scared off by what you've seen over the last... Scared off by the contract he's got?

Well, anything. Let's say that in some weird world he gets axed or they do... I mean, that wouldn't happen. It'd probably be a trade. But would you be interested in him as a reclamation project? Because it's to the point now... How many reclamation projects actually work? Like, you've got Baker Mayfield playing pretty well. But Baker Mayfield went other places.

Yeah, yeah. Like, he went to the Ramsfield playing pretty well. But Baker Mayfield went other places. Yeah, yeah. Like, he went to the Rams, and he went to the Panthers before he figured it out with Tampa Bay. I mean, is Derek Carr a reclamation project in New Orleans? Yeah, but I think the jury's still out as to whether it's actually a reclamation project. It's early this year. Last year was sort of mad.

And he had some good years with the Raiders. He did, but never anything like in terms of winning, right? I mean, I don't know I'm not prepared to answer that question yet. I would prefer it if

the Seahawks just went the traditional route, found their quarterback in the draft. Right now, I'm reasonably happy with Geno Smith, but I realize at some point

they're going to have to have a quarterback of the future. I don't know if I would go the reclamation route, especially with the contract that Trevor Lawrence has. And there you have it. Let's go to the Canucks now, shall we? Canucks play tonight.

It is going to be the first exhibition game in a week of them. A reminder, it's on television. It's also going to be right here on Sportsnet 650. It is the Canucks and the Kraken tonight. You can expect to see JT Miller, Brock Besser, and Danton Heinen in the lineup tonight. I will make note of the fact that the Kraken have already played an exhibition game.

A bunch of teams have already played a few. Buffalo's playing their third tonight. I saw that on Twitter. So I guess some teams are already well in their third. Their third exhibition game already. Have they had a split squad or something? I didn't look at it. I just said, we're gearing up for our third exhibition game tonight.

I'm like, how many games are you guys going to play? So the Kraken did play one. They got thumped 6-1 by Calgary. By the way, Calgary is running it in this preseason. They beat the Oilers 6-3 last night. Well, they played them twice, didn't they? Yeah. Calgary played.

One of the squads that they had yesterday was almost a full Oiler squad. Bouchard played 28 minutes, McDavid played, and they still lost because Calgary is determined to win this preseason. But anyway, the Canucks host the Kraken tonight, and I am glad that we have hit this stage of the season. I was ready for training camp to be over.

I think a lot of the players were as well, and I want to start to see some of these line combinations. And a lot of these new guys, including all the guys that they picked up in free agency, as they get into the lineup tonight, including hopefully Heinen playing with Besser and Miller. I wonder how long it will be before we see Lankanen in goal. He didn't get any training camp, right?

Nope, not at all. They signed him during training camp. And most of the time you want a guy to be able to practice with your team, and I'm sure he's been working out off ice, but comes into the team because they're going to have to get him some games during the preseason because he's probably going to be, you know, the backup goalie during the season. So that'll be interesting to watch.

The Canucks play tonight against Seattle at Rogers Arena. They play Calgary, the Red Hot Flames, tomorrow in Abbotsford. And that game will have Petey. It'll have DeBrusque. It'll have Lekker-Mackey because we expect to see those three on the same line. It's also going to have Quinn Hughes. I think there were some complaints about a game they played in Abbotsford. It was either last year or the year before that didn't have enough star power.

And a lot of people that went there, they were like, I was told that, or this guy was on the poster and then he didn't show up. So I think the Canucks, to their credit, actually are being quite open about who's going to be playing in these preseason games. So tonight you've got the Miller line and tomorrow you've got the PD line essentially and Quinn Hughes. So I expect tonight we're going to see Philip Heronic play. Yeah.

And I'm look, here's my thought on the, the preseason is too long. There are too many games and there's way too big of a gap between the last preseason game and the start of the regular season. And I can understand that there might be a bit of angst and anxiety with Canucks fans because, well, one, there's a ton riding on the regular season, like without question, right?

They want to make sure with all the slogans and everything else that Rick Talkett has put out there that they want to, one, not waste any time, two, embrace the hard, but three, sort of reestablish themselves right away that last year wasn't a fluke, it didn't exist in a vacuum. This is the team that is going to be a playoff caliber team and competing in those playoffs moving forward. We haven't talked much about Danden Heinen, have we? We haven't at all.

He's, I think, in theory, a really good fit for that Miller-Besser line. He's a very versatile player. He brings speed, defensive awareness. You know, it's not the penalty kill, but he's considered a very good penalty killer, so he's going to be important in that regard. But on that line, the one thing that I hope is evident is his speed because sometimes you know they would have a little bit of trouble getting going just because and if the Canucks want to create more rush chances you know Besser isn't the

fastest skater JT Miller's a good skater he's more of a I would describe him more as a powerful skater than super fast but if Heinen can help with that regards and also be good defensively, that'd be a really, really tough line, both offensively, but also in a matchup role. Yeah, and the other thing that it does is it keeps them from having to play Pugh's suitor there. Because that was actually one of the things that I had notes on from Tuckett on the opening day of camp was that he sees suitor as a center and wants to play Suter as a center. And I think putting Suter as the winger on that line was never an ideal fit. There were a lot of not ideal fits last year, to be honest, if you're looking at it lineup-wise, right?

That there were a lot of makeshift, Band-Aid sort of fixes. I think we talked about Pedersen's rotating wingers ad nauseum, so we don't need to go down that road again. I didn't mind Suter on that line, though, but it wasn't perfect. Just to jump in, I never got the feeling that it was something that anyone was sold on, like

Talkett, maybe even Suter, because I don't think he's a winger. He's not a finisher, for sure. I think he's a winger. I think he's a very versatile player. I think he's a center and a winger i think he's a very versatile player i think that's i mean i think he's a center and a winger if he's a center all season do you see him centering the fourth line when bluger's back or do you say see him centering a third line potentially both i think it could be some pivoting between the two and what what happens to what happens to our friend nils amon i mean he's Nils Oman. He's a good penalty killer.

That's the thing that'll keep him in the lineup, if anything. Nils Oman right now has got him for that 13th forward spot, I would say. And that's probably a good thing. That's probably where he is in terms of where his career is at. And if Nils Oman is higher in the lineup, you're probably not a playoff caliber team. This has meant there's no disrespect for the guy. Well, he's not going to be higher in the lineup.

He's either going to be the 4C or he's probably not going to be playing. I mean, he's got very limited offense from that spot, right? In a league where you kind of want to have more scoring from all of your lines, including the fourth line. I wonder if there's a temptation to put, yeah, it depends where Holglinder is. I wouldn't mind seeing Suter on a line with Holglinder. So I don't know. The nice thing is we can go through all these different

combinations and be like, yeah, that's possible because the Canucks have a lot of players. We'll see if injuries and I will say continue to whittle them down because they're already missing some regulars in Teddy Bluger and Dakota Joshua. Those guys will

probably be back sooner rather than later. But right now, there's a lot of opportunities for guys to impress. I don't know if the Ratu-Hoglinder-Garland line will play tonight or tomorrow, but apparently they were very impressive in training camp. So that is very much a makeshift line with uh bluger out and dakota joshua out but you know it does seem like any line that connor garland goes on to has some jump and maybe that's something that can be revisited during the season you never know like you don't absolutely have to take dakota joshua and connor garland and staple them together and

keep them together and keep them together all season. You know, they were so good last season that you'd be crazy not to break them up. But maybe it happens that Dakota Joshua gets bumped up into the top six at some point. Now, you mentioned the health factor. And let's be clear, as we boil this down to what's the most important thing for this team going into the season. And it's crazy that we don't even have to focus on hashtag the start anymore because there's a sense of confidence. Maybe we should.

Well, it's going to sneak up on us. They forgot to meet pressure with pressure. They were embracing the hard and they forgot to meet pressure with pressure. Why are you not embracing the start? The start is very important. The start this year might actually be more complex than last year because of what's happening in net. So we're all assuming that Arter Seelovs is going to enter the season

as the nominal starter. And then depending on how long it takes Lankanen to get up to speed, that'll kind of pivot to how many games does he get to play early. So it's a different, little bit of a different beast beyond what Seelovs saw and did in the postseason. I don't need to explain to you the differences between carrying the load as a starter during the regular season as opposed to doing it in the playoffs. There's different opponents on every night. There's much more travel involved.

All those sorts of things. This is going to be a really interesting case study in a couple things. One, how good the team structure is, because structure is going to be fundamentally important when you don't have Demko back there, right? You're going to have to be a little bit more airtight, I would say, than you were not having your Vesna caliber goalie in bed. But what about the attacking mindset?

Well, I wonder if that's going to get parked a little bit at the start of the season. It doesn't seem like it's going to get parked a little bit at the start of the season. It doesn't seem like it's going to get parked based on what they were doing at training camp. I just wonder if you're going to... Insulate's a tough word, because Seeloff's did prove last year in the playoffs that you can play at this level.

I don't think there's any question about that. There are going to be some questions, because it's unproven and untested, how long you can do it for, what it's going to look like. Can you have a conservative attacking mentality? I don't think so. I don't think we should, first of all,

I don't think we should start acting like it's one or the other. Like you either have structure or an attacking mentality. Oh, that's true. The best teams find a way to have both. Yeah, good teams can do it all. And you know what helps in that? Speed. And I think that's one of the reasons why they targeted speed in the off

season. Patrick Alvin at the end of last season said, we need more speed. You know, you can go from structure to attacking a lot quicker when you have speed. Now, a lot of that is playing fast. So it's a mentality of once you get the puck on your stick,

let's do something as opposed to just dumping it out. Sometimes you got to make a play. But also, you know, the speed allows you to get back into your structure faster in case maybe that breakout goes the wrong way.

Yeah. And I also think, just to add on to this conversation, is that being with an aggressive mindset and being on the attack is made easier when you have the security blanket in the back. When you're like, oh, yeah, maybe I can take an extra chance here. Maybe I can take an extra risk here because you've got Demko,

like a Vezna caliber goal. Yeah, yeah. Now, I'm not saying that's going to change fundamentally. But I don't think they really did that last year. I don't think they played a style where it was like, well don't worry we got demko back there bruce did yeah but but the inverse might have been i don't think talk it did but the inverse might have been true in the playoffs it might have been we're going to be a little bit more cautious and a little bit less risky i don't know when silas is in that. Yes. Yeah. Possibly.

But for me, in the playoffs, against Nashville especially, maybe that was the case against Edmonton, but against Nashville, my feeling is where they really struggled offensively was just in zone. Yeah. So they weren't really worried about their own end because they weren't in it at the time. They just couldn't get shots through.

So, um, at any rate, you know, like preseason kicks off tonight. So we're going to start to, uh, see a few things. Um, be careful not to draw too many conclusions from these games. No, we're drawing all our conclusions tonight. But, uh, I'm really looking forward to, uh, finally seeing Canucks hockey back.

You're listening to the best of Halford and hockey back. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Nathan Rourke is waiting patiently on the line here. Joining us now, starting quarterback for the BC Lions, Nathan Rourke,

here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Nathan. How are you? I'm doing well, guys. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for coming on. We appreciate you taking the time. So the bye week is over. You guys are now back having me. Yeah, thanks for coming on. We appreciate you taking the time.

So the bye week is over. You guys are now back in prep. There's a game on Friday against the Hamilton Tiger Cats. Did this bye week come at the right time and give you guys a chance to decompress and maybe try and flush that game against Toronto out of the system? Yeah, I think so. I think that we've got a lot of guys that are banged up and um that are in critical spots that have the opportunity to come back this week or the

week next and you know we got a really important stretch here these last four games and uh we've really got to uh play our best football and and start to get to build some momentum so i think it's it's been good for us and obviously uh love to have an opportunity to play right away to get that Toronto game out of your system. But I think that the bye week will be good in the long run, and we're looking forward to this Friday. Now that you've had the time to sit back and absorb everything and go over the tape, what went wrong against Toronto? Yeah, I mean, credit to them.

They played well, especially that front four. They were doing things up there, exposing some of our weakness that we have to address. And they had a good plan in the back end as well. And I think it just comes down to execution. We were really close on a lot of things. We had, you know, balls that were hitting hands. And we had some throws that I needed to make and be a little more accurate on. We were just really close, especially in that first quarter, to a lot of big plays.

But good teams are able to make those plays, and we need to be able to do that to beat good teams like Toronto. I think from an offensive perspective, being able to come out fast and start strong is really important to us playing a complete game. But I think at the end of the day, we have to be able to play well no matter how our first quarter goes, no matter how many first downs we get in the first quarter. We have to be able to bounce back. That's what big teams do, and we believe we're a good team, and we have to do that.

For you personally, how much higher a level do you think you can reach? Yeah, I think that I'm getting better every week still. Obviously, last week was a tough one in terms of that, but I feel like if you take that one out, I'm still improving every week, and I feel more and more comfortable out there. I think that we're just waiting on a game to be able to really, you know, get in sync as an offense, get into a rhythm. And, you know, hopefully that comes this week on Friday.

Tell us about the challenge of your last, I suppose, couple of years. You go down to the NFL. You don't play many meaningful snaps during that time. And then you come back to the CFfl um you're back to a lead the expectations are high you're kind of thrown into the fire right away um what were some difficult parts about all that and do you feel that that is fully behind you yet or are you still trying to come back if for lack of a better way of putting it yeah i mean at this point i feel like i'm in a pretty good rhythm good routine um you know it's obviously you know better to be able to go back into a routine that you once had you know a couple

years ago same staff um same facilities you know a lot of the same things in terms of the practice plan the offense is the same um But I think there's definitely challenges, no matter if you know the offense or not, to be able to go back and be able to play. I think that not playing for a year and a half was definitely something I had to transition back into and just getting live reps. And then transitioning back to the CFL game as well, I think that

there are some differences between the NFL game and the CFL game that you definitely have to adjust to. And, you know, obviously, I think playing on a short week and first week in Winnipeg when I really was there for five days before I had to go and start, I think it was a present challenge for a lot of people. So Nathan, you were talking about getting, you know, return to live action. What is it about missing that live action?

What do you have to almost remember about playing these games to get comfortable playing these games again? Yeah, I think just the difference between, you know, taking the mental reps and the physical reps, there is a difference there, right? You have to be able to actually go through it. I think from the mental standpoint of being able to prepare for each week is a big deal.

And getting into a game and getting into a rhythm, I think those are all things that you have to adjust to. And I think I'm at that point now where, you know, all that nuance is gone. And I feel like, you know, thanks to the organization and for continuing to believe in me and all that kind of stuff, I'm hoping to be able to put it together this week. And as an offense, I don't think that there's, you know, obviously our expectations are still high because we know what we're capable of.

But I think that it's important for us to stick it one game at a time, one play at a time, and I think we'll be all right. Was there any awkwardness when you returned, given that Vernon Adams was on the team? I know he was hurt at the time, but he was on the team, and I imagine you had a conversation with Vernon about this. I mean, Vernon's been a pro. He's been great about it the entire time.

I think the war with Vernon is because of the way he's handled things. We were in a similar situation back in 22 after I was coming back from injury. He had played in my absence. Coming back and trying to take over that position is always difficult, but I think he's handled it extremely well. I think the biggest thing for both of us is that we just put what's best for the team and we want to have success no matter who's playing. That was my mindset last week when Vernon went in in the second half.

Whatever Coach Campbell wanted to decide this week coming out of the bye, we were going to support each other no matter what. I think that really helps everything. It makes it better for the team, less drama for the team.

I think that that is really important, just a testament of his character and his leadership. Just getting back to the bye week and having some time, were you able to decompress? And I think that that is really important, was a lot of stuff happening and kind of overarching all of it is the fact that BC is hosting the Grey Cup, so maybe there's a little bit more pressure to get to that game this season. Did you feel the need to decompress a little bit or did you just want to keep working through it all? Personally, I didn't really feel like

I needed the bye week. I hadn't been here as long as the rest of the guys, but I know that the rest of the team feels, you know, that the bye came at a good time. And, yeah, we've certainly been in some interesting situations this year and, you know, with the touchdown at Pacific and the short weeks and all that kind of stuff. But I think we've handled it, for the most part, really well.

It's just disappointing that when things are a little bit easier, we have a full week and we play at home at BC Place, that we haven't been showing up there in Toronto, Winnipeg, some of the games over the season. So that's what we really have to focus on. We have to get better. We have to play better there. And obviously, you know, the CFL,

I'm sorry, the Grey Cup being in BC is something in the back of our mind. But the reality is that, you know, we're trying to be in that game and win that game every single year, no matter where it's being played. So the fact that there's extra pressure, you know, that shouldn't be, that shouldn't exist.

We're focused on one week at a time, one game at a time, no matter where we're at and where that game is being played. We're speaking to BC Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke here on the Halford & Ruff Show on Sportsnet 650. The Lions are back in action this Friday at home against Hamilton.

Nathan, are you still keeping an eye on what's going on down in the National Football League, specifically what's going on in Jacksonville right now? Yeah, I mean, I still have some people that I've, you know, got to know and stay in touch with. And my wife has also got to know some of the partners down there. And so we've been definitely keeping track on some of the teams, some of the stops we've been at.

And certainly saw the score from last night in Buffalo. Do you feel like you got a fair shot down there? You know, I think that in the grand scheme of things, I think that there's a lot of things that just didn't go my way. You know, I think that the NFL is all about opportunity. You know, people who are paid to evaluate people and then and, you know, bring them in and, you know, do the front office type of things. You know, they really want the they really make or make a break to someone's career based off of the opportunities that they give them and

sometimes you're wanted sometimes you're not sometimes you're there you're just a guy and a lot of times in the stops that I was at you know I was just really a guy and I think that that's the great thing about being here in BC is that I feel like there's an opportunity for me and there's people here that believe in me and know

who I am and as a person and what kind of work ethic I have stuff off and there's people here that believe in me and know who I am as a person and what kind of work ethic I have, stuff off the field, and are able to believe in that. And sometimes you're not able to prove that type of thing when you're there for a week or more or close to that amount of time. And so sometimes I think, you know, and then obviously learning different offenses and having to pick up things really quickly, are all things that are are barriers and stumbling

blocks and so um to be able to uh be in a consistent environment i think is really important and um i think that a lot of guys careers are you know for one reason or another they just don't get those opportunities that you like so um definitely feel like uh in some ways i'm like one of them okay i traded trevor lawrence and fantasy over the weekend so i won't ask you for a detailed those opportunities that you like. So I definitely feel like in some ways I'm like one of them. Okay, I traded Trevor Lawrence in fantasy over the weekend, so I won't ask you for a detailed analysis of that one. We can move along to another quarterback that I want to ask you about, your brother. So we've been following his exploits at Indiana over the last few weeks,

and there's a lot to follow because he's putting up unreal numbers right now. I guess first, how closely are you monitoring Curtis' work at the University of Indiana right now. I guess first, how closely are you monitoring Curtis's work at the University of Indiana right now? Yeah, I've been watching every game and been really following it intently. He's been tearing it up. I've been so excited to watch him this year. He's getting an opportunity to play at a bigger stage. I think that with the new coaching staff and a lot of the other transfers that they have in there, there's a lot of buzz around the football program, obviously, Indiana being a basketball school traditionally.

And so for them to do what they're doing on offense, score some points, obviously, you know, they only got one conference game out of the four. They really begin their conference, their Big Ten conference slate this week with Maryland. You know, things are going to get a little bit tougher now here, but the fact that they've been able to handle business in the first couple of games, big win over UCLA. He's playing well. He's playing confident coming off of his ACL injury.

It's just been great to see his progress and the way that he's adapted to the offense and the new coaching staff. I think his best football is really yet to come, so I'm really excited to continue to watch him this year. What are some of the similarities you guys have as quarterbacks and what are some of the differences? You know, I think at the end of the day,

I think we're trying to get the ball out of our hands quick and get it to our playmakers. Obviously, quick decision-making is going to make it easier for, you know, in terms of just executing the play, but also for offensive line. And I think what he's done this year has been even really good at getting the ball out of his hands quick and going through his reads and being decisive. But obviously, you know, making some plays when things break down a little bit, you know,

making some scramble. I think he's an underrated athlete just because of his size. And, you know, sometimes his strides look a little bit longer than they do quick. But he's still fast, and he can still move and make some plays with his legs. He had a rushing touchdown this past week against Charlotte. I think that's definitely a little bit of some things that we do well that are similar. Obviously, yeah, he's been doing great. It's been really fun to watch.

Are you excited? And is he excited? Have you talked about the prospect? I mean, this is going to happen, assuming he stays healthy. He's going to play against Michigan at home, and then he's going to go into Ohio State and play the Buckeyes. That's going to be pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, we're really excited for him.

I mean, just to be able to play those two schools has been great. Like this Big Ten schedule is a really good opportunity for him to play against some really good competition. I mean, the whole reason for him transferring in the first place was to get out of the MAAC and some, you know, some credible competition. And that's not a knock on the Mac at all. That's just the way that people think about the Mac. That was always something that I felt like had a knock on me was my size and

the competition that I played against coming out of college. And for him, he's, he's a bigger dude. He's bigger than I am more of that prototypical build for the pros and he's playing in the big 10. So there's, there's no knock on the competition. And, um, I think you're going to get a real shot to be able to play, um, at the, at the next level, especially if he plays, um, continues to play well, um, at this point. And so we're excited about that.

And, uh, uh, we're just, uh, continuing, we're excited to continue to watch him grow and develop. Nathan, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We really appreciate it. Best of luck on Friday against Hamilton, and hopefully we can do this again later on down the road. Yeah, sure.

Appreciate it, guys. Thanks. Thanks, Nathan. That's Nathan Rohrer, starting quarterback for the BC Lions. Brendan Batchelor now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Batch. How are you? I'm doing well.

How are you guys? Good. How's the excitement level? Preseason, first game. We're getting closer and closer to the start of the real stuff. This is good. Yeah, it's exciting. After, you know, watching training camp and getting through the scrimmage

at the end of that and the young stars and everything that's happened in Ticton over the last couple of weeks, to be back in the booth at Rogers Arena tonight and calling hockey is going to be great. And you're right right that's the most important thing is it signals how much closer we're getting to when the games matter for real on october 9th so who is playing for the canucks tonight well i guess we'll have to wait and see i think they've advertised a couple of guys that are going to be in the lineup but besser one of them one of them, if I'm not mistaken. So there will be some star talent level in the lineup.

I would imagine because it's a back-to-back with Abbotsford and the Flames tomorrow that we might essentially see split rosters, not exactly resembling what was in the scrimmage, but I would imagine half the guys play tonight, probably half the guys play tomorrow with maybe a couple of the younger players that they want to get an extra look at getting an opportunity to play in both potentially. But we'll have to wait and see.

I'm sure they'll show lines at morning skate here in a couple of hours, and then we can break down the lineup in detail. Well, are you curious to see what it all looks like when putting it together? It sounds like training camp was just a nightmare for goalies because it was just rush chance after rush chance, odd man rushes, a lot of speed and shots coming at them, backdoor plays.

And I suppose the message of training camp was let's create more of an attacking mentality. Do you think we will see that play out in the preseason yeah i mean i'm sure talk it will be emphasizing it and the preseason is a great time to work out the kinks with something like that because you know if you're over aggressive and you cause a turnover and there's a three-on-one the other way well you know it's the preseason you know obviously you want to win games and play well, but it's the chance to take those risks and make some of those mistakes and learn from them so that you can implement the way you want to play

properly in the regular season. So, yeah, I would imagine that, you know, because that was the emphasis at camp, that Rick Tockett will be banging that drum going into these games and we'll probably see the Canucks really try to play that up-tempo, you know, aggressive offensive style where they try to pounce on turnovers and attack in transition, which should make for exciting games, whether they're effective in doing that or whether they struggle in doing

that. And then the other teams get odd man rushes the other way as a result. But, you know, now is the perfect time to, to play that aggressive style, because if you lose in the preseason, no harm, no foul. Yeah, I'm really curious to see how this plays out because we all watch the Canucks in the playoffs and we realize they got to do something to get more scoring chances. But also what made

them so successful last season was the fact that they took care of things in their own end and their structure was good. They made it easier on their goalies and that's why they had success. So you don't want to throw the baby with the bathwater, but you also want to make progress. You want to go from just a playoff team to a legit Stanley Cup contender. Yeah. progress you want to go from just a playoff team to a legit Stanley Cup contender. Yeah, and that seems, you know, over the past few years has always been kind of the struggle with this team. Like in Travis Green's last year, he had a strong emphasis on defense and they couldn't

score. Then Bruce Boudreaux came in and sort of, you know, let the reins off and they produced a lot offensively but were quite leaky defensively and i think rick tockett last year for the most part was the first example of this team being able to do both now i know some of that scoring dried up later in the year as the shooting percentages and the pdo and all that stuff came down so it's it's about finding a way to produce offense sustainably while also being the strong defensive team that got better and better throughout the year on on the defensive side of the puck and that's going to be an interesting challenge for Tuckett obviously I think he's got the the top end players to do it. They just need to buy into this way that he wants to play where, you know, they pounce on the opportunities that they get and they have that more attacking mindset,

as he likes to call it. And I think, you know, we talk about this in relation to the way they're going to play overall and at five on five. But I think where it was most evident that it was lacking was the power play last year, where he kept saying, you know, attacking mindset, attack the net, you know, create chaos around the crease. And too often it was too formulaic. And as a result, the Canucks power play struggled

when they really needed it to produce in the playoffs. So, you know, he has that defensive sort of system worked in last year. Like the guys know what to expect and they executed it very well. So now you have to be able to marry that structure with also the ability to take some chances offensively and try and create. And I'll be interested to see whether they can marry those two things. Did they do much power play work up in Penticton? They just did power play work on the Sunday morning for about half an hour before the scrimmage.

And the units were not representative of what the units will look like going into the season because I think they're probably more preparing for preseason games. So all of the top guys were on different units and they ran like four different power play units. So from that there wasn't too much to read into uh in terms of of what the power play might look like going into the regular season although i thought it was interesting that a couple of guys that we've sort

of thought might fit in uh in the bumper spot in de brusque uh and sprong were both working in that spot on uh on different units. So not sure what the power play will look like tonight or in these early preseason games, but I imagine we'll get a more representative look at what we can expect

once they cut down and get closer to their full roster. Do you think Lekker Mackey has a legit shot of starting the regular season with the Canucks? I believe he does more now than I did a week ago. You know, especially with the Joshua injury, I think there is a pathway for him to be on the roster if he can perform well in the preseason. And if that line does well in the preseason and

he plays well and maybe they produce a little bit, then you have the luxury of taking a look at that at least early in the year and then if joshua comes back and you don't like the fit you could send him down at that point or you know situationally like if you're if you're leading then you could move him down to the fourth line kind of like what they've done with hoaglander at times and move a more veteran player that you might trust more defensively up the lineup into that spot. So, you know, I'm with every passing day. And again, we haven't played preseason games yet, so it's hard to really read into that. But I'm, you know, more convinced that it's a possibility,

but I would still bet against it at this point just because of the expectations around the team, the importance for them on starting the year, and also this management group's track record of slow-cooking some of these guys in the AHL. I wanted to explore this Leckermaggie thing a little further because when we were talking about it yesterday, we had some people texting in to the Dunbar-Lumber text message in Basket at 6.50, 6.50, kind of suggesting that

we were buying into the hype or we were believing something that wasn't there. We were projecting this mirage. I'm like, no, like all we're doing is listening and watching what happened at training camp, seeing this organization make a pretty considered effort to talk Lekromackie up. There was that story that was hanging over from the end of the last postseason

where there was some real consideration about putting Lekromackie in when Brock Besser missed game seven against Edmonton. So, you know, you follow the team as closely as anyone. You're there, boots on the ground, covering the team, calling the games. Basically just confirm that this is a real thing. It seems like, I mean, it might not end up as a legitimate you know roster spot at the end of it but there's a legitimate shot that's happening right now for the kid to try and prove himself to stick oh absolutely like just by looking at how they've deployed him in training camp like if they weren't seriously considering it

he might have been on a line you know with a couple of AHL guys or projected AHL guys, but he spent every day at training camp on a line with Jake DeBrusque and Elias Pettersson. And that is not a coincidence. That's not something that you just do to boost the kid's confidence or something. You're having a real look at it. And I imagine he's going to get a look with skilled players in the preseason. They're going to give him an opportunity. And if I'm not mistaken, I think it was alvin in the summer that essentially said you know it's up to him where he fits in organizationally and if if he shows well enough i would not surprise me at all at this point if

they do give him chances to play on the nhl roster and play up the lineup and with the offensive skill set he has um you can understand why like he's got a great shot too there is a lot of offensive upside there um now again do i personally believe that we will end up that way at the moment i don't um but again we've played no games so far so all we can do is read into uh the way they've spoken about him through training camp which is speaking very highly of his game his line mates even both the both DeBrusque and Pedersen, had a lot of good things to say about his skill set. And DeBrusque sort of, you know, volunteered that

without being questioned about it. Just brought up the fact that he was really impressed with Leckermackie, you know, independent of someone grilling him about it. So those are all good signs for the kid. And, you know, i imagine we'll see him in in that role or in similar roles up the lineup throughout the preseason to really get a look at you know whether he deserves this opportunity at least to start the year and that's the other thing

is you know you you tend to think oh because we're putting him on that line that's where he's going to play all year like things can change you can get into the regular season you can decide maybe he's not ready for this and you can send him down at that point um you know injuries are going to change the the calculus in terms of how they deploy their forward group and they have already with you know joshua's recovery and bluger not being back fully with the group yet so uh plenty of things can happen that might either make Leckermackie on that line or in the lineup more possible or less possible, depending on how some of these other guys recover. But I think within the context of the injuries they have right now, you have to at least consider that it's a possibility that Jonathan Leckermackie will be a top six forward for this team on night one. And it's all about how the preseason goes for him that will determine whether that actually

happens or not. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.