Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 9/30/24

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

Mike and Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, they talk a couple of pre-season losses for the Canucks on Friday & Saturday, they set up tonight's game in Edmonton with Canucks Central host Satiar Shah, 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. If I wanted to have fun, I was going to go to Disneyland with my kids. Bayfield directing traffic, trip receivers to the left, looks that going to go to Disneyland with my kids. Bayfield directing traffic. Trip receivers to the left. Looks that way. Looks that way. Throws that way.

In the end zone. Oh, ball! Touchdown, Tampa Bay! Good collision there. Knocked down line A. And line A is sliding into the corner and holding on to his knee. On the penalty kill. Stepping up, trying to make a hit.

He's kicking me out on a superstar. Irresponsible. Good morning, Vancouver. 7 o'clock on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. This is Alfred and his bruv. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dawg. Good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alfred and bruv of 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. Since we just fast forwarded to hour two of the program, hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominuk at Jason.Mortgage. If you love giving

the banks more of your money, then definitely don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Don't do it. Visit him online at Jason dot mortgage, not dot CA, not dot com, Jason dot mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So what are you waiting for? Kintec. So we only have two guests today on an abbreviated Halford & Brough show. 7 to 9 o'clock, two hours, two guests.

7.30, so coming up in a half-hour time. Hockey Night Canada Sportsnet host, co-host of the 32 Thoughts podcast, Kyle Bukaskis, is going to join the program. We'll talk to him. All the news and notes from the weekend in the National Hockey League. Him and Freedj were down in Los Angeles. They were down in El Segundo with Dom. I can't think of a better way to take in El

Segundo than with Dom. What were they doing down there? Just talking about the California teams? Yeah, specifically the Kings. And they just happened to be down there right around the time of Drew Doughty's catastrophic injury. So yeah, we'll talk to you. So there's a conspiracy theory there. You see? You see how the script was already written? Freed to come out.

The tail is wagging the dog again. The media. We're through the looking glass here. Oh, wow. Just happens to be a massive hockey story as soon as Freed rolls into town. Very interesting. And the Kings are like,

can we have a better one next time? Because we just lost our best defenseman. Kyle Bukoskis is going to join us at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Satyar Shah. That's right, Sat from right here on Sportsnet 650. We'll look back on everything that happened with the Vancouver Canucks on the weekend. Not necessarily

game results. Spoiler alert. Canucks lost both preseason exhibition games over the weekend. But we'll talk about some of the major storylines coming from the weekend and what to look forward to because this, Jason, is the last week of preseason hockey for the Vancouver Canucks. Yay!

You're going to play the Oilers tonight and then also the Oilers on Friday, and that finishes off their preseason. So still, as far as I'm concerned, plenty of questions about how the Canucks are going to look, not only their actual roster, but how it's going to be deployed once they start the regular season in like nine days. So we will also be doing some NFL talk today. Of course, tonight it is the Seattle Seahawks in action against the Detroit Lions on Monday Night Football.

A Monday Night Football doubleheader. You've also got Tennessee and Miami if you want to subject yourself to that. All NFL coverage on this show is brought to you by the Clayton Public House. Pre-game to post-game, the Clayton Public House is your home of football. Catch all the action on 15 screens and two giant projectors. Visit them online at theclaytonpub.com. Okay, so that's what's happening on the program today.

Satyar Shah at 8, Kyle Bukaskas at 7.30. Let's tell everybody, Laddie, 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 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 you the best tools, training, and learning on your safety site. Visit them at bcconstructionalliance.com. Okay. We will start with the Vancouver Canucks.

Very briefly, they did play two games over the weekend. And like we said in the intro, we're not going to get hung up necessarily on the scores. But for those curious about that kind of thing, they lost both. 3-1 in Seattle to the Kraken on Friday. 4-2 to the Flames in Calgary on Saturday. Do you want to know the goal scorers? Sure.

Tyler Myers scored the lone goal against Seattle. Ooh, the Kraken hate Tyler Myers. Can't stand that guy. He's front and center of every game. He must be. He scored the lone goal on Friday in Seattle. And then on Saturday in Calgary, it was Jonathan Lekaromacki, sorta. I guess you can give him credit for the goal.

It was a weird one. It was a very fluky goal. Hey, you got to shoot the puck. He shot the puck. He did it on purpose. It hit a Flames defenseman's shin pad, I think, and then went way in the air and looped into the goal over the goalie. No, that was a skill move.

He did that on purpose. They don't ask how. They ask how many. Unless it's your first goal, and then they'll ask how, and you have to tell that story. So, Atu Ratu also scored one of these stories from training camp thus far. That was it for the Vancouver Canucks. They lost 4-2 to Calgary.

End of scores. So here are the storylines we're going to discuss in the next few minutes. JT Miller still hasn't played. Atu Ratu is the breakout star of training camp, and we're still trying to figure out who's going to start on a line with Petey and DeBrusque. If you have anything to share on those topics topics or if you want to add a topic,

text into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome details at DunbarLumber.com. Let's start with JT Miller and the fact that he still hasn't played. Now, it doesn't sound like it's anything serious, if it's anything at all, but I think it's worth noting, and we have noted a few times on this show, that the Canucks did advertise that Miller would play in the first exhibition game

against Seattle last Tuesday, and he still hasn't appeared. You remember, we were talking about that because we were like, oh, the Canucks are now telling the fans who are going to attend these games who's going to play so they don't show up and feel ripped off or wondering, you know, like, where's this guy? I came here to watch this guy. And the way it was going to play out

was that Miller and Besser, one of the, you know, two of the guys from one of the top lines was going to play in the first exhibition game. And then remember the very next night it was going to be in Abbotsford and that's when Petey and Hughes were going to play well Besser played in that first game but JT Miller hasn't didn't so we're all kind of like that's interesting maybe they lied to us the Canucks sometimes are liars but I don't I think the intention was that he was going to play, and some people have said that maybe he got a little banged up in a scrimmage.

Now, JT Miller has been a full participant in practice, and he said via IMAC after Thursday's practice at UBC, he said, I'm obviously ready to play. Well, I don't know if obviously is the right word to put there because you haven't played yet but he said the preseason it's never pretty let's be honest it's all about just trying to worry about your habits and trying to get um those in the right spot then hopefully typically by game six we play pretty close to the full team and it feels a little better as we go i'm obviously going to get in soon i'll play a couple of games, probably. I respect this so much.

Yeah, probably. I don't know. Who knows? So if he plays tonight, end of that story. But if he doesn't, then we're going to wait and see if he plays in the final preseason game, which is supposed to be, okay, it's at home, Rogers Arena. Typically in the preseason, you play your stars in the home games. And that would make sense as like, all right, we got the group together.

Let's go. So I don't know if he's going to play tonight. I don't know if he's going to play Friday. But I do think it's something worth monitoring. And not just because we're worried that JT Miller's got this significant injury. I'm not worried about that. If he's practicing, that's fine. I'd actually just like to see him play.

I'd like to see the power play get out there as a group together and have at least one warm-up game together, the first unit power play, have him play in a game with Danton Heinen, you know, and just have him play in a game with Danton Heinen, you know, and just have him play one preseason game. That's it. I'm not asking him to play tonight. I'm not going to lose my mind if he doesn't play on Friday, but I do think this is something worth monitoring.

Sometimes you gain an appreciation, more of an appreciation for players when they do stuff off the ice, right? Sometimes it's like charitable events or, you know, they go out of their way to sign an autograph for a kid or they do a really nice gesture. And then sometimes you gain appreciation when they become super relatable. And so for me, I really like the fact that JT Miller is all but basically saying, he's like, I don't want to play these games.

He's like, I don't like the preseason. You sent along a quote where he was talking about he doesn't even like necessarily getting back into shape for the season to begin with. He just wants to try and hold that off for as long as possible. No, you misread that quote. Until it's time to get away from the wife and kids, and then it's time to kick it into overdrive and get into shape.

So I respect his approach entirely. This is good. I don't want people to think that jt miller said something like i don't like getting back into shape what he said was in the off season typically now he doesn't take a lot of time off because the reason is because if he takes time off then he's got to get back into shape right right? So typically he just wants to stay in shape. Right. And then he, this is the most relatable thing about JT Miller for,

especially for guys our age. He's like, yeah, once I've taken 10 or 12 days, I'm ready to get out of the house anyway. Now it's time to get back in shape. He's always like, oh God. I got three young kids. Get me out of here. I'll go to the gym.

I'll do anything. Now for all of you texting in, they're like, guys, this isn't a story, guys. This isn't a story. It kind of is because, as we've seen over the last 72 to 96 hours, the preseason is fraught with risk. You can't go suiting up in the preseason. We've already seen two pretty significant players knocked out long term. We don't know the severity of the Patrick Lyon injury, but it sure looked bad.

And we saw Drew Dowdy get hurt in his first preseason game. Now, this is obviously one of those both sides make good arguments type thing, because you do need a warm up. You need some games. You need to get your legs back a little bit and get

into a game. At the same time, every time you step out there in a meaningless game, there's a risk involved that you're going to get hurt in a game that means absolutely nothing to nobody and we've seen the we've seen what happens in the preseason every year it's kind of the same thing there's a bunch of young guys that are running around trying to make a name for themselves trying to make the nhl team going up against a bunch of veteran guys who are already in that spot and are just looking to get through the 60 minutes without getting hurt. So I think at the end of the day what I think is going on here is JT Miller is maybe a little bumped up you know then he's not going to go out of his way to risk anything to play in the preseason

so if you're saying this isn't a story at all fair enough it's not much of a story so you know if he doesn't play in the first regular season game then maybe we'll revisit it there is a good story because there's a guy coming for JT Miller's job I don't know about that but let's talk about Aturatu the guy who might be sweating Aturatu's play as Nils Amon but we can get into that later Aturatu is I think we can all agree, the breakout star of training camp. And Rick Tockett was saying before Saturday's game, he said he's got some stiffness in his game. And Rick Tockett loves stiffness.

Do you remember who the other stiff player was? Who was the stiff? Brogan Rafferty. Oh, Brogan. He liked stiffness of the stick. But that was greener. That was a different type of stiffness. Tauket said we like his game. He's a good face-off guy. I think he's

really improved the last couple of years, so we're going to give him a long look. Ratu then went and scored against the Flames, and he's been centering maybe the best line for the Canucks of the entire training camp and preseason, and that would be with Garland and Nils Hoeglander.

Now, it's still anyone's guess if Ratu makes the opening night roster because there are all sorts of considerations that you have to throw in there. Injury, right? Where is Bluger? And if you want to add Miller in there. But Bluger would be the guy that I would wonder most about. He's practicing as well, but we don't know when he's going to be out.

And the Canucks came out and said right before training camp, like this guy's got a lower body thing. He had a minor procedure. So he is, you know, week to week, I think at that time. There are salary cap considerations right now. The Canucks do not want to go into

LTIR. So there is talk that they might only be able to start the season with one extra player. So 21 players as opposed to the 23 that you're allowed. And I think there are waivers considerations as well when we come to a guy like Nils Amon. Would the Canucks, even if they like Ratu's game slightly more than Nils Amon's game, if they have to make a decision on a player in terms of sending one down to the AHL, would they risk putting Nils Amon on waivers if it came to that?

Yeah, we've seen that situation play out before where it's not necessarily your play that dictates your roster spot. It's cba rules waivers and everything else because there's probably a decent case to be made that if oman tried to get past their waivers he'd get plucked by someone he's had a nice little career rejuvenation in vancouver where he went from being sort of a flamed out prospect to a guy that can play he's a big dude he kills penalties yeah um he's not great on face-offs which is a weakness but which is where

if you're if you're looking for you know centers are always in in need you know and and and and look if you look if you look at the canucks um miller pd bluger suitor and amon are all guys that can play center. And then you really do have to add Ratu to this question now. And maybe if you're being generous, if you want to add someone else's name, Max Sasson's name is one that should be considered because he's getting a lot of hype from the team. Well, not hype, but they're just like, you know, he brings something to the table.

He's got some speed. So there's another guy that's competing with Nils Amon for a spot. Listen, this is all short-term stuff when it comes to Atu Ratu. I think what you need to do in this situation is take a step back from the opening night roster and all that sort of stuff

and be grateful that this guy seems to be panning out in a nice way for the Canucks. Just listening to him talk, I really like how humble he is. And, you know, the reporters were desperately trying to get a quote out of him where he was saying, like, I'm really happy with how my preseason is going. And he's kind of like, yeah, I've still got some things to work on. You know? You've got to respect that.

And that's – A level-headed kid knows he's got a lot of things to work on in his game. Yeah. And he was talking about whether it's face-offs or – and he even said like as a team, we've got to box out better in front of our net. Center's got to do a lot of that. And then his skating, which he's really worked on.

And I loved reading and hearing him talk about working on his skating this off season and how he had a couple of light bulb moments. That must feel really good as a player who works on something. He's like, wait a minute, like, is this the way I'm supposed to do it? Right. Oh, okay.

That's cool. Because that, that, that means that he is, you know, actually thinking about this stuff and and intentionally putting the work in and not just going out there and going through the paces and going like okay well i guess i gotta get better at skating so i'll go out there and skate i actually wonder you know atu ratu is an interesting guy because he was considered honestly the the word phenom was put out there a few times when he was young and there was talk when he was 15 or 16 that he might be a first overall pick type of player. And then that never happened because he plateaued a little bit.

I wonder some of these guys, if they're just such naturals when they start, that they don't even really have to think about like how am i skating what does my stride look like and then they get to a point where you know some of them i don't know if they ever you know they're such natural athletes like i don't think otani has to sit there and be like how do i run that's right you know i do it better yeah but he just he just does everything naturally right but maybe ratu got to a point where he actually had to mindfully think about his skating stride and realize that he couldn't just go out and do everything just because he naturally knew how to do it does that make sense yeah i think it's an interesting point because we've talked a lot about it where guys have to alter their profile, like their style of game

when they get to the NHL level. Guys that grew up and even in junior were massive point producers and the best players on their team and the captains and the leading scorers and the MVPs and the guy that gets all the trophies, they go to the NHL and it's like, you're a fourth line checker now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's a tough thing for a lot of guys, not just to accept accept but also to understand that they have to go back and work on something right and that's kind of what i mean in a way what ratu is doing okay so we've asked we've asked two questions

when is jt miller going to play in the preseason uh who has been the breakout star of training camp the third question i have for you jason who who's going to play with Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusque? I don't think it's going to be Lekker or Mackey. I think he's going to start the season in the AHL. Could be wrong there. My top two candidates would be Hoaglander or Sprong.

And I think right now, if I was to bet on it, it would be Sprong because I think Hoaglander has done such a good job replacing Dakota Joshua on a line with Garland and whether it's going to be Ratu or Suter or Bluger if he's back at that three seat position, who knows? But we haven't really seen Daniel Sprong with

Pedersen and DeBrusque. Do you know what I mean? Not at all. What's that? Not really at all. But you know what I mean, right? So I do wonder if we'll see that combination in some games this week or some practices.

Lekker Amaki did score over the weekend against the Flames, but according to IMAC, and this is IMAC, so don't shoot the messenger. I didn't watch the game. He had probably his least impressive game or scrimmage since the young Stars tourney. And I think the right move is for him to start in Abbotsford. I just think it's the right move for him to do that.

But I'm not running the team. Maybe the organization feels differently but i would like to see sprung get an opportunity there for all of you that texted in that gave us the gears when we were talking about the jonathan lechermacki playing on the top line and getting this extended look and being intrigued by it, do not come back and say that we have to eat crow now, because I do remember bookending that conversation, starting that conversation, ending the conversation with one phrase. It's probably still very unlikely that he makes the opening night roster.

Like it was nice that they were intrigued by it. It was nice that they were talking up. It probably shows that they're excited about his potential. And they wanted to give him this dangling carrot in the hopes that, hey, maybe, maybe there's that 5% chance out there that he rises to the occasion and is able to exceed our expectations.

It's an exciting thing. If you want to go big picture on it and not be really myopic, tie it into what we were saying about Ratu. All of a sudden, there's genuine excitement about a couple prospects in the American League who might be either NHL ready or very close. And that's a nice thing to have because this organization has kind of been short on those guys.

I'd rather see Lekromaki be a midseason call-up. Or if he stays the whole year in the American League, it's not the worst thing on earth. He's still very young and he's still very green. If he can go down there and dominate for a League, it's not the worst thing on earth. He's still very young and he's still very green. Yeah. If he can go down there and dominate for a season, it's not going to hurt his development. It's really not.

Ratu might be a little bit of a different scenario because he might be a little bit more primed to make the jump because he's older. And also he can play a bottom six role. Right. And he's been developing already in Abbey. And he's a big dude. He's a big, strong guy.

Like Ratu might be— Lekermackie is not. Ratu is like the path for Lekermackie, maybe, because, you know, he gets some seasoning down in the AHL. Hey, dog, how did you pronounce that? Lekermackie? No, wrong. Lekermackie.

Lekermackie? No, there's no Re. Lekermackie. Lekermackie? Lekermackie. Lekermackie. There you go. Lekermackie.

There you go. Lekermackie, Lekermackie, Lekermackie. Okay, real quick before we pivot to what the BC Lions did or more specifically didn't do over the weekend. The Canucks did make a bunch of cuts over the weekend. The one I really want to mention is Vilmer Ulrichsen because he got cut and sent back to his Ontario Hockey League team in Guelph. But it wasn't all bad for Vilmer because the six foot six forward signed a

three year entry level contract with the Vancouver Canucks after a training camp in which he was so impressive. He got a quote in his press release. Oh, what'd the quote say? It said, he was quote worthy. Oh wow.

Good for him. Vilmer Ulrichson is such a highly touted prospect. He got a quote from Patrick Alvin. Wilmer had a solid training camp and continues to develop and improve. We really like his size, skating ability, and skill set, and we will continue to monitor his progress and work with him this year to help Wilmer get ready to take another step forward in his hockey career. I wonder if he could play for Sweden at the World Juniors. I would imagine he's 19.

No, no, I'm just wondering if he would make the team. Yeah, I mean, he'd have to be in the I mean, again, I'm not all that dialed in on the current state of the Swedish Junior Program. I apologize. We got a lot of stuff. Who would be their top line? Could he maybe fit in a bottom six role? If one of you

texted and says, educate yourselves, I'm going to lose my mind on the air. I don't have the bandwidth. I was trying to get caught up with the golf. Never mind. Okay. You need to follow those leagues, man. It's part of your job.

I can't do it. BC Lions. The BC Lions, man. They blew it. They blew it so bad. They blew it big time. The Lions had a 16-0 lead at the half against Hamilton. And I realize Hamilton has been playing better.

And Bo Levi Mitchell has been playing really well at quarterback. The Ticats came to BC Place on a three-game winning streak. But the Leos led 16-0 at the half and found a way to lose this game. They allowed 18 fourth-quarter points, fell 32-29 in overtime on Friday night. If you're upset about the officiating you're upset at the wrong stuff the offense started strong but sputtered the defense also started strong

what with the shutout in the first half and then completely got torched by beau levi mitchell he have three names nathan rourke is now two and five as the starting quarterback this season and I think um this is a very concerning quote from the head coach Rick Campbell and Rick Campbell I know a lot of people have thoughts about him but get a load of this quote we got a good group of guys but we don't respond well when things don't go our way. We're good when things are humming along and that's okay, but when something goes wrong, as far as the other team makes a play, or we think a call's bad, or something's like that, we don't respond quickly enough. We need to be better at that and not be phased by a game where

it gets tough at the end. If you're going to win in this league, coming down the homestretch or in the playoffs, you're going to have to not be phased by a back and forth game that comes down to the fourth quarter. That is the head coach calling his team mentally weak, mentally fragile. I am getting flashback to the Canucks before Rick Talkett. The weird part is, is like, I'm not sure outside of this collapse late where they held the lead and then things started to go the wrong way. Other games this year,

it hasn't even, I don't know if, I don't know if Campbell's categorization is the right one. Because like, that's not what happened against that loss in Toronto. Or sorry,

the loss to Toronto at BC Place prior to the bye. They were just bad. There was, you not what happened against that loss in Toronto. Or sorry, the loss to Toronto at BC Place prior to the bye. They were just bad. You know what happened that was bad? The opening kickoff. That was the turning point. They were bad right after that. As a matter of fact, the one bright spot that they had in that game where it looked like it might turn the corner in a good way

was when Rourke had the touchdown on the ground, running it in himself prior to the half. What's the opposite of a team being dialed in? Because that's what the lines are right now, and I think they've just been through so much this season in terms of, you know, we had a good start, and then there was the long losing streak, and then you bring in Nathan Rourke,

and then you bring in Matthew Betts, and you got to go to Victoria for a game and it just seems like there is a real lack of focus and you know they just I don't know if they need to talk it out there to give them some landmarks you know just like you go there and do this in this situation but they seem lost as a group. Does that make any sort of sense here? Well, let's not forget, before they made the additions of Rourke and Betts, they were going through an awful funk. That five-game losing streak where a lot of the team's issues were exposed.

Remember we said, I'm not sure a lot of this is stuff that you can just scheme up and fix. It was missed tackles. It was a lack of talent on the defensive side of the ball. Do they have a number one receiver? Do they have a guy that they can rely on? Because I don't think they do right now. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. 802 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Prep, Sportsnet 650. Halford Prep of 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 3 of the program.

Hour 3 is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio. expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews for our feed. What are you waiting for?

Kintec. It's a holiday show, which means, and Jason hates this, by the way. He hates tradition and he hates people, but I like to do it. And I have the microphone right now, so I'm going to do it. Anytime that someone joins us on these vacation journeys where everyone's supposed to be sleeping in and taking advantage of a stat day, I like to acknowledge the people that are working, transiting, listening to the Halford and Brough show.

You know why I hate it? It's because you never flag anyone's texts, and then it's difficult to do these shout outs. So shout out to Woodrow the Eligible Bachelor, Ian the Abacus in Surrey, Samantha on Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario, Juan from Comox, Phillip driving a shuttle bus at YVR,

Ed in Kelowna, Dan in healthcare from Nanaimo, 3 Putt Shane, and of course, Justin from East Van, who his entire lifeline is this show. I motivated you to do that properly. Did you even write them down?

You wrote them down, didn't you? Yeah, I did. You wouldn't have done that before. I think I would have. I think I would have. Joining us now on the Haliford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650, Satyar Shah here, right here, on our show. It's very exciting. I don't want to fight with you on a holiday

Monday. I'm not fighting with you. I am disengaging. That's what we call it in therapy. Deescalating the situation? What my therapist calls it is ignoring the problem. My therapist has told me to disengage with Brough frequently.

Let's bring Sat into this one. Sat joins us now. What up, dude? Sad's our therapist. What's going on, guys? It's like, you know, when you go to a family dinner to a friend's place and they start getting into this bickering contest, you kind of sit there awkwardly, just like, yeah, I get it. That's the Breaking Bad meme

where Jesse's drinking the glass of water in his hand. Yeah. Let's discuss some of the storylines that we've got going right now on the Halford & Brough Show. Is there anything to JT Miller not playing a preseason game? I mean, so obviously he's been practicing, right? He's been a full participant in practice.

He scrimmaged. He hasn't missed any on-ice sessions or anything off-ice in terms of his preparation. So whatever is going on, it's clearly not anything significant. It's clearly not anything that should be holding him back when the season begins. But it is curious, right? Because the longer this takes him to be the only player who hasn't played, it makes you wonder. Now, can we take the coach's word for it and say, hey, they're just load managing and maintenance.

Sure, I mean, you can make that argument. There are also players who are older that they're they're just load managing and maintenance they sure i mean you can make that argument there are also players who are older that they're not doing that with so but still you still do that with jt i wonder jt's never a guy who ever admits when he's banged up but i always think back to the north division season where he was dealing with with an injury he plays through and he was there from start to the finish. And one of the reasons I heard he played through was he didn't want to leave the guys in a situation where they all have to be away from their families for so much. He didn't want to leave his guys alone.

He was going to go down with the ship that year. That's kind of what I heard about JT, and he never acknowledged any injury that year. And we know how tight-lipped these guys were last year at the press conference, at the end of the season press conference, about their injuries. And Phillip Verona, we all knew

he has an injury. He's like, no, I'm good. No issues at all. And him and J-Pat kind of got into it because that came from a place of

we all kind of knew there might be something going on but nobody wants to admit to it, right? And the only guy who admitted to anything was Pedersen

because that was such a public thing about him having some sort of an ailment. So there seems to be this culture with these guys where they don't want to admit to anything.

So is it outside of the realm of possibility that JT either has something he's dealt with over the course of the summer or has something minor that they don't want to acknowledge or talk about?

I think that's possible. But going back to the original theme here, because he's in practice, because he's a full participant, because there's no restrictions placed on him in terms of what he's been doing

on ice outside of playing games, it can't be anything serious. Okay, let's talk about Atu Ratu then. What is the pathway to him being on the Canucks opening night roster? I think as long as Joshua's out, and do

they feel like they can still keep TDG or slide into waivers? Honestly, I think that's where it's at. Because if you look at how he's played in the preseason, based on merit, he's been fine. But he also brings something this team is lacking, and that is a player can take a right-handed faceoff. He's a left-handed shot.

They can take right-handed faceoff. He switches his grip and he takes faceoffs, and he wins a lot of them. We know that's something this team doesn't have on the roster. But also because of how hard he plays. When the coach says this guy plays stiff, you know he's swinging this team doesn't have on the roster, but also because of, you know, how hard he plays. The coach, when the coach says this guy plays stiff, you know he's swooning over the guy, right? So, like, we know the coach likes how he plays.

We know the coach is a fan of his details in his game. So I think in terms of him bringing versatility, him being a player that can maybe allow them to have a different shape to that line without Dakota Joshua. So far, they've tried Garland and Hoagbander on that line, which honestly, even though it might be small for the playoffs to begin the season, you might be able to get

away with that for a few weeks and perhaps catch some teams off guard and play some pretty in-your-face, energetic hockey. So I can see a pathway where there's a real role for a guy like Atu Ratu, plus he compliments the roster with something they're lacking. So I think he's got a decent chance. I don't know what percentage to put

at it, but I'd say it's over 50% right now. Are there any significant waiver stories? I mean, you already mentioned Phil DiGiuseppe. Could Nils Oman possibly be placed on waivers in a related story to Atu Ratu? I think it's possible. Now, Oman

has two years left in his contract, so I think it makes it more complicated to claim him. It's one way, I believe, on both years. Whoever's taking him has to feel comfortable about having a contract slot for two years and feeling like he's going to be part of the organization, which makes me skeptical that he will get picked up. And even

TDG, when I look at it at the surface, the guy didn't score a lot of points. He's playing like 10, 11 minutes a game. He's making, you know, league minimum, but he's still making 500,000 if he gets sent down to Abbotsford. We don't see guys that age usually get picked up on the win,

but because he's been good on the PK, because he's played well with star players in a complimentary role, he forechecks well. Maybe a team of the whole could pick him up, but honestly, I'm not overly concerned about the waiver thing. And I think if they lose one of those guys, pick him up. But honestly, I'm not overly concerned about the waiver thing. And I think if they lose one of those guys, they open up a contract spot.

But I do think PDG is the guy that the coach values. So if they have any inclination, he might get claimed. Maybe they're a little bit, you know, maybe somewhat reluctant about it. And the other guy is Linus Carlson, because he also has to go through waivers. I don't think he's done enough. I don't think he's done enough so far in terms of being like,

oh, you have to keep this guy off waivers. I'm not sure anybody claims him. But could a team look at him and say, he's young enough, he's got some chops, had 60 points in the AHL last year, played a couple games in the playoffs. Maybe it's worth taking a look at him. He doesn't have a one-way contract, I believe. So I think it makes it a bit easier for a team to take a flyer on him.

That's the guy I'd be more kind of intrigued about getting picked up, but I don't think it's a bit easier for a team to take a flyer on him. That's the guy I'd be more intrigued about getting picked up, but I don't think it's a major concern for the team. Okay, agree or disagree with this prediction? Daniel Sprong will be the guy who starts on a line with Petey and DeBrusque. I'm going to disagree to start the season. And a big reason for it is we haven't seen him there much. Now watch him play, and that's who they load up to the beginning of the season um and a big reason for it is we haven't seen him there much now watching you know the play and and that's who they load up to the beginning of the season but one of the things that coach said about daniel strong the other night and he gave some quotes to

um iMac about it as well he made it very clear that working with strong is a bit of a project and they're very happy with the things he's done but it's going to take some time and they're working very closely with them so if you're trying to build this guy up and get his details to a level where he can be a player who can play a bigger role do you want to throw him into that position right away or do you want to gradually bring him up to that so if he's working on his details and gets better and better in a few weeks to a couple months do you feel better about putting him in a big bigger featured role that he can handle and not get removed from potentially as opposed to hey this is the list of things to work on now go play with Pedersen

and figure this out at the same time which might be too much to do and that you're not giving him a chance to perhaps catch up and and get the level that you want so I can totally see Sprong playing there I just wonder with how the coach has gone about it that they're looking for gradual succession to that point as opposed to throwing him at that point right away. So if not Sprong, who? I think Sherwood is a guy that, for the time being, makes sense because he forechecks really well. I don't think he brings a lot of offense outside of his shot,

but he can be a player who can play off those guys. I think it gives the team a little reliability and safety to begin the year and having a little bit of toughness on the wing, having a little bit of forechecking. i think that's something that they can start the season with and feel pretty safe about because they don't have the issues of is this third guy going to do the things we need is he going to skirt his responsibilities can he be reliable defensively can he play with energy and retrieve pucks because as strong as you really put a guy like the breast of the position to retrieve pucks on that line and be like the F1 and dig pucks out.

Because Strong is more of a skill guy to look for a shot and look for angles to create offensively. So I think Sherwood, in terms of a placement to begin the year, makes a little bit of sense. But obviously you want somebody of higher caliber once the games get a little bit bigger. Yeah, I have to admit, when Sherwood was signed by the Canucks, I was enthusiastic because I like the way he plays. I love his name. Great name. But I wasn't thinking, oh, there's the guy that's going to complete the trio of Petey Dubrosk and Kiefer Sherwood.

I thought he was going to be a fourth-line energy guy. Yeah, and ultimately, I think that's where he's going to land. And I think part of it is the fact that right now, when we look at who's the best right winger for Elias Pettersson or playing the right wing spot in the top six, it's not perfect, right? Because we know Garland so far is best running his own line. And we all kind of think, hey, when supporter Joshua's back,

he's going to reunite with Garland. They have their own thing going on. And if you have Besser playing with JT Miller, that leaves either a left-handed player like Hoaglander, it leaves a guy like Sprong with a little bit of a project, or it leaves somebody like a Sherwood. And I think it's just temporary. But here's the bigger question, I think. If Sprong can't be the answer as the year goes on, and if Sherwood is better suited for a bottom six line, which I do think he will be, and can be a really good player in that position, ultimately, do you need another forward to play in your top six? And i think that's going to be part of the thing you have to figure

out over the course of these next few months right could it be lechermacky in a few months can he be ready for it do you have something internal that can that can happen but for the time being i think sherwood's kind of the safe guy who can play in that spot but i think for sure whether it's an internal option emerging or getting somebody externally that that can't be the case when it's headed to the playoffs. Don't you think that's a great argument for sending Lekker Mackey to Abbotsford and just get him up to speed, play him a ton, get him used to North American game? Hopefully he goes down and scores a bunch of goals. And then maybe around the new year, you consider whether or not you either bring

Lekker Mackey up or you have to make an addition before the trade deadline I think you nailed it I think absolutely that's the best way to go about it I think it's the most pragmatic way too and if you're looking at it in terms of building a player up and getting to a level where he can sustain it I think starting him off there, Leframacki getting his fitness better, getting him stronger, getting him experience, not having the crazy NHL schedule during the week where he can't really work on anything. If you do

that for half the season, you give yourself a chance to get the best version of that player in the second half of the year. That's what this year is all about. They all need to get off to a good start. They can't get off to a bad start. We all know that. You're not trying to be a playoff team day one. You're not trying to win the Stanley Cup day one. It's about building and gradually get into a point by the trade deadline

where you feel good about your team. And because I think there's a level of confidence that this front office will address needs or at least do their best to address needs, I think giving it some time to let the season play out, a season of internal options is the right way to go about it as opposed to trying to fix all your issues today. And I think something that they, you know, made mistakes about in the past was being so focused on getting these guys

at the lineup right away and getting an immediate impact. But even if you think about the big picture, not just two or three years down the road, but just what about the second half of this year? And I think that's something they have to consider this season. So at the risk of getting way ahead of myself at the trade deadline, what are ways for the Canucks to create as much possible cap space as possible for that deadline, whether it's for a scoring winger or another defenseman,

whatever? I mean, the Canucks seem to be working very hard, especially the way they negotiated with Lankanen, in making sure that they don't start the season in LTI. So that's one way, but I don't know how much cap space that's actually going to accrue as the season goes on. What are some other ways that, just in the back of your mind, that you're keeping for the Canucks to have cap space

to be players at the deadline deadline or even before the deadline? Because we saw Jim Rutherford make a bunch of moves last season before the deadline. Well, and I think that's, you're right in terms of how much cap space can they accrue. Like if they go in with $100,000 in cap space and are able to keep that off their books until the trade deadline, that turns out to being about five, 600,000. So, I mean, we're not talking about, you know, a hundred thousand turning out to being a million or 2 million. We're talking about five or 600,000,

but what you can do is you can get to that number. Then you can go to LTIs. You can turn, you know, a hundred thousand and 2.5 into about 3 million cash. So that's how that gives you a little bit of flexibility. And then if you move a player off your roster, even a guy making league minimum, you can get up to about $4 million. So I've always thought in my head that without having to do anything significant

by the trade deadline, the Canucks might be able to add a player making anywhere from $3 to $4 million on total cash. So if you find a way to retain, that means you might be able to acquire a $7, $8 million player. So I think that possibility exists without them having to put out a bigger name out of their roster so that you know that's like a league minimum guy or guy making a million but you can flip and now you can add a player that's making upwards of eight million on the salary to get the salary retained and then if it comes down to salaried salaried players like you

don't have a lot of guys on the team they look at right now right and say oh this is a contract this contract is a problem we know know the Tucker Pullman one is, and that's the thing I wonder about too, guys. It's like for all this talk about, hey, what do you do with Hoaglander? What happens with Garland? And we can just assume they'll be here because what if they end up trading Tucker Pullman a couple months into the season

where more of the money is paid off? It doesn't cost as much to get him off your books. And can you get creative with the team and take the contract on? That's even a league minimum that you can stash. So you make the monetary requirements for a team taking equipment off your hand, not being as big as it is doing it today. And I wonder if you do that, and then you do it even,

if you do it even, say, a month or two down the road, can you turn that $100,000 of accruing cap space into $2.5 of accruing cap space? And by the deadline, you might be able to turn that out without getting too boring on the numbers to maybe about eight million. So I think there are ways here that they can get creative and perhaps move Tucker Pullman's contract after more money gets paid off. Sad.

This was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. Looking forward to doing this throughout the season. Enjoy the rest of the week and we get through the final two preseason games the time to do this. We appreciate it. Looking forward to doing this throughout the season. Enjoy the rest of the week, and we get through the final two preseason games. We'll do this again soon. Anytime, boys. Always a lot of fun. Thank you, buddy.

That's Satyar Shah, Canuck Central host here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. So Sherwood on a line with PD and DeBrusque is certainly nothing that I predicted when Sherwood was signed and DeBrusque was signed. But maybe it makes sense to start the season because the one thing you know you're going to get with Sherwood was signed and DeBrusque was signed. But maybe it makes sense to start the season because the one thing you know you're going to get with Sherwood

is a guy that wants to skate and he wants to push the pace. And that's what Rick Tockett has said he wants out of Petey. He needs to push the pace more. So maybe you add that energy to the line. I just don't know if he has enough offensive capabilities to really make the most of that line. It wouldn't be anything new for a Pedersen winger. But

I guess we don't have to solve it by game one of the regular season. No. That's the one thing. Okay, get you what we learned into the Dunbar-Lumber text line. We'll do some what we learned of our own because it is a holiday Monday, so there aren't a ton coming into the Dunbar-Lumber text line. We'll do some what we learned of our own because it is a holiday Monday,

so there aren't a ton coming into the Dunbar Lumber text line. That's fine. But there is an opportunity to get your text read if you want to text in to the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. What I learned over the weekend, and this is what I watched the most of this weekend, was that the Americans did win the President's Cup.

And they deserved to. And at the end of the day, it was a convincing win for the Americans. But it was still a really fun weekend of golf watching. And I can't say I agreed with all of Mike Weir's decisions especially on Saturday when for the first time in President's Cup history a captain chose to play the exact same pairings twice in the same day leaving guys like Jason Day and Minwoo Lee on the bench all day. The internationals did seem to run out of gas as the long day wore on and there was no real break between the morning session and the afternoon

session because the morning session was delayed by fog. And you do have to wonder if some fresh blood would have helped, especially late in those matches. But here's my house of positivity take. Okay. On the weekend in Montreal, americans went into this as huge

favorites they won the first day five to nothing and on this show we were all like this thing's over i'm not even gonna watch the president's cup this weekend and yet the internationals still made it really interesting. They still made it fun. Friday was incredible with the internationals fighting back to tie the match with five victories of their own. I couldn't believe what I was watching. And it was so much fun as a fan. I don't think, for me personally, I love golf, and I don't think there's anything better than international team golf when you get a game when you get a game or a match like like fridays when the the momentum is

just swinging so crazily one way and the americans were rattled they lost their composure and i don't know if they thought after, you know, Thursday's matches, we were like, this is going to be easy. Let's go out tonight and let's have a night. Like, I don't know what happened to them, but, you know, the internationals, all credit to them.

They came back and they played really well and they tied the match. I don't think anyone saw that coming. Certainly we didn't. Saturday's matches also had some great moments and it looked like everyone in Montreal had a really good time cheering on the three Canadians and the Kim boys from Korea. Even though

the day did end in disappointment for the home fans, I do get the criticism for Weir. I get it. I even agree with some of it. I would not have sat Jason Day on Saturday but I think Weir tried to do two things with his lineup on Saturday. First, he tried to ride the momentum from Friday, which is smart. Second, he felt he needed to shorten his bench.

That's what underdogs have to do. Sometimes you've got to shorten your bench. But really, when you look at it, the Americans not only had the better players at the top of the lineup, they had more depth, and that's why they won, but I think it was still

a very entertaining President's Cup, one that started out looking like it wasn't going to be, and then it did get fun and interesting. So I was thinking, I was like, why is, Brett's really into this, and I was trying to think why,

and I think I maybe, and not to put words in your mouth, but we can discuss this. I do not get, when it comes to golf, international team golf, I love it. I love team golf. I love the dynamics of it. I love the momentum, swings. I've said that one of the most enjoyable sports days I've ever had

watching TV was the Ryder Cup of Medina back in 2012 when the Europeans stormed back on American soil and it was guys like Ian Poulter and Justin Rose making big pots I mean it's incredible drama and that's why I'm into it and to have Canadians partaking in it and being in Canada that's why I was into it yeah Yeah, golf needs it. Maybe now more than ever, given the sort of plight of what's going on with PGA and live, they need events like this where guys are there and there's emotion and there's winning and there's more at stake than winning than just like this big pot of money at the end of it,

which seems like what's driving the PGA and live right now. I just think a lot of people might look at this from the outside looking in and be like, oh, the Americans won another president's cup. This tournament is, or this event is is useless it's always the americans winning it and i get it i understand it but you had to watch it yeah there was a time when i was thinking the internationals might pull this off now they ran out of gas at the end of Saturday and then Sunday the hill was just too far for them to climb and they didn't win the day anyway.

Maybe I was into it more than others but that was my what we learned. Mukau? We are going to go to break with some very sad news. Dikembe Mutombo, the Hall of Fame finger-wagging center

who was a great ambassador for the sport of basketball, especially in Africa and his native Congo, has died of brain cancer at the age of 58. The NBA made the announcement a short while ago

this Monday morning. Most of you probably know Mutombo from his exploits on the court, one of the greatest defensive players in NBA history his work off the court was unparalleled in terms of humanitarian efforts and what he did

for basketball and away from the court for what he did for the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo the news broke as I mentioned this morning here now is ESPN Stephen A. Smith reacting to the news and to what a great man Mutombo was we will leave you with this audio going to break sad news from the world of sport

Dikembe Mutombo passing away due to brain cancer at the age of 58. Dikembe Mutombo a four-time defensive player of the year seven times he finished in the top three for defensive player of the year awards and obviously winning four like i just said no matter what you know about him as a basketball player he was an even better human being always was about giving always was about helping the dominican republic of congo along with being an humanitarian for the humanitarian for the world his heart was just huge it was big one of the most beautiful, beautiful human beings

I've ever known. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.