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

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss a Quinn Hughes interview with Sportsnet's Iain MacIntyre on expectations for this season, they chat some Canucks 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. All hail Jason Mack, and Jason is the man. Nix. Oh no. Has a day, but it's intercepted. Picked off by Will and Nix. Has a man wide open in Germany.

The Russell Wilson that we are holding on hope to, he went to the store, got cigarettes, and has not come back. I got a job to do, and my job is to come inside of this stadium. Good morning, Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Monday. Happy Monday, and my job is to come inside of this stadium. Good morning, Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Alfred. It is Bruv. It is Sportsnet 650.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddie, welcome back,

and good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Hi, Laddie. How are you, buddy? Did you have a good vacation, pal? I am so happy to be up at five in the morning. Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure.

Halford, Breath 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 one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal

Recycling. They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec. So now things are really getting back into the groove.

This is the first time all four of us have been together in six weeks. The band is back together. The season has started officially now. The Fearless Foursome, known as the Halford and Brough Show, all back together. We have a loaded opening segment because we have so many things to get into from the weekend that was in sports. Tonight, we've got Monday Night Football for the first time this year. The Milford is today as well.

I forgot about that. Always a very important date on the Canucks calendar. I had my first beer league hockey game last night. Jason had his first beer league hockey game last night. Update. I still suck. Jason didn't play well in his first beer league hockey game last night. Did you win?

We tied. Nice! Tie, tie, tie, tie. We blew it in beer league hockey game last night. Did you win? We tied. Nice! Tie, tie, tie, tie. We blew it in beer league fashion, took a late penalty, and then gave up a power play goal. You guys have ties? I like that they have ties.

Yeah, you don't do three on three and then shootouts and whatever? You know, there's other people that need to play on the ice, right? Fellas, we gave you a chance to decide it. You decided not to. It's a tie. And we're all like, I don't want to play anymore.

See you later. Yeah, three on three. There seems like a lot of skating involved. We're going to pass on that. We'll take the tie. So we also have a lot of sports to get into. We have a huge guest list today. Begins at 630.

Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the too deep zone. We're going to talk to him about everything that happened on Sunday. What a Sunday in the National Football League. A lot of good games in the 10 o'clock slate. Seahawks, that was a roller coaster in the 1 o'clock, and then of course you had a very good game last night between the Rams and the Lions on Sunday

night football. We can also preview Monday night football with Mike, because we've got another good one tonight. It is the San Francisco 49ers against Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets. So Mike Tanier at 6.30. 7 o'clock, first time guest on the program, J.ets. So Mike Tanier at 6.30, 7 o'clock. First-time guest on the program, J.C. Abbott from Three Down Nation. He covers the BC Lions for that Canadian Football League outlet.

What a performance by the BC Lions in Montreal on the weekend. Huge victory, statement victory, 37-23. They led wire to wire for the second straight week, and they beat the CFL's top team in their own barn, in their own stadium, in their own market. So we'll talk to JC Abbott about that at 7 o'clock. 7.30, Brent LaValle, the manager, head coach of the Vancouver Canadiens, is going to join us.

So the Cs. Is he related to Dave LaValle? No, because that was Dave Valley. Right. They both pronounce and spell their last names differently. But Brent LaValle is going to join us at 730. So the C's get their Northwest League Championship underway on Tuesday. They play the first two games at Nat Bailey.

So if you want to get tickets Tuesday and Wednesday, then there's a day off and then they go for the back end of the best of five to Spokane. So it's a best of five. Obviously, first one to three wins it. So they get the first two games in that. We got to defend this championship. I know. And it's interesting because they didn't actually

win either half of the league. They were the best second place because Spokane is won the first half and the second half. So Spokane won the first half and the second half. So Spokane may be the favorite going into this one. That's why they get the home field advantage. So we'll talk to Brent about all that at 7.30.

8 o'clock, Satyar Shah, Sportsnet 650's very own, is going to join us. It's a big week for the Vancouver Canucks. We finally are going to start to get more audio coming in. They're doing the Milford today, which usually kicks off the beginning

unofficially of the training camp slash preseason slash rookie camp. Of course, Young Stars is this week as well. So, Sat, I don't know if he's going up for that one. We'll find out at 8 o'clock, though. I want to talk to Sat about a few things that Quinn Hughes had to say to Ian McIntyre in an article on Sportsnet.ca. So perhaps Quinn Hughes will be our focus today if you want to text in to the Dunbar Lumber text line,

it's 650-650. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to ProGasway in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome details at dunbarlumber.com. That is what's happening on the program today. Laddy, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance.

Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. It was actually difficult to pick where we were going to start this morning because there were so many things that happened this weekend. But we're giving the local team some love. After going five games without a win, oh, the BC Lions are back, baby. The Lions secured their second straight victory,

this time against the East leading Alouettes, as mentioned, 37-23. Second straight game they've led wire to wire. Big win on Friday night in Montreal. Big performance by a number of players, but William Stanback, who does not care for the Montreal Alouettes, his former team, 128 yards on the ground and a touchdown. Nathan Rourke put up 37 points despite losing the turnover battle. Really, really, really impressive win for the Lions on Friday night.

Yeah, William Stanback was really good. He ran the ball down the throats of the team that decided they didn't really want him anymore, despite the fact that he's a good player. Having a good running game often isn't top of mind when you talk about CFL, but it is really important. The other guys came to play as well. Nathan Rourke, people will say, oh, I'm looking at the box square, three interceptions. Two of them were kind of bad luck. Should have been almost caught by his

receivers. They deflected and went to the Alouettes. The other one was Nathan Rourke's fault. There was also a fumble in there, not by Nathan Mark, by William Stanback. So there was a turnover problem for the BC Lions. And I think the final score, which was heavily in favor of the BC Lions, suggests that they really did dominate this game against, you could, I don't think there was any debate that they were the best team in the CFL, maybe up until that point. But all of a sudden, the BC Lions are very much back on track. Two wins in a row. The turnaround started in Victoria against Ottawa. It's now four games that Nathan Rourke has played.

The first game looked very rusty. The second game was meh. The third game was much improved in the fourth game. Again, he had these turnover issues, but he still, let's put it this way. I like this team a lot more with him at quarterback than with Vernon Adams as a starter. That's no disrespect to Vernon Adams, but I just really like Nathan Marker as a quarterback.

He can make things happen, and I like him on the team. I like that they've got Matthew Betts back. It's not like his numbers have exploded since he's been back, although he does have a few sacks here and there. But when you add a player like that, it helps everyone on defense. And I also think the team was embarrassed by the way they were playing at times during that losing streak. They started to tackle better.

So all of a sudden, you're looking at the West division and it's a two horse race for first in the West. It's the Bombers and the Lions. The Lions have no more games remaining against Winnipeg. Each team is seven and six. So the Bombers hold the tiebreaker with that two and one record in their series this season. We went into this season going,

I really hope the CFL Western Final is at BC Place and the Lions would obviously be in it. And that would mean they would have hopefully two games in the playoffs, both at home, the West Final and the Grey Cup. Looked pretty good. Yeah. For the start of the season, they started out

five and one. You're like, well, this could happen. The Bombers were struggling. And then the Lions went through a bad stretch. They lost five in a row. They had some injuries to Vernon Adams. They bring in Nathan Rourke. They bring back Matthew Betts.

Now they're 7-6. But so are the Bombers because the Bombers have turned things around. They swept the Rough Riders in their back-to-back series. So it's going to be a fun stretch. It's going to be a fun stretch drive. The Lions, at the very least, need to have one playoff game at BC Place. Ultimately, you want to have that West Final there, but I suppose we'd be okay if they had the West Semi-Final there.

But I just don't want to go to Winnipeg again for the West final. Yeah. You know, Winnipeg, they got off to a rough start. Still a very good team there. Yeah. And just one final note on Stan Beck. It's funny because a big reason why he joined the BC Lions was because of his relationship with Vernon Adams,

who he, of course, played with in Montreal, and they developed some chemistry. You know, small sample size and everything, but the last two games, it actually looks like Nathan Rourke might have unlocked something with Stanback. Either his passing allowing the running game to open up, but Stanback's also caught the ball out of the backfield pretty well. Like, he's been a real deciding factor.

I believe he was the leading receiver in the game at Royal Athletic Park, the touchdown Pacific. And it just looks like an offense as you said that it just eye test just looks better like it looks like it's going to be more dangerous moving forward seven o'clock we'll talk to jc abbott a writer for three down nation if you don't know jc you should be reading his stuff he's probably in my opinion the guy who's providing the best written BC Lions analysis out there. I read his articles. After every game, he's got 10 thoughts on the game. He led with William Stanback in this game, but really good analysis, good sharp writing,

and that's why we have JC Abbott on at 7 o'clock to talk about this suddenly surging BC Lions team. They host the Toronto Argonauts, another good team. Slumping Argonauts. Chad Kelly didn't look very good against the Ottawa Red Blacks over the weekend, and they lost to Ottawa. This was going to be a really tough stretch for the Lions when you looked at the four games in a row they had to go to Ottawa,

then host Ottawa, then go to Ottawa, then host Ottawa, then go to Montreal, then come back and host Toronto. Didn't get off to a very good start. They went to Ottawa, lost. But since then, they've beaten Ottawa, gone to Montreal and beaten them. And now if they can get a win at home against

the Argos, if they aren't already catapulted down the second, down the stretch drive, then they definitely will be with a win over the Argos. So we'll talk to JC Abbott about that. Halford, you were very much looking forward to this soccer game between Canada and the United States. Two traditional soccer powers in the men's game. It was good to see Canada win this game over the Americans.

The Canadian men ended a 67-year drought, got their first win on American soil in nearly 70 years with a 2-1 victory in Kansas City. In front of a sparse crowd, I might add. Real problems for USA Soccer right now. But Jonathan David with the eventual match-winning goal. Here's what it sounded like, courtesy of Luke Wildman. Given away, though, to Jonathan David. David through for Kyle Lowry. It's Jonathan David, and it's 2-0 for Canada. goal here's what it sounded like courtesy of luke wildman given away though to jonathan david

david threw for kyle larry it's jonathan david and it's two nil for canada in the 58th minute jonathan david scores in this stadium as he did in copa america and jesse marsh celebrates a two goal lead so you heard him allude to Copa America there this performance coming off the heels of what was a very very successful Copa America for the Canadian team is only further lifted spirits the interesting thing about the two things for this one one uh you could tell that Jesse Marsh wanted to rub a little bit more salt in the very open wounds of U.S. soccer. They are in a tailspin right now. It sounds as though that the Pochettino hire is almost done.

But he wasn't there on the weekend. They had an interim manager. And they just looked like a sort of rudderless team. So that was one narrative, the Jesse Marsh part of it. Did they have their full squad? Was Pulisic playing? Yeah, Pulisic was there. I mean, they're always missing.

Like, Sergino Dest has a torn ACL, and Tyler Adams was out with an injury. But the U.S. has such depth of squad that they have guys that are playing in Europe that can't get in to the lineup. So they were able to on the weekend. But the other part of Jesse Marsh's narrative arc, I would say, is the style that he wanted to play.

He wanted this team to be very aggressive and forward pressing and trying to turn the ball over high and turn those... In hockey terms, forechecking. He wants the forecheck. He wants the forecheck high and aggressive. If you can beat them over the top try your best but it was very interesting to see it actually pay off in terms of turning the ball over getting chance creation from those turnovers and most importantly finishing yes that was the big difference here you saw the canadian team at times in copa squander a lot of chances and you were kind of left shaking your head like when are they going to finish jonathan david you know it's funny we had james sharman on the show on friday and you

were asking what is with this jonathan david guy because when i watch him play for canada it always seems kind of underwhelming right uh he was very good he was very very good um positionally turning balls over forcing the u.s into errors and then he scored what we played the audio what proved to be the game-winning match i want to get a shaffelberg jersey um we're working on getting shaffelberg on the show we just made contact this morning i don't know if it's going to come off this week but we need to get behind a great story the maritime messy himself jacob shaffelberg what's he like in mls is he a star in the mls or is he he's he's a fan favorite in nashville um he like he's a he's a regular contributor plays a lot um his goal scoring rate with canada is higher than i mean because he feels like he scores almost every

match now so um he's but he's a very talented player and that's one that tfc is going to look back on and kick themselves over repeatedly because they had a young very talented canadian player in their ranks and instead of you know trying to get him to grow into being a starting player for them, they let him walk so they could sign a bunch of overpaid Italians. What is Canada's depth like now? Is it improving? I mean, obviously, it's as good as it's ever been. Very interesting.

A lot of people that I talked to in the aftermath, because I only got to watch bits and pieces of this game. I was over in Victoria for soccer matches of our own on the weekend um a lot of people said if you want to talk about depth of squad the best canadian player might have been vancouver whitecaps very own ali ahmed they said he got a surprise start from jesse marsh and then ahmed talked afterwards and said marsh actually challenged him he's like you're an incredibly talented player but you don't play with enough him. He's like, you're an incredibly talented player, but you don't play with enough intensity consistently.

It's like you need to be going 100 miles an hour nonstop. Especially for Jesse Marsh, which, correct me if I'm wrong here. If you're going to play an attacking, pressing style, that uses up energy, right? It's very attacking. So you need to be able to bring in subs who can do the same thing. You got to have a deep team. You got to use your bench.

Correct? Yep. But you also can't take your foot off the pedal. They were showing clips in like the 84th minute where Ahmed was still chasing guys down and hounding them and not taking any steps off. And it was very impressive for a guy that, you know, he's 23. So he's not super young, but he's young enough. And I think he's really finding his stride right now. It was a great performance again from Canada.

And it was funny. I was watching a lot of the Fox soccer analysis. How are the Americans responding? They are not happy. Like at all. Right? They're not happy that an American is doing this to the American team. You know what's interesting is they said that they're getting a that an american is doing this to the american team you know what's

interesting is they said that a lot they're getting a lot of um like calls and texts and everything from american soccer supporters who are saying hey all the attributes the canadian team has we're actually jealous of them because that's how we want our team to play with energy and with drive and passion and turning the ball over and playing with a high press so it's a very interesting time in And a singular objective, you know? From what I heard of the Americans, the questions that the fans were asking was, what are we trying to do here?

What are we doing here? What is the game plan? And with the Canadians, it seems pretty obvious. Just see that ball? We want to go get it. Yep. Let's talk about the Seattle Seahawks now to finish off the segment. That was, God, I hate cliches, it yep uh let's talk about the seattle seahawks now to finish off the segment that was um god i

hate cliches but it was a tale of two halves on sunday at lumen field the seattle seahawks rallied from an absolutely awful start on sunday decided to finally get ken walker involved in the game made some solid defensive plays and they eventually beat the Broncos 26-20 at Lumenfield to win their season opener at home. So their first three offensive plays were Geno Smith getting sacked. Geno Smith throwing interception. Then they got the ball back. And then they got the ball back and had a false start. And it was a really good false start.

Of the three plays, their false start, very nice. Very nicely pulled off by the Seattle Seahawks. Good technique. One of these days, I thought it might change with a new coach in Mike McDonald.

One of these days, I will learn, only watch the second half of the Seahawks because if you watch the first half of the Seahawks, you're going to say some stuff. You're going to have,

like, this team is terrible. I'm never watching them again. You might tweet some things out. Yeah, you might tweet some things out. It have like this team is terrible i'm never watching them again and might tweet some things out yeah you might tweet some things out it's like this is awful uh and then in the second half not all the time but more often than not they're better they kind of turn things around a little bit uh now they didn't do enough of that last season, which is why Pete Carroll is no longer the coach and Mike McDonald is the coach. The bad of the game against Denver, it was just obvious, the offensive line.

It was the one issue that, the one major, major issue that we were all worried as Seahawks fans heading into the season and people who weren't Seahawks fans were saying, good luck with that offensive line. And the Broncos, to their credit, recognized that, and they just had pressure on every play. They just, we're going to send everyone. And the word that I heard used approximately 6,000 times

in the post-game show, either by Seahawks players or the media covering the team, adjustments. They made adjustments. And they did. Well, and they did. Yeah. Right? I mean, to give you an idea how bad that first half was,

the first three plays, as mentioned, all negative plays. Then the Seahawks surrendered not one, but two safeties to the Denver Broncos. That's the first time in seven years that that's happened. I thought the refs were just praying. You know, they were making that safety symbol. Look at these very faithful referees. They love it. They love it.

And there was almost... It's like that emoji, praying emoji out there. There was almost a third praying opportunity as well. Because Kenneth Walker, after two safeties that had already been called, took a handoff in the end zone almost got dropped in the end zone he fumbled it a little bit managed to get him like i can't i don't know what the gambling odds would have been for three safeties in the first half of football it would have been like plus nine million you would have made so much money anyway the

adjustments came they you know it was funny so at the half i'm watching the walk-off interview that mike mcdonald did with the the sideline reporter and he kept his composure youngest coach in the nfl didn't freak out right can't have anyone losing their composure and he just kept saying we gotta establish the run we gotta establish the run well they came out and did it on the first drive out of halftime sorry not the first drive because they forced the three in out. That was a punt. And then they just got Kenneth Walker involved, and he ran for 53 yards combined on that first drive after. And the plays were smart because it was like, run it away from the offensive line.

Don't run it right up the middle. Just swing them to the outside. Leave the offensive line behind you, the smoldering mess that it is. Run away from that. Just get outside. Just get outside those tackles, man, and away you go. I really like the game by Tyler Lockett as well. Some clutch catches down the stretch to finish off the Denver Broncos.

It's a quiet day for DK except for a bad penalty he took. Two bad penalties. That negated a Kenneth Walker touchdown. I think he only caught the ball three or four times. Tyler Lockett had a good game. So just one thing on that, touchdown. I think he only caught the ball three or four times. Tyler Lockett had a good game. So just one thing on that, though. He was shadowed the entire game by Patrick Sertan, who got that huge contract last week.

Yeah. Well, if DK wants a huge contract of his own, then he's going to have to get open. Yeah, and it's funny because that happened two years ago. Oh, no, he was shadowed. When they played Denver two years ago in the Russell Wilson return game. And he actually had a good game that day.

He caught a lot of balls. It was just, everything was off in that game, I felt. Except for the run game in the second half. And here's what I'll say. On the defensive side of the ball, the tackling was great. I thought the tackling was top notch. They know yak yards for the Broncos,

and the Broncos needed them because apparently Bo Nix is still not ready to throw the ball beyond like 10 yards, right? It was a lot of... I felt a bit bad for Bo Nix. It was a tough situation to be in, but it was a learning experience for him. Sure, and he did score a touchdown late

to make it kind of interesting. I thought he had a courageous game for what he did. A lot of these quarterbacks kind of shrink from the moment. I don't think watching it that he shrunk from the moment. He's just not good enough right now. Right. By the way, I don't know how much you watched of all the rookie quarterbacks in week one, though, of all the guys that got drafted in this very

ballyhooed class, but it wasn't a great day for any of them. No. Caleb won, but thanks to his defense. Yeah, right. More thanks to, like, Will Le Will Levis yeah Will Levis was I don't even know where to go we'll go with we'll talk about that stuff later because we do need to get to all those but as for this game

like not enough positives for me to be super optimistic because even though like the defensive side of the ball how I was going to finish that point was like Bo Nix was so limited in what he could do and the throws he could make. Basically, he was going to dump the ball off or make short passes and they needed

yak yards and they never got them. They never materialized. The Seahawks did a good job of tackling. When they see a better quarterback that can make more throws, that'll be a more indicative test of where this defense is at. For week one, they made all the tackles they needed to. I thought Jordan Love played really well.

I think you pointed out he blew a tackle early in the game. Well, it was a tough play to make, but he didn't make the tackle, and I just kind of noted it. And then he played a lot better. So next Sunday, the Seahawks go to New England to play the team that ruined 90% of survivor pools over the weekend by beating the Cincinnati Bengals. So it's a battle of 1-0 teams next Sunday in New England

between the Seahawks and the Patriots. After that, the Seahawks come home to face Tyreek Hill and Miami Dolphinsins who got themselves a win against the Jacksonville Jaguars the Jags kind of blew that one yep they did they could have put that away they fumbled it through the end zone should have been at least a field goal on that play um and credit to the the Dolphins who made plays and ultimately won the game. And then in week four, the Seahawks go to Detroit to play the Lions. So it's an actually interesting first four games for the Seahawks. You had Bo Nix at home.

You know, a lot of fans in Seattle knew him from his college days. Then you go to New England, which a lot of people thought might be the worst team in the NFL this season. Well, they're 1-0. Miami will be a fun game. And then into Detroit to play the Lions, the team a lot of people are picking to go to the Super Bowl this year out of the NFC.

And who got a win last night against the Rams. Hey, do you think the Rams miss Aaron Donald? Yeah. I mean, you know what? Okay. I was happy to watch it. I'm like, oh, look, it's easier to run against the Rams miss Aaron Donald yeah I mean I you know what okay I give the Rams happy to watch it I'm like oh look it's easier to run against the Rams yeah well especially in overtime right it's like we're just gonna put this right where Aaron Donald used to be but uh yeah it was interesting

watching that game because I you know the Rams like Puka Nakua got hurt um they were you know they were always sort of just hanging around in the game and then Matt Stafford and Cooper Cup kind of did their thing to keep it close. But yeah, in the end, Detroit gets the victory. So they moved to one and O and then the Ram.

Yeah. So you look at the Seahawks now in the division, a decent start because the Cardinals lost yesterday and the Rams lost yesterday as well. And we'll see what happens with the Niners tonight. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Quinn Hughes had an interview with Ian McIntyre. If you listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Quinn Hughes had an interview with

Ian McIntyre. If you want to read the article, it's up on sportsnet.ca right now. It's the Jake Milford golf classic today. All the Canucks will be playing. They'll be doing audio or they'll be doing interviews. So we'll have some audio to play uh on the station all the big questions will be out there um i don't know if the coach or any of the management will speak today they might save that for later at the milf yeah i have no idea but i know that quinn hughes did have an interview with imac and um i think the five key words from quinn were, I think we'll be better, even better than last season. That's good. He's following the messaging from above

because that's exactly what Alvin and Rutherford have said and that's exactly what Tuckett said as well. He's a good captain. Well, I mean, he threw out pretty good reasons. He said, we added a lot of depth up front. We added some guys like Jake DeBrus that can really play and maybe contribute on the power play. And then he said, I was

pretty vocal with Patrick Balvin about bringing in Kiefer Sherwood, just playing him in the playoffs against Nashville and seeing his competitiveness and what he brings. You need guys like that on a championship team. I'm going to read that again. Yeah, good job,

Hughes. You need guys like that on a championship team. I forget which I'm going to read that again. Yeah, good job, Hughes. You need guys like that on a championship team. I forget which NHL analyst said it, but there was one tweet that caught my eye over the weekend where the guy said, the Canucks have the best bottom six in the NHL. The best bottom six in the NHL. Well, if you think about that third line. Now, I don't know about every team's bottom six.

If you think about that third line, you've got, if Garland and Dakota Joshua are still on that line, we'll see if Teddy Bluger is the center of that. Hugh Suter obviously won't be Lindholm because he's in Boston now. And then you bring in guys like Sherwood and maybe Danton Hynans on that line. There is definitely – I have no – I don't disagree with that opinion. It is – they have a lot of opinion. They have a lot of depth.

They have a lot of depth. Maybe too much. Where's Sprong going to go? Too much depth. Oh, yeah! The question marks will be on the back end with some of the changes that they made and whether or not they decide to split up Hronik and Hughes. There's good things about keeping them together.

There's also knock-on effects to keeping them together. And we'll see what the new guys on the back end look like. Guys like Derek Forward and Vincent DeRanais. And then, obviously, we all know that goaltending is a question mark heading into the season with the health of Thatcher Demko and Artur Silovs and the changes they made with Ian Clark. But Quinn Hughes, very optimistic about the way the lineup looked. And I think that's how we all felt as free agency unfolded.

We were maybe sad that a guy like Nikita Zdorov won't be on the team anymore, and he moved on. He went with Lindholm to Boston, and he played some really good hockey, especially in the playoffs. And his personality is endearing. A lot of people really liked the guy, but he played himself out of signing with the Canucks because they just couldn't afford him. They made other decisions.

They kept a guy like Dakota Joshua, who we wondered if he had become too expensive for the Vancouver Canucks, but they kept him. And I think that what they did, bringing in guys like Forbert and Darnay, those were good moves considering what they were working with. And I really like the fact that those guys are penalty-killing aces. Yeah, and they're big. And they're big. They're big.

It's interesting. It's like, well, we can't re-sign Zdorov, but can we replicate him in size cumulatively? We're going to get two other big guys that aren't as talented as he is. They're still big, and they can still do some of the things. I also think that the way the blue line is built, and given how this team approached its business last year, they might not be done tinkering to that blue line.

I mean, that was one of the things that they did last year. You looked at the team going into training camp training camp and you're like oh they got some holes and then they quickly went about patching them and then through the early parts of the regular season as well right making the door off trade at one point so i'll be curious to see about that but so it was interesting he was also asked by imac who remembered the bubble and the Canucks had a good bubble. It feels like 600 years ago, the bubble. Do you remember the bubble? The bubble.

And then promptly fell apart. Now, some of that was they weren't ready. They were immature as a team. They lost some guys, some popular guys in the room. That's, I think, the big one. There's a lot of things that i think contributed to that uh it was miserable i think being on the team being on a canadian team during that all canadian division um that was two coaches ago it was travis green um then bruce budro came in there was a slight bump, the Bruce bump, which went away.

And, you know, eventually it led to Rick Tockett. It feels like a long time ago, but it really wasn't. It was only a few years ago. But Hughes was asked, you know, essentially, is there any risk in that happening again? He said, when that did happen, we were an up-and-coming young team. Now I'm going to be 25. Petey's going to be 26.

Demko 29. Millsy is 32. Brock is older. We've got Hronik and DeBrus, some other younger guys, and some depth pieces. I'm five times the player that I was that season. Oof.

Five times. I think I've arrived. Well, he's the Norse Trophy winner. Yeah, that's fair. I think I've arrived as a player, and Petey has, and all these guys have. I think we're at the top of our games, and then we've got an amazing coaching staff,

and our systems are going to be so dialed in, and I think we're just more mature because we went through all that. We learned from that. We should be a really good team. Now, it's an interesting read. Go to sportsnet.ca if you want to read it. He also talks about the pressure of returning as a Norris Trophy winner. He said he talked to Roman Yossi about that, and Yossi gave him some advice.

So go read it at sportsnet.ca. 803 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Alfred Brough, Sportsnet 650. Alfred and Brough in the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 3 of the program.

Satyar Shah, Sportsnet 650's very own, is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 3. 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.

The song's a banger. You're not telling me to crank it. Yeah, bring it up a little bit. I was telling him, crank it, man. It's called Night Zone. Every training montage in the sports or any sort of physical fitness moment from a movie in the 80s. This is a genre called synthwave, which we've discussed before on the air, and this is like

my new favorite genre. Synthwave. I've been listening to it a lot for like the past half a year. This is like Knight Rider, but also Drive with Ryan Gosling. Yeah, Drive rhymes with Knight Driver. That's literally what it's called. It's a driving genre. It's got to be at night.

There's a great synthwave band called The Midnight who sound exactly like this, who were just in town the other night. They played at Stanley Park. You could hear from my apartment. It sounded awesome. Very cool. They sound like these guys. There's a little bit of Airwolf in there.

Yes. Airwolf and Knight Rider, of course, were kind of related. They hung out. Yeah. One day, this show will have a post-1988 reference. What was the car's name? Kit? Kit.

Yes. Yeah. But until then, hello, Michael. Like, Knight Rider is like... It's a great show. Airwolf had one of the greatest themes of all time. Yeah, I know. I got so excited for Airwolf.

We'd be like, but like the number, like we're just, the number of people that know Airwolf as a reference is like, it's dwindling. It's not getting stronger. The helicopter was hot for a while. Yeah, I know.

I know. And so was the talking car. There was a couple of them, I think. Herbie. Herbie was one. It's. And so was the talking car. There was a couple of them, I think. Herbie. Herbie was one. It's Nightboat. The prime solving boat. That's where we should be.

Herbie didn't talk. Just a lot of beeps. Yeah. I mean, it was his former communication. Right. Okay. But he was no kid. Don Knotts.

What are you doing, Herbie? Again, one day we will have a reference outside the 80s. But until that day day you will listen to the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 joining us now on this show satyar shah here on halbro on sportsnet 650 what up sap what's going on boys i remember when i was a kid i actually had a night rider remote uh toy i remember playing with that ms all the time yeah it was i mean it was extremely popular um it's just all of our references now are either iron eagle or the original ghostbusters i would

like airwolf gets a lot of play beetlejuice beetlejuice andy's going to see it on tuesday laddie uh once this uh segment is over we will be going out with the Airwolf theme. It's licensed, man. It doesn't matter. They won't care. The license expired in 1980. One guy flags it, the Airwolf guys are like, really? So great. Sat, let's focus on the hockey. Are you going to the Milford

today? No, I am not. They're not spending our show there, which I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I'm not spending our show there. So, okay, you won't's a good thing or a bad thing, but I'm not heading out there today. So, okay, he won't be there, but there's going to be countless audio clips that are going to come forth. We were saying we're actually starting to get excited now because this is the sort of like informal appetizer week,

I guess, where it ends with Young Stars up in Penticton. What are you going to be looking for at Young Stars? I know we had this conversation with Batch, and he said the most obvious one is Lekker or Mackey. Getting to see some of the other guys as well. But is it just the excitement of getting the season underway? Are you going to look for specific things up at Young Stars? Yeah, I think it's mostly about the season.

I mean, Leckar Amaki is probably the only guy who we look at and say has a chance of making this team a training camp, right? Like all the other guys, you know, whether it's DTD or whatever, we look at them and we say, can they be recall options at some point this season? And you know what? These ones are usually, I wouldn't say they're the most indicative tournament, but usually the guys that play well end up having decent camps and will show fairly well in the AHL season. You know, if this was like four or five years ago,

we'd be hyping this thing up so much because we'd be talking about the future. We're going to know where the Canucks are heading as a team. But as we sit here today, there isn't anybody there that we look at and say they have to develop within the next two months. We have to see this guy on the main roster. It's very much about, all right, let's see how these guys develop and hopefully there are options for you as the season goes on. But I think, you know, the start of camp is really where we're going to see

things turn up. And in terms of looking at the future a couple guys that i'm intrigued by like kura kudrasa for instance the russian defenseman i'm really curious to see where he plays this year what they're looking for him over the course of the future he's had a really couple positive years he's been drafted by the canucks we'll see where his eta is but i'd always say pump the brakes on these things because you get excited about what some kids do do at development camp but usually it takes a couple years from that point on for them to make any sort of real impact at the NHL.

I'm sure you read the article that IMAC wrote. It's up on sportsnet.ca right now. It's an interview with Quinn Hughes, and Quinn thinks the Canucks will be even better this season than they were last season. Are you on board with his optimism? Well, I think in terms of how they're going to play as a team, I think the forward group is probably built better to play talk and hockey

and fit how they want to be as a team. I think the depth up front is a lot better. If you look at their defense, they're pretty similar to where they were last year. I mean, you can look at last year at the start of the training camp and say, you know, Ian Cole might be slightly better than, say, who the number four defenseman was right now, and I guess that's Myers and having him over, say,

Forward and Deharnais would probably be a bit better. But considering the upgrade in goal, I think it's fair to say that they're slightly better than where they were at the same time last season. So if you go into this year saying, hey, we're a better team than we started last year with, plus we have a management team that is aggressive, I can see what he means about it.

Ultimately, I'm not expecting him to say they're going to be worse. The one thing I wonder about the connection, I had this conversation with somebody over the course of the weekend. They asked me, do you think the Canucks will be better than last year? And I'm like, I'm not sure they'll get the same amount of points, but it could be a better team come playoffs. It could be a better team in terms of

how they play in the postseason, and those are the types of teams that are more dangerous come playoff time. I think that's what we're hoping for evolution-wise. Maybe they're not better in terms of their record, but can they be a better team once they head into the postseason? Where do you think Daniel Sprong's going to fit in this lineup? We talked a lot about Daniel Sprong

last week just because it was the first audio we got of the season, and we really dove into it but he is a uh he's a compelling player because if you look at the analytics and you rank players you know based on their point production per 60 he's up there with some really good hockey players and yet he's bounced around the league and coaches don't seem to fit to play him more than you know 10 or 11 minutes a night yeah i mean i think what we're all looking at and everybody's probably figured this out is

it'll be a bit battle between hoaglander and sprung to see who can start with leah petterson um and jake de brus at least that's going to be the plan i think but i mean guys we all know what happened with hoaglander in the playoffs right listen, I'm all for the Spahn signing. I was actually campaigning for it even before they signed him, that here's a guy, if he's there, he'd be a great depth option. You can't go wrong paying him less than a million dollars. But as you just mentioned, he has not been a guy who has yet won over a legitimate coach who played meaningful minutes for him.

He's always playing 11, 12 minutes a game, really more of a shelter role, sometimes shadows in the top six. But nobody's truly trusted him a shelter role, sometimes shadows in the top six, but nobody's truly trusted him to play meaningful, consistent minutes in the top six. And when we look at the coach we have here in Vancouver, trust is always a big word. And he's shown that if you don't play the right way, he's not going to trust you.

So this is Sprong having to overcome something he struggled with his entire career. Hopefully he does it here in Vancouver. But for all this talk that we have about Neil Togglander and daniel strong these two guys fighting for a top six spot like how shocked would you guys be that all of a sudden come game one he for sure would get the first two weeks playing that role because he's consistent with his effort he had a decent shot he's gonna work hard he'll be speedy he'll be a pain in the ass the pain in the ass of parade games and despite not having the same amount of talent would you guys be shocked if he plays ahead of sprung or hoaglander next to Pedersen to start the season?

Like, I wouldn't be. No, I get what you're saying. Yeah, I wouldn't be shocked, but nothing with the Canucks really shocks me anymore. But what do you think did happen to Hoaglander in the playoffs? You know, I kind of forgot about that, but, you know, he was under the radar, one of the most disappointing Caner in the playoffs. I kind of forgot about that, but he was under the radar, one of the most disappointing Canucks in the playoffs. He just didn't – I don't know what happened to him. Was the moment too big for him?

Was it just the playoff style? Because he had such a good regular season, and then he was absolutely a non-factor in the postseason. To me, what it seemed like was when the level raised up a couple of notches, he's a guy that when he played his best, he maxed out his effort level. When he plays hard, he wins a lot of battles, skates hard, he can be really effective on the ice.

But I found he couldn't find that next gear other players find in the postseason. Is that something he's got to learn and he'll find as time goes on? But I found we didn't see the separation from him, we didn't see the intensity from him. I just saw a player that couldn't rise emotionally to the moment in the postseason.

I think those things are factors you can overcome. And I think we'll be fine in terms of finding some energy and finding a playoff level, so to speak. I think more than anything is, can he be focused in the playoffs when the intensity is that high? Now he's made a ton of mistakes that coach has been for right now ultimately what he's always had issues with

even some good games this past year you know you heard talk and say a lot of good things about his game but then he'd always say well he still needs to work on this that and the other especially away from the puck and we saw when he wasn't effective offensively when he didn't have the same level of energy as other players those faults in his game became a lot more pronounced. I think that's what kept him back. You're just hoping it was just a step, hopefully just a step for a young player who's trying to learn to become a consistent everyday NHL player that can be counted on to play a big role.

You hope that's just a process for him, but that's kind of what my takeaway from watching him in the playoffs. We're speaking to Sportsnet 650's very own Satyar Shah here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You mentioned Rick Tauk there a couple times. Sat, you want to talk about the head coach here for a bit? Sure, why not? What do you see happening over the next little bit?

Well, I think what's really interesting is I think we're all kind of wondering are they going to give Rick Tauk a big contract extension? But the thing is, we heard Jim Rutherford talk to Ian Max there. Well, we read about it a couple of months back in an article. He had a Q&A with him and he was asked about, okay, Rick Tockett's heading into the final year of his contract,

which is the season where you guys at with extending, you know, your head coach. And he said, we're not in a rush. We'll talk about it at the end of this year, because we have a club option for one more year. So all the talk about him having one more year left in his contract, the Canucks essentially have him under control for two more seasons. The thing that I'm going to find really fascinating here is if the Canucks are trying to talk contract right now,

you're talking to a coach who has really strong lessons, especially someone else winning the Jack Adams trophy. We're seeing the price of coaches skyrocket across the National Hockey League. The good coaches get paid a lot of money. I'm not sure exactly a contract Rick Topic signed for, but I can assure you it's at the same level as the highest paid coaches in the National

Hockey League. Given now his tenure in the league, given how he's coached in Vancouver, could this be a head coach who could be very much in demand and be one of those guys who seems to look to pay a lot of money for it. Now, the Canucks, they kick this can down the road one more year, see how it goes, see how this Canucks team plays this upcoming

season, but the Canucks have not been in a position in the new NHL where they'd have to pay a very well thought of head coach, and that's going to be something really fascinating to tackle in the next year. Do you think he can talk about this team? Whether or not he can rely on guys like Petey in the playoffs? the next year. Do you think talking to himself about this team, you know, whether or not he can rely on guys like Petey

in the playoffs, I mean, and even Quinn Hughes in the playoffs was not as effective as he was during the regular season. I sometimes wonder

if he thinks, hmm, do I really have the horses here to win a cup? You know, the one thing I will say, I joke with a couple

of buddies of mine from around the league that no NHL coach likes his team. If you talk to any coach, he'll find real faults with every single team he coaches and the guys he wonders he can win with. So I wonder, I mean, I'm sure there's an element of that for every head coach. I don't, I haven't got that indication. Everything I've received about Rick Tockett has been, he's been very happy and thankful with how things have gone. However, he is the type of guy, though, that if things go sideways, he went through an absolute you-know-what show in Tampa

before they changed ownership, so he was only there for a year. We know what he went through in Arizona. And considering where his lot in life is going to be with one more good year with the Canucks, for instance, is he going to have the appetite for any nonsense? Now, hopefully there's no nonsense in Vancouver, and so far I haven't heard anything that would indicate that he's unhappy about things here. But, you know, if it becomes a circus, I'm not sure he's the type of guy that wants to see that type of stuff through.

So let's just cross our fingers and let's just hope this organization continues to do the things the way they've done the past year or so. Yeah, we don't want the Canucks to turn into like the Cleveland Browns, you know? Hey, hey, hey. Listen, I barely slept last night. You know what I forgot? I forgot what a bad performance by your favorite football team for a hype matchup does for the rest of your day. Like, I know in soccer, you know this, Mike, too.

You wake up early, your team has a bad game, it ruins your day. Like, that's just how it goes. But I forgot how absolutely insanely irritated I get when a team lays an egg in the afternoon on a Sunday when I've been hyped for weeks for this game. So you know what? I'm doing okay this morning, but I was absolutely irate last night. How much are the Browns just trapped by that contract?

Well, I mean, they're done. I mean, there's nothing they can do. Their best hope is he figures it out. The dead money is worse than Russell Wilson's pretty much, right? They're so committed to the assets they gave up to get them like honestly like just when we thought the browns turned things around now baker mayfield's a better quarterback and deshaun watson the guy to give away for free like it it's like at any time the browns turn things around there's something that happens to remind you you should never be a fan of the stupid football team uh it's crazy and i know

that espn is the hot take machine and it's over reaction Mondays and everything, but they've already got the is it time to consider Jameis Winston headline up there. That's how it took one game. I know this dates back. It didn't just take one game. It dates back to last year as well. You'd think you'd give them more than one

game into this season, but it did look that bad yesterday. I watched a lot of that game, some of it against my will, because Red Zone kept putting it on there, but they looked like they were second best in so many categories yesterday. Oh, it was absolutely dreadful, right? And I mean, Deshaun, and nobody has any time to give Deshaun Watson the benefit of the doubt for

good reason. Nobody's going to sit there and say, well, you know, maybe he'll turn around, he's talented, he's shown in the past. Why would you give a guy that makes so many bad decisions, especially off the field, when you see it on the field, the benefit of doubt? So I think he's the easiest guy in the league to pile on because why would you give him the benefit of doubt? I think that's the same way a lot of

Browns fans feel right now. I'm seeing very little support for the Browns quarterback. Sat, you're the best, man. Thanks for doing this. We appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week. We'll do this again soon. Anytime, boys. Have a good one. Yeah, you too. Thanks, man. Thanks for doing this. We appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week. We'll do this again soon. Anytime, boys. Have a good one. Yeah, you too.

Thanks. Satyar Shah, host of Canucks Central, Sportsnet 650's very own here on the Halford & Ruff show on Sportsnet 650. All right, listeners, we need what we learned. Now, we have no giveaways today. There'll be some later in the week, but today we have no giveaways. So we're just asking you for For the good of the show.

Be good listeners, you know? Give back. Share. 72 hours in sports. There's a lot that happened this weekend. There's no shortage of stuff for you to tell us that you learned. Just hashtag it WWL. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650.

Text in, let us know. We've got some that we want to do now, so we'll give it some time to breathe. We'll give you guys some time to submit. 650-650, hashtag it, WWL. What did you learn over the last 72 hours in sports? I think I want to start with some audio. So Jason's got something from the weekend here

to kick off what we learned. Okay, mine's a little bit bigger than that. I learned that there were some security issues in Dublin this weekend when Ireland hosted England in a nation leagues soccer match. Okay. The first thing that happened was there, there's apparently a famous pitch invader.

That's what they call them. Okay. And his name is Daniel Jarvis. And he, um, likes to dress up as the athletes and see if he can get onto the field, beat security and like line up with them. So he's done this, I think in cricket before,

uh, in an India,Australia match. He had like the full cricket regalia on. And they're like, wait a minute, that guy. Okay, first of all, not body shaming. He is not skinny. He's got a. He's tall and he's got a CFL offensive lineman look to him.

That's a good way of putting it. Okay. Very descriptive. Right. Yeah. Visual. Athlet him. That's a good way of putting it. Okay. Very descriptive. Right. Yeah. Visual. Athletic. Painting a visual picture over here.

He doesn't look like a soccer player. Yeah. So the first thing that happened is when the two teams were lining up for the national anthem, they had a guy in an England kit. They call him Jarvo. Jarvo 69. And he was wearing number 69.

That's funny. And security did figure it out. They were like, that guy's not in England. Are you telling me that Jarvo 69 is not in the starting 11? You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.