Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Biggest Soccer Match In Canadian History Is Tonight

Episode Date: July 9, 2024

In hour one, Mike looks back at the previous day in sports (3:00), he previews tonight's Canada Argentina semifinals matchup at Copa America (6:00), plus he looks at the projected rosters for the 4 Nations Face-Off with NHL.com's Derek Van Diest (27:00). 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 Halford & Brough. Hello Canada, Alphonso Davies here. I just want to say thank you guys for all your love and support. We'll keep fighting, we'll keep pushing to make it to the finals. And to all those people that have chosen to disrespect the player, in this case me, have a good night.

Good night. Good night. Good night. I was saying blurns. Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Tuesday. Good morning, Vancouver. 6.01 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford.

It is Brough. Minus the Brough. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. As mentioned, Jason Brough is still on vacation. I am Mike Halford. I am flying solo. But I've also got the dogs with me. Good morning to you, Andy Dog.

Good morning. Good morning to you, Greg Dog. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you, Andy Dog. Good morning. Good morning to you, Greg Dog. Hello, hello. Helping him wrap up the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program.

Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. As I mentioned, this show is coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec is Canada's

favorite orthotics provider. It is powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. If you have sore feet, Greg, what are you waiting for? Kintec. Very well done. We got a big show ahead on a Tuesday. Just to lay everything out, this will be the last solo voyage for yours truly.

Josh Elliott Wolfe, the youngster, the kid they call him. He'll be joining us Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. They've heard enough of the solo Halford show. They got two days of it. Technically one's in the books today. We'll see if I get to nine o'clock. We can't let this continue. There's one of our bosses waiting outside the door with a big hook

like we're on a game show. Just waiting to pull me off the air. Just waiting to pull me off. 6.30 Derek Van Deist is going to join the program from NHL.com. In addition to being the Oilers writer for NHL.com, he was also one of the three tasked with putting together Team Canada, the fantasy draft for Team Canada's roster at the Four Nations Faceoff

and then looking ahead to the 2026 Olympics as well. So we'll talk to him about an exercise that we did last week trying to put together Team Canada, Who's on? Who's off? What does it look like? What are some of the surprise picks? What are the goalies going to look like? Derek Van Deest from NHL.com at 6.30 is going to join the program. 7.15, Oliver Platt from One Soccer is going to join us.

He is live. Not the actor. Nope, not the actor. Oliver Platt, the soccer pundit from One Soccer, is going to join us. He is live on location, East Rutherford, New Jersey, for the biggest match in Canadian men's soccer history tonight. Yeah, I said it. Yeah, it is. Canada-Argentina, Copa America semifinals.

Winner goes to the final. Oliver Platt's going to join us at 7.15 to preview the match. A reminder, that kicks off at 5 o'clock tonight. 5 o'clock is when Canada and Argentina will kick off from East Rutherford, New Jersey, MetLife Stadium. Expecting upwards of 70,000, 80,000 people in attendance for that one. Just a huge match. The center of the sporting world, perhaps, tonight.

And Canada's smack in the middle of it. 7.30, good friend of the program, Softie Mahler. Dave Softie Mahler from KJR Sports Radio in Seattle. We will talk to Softie about the Blue Jays' annual invasion of Seattle over the weekend. Can talk to him about the erratic Seattle Mariners. He made a lot of friends, I think. I heard that Softie was just a social butterfly. He loves Canadians, and he loves it when they invade Seattle

for a weekend of baseball. We can also talk to him about the Seattle Kraken, what the excitement level is like for them after a fairly eventful, by their standards, July 1 in NHL free agency. So Softie's going to join us at 7.30. 8 o'clock, it's Rick Campbell, BC Lions head coach, is going to join us after their big win in Hamilton on the weekend.

We'll start looking ahead to the big game Saturday, 4 o'clock from B.C. Place against the undefeated and Western-leading Saskatchewan Rough Riders. 8-15, Tarek El-Bashir is going to join the program. Capitals insider from Monumental Sports Network. Caps put a new GM in place yesterday. Congrats are in order to Chris Patrick, the longtime assistant GM there. I want to talk to him about that. I want to talk to him about the seven additions

this team made around Alex Ovechkin in the offseason via trades and free agency. I also want to talk to him about Alex Ovechkin because as we were talking about yesterday, some photos making the rounds on social media of Alex Ovechkin looking in offseason form, I'll put it. Prime offseason form. Very offseason form. So working in reverse on the guest list, I'll put it. Prime off-season form.

Very off-season form. So working in reverse on the guest list. 8.15, Tariq El-Bashir. 8 o'clock, Rick Campbell. 7.30, Softie Mahler. 7.15, Oliver Platt. 6.30, Derek Van Deest. We got a lot to get into.

Without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that?

You 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. Monday, an incredibly light day and night in the world of sports.

Light on baseball. There was no footy to dive into. All quiet on the NHL front except for a signing out of Utah, which we'll get into in a sec because we're going to turn it into a Canucks conversation. But the big news from yesterday was Canada and the gaffer Jesse Marsh

doing media and prepping for their massive match against Argentina tonight at MetLife Stadium. So here's what you need to know. Kickoff, 5 o'clock our time. Canada comes into this one on a bit of a roll. Having lost to Argentina in their tournament opener, they've since beaten Peru, drew with Chile, and then beat Venezuela in penalties to get to this spot. Canada, again, still a massive underdog

in this match. They're an underdog via the FIFA rankings where they're 48th in the world compared to Argentina, who, oh, by the way, is still number one in the world. If you go to most sportsbooks, Canada is plus 850,

a pretty massive betting underdog in this match to advance through and get to Saturday's final. I will remind you, speaking of Saturday's final, is that Canada win or lose is not done in this tournament. Yes, like most major international tournaments, there is the always popular third place game at stake at this one. So Canada, should they not get past the best team in the world right now in Argentina, would play the loser of Colombia and Uruguay on Saturday.

And that one would be in Charlotte. The winner of this match. The loser meetup. The loser meetup. The winner of this match will be playing in Miami in the final on Sunday. I should point that out. That's a Sunday final. So the question that's out there for everyone,

and specifically Jesse Marsh, is if you're going to pull one of the bigger upsets in recent memory, if you are going to topple the defending World Cup champions and the odds-on favorites to win Copa America, how are you going to do it, And what is it going to look like? Let's play some audio from Marsh now on Argentina as an entirety, as its unit, as a team, because there's something to consider here. One is how do you defeat the group, the collective 11,

and all the substitutes that Argentina is going to throw at you. And then the second part is how are you going to deal with messy specifically, but we'll start with Jesse Marsh on the task at hand. How Canada plans to attack and defend Argentina. I really don't think we've even thought about dreaming about big moments where we're really just focused on exactly what Argentina is tactically thinking about how we want to manage the game,

trying to limit their best players from finding too much space and time on the ball. exactly what Argentina is, tactically thinking about how we want to manage the game, trying to limit their best players from finding too much space and time on the ball, finding a way to tilt the game in our favor of being good in transition at moments and then finding ways to still, with the ball, command the game. We don't want to just play for penalties. We're going to go out and play the way we like to play.

We're going to use it as an opportunity to be at our best and that in the end is is really the the focus and and and what an incredible opportunity to do so so there's a few takeaways there i think that not playing for penalties is a pretty interesting one because i think a lot of people are looking at this match and saying uh like the the don't do what donnie don't does. Don't do what you did in the opener against Argentina, which was at times open the match up to allow Argentina to have some very, very quality chances, some very big chances in that match. If we're being dead honest,

two nil might've favored the Canadians in terms of how that match should have actually played out. Argentina was probably good for more than the two goals, given the quality of chances that Canada conceded and the quality of netminding that Max Crapo gave them in that match. Crapo was brilliant, made a ton of big saves. There were some squandered chances from the Argentinians as well. Now, that being said, Marsh has pointed out on a number of occasions that he thought there were some good things, especially an attack that Canada did in the opener. Maybe unfortunate to walk away goalless from the match.

Some interesting things of notes here. Canada has actually done a good job of holding and retaining possession in this tournament. It has not been going into a defensive shell, letting the other team hold the ball for extended long stretches, and then trying to bust somebody on the counter. In the wins that they had, now one of these comes with an asterisk, because against Peru it was basically 10 men. They had 104 and 117 possessions.

They were probably saying, Halford, what does that stat even mean? Well, the tournament average in terms of amount of times, singular entities in which you possess the ball was around 85. So Canada was well above the tournament average. As a matter of fact, they've averaged 94 actual possessions of the ball in every game this tournament. That's the second highest in the tournament. Second only to Venezuela. So Canada's actually done a nice job

of having the ball in its feet, being able to keep it away from the opposition, not necessarily creating a ton of chances because they've done most of their chance creation on the counterattack and being very direct and going at them with speed and power and the things that Jesse Marsh likes to talk about. But there's been some tactical switches

from the early things that we saw in the Marsh matches against Holland and France, which were totally different beasts given where this team is at right now. There's another thing here, and this is more of an attitude and an approach and the mental of this entire thing. The Canadians have shown really, really, really remarkable resolve in this tournament.

It is a difficult tournament. They've overcome searing heat in the Peru match where one of the linesmen overcame with heat stroke and fainted on the sideline. Very cynical physical tactics from the opponents. Peru and Chile especially. Both those teams ended up going a man down due to red cards, in part because Canada was able to keep its head, draw fouls,

and not be drawn into, you know, after-whistle fracases and scrums. They didn't lose their cool. They didn't lose their composure. They didn't lose their discipline. Dodgy refereeing throughout this tournament. I think anyone that has watched it for a period of time has noted that the officiating has been at best suspect

and at worst criminal. Sus. Yeah, you were really angry about that on Twitter. I was. A lot of anger. At a certain point, at a certain point, the amount of physical contact

that in particular Jacob Schaffelberg was receiving warranted some whistles. Because I think that the referee, honestly, if I'm being dead on this, I don't think he knew what to do with Schaffelberg. There's not many players like him because of the way that he plays. And by that, I mean run a million miles an hour, get knocked down, bounce right back up, and then do it all over again. He's used to guys just staying down and playing the actor.

Bingo. Oh, my arm! Right? Oh, you barely raised me. The soccer special now. Yeah, Schaffelberg would get hit, bounce back up, do it all over again. And to the referee, I think he thought, well, the fouls can't be that serious. This guy is just playing through all of it. Unfortunate, cynical part of the sport.

I don't even want to go down that road and litigate it. It's tough. Okay, so I do think that the mentality of the team has gotten better and better as the tournament has gone along. I think they've been able to take a negative in losing Tayshaun Buchanan to a broken leg and turn it into an inspirational moment. I thought the Schaffelberg moment where he scored and went over and grabbed

Buchanan's jersey and held it up as a tribute to his fallen teammate. I think that was very instrumental for this team in terms of belief, in terms of inspiration, in terms of that magic and that momentum that you can't really just make or draw up out of nowhere. Sometimes you do need something bad to happen

for something good to happen. I hate saying it that way, but we've seen countless teams have their rallying cry, and maybe this is Canada's. Buchanan was a fundamentally important part of this team, and they know it. They know that they're a worse team without him than with him in the lineup. And I do wonder if they're going to be

able to turn this into, we're doing this for Tayshaun in the biggest moments, which is tonight, right? That is, this is a huge moment tonight. Now, the reason this is a huge moment tonight is not just because of the opponent, but because of who the opponent features. And Jesse Marsh makes no bones about this. He calls Lionel Messi the best player to ever play the game. And I'm going to play a clip now. He was asked by an Ecuadorian journalist yesterday, straight out, what he plans to do to stop Lionel Messi

because Ecuador had some success against Messi in the quarterfinal match, which they took Argentina penalties, eventually lost in penalties. So he wanted Marsh's blueprint. Marsh joke. He's like, I don't think I'm going to give you my game plan right now. But he did talk about what they have to do. Having already faced Messi once in this tournament.

Here's Jesse Marsh on what Canada needs to do against Messi tonight in the Copa America semifinal. Yeah, look, look, you, we didn't do well enough with Messi last match, right? And he was able to run free at our goalkeeper too much. We don't, we won't man mark him. Okay, we will, but we will certainly, he's an emphasis of how we will defend and our ability to keep track of him

will be really important. We have certain things that we'll try to do to try to make it difficult for him. But we know that limiting his space is the number one thing. We don't want him free and running at our back line and running at our goalkeeper like last game. That was not good enough. But we all know he's the greatest player to ever play the game.

And the respect that we have for him, I think worldwide respect for who he is. And certainly the stadium will reflect that tomorrow. But it's always, I think, worldwide respect for who he is, and certainly the stadium will reflect that tomorrow. But it's always, I think, a privilege to play against a player like him, and our players will be up for it. They'll be excited, and the challenge is big. So we'll see if we can do a little bit better than we did in the first match.

Oh, hold on. That's the Canadian coach praising the opponent and not saying whatever John Herdman said. What a stark contrast. He's like, I'm going to do the opposite strategy and see if it works. Don't do what Donnie Don't does. Argentina outshot Canada 19-10 in that opening match, including nine of those on target, which I remind you, Max Crapo,

who might end up being a huge difference maker yet again, as he has been throughout this tournament. And I mentioned the possessions earlier. Argentina had 64% of the possession in the opener. So not only did they dominate from a chance creation and shot metric, they also dominated from the possession standpoint as well. Canada was the second best team going into the first match, during the first match, and then after the first match.

And they will probably be, at times tonight, for lengthy stretches, the second best team on the field. What they need to do is find those individual moments. And I will be curious to see if they will be able to come out with the sort of directness and speed that they did in the Venezuela match. Because they set the tone against Venezuela early as to what they wanted to do, and that was be direct and use their power and speed

to take advantage of a team that didn't have the same athleticism. And that is the one thing that Canada is going to have an advantage of in a lot of these games is that the athleticism and the speed is something that some of these older, craftier South American teams and Central American teams don't have. It's going to be very interesting to see. What else is going to be interesting to see is the moment. This is going to be, from a global perspective, this match is going to be in the millions and millions and millions of viewers. The numbers on this are going to be huge. This is the greatest

living player playing in a major semifinal at night in America just outside of New York City in front of probably 70-80,000 people in the stadium and Canada's taking part in that.

It's pretty remarkable. There's not another national team right now, honestly, outside of maybe a couple in Europe that would get the draw that Messi and Argentina would get right now. It is profoundly big. And the fact that Canada gets to go through this is exactly why qualifying for this tournament

in the first place was so important. Opportunities like this just don't come around all that often opportunities to beat a team of Argentina's stature in a tournament of this nature do not come around that long and that's why Marsh was saying that they're they feel fortunate for the opportunity it's almost a privilege at this point to get to do what they're able to do so tune in tonight make sure you watch it it's going to be a lot of fun it's going to be a good Canadian this point to get to do what they're able to do. So tune in tonight. Make sure you watch it. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be a good Canadian moment because to get to this point, they had to do a lot of good things, and let's hope they can do a few more.

Okay, I do want to do some hockey talk here. Very interesting thing happened yesterday in the NHL, and it's not so much about the deal but what the deal represents. So a minor signing, but the Utah, formerly Arizona Coyotes, the Utah Hockey Club, signed Barrett Hayton yesterday to a two-year contract extension, basically avoiding Arb with the guy.

Most people remember Barrett Hayton from the 2018 draft. Barrett Hayton was taken fifth overall by the then Arizona Coyotes in what was considered a reach at the time. People were hating that pick. Now, Hayden's been okay since he's gone to Arizona. He suffered through a ton of injuries last

year. He only played 33 games, so it was kind of a wash of a season. The one full year that he had, he played with Keller and I want to say Schmaltz. He played all 82 games. He was like a 20 goalgoal, 40-point. It was a good production, solid production.

But in Vancouver, Hayton will probably forever be known as the guy that Arizona took fifth, one of the two really questionable picks, Zedina going six to Detroit, that allowed Vancouver to land Quinn Hughes at number seven in the draft and really forever alter the course of franchise history. And that's not hyperbole for me, guys, dogs.

That's not hyperbole. Like getting Quinn Hughes has put the Canucks on a different course than they've ever had through the last 50 years of existence. Because right away it was like, Ooh, he real good. Having Barrett Hayden wouldn't have had the same trajectory impact on this Canucks team? I don't know, Greg.

What do you think? Hey, you called him a 20-goal, 40-point, pretty solid guy. It's solid center. Who knew that having a Norris Trophy winning defenseman would alter the course of your franchise's history? So this is it, right? The way that things broke in 2018 at that draft forever altered the Canucks. First ever Norris Trophy winner in franchise history. Are we already ready to call him the best defenseman in franchise history?

He was the second he laced up his skates. Okay. So yesterday on Twitter, I'm throwing out there, and I want to map out the rest of the week. I'm like, what are we going to do on the show? I'm throwing a lot of footy talk at the listeners, and've been really nice about it there's only been a couple people that have made me cry who has two thumbs hasn't cried this morning this guy and i'm thinking okay yeah yeah it's still early uh okay well let's ask everyone what they want to talk about so i said you know

mapping out the rest of the week on sportsnet 650 you're home of the canucks i got josh elli wolf coming in for the rest of the week. Send your best Canucks-related barroom debates, Mount Rushmores, what-ifs, the superlatives, power rankings, whatever you want, hypotheticals, whatever you want us to talk about, we'll talk about them. So a buddy texts me like an hour after seeing it and says, hey, on the subject of revisiting things, relitigating things,

if you had to redo the 2018 draft where Quinn Hughes went 7th overall to the Vancouver Canucks and forever altered franchise history, where would it go now? How would that draft look now that we're year six out of it, that the Stanley Cup has been awarded this year, the Norris and all the other awards have been handed this year.

The trajectories of these guys are, for the most part, set. Where would it go? Hughes would probably be first or second. Hughes would be first overall. Yeah, and Brady Kachuk probably number two. Is that where he'd go? So, okay, let's reset this real quick. So, right now, if you recall, the draft went, Dallin

went first overall to Buffalo. Yeah. And that was a lock at the time, because he was considered the generational foundational defenseman. The sweepstakes was basically the lose for Dallin sweepstakes. Svechnikov goes number two to Carolina. Jesperi Kokuniemi goes three to Montreal. Brady Kachuk goes four to Ottawa. Then

Hayton and Zadina, which we've already talked about. Then Hughes. If you're redoing that draft. Maybe Svetlankov third, actually. Dallin fourth. If you're redoing that draft. You drop Dallin to fourth? No, I would go Hughes first and Dallin second. Yeah, I would go Hughes, Dallin.

I don't know. Yeah, I mean. But I would definitely. I mean, and I don't know. I might put Kachuk second. He's not his brother. Yeah, but he's still amazing. Yeah, he's good.

Big Kachuk guy over here. You're a big Kachuk guy? He's really, really brother. Yeah, but he's still amazing. Yeah, he's good. Big Kachuk guy over here. You're a big Kachuk guy? He's really, really good. Yeah, I would go, I mean, just because of the value of defenseman inherently. Yeah, that's fair. I mean, honestly, two to four could be. By the way, feel free to weigh in on this. Dumber Lumber text line is 650-650.

If you want to weigh in on any of these, if you want to get your own questions and Mount Rushmore's and power rankings and superlatives and all that stuff, would there be any doubt that Hughes would be first? Is there anyone out there? Anyone other that wouldn't take him first overall right now? Even Buffalo. As much as they probably like having Rasmus Dahlien in the fold, you would have to take Hughes at this point, would you not? Yeah, I think so.

So let's say Hughes goes first, Dahlien goes second. The other interesting thing to look at this draft is that now that it's all sort of shaken out, that draft, that first round was flush, flush with really good defense. Defense, I was about to say, yeah. Which I didn't, when you looked at the pre-draft, there was Darlene and then there was Hughes

and then there was considered a drop-off. But right now, like you could make the argument that the guys that went 10th overall evan bouchard and 12th overall and noah dobson those guys would jump in to the top five yeah right like i would i mean at this point i'd be tempted to take dobson or bouchard over like a svetchnikov i don't know if you'd take him over a kachuk but this relitigating it this many years out you can make the argument that this would have been like a defense-rich draft.

I still can't believe Arizona-Detroit passed on Hughes, especially Detroit, but I mean both of them. I was just like, even at the time, I remember being like, wow, that's insane. What a slam dunk for the Canucks here. It was one of the- How lucky. I used to talk about it back when we were at the old shop

at 1040 before. Because I remember following a lot of the pre-draft stuff on Hughes, and then he played in the Red Wings' backyard at the University of Michigan. It just seemed like a no-brainer. You're like, we're not getting this guy. He's too good. He's from Michigan. He went to the Worlds with the

U.S. team that was coached by Jeff Blashill, who at the time was the head coach of the Red Wings. So he would have seen, better than anyone, the skill set that he had. It was baffling that they passed on him. Yeah, I mean, I had lots of Red Wings fans in my timeline, guys, that I followed as well. Not to say that they didn't like the Zedina pick, but

they were still like, wow, we really, really missed on Hughes there. Now, the argument out of Detroit was like, they had their board, they had their thing, and they didn't think Zedina was going to fall to them at six. So, when it happened... And he was supposed to be good. He was projected to be a very good player. So, when it happened, they just went with their board. They're like, we're going to go with our

scouting and go with... It's not like Zedina was an awful pick. It's just like... It was a pretty awful pick. Well, in hindsight. In hindsight, obviously. I'm just saying, at the time, it's not like it was, but it's just like, based on what you just said there, like, all the points that Hughes hit in terms of the Red Wings farm system and, like, what they were looking for in a player, it's just like, on what you just said there, like all the points that Hughes hit in terms of the Red Wings farm system and like what they were looking for in a player. It's just like crazy they didn't take him.

So we can get into some more of these, including on the other side of the break, because we're going to talk to Derek Van Dees from NHL.com. He was one of the three NHL.com writers tasked with putting together Team Canada for the 2025 Four Nations Faceoff, which is coming up next February. This conversation started last week. We did it on the show after NHL.com did their Team USA. We can ask Derek about why they made the picks that they did, who they think is going to be the goalie triumvirate going into the Four Nations face-off, what forwards will make it, what ones won't.

Same thing on the blue line, how Canada stacks up against the U.S. We can do some Edmonton Oilers talk with Derek as well. That's coming up next on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks.

Exclusive interviews, inside info and even the postgame show. Listen 4-6pm weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 6.33 on a Tuesday. Catching a real vibe with this one. We're in such a good mood with Hope, Ruff. Everything is pretty chill. You're just relaxed.

You're listening to the Halford and Ruff Show on Sportsnet 650. It's a good song. Halford and Ruff in the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. Pacific Honda is North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts, baby.

I don't know if I'd classify this as big man, but I still love it. I don't even care what it is. It's tagged as big man, so I'm using it. It's classified as awesome. Yes. This is just the music playing in Jim Benning's head when he drafts Quinn Hughes. It's a real vibe, baby.

Oh, yeah. What a pick. Ooh, he changed. Derek Vandese from NHL.com is going to join us in just a moment here. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Derek being the highlight of Hour 1. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal

recycler. Pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. Derek Van Deest from NHL.com here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Derek. How are you? Good morning. I'm

doing well. How are you guys doing? We're good. Before we get into all of this hockey talk, we've got to talk Canadian men's national team. How excited are you for tonight? Yeah, I'm excited. It's going to be a fun game. You know, it's one of those things.

It's probably the biggest game Canada's played since in Qatar. I was in Qatar covering the World Cup for Post Media at the time, so it's probably the biggest game they've played since the opening of the World Cup when they played Belgium. So I think there's a big moment for Canada. I think what they've done at the Copa America has been very impressive so far.

They have nothing to lose. They're a huge underdog. They're playing Messi and Argentina again, and I think they're going to go out there. They're going to leave it all on the field underdog. They're playing Messi and Argentina again. I think they're going to go out there. They're going to leave it all on the field. I think they're playing with house money because no one expects them to do anything. Obviously, Argentina is a favorite to win that tournament, so I think they're just going to go out there.

Just try and play the best game they can. They're a team that they've played well, but it's Argentina. So it's going to be interesting. But I think it's exciting to see what they've done in this tournament. And it's exciting to see if they can go a little further. So, yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun today. Part of the excitement is that this is all sort of new territory for anyone that's a fan of the Canadian national soccer team. So in your bio, it says you're a Canadian national soccer team supporter,

which I inferred means that you've been doing this for a while. So you know how tough times have been for this organization and program before qualifying for Qatar and how low things got. So what's it like for you to see, out of nowhere, the Canadian men's national team playing in the Copa America semifinal against the best team in the world, where the program has come from to where it is now.

Yeah, it's funny. I've been following this team for a long, long time. I have been with the ups and downs. I've always been I've been following this team since 86, since they were at the World Cup in Mexico, since they played the first World Cup. Didn't score a goal,

but I've been kind of following them then. And yeah, there's been a lot of downs. Not so many ups for this team. But this team in particular, I was the national soccer writer for Post Media before I joined the NHL. So I kind of followed

this particular team through their qualifying process to Qatar. I was in Qatar with them. So I know how tight this team is. This team has kind of come up together. So I know how tight this team is and how much they care for each other. But, yeah, it's been a struggle. It's been a struggle for Canadian men's soccer for a long, long time

for them to kind of get up to this point. I've always contended that they should try and get into the Copa America because Copa America is obviously a 12-team tournament. There's only 10 teams in South America. Usually they invite a couple of teams to come play in that tournament. The U.S. has played in it a lot. Mexico has played in it a lot. And I said, you know, Canada's got to play these higher-end teams.

They're only going to get better by playing better teams. And I think they're starting to do that now. You know, they're playing the France, they're playing Holland, and now they're playing in the Copa America. So they're getting a higher competition. And I think what this team has done is they've shown that they can play at that level, whether or not they can beat some of these teams. You know, they beat Peru, they got through some of these teams.

So I think it shows that they can compete at this level. So I think it's a good sign for Canadian soccer right now. They're obviously at a high point, and hopefully they can continue developing some good players. And hopefully some young players see this and say, hey, one day I want to play for Canada. I want to be part of this program. So I think it's all good.

But, yeah, I've lived through the highs and mostly the lows of this program watching them try to to qualify through the world cup since 1986 but uh yeah so it's very it's great to see what they're doing right now and i think they're capturing the imagination of non-soccer fans across the country because i think a lot of people are going to tune in today because it really is the the magnitude of this game right well we talked about like sydney crosby showing up at the last match and it's in canada jersey and going into the room and meeting with the guys after the victory over venezuela so nice way to transition from canadian men's national soccer team to the canadian men's national hockey team because the 2025 four nations face-off isn't until next february we're already, in part because of the announcements last week,

we're already looking towards what the rosters are going to look like. And part of it is because we had that teaser with the first six from each of the teams participating, but also because it's been such a long time since we've had best-on-best international hockey. You were tasked, along with a couple other authors from NHL.com, of putting together the latest version of Team Canada. What was the most difficult task in doing that,

and why was it trying to figure out who's going to play in net? That's exactly what it was, right? Usually, four candidates had the fact the number one guy. They've had a guy that said, okay, this is Canada's goalie. He's going to be the number one guy, like they've had a guy that said, OK, this is this is Canada's goalie. He's going to be there. The number one goalie, whoever that that had been in the past. And right now there isn't a number one guy. There's kind of like you're looking at going, OK, well, you know, there's Stuart Skinner. You're embarrassing for whatever reason. It's a situation where Canada doesn't have a top guy.

They don't have a Roberto Longo. They don't have Roberto Luongo. They don't have a Carey Price. They don't have Patrick Roy. They don't have a guy that you know is the number one guy. So it's going to be very interesting to see what they do in goal, and I think a lot is going to depend on who's playing well, like what goalie is playing well, what goalie is getting a lot of ice time at the time.

Yeah, because it's just one of those things where it just doesn't seem goalie is playing well, what goalie is getting a lot of ice time at the time. Yeah, because it's just one of those things where it just doesn't seem like Canada has a lot of options in goal. They have some options. They have some young options. But, yeah, it's going to be very interesting to see what comes out of there and what goalie is playing well at the time. And I think it's going to really matter. You know, you're looking at February, so you're looking towards,

it's obviously going to take part during what would normally be the All-Star break. So you've got to understand and see what goalie's playing well at that time. So, yeah, there's not a lot of options and not a lot of, for say, yeah, this guy for sure is going to be Canada's number one goalie, because I think right now, Canada doesn't have a number one goalie. It's going to be really just a matter of, okay, who's playing well at that time, and I guess

we'll go with that guy type thing. So at forward, it's an interesting debate, because you've got the really high-end talent, as evident by the five of the six guys that they named right off the top. You've got Crosby and McDavid and McKinnon and Point and everybody else. I've seen a lot of roster projections, I think rightly, putting Zach Hyman firmly in the mix, not on the bubble or anything like that.

And that's what you get when you score 54 goals. I've seen some people trying to make that Crosby-Chris Kunitz comparison that he gets to go because he's the running mate of a star center. I'm not sure that's entirely fair. Is Hyman there because Zach Hyman is a really good player and earned it? Did he get it on Merit or is it because he's such a great running mate for Connor McDavid? Well, I think that, yeah, it has to be, you know what,

it's one of those things that Connor McDavid had a lot of guys on his wing and he went through a lot of wingers before they kind of found Zach Hyman that could kind of finish the way he does. And I think it's part of that. If he didn't play with Connor McDavid last year, I don't think Zach Hyman scores 50-plus goals. I think it's just one of those things, right? But he made the most of that opportunity

because there's been a lot of guys that have been in that spot that hadn't been able to have that opportunity. And you look at Crosby when he had some wingers do that. He went through a bunch of wingers until he found some guy that could kind of finish. So yeah, I think it does have the McDavid effect. And I think

if he had had Zach Hyman stayed in Toronto, would he be a 50-goal guy? Probably not. I don't think he would be. He might be a 30, 35, 40-goal guy, but I think it's just a matter of that you're playing with the best player, offensive player in the world, that it's just

he's able to read off him, but he's able to make the most of those opportunities. Zach Hyman's kind of a meat and potatoes guy. He goes to the net, he goes to the hard areas, he scores a lot of his goals from within five, six feet of the net. He's the closest thing here in edmonton to ryan smith this is a guy that didn't score a lot of goals from outside the perimeter and i think he knows where to go he gets there um but it's not an easy place to go like everyone says go to

the net score some goals but it's not an easy place to go. But I think, yeah, I think the fact that he does play with Conor McDavid probably has him there. And if he gets to this tournament and plays in this tournament, he probably will play with McDavid as well. So it's going to be interesting to see what he does this season. But, yeah, he's kind of taken his game to a new level, obviously,

coming here to Edmonton and playing with Conor McDavid. We're speaking to Derek Van Deest from NHL.com here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. So we did this exercise last week on the show, and when you get down to forward sort of 12, 13 in that neighborhood, depending on what sort of roster construction and configuration they have, there's a bunch of different names that can be in the mix.

When you guys first did this exercise, Mark Stone was in, and you've replaced him with Alexis Lafreniere, which is interesting because we didn't have him on our list. But make the compelling case for why the young New York Rangers forward got in the mix. Well, I think one of our writers that was choosing, helped choose a team, is from New York. So I think he saw him a lot.

So he saw him kind of go through this development. And I think you look at Alexis Lafreniere, and this guy, first overall, a lot was expected of him. He was a big star coming out of junior. And it took him a while to gain some traction. But I think he's starting to kind of be the player that they were kind of expecting in New York. They were kind of expecting to be this player in the games of traction, point of guy, point of game guy. And I think right now, just based on the playoff that he had, based on the way he kind of developed last season, and I think it has a lot to do

with Mark Stone. He's a good player, but he's going through some injuries right now. He's kind of fighting through some injuries. We thought that he's a good young player, and Canada needs some good young forwards coming up and kind of taking the mantle from some of those older guys like Crosby. You know, I don't want to say that McDavid is old. He's not. He's in his prime of his career right now. But I think, yeah, he kind of is the future of this program.

So once those guys kind of come through the program, I think Alex Lafreniere will be part of that program. So I think he's kind of really gained some traction this last season. And it'll be interesting to see what he does this season, if he can kind of build on that. So we just kind of projected him to kind of build on that strong playoff that he had last year, that good regular season, and really come develop into the kind of star player that I think the New York Rangers believe,

and I think a lot of people believe, that he would be just based out of those impressive numbers that he put up in junior. You know, what makes this exercise so much fun is that it's been so long since we've had best-on-best international competition, you're not exactly sure where guys are in the pecking order when it comes to international selection. Like on the blue line, for example, Drew Doughty. I wasn't sure, given his age and how much older he'll be, of course, when next February rolls around, if he would still firmly be in the mix like he has been for so many Canadian

national teams in the past. You guys have him in the mix. Did you just have that as a foregone conclusion? Or did you guys have to pause and think if he was still going to be in there? I think we had to pause and think. Because, you know, Drew Dowdy, he's on the back side of his career. He's been such a great defenseman for so long. But he's still a guy that the Kings rely heavily on.

He still gets a lot of ice time. He gets a lot of minutes. I saw him play a lot in the playoffs. And I've seen him play a lot. We've seen him play a lot here on West, obviously. So he's still a big part of that team. But yeah, I think Drew Dowdy's a guy that

he's a guy that's been there, and someone has to knock him off that pedestal. I think someone has to come in there and be better than him. And obviously, Drew Dowdy, I don't think he's going to be the top two role. I think he's going to play the, you know, he's going to be a top two role. I think he's going to play down in the lineup with, you know,

some of the defensemen that are there, like Morrissey, like Noah Dobson, like Kale McCarr, obviously those guys, I think they've kind of taken over that mantle. But I think Drew Dowdy can still hold his own. And I think unless he has a really bad first half of the season, unless he kind of falls off the map here, I think he's still part of this group because he's been there. He's been there for so long and he's done it for so long.

And I think someone's got to really step up and kind of knock him off that roster. I think he's still kind of a core piece of that group. But that's the fun part about this. It's a matter of who's playing well at that time. And if he's not playing the big role that he is at L.A., maybe someone does come in there and say, hey, this guy deserves it more than Drew Doughty does.

But he's been so good for so long, I think it's one of those things that we kind of have to include him until someone comes in there and plays better. Well, I got to ask an Oilers question before we let you go. It's foul language around here in Vancouver. Still a little bit sore about the whole Edmonton thing, but I'm going to press on anyway because I can't help but notice this feels like a really good offseason for a team that came within one game

of winning the Stanley Cup. You saw all the departures from Florida, and then you see Edmonton, and it's adding Victor Arvidsson, adding Jeff Skinner, making the trade to get Matthew Savoy in the door. How excited are fans for the additions, especially up front? Because they brought a lot of guys back, Brown, Perry, Yanmark, Henrique, and then they added some real talent. It's a deep, deep forward group now all of a sudden.

Yeah, it is, and I think what they've done, it's funny, they've done it without a GM. It can't all have left. They say, we've got to find a GM, and think jeff jackson and his group have done all the heavy lifting but i think they've managed to convince a lot of these guys like henry and yan mark and and you know cory perry to leave term and maybe some money on the table for an opportunity to win and i think henry said it best he said sometimes it just sometimes it costs you to win. You have to make money or turn around the table to have an opportunity to win. And these guys came so close.

And I think a lot of those guys that they resigned felt like this is the best opportunity. This group is the best opportunity to win. And then to bring in a guy like Jeff Skinner, a guy that really, you know, he's been in the league for so long, never played a playoff game. And they convinced him and said, hey, you want to play a playoff game? We'll pay you $3 million, which is a third of what he was making in Buffalo. Come and play with McDavid and Drysaddle and get an opportunity there. Arbiton

to me, I think, was a really good signing. I think this is a guy that, you know, has that potential to be a point-of-game guy. He's had struggles with injuries last year. So I think right now, I think a lot of these guys look at this opportunity And going okay we'll try this for a year We'll see if we can get there for a year

So it's kind of To me next year is all in because then After that you have the What's going to happen with Drysaddle Then you're going to have McDavid for one more year So I think everyone's looking at this going Okay this might be our best kick at the can So we're going to leave some money on the table,

some charm on the table to try and win a Stanley Cup. So there's a lot of excitement. As disappointing as Game 7 was to get all the way to Game 7 and not be able to ring the bell and finish it off, I think there's a lot of excitement towards next season. You look at that forward depth and you go, wow, okay, if they can put it all together. But as you guys know, it takes a bit of a block.

It takes, you know, a bit of bounces to get back to that spot. So it's going to be interesting to see. But, yeah, I think that's what Jeff Jackson and his group has done is kind of convince some of these guys that, hey, if you want to win, this is the best opportunity. So it's going to be an interesting season next year with these guys because I think that window in Edmonton is closing and they may have

one, maybe two years left on that championship window. So it's going to be a lot of fun next season with these guys coming in. But, you know, it doesn't take much to derail something like that, an injury here or something there. You know, it's going to be interesting. But I think that's what

Jeff Jackson has done. He has sold this championship window to a lot of those guys, and they think that they're going to be able to make a run with this team. Derek, this was awesome, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it. Enjoy the game tonight. Sounds good, guys. I appreciate you having me on.

Thanks. That's Derek Vandese from NHL.com and noted Canadian men's national team supporter here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. That's crazy. I didn't realize he was a big soccer writer for a long time. Just part of our book. You're just such a good booker, Andy. I mean, I did that on purpose.

Yes. There you go. Can I say out loud now that the temperature has dropped and the emotions have flatlined a little bit and we're all okay, that Edmonton scares the living daylights out of me now after what they did in the offseason? I think they might have had one of the best offseasons

of anybody in the National Hockey League given what they were dealing with, which was they basically played right until free agency. And then they're like, okay, we got to make moves. Didn't really lose that much from their active roster. Well, they're going to lose Kane still. Yeah, but that's fine. Honestly, people push back when they're like,

how can you say that there's addition by subtraction with Kane? I felt like they did not miss his presence all that much because he was so banged up. And even when he wasn't banged up, I think that there was a lot of baggage that came along with him that it might just end up being addition by subtraction, even if it's only minimal. The way things were going towards the end, yes,

I think it's a little addition by subtraction. But if they got the Kane they saw earlier in that contract, then, yeah, they missed that. I was surprised that they brought back Corey Perry, but I do think that they brought him back because they're unsure of what's going to happen with Kane. And then you needed, like, a Dollarama version of him, and that would be Corey Perry.

Wish.com. To me, like Skinner and Arvidson are the classic by-low candidates that you get in the door that you're hoping for a bounce back when you're a cup contender. You get these, I mean, Derek said, you get these benefits and these privileges, right? I think those could also be kind of moves that fall flat on their face, right?

There's a lot of potential for that. Sure. That's how Skinner played in Buffalo. The scary part is if they don't fall flat on their face and if they thrive. We're not going to think about that. Because Arvidsson and Skinner are probably still very much capable of being like 25, 30 goal guys

in the NHL if they're healthy. I do wonder how effective Skinner is going to be on a team where he's just a periphery guy and can kind of do what he does, which is score goals and not really have to worry about a lot else. And in Buffalo, he was counted upon. He was a veteran guy. He made a lot of money. He carried some weight because of the contract the status the age of veteran presence here they're like yeah jeff skinner just come and score some goals we've got other guys that are going to do the heavy lifting and then our arvids is the guy i always really liked but

when i remember liking him i also remember it was like in 2016 and 17 when the predators were going to stanley cup finals and making deep playoff runs and you're just crossing your fingers right the whole time he's not gonna get hurt because that's been his MO his entire career. I'm crossing my fingers that these don't work out. I do not want to see Edmonton. It feels a little overrated to me. People are like, oh, their forward group's gotten so much better. I'm like, eh, has it though?

Well, I mean, I'm hoping not. I mean, it's still an amazing forward group. If we're talking about a Canadian team that scares us, it honestly might be Toronto for me now. Really? What was their big problem? Their decor. Totally revamped.

Getting out of the first round of the playoffs. Well, yeah. A few other challenges, but they needed a decor, which they've totally changed. They have new goaltending, you know, Woll and Stolarz there. They were the second best offense in the league last year. I don't think they're going to get worse, you guys. Their biggest issue is that they're scoring.

The guys that they count upon to score goes away in the playoffs. Yes. That's their biggest issue. And until that changes, I understand. When we were talking last week, I forget who we had on, but they brought up a pretty good point about, oh, it was Sam McKee that we had on from Fan 590 in Toronto. He's like, defensively and goaltending,

they did a great job in the opening round against Boston. It was a tight series. There was not a lot of goals allowed. They did a nice job there. It's that Matthews, Marner, Nylander, and Tavares didn't come up and score in the clutch when they needed to. But I see what you're saying about, like, it's funny because I think that Tanev is like the perfect fit for that blue line.

But you could say that with Tanev in a lot of places. He fits so well. But that, to me, makes them the best blue line they've had maybe in the last, I don't know, eight, nine years. Kind of hinges on what happens with Hockenpah. Yeah. With the knee situation. And his knee and everything, yeah.

Okay, we've got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Oliver Platt from One Soccer is going to join us at 7.15 from East Rutherford, New Jersey. MetLife Stadium, the host stadium for tonight's match between Canada and Argentina in the Copa America semifinal. So we'll talk to Ollie at 7.15.

And then at 7.30, we're going to talk to Dave Softy-Mahler from KJR Sports Talk Radio in Seattle. Always fun talking to Softie. If you've never heard Softie, listen to this station at 730 because it is a roller coaster. He is a passionate guy, and he always has a lot to say, specifically on the heels of the annual Canadian invasion

when the Blue Jays go down to Seattle to take on the Mariners. And finally, before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. The Roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions 70th season. Get your tickets now at bclions.com. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.