Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Could Have A New Gold Member

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk about the latest news about the Canucks GM search (3:00), plus the boys look at last night's NHL playoff action, as well as the latest Alphonso Davies injury news ahead of the World Cup (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 and Brough Stoll across for Chattfield And he scores short-handed Jalen Chatfield Jalen Chatteed. Against Carolina, I told you you got to hit singles And we hit singles in the first period And then we started trying to hit home runs

I'm good, are we going to talk young boys or what? Oh, yeah Ladies and gentlemen The weekend Good morning, man, good morning. 6 o'clock on a Friday. Happy Friday, sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford and his broth. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming live

from the Kintech Studios in Beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adaw, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought you by Sands and Associates. Are you drowning in tax debt? If you are, Sands and Associates can often reduce your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in our one of the program. Hour one is brought to by North Star 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 Pall Street in Vancouver. We're coming to live from the Kintech Studio. Step Strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. It's Ask us anything Friday on the Halford and Brough Show. So text in your AUA's into the Dunbar Lumber Text line at 650, 650, 650, trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online today.

All right. Let's get into the morning guest list. It's our Duick Morning Drive, brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. It begins. It's 7 o'clock AJ from AJ's Pizza's. is going to join us. As Jason mentioned, it's Ask Us Anything. The best Ask Us Anything gets a $100 gift card to the best pizza place

in Vancouver. That's AJ's. Get them in now. 650, 650. Hashtag at AUA and a pizza emoji. 705 Patrick Johnson is going to join the program. Pige, as he's affectionately known on this program. Sports columnist for the province, Whitecaps talk this morning with Pige, who recently wrote about the club's financial problems.

The revenue gap, yes, the revenue gap that remains. He'll join us at 705 right after AJ at 730. It's Ian McIntyre, Kinnock's and NHL reporter for Sportsnet. IMAX back on the road. He's a working journalist. He's covering the Aves Wild series, which is now shifting to Minnesota. after the abs took the first two in Denver.

That series got a big three-day break in the middle of it. Yeah, that was a weird one. Yeah, and they won't get back on the way until Saturday. So we can talk about that series also. The still ongoing Canucks GM search. We'll talk about that with IMAC at 7.30. 8 o'clock Rick Dollywall is going to join the program. He of Donnie and Dolly on Czech TV.

It sounds like, according to my sources, which was Rick, we're going to talk about some Canucks stuff as it pertains to the GM search, but also some stuff on the white caps the Rick might have up his sleeve. Rick's going to join us at 8 o'clock this morning. That's the guest list. That's what's happening today on the program. So 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? Missed it? You missed that? 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.ca. We will begin with Vancouver Canucks and maybe, just maybe, we're getting closer to the finish line with this search for a new general manager because the name Evan Gold seems to be gaining some serious momentum this week, Jason. Yeah, that was the latest buzz around the team and we're going to play some audio from 32 thoughts. Elliot Freeman talking more about Evan Gold. He's currently in the Bruins front office, Evan Goldman. That's right. The Canucks could be going back to the well

in Boston for another general manager. I'll wager that Evan Gold has a pretty different style, though, compared to Jim Benning. He is he's a lawyer. He got his law degree, also his MBA from the UFT in Toronto.

I think he did his undergrad at McGill. Started out with the Washington Capitals, found his way to the Boston organization. he's done everything according to the Bruins website, day-to-day hockey ops, salary cap analysis, contract negotiations, roster planning, player salary ARB, CBA compliance,

and pro scouting. He is also the general manager of the Bruins' AHL team in Providence. Now, Ryan Johnson is the general manager of the Canucks, HL team in Abbotsford. And we all know that Ryan Johnson has been a candidate, but for some reason not a slam dunk in Vancouver. Now, I don't, I obviously have not been part of the interviews.

I don't know the day-to-day operations of the Vancouver Canucks can, so I can't speak to Ryan Johnson's abilities. everyone seems to think he's a very good guy and a good hockey guy, but I'm happy that the Canucks went out and interviewed all these people. And even if Ryan Johnson went into this as the frontrunner or the recommendation initially of the departing Jim Rutherford, it was always going to be possible that someone was going to come in, interview very well, and impress the Canucks to the point where they would get him,

the job. Now, he doesn't have the job yet, right? We've kind of gone down this we've gone down this road before where we're like, oh, it sounds like this guy's going to get the job and then he doesn't. Now, maybe the Pierre Dorian thing was a little bit

different because it was like, I think he's going to get the job, said Greg Woshensky on our station in the morning. And then there was such a firestorm that they're like, I've never even heard of Pierre Dorian at Rogers Arena. Right? Like to that point. all happened. So, at any rate, let's play the 32 Thoughts audio right now because Elliot and

Kyle also talk about the situation with Ryan Johnson. Well, Providence got knocked out of the HL playoffs on Thursday night after a tremendous regular season. So Evan Gold, who is definitely on their radar and I believe was in there this week to be interviewed. He's done, his responsibilities. The only other thing I'm still waiting to figure out here is what they're doing with Scott White. Are they waiting to interview him in person? I don't have clarity on what they ask for permission to speak to him. That's for sure. But I don't know. know exactly what they decided to do in terms of do they bring them there or do they just do it by Zoom how they're handling it. That's the one thing I'm not sure of as we record this

pod. I'm still waiting for clarity on what they're doing with him. But gold is, I mean, I heard all the noise in Vancouver today. I don't have reason to believe anybody's wrong. I believe if he was there this week and also his team is now out. So if it is going to heat up around him, it's really going to start to heat up around it now. But I'm still waiting for clarity on White. Is Ryan Johnson still in the mix? He's still in the mix, but I don't know what to make of this.

If they're going to hire Evan Gold, who has a really bright reputation, it would seem that Johnson's really being passed over. It's just, the whole thing is a little bit strange to me. They extended his contract. They said, you're here and you're not going anywhere else.

And now they're, if it is Evan Gold, they're basically passing them over for somebody with a similar skill set, right? So we'll see. but if that was the case, it wouldn't be good for Johnson. No. And just another strange handling of a situation in Vancouver.

Yeah, that's a bizarre one. The only thing I would just say, Kyle, is that I hope that they wouldn't pass over him simply because he's tied to the regime that they're starting to move out. I don't ever think that's a good reason. If you don't think the guy can do the job, that's one thing. But I don't like the idea of, okay, he was with Rutherford. He was with Alvine. You know, Alvine's out.

Rutherford is moving to the advisory role. We just want to make the fresh change. I don't agree with that. If they, I would just wonder why it's gone from, boy, we think super highly of this person a year ago to this. It is a little unusual. That last question really hangs in the balance and very well trimmed whoever cut that clip because to end with that one is a pretty interesting question. And I don't know if anyone has any really good answers for it. Yeah.

It hung in the balance the way it was clipped. What did change if they were high on Johnson? Is it just the fact that other candidates came forth that they were more impressed with? Is it the shiny new toy aspect of it all? Is it? And Frege also posited this in the clip.

Is it that if you're going to have a regime change, then you've got to have a regime change. So it can't just be half measures. It's got to be the whole thing. Could it be they were looking for a different type of general manager? I think that's a very fair question as well. Evan Gold would represent a departure from the past couple of GMs who were more in the tradition of hockey men than some of the new breed of management.

And Ryan Johnson, he's a former player. Jim Benning was a former player. Patrick Alvin played. None of these guys went to the U of T to do their law degree and NBA, right? So maybe they're returning to, now Mike Gillis was a bit of both because, He was a pretty good hockey player. Drafted very high. Didn't have a long career because of injuries, I guess, but was also a lawyer.

I actually had a friend of mine reach out to me. He was like, I went to law school with Evan Gold. He's a nice guy. Oh. You know, and I was like, oh, yeah. Like, what's he like? He's a nice guy. Nice guy.

And apparently his dad is a pretty famous criminal defense attorney in Ontario. So he doesn't, like, he's not. a former player. Yeah. Died in the wool hockey man. He's the son of a lawyer, right? And he is a lawyer himself. And it is possible, I suppose,

that that's what the Canucks are looking for. And it's interesting because we actually had this conversation on the show a few weeks ago. And we were talking about, I think I put it out there. Remember really carefully, I was like, listen, I don't want to sound like a snob or anything. But like, do you think that they should go

for someone with a little bit more of a I guess like a thinking background Right you know what as opposed to like I played the game I know the game Scholarly intellectual Right maybe just a different viewpoint entirely Not a one is not the one is good and one is bad just different But that's the new breed of Not only hockey execs but pro sports execs

Yes you know And a lot of teams have had a lot of success They've realized that like it doesn't really matter if the general manager or whoever your head of operations like it doesn't really matter if if you played the game before i mean it might help in some respects i suppose but like what you really want is a strategic thinker yeah and someone who can plan things out and think about issues and know how to weigh them properly and measure evidence measure data that sort of thing and yeah.

Now, I think this leaves a bunch of other questions if in fact, if in fact it is Evan Gold that they go with. You know, I'm still very much prepared for them to say, it's Ryan Johnson, sure, right? If in fact, though, how will Evan Gold's lack of experience as a general manager in the NHL be addressed by a team that has reportedly been loath to hire another rookie GM. Do they just say, well, we liked him so much that we were willing to trust that he's going

to be able to handle the spotlight, handle the media stuff, handle the responsibility of setting out a clear direction for this team because that is very important when you're selling to the fans and it does matter from a business perspective and a team perspective? or do they say we're going to bring in someone to be the public facing, you know, whether it's like Matt Sundeen in Toronto or, you know, Trevor Linden here before. No, it didn't work out,

but it doesn't mean you can't try again. Will they do something like that? Everything for me just remains very much in the air. And that includes Ryan Johnson, who if he doesn't get this job, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we hear an announcement out of Nashville. It's like we got our guy.

Yeah. There's a text into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket unsigned, but I'll read it because this is a sentiment that we've heard a lot of over the last little while. The volume of media people dumbfounded why they haven't hired RJ yet, Ryan Johnson, is astounding.

Maybe it's because this organization has been a joke for 15 plus years. He might be a great guy and a solid candidate, but it's totally valid to want an external candidate given how things have gone. Two answers or two points

to that. One, I think there's some validity to just going entirely outside the organization at this stage. I've said it with the player group. Don't bring back anyone. Got as much of it as you can. So if that logic applies to the player group, maybe it applies to the executive. Jamie Dodd has said it

multiple times. I don't know if the right word is dumbfounded why they haven't hired RJ yet. I think curious. is a word like what is going to happen to Ryan Johnson and I would actually put it in the same department as Mani Mahotra like I don't think anyone among the media group is going to be like how dare you for not hiring Ryan Johnson if it doesn't happen what will be curious like why you know because because it might represent some guidance for us as to what the thinking was

from the Canucks organization. What if they were all set to hire him and then Evan Gold was just such a good interview? Is it going to be, maybe, is it going to be like maybe there is an element within the Canucks ownership group that does want to cut ties to this previous regime?

Even if it's unfair to a guy like Ryan Johnson. You know, maybe. Or maybe they just, they like Ryan Johnson, but they don't think he's right for the job. I mean, that's possible. Sure. There's lots of people that I like and I think are, you know, smart people.

But then I, you know, I imagine them in certain roles. And I'm like, I don't know about that. I don't know if that's right for them. I don't know if that suits their strengths. I will say with the current regime. And I say current because they haven't exactly severed ties with all of it. Like, yes, Patrick Alvin was relieved of his duties as general manager, but apparently was offered some sort of demotion slash alternate job within the organization.

And Jim Rutherford's going to step away as the president of hockey ops, but he's still going to serve as the alternate governor and a senior advisor. You know, the cut isn't as clean as one might think with this regime that got them to where they are right now. Now, the only other thing I'll say with Ryan Johnson, why I read that text about media being dumbfounded, is this show in particular advocated for Johnson to be the general manager. We set it on countless occasions. We had our dream triumph, which doesn't sound like it's going to come.

come to fruition. And I've often stumped for Johnson. And I will continue to for this singular reason, something that he brings to the table that I don't think any other candidate can bring. He knows. Good looking. Handsome. He is good looking. Two things now. No, what? He knows how the organization works. And you can infer as much as you want and read as much as you want into that comment. I don't think I need to expand on that much, but if you want me to, I can. But he knows how the organization works. All of it. And I think that is a valuable trait.

And I think for an ownership group and executive that maybe is done a little bit of inward looking, I don't want to call it soul searching, but having that inflection moment after how badly things went, maybe, just maybe it wouldn't be the worst idea to have someone around that you think highly of that also knows everything about your organization. I think that matters.

The amount of times that I've heard about someone coming to the organization being like, I didn't realize that's how business was done around here. There's a lot of those anecdotes floating around. I don't know. I'm going to be dead honest. All of you have gone through job interviews or first dates or something. Everyone's putting their best foot forward. Everyone's trying to make it sound nice and neat and shiny and new.

And in a lot of ways it is. But there is inherent value in having someone that knows how things work. And I will leave it at that. There's also inherent value in a fresh perspective, though. There is. Right. But I'm just responding to that one text. No, I know. Right? Where it's like, why would you be dumb found out? Well, I'm dumbfounded because it feels like they've got a very good candidate in-house for the following reasons. But hey, if you want to go outside the family, you're more than one within your like powers and everything else. But also, there's nothing wrong with getting a fresh set eyes on something. Absolutely nothing wrong. So, so I'll admit

as a media guy, I have a lot of trouble, you know, really, really going to bat for one candidate over another because I don't watch them work. You know, with watching players on the Canucks, I'm perfectly confident in my abilities to watch hockey and kind of understand the game that I'm willing to put my opinion out there on players. but I don't know how these guys interviewed I don't know how you know all I hear is like I've heard these guys are nice guys good guys sharp guys right I don't talk to them

I don't know it's the same thing as prospects right like you and I I think frankly gives us a little bit of credibility that when it comes to prospects we're like yeah I don't know maybe this guy our lack of credibility gives us credibility but we don't pretend to know no I've got hard opinions on the guys on the Canucks and the guys in the league because I watched them.

I watched them play hockey. Sure. And I don't watch these guys work. So when you say like you've stumped pretty hard for Ryan Johnson or we've stumped pretty hard for Ryan Johnson, we've stumped for a general idea about the type of group. Isn't it Stan? Standing is also acceptable. What's stumping?

Stumping is just like what older people say. Okay. Yeah. Not this young generation. Never heard of four. Also, I think standing is even old now, too. Stamp. The stand video is like 20 years old, isn't it? Like, I feel like that was the thing of the past.

Arpin texts in and it says, lawyers need to have analytical skills and the ability to communicate. Don't think communication skills will be a problem for gold. Arpin, how many lawyers do you know? Because I know a lot of them and half of them cannot communicate. And just because you're a lawyer

doesn't mean like you're this incredible communicator. A lot of them are like, yeah, I don't want to go to court. I'm just perfectly happy to be in my office and working on contracts on that sort of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, like I don't think you should

read. I mean, look, I think if you can go to law school and pass the bar, I think that's a signal that you're pretty intelligent and that you can, you have executive function and that you're able to analyze things. But like communication skills,

you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't assume that of every lawyer. Yeah. And honestly, I can't wait for this thing to get buttoned up and done. This has been a long, protracted process. I can't even imagine. I mean, the nice thing. That's good, though, right? That's what we wanted.

Don't just be like, this is our guy and they hire them. They actually, like, looked for guys. Yeah. I would agree with a day or not. They did the thing that people wanted them to do. I'm not saying that I just wanted to be done. done. Yeah, like I'm not saying the process is wrong or flawed.

I'm with you. I'm glad that they're talking about it. Yeah, we've been talking about it for a long time. But it's very difficult to talk about a job search with the limited amount of information. With the limited amount of information. Other than the candidates, right? And again, I think there's probably an inherent bias with a lot of people that the reason that you like Ryan Johnson is because he has been around and you've spoken with him and you know his track record. You know they want a Calder Cup in Abbotsford together.

And you know that he's got a lot of playing experience and different. executive and advisory roles that he's played. Like there's a lot of familiarity there as opposed to Evan Gold where we're reading off the Boston Bruins website from three years ago about his CV. Could be a great candidate. He did co-write super bad. It's important to know.

And that's good too, right? He's got like dexterity. He knows what he's doing out there. So again, this thing also doesn't sound like it's coming to conclusion. I'm praying that it does, but you know, part of that clip that Fridge brought up was like, what's going on with Scott White?

there's another candidate that they would either like to talk to or, you know, is thought highly enough across the National Hockey League that he would also be a viable candidate. I will go back to our original point on this, which was at this stage of the rebuild, you need to get a lot of things right. So if this takes longer and you need to, you know, go and overturn some more stones and really dig deep on a lot of different things, then do it. You know, don't listen to the two guys on Sports Talk Radio. take your time. But it will be nice when they can put this part to bed. Because the other part of the early stages of the rebuild is there's a lot of work to be done. There's a lot of things that need to happen right now, including who's going to be your head coach,

what is the rest of your front office and executive going to look like preparation for the draft? Who's going to play on the team next year? And you'd like to see those decisions starting to be made under the vision of the new general manager relatively soon. Okay, it was full half hour, first half hour of Canucks talk. On the other side, we'll get into what happened last night in the Stanley Cup playoffs. I think the Flyers are officially done now. They seem done from the first five minutes of this series against Carolina, but now they're down three nothing.

The hurricanes have not lost a game in these Stanley Cup playoffs. We've also got some concerning news to pass along about Alfonso Davies, who is injured yet again. and I think it might be time for Jesse Marsh, that coach of Canada, to hope that Davies is available for them at the World Cup, but assume that he probably won't be. Before we go to break,

I do need to tell you about Jan Pro. Are you tired of miscleans or unreliable service? If you are, JanPro delivers consistent cleaning and responsive support you can count on. Start clean, stay clean, them today at janpro.ca. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. It's Canucks Central on SportsNet 650. From exclusive interviews to insider scoops and post-game breakdowns, we've got it all. Tune in weekdays 4 to 6 p.m. on radio and on demand through

your favorite podcast app. 632 on a Friday. It's a Fiesta Friday here on the Halperden and Brough show on Sports Night 650. Sometimes you got to let the Fiesta breathe a little bit. That's good. Yeah. We are in hour one of the program. Still in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid.

This is the 1170 Piles Street in Vancouver. This entire show, all of it, is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have debt? Yeah, you out there in Listenerland. Do you have debt? If you do, reach out to Sands and Associates during regular business hours, and they'll get back to you within 20 minutes. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com.

I have a good way to get into what happened last night in the NHL via and ask us anything. All right, let's hear it. Okay. You're going to have to follow along here. Okay, I'm paying attention. This comes from Warren the limping hiker. Ask us anything. Good morning.

Hi. I don't know why, but I'm finding the expression 100% is getting way overused. I would agree with that. 100%, buddy. And also, there's like an emoji for it, isn't there? 100. 100. 100.

Okay. Warren goes on and says, I used to not mind it, but now I'm getting a little tired of it. Are there any expressions that you get tired of or make you cringe slightly or roll your eyes a bit? And he says, keep up the great show. I always go to work with a smile on my face listening to you guys. And he said, 100%. Let's go. Okay.

So let's go is the obvious answer. but I'm going to go to like internet slang and um this one comes from Flyers Nation on X, formerly known as Twitter and it says no Matt Veib Michkoff on the ice for a five on three

is certainly a choice. Certainly a choice is one. Certainly a choice is one of those like if you kind of like use that over and over again. I know first of all, you're online too much and second of all, I'm not a big fan of you. I don't like that one at all.

Well, that's certainly a choice. You know? Like, it's just like it's an easy way. It's smarmy. It is smarmy. It's very smarmy. I don't care for it. It's internet smarmy.

Yeah. But that being said, no Matt Veig Mitchkoff on the ice for a five on three power play was certainly a choice by Rick Tocat last. night. Red Tocket did a thing.

And now that the Flyers are down 3-0 and the excitement of beating Pittsburgh is over and Flyers fans like giving Tocke at a break for just a second for getting them into the playoffs and even getting them into the second round of the playoffs, everyone is back to arguing about Mitchkoff again now in Philly and like the war is back on. And I actually can't figure out if Mitchcoff is. is like the Pedersen of Philly? Because that's what everyone in Philly seems to think. He's like, look what he did to Pedersen in Vancouver.

Like Pedersen never had issues under Travis Green or anything like that. And I digress. Or is he the Goldobin of Philadelphia? Not because he's Russian, but because there is this like element of fan that just think this guy can do no wrong. And sometimes when I watch Mitch Gough, I'm like, this guy's going to have to get a lot stronger and a little bit faster in order to play Stanley Cup playoff hockey because his intensity level out there sometimes is just lacking. Okay. Well, I don't think he can be the Goldobin because he's already dramatically outscored Goldobin in two years in his NHL career.

Then Goldobin has over the entirety of his NHL career. I think sometimes we forget how, just how ineffective gold open was, period, at the NHL level. He did nothing. Yeah. Like, at least, I mean, say what you will about Mitchcoff. He's put up back to back 20 goal campaigns. Yeah, yeah.

Right? I mean, so there's a difference there. I'll go back to your earlier point with Talk It. And I think people have almost forgotten what it felt like to be Pittsburgh in round one because it has gone so poorly for Philadelphia. And I don't know if you noticed this yesterday, the Mitchcoff thing was not the only issue. Rick Tocket was visibly displeased and dressed down

Trevor Zegris during the game at the bench and also had words for Travis Kinnakene in a very animated fashion. He was very disappointed. He was very demonstrative on the bench. He was very disappointed in the way the Flyers approached that game yesterday. I'm going to play some audio from Talket now. Sometimes I like to play Talket Audio

because you get those little snippets where you're like, I remember that from Vancouver, those little sayings, those little turns of phrase, the talkatisms, if you will, the talkisms. Things started to snowball on them. Yeah, that was a good one. When he meant to see pinball? Yeah, but it snowballed. Oh, he said pinball.

That's what it was. He said pinball when he wanted to say snowball. That's right. I'm like, I don't even know that you know what a snowball or a pinball does. Anyway, here is Tocket following last night's loss to the Carolina Hurricanes that put the Flyers down 03 in the series. Here's a talkatism for you. Rick Talkett.

The things that went wrong tonight, you know, power play, finishing, discipline, these have been things that have popped up all year long. Is there something to be said about the playoffs, you know, kind of illuminating your inherent weaknesses as a team? And is that kind of what happened tonight? Yeah, I mean, of course, it's, you know, it's an experience. It's not just saying young guys, I'm saying as a team, just knowing, kind of sometimes you've got to read the room, you know, If the officials are calling penalties, you can tell, they're antsy.

It's not the right time to go and do something even borderline. And I think we do that. And then sometimes I feel the puck, you got the puck, and you just got to get it down low. You can't try to make a play out of nothing. I think we tried that a couple of times. The first period, we didn't. We moved the puck well. We got it by them against Carolina.

I told you you got to hit singles. And we hit singles in the first period, and then we started trying to hit home runs. and that's what happens. They capitalize on that. They're good at that. A bunch of people have texted in. Mischoff is actually the Kuzmenko. Yeah.

I am. That's a good one. There you go. Problem solved. And you know why? As apparently, no, apparently Mitchkoff last summer

did a bunch of traveling. Oh yeah. Do you go to Bali? I think it was like Dubai or something like that. Did you find a set of stairs? Yeah, right? Do you remember that? Do you remember that?

Offseason. because Benko's like, don't worry, I'll train. Who's his agent? Was it Danny Millions? Yeah, Danny Millions. Okay, right? And he was saying, like, don't worry, we found like this great area where he can train in Bali or wherever he went.

I'm like, you know where else is a good place to train in a gym? Yeah, gyms are great. You know? They got all kinds of equipment. Stair climbers, if you will. But anyway, Mitchcoff need to have a big offseason of training and come into camp in really good shape and prove talk it wrong.

Well, okay, there's another element here that I think when the series is done and it probably will be soon for the flyers, they're going to look back on this and they're going to say when we came up against the superior opponent as opposed to the one we played in the first round, we kind of got exposed. Not unsimilar to the conversations

Kinex fans had with Talket after they got past Nashville in the first round of the playoffs and then came up against Edmonton and they just couldn't generate enough. eventually, I've always said, like, I like talk as a coach. I think he's a good coach and he's great for certain situations. But I think if he's going to ever develop and I'm not sure it's going to happen, but he's going to need to get beyond this notion that sometimes,

and not sometimes, but the majority of the time, the best thing to do is just be, just survive for as long as possible. Like, I think that series that they beat Nashville in was his kind of series. Because it was like, you just kind of had a staring contest until someone blinked. And the longer that you hung around, the better it was. And Nashville, Nashville didn't have enough game breakers. Exactly. Right.

Yeah. And the idea is, eventually you hang around long enough that you get a bounce in the hockey gods reward you. And I'm like, that's okay if you're an inferior team. But eventually when it comes with time to win, if you really want to be an elite team, you have to do more, right? Well, he, and don't forget that he realized that. he realized that he had to evolve

and that he couldn't just come back the next year and say all right we're going to get back to you know structure and all that sort of stuff and all the buzzwords that we were talking about and he actually remember he came up with some new buzzwords and we were like I don't know if those those ones work but he also

tried to evolve his system and it did not work and a lot of that was personnel yeah but I think a lot of it was coaching probably yep yeah and he he had as things that he's comfortable with. Singles, not home runs, this hilarious.

Because if you watch baseball right now, everyone's like, you should try and hit home runs all the time. That's how we play baseball now. I don't know what to tell you. No one does singles anymore, but everyone does home runs. We're trying to hit home runs on 02 pitches. Right. I mean, Adnet said it in our show yesterday.

Baseball right now is you try and prevent the other team from hitting home runs. That's pitching. And then when you get to the plate, you try and hit home runs, that's, you know, I just explained baseball in 15 seconds. And to hear someone say the opposite is quite amusing. That game, last like by the way in listenerland how many of you are actively

watching that series right now and I know it could be over soon so it might not be much more time to answer this question but how many of you are actively watching that series because that series is a grind it is tough to watch and Garrett Rank who was the lead referee yesterday I think it was Kyle Raymond that was the other guy they did not do a great job of making that more aesthetically pleasing they called 21 minor penalty this night

it was start start start Start Stop choppy hockey. Well, how about a five-on-three being symbolic of the Flyers issues? The series after Ottawa had a five-on-three that became symbolic of their issues against the same team. Do you give credit to Carolina for their outstanding penalty kill? I didn't see the five-on-three last night for Philly, but Phillies, I've seen their power play. It's terrible. They just don't have the guys out there.

They don't have the guys out there. I thought the Ottawa 5 on 3 Like I I don't think it has much to do with Carolina It's been good It's 30 for 32 The penalty kill so far But Ottawa's 5 on 3 was just a disaster

It was atrocious Like it was nothing that Carolina was doing Right It was just Ottawa couldn't get set up The Flyers are Check notes Three for there's an internet slang Do you like

Oh I hate that one Checks notes Oh I hate that one The Flyers pathetic power play Is check notes three for 33 in the playoffs. Now, it's funny because I was reading Charlie O'Connor's post game rap yesterday from PHLY Sports.

And he had the sort of like little throwaway line. He's like, it's amazing that this power play is this bad because Tocke was lauded for his powerplay work when he took the flyer's job. And I was like, really? Lotted? Really? I don't, really? I don't recall it.

I don't recall it being awful, but I don't remember it like leading his cover. letter for his resume about the power play. Hey, I was fine, but if I'm like, if that's what they're thinking in Philly, like I don't, you got a bad read on that situation. Again, I may be wrong. I may be wrong, but I thought that was an interesting wrinkle from yesterday.

Okay. I do want to ask you about Alfonso Davies and what's going on here, what the latest is? Because the World Cup checks notes, starts pretty soon. Yeah. next month even.

35 days away to the start of the World Cup. And Alfonso Davies, for the fourth time in this soccer season, 2025, 2026, has been sidelined from Byron Munich with an injury. This time, and perhaps more distressingly than all the other injuries, it's a re-aggravation of the previous hamstring strain that sat him out from March 11th to April 2nd. Now, do you need hamstrings to run? not if you're Darren Ravel, but everyone else, yes, you need hamstrings to run. So if you want to go back, since March of 2025, let's just go back 13 months, 14 months, okay?

Fonzie tears his ACL playing for Canada. That sidelines him from March to December of last year, right? So he misses nine months of action with a torn ACL. Comes back in the end of December and then by mid-February of 20, 26 suffers a muscle fiber tear while playing for Byron. That one sidelines him.

Not for very long, actually. We thought it would be worse, but it wasn't too long. He was sidelined for a couple of weeks. Makes his return in mid-March. Actually gets through nearly a month of action. Then has the hamstring strain. Well, that's okay. Comes back in mid-April,

plays a handful of games, and then this most recent one actually happened in Champions League. Or that was the last time that he played anywhere and they're lost to PSG. Now they're saying that this is going to be a four to six week injury. Did he play the second leg against PSG? And he came in late and people said like it was too late, right?

Right. He needed to come in earlier. Is that when he got hurt though in the second leg? I got to double. You know what? I'll have to double check exactly. It doesn't really matter. It doesn't really matter because the point is

is that he got injured in the first week of May with the World Cup 35 days away, right? The announcement of this injury today, World Cup is 35 days away. It was in the second leg. That's what I thought. He came on in like the 77th minute and they were like,

he should have come on earlier because he's making a real impact. Yeah. Canadian Soccer Daily writes, Davies provided a late assist to Harry Kane in the match as Byron's comeback attempt fell short. But was there any evidence that he was limping around? It looked great in the match. You look good? Yeah. But it just,

the match ran out of time. So with a guy like Davies, and you hear this lots with the players that the strength of their game and their effectiveness is predicated on speed. It's almost like one of them fancy F1 cars, you know? They got to have everything perfect, everything pristine if they're going to go.

Even the slightest thing is off can't go at its top speed and therefore it's not as effective as it would be. Maybe if it was just like a little bit of a slower car, but doesn't break down all the time. How many injuries does Canada have right now? Too many. Too many.

Like Davies is obviously the big one. Yeah. But Alistair Johnson came back for Celtic, which is good. Bombito's yet to return. That's bad. So their backline is... Their backline is a big question mark right now. Put it this way. Right now, the one silver lining in all of this is that Canada has played

all of its matches for the better part of a year and a bit without Alfonso Davies. And that's probably good prep for the World Cup because I cannot see him being ready to go. I just can't. If he's going to be out four to six with a hamstring. strain. How can you expect him to go and jump into a starting 11 for a massive match in the group stage of the World Cup? He may be a guy that Marsh could potentially bring off the bench in limited action. But even then, all you're really doing is running the risk of him reaggregating the injury, then being ruled out for the entire tournament. There might be a silver lining that they have

figured out how to play without him. They do have pretty decent options at the outside back position. Like Lorea's emerged as a guy. They can play with regularity. They like Nico Sigur. So he's an option there. Obviously, Alster Johnson's an outside back as well. You just, when you take the big picture approach, though, the big picture is this sucks because your best player isn't going to be available. Yeah. And there's no really good way to rectify that. Do you think he won't be available? I'd lean towards no right now. Yeah, I think you have to prepare as if he won't. And they have. Yeah. The last year has been preparation. Maybe not not intentionally, but preparation for life without Alfonso Davies.

Because they played a lot of matches. And some of them are fairly noteworthy matches, right, where he hasn't been available. And you just hope that... I just want them to get out of the damn group. Well, it's going to be harder now, right? If they could find a way to get him help. They got a bit of a gift with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

They got a bit of a gift in the group. With the group. Yeah, with the group overall, frankly. Although Switzerland's probably going to win it. There's way too many people under. estimating how good Switzerland is and how much talent they have in that squad. Well, I've just assumed Switzerland's going to win the group. That's good. That means you're one of the wise

ones. Okay. Because there's a lot of people like, his group's wide open. I'm like, well, Switzerland's a favorite. Yeah. You know? Like, and I think a significant favorite, too. Uh, if you look at the betting, yeah. And the other thing, too, though, is you can't discount what home pitch advantage is going to mean to Canada. True. So, when the when Canada got that match, you didn't go, I went, the one at

BC Place where they absolutely pistol whipped Honduras. I know Honduras is an inferior opponent, but, but, but you saw the benefit, not just of what it means for a host nation to be playing in front of a frenzied home crowd, how daunting it is for the opponent? Well, do you remember when South Korea and Japan hosted? There's countless...

There was a massive advantage for those teams. This is South Korea get to the... Yeah, there's countless examples of the host team, especially early in tournaments, getting the bump from the crowd. The other thing is with the way that Marsh deploys his team, with that frenetic, narrow, high press, turn the ball over style,

the extra energy you can procure from a home crowd really plays into your strengths. And I know that not having Davies is, again, it's a massive loss. There's no way around it. But they are perhaps better suited to deal with that loss than a lot of teams because they've been playing with on them for the better part of a year.

Some other things on the soccer front, by the way. speaking of Canada Soccer. Canada Soccer officially through its support behind the Vancouver white caps, not surprisingly, to stay in Vancouver. I saw that. What did you make of that statement from Canada soccer? Who would have been behind that?

Who would have been nudging Canada soccer to say something? Probably the white caps, but also probably people at Canada soccer. Canada soccer is very reliant on what the whitecaps do because the white caps are one of three MLS programs in Canada. And by that extension, one of the three high-level MLS academies in the country. So those three Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, act as very important breeding grounds for elite-level youth players in their respective provinces. In the case of the Whitecaps, for those of you that don't know, their academy, they have satellite academies in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, even Ontario, where they bring young players from across Canada and bring them into this high-performance elite environment.

and train players with regularity. Those kids go to U Hill during the day. They reenroll in school at U.S. so they can train out at UBC every day of the week. And if you go and you look at the youth levels of Canada soccer, it's littered with academy products from TFC, Montreal, and Vancouver, right? So the White Cups being in Vancouver is very important to Canada soccer. And to lose that and not just the high-level team, but also the academy,

I think that's part of the reason why Canada soccer is releasing statements like they did yesterday. Matt in Vancouver, and I'm putting you on the spot, Hillary. That's fair. Let's do it. Who cares? Okay, ask us anything. Is there any update with Soccer Canada potentially having a training facility in Surrey? I wanted to ask you a follow-up question.

Go. If the White Caps were to leave, what would become of their training facility at UBC and could Canada soccer use that? Probably. Yeah. Surrey put in a bid. Actually, Surrey put in a singular bid with four different areas. I think it was like Newton Athletic Park.

the one out in South Surrey which is like coastal and Bimo and then Newton Athletic Park and Cloverdale sorry that's all of them so they are positioning themselves to be one of the hubs but I guess it makes total sense that a gorgeous facility like they have at UBC if the white caps were to leave

that would be a like a turnkey operation for Canada soccer would they want it would that be their main soccer facility in in the West Coast yeah without a no no no no but like would it be candidates main soccer facility because the travel out here, I get the weather would be an advantage in that you could have it year round,

but the travel would be tough. Their ultimate goal of Canada soccer is to have multiple satellite facility, so not just have a centralized one. Because that's always been the problem, is it's been centralized in Ontario. And then it's like, you come to us and it makes it very difficult. Like, I know that at the young grassroots level of Canada soccer right now,

they are doing more provincial identification camps for talent than they ever have. Like there was one here recently at the U-15 and U-17 levels where they had just a collection of British Columbia-based players where they scouted the high-level leagues and put together like a three-day camp just to evaluate U-15 players for the Canadian national program. And it used to be they would have a sort of like big centralized camp and guys would come in from all over the place. But they're really trying to expand their. reach so that they don't miss out on players. And now that they've got their funding worked out a little bit better,

they can actually, they can actually afford to do this. And you need centers like this, right? Where you know that it's like a hub. And the coaches that are coming from all over Canada have a place to post up for a week. And, you know, it's accessible. And it's big for the West Coast.

And it can allow, you know, players from Alberta, it makes the travel for them a lot easier. even some of the prairies it makes it a lot easier than going back east. So it's important, but don't discount how important the white caps have been to the Canadian soccer ecosystem. It's a big part of what they do. And there's been a number, a number of players, especially at the youth levels that have gone through those academies. Okay. What do we got coming up?

Coming up at 7 o'clock, we got a hit from A.J. Reminder, it's Ask Us Anything Friday. So we got a $100 gift card to AJ's to give away. best ask us anything's in Dunbar or text line is 650, 650, 650. Right after AJ, we're going to talk to Patrick Johnson from the province about the white caps and everything that's going on with BC Place with this secret proposed bidder group that might be hanging out there in the ether. We can also talk about the revenue gap that he wrote about for the province.

That's going up at 705 and then at 7.30. We're going to get back into the hockey talk. Ian McIntyre is going to join the program. Canucks and NHL reporter from sports then. That's important because IMA is on the road covering. the Minnesota-Colado series, which is in the midst of a three-day break until it gets back underway tomorrow in Minnesota.

So we'll talk to IMAC about that. So we got a big hour on the horizon. Lots to get into. Don't go anywhere. You're listening to the Halford-Inbuff Show on SportsNet 650.