Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Have To Raise The Bar

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk Sidney Crosby's new contract with The Athletic Pittsburgh's Sean Gentille (28:27), plus they discuss comments from Canucks GM Patrik Allvin on the importance of raising the bar this season (39:20). 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.

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Good morning, Vancouver. 6.01 on a Tuesday. It is Halpert. It is Bradford. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you. Hello, hello. And we have a new member. It's the fourth member, the fifth member of the show. Intern Arash in the house. Good morning, good morning to you. Hello, hello. And we have a new member, the fourth member, the fifth member of the show, intern Arash in the house. Good morning, Arash.

Morning. Good morning. Arash has already surpassed the dog's work rate. He fixed the television this morning. Oh, that's good. Nicely done. We were working on that Crosby clip. We had more bigger fish to fry.

Yeah, that was weird. That was weird how Crosby's voice changed slightly, just a little bit when he mentioned that he had conversations with the Vancouver Canucks. I can't believe he said that. He admitted it. He admitted it right out loud. We heard it right there. Just mind-blowing.

I'm assuming the change in his voice was because of the excitement about potentially joining Vancouver. You are listening to the Halpern and Ruff Show. Maybe the disappointment that I just couldn't get over the line and he had to settle for staying in Pittsburgh. For $8.7 million. Fine. We've got a big show ahead on the Halpern & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

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North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec. So, we've got a really big show ahead.

As mentioned, we've already introduced a new fifth character. For the entire week, we have five guests on the show. Five guests? Five guests on the show as well. I'm not talking. You're not going to. You're not going to. You know who we'll be talking?

Sean Gentile from The Athletic in Pittsburgh. We'll talk to him about the big news yesterday. Sidney Crosby signing an extension that'll keep him in Pittsburgh until 2027. Did you see the video, the photo ops? Just so happened that on the same day that Crosby's extension was announced, he just happened to be out in the community delivering season tickets to Pittsburgh Penguins season ticket holders. What a coincidence, Jason. That was part of his extension. Community delivering season tickets to Pittsburgh Penguins season ticket holders.

What a coincidence, Jason. That was part of his extension. He's got to go do a little more work in the community. Sid, what have you done for us lately? Not only did he take his haircut. We haven't missed the playoffs two straight years, buddy. Yep. Go deliver these season's tickets, you bum. And it just so happened that the media showed up on somebody's stoop

to interview Sidney Crosby while delivering tickets wearing a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey funny uh seeing you here guys uh got an announcement to make so Sean Gentile is gonna I don't know if he was on the stoop by the way we can ask him that question Sean Gentile is gonna join us at 6 30 from Pittsburgh seven o'clock this is very cool. 15-year NFL veteran. One of the most accurate kickers of his era. Former Cincinnati Bengals great Shane Graham is going to join the program. And this is because on the weekend, Brough and I, and I think it was Martin Ego as well, were texting back and forth about the NFL kickers.

They're just too good now. They're too accurate. They're too strong. They're too strong. Their legs are huge. They don't miss from 50 yards anymore. It's just a routine thing. It's like an extra point. So with that, like, how did it get to be this way?

How are kickers so good now? And oddly enough, Shane Graham, who runs a kicking school and has been coaching a bunch at the collegiate level, was interviewed in the Washington Post for this exact topic of conversation. So ADOG reached out. Shane Graham going to join the program at 7 o'clock. 7.30, Brennan Batchelor,

play-by-play voice here, Vancouver Canucks. Canucks took care of business at Young Stars. The resilient Young Stars team rallied yesterday for a 4-3 win in their finale. They go 3-0 up in Penticton. Batch was on the call for all of it. So we'll talk to him at 7.30.

8 o'clock. Pains me to say it this way, but proud Scottish international Ryan Gould, also a member of the Vancouver Whitecaps, is going to join us on the program. We will talk to Ryan about making his re-entrance into the Scottish national team. Setting up Stuart Armstrong, his Scottish buddy, on the weekend for a goal against San Jose and the Whitecaps are in action tomorrow night in Houston. Then at 8.30, the fifth and final guest on the program,

the head coach of the Abbotsford Canucks, Manny Malhotra, is going to join the program. We'll talk to him about everything that happened and all the good things that he saw from young stars in Penticton. We'll take a look ahead to the Abbotsford Canucks season. We can also ask him about his kid, Laddie. You sent along some clips yesterday. Man, his kid is a rising star in the BCHL.

Yeah, Caleb Malhotra is starting to make a name for himself in Chilliwack, and it's only the preseason. So we got a big show ahead. I don't know what becomes of what we learn. It might just not happen today, folks. If you want to send them in, we'll probably find a time to read them, maybe right after Ryan Gould. I don't imagine we'll talk to him for half an hour.

So maybe there'll be some time after Ryan Gould, before Manny Malhotra, send them in to the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. Let's get into what happened here. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was...

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As mentioned, those resilient, plucky Vancouver Canucks Young Stars, they overcame a two-goal deficit. Maybe it helped that the guys had played in the NHL last season. I don't know. You tell me. But they won. They won. And at the end of the day, that's all that matters,

winning the Young Stars tournament. They finished first place at the Young Stars with a 4-3 win comeback victory over the calgary flames on monday afternoon at the south okanagan event center uh our steve bain scored riley patterson scored deegan mcmillan scored call him deager and vilmer allrickson vilmer He's my favorite Vilmer. He was the best Vilmer at the tournament by far. He scored his second goal of the tournament. And maybe he's a guy that we can talk to about with Manny Malhotra. What you saw of him. Long story short with this guy, big boy.

He's a big guy. And Manny Malhotra has said throughout the tournament that he's been taking the puck to the net and he's been rewarded for that. He was drafted, I think in the fourth round in 2023. Then he came over to North America. He said, I want to learn the North American game. He went and played for Guelph in the OHL.

Didn't knock it out of the park. It wasn't like he was scoring a hundred goals in the OHL. The athletic wrote of him, a towering winger. Ulrichsen casts a large shadow given his 6'6", 215-pound frame. His D1 production, D plus 1 production, which means his draft plus 1 production at the OHL level was pedestrian, pedestrian. But he genuinely possesses some encouraging tools,

including a promising puck skills and decent feet, especially when waited for a man his size. So we all like when the Canucks have a potential power forward in the lineup. So, you know, this is what this tournament is supposed to do. It's supposed to give opportunities for young players who we might not know about. And he comes in, and I don't think many people could have even known Wilmer Eriks Olriksen. I keep calling him Wilma Erikson.

Yeah, don't do that. Wilma. Wilma. You can't use the young boy's voice all the time. It's Wilma Erickson. Wilma. You can't use the young boy's voice all the time. He's a young star. It's not a voice.

He's a young star. At any rate, the Canucks went 3-0. Just dominated the tournament, by the way. It's a good start to the season. You want to get off on that front foot, Jason? They didn't dominate the tournament. They won all three of their games

but they had to come from behind in two games. They wanted to make it difficult for themselves. They wanted to challenge themselves a little bit. They did that on purpose.

That's how good the young stars are. I did enjoy how Manny was asked about the resilience of the group and he kind of played along

but I know probably in his head he was like it's a young stars tournament and we're not talking about resilience here. We put this team together four days ago. They don't have Stars tournament. We're not talking about resilience here. We put this team together four days ago. They don't have any identity. We've got a

strong culture here at the Young Stars tournament. We've been working on things. We have slogans. We're working on a few of them. We have leaders like Deegan McMillan. Deegan was leading the charge yesterday by the way. You don't see a lot of Deegans. You don't see a lot of Vilmers though either.

Okay, where do you want to go next? Because we can do the hockey stuff or we can get to Monday Night Football and then circle back on the hockey. Let's stay on hockey. Let's stay on Sid signing and people having takes. Takes. By the way, that has become one of my least liked words because I'm

in the take business. Okay. So I hear all the time like terrible take. That's a bad take. It's a bad take. Oh, you don't like this take? Your take on takes. My take on takes? Like I cannot,

I can't even stand that word now when people are like, terrible take. Just say, you disagree. You know? You disagree.

Do you just want people to say opinion again instead of take? Bring back opinions. Yeah. Make opinions again. This is almost as bad as like we are efforting

to get someone on the show Yeah well what the hell does that Mean we're just trying We're efforting to get them but that's like a total radio Thing right like it's like we're efforting That yeah it's like we're trying it's One step up from trying okay Sorry I got mad

610 in the morning I mean it's an it's an awkward Take on takes but I'll accept it okay Sid signed and people had opinions about all the money he left on the table. The Athletic called Crosby an unselfish

figure at a time when sports is infiltrated with such greed that professional athletes are even further from reality. I saw one estimate

suggested that Crosby has left throughout his career over $40 million on the table just because he's always been satisfied with like, how about $8.7 million per year? Yep. My number's 87, $8.7 million per year, still a lot of money. So I'll take that. His agent guaranteed like a chain smoker, just like miserable.

I'm sure his agent is pretty happy having Sidney Crosby as a client. The question, I suppose, is whether this will pay off for Sid and the Penguins. I'm sure Crosby would willingly make this sacrifice if it meant another shot at a Stanley Cup. That's what he's all about. He's all about winning and, I guess, loyalty. He probably doesn't even need a guarantee of a cup, you know, just an honest chance at it. Play some big games, leave it all on the ice, et cetera, et cetera. At the very least, you know, making the playoffs would help.

The Penguins have missed the playoffs in the last two seasons. And Sid said, I think winning is the most important thing to me. And I think taking a discount is understanding the dynamic and how it works and trying to give the team the best possible chance to be successful ultimately if you got to go out there and do your best and do your job I think I'm more focused on that than the number I guess and Kyle Dubas the guy who's now under a lot of pressure to make sure that this happens for the Penguins if If he thought he escaped the pressure in Toronto, he hasn't. He said Sid is making a tremendous personal sacrifice

in an effort to help the Penguins win both now and in the future. As he has done for his entire career, I don't think they're going to do it. Prove me wrong, Sid. Prove me wrong, Pittsburgh Penguins. Prove me wrong, Sid. Prove me wrong, Pittsburgh Penguins. Prove me wrong, kids. Prove me wrong. I just don't see it.

Halford, convince me I'm wrong. You're not. Here's the take. The take of takes is that this contract isn't about Sidney Crosby at all. This contract is entirely about Kyle Dubas and what Kyle Dubas is now under immense pressure to do over the next. Good take. Thank you.

Yeah, yeah. You know who really signed a contract? Kyle Dubas. A contract. With the devil. Yeah. I don't know what that means. I don't think that's it.

But Kyle Dubas now has an inordinate amount of pressure to turn this thing around, turn it around in a hurry, and do it on the understanding that it's your star player that has made this, and it is a big sacrifice, right? I know people are going to say $8.7 million is still a lot of money. It absolutely is. But it's at a time where Lucas Raymond is getting paid eight, and we'll get to that in a minute. I just wonder, I hate saying it this way. I wonder if it's a bit naive from the Crosby camp,

thinking that him taking a haircut of this nature is really going to translate into turning around a team that is significantly flawed. Like, let's call it what it is. They're a flawed team. They haven't made the playoffs in two years. They've got a coach that doesn't seem to understand how to figure out to

unlock a power play, which should be great. Majority of their guys are on the wrong side of 30. The Carlson thing, I think we can say, up until this point, has not worked out. And now you freed up some money for Dubas at a time where free agency's already come and gone. Every year some money for dubas at a time where well free agency's already

come and gone every year that crosby plays is a year closer to the age of 40 and there's still no real sign that pittsburgh in this offseason has made enough changes to get them over the bar just to be a playoff team never mind a playoff contender and a stanley cup contender and they don't have a bunch of stud prospects because they've been a successful team. And they've traded away a lot of draft picks. Unless Rutger McGroarty really turns into a player for them. And soon, I don't know. I think this is also, I don't know if I'd use,

maybe he is being naive. I don't know. But I also think it's loyalty to not only the organization, but some of the players that he's played with. It's loyalty to Geno. It's loyalty to Chris Letang, guys he's won cups with. Geno's 38. And if you watched him at times last year, he looked 48.

No, I know. You know, Chris Letang is getting pretty old. You know, are we really expecting Eric Carlson to have another renaissance year? He's 34 years old. It's an old team. And then you've also got guys like even Brian Rust, who's got four years left on a deal, $5 million cap.

He's 32. Ricard Raquel's 31. You know, I know you can still play into league in your 30s. I'm not like, as soon as you turn 30, you're done. Look at Sid is the best example of that. He's 37. But Sid is a special player. I watched them last year, and I think if they had a half-decent power play,

one that at least wasn't terrible, they would have made the playoffs. I don't think they would have won the Cup, though. And how is that going to get easier? What is Kyle Dubas going to have to do? How many rabbits is he going to have to pull out of his hat in order to turn this team into not just a playoff team, but a Cup contender over the next three years, while at the same time, Gino will get even older,

Letang will get even older, Carlson, Sam, and Sid. Like, they've wasted great years, two great years from Sid. I think we give Sid the benefit of the doubt that he can keep playing this way for, I don't know, the next couple of years, but not many guys do it at 40. No, and not many guys have the kind of year that he had this year at 37. Wasting it, is it one way to put it? I think the other one is there's almost, I go back to naivety.

I think there's some naivety on the side of the Penguins as well, that it's like, well, we're just going to keep the thing together. We're just going to keep doing it. We're going to keep running it back, and it'll work because it's worked in the past. I keep looking at this and saying, where's the missing piece, right? What's going to tie this room together? Where's the rug? Like, what's going to tie this whole thing together?

Because all the, I mean, and it's not Rutger McGroarty, right? What's going to tie this room together? Where's the rug? Like, what's going to tie this whole thing together? Because all the, I mean, and it's not Rutger McGroarty, right? What's going to be the difference maker? What they're saying is. Sometimes it's just, you got to go through the process of rebuilding the team. Because Crosby's quote yesterday, and it was the one that most people led with was, I think winning is the most important thing to me. And I think that taking this discount is understanding the dynamic and knowing how it works, trying to give the team the best possible chance to be

successful. Like, that's cut and dry. He didn't say, I took a discount so I could hang out with Gino. I didn't take a discount so I could play a couple more years with LeTang. And Carlson, he took a discount because he wants to win, and he felt that was the best way to help them win. Now, the question is, how do they go about doing

that? And if you look at their roster right now, it's not all that dissimilar from the one that missed the playoffs last year. I'll say this. There is one opportunity here for Dubas with cap flexibility during the year, and it's to make a trade of significance, like something that is going to tilt the skills. They're tough to do. They're tougher to do in season than they are out of season.

How is he going to pull that off with all the money they've already got committed to? Things happen in the NHL. LTIR or something like that? Some situation like that? And things happen in the NHL. We've seen it before

where teams get off to bad starts or some guy gets his nose at a joint or there's a massive injury or some team underperforms and then they're like, okay, we're moving on. Things happen. Jim Rutherford is good as that. Shouldn't have let that guy go and if there's

a guy that can make a trade it's jim rutherford pick up the phone kyle uh for the record i hope i'm wrong i hope halfers wrong if sid is committed to playing out of his career in pittsburgh if it's not the canucks that win the cup while crosby is still playing i hope it's the penguins that would be one of the greatest stories in NHL history if it happened. Of course, the greatest story in NHL history, the greatest would be if Sid just got fed up with Pittsburgh, say, I told you,

winning is the most important thing to me and now I'm going to Vancouver. I'm glad you're bringing this up again. Yeah, because I do wonder, I know he's got a three-year contract extension and what's being written out of Pittsburgh is now, well, now we know. We can finally put this story to bed. What if, let me just throw it out there. We can have this conversation with Sean Gentile.

What if the Penguins suck this year? What if they're, you know, what if they just look really, really bad? Because there is that possibility. Again, these guys, these first ballot Hall of Famers, guys like Sid and Gino and Eric Carlson, you know, again, great players, but they old.

Yep. Right? They're not going to get better. Like, it's hard to see them getting better. I know Eric Carlson had a bit of a resurgence in his career that caused him to end up in Pittsburgh. But there's not many players that get, you know, two resurgences in their career.

I'm not saying he was awful last season. I just don't think it was a smart trade in the beginning anyway. Like, why? You've already got Letang. Why bring in Carlson? I just, I don't understand. Go and get something else as opposed to this puck-moving defenseman that not only didn't fix your power play, seemed to make it worse.

Yeah. Well, that was a scary thing, was that he came in and almost disrupted whatever they had going fix your power play, seemed to make it worse. Yeah. Well, that was a scary thing, was that he came in and almost disrupted whatever they had going on the power play. And they don't have Gensel anymore. Just had someone text him that, and no more Gensel, too. There is a sentiment out there

that if you look at the career arc and trajectory in San Jose, Carlson after year one, there was a noticeable incline in terms of familiarity and then point production. So there could be that that you're holding on to. But again, as you mentioned, he's a lot older than he was when he first started at San Jose.

I mean, maybe the prediction, if we're going to talk about predictions or takes, is that Sully will get fired. And they'll try and bring in a coach that can change the way they play. Maybe the coach is like, I work well with older players. I don't know. That was a hot take. Right? Okay. I want to finish what happened with last night.

He also works with the seniors. Imagine that's the angle. He's been working at an old folks home. Yeah. I can get him around. He'll be fine. Okay. I do want to focus on. Everyone sit down. We're going to do some knitting now. I can get him around. He'll be fine. Okay. I do want to focus on...

Everyone sit down. We're going to do some knitting now. Do some arts and crafts. I want to focus on Monday Night Football real quickly here. Very interesting game last night. The Atlanta Falcons, despite not playing very well for three quarters of a football game, and despite a sort of erratic performance from their veteran QB coming off a torn Achilles, no, not Aaron Rodgers, it's Kirk Cousins.

Kirk Cousins puts together, now, what world are we living in, Jason? Listen to this. A flawless last minute drive to win a game in prime time. Kirk Cousins, who is this guy? 22 to 21. The Falcons beat the Eagles on Monday night.

But the story... Speaking of old guys, it was a good week for the old guys. Aaron Rodgers got a win. Yep. Kirk Cousins got a win. And very anti-Kirk Cousins win. None of it made sense.

I'm like, what's going on here? Why is Kirk Cousins doing the job in primetime? But the story in the aftermath, unfortunately, not about lovable Uncle Kirk and the Atlanta Falcons. It was the knives and cleavers that are out in Philadelphia for Nick Sirianni and this Eagles team. Now, I don't know if you remember this last year, but the Eagles collapsed quite spectacularly.

And part and parcel with that late season collapse was several games in which they led going in the final two minutes of a football game and ultimately lost. The killer yesterday was with 146 left in the game on third down, they elected to run a pass play out of the backfield for Saquon Barkley. It was a good play. It was a great play.

Barkley dropped the ball. It was a good. How are you arguing with that play? They had it. How am I arguing with it? You run the risk when you throw the ball that if it's incomplete, you ruin it. It was a perfect throw.

He dropped the ball. That's the risk that you run when you throw the football. You know what happens if you run the football? I love your reaction. We should get the video of Halford reacting. It's like I'm just explaining the rules of football to you. So Saquon Barkley, he's a professional football player. Part of being a running back, I don't know if you know this,

is catching the occasional ball. Ball's right professional football player. Part of being a running back, I don't know if you know this, is catching the occasional ball. Ball's right in his hand. He says after the game, I let my team down. Yeah, you did because you dropped an easy pass. It's called risk assessment. They had the play dialed up perfectly and he dropped the ball. I don't know what to say. If you drop the ball.

I would trust my professional athletes to catch the football. I would trust my professional running back to run the football with two downs left on the clock with a minute 46 left. They could have salted the game away. I don't want to fight with you over the Eagles. I'm glad they lost. I don't even like the Eagles. I'm glad they lost too, actually.

I was pretty happy for Kirk Cousins. And then there was an incident. We'll talk about this with Shane Graham because in the first half of the game, the Eagles refused to kick field goals. They went for it twice on fourth down, including one on fourth and four. And it's funny. ESPN's got this graphic now.

I don't even know where they do the math, but it's the stop or go meter on fourth down, like if you should go for it or not. Oh, yeah. But when it gets into the green for go, there's different shades of green. It's like how much you should go for it or not oh yeah and but when it gets into the green for go there's different shades of green it's like how much you should go so there's light green which is like yeah you can go yeah but it's almost like a yellow light and then there's the dark green which is like you need to go for it so they went go for it on fourth down on the light green didn't get it

they don't kick a field goal and what happens they lose by one point at the end of the game. So, Sirianni under serious heat in Philadelphia, but good on Kirk Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons for pulling that one out. 22-21 victory. That was the Monday Night Football story. Okay, when we come back from break, we're going to talk to Sean Gentile from The Athletic in Pittsburgh

about the Sidney Crosby extension. Lots of things to ask Sean about what's next for this team. Before we go to break, Lots of things to ask Sean about what's next for this team. Before we go to break, I do need to tell you about JanPro, the leaders in commercial cleaning and janitorial. If your workplace demands a clean environment, contact JanPro for a free no-obligation quote. Visit them online at janpro.ca.

Sean Gentile from Pittsburgh talking Sidney Crosby coming up next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Was there any temptation to think about another organization or see if the grass was green? No, I mean, I had some conversations with... The Vancouver Canucks. 632 on a Tuesday. Oh, my God, he admitted. Well, the funny thing is that would be blatant tampering,

so the joke kind of falls short. Oh, no, no, no. Why do you got to trample on the joke? Bad take. Bad take. Terrible take. Terrible take. Halfer and I are still arguing about the play on Monday Night Football.

No arguing. I was like, you've got to catch the ball. They're professional athletes. If you can't catch the ball, is that part of the risk assessment that you would throw it? Yes, that is part of the risk assessment. You're throwing it to a four-year-old and he drops the ball? That's part of the risk assessment. Be around a four-year-old.

They ain't catching anything. Well, Saquon Barkley is not a four-year-old. He sure looked like one. He did, actually. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. He does have a history of drops, too. I will bring that up since you didn't. I'm helping you out.

I'm helping your takeout. I didn't need any help. It was a winning take. A prideful take. Halford & Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts.

We are in Hour 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. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. I do want to introduce this before we talk to Sean Gentile, because I think he's got a bit of a sweet tooth as well. A-Dog, did you just eat a

Coca-Cola flavored Oreo? I did. It was great. Yeah. 6.33 in the morning. Did you follow it with a cupcake? Maybe. Or wash it down with something. I regret nothing. It was delicious, the cupcake. A-Dog, how is your blood sugar level? Is it a little up and down? It's fine, Jason. It's fine. If Wilford

Brimley was here, he'd be like issuing warnings on your behalf. He'd be like, dear Lord. Yeah. Okay, first, Coca-Cola flavored Oreo. Yay or nay? It's okay. What's wrong with it? It will taste like Coca-Cola.

And he doesn't like Coke. Does it fizz in your mouth? It does a little bit. It's just a strange. You kind of feel it. Yeah. I actually had one yesterday. The kids brought it home and I'm like, what is this?

And I'm a big fan of Oreos and I'm a big fan of Coca-Cola. We don't need to mix them. Nuts and gum, together at last. One's actually a cookie, and one's actually a drink, so we don't need to mix those up. I wouldn't eat a lot of them, but... Apparently there's Oreo-flavored Coca-Cola, too. Oh, really?

Now that sounds disgusting. I'll try it. I'm drinking it right now. All right, to the phone lines we go. Sean Gentile from The Athletic in Pittsburgh here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Sean? Yeah, Oreo Coke sounds really terrible. Yeah, that sounds awful.

Definitely not something I would drink if it were in front of me at this exact exact moment it's definitely not something you're drinking right now while doing this radio hit in vancouver neither can neither can neither confirm nor deny are you do you drink a lot of soda or pop or whatever you americans call it uh not really i i don't i i got away from it. I am, I drink more like diet soda than I should. Right. Like whatever, like a Coke Zero or a Diet Coke, that'll hit. But like, I think like, I would say I could count on my hands how many times per year I drink like fully, like fully leaded Coke heavy. That's a rare treat.

Well, you're a better man than me because I do it a lot. Yeah, and of course, as you guys know, I'm completely healthy otherwise in every facet of my life. We're all in great shape, the three of us. Body's a temple. When we used to go out on the road together, people would be like, wow, I can't believe those guys aren't at the gym because look at them. Those are guys who take stuff seriously and really, really mean what they say when it comes to that stuff. Gentilly was, here's my question for you. If winning is the most important thing for Sid,

why did he re- he resign with the Pittsburgh Penguins? Because the second most important thing to Sid is routine and comfort and stability. And I think those are probably the directions, the two directions he was getting pulled in. Like everyone always says, moving is no fun. Nobody wants to do that, right? But he was getting pulled in. Like everyone always says, like moving, moving, moving is no fun. Nobody wants to do that. Right. But he also, he also has a legacy here. And I think, I think that stuff's important to him. You know, I don't, and I don't think it's just about winning. I think he puts a lot,

put a lot of freight in the idea of being a one team player. I think that was always a really, really important thing to him. So yeah, winning's obviously, winning's obviously, winning's obviously super important, but he's also won already. So I think, I think it's kind of easy to counterbalance those two things when, when you've already got three cups and,

and, and, and all that and all that stuff. But do you think if he was given some truth serum, it might actually be that routine and loyalty is actually the most important thing and winning would be nice if he can get it again yeah i think he's generally a what you see is what you get sort of dude i think he's pretty honest and and i i think that's you know i i i'm sure i i don't think you can't be thrilled with the way things are going here.

Like, why would anybody, right? Like, they're, you know, not a playoff team and they're trending downward. But I think he does, to some extent, believe in the direction of things here. And I think in totality, when you look at, again, the idea of having that legacy as a one-team player and really making Western Pennsylvania his home in a real way. It sounds corny, but it's true. He has. I think all that stuff, when you just start stacking it up,

I think it really made this inevitable from the start. I know the deal was finalized a little bit later than people thought, and maybe the details were a little bit tougher to nail down, but this is always the way it was going to happen. I said it to you guys at this point. I said it to a lot of other people. There's no reason to ever believe that the outcome here would be anything different than what we got yesterday.

Is it fair to say that if the Penguins had a half-decent power play last season, they'd be in the playoffs? Yes, I think that's extremely fair to say. I mean, look, I'm saying they're not a playoff team because they weren't last season, and I don't think things are tracking up, but they're a few points away from from actually making it and they had one of the worst power plays that anybody's ever seen in these parts right so yeah if it were competent they're in but also like it counts elevate you know five on five play and it is the most important facet of the game. Like those numbers count just like, just like anything else does.

So yeah, of course, if they were, if they were competent there, you know, they're in, but also they weren't, so they didn't deserve to make it. So just give us a sense of the job that Kyle Dubas has ahead of him now because he said yesterday Sid made a tremendous personal sacrifice by leaving some money on the table, millions of dollars on the table to sign this contract extension of his hat because he's got a bunch of guys signed and you know Gino's not getting any younger Letang Carlson Brian Rust even Ricard Raquel's getting on and on in years um and they do have some young guys but they certainly don't have this top rated prospect group so how is he going to do this? I think trading for Rutger McGrory was important. I think that was a big move for Kyle Dubas. Yeah, it's a prospect-to-prospect deal,

but McGrory is certainly a lot more prepared for NHL games than Braden Yeager was, right? And also, that's a position of need for them on the NHL roster. If that kid isn't ready to play, we'll say at minimum middle six minutes this year, like stuff gets in behind him really quick. So I think that's the kind of move that a lot of people were waiting on Dubas to make where, you know, he's sitting here and talking about adding young talent and, uh, and NHL ready players who can, you know,

contribute now and into the future. Well, they didn't have a ton of those until, until the last, uh, until the last nine months or so. So I think he started moving in the right direction. There is some money coming off the books, uh, after, after this coming season, which should help. But, yeah, man, it's a tough thing to thread.

There's a reason that you don't see this happen all that often, right? It's tough to build out a roster and also try to win NHL games at the same time. Lucky, I guess, if you want to put it this way, lucky for Dubas, he's got Sidney Crosby. Like, that's still a trump card, and I think that's still a reason to believe that, you know, difficult as the situation is overall, that they could pull it off.

Because, you know, they're never going to be bad with him on the roster, as currently constituted. Like, he alone is good enough still to stop them from bottoming out. So you might as well try to win some meaningful games in the meantime. We're speaking to Sean Gentile from The Athletic in Pittsburgh here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We had a question come into our Dumbar Lumber text message in basket at 650-650 asking about Mario Lemieux's role in all of this.

And obviously Lemieux was a career penguin and obviously went into ownership, and if I'm not mistaken, still owns a minority stake in the team. And obviously, his relationship with Sidney Crosby dates back to Crosby breaking into the National Hockey League. So in light of all this, how big a role, how big a shadow, how much did Mary Lemieux loom over all of this with Crosby? I mean, not directly, because Mike, like you said, he's, yeah,

he had a minority share, but that's for vanity purposes more than anything else. Right. Like it's not, he has no decision-making power. He's not around in any real way. He actually wasn't around at all until for, for a while there until, until the Yarmulke-Yager-Jersey retirement thing in the winter. So, no, there's no real relationship with him in an official way. But where I think it comes into play, and we kind of talked about this a minute ago, is that's just Sidney Crosby learned from.

He lived with Lemieux when he was 18, 19, 20 years old. And his best player, his favorite player growing up was Steve Eisenman. Those are two guys who are single franchise icons. And I think those are two guys who, in a lot of ways, on the ice off the ice, he's modeled a lot of his behavior after. So I

think, you know, indirectly, Lemieux played a pretty serious role, but I doubt there was any kind of, you know, he didn't exert his influence directly either. I would certainly be surprised if that were the case. How hot is Mike Sullivan's seat going into this season? Oh, man, that's a good question.

And we definitely talked about it last year at various points over the last couple years. I mean, it's hotter than it was, but, you know, big asterisk. Sidney Crosby has said many times over the last few years, like, he doesn't want to play for a coach other than Mike Sullivan. And I think now, you know, that's the sort of stuff you need to consider. I think I, I'll go back to what, to the way Dubas phrased that the press release and some of the stuff he says, like, I think they're being upfront about the debt that they're in to Sidney

Crosby here. Like they, they, they owe him something for lack of a something, for lack of a better term, just by virtue of him taking 8.7 for the next few years. So I think it's very plain now that I think Crosby's preferences on this sort of stuff are going to loom large. And I think Mike Sullivan's still a pretty good hockey coach. So I don't think it's overly hot, but if stuff goes sideways and we're sitting here after next season talking about them missing the playoffs by four or five points,

I think it's very possible that a change gets made. But, you know, barring something completely out of control, nothing's going to happen during the regular season. Sean, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week. Let's do this again when we get closer to the start of the regular season always boys you know it thanks

buddy uh shine gentilly from the athletic in pittsburgh here on the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 the first of five guests five guests today on the program we kind of we kind of have a six because uh patrick alveen&A with Drancer. Six guests. So I'm just going to read some quotes. Yeah. There's some interesting parts to it. Right at the end, he's asked about the expectations of the season.

And he said, from day one of training camp, we have to know there are different expectations. There's a different standard now. We have to raise our game right away. We're not going to waste any time here. We got the respect back last season. Now teams are going to be ready to play us. If we're just doing the same, we'll end up with lesser or similar results.

So how do we get better? It starts with the coaches and the message they send to the players then it comes down to how we start day one and then we go about building from there okay so take that that's a pretty like hey we're not messing around answer right yeah expectations are higher okay there's a very interesting quote about brockesser here. And he's talking about, Drance asked him about Brock scoring 40 goals and how does that change the equation when you start talking extension with him or considering extension with him. As we all know, Brock has one year left on his deal

and then he is an unrestricted free agent. Now, he said, I'm happy that it looks like Brock health-wise is going to be cleared here to attend training camp. He worked really hard this summer and it was a really unfortunate situation last year. And of course he's talking about his blood clotting issue.

I was pleased last year with how he changed up his off-season training and it translated into a better year. Now our expectations are higher. I'm sure Brock's expectations are higher too. So I want to see the consistency. I want to see the hunger from every single player, including Brock, to come in here and keep raising the bar. And when the time is right, I feel that I have a good relationship with Brock and with his agent, Ben Hankinson, so we'll talk. For now, his main focus is to come back here and

play to the level that he showed last year and even be more consistent. Okay, now Alvin says something that when I first read, I was like, is he joking? Okay. Here's the quote. I told him that he could have scored 50 goals, but I felt he took his foot off

the gas when he scored 30, and we want to see him pushing through. Wow. So I actually don't think he was joking there. Probably not. So I think the whole takeaway from this interview is expectations are higher and everyone better be on board. And nothing you did last season really matters

because it's about raising the bar those are pretty tough words though right i thought you should could have got 50 50 goals that's like that's like a parent who uh when the kid brings home at 97 and the dad is like what happened to the other three percent yeah i'm trying to do the math here real quick he hit 30 in february and then in i think he hit it in late january was it late january okay i'm looking at it i mean the goal scoring dried up a little bit down the stretch but you could make that argument not that argument but you could say that for a lot of guys and not even on the canucks like across the league like generally speaking uh like i'd say a lion's share of the

big scorers in the hL tend to do their scoring in October, November, and December, right? Now I get it. I get what you're saying is the truly elite are the ones that are able to carry that over and do it in the post season, right? But I think this is just all part of raising the bar. How many times did, first of all, before Rutherford and Alvin joined the organization, how many times did we bemoan the fact that the bar had been lowered so much? And the bar had been lowered by what was considered successful by the team and individuals, what was the type of players that they were bringing in. It's a low-risk move. I'm like, yeah, but it's also like not gonna work so um we won't go

through all the all the you know failed prospects that the canucks brought in and you know they didn't amount to anything um and the bar just being lowered in terms of just how they went about their business yep and so this is the organization following through with its word that the bar is being raised, and it will be raised every year until the Canucks win the cup, which they fell short of last year, and they didn't make it out of the second round. So I don't mind the phrasing and the quote.

And actually, I kind of like, oh, he scored 40. Why didn't you score 50? I think there's something to that. The really interesting thing, the really interesting thing is going to be if the same tact is taken with Pedersen. That the bar is raised across the board. It doesn't matter how good of a year or whatever you did last year. It's going to need to be better for every single guy.

You're bringing up Pedersen? That's my beat's my beat no well obviously i'm bringing him up he's but they already signed him to a contract but if you're telling a guy who hit 40 goals for the first time in his career that we thought you could have scored 50 what are you saying to your 11.6 million dollar year center get back to the the bar that you've already hit a few times before i think there's the bar is there i think there's probably significant metrics that he they feel that he needs to hit production wise and then in terms of body language and eye test and well that management owns that decision too that they gave him that contract extension because you do run a risk and i know how team dynamics work there's some guys that you can call to the carpet there's

some guys that you can't there's some guys you can call out and There's some guys that you can call to the carpet and there's some guys that you can't. There's some guys you can call out and there's some guys that you can't. Some guys have... Some guys handle that call out better than others too. And contractual situation plays into this too. Some guys are locked in, some guys aren't. It's all part of it.

It's not right or wrong or good or bad. It's just the reality. I do wonder if this raising of the bar is going to be universal across the world like are they i mean is this messaging going to quinn hughes like yeah you won the norris last year well you won the norris last year why didn't you win the heart but i think but i think quinn does that himself i think i think quinn does that himself so uh can don't you think those three guys, those are very different.

Let's bring in JT Miller into this. Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, Brock Besser, JT Miller. Four very different personalities, don't you think? I would agree. Yeah. Maybe they feel like Brock. Maybe they're motivated differently. Yeah, maybe they feel that Brock needs a little cattle prod a little bit. I think they probably do.

Which is funny because I think if I was the player, I would push back saying, hey, I ticked every box you guys put in front of me last year. I came into camp. Except when he let out his foot off the gas after 30. Well, see, that I also, I don't know. I don't even, I don't. I know that his goal scoring,

the clip that he was on at the beginning of the year did not carry over to the end of the year. But let's be real here. Did you expect it to? No. Did anyone? He's always been streaky. That's his MO.

It's not streaky. It's just like... But he is. That's how he plays. No. This entire team ate out. Like, they had a free coupon at a restaurant in October, November, December. Yeah, it was an amazing start. Right. I mean, we talked about it. entire team ate out like they had a free coupon at a restaurant in october november december it

was an amazing start right they i mean we talked about it like pdo kings which i never really bought into but uh elevated shooting percentages cooking on the power play you felt all that stuff was probably going to come back to earth a little bit so is besser now here's the chicken or egg did he take his foot off the gas or was he just a symptom of a team that everything caught up to them, including regression and everything else? It was probably both. I mean, Besser's always played with a streak, right? Sometimes he's hot, sometimes he's not.

I didn't feel like he wasn't – I never got the feeling that he wasn't going at a pretty good clip last year. I never – I test that. He wasn't playing poorly. He was never the center of my critical focus. Also, he had seven goals in the playoffs. He was really good in the playoffs. Yeah.

So I'm not sure on that one. I mean, again, we're talking about reading the transcript of an interview and context and everything else, but words are words and there's not much to parse there. It's pretty straightforward, I would say. I think Rick Tockett has had the most interesting quote on Pedersen this season, and it was from an article he wrote. Or not he wrote.

It was an interview that he did with Ian McIntyre, and Ian McIntyre then wrote the article, and it's up on Sportsnet.ca. And Tockett predicted of Elias Pedersen, he's going to be a driving force for the way we do things. I need him right there with me. I expect him pressure games and stuff like that. He's going to be there for the team

and for his teammates and for himself. I expect that because I've seen it. And then he went on to say that he had a conversation with Petey a couple weeks ago and I thought this was interesting.

He said he just sounded excited on the phone. Last year when I talked to him, he was very subdued. So there is some tough talk for some of the top Canucks right now. It's good. I like that. I like it. I like it.

I know we had some fun with the whole embrace the hard slogan yesterday. I love the idea behind it. We had some fun with meet pressure with pressure. We made fun of that, but we generally understood and agreed with the sentiment that you can't run away from the pressure, acknowledge the pressure, recognize that it's there, and then deal with it. Meet it head on.

And I think this whole embrace the hard is, they want to keep raising the bar. Patrick Alvin and Jim Rutherford came from an organization that won Stanley Cups. The Vancouver Canucks have not done that. They're trying to raise the bar. They're putting pressure on players, and they're seeing what the players can do with it.

Conference finals this year. Keep raising the bar is better than embrace the hard by the way just so we're clear he just came up with one keep raising the spot keep raising that's good well the bar is the conference finals that's the bar that's where you got to get to just keep raising it you just keep raising can't take a step back steve from calgary a new slogan for the canucks the bar has been raised. Embrace the bar. Embrace the bar. Embrace the raising bar. Okay, now we got to stop. Depending on how the season goes, I'll be embracing the bar.

We got to go to break. Before we do, 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. On the other side of the break, we're going in a totally different direction. Still talking about sports, but NFL kickers, are they too good? Have they become too good at their jobs?

Are they like Halford and Brough, just too good at their jobs? We will answer that question on the other side with longtime NFL kicker Shane Graham. He joins us next on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.