Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Need To Add Some Wheels

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason talk some NHL news (3:00) as well as what aspect the Canucks need most this off-season, such as speed, (14:00) the boys preview tonight's BC Lions road match at the Bombers with radio PxP man The Moj (27:00), plus they answer some Ask Us Anythings (45:00).  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.

7-0-1 on FBS the Friday here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. By the way, a couple of people texted in. See, I got the brains going in listener land when I was talking about the Edmonton Oilers made it all the way to their final home game, possible home game. A couple of people went and did the research and astutely pointed out the Oilers played every single possible home game they could this season, except for one.

They didn't go to the game. That's called an Aquilini Stanley Cup. Oh, man. We did it. You won the Stanley Cup? No, we maximized profits. Can you imagine being We maximized profits. Can you imagine being the owner of a team and just seeing home date after home date in the playoffs? In each round, you're like, you think the ticket prices were bad for the last round?

Do you think they go back and they're ruing not going to seven against Los Angeles because they missed that one date? Could have had them all. But we fell short. You are listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. A really cheap owner would make them pay for their own flights if they get to game seven because they're like, man, there's nothing in it for us. That's true. Although I guess they could sell some Stanley Cup t-shirts.

Enjoy flying commercial. Some of the flights that I've seen some of the writers go through, apparently one crew went from Florida, and the closest they could get to Edmonton this morning was Calgary. So now they're driving from Calgary to Edmonton. Really? Yeah. Wow.

Yeah, it's not easy. It is not easy getting from South Florida to Edmonton. And there were no cars available. So horses it is. It's fine. You know, we'll get there eventually. Game doesn't start for a few more hours. Okay, AJ's waiting patiently on the phone. Let's do some

of the business here. We are in hour two of the program. Hour two is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste. Primetime is full flavor. Stop eating. I'm sorry. I looked over and there's Laddie emptying the contents of a fruit packet

into his mouth. It's quite the image. Do you have a better way to get the ones in the back of the package out into his mouth. It's quite the image. Do you have a better way to get the ones in the back of the package out? I guess, I don't know. Just dump them down the gullet? It wasn't so much. Laddie's at that stage as a young father where he just like eats all kid snacks. They're Welch's fruit snacks.

They're the blue ones. We eat them plenty. He's got some Dunkaroos. My other snack I brought was a Nutri-Green bar. Are you going to dump the contents of that into your mouth as well? There's little crumbs in the package. Yeah, you got to eat those. What are those?

Fish crackers or whatever? Goldfish. Goldfish? Yeah. Have you been eating some goldfish? Oh, by the way. My go-to. We're down the road now.

Sorry, AJ. They make crispy goldfish now. They're fried instead of baked or baked instead of fried. What? Very good. Oh, they're like, these aren't bad enough for me. How can we make these even less healthy? Gourmet goldfish.

Let's deep fry them. Have you seen the jumbo goldfish? No. What? They make big goldfish. Like a gigantic goldfish cracker. I don't know if I want to eat it. Really?

You can eat it with like a knife and fork. What are we having for dinner tonight? Just leftovers. What if it's like the centigrade though? You like one cut. Well, no, you don't eat it. You eat it like a knife and fork. What are we having for dinner tonight? Just leftovers. What if it's like the Cintiq, right? Though you like one cut. Well, no, you don't eat it. You don't like a cracker. It's not a meal.

How big is it? No, because he said knife and fork. So I'm just thinking. I didn't say knife and fork. No, Brock did. So he's like trying to slice it carefully and it just completely shatters. Who the hell's eating crackers with a knife and fork? What kind of society do we live in here?

Vancouver Honda can help you with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, or parts. Let's just go to the phone lines now, okay? AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, AJ? Oh, my God. I can't get that 30 seconds back. It was great.

I'm sorry. It's unbelievable. Speaking of eating things with a knife and fork. How is everybody? How is everybody? By the way, I am so sorry I missed everybody. So just tell me, did the Panthers win already? Or they're asleep for a week?

No, no, you're fine. Oh, I'm okay. So we went to AJ's yesterday. And by the way, thank you for hosting us. It was great. We ate pizza with a knife and fork because we got to Detroit. I ate pizza all day. AJ must have mentioned like seven times yesterday how upset he was

and apologetic he was that he missed last week's hit. So I'm glad that you're good and you're well. And thank you again for having us yesterday. It was great. Can you let our listeners know about the next couple days? Because AJ's went from just being a pizza place to a pizza place and a Rangers bar to now a pizza place and still a Rangers bar because there's a hat there and a full-time footy bar you guys opened up at nine o'clock yesterday for england so what's

going on today saturday we did we did and i guess i mean we have we we got an epic game tonight don't we yep i mean it's it's honestly i mean i i i'm i'm with you guys i'm not necessarily cheering for the for the oil but but man, I want to see Game 7. So we got that tonight. There's the Lions on tonight. There's footy on tonight. There's footy on all weekend. Right, yeah, it's going to be great.

It's going to be awesome, and the weather looks amazing, so, you know, come in for slices, a couple beers, and have some fun. Sounds good. It's AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. AJ, thanks for doing this this morning, bud, and thanks again for yesterday. It was great. Thank you, guys. Yeah, yeah, awesome, man.

Great to see you guys. Take care. You too. Thanks. AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. AJ, thanks for doing this this morning, bud. Thanks again for yesterday. It was great. Thank you, guys. Yeah, yeah. Awesome, man. Great to see you guys. Take care. You too. Thanks. AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Try AJ's traditional New York pizza or sink into their famous Detroit pizza only at AJ's Pizza. Order online at ajs.pizza. So just to set the scene yesterday, Bruff and I rolled in there with a buddy. So there's three of us sitting down.

England's on the telly and we got a Detroit pizza and it was Detroit Ronnie a Detroit Ronnie but it didn't have Ronnie's on it we got like a specialty one with like sausage and peppers and hot peppers a special breakfast one oh it had to go along with our special breakfast beers yeah wow I was like oh I guess I'm not going to the gym after this. Wildly unproductive day. Nice. After that.

Wildly. Yeah, yeah. Like, what's the opposite of productive was what I did yesterday. That's awesome. Yeah, it was pretty good. It's healthy to have days like that. You need days like that. So go there this weekend, Saturday, Sunday.

They've got all of the Euro. They got all the Copa America as well, too. So go check them out. Of course, tonight's game six between the Oilers and the Panthers. Okay. It is Ask Us Anything Friday on the Halford & Brough Show. And just a reminder to include the pizza emoji if you want to be entered into the competition

for best Ask Us Anything $100 gift card to AJ's pizza goes to the winner. I like this question. I don't even know if it's an Ask Us Anything, but how many games did Gretzky play for his playoff record number of points compared to McDavid?

I am thinking those Oilers won a lot of series in four or five games. This is not like points in the regular season when everybody plays 82 games. I like the idea that this guy is watching McDavid and going, it's good, but how many? I mean, Gretzky's points per game must have been off the charts. And yes, it is true.

So Gretzky, for example, in 1984-85, when the Oilers absolutely romped to the Stanley Cup, ended up beating the Philadelphia Flyers, who they also beat in 87, by the way, Gretzky had 47 points in 18 games. Right. So that's 2.61 points per game. Meanwhile, Connor McDavid.

What a loser. That guy only has 1.83 points per game in the playoffs this year. Bare, Connor McDavid. What a loser. Guy only has 1.83 points per game in the playoffs this year. Barely even worth mentioning. It is barely worth mentioning. He does have a chance to break Gretzky's record for points in a cup final, though. And cup finals are always a best-of-seven.

So I think no matter how many games you play in that best-of-seven, that record pretty much stands the test of time, right? Yeah, but I mean, it's more impressive if you score like, you know, if it's a four-game sweep. I get it, I get it. But a series is a series. Like, I think all those records should be equal.

Like, it doesn't matter. You do your damage over the court. Because, I mean, theoretically, McDavid's only really done his damage in the last three games. He was invisible. We should pick apart McDavid right now. He only has eight goals in 23 games. Just goals a true sniper would have more like a real

game breaker would why why is he being so deferential with the puck does he not have confidence in his shot is it a weak shot yeah it's probably a weak shot it's a weak shot he's lost confidence in a shot no i mean that that that play that he made i I know we've talked to the point of exhaustion, but he beat four Florida Panthers and allowed Corey Perry just to be able to just like wander in on the wing and be like, hey, Connor, I'm open. And Connor was like, I know. I'm just taking care of all these four Panthers over here.

There's a screenshot that's gone around. It's now like a meme on Twitter of McDavid being surrounded by four Panthers. Yeah, everyone else is going, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no. McDavid's just like, whee! So to think that he was able to break through that in the Stanley Cup final when playoff hockey is so tight and you can just haul a guy to the ice, there might not be a penalty call. Also against the best defensive team in the league.

It is pretty remarkable. You know what will be really interesting is if they do lose tonight and McDavid gets the consmith. Now, work me through this because I'm going off the top of my head. Jaguar got the consmith from a losing team. Reggie Leach got the consmith

from a losing team, right? Hextall got it too. Hextall got it. Did those series all go seven? I know the 87 one did. When Hextall got it. And Jaguar went seven against the Devils. That was a seven. I can't remember. Reggie Leach was a bit before

my time. Right. So I'll have to double check on that one. But to go six and still win the consummate would be pretty cool. I do want to run through some real quick. We'll, dogs, by the way, flag a couple of ask us anything. We can do them on the other side. Everyone get a couple ready, but we'll run through some of these NHL news and notes from yesterday.

I think it's worth passing along. Maybe not necessarily because of what they mean on their own in a vacuum, but bigger picture stuff. We mentioned this prior to going off air yesterday. Dolly Wall threw it out there. I think the news has been out there and very well digested by everyone in the market. But Dan Milstein has been granted permission to seek a trade for another one of his clients,

Ilya Mikheyev, who obviously is having a tough time with regards to not being able to score goals, not finding the back of the net, carrying the, what is it, a $4.5 million cap hit. He's got a 12-team no-trade list. I do wonder what the relationship between Milstein and the Canucks is right now because this is the second of his clients that has kind of been jettisoned along before the contract expired in Vancouver, going back to Kuzmenko as well.

This Zdorov thing, it doesn't sound like he's going to be long for Vancouver. You seem somewhat more optimistic than I. I think they got a good chance of keeping him. Interesting. I think they got a good chance of keeping him. I think Lindholm's gone, but I think Zdorov's a chance.

And I, I would actually think that they've got a better chance of keeping Zdorov than Dakota Joshua. Because I think Dakota Joshua is in the position where he's like, I've never had a big contract in my life. I haven't made much at all in the NHL, so I'm going to maximize my opportunity here. In Pittsburgh, this one kind of drew some interest yesterday,

they re-signed goalie Alex Nedeljkovic to a two-year deal. What does this mean for them in net, Laddy? Because they've got Tristan Jari still, and Nedeljkovic took over the starting job there for a while. And they've also got a young, exciting prospect by the name of Yoel Blomqvist. Tell me more. He's very likely NHL ready.

So the fact that they bring back Nedeljkovic this early in the offseason makes me think that they've got some plans. And yeah, I think possibly we could see some movement in regards to Tristan Jari, perhaps. Because the goalie market is robust. What's the market for him, though? Well, I mean, you could probably trade him.

I mean, God, if someone took on Darcy Kemper to be a solution to a problem. Well, the one that was bandied about. Darcy Kemper's a Stanley Cup winning goalie, my friend. We have to stop saying that. The one that I've heard was for Merzlikens in Columbus. And they have very similar deals. I think Merzlikens has an extra year on his contract, but you could make the money work somewhere,

and it might be a problem for a problem sort of scenario that we're talking about. I just think there's so many goalies out there right now. I know. A lot of options for Gini. He's not going to be your first choice for it. Two have to. The carousel has begun already.

That was a crazy contract that they gave him with the term. The term is the crazy part. The term that, well, I mean, that's the big part of the contract, right? Well, the money's not good. But I remember when it came out, I was like, what are the Penguins doing? And Laddie was like, well, that's the cap hit. I'm like, I'm not talking about the cap hit. Like they gave him a massive commitment there.

So Markstrom gone now. He's off the market. He's gone to New Jersey. Kemper gone. He's gone to Los Angeles. All Mark to Ottawa was a thing that was in the ecosystem, but it seems like that was more just people thinking and hoping on it. They have Corpus Sala, and I'm still not totally out on Corpus Sala.

I know a lot of Senators fans are. I think all Senators fans might be out on Corpus Sala, but I still think he has a high ceiling, and giving him a second opportunity isn't the worst idea in the world. I wonder where Casey DeSmith's going to end up in the offseason because it sure ain't going to be here. He'll go back to Montreal. Possibly.

The other news from yesterday. This one kind of flew under the radar. I guess this is a necessary departure for the Vegas Golden Knights who are just in salary cap hell, but they've already told Anthony Manta, bye-bye, we're not going to bring you back as an unrestricted free agent. I'm kind of intrigued by him as a guy that you could pick up at any price point. The problem with him, the problem, the problem with him when he was on his previous deal was he was carrying a cap hit of almost six million.

Yeah. Which is too much for him. At half that, I'd be kind of intrigued. I don't think I've ever thought about Anthony Mantha in my life. Really? No. Oh, yeah. Because when they, he scored 20 goals three times.

And I'm like, I don't know if he can be a top six forward. He scored goals with enough regularity that you could kind of talk yourself into it. And he's only 29. So if you're going to get him on a one-year deal. Does he have wheels? That is the most important thing that I want the Canucks to add if they're going to add up front. I need to see that they can skate. I think skating or lack thereof, I mean, even if they bring Joshua back, for a big man, he can get going, I suppose,

but I don't think anyone watched Dakota Joshua and be like, wow, what a great skater. That was one of the issues that I had with bringing Lindholm back. I'm like, yeah, he's good, but he looks like he's lost a little bit of a step. Brock Besser isn't fast. Petey skating was not good this year. We need some burners.

So Mantha's regarded as- Whether it's in the top six or the bottom six. Mantha's regarded as an incredibly fast skater and not just anecdotally. They had the data tracking when he was in Washington last year and it was him and a guy, I don't know,

who's Beck Malenstein? I'm not familiar with his work. They were clocked as the two. Is he? I did not know that. They were clocked as the two fastest skaters on the Washington Capitals last year.

Now a little asterisk because Washington might be the slowest team in the National Hockey League. Well, someone texted in and said, Manta is too slow. Well, that would be wrong. Okay.

Yeah. Manta sounds slow? It's like, there's Manta. Mo Manta. Are you thinking of Mo Manta? But I told you, I've never really thought about Anthony Manta in my life. I'm more curious to see if Jonathan Marcheseau resigns in Vegas.

I love that. Well, someone texted in that he's slow. I'm like, again, it's our text messaging basket, right? They could have legitimately thought. I mean, you thought you were a genius by going like, you know, the Oilers. This is their last possible playoff game. What does that possibly have to do with what we just said? Well, you're ripping the listeners.

Yes. You're ripping the listeners and you deserve to be ripped i don't why they're agreed agreed right yeah right you you deserve to be ripped you are the person yeah hot mike halford the guy who leaves his mic on every commercial break he's off the listeners halford Figure out your own stuff. Well, someone in here said that he's slow. Someone texted in, Mikheyev has speed, bruv. Had speed. Had speed.

I actually do wonder if he can... I think Mikheyev is going to come back and have a better season than last season, but is he going to be worth his $4 million cap? Well, a better season than what he had is... Pow, pow, pow. Honestly, not hard. Yeah. Right.

He lost his confidence so bad. He was a guy with no finish that actually further lost his confidence. Yeah. He just needs a tiny bit of finish. He needs a lot of finish. What's it like when you have no finish naturally and then you lose your confidence? Yeah.

What if you're at zero and it gets worse than zero? Yeah. It was actually tough to watch, but I still think he can be a useful player. I just don't know if he's going to be a useful player for the Vancouver Canucks, but that opinion being out there, could there be a team that sees Mikheyev

as a good bounce back candidate? Look at the bounce backs we saw in Vancouver this season. Brock Besser, incredible bounce back. Connor Garland, incredible bounce back. We need to stop thinking that as soon as a guy has a really rough stretch, and Mikheyev has a pretty good excuse with the injury that he had. And then he's not finished.

Mikheyev is not finished. He's not super old. I still think he has potential. I just don't know if it's going to be with the Vancouver Canucks because I think his contract is just too rich for the role that he's probably going to play. He's not going to play in the top six. He shouldn't play in the top six. He can't score.

You know, this is one of those times where it would be nice if the NHL wasn't such a rigid, hard cap league and had things like what they do in the NFL. The NFL, they restructure contracts all the time. I was reading something the other day about Taysom Hill, you know, that Swiss Army knife in New Orleans who plays every position on the field in offense. So they signed him to a big deal a few years ago. They've restructured it like three times. Yeah, they're like, you're not a quarterback anymore.

Right, and they just keep changing it. He's like, okay, fine. He's like, do I still get paid? They're like, yeah, just differently. And he's like, okay, that sounds good. It would be nice because a McKay of it, four point, whatever, not great. McKay of it, two point, whatever, suddenly a little bit better. This is actually a good question from Cody and White Rock.

Actually a good question. Why are you ripping the listeners like that? What would the NHL PA be able to do if the Canucks trade McKay of to Utah if Arizona was on his no trade list? That is actually a really good question. Yeah, well, it's not Arizona. It's Utah. And it's not the Arizona franchise.

That's right. There's nothing to do with them, actually. The Arizona franchise is having a bit of a nap right now. That'd be hilarious. Smell a loophole. Utah is. That's actually, I wonder, not just for Micaiah, but for anyone. Although, how many players do you think actually would have Arizona?

Yeah, there'd probably be a lot of them. I think before you shop a player, generally you get them. What would play in the arena? Did you say how many players would not want to play in Arizona for the Coyotes? I would guess 99%. No, it's not that high. A-dog. 98.8.

Don't you generally get them to update their list, though? The life you can have in Arizona. A-Dog. 98.8. Don't you generally get them to update their list, though? The life you can have in Arizona. It's too hot. Too hot. It's wintertime. It's ideal. There's too many scorpions.

Even in winter, it's hot. You know what often happens in Canada and parts of the United States during the winter? It's too... Cold? There you go. I'd rather be cold than hot, though, if I had to pick. I'd rather be... You're not super hot in Arizona.

You are, like, happy. That's why people retire there. They spend their winters there. They play golf every day. Do you know how awesome it would be? What's the King of the Hill quote? It's like standing on the sun. Phoenix?

Is that Bobby's in Phoenix? Right. But that's in the summer. That's in the summer. I'm with him. 99.9% is way too high. There would be people that wouldn't want to go because the franchise is awful. Well, that's what I mean.

Yeah. I'm not just talking about the state. The franchise. But there would be a lot of NHLers that would be more than happy to go and play in anonymity and golf and just hang out and have any lack be their real estate agent. Maybe like the vets and stuff. All that stuff. Yeah.

But that's a really great question. We're going to need to reach out to somebody. Are there any agents listening to the show right now? I think they get them to resubmit their list when they shop the player. They usually go to the player and say, hey, give us an updated 10 teams before we do the whole process. It actually all depends on the clause. Some of them you just submit on July 1st or there's a specific date.

If it's written in the contract. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And sometimes it's on demand what they call so i i don't know anyway dolly wall just sent me a dm and he says he wants to discuss uh tanev's picture with quinn hughes on instagram did you see that little light tampering where where were they do you guys were they at a concert or something like that someone will know it looked like they were at the circus or something. I was like, where are you guys?

Dear listeners, text in and let us know. I enjoyed someone Photoshopping Jake Gensel into that group. Quinn Hughes just, he's going to get Tanev in the door, then he's going to get Jake. Jake Gensel's face has been Photoshopped into a lot of things lately. Austin and Langley had an amazing tweet yesterday where he Photoshopped Jake Gensel onto the Capilano suspension bridge because he was seeing all sorts of things around town. No, that wasn't Photoshopped. He was actually there.

Oh, that's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah. I like the one person, by the way, on Twitter that was like, that's a Photoshop. Yeah. Thanks.

Thanks. Oh. Always that guy. Always that guy. Yeah. And then someone would be like, no, it's not. And then that person was like, no, you can see. Yeah.

Yeah. 20 thread breakdown. Okay. Well, now I need to know what they were at. Someone says it looks like they're at the Monster Shocks. It was in Michigan. No, it's not Monster Shocks. There's a bunch of seats on the back.

It makes it look like dirt, but it's in Michigan. So there must have been a concert. I mean, it looks like a concert because you could see all the sky. Oh, Noah Kahan. They're at Noah Kahan. The Quentin Time Tour. I don't know what that is. Zach Bryan.

He's an artist. Oh, okay. I don't know what that is. Oh, Noah Kahan was with them. Yeah. No. It's a person. Sorry, that was a joke because Chris Tanev looks like Noah Kahan. I don't understand the question, and I won't answer it's a person. Sorry, that was a joke because Chris Tanniv looks like me.

I don't understand the question, and I won't answer it. Damn kids. Tanniv's lanyard says, the Quentin Time Tour. Google says, Zach Bryant played at Ford Field in Detroit. There you go. Okay. Our detective skills are amazing. The Quentin Time Tour.

That is a country tour. Y'all going to the Quentin Time Tour. All right. We've got to go to break. When we come back, Moj is going to join us. Bob the Moj Marjanovic. The BC Lions are going to Winnipeg tonight to play the winless Blue Bombers. Yes, the winless Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

And before we go to break, I need to tell you about JanPro. JanPro are the leaders in commercial cleaning and janitorial. If your workplace demands a clean environment, contact JanPro for a free are 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. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd.

And Thomas Drance. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650. Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. It's the Moj. I did not eat four burgers. Yes, it's the Moj. I don't want to go to Winnipeg. Nobody wants to go to Winnipeg.

Yes, I love food. It's the Moj. I went online and kind of did a little surfing. It's a millennia. Yes, it's the Moj. Halpert's fine, but, you know, Brock is just grumpy all the time. It's the Moj. Moj. Moj. Moj. Moj. Moj. Moj. It's the Moj. Moj.

Moj. Moj. Moj. Moj. Moj. It's the Moj. 731 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody.

Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Hour 2 is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste,

Primetime is full of flavor without compromise. Get some, get some at a liquor store near you. Or visit the brewery and see how it's made. Our next guest, spoiler, it's Moj, is a presentation of the Clayton Public House, your home of football. Every game day, catch all the action on 15 screens and two giant projectors, including tonight's game. It's the Lions.

It's the Bombers from Winnipeg. Moj joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Moj? Good morning, gentlemen. We've survived, I don't know, 12 hours in Winnipeg. There it is. There it is.

How's Winnipeg, Moj? I'll tell you a funny story. So last night, we decided we're going to go to local, which is right by the rink. It's about two blocks away from where we're staying. And we're right at the corner of Portage and Main. For some reason, you cannot cross Portage and Main via stoplight. Like, you can't. There's no crosswalk.

Yeah, you go underneath, don't you? It's a series of underground tunnels. Well, we, myself, Julio Caravetta, and Trevor Martins decide that we're going to walk to this establishment, watch Canada, Argentina, watch the CFL game. We got lost in the tunnels below Portage and Maine. We finally popped up after about 10 minutes, like a block up and over, like nowhere near where we're supposed to be. I'm like Portage and Maine.

It's not like Times Square people. There's nobody here. Why can't you just have a crosswalk that takes you from point A to point B? No, you got to go underneath and there's tunnels and this and that. Isn't it known as one of like the windiest intersections in the world and it gets, I don't know if you've heard

that Winnipeg gets a little bit cold in the winter. It's actually, I think it's quite innovative. No. Well, touche. Innovative. Well played, Mr. Marjanovic.

Well played. Blah. Yeah. Moj, what are you expecting out of this Lions-Bombers tilt? Well, you're going to play a desperate team in the Bombers that are 0-2, and a team that's not only lost a lot of personnel from last year, but is going through some serious injuries. Kenny Lawler is out their star receiver,

which means everybody's kind of going to bump up a role and they're probably not as effective. They've got some new faces there. Janarian Grant, their longtime returner, a real threat there, is now in Toronto. Myron Mitchell started the first two games as a returner. He's not in the lineup this game, so they made a

change there. There's no Jackson Jeffcoat up front on their defensive line, so they're missing some pieces there. Plus they got a couple of injuries. So this is a real desperate bomber team, not only in the sense that they're 0-2, but there's a lot of players that are going to be out this game. So it's going to be interesting. I mean, you know how the Canucks played the Oilers at the start of the year and caught them when they, you know, weren't that good and they had before the coaching change and they got those three wins. That's what the Lions have to do.

They have to take advantage of a weak opponent tonight. I mean, they went into Winnipeg last season early on and destroyed the Bombers and we were all raving about the Lions' defense and then that defense, I don't know, somehow got worse as the season progressed. Could this be a case, though, where it's a little bit different with the Bombers? Will they definitely come back and be a bit stronger later in the season?

Because we were actually wondering about the power rankings of the West in the CFL right now. And the standings won't tell you anything really after two games, but it's hard to tell who the best team in the West is unless you think it's still Winnipeg by a fair margin. Yeah, well, at the start of the year, I thought Winnipeg was going to take a step back for some of the reasons that we talked about in terms of personnel. I thought the Lions might even take a step back,

probably like a game or two. The thing that concerns me about the Lions compared to last year, when you look at what they did, was the amount of turnovers that they had and the amount of penalties that they had. They can't continue down that path and expect to get the same number of wins. So that's one thing they want to clean up on, obviously. And if you look at negative plays, that first game against Toronto, they had 11 negative plays in terms of sacks, which they had six and five turnovers.

Against Calgary, they had zero, right? So it tells you all you need to know in terms of trying to clean up some of those things. So when you look at the West, I think Winnipeg and BC probably take a step back. I expected Edmonton to be a little bit better with a cloud. Bethel-Thompson, they still haven't probably taken that step. Saskatchewan I thought was going to be better with a new head coach in Corey Mace. And that's a team that I look at right now and go, wow, they're 2-0, and the way

they've won those games, the comeback win in Hamilton. To do that early under Corey Mace is huge because now they're starting to believe what that coaching staff is selling because they're getting positive feedback. They're getting victories. They're a team to watch out for

I think this year at Saskatchewan. What's going on with Brady Oliveira? I'm trying to keep track of this. So he played week one. He was hurt for week two. Now he's healthy again, but he's the number two running back on the depth chart. Do I have this right? So he draws back in this week.

He did not play last week against Hamilton. I'm going to find out more when we get to the stadium in terms of Olivera, but the thing that I look at is the fact that, number one, he's not 100%. And I'm just wondering where he's at right now physically. Because they're 0-2. If they were 2-0, hey, take your time. Don't worry about it. When you're 100%, we'll get you back into the lineup.

But at 0-2, that changes. So you might get an 80% Brady Olivera tonight. You might get a 90% Brady Olivera. He didn't play any of the preseason with that knee injury. And like I said, like you said, he played the first game, didn't play in the second. And he did not look effective in that first game. I mean, it wasn't even Brady Olivera. So that's going to be something that's going to be interesting to see tonight, just how he performs.

Speaking of running backs, so we had William Stanback on the show on Monday. Really good guest, actually, too. But in terms of the balance, I asked him, actually, in game two, which was a win for the Lions, I think he ran it 15 times. I think Vernon Adams dropped back to pass only 29. So there's a little bit more balance there as opposed to last year when they were thrown at like 80% of the time. And he

basically said it all depends on the opponent how that pass-run balance is going to work. Are you expecting a little bit more of a balance attack this week against Winnipeg? Because it did look pretty good and he looked pretty good against Calgary last week. Well, given Winnipeg's woes on the defensive line, I expect the Lions to at least try to run the ball.

And, you know, maybe it's 15 times, maybe it's 20. I love what William Stanback brings to this team. You know, he might gain seven yards, but, man, he earns those seven yards. He doesn't get cheated. Like I said, if he was a baseball player, like, you know, would guys go up to the plate, they say he never gets cheated at that bat? William Stanbeck never gets cheated with a carry. If he's stopped at four, he'll gain six.

If he's stopped at two, he'll gain four. He just runs hard, and he brings an element to this team that it hasn't had for a couple years. And I think it's something that offensive coordinator Jordan McSimmick still has to get used to. You know, like when you're in a game, I mean, you've developed patterns over the last three years in terms of what you call. And I think he still has to recognize the fact that he does have William Stanback.

And he told me in training camp, he goes, you know, last year at second and two or second and three, they didn't know whether or not they were going to run the ball or not. He says this year they have no concern in terms of running William Stanback. So to me, that's probably something that you're going to see improve during the course of the year is the usage of William Stanback. How important is the running game in the CFL? It's huge.

I mean, it's especially when it comes to the playoffs, right? Probably not as much as the regular season. To use a hockey analogy, it's probably like what you talk, you know, you talk about having all that space during the course as the regular season to use a hockey analogy it's probably like what you talk you know you talk about having all that space during the course of the regular season and then during the playoffs it's it's about winning one-on-one battles it's about grinding you know goals out of it's about scoring from dirty areas and that's kind of like football in a way too i mean you can go out there and pass the ball all you want during the course of the year and probably neglect the running game but once you get in the playoffs you have to have a run particularly when it comes to

maybe some of the elements in the weather right but you have to be able at least to have a threat of running the football and if you don't um it makes things difficult especially when the weather goes sour and you try to throw a football i mean there has to be a very strong relationship between the running game and the winnipeg blue Bombers' success over the past few years with Brady Olivera and before him, Andrew Harris, right? Yeah, and they're going to honor Andrew Harris tonight at the game. He'll be one of our guests during the broadcast. And even last year with Montreal, I mean, you had Stanbeck, you had Fletcher, you had guys that could run the football, right? So, you know, you look at Toronto's success the last couple of years with A.J. Ouellette, who's now in Saskatchewan. So you need that hammer at running back. You have to have people respect your running game.

We're speaking to Bob the Moj Marjanovic here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Excuse me, Sportsnet 650. I just realized, Moj, we haven't even asked you about last week's festivities. Huge crowd at BC Place, 50 Cent concert, and a win for the Lions.

How was it for the opener last weekend? Well, I mean, the concert, it was electric. The kickoff was electric. And, you know, it was a tough game that they had to go out there and win. It was just one of those games that you never really got any momentum going. You just had to go out there and grind it out. And, you know, I heard a lot of people criticizing the fact that well they had 55,000 at the start and then you know it was

like 35 or 40,000 at the end well yeah okay a lot of people showed up for the concert but if you had 20 or 25 extra thousand people there right if only like 5,000 of those fans are converted to become CFL fans or Lions fans then the promotion is a

success so to me it was a great day and I just look 5,000 of those fans are converted to become CFL fans or Lions fans, then the promotion's a success. So to me, it was a great day. And I just look at it, and hopefully they can build on it. And the fact that they won the football game also helped out. So I thought it was a tremendous success all the way around. How is the offensive line progressing? Because early on, it was clear that Calgary was going to pin their ears back and go after Vernon Adams. And if not for some

elite escapability from Vernon Adams, he would have been sacked against the Calgary Stampeders. Somehow he wasn't sacked all game. But how is the offensive line progressing after a very tough start to the season in Toronto? Well, six sacks to zero sacks, that's an improvement. The one thing about the pressure that calgary brought and you know there were probably some breakdowns obviously um a new center and tyler packard who by the way i don't know if you guys obviously haven't heard it but we talked about a little bit during our on tap show he's the best gamer on the lions dude's like won money playing call of duty. A big, like, 6'6",

290-pound whatever center is the best gamer on the line. A kid from Calgary, right? Which just blows me away. But anyway, they had Tyler Packard center, they had Andrew Slugger at, or probably Chris Slugger at left guard. So a couple of changes, and for to have two changes going to that game

and not have any sacks is huge. Now, in terms of the pressure, yeah, there were times where the pressure broke down, but there was also times where Calgary was bringing more than BC had into block. Like when you're bringing eight or seven and you've only got six or five, well, the numbers game says that somebody should come free. The one thing that happened in that game that was really good, that was Vernon Adams got rid of the ball quick, right? And you're right, there was a couple times, particularly this one,

I don't know, it was an 11-yard run, but it was more like a 20-yard run where he kind of pulled a little Houdini axe and split two Calgary defenders and had a 10-yard pickup. So, yeah, there were times where Vernon's escapability helped, but there were also times where he got rid of the football quickly. But in other instances, Calgary was bringing more than BC had to block. But they were improved, and that's all you can ask. And hopefully they can improve this week.

All right, Moj, before we let you go, I guess we pushed on our wager from last week, right? Yeah. Did you get to watch Serbia yesterday and their thrilling late comeback against the Slovenians? Is that like the soccer version of pulling the goalie? Pretty much. Bringing the goalie up?

So early in the tournament, there was actually an empty netter. Turkey scored one against Georgia, I want to say, to make it 3-1, and they had – yeah, it is the soccer equivalent of having a goalie. Would it have been icing it if it missed the net? No, it would have been a goalie. Hey, I want to know one thing. Alfred, your days of being an elite keeper yeah for you know

wow elite doing a lot of work did you ever come up and do one of those things or you guys just too good and won all your games um i i once or twice i went forward at the end of a match never got anywhere close to even making contact with the ball did you ever take a penalty no no not as a goalie not like as a younger one, when I played out, I did. Well, yeah, but not as a goalie. Because sometimes they bring the goalies up to lose penalties, right? Yeah, and then if shootout goes long enough, the goalies will have to shoot, right?

Because they've got to go through all 11 on the pitch before they go to anybody else. Hey, Moj, Derek in Richmond actually hasn't asked us anything for you, and I would like to know this question too in the background to this clip. Ask us anything. Did Moj or did Moj not eat four burgers no I did not eat four burgers okay what how did that whole story come about so we arrived in Phoenix for an event um and Mike Berger or Mike Wittingham one of the things we had is, I've got this tradition.

Every time we land in Phoenix, we stop at In-N-Out, right? So I ordered burgers for Whittingham myself. And I think Julia might have made that trip as well, right? So it's like three or four of us. And I ordered like four burgers, okay? And I sat down, I did the clip, and there's four burgers there. Well, everybody thinks the four burgers are for me.

No, they're not. I'll have two. I will not have four. I'll eat two In-N-Out burgers. Have you guys ever had In-N-Out? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So I mean, what do you guys, probably what, two burgers? Two burgers isn't a big deal at In-N-Out. They're not huge burgers. No, it's not. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So like, that's what I had. I had two burgers and I think Mike might've had the other one and Julia might've had one or something. What is the one food that you could, if allowed and you weren't worried about your health or anything like that, you could just eat and eat and eat. For me, it's ice cream.

Like I could just, you know, those Haagen Dazs things that they give you and you're not even supposed to eat like the whole thing. I'm like, you aren't. Yeah. Right. Like that's to me it's like it's so easily eaten it's that and potato chips but i

think ice cream would get the nod tacos tacos yeah like dude i i can honestly if i'm hungry enough i can plow through like eight wraps in the span of like a couple of hours. When they sell the packages of tortillas in like a pack of 10, I'm always doing the math. I'm like, what's an acceptable amount? Because you have to have some left in the package at the end of your meal. Yeah. I discipline myself to have like three or four. Right.

Because once you get to like half, you're like, this is getting to be weird. This is going to look weird. Yeah, exactly. The thing is, it's so good, right? I mean, everybody has their own kind of like unique combos and stuff. But man, I could just like, if I'm on a roll, if I was super hungry, I could plow through eight in a sitting, no problem. For Laddie, it's carrots.

It's just so healthy. It's just so healthy. Fruit snacks. Yeah. I'm like, oh, that's weak. Mo, thanks for doing this, bud. Enjoy Winnipeg. Enjoy the game. We's just so healthy. Fruit snacks. Yeah. Oh, my God. Oh, that's weak. Moj, thanks for doing this, bud. Enjoy Winnipeg. Enjoy the game.

We'll talk next week. Okay, guys. All the best. Go Serbia. Yep. Bob, the Moj Marjanovic. Yes, Serbia. Now in a must-win situation in their final group match against Denmark.

What's up, Doc? Was that you doing a bunny with a carrot? Okay, yeah. Okay. So, Italy versus Croatia is going to be a heck of a carrot? Okay, yeah. That'll be good. So Italy versus Croatia is going to be a heck of a match, correct? Yes. That group...

Because Spain is pretty much already through in the group of death. Okay. But Albania, I suppose, still has an outside shot. So preamble, footy day yesterday was great. We went to AJ's to watch England match.

I had buddies over to watch Italy-Spain and then I watched Canada-Argentina with the boys. So it was great. Spain is so good. Yeah. They completely outclassed Italy yesterday to the point where Spalletti, the gaffer, just...

Not to be confused with spaghetti. Or Spamoni. Right. Those are totally different things and names. He just said, we were second best in every facet uh spain was spain had a 16 year old on the right side in lamin yamal and a 21 year old on the left side of nico williams and they just ran it italy all day yeah and they just couldn't

deal with them it was so that puts a really interesting spin on the italy croatia match now because spain's through yeah they've they've won six points they're through they've won the group so their match against albania really doesn't matter for spain have they won the group have they won the group they've won the group okay yes because nobody else has enough points to catch them so all of a sudden you're looking at and you're like well spain has nothing to play for in that final group stage match but albania does and they're playing each other and then there's the italy croatia match which has huge implications because everyone's playing for second in the group italy's won a game though right so they could technically catch spain spain has the head-to-head all right okay yeah it's not

goal differential first it's head-to-head in the group okay all differential so um what you're looking at is who's playing for second and will a third place team come out of that and then what does spain do against albania i find it hard to believe this thing just gonna throw in the towel and be like albania albania you border on the adriatic so anyway lots to still be decided in that group. Okay, so Rick Dollywall is going to join us next. I want to play a clip from Donnie and Dolly before Dolly joins us.

This is Rick Dollywall being Rick Dollywall. And this all started because Hendo, Ryan Henderson, forgot to wish his wife a happy birthday on air and let's listen when we did birthdays i should have mentioned a happy birthday to my wife oh oh wow she's not watching she doesn't care let's be honest she's gonna watch when you go home no i don't think so because little little Ryan's going to say, wifey, wifey, I said this. And then you're going to go and watch it together. Well, that would upset her even more. Now you're going to go

on the couch at 8 o'clock tonight, sit down, and let's put it in. And he'll stand. Pardon me. What I mean was, let's put it on, and then... Okay, let's put it on and then... Okay, let's take a commercial break. Anyways.

So I have... So many questions. So many questions. When he asked or when he said, let's put it in, what the hell is he talking about? Does Dolly Waltz record all the shows on a VHS or something like that? let's put it in. What the hell is he talking about? Does, does, does Dolly well record all the shows on a, on a VHS or something like that?

No, I meant to say, put it on, let's put it on. No, I think he was thinking, let's put it in. Right.

The VHS. VHS. Slide the cassette right in there. Do you think Dolly well still makes like mixed tapes? Oh yeah. He's got one of those ghetto blasters. Do you remember when you press like three buttons to record off the radio? Yeah.

Yeah. I used to be like, this one doesn't sound so good because it's off LG 73. Yeah. Yeah. We're AM station. Because I don't even think. I love this song. We built this city. I don't even think he's caught up to the obsolete technology of like the CD and Blu-ray DVD era.

He doesn't know how to burn yet. Yeah, he's still very much in B-kind rewind. I guarantee you Dolly still watches VHS tapes. I 100% guarantee you he'll throw on a VHS. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Or is he a beta guy? Is tonight Howard the Duck? Yeah. You know what? I will say that

aesthetically, the VHS, like the cassette box, the VHS box, right? Oh, I love all the box. I'm with you. It's got a certain beyond even kitschy appeal. It's a charm. It's actually a nice display because it's like a mini movie poster.

Totally. Right? And I've seen a couple different people. Shea Serrano, a writer that I really like, he's got a really cool old school VHS tape display. Yeah. It's gone full circle where VHS's for a long time used to be dirt cheap. You could buy like $20 for a dollar and now they've

kind of started to become cool and collector's items again and the price has shot up because people are like, oh, especially people that weren't around for VHS are starting to buy them and display them. It's become like a social media thing and now they're turning into like vinyl where suddenly, you know, vinyl obviously is super popular now again. The rare vinyl does sound

awesome. Well it does. I mean VHS and vinyl you shouldn't compare the two because VHS doesn't look great. Vinyl sounds incredible. Sounds better than CD quality and streaming for sure. But people love like the aesthetic of like how for saying the look of the VHS just how the boxes are displayed and

it's become like a trendy thing again. This is a great question into the Dunbar Lumber text line. How long till Dolly gets canceled, or is he uncancelable? He's uncancelable. I think he is 100. He is like, what was the Seinfeld episode where the old guy was stealing?

I'm old. I'm confused. Who was that? Uncle Leo. Uncle Leo, right? Swarm, swarm. By the way, that's my excuse at all the checkouts now, you know, the self-checkouts. and I'm old I'm confused who was that Uncle Leo Uncle Leo right and he's like swarm swarm by the way that's my excuse at all the checkouts now you know the self checkouts

if I miss an item man and they come over I'll be like I'm an old man the self checkout is confusing I imagine that's a problem for all the stores now but screw them yeah that would that that's can you imagine the if it went imagine the, if it went to,

but like if it went to court, all the examples of Dolly Wall saying things that he didn't mean to say, and his excuse is, I'm an old man. If I was his lawyer. I'd be up there, I'd be like, gentlemen and ladies of the jury, you can see that he does nothing intentionally. You know that everything that comes out of this man's mouth is mostly a mistake.

And it would just be. There's no malice in anything Dolly's ever done. And it would be the funniest. It's like the Michael Scott thing. Yeah. It'd be the funniest trial of all time. Yeah. And in the end, instead of punishing him and canceling him, they'd be like,

let's get him a present. Yeah, let's celebrate him. Your little scam. Rick Dollywell day. Rick Dollywell is coming up next on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Before we go to break,

I need to tell you about the BC Lions. Be fitting for a Moj segment. The roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions 70th season. Get your tickets now at bclions.com. Rick Dollywell coming up next.

Halford & Brough, Sportsnet 650.