Halford & Brough in the Morning - The D̶a̶l̶l̶a̶s̶ S̶t̶a̶r̶s̶ Florida Panthers Are Canada's Team

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the weekend in sports (3:00), plus they talk an Oilers Panthers Stanley Cup Final with Sportsnet NHL host David Amber (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN David moves to the outside. What a throw! Nick Powell! What does he get to do? And Contreras is barking out. Tommy Pham's barking back. He's not backing down. There's a reason why, you know, I do all kinds of fighting in the offseason. Because I'm prepared to f*** somebody up. Because they're so talented and such great teammates, they are attractive to other teams, so they will call.

Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. This is Alfred and his brouhaha for the Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you.

Good morning. And Basketball Ben, good morning to you as well. Lots of barks this morning. Good morning. A lot of barking. Good morning. Alfred and Brouhaha for the morning is brought to you. Good morning. And basketball fan, good morning to you as well. Lots of barks this morning. Good morning. A lot of barking. Good morning. Halford and Brougham in the Morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. Pacific Honda is North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts.

We are in Hour 1 of this program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling. They recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider,

powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Rafit, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. You know what else you're waiting for? The start of the Stanley Cup final. Yes, we know who the two combatants will be. Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. You know what else you're waiting for? The start of the Stanley Cup final. Yes, we know who the two combatants will be. The Edmonton Oilers out of the Western Conference.

The Florida Panthers out of the Eastern Conference. The series will not get underway until Saturday. That's right, Saturday. So we've got a full week to preview game one and the rest of the series. Today, though, we will look back on the weekend that was with a guest list, very full guest list today on the Halford & Brough Show. Begins at 6.30. David Amber, Sportsnet Hockey Night in Canada NHL host is going to join us. He was in Edmonton last night for the Oilers,

punching their ticket to the Stanley Cup final. 7 o'clock, we're going to have Arthur Staple on the show from The Athletic in New York. The Rangers fall short after winning the President's Trophy. They fall to the Florida Panthers in six games. They lost on Saturday night. So we'll talk to Arthur. We'll do a post-mortem on the Rangers at seven 30,

Jack Michaels, play-by-play voice of the Edmonton Oilers is going to join us eight o'clock. Randy Janda. He is doing the hockey night, Canada Punjabi, and as well, of course, connect play-by-play man,

right? Or color. Sorry, right here on Sportsnet 650. We're also giving away Snoop tickets, Jason. Snoop Dogg. Snoopaloop. Nice. June 25th, Rogers Arena.

We're giving away a pair of tickets every day this week for the best what we learned. If you want to win, it's quite simple. Tell us what you learned over the last 72 hours in sports. Hashtag it WWL. Put a ticket emoji into your text. Send it to the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. You'll be entered into the grand prize contest to win a pair of tickets to see Snoop June 25th at Rogers Arena.

Working in reverse on the guest list. 8 o'clock, it's Randeep Janda. 7.30, Jack Michaels. 7 o'clock, Arthur Staple. 6.30, David Amber. That's Randeep Janda. 7.30, Jack Michaels. 7 o'clock, Arthur Staple. 6.30, David Amber. That's what's happening on the program today. Ben, let's tell everybody what happened.

Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools,

resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. As mentioned, the 2024 Stanley Cup final is set. It is Edmonton. It is Florida. Where would you like to begin, friend? I would like to paint this series as a nightmare scenario for fans of the Calgary Flames.

It'll be the Edmonton Oilers, the Alberta Rivals versus Matthew Kachuk and the Florida Panthers. Matthew Kachuk being one of the guys that asked out of Calgary, said, I don't want to be in Calgary anymore. This place stinks. Sucks. And he goes to Florida and he enjoys his life. asked out of Calgary. He said, I don't want to be in Calgary anymore. This place stinks. It sucks. And he goes to Florida and he enjoys his life. And now the Panthers are headed back to their

second straight Stanley Cup final. Okay. Let's start with the Edmonton Oilers. Let's begin. I enjoyed this text from Suri Ryan. And if you have any comments or questions, text into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650-DUNBAR-LUMBER with three stores to serve you in Ladner on Bridge Street,

Dunbar Lumber Express at Ladner Center, or Abudas in Vancouver, online at dunbarlumber.com. Surrey Ryan texts in, it feels nice to be united with the rest of the country behind one team since Canada hasn't had a cup in 31 years. And Surrey Ryan concludes with, Go Panthers.

See what he did there? See what I did? See what I did? He took you down one road, and you're thinking. Yeah, this is the first half. I'm not going to lie. This is the road we're going down. Boston pizza ads, et cetera, et cetera.

That's right. And then he zagged right at the end. He said, oh, we're on a different road here. And he said, go Florida. I agree. Uh, the Edmonton Oilers deserving of beating the Dallas stars. They were, they did it easier than they did it with the, against the, the Vancouver Canucks. Um, I know a lot of people will look at the shot clock from yesterday and say, ah, they

got so badly outshot by the Dallas Stars. Well, that's what happens when you get a two nothing lead and you're able to protect it. Special teams for me were the story, special teams have been the story really of the Edmonton Oilers all playoffs. And if you'd said that at the beginning of the playoffs, you'd have been like, yeah, I get it.

Yeah. They got an unbelievable power play, but no one really talked about their PK. Their PK was incredible throughout the playoffs. I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, the Canucks were the only team to score against them on the power play. That is correct, my friend.

Because the Kings couldn't do it. That is correct. And the Stars couldn't do it. That is also correct. That is a team I mean, I hate to say it, and maybe they'll show themselves in the Stanley Cup Final against Florida,

but it seems like the Edmonton Oilers are growing up. They're big boys now. They can play defense. They can protect leads, and they did it pretty well in the Dallas Stars series. Stuart Skinner steps in in the clenching game, stops 34 or 35 shots, and you're right. They were royally outshot in that game something you can afford to do yes afford to do when you jump out to a two nothing lead and you

do your business on the power play which is exactly what they did including that first goal from mcwow himself 35 to 10 were the final shots on goal 74 to 24 were the final shot attempts in that game. I mean, at times, I did feel genuinely bad for Dallas because you could tell that they were leaving everything they possibly had left in the tank on the ice. It's kind of the opposite to what the Canucks did in Game 7 against the Oilers. Completely the opposite. Yeah.

Completely the opposite. But the Oilers winning while being badly outshot reminded me of the Canucks. Like, hey, I saw this earlier. That's true. The Canucks winning those games would be badly outshot. You mentioned Connor McDavid, who scored an unbelievable goal. The first goal on the power play for the Edmonton Oilers.

Terrific individual effort. One of the things we've talked about a lot about Connor McDavid on this show for the past few years is the fact that he's never played in a really, really, really, really, really big game. That changes now. He's played in some kind of big games, you know, big playoff games. Uh, you know, last series he played in a, in a game seven and in the second round, that's a big game, but nothing like the Stanley cup final, nothing like, uh, the Olympics. And now he's going to get his Stanley cup final. And people will say, you know, Gretzky, uh, Mary Lemieux,

Sidney Crosby, um, you know, all these guys won Stanley Cups. And even though it's harder than ever to win a Stanley Cup now, because there are more teams in the league, it is very important for a player's legacy to win a Stanley Cup. Now he hasn't won the Stanley Cup yet, but he's got a pretty good chance at it. Right, and this particular season, given the way that it started, you can already see the redemptive narrative, the storyline, the arc. You know how this is going to go, is that Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers sunk about as low as they had gotten in that era,

the 2-9-1 start. So the five points that they had through the first 12 games that two nine and one start are the fewest in nhl history by a team that went on to play in the stanley cup finals so it is literally coming from the depths as low as you can go getting jay woodcroft fired and then coming all the way back and of course mcdavid scores a very pivotal goal in game six they you know and when look back, and we will talk to Randy Bjanda particularly about do we re-litigate or re-calibrate what happened in the second round against Vancouver, but you look at all the things that they had to go through in that second round series against Vancouver,

I do wonder if that was the sort of pivotal one for that group, specifically Stuart Skinner. That's where he got his reset. That's where they kind of had to, I mean, they were really tested in that series, almost against themselves. I wonder more about what could have been for the Canucks. Well, that's another part of it.

Thatcher Demko gets to play one game in the playoffs. Elias Pettersson did not look himself in these playoffs, and Brock Besser was hurt for game seven. I mean, those are all very valid things to bring up. That is very frustrating. Plus the Stars didn't play like the Stars. That made it worse for me because I was expecting them to come out flying. I'm like seeing the Stars and I'm like, the Canucks are going to beat those guys.

The Canucks played pretty well against Dallas during the regular season. Yeah, that makes it worse somehow. Also, lest we forget, Dallas had an incredibly tough road to get to the Western Conference Final. I don't think there would have been two tougher first-round opponents than Vegas in the first round and Colorado in the second. Well, I was going to say that. Yeah, that probably took a lot out of their sales.

I think the key for the Canucks next season is get off to a slow start, fire Rick Talkett, bring in a new coach, and then you've got some success because Chris Knobloch could become the latest of a growing list of teams that win the Stanley Cup with a head coach. I'm talking about the Edmonton Oilers here, with a head coach that was a mid-season replacement. You should probably mention you're joking about the Docket thing

because we're already getting calls about that. No, I'm not joking. This is actually quite serious. The 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins fired Michelle Terrian and then brought in Dan Bilesma, won the Stanley Cup. The 2012 LA Kings fired Terry Murray, brought in Daryl Sutter, won the Stanley Cup, beating the Canucks along the way. Yep.

The 2015-16 Pittsburgh Penguins fired, God, remember Mike Johnston got that job? Yeah. Fired him. Brought in the guy who is mostly known as John Tortorella's right-hand man and Mike Sullivan, and then Sullivan did an incredible coaching job, won the Stanley Cup. And the 2019 St. Louis Blues, they fired, who was it? Mike Yo.

They fired Mike Yo, brought in Craig Berube, and left the Sad Club and won their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. And now we could see this happening again with Chris. Don't call me Chuck Knobloch. Yeah. Now, speaking of escaping the sad club,

the Florida Panthers are one of the few teams that actually had eligibility for said sad club. And they might be ruining that eligibility in a few days time because they punched their ticket to the Stanley cup final for the second straight season with a two one victory against the New York Rangers in Game 6 on Saturday night in Florida. It was Bennett and Tarasenko with the goals, Bobrovsky 23 saves. All you really need to know about this series is that Florida choked the life out of the New York Rangers

and their star players. You know, a lot of people will go into this series talking about Matthew Kuchuk, and rightly so. He's kind of the face of the Panthers but for me and for the Edmonton Oilers I think the biggest challenge will be two players Barkov the Selkie Trophy winner and Gustav Forsling who might be the best shutdown defenseman in the NHL so I was unaware of just how prolific Forsling was as a shutdown guy in these playoffs. I did not realize he got every single tough matchup,

but courtesy of Shayna Goldman of The Athletic, he faced off, I think it was 48 minutes head-to-head against Kucherov in round one, 52 against Pasternak in round two, and then primarily with Zbigniew. The numbers weren't as high, so he was just out there. It's funny.

I'm just thinking, the Canucks should have kept that guy. You think? But the Adam Glendening memories, we'll never forget those. So will that go down as one of the worst trades in Canucks history? It's not a good one.

To be fair, to be fair, he went through numerous other NHL franchises before landing in Florida, including getting waived by Carolina. So the hard matchup for Barkov,

this playoffs, Kucherov, zero goals first round, Kostranak, one goal second round, Panarin, one goal third round. So that,

okay, the Rangers series. It's actually a terrific matchup. Yeah, it is. It's a very enticing matchup. I don't care for Florida. But they did go last year to the Stanley Cup final. Again, I think I'm on record saying.

I don't care for them. They're fun. They're good. They're fine. They're more interesting than Dallas. They're more interesting than Dallas. I think they're a better version of Dallas. I think this series with Edmonton in it is very tantalizing.

Stylistically, it's fantastic. No, I just think overall. I'm curious to see what the building's going to be like in Florida. How many Oilers fans are going to be down there? Right, because that was the one thing for me. It might be cheaper to go to Florida, buy tickets to go see the Panthers than it is to get into the arena in Edmonton. That is very possible, right?

Because I remember distinctly watching a few games of that Eastern Conference Final and being like, wow, there's a ton of Rangers fans in here right it's florida it is what it is i've been there you know the hockey team is there they have their fans but it is by no mean a teaming market like it's it is what it is i think everyone understands this i think it has the potential to get nasty too well that's the good part about this is because of the style that the Panthers play, right? Is that they are a suffocating team. They want to, I mean, they're very physical. And that's sort of embodied by, and it's really Bennett and Kachuk that lead that part of it. And then Barkov is such a good, responsible two-way center.

He's the new Bergeron yeah essentially and then they kind of developed this blue line where um you know i think a lot of people identified ekblad as being their number one but if you look at it in realistically forrestling's that guy like forrestling makes the whole thing go you see bennett's look like completely shaved with a big ass beard looks like a confederate soldier right and i'll say oh did they shave their heads back then during the civil war yeah there's a big look at the time uh don't don't don't look that up um here's what you need to know about what they because the new york rangers came in president's trophy winner high flying offense you know um crider and panarin and zabinijad were among the three top scorers in the eastern conference throughout the entire regular season of playoffs. Zbigniew Craner and Panarin combined for two goals.

Two goals in the Eastern Conference final. And one of them, Panarin scored late in Game 6 when they were trailing 2-0. So Barkov and Forsling are going to roundly shut down McDavid and Dreisaitl and then sweep the others. Stylistically, that's the matchup. It's this defensive lockdown against the two probably best dynamic scoring duo in the NHL. That's why it's great. Do you think the Panthers, having gone to the Cup Final last year,

gives them any sort of experience advantage? I know they're healthier than when they went to the Cup Final last year. But we've seen a team in the salary cap era in the salary cap era, get to the Stanley cup final and lose only to win it the next year. The penguins did it in 2009, uh, before the salary cap, the Oilers did it themselves back in 1983. They met the New York Islanders in the Stanley cup final. Then there was a rematch of that Stanley Cup final, which switched who won.

In 83, the Islanders won their fourth straight. And in 84, the Edmonton Oilers finally won their first Stanley Cup and they would go on to win four of the next five. A team has not lost consecutive Stanley Cups since the St. Louis Blues lost three straight from 1968 to 1970. And that was kind of a weird one. Like the Blues got swept, I believe, in all

three of those because they put all the expansion teams post-1967 in the same division to guarantee one of these teams would go to the Stanley Cup. It was a weird thing. I don't know. But like, so what, you know, the picture of Bobby Orr flying through the air, that famous picture, that was one of the Stanley Cup final losses for the Blues.

No team since then has gone to back-to-back Stanley Cup finals and lost. So it's an interesting point to bring up because I do think it's going to play to the Panthers' advantage because they've carried a real chip on their shoulders about how the Stanley Cup final went last year. Part of it was, hey, we were completely beat up. I'm pretty sure that it was Montour, Bennett, Lusterainen, and Ekblad were all hurt. Remember, Kachuk broke his sternum during the Vegas series, so he was nowhere near as effective as well. But I don't know if you guys remember,

the final game was 9-3. Remember that? They just got absolutely trounced in the clinching game in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final. Yeah, they were done. It was never really close. So they've carried that all season. And I don't know if you saw Kachuk crowing on the ice

after they beat the Rangers on Saturday, saying, I told you we'd be back. I told you we'd be back. They were very determined to, I want to say, make amends. Like, I know they had built-in excuses why they crumbled in the final. They were beat up. But they really want to make amends for what happened because I think they felt that they didn't put the best showing

to themselves against Vegas. You know what was the funniest moment of the weekend? Was Paul Maurice panic going around yelling at everyone not to touch the conference final trophy. Yeah. Because they touched it last year. Pointing his finger, don't do it. That was some hands-on coaching. Yeah. yelling at everyone not to touch the conference final trophy because they touched it last year. Like that was. Pointing his finger.

Don't do it. That was some hands-on coaching. Yeah. He was running around behind the bench and Kachuk was kind of laughing at him, but it was funny. I don't think the Oilers. No, they didn't.

Touched the trophy either. By the way, Sportsnet 650 did a poll question and it's been up for about 10 hours. It's got 1200 votes votes who are you cheering for in the stanley cup final florida edmonton or neutral florida got 71 of the vote i get overwhelmingly and i think there's a lot of you know hardcore canucks fans. Hardcore sports fans who would vote. Actually, follow Sportsnet650 on Twitter. I think, does this sound right? Does this sound right?

The casual hockey fans in Canada will be cheering for Edmonton. Sure. But the hardcore hockey fans who identify with one Canadian team, like in a big, big way, will be cheering for the most part against the Edmonton Oilers. That's fair. I think so.

You think that's fair? Totally. But the casual fan will be like, it would be nice to see a Canadian team win. And guys like me would be like, no, that is the worst case scenario. If any team is going to break this drought, I only want one team to do it.

All the other ones, it's a disaster. Think of Flames fans right now. Think of Flames fans. Who would they cheer for? It's funny. It's got to be Florida. It's funny. They have to cheer for Florida,

but then they're cheering for Matthew Kachuk. Cheer for Sam Bennett. It's the Larry David meme. No, but yeah, they're just like, okay, it's great that the Oilers didn't, but here's a guy that essentially broke our team apart. I know Johnny Gaudreau was part of it, but don't forget, it was really the Matthew Kachuk trade

that really, I don't want to say, screwed them. Like it's, you know, Johnny Goudreau leaving was bad. Definitely. But to get Kachuk, they brought in Huberto and then signed him to that big contract, which is now considered one of the worst contracts in the NHL.

Yep. And the Flames are into a rebuild now. You know, that is a tough, tough scenario if you're a Flames fan. It's hard enough as a Canucks fan, but it's brutal as a Flames fan. If you're a Calgary Flames fan, you might consider just sitting the Stanley Cup final out. Just being like, I'll get back to you in October when hockey starts up again. But that's a tough one either way.

They might be the neutrals on that one. The other thing you have to consider when you're talking about the sort of casuals or non-hardcores that are going to pick a side in this one, there are going to be people that are going to want to see Connor McDavid win a Stanley Cup. They're going to say that he's the best player in the NHL and he's one of the greatest players of all time and they're going to want to see that ascension of his or the further steps towards cementing his legacy

as one of the greats, which you need a cup to do. If the Oilers hadn't have beaten the Canucks, I probably wouldn't care too much, really, to see him win a cup. Yeah, nice, but that's my only argument, is I just kind of want to see greatness win. Yeah, I get that. But they beat the Canucks, so screw them. Yeah, well, that's, yeah.

And it's going to be real difficult now. I mean, I was thinking about it all last night. I was like, you know, Dallas didn't even push Edmonton to seven. They only made it to game six. Like, I keep looking at it and say all the what ifs. What if, what if, what if, what if. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It makes it so much worse.

What if Chuck Knobloch, Chris Knobloch decided not to take Stuart Skinner out of that series and give him the reset, right? What if he just let him play through it? How different that series could have been? Because to me, that's the biggest coaching move that I've seen in a while. And what Knobloch did, and I give him credit, it worked brilliantly because he gave him the reset

and got him back. And look at what Skinner did last night. I would have never have thought halfway through the Vancouver series that Stuart Skinner was going to give me 34 on 35 in an elimination game. Never. But isn't it kind of awesome for Canucks fans

if Edmonton wins to be like, we gave them the toughest time? No. No. Is that not like, we lost to the champs? You know what?

I've seen that story before. I've seen it. I don't need to see it again. I saw it in 89 when the Canucks pushed the Flames to seven games in the first round

and the Flames went on to win the Stanley Cup. 2010 against the Blackhawks. For whatever reason this year. Lots of teams that have beaten the Canucks on the way to a Stanley Cup win. I don't know if you can always say that the Canucks were the toughest out, but I've seen the story before and I don't want to see it again. For whatever reason this year, be it it was just a matchup thing

or it was part luck or they had their number or whatever, Vancouver was a huge thorn in the side of the Oilers, perhaps more so than any other team during the regular season and playoffs. No one had their number more, right? So you just, when you think about it, you're like, well, it's great that they, you know, they challenged this team so thoroughly. But at the same time, you're like, that's an opportunity there. When you've got someone's number and you just, you just beat them.

Like it doesn't really make sense sometimes. You're down 4-1 in a playoff game, and you come back and win 5-4. Like, things happened where the Canucks had an ability to beat the Oilers, and it would have been great if they'd been able to. I mean, it was one goal in Game 7, despite the fact that the shot disparity was so lopsided. So I did make a slight mistake earlier. The listeners corrected me.

One of them was Steven North-Sanich said, didn't the Bruins lose back-to-back finals in 1977 and 1978? Yes, indeed they did against the Montreal Canadiens. John Cherry was the head coach of the Boston Bruins back then. So I apologize for that error. I will resign after the show. David Amber is going to join us next. We'll talk about this Stanley Cup final,

and we'll probably hear some complaining from the various media members who have to travel between Florida and Edmonton. Yeah, I checked the map. That's really far away. And people will say, you get to cover the Stanley Cup final for a living. Stop complaining. You're listening to the Halford & final for a living. Stop complaining. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 631 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Monday. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & 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 1 of the program. David Amber, Sportsnet, Hockey Night in Canada, NHL host, is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling.

They recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. Sportsnet's David Amber joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, David. How are you? Good, guys. How are you doing? We are well. I think I know the answer to this,

but I'm going to ask anyway. Just how loud was it in the building last night for that Game 6 victory for the Edmonton Oilers? It was really loud. My ears were ringing. I mean, it was deafening at times when McDavid scored that ridiculous goal. I mean, it was a crescendo of just,

it was pretty, the crowd is engaged, I'll put it that way. Sometimes you go to rinks and they're pumping in sound, but this was a collective group of fans who were waiting for this moment, were ready for it. And, you know, in comparison to game five in Dallas, albeit, you know, the home team lost that game and the home team won last night. It was night and day. It was just, it was a big, very, you know, just a very loud, engaged, excited crowd. And it wasn't really hostile as far as Dallas was concerned.

I think it was more just so supportive of the Oilers. I mean, they were getting caved in in the third period and barely had any shots. And still, for the last four minutes, the Let's Go Oilers chant was ringing loud and clear. So it's an impressive building, guys. What was more impressive in the playoffs, the Oilers power play or the Oilers chant was ringing loud and clear. So it's an impressive building, guys. What was more impressive in the playoffs, the Oilers power play or the Oilers penalty kill?

Oh, man, the penalty kill. I mean, they're now, first of all, you just didn't expect that. We know they had that historic great power play last year. Their penalty kill was kind of fairly average during the regular season, and the fact that they've now killed, what, 28 in a row off didn't allow Dallas to get any momentum. And quite frankly, we remember back to the last three, four games of the Vancouver series,

they didn't allow the Canucks to get any momentum. And it really does sap the energy from a team when you force a penalty and then you have two minutes to really engage and put pressure on and to not be able to come up with a score in the entire series for the Dallas Stars. They played pretty well five-on-five. They really did. In fact, the Oilers are dead even five-on-five this postseason,

43 goals scored five- five on five or even strength and 43 goals against. It's their special teams that have been so dynamic and the PK has just been very, very impressive. And for me, guys, surprising, right? Like against good teams

with good power plays, they've been able to, they're right at 94%, you know, when you factor in who their opponents have been, that's very impressive david who do you feel more sorry for is it the calgary flames fans who have to watch a stanley cup final between the edmonton oilers and matthew kachuk and the florida panthers or do you feel

more sorry for canucks fans who watched their team without their star goaltender and missing one of their best forwards in Game 7 fall to these Edmonton Oilers in seven games. Give us your sympathy. Give us your sympathy. We will accept it. It's funny. When I was in Edmonton, there was quite a few fans from Calgary saying,

you know, we've jumped on board. And I just was so surprised, right? I thought that was sacrilegious. But they were saying, you know, we've jumped on board. And I just was so surprised, right? I thought that was sacrilegious. But they were saying, you know, this is great. It's nice. And so maybe I think the rivalry is a little more heated right now between the Canucks and the Oilers. And I know it got pretty nasty on social media and, you know,

going into the trenches with those two fan bases. So maybe I feel a little bit more sorry for the Vancouver Canucks, you know, fan base, because I think the, the pain is there. It's right in front of them. You know,

Calgary wasn't a playoff team the whole year. So they've had time to sort of accept their fate and accept that the Oilers might be in this position. I think for Vancouver, it's just a little more fresh, a little more raw. So I'll say, I feel a little bit more sorry for the Canucks fan base.

I feel sorry a little bit for some of the Toronto fan base too, simply because they're sitting there watching Zach Hyman's going to probably set the record for goals in one single playoff. He's five away from that, and I wouldn't bet against him if the Oilers continue doing what they're doing on the power play. Hyman might set the all-time record for that. And then you've got Connor Brown, who's been great on the big part of their penalty kill.

Cody Ceci. So there's enough pain to go around for all the Canadian markets, I'm sure. So maybe, just maybe, not all of Canada will be cheering for the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup final against the Florida Panthers. It's possible. I know there's some ads suggesting otherwise, but it's possible. Come on, they're not cheering for them in Vancouver, are they?

No. I mean, you guys are there. You're feeling it. No, this is our theory. The casual fans that are just kind of like, I like hockey, will be like, wouldn't it be nice if Canada won the Stanley Cup final? It's been a long time. The hardcore fans who live and

die with their teams every day in Canada will be like, no, no, I do not want to see another Canadian team celebrate a Stanley Cup championship. Do you think that's fair? Yeah, certainly for a lot of people. You know, it also might depend on the age and, you know, like, listen, I'm not old by any means, but it's, you know, it's been a long time since the Canadian teams won. So for me, you know, I'm happy. It's cool to see the fan bases, right? Like, I was there last year when Vegas won, and it was really cool.

And then, you know what, we walk out of the arena, and you're on the vegas strip and people don't even know that there's been a hockey game i mean it's just it's such a different feeling i walk out of rogers place last night and for blocks and blocks and hours i actually flew home last night on the red eye and i i'm telling you like at the airport people are going crazy about it all through the streets. Obviously, that scene would be replicated in Vancouver, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Toronto, right? There's just a different level of fandom.

And I just think that's cool. You know, listen, if Florida wins the Stanley Cup this year, I'm happy for those players and the management, etc. And they're a hardcore group of fans. But I'm telling you, half an hour after the game, we will walk out of that rink and you will not know what's happened. You just won't. I've seen this. I've seen it in Colorado.

I've seen it. It doesn't mean they're not hockey fans. It's just different. The alligators outside the arena in Florida will not be celebrating that win. I mean, that's for me, guys. That's what it is. I think it would be really cool to see a Canadian fan base get the opportunity to celebrate. That's all.

See, that's exactly why I don't want them to win. No, seriously. I always say I like to think of myself as a reasonably good person, but I'm not a good person when I'm a sports fan. I'm jealous. I'm petty. I want revenge. And I think it's a good way to get those feelings out so you don't bring them into real life

because this isn't really real life. Do you think this series might get spicy with some of the personalities on the ice? That's a really good question. Things got a little spicy. Vancouver definitely was very comfortable you know mucking it up after the whistle versus the oilers and the oilers responded this last series was completely docile and um it just there wasn't the hate there and dallas's mo

you know least penalized team blah blah you know they play whistle to whistle they don't necessarily have the personnel who are going to get in your face. Florida plays nasty. They play dirty some people would say. I've heard people in the hockey community call them the dirtiest team in the league. They hit to hurt and they have a lot of guys who are

more than comfortable being in that role. The Oilers have some guys themselves who are pretty comfortable doing that. One of their main agitators is Evander Kane, who's been really banged up. We saw him leave the game a couple times yesterday.

I'm not sure he's necessarily prepared to play the same role he played against Matthew Kachuk in the Battle of Alberta two years ago because he completely neutralized Kachuk. He was very physical, and he really took it to Matthew Kachuk when they were on the ice together. I'm not sure he's going to be able to maybe play that role this time around. But, you know, when you have Corey Perry and you have, you know, some of the defensemen on the Oilers, I was very comfortable mocking it up.

And this could get nastier. It's certainly going to be nastier than the Dallas series. That almost seemed too pleasant. And whoever was asked about that after they lost game three, a lot of the question was like, you know, it's not physical enough. It's not mean enough. It's not angry enough. And Darnell Nurse was taking a lot of the brunt of that.

And then he came out in game four and delivered, you know, one of his best games. So that definitely has the potential, guys, to get a little nasty. to that. And then he came out in game four and delivered one of his best games. So that definitely has the potential guys to get a little nasty, and I don't think anyone would mind that. You're fighting for the Stanley Cup. You're into the Stanley Cup final. Everything's on the line. I'd like to think

it's going to get a little nasty. We're speaking to David Amber, Sportsnet NHL host here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. The series does not get underway until Saturday. It's a lengthy, lengthy break for these two teams until the Stanley Cup final begins in Florida on Saturday evening. Do you think that break plays to either team's advantage, David?

Without knowing the specific injuries, and there are some, it's hard to know. At the end of the playoffs, we'll know and be like, oh, it's good he had that time to try and heal. No, listen, both teams, they're pretty young. They're dynamic. They're on incredible momentum for both. Oilers just won the last three games.

They're feeling pretty good. I'm sure if they had to play in two days, they'd probably say, yeah, we're ready to go mentally and emotionally and psychologically and all the rest. And Florida, same thing. They just got through a very hard-fought series against a pretty scrappy New York team. So I'm not sure it's going to cause a problem.

They're both, you know, it's only a one-day difference. Sometimes what you do is you get a team sweeps a team, and then they play a team that played seven games, and that's where you see the differences. The rust versus rust component. Not New York. Florida's going to have one extra day off

than Edmonton. Both teams had to travel. They were in New York. Oh, no. They actually know. Florida was home in games. Florida didn't have to travel, but Edmonton's going to had to travel, right? They were in New York and, oh no, they actually know Florida was home in games. Florida didn't have to travel, but I mentioned the guys that travel. So I don't think that's going to be a big role, guys. I don't see that being an advantage for either team until we kind of get a better sense of how banged up these guys were

and how many injuries they're playing through. Speaking of travel, this year's Stanley Cup final between the Oilers and Panthers, the furthest between two cities in NHL history in a Stanley Cup final, 2,541 miles surpassing Vancouver, Boston in 2011. How much chatter have you guys had about the travel that's about to happen over the next week or so? Are you guys going to do a charter? Didn't that happen in 2011?

There was a media charter? Yeah. Listen, I don't – without – you know, people don't want to hear people in the media, you know, whining about stuff because, listen, we have great jobs. We get to go see these incredible events, and I get all that. But I will say the travel, whatever travel we do this next round won't be anything close to what we just went through. It was a bit of a gong show.

There's no direct flights from Edmonton to Dallas. And, you know, going down from between Game 4 and Game 5, going from Edmonton to Dallas took us 22 hours. I was on a flight, you know, with Elliot Freeston and Kyle Bukowskis. Yeah, our day started at 3.30 in the morning, you know, getting up and leaving the hotel in Edmonton. And we got to our hotel at two o'clock when you factor in the one hour time difference it was literally kind of close to 24 hours of travel

so it was um it was nuts it just delayed delayed delay delay so uh there was because you have to connect and there was just problems and uh there was no easy travel this last time and again i'm not i don't expect anyone to be crying any tears for us. But this next round I don't think will be quite as bad. I do hope and think that the NHL might be charging a flight, which is a good thing to do. Because not so much for the commentators, but like for the crew that have to physically set up everything.

You know, you need to have all the cameras and everything in place. And in Dallas specifically, there were some complications because the Mavericks are still playing. everything you know you need to have all the cameras and everything in place and in dallas uh specifically there were some complications because the mavericks are still playing so you have to tear down things and build up things and etc etc etc so uh just from a tactical standpoint this is something you want to go off without a hitch and i would say making sure that the people who you know need to be there to facilitate all that can be there in timely fashion is in everyone's best interest so i'm hopeful uh you know the nhl is gonna kind of take the charter seriously and i think that's what's happening here we'll find out uh game one of the stanley cup final goes saturday five o'clock in florida david thank you very much

for doing this today we really appreciate it go get some sleep. We'll do this again next Monday, and we'll have game one of the Stanley Cup final in the books. Yeah, look forward to it, guys. It should be a fantastic series, and thanks again for having me on. Yeah, thanks for coming on. We appreciate it. That's David Amber, Hockey Night in Canada Sportsnet NHL host here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet.

6.50. You know what happened on Saturday? The Florida Panthers beat the New York Rangers to advance to the Stanley Cup Final. No, it was the first day of June. Oh! June. We are now into June. One of the better sporting months of the season.

And there's a lot of sports coming up this month. June 8th to the 24th is the Stanley Cup Final Obviously I might not go as far as the 24th But that is the last possible date For the Stanley Cup Final June 27th is the NHL Awards And then June 28th, 29th is the NHL Draft Right now the Scouting Combine is on

And I know ADOG is watching that intently Seeing who can do the chin-ups and who cannot do the chin-ups. Focus for the Canucks during the month of June will be negotiating with their pending UFAs while also creating a few backup plans in case those UFAs walk. Maybe some light tampering. Gentle tampering.

What's going to happen with Chris Tanov now, for example? That's one of- You can gently tamper him. Gently tamper. Why is the Stanley Cup final starting so late? Why can't it start on Tuesday or Wednesday? Or does that have to be Saturday or whatever it is?

Email gbetman at nhl.com. He's blocked me. Ask that question. Hotmail.com. Yeah, hotmail. He's a hotmail guy. AOL.com. Old school.

Lycos.com. GaryB420. So that's the NHL schedule. So June, we're all basically like, you know, the Stanley Cup final, the 8th to the 24th. And then right after the window for the Stanley Cup final, we're into the NHL draft. And then, of course, free agency is July 1st.

The NBA finals start Thursday and the NBA finals has had a long layoff as well uh I don't know what the thinking is with these leagues maybe they just have this set this is when the Stanley Cup finals are or this is when the NBA finals are on and right after that is the draft so everyone can be prepared for it and everyone's I don't I don't know why they do it but it does seem to lose some momentum in terms of like, we're going to talk about like, are we, we're not going to do a preview of the Stanley cup final every day this week. Every day.

You know what I mean? Like today we'll talk about, you know, Forsling versus McDavid or whatever. I don't think we're going to be doing that. I'm really looking forward to watching the NBA Finals. Again, starts Thursday between the Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks. That's going to be Kyrie versus Boston, essentially. The BC Lions have their first game of the season Sunday, June 9th at Toronto. And the first home game, Saturday, June 15th versus Calgary featuring 50 Cent and what looks like could be

close, if not totally sold out. 50,000 for 50 Cent. 50,000? Yeah. Fitty-fitty. Did I read somewhere that they've already sold 45,000 tickets? Yep.

For that game? Correct. That is awesome. So awesome. They are anticipating, anticipating is not the right word it's trending towards a sellout i hope 50 000 you know what after attending after attending the uh non-messy match at bc place and that was full and it was cool to see but uh we did not see lionel messi no i hope 50 cent shows up yeah hopefully hopefully he's not resting to watch

his 12 year old son play an academy game i I don't want to go down that road. Speaking of international soccer, there's some big matches coming up in the month of June. Canada versus Lionel Messi and Argentina in Atlanta on Thursday, June 20th. And the Euros kick off a few days earlier, June 14th, with the host Germany playing Scotland. And P.S., the Whitecaps keep playing as well.

They sure do. That's the thing with MLS, right? Like it's the summer league. And so they don't, you know, all the other leagues around the world, the big leagues around the world have all finished and the Champions League finished over the weekend with Real Madrid beating Dortmund 2-0. And then one final thing, since Basketball Ben

is in studio with us, the US Open is also in June, June 13th to the 16th at Pinehurst number two, not number one and not number three. There's like eight courses or ten courses, I think. There might be ten. Yeah. This is one of Pinehurst number two. It is my favorite of the Pinehursts.

I've never been a number three guy. No. Kind of been a number one guy. Right. Big number two guy. Why is number two so good? So, Halford, what are you most excited for for the month of June? I mean, come on.

This is so obvious, right right i'm setting you up all due respect to what will be a very enticing month for the national hockey league what with the stanley cup final the draft and then the lead up to july 1st free agency the international footy you failed to mention jason that before can Canada takes on Argentina in the Copa America, they are playing two of the most prolific friendlies in the history of this country's footballing history. Netherlands on June 6th, followed by France and Kylian Mbappe, new Real Madrid player. Right. Three days later.

So this is, I never thought. And that's a warm up for the Euros. So those guys, how do they normally approach? The matches of Jesse Martian charges the gaffer. Right. Three days later. So this is, I never thought. And that's a warm-up for the Euros. So those guys, how do they normally approach? And it's the first matches of Jesse Marsh in charge is the gaffer. Right. But how do those countries approach that? Will they have a full squad, like their strongest squad going? Yeah.

I mean, they might not feel their full, this is our day one of the competition starting 11, but they're going to be pretty close to it. They might be a little bit more liberal with their substitutions in terms of rotating guys in and out. The Netherlands and France need those matches to tune up. They're usually taken fairly seriously. It's not like guys are

flying around trying to kill one of the attackers. It's going to be a tough month for Andrew and Victoria. There's going to be a lot of soccer talk. Andrew and Victoria, you're going to hate this show more than you normally do. So I'm very much looking forward to that. Copa and the Euro going on at the same time is great but i'm not gonna lie um always the end of june for hockey even though the weather's nice you want to go outside you're not really thinking about hockey it's always great because one thing that the nhl i don't know if this is intentional or not but they've kind of

stumbled upon this thing where everything is so crammed in to the final week of june that it becomes this news frenzy where things are happening on a minute by minute basis because you got to remember teams have to sit around and wait until the stanley cup final is done essentially before they can start making all these deals official and teams need to make trades and get qualifying offers and make some moves ahead of the draft, start looking at what they want to do in the draft. Also with an eye to July 1, which is the start of free agency. So it's all this.

It's like a year's worth of business that gets condensed down into a 10-day frame, which is always really entertaining because teams are forced to move quickly and you just get this constant stream of news coming in. So that's going to be a lot of fun as well. Update on the BC Lions. Thanks to our listeners, according to the BC Lions Twitter account, 50,000 tickets have already been sold.

Yeah, 50,000. That's crazy. I'm looking at the Ticketmaster site right now. If you want to get consecutive seats, unless you're in the secondary market, you got to get them now and you're going to be restricted to the end zone of one of the upper decks.

Like it's going to be. Wow. It's going to be packed in there and that's going to be awesome. And I really cannot say enough about Amar Doloman and the commitment, not only financially, but also time that he's put into the BC Lions. And it is so nice to praise the BC Lions for things because for years we were ripping them, you know, ripping the CFL as a whole. And we said, you know, like they, they need to, you know, figure something out because their idea of marketing for the BC Lions

and basically the message that we got as media members through the BC Lions was like, well, fans should support us and media should cover us. And you're kind of like, well, fans should support us and media should cover us. And you're kind of like, well, the media is not going to cover you if you don't make it interesting. And if the fans aren't interested, then the media is not going to be interested. And I realized there's a bit of a, you know, um, you know, which comes chicken and egg thing there, but you know, what they really needed and what they got was a committed local owner that would not only

invest financially, which is important and bringing in big acts like 50 cent. You got to put out a lot of money to do that. You got to put out a good product that people want to support. But you got to put in the time and you got to put in the effort and you got to fix the little things.

You got to make sure that people on the island are able to get to the games and you got to put in the effort and you got to fix the little things. You got to make sure that people on the island are able to get to the games and you got to figure out solutions for those people. You got to get out into the community and talk to youth football around the lower mainland and the rest of British Columbia. And that's exactly what they've done. And now it's become where the home opener

for the BC Lions is an event. Like it's now a tradition, right? It's now, we're into the third year and now we know that every first home game for the BC Lions will have a big musical act and a big crowd. And that's what you need to do. It doesn't happen overnight.

It won't happen with one concert. It won't happen with a, you know, cool marketing program. You got to put the work in and that's what you need to do. It doesn't happen overnight. It won't happen with one concert. It won't happen with a cool marketing program. You've got to put the work in, and that's what the BC Lions have done. Yeah, and this year is so pivotal too, right? Because obviously they're hosting the 111th Grey Cup in November. So if you want to talk about getting off on the right foot and having some real momentum going into the season, cramming 50,000 people into BC place for the opener and pretty good way to do

it. Right. It sets the stage for, he should have jacked the prices up 200 bucks a ticket. Oh, we got a lot more to get to on the Alfred and bro show on sports. That's the old bait and switch. Just fire up those tickets.

Where's 50 cent. Maybe force you to buy a four pack. It's a 50 Cent look-alike. I too am crunchy the clown. Coming up on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650, the hockey conversation

will continue. We're going to go to New York. The Rangers, this year's President's Trophy winners, are out. Falling short of the Stanley Cup Final yet again, Arthur Staple from the Athletic in New York is going to join us. That's coming up next on the Alfred and Breff Show on Sportsnet 650.