Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Mount Rushmore Of Summer Olympic Events

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with CBC Olympics breakdancing commentator Mark Strong (3:00), the boys give their Mount Rushmore rankings of this year's Summer Olympics events (10:00), plus they talk a transformative off-season for the Carolina Hurricanes with Canes beat writer Cory Lavalette (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.

701 on a Thursday. Have you ever asked yourself, what would the Olympic music sound like if it was free? Now you know. Play that synth. We have a $5 budget to do this theme. Go to Kona. This is a video game. Canada has won gold.

Yeah. Who's handing out the medals? Is that a dog? They're just generic flags of no particular country whatsoever. This is the video for the corporate training to work at the Olympics. This is. 100%. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio.

Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider. Powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sorfy, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. Probably thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sorfy, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. Probably the song to end. I want this to keep going for forever. This should be the Olympic theme music. I don't know why they don't just use it.

It's perfect. They're allowed. We know it's readily available. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough of 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 two of the program. Mark Strong from CBC Radio, who is also going to be the lead commentator for the breaking competition at the Paris Olympics, is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour two of this program is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste, Primetime is full flavor without compromise. You can get some at a liquor store near you

or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. We're working on getting Mark. Andy has his hand on the phone, his other hand giving me the finger, his index finger, not the middle. It was like the shush finger. Yeah, it was the shush finger. Now he's laughing. So real quick, I did do some research,

and I found out a few things about the breaking competition at the Paris Games. So interestingly enough, it's in the 2024 olympics but it's out at the 2028 olympics it's already out in los angeles they didn't like it it's i yeah they haven't even done it yet it doesn't really make a lot i think this is um how some of these experimental debut sports work anyway what's going to happen is there's going to be uh a men and women's competition, B-boys and B-girls. There's going to be 16 competitors on each side. There's a round robin followed by quarterfinals, semifinals, and then the medal battles.

So they actually go head to head. They face off for a minute, like one dances, and then right immediately, there's no break in between. The other one jumps in and basically answers whatever the first b-boy or b-girl lays forth that happens at a lot of weddings i go to right it just breaks out in spontaneous dance battles now he's doing the chicken dance and now there's a drink spilled all over the floor and he took his shirt off he wins mostly so we can end the competition uh there's a panel of nine, count them, nine judges. Now, this was interesting.

They have to really be on the ball. They can't miss anything because there's no breaks in between competitors. It goes back and forth, back and forth. They have an iPad with a sliding scale, six different categories, creativity, personality, technique, variety, personality, technique,

variety, perform, performativity. Anyway, each is worth 20%. And then there's also penalties involved. Oh, you can get penalized. How do you get penalized?

If you like do some sort of demonstrative gesture towards the other dancer that is too aggressive, either violent or like sexually explicit. I guess there's no crotch grabbing maybe in the world? I don't know. Hey, I did the research! Alright, here's another interesting thing. Oh, grabbed his crotch, lost the point. Yeah, I don't think you can do that, seriously. And also, just like the ancient Greeks used to do.

We don't have a rule like baseball. And they used to do it in the nude. Yeah, which is a totally different thing. This is very distracting and weird. The B-boys and B-girls, they don't know the music

before they perform, which I think is interesting. Maybe it's the intro music we just played. It's probably not. I bet it's not. Do we have Mark on the line now?

Okay, very excited to talk more about this. You've heard him on CBC Radio. You're going to hear him quite a bit at the Olympics. Mark Strong joins us now

on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Mark. How are you? Hey, good morning, guys. How are you guys doing? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. So first things first, I got to ask you, when you heard that the Olympics were coming up and that breaking was going to be in Paris,

did you put yourself forward for the job? Did CBC come to you? How did this marriage happen between Mark Strong and being the lead commentator for breaking at the paris olympics you know it was um it was definitely a shot in the dark uh to begin with um but i did um you know i'm already doing a a cbc wrap-up of the olympics every day on a show called fomo right so they also said hey listen um what do you think about the breakdancing segment? I used to be a breaker way back. So I'm quite familiar with the whole culture and whatnot.

So I'm absolutely down to do it. And they said, well, hey, let's match up with Switch B and see if we can make something happen. And we went through a couple of dry runs. And we had a great chemistry together. But more importantly, just really happy to be part of this, like, you know, never couldn't be told story of hip hop and break dancing, getting into like the Paris Olympics in 2024. Nobody could have written that. So, Mark, one of the things that all sports fans take pride in is being able to watch an event that they know nothing about for 10 minutes and then become instant experts. So how can you, uh,

help us and our listeners become instant experts? Like what should we be looking for? Um, what is some of the terminology that we can throw out there to impress the people that we're watching this with? I mean, listen, um,

you know, between the, uh, the throw downs, uh, freezes, uh, you know, between the throwdowns, freezes, you got the 360s, the windmills, the backspins, you got the footwork, the uprocks. There's a whole lot of different vocabular a real athleticism that is being displayed in these competitions. I think when it comes to terminology, you know how this is. Terminology gets reinvented and invented every six or seven minutes. So I'm sure that anything that you find, you could probably add to it

and it'll probably make sense. And you could actually probably throw something out there and everybody's like, well, maybe that's what it is. Maybe it is called a tulip. That was great. That was an awesome move. Whatever. How did they go about choosing judges for the Olympics?

Judges-wise, I just know that I think it was through the original governing system that they went through, I'm going to say, France, where they had the original competition that had the, what's the word I'm looking for, qualifications. And I don't believe that the actual judges are breakers themselves, which is good. But in some ways, when it comes to the actual breakers, they were hoping that people were tuned to the actual culture, which they are. So they've done different judging competitions, but they are not themselves from the breaking culture. So, for example, I mean, a lot of people think that basketball players can coach and coaches can play.

Not necessarily true. You just need to be part of the culture to know. Tell us about the Canadians competing in breaking at the Olympics and whether or not any of them are serious medal contenders. Absolutely. Your boy Phil Woods is the one. We're all looking towards Phil to do his thing

because Phil is probably he has a little payback for getting, I believe, silver in France a couple of years ago and now he's going back to Paris and wants to come back home with that Canadian gold. I know he's born in Toronto, but he claims his van city. So we're definitely looking out for Phil to be the number one frontrunner for Canada, and it's very, very possible that he will be.

We're not talking about meddling. We're talking about gold, not just getting bronze or happy he's got silver, he's going for gold and I think he's, not I think, he's proven to be the one that is silver to gold

and we're hoping to push for gold this time. Yeah, he's got great footwork. See, already an expert. He's incredible. Hey, you use footwork, it's perfect. So what else do you have planned for the Olympics? Tell us about your FOMO program as well. FOMO is pretty much we took the regular use of FOMO and turned it into fear of missing the Olympics.

If there's anything that you've missed throughout the whole day, we will take different snippets of what has been highlighted through the day. But more importantly, we're using our concept of stories over stats. Everybody will be talking about whether it be injuries or whether it be times or whether it be world records. We're more about not only talking to those who have made it to the front page, but those stories that you might not have really known about or you'd be very interesting to find out about. So we've got a lot in store for FOMO.

We'll also be talking to different celebrities and different ex-athletes and pro-Olympians who will give their take on not just the Olympics itself, but the Olympic lifestyle and sort of in a fun, interesting Caribbean vibe way. So it should be a different scope when it comes to the Olympic coverage this year. Well, I've got to say, I'm very

intrigued to watch this. I think it's going to be very cool, and I'm glad that I got to learn a lot more about it, because it does seem like a pretty interesting competition, the way that it's set up. Mark, thanks a lot for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the trek to Paris. Enjoy calling this event. It should be a lot of fun, and again, thanks for doing this.

No, I really appreciate it, guys. Thank you very much for having me on this morning. Yeah, thank you. That is Mark Strong from CBC Radio. He is also going to be the commentator for the breaking competition at this year's 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Okay. You didn't ask if they're allowed to use props.

I was going to ask. They're not allowed to use props. Like if you juggle while breakdancing, you won't get extra points. Just one steel chair per round. It's way more. The judging is way more regimented in terms of, like, actual things you have to accomplish than I thought. There's, like, a battle component of it where you go head-to-head with somebody,

but at the end result, like, you're not actually trying to physically topple someone. Do you have to pull off, like, certain moves? Yeah. You have to have off like certain moves? Yeah. You have to have a freeze, which I think is pretty self-explanatory. And the other ones that Mark was talking about there, I can remember like a six step or something like that. I'd have to go back and double check that. Six step.

Seriously, I think it is. Six step or six step? Six. I don't know, do you? I'm going to go around the table here. Dancing at weddings. Laddie, love it or hate it? Love it.

You have to. Enjoy a wedding. You're not going to sit there in a chair the whole time. I've done it. Okay. A-Dog, love it or hate it? It's fine. You must be fun at parties.

I'm very fun. I don't hate it, but I'm not itching to do it either. Right. Halford? I don't dance. I'm more of a slumped over at itching to do it either. Right. Halford? I don't dance. I'm more of a slumped over at the open bar kind of guy. Yeah, that's me too. Yeah.

I have to be dragged out onto the dance floor. I'm more of a talking to the plant kind of guy. Yeah, that guy hasn't moved in three hours. Is he okay? Yeah. Okay, so we're going to do another Mount Rushmore, and this one's for the Summer Olympics this year. Again, they start next Friday in Paris. Oh, and by the way, most of the events are going to be on between like 5 a.m. and 2 p.m. our time,

which is great for us because it'll be on when we're on the air. Right. So we came up with, I came up with, I came up with three, but I might need some help from the listeners on the fourth. The Mount Rushmore of events for this year's Olympics. I just want to jump in. This isn't the Mount Rushmore of all Olympic events. It's like very time-sensitive.

What we're looking forward to this year. This year. This year, 2024. This is a personal list for me. Yours might differ. Women's soccer defending their gold medals. Yep. I've been reading a little bit about this

tournament and the Canadian women, if they do defend their gold medal, it will be unexpected. In fact, there are some projections out there that don't even have them getting a medal in this. So, I mean, they were underdogs when they won it in Tokyo. But I, listen, women's soccer at the Olympics is a big deal. Men's not so much.

Canada played very good tournament football last time around. Kept the scores low. Won a lot of penalty shootouts. Right. So that's number one. Men's basketball. Back in the tournament, the Canadian men's team for the first time since 2000, and with legit metal expectations, if not legit gold expectations, I think the Americans are just

such heavy favorites to win gold, but I'd sure like the opportunity for Canada to play the United States at some point in this tournament, just to see if they could pull off. I know they've got a very talented team, but that would be a miracle win if they were to pull that off. I think my third one might be breaking, break dancing. I want to see what this is all about. And Vancouver's Phil Kim, Philip Kim, what is his nickname? He's got a B-boy Phil Wizard.

Yep. That's his nickname? He's got B-Boy Phil Wizard. Yep. That's his nickname. He is actually, in some projections, expected to win gold. There is a guy that's the clear-cut gold medal favorite, Victor Montalvo from the USA. B-Boy Victor, they call him. That's not very...

Phil Wizard, that's way cooler. Phil Wizard's better. Strizzy was pretty good, too. It's because he wears a robe. Imagine. He has a way cooler. Phil wizard is better. Strizzy was pretty good too. It's because he wears a robe. Imagine. He has a scepter. Okay. So the fourth one, I would normally say the men's hundred meters, just because that crowns

the fastest human being on earth. Except I thought about it and I was like, wait a minute. Who is even the fastest human being on earth right now? Who is the gold medal favorite? And I had to Google it. There is a young Jamaican named Kashani Thompson who is the favorite.

And there is an American, Noah Lyles. Noah Lyles, I think, is the favorite, and there is an American, Noah Lyles. Noah Lyles, I think, is the favorite to win the 200. Now, you might be wondering about Andre DeGrasse. He is going to be going to the Olympics, but I think he's had a tough couple of years. He had some injuries that he had to deal with. This is the third Olympics. He's not a spring chicken anymore.

He's the defending 200 meter gold medal champion, but he is not projected to win really any medals at this tournament. Maybe the four by one, the Canadian team, which won gold or silver at the Japan Olympics. I can't remember which one. So I don't even know if the 100 meters for me this year is going gonna be anything that

i'm gonna be super interested in so i need a fourth i need a fourth help me with a fourth on this i'm that's the easiest answer on the planet the hammer throw i have the dates and the times of the hammer throw program into my phone with our guy ethan katzberg friend of the program ethan katzberg and not just him cameron rogers also from british columbia on the women's side i mean we are not just a hammer throwing country we are a hammer throwing province british columbia is churning out the greatest hammer throwers in the world so in case you're wondering now i'm admittedly going to focus on our best friend ethan katzberg who's been on the show dear friend of the program, the six-foot-six behemoth from Nanaimo.

And we ask questions like, how do you – it's not hammer, right? It's like – You're not throwing an actual hammer, are you? It's not like axe throwing. No. I got to go now. So he is one of the favorites for gold, given his rapid ascension to the number one ranking in the world and then kind of maintaining dominant status in all of the international events, including the Pan Am Games. So he throws on August 2nd and 4th.

I'm not even joking. Like, I'm, you know, it's not very often that we have not just Olympians, but the dominant Olympians on our program. We have some pretty impressive athletes on our show from time to time, but very rarely do we get the best in the world at anything on this show. So the fact that Ethan gave us some time, noted friend of the show, Ethan Katzberg, I will be watching that. You guys didn't mention skateboarding yet. Yeah.

Skateboarding's cool. I watched it at i watched it you know what laughing at me i just think it's like i think it's all weird that it's in the olympics but i'm an old man the world confuses me i don't toonie shorts i watched it the previous shorts i watched it the previous olympics yeah and it didn't didn't cap no no i thought and i thought it would. I mean, I gave it a good college try. I watched quite a bit of it, but...

Is it in... Is it like a street setup? Like, are there rails or is it... I think there's two. There's street and then there's... Is there a ramp? Yeah. Are there ramps? No, no, no. Is there... There's the whatever the half bowl, whatever they call it, and then there's the street competition.

The half pipe? Half pipe? I don't know. I don't know. I don't skate. You sounded like you do. Do I look like a skateboarder? What would be in the A-Dog Olympics? Hacky sack?

Oh my, absolutely. That was the only sport I was ever good at. It should be in the Olympics. So a couple other names to keep in mind. Summer McIntosh, who is predicted to win a couple of golds for Canada. And she's... Is she only 17? Summer McIntosh, who is predicted to win a couple of golds for Canada. And she's, is she only 17? Summer McIntosh. So she might be the breakout star for Canada

if she hasn't already broken out. The women's 200 meter butterfly and the women's 400 meter individual medley. My favorite medley is the individual medley. I do love a good medley. So she's expected to win a couple of golds there. No, I'm not expected. There have been predictions.

And then Damian Warner, who is the defending gold medalist in the decathlon, which is an amazing event to win. Can you name all the events in the decathlon? 100 meter dash. Okay. That's one. Long jump.

Two. High jump. Three. Pole vault. Four. 1,500. Five. Is there a hurdles?

Yeah. There's 110 meter hurdles. I think I'm tapped. Shot put. Did you mention that one? Oh, right. There's a bunch of different throws. There's a throwing one.

Javelin. And the discus. Yeah, that's right. There's a lot of throwing events no hammer yeah what do you think the one would you would least embarrass yourself at least least embarrass yourself probably just like the 1500 1500 because you could actually just oh there's a 400 400 is more of a sprint though at the olympic level 1500 is a sprint too but i know but i could. They're not like, I'm going to take this first 500 meters pretty slow. Javelin for me. When he walked the middle 300.

I was saving myself. Just saving myself for that final stretch. Is there a jogging event? Well, that would have been the 1500. You would have jogged it. The throwing event is probably pretty horrific. Javelin. I think the discus. I think I could get something on the discus. Yeah.

You just like completely spin around and throw it at like... Throw it at like a frisbee cat. And then get dizzy and throw up. It's like, sir, you can't throw it like that. You have to spin around and throw. You can't just throw it like a frisbee. It's the first time we've ever seen anyone throw up on the discus before. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's backhanding that thing. So I remember in high school, a lot of the high schools in british columbia don't aren't equipped with a pole vaulting pit like they wouldn't there wasn't a lot of places to practice and then a buddy of mine texted me he's like i actually did the pole vault in high school it's incredibly difficult and there's a certain level of danger involved it's like felling a tree thing if you get up in the air sorry you did it no i didn't yeah a buddy of mine did it did he actually make it he? He, well, he was hospitalized. Yeah.

He's no longer with us. Like the confidence you have to have to race down that track and then, this is, you're kind of bringing it up, insert the pole into the slot. Yep. You do some insertion. Like how many people try that the first time and just... Well, there's a... Look, how do you...

I didn't even get off the ground. How do you... Do you start with a very short pole? Yeah. And then you work your way up to the big pole. Yeah, how does one, like... Where do you... How do you start?

Where do you train for that? Well, that's what I was saying. There's a lot... So the guy told me his high school didn't have one. Right. So he had to go to a track club where they did have all of the equipment. And then he basically said he got a few runs at it. And then it's like, okay, now go compete.

He's like, I'm not ready for this. But if you're going to do decathlon, you have to try it, right? I remember doing high jump. High jump. High jump in elementary school. I would be the worst at. Absolutely. Do they still do the Fosbury flop?

Yep. That's still the preferred technique all these years later. You can. We used to do it in elementary school. It'd be great because you could just like dive head first and try and do like a barrel roll. Oh, yeah. I remember. The really athletic kids would try and scissor it.

You could do a scissor kick over the top, but it gets very. That's risky. It gets a lot more difficult at the higher bar. The really athletic kids would try and scissor it. You could do a scissor kick over the top, but it gets very... That's risky. It gets a lot more difficult at the higher bar, but you could hurt yourself. I think the one that I would embarrass myself the most, hands down, would be pole vault. I could see myself going up and then like a tree falling, like just going backwards. Somehow you just stay upright for about 10 seconds. You just hang on to the pole. I got to fall one way or the other.

Hopefully it's into the mat. Oh, he's coming down. I think that would be very impressive if you got that far. I think you'd stick that thing in your stomach. Maybe. I have an idea for you guys. It would involve me filming and Twitter. You guys should do a weekend thing where you try all of the summer

Olympic events in relation to like track and field. No. And I filmed that. I think you should do a weekend thing where you try all of the summer Olympic events in relation to track and field. No. I think you should do it. No, I'll film them. No. And then I'll put it on social media. We can all laugh together. It'd be very fun. It would actually be a complete waste of time because it would be like, okay, well those guys can't do any of it. No, that'd be very

funny. Confirmed, not athletic. I think the listeners would love to see a health from Summer Olympics. I've heard a lot of people bring this up, but I'm going to bring it up again. They should definitely have, in every event, an average Joe competing at the event who's not a terrible athlete,

just a regular athlete to show how difficult all this stuff is. That's what's crazy about the decathlon is you have to specialize in 10 different events. There are people that spend their entire life shot putting, and then you have to do it at a very high level. Yeah. Among the nine other events that you have to do.

Like you're saying those, and those professional shot putters aren't just like, well, I also have to stay skinny for the hundred meter dash. You're saying like at the Olympic broadcast, it would be like a split screen. So you'd see the professional do it, and split screen, you'd see just a regular person.

That'd be very funny. That'd be amazing. That would be awesome. That would be amazing. Like, now you're going to do platform diving. Yeah. He's like, that's pretty high up here. And imagine one guy that's actually kind of good at it

for some reason. It becomes this huge story. He's a natural. Yeah. Oh, my God, he should be competing. This Olympic thing's easy. 70 pounds overweight, but cut through the water there. We're going to table

the Olympic conversation for a bit. Coming up on the other side, it's been a very transformative offseason for the Carolina Hurricanes, and not necessarily in a good way. Could they be taking a big step back in the East? News out of there yesterday that Evgeny Kuznetsov's contract will be terminated and he'll be signing in Russia, we're going to

talk to Corey Lavallette from the North State Journal and The Athletic. He's the Canes beat writer for both of those outlets. That's coming up next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on

Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 7.32 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of 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 2 of the program. Hour 2 is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste, Primetime is full flavor without compromise. You can get some at a liquor store near you, or you can visit

the brewery to see how it's made. It's time now for the Canadian Football Report brought to you by Securian Canada the official life insurance partner of the CFL this weekend Sunday in Calgary the BC Lions will take

on the Calgary Stampeders at McMahon Stadium. Here are three things to watch for in that game. One the Vernon Adams Justin McInnes connection. The QB stadium here are three things to watch for in that game one the vernon adams justin mckinnis connection the qb and wide receiver combined for 14 catches on 14 targets as soup chung told us earlier in the week uh for a cool 243 yards and a score that was last game against saskatchewan we'll see if they can keep it rolling against the stamps this this weekend. Number two, our guy, Sean White. After you left on your vacation.

I didn't jinx him, did I? Sean White just kept hitting field goals. As a matter of fact, he went seven for seven against the Rough Riders over the weekend. Is that the club record, then? That ties Louis Pasaglia's club record. His streak is now at 39. So he's all alone. Second longest consecutive field goal streak in cfl history unfortunately he's still 30 behind the all-time leader lewis ward who kicked yes that's right

69 consecutive field goals nice nice number three wally buono in a special halftime ceremony on the weekend wally buono is gonna go into into the Stampeders Wall of Fame. He'll be the 50th member. Of course, Wally's known here as being the legendary coach of the BC Lions, but also, fittingly, head coach of the Calgary Stampeders. That's why he's going into their Wall of Fame. He won three Grey Cups with the Stamps, so he will be enshrined on Sunday. That is your CFL report brought to you by Securian Canada,

the official life insurance partner of the CFL. We're going to do a quick pivot here from the Canadian Football League to the Carolina Hurricanes. Joining us now, Corey Lavallette from the North State Journal and the athletic Canes beat writer here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Corey. How are you? Hey, guys. Good morning. How are you?

We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We'll start big picture, all the things that fall under the umbrella of an offseason here. Very transformative for the Canes, although maybe not necessarily in a good way. A lot of departures. I was reading an article from Rob Brittenmore at Development Camp last week, and he said for the first time in a long time, it was an offseason where he had a lot of tough departures and a lot of tough conversations.

How has this tough offseason resonated in Carolina? Yeah, I mean, obviously this is the way things go, right? And one of the things that this one office has said is, you know, when you have good players, when you have players who outplay their contracts, then a lot of times when their contracts are up, you can't keep those guys. And obviously they're going to miss a lot of these guys. You know, Brady Shea and Brett Pesci were often, you know, the shutdown pairing, despite having Jacob Slavin, it was usually those two guys who took the toughest assignments. So, you know, losing them is going to be quite tough, I think. And then, you know, you make two additions in, you know, Sean Walker and Shane Gossett's pair that are probably a step down

from those guys, right? So, you know, the defense is going to look different. That said, you know, you still have Dimitri Orlov who played in a third pairing role last year. So having him means you can, you know, elevate him into bigger minutes and he's certainly a top four defenseman. So, but a lot of losses, like you said, you know, Tebow Taravainen, you know, Stephan Mason, you're going to miss those guys at the same time. It's, you know,

the NHL is always a churn, so you have to hope that you've replenished your lineup well with good draft picks. That's something I think the Hurricanes have done well, is make sure they're not depleting their draft picks all the time and hope those guys pan out for you. Based on your understanding, what ultimately happened with Jake Gensel that eventually led to him being traded to and then signing with Tampa Bay? Well, the asking price all along was eight times eight.

And, you know, maybe the Hurricanes didn't jump on that soon enough. But at the same time, when they spoke to him on Wednesday before the draft or spoke to his agent anyway, that was still the ask, was eight times eight. And when it was asked that time, from what I understand, the hurricane said, all right, let's double check and make sure we can do this. But as far as we know, we'll get back to you as soon as we can. And they did that on Thursday morning, told him, yes, we'll do eight times eight. We'll structure it any way you want. And that's when, I guess, the phone calls from elsewhere started happening that I guess we're supposed to believe didn't happen.

But, yeah, you know, he basically said, you know, I need some time to think about it. And they thought about it until right around the same time Tampa Bay cleared some cap space. So, you know, we can take that for what it is. But I think whether he ever wanted to really sign in Carolina or he wanted to drive the price up or this came up, you know, late in the game. I think, you know, obviously Tampa Bay was willing to give him, you know, a little more money annually. And we've all heard about the tax benefits of Florida and all that. And maybe, you know, maybe that was enough to, to change his mind or,

or maybe that's where he wanted to be all along. But yeah, so that, from what I understand, that's, that's what happened. What is the club going to do with Martin Natchez? It looks like as of now, they're going to have to come to some kind of, you know, agreement, whether that happens, you know, through negotiation or arbitration. I think, you know, it's pretty clear where the number stands. It's probably somewhere between five and a half and six and a half. And I'd imagine it would be a one-year deal because Carolina probably wouldn't

want to walk him right to free agency with a two-year deal. So, you know, I think that's what's going to happen. You know, he had opportunities to go somewhere else. He, from what I understand, didn't want to do that, you know, with the, with the team that, that, that wanted him, which was Columbus. And so, you know, at that point he's, he's making a choice, right. Would I rather go to Columbus or would I rather stay in Carolina? So it sounds like he'll be back. We'll see if they can, you know, push past all of the, you know, expectations

of him moving on this offseason. What's the story with him? Is there a disconnect between him and head coach Rod Brindamore? You know, they get along fine. They're, you know, I think there's a lot of respect between the two. It's just, It's just there's a certain way Rod wants the game to be played, and I think Natchez and his camp think he can be a more impactful player playing in a more freewheeling kind of style, and he hasn't really had the chance to do that. Natchez has always wanted to be a center. Rod has always been skeptical of pretty much making anybody a center.

It took him a while to come around on Satchel. You know, he has a lot of expectations. He's understandable considering how important he thinks that position is. So the fact that Natchez maybe isn't the best back checker, maybe doesn't make the best defensive decisions, I mean, that leads Rod to not think he can perform that well in the structure that he wants. So I guess, I don't know if I'd call it a disconnect,

but I think that's kind of what you're looking at, is you've got a guy who thinks, hey, if I played center, hey, if somebody would just unleash me, we see what he does at three on three when it's wide open, right? You know, I could be, you know, an all-star player, you know, year after year after year. And, you know, I think Rod thinks, hey, if the team's going to win, you need to play this way. So, you know, I don't think there's any bad blood anywhere. I think it's more just, you know, kind of square peg, round hole. What are people saying about Rod Brindamore and his system? Are they, are people wondering if he's being too stubborn now? The Hurricanes

have been a very good team during the regular season. They've made it as far as the conference finals, the second, second round, usually they're out, but they haven't been able to get over the hump. And I mean, we were talking about this in respect to Gareth Southgate in England. Like he did a great job coaching that soccer team, but never got over the hump. And eventually people are like, let's just try something else. Yeah. I mean, I, you know, there's always two camps in this, right? There's the people who remember what this franchise was like for a decade or almost a decade and appreciate what Rod has done for it and the way the team has won and have an understanding that,

hey, only one team can win every year. And this team has made the conference final twice under him and just didn't get past that stage. And then there's the people who say, all right, we got to this point, but why aren't we better? Is it really Rod Brindamore that made us better? Or is it the fact that we have an owner that spends the salary cap? And so, I mean, I don't think there's, you know, one prevailing opinion in the fan base of what Rod Brindamore is. I would, I would say there are more people who are appreciative of him than those who are saying maybe we need to try something new. But as you guys know, usually the dissenters tend to be a little louder.

So I think it comes out a little bit, at least on social media and things like that, that maybe he's got to change his mindset, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. One thing that jumps out to me is there are a lot of teams, and I think of Anaheim as one with Greg Cronin, who wanted to do what Rod Brindamore does now as far as systematically. He's really, I think, changed the way a lot of teams think about playing and the aggression and things like that. So you could say, oh, his system doesn't work, but there are a lot of teams that are saying, hey, that system works, let's go to it.

Tell us about the system. What are some of the main principles of the Rod Brindamore system? Yeah, I mean, it's aggression, right? It's a really heavy forecheck. It requires players to be out there and give 110% every shift. And I think that's why probably the Evgeny Kuznetsov split happened was he's an incredibly talented player with a lot of skill. Could Rob Brindamore sit there and watch him for 82 games kind of coast around the neutral zone? You know, even if he gives you 60 points, you know, as a second-line center, Rob Brindamore needs somebody who's, you know, going to jump into the play

and be in on the forecheck and back check hard and commit to defense and all those things. That doesn't make, again, because that's not a bad player. It just might make him not the greatest fit in the world. And I don't think they would have said, hey, we're going to scratch you. I think they probably would have said, hey, you can be our fourth line center. And because that's probably looks that he that, sees the, you know, calendar flipping on every year of his age and how much time he has left

and said, you know, I'd rather just go play, you know, back home. So, yeah, I mean, I think it's all about aggression. You know, it's going to take time for this defense to kind of get a hold of that. We saw it took Dimitri Orlov probably 40 games to get used to it. Obviously, Shane Goss' bear has played in the system before, so he might have an easier transition. But, you know, Sean Walker is going to need a little bit of time. You know, they've got Scott Morrow.

They've got Alexander Nikishin in the pipeline. Those guys will all take time. So, you know, it's all about discipline and structure for Rod. It's about, you know, knowing where you're supposed to be. Playing a man-to-man defense is not easy, you know, it's all about discipline and structure for Rod. It's about, you know, knowing where you're supposed to be. Playing a man-to-man defense is not easy, you know, especially if you're a guy like Brent Burns, who's not the fastest guy in the world anymore. It's a lot about being smart out there, right?

And Jordan Stahl, too. So, you know, you can play and not be the fastest guy in the world in Rod Brendamore's system, but you have to be disciplined. And that's, you know, I think that's the biggest thing. When those Elias Pettersson rumors cropped up that the Canucks were talking to the Hurricanes about a Pettersson trade, what were your thoughts on that? You know, what I know about Tom Dundon is he does not want to leave any stone unturned. So if they hear there's a player that could possibly, you know, be acquired, that doesn't mean they necessarily go and make an offer, but they definitely do their due diligence

all the time. And when you have a, you know, a great player like, like him available, or at least, you know, there's maybe a little friction there or whatever it is. You know, I don't think it's a bad idea ever to, you know, see if there's a chance to get that player, you know. And with Martin Natchez, I mean, he's been a part of all of these proposed deals in recent years, whether it was that trade, whether it was, you know, the Matthew Kachuk offer, all those things. You know, his name has been involved because teams see the talent there, and the Hurricanes see that maybe it's not a great fit for them,

but they know, hey, this is still a player that's a positive for us. We're not going to give him away. Yeah, I mean, interesting, right? I mean, what a wild thing to have happen. Obviously, Jim Rutherford knows what he's doing, too. Is there still a feeling that the Hurricanes are lacking that game-breaker, the guy who's going to score them the big goal? I mean, we heard that a lot.

We heard that narrative a lot when they acquired Jake Gensel. Yeah, and I mean, I think Jake played well, but I don't know that he was ever really a game-breaker, right? So it's kind of hard. How many of those guys are there in the league right now? There's not a ton. And even, you know, you look at Florida, they have some amazing talent. Obviously, you know, Barkoff and Matthew Kutruk are great players. Are either of them 50 goal guys on the regular? No, probably not. Is Jake Gensel a 50-goal guy? No, not really. So it's tough. You know, they think, you know, their draft philosophy is always like,

hey, let's draft, you know, the guys that have the biggest chance to be a home run. So obviously they hit with a guy like Seth Jarvis, who I think, you know, is only going to keep getting better. And, you know, they have high hopes for Bradley Nadeau, who, you know, don't be surprised if he finds his way onto this roster, maybe even at the start of the season this year with his shot and what he can, you know, the way he can score. He can already score at an NHL level. I think it'll just be how the rest of his game and how physically mature he is. But so, yeah, I mean, I think every team always says, you know, hey, we need we need a game breaker.

But, you know, the Rangers have a game breaker. You know, the Penguins certainly have have had game breakers, all that stuff. So it's hard to, you know, pin it on unnecessarily one thing. I think more than anything, they need their goaltending to step up this postseason. And Frederick Anderson obviously really imploded in that game six against the Rangers. Well, thanks for joining us today. The Carolina Hurricanes, we actually talk a lot about the Carolina Hurricanes

just because they're this team that is good, clearly, but hasn't been able to get over the hump. I think it's probably going to be tougher for them next season with some of their departures, but you never know. So thanks for taking the time to join us on the Halford & Brough Show today. Anytime, guys. Happy to. Thanks, Corey. Appreciate it. That's Corey Lavalette from the North State Journal

and The Athletic here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You know what else I like about the Hurricanes is they're big advocates of those long-term low AAV deals. They signed a couple of them. So you do like those? Yeah. I thought you didn't like big commitments though. If it's for minimal money, yeah.

Affordable long-term commitments? Yeah, then it's easy to get rid of them. So like Will Carrier, formerly of the Vegas Golden Knights, who was a pretty useful bottom six guy. And that's really where you sign these deals is you're like, do we want to lock up a third pair defenseman or a bottom six forward and have the cost certainty there? So he signed a six-year $12 million deal.

So he's on a $2 million a year AAV for the next six years, which I mean, I like it. Like, I like the idea. You're stuck with them for a while, but that's easy to move. It's $2 million a year, right? Sean Walker signed a five-year 18 million dollar so he's just a hair over three per right so they're interesting deals i mean i i don't again i i don't love the long-term aspect of it but i do like the idea of thinking outside the box and trying to say well we have a certain amount that we want to pay our third line winger, whatever.

And rather than trying to find one year after year, let's see if we can get Will Carrier in. And let's say he plays three of the six years competently. I mean, I feel like that's a win of a deal for the club. How many guys like that are you willing to bet six or five years on? See, that's the issue. They do it a lot. And I mean, two in one one i just don't think those guys exist out there that often the guys that you'd

be willing to do that i mean we talked about it with dakota joshua right and i do think that joshua might have played his way out of that conversation because of his upside and his goal scoring potential like carrier's carrier at this stage of the game he's going to give you exactly what he gives you and you know what he is as a player and he's young enough that it makes sense but i like when you brought it you brought it up a couple times with joshua like would you consider tacking on some more term if you're alvin and rutherford to try and lower the aav and yeah i think there's something to that right and i noticed that carolina had done it a couple times you just have to make sure that that player is motivated the right way. Yep. That's a big part of it.

And not motivated by, you know, is this a player that gets motivated, especially when he's in a contract year? Because sometimes you want those. You want a player to be in a contract year. Yeah. Someone just texted in, Mike loves the Pierre Engvall seven-year deal in New York. Yeah, no.

I get the concept of it and I think it's interesting but it's at the end of the day it's still seven years of Pierre Engvall and it's six years of William Carrier and I get the the negative part of it so we had a non-sports one that came I want my bottom Sixers to be motivated yeah

that's a big part of like you gotta go out there keep them hungry yep. Yep. Starving dogs. Don't feed them much? Yeah. They can't come to the team. The starving dog is an aggressive dog. You got to feed them just. A little bit.

Pretty important for sports. You got to sing off. Like, coach, I got some low blood sugar here. Poke them a little bit. Mo me my mo. Mo me my mo. Okay. This one's from Lincoln and Suri.

It's a What We Learned at Ananaskis Anything. He learned that The Dark Knight, Andy, pay attention. It's a movie one. I know. Was released 16 years ago today. That's the what we learned part. He then said, I was so disappointed when it was announced that they casted the guy from 10 Things I Hate About You, Heath Ledger, to be the Joker.

Obviously, I was wrong. Then Lincoln hasn't asked us anything. What other movie casting were you upset about only to be pleas Joker. Obviously, I was wrong. Then Lincoln hasn't asked us anything. What other movie casting were you upset about, only to be pleasantly surprised by? So I did some research while we were talking to Corey. Not that I wasn't paying attention to Corey. Yeah. So a lot of people were upset.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seth Jarvis. Yeah. Brent Burns. A lot of people were upset when Daniel Craig got cast as James Bond, right? Yep. It was too... Not a blonde. It was too far afield, right?

A blonde. Not a blonde. He was awesome. And he was great. Yeah. I think he's my favorite one. Oh, when he came out of the water? Right.

Oh, wait. I'm sorry. I mean, as James Bond. Yeah. Excellent. So that's one, I think. And then I didn't realize that so many people... Like, I get that people are really into the Batman franchise and have very strong opinions on it.

I didn't know that there was a huge pushback when Heath Ledger got cast as Joker. Oh, big time. I had no idea. Yeah, big time. Up until, I think, the stills, like movie stills of him in the costume, people in general just thought of him as the surfer dude, right, from 10 Things I Hate About You. They didn't really know his acting chops, per se, because he'd never really displayed them before in a really big movie at least. And yeah, so that was a big backlash. I was too young to remember it at the time,

but I know now looking back just from reading about it, the 1989 Batman, people freaked out about Michael Keaton being cast. Yeah, he was Mr. Mom. Mr. Mom, exactly. Obviously, once the movie came out, it pretty much shut everyone up. People loved it, but it was the biggest movie of that year. but um yeah at the time michael keaton was a big one nothing really jumps to my mind instantly michael keaton's taken on some darker roles in his career oh totally known as like he was in gung ho do you remember that movie yeah that was a good one

yeah yeah that was a real i'll never forgive him for birdman have you seen bird i've seen birdman i actually didn't get through birdman. I saw half of Birdman. I am not one to turn a movie off midway through. I had to turn Birdman off. Can I ask you a Star War? About the Goldberg guy? No, when they cast Vancouver's very own Hayden Christensen as Anakin. Was that a big deal?

No, I don't remember that. Most people just didn't know who he was. Yeah, that was the thing. He was completely unknown, right? Because that was a very important role in the franchise. I'm a big Jack Reacher guy. I read all the books. When Tom Cruise was cast as Jack Reacher, I was like, did these guys read the book? Is he nothing like him?

Well, Jack Reacher is supposed to be 6'6", like 260 pounds. Part of his appeal is how big he is. He's got a long reach. Well, the TV version. Yeah, good one. The TV version is perfectly cast. He's a goddamn giant. He's like on The Reacher, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So here's like Tom Cruise getting cast as Jack Reacher. And the fans of the books were like, what's the opposite of Jack Reacher? That would be Tom Cruise getting cast as Jack Reacher and the fans of the books were like, what's the opposite of Jack Reacher? That would be Tom Cruise. But I thought he did a really good job. How did they deal with that in the movie? How did they just make it different from the book?

Yeah, but I mean, there isn't like, I mean, in the movie, you don't have to be like, hey, you're smaller than I thought you would be. Right? He's just Jack Reacher. He's just this guy. They never address it. They never never addressed backstory they never address it they never address it i was like have you lost weight but who's that great yeah alan richson is the guy from the jack reacher the tv series and he is a behemoth of a man he's a giant yeah yeah so when they they cast the tv show i think they were just like we're definitely casting it more in line with the book. But I imagine the producers of the movie were like, if Tom Cruise is interested in doing this, Tom Cruise is getting the job.

I don't care how short he is. What about Robert Pattinson as Batman? Was that a thing? No, actually, that was a reverse. I mean, I guess some people just noticed him, knew him from Twilight, but filmgoers, like people that actually watch movies more than once a year, he'd been in a lot of really, really good films after Twilight and show that, hey, the guy can actually act really well.

So there wasn't a real big backlash when he was cast in the general public in the same way that Michael Keaton was or Heath Ledger was, but I guess to people that only knew him from Twilight, they'd be like, well, that's a little weird. But no, no, he was pretty well received. Well, thank you to Lincoln in Surrey. That was very good Ask Us Anything. We're going to have a little basketball talk with Marcus Fitzgerald

coming up next on the Halford & Brough Show. Just a reminder to get your What We Learns into the Dunbar Lumber text line. I guess we're also allowing Ask Us Anythings at any point during the summer, during the slow summer months. Yep. 650, 650. We need some more of what we learned into the Dunbar Lumber text line.

Fitzy's coming up next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.