Halford & Brough in the Morning - The One Where Brough And Laddie Fight About Radko Gudas

Episode Date: September 20, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason hear from Elliotte Friedman on Demko & Boeser (4:27), they wonder who might start for the Canucks on opening night (14:17), they argue about whether or not Radko Gudas is actually a top 4 defenceman (19:01), plus the boys talk the latest around the BC Lions with radio commentator Bob "The Moj" Marjanovich (27:05). 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.

702 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. I didn't know there were words.

Coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec. I'm glad. Hola. Senor Brough, muy guapo.

I'm glad that Arash is here because he really gets to see behind the scenes of the Halford and Ruff show and just the pure idiocy that fuels this show on a daily basis. So we have AJ on every week and we've had him

on for pretty close to a calendar year, feels like. And he still greets him as if he's a first time guest from the Washington Post. He's like, good morning, sir. Thank you for taking the time to join us today. It's called being a professional. I feel like we could be a normal human being.

You've been down to AJ's a couple times. You've eaten at the restaurant in Detroit. There's going to be a better way to say that. There's definitely a better way to say that. I what? Hand model out back there. That's why he's so formal. That's why he's so formal. That's why he's formal, yeah.

That was a pretty crazy night we had. Pretty wild. We'll always have AJs. Let's go to the phone lines now. AJ joins us here on the Halford & Ruff Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, AJ? See, that bit should be the commercial. I know.

Hey, Doug, you are very professional. I know. It's the same tone, and it has been for like 10 and a half months. But, AJ, don't you appreciate my professionalism? I do. I do, my friend. Absolutely. Because you see, the people I work with do not.

Well, we, we, anyway. There are rumblings out there, by the way, Andy, that there may be a Detroit Ronnie eating competition. Really? How much pizza? He perked up right away there. Yeah, and you may be the guest of honor. I'm just throwing this out there.

What's the prize? I'll announce it officially next Friday, but, yeah, we want you to be the celebrity. Oh, my God. That's the first time in your life you're going to be a celebrity. This is a lot of pressure. Not the prizes they get to go trick-or-treating with you on Halloween.

AJ, I'm coming by on Sunday. We're going to watch some football. Let everybody know what's on tap for AJ's this weekend, including a great set of Sunday games, especially in the afternoon. Yeah, I know. My Cowboys, I'm kind of not looking forward to it, but hey, it is National Pepperoni Pizza Day today.

And for A-Dog for you, that's Ronnie Pizza. Nice. Yeah. National Pepperoni Pizza. Who puts together that? What's the association behind the National Pepperoni Pizza Day? I have no idea. Who knows?

But you know what? We'll celebrate. It'll be really fun. National Pepperoni Pizza Day. And then we got Sunday happy hour, obviously, like always. And it's fall weather. It's beautiful pizza weather. So, yeah, get down to AJ's for sure.

Beautiful. Sunday, I will see you there, buddy. Thanks for doing this as always. We appreciate it. And I'm not going to say go Cowboys, but for your sake, hopefully they can, I don't know, cover the spread or something. All right. I'll see you Sunday.

All right. Thanks, bud. Appreciate it. That's AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway, the best pizza place in Vancouver. As mentioned, go check them out. Detroit Ronnie, also known as the Roney because it's a pepperoni pizza.

And I'll be there on Sunday watching the Seahawks as well, hopefully dispatching of the Miami Dolphins. Okay, let's get into this hot audio. I haven't heard this yet. It's 32 Thoughts. Just uploaded today if you want to listen to the entire podcast. And there is a large segment on the Vancouver Canucks, Thatcher Demko, Brock Besser as well. Are we going to play that?

Yes, we're going to play the whole thing. I'll just step outside for a bit. Three main characters here in this clip. Thatcher Demko, Brock Besser, and Jason Brough. Here's Elliott Friedman with more. I think the key thing with Demko is if you read the quotes, this is one of those situations where you have to listen to the quotes as opposed to read the quotes.

Because when I tweeted out some of the quotes, I had some people saying this is good this is good he's gonna take his time gonna come back and I had other people saying oh my god he hit a wall in the summer and we have no timeline like this is still a disaster and if you watch it you can tell that Demko is very optimistic so I first of all I think Demko deserves a lot of credit for going up there and saying, look, guys, I'm going to talk about this myself.

He told the front office, let me handle it. And they respected his wishes. I thought that was really good. Secondly, he was optimistic. He sounded positive. Yes, he hit a wall in the summer. And he admitted something that I think was very important and part of the problem last year. So when they said,

I think it was Ian McIntyre who asked, could you have played the third round? He said, I probably bit off a bit more than I could chew. I was probably over eager and not really ready. And I think that happened before the playoffs too. You know, the Canucks said, we need to know what kind of condition you're in before the playoffs start. And we've reported this before, Kyle, you have to play twice before the playoffs begin. And like any player, especially a young player, he raced back and, you know, he probably aggravated his injury or he overcompensated for what was bothering him and maybe hurt something else. So, you know, he recognizes now it's not the important thing is not being ready for game number one. It's being ready for game number 83 and he's and the Canucks are good enough that they should be

able to go whether whoever else is their starting goaltender for the start of the season or their platoon for the start of the season that they should be good enough that they could handle Demko missing a bit of time to me this is a team taking a long view and it's the right thing they have told Demko no more racing back at least not at the start of the year you have to do this properly and so that's what I saw today I saw a guy who's like okay I'm gonna make sure I'm ready I'm gonna get used to this I'm gonna understand what I'm dealing with here and we'll be ready when I'm going to get used to this. I'm going to understand what I'm dealing with here and we'll be ready when I'm ready. And that's the way you should do it. And he struck me as a guy who was

optimistic. Like I had one buddy of mine lives in Vancouver. He's like, this is going to be a disaster. Demco wants to talk to us themselves. It's going to be out for six years. And I'm like, just wait, just wait, just wait. To me, that was the message Demco delivered was as good as you could have hoped for. And we'll see how it all plays out. Dare I ask about Brock Besser, who's entering the final year of his deal, or is it too early for that? You know, it's interesting. Like, again, this was an Ian McIntyre piece with Patrick Alvinrick alvin they said that you know we're gonna we're gonna see how this plays out and um i dom just sent a message that level of doom and gloom can only be jason broff i know he listens i i i can't imagine i can't wait to hear what his reaction to that is

it's not jason broff dom but it is a jason broff like personality who's not in media so it's a friend of mine out there that's pretty funny though because that is the kind of person that you would think of um you know i i think the thing about besser is um you know they're challenging him i'll say there's something too about patrick al Alvin I don't know him as well as I know Jim Rutherford and it's not like Jim Rutherford and I are great friends or anything it's just that he's been around for a long time so you deal with him like Patrick Alvin one thing I'm learning about him is he's not afraid to be blunt like he basically said to Besser give us another level and we're going to take care of you

and so now the challenge is on Besser to go to the next level and I think that he will respond to that you know very very well you know I think Besser has a huge year because I think the best athletes like to be challenged. You know, sometimes in life we want to be comfortable and sometimes in life we want to be challenged. And I don't think the Vancouver Canucks would do this if they didn't think Besser was up to it um you don't give that quote to ian mcintyre in a canadian market with because you know everything that entails without recognizing that you think besser can deliver so i think he has a huge year and it gets done the last bit was interesting because i remember when i saw and read what alvin said well best for this year thinking seems kind of unnecessarily blunt a little bit harsh yeah scored career high 40 goals last year

also scored seven for you in the playoffs felt like he he found another level yeah i didn't realize there was another level on top of the level he had already found. But good contextualization there, I suppose, in that, yeah, you don't just push certain guys to hit a bar. Once they hit it, you're like, okay, now do it again. And that's how good organizations are built. Now, it puts a lot of pressure on people, and there might be the reality that that was the level. But if they firmly believe, if they legitimately believe

that there's something more to give there and it's not just empty hollow speak then i think it's a really interesting strategy i think they're just going to make decisions too you look down the line i know the the salary cap is going to go up but let's say Brock Besser has an okay year. Let's say he scores 25 to 30 goals. What do you do then? And you got Lekker or Mackey coming. Well, it's a tough question, right? I don't think it is. Yeah.

I don't think it is. I think it's an easy one. You've already committed to Jake DeBrasque. I thought the line, you know, he took his foot off the pedal was, I thought it should have got more play, to be honest. Because it didn't jive with what I saw. They've been throwing that term around a lot, though, because I think, was it Alvin that said it?

Because he also said that about Petey after the contract. Yeah, he did. He did. And I guess that they have it in their minds that there was a bit of a coasting period with this team. Certain guys. Certain guys, no. Certain guys, yes. Maybe it's that 10-7 loss in Minnesota.

That one really stuck in their craw. I don't know. I found that really interesting. And I don't know how this goes with Baxter this year. Because, again, I go back to it if you remove your like canucks fandom or any of your biases and you just look at this as a neutral observer who has been following sports across the board when a guy puts forth a career year like he did and delivers over delivers no one expected that last year from best search yep logic would dictate that it's it's very

difficult to do it again i know everyone wants to do it again but a lot of things have to go into that that aren't sometimes out of your control uh chemistry with your line mates health right staying healthy the entire time um i think they were happy with how he prepped himself in the off season though i think maybe that's what they're really talking about maybe maybe they're just like you gotta keep pushing you can't it can't be a one and done for you this has to be your new personality these are the habits that you have brock besser i think from the outside looking in we don't know any of these players personally but from the outside looking in you describe him as pretty laid back it kind of reminds me of like a surfer dude you know know? Yep. You know what I mean?

Who's maybe not, let's use another guy as an extreme example of the opposite type of Brock Besser, Nathan McKinnon. Okay. Right? Maybe they want him to be a little more Nathan McKinnon. Or maybe even JT Miller, you know? Just push, push, push. Hunger, you know, competitiveness.

I don't know. I would want that for my players. If I was in charge of the team, I'd want everyone pushing. Yeah. Extremely hard. You're not going to have all the same type of personalities, but I would want those guys, you know, guys that are constantly thinking about how to get better

and constantly working. And I think that's going to be a challenge for Petey too. I think he was challenged as well this offseason to come back with a more aggressive attitude. And I think, frankly, the team is being challenged when it comes to the philosophy of the team. Be more aggressive. Take advantage of the times where

you have a team down okay uh let's do some ask us anythings here a reminder it is ask us anything friday on the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 uh the best ask us anything is going to get a 100 gift card to aj's pizza on east broadway best pizza in the city best pizza in the world i say i love their pizza uh we've got one here from Jason. It's not Jason Brough, because I don't think it is. Did you ask this? I did not. No, I have not texted into the show for a while now because I'm one of the hosts.

Got it. Don't really feel the need to. You know, that makes sense. Yeah. Ask us anything. With Dakota Joshua missing the start of the season, which prospect has the inside track on starting the season on the third or fourth line

i don't know if that's the i don't know if that's the way it's going to work i don't know if it's going to be a plug and play with a young prospect um i'm not i'm not even sure how the sort of juggling or machinations are going to work here um it was uh I think, Atu Ratu got a spin with Garland. But he was playing center, right? He was playing center. And I think Bluger's going to be back in time. I think Bluger's going to be back as well. Do you pencil in Bluger, Garland, and then player X on the wing?

Well, I don't be so sure about that. What are you thinking? Because Garland could move up to the top six. Yep, that's true as well. It's very possible that Garland moves up to the top six. He could be the guy that starts the season with Petey and DeBrusque. So if you're wondering about what some of the combos were yesterday, right? Miller and Besser were together, obviously, and they had Dan Heinen on their wing.

There was an interesting one with Suter at center, Sprong on his wing, and Arshdeep Baines on the other wing. So that's something to monitor as well. Weren't Garland and Hoaglander wingers too? Yes. Yeah, that could be a possibility. That was the Hoaglander-Ratu-Garland line. But he's asking about prospects? See, I don't see it.

That could make the team? Maybe Baines? You know who I keep coming back to? Lemus Carlson. Because he's safe. Because you know what you're getting. Because they put him in the playoffs last year, and he delivered exactly what they...

Not on the third line. I don't know. Not on the third line. I want her to start just to stabilize. If it's a short-term thing, too. I think it's too early to be asking these questions. I mean, it's never too early. Never too early.

Let's just wait and see. Have we got any more Ask Us Anything, sir? Yep. We got one here from Chad in Kelowna. Ask Us Anything. Is there an adoption process for the Sad Club?

Because adopting the Cleveland Guardians, given their drought and respective World Series beatdowns, is something worth considering. I'm already emotionally leaning into the Bills and Detroit Lions, and after that Adnan hit yesterday, I'd love the prospect of a Guardians Brewers series.

Listen, if you guys want to change the rules to the Sad Club, then become the commissioner. Yeah. You know? Chad, military coup or whatever it's going to be required. Chad, you hit a nerve. If the Canucks, well, I'm just tired of people. Like, I had someone text in or get at me on Twitter.

I was like, the Leafs should be in the sad club. They haven't, you know, like. Wrong. And I get it. I don't want them in my club. They've won Stanley Cups before. Yes, they were pathetic Stanley Cups. Only six teams were in the league the most the

least i think i've ever done in their entire i don't think they've ever won three rounds in a year right they never have because they haven't been to the stanley cup final since they won in 67 when it was still the original six pre-expansion days yep right i mean they've made it to some conference finals they lost to the canucks one year they lost to the kings one year um but i don't want them in my club no right now when the canucks win the stanley cup and i retire as sad club commish you can take this whoever takes over can take the organization any way you want it sure but the whole idea of the sad club is this this the club that a fan base has never ever ever ever ever ever celebrated a title once you start changing the rules the club loses all meaning yeah and there's

got to be uh you have standards yeah there's got to be a certain amount of time that passes by. We've settled on 40 years. Again, you know, it's become challenging in the NHL because there's only two teams that qualify for the sad club right now. It's Vancouver and Buffalo. There's other sports. But we got some prospects. Why can't you be happy with the Milwaukee Brewers being in the Milwaukee Brewers?

San Diego, Seattle, all these guys. These are great sad club teams. I realize Cleveland does have a sad history. Sure. But they don't get to join the club. You can be sad. Because their fan base can still be like, well, at least we've won. If they're talking to Mariners fans or Padres fans or Brewers fans,

at least we have one World Series title. Yeah. And then the Mariners fans could be like, yeah, in 1948 and then the Cleveland fans go, yeah, but you know, still. Still, we got it. Tambo and East fans, this is what we learned, but I wanted to do this anyway. Hashtag WWL. We all had a good

laugh about this on the text thread yesterday too. What we learned. I learned that the Anaheim Ducks named Radko Gudis as their new captain for this season, which tells us that if we go by the theory that the Anaheim Ducks named Radko Gudis as their new captain for this season, which tells us that if we go by the theory that the good teams are seemingly giving the captaincy to the best players these days, the Ducks will continue to stink. This one, very rarely do I become either alarmed or surprised by a captaincy. Usually everyone follows

or cares at all. Yeah, right. Usually everyone follows standard course of action. You give it to either your best player or a guy that's very well respected because he's been around for forever. Then there's Radko Goudas. He's a good player though. He is a good player. He's a legit

top four guy. He's played 66 games with the team. Yeah, I know. It is weird. He is a good player. Is he a legit top four guy. He's played 66 games with the team. Yeah, I know. It is weird. He is a good player. Is he a good player, though? Is he a good... Yeah, but he's dirty and everybody hates him. And he's your captain? So there's that. He's probably as good as BX

was. He's a legit shut down. He's a very good defenseman. Have Adam Dunbar-Lumbertech's line 650-650? I don't think so. Okay. Offensively, even. And Bieksa wasn't that great of an offensive player on the blue line.

I think he was... Radko Gudis was, at one point, I think the most reviled player in the league. Oh, yeah. Super dirty. Yeah. Also... Oh, no. Fans hate. Yeah. Also, also. Oh, no.

Fans hate those guys. Also a journeyman. Yeah. And as Greg mentioned, like no standing in Anaheim. Like he came there last year. I'm not saying it's not weird. When I saw Ratko Gudis was the captain,

I'm just saying he's a good player. He's not a scrub. That's all I'm saying. He's a legit, very good defensive defenseman. They don't want no scrubs. All right. You had a 41% Corsi. That's almost as timely a reference as I would bring up.

He what? 41% Corsi. He's not good. That's not good. For who? For Gutis. For what team? Anaheim.

Yeah. He was getting pummeled in his own end. Well, that's what happens on bad teams, Greg. He's not so good. It's what happens on bad teams. Well, bad teams are bad because they have bad players on them. Yeah, what was Chris Tannev's Corsi when he was playing his final years with the

Vancouver Canucks? Look it up. It's like these guys, that's where the analytics fall woefully short. It's Radko bad. It's like, oh, these guys are, these guys, this guy's pinned in his own end the whole time. It's like, yeah, because he gets the toughest assignment. His four teammates suck.

Like, it's really unfair to these guys to paint them. And that's why, you know, you see these player cards and it's kind of like, oh, this guy's numbers are terrible. Yeah, his team was too. The Red Wings guy, Morris Sider, is his first name Moritz? I forget his first name. Moritz. Moritz Sider, right?

He's considered to be the Red Wings' next great D-man, right? And he's got terrible Corsi. His numbers are just brutal. Yet every Wings fan loves him. And they're just like, well, he was just given tough minutes. He was put in bad positions. He didn't play as great last year as he did in his rookie season, but he's still considered to be like this incredible elite,

like defensive talent. Yet, if you looked at his player card, you'd be like, wow, this guy's awful. So the text message in basket doesn't love the Gudis-Biexa comp. Unsurprisingly, this is Vancouver. They're also pointing out, do you know who Kevin Biexa landed his Superman punch on? Was it Gudis?

Go Gudis. That's pretty funny. Everything comes full circle here on the Halford and Brough show. do you know who Kevin BX landed his Superman punch on? What's the goodest? Go good. That's pretty funny. Everything comes full circle here on the Halford and Brough show. I was just, I was just thinking of the types of players. Like if, if BX had been named captain in Vancouver, people were like,

there's a good hard nose guy. He's a leader. He's a light. He plays that. He's plays a style that, you know, you'd want as a leader. If I was going to say,

compare rag, go good as to a former Canucks defenseman, I would have said Brian Allen. That was the first one that jumped to mind. Brian Allen? Yeah. I hadn't thought about that. Captain Brian Allen.

Kind of a plotting pylon. Played for a bunch of different teams. Was big. He's not as dirty as Gutis, though. I think the BXL comparison was...x comparison was just you're wrong again for the second time this week second time i want the soundbite the one the say you're wrong we need your wrong music to play in the background perhaps uh i perhaps uh i could try again on the other side.

Overshot your comparison. I perhaps was not entirely accurate in how I portrayed that comment. And that one of the great things about Biaxa was how loyal he was to one organization. There you go. And at his height, he was probably a better player than Gudis has ever been. So I guess in hindsight, that was wrong. Lots more to get to on the Halbert and Brough show. I've been seeing a therapist.

This is so great. This is so great. And I'm trying to embrace being wrong a little bit more. But this one was very in the moment. Normally, I like to be defensive for at least three days. Wrong with an asterisk. And then admit, maybe in hindsight, that was

the wrong play call by the Philadelphia Eagles. Yeah, I was going to say, you can come back on Monday and be like, you remember that BXA thing I said on Friday? I regret that. Okay, we got a lot more to get to on the show. We're going to go to break, and then we're going to come back, and we're going to talk to Moj. 8 o'clock, we're going to talk to Dolly. 8.30, we're going to

do what we learned in Ask Us Anything. We're going to give away the $100 gift o'clock, we're going to talk to Dolly. 8.30, we're going to do what we learned and ask us anything. We're going to give away the $100 gift card to AJ's. Before we go to break, though, I need to tell you about Tile Town. As BC's favorite hockey team kicks off a new season, receive 20% off any regular priced in-stock tile. For more, visit them at mytiltown.ca. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show

on Sportsnet 650. It's the Moj. them at mytiltown.ca. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford's fine, but, you know, Brough is just grumpy all the time. I'm Jim Melania. Moat, moat, moat, moat, moat, moat. It's the moat, moat, moat, moat, moat, moat. It's the moat. 733 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Arash is really getting the full meal deal when it comes to the Halford and Brough show and how the sausage is made.

The Radco Gudis discourse is tearing this show apart yeah you have to sign an nda when you work yeah when you work with us i have seen some things in the last four days brough is brough is so determined to write a wrong wrong the right i don't even know which one it is because you kind of apologized. Now I feel like you're on the verge of walking back that apology. Radko Gudis would be on the second pair in Vancouver. That's where we're at. Easily, easily, easily.

He's a slightly dirtier Luke Shen. Luke Shen is a third pair guy. Radko Gudis is a top four guy. He's doing good. What was it? Slightly less dirt? I would love to see Radko Gudis is a top four guy He's doing good What was it slightly less I would love to see Radko Gudis paired with Quinn Hughes That would be awesome Yeah

Don't you think that would be ideal You called him what Slightly more dirty Luke Shen Just a little dirtier Luke Shen I had Check 2.0 Brian Allen. Which was a weird shout. Well, we were going with old Canucks defenseman.

Okay. Anyway, there's a lot of Radko Gudestock for a Friday. Or any day of the week, quite honestly. Let's just go to the phone lines now. Bob the Moj Marjanovis joins us here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Moj? Which Brian Allen are you talking about? Are you talking about the big, tall, lanky kid?

Brian Allen, former Canucks defenseman. He wasn't lanky, was he? He was a big, heavy dude. He was tall, dude. He was tall. He was tall. Yeah. Yeah.

No, I don't see that comp. But anyway, it's the morning. You're excused. While Brough was comparing Radko Gudis to Kevin Bieksa. Yeah, right shot defenseman. That's a shutdown guy. People got angry because they think Bieksa's way better. People get angry at everything.

And I'm the grumpy one, apparently. Hey, Moj, I wanted to ask you. We were kicking around this question earlier. In the wake of what Shohei Otani did yesterday who is the greatest natural athlete that you've ever seen play any sport oh wow it's a tough one i know i'd really have to think about that um man i saw jordan play live that was pretty special um when he played at rogers arena with bulls but man um i guess it doesn't have to be it doesn't have to be live we were just Pretty special. When he played at Rogers Arena with Bulls. But, man.

I guess it doesn't have to be live. We were just kicking around. Because when we see Otani play, I mean, we were joking around. You look at him and everything he does is like, you're perfect. There's nothing wrong with you. The greatest athlete in our generation is Bo Jackson. That is like sign,sealed delivery, 100%. Otani is probably creeping on that territory. That's what I would say.

Okay. Yeah, Bo Jackson, that's a great one. And you just wonder what he would have accomplished had it not been for those hip injuries. And yeah, there's a good Bo Jackson story I'll tell you one day, but we'll get back to it. By the way, Leaf just texted in the best Radko

Gutis comparison. I see it. Garth Butcher. That's right. Man, that is good. That's good. That's a better one. That's better than Brian Allen. Yeah, that's a good one. So, Moj, do you think the Lions need this bye week to just pull themselves together

a little bit? Yes and no. I mean, it was the losses disappointing. I think the bye week might have had something to do with it. It might have been a little bit of a trap game. You come off an extremely emotional win against the Montreal Alouettes and then you just come out flat against the Argos. So,

the disappointing part about it is, you know, usually you see these swings with teams that are pretty youthful, but there's enough veterans on this Lions team that that shouldn't have happened. But unfortunately it did. So it's, you know, I think the week is good in the sense that you get some bodies to heal. You get some guys maybe coming back off the injured reserve after this week, who they are, maybe a guy like Ben Hladik, maybe a guy like Marcus Moore. I don't know.

We haven't had any word from the Lions yet. You also give Alexander Hollins another week to figure out what's going on with that shoulder. But I think the big thing about right now is just, you know, getting some bodies back in terms of the bye. Is there a quarterback controversy on the BC Lions? No, I don't think there is. Rick Campbell's been through this before.

He was through with Ottawa in 2016 when they had Henry Burris and Trevor Harris, and he handled that situation to the point where the Red Blacks wound up winning the Grey Cup that year. I think there becomes a controversy when you have issues in your room. And right now, I don't think there are issues in the locker room. That's not to say that that can't happen because winning solves a lot of things. And Nathan came back, those two big wins against Ottawa and Montreal, you lose. But what happens if you lose two or three games, right? Then all of a sudden, there might be guys that are Vernon guys,

there might be guys that are Nathan guys. And, you know, we had Neil McElroy on the radio this week, and Neil said he believes his team, you know, that the Lions are above that. But still, I mean, it's just human nature, right? So winning solves a lot of things, and they just got to get back to winning. When they made the change against Toronto on Friday, you're in the booth calling the game. Were you surprised by the move to go from Nathan Rourke

to Vernon Adams Jr., or did you see it coming? A little bit. I can understand Rick Campbell's reasoning, and he talked about the fact that they needed a spark. Had Toronto not scored prior to the half, if it was still 12-10, I think Nathan probably would have remained in the game. That's the crazy thing.

The defense played really well against Toronto, limiting them to four field goals. Toronto had a first and 10 at BC's 15 after a Janarian Grant return, and they held them to a field goal. The defense, which had held the fourth the entire half, played pretty good. If they got out of the half with just being down 12-10, they would have made off

like bandits. Instead, they kick off to Toronto, Toronto marches the ball down, and they wind up scoring a touchdown with whatever, five seconds left. And that really took a lot of momentum out of the Lions' sales. And I think because of that, Ray Campbell is trying to regain a little bit of that momentum, trying to gain a spark by putting Vernon Adams Jr. in a quarterback. Do you think there's an argument to me that it was somewhat unfair to Adams given that he wasn't given a single first-team rep in practice

for the entire week leading up to the Toronto game? Well, he did have some reps. It wasn't like he didn't have any. But, you know, I think that's the way football is these days. I mean, you just give your starters the reps, and the person who is these, quote, second string, winds up getting, you know, a handful the reps and the person who is these quote second string um winds up getting you know a handful of reps at certain points so um it's just the way football is structured and i don't think vernon adams needs a lot of reps to you know kind of get his game in

order i think obviously it helps but i still don't think that it's you know not a situation where he's you know it's not like he's a a don't think that it's, you know, not a situation where he's, you know, it's not like he's a rookie quarterback or a quarterback who's, you know, his first, second year in the league. Vernon Adams has a lot of experience to draw from. So overall, Moj, like we're speaking with the Moj, overall, Moj, what's your take on this team? Because they're confusing to me,

and I really, really want them to play in the Grey Cup. And sometimes when I watch them play, I'm like, yeah, they got a good chance. And then that game against the Argos crops up, and I realize that teams have let down games, and that happens. Sometimes you just don't have it. But do you have a good handle on this team? No, I don't.

And I say that with all honesty, because they're just wildly inconsistent, right? I mean, here's a team that wins one or probably loses one, wins five, whatever, loses five, wins a couple, and then, you know, they come at home, they play the Argonauts, and they just lay an egg. So that being said, this team is fully capable of going into the playoffs and winning three football games. I mean, they went into Montreal and beat the best team in the league, right? And, you know, it's interesting.

And Neil McEvoy made a great point when we were talking about this the other night. He said in that game against Montreal, no matter what happened, you just kind of had a feeling the guys were going to win. I mean, they just had that energy level, that swagger, whatever. And that was missing against Toronto, right? And that's, you know, that's an interesting point, a valid one. I mean, you know, being in Montreal for that game,

despite what was happening, I just thought, you know, the Lions are going to come out of this with a win. They're going to find a way. You know, they're just kind of, they've got that swagger that night, that confidence and that energy. And against Toronto, they didn't. But if they can manage to somehow bottle that energy, that swagger that night, that confidence and that energy. And against Toronto, they didn't. But if they can manage to somehow bottle that

energy, that swagger, the confidence they had against Montreal for three playoff games, they will win. But that's a big if. We're speaking to Bob the Moj Marjanovic here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Moj is a presentation of the Clayton Public House pre-game to post-game. The Clayton Public

House is your home of football. Catch all the action on 15 screens and two giant projectors. Visit them online at theclaytonpub.com. Moj, you're heading up to Penticton this weekend, I understand it? Yeah, heading to catch the scrimmage on Sunday in Penticton. Hopefully

talk to Rick Tockett, some of the players afterwards. But, you know, it's interesting with this Canuck camp. I don't really think there's any battles out there, per se. You get some players like LaCarimacchi getting some looks. Pedersen, I know, is playing with Roenick. I think there's a couple of interesting storylines. Number one, it's more

of a situation of who plays with who. It's interesting that Roenick was playing with Pedersen in practice because Rick Tockett's talking about generating more offense through the rush and through the defensemen. And, you know, you just wonder, maybe perhaps you have to split up Hughes and Roenick to accomplish that. I don't know if the other four defensemen are really puck-moving,

rushing types. Tyler Myers and Carson Soucy don't really fill that bill. Deharnais, Forbert, I don't know. We'll find out as time moves along. But I think, you know, when you look at this Canucks team, this will be the Canucks' biggest challenge. And, you know, Rick Tocant always talks about things getting tougher, right? Well, not to say that it's easy,

but going from a below average or average team to a good team like the Canucks did last year, I think that obviously occurs a hell of a lot more than a team that is good going to becoming great or becoming a team that contends for championships. So this next step, it's tough, and I think it's going to be even tougher than the step that the Canucks took last year.

Hey, speaking of Rick Tockett, he hung out in the booth with you guys during the Toronto game, if I'm not mistaken. How was that? Yeah, we grilled him. I mean, he was a guest of Amar Doman, so we had him on in the fourth quarter, and we grilled him with a lot of non-hockey stuff. Julio asked him the question. So I don't know if you've probably heard the story of when Julio was a kid,

he came home one time, he didn't have any hockey sticks, because his dad had cut out the sticks, cut out the blades, and used them for tomato planting. Classic. East Van horticulture, man. Everyone's seen that before. Julio asked, he said, like, you know, he goes, he said, Dad, what are you doing?

And he goes, and his dad would go, hey, do you want to play with a ball or do you want to eat? Right? So the first question Julio asked Tuckett, he says, I got to ask you because, you know, they're obviously both Italians. And he's like, I got to ask you. He goes, did your dad take your hockey sticks and cut?

He goes, 1,000%. But the only difference with Tuckett's dad, he just used the sticks that were already broken. He didn't use, like, you know, his game-ready stick. So, yeah, we had a lot of fun talking to Rick. And you mentioned, I don't know if you heard that scrum yesterday, but that he had gone to the New York Jets camp, and he's good friends with Ferguson, the GM there.

He's the guy that, you know, he loves talking about other sports, talking to other coaches. You know, he's talked about other sports, talking to other coaches. You know, he's talked about the fact, I know we've read a story about this before with Black Press, you know, how he's talked to a guy like Ray Lewis. He's read Tom Brady's book. He's gone to the Pittsburgh Steelers camp as a guest of Mike Tomlin's.

He's gone to the New York Jets camp. He's a huge, huge Baltimore Ravens fan. So he's a guy that he just loves learning. He loves the game of football and learning about all the ideologies and all the expressions and all the... And it's more of a motivational thing. I know yesterday

he touched on practice. It's difficult to incorporate some of the things that you see in football because there's so many different stations and so many position groups. But he just loves the motivational aspect of football and learning as much as he can. What do you think his toughest motivational task is going to be this season? I think just getting every player to improve internally, right?

Because to get to the next level, you have to get better yourself, right? And that includes just pushing yourselves on things that, you know, it's so funny. A lot of times athletes, when they practice, they work on the things that they're good at, right? And one of the things that you really got to focus on as a coach is you got to get these guys to really hone in and focus on things that they're not good at, that they're not comfortable with, that they don't feel good about. So it's, you know, it's about doing those things. It's funny because we always talk about little things. Well, little things always add up to big things. And that's one of the things that they've got to do is just focus on those

little things to become better, whether it's becoming better on the face-off, whether it's becoming a better passer, whether it's become, you know, just making better decisions with the puck, whatever. I mean, there's so many different aspects of the game where you can improve, but I think every player has to look at himself with the coaching staff and say, where can I improve, and then strive to

improve upon that. Moj, thoughts about the Seahawks this weekend? They've got the Tua-less Miami Dolphins coming to town. Prospects of going to 3-0, but I'm kind of nervous about this because it's like,

this would be the type of game last season that the Seahawks would lose. Yeah, and you know, the fact that Tua's not in the lineup is a big hit for the Dolphins. So it's the type of game that maybe the Seahawks kind of, I don't want to say they go to sleep on,

but it's a factor in the sense, you know, that, and here's the thing, like athletes never, when you talk to them and, you know, athletes never go into a game and say, oh, they don't have so-and-so, we're going to, you know, kick their butt or whatever, right? But subconsciously, just say it takes away fromand-so, we're going to, you know, kick their butt or whatever, right? But subconsciously, just say it takes away from that little 5%

that you need to be successful. And that's what the Seahawks have to be cognizant of this weekend is just to kind of overlook all that stuff and just continue to push themselves to play the way they've been playing. Okay, Moj, before we let you go, ask us anything.

This one comes courtesy the Dunbar Lumber text message. InBasket, it's 650-650. It's from Dan. It is an Ask Moj Anything. Dan writes, My parents are taking the kids tonight and I told my wife I'd make dinner.

What do you suggest I cook up? So you don't have to worry about pleasing the children, chicken fingers or whatever else. You have unlimited time. You have unlimited access to ingredients. So Moj, what are you cooking up? Depends what her wife's tastes are like, right? Does she like spice?

Does she like Italian? So, first off, do you do diligence? Find out what she likes, right? Because the last thing you want to do is, you know, make a 12-ounce rib eye and she's a vegetarian or something. So, figure that out. Probably know that your wife is a vegetarian. Yep. Yep.

If you're going to, I'll tell you what, if you want to play really safe and make a really nice meal, make a nice type of, you know, whatever type of salad she likes. So make a nice salad and then go with a little pasta, go a little aglio e olio. It's just basically olive oil and garlic. So again, depending on her tastes, but you know, go down to the store, grab a little basil, um, grab some garlic, grab some chili peppers, um, and then just cook up a little pasta, serve it with olive oil and then add some prawns to it. Grill the prawns. That's the big

thing. You got to grill the prawns on charm. You just can't like, you know, some people boil prawns and they just put them on. No, no. If you want to, I mean, obviously you want to boil them, great, but then char them. And then include that in your pasta. So that's a nice, simple, easy meal and one that always tastes delish. Dan, if you're listening, you can thank Moj later. Moj, thanks for doing this, buddy. We appreciate it. Enjoy the weekend and all that's on tap.

Travel safe to Penticton. We'll do this again next week. Thanks, boys. Have a good weekend. Yeah, you too. Thanks. That's Bob the Moj Marjanovic here. We'll do this again next week. Thanks, boys. Have a good weekend. Yeah, you too. Thanks. That's Bob the Moj Marjanovic here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

I have a what we learned. Laddie is a liar. Oh, it's Radko Gudis conversation time. So Laddie throws out this stat that Radko Gudis had a 41 Corsi. And that was all situations. The guy doesn't play the power play. He penalty kills.

If you go at even strength, Corsi is actually quite respectable, including his relative Corsi. Laddie? Still an 8% drop-off from the year before. You're not playing that one? Yeah, because he went from Florida to Anaheim. Also, he could potentially be, I don't know, getting worse as a defenseman. You know what?

That's also a reality. And then, so I went back and I was like, all this stuff. And then, Lattie just goes, I still think you're wildly overrated. Well, yeah, because I was telling you to look at how it is relative to his teammates. You know what? And relative to his teammates, it's positive. If you look at even... Do you understand how analytics work?

I understand that he's probably pretty bad on the penalty kill. Yeah. Look, guys. Do you think he was going to have a high Corsi on the PK? No, but I didn't think it was going to sink his Corsi by 8% or whatever it was. He kills penalties. That's what he... Not well.

And that makes him not a great defenseman. Are you kidding? Do a lot of defensemen have high Corsis on the PK? No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying it's relative difference. Oh, look at this guy. He got a positive shot share on the penalty kill. Wow, what a great player.

If your Corsi's falling off a cliff like that, regardless of the situation. Oh, my God. We all have regrets. This is crazy, man. I don't think he's that good. We all have regrets today. Mine is bringing up Radko Gudis in the first place. Sorry for thinking Radko Gudis is not a

Captain Calabro defenseman. Well, I'm sorry, you're a liar. I'm just sorry that you... I wasn't a liar. I showed you the screenshot. And then I was like, you're doing all situations here. Have fun with your 41% defenseman out there, Bruf. You'll win a ton of games. God, if you didn't have to kill penalties and you got power play, it'd be different. He's taking half the penalties of the teams.

Now he's taking too many penalties. He's got 128 penalty minutes. Yeah, because he's tough. Something you wouldn't know about. Look, guys, we all have regrets about today. I'm getting a Gouda's jersey. Sometimes life is about regrets. You should, and you should wear it tomorrow.

And if I could grow a beard like him, I would. Arash has been furiously gesticulating. The man that finds testosterone. Something Ladi wouldn't know anything about are we good no yeah we're good i just feel this is going to turn into like gore rescinding his uh

presidency in 2000 with with jason he's going to like slowly roll it back like florida florida gudas is still too close to call we can't we still need to catch that okay uh let's reset i will make a promise to you the listeners that Goudis is still too close to call. We can't. We still need to catch that. Okay.

Let's reset. I will make a promise to you, the listeners, that we will not say the words Radco and or Goudis. I do not make that promise. In the third hour of the program. It's tearing the show apart. And the Anaheim Ducks defense. We just need to focus and have a Goudis third hour.

Here's what's coming up. We've got a few Radco what we learns. Rick Dollywall, the Radco goodest of media, is going to join us at 8 o'clock. 8.30, we're going to do what we learns and ask us anything. We're going to give away a $100 gift card to AJ's. 845 Brough's officially going to rescind his apology. I think it's been rescinded, actually.

Completely rescinded? This is because Laddie was using false information. Some might call it lying. And we're going to try and get things back on track. You expect wacky hijinks and off the rails from Halford and Brough on a Friday, but this is taking it to new unprecedented heights.

I'm also going to, you know what? I'm going to do it now. I'm going to tell you about Seeker. Why now? You usually do it during the break. I want to do it now. You want people to meet Seeker? I want them to introduce themselves to Seeker or have Seeker introduce itself

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Final hour coming up. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.