Halford & Brough in the Morning - The PWHL Is Coming To Vancouver!

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason talk about the previous day in sports including NHL playoffs & a new Vancouver PWHL team (3:00), plus they chat the NFL draft set for today with Too Deep Zone's Mike Tanier (27:16). 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.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- Score! Score! Tyler Sagan! The Stars have done it! Co-padar, the can't pay on top. He's right by the green basket. Right off the end for us, because Metcalfe looks at home. Hands off to Sassen. Backdoor pass. Blaze shoots, he scores! Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, Good morning Vancouver 601 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody. It's Halford at his broth at EsportsNet 650.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello.

Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help. With over 3,000 five-star reviews visit them online at sans-trustee.com we are in hour one of the program hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal North Star Metal Recycling they recycle you get paid visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio Kintec footwear and

orthotics working together with you in step maybe the most eclectic and dare I from 70 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you in step. Maybe the most eclectic and dare I say electric show in Halford and Brough history today. First, we have not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but six guests on the program today. Six, Jason. Okay, we're gonna talk talk hockey of course. Yeah. There's gonna

be the NHL, AHL, and PWHL. What? We're also gonna talk lacrosse. Get out of here. As the Warriors get set to host their first ever playoff game. It's the NFL draft tonight. That's amazing. So of course we're gonna talk some football. Adnan is joining us. So baseball talk. So there's baseball. And last but not least, Lionel Messi is in town. So you and I will do a little soccer talk.

It's amazing. And if we have time, if we have time, we will try to fit in some cricket. Nice. Is it a two horse race, Halford, between Gujarat and Mumbai? I'm all about Mumbai. It's a one horse race.

Do you know it's called- You're out to lunch, bruv. You're out to lunch. Do you know it's called the Mumbai Indians? Did not know that. And then I was like, wait a minute, that's racist. I'm like, no, it's not. Change that.

It's the Indian Premier League. It's Mumbai and whom? Gujarat. What's Gujarat's team moniker? I don't know. I'm throwing you on the spot here. All right. I don't know.

That's what we learned. We'll get to that at. I don't even know when we're going to do what we learned today, by the way, because we have a guest. So anyway, I'll do the guest list really quick. 630 Mike Tan here for the NFL draft. 7 o, I'll do the guest list really quick. Six 30 Mike Tannier for the NFL draft, uh, seven o'clock adnan Burke for MLB, seven 30 Kurt Malosky, head coach and general manager of the Vancouver Warriors.

They're going to their first ever playoff game as the warriors in the national lacrosse league. We're giving away tickets for that one too. That's at seven 30, seven 40 Brandon Astle play by play voice at the Abbotsford Canucks is going to join the program eight o'clock. It's Drance for the token Canucks talk today. And then at 8.30, very cool, Shelley Frost, the president and CEO of the PNE is going to join us. So we'll talk about their new tenants, the Vancouver PWHL team, which was announced yesterday. We can also talk though, like White Cabs Stadium potentially, World Cup, and then importantly, the Summer Nights Concert series.

Yeah. Well, the amphitheater is not active right now because they're building a new one. So I think all the concerts are at the Pacific Coliseum, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. So we will get that confirmation with Shelly because that's honestly the most important part. I want a teaser for the lineup. Like is REO speedwagon coming or not? I need to know like today, so we got a lot to get Ludacris was so good last year Are you bringing them back Nelly want to come back to Vancouver the answer is probably yes Okay, so we got a lot to get to on the program today tons of guests tons of content lots of sports without further ado laddie Let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance.

Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. The big news from yesterday is that the Professional Women's Hockey League is heading west and their first expansion franchise was announced and yes, as you know, it is now going to be Vancouver, which will really open up the league given that the majority of the teams are either based in the east or I guess midwest when it comes to Minnesota. So it's Boston, New York, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, or the East. Central is Minnesota.

And now way out West, congratulations, the newest PWHL franchise right here in Vancouver. And as we mentioned, they're going to be full-time tenants at the Pacific National Exhibition grounds, both playing at the Coliseum and practicing at the Agridome. Yeah, 40 years until they joined the side club. That's it. That's it. Welcome. I'm glad they are not coming into the

league with Buffalo. Yeah. But I do wonder. They might be coming in with Seattle. I do wonder about Seattle. Yeah. Because, okay, so there's, uh, the original six right now, uh, Boston, Minnesota, Montreal,

New York, Ottawa, and Toronto. of that group, Minnesota's the furthest away. You know, middle America, whatever you want to talk. Fly over country. Fly over country. And then you've got all the way out on the West coast, you've got Vancouver and in a league like PWHL, you have to be wary of travel costs. I mean, you're wary of travel costs in the NHL. So I do wonder if Seattle is the best place to travel, and if you're PWHL, you have to be wary of travel costs.

I mean, you're wary of travel costs in the NHL. So I do wonder if Seattle is to come. So for people that aren't a hundred percent familiar with how the PWHL is run, the league owns all the teams. So it's not like, oh, who's our owner? Right? Sure. No, the league is the owner.

It's investor driven league, which is good because, you know, we were talking about this last week or earlier in the week. You don't have these owners that are like, yeah, I'll put two million in and get a team. And then, you know, there's six months into it, they're, they're, they're losing money in it and they get bored. And then they're like, yeah, you know what, actually I'm going to fold the team because that never helps for, for leagues that are starting out. Um, so the next step the Vancouver team has to do is to start hiring staff,

including a general manager who will be tasked with building a roster. And from scratch. Yeah. Yeah. From scratch. staff, including a general manager who will be tasked with building a roster. And from scratch. Yeah, yeah. From scratch. And there is going to be an expansion draft. Um, and then there is probably going to be a second expansion team and we all expect that team to be in Seattle.

Yeah. And then from there, it sounds like the next two would be Denver and Detroit. So Denver would be obviously the one that would be paired up with Minnesota and fly over country. And then of course, Detroit would cluster in with the remainder of the Eastern teams. Travel is important in upstart leagues. I know the Canadian professional league, the soccer league, it's been an issue because

when you want to have a true Canadian league, you need to hit all the major markets. That also means you're going coast to coast on a finite budget, traveling, and trying to carry over a large team. It can become difficult. So I think another good thing about being the central ownership model is that the stakeholders have to do a very thorough data and market research of every potential expansion

franchise and location because they ultimately end up owning it. It's not like they're granting it to someone like you said. They're like, good luck cowboy, go get them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think a team will work in Memphis. Right. Or Sacramento. Yeah, and take your pick, right? Yeah, yeah. But the interesting thing here is that- I have a stadium in Las Vegas. It does not work for the CFL, but let's try it anyway.

Vancouver ticked a lot of boxes, obviously. I think the takeover tour where they sold out was probably, that was the one that put it over the top. But the press release that came out yesterday said that enrollment numbers in girls hockey in the lower mainland have skyrocketed over the last little bit. It is also Canada's third largest city. So it was kind of a no brainer to go there after

Toronto and Montreal. Yeah. So there you go. Shout out to the Vancouver angels. Let's go. Okay. Um, I saw. What do you think the team's going to be called?

That's a good question. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They've got, their colors are, um, what are their colors? Blue. I can't remember what they called the blue. It's like a light blue, um, ocean blue, maybe Pacific blue.

That makes sense. And then, uh, cream. Pacific blue. That makes sense. And then cream. I don't like that word. They wear them on Sunday? The Sunday creams. Yeah. Vancouver rain maybe? You're still going with this.

I don't know what it's gonna be. It'll be a singular name, we know that. That is actually what makes us all depressed here. Yeah. So I don't. Okay. I saw. The- I love your brain. Okay. I saw- The Vancouver agoraphobia.

Don't ever want to go outside. I saw Lionel Messi yesterday. I heard. And I saw you sent a long video. I saw- Which you weren't supposed to be doing by the way. Well, I mean, I was outside the grounds where Miami was practicing at the Whitecaps facility.

Out at UBC. I was out at UBC, not out there just to see Messi. I had to drive some kids to hockey at the rink next door. And then when we were driving home at around, I don't know, six o'clock, I noticed that there was a lot of security around the practice facility and the practice facility, if you don't know it, out at UBC is like, it's hard to peek in.

Not impossible though. No, it's true. It's not impossible. Because there was one corner there that there was a security guard at and I went up and the security guard got, I threw some rocks over somewhere else. Okay. And I was like, I distracted the security guard. He was like, what was that?

Pretty clever. And then I went in and I watched Messi and Inter Miami play. And I was like, oh, he's a short one. Yeah, he is. He's a short guy. You learned something yesterday. You learned a lot about Cricket and Lionel Messi. Yeah, yeah.

Speaking of Messi, now we don't know if he's actually going to play tonight. It's exciting that he's even in town. Uh, it's really too bad that the Scottish Messi cannot play tonight. His knee injury is lingering a lot more than people thought, and it's making a lot of us, uh, white cap supporters pretty anxious.

Yeah. Of course we're talking about Ryan Gould. If you're not that familiar with the Vancouver Whitecaps, he is their best player and he's been injured for how long now? It's been over a month. Okay. And every time that they ask the gaffer,

Jesper Sorensen, for an update, he says the same thing, couple of weeks. Okay. And then someone's like, but you said it would be a couple of weeks, a couple of weeks ago. He's like, I did. It will continue to be a couple of weeks. And Ryan Gould will be signing autographs on

the concourse today. Okay. Ahead of the match. So that's not a great sign that he's not even just like doing the landisgog, take the warmup. No bucket. That's pretty cool that he's doing that though. Yeah, it's good.

Yeah, yeah. But it's not great for his playing status. No, no, no, no. If you would like him to be in the match. So who has kind of replaced him? I mean, he's irreplaceable on the white caps, but who has taken on his role because the white caps have continued to play pretty well without him. So what they've done in the midfield is they've gone with Andres Kubas and then Sebastian

Berhalter has been the biggest story of the season, I think. The son of the former US national team manager, Greg Burr Halter, Sebastian Burr Halter is a young guy who's been with the Whitecaps for a couple of seasons now. He has been their Ironman this year. I think he started every but one match. He almost played every single minute for a while there. So he slotted in next to Kubas and then Vite.

So Vite kind of becomes the attacking guy. Burr Halter kind of becomes the do-it-everything box-to-box midfielder. And then Kubas, they Vite kind of becomes the attacking guy. Berhalter kind of becomes the do it everything box to box midfielder and then Kubas, they're already talking about Kubas being the messy guy tonight. Right, okay. If he plays Kubas, he'll be the messy shadow because he's their sort of defensive shut down midfielder in the defensive role there.

So, and as far as Messi goes, playing in this game tonight, here's what I can tell you about his contributions this year. He's appeared in 11 matches across all competitions. I think it's 11 of the 14 matches. So he's played a lot. He's been very active and very busy. In this tournament, the CONCACAF Cup, he's featured very prominently in every leg.

The only time that he sat out was when they played the Jamaican Premier League team, Cavalier FC, my favorite of the Jamaican League teams. He sat out was when they played the Jamaican Premier League team Cavalier FC, my favorite of the Jamaican League teams. He sat out one of the legs there. When do you think we'll know the lineup? When do they announce the lineup? Usually 90 minutes prior to kickoff. 90 minutes prior to kickoff.

So do you see it as a chance that he could maybe come off the bench? Potentially. It hasn't been a role that he's done a lot. Like it's been very rare that he's come off the bench with Miami. More often he starts and then comes off early, like in the 60th minute or maybe even at half, if they're trying to rest him. been a role that he's done a lot. Like it's been very rare that he's come off the bench with Miami more often. He starts and then comes off early, like in the

60th minute or maybe even at half, if they're trying to arrest him. I think the match flow will dictate what happens. Um, they don't want to go back to Miami, um, having not scored an away goal. Cause in this competition, away goals really matter. Right. Um, and I would also say they have taken this competition

very seriously throughout. They have put their best 11 forward on several occasions, including in their most recent victory over LAFC. And you gotta remember, you know, the last time that Miami actually lost the game and their only loss this season across all competitions was in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, last round in the first leg,

where they had to go out west, right? Was that the Galaxy? Yeah, no, that was LAFC. Oh, okay. Yeah, so they- One of the LA teams. Yeah, so it was, I mean, there's an opportunity here for Vancouver to kind of take advantage of a Miami team

that doesn't have a ton of experience traveling across the continent, playing, and then having to deal with the turf. I think the crowd will be excited for Messi, but I think the crowd is also going to get behind the whitecaps. So they should. And the ideal scenario would be that we see Messi, but we also see a Vancouver whitecaps win.

Jay texts into the Dunbar lumber text line with a great, great segue. Speaking of Messi, did you see the Oilers defense last night? Oh, J. My God. Yeah, it was not good. It was Messi.

Adrian Kemp, a two third period goal to assist. Anze Kopitar, a goal and three assists. If you're like, wow, those sound like some inflated point totals, that's because for the second straight game, the Edmonton Kings, or Edmonton Kings, the Los Angeles Kings, scored six goals on the Edmonton Oilers. This time it was a 6-2 win on Wednesday night

to seize a two-nothing lead in the first round of their Stanley Cup playoff series. So here's what happened, here's what's happened over the first two games of this series. The Edmonton Oilers have fallen behind 0-2 in the series. They have allowed 12 goals. That's an average of six per game. Stuart Skinner got chased after allowing his 11th goal last night,

receiving a Bronx cheer, caught smiling on camera after the Bronx cheer, and then pulled out of the game for Calvin Pickard. Pickard comes in, boom, within seconds of being in the net. It goes from 5-2 to 6-2. How many Oilers fans were online going like, I don't like the fact that he was smiling after the Bronx cheers. It shows he's not serious.

It shows he doesn't care. Jason, there were a lot. There was someone in my mentions. They're like, it's not a coincidence that he was pulled right after he smiled at the Bronx cheer. And I was like, I also said that might've been the least effective goalie pull

in Stanley Cup playoff history, because they took him out too late. Five two late in the third. Why would you not take him out at the end of the second period? Why let him go back in for the start of the third? And then as soon as they took him out, LA scored again. Yeah.

Knoblox on thin. They're just giving Pickert some minutes before he starts. I felt terrible for him. He was probably looking, he's like, am I really going in right now? Like, yeah, I'm stone cold. I've been sitting here all game. Why am I going in now? Is Skinner hurt?

Is it because he smiled? I don't know. I've been looking for Jessica Alba the whole time. Is she here again? Also, can somebody tell me what is going on with the Oilers penalty kill? Do you remember how awesome it was last year? It was incredible.

After they beat the Canucks, I'm like, the Edmonton penalty kill is the MVP of this series. It just lights out. We actually felt better about the Canucks, I'm like the Edmonton penalty kill is the MVP of this series. It just lights out. We actually felt better about the Canucks' horrible power play as that playoffs went along because the Oilers' PK was so good. We were like, all right, well, maybe you got to tip your cap to the Oilers too.

I think Andrei Kuzmenko has 10 power play goals already in two games. It's unbelievable. I'm happy for Kuzmenko. Like, you know, the thing is nobody ever thought that he didn't have talent. It was just whether he was going to commit to the system that Rick Tocket ran.

And, uh, and I know there'll be a lot of people like sometimes with guys with talent, you have to make allowances for them. And I'm like, yeah, but you know, like, look, he had a great first season and there were allowances to be made, but when he had a great first season and there were allowances to be made, but when he stopped scoring goals, it was hard. And he went to Calgary.

He didn't do anything in Calgary. He went to Philly. It wasn't there long in Philly, but Philly was like, all right, see you later. Seen enough, right? Don't unpack. So, you know, I, I, I hope Kuzmenko like, I don't know. He always seemed like he was having fun. Right?

I'm happy for him. He's a talented guy. When he has the puck on his stick on the power play, like you can see the talent just by how he stick handles, how he, um, how he passes the puck and the one thing that he is very, very good at is getting to the spots in the net and working with his teammates and just banging in easy ones half the time, right?

Yeah, I'm totally happy for the guy. I don't think it should be anything more than that. Sometimes it can be simple. It don't have to read too deep into it. Like it doesn't have to be a verdict or a judgment on Rick Tauke or the Canucks organization or anything, you know what, good on Kuzmenko. So they have scored five power play goals in this series in two games.

So the 12 goals, five are on the power play. So not only does this come at the expense of an Edmonton penalty kill, which was great last year, and is now terrible for some reason, the Kings also had a crappy power play. They were 27th in the NHL during the regular season. And look, it's Kuzmenko, man. Well, I know all the difference.

Yeah. He's the one guy that could turn that power player. And a little bit of confidence. Okay, now I have a question for you, so don't take too much coffee. Yeah, let's go. Let's go. I have a question for you. It's a hard one. Okay. Okay. Who in the last two days will want to check social media the least to search their name?

Who in the last two days will want to search social media for their name the least? Okay. Okay. Is it Batherson for Ottawa? Uh huh. Is it Arvidsson for the Edmonton Oilers? Yeah.

The fourth goal that Edmonton. That was bad. LA scored. Or is it Jonathan Drouin for three. Man. Three very, very difficult choices. Was no bueno for Colorado yesterday and was a key part of he, he was kind of like the Batherson of last night. So if father, if father's one, if we're going to, uh, power rank them,

I would say Arvidsson is the third most likely to search because his goal, while it was egregious of an error, it didn't really cost them that badly. Like they were already down and out. The other two were in overtime. When, when, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. They were, they'd come, they'd come back in that game.

It was three, two. Oh, you're not talking about the one he did last night. I am talking about the one he did last night. They lost six, two last night. I know. They didn't lose it. Or Batherson.

But when Arvidsson actually scored. Batherson and Duran were in overtime though. Okay, but when Arvidsson. Yeah, those are different. Okay, but was there any part of you, when Arvidsson scored to make it 3-2 for LA, it's like, oh my God, the others are coming back again. LA is blowing it again. We all know what happened in game one.

And I had told you the story and reminded everyone what happened a couple of years ago when the Kings were up, again, I think it was 2-1 in the series and they had a three nothing lead and they blew that lead at home. And I'm like, oh my God, they're going to do it again. They're going to blow this again. And the others are going to come back beat them, and that'll be it. Yeah, so I think it's- And Armitage made a huge mistake.

He took the puck back, he's- No, I saw it. Fumbling it all over the place. He's swearing on the ice, you could hear him. He's like, ah! Evan Bouchard was like, that's my thing. I think of the two, because I've narrowed it down to Batherson and Jaren,

I'm actually gonna go with Jonathan Jaren, you know why? Because he ruined Gabriel Landeskog night in Colorado. It could have been a great story. And it was amazing that Landeskog came back last night and to great fanfare, to the pop and the celebration that I think everybody expected. And then the, you know, Colorado got off to a good enough start, but kudos and tons of kudos

to the Dallas Stars on this one, because you could make the argument that they don't really deserve the 2-1 series lead. I think they've led in this series for something like 17 seconds. Like they barely had the lead in this series, yet they lead this series. Thanks to now two overtime winners.

It was Colin Blackwell in game two. It was Tyler Sagan last night. And you know what? Dallas last night was full value for that victory because they killed that double minor late in regulation and then into overtime. Yeah. Right?

Where it looked like. Well, Duran had a chance right in the slot not to pick on the guy, but like, he blasted like four feet over the net. So Dallas now with a two on lead and remember that eight game losing streak that Dallas had, which was the seven final regular season games and then the first of the playoffs.

Well, they've erased it with back to back overtime victories. That's been a very good series. Steven North-Sanich said, I love Kuzmenko, but Edmonton's defense has been a huge help to him. Yeah. Edmonton's blue line is an absolute mess right now. There were question marks about it heading into,

well, frankly, the season and then Ekholm got hurt. And I don't think there's any coincidence that LA's power play has taken off in the absence of Matthias Ekholm. That's the same as the Canucks losing Hamhams. That's fair. You know, like, and then you're like, kind of like, oh, that's, that's our most reliable defenseman.

Trusty security blanket. Yeah. And all of a sudden it's like, well, let's see what Jake defenseman. Yeah, trusty security blanket. Yeah, and all of a sudden it's like, well, let's see what Jake Wolman can do on the PK, right? And then I think it was, yeah, it was LA's second goal, the byfield goal, where it was Nurse and Bouchard out there, and Nurse is just wandering up the left side of his own end.

You got to stay on the right side of the puck kids. Darnell Nurse didn't. And then Byfield is coming in on a two on one real close in on Stuart Skinner. And Bouchard just keeps backing, backing, backing, backing. I don't even think he like covered the other guy all that well. He was like, he was, Stuart Skinner was like, watch out, you're going to run into me. And ultimately he ends up just kind of staring at Byfield who went in on, uh, like just like it was

a breakaway essentially. Yeah. And beat Stuart Skinner, very nice shot by Byfield. He's got a lot of talent, um, might be putting it all together and like, and then it's two nothing in LA, for LA. And even though Edmonton can come back, you're kind of looking right then at nurse is a problem sometimes, Bouchard is a problem sometimes, and Stuart Skinner is a problem more than sometimes.

I think I know the answer for Edmonton. Troy Stetcher. It, Troy Stetcher time. It's a good defensive defense. He might have to, I'm not even joking. I saw his name on Twitter last night. I'm like, oh yeah, Troy Stetcher. He might draw in their entire. Has he been hurt?

Uh, he was hurt earlier in the year. I don't know about his health recently. Um, when they made the deal for Wallman at the deadline, obviously that bumped him down the depth chart a little bit. But I did see his name trending on social media yesterday. I think in large part because a lot of people are like, we have to do something differently on defense.

Okay. Okay. So look, we're going to do a little NFL talk next with Mike Tan here, because it's the NFL draft tonight. We'll talk about who's going to go in top five and I don't know, if we'll talk about the Seahawks then probably going to draft an offensive lineman. Fine. Uh, add Nan for a little baseball later, Kurt Malosky to, uh, talk a little

Vancouver Warriors, they've got their first playoff game at home this weekend. Brandon Astle will talk about, uh, the Abbotsford Canucks who had a game last night in the, in the Calder Cup playoffs. Thomas Drantz for the Canucks talk. And then Shelley Frost from the P&E talk about all the things that are suddenly happening at the P&E from a sports perspective. You are listening to a very eclectic Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drantz.

We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 PM on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. It's Thrashthursday! We can bring it back. Welcome to Thrashthursday. Welcome to Thrashthursday. Welcome to Thrashthursday. Welcome to Thrashthursday. Welcome to Thrashthursday. Welcome to Thrashthursday. Welcome to Thrashthursday. Welcome to Thrashthursday. Welcome to Thrashthursday.

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Welcome to Thrash Thursday. Mike Tan here, our NFL insider, is going to join us in just a moment here for some NFL Draft Talk. Before we get to Mike, a little business to attend to on Thrash Thursday. Halifax and the Brub of the Morning, the show you're listening to, is brought to you by Sands & Associates, VCs first and Trusted Choice for Debt Help. With over 3,000 five-star reviews, visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program.

Hour one is brought to you appropriately by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. The NFL draft is tonight. The first pick will be made at around 5 o'clock, our time live from Lambeau Field in Green Bay. Miami Hurricanes quarterback Cam Ward, no, not the former Carolina Hurricanes goalie.

Cam Ward is widely expected to be drafted by the Tennessee Titans first overall. After that is when it really gets intriguing and there are a lot of questions to answer them. Joining us now, our NFL insider Mike Tanney, you're here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Mike, a long time no talk. Thanks for joining us.

Always a pleasure to join you on draft day and to clarify, the first pick will not necessarily be at five o'clock your time It'd be like by 15 They really have to start with all of the all the fur for all and all the hoopla and then they'll get around to finally picking cam ward Somewhere in the five o'clock out. So cam ward everyone pretty much acknowledges that he's going to the Tennessee Titans. Is Travis Hunter an obvious second pick or is that when the draft gets really interesting right at number two with Cleveland?

Everyone seems to be pointing to the brows taking Travis Hunter. They have not done a good job deflecting any thoughts of that. They haven't done a great job saying this pick is up for grabs. In my mind, I think Abdul Carter would be a better fit for them, but these are the Browns. They think of things a different way. My concern with the Browns and Hunter is Travis Hunter is out there jumping up and down saying, I want the team that you asked me to let me play two positions in some capacity. And it took the Browns a while to come around to saying something like, Oh yeah, maybe we'll let him try to be a receiver first and then have a home on defense

too. So it doesn't sound like these two entities really love each other. And yet all signs point to the Browns taking Travis Hunter and figuring that this situation will work itself out. And you know, things work themselves out for the Browns so well. That's why they're in this position. They're a great team to go out there with wishful thinking and say, yeah, we'll figure it out afterwards.

Well, let's take a quick aside from the draft here. And can you remind me of what the Cleveland Browns quarterback depth chart looks like right now? Oh my goodness. I better pull it up so I don't screw it up. Because I believe Kenny Pickett is number one. And I believe Joe Flacco is number two. And I believe that Deshaun Watson remains on the injured reserve slash double super secret probation with his guaranteed quarter

billion dollar compensation. He is rehabbing, let's call it an Achilles tear. It has been doing so since, I don't know, 2022. I've lost track. So actually I'm looking at it. They have Flacco listed first and Kenny Pickett listed second. Okay. Unmarthable, isn't it? So is Deshaun Watson, like, is he done with the Cleveland Browns as far as playing games for them?

Yeah. The way everything looks and sounds, A, he has this injury that never heals. Uh, you know, everyone else was an Achilles though. He'll be back in like eight months, nine months, seven or eight months past. And you discover he re-injured it quote unquote. Um, it sounds like the Browns are looking for injury clauses. They're looking for, uh, loopholes to cut off the back end of Deshaun Watson's again guaranteed total of

quarter billion dollar compensation, which is currently crippling them and potentially crippling them for future years when he doesn't play it down. So it looks like both sides are talking around the idea that they want to part ways, but the Browns want to part ways in a way that like saves them a little money somehow.

So I'm reading an NFL mock draft, which are always very valuable at ESPN. And it's actually got Shadour Sanders dropping all the way to, so this is via a mock trade with Washington, dropping all the way to 29 and the Cleveland Browns pick him up. Is there any way to predict where Shadrers Sanders is gonna go in this draft? And if he falls, why will he fall? All right. Now there's a lot to unpack there. Yes, I know. Very, very fashionable right now to mock Shadrador Sanders late in the first round with a trade,

whether it's the Giants making that trade, the Browns are very fashionable making that trade. This is mostly fanfic. Shador seems to be sliding. I think people in the know know that they can't just place him second, they can't place him third. He's not considered a pick in that level. a, a, a pick in that level. And there are two very interlocking reasons.

One of them is, uh, you know, when you look at his overall scouting report, he's a first round pick. Like he's a first round pick. Like he's fine. Like that kind of thing. Like, like you don't look at it and say, well, this is, you know, this is, this is Trevor Lawrence. If you look at it and say, well, this is Joe Barrow.

Uh, this is Jayden Daniels. It's like I'm very much a notch below that and then there's the coach prime factor and everyone is again sort of talking around the fact that coach prime is out there he's rattling cages you know he's setting expectations. Shadoor has never been coached by anyone else in the world who wasn't either Deion Sanders himself or one of Deion Sanders' employees slash Lackeys etc. And there are a lot of teams looking at this thing if we bring this young man in especially as a top-ten pick what will the expectations be? Can he handle them? And can we handle coach prime if he turns around says why isn't my son starting? Why is my son on the bench behind Joe Flacco? What will the ramifications be for that?

We're speaking to Mike Tan here, our NFL insider here on the Haliford and Rough Show on Sportsnet 650. Visit Mike's sub stack, the 2D Zone sub stack for all kinds of great draft coverage. Including what he's giving us on the air right now. Let's talk about Abdul Carter out of Penn State a little bit here, Mike, because I've seen a lot of people say he might be the most talented guy in this draft, he might be the most NFL ready, he might be ready to make the most NFL impact immediately. Whatever team gets him, what are they gonna get out of Abdul Carter?

That's exactly what you said. Like I think Travis Hunter is a better overall player, but you're looking at him and say, well, we have to pick a position for him, we have to figure out how he plays the other position where he's happy, where we're getting the most out of him. Cam Ward's the best quarterback, not the best player. And then you've got Abdul Carter.

It's like, if we plug this guy in, as a rookie, he'll get 10 sacks, and as a second year, he'll get 12, 13, 14, 15 sacks. And you can just lock that in, health permitting for the next nine years or whatever his career, that he can be this guy that Micah Parsons, also from Penn State, the next, you know, nine years or whatever his career, that he can be this guy that Micah Parsons also from Penn State has become, you know, TJ word often is he's going to be that caliber of guys.

So, so you want that and you sort of want that plug and play guarantee. And that's, I'm surprised the Browns aren't taking that. The giants are in position to take that. And that's fine. I'm hearing some stories about the bears trying to trade all the way up or some other team trying to trade all the way up. Frankly, I don't know why the Patriots, I hope the Patriots are considering trading up a spot, just

trading a pick and saying, well, here we go. We just, we just got 12 sacks. We can figure out other stuff, but we just got 12 sacks. It's a very simple projection and it's a very valuable projection with Abdul Carter. How many quarterbacks could go in this round? Oh gosh.

Two or three maybe? Two or three, I mean, it should, there's an old saying, if there are two first round quarterbacks, then three quarterbacks will be drafted in the first round. And if there's three, there'll be four, et cetera. This is one of those drafts where I think Sanders is a first round pick.

I think Kam Ward is consensus first overall. That's fine. You've got Jackson Dart and Jalen Milro out there. I consider Dart a second or third round. I consider Milro a fourth round pick. And I don't know if they're getting put in these mock drafts because this, this draft is so full of defensive players. They need name recognition and you have to start putting famous names like

Milro and Dart in there because you can't just fill the whole draft with defensive tackles or if there's something to this. What we do know is the Saints who lost Derek Cardaway's shoulder injury, he met his career threatening shoulder injury, now have an absolute need of quarterback. We know that the Steelers who have been goofing off with Aaron Rodgers in this, you know, weird, you know, long distance romance or whatever they're having, they need a quarterback right now. You can just look at these two teams and say, I can't picture them coming out of the first round without a quarterback, and that's your Shador Sanders, and that's your Jackson Dart.

Then you start talking about, well, the Browns need one too, the Giants need one too, what are they going to do? That's where you could have as many as four theoretically in the first round. So I hate to bring up Aaron Rogers on draft day, but just follow me here. Um, yes. The, uh, let's say Tennessee goes with Cam Ward as

everyone expects them to. Um, some people might be wondering what's going to happen to Will Levis. And could he be traded to a team like Pittsburgh that still doesn't have a quarterback? He could reunite with Mason Rudolph because they were such a deadly duo together. I like the way you think that's the one.

What's going on with Pittsburgh? It's crazy. I'm looking at like, they just, they traded for DK Metcalf who we know well in Seattle and Who's their starting quarterback? They don't have anyone And that's it with this team because if you told me they're in this like extreme rebuild mode Like okay, I understand that the Steelers are going to try something different. They've got this Mike Tomlin this front office They can kind of experiment do things their own way when you bring in DK Mac yet And you'll trade George Pickens you got two guys who are going to want 15 bombs per game each. That's what they're going to want.

They're going to expect it. They're going to be on social media demanding it. They're going to be taking plays off if they don't get it. So you need to get that guy. And Will Levis is not that guy. I mean, Will Levis, he gets traded for a sixth or seventh round pick by some team that wants to fiddle around with him. You can't put him and Mason Rudolph out there and say, that's it. Um, my, my, my thought on Jackson Dart is that he's pretty much Kenny pick it again, that you're going out there and getting, you know, the tall guy who has a pretty nice looking ball. And if there's any pressure, he's going to fall apart.

Aaron Rogers makes some semblance of sense to them. The problem is it's like herding a cat, you know, it's like, it's like he is not going to do what you tell them to do. And if they had a meeting a couple of weeks ago and Aaron Rogers didn't like everything he heard in that meeting, he's going to continue the game he's playing right now. So I don't know how the Steelers proceed. I'm surprised they let themselves get into this situation when they probably

could have re-upped Russell Wilson just as an insurance policy. and now we are on draft and we're still asking these questions. So I mentioned your substack earlier and again for any of the listeners it's a two deep zone substack. Check it out. One of your most recent pieces, the headline was stop the draft coverage I want to get off. Now the reason I'm bringing this up is it's very funny and very well written of course but it starts with some anecdotal stuff on Curtis Rourke, the younger brother of BC Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke who we've had on the show. We've tried to get Curtis on the show a number of times, haven't been able to connect with him yet. Maybe after he gets drafted who knows. So I know the point of the piece wasn't about Curtis Rourke but you did do some deep diving on Rourke anyway what does this NFL

draft look like for Curtis Rourke out of Indiana? I think he'll get drafted I think he'll have some opportunities somewhere I mean the mixed blessing almost is the fact that he has this torn ACL so he played the entire season on a torn ACL for Indiana obviously showing grit gumption to go out there. He has a brace on his knee. He can't really move. He's standing in the pocket firing balls and Indiana gets to a playoff game.

They get to the NCAA playoffs. That's impressive. I don't think work is a, I think he's a prospect like his brother and his brother came and almost made the Jacksonville Jaguars and was kind of like would have been like a second third stringer in the NFL hanging around for a couple of years if he didn't choose to return home to Canada. For Curtis, a team that drafts him knows they're drafting a guy who had ACL surgery like eight weeks ago. So if he comes in he's going to be pretty much a medical redshirt for his rookie year. He would go out there. Certainly he'd be in meetings.

He'd be tossing the ball from a stationary pocket. He wouldn't be somebody who was expected to play. That can be, that can be kind of a blessing in disguise for a young quarterback. He gets drafted the sixth round, seventh round, and they say we're stashing you for a year. That gives you two camps to go out and do what you can do because you're, you're not going to be evaluated until you're healthy enough to run. And that's what could happen for Curtis Rourke in the NFL. The NFL draft round one

begins tonight five o'clock but as Mike astutely pointed out it might be a little bit later than that until the Tennessee Titans take Cam Ward but it is tonight from Green Bay Lambeau Field. It should be a lot of fun. Mike thank you very much for joining us today and taking the time to do this. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the entire weekend of NFL Draft action. My pleasure. Take care and enjoy the draft. You too, buddy. Thanks. That's Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the Too Deep Zone here on the Haliford and Bref Show on Sportsnet. Chidura Sanders is easily the most interesting player at the draft. But he won't be at the draft. Well, he won't be at the draft. There's always 16 guys going, I think.

I'm convinced he's not going because of the potential of being embarrassed. Like who's going to take Shannurah Sanders? And then Coach Prime is sitting next to him and freaking out, not keeping his composure in a cowboy hat. I guess, oh, you know what? I just realized we never asked Mike about the

Seahawks. That might've been a bridge too far because he's doing a lot of other draft coverage. He's like, I don't know what the Seahawks are doing at number 18, but they probably need to fix their offensive. Just say offensive line, it's so easy. It's the one area of glaring need. And as we mentioned yesterday,

you can get a day one, week one, everyday starter in the first round at that point of the NFL draft. Okay. Where else do we want to go here? There's so much stuff that happened last night. There was, by the way, we also didn't mention, uh, the Montreal game at all last night, which we probably should have. We were neglectful in mentioning the Canadian teams in action and the Stanley Cup playoffs last night. We kind of went in a deep dive with the Oilers who lost six to, to the Los Angeles Kings. We did mention the Dallas stars.

And that series has been great by the way in the last two games. Dallas Stars take two-one series lead against the Colorado Avalanche with another overtime winner. It was the Connor McMichael show yesterday. Connor McMichael and Dylan Strom along with some fantastic goaltending from Logan Thompson.

Caps win again, beat the Habs three one-on-ones tonight to take a two- nothing lead in that series. They call Logan Thompson LT. I know. That's a cool nickname. That is a cool nickname. That's cool initials. It's like, what's up LT?

So did you see him at the podium yesterday with Strom? I have audio. Do you have the audio? Let's let it roll. It's such an adorable little moment for LT. This is Logan Thompson and Dylan Strom, Washington Capitals teammates after they took a two nothing series lead

on the Montreal Canadiens. And a couple of those go in and you're fighting it, right? So, you know, luckily things are my way tonight and we got the two points. The playoffs is not too lucky. Oh, sorry, we are. Went. So for those that missed it, he went with the cliche answer.

We got two points tonight and then Dylan Strohm was like, It's the playoffs. Yeah, but there's no two points. He's like, ohrum was like, It's the playoffs. There's no two points. He's like, oh yeah, right, we got the win. I like it when they're on autopilot. I respect it. You know, credit to the Habs. There really hasn't been a ton to separate these two teams.

They're fighting hard. Yeah. They're just the second best team in the series. So far. Sometimes it's that simple. So far. I still am very much looking forward to what the Bell Center's gonna be like

when this series returns to Montreal on Friday. If there's one series that I think could have a massive tilt from starting on the road and then going home, I do think it's Montreal. But then you look at it as like, can they get four or five off Washington? It seems pretty unlikely. My biggest concern with Montreal right now is their best player through two games, and laddie, don't take offense to this, but their best player through two games has been Sam Montembeau by a considerable margin and they've lost both. Right. And he's, I'm not saying he's getting outplayed by Logan Thompson, but Logan Thompson's matched him in terms of very excellent goaltending.

And for that Montreal team, like you need Suzuki, Caulfield, Lane Hudson, those guys to be the drivers and to do more offensively than they've done. And right now it's like, that's great that Montembeau's been your best player, but if you're down two nothing in the series and your goal has been your best player, that's an issue. Why would Laddy have taken issue with that?

Yeah, I'm confused. Because I said that a goalie was their best player and that was a problem. I just didn't want you to take offense to that part of it. Laddy, you are a little sensitive when any goalie talk comes up. Pretty much any time when any goalie talk comes. Pretty much any time I say goalie talk, I'm like, I'm sorry I had an inadvertent flatty.

Walking on eggshells. Because I don't know what I'm going to say that's going to offend the goalie. The goalie. How dare you? It's like having a teenager on the show. I don't know what's going to set you off, right? I don't know.

Get the goalie's name out of your mouth. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Because he's been very good. Yes. But yeah, Logan Thompson, I don't even know if Logan Thompson's necessarily been better. He's name out of your mouth. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Because he's been very good. Yes. But yeah, Logan Thompson, I don't even know if Logan Thompson's necessarily been better. He's just gotten more run support.

But that's been a fun series so far. How do you think Nathan McKinnon was in the dressing room after the Avs lost that one? Nathan McKinnon has been kind of quiet the last couple of games. I don't know what's going on there. I saw, there is a very deep throated vocal Avs Twitter that I stumbled upon to last night.

It's not quite Canucks Twitter in terms of its psychotic behavior, but it's passionate. It's kind of psycho though. They hate Bednar. Really? Yeah, they don't like. Well they don't like that. It could be, I think it's more the line combinations

that there's not any deployment. They hate that Druanne's on the first unit power play. They hate it. And I don't know how much heat, for like, they lost two coin flip, when it goes to overtime in the playoffs, coin flip game, right? I mean.

Lots of a coin flip when you have a very long power play in that overtime. They also started on the road, they got their split. Yesterday, I think it was a disappointment because it's like, you're at home, you return land to Skogg, you've got an incredible amount of energy and you get one goal out of that.

Did you see, oh, by the way, speaking of goaltending, and now I will defer to you, Mackenzie Blackwood, on the winner, he looked, I hate putting it this way, don't get mad at me. He looked small. He looked small. He looked, I hate putting it this way, don't get mad at me. He looks small. He looks small. He looks very small.

And I saw someone texted, I think. I'd like to see him make it look bigger. Could he somehow grow? He's a big dude. It's weird that he looks small. So I think Jay texted in, asking about him going into the butterfly and the way that he goes in,

because the second shot in overtime was by no means a laser or perfectly placed. It was kind of on, like it was on the rush, a half rush, but it wasn't like the most glorious scoring angle to score from. And I know it's one goal and they didn't give Blackwood a ton of offense to work with, but I do wonder about that moving forward.

It was more about his passiveness to me. Yeah, right. He just kind of sat there and waited, the puck was sitting there. Yeah. And he had all the time in the world to make an aggressive move out and he's got the size to take away any sort of angle that could have

been there. Yeah. And he just let the shot happen. Well, he might've also been like, Hey, Durant, are you going to do anything? Why don't we both watch? I'm really picking on Durant. But.

A little bit. I mean, there have been some pretty bad mistakes by some forwards in the last couple of days. Yeah. You know, you had Duran's turnover and then doing nothing defensively on the game winner last night. I mean, you got a credit ranting in I suppose to muscle.

Yeah. I mean, you muscled the puck off of Duran, but you muscle. Yeah, I mean, muscle the puck off of Jaram, but one guy wins and one guy loses, and you yell at the loser. Yeah, that's how we do it on Sport Stock Radio. And then Arvidsson, last night, even though he scored a goal, that was a disaster. Was that the King's fourth goal?

Yeah, that was the fourth or fifth. That was the fourth two, and then the five two was the one Skinner got the hook on. Right, okay. Sorry, but he didn't get the hook after the five two goal, they let him stay in for a bit. Yeah. Anyway.

But the fourth goal. It went linger. The fourth goal was bad because you were thinking, okay, well, the others have got some momentum now, they were down three nothing, but now it's three two because of Arvidsson's goal. And then he is just, there's just chaos in his own end.

I, he just like, he forgot to stick handle. Um, and then Batherson the night before, um, with the, with the bat, you know, like the kind of irresponsible pass, uh, that starts a rush the other way and then a complete fly by a maxed-omia on the winner. So, you know, you, you just hear, you hear it so much in the playoffs, right, you hear it so much

in the playoffs, right? You hear it's fine margin for error out there. So of course the key error, the key error on any winning goal is going to get put under a microscope and there have been some pretty bad mistakes. Here's a question for everyone as we go to break. Which of the three Canadian teams currently down O2 in their series has the best chance of coming back?

Is it the Ottawa Senators against the Toronto Maple Leafs? Is it the Montreal Canadians against the Washington Capitals or is it the Edmonton? Edmonton. Edmonton? Edmonton. Edmonton. Edmonton, yeah.

Edmonton beat in LA three straight times. We've seen a big comeback already in the game. They've lost their first two on the road. They could easily turn the series. See that's funny that you didn't even blink. Because Edmonton's been the worst of the three so far. No, I know. Yeah.

But that's also somewhat encouraging. You know what I mean? Not encouraging. I want the others to lose. Don't get me wrong, but encouraging for them. Like they could easily go into game three, ahead of game three and be like, guys, we were just, we were just awful.

Cause all three of them are coming back home now, right? Yeah. Yeah. And that's, so that's, it's a really interesting dynamic. I think I'd probably choose Edmonton just because of McDavid and Dreisaitl. Yeah. But there's no question. But that's why, but that's why you, anyone chooses Edmonton. But there's no question.

It's not like I love, I love their depth. I know, but of the three, Edmonton has, I think, clearly been the worst of the three. Like, it's not even close. Yes. You know what I mean? And they nearly won game one. They've given up 12 goals in two games.

Yeah, that's a problem. Yeah, yeah. Tighten it up a little bit. Tighten it up. Figure out a way to get choice that you're healthy and get them back in the lineup. Okay, we got a lot more to get to on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Adnan Verck is going to join us at 7.

7.30, Kurt Malosky, head coach and general manager of the Vancouver Warriors, lacrosse playoff action in Vancouver this weekend. We'll talk to Kurt about that at 7.30. Then at 7.40, it's like our playoff package because we're going to go from lacrosse playoffs to American Hockey League playoffs. Brandon Astlele play-by-play voice of the Abbotsford Canucks is gonna join us. The Abbotsford Canucks beat Tucson last night and because of the way that the AHL playoffs work they have a chance to win their first-round series tonight. That's how quick it's gonna be over for the Tucson

Roadrunners. So we'll talk to Kurt Malosky at 730, Brandon Astle at 740. And before we go to break, I need to tell you about Jan Pro. From showrooms to stockrooms and everything in between, Jan Pro keeps workplaces tidy, clean and disinfected. For a free quote, visit them online at JanPro.ca. You're listening to the Halford and Breff Show on Sportsnet 650.