Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Vegas Marner Era Has Begun

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

In hour three, Mike & Jason chat with The Athletic Las Vegas' Jesse Granger (1:17) on the start of the Mitch Marner era and what to expect from the Golden Knights next season, plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

801 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help. With over 3000 five star reviews, visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are now in hour three of the program. Jesse Granger from the Athletic in Vegas is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour three is brought to you by Campbell & Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound.

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Jesse Granger, athletic from Las Vegas, joins us now on the Haliford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Jesse, how are you? Good morning, I'm good, how are you guys? We're good, thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So I was scrolling through your timeline the other day

and I saw a hit that you did just right around the time where the Vegas Golden Knights acquired Mitch Marner. And you said, I think from both sides, it's a perfect match. So please explain to the listeners why it's a perfect match for both the Golden Knights and Mitch Marner. I think, I mean, from Vegas' perspective after last year, the way they lost, um, in the second round against Edmonton, they go 127 minutes without scoring to end their season.

It was pretty clear all year that their weakness was going to be scoring on the wing and they got some scoring on the wing during the regular season from unexpected players. They got some career years out of like a Keaton Kolesar, but those aren't the guys you can count on to score goals in the playoffs. And I just thought that going into this summer, their clear biggest need to add something was offensive firepower on the wing and the winger who scored 102 points last year, I think he's the third highest scoring winger behind like

Nikita Kucherov only since he, since he came in the league. Mitch Marner is as good of an offensive winger as there is in the NHL and he can drive play on a line, which is something that the Golden Knights have great centers. They don't have many wingers that can drive the offense on their line. They have guys that can put the puck in the net if the center drives the offense, but Mitch Marner really changes the outlook for this team. giving them someone on the outside that can drive offense. He's a great playmaker. And then from Marner's side, I mean, he obviously didn't have many teams that he was willing to go to. It did sound like he had a couple. He wanted a contender.

And I think Vegas is a good spot for him. It kind of reminds me of Jack Eichel now. Mitch Marner's obviously had a lot more success in his career than, than Eichel had in Buffalo, but there were so many, there was so much talk about how Jack Eichel couldn't win and he's a talented player, but you can't win with players like that. And he came to Vegas and he was able to just be one of the guys. He didn't have to be the hero. And Mitch Marner was obviously counted on a lot in Toronto.

He's the hometown guy. There's a lot of pressure on that team to win that hasn't done in a long time. I think coming to Vegas takes a lot of that pressure off his shoulders and just allows him to play hockey and maybe we'll see an even better version of him. How much of the enthusiasm with the Marner acquisition was tempered by the news about Alex Petrangelo? It for sure was. I mean, that is a massive, massive hit. And like I even wrote the day it happened,

I don't even know if the Golden Knights got any better with this. Like that's how important Alex Patrangelo is to this team. Mitch Marner is a heck of a player, but Alex Patrangelo has been one of the cornerstones of this team. They've really leaned on their defense. Like for this, whatever eight year stretch where this team. They've really leaned on their defense. Like for this whatever eight

year stretch where this team's been a contender, the defense has always been the strongest part of this team. It's been the anchor and Alex Patrangelo is the biggest part of that. And yes, he was getting up there in age. He didn't look great this year. It makes more sense now that we hear with all the stuff he was dealing with. He didn't look himself all year. And this team is going to have a hard, a really hard time replacing him as any team would. Alex Petrangelo played all the toughest minutes. They have two really good defensemen

in Shay Theodore and Noah Hannifin, but neither has really taken that workhorse role before where they're getting all the defensive zone starts, they're getting all the toughest minutes. It's gonna be a big step up for whichever one of those two ends up filling that role. Maybe Bruce Cassidy will kinda rotate them and they'll share it, but yeah,

it's gonna be tough to replace what Petrangelo's done for this team. What about going out and acquiring a guy? I know Rasmus Anderson of the Calgary has been tied to the team forever, but there are cap implications here, right? I mean, Vegas has a lot of guys making a lot of money, so that's gonna be difficult.

Is it a solution that's gonna come from outside the organization or from within? Yeah, I mean you're right about the Anderson situation. We've we've heard we've seen a lot of smoke around that I wouldn't be surprised this team is aggressive when they're when they have a need they will figure out a way to make the money work It would probably require trading someone I'm you look at like some of the bigger contracts, like who could you possibly trade? A lot of them have full no movement clauses. Ivan Barbachev is a guy who makes $5 million a year.

He's a great player. He was a huge part of that cup run, but he also doesn't, like I mentioned earlier, he's not a driver of offense. He kind of goes to the front of the net and Jack Eichel feeds him. I could see them if they had to maybe cut some cap space, I could see them looking to trade him.

I don't think that would be a hard thing to do. I think there would be teams that were willing to trade for having barberships. So there, there are ways for them to create cap space to add a defenseman. If they don't, they're going to have to require guys to play much bigger roles than they've ever played. And like I mentioned, Hannah Finn and Theodore, but those two have never played together like never,

not one time if they ever played together on a pair. So they're probably not going to be the top pair, which means one of them is going to be the top pair. And then the other guy on the top pair is either going to be Brad McNabb, who is coming off a heck of a season, maybe the best season of his career, but he's also about to turn 35 and has never played top pair minutes. So that seems like a lot to ask. And the other is Zach Whitecloud, who also had never played on the top pair.

So not only did they lose to Patrangelo, they trade Nick Haig, who was a pending RFA, who they couldn't afford to really sign to that big deal that he got with Nashville. Haig had experience playing on the top pair too. So this team's going to be asking a lot more from somebody on this roster if they don't make a move on the blue line. I know there are a lot of trade rumors around Thomas Hurdle and William Carlson and I know that the GM Kelly McCrimmon addressed those. What did he have to say about them? He was not happy about them. Someone asked him about the reports that Mitch Marner was looking for a four year contract and not the eight year contract and he said that that had absolutely zero truth to it

along with the rumors that Hurdle and Carlson were going to be traded and he was pretty upset that he had to call them and tell them that they weren't going to be traded. I will say I understand why Kelly's mad because if those weren't true, I do think that because the Golden Knights are so aggressive and they're in on everyone and they're and they're they make so many trades, I understand why their name gets thrown into everything and Kelly's probably like, hey, this time we're not in it. Why are why is my name getting thrown into this? But also, if you're the general manager who's like built this reputation of I'm willing to trade my players in order to make my team better

You don't really have much room to be upset when people are expecting you to trade your players Yeah, it's kind of built the reputation of doing that. So I well I never well you do it all the time right Where is where's Mark stones game? I'm just such a huge fan of mark stone But you know I also know that he's he dealt with a lot of injuries and you know you talk about wingers driving play This guy when he's on his game is so good, but is he ever gonna get back to to to peak mark stone I Don't know if we'll ever see peak mark stone I thought he was very good last year and the numbers suggest,

I mean he was almost a point per day last year. Um, and he played a lot more than he had in a long time. Like he, he hadn't played more than about half a season in a couple of years. And last year he went out there and he played most of the season. He did have like one minor injury, but he was mostly healthy. Um, he's, the thing about Mark stones game and it's weird because usually like, I feel like the big slower plotting players age not as gracefully as somebody who's maybe lighter a foot,

but because stone has been one of the slower players on the ice for his entire career, that's just how he is. I think he's actually good at playing that way. I mean, his mind, his hockey IQ is unreal. He gets to the right spots before he needs to be there, even not being the best skater. I think he's built to have some longevity, even after maybe the physical attributes go a little bit

as he gets older. I still think he's a very good player for this team. He's excellent on the power plate. When things slow down and you can get set up and he can really use his vision and he's, he's got great hands inside. He's, he's one of the better players on this power play. Like I know Tomas Hurtle and Paul Borgorf, he have scored all the goals on the power play,

but it was stone drawing the attention and feeding those two on basically every goal they scored. So, um, yeah, I mean, he's still a huge part of this team. He may not be selfie. Like I thought he was robbed of a selfie trophy or two there, he's still a huge part of this team. He may not be selkie. Like I thought he was robbed of a selkie trophy or two there because he's a winger and he has to take face off. So I thought he should have had at least one selkie, maybe two. I don't know if we'll see him at that level, playing that level of minutes and being that big of an impact, but he's still one of the best players on this team and a really important

part of it. I know we kind of touched on this by the fact that Vegas added a guy like Mitch Marner to the team, but were they, was the organization rattled by how badly it went against the Oilers? Um, I, that's a great question. When you talk to like Bruce Cassidy and the players, they feel like they're close. Even, even though it looked ugly and the way it ended wasn't good. They feel like Edmonton is right there with Florida and they feel like they're not far behind Edmonton. So I wouldn't say rattled.

This team never sits on his hands. As we've mentioned a couple of times, like they, when they feel like there's somewhere to gain an advantage or to, or to upgrade their team, they're going to aggressively pursue it. So in that sense, they, they, I mean, they shook things up. They, this team's going to look a lot different. I can't remember an off season where the team looked more different actually the fact made mostly losing Alex Patrangelo, but I think this is going to be a very different looking team that tries to win by outscoring you a little bit more than they have in the past.

So I do expect us to look like a very different team, but I wouldn't say rattled. I think that they believe that they're close. Yeah, I just remember watching that series and going like, I am surprised that Vegas is having so much trouble scoring. And the Oilers, to their credit, when they locked it down, they were actually pretty effective and they got the goaltending. But I was surprised, because I'm just so used to Vegas being powerful

and being able to come at you in waves. And they just looked, they looked a little slow. They did look slow. And Edmonton looked a lot faster than them and and they did they haven't gotten faster that's one thing like Mitch Marner's a he's a good skater but I wouldn't call him up a speedy player he's more of a he's more of a slow the play down kind of like Eichel in terms of he's he's he's good on possession he can hold the puck he can

slow things down and create plays this team didn't get faster. Honestly, maybe they, they lean into that because this has been a fast team for the last few years up until last year. Maybe they're kind of leaning into the heavy possession team instead of trying to be something they're not. Jesse, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this this morning. We really appreciate it. Enjoy some time off this summer.

We'll touch base later on in the fall. Awesome. Thanks for having me guys. Yeah. Thanks for coming on, to do this this morning. We really appreciate it. Enjoy some time off this summer. We'll touch base later on in the fall. Awesome. Thanks for having me guys. Yeah. Thanks for coming on Jesse. We appreciate it. That's Jesse Granger from the athletic in Vegas here on the Haliford and Brough show on sports net

650. Um, okay. Can we do some, what we learned here? I've got, I've got one for you. Oh, okay. There was a Ryan Gould sighting at White Caps practice yesterday. He was out, he was out there running around with the lads.

That's what they call it in football. They call it, he was out there with the lads. Four months, four months. I'm not sure he's wearing cleats yet though. He's not. He did some light juggling. So actually they had some video content from training out at UBC yesterday because. Was he juggling chainsaws?

Nope, just balls. Soccer balls. Okay. Yeah. Sebastian Baraholter and Brian White returned to the team after being with the US of the gold cup. So there was a bunch of, hey, welcome back guys. And then I was like. You guys lost.

I'm lucky, yeah. We laughed at them repeatedly. And then in the background of the video, I was like, hold on. That isn't who I think it is. And then I saw him. It was Ryan Gould on the pitch, which is a big deal because since injuring his knee four

months ago, Gould has not set foot on the training pitch with his teammates. It's been a long and slow and shrouded in secrecy type situation because when asked consistently and constantly for updates the gaffer Jesper Sorensen has repeatedly said I don't have an update on Ryan Gould. Now the one thing he has been consistent in his messaging is that they were exercising as much caution as humanly possible with

Gould's knee injury. Part of it I think had to do with the fact that he didn't undergo surgery, so this was all rehab and this was a lot of resting and making sure that you were healed before you returned. The other thing is, despite a sort of wobbly run of play recently, they haven't really necessarily needed him to be back.

There's still been a top two team in the West and they've gotten results without Ryan Gald, so logic would suggest,, you're not desperate for the points right now, why rush him back? Let's make sure that he's good and healthy return. So when he returns, he'll be good to go and kind of get back to the Ryan Gould. We all know now the problem here is that four months you're basically starting from zero. Like you've been that much time away. You basically have to go through another preseason. You have to get your fitness back up.

So there's more than just the knee injury that he's contending with. I have no idea when he'll be back and ready for the whitecaps. Can we talk about the possibility that there could be a Vancouver versus Vancouver? Well, yeah. I got people yelling at us this morning.

I can't remember who it was. A couple of people. Might be JDog. A couple of you. JDog the Car Hog, no, he does not care about the Vancouver Derby in the slightest. I know what you're talking about. There was a... Okay. So last night in the Canadian Championship

and the Vancouver Whitecaps are gonna play tonight in the second leg against Valor, seven o'clock at BC Place. That's tied two to one aggregate, but the Whitecaps are heavily favored because they're back at home. Last night, Vancouver FC beat Calgary in penalties to move on to the semifinals, where if the Vancouver white caps do the business tonight, we will finally get a Vancouver versus Vancouver Derby in the Canadian championship where Vancouver FC would take on the Vancouver white caps,

which would be very cool. Right? This is a competition that the whiteps have dominated for the last few years. It's the reason that they qualified for the CONCACAF Champions Cup, that they went to the finals against Cruz Azul and then got thumped this year. So it's a big competition. It means a lot. And I will say this, the competition is growing in competitiveness and this is what all of these CPL teams are just dying for. It's the opportunity to take on an MLS team, especially the Whitecaps now, because the Whitecaps are one of the class teams of MLS. So you've got a true David versus Goliath thing.

And with the local Derby, you really do have the big brother, little brother dynamic as well. Is Vancouver the Whitecaps I'm talking about? Yes. Are they the favorites to win this thing? Cause TFC is already out. TFC is out. Yep. How did they meet Montreal in the first round?

Because they've done so poorly in previous iterations of it. Like by way of winning it, the Whitecaps got a bye. You have three MLS teams and two of them met in the first round. Some of it, some of that is luck of the draw for sure. Right. But I mean, this is, it's Montreal and Vancouver.

I mean, again, this is a competition where the MLS teams are designed to win it because with all due respect to the CPL teams, it's just hard to, it's hard to compete financially. Yeah, yeah. It's hard. They're just better. They're just better.

Yeah. It does set it up though just better. They're just better. Yeah. It does set it up though, because the Whitecaps have lost quite famously in the Canadian championship before. It does set it up for these great, and what you want to get to eventually is the FA Cup style where like an eighth division team is hosting a premier league team.

I don't think we're going to have eight divisions in Canada. No, maybe one day. There are three levels to it right now, right? You've got you've got you've got a you're playing like moose jaw town Right. Well that was moose jaw town in this in this scenario would have where we had TSS rovers Owner and manager will go back on the show. They would be the third division of this thing But they would be third division. So their BC One. Second division is CPL, which is Pacific, Vancouver FC. And then of course, MLS is the top one. That's where you really get the fun in cup competitions,

is because you're talking about guys that are semi-professional or amateur players, and you hear the stories every year when the FA Cup comes around, that a guy that's a part-time lorry driver is now trying to stop shots against spurs and FA Cup. And it's a fun story. And it makes for the great David versus Goliath stuff. And hopefully one day we'll get there. But we will get it again tonight. If the Vancouver Whitecaps can do the business,

they will take on Vancouver FC and what should be a very cool matchup, something that I know Vancouver FC is very much looking forward to. So they have to win tonight? You know what? I should know this off the top of my head. Do they go to penalty kicks or is it away goals? I don't know. You should know this stuff, man. I'm sorry, I don't know.

Come on. Well, because sometimes they hold on to away goals and then sometimes they get rid of it. So if the away goals rule is in effect, Vancouver would obviously be in the driver's seat because they scored two away at Valor. I gotta double check it. I'll double check it at the break.

I feel like it goes to penalties. I wanna say so too. I wanna say they got rid of the away goals. But I don't know. Who knows? Yeah, because it's, especially in CONCACAF, sometimes they keep them around, sometimes they don't. Canadian Championship, they're like, let's try it.

Why not? Then sometimes they don't. I'll check it at the break. Don't yell at me. If you know offhand, text in Dumb Bar Lumber, text message in basket, 650 650.50, give us a moocow. Moocow. You know what we learned?

Did someone answer it? What? Did someone answer the question yet? I thought that's what you were going to. Okay, I do have a what we learned. We mentioned the Vancouver Canucks news yesterday with Tolla, Peele, and Wu getting re-signed. There was other news as well.

The Vancouver Canucks are headed back to Penticton. On Tuesday, the club announced it for a second consecutive season. They will host training camp in Penticton at the South Okanagan Events Center. This is gonna be between September 18th and 21st. I went up last year, it was a good time. The SOEC is always a lot of fun.

Now you'll remember that Penticton previously was the home of the Young Stars Classic. If you forgot, the Young Stars doesn't exist anymore. That fun little prospect tournament with the Canucks and the Oilers and the Flames and the Jets. President of Hockey

Ops, Jim Rutherford said last year they were unable to get the commitment from those organizations to keep doing Young Stars. So that's gone. Penticton still gets Canucks caliber hockey in the form of training camp, but the Young Stars has gone in place of the Young Stars. I'll remind you that the Canucks are going to do that two game prospect showcase with the Seattle Kraken. Right now this year it's going to be held

in Seattle in In 2026, it's going to take place here, not in Vancouver, but in Abbotsford. So there is still going to be some version of a Prospex, not necessarily a tournament, but a two-game competition. And it'll be with the, you know, it's trying to build that rivalry with Seattle. And what better way to do it than starting with the prospects,

having that two game set every year where you alternate locations going back and forth between Seattle and Abbotsford. So a lot of administrative news for the Vancouver Canucks. But the big news yesterday is that they are headed back to Penticton for training camp. I went down at training camp wormhole yesterday because in the press release,

Yes. they said that training camp has been held in numerous communities across British Columbia Including Abbotsford Courtney Duncan Kamloops Parkville Powell River Prince George Vernon Victoria and Whistler and you know how I said Powell River I was like when did they go to Powell River dude? That's the first thing thing I thought when you said it. I'm like, I do not recall training camp Powell River. You may not have been alive because it was in 1979. I really went down a wormhole. So which Canuck who you might remember was from Powell River?

Oh man, I know this too. You unfortunately passed away a few years ago. Brad Bombardier is from Powell River. I know that because he brought the Stanley Cup there, I think, and he used to play with the Minnesota Wild, and I remember that, but I don't remember the Canucks. Gary Lupel. Gary Lupel. So Gary Lupel.

Yes. Was at that training camp. It just so happened that, so okay, so this is a real wormhole. Was this like an open tryout? So he wasn't drafted by the Canucks. In fact, he wasn't drafted at all, despite the fact that he was a very good player for the Victoria Cougars. Okay. They changed the draft age from 19 to 18,

the year he was drafted in 1979. So all the teams were like, forget about the 19- olds, we're going for the 18 year olds, right? Right, right, right. Which sounds dirty, but it's not as dirty as it sounds. Yeah, we're not going to clip that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No one was trying to eat a list. He's cooking, let him cook.

So, so Lupel didn't get drafted. He was a free agent. And then, so he was pretty disappointed. He was like, well, I didn't get drafted. I was a pretty good player. And then he got all these calls from these teams because he could then sign as a free agent. He chose the Canucks. And then all of a sudden they're like, yeah,

training camps in Powell river this year. He's like, I can do that. Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty cool. Right. And apparently Powell river really showed up because they had a new sports complex there,

which is still there. And, um, you know, like it was packed for every practice and Lupo was there. That was when training camp was just fights. I think he had his first shift or whatever in the scrimmage. He was like, we're fighting. He's like Powell Rivers, Vince Papale. Yeah. That's a pretty cool story. That's pretty awesome. I would have had no idea. And by the way, I did some aggressive googling I was gonna say dear god. You must have broke the machine Born in 79. So yeah, I would have been like a month old

I didn't get a chance to make it up to Powell River at least my I don't think my parents got me up there In time, but that's very cool. I love our listeners and actually sometimes it's intimidating because I know that I'm talking to people that are older than me and have more, like there's no more than I do, which is not hard. Nope. Stu texts in and says, Luple beat the, you know what, out of Jerry Minor and fought his way onto

the team. I was eight and there. Can you imagine how crazy it was back in, back in the old days when training camp was like, how bad do you want to make this team? Why? All right. Well, drop the gloves. I love the old stories of training camp because training camp used to mean exactly

that you would train to get into shape. You would show up 20, 30 pounds overweight. Yeah. And you'd fight it off. You'd been, yeah. You'd fight off the extra weight. And you'd smoke more, because it was like, that's a good way to lose weight.

You kids out there, no, but that was it. Now you see the prospects camp, and it's like, there's barely any hitting. No, I know. And they're like, the toughest thing we do is the grouse grind. Which is tough. Yeah, yeah.

But a different kind of tough. Back in the day, it would be tough smoking the whole way, too, right? You'd get to the top of the grouse grid and then you'd have to fight while smoking. Every time you hit a switchback you gotta light a dart. Well, it's part of the challenge. I remember they had, there was an old

newspaper clipping that was going around and I think it was about the Toronto Maple Leafs when they got, it was like a 1960s training camp. Yeah. And they had a list of the physical fitness things that you needed to accomplish by the end of camp. So it was all predicated on the understanding that like, you had to do, I think, a hundred pushups

and a hundred sit-ups. And they were like, and no one's gonna be able to do this at the start of camp. However, by the end of camp, you guys should be able to do this. And that's how different it was back in the day. Like, it would also be, you would play your way onto the team in camp. You'd fight your able to do this. And that's how different it was back in the day. It would also be, you would play your way

onto the team in camp. You'd fight your way onto the team in camp. It was an open competition. It's so different now. And we talk about the ratification of the CBA. One of the things is the pre-season's gonna be truncated more and more as we move along because let's be real. Everyone knows who's going to be on the team and who's not ahead of camp.

Every now and again. Pretty much. Like there's a couple of spots here and there that are. Every now and again, a guy really shows out at camp and you give them the start to the season, but like that was Ahtu Ratu this year. Remember he really showed out well in training camp and a bit of the exhibition season and he got to start and then he was promptly sent down to the American League because at the end of the day you're not going to distinguish yourself that much at training camp but the loophole thing in Power River was hilarious that's funny okay moocow that we're gonna go to break

we're gonna come back we're gonna do humanoid what we learns get yours in Dunbar lumber text message in basket 650 650 hashtag it WWL and tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. It's your chance to be on the radio. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. ["What We Learned Time"] Now for my favorite part of the show.

What'd I say? Talk to the audience. Oh, God, this is always dead. What'd I say? Talk to the audience! Oh, God, this is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. On the show.

8.33 on a show. trustee.com. We are in hour three of the program. It is what we learn in time. Hour three is brought to you by Campbell and Pound, real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-pound.com today. Okay. I got one more what we learned. Then we'll move on to the humanoids. Everyone's good. A dog, Ben, you guys don't have anything today, do you?

Couple shakes of the head back there from the dogs.'re an honorary dog now by the way I accept it Ben dog Ben dog It's an honor Ben dog and dog and dog be dog be dog be dog and be dog. That's good Okay, my what we learned I learned that three time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic is not going to sign a contract extension with the Denver Nuggets this summer. Consternation in Denver? Not really though, is it?

Well, he's got like three years left on his deal. It depends on what you believe, Jason. So at first people are like, this is no big deal. He's still got two years, at least two years left on his current deal, which would take him all the way through to 2028. What's more, everyone's pointing out that if he waits till next summer and signs an extension,

he can sign a four year deal and stay even longer in Denver. So everyone's like, don't worry about it, don't worry about it. However, however, there are a couple things to consider here. One, he's 30 years old. I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but it doesn't seem like he's really in love with basketball. He's in love with horses,

which would be near and dear to your heart. But he loves his horses. He loves going back to Serbia every summer. You know what? He rates me. Yeah. Every summer from Serbia. It's like, dear Jason. So here's the other thing. The Nuggets are coming off a pretty tumultuous season. You'll remember, we covered this pretty closely because of our affinity for Jamal Murray as well. They fired their coach, Mike Malone and their general manager, Calvin Booth, with three games left in the regular season,

which drew a lot of raised eyebrows across the league. Nuggets had an okay. They w they won the final three games and then they got in the playoffs. They won the first round. Then they lost to the Thunder, you know. And they were lost in seven games and Jokic was great and everything. But it's a very tumultuous time for the organization. They still have an interim head coach.

The front office is trying to work through what they wanna do. And they kind of broke up the big four a little bit because they traded Michael Porter Jr. To Brooklyn. And look, the front office has said, we're going to be very aggressive in bringing in players right away so that we can be competitive again. The issue now though, is that in light of what the thunder did this year, you got to ask like that roadblock that is the Oklahoma city thunder, because they're so good and they're so young, they're gonna be there for a while.

So the Nuggets are gonna have to be very good in a hurry to try and overtake the team that is now the top dog in the NBA. But there is incentive for Jokic not signing this extension right now to make more money if he waits. And a longer deal if he signs next summer, yeah. But everyone just got a little nervous in Denver because the first opportunity he had to sign,

he turned it down and they were like, uh-oh. Because you gotta remember, this year was very trying for them and you know what the other issue there is, and I hate saying it because I love them as a Canadian, is Jamal Murray. But look how many teams in the last little while, they talked, when the Celtics won, people were like, oh they could be a dynasty. When the Nuggets people were like, oh, they could be a dynasty.

When the Nuggets won before them, oh, they could be a dynasty. And everyone's talking about Oklahoma City now, oh, they could be a dynasty. And yeah, they could, but it's just like one Achilles tendon away from everything changing. And that's like with Murray, like you wonder about his health moving forward.

Like he had a great run when they won the NBA title, but things change in a hurry in the NBA, which was the other part of this is it's like, sometimes you do want to lock a guy up at the first moment because you look at what happened in Boston, you look at what happened in Indy, and you look at what happened in Milwaukee with one injury. Yep.

It changes everything. It changes everything. Yeah, so anyway, moocow all that. Did you see that SGA is gonna be the cover boy? happened in Milwaukee with one injury. Yep. It changes everything. It changes everything. Yeah. Anyway, moocow all that. Did you see that SGA is gonna be the... It's a cover boy. Some video game, he's gonna be on the cover of it. Adog, I don't know if you heard this

and saw this in your video game news. Is it 2K? Yeah, NBA 2K. 2K6. I'm not super up with sports video games, I hate to say it. No kidding. So I didn't hear it.

Didn't hear it. What are what? What are your games? Not to case X that would be NBA 2000 Games just in general what's your favorite? What's your favorite of all-time video game right now that you're playing right all the Warcraft? Okay, any Zelda game Mario like the classics man. I play the club. You don't play any of the sports video game No, no, actually, that's not true for like pretty much my Sports hacky sack. Yeah, hacky sack, two games. EA sports hacky sack, can you imagine? I actually, I pretty much owned every year I'd buy the new NHL, EA NHL hockey game, every year.

Until about NHL 20 was the last one I bought. And after that, I don't know, they just sort of kept seeing like the same game over and over again. I didn't wanna spend the money, cause I'm cheap, so I just stopped buying them. Yeah, definitely, I grew up on the hockey games for sure They couldn't put anyone but SGA on the cover, right? Someone had a really funny tweet where they had the the image of what it's gonna look like and it was the cover of

The new NBA 2k and it was SGA shooting a free throw Flopping yeah, which is pretty funny. I got to admit. Anyway, OK, mook out that too, because we're mooking out stuff. Do you think the basketball players care about being on the covers of the video games? Well, there's a 2K curse, too. I don't know if you've ever heard about this. Well, it's similar to the Madden curse. Right. It's like you either get hurt or you're hurt.

Because the hockey players never seem to care. But the NFL players seem to. Like, I was here in the NFL once. Like, yeah, they really care. The Madden would be the highlight of Trevor's the Chris's career yeah well they care about their rating did you remember that one year ever did right here this video game they care about what their ratings are though they do care about yeah and they know especially especially NFL yeah I know

it's the NFL with your rating NHL seems to be the least or NHL I noticed the least NFL the most what about NBA though are they like I feel like they know but it's nothing compared to the NFL if the receivers in the NFL know what their speed yeah They're like a really passionately 93 really Madden is a different beast altogether I mean it's obviously the biggest of all the games that makes sense, but and the most people play it okay Do we fire up the dot matrix? No, let's do that That's crazy though that NFL wide receivers would have big egos about that. They're usually pretty humble, quiet guys.

Yeah, I'm not a diva in the group. What We Learned, Humanoid Edition is brought to you by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Our favorite, AJ's Sauce Pie, an upside down version of the bar pie with fresh mozzarella and basil, only at AJ's Pizza. Order online at AJ's.pizza. Okay. I know this one is, we've all been following this situation very closely, especially a dog, uh, Matt and Suri with

what we learned. What I learned is that, uh, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was sacked today. Huge news for those who follow the sport. I heard him on that. Wonder where or if he'll resurface. This is a big deal, I guess. I think he's married to a spice girl.

Christian Horner. Um, yeah, Jerry Hollywell. Yeah. Why do I know that? is a big deal, I guess. I think he's married to a Spice Girl. Christian Horner. Yeah, Jerry Holliwell. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why do I know that? I don't know any. Did you just Google it? No, no, I knew that, well, because I started watching Drive to Survive.

Okay. It didn't take. No, yeah, yeah, me neither. Here's the thing, I understand the allure of it because it was kind of engaging. I didn't drop out of it because it wasn't entertaining and interesting. It is for sure.

Um, I also, I do like the opulent background in which F1 like it's so much money. Totally. And I liked that they're on James Bond. Yeah, I liked it. They're unapologetic about it. It's like everyone is aspiring to be either James Bond or James Bond villain.

And I'm like, yeah, sure. Like you may as well lean into it, right? You're going to all these like really grand exotic locales and the cars are expensive and the brands are expensive. Like why not lean into it? I understand that it maybe kind of eliminates the common man approach to F1, but it is a soap opera in that regard, right?

When you have people- Well, it sounds like the Red Bull team by itself is a soap opera. Yeah, I think part of it is when you have that much money and wealth and power, it lends itself to characters that make for great drama. Totally. Right, so I get it.

I just, I never really got into it, but. Was he in the new F1 movie? Does that have anything to do with it? I don't think that has anything to do with it. No, but. Big movie right now. The reviews for that are, and I know. It's, and I know it's getting, one of the tag lines was the greatest movie ever made. What? Yeah. I'm serious. I want to see it. I mean

Ford versus Ferrari I think is still the highest rated racing movie. That's a very good movie. It was. I watched it a couple times. That's a very good movie. F1 looks really good. It looks excellent. One of the Herbys too was quite well reviewed by young Jason. You know what one of you- It's funny because it's like a- Herbie and the love bug? Yeah, yeah. There you go.

He communicates. Yeah. Herbie goes to jail. Hey, you know what? The driver is- That's Herbie's man. Oh wait, that is Ernest. That's actually why Christine, the car, was able to have so much success because everyone

thought, oh, it's just gonna be another herbie Yeah, you know spoiler. It wasn't a spoiler. Don't ruin the movie, but it was it honestly wasn't that Was a bad egg You know we should do have a jerk we want one show this summer when we're really dying for content We can do the Mount Rushmore of car movies movies I haven't been that many of them either. No you can go into the vicinity of I guess driving movies like we can include the fast and furious. Oh, no baby. Yeah, baby driver Are you gonna you are chases like bullet sure I'm willing to allow it mm-hmm We can we can we can spend an entire show talking about that. There's baby driver. That's all best car chases

I mean the born movies movies gotta be up there Yet all right, it's not a but that's not a car say it has to be car centric no And you had the European like police like sirens going in the background the Bourne movies Oh, yeah, those are the best car chases, but that was like 30 minutes long It was like like a quarter of the movie again as we tend to get off topic here. We're it again. It's gonna have to be car centric. Okay, like Disney Cars movies wasn't one of them in a mini Yeah, yeah. Yeah, can we talk about by the way? I also like the car chase in Ronan. Okay. Oh, yes And we've lost the lost the plot yet again several people I'm not gonna read one of them, but several people have talked about and texted in what we learned about the golf course fight video

featuring former NHL enforcer Nick Tardaski. There's many takeaways here. One is that if you're gonna pick a fight on a golf course, how unfortunate... I didn't feel bad for the drunk guy, but at a certain point when you're getting fed shots by a guy You're like did this guy used to fight for a living? He seems quite good The speed really gets his feet set the speed and power which he's punching me feels like he's done this before maybe to another Human on skates. I have a question for the golfers of the group. Mm-hmm

Is this merely a blip in the radar where we're just getting because we had this like a third or fourth Canadian courses, too It's not like those were clearly that was my follow-up I was like Alberta actually like what are you doing by a bud? Let's take it to the casino parking lot, bud Okay No, like I want to know if there is a lot of golf course violence that wasn't being captured on video before if we're just in This golden era where it just is golden era of course violence. Yeah, we're like encouraged now or something. Yeah, it's not encouraged. No, so I Okay, so Ben. Yes, I'm assuming that you've probably had at least one Altercation. Oh, yeah, but headed behind you that for slow play which seems to be the genesis of all these fights

It's not just slow play. Well Ben plays at at cap though So it's like a caviar fight You're just caught in front of a challenge you do a duel and then you slap them with your white golf club anyway And then they make up and they each give each other insider stock trading tips so Have you ever been into a bra one that one hit with bad that was he's gonna have to explain that to his playing buddies Yeah, that's right. He's like guys. They know what the insider trading Anyway Altercations on the course has never been in a golf, bro. I have been in wait really altercations on a golf course verbal

That I've never physical. Yeah, they've some have turned physical. Okay, really? Yes That have never physical. Yeah, they've some have turned physical. Okay, really? Yes Jason not at Capilano. Okay, Jason Have you ever been in not involved but if you were witness one or maybe your buddies or maybe a group in front of you? behind you Not that it escalated too much the I've yelled at a few guys to get going. Okay, but that's that's that's that's it Because the police had to show up one time what? Okay, you need to expand on it was Allowed to do so it was because of slow play it was because of either hitting into people blind shots

Accidents sure but then Tempers flare because of the slow play And then something happens that just ignites everything. Yeah. And then there's sometimes alcohol involved with other people. Oh, no way. They're taking it to an extent and you feel an obligation to defend yourself and your group and whatever,

and things happen. That is definitely. And a golf club just happens to be in your hand. And you got 14 pretty big metal rods. Yeah, fair. Right beside you. I am very curious about this because I feel like this might just be, again, like the golden era of golf course fights. And I also feel like.

I think the courses are just jammed right now too. So slow play is even more annoying. There's a lot of different factors. I don't think I've had a sub four hour round at a public course. Yeah. Ever. Ever. So here's the thing, yeah, right. I think what we're talking about,

like a lot of these, I don't mean to besmirch any of these courses, but probably Munis, right? And it's like, maybe you're getting a guy or a group of people that aren't especially good golfers, don't really know the rules of the etiquette. And then let's be honest here, these all seem like they've got at least one or two drinks

in them, maybe more. That guy was beyond gassed. Right. Like he had drank the entire cart. Like there was no- Do you think he woke up the next morning, he's like, let's check my phone. Yeah.

Oh God. Oh man, like he's getting like, I mean, he will be a meme. Yeah. I almost feel bad for him, almost. But he kind of deserved that. He had enough opportunities to walk away, or in his case, stumble away.

Stumble away. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he chose not to. Do you know how many people texted that to me yesterday? Like it was in every one of my friends group chat. I'm like, by the time it came around the sixth time, I'm like, where have you been? Like, this is everywhere.

That. What was the earlier one? Was that Two Eagles in Vernon? That was the other one that went viral, right? Earlier in the summer? Uh, yes. I don't know. I don't know.

I think it was in New York and Oregon somewhere. I think it was at Two Eagles. Okay. Yeah. Anyway, that's the one I, or West Colona maybe. Anyway. I think it was Colona. Yeah.

Um, that's the one that got sent to me about 20 times, every group chat that I had, had that video for some reason, the golf course fight video is hot content. It is. We're in the golden era. That and Alberta accents, they combine them. Oh yeah, bud.

Have you seen the guy that subs in the Alberta accent? Yeah. It is amazing. Okay. Jamie, the Armstrong Fisher fisherman, what we learned. Uh, what I learned, she's starring at Wimbledon. Her dad is worth $4.8 billion.

Emma Navarro, the women's tennis star is looking to advance to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. Um, her dad is American billionaire Ben Navarro. According to Forbes, his net worth is checking in at about 4.8 billion. That's 1,043 times as much money as his daughter has earned on the tennis court. I think she will be okay after her tennis career is over. We're seeing this more and more.

These children of very wealthy people, I mean, we were talking about Terry Bukula and he bankrolled Penn State hockey where McKenna is going and also owns the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Sabres. His daughter is a professional tennis player because you need so much money, like you don't 100% need it, but it really helps in order to get the private lessons and that sort of thing.

Did you see any of the highlights of the brick tournament? Yeah. Oh yeah. So the Vancouver team that, that lost, I think in overtime and the Vancouver team did very well. BC Canucks. The BC Canucks.

Yeah, they had the old. Maybe the BC. Yeah. They had the old skate throwbacks. Yeah. Those kids are unbelievable. It's crazy. At that age, and you have to think they've either had

private lessons, which a lot of them do, or just enough money to get access to that much ice. That's the thing, and I think it applies to sports like tennis, golf, and now hockey is the access to that much ice. That's the thing. And I think it applies to sports like tennis, golf, and now hockey is the access to. Facilities. The facilities, the equipment. Yes.

Ice is so hard to come by in Vancouver, just ask the Canucks. Like unless, you know, it's why the winter clubs have such an advantage where they've got open hockey and you can just go out and play and the kids get dropped off and they're like, okay, well, we'll see you in a few hours. You just play hockey for a bit. Gavin McKenna in that, I think he mentioned it on the interview with ESPN, his dad built

him an outdoor rink. So he spent hours and hours out there. Well, we can't really do that in Vancouver. It is unfortunate, but it was bound to happen. Because I think a lot of these parents too, who are wealthy, they're type A personalities, they're a lot about achievement, they're a lot about success, and they kind of put that on their kids too. The brick tournament cracks me up, man. I know it's cool that the kids are so good and it's hilarious.

It's hilarious the whole thing, that in the middle of July, there's like thousands of people watching 10-year-olds play hockey at a mall in Edmonton. Some of my best friends played in it. They said it was a time of their life. You can live stream it. They do walk-off interviews with the kids after. But that's awesome. I mean, that's so fun. That's cool for the kids. They said it was a time of their life. You can live stream it. They do walk off interviews with the kids after.

But that's awesome. That's so fun. I mean, that's cool for the kids. No, it's great. Don't be all cynical about everything. I'm not being cynical, but it's hilarious that it exists as an entity, because they're 10, right? Yeah.

It's a lot for a 10-year-old, I would imagine. But they're also having a great time and everything. Don't get me wrong there. It's just I'm watching it and I'm like, everything about it is so polished. Yep. And clean and there's nothing about it resembles youth sports at all.

Yeah. And not in a bad- Well, you can watch it at that level too. You can be like, where was the gap control on that? No, I know, right? That's the part where I'm like- He's 10, so. I mean, like, you know, they were posting clips

on Twitter and stuff. And of course, that's the best place to put any content because the comment section is always clean and very normal. And, you know, it's like, where, yeah, I don't want to be that guy, but number 18 needs to do a better job there. Like those comments were pretty prevalent,

right? Like he's 10, he's 10. Yeah. All right. And so that team, I think the BC team was like an actual like provincial rep team. Right. I think Brule was coaching it. Was he? Okay. Yeah. There was players from all. I think Brule was coaching it.

Was he? Okay. Yeah. I was reading about it. I think Zach Hamill coached it the year before. Okay. So there was players from everywhere. Yeah.

Right. And so, I mean, I will say, aesthetically, it looked awesome having the old Canucks black skate logo playing against the Toronto team, who also had some pretty sick kit and gear as well. It was pretty great, right? Justin, with what we learned, Halfords' favorite summer league, Dub Beauty League,

kicks off another season tonight. The brick is better than Dub Beauty League. It's more intense. I would watch the Dub Brick ahead of Dub Beauty. They call it Dub Brick League. Seven days a week, I would watch Dubrick over Dubb-Ute. I don't like that Dubb-Ute League exists. Hopefully, we'll never have to talk about it again.

Do you remember we were getting reports from it? Oh, yeah. And like stats? Yeah, I was very. I remember at the gold station, I used to have it in my news pack, my highlights. Yeah. And I would do the news report in the summer.

I feel like Adog's the type of guy that would have said, but he had 19 goals in the beauty league man Surely there's something there doing a news report of the summer's hard when there's nothing to talk about you got to grab whatever you Can get all right? We got to get out of here for today. I had a sick celly We got to get out of here for today, but we will be back tomorrow Thank you all for listening and thank you all for contributing signing offigning off for now, I have been Mike Halford, he's been Jason Brough, he's been Adog, he's been Basketball Ben, and this has been the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.