Halford & Brough in the Morning - This Hockey Is As Good As It Gets

Episode Date: June 13, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports including a thrilling game four of the Stanley Cup final (3:00), plus they chat with Sportsnet golf analyst Adam Stanley (26:11), who joins the show live from the US Open. 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- The Nets are! Leon Dreisaitl has tied the series with his fourth OT winner in the playoffs. Just everything is dangerous all the time. The Knicks got to be the stupidest damn people in the world. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver. 6 o'clock on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody.

Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford and his brough in his Sportsnet 650. We are coming live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Ladi, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and brough in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for net help with over 3,000 5-star reviews. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are in Hour 1 of the program.

Hour 1 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. A lot to get into on the program today. Guest list begins at six 30. Adam Stanley is going to join the program. Sportsnet golf analysts joining us live

from Oakmont at the 2025 U S open. The leader after round one, JJ spawn, JJahn at four under. Noted P's fan. Remember that? Noted P's fan, Brooks Koepka. He's at three under. He's second on the leaderboard. And a couple of Canadians still in contention.

In the hunt, as Adam Stanley wrote about yesterday, Taylor Penderth and Corey Connors. So we'll talk about all that at 6.30 with Adam Stanley, our golf analyst, live from Oakmont for the US Open. Seven o'clock, AJ from AJ's Pizza is gonna join us. A reminder, it is Friday, so we're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on his Broadway. We're not giving it away.

You have to win the gift card, and you do that by submitting the best Ask Us Anything. Hashtag it A-U-A. The Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. Put a pizza emoji into your text. You'll be entered into the contest for a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. 730, it's the Moj.

Bob the Mojmarjanovic is gonna join us. Tough night for the BC Lions in Winnipeg on Thursday night. They lost 34 to 20 in what was the season and home opener for the Bombers. Of greater concern than the loss is that Nathan Rourke was hurt yesterday. He exited late with an oblique injury. So we'll talk to Mojo, what everything that went right, not a lot. And everything that went wrong quite a bit for the lions in Winnipeg last night,

eight o'clock Rick Dollywall from Donnie and Dolly on check TV is going to join us. I'll turn things over to noted Dolly wall handler, Jason Bruff. What are we going to talk to Rick about today? Uh, Rick says he's got a Thatcher dump. Go update. Ooh, that's going to be at eight o'clock this morning. Be sure to tune in for that. Uh, giveaways today. We mentioned AJ's pizza, $100 gift card for the best. Ask us anything. Final day of a giveaway, uh,

two four packs of tickets to see the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup at BC Place, Tuesday, June 17th, Canada. Honduras. Get your tickets now at Ticketmaster. For more info, visit goldcup.org slash tickets. Two four packs were given away today. One at 805 and one at 815. Be caller number five in each instance.

The phone number here, 604-280-0650. That number again, 604-280-0650. Finally, finally, another reminder to buy your tickets for the Sportsnet 650 Jayscare 5050 for Challenger Baseball. Our goal is to raise $100,000 for the kids. Winner obviously takes half, that's the entire premise of the 50 50. Buy your tickets now at jayscaregolf.rafflenexus.com. When we hit $15,000 in the pot,

we will give away a signed Quinn Hughes Jersey. Again, jayscaregolf.rafflenexus.com. Buy your tickets now, support challenge your baseball, win some cash and maybe assign Quinn Hughes Jersey. Okay, that's everything. That's what's happening on the program today. 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 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. Leon Dreisaitl scored 11-18 into the first overtime session. The third overtime game of this unbelievable Stanley Cup final. The Edmonton Oilers evened that Stanley Cup final by defeating the Florida Panthers 5-4 in game 4, tying the series at 2-2. Here's what Dry Cytles' winner sounded like. Okay, so most of the people listening to this show watched what happened last night in Florida. Um, and I just want to start off with some appreciation for how awesome this Stanley Cup final is. And the good news is we've got at least two games

left, probably three, but at least two. Um, I know we normally make fun of everything, so it's sometimes hard to sound earnest and like. Genuine and authentic. Genuine. Yeah. This is hockey at its best. It's fast, it's physical, there's been crazy lead changes and you have no idea what's going

to happen next. Now, I wish it was the Canucks playing this hockey, but it's not. Oh no. Clearly. But I hope everyone has the time to enjoy it. Whoever you're rooting for, or even if you're rooting for no one and you're just enjoying the hockey, this series has had everything.

Three overtimes, tons of scoring chances, tons of goals, but also great saves, incredible defensive plays. There's just a lot of talent out there on the ice. Not to mention some unsung heroes like Calvin Pickard, there's bad blood, there's big personalities, that always helps. And, uh, you know, everyone's got the rooting interest in this, I think. But, you know, it's just, I've loved it. I've watched every minute of the Stanley

Cup final. And to be perfectly honest with you, that hasn't always been the case in the last, you know, few years. I've been, you years. I haven't made it like, I mean, it's, I would know the game is on obviously, because it's part of my job, but it's not like I have to be on the couch at five o'clock and I'm booking this time off. I am not doing anything else. I am watching these games. You mentioned the rooting interest. My rooting interest right now is that this series goes as long as humanly possible. Every game goes as long as humanly possible and the series goes as long as humanly possible

because the entertainment value that the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers have given us over the last two Stanley Cup finals might have superseded the last 10 Stanley Cup finals before it. It's been unbelievable what they've been able to put on. And I want to throw, again, in the interest of being earnest and genuine

to Paul Maurice, a guy that we have poked fun at over the course of these playoffs. I think and it's impressive that he was able to do this at a moment's notice. But he was asked yesterday in the aftermath of a loss, no less. Very difficult to collect your thoughts after a devastating loss like that. If he's able while coaching and watching this all go on to take a step back and appreciate exactly what he's witnessing when he's not stressing out over line changes and the ebbs and flows of the game.

And Maurice took a second to pause and compose himself and delivered a pretty eloquent response to what he's thought of the caliber of this series so far. Here now, just over a minute of uninterrupted Paul Maurice following yesterday's wild game four of the Stanley Cup final. I think we focus on sometimes the mistakes that get made by good players at times and you miss some of the heart and soul and the intensity of it. It's so fast.

Every board battle, everything can turn into something. So there's a tension because both teams can score. From my point of view, there's been phenomenal goaltending in this series. The numbers tell me I am lying, but the final score says I'm lying but the goal-tenning has been incredible because the game can break on slot pass to Sam Bennett, crack a bar, I mean that's those are the ones that just everything is dangerous all the time so there's a mental intensity, mental toughness I think both teams show that the game is not going to be over till it is.

You get three of four games in a final into overtime. You've got two really good evenly matched teams. I can be really interested to see what the ratings are like in the United States. I know they're going to be off the charts in Canada, but this is a Canadian market versus a non-traditional American market. Um, it's on TNT. So you don't necessarily have the ESPN push as much, which I think could be a factor.

Um, but like, if this isn't just getting word of mouth, you know? No, I know what you're saying. You know, like then it, I mean, ultimately I don't really, I don't really care if the Americans are entered. I'm more just curious about it because this is, you're not gonna get better than this.

Yeah, the NHL can't deliver more than what it's giving right now. And this is it, this is, you're not going to get better than this. Yeah. You're not. The NHL can't deliver more than what it's giving right now. And this is it. This is the best we got. And, and, and. We'll put all our cards on the table. Seriously, this is, this is the best you've got. And if you think about this season, we had a terrific four nations tournament

and that's an NHL production. Yep. And then we've got this Stanley Cup final. and that's an NHL production. And then we've got this Stanley Cup final. The narratives, the players involved, the spectacle, especially when the games are back in Edmonton. If you're just, I guess people don't really flip channels anymore.

No. Like that doesn't really happen. They flip streams. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But well, they don't. Like I don't know if people flip channels anymore. I flip stream. I change from stream to stream. Okay. But, well, they don't. Like, I don't know if people flip channels anymore. I changed from stream to stream.

Okay, but, all right, never mind. It's not like the old days, though, right? When you're actually- I flip channels. You just go, like, channel up, up, up, up, and you're just fine. Yeah, and if I miss it, I gotta go all the way around and start all over again. Like 500 channels. I refuse to punch in a number.

I'm just going up and down. My TV is older than I am. At any rate, like, I just want to know what the reaction is. Now I follow a few social media accounts of American reporters or American personalities who are commenting on it. And I noticed even guys like Softy Mahler down in Seattle, who I don't consider a huge hockey fan by any means, was tweeting out things about, oh my God, the Oilers. And I'm like, I don't think I've ever seen Softy tweet

about anything, maybe cracking hockey once in a while. But this is a legendary series. That's why Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey were there. They knew. Can I just make an observation that probably everyone knows, but- Your show. The vitriol of people that hate it when the broadcast makes a big deal out of Taylor Swift.

And I suppose I understand it. Part of it is fatigue of Taylor Swift because we saw it so much in the Kansas City Chiefs games and Superbowl and everything. But like, if that, if just pictures of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey trigger you to the point where you're like freaking out on social media, just dial it back a little in your life.

Settle down. Just, just settle down. You might not agree with their politics. You might be a little bit tired, but like just don't let it bother you so much. You just got a snapshot of what the NFL regular season and playoffs were like yesterday. It was, I mean. No, no, no, but I saw it.

I mean, I saw it in the NFL. It's just, but it's, but a lot of it's politics, right? It's like she came out and endorsed whoever. There's a huge political lean to it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, but it's just crazy.

It's just like, she's one of the biggest stars in the world. She's at a hockey game. Of course they're going to be talking about world. She's at a hockey game. Of course they're going to be talking about this. That's a big deal for the NHL. Okay. A couple of storylines from last night that I wanted to dive into here. The first, what do we think Corey Perry said?

So there was a couple of cool narratives here that really altered the course of this game in the landscape. And the first was that multiple Edmonton Oilers after the game talked about the message of the speech or the rant that Corey Perry delivered after the Edmonton Oilers fell behind three, nothing going into the first intermission, right? Nugent Hopkins alluded to it. Darnell nurse alluded to it. Jake Wallman alluded to it. Everyone was talking about Corey Perry, standing up and saying what needed to be said. Now, there was another thing that happened in between periods as well that we'll get to in a sec.

Someone asked Leon Dreisaitl very specifically what Corey Perry had to say to the guys. And here's Dreisaitl's answer. He doesn't go exactly into what was said, but you kind of get a sense of the tone and the tenor here is Leon dry saddle on Corey Perry's first intermission speech That's right. We can't have anyone freak out out there. Okay. We've got a keeper composure We've got too far. There's too much to lose How many times are gonna use this bit it's too good more times No is coming and then they did it and I'm like, I should have known that was coming. Seriously, on Drag Cidal on Corey Perry's speech. Well, I'm not going to share exactly what he said right now, but the message is that he's been in these moments.

He's not a guy that speaks up or yells at guys all the time. That's not his character. So, you know, when a guy like that, with that many games, that much experience, he's won everything there is to win. He knows how to win. When he speaks up, you listen and it grabs your attention. So yeah, he's a heck of a leader.

So the other thing that happened in between periods is that Stuart Skinner, who through no fault of his own was down three, nothing after the first period, got the hook and Calvin Pickard yet again comes to the rescue of this team. Oilers rally from three, nothing deficit to not only tie the game, but go up four three before Sam Reinhart scored. By the way, if you want to talk about how much drama this Stanley Cup has provided us Sam Reinhardt's game tying goal last night was the second latest game tying goal in Stanley Cup final history

Do you know who's the latest was? It was Corey Perry's from game two And that's gonna be a footnote in this series that the two latest game tying goals instead in the history of the Stanley Cup finals We're scored in this series anyway the two latest game tying goals in the history of the Stanley Cup finals were scored in this series. Anyway, Pickard comes in and gets the job done and we started firing it around on our text thread about the starter for game five. And I just naturally assumed that it's gotta be

Calvin Pickard, but then I listened to Chris Knobloch speak post game and I don't have the audio unfortunately, but the Coles Notes version of it is, the way that he talked about it made it sound I listened to Chris Knobloch speak post game and I don't have the audio, unfortunately, but the Coles Notes version of it is the way that he talked about it made it sound like Pickard came in and did a job past tense. Like he came in and did what he had to do, not he came in and reclaimed the spot or is he never, but never alluded to anything. He's like, he came in and did a job. And I guess that's fair because it wasn't Stuart Skinner's fault no I don't think Skinner was terrible he was great yeah the only reason it wasn't five

nothing he had 18 shots faced in the first period I think it was 11 high danger chances like Edmonton was awful in the first period again terrible another incredible storyline out of this is that if you go for a four period stretch of this here is the Oilers for a four period stretch of this series, the Oilers road scored nine to one and got completely dominated. Right. All three periods in game three and then the first period of game four, they were terrible. And yet the series is two, two going back to Edmonton. Here's a question for everybody to answer.

Who do you start in game five if you're the Edmonton Oilers and Chris Naubleg? I'll turn it over to you, Lattie, because you're the goalie guy. Well, I don't know how you don't go with Pickard with the way the team plays in front of him. I think that's, it's been the discourse that I've seen is just the team plays different in front of Pickard. And I think it's hard to argue when you see the result. We saw the game last night, it was three nothing

for Florida and they came. How is that possible? First time in Stanley Cup history. How is it possible? That's never, I've never quite. Float the theory. I've never quite understood it. And maybe, maybe it's like, I, I don't know.

Like, I don't know how a team can just, just be like, we're going to play, play different. It's subconscious, I think. I don't think it's a, it's a mental decision. It's just, they see and they know in the back of their mind who's back there. And they know they have to play differently in a certain way. It's a mental decision. It's just, they see and they know in the back of their mind who's back there and they know they have to play differently in a certain way. It's amazing. What do they think, Stuart Skinner is the greatest goalie

of all time? They're like, don't worry, he's got it. He's always- I've seen some Oilers fans say that they play looser when Pickard's in net because they know that he's gonna make a save. Well, is it looser or better to like, like what, sorry, is it still when Skinner's in net, not Pickard?

No, looser when Pickard's in net because they know that he's gonna come up with the big save if they do make a mistake. So they're not gripping their sticks as tightly so Calvin Pickard the career I know goalie. I know but it's the one they trust more than Skinner. So how do you go against that? It's an impossible. I know who it is. It's an impossible It's an impossible decision for the coach because you do have to recognize that with Only three games left in your season. Yeah, you can't go with anything other than what's in front of you. What's seven and oh, I know what's in front of you is that they play better

in front of Pickard than they do in front of Skinner. I don't know why. There's probably a million different theories or reasons or ideas, conscious or sub. But the point is that he gives them clearly a better chance of winning hockey games. And I, you know, and I you know clearly though clearly He's Calvin Pickard. What are the net? What are the numbers again? What are the numbers with him in that there's seven? No, they haven't lost the game. He does his win. Yeah

That's clear well it would be funny if he went with Skinner and then they didn't win the series and people like Maybe should have gone with the undefeated goalie. See, that's a thing. You've got to get it. But the Knoblock would go like, but it's Calvin Pickard. I think what even Pickard would say that. But it's Calvin Pickard.

Yeah, you even see Pickard interviewed after him. You don't look like a star player. You know what I mean? He knows when he does his interviews. He's like, this is a big deal for me. This guy was in the AHL, two years ago. Yeah, like if you go to his hockey DB page You're looking at it like I cannot be believe you are a central figure now in one of the greatest Stanley Cup final histories of all time. He was the starting goalie for Colorado when they had that like record-breaking horrible year

Yeah, there's starter I think we might be overthinking it though because all it all it comes down to is how does the team in front of them? of all time. He was the starting goalie for Colorado when they had that record breaking, horrible season. Terrible year, yeah. He was their starter. I think we might be overthinking it though. Cause all it comes down to is how does the team in front of them play. Yeah. You gotta choose the guy that the team plays better in front of, especially now.

But here's, okay, no. It's a three game series. I don't think we are making it simple because here's the thing. If you go. No you're not, that's what I'm saying. If you, yeah but I don't think it's as simple as you say. If you go. No you're not, that's what I'm saying. If you, yeah but I don't think it's as simple as you say. If you go with Pickard, you don't have the break glass

in case of emergency option anymore. He's that guy. I don't think you wanna use that option though. But you have to sometimes. Can you not go back to Skinner? Sorry? Can you not go back to Skinner? They have not shown that they can do the inverse.

Where it's like, okay we're struggling here, we're gonna throw Stu in and he's gonna save the day because they haven't struggled with picking it. Yeah So why don't you go with the guy you haven't struck? I mean, it's not again. It's not complicated Go with the guy. I'm struggling. It's gonna sound even stupider Pickard as the parachute safety guy Seems better than Pickard the unquestioned number one starter guy If it goes pear-shaped again, and it could go pear-shaped with either guy given the way they play You're two games away from winning a cup. I think you just got to go with who is playing I have no idea what they're gonna do. I have no idea what they're gonna do

Okay, you want to talk about the two ex Canucks in this series? Well, the one guy who's texting in why is no talk? Oh, no one talking about how clutch pod Colson was last night and then another text five minutes later You guys mentioned everyone on the Oilers except Pod Kolzin. No, we didn't. The reason they tied the game. Yeah, he played well and scored a big goal. He was awesome. Yeah.

Sorry, let's do that again. I missed that drop. The seal of Podsloven. There he is. Everyone's favorite. Yeah, made a nice play on the winner too. Scored a goal. It was a great pass on the winner.

Ugly, ugly, ugly game winning goal. Was that Nico Michal who? Did the cats give up on Pod Sloan too early? Oh God, don't do this. Don't do this. We're not, this is why, partly why I think we don't want to entertain the conversation. Yeah.

Because then everyone comes back and they're like, should the connects have held onto him? I think we saw. Pod calls and scores the cup winner. Yeah, he's. He's playing well. And the sunlight content is born. He's playing well. That's all I'm going to say. He's playing well. And the Sunway content is born. He's playing well. That's all I'm going to say.

He's playing well. He's done really well. I think we're all happy for him. Honestly, we are. I'm happy for him. He seemed like a nice kid, but the Connucks were going to lose him on waivers, because he wasn't going to make the team.

They gave him a lot of opportunities. He tried hard. It just didn't work out. It didn't work out. It happens, you people Like it happens you people. God, you people. Anyway, Troy Stetcher, that was tough last night to watch. Costly turnover on the three nothing goal, I think it was.

Although he did get high-sticked, but. It was after he turned it over though. He didn't look good on the play. Yeah. And he didn't really see the ice after that. And by not really seeing in the ice, you mean he didn't see. He didn't see the ice. Yeah, it was play. Yeah. Um, and he didn't really see the ice after that. And I actually really seeing in the ice. You mean he didn't see it in see this? Yeah.

It was. Yeah. Um, so he sat on the bench. He had of course come in for Klingberg who had struggled, but I think Klingberg will be back back in there for, for game five. Um, and I thought it was going to actually be a factor because the oilers defense was starting to look pretty ragged. They were exhausted in overtime.

Yeah. Absolutely exhausted. And they were turnover pucks and they were making mistakes, but kudos to Pod Slovin for picking up the slack and making a great pass to dry subtle for the winner. Just honestly, it's we're 23 minutes into the show and we can probably talk about the Stanley Cup final for another 23 or 24 because there's that many things that happened yesterday. It's been a fantastic, fantastic series so far. I am so happy that it's two, two after four. Now it's become a best of three because the energy level, the excitement level and the entertainment levels have all been absolutely off the charts. We'll continue talking about this throughout the show without question, but we do have

some other things that we want to get into today. We will get into the other game last night from a local sporting squadron, the BC Lions. We'll get into that mostly with Moj at around seven 30 coming up on the other side, though we are going to carve out some time for some golf talk. US open underway at Oakmont round one in the books, round two, a handful of people have already teed off this morning. We'll go live to Oakmont to speak to Adam Stanley, Sportsnet golf analyst. We'll talk about the Canadians that are in contention after round one, and then we'll talk

about the top of the leaderboard as well. And we'll just want to get into. No, we'll just set you guys up for the weekend of the US Open. If you're going to be watching it, we'll talk to Adam for 10, 15 minutes, and then we'll get back to talking about the Stanley Cup final. I want to see some more Ask Us Anythings into the

Dunbar Lumber text line, 650, 650. You're listening to the Dunbar Lumber Text Line 650, 650. You're listening to the Alfred and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canuck Central with Dan Riccio and Satya Arshah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post game show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 631 on FES, the Friday here on the Haliford and Bruff show on Sportsnet. 6.50. Haliford and Bruff of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help of over 3,000 five star reviews.

Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Adam Stanley, golf analyst from sports that is going to join us live from Oakmont at the 2025 US open in just a minute here. The highlight of hour one. Our one of this program is brought to you by Northstar metal recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar metal recycling. They recycle, you get paid.

Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go, we go now to Oakmont. Adam Stanley joins us here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Adam, how are you? Good morning, I'm doing alright. Yeah, thanks guys, thanks for having me back on. My first question is has anyone checked in on Brooks Koepka after the Panthers lost the peas last night. The peas. I was actually thinking about him when I was watching a little golf yesterday, I saw Brooks Koepka

and I was like, oh, I wonder if he's upset that he can't go to the game. And then the game happened and I'm like, I'm glad, he's probably glad he wasn't there. How's he doing though? He's up the leaderboard. He was, I think he made an early birdie. I haven't seen if he's been able to kind of keep it rolling.

But yeah, I mean, I think he's in second or something like that right now. So probably would have had a bit of a different vibe this morning had they actually pulled off the wind. But alas, they didn't. So maybe he's got a little fire in his belly out there this morning. But we will have to ask them afterwards if he's stayed up to watch or what the deal was. Cause that guys, that is an early bell for them to come out here and peg it at Oakmont at seven o'clock in the morning or whatever it was.

So yeah, we'll see, but it's fine. He's a super fan. Like he's not a fair weather fan. He goes to a lot of games and he's out there a lot. He's friends with the guys. So it's kind of cool. Hey Adam, I know you came on to talk about golf, but I know that a lot of the golf media there does watch hockey and some of the players have

the, have their favorite teams. Um, just in talking with the media, has anyone has it like, has it made it into casual conversation in the United States? Because we were just talking about how good the hockey has been and we, we wonder if it's going to make a, make an impact. And I mean, you're just outside of Pittsburgh. It's a hockey town. I'm just wondering if people are talking about the hockey has been and we wonder if it's going to make an impact. And I mean, you're just outside of Pittsburgh, it's a hockey town. I'm just wondering if people are talking about the hockey. Yeah, I mean, it's a great question. At the PGA championship when it was Leafs and Panthers,

they had that game on actually in the media center on one of the nights. I forget if it was Saturday or Sunday. So, you know, it's kind of transcended that a little bit. I'm sure here on Saturday, they'll probably put the game on as well. Yeah, I mean, a lot of the media, golf media, for obvious reasons, are based out of Florida. So a lot of them do follow hockey and the Florida teams have obviously been giving them a lot of good reasons to cheer for them. You know, some of the folks who live in Vegas or California, you know, they've also become hockey fans as well. So, yeah, I would say it, and there's nothing like playoff hockey. I mean, this is a Canadian radio station.

I'm Canadian, you guys obviously are that too, and we know, but I think like to engage the American general public into the game, a lot of them do follow playoff hockey because it's just like, it's just good sports to watch. And I will admit too, watching the broadcast here is a unique experience because like they do interviews with the coaches like in the game, like on the bench. Like it's like they drop the puck or they're about to drop the puck and they throw down in the reporter like ringside who's got like Paul Maurice for a question for like 30 seconds

and then they go right into the action. And I'm like flabbergasted to how that's even like allowed but I mean I guess they're just trying to engage a bigger and different audience so yeah that's a long-winded way of saying it's got a decent following and a lot of people watch it just because it's good sport to follow. All right on to the golf let's start with the course because the course might be the star of this US Open. Was it as tough as everyone said it would be? I'm hesitant to say yes, but it is. So the scoring average yesterday was 75, five over par. Only 10 guys actually were in red figures and JJ Spahn was the only guy to actually go bogey free. So all of that to say, yes, it played hard, but I think Adam Scott said it best.

It's like, it's playing hard, but not blow your brains out hard. So I think that has to do with the fact that it's been like really, really wet here recently. Like in May, before we got to the tournament in May, quite literally this area received the most rain that it had ever gotten in like a one month timeframe. So no matter if you're Oakland or if you're

some like Goat Ranch, Muni down the street, like you're going to struggle to get this golf course, you know, ripping quick again. Now Monday or excuse me, Sunday was pretty bad weather wise, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then into today and yesterday it's been sunny. It's been not that windy. So, you know, at least there's been some kind of heat that has pulled out the moisture, but yeah, I mean, it's still running. The greens are still fairly and I'm going to put this in air quotes, receptive right now. So this golf course could be, you know, it's, it's probably playing it easy. Taylor Penderth actually told me yesterday that it's playing as easy as it was going to play this week.

And, you know, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, the scoring average was still five over. So, you know, had it been ripping quick, had it been super breezy, it would be, you know, way, way harder. Unfortunately, you know, we're supposed to be getting some rain over the next two days as well. So I don't think we're going to max out the difficulty. We're not going to max out the quickness of this golf course. But as I said, you know, it's still playing well over par and there's still only,

you know, out of the 156 guys, only 10 of them were actually in red figures after yesterday. Didn't Taylor Penrith also tell you that it's likely the hardest tournament round he's ever played? Yes, he did. All things considered. Like the conditions yesterday were benign. There was barely any wind. Taylor went out there at 7.15 in the morning, you know, pure everything. And he comes back in, he talks to us in the media.

There's a couple of us here, a couple of Canadians, and he's got his hat like up high. His head's just like, he doesn't know, it's like his brain's in a blender. And then yeah, somebody was like, was that the hardest tournament round you've ever played, all things considered? He's like, yeah, without any conditions

impacting how I went about my business, it was, yeah, it was probably the hardest one. So yeah, it's crazy. Tell us a bit about the kind of recent history of this course because, you know, if people might have seen on social media, there's people showing pictures of what the course used to look like and people are like, hey, there are trees in this course.

And now like what happened to all the trees? Was there a teenager that came by and cut them all down? Like what's the idea behind the no trees? Yeah, you know what? Gil Hans, he was the designer or the redesigner, I should say. He put in a lot of work in 2023 to get the golf course ready again for the US Open.

And I think part of it was just like a tree removal program. Trees, despite what a lot of people want to make you believe, are actually like, they're not great for golf courses. Like they block wind flow, they block sunshine for grass growth. There's a lot of reasons why there shouldn't be any trees on golf courses. And when you've got as much money as Oakland has, they just decided to get rid of all of them. So I will admit total first world problem that doesn't make watching the golf all that much cooler because you are absolutely roasting out there while you're trying to follow the best players in the world. But from the perspective of

like conditioning, sight lines, you know, just airflow, all these kind of things, like there's there's kind of a bigger benefit than just like, you know, just airflow, all these kind of things. Like there's kind of a bigger benefit than just like, you know, it looks pretty to not have any trees out there. So that was kind of the short version of the reason why if somebody kind of remember from 2016, certainly from 2007 and I guess was 1994, maybe the last time, you know, know, it's, this is a, this is a golf course with a lot of similarities, but a ton of crazy differences as well.

Who do you like right now? It's a, it's a pretty, uh, eclectic leaderboard of some names that people will recognize and others that'll be like, who's that? Yeah. You know what, if I'm, so I'm just outside the media center right now, but I'm looking at the big board, and the name that is popping out right now at me is John Rom. I

think like a lot of people were thinking about him at the beginning of the week for a variety of reasons like you know he's just a big you know strong man who hits the ball a long way who's got good hands who can like muscle it out of the rough a little bit kind of that very stereotypical build of a golfer who was going to have success at a US Open. He's already won one of these, obviously a Tory Pines, which is, I'm going to, like a small C comparable to this golf course, just with respect to, you know, what it demands out of these guys. So yeah, you look at John Rahm's body work at majors this year, way better than last year. I think he's had two top 15 finishes. We talked a little bit about, you know,

last week or the week before about how, you know, Rom's kind of shrugged his shoulders and admitted the competition on Liv is not the same. You know, he's had 19 straight top 10 finishes. It's kind of been a whole lot of nothing, but you know, you can't take away from the fact that he's still one of the best players in the world. He possesses one of the best games of anyone in the world.

He's built for US Open competition and he's built for the test that is Oakland Country Club So if as I mentioned if I'm just looking at the board, he's a little bit down I guess from the leader right now, but yeah, he's got the pedigree He's kind of got it all so I wouldn't be surprised to see John Rom make a move and you know obviously very quickly too and we could talk about this soon or or or Later, but Cory Connors. Yeah. Just noticed. Two birdies and he's missed another one from nine feet. Could be three under after five or six holes. So yeah, we're going to see how he does, I think for me personally,

but also professionally. I mean, a lot of people who, you know, non-Canadian division, were thinking that Corey Connors was going to have a nice week this week, especially because he can kind of ball hit it better than anybody, right? He's off the tee, you know, top 15 on tour, T.B. Green, he's about the same, maybe top 10 on tour right now. And the Greens are so tough and so sloppy that, you know, the putting is kind of, everyone's going to struggle with the putting and for someone like Cory, you know, he may be able to make a few and be off to the races from there. So yeah, John Rahm, 100% looking like a guy for me at the leaderboard right now. But Corey Connors, what a run. We'd love to see it.

What is the most important thing to do? Final question. The most important thing to do at Oakmont is it hit the fairway? Is it putt well, hit the greens? What is it? It's quickly, yeah, it's hit the fairway because you have to set yourself up for success because if you don't hit the fairway, then you're scrambling and the greens and the green complexes and the rough surrounding the greens are hard enough that you really can't get after them from the rough. You kind of have to take your medicine, punch it out and you're basically looking at an auto bogey.

But if you're hitting fairways, you can at least allow yourself the opportunity to, you know, air quotes, attack the pin or at least try to hit it in the center of the green and two putt and make par and be done with it. So yeah, off the tee, hitting the fairways or putting yourself in a half decent spot to, you know, just put the ball forward. That's the number one thing. Got to find fairways. Adam, thanks for joining us. Enjoy the tournament. Good luck to the Canadians and hopefully Corey Connors or maybe Taylor Pendruth is part of the weekend. No problem. Thanks for having me. Thanks Adam. Adam Stanley,

Sportsnet Golf Analyst live from Oakmont at the 2025 US Open here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Should we do the BC Lions? Man. Got to do it. Yeah. And this isn't like, got to do it that we have to cover the CFL. It's just a very depressing night last night for the BC Lions, who not only lost in Winnipeg 34 to 20, but overshadowing. The final score of that game was a massive lingering concern to if you care about the health of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. But obviously the number one lingering concern,

the status of quarterback Nathan Rourke, who was knocked out of action with just over five minutes to play with the Lions trailing. Rourke went down and here's the key without contact after throwing an incomplete pass to Keon Hatcher on a side out. It looked like he was in pretty serious pain. He left the field clutching his side, was unable to return and was visibly grimacing on the sideline while trying to throw to see if he could continue on late in the game. Laddie, can we pull up the Nathan Rourke audio here? Because after the game,

the health update for Nathan Rourke came courtesy of Nathan Rourke, who spoke to the media and discussed what was going on. Here is a health status update of Nathan Rourke after the lions lost 34 to 20 in Winnipeg on Thursday night. Yeah, I'm not sure exactly what it is. I won't speculate. Um, but it was affecting the way I was throwing it and I couldn't throw it. I thought it was as better for the team. If, uh, I took myself out at that point. So, um, cause I just wasn't able to get generally enough power on the balls.

I believe in in our guys ability to fight right. And the last part wasn't about the injury update. I don't know if the oblique injury is going to help his ability to fight or not. Probably not. He's probably focused on throwing the football. However, this is about as worse a case scenario as the Lions could have this early in the season, because one thing that's become evidently clear through the first two games of the season is that the offense, it's not exactly ironed out. It's still got a few wrinkles in it, not the good kind of wrinkles that throw people off guard.

The bad kind of wrinkles that allow you to not put up a lot of offense in the first half of two football games now, because it was a slow start against Edmonton on Saturday in the home opener at BC Place. And it was an even slower start yesterday. And what killed them yesterday was that the defense wasn't able to keep them in the game like it was against Edmonton. It was it was the game on Saturday at BC Place was low event and low offense on both sides of the football. But yesterday, Winnipeg was able to rack up some offense in the first half.

Yeah. And I think, you know, people are saying, well, the defense looked good against Trey Ford and Edmonton and Trey Ford has some good attributes as a quarterback. He's very mobile. He's fun. He's exciting.

He's not great at throwing the football and the defense looked good against that. But when you get more of a complete offense like Winnipeg has, the Lions were kind of exposed. Here's the problem with that analysis, Jason. It wasn't Winnipeg's complete offense. No, it wasn't. Because Brady Oliveira had one carry yesterday.

It was a big one. It was a good one though. And then he got hurt turning things over to his backup. And I don't have his name at the ready, but Strelka. No, no. Oh, sorry, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Strelka was a quarterback for Calero. So, yeah, all of our rips off a 43 yard run on his first and only carry of the game. And the Bombers still managed to put up over 130 yards of rushing

with their second string running back and their second string quarterback. All told, the Bombers put up 438 yards of net offense and 34 points. Really without a starting quarterback and starting running back. That's problematic. And J.C. Abbott, and by the way,

if you're not checking out J.C.'s work on the regular, he does great game recaps at three down nation. And he said, hey, the the story that's going to get the headlines is Nathan works injury and the sputtering offense because of it. But the bigger story here is that the issues that have plagued this defense. And he said, going back to when they came out of the pandemic, poor gap control, poor tackling, the inability to bring guys down at point of contact still plagues this team.

And it's gonna be something that, especially if a worker's gonna miss time, the Lions are gonna have problems with moving forward. And again, I know going in to Winnipeg for what was their home opener and their season opener was a tall task. That being said, you did throw out that the Lions were the betting favorites yesterday going into that game.

So at the very least Vegas thought they had more of a puncher's chance and losing by 14. And if you had told me what the line would have been after they lost Brady Olivera early, it might've slanted even more in favor of the Lions. It was not a good performance of the BC Lions yesterday. And a lot of worries coming out with Nathan Rourke's health. Okay. I have a question returning to the Stanley Cup

final. Yeah. Is momentum at play now or does everyone reset? Because I was watching Paul Maurice after the game last night and he's been through it all and he said, you know, to paraphrase him, he's like, we're down now. Well, we've got a day to kind of turn it around and then we play on Saturday in Edmonton. And there was a question from the reporter is like, is it so nice that kind of you're getting on a long flight and you get to, the idea was like,

you get to reset a little bit. And Maurice is like, well, it would have been better if we won. I think it was George Richards that asked that. Might've been, might've been, but losing those types of games when you've got it, when you can kind of picture how close you'd be can be really tough. And I know this because the Oilers have done this to

another team and I know the Panthers aren't the LA Kings, but in 2023, and I'm sorry, I've talked about this game a lot because I was there, but Edmonton was down 2-1 in their series to Los Angeles. Game four was in LA. They were on the road. They fell behind three nothing in the game. So it looked like the Kings were gonna take a three one series lead.

Okay. The others stormed back to tie it four four headed into overtime. Then they won it in overtime. Yep. They took the series in six games. Yep. It was the game, the situation, the fact that they were on the road.

It was identical. They, they showed it. I get exactly what you're saying, right? Like there's a precedent here where the Oilers have done it. And as a matter of fact, the Oilers have actually done the three nothing comeback in a single game in the Stanley Cup finals before they did it all the way back in. They were on the wrong end of it, but they were involved in one in 2006.

Carolina came back. So that ties the biggest single game comeback in Stanley Cup finals history. Just another notch in the belt for this series of all the history that it's setting. So the question is, does momentum exist? in Stanley Cup finals history, just another notch in the belt for this series of all the history that it's setting. So the question is, does momentum exist? I don't know how Florida reacts to that, because to me, Florida had complete control of this series for four periods.

They had the entire control of game three, and then game four, it just looked like an extension of it. That comeback last night was one of the most improbable ones. I was watching it, and I actually turned it off when it was three nothing because there were no signs of life from Edmonton whatsoever. It's funny when I flipped it back on to listen to the panel briefly and Ron was putting his brain in a pretzel,

trying to figure out if the Oilers had a chance of coming back in this one. And his ultimate conclusion was he thought maybe at two nothing, but he wondered if the three nothing goal was gonna be a dagger. Now, why would anyone think the Oilers out? I saw a lot of people just like, the Oilers are cooked and like they're done. Because of what happened in the game before?

Yeah, but they're the Oilers, man. Right, but the game- They constantly come back. But if we're talking about momentum, the game before was they got down a multi-goal deficit and then Florida poured it on and Edmonton unraveled. And so I think a lot of people were wondering, did we see the unraveling of the Oilers?

And this is just an extension of that. Now the ace up knob block sleeve, which we all, I guess in retrospect should have known, Pod Colson. Right. Let's play a Pod Colson more and play Troy Stetcher much, much less. Also make the move from Skinner to Pickard.

And in this particular instance, he had the trump card of doing the goalie change. And that goalie change was all on the shoulders of the players, because again, Stuart Skinner getting pulled after the first period was no fault of Stuart Skinner's. In fact, like I said, he was the only reason that that game wasn't four or five nothing at that point. The Oilers did not play well. What the Oilers were able to do in game four that they couldn't do in game three

was put it back together. Like, you know, the Humpty Dumpty thing, right? Like he fell, he broke. Can you put this back together in game three? They weren't able to do it and they had a complete meltdown in game four and they deserve a lot of credit for this. They didn't become unglued again. They were able to and it started to get one on the board. So nude scores. There's some pretty muted celebrations.

Then as soon as nurse scored to make it three to you knew, OK, they've got something here. When when nurse scored to make it three to I was like, this game's going to be tied eventually. The crazy part that I thought was that they were able to win it in overtime after surrendering the Reinhardt goal late. I thought that was going to be the mental

backbreaker for them. Well, they nearly lost. I mean, the thing is if, if we, there's, there's so many plays we can go back on. The pickers in overtime were unbelievable. The game on Bennett was unbelievable. And just got a piece of it and it goes off the bar. Yep.

I mean, again, going back to how exciting this hockey has been. There's been one blowout in the series and even that was kind of compelling just to watch the Oilers melt down a little bit and to wonder how they're going to react. And like you said, the first period, a lot of people saw that as an extension of that game.

But this Oilers team, I just never felt like they were just going to walk away with a whimper. I mean, when you've got players like Dry Settle and you've got players like McDavid, and I know McDavid didn't play a huge role in the game yesterday with just one assist, but- Two games in a row now where he hasn't played a huge role, as a matter of fact. But they've still got that team DNA. I mean, I'm almost sick of hearing the word resilient, but don't ever count out the Edmonton Oilers. This is what they do.

They come back in games and they find ways because they have a lot of talent. And I thought they did a really good job of, um, you know, realizing that the way to beat Boboski is up high, nudge, great shot. And then Darnell Nurse with a goal that Boboski might be like, oh, that's not a great one. Um, I'm a pretty big guy.

I should be able to cover those up high, but it was a smart play by Darnal Nurse and then of course, Pot Coleson gets one. That was a hard working goal in front of the net. Chips it passed and then all of a sudden, okay, well then it's anyone's game at that point. I would just never count out the Oilers in any situation. I mean, how many, maybe people just assume while the Kings don't know how to

hold a lead, but the Oilers have done this to other teams besides the Kings. I mean, the Kings at least twice in their, what was it, four series in a row? It looked like, okay, they got them. They got them. The Oilers are cooked here. They're done. And the Oilers have found a way out of that. I mean, just last year in the Stanley Cup final, Florida was up three nothing and the Oilers came back. I'm just so pumped for these next three games. And really anyone that texts in would be like,

the Oilers are going to win this or the Panthers are going to win this. Mark my words. I'm like, I will not mark your words because you have no idea what's going to happen. And none of us do. So that's what's great about this series. When this series began and the stat was out

there last night, the Panthers had a 31 and 0 record in the playoffs when leading after the first or second period. Four games into the rematch against Edmonton. Edmonton is a race leads three times and then won two of them in overtime. So if you want to talk about the fighting spirit and the never say die attitude, it's played itself out against the most seemingly insurmountable of foes,

the, the Florida Panthers team, which I'll be very curious to see where this goes for them, because you got to think now with the best of three and two of the three games in Edmonton, that's different from last year, right? That's the big, I mean that was one of the talking points of last year for Edmonton was that if only we had home ice advantage in game seven. Well, it's staring them in the face right now, right? In the best of three, two of the three are going to be in Edmonton. If it does go to seven, unlike last year, that game's going to be played in Edmonton as opposed to Florida.

And the Panthers have been so good on the road this season. That's another factor. Uh, okay. I want to get more, can we get more Ask Us Anythings into the Dunbar Lumber text line, 650-650 Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and rental warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at dunbarlumber.com and the next, we're going to chat with AJ.

We'll try and do some Ask Us Anythings. I want to talk a little bit about the Calder Cup, which starts tonight down in Charlotte at Bojangles Coliseum. We have some Elliott Friedman audio on the Elias Pedersen situation. I haven't heard the audio yet, but we're going to play it anyway.

And Halford. Jan Pro, Jason. I need to tell everybody about Jan Pro from showrooms to stock rooms 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 Bruv show on Sportsnet 650.