Halford & Brough in the Morning - What A Weekend For Local Sports

Episode Date: June 9, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at a big weekend in local sports, as the Abbotsford Canucks sealed their first-ever trip to the Calder Cup with a big victory, the BC Lions won their home opener with an impressive performance (3:00), and a depleted Whitecaps squad shut out the Sounders (27:00), plus the boys chat about what has been an incredible Stanley Cup Final thus far (35:00). 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.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- Here's Hirose at the blue line. Rishut scores! Max Sassen for the first time in franchise history. The Abbotsford Canucks have won the Western Conference. Yes, and here's the head to Marcian. Can he tie the series? And he scores! Grand Marcian in overtime! And the Panthers win game two! Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. and the Panthers win game two! Good morning Vancouver 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday everybody. It is Halford, it is Brough, it is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And Ladi, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands & 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 one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid.

Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step got a lot to get into for a hot weekend hot it was hot in sports it was hot weather wise did anyone sleep last night yeah I did I've got amazing air conditioning and a fan see my fan ragger yeah yeah what I'm with cold socks what an amazing sports weekend for the local air conditioning and a fan. Seeming a fan. Wrangler. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I slept with cold socks. What an amazing sports weekend for the local teams. It was pretty great. Yeah, we're going to get into that in the entire first hour of

this program. All Hal-Bro, no guests. The guest list today begins at seven o'clock. Our good buddy, Steven Wynow is going to join us. NHL writer for the Associated Press. He's going to join us live on location from Florida for the Stanley Cup final game. Three goes tonight between the Panthers and the Oilers. You can hear it right here on Sportsnet 650 beginning at 5 PM after Canucks central. Uh, we're going to ask this question throughout the show today and feel free to weigh in on the Dunbar lumber text message in basket at 6 50,

6 50 with your answers to said question, is this the best hockey that's ever been played in a Stanley Cup final? We're not just doing that for clicks. There's no recency bias here. I think it's a legitimate conversation that not just we're having, a lot of people are having that have watched the first two games of this series. And hey, if you say no, it's not,

then tell us when it was. Good, good, I think you're gonna say tell us why's not, then tell us when it was. Good, good, I think you're gonna say tell us why, but you said tell us when. Well, when you have an amazing sunburn. It's really burned, I'm really burned. I was not. Just looking at you, right now it's very distracting. We have a bright red on button on our microphones

and my forearms are the same color as the bright red on button. I actually have the same sunburn. It's this right here because my sleeve came up. Yeah. Yeah It's a tan line with no tan call it a burn line. Yeah, it was you guys are me after that sees game I did Getting out of the sunscreen right you could put on I was just like you know what I'm already there I'm already in Burnville population me okay. Is there is there a team out there with their main colors are black white and red I'm sure there's a few yeah, like that's that's me. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, okay, Steve. Why no at seven o'clock

Eight o'clock JC Abbott is gonna join the program He's our CFL regular during the CFL season, BC lions writer, CFL writer for three down nation. Uh, what a kickoff weekend for the BC lions. First the snoop concert, then a 31 to 14 win over the Elks and Buck Pierce's head coaching debut. Uh, Jason Bruff was in attendance. So too is JC. We'll talk to JC about everything that happened for a very, very exciting Saturday night and afternoon at BC place, including the lineups outside.

JC Abbott's going to join us at eight o'clock to talk about that final half hour of the program. We're going to get a little wacky here on the Haliford and brough show on sports and that six 50 instead of doing what we learned at eight 30, like we normally do, we're going to go and speak to,. Ricketts from the Whitecaps. He's also a former Canadian international and there's lots to talk to him about there. The Whitecaps won on Sunday three nil.

Canada beat Ukraine four two on Saturday. And then get this this morning and we're gonna try this. The gold cup is going to be coming in studio live. It's got its own personal handler and everything. Sue me, he's wearing it. If he's not wearing a tuxedo with white gloves, I will be bitterly disappointed. So the Gold Cup is gonna come in live in studio.

Gold face paint. Yeah, right? It's like. Play the part, Gold Cup handler. So he's gonna come in studio with the Gold Cup. For those of you watching on the live stream, you can watch us react to it coming into the studio live. Ooh. It's a trophy.

So gold. That's weird. It's silver. Yeah. Was expecting more. Anyway, we're also going to give away eight tickets every day to the Gold Cup match between Canada and Honduras. We're going to be giving away two four packs every day, not eight individual tickets. That would be thank you. You know, we're not going gonna do eight individual prize giveaways. It would take a long time and it would tie up our phone lines.

So what we're gonna do is in that eight o'clock hour, we're gonna take the callers, we're gonna announce the winners while the gold cup is in studio. And again, if you wanna watch us react to it and everything, you can check out the live stream at Sportsnet Plus. Okay, that's what's happening on the program today. We gotta tell them when to call in though.

805 and 815. 805 and 815. That's important. We'll be doing that. You gotta tell them when to call in though. 805 and 815. 805 and 815. That's important. Yeah, we'll be doing that. I'll remind everyone throughout the show as well. 604-280-0650, that number again, 604-280-0650. So working in reverse on the guest list. 830 to St. Ricketts, 8 o'clock JC Abbott,

7 o'clock Steven Wino. It's a big show. There's a lot that happened over the weekend. So without further ado, Ladi, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies, the best in tools, resources, and safety training.

Visit them online at bccsa.ca with everything that was going on locally over the weekend. We're going to start with what happens Sunday night. And maybe the most prolific of all of the results, Max Sasson, as you heard in the intro, broke a two two tie with about eight minutes to play in the third period and the Abbotsford Canucks shout out to Manny Malhotra and the Abbotsford Canucks. They won their first ever AHL Western Conference Championship with a four, two win over Texas in Abbotsford.

And that punches their ticket to the 2025 Calder Cup final. Shout out to the Abbotsford Canucks. What an impressive result. Yeah. I mean, I'm just really happy for Abbotsford because I know that, like the city and the fans out there, I know when AHL hockey first went to Abbotsford, you know, it was like, it was the Calgary Flames. It was, it was their farm team. And I remember thinking, this is going to be really weird. Everyone in Abbotsford, well, not everyone, but like what, 99% of people in Abbotsford are going to be Vancouver Canucks fans.

And you're going to bring in one of the main rivals, if not historically, the main rival of the Vancouver Canucks, you're going to be like, boy, I hope their prospects pan out because that's good for Abbotsford, right? It was always a weird mix, but ever since, you know, it was a number of moving pieces, the heat had to move out, Utica had to move out of Utica and come to Abbotsford.

And that took a little bit longer than everyone expected or wanted to. But now that it's here, it's amazing to see, I haven't been able to go out myself, but it's amazing to see the pictures of the arena and the Tao power there. Like that's one thing you get. Like you, yeah, of course we're going to do Tao power here. We're part of the Vancouver Canucks organization. And to see everyone so excited, see all these excited texts coming into the Dunbar Lumber

Text Line, I'm just really happy for the people of Abbotsford and the surrounding areas and everyone that's gone out and supported this team and felt right about supporting this team as opposed to like, yeah, I want to support Abbotsford, but I also don't want to support the Calgary Flames. Yep. And it was a huge night for Abbotsford, huge night for Surrey as well.

Surrey BC natives, Archdeep Baynes and Jujar Kyra accounted for the other Canucks goals in the third period. Baynes got the empty netter after scoring the first goal of the game early. Kyra got the game tying goals. So Abbotsford actually went into that third period down, but outshot Texas 17 to four in the game early. Kyra got the game tying goal. So Abbotsford actually went into that third period down, but outshot Texas 17 to four in the final frame overall 40 to 25 were the shots already. See loves now 12 and six over these playoffs, 23 saves in the wind.

So this is the first time in 10 years that an ABBA that a Vancouver Canucks, HL affiliate is going to the Calder Cup finals back in 2015. It was this Jen, Jason mentioned Utica, but it, as Jason mentioned, Utica. But it seems so much better, right? It's a million times better. It's so much better that it's in Abbotsford and we can get local coverage of the team. And you know, it's just, I remember when Utica

went to the final and it was great. I mean, we're all happy for the Canucks organization and happy for the players, but I was like, I bet Ut happy for the, for the Canucks organization and happy for the players. But I was like, I bet Utica's hopping, you know, like I, I, I, I just think it's awesome that there's a local team doing this. Yeah. For everyone out there that's like, oh, it's just AHL hockey.

I grew up in an AHL town, Hamilton, the Bulldogs. They were my team growing up because we didn't have NHL and 18 years ago, they made a glorious run to the Calder Cup Championship. They won it with a teenage Carey Price in goal. And that memory sticks with me. I was 16 years old and it was some of the loudest buildings I'd ever been in.

It was amazing hockey and it still sticks with me to this day. So I understand what everyone in Abbotsford is going through. Yes, it's just a HL hockey, but it's so exciting. Going to the Calder Cup Championship is an amazing feat. Before we move on, before we move on to the Lions, can we hear our guy, Brandon Astle on the call here? So the game winning call, this is the clock struck zero.

And the Abbotsford Canucks punched our ticket to the 2025 Calder Cup final, where they'll be taking on Florida's A.H.L. affiliate. So the Florida Panthers doing the business this postseason. Here is Brandon Astle, our guy Abbotsford Canucks play by play voice. Counting it down as the Abbotsford Canucks moved on their way to the Calder Cup Final. Ten seconds left. It's tied up in the corner. The Abbotsford Canucks are going to skate away with a 4-2 win,

and they can continue skating to Charlotte, North Carolina for Game 1 of the Calder Cup finals. Let's get out of here. The Abbotsford Canucks just called series. For the first time in franchise history, the Abbotsford Canucks have won the Western Conference. Shout out to Brandon. I think Brandon tweeted last night as well, the tickets have already sold out in Abbotsford for the Calder Cup final, which is amazing, too. Right. So good on Abbotsford and good on the Abbotsford Canucks.

OK, let's turn our attention now to Saturday night. Nathan Rourke throwing for 324 yards, three touchdowns also picked up 54 on the ground. BC Lions open with a slow first half, but a good second half and a 31 to 14 win over the Edmonton Elks. That of course was preceded by the Snoop concert at BC Place, which had over 50,000 people in attendance, some logistical issues outside,

but that should not take away from what was a terrific night for the organization, the city, the fans of the team, and a, a tip of the cap to the owner, Omar Doman, for what he was able to put on Saturday night. Yeah, I wanted to be into, in the building for this. So, um, I, I called up Matt Baker. He does a great job for the BC lines and said, give me a seat in the press box. And I went down there, I said, please. And I walked, I live in Mount Pleasant.

So I walked to the stadium and it was wild downtown. And the BC Lines game might've been the most eclectic group of fans I've ever seen there. There were the traditional CFL fans, there were the Snoop Dogg fans, and there was some sort of like Danish rock band playing at Rogers Arena. Didn't see that one coming. So I was like, what the hell is going on here? So, and it was a beautiful, hot, summery day.

And so I got in there and it was wild outside. And I was feeling lucky that I was able to sneak in the media entrance because, uh, and we can talk about this a little bit later, but like BC place has got to figure out how to get people in that stadium more efficiently. Yeah, that seems to happen a lot. Yeah, yeah.

So I was, so I, I know people are like, I'm worried about the world cup. Don't worry about the world cup. People have control of that. That'll be a completely different way of getting into the building. There'll be a, you way of getting into the building. There'll be a security perimeter and everything.

I mean, I don't think it's going to be like, all right, BC place. Well, we'll leave it up to you to handle all this, right? Like they won't do this. They know FIFA isn't, but you know, I was at the, I went as a fan to the white caps Miami game, the most recent one where they won and Messi actually played. And I got caught outside. And yeah, should I have arrived a little bit earlier? Okay. But still, I was there 20 minutes before the game time, which should be plenty of time to get in a stadium. And not only was it, not only with the long lineups, it was completely disorganized.

So there was kind of like, whoever can shove the hardest can get in, right? Like there were nearly fights breaking out. You can't have that. But anyway, I don't want to, you know, I think hopefully BC Place knows that, but the Lions, you know, they're a tenant there. This is one of the issues they've got there. They don't have control over the stadium, so they can apologize for it. But it's not their fault.

It's BC Place's fault. And anyway, I didn't want they can apologize for it, but it's not their fault. It's B.C. Places' fault. And anyway, I didn't want to start with a complaint, but I did. The Snoop concert was incredible for so many reasons. I know Snoop Dogg isn't for everyone and you can question if you want whether the language is age appropriate for a crowd full of kids and older people. But you got to take some risks and you got to deliver something memorable in these situations. And Snoop definitely deliver, delivered a memorable performance.

I cannot tell you how entertained I was at the game from both the perspective of Snoop's performance, which was really good. Play the hit Snoop. And he did. And it sounded good. It sounded good in the stadium. But the best part was the people watching that I got to do because I was in the press box, which is right above

all the longtime season ticket holders, not the youngest in front of us. Sure. And I couldn't stop laughing at them, like their reaction. You know, they weren't like disgusted or anything, but confused maybe a little bit. The video you panning down from the screen to the people in front of you, like the old dudes in front of you, sort old dudes in front of you sort of like What is going on? I watched this one guy who watched The screen and the like he actually never actually looked at the performance

He just looked up at the big screen and he just sat there with like his arms crossed the whole time like he wasn't bad he was just Just waiting for the football to start. Yeah. He was just like this is crazy. I mean some of the Tracks that snoop played. I know 50 cent did the same thing, I wasn't there for that. But I think Snoop is a, Snoop's songs are a little more popular than 50's, all over, 50's, 50, 50, 50's. Just keep plowing through. 50's music. I feel like Rick Dollywall here. It was, it was just really fun.

And there were a lot of young people there that came because of it. It was a fun crowd. Now it's too bad that the Lions waited until the second half to actually start playing. But I mean, the Buck Pierce era started with two turnovers on downs on short yardage. I'm like, that's not a great way. So, you know, some people did leave, but Nathan Rourke on the night looked really good.

Yep. 27 of 36 for 324 yards and three touchdowns, plus five carries for 54 yards on the ground. And that's another thing that we can credit Ammar Doman for is bringing in marketable players like Nathan Rourke. They had to bring him in first and they lost him a bit to the NFL, but they made sure if he's coming back to the CFL, he's gonna be a BC line, he's gonna be a BC line,

hopefully for a while. Yep. It hit a lot of right notes. And I noticed sort of doing the, you know, national media scan over the weekend, everyone talking about this show that they put on in BC. Cause when, look, there's a, there is a certain expectation when things like this happen.

When you have a big concert and you spend a lot of money and you bring a lot of people into, into the arena, there are 54,000 people there. There is an expectation you have to deliver. You have to deliver a good show, you have to deliver outside and you have to make sure everyone can get in. Like there's higher stakes

when there's this amount of eyeballs on you. And I think in a lot of ways, they ticked a bunch of boxes, which is great. Like the first half, was it sluggish? Yes. Could you probably make a bunch of excuses as to why? Yeah, they had a very elaborate and lengthy pregame concert, and it was a slow start. But the two biggest stars of the night, if you want to break it down,

were Snoop and Nathan Rourke. Both of them showed out. And that's a great thing. I want to play some audio from work postgame, because if we really want to get down to the nitty gritty here, one of the stars of the night for the BC Lions was their defense. They held the Elks to just 248 total yards. And Nathan pointed out that a big reason that they were able to stifle Edmonton had to do with the fact that they had so many people in attendance

that were making it really difficult for Edmonton to try and run their offense. And it all goes back to the atmosphere that the owner, Ammar Doman, put together on Saturday. Here's Nathan Rorick following a 31-14 win for the BC Lions over the Elks from Saturday. It's fun. It's fun when the fan team can play a part in the game. It's not every... I know as a player who goes to some of the environments here in the CFL, Winnipeg next week and a couple days really. And then sometimes Sask, going on silent is a real difference maker. And when the other team has to go on silent because of our crowd, that's incredible.

And so we're very appreciative to the fans for showing up. Again, appreciative to Mr. Doman and his staff for putting that type of event together. And it just helps us out tremendously. So we're really appreciative for that. So I didn't know much about Ammar Doman when he took over the Lions. I knew he was from a famous, pretty famous BC family when it comes to business. But I was like, okay, well, we'll see how this goes. And he talked to big game, but you always have to, you

always have to deliver. And at this point now it's just really nice to see hard work pay off. What I really like about Goldman and what I've always liked about him from the start is there's no entitlement to fan support. from the start is there's no entitlement to fan support. I think that was a real problem with the CFL in this market for a long time. They were living in the past. They were living in the eighties when BC

plays first opened and the Lions were the talk of the town, maybe even more popular than the Canucks. And basically the argument to support the Lions was, you should. Right. The fans should support it. It's the CFL. You know, why is everyone supporting the NFL?

Aren't you proud to be Canadian? You should support the CFL. And the same went for the media should cover it. Where's the media? All it. Where is the media? All you guys do is talk about the Canucks. You talk about the Seahawks more than the Lions. Shameful. And it was kind of that attitude of like,

if you don't follow the CFL as a fan, or if you don't cover the CFL as media, then that's their fault, you know? It's like, it's the media's fault., then that's their fault. It's the media's fault, it's the fan's fault. It couldn't be our fault, it's not our fault. We're the CFL, we're the BC Lions, right? And I always got that sense, like even from some of the people within the organization,

on the media relations side. It was like, you know, it's like, God, you know, like, how could anyone support the NFL more? Well, they put on a hell of a show. Well, you know, and now we've brought someone in, local, and their attitude is, we have to work to get the fan support. Almost like a real business. There's no greater example than, you know, putting money where their mouth is, although not

necessarily money. But you like you spoke at length about how you really wanted the Canadian Football League to work and you wanted the Lions to thrive. This was under the previous ownership group and that when you were drummed out and dialed out on what

they were doing, you wanted to be back in, but you needed a reason to do it. And as soon as the reason showed up and it's mostly almost primarily a Mar Doman, you were back like a dreadful response. It was a dreadful experience going to a Lions game. It's very interesting. It was it was awful. I'll tell you, it's very interesting what they're doing right now, because it's reinvigorated the local market,

but it's also provided a blueprint for successful ownership for a league that is at times feels like it's hanging on by a thread. And I think that a lot of these other markets and you could look at the opponent on the weekend in Edmonton because the CFL is going through a real tough time in the province of Alberta right now with the two with the two Alberta franchises. And if you want to go even further, there will come a time where the heartland

of the Canadian football league, specifically Winnipeg and Sask, they'll go through this as well, where you can't just feel that people are obligated to show up because it's what they're supposed to do. There were a ton of empty seats in the Ryder's opener. So I know they had, they said they sold 25,000 and I know it was on a Thursday and people in Saskatchewan were like,

it's terrible doing a game on a Thursday. What about all the people from Saskatoon? Yeah, it's like, well, it's your thing. But that's a great example though. It's their thing. And traditionally, a lot of the league has leaned on that. It's an institution and that'll bring people in. And what Dolman's done is said, no, we need to. And Stuart Johnson had an article up, the new CFL commissioner is in the province over the weekend. He said, Amar Dolman has sparked something that was maybe simmering, but hasn't been there in a long time. And it's at great cost to the organization.

It is not cheap to bring in Fittyscent, to bring in Snoop, to bring in LL Cool J, to do these sorts of things. You've got a free concert for people an hour and a half ahead of kickoff. It's a big, big investment. And what you're doing is you're saying, we understand that this is an entertainment product

along with a sports product, and we are gonna try and deliver on that front as well, which is an important thing in a very crowded sports landscape, especially locally. Like we talk, yeah, it's a Canucks town and everything. But there's a lot of other entertainment properties out there that people can spend their money on and spend their time and invest their time into. So what Doman's been able to do has been terrific on that front. We are now up against it for time.

When we come back on the other side, we'll get into the other tenant at BC place, the Vancouver Whitecaps who had a very, very impressive and very, very interesting result over the Seattle Sounders yesterday. And then we've got a lot of other things we need to get into as well. We've got the Stanley Cup final. We've got the French opening, the Canadian opening,

everything else. It was a busy sports weekend, so we'll get into it next on the Alfred and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, 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. Hey. This is amazing. This could be sports music. I'm Steve Armitage here from Munich, Germany where we'll be covering the

swimming handball This has got some great 80s vibes It is an 80s Monday here on the 80s sports highlight package music is the vibe that I get totally That's what he's going for this week in baseball This is a keeper called wings of victory Yeah, it's got a sports vibe got sports title. I get it Oh, this is a keeper. It's called Wings of Victory. Yeah, it's got a sports vibe. It's got a sports title. I get it. You are listening to the Haliford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Haliford & Brough for the morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates.

With over 3,000 five-star views, they can help you with debt problems by offering debt help. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com giving the show such a serious tone it's very unlike us yeah it's a sports show but like a better sports show we are in our one of the program our one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal North Star Metal Recycling they recycle you get paid visit them 1170 pile street in Vancouver. Okay. So we went through the Abbotsford Canucks shout out to the Abbotsford Canucks.

They are on their way to the Calder cup final. We talked about the BC lions, shout out to the BC lions. Big win over the Elks in their home and season debut preceded by a fantastic Snoopa Loop concert. Bring your green hat. Jason Bruff was there, singing along to all the hits. Did you, now I know you were there as media. Did you manage to go down and purchase one of the gin and juice drinks that were available for sale?

No, I didn't. That would've been the capper. You're like, I'm working media, but not working that hard, if you know what I'm saying. You should've done it. Okay, so it was a great local sports weekend. Abbotsford wins, the Lions win, and the most surprising win of all

was the Vancouver Whitecaps because before the game, it looked like they were gonna have to play a bunch of kids. So the Whitecaps on Saturday officially announced their list of injuries, outs and questionables for the match. They were set to play the Seattle Sounders on Sunday night, 6 p.m. kickoff at BC Place. And on Saturday, they announced that, as we all knew, nine regulars were going to be missing from the lineup due to getting called up for international duty.

One was going to be out with an injury that had lingered throughout the entire year. That was Brian Gould and seven players were listed as questionable because of the gastrointestinal virus that they picked up while in Mexico for the infamous five nil loss in the CONCACAF Cup final to Cruz Azul. All seven of the questionable players were able to participate yesterday.

And all the white caps did, despite being so depleted, was go out and win three nil to extend their undefeated streak in MLS play to 11. Now the game was an interesting one. Amazing storylines throughout. We talked about how the Avensford Canucks got a boost from Surrey with Jujar. What a freaking boost.

Jujar Kara. I said Kyra earlier. Jujar Kara and Archdeep Baines scoring in their win. Young Jeevan Badwal, the teenager who, great story, played his youth soccer in Surrey, came up through the Whitecaps Academy. He started to feature more prominently in the team this year. Scored his first ever MLS goal. Right behind me in my seats in our section was his entire family. Oh, they went nuts. It was so loud. It was great. It was a really cool moment. So he put them up one nil that eventually stands as the match winner. And then when Jesper subbed Jeevan off in the second

half, they got him to do the walk all the way around the pitch down through the tunnel. And he got to walk off to this like massive standing applause throughout, throughout the BC place crowds. That was cool. Two red cards for Seattle. Never seen that before in all my days of going to white cast matches. I've never seen a team finish with nine on the pitch. They finished in a 3-2-3 formation. Just tough to play

for the two midfielders. Did they, were they two yellows that earned a red or were they two straight reds? Two straight reds. Last man back on a trip. The first one was pretty cut and dry. There was not much of a complaint whatsoever. The second one, it did look like the contact was kind of iffy, but it was still a last man, the last defender taking a guy down. That was a break in on goal.

So the white caps took care of business from there, finished the match three nil given where they were on Thursday and Friday. And after announcing what was going to be available to them on Saturday, no matter what happened with the in-match red cards and play and how everything went. The fact that the way caps were able to get out of that match with any points whatsoever was incredible given the guys that they had available to them. The gaffer Jesper Sorensen said, I think that the players, what they did today was exceptional

and it was. It was a great weekend for local sports. Okay. So we have a commitment to covering local sports on this show. Um, but we got to get to the Stanley Cup final. Um, these games have been incredible and the series is now tied one on between the Oilers and the Panthers game three tonight down in Florida. And I've seen a lot of people talking about whether or not this could be

the best Stanley cup final ever. Now we don't know how many games this could go. Could go five, right? You can have a really close series, but all the coin tosses or most of the coin tosses go in one team's direction. Um, but if this one goes seven, I dones go in one team's direction. But if this one goes seven, I don't see any way it's not one of the greatest Stanley Cup finals ever.

I have two favorite Stanley Cups, 1987 between the Oilers and the Flyers and 1994 between the Canucks and the Rangers. And the 94 one isn't just because the Canucks are in it. It is widely considered one of the greatest Stanley Cup finals ever. Good hockey. And a terrific storyline with the New York Rangers and the Canucks for that matter.

Now 2011 had a lot of drama and there were a lot of storylines, a lot of narratives, but the actual hockey games, they weren't, I mean there were some decent ones, but all the Bruins games were blowout wins. Too many lopsided scores. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The actual hockey wasn't incredible.

Last year was a classic for sure. 2009 I'd say when Crosby won for the first time. Yep. Over the Red Wings, that was good. 2022 didn't go seven, but the Avs were something to behold in that one. But this series has everything you want. If you're a fan of this game, you've got star

players performing like star players, whether it's McDavid and Drysidle for the Oilers or a guy like Brad Marchand for the Florida Panthers. You got lots of goals and scoring chance. I can't believe the amount of scoring chances in this series, but also here's the thing. They have plenty of great saves by the goalies and plenty of great defensive plays.

Forsling made two incredible defensive plays in game two. There's nastiness and villainy. Ask Edmonton oners fans what they think of Sam Bennett right now. You got great crowds, so there's the spectacle. We may not love the Oilers here in Vancouver, but man, their fans have come out for this. And I think this is like everyone has to be in

in some sort of costume if you go to a game in Edmonton. It's awesome to see, it's great. And you know, like we said in 94, there's a great storyline and the storyline in 94 was that the Rangers had this long drought, they hadn't won the Stanley Cup since 1940 and that was the chant that would go in the arenas like 1940, right? Yep.

So there was this drought that the Rangers found finally broke, but it looked like they were going to blow it. You know, they went up 3-1 on the Canucks and they're like, ah, game five, here comes the parade. No, no, no. Here come the Canucks.

And then you go back to game six in Vancouver, maybe the greatest game, maybe the greatest Canucks game ever played in Vancouver. Uh, and the Canucks win that game. And then, so everyone in New York is like, Oh my God, we're totally choking. They get it done in game seven. Yeah.

Good for the Rangers. But like this one has a storyline too, and it's drought related. The Canadian team hasn't won the Stanley Cups since 1993. Yeah. And the caliber of play I think has been aided by a few different things. One, the level of play, I think, has been aided by a few different things. One, the level of talent on both rosters. I mean, these are the two best teams in the National Hockey League right now.

I don't think that anyone would argue that we're seeing the two top teams in the league thankfully happen to play in different conferences, right? It's not like we got, you know, the Eastern Conference Final was the true Stanley Cup final. Like, these are the two best teams right now. The forward groups are phenomenal depth. Health, I think, is a big part of it outside of the Zach Hyman injury. You've got almost everyone there and available and ready to go. Yeah, guys aren't probably close to 100 percent.

Chuck isn't 100 percent, but but comparatively speaking, like, do you remember when the Florida Panthers limped into the Stanley Cup final two years ago against Vegas? Like that series was over before it started because Florida had nothing left in the tank for where they're at in the postseason. These two teams have quite a bit left in the tank. I'm not going to lie.

One of the great sort of like injustices of the NHL playoffs is that because it's such a grind and rough and I can attest to this because we were on the road and watching a lot of Stanley Cup finals, we were back working for NBC. By the time you get to the final, the hockey isn't so much about who's better, but who's surviving. Yep, it is. And oftentimes the hockey gets really low event,

kind of boring in stretches, and it becomes this war of attrition. What Edmonton and Florida have done through the first two games of this Stanley Cup final is put on a show. There's energy, there's excitement. The overtime, the Marshawn winner came after, I don't know, eight or 10, like throat and stomach moments

where you thought it was gonna be done. It was not a low event overtime session whatsoever. And that was preceded by Corey Perry's goal, which was the latest game tying goal in Stanley Cup final history. The Perry goal with 18 seconds left in the third period in game two. So we've got history on it as well.

It was the old man show. Yeah, I mean, you've got- on, on it as well. It was the old man show. Yeah. I mean, you've got. That McDavid to dry saddle move. Like that's, that's going to go down as one of the greatest goals scored in the Stanley Cup final ever that's up there with Mario versus the Minnesota North stars.

Such a sick move. Um, well, three moves. Okay. So first of all, you beat Barkov at the top and then you got to beat Ekblad. I've watched this thing so many times on replay. Yeah, it was incredible. And then you've got to have the wherewithal to find Drysaddle in his spot. And I'm telling you, the chemistry that those two have together is just incredible

where they know where each other are on the ice. But also, you know what? How about that save that Bobrowski made off dry sidle on the one timer. Yep. Because he knows it too, right? He knows that McDavid's always going to look for dry sidle in that spot and he was able to

go across and make a push. So like, you know, it's like, everyone's like, oh, the scoring chances are, you know, through the roof and there's been lots of goals. The defense must not be very good. I'm like, no, no. Or the goaltending must not be very good. No, there've been great saves

and there've been great defensive plays. There's been desperation. There's just, you know what there is? There's talent and passion on display right now. and there've been great defensive plays, there's been desperation, there's just, you know what there is? There's talent and passion on display right now. Yeah, and it's two heavyweights throwing punches, which is what I like to see, right? I think both teams have so much confidence

in their high-end skill ability, but also the depth throughout the lineup. And here's the other thing too, they both got gamers, like the Marshawn show in game two And I know some people right now listening are gonna be cringing at any sort of Marshawn praise and love But I mean that was I think most most Most hockey fans are beyond it and to the point where some Canucks fans that are some resentment there but if you don't have any actual appreciation for his game or for the fact that he can

Show up in the big moments, like I think there's going to be a class action lawsuit, like you're going to see one of these, uh, TV ads, like, have you been injured by Brad Marshawn in the playoffs? Right. And like the Canucks will be like, Oh, I want to join this, this class action. And the Leafs will be like, Oh, I'll join that too. You know, like if the Oilers don't win this series, they're going to have like three Canadian teams,

Toronto, Vancouver, and Edmonton that have all been done in, in part by Brad Marshawn. Yep. And that, I mean, if you want to talk about additions at the deadline that, and I know Florida benefited from being an elite power in the East and yeah, Marshawn only wanted to go to a handful of places. In fact, I think it just ended up being one at the end of the day. So it's hard to give Bill Zito a ton of praise for taking something that was like sitting

right in front of him. But if you want to talk about some of the greatest trade deadline additions of the last 15 or 20 years. What Marshawn has been able to do for that team, because if he's not there, you're leaning on, what, 60 percent of Matthew Kachak. And then you're putting a ton of pressure on. And Barkov's been good. Bennett's been great.

Reinhardt's been quiet. Yeah, right. And I know he's not playing at a hundred percent either. Marshawn has kind of tipped the scales because without him. Can I just make a comparison? Sure. And it's weird, because they have very different stories. It's not a soccer one, is it? No.

I'm gonna go the other way now. Phil Kessel. Yeah. When Kessel was added to the Penguins, he was on the third line there. And what made him, I mean, he played well, but what helped make him successful was that you got Sid on one line,

Gino on the other, and then Phil Kessel was able to join that team on the third line with Benino and Haglund and he was incredible in those playoffs because all of a sudden in your, you, you looked at the Penguins and you're like, this is a matchup nightmare. Who are we going to do? What are we going to do here? And with the Panthers, you've got Barkov's

line with Reinhardt and Carter Verhege. And then you've got Sam Bennett's line with Kachuk and I think Evan Rodriguez was on that line and then Anton Landell Sam Bennett's line with Kachuk and I think Evan Rodriguez was on that line And then Anton Landell who is one of the most underrated players in the NHL he's on a line with Marshawn and Louris Doreen and Luz Doreen and Luz Doreen and yeah We pronounce that one. I think actually we got it wrong and Marshawn is Incredible at getting breakaways because he anticipates the play so well.

Now, that being said, in game one, I think he got over aggressive on the PK and he ended up losing dry sidle in the slot on that great goal by the Edmonton Oilers. So sometimes you can get burned by being too aggressive in those situations, but not in game two. Yeah. The Phil Kessel comp is very interesting because I distinctly remember

the two Stanley Cups at Pittsburgh one. He was a point of game player. And in the first, no, sorry, the second Stanley Cup, there was some real consideration to give him the con smite because he ended up with 23 points in 25 games. He said he was routinely scoring somewhere between like 8 and 10 goals every postseason and he was lethal in the power play Even though he's a third-line guy. So that's a pretty good comp for Marshawn Someone just texted into the Dunbar lumber text message in basket Jordan in van He writes in Knox fans should move on from 2011. It was so long ago. You have to respect Marshawn's game.

He's a gamer who people would love to have on their team. Here's the thing, Jordan. He's cleaned up his act. Like, there's no question about that. Yeah, the low bridge on Sammy Sallow was... Take it, he was... That really made me mad. Like what he did to Daniel Sineen in game six, I was kind of like, you know,

punch him back someone, please. That aside, Marshawn's been suspended eight times for nearly 30 games in his NHL career. The early parts of his career, he was a slew foot merchant. He would do stuff that was beyond the pale when it came to dirty, cheap and the worst part was, and I think this was the case in Salo too, is he'd find guys in vulnerable positions and he'd take advantage of it, right? Predatory stuff. And that's why nobody had any respect for him. The antics were one thing. And the Bruins as an organization had to have a few talks with him. Because he was, honestly, there was a time where I wasn't sure how much longer he was

going to be for the NHL. He was going down the road. He was going eight suspensions for 30 games is a lot. You're in there with some of the more serial offenders in the National Hockey League at that point. It's interesting because see, Corey Perry still does a lot of the stuff that made him Corey Perry, the worm and the rat and everything. Well, so does Marshawn. In terms of, not the dangerous stuff. Not this, that's what I'm saying.

But like he chirps and he gets in your face and he's not gonna win the lady Bing out there. But that's what I'm saying, but he doesn't do the really dirty stuff anymore, the suspendable stuff. He's gonna do something now in this series. Can you imagine? He's like, oh, Brad Marshawn is back. I'm gonna sleuth foot someone. In the suspendable stuff. He's gonna do something now in this series. Can you imagine? He's like, oh, Brad Marshawn is back.

I'm gonna sleuth foot someone. In the last few years though. He's got that crazy look in his eye. In the last few years, Brad Marshawn has gone from, wow, this guy might be a Hall of Famer, to he's for sure a Hall of Famer, to I think the next step is like, wow, this guy might be first ballot Hall of Famer

with the company he's keeping. Look at him. His resume is crazy. Here, I'm gonna read some stats out for you. Playoff stats of active players. Okay, Sidney Crosby in the playoffs. 180 games for 201 points, pretty good. I think Sid's gonna be a first ballot guy.

You think? Malkin, 177 games, 180 points. First ballot guy. Kucherov, 152 games, 171 points. First ballot guy, Kuch, right? Yep. Fourth is Marchand. Yep.

155 points in 176 games, 63 goals. Halford, here you go, plus 44 in the 176 games he's played in the playoffs. Connor McDavid is going to catch him on the point side, but Marshawn has more career points than McDavid at this point. So he's fourth in scoring in points all time among active players. And he's surrounded by first ballot guys, like all these guys, like, okay, I'll go through the list here.

Crosby, Malkin, Kucherov, Marshon, McDavid, Ovechkin, Corey Perry, Patrick Kane, Leon Dreissel, Nathan McKinnon. Those are the top 10 guys in terms of career, career playoff scoring among active players. Now all of them have played a different amount of games. So it is an apples and oranges comparison, but look at this. Like, I mean, he is an absolute money player.

Only thing he hasn't won is an Olympic gold. Everything else he's won juniors, world hockey championships, four nations face off. And when I saw him playing the four nations, I was like, I don't know if he's going to play in the Olympics. I don't know if he's going to made the Canadian team. But now I'm watching. I'm like, oh, they might have to put them on there. That's a tough one because he wasn't great in the four nations. He's definitely been invigorated, reinvigorated playing in Florida without question. You can tell.

And I think part of that has to do with the stakes involved. But the stakes are so high, the four nations as well. Now, the collection of talent, the four nations, there were certain guys. I mean, they went for the American team, too. There were certain guys that were just kind of invisible during the tournament. And I don't know if that was deployment or the coaches just couldn't find a role for them. March on of the Olympics is super interesting to me because at this stage of the game, you're like,

do we not want him in one of those like clutch moments or we need something here? Like who more are you asking from than a guy who keeps showing up time after time after time in these big moments? Honestly, if Florida goes down 0-2 in that series, they're not done by any stretch of the imagination, but think about if they lose that game too.

They give up the lead in regulation with 18 seconds left, that's a gut punch. If they were to lose that game and over time, they're going to say, we got nothing out of Edmonton when we needed to split. Yeah. And they went into that series, like we don't win when we've got a lead after the second, or

we don't, we don't lose when we've got a lead after the second period. They would have lost twice in that situation. Yeah, it's an amazing series and I hope it continues on being amazing. Tonight, game three in Florida. Thursday. That I hate the schedule by the way.

This is bizarre. I hate the schedule. Thursday is game four. Two days off when you've got the games in the same city Makes no sense. I understand having a gap when you got to travel because it's a long way between Edmonton and for must have something Booked for the arena Wouldn't you is that why it's that Danish rock band you were talking about earlier. They're going out of Florida beat. Yeah Who are they opening for three days grace or something like that? Yeah. Yeah, it's not three doors down. No

It's another band involving three. Yeah, I know I was like three doors great grace Three doors deep three days down three dog night. They still around the same and then Saturday is game five back in Edmonton so like, you know, even if you don't have a rooting interest in this series, and I know a lot of people are cheering for Edmonton, whatever, I've gotten over it, I'm not. I cheered hard when Brad Marchand scored, which was weird.

And that was a hilarious tweet by Luongo, too. That's pretty great. I mean, that was very, very funny. What is a favorite player of all time? Favorite player ever? Best player ever? Something like that. I can't remember. Yeah, it was very, very funny. What is a favorite player of all time? Favorite player ever, best player ever, something like that. I can't remember. Yeah, it was a sentiment. It was also funny when Freage played the clip

of Marshaun scoring against the Canucks in the cup final and Bjeksa was just like arms crossed. Kev did not want to see that clip at that exact moment. He got it. Yeah, it is pretty funny. All right, what do we got coming up? Yeah, we got a lot more to get to on the program. Speaking of Florida, we're gonna go to Florida next on the other

side of the break. Steven Wino, uh, NHL writer for the Associated Press. Good friend of the program will be joining us to set up game three. A reminder game three of the Stanley cup final is on sports net six 50 tonight, right after Canuck central five o'clock. Uh, we've got it. And before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC lions schools out in summers here. Kick it off with the BC Lions summer camp game, Saturday, June 21st at 4pm. For details and tickets, visit bclions.com. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet at 6.50.