Halford & Brough in the Morning - Where Has All The Guitar Rock Gone

Episode Date: September 3, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason do some make-up Ask Us Anythings including a Brough rant about how there isn't enough good guitar rock these days (3:00), the boys chat with BC Lions defensive lineman Mathieu Betts (26:07) after Saturday's big win over Ottawa, plus they discuss the history-making Leon Draisaitl contract (34:31). 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.

7-0-1 on a Tuesday. I feel like we have to go solve a mystery right now. It sounds like the start of a casino heist movie. Yeah. It's great. Annie James Bond? Yeah, yeah, kind of, yeah. She walked into my room, and I looked up, and I knew my life had changed.

I knew the dame would be trouble the second I saw her. Please stop smoking in my office. Screwed that up. So close. So close. please stop smoking in my office so close so close it is 7.01 on a Tuesday caper Tuesday rewind we're going to do this all over again play the music start over on the top

this is the beauty of live radio you are listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650 Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. Speaking of mysteries, we need to get to the bottom of the mystery of regular Zach, as we call him now. Producer Zach.

The mystery of eating ramen at 5.54 a.m. So I came in this morning. I was here at 5.30, so a half hour earlier than Jason arrives every morning. And there was Zach sitting there with a big red coffee mug. Oh, he likes coffee. Pretty standard, right? Big cup. It's 5.54 in the morning.

Big cup for a big boy. That's right. Who's a big guy today? Zach is. So he's sitting there, and he prepares to take a swig, only I notice that the cup stops about, I don't know, several inches away from his mouth, and then a spoon comes from the mug,

and he's hoovering, hoovering ramen into his gullet. Are you not making enough money? Yeah, what's going on here? I'm a big breakfast guy. I like a warm breakfast, and there's only so much you can do with the office supplies. Okay, but you must understand that ramen is not a breakfast meal, of course. It is a dinner or a lunch meal, a very nice dinner or a lunch meal.

Why can't it be a breakfast one, though? Well, let's not dissect this too much. Ramen is not a breakfast meal. I don't want to take a lot of nutrition advice from you. Yeah, right. This isn't a nutrition thing. This is more of a comfort thing, isn't it? No, ramen is not nearly sweet or sugary enough to be a breakfast food.

Yeah, it doesn't even cross into the savory threshold of breakfasts, right? Hey, I love ramen. Don't get me wrong. It's one of my favorite meals. But breakfast? It's water and salt, really. Salt and water. Did you buy the ramen here from the vending machine? So, no. When I was interning here, yes.

Every single day. Which is a risk unto itself. I could save even more money by going to the London Drugs and buying a five-pack for the week. So every morning I should be having ramen. Wow, you are an intern. You're living that intern life. That's good.

Anyway, I'm glad you had 5.54 a.m. ramen. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. I'm so hungry. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Sophie, what are you waiting for. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sophie, what are you waiting for? Kintec. Okay, so you said you wanted to do

impromptu makeup, ask us anything today, which is probably a good idea. We got a lot of submissions last week that we weren't able to get to. So I'll turn the floor over. Actually, you know what? Before we do that, since we're talking about submissions

to the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket, 650-650, get them in now. We're going to be doing them for the next 20 or some odd minutes. But also, if you want to win a four-pack of tickets to see the Vancouver Canadiens playoff baseball action against Spokane next Tuesday, so a week today, September 10th at Nat Bailey, send in what we learned. Hashtag them WWL. Put a ticket emoji into the text i forgot to mention that earlier and the best what we learned will win a four pack of uh vancouver canadians playoff

tickets to spokane games here they're playing spokane tuesday september 10th and that bailey okay go okay okay my uh ask us anything actually ties to a tweet that was from like last year, but it showed up on my Instagram. Nice. And the tweet was, we're about two weeks away from every dad in America saying, quote unquote, big third down here in unison. And it's always a big third down. And this, of course, is the start of the football season,

college and NFL. I realize CFL has been around, but a big third down in the CFL is usually a punt. Big second down. So a big second down. So I wanted to know what you guys, what are some of the things that you guys find yourself saying? Kind of cliche stuff during a game over and over. I'll start with mine because I've actually thought about this. When I watch hockey, I am constantly saying,

got to win that battle. Got to win a battle. That is a good one. Got to win a battle out there. Yep. Like we've got boys, you got to win a battle out there. The puck is right there. Do you want it?

Go get it. They're not going to give it to you. And then I go on a bit of a rant then i'll just be like guys just you know what everyone talks about analytics they talk about they talk about skating and the skill in the game at the end of the day if you want the puck you got to go get it yourself it's a matter of will um the one i use in hockey a lot although it's been less and less because vancouver's gottenaltending, but he's going to want that one back. He's going to want that one back.

You know what I love? Just on any play, it could be a bad goal or it could be on a bad play because it makes you just sound so superior. It's amazing. And I know you do it. And you just say two words. Can't happen. Can't happen. Cannot happen. That cannot happen right there and that's

an offshoot of not good enough and that's an offshoot of got to be better than that yeah all of them are great um i yeah now about gotta catch that ball yep gotta make that play gotta make that catch gotta make it have to a football one that i like to use because you talked about yeah big third down here need to stop here need to down here. Need to stop here. Need to stop here, boys. Yeah, yeah. Need to stop here. That's if you're on the defensive side of football.

Also, and this is American college football and NFL only, are we in four down territory? We in four down territory? I feel like we're in four down territory. This could be four down territory. Here's one from Juan from Comox. Shoot the puck. Can't score if you don't hit the net.

That is true. I like that. That was me a lot, especially relating to Pedersen on the power play. I was always yelling at Petey, like, shoot. Just shoot it. Oh, you're that guy. You're just a shoot on the power play guy. I wasn't usually, but this last season I found myself being that guy a lot,

especially with Petey. Because he'd be in his spot. I'm like, you're in your spot, Petey. Just shoot it. And he wouldn't shoot it. It would really make me angry. Don't fall down. Oh, God, this has gotten so much worse.

Did you know that you miss 100% of the shots that you don't take? Some very famous Michael Scott book. That is pretty good. I yell at you. Oh, sorry, go ahead. So Johnny Angel texts in, you went in the playoffs with special teams and goaltending end of story. Now we're not talking about like things you say after the game or during the

game, we're talking about like, you're watching the game and you'll say things like, again, like big third down or can't happen. Yeah. Like something that it's usually, it's usually something that makes you sound,

try and sound like superior. Like you've seen it all. You know what's coming next. And you know it all. And like the people around you don't really understand how big this third down really is. You used to like watching basketball with me because I was always,

especially now with the proliferation of three-pointers, every time I went into the corner, I'd be like, shoot it. Got to shoot it. Shoot it. No, your problem is, no, I went into the corner, I'd be like, shoot it. Got to shoot it. Shoot it. No, your problem is you would never do that. I'd be like, that's good. Yeah, and then it would clank.

That's good. He's a 30% three-point shooter. That's good. That's good. That's a good shot. Oh, but you know what? The next one might be good. That could be okay.

Okay, who else doesn't ask us anything? I don't. I was just getting really excited on this one. Okay. Here, I have another one. And I know this is a sports show, but this is an old man. There's going to be more middle-aged man stuff. Okay.

So I was watching a lot of nostalgic music over the long weekend. It was a beautiful weekend. The weather was great. I was playing some tunes. All right. And you stayed inside and watched YouTube videos? No, I walked around sometimes. Well, he had the window open. He had a nice breeze coming in. No, no, no. I was playing some tunes. All right. And you stayed inside and watched YouTube videos? No, I walked around sometimes. Well, he had the window open.

He had the nice breeze coming in. No, no, no. I was walking around. I was listening to music. I was even listening to some old ACDC. And then I fell down like a rabbit hole. I'm like, I wonder how they're doing. It turns out they're pretty old.

And then I watched an interview with like a young Angus Young. And he was talking about playing the guitar and everything. And I got me thinking, I was like, does anyone play the guitar anymore? Is it cool to play the guitar anymore? And then I sent a text to the group and I'm sure the group was like, oh, Brough seems busy today. And I said, and I asked him, Zach, young man, are there any young guitarists that are famous? Right. Like who, like what, I mean, we go back.

I mean, so favorite guitarist, A-Dog, we were talking about this before. We said like Prince was underrated as a guitarist. Some of my favorite guitarists, Angus Young, that was the first one as a kid. I was like, that guy's incredible. And look how he's wearing a schoolboy uniform and hopping around the stage on one foot. It's incredible. That was so much fun.

Mark Knopfler with Dire Straits. Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana. And it was the coolest thing To play the guitar If any guy brought out the guitar At a party Swoon city, I was swooning I was like, oh, you're so dedicated to that And you're so good at it

Choose me, please Yeah, I know Should we go to the beach? But it doesn't happen anymore Right So no, but I'm asking the listeners Zach, you're young. And I'm going to ask the fellow youngsters who are the three young people that listen to our show live at seven in the morning.

We're clearly down. Is playing the guitar cool anymore? Okay. I did a little bit of research on this. I don't know if it's a cool factor as it so much is the time and practice and dedication it takes to become a truly great guitar player. Because with a lot of these guys. Because younger people are lazy. That's what you're saying. I mean, I didn't want to go there right away.

I was going to kind of get around to it. You were headed there pretty straight direction. I think the pulling the guitar out of the party, though, has become something of a meme. Like, even, like, by the time I was getting out of high school, I know, like, a guy would do it at a party and everyone would just roll their eyes. Can you play the guitar a little bit at all? No, I'm terrible at it. Not at all? Not at all. John Belushi ended that

when, in Animal House. When he smashed the guy's guitar. I love that. Do any young people know Animal House? Right. Speaking of things that aren't going to resonate with our young audience. You keep asking Zach and you keep talking instead of him. Zach, how old are you, just for context? 23.

Oh, God. Well, these young people need to learn to speak up for themselves. So, Zach. Damn it, Zach, say something. Before Halford says something again. You got ramen in your mouth? Spit it out. Let's go.

Zach, is it cool to play guitars at parties anymore? Oh, at parties? No, no chance. Is it cool to play guitar anymore? I Zach, is it cool to play guitars at parties anymore? Oh, at parties? No, no chance. Is it cool to play guitar anymore? I think it is still cool to play guitar. It is. I just think that a lot of the popular music nowadays doesn't have as much guitar, so there isn't as much kind of enticement to learn.

Yeah, even like the new rock, like the new pop rock bands of the moment aren't like, I find they aren't guitar centric like they used to be. Like you'll still hear riffs sometimes, but it's just not like, riffs aren't guitar-centric like they used to be. You'll still hear riffs sometimes, but it's just not like... Riffs aren't as much a thing for new rock music anymore, which sucks too because I love a good riff. Isn't that why there was such a push for a lot of artists to just start making hip-hop music

because it was actually really easy and accessible, right? You could download most of the programs. You could have a drum machine. Then you could kind of upload your music to your mumble rap. Well, like the last big rock bands, like the stadium rock bands

that you're talking like, you know, whether it be like Coldplay or Kings of Leon or Mumford & Sons or whatever, they obviously had guitar but they weren't like

riff-centric rock bands, right? There wasn't like the and here's the part where there's the guitar solo. Yeah, here's the sweet guitar solo down in the last two minutes. Like, it's just not like, I mean, maybe there's bands that I'm missing

that are like popularized now that somebody in the inbox could correct me that are riff-centric. Like, I could think of a lot of really good riff bands that are in like the metal genre that are awesome. But like, as far as like radio rock bands, like there's nothing that springs to my mind right away. I'm trying to lobby the Canucks

on doing an ACDC theme night. Yeah, you mentioned that. For when they first wear their black skate jerseys and just have a big back in black day. Just play it over and over and over again?

No. Just back in black. But I think they do. They're wearing black. They have come out to, they have skated out onto the ice to back in black

when they're wearing their jerseys. I think they have done that, but why not go just all in and just ice to back in black when they're wearing those, those, their jerseys. I think they have done that, but why not go just all in and just have a back in black night? Shoot to thrill would be a great goal song. Does anyone know these songs anymore? That's the problem. Okay.

So the there's, and a lot of people are texting in something, uh, an offshoot of the conversation that we're having, but I think pretty prevalent. The, the uninterrupted guitar solo in songs which is what we all grew up with yeah that is slash on november rain that is where everyone like just leaves the stage for a bit where

i think that i'm gonna get a sandwich while he's like guitar solo how are you gonna do this for uh but that's been obliterated from modern music. I don't know. Well, you know, Mike, you may not have heard this, but Oasis is reuniting. Yeah. A really, really good band. That happened last week.

Yeah, yeah. And they like a good guitar riff, so maybe they'll bring it back. Someone's saying Ed Sheeran is the best guitarist in his quote-unquote musical prime right now. Can you confirm or deny? I can't. I don't really know his stuff.

Unfortunately, I'm sorry. I mean, obviously I know who he is, but I couldn't confirm that. Someone suggesting Brad Paisley or the country lean? That's interesting. I guess if you're talking like technically proficient, like as far as popularized, although I don't know if he's like a huge artist now, but like John Mayer back in the day was like considered to be one of like the best living guitar players.

Like he was just so technically proficient. Like he'd play with like jazz combos and he could do like prog rock and like crazy metal stuff like the guy is like insane so but that was like again 20 years ago right so i don't know if he's still like in the forefront uh so we talked about this earlier to the texter who texted in rather rudely um we were actually ahead of this story. But the Whitecaps have made it official. Stuart Armstrong is with the Whitecaps now. They just announced it 15 minutes ago. Again, we already talked about this on the show. He is Scottish.

He's 32 years old, wrong side of 30. He's been a free agent. So what do we expect of this guy? Okay, I have not great memories of the last, because the Whitecaps have done this before. They've had two Scottish designated players. You know that I didn't say Scottish DPs. Don't Google that.

They've done this before they've done this before uh they had kenny miller and barry i don't know if you remember it was over a decade kenny miller and barry robson um i didn't love it now this is different because gold's already here and it doesn't matter where they're from as long as they're good is this guy gonna be good well that's the thing he's 32 he's on a free as they would say because he wasn't attached to a club his best days were five or six years ago that being said um this is a very much not here for a long time but hopefully a good time signing. Right. And they need players. They're going to miss him. It sounds weird to say that, but they are missing so many players on Saturday.

Hopefully he can make his debut. We'll reach out to the Whitecaps and see if we can get Stuart Armstrong on the show, or at the very least someone to talk about Stuart Armstrong on the show. Back to the guitar talk. No. Here's an Ask Us Anything from Mike, the urologist from Brockville. Ask Us Anything, do you expect the Canucks

to surpass or fail to match their performance from last year? And Mike says, I say they play just as well by the eye test and advanced stats, but have fewer points. Now, there was another

Ask Us Anything that came in, and I apologize because I didn't flag it, and there's a lot of guitar texts coming in right now. Yeah, really right. Good choice on an ask us anything.

Yeah. And it said, are you worried about the Canucks goaltending situation? And my answer to that would be, yeah. Yeah. I am worried about the Canucks goaltending situation. I'm not worried about the early season.

I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about Patrick Demko's long-term health. End of the story. And until not worried about that. I'm worried about Thatcher Demko's long-term health. End of the story. And until he can prove that he can stay healthy and he can get past this, what's being reported

as like a rare or weird knee injury, and I'm going to continue to be worried. Now to the question from Mike, the urologist from Brockville, I think even if the Canucks had a healthy Thatcher Demko,

they'd be hard pressed to match what they did last season in the regular season. I agree. Because they got 109 points. It was the third-best season in franchise history in terms of points. And the only two that surpassed that were the 2011 and 2012 teams. Yeah, the President's Trophy-winning teams.

It was a crazy season last season. They won 50 games last year. That's a hard total to match. So I don't think they'll match that, but I think I'm at the point now where I'm looking around the playoff picture in their conference

and looking at what the Canucks have right now. I am at the point now, last season convincingly, where I'd be surprised if they missed. Like that would be – I wouldn't just be disappointed. I'd be like, wow, I'm legitimately surprised that they missed the playoffs. I would too because the way that –

Unless the Demko thing really, really blows up in a bad way, I suppose. Yeah, that's fair. Based on what I saw on the postseason, I think that they have enough of an inherent structure and the ability to maybe batten down the hatches a little bit. They could probably still get through a season. I don't know what a full season of, let's say, and we're going pure hypotheticals here now, right? We're going down the road, but I don't know what a full season of Seelovs would look like as opposed to a two-and-a-half-week, three-week sample size. Now, here's the thing. I think that maybe part of the reason,

and we've talked about this plenty of times, but part of the reason that this team might have fatigued or potential injuries might have happened down the stretch is because there were certain times of the reason we've talked about this plenty of times part of the reason that this team might have fatigued or potential injuries might have happened down the stretches because there were certain times of the season where the Canucks felt like they had to play guys more load up minutes start particular players in particular games because they were in prove it mode the way talk it is spoke at the the coaches conference that he held and you know talking about low medium and high hard or however he explained it. Another thing that he said is like,

we feel confident that the structure is in place and that the players on this team aren't going to abandon it. Or what's more, the new guys coming aboard are going to get up to speed pretty quickly because the guys are so practiced and it's a routine. Now, if a coach is talking like that, you have to have some faith that they won't be far off

the style of play that they had last year. They should be okay, but I don't think they'll get to 109 points. Passive aggressive, ask us anything, into the Dunbar-Lumber text line. What are some things Jason isn't worried about regarding the Canucks? Quinn Hughes.

I've heard a lot of talk about people wondering about Quinn Hughes because I think he did have a tough playoff. I'm not worried about him. I know how driven he is and I know how he's overcome things. I think Quinn Hughes is going to look at what happened during the playoffs. Um, look at how much attention he received and maybe make some adjustments. And some of the things he might be able to do is get rid of the puck quicker, mix it up a little bit.

Um, so I'm not worried about Quinn Hughes, but everything else, I mean, like I love the people that are just too cool to worry about it. You know, like they immediately reframe the world as soon as some potentially bad news comes down. Right. And also like worried, I don't sit up at night going like,

I hope that your numb goes okay. But I'm also like curious about the situation. What is his injury? I think there's a very fine line between people who hear concern and people who think it's negativity. Oh, totally. You know, that's what it comes down to. Totally.

All these are valid concerns. But I mean, I guess if you want to balance everything that you say, things that you're not concerned about is the optimism and positivity. I think that they're going to be a faster team this year. And I think that's a good thing because if there was one issue that they needed to address from last season, it was collective team speed. Do you really think they're going to be considerably faster?

Who's going to make them that much faster? I don't think they're going to be that much faster, but I think they're going to be considerably faster? Who's going to make them that much faster? I don't think they're going to be that much faster, but I think they're going to be faster, if that makes sense. Like, I do think that... Well, Heinen should help, but I don't know how much, how big a role he's going to have. I think Heinen and Sherwood will help. I'm really looking forward to Sherwood.

Yeah, I think that... And part of it is just plugging in quicker players. And I also do wonder if those guys might get more opportunities in bigger moments or a higher minute total if Talkett sees a correlation between, wow, these guys make us faster and they make us more dangerous.

Like that gets you a bump in the lineup, right? That can make you go fourth to third, third to second line, whatever. That all has to play itself out, but it remains to be seen. Okay, before we go to break, I do need to do the Canadian Football Report brought to you by Securian Canada,

the official life insurance partner of the CFL. I think we spent enough time going over the Lions' big 38-12 win over the Red Blacks, and we are going to continue that conversation

on the other side because Matthew Betts is going to join us after coming off a victory in his season debut at Royal Athletic Park in Touchdown Pacific. Jason mentioned

that the Bombers beat the Rough Riders 35-33. The big news there for the Canadian Football Report is that Zach Kolaros was hurt, and no word if he's going to suit up for the next game. Big upset in the East. The lowly Hamilton Tigercats, no doubt spurred on by the fact that Laddie is back in Ontario.

They got a win over the Argos yesterday, and then the Elks beat the Stamps 35-20 in the other game yesterday. So that's your weekly recap of everything that went on in the Canadian Football League. The Owls remain on top of the East with a 10-1 record.

The Owls, of course, are going to host the BC Lions this weekend. And as Jason mentioned earlier, it's not a runaway leader in the West like it is in the East. The Bombers and the Lions are tied at 6-6. Atop the division, the Rough Riders are 5-6 with that tie back in the season

of 5-6-1. That was the CFL Report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. Speaking of the CFL, Matthew Betts is going to join us on the other side of the show. We'll talk to him about his experiences in Victoria over the weekend, his first game of the season for the BC Lions.

It is also a homecoming for Matthew Betts this week as the Lions go to Montreal. A reminder, 8 o'clock, Brendan Batchelor is going to join the program for some Canucks talk. And at 8.30, we're doing what we learned, and we're giving away a four-pack of tickets to the Vancouver Canadiens playoff game at Nat Bailey a week from today. That's Tuesday, September 10th against Spokane.

Best What We Learn gets the four-pack of tickets. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. 731 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts.

Matthew Betts, BC Lions defensive lineman, is going to join us in just a second here. Before we get to Matthew, there is some fledgling, some burgeoning, breaking news, courtesy of Elliot Friedman. Fried's reports that the Edmonton Oilers and Leon Dreisaitl have, quote, made significant progress on a contract extension. No one is commenting, but it appears they are close to an eight-year extension. Here's the big news.

It is believed that the average annual value of that eight-year extension for Leon Dreisaitl and Edmonton is going to be $14 million a year. Dear Lord. Which would be the highest AAV in the NHL. Capspace isn't going to be a problem for them, though, because McDavid is going to leave. Right.

Well, Leon's making all the money. I got to go somewhere else. So we'll follow up on that on the other side I'll obviously work to get someone either out of Edmonton or maybe even Fridge himself if not today then hopefully tomorrow on the show but we gotta turn our attention back or we can get Leon

Leon why are you so rich yeah and pissy get rich I bet he doesn't do Vancouver radio gonna go out on a limb on that one I'll go to try give it a shot. See how that chase goes. Let's go to the phone lines now.

Very excited to be joined by our next guest, BC Lions defensive lineman Matthew Betts here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Matthew. How are you? I'm doing great, guys. How are you doing this morning? We are great as well.

Thanks for taking the time to do this. So I guess the weekend must have been like old hat for you, like nothing's ever changed. You come back, you get a sack, you guys get the win, everything's good. It was like you weren't even left, Matthew. Your thoughts on the big win in Victoria over the weekend and your return to the BC Lions.

Honestly, I feel like you're right. It really felt like if I never left. It was just so much fun. Obviously, it was a different environment being in Victoria. It was actually my first time there. It was just so much fun. I mean, obviously, it was a different environment being in Victoria. It was actually my first time there. So, no, it was great, honestly. Just to be part of that, obviously,

get the win was number one on my board and we got it done. I mean, Nathan played a hell of a game and I think we played really, really well defensively also. We had a couple of guys that really showed out. So, no, I'm encouraged for the rest of the season. It was a big also. We had a couple of guys that really showed that. So, no, I'm encouraged for the rest of the season.

So it was a big win. We're already out to Montreal. Yeah, it's going to be a tough game out east. But, yeah, it's crunch time of the season. Labor Day is behind us. So we need to play some good ball until the end of the year. I know you had familiarity with the team and the coaching staff and probably some of the schemes and everything, but how difficult was it going in? Really short week for you, not a lot of prep time,

and then getting thrown right into the middle of a game. And it was a big game for the Lions because not only did you guys have a five-game losing streak, but you were going up against a team that delivered that fifth loss in Ottawa. Yeah, obviously being in the system was really the game changer for me. I mean, I came back, some of the stuff changed in the playbook, but I mean, it was more terminology and just things we used to do that we kind of called differently.

But I mean, as soon as I got back on that walkthrough on that Friday, I mean, we got the same notion. I mean, some players just came back naturally because it's the same approach, it's the same aggressive mindset that we used to have. So it helped a lot to roll the same system, basically, with what RP did. And the guys helped me out. I mean, I see Oli, who was with me here for the past two seasons also. I mean, he gave me a little crash course of what changed

and what I had to expect. But no, honestly, it was great. And now I'm back on track with the whole playbook. I had the chance to be there working with the coaches over the off days we had those past couple of days. And yeah, so I'm ready to go for the rest of 2024. So Matthew, do the expectations and perhaps the excitement level

along with those expectations only get higher now that ownership has made the commitment to not only bring you back, but Nathan Rourke back, and also you've got the Grey Cup in BC this year. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how high they can be, but I mean, even when I wasn't part of the team earlier on this year, I feel like they were talking about the objective is to win the Great Cup. It shouldn't be different any other year. It's hard to get those expectations

higher than that. It's hard to say, but obviously the end goal is to win the Great Cup. If you are going to do that, you need to have a want-to-know mentality. I feel like that's what we have here, but I know that's what I want to bring to the team.

That's how I'm going to work and how I want the D-line to work together is to make sure we win that one matchup we got this week. So I'm going to see if you see. If you're looking too far ahead, I think that's where you're going to trick yourself. So for us, it's to work as hard as possible into beating Montreal this weekend. I mean, that's watching film, working on their techniques, trying to see their tendencies to be able to play faster on Friday

and to do all that stuff. But, yeah, I really feel like that's how you're going to grow as a team because you're going to play well on the weekend. And if you're having good habits, well, that's how the team improves. So, yeah, the expectations are high. It shouldn't be different. We're speaking to BC Lions defensive lineman Matthew Betts here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Matthew, I do want to ask you about your time in Detroit. I know the ending wasn't exactly what you wanted, but how was the experience of going through the preseason training camp and all those games with the Lions? Yeah, like you said, not the result that I anticipated or that I

wanted, but overall, like I told a lot of people, I'm putting it in the positive category, especially from the football aspect, obviously. It's football paradise there. I mean, yeah, we worked hard. I mean, all throughout OTAs, throughout training camp,

it was a long training camp, long days. Very demanding, but football-wise, it was just fun to have quality coaches, quality people there. I feel like they were doing the things the right way. They for sure had some really, really good players that you could learn from, so top to bottom. I mean, if you needed something that was football-related, I mean, you were for sure put in the best environment as possible

to succeed as a football player, as an athlete, which is something that was cool for me to be part of. The preseason game, it was a slow build for me where I didn't have as many reps to start and I ended up playing better football and getting more reps throughout the preseason games. I think I did good for myself. I'm happy with the film I showed out there. So, in general, it was a positive experience,

and I'm happy I did it, to be honest. What was Dan Campbell like? I like to see him on TV. That's what I tell a lot of people. I mean, he's a genuine, passionate football guy, loves his team. The one aspect that I think doesn't show necessarily when you look from the outside is how smart he is. He literally thinks about every little detail

that a football team has to go through in order to be successful, if it's situational football, if it's scheme-wise, if it's just looking at every special team drill that's been done throughout the week, throughout the day to make sure that if there's a detail of somebody doing something right or something wrong that we can improve on and to show the team how we can do something better, he's going to do it.

So it's just his overall approach to try to lead a team to me. It was something that I've never really been around somebody that did it that way, but I thought it was a good way to do it. Before we let you go, homecoming for you this weekend. It's the game in Montreal, 10-1 Montreal. Alouettes are the hosts. How big a challenge is this team going to present for you guys as you look to get a second win in a row?

Yeah, well, they're coming off a bye, and they're playing home, and they have the best record in the CFL, so I feel like it speaks for themselves. From my point of view, I mean, it's early in the week, but I feel like it's a team that executes really well on the offensive side of the ball, and they don't beat themselves. So in order to have a chance to get them, I feel like we will have to be aggressive. We will have to get them off the clock or off schedule to make sure that we try to press them

to make some mistakes, and when they do, we need to capitalize and make them pay for it. So that's how I see the game, how I envision the week going. But it's football. So when you play hard, when you play with good technique, when you play together, usually things solve themselves. So that's what we're going to try to do. Matthew, it's great having you back in a BC Lions uniform. It was great having you on the show this morning.

Thanks a lot for doing this. We appreciate it, and good luck in Montreal. Awesome, guys. Thank you for having me. Yeah, thank you. That's Matthew Betts, BC Lions defensive lineman, already with a sack this year. One game, one sack.

Kept his average from last year. He had 18 and 18, so that's pretty good. I do want to turn our attention back to what we were talking about off the top. We have some breaking news out of Edmonton. Sportsnet 650 Breaking News. The Edmonton Oilers have made it official. Leon Dreisaitl has signed an eight-year, wait for it,

$112 million contract extension with the club. It begins not this year, but the year following, 2025-2026. Average annual cap hit of $14 million. Leon Dreisaitl, eight years, $112 million extension in Edmonton. So he goes from a cap hit of $8.5 million to $14 million. Meanwhile, McDavid, his cap hit is a mere $12.5 million. Headline, McDavid, jealouscdavid second fiddle yeah um mcdavid of course uh has uh one year left uh sorry two years left on his deal before he has

to sign a new contract so there's nothing urgent right now that the oilers have to do, this doesn't really change anything right now for the new GM, Stan Bowman and the organization. This was something they wanted to get done. Yes, it's a lot of money because you know what? Dry saddle, good player. Very good player. And when they pay McDavid a big contract, it'll be worth it if they get him under contract because he's a good player. Some people will be worried. Is this too much money to spend on two guys?

No, not if they don't, not if they perform like they've been performing. You don't run into problems signing good players. Okay. That's a, that's a fundamental misunderstanding of the NHL. You run into problems wasting your money on certain guys though. Like Darnell Nurse.

Right. So I think one of the things that management is going to have to find a way to do is to shed that Darnell Nurse contract, which has a cap hit of $9.25 million. Just a killer contract when you look at it. Totally. Just a killer contract. Just a killer contract. And look at it. Totally. Just a killer contract.

Just a killer contract. And here's the challenge for the Oilers. Typically, if you want to shed salary, you give away draft picks or young players. The Oilers can't really do that either because they need the young cheap labor on this team. So they've really dug themselves a hole with the Darnell Nurse contract. And I don't know, watching him play, he's almost 30 years old.

I don't think he's all of a sudden going to pull it together. Yeah. He's a problem for them like Oliver Ekman-Larsen was for the Vancouver Canucks. And the Canucks ended up paying a pretty big penalty to buy out Oliver Ekman-Larsen. And that's a penalty that hasn't really been experienced yet. Yeah. This year.

Well, it will be over the next few years. Next year is like four something. Yeah. Gradually it comes back to kill you later on, which is great. Yeah. Hopefully the cap keeps going up for the Canucks' sake. The Oilers just need more young players because, don't forget, they lost a couple to St. Louis when St. Louis swung in there

with their off-sheets and stole those players away from them. Now, they did get some compensation for that, but not huge compensation, and that's why they were interested in a player like Vasily Podkolzin, who's going to get, I think, a pretty big shot with them to show what he can do. They need players like Podkolzin to make an impact for them because Evander Kane only has two years left on his deal, and I don't know what his future is.

I think he's opening the year on LTIR. Well, he's going to open the year hurt. Yeah. Whether it's on LTIR or not remains to be seen. He's 33 years old. He's running into injury issues. He's at the age where a power forward often sees his game dip and dip significantly.

We saw that with a guy like, say, Milan Lucic. Zach Hyman's not young. He's 32 years old, $5.5 million cap hit, still a really good player for the next few years. And I think Nuge is in that same boat as Zach Hyman where you like the player for the next few years. But I just think it's going to be a real challenge for this management group to reinvigorate this team with youth and cheap labor.

And you always need youth anyway, just the energy that youth brings to the club while still maintaining their competitive window. Well, I think this year is going to be really instructive about how the Oilers go about their business moving forward. Remember, the Oilers going about their business moving forward is incredibly, incredibly important to the Vancouver Canucks, given that they're division rivals and going to be on a collision course in the playoffs if everything goes according to plan. This year is going to

be year one where they've done the let's bring in the speculative veteran on a one year, right? That's Jeff Skinner and that's Victor Arvidsson because there's two ways you can fill the margins on a team that's top heavy in salary. You can get young guys on entry level deals and hope that they outperform with the inherent risk that they've never done it at the NHL level before. Or you pay a slightly flawed veteran player like a Jeff Skinner or a Victor Arvidson for cheap and hope that they can fill the gaps. You do both. Ideally, you do both. Right.

The key is if these veteran guys can come in on one year and get the job done. Because we've seen it in other places before. The one I often think of is back in 2015, the Chicago Blackhawks had a 2C problem. They didn't have a second line center. And remember they masqueraded with Brad Richards for one year. He came in. He did the job. They won a cup.

Was he great? No. Was he good? He was more than good enough to win a cup. And then he went his way. Who was the other guy they brought in from San Jose? Michael Hanzus. Oh, right, right, right.

And they did a great job of it. They found guys, and they're like, are you a vet? Do you want to win a cup? You know what helped those guys? Playing with Marian Hossa. Yeah. As a winger. Right.

So here, I mean, the wingers, it's almost the inverse. If you're a free agent winger, you could say, well, you're going to get to play with Leon Dreisaitl, assuming he goes to, if it goes McDavid and Drysaddle down the middle or vice versa, you move up to play with McDavid. So I think it's going to be very interesting to watch those two guys in particular, because it's a blueprint for success. And quite frankly, I don't want him into the half.

I would like both those guys to fail miserably. And for all these guys to stink, I don't want to see any of them succeed. I don't want to see any of them succeed. I don't want to see a successful blueprint. I want McDavid at 12 mil and Dreisel at 14 mil to not work. I want that to ruin the team from the top down. There's no money for anybody else.

Can you imagine being Darnell Nurse in this situation now? It's tough. Just racking their brains to figure out how you are not on the team anymore. Right. And that's the next one. But then you've also got to fill the minutes that he has.

Yeah, but I mean, I think anyone in their right mind would be like, just figure it out. Like, yes, you have to fill the 24 or 25 minutes he's got a night, but you can split them between Ekholm and Bouchard and, I don't know, let Troy Stetcher play some more because he's there still. I forgot about that. We got a text in to the Dunbar Lumber text line. Good question here.

How much do you think McDavid and Dreisaitl talked this through? He must have said he wants to stay. That's a good question. I'm sure Dreisaitl will be asked of it. I'm sure McDavid will be asked. But McDavid's probably in this position just from a bargaining perspective where he doesn't really want to admit much publicly.

Maybe he said to Dreisaitl, Dreisaitl went up to him, are you going to stay? And he goes, maybe. Maybe. Who's to say? I mean, they've obviously looked at this and they're like, you look at the lineage of the great duos at Forward

that have won multiple Cups. We just mentioned Chicago. There's the Kane and Taves, and they stayed the course, and they stuck together in Chicago. You had, obviously, Crosby and Malkin in Pittsburgh, and I'm sure that if you just do the straight look at the chronology of the NHL and the history and all these duos that have done it, I'm sure Dreissel and McDavid were like, we could be next.

Brandon in Vancouver with a good question. What are the Canucks' chances in our window if the Oilers have McDavid, Drysaddle, Bouchard locked up long term? Well, are the Canucks' best players going to live up to their contracts? Not naming names. Will the Canucks only be healthy in the playoffs? That's kind of a key. Kind of a key. We need healthy goaltending.

The others have had some goaltending problems, too, and some question marks, too. You saw the gap between Vancouver and Edmonton in the playoffs last year. And it wasn't massive. It wasn't massive. I think it was clear that Edmonton was the better team. Edmonton, over the course of the seven games, was the better team. Not by a long shot.

Not a massive g massive golf though. But, and also, you know, that's if you want, if you break it down to its individual parts, like that series had three or four flashpoints that really like tilted the scales.

But overall, like that's a team that Edmonton is like, we're going to have to deal with them in the next few years in our window and the vice versa for the Canucks. You take someone to seven games, it's a tight series. You know how we were having that conversation about cliches. You yell at the TV.

Here's one that is 100% true. Your best players got to be your best players. That's a good one. That's more of like a pre-game one or a post-game one, but sometimes during the game you yell at them. I was saying that a lot during the game. Also during the game, sometimes on the power play. Watching the Canucks.

No names again. No names. Our best players don't seem to be our best players. One of our best players I don't even know should be in the lineup. Notice how Dreisaitl is completely taking over this game. It would be nice if we had a guy that could do that. It's funny because he's hurt too. Let me go the other way on this game. Wouldn't it be nice if we had a guy that could do that? It's funny because he's hurt too. Let me go the other way on this one.

Maybe sometimes our best players aren't playing with our best players. Maybe you need to put the best players with the best players. Maybe that's the key. Maybe that's the key to the whole thing. Your best players shouldn't need guys to make them better, though. They should make their players better. Again, not to name any names, but when your best player has tendinitis, oh, perhaps I've said too much.

No, that's too obvious. E. Pedersen. Anyway, so in case you missed it, Leon Dreisadl, now one of the highest paid players in the National Hockey League. The highest average annual value, the highest cap hit in the NHL. It's an eight-year, $112 million extension with the Edmonton Oilers. Yeah, but now the pressure's on for the Oilers,

so maybe this will be a negative factor. Maybe the pressure was on last year. But now it's really on. But now it's really on. That's a lot of money. They better win a cup with him there. Well, Brandon of Vancouver texts in, even if Petey is everything he can be,

McJesus and Drysaddle are another level above that. Maybe true, but I also think that you could make the argument that the Canucks have better depth than the Oilers. So you could make that argument. I don't know if it's 100% true. I mean, yeah, Drysaddle and McDavid obviously are a tier above him. And then you would take a healthy Thatcher Demko over anyone the Oilers have in goal.

I will say this. Miller does as good of a job as anybody in the NHL. I'm not saying shut down because that's the wrong phrase, but dealing with McDavid. I will say that. Miller does a good job.

It's an almost impossible job. There's an inevitability where he's going to go for like two goals and four assists in a game and you're just like, okay, well, I tried. But, you know, I tried, but you know,

I mean, and that happens because McDavid's on another plane, but I would say Barkov does the best job, but he went off in that series too. A couple of times. Remember when they went down three, nothing, and then they won three straight games.

But not game six. No, I know. But I mean, it was games. What was it? Yeah. I understand what you're saying.

I understand what you're saying. There is an element of understanding that McDavid is just going to get his and do what he's going to do, and no one's going to stop him. That's understandable. There are certain guys that make his job much more difficult than others, and I would put, I think Miller and Barkoff are in the upper tier. I remember the Dallas series. I remember there wasn't that guy, right?

There wasn't that matchup that was really making life that difficult for him. That Dallas series was very disappointing. Dallas wasn't built right for that. Yeah, I thought the Stars were good. They were. They just weren't built right for that. What a bunch of jokes. I think they were counting on rope-a-hits to do the job. Brendan Batchelor is going to join us next.

We'll talk a little bit about the dry saddle news as it relates to the Vancouver Canucks. And just a reminder, get your What We Learns in. We're giving away Vancouver Canadiens tickets. Are we doing the ticket emoji thing? Do we have emojis? Yeah, ticket emoji. People are doing that. Okay, ticket emoji.

It's just slow. That's all. If you want to be entered into the contest for Best What We Learn, we're also doing a Makeup Ask Us Anything Tuesday, so if you have any Ask Us Anythings, send those in as

well. Ticket emoji if you want to be entered into the tickets for the SEAS games, the SEAS Playoff games. We've got one hour to go. Brendan Batchelor is going to join us next. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.