Halford & Brough in the Morning - Whitecaps Need A Playoff Run + Justin Pogge

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

In hour two Mike Halford and Jason Brough talk to Pacific FC head coach ahead of their match in Vancouver. They discuss how the Vancouver Whitecaps have a hard time attracting fans that follow their season intently. Abbotsford Canucks’ goaltending coach Justin Pogge joins to discuss his career and his new role with the team.  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.

I came to Pacific with clear goals for the organization and club, with the ownership, with the management. And, you know, one of the biggest things was can we take this group, can we take this team into BC Place and try to get a result and put in a big performance against the Whitecaps. That's been there since day one. 704 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody.

Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. That was an interesting big band. A little more energy. But with a swing to it. That's what Pacific FC is going to need tonight if they're going to pull the upset at BC Place. That voice you just heard was of James Merriman, the manager of Pacific FC. Tonight, Canadian Championship 730 from BC Place.

It's the Whitecaps, it's Pacific. The second leg of the Canadian Championship semifinal. The winner goes to the final later this season, of course. And the Whitecaps are two-time defending Canadian champions. Correct me if I'm wrong here, because I often am. I will. Ryan Gould scored the goal. He scored a goal, yeah.

For the 1-0 win for the Whitecaps at Pacific. Yep. Scotland's Ryan Gould. Right. I was almost going to bury the lead there, but I won't. For those that don't know, I've often been pining for Ryan Gould to wait that long period of time until he becomes Canada eligible internationally. But it looks like that day will not come because this morning,

Steve Clark called up Ryan Gould to the Scottish national team for this fall's European qualifiers. So I guess, you know, even though it hurts on a personal level, congrats to Ryan Gould. After the Scots performance at's performance of the euros are like we need someone who can dribble the ball i saw it i'm like everyone knows you need you need to do something differently now so ryan gold's a good choice uh we'll get to james merriman in just a second here 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. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Jason's going to tell you about Kintec now. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soar feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec, Kintec, Kintec.

That's what I'm going to do now, three Kintecs. I'm really going to hammer it home. Just say Kintec. I should also just turn on my microphone on time. Joining us now on the program, as mentioned, he is the manager of Pacific, James Merriman here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, James. How are you? Good morning, guys. I'm good. How are you guys? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

I don't know if you heard it or not, but we played a clip of yours talking about that this was a long-standing dream of both yours and Pacific's to go to BC Place in a match of this magnitude and try and beat the Vancouver Whitecaps. So, first question, James, how excited are you for tonight's opportunity? Yeah, I know. It's a great opportunity for us.

As I said, for the club, for the organization, for the players. It's the reason we started the Canadian Premier League is to give more opportunity to young players and young Canadian players especially. A lot of our players have come from MLS academies, so they look forward to the challenge and to being on that stage.

How do you prepare your team knowing that they have to go in and win this game? It actually simplifies it and we need to take the pressure off of ourselves. We're down 1-0 in the first leg, but we knew going in that it was going to be difficult against Vancouver, of course. Calgary came into to bc place and was able to to really push the whitecaps and get a result uh earlier in the competition so you know we take we take confidence from that and we know over the 90 minutes we need to win the game to push into penalties one nil or win the game outright uh of course to to advance. So it's quite simple in terms of the attitude, the mentality, and what it's going to take to bring a final back to the island. What were some of your takeaways from the first leg in Langford?

Because you guys played very well. It was, again, as Jason mentioned, just the one goal deciding the two. And I watched the match, and a lot of people suggested, along with myself, that you guys probably deserved a better fate on the day so what were you able to take away from the first leg that you guys can try and use in the second we know we're not going to have so many chances um we know the the quality that they have and we respect that but we were we were disciplined we worked hard and we did create good good chances a few of them. And we need to be ready. We need to be very clinical and decisive in those moments

because we know we're not going to get many. And it's fine margins, especially playing a team of this level. So we need to be incredibly focused, again, disciplined, organized. But when those chances come, we need to be ready to take them if we want to get a result and advance. I know managers don't like to make it about themselves, but there's got to be a personal connection here, given that you spent a long time in the Whitecaps Academy

and you coached under Carl Robinson, and that's kind of where you got your start, if I'm not mistaken, on this coaching journey. So what would this mean for you on a personal level to be able to get a result tonight, a big upset victory, and propel your team to the Canadian Championship Final? Of course, of course I would love it. You know, we were able to get a result in 2021 at home against the Whitecaps.

They came back the next year in my first year as a head coach and beat us 3-0 at home, which was a difficult game for us. And then, like I said, the first leg, we were able to keep it tight. So we're going to go with everything. We've got to embrace the opportunity. We need to enjoy it. We need to play fearlessly

and take the opportunities that we get. The match is, again, tonight, 7.30 from BC Place. Both Canadian Championship semifinals are on tonight. It's Toronto FC and Forge in the other one earlier in the evening. James, thanks a lot for doing this today. We really appreciate it. Best of luck tonight. Tall task ahead, but hopefully you guys are up for the job.

Thank you, guys. I appreciate it. Thank you. That's James Marron, the Pacific FC manager, looking to pull the upset here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hopefully they're not up for the job. Are you no longer a White Cups fan? You know, I'm just going to say I love an underdog story.

And this would, because I don't know if you've looked at, I know you haven't looked, but I don't know if you've looked at the standings in the Canadian League this year, the CPL. But Pacific FC is not having a great year. And they have 14 goals in 19 matches. So the idea of them scoring,

it's a tough one. They don't score a lot. Yeah, he's going to be like, alright, everyone forwarders, we've been doing that. We're trying. Everyone's up there trying to score. I mean, look, these competitions are made for underdogs and upsets and lower leagues toppling the higher ones right like i know that the whitecaps want to win i want the whitecaps to win this again and then get to the final and win it again they'll probably play tfc in the final well don't count that one in yet

because they're trailing tfc oh who are they trailing a fury or forger yeah for from laddie's hometown of hamilton although laddie forge you're disassociating yourself with hamilton now with the season the tycats are having yeah i've decided to distance myself that was it eh this was the season that broke yeah of all the cL seasons that finally decided for you to move on, it was the 2024 CFL season. How are the Whitecaps doing? I mean. Well, that's one of the things. They haven't played in weeks.

But how are you feeling? You and I were at the last match. Oh, right, that one against the Mexican team. I was like, what tournament is this? There's 6,000 people here. Why am I here? League's Cup, baby. They got it over on the weekend.

Columbus won it on Saturday. Good for Columbus. Yeah, they did it. They really did it. Why am I here? League's Cup, baby. They got it over on the weekend. Columbus won it on Saturday. Good for Columbus. Yeah, they did it. They really did it. What was the question? Sorry. How are the Whitecaps doing? It's been a disappointing year.

I mean, the messy situation probably trumps and tops the list of disappointments. That was a big one. That was really out of the Whitecaps' control. They've had... I thought that this was going to be a year where they were going to make maybe some bigger splashes in terms of off-season additions and then in-season when transfer windows opened up.

And it hasn't really played out that way. I guess the two big... The big acquisition from last year was Sam Adekube, and he's barely played because he's been hurt. And their big off-season acquisition was Demir Krylak, and he's barely played because he's been hurt. And their big offseason acquisition was Demir Krylak, and he's barely played because he's been hurt. They'll make the playoffs. Pretty confident in that.

They're kind of stuck in that they can be good, but they can't be great. And I'll say this. God, they are just – Listen, I want the Whitecaps to succeed as much as anyone does. They are the definition of mid well what the kids say like they are there is there is nothing not lena you're the youngest of us all like she's laughing at you yeah she's she's laughing like i just like i there what is what is the draw for the whitecaps well can i explain what what What are we doing here?

As a jumping off point from that. Because I have started- I still like going to their games, right? It's fun. It's only two hours. But when you're saying it's only two hours, that's not- When was the last time they weren't mid? They've always been mid.

They've always been, unless they've been bad. Because mid is at least better than- It is not bad. Than bad. So here's what's happening right mid is at least better than bad. So here's what's happening right now. They're better than sus. Although they are sus in a lot of ways. So here's what's happening right now.

Do they have Riz? As we break through. They have no Riz. None. No Riz. None. Are they Sigma? Is that it?

Are we doing this right now? I don't even know. What's happening is the league around the whitecaps and by that i mean all the other uh mls teams that have uh desirable markets and the spending ability has gone up and up and up they're gonna get surpassed by teams that i mean have you i don't know if you paid attention to this been surpassed but they're gonna be i don't know if you saw uh some of the players that miami brought in no no but you could for a while you could win in mls without having a super high payroll and superstar players i mean for example i bet you couldn't name a single player on

columbus's roster but they're a very good team okay anyway what's happening now is like the la's and the miami's they're it's just kind of becoming an arms race. Like the L.A. Galaxy now have just signed. There's going to be so much more money pumped into MLS. Yes, yes. Clearly, if you look at some of the, I mean, there's a reason the Whitecaps, even though they don't have the same interest as, say, the BC Lions. That's probably on. Well, I don't know if it's on par, but I think the Lions have a little more interest.

The Lions are worth what? A few million dollars? The Whitecaps are worth hundreds of millions of dollars because everyone knows that the franchises are going to be valuable because of all the money that's being pumped into MLS from deep pocketpocketed, experienced sports investors. There's a World Cup coming up that's maybe going to help a little bit more with soccer interest. And I wouldn't be surprised if behind the scenes,

considering some of the ownership groups that are involved in MLS, they're sitting there going, maybe not in five years, maybe not in 10 years or 20 years, but down the line, there is no reason why we shouldn't be considered among the top leagues in the world. I'm not talking – I mean, there are a top 10 league in the world, but I'm talking about there's no – we're the United States. We should be able to compete with like L uh in france right you know we should be

we should be yeah except for psg but point taken but do you know what i mean yep and meanwhile you got the white caps here like so when you talk about the opportunity missed through their first decade and a bit of existence that's a very real issue and it's very problematic it could snowball on them or as rick talked like saying pin's very problematic. It could snowball on them, or as Rick talks, like, say, pinball on them. But it could snowball on them because when the league grows in the way that I see it growing, like, guys are coming over now with regularity. And it's not even that, like, it's not like, oh, wow, we got Wayne Rooney. It's better than it's ever been. Right.

Like, Olivier Giroud comes over and joins LAFC, but they already had like three or four guys that were of extremely high quality playing. Oz and Squamish text in and I'm mad at Oz. Okay. Normally I really like Oz, but he texts in and he says, Brough can be the sad commission, watch garbage teams, but can't find any interest in the Caps. Oz, does this sound like I'm disinterested in the Caps?

The most frustrating thing for me about the white caps is that we have a great soccer market. I think we were one of the best soccer markets in North America. I'm not talking about Canada. We are clearly one of the best soccer markets in Canada. I think we have the potential to be one of the

best soccer markets in North America, considering our demographics, considering just the overall interest I see in soccer, but not necessarily of the white caps of other soccer, of higher quality soccer. And what frustrates me is I see the potential, but I don't know how they're going to get over the hump just going about things the way they're doing them.

Right. So, for example, Ryan Gould, who's the team's best player. He's the catalyst. He's the captain. He's a very good player, right? But someone pointed out to me the other day, they're like, the quality that he has is, I mean, there's a few truths here. One is he couldn't crack into,

and if we're going to throw around mid, he couldn't crack into a very mid Scottish national team for the better part of like a decade. He was playing on a team in Portugal that got relegated. So we're talking outside of a top five league, a guy that was on a team that couldn't even stay in the top flight of that league. Like he's a good player,

but he's by no means like a world-class upper echelon player. And I mean, this is no disrespect. I think how I laid it out is those are just facts. That's very accurate, right? That level of player being your best player and really being the only one on the team isn't going to get you success anymore in MLS. Like you will be destined to be,

I hate saying this again sort of mid unless you have five guys of that quality or six or seven and it's becoming i mean arms race might be a little too like hyperbolic but there is a race right now with the teams that can spend and are willing to spend to build out very talented squads. And that's where I could see them getting left. And by them, I mean the Whitecaps getting left behind. What is the greatest moment in Whitecaps history? Current Whitecaps, not old Whitecaps.

Oh man, that's a really good question. Here's, this is very pressing, or this is very telling guys. You know, in our business, which is basically what we do is we promote big moments. I would say that's a pretty accurate representation of what we do or what I like. You know, what I'd like to think we do in sports media and sports talk radio. We promote the big moments. Then the moments happen and we recap them, right? And then sometimes they're let down and we

take responsibility for getting you hyped up for it, we get it. No, but there are things that happen along the way, but essentially it's a buildup, right? You know, we're talking about the Canucks right now, we know everyone's excited. I mean, so what are we building up to when we're talking about Thatcher Demko and Ian

Clark? Obviously the season, but honestly, probably the next moment, what we're building up to is training're talking about Thatcher Demko and Ian Clark? Obviously season, but honestly, probably the next moment what we're building up to is training camp. That's the next moment that we build up to. There's never build up with the Whitecaps. They need more weight. And the rare occasions where there is a

build up, they've fallen so flat on their faces that everyone's like, I'm not doing that again. It comes back to sort of the old sports adage. It's you need to have some level of winning and sustained winning because one-offs, they're fun and the ride is great and everything. If you want a little bit of a runner. The 5-0 win over San Jose.

That was great. And then they followed up by falling flat on their face against Seattle. But it needs to be more sustainable over a long period of time. And you do need to win with more regularity. They can't go into the playoffs, and like last year when they played LAFC, clearly the second best team

on the playoffs. Clearly outclassed. Right. And it wasn't because they didn't... What happened the year before too. It wasn't because they didn't try hard enough, and it wasn't because... I mean, they made some mistakes at the back, sure, but it wasn't because they didn't try hard enough, and it wasn't because they were unprepared. They just weren't as good as their opposition because their opposition was a better team. And that's where you run into some issues.

I think in this market in particular is when you go in without the, even the optimism that you're going to go on a run or make some magic or get some results. If making the playoffs is the bar, that's not great. And it's really hard to get excited about that sometimes. And until we have those moments, until there's that kind of a soap opera feel to a season, which every Canucks season has,

I don't know when the Whitecaps graduate from something to go to versus something to follow. Right. And that's a huge difference. There's nothing wrong with being something to go to. There's nothing wrong.

Like the Vancouver Canadiens are something to go to. I don't think, well, maybe Laddie's interested in some of the prospects on the team, but like I couldn't name one Vancouver Canadian and nobody cares when you're there. You're just there, you know, it's nice summer, you're at the team, but I couldn't name one Vancouver Canadian. Nobody cares when you're there. It's a nice summer. You're out in the night.

You're there for a ball game, right? The Whitecaps are still that for, what would you say, 80% of the people that go? Well, yeah, and just to add on to that conversation, a big reason for that right now is the television deal with Apple is that if you wanted to follow this team, if you listen to this show this morning, you're like, you know what?

I'm going to watch the next Whitecaps MLS match. It's not readily available. You have to sign up for the Apple MLS package. A lot of people don't want to do that. And I understand it from a business perspective. I understand what they were trying to do. In some ways, I think it makes sense. But in other ways, I'm saying who on earth is tuning in to Apple TV on a Tuesday night to watch Austin play Columbus?

There's no a la carte menu. You can't order one-off games. It's just – and it's one of those things where it's like even if they had the option that for $3.99 you could purchase a Whitecaps game. And if someone so wanted to watch it, they could. But it's hard to infiltrate a market when they can't just watch the content. Oz and Squamish text in, a big way to get the Caps to that next level is actual media covering them daily and adding pressure, just like how the station spends 20 hours a day

talking about the Canucks. A sliver of that pressure from the Canucks on both the lines and the Caps would really light a fire under both teams. Instead of leaving to be out of sight, out of mind for many people. This is the old chicken and egg thing, right? Yep. But I'm telling you right now, if a lot of media organizations, their sports departments, especially locally committed, they're like, we're going to have a real white caps press. And we're going to take some of our resources away from covering the Canucks. And we're going to put them towards the white caps.

That would be a money losing strategy. Yeah. Right? I mean, I don't know. I mean, there's, again, every time. We barely have enough people to cover the Canucks. Yeah. I mean, this.

You know, back in the day, everyone, you know, we'd have all the shows over at training camp, all the coverage for young stars. We'd be sending people out on the road to cover. That doesn't happen anymore. And you're telling us to allocate to the Whitecaps now? Right. You have to go and earn that coverage. You earn it with things like the Lions are bringing back Nathan Rourke.

Sure. The Lions are hosting the Grey Cup. Yep. The Lions are doing a big game in Victoria. Yeah. Moments. Yeah, and right now, the footballing equivalent or the soccer equivalent for the Whitecaps is that they need to get to the playoffs,

win some games, and that's the most immediate and effective solution to this problem. It's the old sports adage, just win. Winning covers up a lot of crap. Win, and people will start to get on board. Get to the playoffs and lose, people begin to expect that, and that's a bad situation to be in as well. Okay, we got to move on.

We're up against it for time. We're going to go to break. When we come back, we are going to dive back in to some Canucks talk. Abbotsford Canucks, the new goalie coach of the Abbotsford Canucks, a very familiar name to hockey fans. Justin Pogge is going to join us next on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

That's more like it, Gregory. It's livening you up a little bit? Sure has. Half and Rough 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. Getting real Austin Powers-ish vibe here.

I was going to say, yeah, the little flutes. It's been a fun show so far on a Tuesday on the Halford & Breff Show on Sportsnet 650. In case you missed it yesterday, more goaltending news out of the Vancouver Canucks organization. This time, a new coach for the AHL team in Abbotsford,

Justin Pogge, was named yesterday as the goaltending coach for AHL Abbotsford. That comingogge was named yesterday as the goaltending coach for AHL Abbotsford. That coming by way of General Manager Ryan Johnson. And we are fortunate enough to have Justin Pogge on the show now. He joins us on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Justin. How are you?

How's it going, Mike and Jason? We are well. I want to thank you for taking the time to do this this morning. Congrats on the new gig. Very cool. Great to have you in town. Are you in Abbotsford now? Have you arrived in B.C. yet?

Or are you currently en route? Oh, no. I am in full chaos mode. No, I came up very quick. But, yeah, I'm so grateful and honored to have this position given to me. You know, I kind of came really late with the structural change I had up top. So I'm really looking forward to it. But, yeah, my world's in a head spin right now.

Yeah. Trying to get the logistics and moving the family and everything. But we'll be fine. My wife's a trooper. What does chaos look like from your job perspective? I'm sure from a personal perspective and a family perspective, it's tough. But are you like Tolopilo? Am I pronouncing that right?

What's your knowledge of the organization and the depth chart and some of the projects that you're going to have to work with? I think we've got a great group of young goalies, but as an organization from the top down, it's first class. I'm just excited to get a chance to work with these younger kids and younger prospects and help them get to the top. So you only recently moved from your playing days to your coaching days. What was it? Was there one particular moment or what made you decide that, okay,

it's time to hang up as a player and it's time to get into coaching? Well, I, the Beijing Olympics kind of changed everything for me. I was the second emergency backup goalie for the, for Hockey Canada at the Beijing Olympics. And instead of, you know, just showing up, getting my workout in and not getting much ice or getting a little ice left at the end of practice, I asked if I could, you know, warm up the goalies, how can I bring a goalie coach to that? So, you know, Scott Salmon, the VP of Hockey Canada didn't bring a goalie coach to that.

Scott Salmon, the VP of Hockey Operations, he liked it and offered me a job when I retired. That was a year before I retired. I got that

little bug and I really enjoyed it. And, you know, with a full year with Hockey Canada and a lot of events, I've gained a lot of knowledge and met a lot of smart people along the way. So I'm very excited for this. I'm curious, and I ask this of a lot of guys that are around your age and that have had interesting careers and played for numerous teams and numerous leagues. Did you ever lose the passion for the game, or has it always been there for you?

You know, I always said to myself, like, I wasn't having fun, and it wasn't worth doing anymore, but I had fun every minute of the way. Obviously, there was some tough times, and, you know, you're not playing as well, or, you know, contracts, you're waiting. But I enjoyed the ride so much and, you know, I'm continuing that on with Abbotsford here. You know, we're starting to travel around that way. Before we get to the Abbotsford stuff, tell us about your career and some of the interesting places that you played in and maybe some of your memorable teammates or memorable moments from your career because it started in North America, but you ended up –

I'm looking at your hockey DP page, and I'm like, you played in Italy? Yeah. And Sweden and the KHL. Yeah, Germany. I mean, say what you will, but some people, like the pessimists or the negative people, they'll just be like, oh, well, he didn't make it in the NHL. But I kind of look at this and I'm like, this guy's had an interesting life. Oh, definitely.

You know, obviously my dream was to be a full-time NHL goalie, but, you know, it didn't work out. It didn't mean that I wasn't good enough. I just wasn't in that top half percent of hockey players that can do it. So, you know, I played a long time. I got to play in a lot of different places. And I can't say that I despised any of them. You know, I really enjoyed my time.

And, you know, both my kids are born in different countries. You know, there's so many stories and you get a chance to meet a lot of people um along your way coaching staff and players and guys that are kind of in the same transition as me and you know it's it's it's been awesome i wouldn't trade it for the world how much of all that knowledge that you've gained and maybe perspective is going to help you in your job with the Abbotsford Canucks? I think, you know, 17 years of pro, you've seen a lot of situations and played a lot of hockey. And it's all about dealing with what's making you uncomfortable at the moment. You know, you're always going to tinker with your game.

And I think just having someone to kind of bounce ideas off of and how you want to play certain situations and for a guy that's you know played a while I think I think I can bring that that knowledge and that experience to the table. Are goalies always tinkering with their games or are there some guys that tinker less and just want to be like I don't want to make any changes in other guys that are constantly searching for, even if they're playing well, they want to add something else. I think you're constantly tinkering. Obviously, sometimes you go to back, go back to what's, what worked for you in the past. And sometimes that's a good thing for a little reset. And sometimes that, that could be negative to going back to bad habits so um you

know it's all about creating good habits and and and just kind of taking the game the game isn't every game isn't the same so i mean you have to approach everyone differently what are some good habits for goalies to have and is that philosophical or these well-known, everyone agrees, good habits? Well, like the basic habits of holding your feet and making sure that you're mobile and not locked in on place, that's going to be always a basic. Tracking the puck is huge. It's not just having your eyes on it but having your head pointed at it and you know your body working in line with your brain and your and your shoulders so

um there's there's both there's you know good habits off the ice there's good routines bad routines maybe too much superstition maybe not. You know, we're a different breed goalies, and, you know, there's a lot of things going on up there when you're sitting for 60 minutes in the crease. We're speaking to new Abbotsford Canucks goalie coach Justin Pogge here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You dovetailed nicely into what I wanted to ask you about here,

and that's more the mental side of it and the nerves and the pressure that come along with playing. What is a really, really unique position in all of sports, not just hockey, obviously I was reading an anecdote in the athletic where you were talking about drinking Pepto Bismol before every single game at the 2006 world

juniors, which of course were played here. I do that before bed. Yeah. Now I imagine that's probably not a great practice if you're like an 82-game regular seasoner. That's a lot of Pepto, but I guess it probably speaks to just how much pressure and how great the nerves can be

when you're not just in a moment like that, but when you get to the professional level, that's every single night. Definitely. I mean, at the World Juniors, there was Pepto-Bismol before the game and Pedialyteiors, I was, you know, Pepto-Bismol before the game and P.E. Light after. Like, I was a baby. You're an old man and a baby at the same time.

Yeah, I was absolutely exhausted every game. But, you know, you put it all out there and you leave it all out on the ice. It's a crazy way you can do when you push yourself to the limit. Now in an 80 80 game season or 82 game season it's a little different but uh you still have to have that drive and that fire to you know push so it's i think it comes down to fitness and and mental willing um jason mentioned that you know you played in a lot of different countries in a lot of different leagues i know you were in sweden i'm going to throw you on the spot because I wanted to ask,

if I'm not mistaken, you were teammates with current Vancouver Canucks forward Nils Hoaglander for a short time. I think it was in Sweden a few years back. Again, I might be throwing you on the spot, but what do you remember about Hoaglander? Because he would have been very young at that time and just sort of starting his professional career.

Oh, yeah. He came in and the amount of weight that he put on the squat rack first day of fitness testing, he was like one, two, one of our strongest guys. Really? And he was the youngest guy in the room by far. I did three reps, hurt my back, so that's a squat time for me today. But he was lifting some man weight for sure.

And I did notice that when you were in Germany, He was lifting some man weight for sure. And I did notice that when you were in Germany, you played on not one but two different teams with Landon Ferraro, who's a guy that's done some work here at Sportsnet 650 as well, obviously his dad, calling games for the Vancouver Canucks. Now, did you guys become close over your time in Germany? I think it was like three years in two different cities. Oh, yeah. We were roommates for three years.

We got to go to the Olympics together, learned I was one of my best friends. Yeah, I actually called him yesterday and he was pissed off he didn't know about it earlier. So, you know, there's a communication right there in that household. But yeah,

he's a great guy, you know, get to talk to Ray every once in a while on FaceTime when we're somewhere in the middle of Germany is awesome too. But yeah, we had some fun together over in Germany for sure. So we didn't want to start with the 2006 World Juniors, but what do you remember about that tournament? Because I have such fond memories of that tournament. We'd just been through the NHL lockout.

The World Juniors were coming to Vancouver. I remember being at the Pacific Coliseum for the first game against Finland, a win. And then Canada and you, like, I think you allowed six goals in six games and yet somehow didn't win goalie of the year or goalie of the tournament, which was, you were robbed of that. What do you remember about that just the excitement in the city and how well you guys played defensively to win that tournament oh man it was uh it was a whirlwind of a year you know um beginning off with the summer leading up to it um you know i didn't get the call to go to the camp, the summer camp that was held in Whistler,

and that kind of lit a fire under my ass. I had a goal set, and Jeff Glass gave me some good advice, and just be the best they could take you. So I took that to heart, and every time I went on the ice, I would tell myself that I wanted to make that team that even went to the lengths of one of those Chinese wish trees. When you write on the red card hanging on the tree, I put that before the tournament when I was at the Calgary Zoo. So I ended up making the team and, you know, just kind of got in the zone. I had Ian Clark was my goalie coach and, you know, just gave me simple advice and hold my feet as long as I can and battle.

So, yeah, it was kind of a blur, but, you know, just going into those games every night with, you know, the crowd, just, you know, unbelievably loud and excited for the game was amazing. And, you know. We had a great group of guys that kind of just grinded it out under Brent Sutter as the head coach. We just played our system and played gritty and that's Canadian hockey. We ended up winning. So it was great. What did you learn from Ian Clark and how much will you still be working with him? I think he's going to be a great mentor for me.

He's got, you know, a wealth of knowledge. He's been doing this a long time and, you know, he's got a unique approach to it. And it's the same as goaltending, your coaching side, you can't stop learning either. So I'm going to try and take everything I can from him and Marco and, you know, try to add to my resume. What are some of the things that are like non-negotiables with Justin Pogge?

If you're working with Justin Pogge, he will fill in the blank. Well, I think my number one non-negotiable is you got to work. I spent a long time, you know, and pushing myself, even if I was, you know, skating with 14-year-olds. I was down in California, so ice time and quality of players was very low when free agency stretched into the fall. So, you know, having that inner fire to kind of keep you going and compete with yourself and the guy across the ice from you every night. And, you know, you can do that every day with me.

You're golden. Does work and work habits and that sort of thing, like do some guys just know how to do it and they're built that way and other guys need to be taught or can it be taught? I know I'm asking you a lot of weird questions here, but I'm always just curious about, I'm curious about how goalies are, um, you know, how they're wired and professional athletes, how they're wired and young kids, like, do they really understand what hard work is or does that have to be taught i think i think it's it's taught

but it also comes from experience you know so at some point it just clicks if you want to do this as a career you gotta you know you gotta hone your craft you you have to work on it every day um some some guys it clicks early and that's kind of, you know, they've been brought up that way and other guys have to figure it out later. But, you know, if you're going to play and have a solid pro career, you're going to have to figure it out at some point. Or it's going to be pretty short. You're going to get passed by some other guy that, you know, has already figured it out.

Justin, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Once again, congrats on the new gig. Let's try and do this again when you get settled in in Abbotsford. Awesome. I'd love to do it in person. Yeah, that would be great.

I think your radio show is way better in person. Yeah, I agree, Justin. See, Justin gets radio. That's good. Thanks for doing this, man. Appreciate it. Yeah, I got a turkey face for it. All right, thanks, guys.

See you, buddy. Justin Pogge here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Seems like a good guy. Yeah, Laddie was singing. Humble. Laddie was singing his praises before the hit. You had spoken with him before, so you gave us a good heads up that he's a good talker guy.

He is. Now, you said what about his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs? He wasn't given the proper opportunity? Well, he was rushed to begin with. They got him in there too quick, and then they just sort of let him go. And he went on to have a pretty long career, as Bruff mentioned in that interview. He went to many different countries, and he was the top goalie in Sweden for a couple of years. How was he rushed when he played a bunch of games with the Marlies in the AHL?

Well, he was still pretty raw when he got there, I think. And he had high expectations because he had seemingly put it together with the worldlies in the AHL. Well, he was still pretty raw when he got there, I think. And he had high expectations because he had put it, well, seemingly put it together with the world junior team. Yeah. But he clearly needed a lot more time to, to stew down there in the minors and he never really got it. And then, like I said, they moved on from him so quickly after that, that I don't really think other teams were even willing to give him a shot.

It was just like, oh, he's done. Yeah. I mean, there's a case to be made that these are the best teachers, the ones who necessarily didn't pan out the way they dreamed about, they wanted. And that's why I asked him like, you know, did you ever lose your love for the game? And he said, no. And I think that's massive, right?

Like considering the challenges that he would have gone through in his career and maybe some of the disappointments that he dealt with, and yet he still has the love for the game. And if that's the type of guy, in my opinion, that you want work with the younger goalies and saying like, listen, take it from me.

Honestly, take it from me. This is what you need to do. Right? And I didn't know that Ian Clark was his coach. Neither did I. At one point point and then dropped that i was like oh but he knows what it takes to prepare for when you get that opportunity right because maybe he wasn't prepared when he got that one opportunity of his career and then

obviously didn't pan out but he still had the skills and you know obviously the passion to be an nhl goaltender but sometimes you just get one shot, one opportunity, like Eminem says. Yeah, what's going on right now? For goalies especially, though, right? It's a grim reality for a lot of these AHL guys. They might get one chance. Well, I think the interesting thing for him was that he ended up being at the forefront

of what ended up being like a decade-long goalie graveyard. I went through and looked at the names of the guys that followed him. Oh, Toskala. Okay. Toskala, Martin Gerber, Curtis Joseph, J.S. Jaguar. Remember Jonas Gustafson? Yep. I forgot about him. Reimer, Scrivens.

Oh, the monster. God, there was so much hype with him. Reimer, Scrivens, Bernier. They went through this long stretch of always trying. And I do think he fell victim to that, always trying to find the guy. I think they screwed they screwed reimer too they made him the guy way too early yeah and then all of a sudden he had some concussion issues right this is a while ago now but then he went on to have some pretty good years after he left toronto as well right so maybe the better move but he was right but he was one of those guys like he would be the um you know we were talking

yesterday about silovs and how you know someone texted and said i'd trade demko i'd be like who would you start he'd be like silavs i'd be like so you're gonna make arty silavs yeah your starter and put all that pressure on him to be your guy that's out there more than anyone else you're gonna do that to a 23 year old there was ayear-old? There was a real old school mentality with finding the guy and then anointing him the guy and then making him the guy. It's not unlike what you see in the NFL with a lot of quarterbacks. It's like we take this guy and we're going to throw him in the deep end, and then if it works, great.

That means he's got to cut the mustard. He's got it. What's more anointing for Pogge than when they traded Rask? That was the moment there. He cleared the decks for him right it's like you're the guy now and i just remember that being a thing in toronto for the longest time and in a lot of markets to be fair there's a lot of guys that got shoehorned into positions where like you're gonna be that guy and well the least used to do it all the time too well i just remember that i just ran through a list of that was um from 2003 to 2016 they went

through about 10 different goalies do you remember they when they drafted luke sanders like this is the future captain of the leafs i'm like no pressure yeah well and and but that was you know but that's old school that was brian burke that's a brian yeah and it's funny for you kids out there that don't remember that vancouver used to be the biggest goalie graveyard of them all is that that's the one of the most um shocking and probably least talked about developments over the 50 plus years of vancouver kanak sake is this place used to be death for goal good goalies would come to vancouver and struggle it did yeah it there was we had a colorful array of goalies that stunk when they got here either because they were promised to be good and weren't or were good somewhere else and weren't or were drafted to be it didn't matter it just it was a goalie graveyard and then

it just all changed when's the last time outside of this last couple of weeks but when's the last there was a couple year there was a year where they had really bad goal time. Pre-Rolly Melanson probably. It was maybe during one of the Willie teams. And there was an injury, I think. Yeah, maybe. There was an injury. The Miller-Lack years?

I don't know. I think they were both okay. We've talked about it at length. Miller was just hurt. Is it after the rather unfortunate Dan dan cluchy and then that subsequent couple years once luongo hit and then you went luongo schneider miller markstrom i'm trying to do this off memory so i'll probably miss one lack came in and was really good for a short period of time and then transitioning to the demco era off of markstrom it's it's just it's you know

it's i'm not reinventing the wheel or revolutionizing hockey analysis It's just, it's, you know, it's, I'm not reinventing the wheel or revolutionizing hockey analysis. It's just crazy that what happened to Toronto for the better part of a decade used to be the norm here and it's not anymore except when the goalie gets injured

and the goalie coach leaves in the middle of the summer. But other than that, the goalie position has been pretty solid in Vancouver. If you've worked with Ian Clark before, do you think he had a hand in being the guy

that brought him in? I wondered about that when you said it. Yeah. I mean, possibly. Who knows? Clark's worked with a ton of goalies too, right? And Pogge even mentioned it's kind of last minute. There's probably not a lot of guys out there willing to jump into a job like this.

Well, he was working as just a consultant with Columbus. So it was probably one of those hybrid jobs where you're not on the ice and doing the grind every single day. But that was a really cool interview. That was a lot of fun. Okay, we've got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Coming up on the other side at 8 o'clock,

we're going to dive back into the Canadian Football League. Dwayne Veneau, the president of the BC Lions, is going to join us. It is Touchdown Pacific coming up in Victoria. You've got Victoria coming over here tonight to play in BC Place to take on the Lions, or BC Place to take on the Lions and then are starting to take on the Whitecaps. And then it flips with Touchdown Pacific, which is a very cool initiative.

Unfortunately, we should be like, Dwayne, why can't this team tackle? Yeah, you know, I know he's a higher level guy. I know he's kind of an executive and I'm not sure he's involved in the nuts and bolts of tackling. But I would imagine that they are not thrilled with the form they are showing

while going into one of the signature events of this BC Lions season. So Dwayne Veneau is going to join us at 8 o'clock to talk about all that. And then at 8.30, we're going to do what we learned. A reminder to get yours in. The Dunbar-Lemmer text line is 650-650. Get them in. Hashtag them WWL. It's your chance to be on the radio.

And that chance will pop up at 8 30 once we're done talking to duane veno we got a lot more to get to there's one final hour to go on a tuesday you're listening to the halford and breff show on sportsnet 650.