Halford & Brough in the Morning - Will Canadian NHL Teams Draft Fewer Americans Now?

Episode Date: June 22, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports (3:00), plus they talk all things World Cup with The Athletic FC's Nick Miller (27:48).  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.

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It begins at 630 this morning. Nick Miller is going to join the program, World Cup reported from the athletic eventful weekend at the World Cup. a couple of shock results over the weekend. First three teams eliminated. Also, another tremendous atmosphere and sellout at BC Place last night for Egypt's first ever World Cup. When Nick Miller from the Athletic will join us to talk World Cup at 6.30. 7 o'clock Alex Adams, Senators beat writer from the athletic, bombshell trade yesterday in the National Hockey League.

As many of you already know, Florida Panthers acquired Brady Kachuk from Ottawa in exchange for a bounty of draft. picks. We'll break down the biggest trade of the offseason so far. And what's next for the Ottawa Senators with Alex Adams at 7 o'clock this morning. 7.30, Kevin Woodley, NHL.com and Ingoal magazine. With Brady Kachuk now traded, Dylan Larkins already requested his. When does Connor Hellebuck get dealt from Winnipeg? We can ask Kev that and more, our goalie guru at 7.30 this morning. Finally, at 8 o'clock, Ryan Kennedy, editor-in-chief of the hockey news,

longtime draft prospect expert is going to join us. It is NHL draft week. We will look ahead to Friday where remember the Canucks have two first round picks to make again for now. They could even get more. Ryan Kennedy from the hockey news will join us at 8 a.m. We got a big show.

We got so much to talk about and so much to get into. Without further ado, Zach, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was We know how busy your life can be.

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You know, for everything that's going on, there's no other place to start than what happened. Yesterday afternoon, out of nowhere, but also not out of nowhere. Brady Kachukes screwed over our World Cup talk. You know, I thought we were going to come in and talk about Cabo Verde and Uruguay. No, the Kachuk brothers said, not on our watch. The Ottawa Senators. We don't like soccer. They traded.

They traded their captain. Brady Kachuk to the Florida Panthers, a trade which includes Ottawa landing both of Florida's first round picks at this Friday's draft, the number nine and the number 25, which Florida got from Seattle, as well as a 2029 first rounder, top 10 protected. a 2027 second round pick. So the total again, three first rounders going to Ottawa along with the second in exchange for their former captain Brady Kachuk who now joins his brother Matthew in Florida.

And he joins a bunch of other American players who have asked out and there's probably going to be more. Now, Elliot Friedman reports that Brady Kichick suggested in his exit meetings that he wouldn't be signing long term with the franchise.

That sounds familiar. He has two years left on his deal before he's an unrestricted free agent. So with two years left on his deal, instead of signing a bunch of his American friends in a Hail Mary attempt to make him change his mind. And promoting the assistant coach to head coach because the guy likes him. The send just said, screw it, we'll deal with this now. And Freed writes that eventually this was going to get out and become an even more uncontrollable distraction.

it's painful in the moment but no doubt Ottawa which is trying to contend will use these picks to try and immediately improve itself there is definitely word out of Ottawa that everything Ottawa has in terms of futures is on the table in order to try and

not only replace Brady Kachuk but remember they were they were kind of tapped out as as a mid-level they were going to try and improve this offseason anyway now they're going to have to both replace Brady Gajak and try and improve what they needed to. I don't think they're going to be able to do it, but they're going to try.

And Steyos said in the press release, he said this was not a decision we took lightly, but ultimately we did what we felt was best for the long-term future of our hockey club. We now possess cap space and draft capital and will be actively working to improve our roster. So a lot of people will say, and rightly so, that this reminds me, reminds them of the Quinn Hughes situation. Oh, why would they say that, Jason? Okay, that wasn't my point. My point is that it actually reminds me of another player from the Vancouver Canucks.

He was American. He was a really good player. And his name was Ryan Kessler. And he also lied. To put it mildly. And it came in the wake of the Olympics. And there were all sorts of reports. And this was the 2004.

or Sochi Olympics. All sorts of reports that Ryan Kessler was telling everyone that he wanted out of Vancouver, that he wanted to be traded, that he was done in Vancouver. And then, uh, you know, Ryan Kessler would say like, no, that's not true. People make stuff up all the time or whatever. And then, uh, lo and behold, not too long after that, he was traded to Anheim. And, um, I think the one thing I will say about Quinn Hughes is he never lied. He just,

it's a good point. He just kicked the can down the road. And I think that was a real tell, by the way, but he wasn't going to sign. And he didn't really have a, he didn't want a future in Vancouver. He would say things like, I'm really proud of being the captain in Vancouver,

but there was no commitment. And that wasn't a lie. There was no fake, to my memory, at least, there was, there was no fake, like, outrage at the trade rumors. Like, this is, you know, like the media and the fans are always,

making things up. In fact, why don't we just play the audio? This is from the, this is from the, this is from April. So this is after, it's almost exactly two months ago. After the senators were eliminated in, in four games by the Carolina Hurricanes,

who went on to win the Stanley Cup's cup. And this is Brady Kuchuk talking about, you know, the rumors around his name. Since the series ended, what, is that a discussion you plan to have with Steve, sales this summer? Well, I mean, of course, I wasn't here for, you know, everybody's meetings

and the other day. And so I haven't had the chance to talk to Steve. But, I mean, I feel like I've answered this hundreds of times that none of that. I feel like I've never shown. I've never said none of those things ever came out of my mouth. And quite honestly, it's just getting frustrating. It's becoming a distraction. And I have been fully committed to this team, to the city. And it's just becoming a distraction, frustrating to deal with. So we now turn our attention to interim producer, Zach Clark, who came in this morning, resplendent in his Ottawa Senator's jacket, a diehard Ottawa Senator's fan.

Oh, yes. The timing could not be any better. The timing could not be any better. The timing cannot be any better for your inclusion into the show. I don't know if this was the God's blessing us to get one of the eight Ottawa Senators fans in the city right here on the program. But I got to ask you, when you heard this news come down yesterday, what was your immediate response? It's been a long time coming, honestly. I think it's one of those things where after the playoff run, the body language, he's not seemed like he wanted to actually be the leader of the franchise. If you're a captain, that is how you conduct yourself both on and off the ice. And I think the reporting coming out that players in the locker room were pushing for this to get done doesn't shock me whatsoever.

I think that he is much better suited to be the sixth best player on a team than he is one of the actual best players on a team. Now, correct me. Hold on. Hold on. Correct me if I'm wrong here, Zach. But it feels like Zach and maybe some other Ottawa Senators fans, maybe a tad upset with the former captain. Like on a scale of 1 to 10, how pissed are you, Brady Kachuk? I think pretty. I don't think it's quite, you know, John Tavares level. but I think that he will get a very poor welcome back to the CTC, something like Brad Marshaun coming back to Rogers. It's, you quit on the team.

You were the captain, you were supposed to be the leader, and you walked out when the time got tough because you weren't good enough. So is the number you're pissed to higher than Brady could chuck and count to? Well, and by that I mean like a six or a seven? Yeah, something like that for sure. So Sends Central reports, and I don't know who these guys are, but says,

I'm doing some digging and players felt like Brady was a completely different teammate after the Olympics. Never hanging out off ice, checked out vibes. And then Central added good riddance. And then they added. Now that, now that reminds me of Quinn Hughes. Not all of it, but there were times certainly as a fan watching Quinn Hughes on the ice in Vancouver. earlier this season. I was like, yeah, this guy's,

this guy's checked out. You correctly mentioned it several times. And then people were like, oh, now you're a body language expert. And I would respond, yes, I've been a human being for 50 years and I've picked up a few things. Well, did you see the, I'm sorry, Renaud. Renaud, I've got it in front of me. Yeah. If you don't want to continue to butcher every part of this.

Do it. Renaud. I'm sorry. Keep going, buddy. me, it's me. At least it's not Renaud and Ewan. Renaudet, from TV, writes, for the senators to trade Brady Kachuk, it means they are under pressure to do so. I'm told this pressure was also coming from the team's locker room.

This strongly explains why they agreed to trade him to a team in his own division. Brady Kachuk will have been a controversial captain in Ottawa, and the big losers on this day are the New York Rangers who dreamed of getting their hands. on him. Well, also told, I mean, another way of wording it, told by multiple sources, the dressing room was not pushing for Brady to stay. That means they translated, they did not like him.

Well, I think if you've got. And the goaltending, what was his name? Allmark. Allmark. That was a big one. You're really helping out. Yeah. I am a reporter.

Why don't you just turn your mic off for a bit? That's what was part of it. So we'll get him a juice box. Okay. So who's next among the American players? I mean, Dylan Larkin, he's not asking out of a Canadian market, but he's asking to go to at least somewhere with one of his American teammates.

Detroit is, however, one of the more Canadian American markets. That's true. He's like, it's pretty close to Canada. It's got this bridge that's like to hop, skip and a jump. All the Buffalo guys are like, I got to get out of here. Connor Hellebuck in Winnipeg. What a surprise that he comes back from the Olympics. And wow, was he good over there?

and he's the main reason that they won the gold medal, certainly the gold medal game, and then all of a sudden it sounds like, you know, all of a sudden he has that press conference at the end of the season. It's like, what that? What's going on? That was bizarre.

And then, you know, I don't know about the future of Austin Matthews in Toronto, but... No, what I'm getting a clear picture of it? I'll tell you that. Well, who knows? I mean, you know, not everyone, just because they're American,

doesn't mean that they're going to want out, but he's a guy that I think people are going to wonder about more and more now. And with the draft coming up on Friday, it's not a particularly strong draft for Americans, but there are a couple players expected to go in the top 10, Chase Reed, the defensiveman being one of them, and it will be interesting to see if any of the Canadian teams drafted an American in the first round on Friday.

I mean, this is, I know you're going to talk about player empowerment, and there is definitely an element of that, right? Players are taking control of their future, but this one has a specific slant to it. This is American players who, for whatever reason, and there could be multiple reasons, don't want to play in Canada. And it is very, very clear to me that something happened over in Italy.

they all got together and were like, yeah, let's do this. We can run the league. I think that's what they said. Let's have a movement here. And it's not good for Canadian teams because you know what's not happening? Canadian players in the United States going, oh yeah, well, I'm going back to Canada. I love the cold in high Texas. Well, the hope is that one day some might, particularly ones playing in.

I don't know, Chicago and San Jose, for example, would maybe return home one day, but we can talk about that later because that's further down the road. You got to remember too, though. Like, the only reason I say we need to look at this as a full-bodied exercise and not, and not just focus on the American part of it, although it's hard not to not to do right now.

It's like Mitch Marter left, right? Mitch Marter is a Canadian. He left a Canadian team to go to an American market where you had all the advantages as his American counterparts, playing in a tax-free state, playing in a warm climate, not having the media scrutiny. And they got to the Stanley, a final and you know had they won it

Mitch probably would have been the cons might the winner. However, I, you're absolutely bang on right is that one of the conversations right now is going to be the American factor. Remember at the draft a few years ago? Maybe close to 10 years ago now when the Russian factor really reared

its ugly head and everyone was not too sure about drafting Russian players because of, you know, the dicey contractual situations with their KHL clubs and when they were going to come over and you couldn't oversee their development after their draft year because they were playing in the K. All these things play in it, you know, eventually it's the sort of course corrected itself.

But if you're looking at it now, you have to take into serious consideration. Yeah. If you want to have that type of capital, draft capital invested in a guy that might not be interested in playing for you long term. And I know it's hard to ask a 17 or 18 year old kid what they're going to do the first time restricted free agency rolls around because they're all excited to get drafted. but you need to have that conversation internally as an NHL club right now in Canada. Can I just say something that might be a little bit controversial? Yeah, of course. I don't blame these guys.

I'm not talking about their thinking. I'm just saying like, you've got one career. Go play where you want. Go do what you want. I don't blame Quinn Hughes for leaving one bit. Now, am I going to push back on people that call them a quitter or a bad captain? No, they're just being fans. They're fans of the Vancouver Canucks.

See, this is the right way to look at it. They're fans of the Vancouver Canucks, but, but, you know, I, I would have left if I was Quinn Hughes. I would have. The team was a disaster. Like, I would have been like, get me out of here. I don't want to sign up for five year rebuilds.

This is a dysfunctional franchise. I have one career. I have one life. I want to go win the Stanley Cup. I'm not going to sacrifice my career for an organization that doesn't deserve it. Okay? I just, I don't, I don't blame them.

And I've, you know, how many people, how many people are, I've also said like, McDavid's got to get out of Edmonton, you know? Like, I'm sure Canucks fans have said that. Yep. You're not going to win in Edmonton or whatever, just to make fun of Edmonton, you know? I do not blame these guys. and for the Canadian teams, it is a challenge. And it might even seem like an unfair challenge.

But there's two ways to respond to this. Number one, you whine and complain about it. Or number two, you figure out what areas you might have an advantage in. We can get to that in a sec. And you do a better job of managing your team. and you do everything you can as an organization to make sure your players don't want to leave. And a lot of that starts with build a good team,

a winning team. And you can say Ottawa made the playoffs fine. You know, I think Ottawa was doing its best. And Brady wanted out. But, you know, you look at Vancouver and you're like, what more could they do?

Everything. Everything. They could do everything, everything better, you know? And, And if you want to talk about areas where you can say like, where do we have an advantage? Throw it out there that you want players that want the pressure. I think pressure is a privilege.

Did you see the Stanley Cup parade in Carolina? Boring. It's lame, man. And I know Raleigh's not like the biggest city in the world and they did their best. They won the Stanley Cup. I looked at it and I'm like, oh, look at all the people. they're in that parking garage looking on at the garage at the parade.

Yeah, it wasn't exactly the Knicks going down in the heart of Manhattan. Is that the dream? Yeah. Is that the dream to, to, I mean, look, am I happy for Taylor Hall?

Yeah, yeah. I'm happy. He won a cup. And the, but like, but the question you're, okay, I'll just stop your idea.

But who cares? Like, the question I, is, you won the Stanley Cup in Carolina. Like, it's like the, it's,

you know, it matters to them. It matters to the, the fine folks of, of, of Rallel but, you know, big picture, you know, wow, who cares? The question you got to ask yourself is,

with the modern player and the younger players, are you going to be able to find enough players that are going to embrace that want and that need and get them to come to your city? Because it doesn't seem. I don't know. I don't know. And now we're talking deep philosophical questions about the modern athlete, the modern player,

how they're hardwired. It's only hockey, though. It is. So you just say it's, your own question. If it's only hockey. But if it's only hockey, then what's the, what does it make a difference if you won a Stanley Cup in Vancouver and Raleigh? If it's only hockey, right? That's maybe the part of the problem. I mean, I don't think they know what it's like. None of these guys were alive the last time.

There's another great point too. Yeah. You know, like it's been, it's been a long time. But, you know, all the players in Vancouver and other Canadian cities have gone to the Stanley Cup final, they talk about what the city is like. And you and I, have flown into cities in the United States where the Stanley Cup final is and we're like, can you, like, you can't tell it's on. Yeah, and you and I, but you and I are fueled by the memories of 94 and

2011 and what it means, right? If someone hasn't gone through that experience, can you share it? Is it a shared experience? Part of the reason why I, and I, I know I alluded already to guys like Macklin-Cellibrini and Connor Bedard, but I almost wonder if that's going to end up being

your pitch is that you're from here. Yeah. There's an emotional tie that no other franchise and organization and sit in the NHL can offer you, is that going to be the equivalent of the American player empowerment era that we're seeing right now? Well, of course. I'm asking how good it would feel for a Canucks fan to win a cup for his team. But that's a scary thing that that is your draw. And maybe at the end of the day,

you're not sure you have that much else to offer, except for the fact that you're bringing the kids back home. Can we also throw out the possibility that this is a moment in time when it comes to American players? we are definitely experiencing a moment in time we are definitely experiencing a moment and um COVID was treated differently by both countries or each country um there was more freedom in the United States and there was less there was more restrictions in Canada and I'm not getting into that discussion that's just how it was do it and there were players in I think in Canada that looked at their friends in the United States and said

I wish I was there. There is a president in the White House that a lot of Canadians despise and it's not the same as previous presidents. And there are a lot of players on that American team, a lot of Americans who like that president and probably don't love being in a country where that, you know, people don't like that president.

For the most part, don't text him and be like, I'm Canadian and I like them. I don't care. Yeah. I'm just talking about this is possibly a moment of time where these players didn't feel particularly welcomed in the United States.

I think all players are in Canada. Now, I know everyone's going to try, I'm glad you brought that up, because I know some people are going to try and zero in on that as the reason, capital T-H-E reason. And here's what I'm going to tell you. It's not.

They're all reasons. There's a lot that goes into this. I think it's way more complex and way more dynamic than one thing that's driving some, of these guys. I think if you're going to look at anything, anything, it goes back to what you said before. Guys are now able to call their shots, willing to call their shots, and they're not afraid of whatever collateral damage comes with making a move that's going to better their career.

I think there's definitely an individualistic aspect of this where they're saying, you know, I'm not going to take a haircut so we can build a team here. I'm not going to sacrifice years, of my career so that I can one day get the fruits of the labor. I want to win. As you said it earlier, I have one career and I'm going to make the most of it as soon as I can. I'm not going to waste any time. A lot of it's probably money, too, to be honest. I mean, if you want to boil it down

to a very simple thing. I mean, you make more money as an athlete in the States than you do in Canada. And these are all these different but we're not boiling it down to one point. No, I'm just saying, but I'm sure that is a factor. I don't think it's number one. Yeah. I really don't. I don't think it's number one. I don't think money's driving it. I think it's a, it's, it's, it's, uh, it's a nice bonus for those guys. But I don't think it's number one.

I don't think, I think they want to be in the United States. So we can continue this conversation and we will continue this conversation throughout the show. Obviously a hot button topic from the weekend. The other big topic from the weekend, the World Cup. We're going to talk to Nick Miller, World Cup reporter from the Athletic coming up on the other side. Another fantastic World Cup evening at BC Place. In the last, I think I counted it eight months, we have now seen Thomas Mueller youngman son and mo sala all score very important goals at bc place it's a remarkable time

egypt got its first ever world cup win here resonated around the world from vancouver to cairo it's been a very cool time so we're talking to nick miller about that and everything else that happened over the weekend at the world cup that's coming up next and before we go to break i need to tell you about jan pro cleaner workplaces start with consistent cleaning jan pro helps businesses stay clean day after day. Start clean, stay clean. Visit them online at Janpro.com. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. It's Canucks Central on SportsNet 650. From exclusive interviews to insider scoops and post-game breakdowns, we've got it all. Tune in weekdays 4 to 6pm on radio and on demand through your

favorite podcast app. 633 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford, Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough is brad to you by Sands and Associates. God debt. If you do, reach out to Sands and Associates during regular business hours and they'll get back to you within 20 minutes. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. Still in hour one of the program.

Nick Miller, football writer, World Cup reporter from The Athletic is going to join us a moment here. A highlight of hour one. Hour one of this program is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

North Star Metal recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. So over the course of the weekend at the World Cup, a lot of different storylines continuing to merge. We're now that midway point of the group stage. So all of the opening matches and the energy levels that went into that that's kind of dissipated.

Starting to get a better feel for what this tournament, the actual competition, is going to be like. But there's still some narratives of storylines that are fleshing themselves out. So without further ado, let's go now to the Able Auctions Hotline ads, mentioned our next guest. Football writer and World Cup coverage for the athletic. Nick Miller joins us now on the Halford & Breff Show on. SportsNet 650. Good morning, Nick. How are you? Good morning. Very well. How are you?

We're very well as well. Thanks for taking the time to do this. I wanted to start with a sort of snapshot of where we're at with this World Cup now that we're about halfway through the group stage. We've had some teams eliminated. All of the cities have had a couple matches and the crowds have arrived from various parts of the world. I know this is a real remedial question to kick off an interview with. But at this stage of the tournament, what have you thought collectively of this? World Cup so far? Honestly, I think it's the best at this stage, it's the best World Cup of kind of my lifetime in terms of, I mean, I haven't looked at what the exact goals per game

ratio is so far, but I know it has been higher than any other World Cup at this stage. You've had some amazing storylines from, you know, the biggest players have showed up. Messy, Mbapé,

Erling Harland, they've all scored goals. Less said about Cristiano Ronaldo, the better-be kind of everything. And you've also had some amazing storylines from the smaller teams as well. You've had Kate Verde drawing with Spain and then also drawing with Uruguay yesterday. You've had Curiselle getting a draw and kind of scoring their first World Cup goal against Germany, which I was there for. I mean, they lost 7-1 and in the interviewer area after the game. watching all the players walk through, you can tell which team lost 7-1 and which one of the 171, because the Curacao players were just so kind of joyously delighted to sort of be there and have, you know, got their goal, got their great opening moment.

So from that, from all that perspective, it is, it's been just enormously enjoyable so far. I mean, typically in the World Cup, it can get off to a bit of a slow start, sometimes teams. games are a bit cagey, and they don't want to lose their first few games. But this time it's just been incredibly exciting. It's been great. What have you thought about the atmospheres? Pretty good. I mean, I have covered games in Houston, and we've had some fantastic atmospheres here.

It's felt like people are kind of getting pretty excited for the host countries, well. I mean, that's the other thing. The World Cup really does suffer if the hosts are no good, but all three have been pretty good so far. People seem to be enthusiastic about the US team, which is, you know, I'm led to believe it's unusual.

Canada obviously doing militantly. I'm very, very happy with my kind of assignments here, but watching the first game, Mexico against South Africa in the Azteca and Mexico City. I was incredibly jealous of everyone who was there because that just looked like the most astonishing atmosphere. So yeah, I mean, you know, I don't want to sound like I'm a mouthpiece with FIFA here,

but it all seems to be going pretty well. Are the Scottish fans, the MVPs of the tournament so far? I was laughing because the English fans are just showing up to Boston and I wonder if the Bostonians are like, oh, these guys are much different. Yeah, yeah, I feel like I need to apologize as an Englishman for the, for our... We support England on this show. My dad's from England, so you're with friends here, okay? I support England, but I don't necessarily support all the England fans. Yeah, you're going to get a very different vibe from England fans than Scotland fans,

who obviously kind of bring this kind of boisterous enthusiasm that everyone absolutely loves. I was in a bar watching Cape Verde last night, and I was quite happily sitting there enjoying the game, and then some England fans on the other side of the bar started singing England songs, and it just kind of, oh, come on, guys, not now. You know, you'll have your game. England are playing tomorrow. Just let us enjoy this kind of great story, not sing your silly little songs about England. But yeah, yeah, a very different vibe in Boston from England to Scotland.

We're speaking to Nick Miller, football writer and World Cup coverage from The Athletic here on the Halford and Breff Show on SportsNet 650. So today at the World Cup, we get the second version of that star-studded day from the first group batches where Argentina, France, and Norway all play on the same day. Last time this happened, you'll recall,

Mbapé had a pair of goals for France, then Erling Holland went out and scored a pair of goals for Norway, and then Leila Messi said, hold my Cerva, here's a hat trick. Now, I want to put that on the back burner because there was one name that you mentioned earlier that's missing from that triumvirate, and that is Christiana O'Donardo,

who will not play today. They will play Portugal tomorrow morning. It's the first match against Uzbekistan. I know you've written a lot about the Ronaldo experience at this tournament thus far, both in terms of what's happened on the pitch and then what's happened off the pitch. Can you let our listeners know the full context and background of what's going on with Cristiano Ronaldo at this tournament so far? Okay, right.

Well, I mean, as ever with Christiana, Ronaldo and you know sometimes it's his fault and sometimes it doesn't the debate is kind of dominated by him and yeah they played they played they played the old Congo the other day

Christiano Ronaldo was pretty bad he I mean it's not as if he was doing you know he was making huge mistakes and missing big chances he just didn't really do anything which you could blame on his teammates you could blame on him not kind of

inserting himself into the game more but when you know when you're a team with a lot of very talented attackers and you're

building a team around a 41 year old guy who is playing in Saudi Arabia he needs to kind of justify that faith and do something a little more than what he did so that was and that was one thing and then after the

game there was a whole thing one of the one of his team gave an interview after the game in which he said he gave a fairly bland answer which was someone asked him

you know you're a team you're a collective how does Cristiano fit into that and he said something long lines of well yeah we are a team of collective everyone's working together um Christiano isn't you know he doesn't want to be thought of as as anything other than a member of the team and that got kind of put up and interpreted

as him saying that Ronaldo was just an ordinary player. Now, if you're kind of familiar with Cristiano Ronaldo fans on the internet, that didn't go down well with some of them. It got sucked into this whole thing about the player's girlfriend. There was a fake quote that was someone made on some Instagram account, Cristiano Ronaldo's girlfriend, it replied to that. And it became this kind of, it became this kind of huge, distraction, which hopefully the Portugal players are kind of insulated from.

You know, they, most of these guys don't run their social media accounts. They help other people to do that for them. So you'd hope that they haven't really seen any of these comments. And, you know, I'm not sort of naturally disposed to having sympathy for Cristiano Ronaldo, but I do have a lot of sympathy for him here because he hasn't done anything. He's just kind of, he hasn't said anything. and his something that his teammate said

wasn't really you know that controversial either and suddenly he's got sucked into this new thing that he has to deal with so as I said hopefully they're kind of protected from it a little bit but it's only going to be a distraction after they've had a disappointing result

in their first game this is a tough question to ask because I don't want to ask like a dumb sounding question like why are Christiano Ronaldo's fans so devoted to him like the answer is obvious, but I

how can you like differentiate Ronaldo's fans from like normal obsessed fans do you know does that make sense? Like is that there seems to be a very

cult like devotion to him well they where they will almost distort truth to show their loyalty to him. Yeah I mean I think you could kind of wander down some you know very philip

philosophical paths here, but I think it's, we've obviously had this thing for the best part of 20 years now, where Ronaldo and Leonel Messi have been, sort of pitted against each other, and at some point, it feels like a huge group of people have just picked the side, and they kind of defend their side, you know, to ridiculous degrees, as you say. To the death of logic. So the death of, yeah, exactly that. bending facts and bending reality to suit their own arguments

in my kind of limited experience than Rinaldo fans are slightly more obsessive than the messy fans but you know maybe that's just because I'm writing the wrong pieces about this but I think that's a that is a big part of it and you know he's he's

obviously a monumental football or was a monumental football I'm not sure he is anymore but you know he's going to be he's closing on and scoring a thousand goals in his career, which, you know, given the previous people who have done that, there are some kind of doubts about, you know,

they scored a lot of these goals in friendlies and, you know, maybe kickabouts in their backyards kind of thing, and they're counted those towards their tally. But he was scored in, you know, probably next year at some point, he would have scored a thousand proper actual competitive goals. And he's, you know, he's got over 200 international caps. You don't really need to kind of emphasize that he's one of the greatest players that has ever lived.

So it's, when you kind of combine that with a culture where increasingly in Europe and I think probably worldwide as well, more people are, pick a player than they follow that player throughout their career rather than necessarily picking a team, which was kind of the norm when I was a kid. So once you can combine those two things And you know, throw in a dash of obsessiveness and A loose relationship with logic then you get these people on On the internet and you do I mean the other thing is you don't you also don't know how many of these These accounts on Instagram or Or X or wherever it is are actually real You know there could be kind of bots from various places there could be AI things

Who knows What is? pretty clear is that it's no good for any kind of sensible and nuanced debate. Is he guaranteed to keep starting for Portugal because they play Uzbekistan tomorrow

and they should win that but they probably should have won their first match too and then their final match could be for the group against a very good side from Colombia. Yeah, I mean the Portugal coach Roberto Martinez

has very much nailed his colors to the Ronaldo Mask there. He was asked why he didn't substitute Ronaldo the other day when he clearly wasn't playing well. This has been a – and he basically said it wouldn't make sense when we need a goal to sub off one of the greatest golf scorers in football history, which, you know, fine. But you do think you can have an elite, highly paid coach. When something isn't working, you should probably try and think of something else. You should try and try to come up with some other solution. So it doesn't seem likely that he's going to be dropped from the team.

I think one of the issues is that there isn't an kind of obvious replacement. The most natural replacement for him in the Portugal squad is Gonzalo Romass, who hasn't really been playing that much, or didn't really play much for PSG last season. So the strong argument is that you'd rather have a, you know, Ronaldo who has the potential to do something special rather than this guy who's barely played all season. But, you know, I wrote a piece saying that Rinald shouldn't be in the team. I was very, very not alone in that. It's been a lot of similar things written not just at this World Cup,

but in over the past few years. And he's still in the team. And then, you know, who knows, he scores a hat-trick against Uzbekistan. And, you know, we look slightly silly. I'm not sure whether, you know, him scoring a hat-trick against one of the lower-ranked teams in the tournament is going to be like, Ronaldo firmly answers his critics. That tells you.

It's a scream, you know, roars Ronaldo. But that would, to whatever degree, justify Martinez's faith in him. And then, you know, he goes from there and maybe scores against

Columbia and everyone who's written these articles and given these opinions, it looks pretty silly. What's your, assignment for the rest of the group stage. What do you got coming up? So I am actually going to

witness Ronaldo try and score against Uzbekistan tomorrow. So I'm stationed in Houston for most of the tournament, so I'll be covering all the games here. And so yeah, Portugal against Uzbekistan tomorrow. And then the one I'm actually really looking forward to is Cape Verde

against Saudi Arabia on Friday, which at the start of the tournament, because I was in Cape Verde when they qualified the game that they won to to go through to their First World Cup back in October, I think it was. And it was one of the most joyous experiences of my career. It was

absolutely wonderful. And I kind of thought, you know, the final game in the group, then, you know, these two presumably, at that stage, these two teams will have lost to Spain and Uruguay, so this will be a bit of a shootout to see who can maybe sneak in as one of the third place

third place qualifies for the knockout rounds. But we have a, at the athletic, we have a kind of an algorithm, I suppose, that kind of is calculated how likely it is that every team will qualify from the group. I'm addicted to that right now. I'm a dick. I'm going up and down and looking at all the probabilities of round of 32 matches. Yeah. And at the moment, as things stands, Kate Verdes are more likely to qualify than New York while, which is just absolutely astonishing. So, yeah, I'm going to be, I'm going to be at that game, and I've been looking forward to that for months.

So I'm even more excited about that now. Okay, well, Nick, with that, we'll let you go. Thank you very much for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy all the raining matches in Houston, and it's very cool that you get to watch this improbable of Cape Verde's story play itself out. We'll try and catch up with you later on the tournament

if you're up for it, but thanks again for today. Absolutely. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Nick Miller, World Cup reporter and football writer for the athletic here on the Halford & Breft Show on Sportsnet, 650. So I just wanted to mention something because there is a Mac last night at BC Place. Yep. Egypt beats New Zealand.

And it was the first ever win for Egypt at the World Cup. And I think they were in like the 1934 World Cup too. And they were like still searching for that first win. And they got it. And they were down 1-0 to New Zealand. And Mosales scored the winning goal. And, you know, the Egyptian fans who were at BC plays had a great time. and then I saw some of the footage from Egypt, from Cairo.

And when that match ended at BC Place, it was six in the morning on, well, today, Monday in Cairo. And, you know, everyone was out there and honking their horns and waving their flags. And I thought to myself, you know, like, I knew what the World Cup was. But that's really cool. Like there was a match played in Vancouver that has the city of Cairo, a pretty old city, got some history, celebrating. And I thought that was like really neat. And I threw that out on social media and most people appreciate it. And some people were like, yeah, do you know what the World Cup is?

I'm like, yeah. And I'm saying it's cool because, you know, sports is one of these things that actually does connect us these days. there's a lot that keeps us apart, but there is some things that connect us, believe it or not. And I don't spend much of my day thinking about Egypt. And I'm pretty sure Egypt doesn't spend much of its time thinking about Canada and especially the city of Vancouver. Our show has a big Egyptian list.

I was going to say our podcast actually is really well there. But now there is that connection. And if you're from Vancouver and in your days, maybe you want to go visit, a place like Egypt, see the history there, and maybe you're talking to some of the locals, and you can say, hey, I'm from Vancouver.

I watched your country win its first ever World Cup match in my city in Vancouver. And I think that's, I don't know, pretty neat. So to follow on this line of thinking, like there were some matches when the group got announced

and the schedule got released that I kind of looked at side-eyed and I'm like, hmm, wonder how that's going to play out. I think Austria-Jordan was one of those, like a nine o'clock start where there wasn't a hotbed for either market. One of them was Egypt and New Zealand in Vancouver. A lot of pundits prior to the tournament were kind of eyeballing these games and being like, what's it going to be like?

Yeah. What's the atmosphere going to be like in Vancouver? Not exactly the, like, there's the diaspora and everything, but not exactly huge, huge, huge enclaves of Kiwis and Egyptians, what's it going to be like? My prediction of like $30 tickets being available on Stubb did not

quite come to fruition. But look, all I'll say is you were not alone in questioning what the veracity behind the fandom was going to be. No one knew. And you got to remember, the lead up to the World Cup very much had that same skepticism that we had before the 2010 Olympics

with, you know, this is just an overpriced party that's going to cost us in the long run. And it was even added to because we were only going to get seven matches in Vancouver. But the big question was going to be about the vibe and the buzz. Was it going to exist? What was it going to be like? I was at the fan fest at P&E grounds twice over the weekend. And it's fantastic.

Everyone is fully embracing all parts of this. People that don't know anything about soccer, people that think they know it all, people that legitimately know it all. Everyone just wants a place to go and gather and experience these games, which, as our previous guest just pointed out, have absolutely delivered in the first half of the group stage. Yep. These games have been good.

They've been very entertaining matches. And I've found myself glued to these matches between countries that I don't have an emotional attachment to. But in the moment, I'm like, okay, I've got a I've got a, I've got a, I've got a rooting interest. For example, Saturday night, Curacao was playing Ecuador. I did not have this one circle prior to the tournament as one I had to watch.

I was like, if I'm going to miss a game, Curacao and Ecuador might be the one. And what ends up happening? The keeper, Eloy Room, for Curacao, sets a World Cup record for most saves in a match that didn't involve extra time. And Curacao gets its first ever point out of World Cup. It's very neat to watch.

As you said, I think they're neat. They're like potatoes this world. up. Okay. We got a lot more to get into on the Halifton & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Before we go to break, I need to remind you that the Doick Auto Group is the official automotive sponsor of Halford & Brough. Find out why nobody beats a Doick Deal why nobody

has since 1926. Visit Doick GM on Marine Drive. Visit them in Richmond, visit them downtown and visit them online at the Jewick Auto Group.com. Coming up, we are going to dive back into the big NHL story from the weekend. Brady Kachuk, no longer a member of the Ottawa

senators. He's been traded to play with his brother in Florida. Alex Adams, Senator's writer for the Athletic is going to join us. We'll talk about the deal, the shock behind it, and what comes next for the Sends. That's coming up on the other side. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. It's Canucks Central

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