Winnipeg Jets vs. Seattle Kraken tonight, Grey Cup Week

Winnipeg Jets vs. Seattle Kraken tonight, Grey Cup Week

All right. Well, the mics are hot and we are coming in hot and it is uh relatively hot outside for Gay Cup week in November here in Peg City. Welcome to Winnipeg Sports Talk gang. Great to have you all with us. A big Thursday show today as the Jets get ready to continue their road trip tonight against the Seattle Kraken. And of course, the festivities are officially underway downtown and throughout the city for the 2025 Grey Cup Festival heading into the big game on Sunday at Princess Auto Stadium. We’re going to have uh plenty of Jets talk today and we’ll also get into the Gay Cup. Uh Bombing is actually going to join us. He had a really great sit down with Trey Val, who of course is going to be our hope at the CFL Awards tonight. Val, breakout star for the Bombers this year, up for both the CFL rookie of the year and special teams player of the year. Uh we’ll catch up with Bombing for a few minutes. Um you know about 20 or so. Uh then we’re going to talk to James Duffy who is in town for the Gray Cup. James also has a new book, Certified Beauties, and he’s doing a book signing and a little event, a sitdown with the IC Boys tomorrow night at um McN Robinson at 700 p.m. So, uh we’ll talk to James about the Gay Cup and about the new book. Brandon Riki will join us for a little more hockey talk and uh we’ll get the latest on the Jets. Now, obviously with this Jets game late tonight, the the skate is not happening until about 1:30. So, we’re going to stay on top of this and hopefully by when Brandon joins us, we’ll have a little more clarity as to how the Clean Line lines are going to be looking tonight for the Winnipeg Jets. Uh, as we spoke yesterday with Weieber, who uh was doing the uh the drive-thru at Starbucks when he joined us on his way to Seattle yesterday, uh I think there’s a pretty good chance that we might see Dylan Samberg in the lineup tonight, which for the first time all year will significantly shake up the way the blue line looks with Samberg back presumably if he returns alongside Neil Pian. and we will get the answer to the question we talked about yesterday on the program as to how that third pairing will look like when Dylan Samberg is back. So, uh uh we’ll get into that and then around 2:30 a little bit more in the Grey Cup and as much as it pains me to say this, the Western Division Champion Saskatchewan Rough Riders Rob Vanstone from the Riders is going to join us. And then uh hopefully we will also have a boots on the ground live report from Touchdown Manitoba and the Gay Cup festivities from none other than our own Connor Rabchack. Now Connor obviously does so much for us uh you know on the Jets beat. But with the Jets on the road and the Gay Cup here, he was going to take in some of the festivities this afternoon. We thought you know what a perfect perfect time to maybe check in on how things are getting started. So, we’ll do that a little bit later on today on the program as well. Hit the cool bet lines. Lots of action tonight in the Canadian Football League. And then a big Grey Cup edition of CFL 110 will be live immediately after WST. So, stick around for that. Uh I can tell you that the hammer is locked, loaded, and ready to go. And uh certainly the biggest story that we’ll be talking about right off the bat is the Mike O’Shea situation which we’ll touch on in just a minute as well and see what bombing has to say on that. Just before we bring in Michael Reis, a huge thanks to the sponsors that make WST happen each and every day. Of course, our partners at Cool Bet. Pat’s going to join us on the show tomorrow. Uh, we will do WST winners, week 11 NFL picks and more tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. and Jake will be here in the Peg and by tomorrow night, Pat will be here and looking forward to hooking up with those guys for a real fun weekend heading into the big game on the weekend. Of course, our friends at the Winnipeg Jets, don’t forget gang, tickets are going fast. to get your seats for our next WST game of the month, which is next Friday, Nikolai Eers’s return to Winnipeg. Go to winnipegjets.com/wst. Grab your tickets for the game. Uh it includes a beverage, a pregame meetup, and we’d love to have you join us after we filled our section for the home opener and looking forward to keep the good times rolling up in the upper bowl with WST. Uh, HSSE Millionaire Lottery. Just a couple days left to get your tickets. So, do that now. hssemillionaire.com. Of course, our friends at Rolley’s Transfer, St. Patel Dental Center, Canadian Club, Uptown Alley, Princess Auto, Chud’s Powers Sports, Manitoba Battery, Clean Line, Plumbing, Heating, and Electrical, Boston Pizza, Royal Sports, Little Brown Jug. We’ll get to a why not question of the day for not Autocorp at Waverly and McGelry. And of course, get your fan feedback for fansfirst.ca. A very full Michael Remis joins us now. Remo, a great time had by all at the amazing Bell’s Kitchen last night for the Gay Cup Media Party. And uh what’s the overunder on when you’ll be able to eat food again? Man, probably for dinner. It was um Belle’s Kitchen, so they said it was appetizers and like you could order whatever you wanted. I got a two meat platter. Was incredible. And uh had a great time there. Oh, it was Yeah, they like gave you barbecue sauce. I was like, I don’t even need barbecue sauce with this. So, it was uh it was a great night. Uh here’s a picture of me, Liss, and Connor together with the gray cup. Pretty cool seeing it up close. Uh checking out all the names. Um, you know, met a lot of people, talked to a lot of people there, you know, guests of the show. Uh, so a lot of fun to be out there and looking forward to the festivities. I do have my Gray Cup hat on. Hus, see you got the gray cup. Um, doesn’t compare to Dusty’s Grey Cup jacket, which stole the show with the CFL logos that even got uh looks from the commissioner uh checking it out. So, those are available at the convention center. Uh we hopefully maybe we’ll see if Dusty can jump on tomorrow uh for a couple minutes at the start of the show and he can show it off. It is a reversible jacket. Yes. His his outfit yesterday was just hilarious. I mean he had the this brand new reversible CFL jacket with all the logos of the teams on the shoulders. He was wearing an older CFL logo hat. Yes. and the t-shirt, the radically Canadian CFL t-shirt. Literally a poster boy for multiple eras of CFL marketing yesterday as um he’s in town and he’s going to be hosting Grey Cup Saturday. Yes, there is there is the jacket. If you notice the jacket like the West teams are on the left arm and the East teams are on the right arm. What a great design this jacket is. It is. Now, I don’t know. Did he have a second picture of the uh the other side, the reversible side? Uh I don’t know. His Twitter is As soon as I saw it, I had to have it, but he doesn’t say no, it’s not reversible, but it’s uh very nice jacket. And I mean, this is the this is like when you go and this is the hat that he had on yesterday. H like when you go to the Gray Cup Festival, you got to wear, you know, your best CFL apparel. If it’s a retro jersey or jacket or current logo hoodie, you see it or whatever you’re dressing up as. I call it CFL Halloween, the Gay Cup Festival. And you see some cool uh cool stuff. So, uh Dusty breaking out the radically Canadian shirt and the CFL. I do like this CFL logo. Uh I don’t know if I prefer this one to to the current one, but they’re all all great. All great. Yeah. Well, as I say, you’re going to be seeing a lot of that downtown uh throughout the uh the weekend. Uh but it is officially underway and my god, tomorrow might be one of the greatest days ever of showing off the city of Winnipeg. Um convention center looks amazing and if you’ve been down there, they’ve closed York Avenue. There’s going to be an outdoor social tomorrow all day and it is going to be sunny and 11 degrees C if you can believe that in the middle of November. So, um I know there’s a lot of people concerned about global warming everywhere, but here in Winnipeg for Grey Cup weekend, the weather looks great. Uh temperature continues to rise potentially for the game. I think the high is now three on Sunday, so it’ll be great. Anyways, we’ll get to more Grey Cup stuff later on and hopefully have Connor jump on with some sights and sounds from TDMBB a little bit later on tonight. We got Winnipeg’s own Watchmen playing the concert series tonight. Uh the team parties will get going and uh it is officially on for Gay Cup weekend here in Winnipeg. But of course Winnipeg hockey fans re are going to be preoccupied tonight at 9:00 when the Jets and the Seattle Kraken drop the puck. really looking forward to this game tonight to see if the Jets can build off that win in Vancouver and continue to sort of dig themselves out of a bit of a hole that was dug in the first three games of this six-game road trip out west. And the question that we’ll all be asking that will hopefully be answered by the time we’re finished this program is will Dylan Samberg be making his debut on the Jet Blue Line for the first time this year? Yeah, what a boost to the blue line. That would be Cole Perfetti coming back. Uh Dylan Samberg, Morgan Baron still on the shelf. So, they’re hitting the ice shortly. It will be Philip Grubower in goal for the Kraken. Ken uh live on location in Seattle on the case and we’ll wait and see if we have any clean line Jets lines. But hey, make the uh you know, as you said, dig themselves out of a hole. Lost the first three games. You know, you won uh the last one against uh who was that last one against? I’m so in Gay Cup. Vancouver. Yeah, Vancouver on S. I’m in Gray Cup mode here. Here. Jesus Christ. And then Seattle and then Calgary on on Saturday. So, we’ll see if they can make it two in a row. Um listen, I was drinking water last night and drove and drove home. Wade allegedly Wade uh was making fun of me too. He’s like, “What are you doing here? This is Great Cup Week.” Yeah. Well, and listen, I got got it too as well. As I said, I have been really I’ve been digging deep to get through these shows this week. Um and I said I was a game time decision. I missed my first ever media party last night knowing that I just wasn’t up to it. Uh, and anything that I did last night, I would be borrowing from today and the rest of the weekend to pay for last night. So, uh, I’ll be ready to go. Cool bit boys are coming in. We’re going to have, uh, a lot of fun this weekend. So, uh, it is time just to focus on. And hey, Jake will be in town tonight. We’ll probably hook up and watch this hockey game uh, this evening. And uh listen, I I I got to say the uh the response led by Adam Lowry in the game against the Vancouver Conucks and just the play of the Lowry line and how good he need and I follow have looked together um was just massive for the club. Uh obviously the goal for Jonathan Taves was huge. Uh and then you know being able to have I mean listen for a good portion of the season early on it was the top line that was sort of carrying this team. Um you know that’s not going to happen for 82 games and you know I think Mark Shley’s been off a little bit over the course of this uh this uh road trip. Um he did have one point in Anaheim but that’s uh that’s it. And it was the secondary scoring, the Taves line, the Lowry line, but Josh Moresy who was really leading the way. And Mores has been carrying a heavy load without Dylan Samberg back. And Re, I’m sure you would agree. Um, you know, it was great to get Perfetti back and we’re starting to see that second line take that next step. Um, the second Dylan Samberg gets back on the ice alongside Neil Pian, the Winnipeg Jet Blue Line will take that big next step. And whether that happens tonight or Calgary, it is imminent. Um, and it will give us lots to talk about as to the options for the coaching staff on that third pairing when he gets there. Yeah, that would be a huge boost. You know how good he is on that second pair, denying uh zone entries on the penalty kill as well. Really stabilizes that second pair with Neil Pian who is a candidate to come out. We’ll have to wait and see. Uh would it be Hayden Flurry, Luke Shen? Uh you imagine Logan Stanley goes down to that third pair with one of them or do we see uh Colin Miller and Gus Nyquist also on his way back. Hus uh you know he skated in a regular jersey. We’ll have to wait and see what he is today and Ken that was the big debate yesterday with Ken. Will he be eased in on the fourth line? Uh I imagine that would be the case but hey you never know until you see it. And you know, for roster moves, I mean, the easy ones would be to send down Chibberov or Parker forward or they have to make a tough decision uh on defense. Although Hayden Flurry, sorry, he was banged up last game, so he may not even be available. Well, exactly. And we’re going to be staying on top of this over the course of the next hour or so from the morning skate to see whether Flurry is out there, what the line rushes are, and how things look for the Winnipeg Jets. And uh of course Remo, the Jets sort of owe Seattle one. Um they were just cruising along until Seattle came in and uh it was Joey Dord that was a brick wall against Winnipeg in that game at home just a few weeks ago. One thing that we do know is that Dord will not be the goalender tonight for the Seattle Kraken because of course he’s been put on IR right now by the Kraken so won’t be available. And I think it’s likely we’ll probably see a Hella Buck Grubower match up tonight. Yeah, Ken reporting that we’re going to see Philip Grubower in that and Dort had been so good and he was very solid in that game the Jets played against Seattle and uh Seattle came to play that night and you know really limited the Jets, took advantage of their opportunity and were able to hold on. I’m sure the Jets want to get revenge uh from that game and get on a two-game win streak here. So, I thought goending was very strong for Seattle early and you know, I’m not sure if they’re going to be getting that here with Philip Grubower. Uh, see a question from Stonewall Dave. Hey, I’m buying some tickets for a Jets game next month for some out of town friends. Do you just use StubHub? Fans First, which site is best? Listen, if you’re going to the secondary market, nob brainer to go to StubHub. Uh, go to Fans First, I should say. Do not go to StubHub. StubHub is where what you see will end up being about 40% more by the time you pay for it. Highly recommend fans first and of course you know tickets depending on what game you’re looking at also available uh directly through the club via ticketmaster. But yeah, if you are doing secondary ticketing, uh, go to fans first. And it’s actually a good time just to take a quick look, uh, at what’s happening for tickets for the Gray Cup. Uh, because I know there’s probably a lot of Bombers fans that were hoping to see their team in the Gray Cup, but that was not the case. Looks like the get-in price right now is about 195 in the upper bowl. uh or sorry I should say one oh a single ticket is 175. You can get in at 195 usually in and around in the low 200s and if you want to get into the lower bowl um h you can get well pairs in and around 250 to 270. So I think the rider presence has been good for the secondary market as well. um looking at um you know a number of seats that are available right now at a certain price. But yeah, if you don’t have seats and you want to get going, uh the obviously the game is sold out, but our friends at fansfirst.ca have you covered and we’ll get to fan feedback for that a little later on. Uh here’s our why not question of the day, Remis, and I’ll put it to you and everybody else in chat. How spooked are you at all the noise around Michael O’Shea’s potential departure from the Winnipeg Jets? Now, there was one very unsubstantiated report out of Toronto um from a guy that used to be in the media for a while that hasn’t been for a long time that O’Shea is there. Certainly, that wasn’t the case by any of the most respected people around the league last night at the media party at Bell’s Kitchen. But it is hard not to uh not to start feeling, you know, a little bit more nervous about O’Shea sticking around considering everything that is happening around this. So why not question of the day for not autocorporate Waverly and McGelvey? How nervous are you are about uh the future of Mike O’Shea with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers? It sort of is the big story around town right now, Remis, with the Bombers not playing in the game. That was the story at the media party yesterday. Hey, isn’t this Gray Cup feel weird uh without the Bombers? Uh he couldn’t make it six in a row and hey, they’re head coach who’s been here for 10 years. Could he really go to Toronto? And you know, I was reading Jeff Hamilton’s what uh article column in the Gray Cup and it said he wrote that there is fear in the Bombers organization that Michael Sha could leave and owed it to himself to listen to at least what the Argos had to say. I think there would be some concern and maybe he’s looks at a team that’s got a quarterback entering the last year of his deal. Uh he’s been O’Shea’s guy. They don’t really have a secondary situation. The team’s kind of been slipping. Maybe this would be the time to walk away. He’s done everything you can do here. Gone to five straight gray cups. We’ll have to see, you know, what happens here. But I think at first like he’s not going to Toronto. What are you talking about here? But see that picture that was on social media of him coming back from the plane. Oh, this is this is a real thing here. It could certainly happen. Uh I still will believe it when I see it. Excuse me. I mean, to leave the Winnipeg Blue Bombers where this franchise is right now is that winningest coach of all time with everything that Michael Sha’s built to go to the Argos who are listen a secondear team in the CFL certainly in their market certainly with their ownership group just seems like something that just makes no sense to me. Now again, there’s personalities involved. There’s probably a lot behind the scenes that we don’t know. I’m stunned that this is even a topic right now. I couldn’t believe that he took the interview there. And maybe it’s negotiating. I don’t know. Uh we’ll get into this extensively on CFL 110 with Jeff Hamilton. And Hammer’s going to join us tomorrow on the program as well to talk about the game and the latest on all of that. Um and I guess we have to remember about the Thaiats, too. Now, obviously Scott Milanovic is there and has done a great job, but I mean, does Michael Ohea want a different role? Does he want more control? To me, he’s a head coach. He’s a head football coach and there’s really going to be two Well, there’s his job here in Winnipeg, which I’m sure is there for him or the one in Toronto. And I mean, you can love Pinball Clemens and you can have a great relationship with him and all that, but I’ll tell you what, dude. um to to leave what he has been such a big part of building here in Winnipeg, which is the envy of every other team in the CFL. Uh it would be shocking and it would raise so many more questions about the organization, about where they go if in fact Mike O’Shea went. I mean, you know, what happens to the rest of the coaching staff? What does that do to the, you know, player personnel? I mean, who’s back? Who would be returning under Mike O’Shea that might not if he left? So, I mean, kind of unprecedented in this OSHA era to be having these questions and it’s just such a weird thing to be talking about, especially this week of all weeks with the Great Cup being right here in Winnipeg. Yeah, it’s a bit of a cloud over what should be a fun festive week celebrating the great Canadian game and the Bombers in a situation that we haven’t seen for a while. And you wonder if he did go, I mean, could we see the Bombers, you know, I guess could you see them miss the playoffs? You look at the West division. Saskatchewan pretty good. Calgary, BC, Edmonton really came on after the quarterback switch and the Bombers, where would that leave them? You know, with Michael Shay, would players would he take players like you saw uh Ted Gaya sign many Bomber players in Hamilton? uh leaving it really wide open what the future of the club would be. I mean, I know there’s a few people that say, “Hey, you know, it’s time for change.” I don’t feel that. I think that they’ve got one of the most accomplished and best coaches in the league. The guy that’s won more, I mean, this is about winning. And who’s won more than Mike O’Shea in Winnipeg. The answer to that is absolutely no. Um, I know the last three great cops have been very disappointing, but there is a standard of excellence that Mike has built here in Winnipeg, and it would be an absolute shame if he uh if he did leave the uh leave the leave leave the Winnipeg. Um, of course, it’s CFL Player Awards tonight, and Trey Val is up for not one but two awards. And I think it was in around August after that game against Toronto or maybe it was the Ottawa game where on the show and on CFL 10 we started speculating is it possible that Trey Val could be a double winner at the CFL player awards. Well, we’ll find out tonight. Club Regent Casino is where that will be taking place. great venue uh for the CFL player awards and uh Val of course as we talked with Ed Tate a very very wild story background story that um Ed Tate documented in that long read and uh our pal Darren bombing uh a bonfire also caught up with with Trey and uh we’re going to bring in Bomber just for a couple minutes before James Duffy joins us for his thoughts on all that let’s fire it up Remo and Darren and uh bombing gay cup is here. It’s kind of weird, man. No bombers in the big game, but lots to talk about. How are you? How different is it without you having to cover the team that you do like you have the last number of years? Plus, it’s super freaking weird, man. It’s been like you you include the the missed 2020 season. It’s been well over half a decade since the Winnipeg Blue Bombers haven’t been in this game. And I mean, I’ve traveled to all of these Gay Cups, uh, going back to when it was last in Winnipeg, 2015, and and the first year I covered the the Gay Cup Week for National TSN Radio. And, uh, it’s really strange. It’s really, really strange. Like, uh, I’m so used to texting with Darren Cameron, the director of communications for the Blue Bombers, like daily and, uh, you know, got to go talk to O’Shea, got to go see practice, got to go see what’s happening. Um, it’s a it’s a different pace for sure. Um, you know, and and thinking about the audience, your audience, my audience on Bonfire Sports, like, uh, fans probably don’t want to hear the daily about, uh, you know, AJ Allen and Trevor Harris and the Saskatchewan Rough Riders and and what’s going on with Davis Alexander’s hamstring and all that. Of course, people are interested in the game and interested in those storylines, but um, we need to talk about Trey Val. we need to talk about um you know Mike O’Shea and his future which I think is a fascinating storyline from a league perspective. It’s the biggest one during this Grey Cup week. So yeah, it’s a strange week. Uh it’s too bad for Bombers fans that uh really CFL fans that a home team isn’t playing in this game, but um yeah, I mean there’s no better place to enjoy the Grand National drunk as they call it uh Gay Cup week and and the festival and everything than here in Winnipeg with uh probably the bestrun organization in the Canadian Football League, the Blue Bombers, led by Wade Miller and his team uh putting on a a fantastic event so far that’s kind of just getting underway here in tank city. Yeah. Well, and and it is apparently uh just got a uh just seeing this tweet from Knuckles Irving. He was talking to to on OB said the touchdown Manitoba was packed minutes after it opened at 1:00 today. Uh and he said, “No surprise, TD Manitoba is the go-to party every year at the Gay Cup and it is going to be raging. Connor’s going to be down there. We’ll get a little boots on the ground spot. But listen, I got to hit you on two things before we get to Trey Val tonight in the game. Um, you covered the Bombers and Mike O’Shea for a number of years. I am still stunned that we’re even having this conversation. To me, it is kind of unfathomable that Mike would leave everything that he’s built here in Winnipeg um with the best franchise, organization, fan support, all of that to go to Toronto who’s going to be playing like 13 games on the road next year. and yet he took the interview and it is the talk of the town. Just quick thoughts on the uncertainty of the future of uh a guy that is synonymous with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. I’ll try to keep it quick thoughts because I have a lot and you know Gay Cup week it’s an opportunity to speak to a lot of people that you don’t normally get to speak to especially face to face which is always the best way to communicate and kind of gain insight and information. Uh, number one, we know how Mike O’Che has always handled his contract here in Winnipeg over the past, what is it, 13 years or whatever, you know, 12, 13 years. He’s always let those contracts expire. He has never signed a contract extension early. It’s always been like a month left on his deal. Um, that’s uh something to just keep in mind. Number two, he’s seriously considering this job. I don’t think Michael Sheay flies to Toronto for an in-person meet and greet with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the corporate juggernaut that owns the Toronto Argonauts. Why would you have an in-person interview if if you’re not seriously considering it? Number three, Toronto isn’t Michael Sha’s hometown. That’s North Bay, Ontario, but it’s pretty much home for him. It’s where he is a Hall of Fame player, Thai Cats, but maybe most notably the Toronto Orgonauts, where he was a Grey Cup winning player and Gay Cup winning coach as a special teams coordinator in 2012. Um, and you know, it’s I believe where he met his wife. It’s where a lot of his friends and family are. Um, and now his children are are out of school, right? There’s nothing really holding Michael O’Shea here in Winnipeg. I know for sure Michael Sheay loves Winnipeg, has really enjoyed living here and moving his entire family here. Um, he loves working for this Winnipeg Blue Bombers organization. If there’s a problem like, you know, we we need to make the meals better on practice day, you call Wade and it happens. You need a piece of equipment, you need something to happen for your football team. It’s going to happen quickly. I think that’ll be a huge challenge when there is no Wade Miller in Toronto. You’re dealing with a corporate juggernaut. There isn’t one phone call Michael Sha’s going to make to, you know, uh, get a piece of equipment or or get logistics changed or or get something fixed. I think that’s going to be a huge challenge. Um, you know, compared to Winnipeg. But all of that said, I think he’s seriously considering this. There’s a lot of appeal to joining an organization that has a lot of talent and that frankly needs Mike O’Shea because if they are, as it’s been reported, a complete cluster, you know what from, you know, kind of top to bottom in that organization. Michael Sheay’s the man. He rebuilt everything from the ground up here in Winnipeg. Yes, Wade Miller has handled a lot of that, you know, non-foot operations stuff, you know, uh Kyle Walters, the late Ted Gavaya, um Danny McManis, um you know, that that support team. They they’ve built the roster and that sort of thing, but don’t think for a second, I know this to be 100% true, this is Mike O’Shea’s ship in Winnipeg. He is the captain of this ship. It is in his design, everything they do down to the finest detail, top to bottom. So, if you’re the Toronto Argonauts and you need to rebuild things from down to the studs, maybe even down to the foundation, Mike O’Shea’s your guy. Uh I I don’t want to say I think he’s going, but I think it’s a distinct possibility, Hustler, that he is going to take this job with the Toronto Argonauts. And uh that of course leads to the the monster question. What next for? Well, what next? I mean, listen, that’ll dominate our show for a lot outside of the Jets moving forward outside of the Great Cup if it comes to fruition. And listen, I mean, we’ve kind of touched on this topic before and I’ll be the first one to admit. I kind of said like, why are we even talking about this as if this would happen? I mean, explain to me why possibly would it, you know, Mike O’Shea would even consider it. Well, guess what? He’s apparently considering it. And hopefully maybe this is just some shrewd negotiation from Mike against a guy that can do a pretty good negotiation himself and Wade Miller, but I will concede that everything is on the table right now and uh we should have some clarity post Grey Cup game. Let’s get to um you know, listen, we won’t talk too much about it. I mean, obviously he’s up for two awards tonight. We had Ed Tate on earlier on, but um you had a really good interview with Trayval at Bonfire. I mean, just fill people in quickly on that and we can get people who can head over later on today and check that out at their uh at their convenience. Well, as you had Ed on, like he he wrote an amazing story uh talking about the incredible journey that Trey Vavl has has taken in his uh life beyond his football career and obviously including his football career, but uh you know, a young genuine man and in talking to him one-on-one uh yesterday when uh those award nominees were available, you know, he’s a little loose lipped. he kind of, you know, lets let some uh swear words slide and and, you know, I left them in there because I didn’t think they were egregious or overt, that sort of thing. But he’s just a genuine dude and and speaks uh speaks his truth and and speaks the truth of of uh his experience. And um fascinating hearing um you know, I really wanted to get his insight because early in the year, Hustler, like I don’t know about your live chat. I’m sure it was similar to mine in the postgame show when Trey Vavl would have a fumble and the Bombers would lose a football game and it’s like, “Okay, cut this rookie. We’ve had enough. That’s not how Michael Shay operates. That’s not how the Bombers operate, right? They they went right up to him and Val told me, he’s like, Michael Shay went right up to him like, don’t worry about it. Next play. It’s going to happen again. You’re going to fumble again. Don’t worry about it. Focus on the future. Uh, and then Zack Polaris walks up to him and says, “You got this. I’ve thrown a ton of picks in my career. Just worry about what you’re going to do next.” The confidence that the Blue Bombers instilled in Trey Val is why he’s up for two awards tomorrow night here in Winnipeg. Uh I think he will win most outstanding rookie. Uh Devin Verzuk uh was the starting middle linebacker for the majority of the year for the Hamilton Tiger Cats. A Canadian rookie, starting middle linebacker, impressive. Um, and he’s up for uh I think he’ll win special teams uh uh most outstanding player as well because uh he had a record-breaking season. He’s up against Lam Halahu uh Argo’s kicker. We’re familiar with him here in Winnipeg. He set a CFL record for the most 50 plus yard field goals in a season. But Trey Val won games pretty much single-handedly for the Blue Bombers. one games plural for a football team as a rookie and as a specialist. Plus, he played defensive snaps starting at at corner for a handful of games. Um, if that’s not an outstanding season while setting CFL records, uh, he’s probably going to have the longest missed field goal return touchdown in the history period because that chapter will close going into the 2027 season when they they move the goalposts and all that. But, uh, Vavl, fascinating guy, uh, very young, still lots to grow and and I’m really curious of what, uh, the chapter is next for him. But imagine going from, in his words, the couch where he was before he came to Winnipeg to now being, uh, up on stage potentially twice at the CFL Awards. Fascinating story. Big highlight of course on a Blue Bomber season. Yeah, no doubt about it. I mean, listen, the Bombers were 10 and eight. I think he could basically say that this team uh is below 500 if it wasn’t for his heroics. I he basically won two games for them. Uh and that’ll go a long way with the voting tonight. Hey, uh just 30 seconds because we got James Duffy coming up. Uh who you got on Sunday. Oh, I’m going with my gut. Despite all of the hamstring talk with Davis Alexander, I think the Montreal Alowettes are a better football team than the Saskatchewan Rough Riders. I picked Saskatchewan to beat Montreal in this game back in May. I said those are the two teams. Riders win. Obviously got a lot of flack from from Bombers fans, but uh I think the Alowettes are so tight top to bottom. I think Davis Alexander is going to have a good football game. Uh that’s my 30 secondond response and something I could probably talk for an hour about, but uh it’s going to be fun on Sunday. Love it. bombing. I’m sure we’ll see over the course of the weekend of the game on Sunday. Uh Bonfire Sports for that interview with Trey Vavl. I think you’ll enjoy it. Uh enjoy the awards tonight and the rest of the Grey Cup festivities, pal. And uh thanks for jumping on. We’ll see you soon. Appreciate you, Hus. Have fun this week, everybody. Uh you you especially, buddy. Yeah. Well, the fun is already starting. And uh I’ll tell you what, I’m still looking at this number over at Cool Bet. Plus 165 now for Montreal. I think I can safely say it’s not going to get any higher. There’s no way. Now’s the time we get in on the Alowettes. And uh the spread is still four. We’ll hit the cool bet lines a little bit later on. Little bit of breaking news from Seattle here, folks. Uh our man Ken Weeb Connor Hleabuk is doing the starting routine with Dylan Samberg. So Helabuk will start. Samberg is wearing the same color jersey as Neil Peon, which could be an indicator he returns to the lineup. We’ll see what the rushes bring here. uh and also mentions doesn’t see Hayden Flurry out there after he left Tuesday’s game against the Canucks. So, we’ve got James Duffy coming up. Brandon will join us. Hopefully, we’ll have a little bit more clarity on the Jet lineup. we can do the clean line lines and figure out how things are looking as the team looks to uh get another win on the road uh and maybe just maybe even up this road trip at 3 and three uh with a win tonight and a win on Saturday in Calgary. James Duffy’s in the peg right now. He’ll join us right now. But first quick a big thanks to some of our great Winnipeg sports talk sponsors. Hey folks, looking for uh something fun to do on the weekend. Uh, listen, when you’re thinking fun for about the family, groups of people of all ages, Uptown Alley is the spot. If you haven’t checked out their amazing new facility at 1301 St. Matthews, what are you waiting for? 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Listen, if you need your smile worked at or if it’s been a minute since you’ve seen a dentist, why don’t you head on over to St. Patel Dental Center? They’ve been serving generations of Manitobans and have a beautiful new facility at 167 St. An’s Road with state-of-the-art equipment and convenient free parking right behind the building. A full array of dental services from cleanings and checkups to things like dental implants. Dr. Terry and his staff can do it all with a smile on their face to help the smile on yours. St. fatal dental.ca for more information. Make an appointment and make it your long-term home for you and your family with a great group of people taking care of your smile. And hey, the weekend is here, gang. I know many of you are going to be popping by your local Manitoba liquor marts ahead of Gay Cup week next week. Make sure to check out the Canadian Club display for two things. Number one, limited quantities remain of the Winnipeg Blue Bomber special edition Bomber label bottle of Canadian Club, the official spirit of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Canada’s iconic Canadian whiskey. And in addition with the holidays coming up right now for a limited time, we’ve got the cranberry ginger ale with Canadian Club. We know how popular the CC and Ginger’s been over the last couple years. Well, just in time for the holidays, it’s CC cranberry and ginger ale in four packs and in 473ml cans. You can get those at Manitoba Liquor Marts or keep your eyes out for it at your local vendor, Canadian Club, the official spirit of the Bombers, the Grey Cup festivities, and the holidays. Well, it’s Gay Cup week and the who’s who of Canadian sports are here. And listen, what a perfect opportunity to welcome in the boss himself, the man who’ll be uh hosting the Gay Cup and all the other incredible CFL action on CF on TSN this weekend. And he’s also got a new book to tell us about the one and only James Duffy. Welcome back to the Peg, James. What’s going on? How you doing, buddy? Haven’t seen in a while. I see I made my bed for you behind. I’m not used to this background, but I uh it’s got a few wrinkles in it. Not too bad. I’ve got lovely uh Delta Delta Winnipeg decor on the background. I put that art up for you guys cuz the ball was a little bit plain. I appreciate that. It’s the uh I mean at TSN HQ. I know the ENC will be busy over the course of the of the weekend with you guys all getting in. I mean obviously I want to talk about the new book uh Certified Beauties and the signing event tomorrow. Uh but of course you’re here for Gay Cup. Uh yeah, you’ve been here for a day or so. I I’ll be honest. I mean I’ve been to a lot of Gay Cups uh doing the show. It’s a little different here hosting. But man, being around downtown, you could already feel sort of a buzz for a game. And strangely enough, a big buzz for a game that for the first time in 6 years does not involve the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. You know, I don’t know. I haven’t looked at this statistically, but it just seems like in my career covering Gray Cups that whenever, you know, a really good team is hosting a Gay Cup, they’ll get knocked out, right? They’ll have the five-year run before they’re hosting and then get not. It always seems that way that like really good teams just they the year before they were there. I I trying to think like Saskatchewan maybe and Darien Durant I think won at home, but it doesn’t happen often. So, it’s a little bit of a drag for the folks of Winnipeg for you guys not to be here, but I don’t think anybody feels too sorry after going to five straight. And I think if I if I can take, you know, you take a step back for the league in general to have Saski in it is is pretty great. I think it’ll be a major home field advantage. Uh I think it’ll be 3 to1 ratio at least probably uh Riders fans to AL’s fans. But it’s going to be fun and the two best teams in the league I think we can safely say all year. No offense to Hamilton who actually finished first in the East, but I think with, you know, with Davis Alexander there, Montreal was probably a little bit better team. So, I I it’s gonna be an awesome game. There’s some BC Lion fans watching this right now that stomachs are probably churning. Um I mean, listen, the CFL always delivers. Yeah, those two finals last week, but especially the West final, I mean, the last three minutes of that game were so crazy. Um, I was just talking with Jeff Hamilton earlier for CFL 110. I cannot believe some of the decisions that were made by Cory Mason that last three minutes and yet it all just turned up riders at the end. And I mean Trevor Harris will be a huge story in this game on the verge of I think basically hitting that last check mark to be a CFL Hall of Famer and that’s win a Gay Cup as a starting quarterback. certainly took his time, waited for the most dramatic moment, but that drive to win that football game at the end was um what Gay Cup legends are made of. Absolutely. And by the way, I’m 100% with you. Uh I that decision to kick the field goal at the four yard line. Look, you can’t second you there’s a sort of a sports casting rule, I think, that you can’t second guess a guy when he ends up being right and they win. But I still think you can go I still can’t believe he did that because if you’re, you know, you still need a touchdown and you’re depending on your defense, but why not depend on your defense at the four yard line if you don’t make it to get to get the ball back, right? And so I I I was bewildered and it’s funny, I ran into Trevor Harris last night and asked him about those things and he he was okay, he said with the um with the field goal there because he figured lots of time. He was more surprised when they got the ball back and they had the third and 10. He was more surprised there when that they punted because I think he looked up at the clock like we all did and said, “Man, like this is even if they get the two and out, you know, my math was a little off. I was thinking they might have 45 seconds left. I had I had 103 or whatever they had left. But man, you were like even with Davis Alexander Limpin, the chances of two straight two and outs I thought were pretty bleak. But man, you can’t like I said, he knew his defense better than I did because they pulled it off. Well, and listen, the defense has been the backbone of Saskatchewan, but it is still a pretty ballsy move to throw that uh to kick it to the MOP and say go get a first down and win the game. Uh but listen, the Riders are here. Ryder Nation is here. Um, you mentioned Davis Alexander. I I have to say, James, like this young man is on the verge of he already has had a historic start to his career, but a championship victory on Sunday would put him into a category that frankly the league has never seen. I mean, a guy that wins every single time he starts and then a victory. I mean, you’ve covered this league for a long time. I mean, if Alexander and the Alowettes are able to win, how special will this story be for a guy that obviously the big asterisk is how healthy he’ll be? Um, but I mean, never lost. Yeah, I think it’ll be and it’ll be a bigger story if he wins it, you know, with the gimpy leg now because, you know, that starts to get Hollywood stuff if he’s limping around and somehow can pull it off. He’s a fascinating guy. I say this not in a derogatory way, but he kind of reminds me, you know, of like the uh the the boyfriend you’re supposed to hate cuz he’s cocky in all like the like the John Hughes teen movies in like the 80s, right? That’s the kind that’s the kind of way he looks on his face and he’s like, “Oh, he looks kind of cocky.” And but uh I think, you know, swagger works and he’s definitely has it and you can’t argue with what he’s done. And I think it’s fantastic for the league to have a guy this exciting. So you’re saying historically, I’m trying to think like even when Fluty came into the league. I can’t remember if like the first season if it was Dynamite right away. Uh somebody probably listening probably knows and it was still Doug Fluty. I mean, you know, this guy wasn’t a guy you never really heard of who came in and did that. So, I it’s a shame in a way that he’s that he’s hurt because I always like to see the guys, you know, when you get to the big game on the big stage, I want to see everybody healthy and everybody going mano mano at their best. But it does make for a hell of an intriguing story. Uh listen, I I know it’s a very busy week for you and the TSN team that does such an amazing job of broadcasting the Canadian Football League, but you’ve been a part of these for a long time. What uh what do you like most about Gay Cup week before you have to go and punch the clock and go to work? You know, Spirit of Edmonton. Uh no, I love I uh man, I’m getting older. I don’t go out as much as I used to. I used to go hard on Gay Cup week. And if you went back and looked at like archive tapes quite often, I would not have a voice come Sunday. It was very unprofessional. I would literally come on the air Sunday and go, “Welcome to the Gay Cup.” because I’ve been out all week going those things. But, uh, I’m a little more uh a little more mature now about about doing that. But, I just love that it’s it’s it’s so Canadiana and I love that fans come in. You know, I was on the flight yesterday from Toronto and there was a couple of BC Lion jerseys and a couple Argo jerseys and a couple of Thaiat jerseys. I love the people come in even when their team’s not in it and uh just be part of the Grey Cup fest festivities and it’s just look I always tell people this I go to s I’m fortunate enough to go to Super Bowl every year and I prefer Grey Cup week over Super Bowl week every time just because Super Bowl you know it’s just too it’s too big and you know the parties are maybe it’s because I get into more parties at Grey Cup than I do at Super Bowl but you know what I’m saying it’s just I don’t know there’s something so Canadian so friendly about Grey Cup that uh that that I just love it. The Super Bowl feels so corporate. I love doing the Super Bowl and like game is usually awesome. But there’s something very corporate about Super Bowl week, which is, you know, is the complete opposite of what you find with Gay Cup Week. I mean, even last night they had the media party. I should plug the place. I don’t know. It was a barbecue place. Oh, Bell’s Kitchen and uh musical. Awesome spot. Yeah. And uh like the brisket and such was awesome. But, you know, D Johnson, the commissioner, is in there, you know, having a beer with everybody. And uh I I just you would never see that you would in the NFL, right? You would never see some little down home barbecue place where the commission was in there hanging around with the folks. So, I just think it’s pure Canadiana. I uh you know, looking forward to uh you know, the game of course, but mostly everything that comes forward. And how about mother nature smiling on us here in Winnipeg? I know people go, “It’s going to be 11° tomorrow. They’re having an outdoor social outside the convention center all afternoon into the evening. I mean, the stage is the stage is set for an amazing week and obviously a hell of a matchup on Sunday when you guys go live. My first Gray Cup was Winnipeg 98. So, I joined TSN in ’98 and was hosting CFL back then. Nobody probably remembers except me and my mom. Um, so that was my first great cup and it was freaking freezing. Uh I think my that’s still my coldest gray cup ever was my first one. It felt like it was like minus30 minus 40. Um so this is a this is a super bonus. I love the peg and when the sun is shining and anything around like 0 – 2 is going to be spectacular. Well and the fact of the matter is the Bonner fans don’t have their team in the game on Sunday, but I know they and this city are ready to roll out the red carpet even for the Rider fans are rivals and uh have a hell of a great party leading into the game. Um, James, you are doing uh a little bit of outside of Gay Cup work tomorrow and that of course is the uh book signing at McN Robinson along with their pals from Illegal Curve who are going to be hosting at 700 p.m. at Grant Park. The new book Certified Beauties, more of Hockeyy’s greatest untold stories. I heard about this book. I cannot wait to read it. Um, fill people in a little bit on the idea behind it and how it all came together. Yeah, thank you, brother. Um, I can’t remember if we came on when I during co I wrote a book called Beauties and the idea was, you know, I I I’ve read a lot of hockey books and they’re all great, but if you read like a somebody’s autobiography, right, you you get maybe two or three amazing stories that you haven’t heard before and the rest of it is kind of I grew up in a small northern town and you get the whole life story. And so I kind of thought, what if we could cut all the rest of that out and only have great stories? And part of it is I have a short attention span. So I kind of write the way I like to read, which is, you know, short stories. So, my idea was, you know, if if Hustler and me and whoever, Sydney Crosby or uh, you know, Mark Shley or whoever it was was we’re in a bar together and I said, “Tell me like your favorite story that you’d tell like your best buddies from your hockey career.” And I don’t care what it is. It could be the favorite game you ever played in, some crazy game. It could be something that happened on a road trip, some a crazy teammate that did something. I don’t care what it is. is I don’t care how long long it is just tell me one great story and that was the premise behind beauties u and fortunately did pretty well and so I start after I wrote beauties I had a lot of people coming to me saying oh you should have put this story in the book or you got to talk to this guy who you didn’t have in the book and so I kind of decided there was a whole other realm of stories so it’s really fun really easy reading uh there’s some crazy stuff in there my idea is to get people to tell stories they haven’t told or that they wouldn’t normally tell the media Yeah. And one of my favorite things to come out of this book is a lot of guys who, you know, you wouldn’t think maybe are great characters or storytellers. Sid’s a perfect example uh tell you some really really great stories. Well, and and listen, I mean, obviously people are going to need to get the book to get through all of them, but you know, just looking at a few of the notes, I I have to ask you, uh the night a stunned beer league team had to face Conor McDavid and Leon Didle. I mean, that sounds both horrifying, but also maybe the coolest thing ever for guys that are playing. I mean, what’s this about? Yeah. And you know, this funny stories come from different places. This happened to come from my daughter’s boyfriend who’s a good hockey player. He plays C University hockey in Canada, but and he stays with us in the summer. And there’s a beer league in New Market. I live north of Toronto in a town called Aurora. Town next to us called New Market where like McDavid lives about 5 minutes from me. And there is a beer league that’s pretty quality beer league. You know, a lot of university players or guys who played, you know, junior A at some point play in this beer league. And McDavid has been known to show up once in a while. Every couple years he might show up to a game because there is a team that’s all his old buddies uh play in it. So on on this particular night, it was the quarterfinals of the league and my daughter’s boyfriend’s team was playing against McDavid’s team. So they were in the parking lot having a beer before the game as you would do in beer league and they were talking about you think McDavid might show up and they’re and he just gotten married I think two days before. So they’re like ah he’s not going to show up. Then all of a sudden as they’re about to go in to get dressed for the game SUV pulls into the parking lot out gets McDavid and they’re like a crap. Then the passenger door opens and out gets dry and they go oh double crap. And so, and it tells the story, the goalie, you know, typical beer league, their goalie canled at the last second, and they had a second goalie who had just gotten off the ice for a three-hour skate, kid by the name of Ben. And so, they call him and like, “Ben, we need you right away.” Like, “Our goalie didn’t show up.” Oh, yeah. And we’re playing against McDavid in dry sidle. And uh so, it more tells the story from the goalie’s perspective and such, but it’s a and it’s a wild sort of twist ending to it, but uh yeah, that’s one of my favorites. There’s some it’s it’s a great process hustler because you get when you get guys on the phone or when you sit down with them in in person and sometimes I do I have no idea what stories I’m going to get right and they start telling you one and it it’s such a fun process to first of all just sit there and listen to them but I can sort of imagine what it’s going to be like in the book there’s an Darcy Hordachuk good Saski boy um tough tough tough so many of the so many of the great charact like there’s it’s a funny mix in the book because you have there’s a lot of, you know, superstars in the book, but there’s also uh a lot of great characters who often tell the great stories and thus a lot of great fighters, right? Fighters often have the best stories. And Horich has a crazy chapter, but one of the stories involves him. I don’t want to give away too much of the book, but he’s playing in Florida and has a broken foot and uh he lives on one of those inland waterways in Lauderdale and he’s sitting with his neighbor having a beer and his neighbor’s got a little Shih Tzu dog and this alligator is coming up on the bank and this alligator’s been eyeing the Shih Tzu dog for the last few days and so they’re worried he’s going to make it an appetizer. And so they come up with this crazy plan as only hockey players would. They they’re gonna lure the alligator up the bank with a fishing rod with a piece of chicken on it. And Darcy Hordachuk jumps on the alligator in his walking boot because he’s got a broken foot. They they duct tape the alligator’s mouth. They put it in the hatchback of his car and they’re going to drive it to the Everglades to drop it off. And and then on the way to the Everglades, they’re like, you know, why don’t we go stop by Lango’s house? And they leave the alligator on his front porch. I have I have the picture in the book of Lango coming to the window. Uh actually I don’t know if that picture is in the book. There’s a picture of hard to on top of the alligator. But so anyway, it’s stories like that. Uh I I I just love for fans I think taking the behind the curtain into dressing rooms. There’s a crazy story about a prank that uh went wrong with the Ottawa Senators and Brady Kachchuck and Klo Jaru. And there’s some obviously you have to have a heart in a book too. So there’s some serious stories in there as well. Um there’s a chapter on the GDRO brothers which I wrote intentionally because I just felt so much sadness with that story this year all the ceremonies we saw and uh so I I I tried to write a beauties type chapter where I talked to tons of his uh teammates and family members and and asked him to tell funny stories about Johnny and Maddie, right? And so there’s I and I think you get a lot of insight into who they were as people. Uh, and even though it’s a it’s it’s a sad chapter to read because we all know the ending. Um, you I kind of wanted to write something that their kids could read someday and say, “Oh, this is what my dad was like, right?” And, uh, yeah. So, I think if for hockey fans or if you have hockey fans in your life for Christmas or whatever, I think they’ll enjoy it. Uh, you know, you mentioned Sydney Crosby. Um, he did the forward for the book. Tell us about that. I mean, uh, you just, uh, text, hey, Sid, you want to do this or are you working on him? I mean, in the first book, uh, Sid was kind enough to do a chapter for me and, uh, it was a great chapter. It was about how his real nickname is Daryl, how he got the nickname in Dh Daryl in junior hockey. He had a crazy crazy roommate that got in all sorts of trouble named Eric Nielsen. So, that’s Sid’s chapter in the book. And when when I approached Sid in the first book, he I never actually like sat down and interviewed him for an hour. I eventually did at the end, but he he he would just would send me voice memos. So, I think he’d be on like a flight or a team bus somewhere and he’d be like, “Hey, James, I thought of another story for you.” He and he then and he’d tell me this story. And so when I Roberongo did the forward for the first book and I I thought would would Sid I actually never thought he’d say yes to writing the forward, but he was kind enough to do it. And just so people know, I don’t have any illusions. I don’t I don’t think Sid ever sat down at a keyboard and said, “Jame Duffy’s book. Here we go.” Like he he did the same thing where he basically uh did a voice a 10-minute voice memo for me that I just basically uh put into the I just basically had to uh write it out and that that was the the memo the forward for the book. But, uh, one of, you know, obviously one of the classiest guys I’ve covered. And I think Sid’s a perfect example, Hustler, that, you know, another reason I wrote this book is I think hockey players get the reputation of being boring, right? And that’s our fault in many ways when we do those intermission interviews and it’s just like what do you got to do in the third, you know, get pucks to eat, that kind of thing. Uh but if you do get them away, which I’ve been fortunate enough to do, if I if I can sit down with them in a bar or a restaurant or something for an hour, uh my theory is that every hockey player, because hockey breeds such great stories, has at least a few awesome stories in them, right? and and it’s I think it’s sort of been proven right by uh the quality stories that uh I’ve been able to get from the books. Well, I mean, even the guys that maybe start out relatively straight and whatnot, I mean, they’re around a bunch of beauties all the time in their dressing room, on the buses, on the planes, especially at the NHL level. And um even if they uh weren’t the uh perpetrators of set stories, pretty much everybody has has a ton. I mean, it’s a real who’s who. I mean, just for folks that are looking forward to it, just we won’t get into the stories, but just some of the other kind of names and uh and guys that you talk to uh that will be featured in Certified Beauties. Okay, let me uh I don’t have a book in front of me. This always tests my memory, but uh there’s great chapters from both the Kachchuck brothers. Um I got to throw credit to a couple of my guys. Mike Johnson, who I work with, I think is one of the best analysts in the game, is also one of the best storytellers in the game. And Mike’s chapter is about um he basically missed the first charter flight on his very first as a rookie with the Leafs. His very first charter flight he got lost and missed the flight. There’s a twist to that, but um so there’s a couple from my guys like Frank Jeff O’Neal tells a couple stories about going out in LA and getting in all sorts of trouble. Speaking of beauties, I mean OD Dog, I mean, if we were doing a power pole of certified beauties, I might throw OD Dog in the one hole. Yeah, there’s a great Daryl chapter about Daryl Sitler and Borea Saling, how uh you know, they were friends when they were teammates, but really only became best friends after after retirement and you know, everything that happened with Bora at the end. God, there’s I mean, there’s so many players in the league that are in the book and I can’t there’s a Mlin Celibbrini chapter. There’s a Connor Bard story because I I wanted to get some of the, you know, the younger kids in the league as well out there. Um, oh my god, saw BXA on that list, too. I mean, one of my favorite chapters, BXA’s in there. Uh, Brendan Morrison, former Kak has an amazing story. Um, RC Horich, Todd Simpson, uh, God, who am I missing? There’s, uh, God, I really got to read the back of my book again. There’s fif like there’s 50 chapters with like 75 different guys in it. So, uh pretty much everything I think between the two books pretty much everybody you’d want to hear from is is in one of the two books. Uh and I know there’s a bit on uh you know, one of the special Canadian teams. Uh and that’s a perfect kind of segue into uh the amount that we’re all going to be talking about a certain Canadian team for a certain event coming up. I mean, uh, man, this is going to be, uh, so much fun. And, and just bringing it back to Sid for a minute, um, who of course does the forward in the book. um this opportunity to see some of the people that’ll be featured both on the Canadian side and like the Kachchucks on the other side, you know, a true best on best in the Olympics with, you know, Sid still playing as well as he has with this incredible young group of players that have now kind of barged into the conversation like a celebr um we’ve been waiting for this for a long time. and we got a taste of it last year at the Four Nations and I imagine you, like any hockey fan, cannot wait to see what unfolds in Italy. Yeah, I’m I’m so pumped for it. Uh, you know, we did some on TSN this week, MJ and Craig Button put out their their roster, which I’m sure people have been debating. I’m sure everybody has their own roster. It’s so hard. It’s so hard to do. They have such big decisions because, yeah, we’d all love to see Connor Baddard playing, but then you go, well, he’s got to be a top six guy if he does play. Okay. So, who do you take out of the top six? When you look at the guys that they have there, it’s it’s ludicrous. Uh I was uh in Montreal for that Four Nations game where there’s the three fights in 9 seconds, which I was one of the coolest I don’t know, it was just one of the coolest moments I’ve seen. That won’t happen at the Olympics, but uh I can’t wait. I’m lucky enough to be going and covering it uh with CBC. And uh I’m just so pumped to watch McDavid and McKinnon on that stage playing in Olympic games. You know, I think it’s going to be when people ask me the highlight of my career, I usually start with 2010 and the gold medal game. I’ve been lucky enough to do a lot of cool things, but that I think will be very difficult to top. And I’m not expecting this to top that. There was so much there, you know, with it being in Canada and everything, but as far as the quality of hockey and the potential for uh, you know, just crazy ass games and the gold medal game between Canada and the US or whatever, I think it’s going to be out of this world. Something tells me in the, uh, the next publication from you, there might be a chapter or two about something to do with this Canadian Olympic team and of course the Olympics overall. of gang tomorrow 7:00 at Grant Park McN Robinson uh the IC boys are going to be sitting down with James for a conversation a book signing and you’ll be able to get your hands on uh certified beauties with which is out now and available everywhere. James, I hope you have a great event tomorrow, a great weekend in Winnipeg. Hope you have an awesome great cup and uh thank you as always for making some time for us here on Winnipeg Sports Talk. No, thank you brother so much for having me on. I always appreciate talking to you. what you guys always do here. And like I said, great to be back in the Peg. I might get out. You might see me at one of the like a Spirit of Edmonton or something on Friday night. Yeah. Doing one of those shot skis. Why don’t we all, everybody, all your friends out there, everybody come to the book signing and we’ll just all go straight over to the bar. Raging the rest of the night, 900 PM go time. James, thanks so much and have a great weekend. Appreciate your time and good luck with Certified Beauties. Can’t wait to read it. Thanks so much, bud. Of course, uh, Princess Auto Stadium, as we mentioned, the home of the Bombers, the home of the Gay Cup. Princess Auto as we welcome everyone to Winnipeg. Princess Auto synonymous with Winnipeg. Founded and headquartered right here in the Peg and now coast to coast, but with three let Manitoba locations to serve you. Where you’ll find the best deals on the most unique assortment of tools and equipment around. Everything you need to complete the projects on your list or start something new waiting for you at Princess Auto right now. Pop by and see them in store today. Panet Road, Portage Avenue West, or shop online 24/7 365 over at princessauto.com. You know, I had a little bit of the white stuff last night. And while that might freak out a lot of people, you know who it’s not freaking out? Terminator and our friends out in Gimy at Chud’s Powersports, Manitoba’s Powers Sports Superstore. They are ready to go right now to get going with the snow and with snowmobile season. And ahead of the season, they’ve got amazing deals on right now on Polaris and Arctic Cat sleds before the snow creeps in. But of course, they’ve got so much more than snowmobiles there. ATVs, side by sides, personal transportation. Uh, we’ve got the Argo, the Suzuki and Rocker, Evolution golf carts, boats and outboards, RVs and fish houses for the upcoming ice fishing season, and so much more in gear and accessories and the best selection of parts in the province. If you got to fix your sled or something coming up for the season, the amazing staff at Chuds with more than 140 years experience will be happy to take care of you as they’ve been doing for generations here in Manitoba. Over 80 years in the business up in Gimley, the leaders when it comes to powersports, Chud’s Powersports, corner of Highway 8 and 231 in Gimley. Online at chudpowersports.com. We’ll get to the NFL Power Poll a little later on when Hacksaw joins us on the show. All our power poles brought to you by our friends at Chuds Powersports. And hey, before we bring in Brandon Wiki, speaking of that winter, make sure your car is ready to go. more importantly, your battery. Because if the battery don’t go, the car don’t go. Donnie and the gang at Manitoba Battery are your local option for the best in price and service for batteries for literally everything. And of course, as Donnie always says, don’t overpay at the big box stores. Beat the freeze before it beats you. Free battery testing right now. Sale on booster cables and booster packs. and the best prices in town, period, on batteries, beating the pants off those big box stores. So, get on down to Logan Avenue, Dover Court Drive, get your battery tested if you need it. And if you do need a new battery, make sure you’re shopping local, supporting local, and saving money at the same time with Manitoba Battery. Two Winnipeg locations. And of course, you can shop online as well at manitoba battery.com. All right, let’s get back to tonight’s hockey game and welcome in our pal from Skates and Plates, the one and only Brandon Ruiki. Rue, what’s going on? How are you? I’m doing pretty good, man. How are you doing? Uh, I’m well and uh I’m well because we uh have been waiting and waiting and the time has come. Dylan Samberg looks to be back in the lineup tonight. Um, just getting news from Ken that both Nikveist and Dylan Samberg have been activated and will be back in the lineup tonight. We’ll get to the line, the clean line lines in just a minute for how they look, but uh I mean listen, they’ve uh the record’s good. I mean, obviously you’ve had this slip up during this road trip, got back into the wind column. Um, but this team is uh is different on the back end with Dylan Samberg in the lineup. Yeah, that that’s worth staying up till uh 11:30 tonight to watch that. I mean, what I’m most intrigued by is how he’s going to impact this team offensive, you know, like what he does as really more so the shutdown or the defensive conscience of that second pair. We we all know that, but I I do think his his offensive game is a little bit underrated. And I’m intrigued to see I mean you know what’s kind of gone under the radar in the team start so far is the fact that Neil Pian has only picked up two assists through the first 15 16 games right and I mean for a team that needs offense anywhere they can get it like to to have Pon performing at and producing at the level that we’re accustomed to is going to go a long way into that. So his partners turned into too much of an offensive juggernaut for Pian to have any chance at points. Well, there we go. So now the roles could be reversed a little bit, but um I mean we kind of all knew it was difficult, maybe impossible to judge this team until the middle of November because they just, you know, we knew what the the issues and what the the holes and the weaknesses were on this roster and then we knew how they would be exemplified when they had the injury concern and the injury bug they did at the start of the year. So, it’s almost like now 16 games in, it’s like, okay, the start of the season’s officially here, and now we can see what the Winnipeg Jets are really, really going to be like. So, I Yeah, I mean, it’s beyond an understatement to say he’s going to have a huge impact for the Jets coming back here because if you if he’s able to to replicate and build off of what he did last year, last year he was one of the five best defenseman in the division. And it’s a division that had Marsy, Harley, Taves, so on and so on in it, right? Like he was performing at not quite, you know, number one defenseman level, but he was he was a top pair Dman last year. And so I mean just without the offense I mean and that’s the and that’s I mean and listen and I think his I mean everything that he brought to the table allowed Neil Peon to to your point um you know be a lot more offensive and I mean that that those two together as a unit um kind of a ying and a yang a lot. But I I think we all agree that there’s another level like for Dylan Samberg offensively as well. And listen, I’m not expecting it to happen tonight right out of the gate, but as he gets healthy and gets, you know, back into the rhythm of things, the next step for Dylan Samberg is to continue to being a dominant player that shifts possession that commands the puck, takes care of things in the offensive zone, but also maybe takes that next step and, you know, moves from a player in the teens for points to in the 20s or potentially in the 30s at at some point. Well, and I mean, we all make the comparison, I think, you know, can he be the Winnipeg Jets Jacob Slavven? And I mean, defensively, if he can do that, that’s great. But Slavven also, again, he doesn’t put up 40, 50 points a year generally, but 30 points from your quote unquote shutdown defenseman, like that’s that’s a massive amount of impact that he can generate on a game. So, it’s Yeah, it’s it’s been long overdue. very excited to see him back into the lineup. And again, you know, I I am intrigued to see what he does offensively in terms of how the Jets hopefully can start to generate a little more because they are one of the three worst teams in the NHL right now at generating offense. But what also is maybe gone a little under the radar and is almost more concerning than that is that they’re a bottom 10 team in terms of high quality chances given up. the once again the goalending has papered over a bunch of that but you know again you feel good about Moresy holding down things for the top pair if Samberg Punk can stabilize the second pair like they have then this team I think is going to be in a much better situation where let’s face it until reinforcements come in they’re going to have to try to win two to1 hockey games as opposed to 32 43 and Samberg coming in will make that a lot more easier. Yeah, I mean the Jets right now, you know, just in the bottom half of goals scored for the league, but um third in the league in goals against uh Washington number one at 39 against Philly’s got 41 and the Jets at 42. So hopefully that number can improve in a big way. Just while we’re talking about the blue line, how good was Josh Morsy in Vancouver on uh on Tuesday night? I mean, that was, you know, at a time where the first line, who’d really been carrying the team quite a bit, had really sort of been struggling. I mean, they got so much of what they needed. A goal from Jonathan Taves right off the bat. A dominant performance from Adam Lowry. I got to tell you, I can’t believe how good that line looked today considering he just started back from hip surgery the Thursday before. First couple games I think was a bit of a grind. I mean, they looked at they looked great. And I mean the Alex Afallow into the Appleton spot uh I think takes them to you know another level on that line. Um but I mean to me the star of the show was Josh Morrisy um who you know scored that goal three points and now as we talked yesterday with Ken you know the only other defenseman outside of Kale Mar that’s a point a game player so far this season after a pretty slow start offensively. Yeah, there’s there’s really only I don’t know. I mean, how many times has Quinn Hughes been the second best defenseman on the ice in a game? Not often for the last three years, right? So, I mean, that’s that’s the level that Morrisy’s been at and was at in that game. I mean, I I feel like I’ve been banging the drum a little bit more than others, but there is certainly a massive explosion of talent on the blue line in the NHL these past few years. But you’re not you’re not finding five better defenseman than him on the planet right now. There’s just there’s there’s no way. And and there’s some great guys out there. And obviously Kale Mar is going to sit at top the list probably what 2035 might be the the next time we have this discussion. Um, but I I just think in terms of what he’s able to do both at at both ends of the rink, but he does a lot of damage five on five and and and he is really the underrated engine that stirs the offensive drink for the Winnipeg Jets again because they they don’t have a ton of punch further down their lineup. And so he is I mean you gota you got to give the top guys credit more so than maybe any other team in the league where they’ve needed them to drive the bus and they have so far and it’s really been the shley Morrisy Hella Buck show right from the start of the season and if it hasn’t been that way they they’re probably looking at a a sub 500 start to be honest I I think Morsy that that game is just kind of like the wow factor but I think he’s been that good all year long and we’ll I’m going to be I’m going to be pretty surprised if he’s not one of the final three on the ballot for the Norris Trophy. That that trophy might already be accounted for, but I think I I wouldn’t put I wouldn’t put too much money against him being in the two or the three hole at the very least. No doubt. Now listen, you know, yesterday when Ken was on, you know, I speculated as to, you know, what this team looks like, you know, up front when Gustav Nikas comes back and how the blue line looks when Samberg comes back. I mean, it was obvious that Samberg was going to go back with Peon. I think Logan Stanley’s really established himself as an everyday guy. I had thought that maybe Luke Shen gets into more of a platoon with Colin Miller. And Remo, if you want to bring up the clean line lines, let’s look at the way things uh look coming out of the morning skate today. Uh that’s exactly the way things uh are looking. Um Colin Miller is going to be in right shot defenseman playing on the right side with Logan Stanley. I like that decision by the coaching staff. To me, that’s the the that’s the way I would set things if everyone is healthy. Um obviously Sam’s going right back there with Pianc and Morris Dlo. The other con the question that we had um was where does Nikvis go who I think was sort of tabbed to be on that top line along with Perfetti and Taves but Nomesticov’s had such a great start to the season and his connection with Taves even before Perfetti came back it look good I was thinking that they’d kind of ease him in and then kind of decide from there depending on what happens and that’s the way it looks so Connor Shley Valardi uh Vlad Taves Perfetti Nino and Ayafala with Lowry in the middle and now Pearson Parker Ford and Gustav Nyquist on the fourth line to start off. Um thoughts on just the way Scott O’Neal’s lineup card looks as we look at today’s clean line lines for the Winnipeg Jets as always presented by Clean Line Plumbing, Heating, and Electrical. Your local leader for over 40 years in the official plumbing service of the Jets. Captain approved by the captain himself, Adam Lowry. Yeah. Yeah, no notes. It’s It’s probably like if you ask the average fan, they’d probably be like, “Yeah, that that’s what I would go with.” So, that’s I I think the right move to start here. I mean, Vlatty has just been he’s just been the most underrated player ever here at Winnipeg where whatever you need him to fill into that second line and whatever role it might be down the middle on the wing, he’s found a way to get it done. Uh but he he really has given that second line a jolt, right? because there was a time where the production was so minimal, but he’s been he’s been tremendous there. And I think too, it allows Gus to maybe give a bit of a spark to the fourth line, which been which has been pretty anemic offensively so far this year. You don’t need him to play, you know, 14 minutes to come right back at it out of an injury. So, I I don’t think there’s anything here you would really give much consideration to changing. Um, you know, again though, just looking at the forward group, you plug in some kind of dynamic second line winger from some other organization and that that forward group all of a sudden starts to fill in pretty nicely there and then a Morgan Baron 2 to take over that 4C spot when he’s healthy, right? So, it’s like it’s almost there, right, Hus? Like the the pieces of a of a real contender. It’s it’s getting closer and closer. Um, but as far as the the current iteration of the Jets, I think this is their best lineup they can, you know, I mean, just as far as if we’re thinking about an ad, and obviously there’s limited resources. You can’t just go, “Oh, yeah, we’re going to get a top six forward and all that.” I mean, me personally, if it came down to a top six forward to be on the second line or a top four right shot defenseman that would maybe push Dylan Dlo down and play with Josh Moresy, I got to tell you, I’m voting for the latter. They’re both mandatory. I don’t think it’s an eitheror situation, which is not what you asked, but like I just you like you look at what Colorado is putting out there right now and I think they’re probably the the cream of the crop in the West. They’re number one on the Chuds Powers Sports Power Poll right now. So, and I mean they don’t really have that that level of weakness. And I guess I would say this too, like, you know, it’s different because now you don’t have to empty empty your bucket at that 2C spot where and we all know how center prices at the trade deadline just get jacked up and it it messes with your whole plan, but you can legitimately get like a good second line winger for a reasonable price. defenseman that’s going to cost a bit but I just think with where this team is at right now like you could legitimately fill both of those holes and while they may not be the number one cup contender I can you not legitimately say at that point if they got both of those pieces in that this team could beat anybody in the playoffs and not have to like come up with some hairrained scenario that they find a way to get it done I I I just feel like that’s where they position themselves right now And so like if you can do it, take advantage of it. You don’t you’re not going to get too many more cracks at this thing. Um so I I honestly don’t even look at it as which one do they need more. They need both. And if they don’t get both, I don’t think they’re going to get past some beasts that are in their division and then over there in the the Pacific as well. Yeah. I mean, listen, there’s one guy that can change a lot of that and he wears number 37 uh come playoff time. That’s a long ways down the road. But I I do listen, I’m sure Kevin Chevel off, much like probably 30 GMs in the league right now or looking at similar things like that. Um just a quick thought on this game tonight. Um to me, this is a big one. They’ve already beaten you at home in a shutout. Dort is on IR tonight. You’ll get Grubower, who’s been probably more downs than ups right now, coming off a big win to snap a three-game losing streak, which was as many losses they had the entire season. You know, if they can bail themselves out of this brutal start to this road trip, the win tonight and maintain that into Calgary, be in a pretty good spot coming back home for Columbus and Carolina next week. Yeah, I mean, you don’t really want to have two L’s to to Seattle on your schedule in one year, right? So that’s that’s kind of the main thing there. I mean the Kraken I feel like have cooled down a little bit after their quick start, but I think that’s the main thing. Like wild to say, but you get Philip Gubar in the net. Like this has got to be similar to that Vancouver game where you’re you’re chasing number five with an empty net, right? So that that that’s I I think this is and and you’re right there where like you win this one, then you’ve got Calgary coming up, then all of a sudden this nightmare road trip can turn into something that I think most fans would have taken before it started where you’re at 500 after six. So uh this is kind of like the the pivot game, right? You win this one, you find a way to make it successful. If you lose this one, that’s a that’s a tough pill to swallow. And then you’re kind of in the the wild card bubble chase right now, which is not the spot you want to be. Yeah, no doubt about that. And no surprise, the Central Division, once again, one of the toughest neighborhoods in the National Hockey League. Uh the Avalanche, uh top of the power pole, and now the Dallas Stars have been finding ways to win games, and they’ve sort of announced themselves as that number two team, and it’s time for the Jets to get back at it. 9:00 p.m. puck drop tonight. The return to the lineup in the season debut of Dylan Samberg couldn’t come soon enough for Winnipeg Jet fans. Brandon, have a great uh weekend. Enjoy Gay Cup festivities in the Gay Cup and we’ll look forward to talking next week as we uh get back home and of course have the return of Nikolai Eers next Friday. Sounds good. Have a good weekend guys. We’ll talk soon. Right on. Right on. There’s Brandon Wiki. Check out Skates and Plates wherever you get your favorite pods. Uh Connor is going to jump on with us I think from Touchdown Manitoba a little later on. Um he’ll be a very happy young man with the return of his guy Dylan Samberg. Uh we are going to talk some great cop in just a minute though. First up a big thanks to some more of our WST supporters. Clean line plumbing, heating, and electrical. Your local leader for over 40 years in the official plumbing service of the Winnipeg Jets. As you know, they are captain approved, proud supporters of the Jets, and now the leading residential and commercial plumbing, heating, and electrical company in town. Now, while you might not be having a big commercial need for Clean Line services, you never know when you’re going to need them, especially for plumbing mishaps. And uh that’s why Clean Line, much like Adam Lowry has the back of the jets, they’ve got your back 24/7 365 with emergency service available. Find out more on all of Clean Line services online at cleanline.ca. Uh we got a big one tonight and Sunday as well. Man, it’s going to be a fun night. Maybe a great time to get together with your gang of Boston Pizza. See the Jets play a couple exciting young teams and take in the new flight deck menu, flight club menu, I should say. Pizza flights, wing flights, chicken bite flights, and new fry flights available. And you’ll have a chance to win Boston Pizza’s grand prize trip for two to California to see the Jets play the Ducks February 27th, including flights, hotel, and amazing game tickets. Uh, just speaking of BP, here’s a little save the date for you WST. Uh, I believe it is Wednesday, December 17th. We’re going to be doing a little holiday gathering/jets watch party at Boston Pizza. Just working on the exact location, but uh December 17th, St. Louis Blues 7:00 game. Hopefully you’ll join us at BP. And hey, if you are staying at home to watch the game, you can always order online at boston pizza.com and get it hot and fresh to your door. Uh, of course, many of you love the Olympic jerseys. Myself, not so much. I can tell you very soon they’re going to be coming in at Royal Sports because if it’s a Jet jersey, if it’s a Canada jersey, if it’s Jay’s merch, Royal Sports is the place to get it all right here in Winnipeg, the biggest supply and stock of literally everything, which is a perfect time as we get ready for the holidays. Whether you’re looking for the Jet fan in your family, the Bomber fan, someone with a NFL team, a different NHL team, they’ve got it all at Royal Sports. You can take care of everyone on your list that’s a sports fan in one spot. And of course, they’re also the hockey supertore for over 50 years with everything from full equipment to sp pucks, stick tape, skate sharpening as well. 750 Peame Highway, Royal Sports. Follow them on Instagram as well at Royal Sports Winnipeg, especially heading into the holidays for uh latest merchandise drops and sale information. All right, just before we bring in Morat, it is Friday. I know Hackel wants a 1919. Let’s give a big cheers to our friends at Winnipeg’s favorite local brewery, Little Brown Jug. You train day in and day out, learning new techniques, approaching new concepts, and living out the thrill of achieving your goals. Building a craft beer is no different. While you spend your hours on the ice, we spend ours here brewing our trademark beer again, again, and again. Here’s to pushing the status quo and challenging ourselves to build something memorable. 1919 by Little Brown Jug. All right, we’ll have Connor jump on with us. He’ll be the happiest guy around now that Samberg’s back. I tell you what, I know someone else that’ll be we we may differ on football takes, but someone that’ll be quite happy that Dylan Samberg is back is our pal Rob Vanstone from the Saskatchewan Rough Riders, who I know is a big supporter. Let’s start off on a positive note. How about Samberg’s return to the lineup, Rob? I’m very happy especially I I have a very good friend in Regina named Sam Berg and uh we just had lunch a few weeks ago. So uh uh I know Sam Berg is is Sam Ber’s favorite player and uh and uh he’s moved quite quickly up my ladder as well. Uh let’s uh first off congratulations. The Riders did it. Uh I still can’t believe the last three minutes of the West final and that they’re here in this great cup, but they are. I imagine the people of Saskatchewan and Ryder Nation are ready to go for this weekend. Uh what’s been the vibe around first of all Regina and the province before you made the trip out post the Big West final win? Yeah, the um there was a big sendoff outside the stadium on Monday and and uh as the players walked toward the bus, there were hundreds of fans there waving banners and a few people with instruments and and lots of it was a really nice send off. That was I think a lot of the people were really appreciative of that. I know everyone was. It was kind of weird looking at it from the the seat in the bus and as the bus made a turn, I saw this police car in front. I thought I’ve never gotten a police escort escort before. So, um took took me 61 years, but I finally got one. I don’t really know what the vibe is in in uh Regina. I haven’t talked to my dog to ask her about it, but uh I uh I it I can imagine it’s building. I’ve been in Regina during Grey Cup weeks before and and uh not for much of the Grey Cup weeks typically, but uh uh I mean everything will stop. When I was at the Regina Leader Post, one of our news editors had a great idea. Send somebody to the downtown shopping mall during the Gray Cup game and it was ghost town. It was such a cool story and I imagine the the same thing will will be the case on on Sunday. Yeah. Listen, I mean, I can imagine how fired up everyone is. tell us about the team um and where they’re at right now because I mean they had about four or five near-death experiences in that final three minutes of the football game. I I can imagine. I mean for the record I still cannot believe they kicked a field goal from the 5 yd line with less than three minutes left. But everything that Cory Mates did, he believed in his defense, which has been the backbone of this team, even against Nathan Ror in that environment and it paid off big time. And uh now this team one win away from uh accomplishing the goal they set out at the beginning of the season. I can show you a contemporaneous text message that I sent to my friend Cindy right after Corey Mace kicked decided to kick the field goal on third down and and you know she just she was kind of wondering about a lot of people were wondering about it and uh that was a you know a big juncture in the game and and my response to her that I thumbmed into my phone was you’re buying some insurance there the way Nathan work had been moving the ball um let’s say they get the ball on the 5yd line start a possession and move 50 or 60 yards and kick a field goal. That makes it a two- possession game and it’s over. Uh so what in addition to demonstrating faith in the defense there, he was buying himself some extra points and I think reducing the margin of error and uh and that ultim ultimately the the three points was the was the margin of victory. He came out of it uh uh looking great. I didn’t have a problem with the with the field goal there because you just get with a quarterback of Ror’s abilities, even a defense such as and even his defense such as Saskatchewan’s facing him, I don’t think you can be sure that he’s not going to stop scoring at some point or stop stop helping put points on the board. So that that in in a sense would have, you know, bought the Rough Riders another another life had Ror moved the ball down and and uh kicked a kicked a field goal as opposed to what the alternative would have been 105 yard touch on touchdown drive and that would have been it. Yeah. Well, I mean I I you know from my perspective I just thought that you know even if you don’t get it um you know they’ve got the ball you you have need a touchdown either way they’d have the ball on the 5 yardd line. If you can get that stop and get it, you’re still in a pretty good spot. I mean, it sort of did flip that field, but at the end of the day, they got the ball back. They had a minute left after punting again, which was another uh interesting decision. And it came down to Trevor Harris. And Trevor Harris to me is such an interesting figure in this game. I mean, the quarterbacks are always get the attention, but in this one, Rob, he could really put a stamp on his an incredible CFL legacy with a win on Sunday in that, you know, he’s got two Gay Cup rings, but he wasn’t the starter. Um, he’s had an incredible career, uh, 39 years old, still doing at a really high level. That drive in the final minute of the West final will be something that will be if they can win will be part of rider legend for years. And uh to be honest, I think pretty much stamps him if he can get this win on the weekend into an eventual CFL Hall of Famer. And Trevor’s talked about that, you know, quite a bit this week. He says it’s a narrative that he he can’t control, but otherwise, you know, he he gets that it’s out there. You know, I look at it and I think, okay, in 2016, Trevor Harris was the East division’s all-star quarterback. He led the Ottawa Ruff Riders in passing yards and in touchdown passes. It was Henry Burus who ended up being the starting quarterback in the Grey Cup game, and Henry uh ended his career on an appropriately memorable note, but they don’t get to the Grey Cup or anywhere close to it without what Trevor Harris did that year. This is someone who’s thrown CFL record six touchdown passes in a playoff game. So I think Trevor’s and then this past Sunday I think he’s demonstrated his postseason medal. If you use that metric where you know a quarterback needs a victory as a starter to you know validate his career. I mean I I’ve kind of stated my piece on it. I go back to Jason Moss with the with the Edmonton with Edmonton in 2005 and Ricky Ray was the winning quarterback in the in the Grey Cup in the double overtime classic against Montreal. Jason Moss came off the bench and in both West Division semi-finals basically saved the day for Edmonton. So if not for Jason Moss, Edmonton doesn’t have that great cup. If not for Tommy Burgess in ‘ 89 with the Rough Riders, he led the Riders in in touchdown passes and uh came in after Ken Austin got hurt in the West final and threw two touchdown passes. Then Ken Austin goes on to win. The point of this long tangent is you don’t get there without people doing what Trevor Harris did, what Tom Burgess did. And uh and I think that’s something that I think needs to be part of the conversation. I Trevor Harris is terrific. I think to me he’s a Hall of Famer regardless. He’s a Hall of Fame person. And and uh I’m really looking forward to watching him play on uh on Sunday. Um you know, there’s some interesting connections. You mentioned Jason Moss. We all remember how it ended in Regina for Moss and Cody Fagardo who then went and broke our hearts in the next great cup and won it all. Um, but you know, Cory Mace has done such a great job at kind of reinvigorating this franchise and lifting them up. Last year was a huge step forward. They’ve done it again right now and now it comes down to 60 minutes of football at Princess Auto Stadium on Sunday. Um, you know, I know there’s so many angles to this one and, you know, we’ll have to wait and see exactly how it plays out, but in your mind, Rob, what are the things that the Saskatchewan Rough Riders have to do if they want to be uh planning a parade next week in Regina? Well, um, I mean, there’s so much talk about Davis Alexander and he’s such a dynamic quarterback and can affect a game so many ways and and the Rough Riders have talked about this. I think every team, CFL team talks about this. I know Richie Hall in Winnipeg is a subscriber to this. make the make the team one-dimensional to the extent that you can and force them into second and longs. Limit the options. I think with the uh hamstring injury to uh to Davis Alexander um you know that’s that is going to be something to monitor like how much can he if it’s second and eight can he get away and scramble for the first down like he’s been able to do. He’s he’s when completely healthy such a multi-dimensional weapon. So, I think I’m not sure you can get a precise read on what has to be done until you have a, you know, a real grasp on what Davis Alexander’s capabilities are with that hamstring. Uh, Montreal’s got such a terrific terrific um receiving core, but that running game, I think we saw it with Stevie Scott in the playoffs. We saw it when Montreal visited uh Saskatchewan earlier this year. running game is I think a lot more of a factor and a bit of an underrated element of the Alawetses defensively. You know, I think this is a it’s a real interesting struggle because you can look at the Rough Riders, you can look at Montreal, I think make a very good case that these are the league’s two best defenses and uh so uh where to start with that, I’m not sure. But you know, Mont Montreal I Jason Moss talked about it at the coach’s news conference the other day. You’ve just got to make Trevor Harris hesitate because he reads so quickly. And can they can they get him off his reads? Can they disrupt his timing? And that’s such a such a big deal for them. And I I you know, I think on the other side of the coin, a big deal for the Rough Riders against Davis Alexander as well. You know, I uh I I really do think this is going to be a great game. I think it’ll be close. Um listen, I think people are a little freaked out about the Alexander injury and that’s why we’ve seen the the Koolett line go from two to three. Now it’s at four right now and the Riders are, you know, a a strong favorite in this game and I I would argue that, you know, all things being equal, this is a pick them. I mean, I think both teams could absolutely win this football game and I don’t see a massive advantage on one side or the other outside of the question mark about how close to 100% Davis Alexander will be. But in close games, especially in the Canadian Football League, special teams can often be the difference. And uh you know even when the riders were cruising uh if I tuned in to Dunk or Jamie Nye there was so much talk about Brett Law and the kicking game. Where’s Lawler at right now? Is he ready for the game? And has he sort of rectified the issues that were uh lighting up the phone lines in Saskatchewan earlier this season? I I think if you look look at it um over the latter portion of the season, there wasn’t a there really wasn’t an issue with his kicking. If you look at the West final uh between field goals and converts, uh Brett Law made everything. Uh Shawn White, who is normally money, hit an upright on a 42-y field goal last week for BC and the game ended up being decided by three points. And I think, you know, that’s uh, you know, Brett Lawer has been such a tremendous clutch kicker for this team dating back to 2018. And when when it’s a real crucial situation, he comes through is, you know, he was three for three last week. He had, you know, three five for five games this season, including one in Winnipeg where he was basically the difference in the Labor Day rematch. So, and I think that game was one of the one of the keys to really getting him on on the trajectory to which we are accustomed. So, I I have absolutely no concerns about about Brett Law. Um, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it comes down to a field goal because the way the Rough Riders have played this season, so many games have been close. And as you said, Hus, I mean, these teams are so evenly matched. I’m prepared to after the game last week, I showed somebody a a fingernail that I’d been gnawing on feverishly and and it was not looking healthy. And I imagine the entire finger might be gone on Sunday. If it’s another close game, I’m not sure I can take it. Yeah, you might need to get a chew toy and tape them up because uh I think you and the rest of Ryder Nation are in for what should be a a nerve-wracking game, but a pretty big opportunity not only to win the Gay Cup, but to do it in, of all places, the home stadium of their biggest rival, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Uh tell you what, Rob, we’re already seeing some green on the streets. I think that’s going to really crank up over the course of the next 24 hours. Uh, and as much as I think a lot of Bomber fans will maybe be cheering for Montreal, I think it’s great for the weekend, uh, great for the Gay Cup festivities to have the passion of Ryder fans coming in. And, uh, one thing we know from the Labor Day trip every year in the Banjo Bowl. We may get after each other and have some fun on game day. Uh, but there’s no party like a party with the the Rider Nation and the Bomber Nation there. And tell you what, I think this is going to feel like a big long extended Labor Day weekend on steroids. And uh that’s great for the Canadian Football League. Well, it’s, you know, it’s it’s funny. I got when I was in Winnipeg for the Labor Day re rematch, and the first two people I talked to entering the stadium, I’m decked out in everything riders. They both said, “Welcome to Winnipeg.” Which I thought was really nice. And uh um maybe they knew I was a Jets fan. And uh um it was funny. Me and a colleague of mine, Emily Sauer, Sarah, S A R A U R E. S A R A U E R Emily Sauer. She um um her and I were walking toward the tailgating and this gentleman in a cart stopped with his with with his associate and said, “Uh, just so you know, the the bomber store is back there and uh we also have a jersey exchange program if you’re interested.” That person was Wade Miller. And did we laugh? I thought that was so funny and so goodnatured. And that was basically the tenor of the day. Everybody was was nice. Um I’m uh I’ve Hey, I’m a Jets fan. I’ve made lots of lots of trips here. There’s nothing that I can say ill about Winnipeg and I’ve had a fantastic time here. The people have been great. Well, I can tell you this. I mean, and especially this year for our Labor Day trip. Um, I mean it’s always a blast, but there were so many Rider fans that we had talked to before the game, throughout the weekend that that did the exact same thing to you. They thanked us. Thank you for coming. It’s great to have you guys here. You guys make the weekend. And uh, as I say, you know, there’s so many similarities between Manitoba and Saskatchewan, which is what makes the rivalry so much fun throughout the regular season. And listen, there’s lines drawn on game day. Uh, but nobody parties like CFL Fans from the Prairie. So, uh, I think we’re ramped up for an amazing countdown to the big game. And then, to be honest, as great as the weekend is going to be, I think this game has the possibility of really delivering as a real classic and one that’s going to keep people on the edge of their seats till the final buzzer. And you chewing your nails right till the end and not probably having a very busy week. Rob, I know how busy you are. We had Ed Tate on earlier this week saying he didn’t know what to do with himself. He’d been so crazy busy the last few years being with the team in the Gay Cup. It’s different. I know you probably don’t have enough hours in the day with everything, but uh great stuff over riderville.com if you want more on the Saskatchewan Rough Riders and uh hope you and all the Rider fans have a wonderful weekend right up until 5 minutes or so left in the fourth quarter. I appreciate the vast majority of those good wishes. That’s very nice of you. Half us. Uh Rob, hey, we’ll all be on the same team tonight. Hopefully the Jets can get a win against the Seattle Kraken and uh keep this thing rolling after breaking that losing streak earlier this week. All the best. Hopefully I’ll see you later on this weekend. But uh thanks again for doing this and uh all the best on the weekend. You too, Hus. Thanks for having me. Take care. Good stuff. There’s Rob Vanstone. Uh you can find all of his work at Ryderville. Longtime reporter with the Regina Leader Post. Um gang, we uh we are down to the short strokes here, folks. Tonight is the night. It’s the final sales deadline for the HSC Millionaire Lottery. You have 8 hours, 8 minutes, and 15 seconds to get your tickets and count yourself in to be Manitoba’s newest millionaire. hscmillionaire.com is where you need to go. you’ll be eligible for one of the incredible grand prize options. There’s six of them. We have four $1.5 million dream home packages in the greater Winnipeg area. We have one $ 1.5 million dream home package on Vancouver Island. Or you can just say, “Show me the money and get $1.25 million cash um and become Manitoba’s next millionaire.” Now, when you go there, there’s also a couple of other options uh to help support the HSC and make some big money. We’ve got the 5050 plus tickets. The current jackpot is over $1.3 million and the winner takes half of that. And then the extra cash plus tickets, you’ll be in for one of 125 cash prize uh options. 120 winners of $1,000 and five winners of $10,000 cash each. And of course, it’s all in support of Manitoba’s Hospital, the Health Sciences Center. So, if you’ve heard me talking about it for the last couple months and you’ve been procrastinating, procrastinate no longer. Get your tickets right now. today before midnight. hscmillionaire.com. You can also pop by London Drugs or your local Red River Co-op to pick those up. Thanks to everyone that supported Manitoba’s hospital through the lottery. And good luck to all of you. Would love nothing more than a WST listener, frankly, or WST employee uh to be the winner of the grand prize lottery. You know, I got my tickets. I hope you do, too. Get those today. again, hssecillionaire.com. All right, let’s uh head down to the convention center right now. You know, usually we have practice reports and game day reports and uh takes and WSD Sunday live. I would imagine this is one of Connor’s more fun assignments during his time with Winnipeg Sports Talk. Connor Rabchack joins us from the convention center on boots on the ground reporting for WST. What’s going on? How are No, Boots, not booze, right? Yeah, boots are definitely on the ground here, Hus. I found or I tried to find the one like quiet corner of this place right now. It’s Thursday and I was in Vancouver last year for the Gay Cup Festival. It picked up as the weekend went on. This thing is like full force pedal to the metal and it’s Thursday at 254. like there it is packed here. I was just upstairs at Touchdown Manitoba. Um it was kind of the VIP event today. So, you know, Wade Miller, Brady Aliver, Nick Demsky, Stanley Bryant, a lot of Bombers players were walking around mingling with fans. That’s underway. All of the rooms are underway. There’s there’s a lot of blue here today cuz I think the the VIP Touchdown Manitoba event is the main thing for today. But I’m expecting a lot of green to be showing up the next couple of days as well. And I don’t know, even outside, like behind me, there’s the outdoor social going on and it it’s super loud. Like, thank goodness I have noise cancelling headphones. This place is bumping already. Well, I I tell you what, I mean, I went down to pick up my creds a couple days ago. One of the few times I’ve actually been upright and getting out of the house for the last 3 days, but uh grabbed them and I was like, I didn’t really know that that was happening. I’m like, this is going to be amazing. And then you think about tomorrow’s forecast. 11° C sunshine. I mean, everything is turning up for the Gay Cup right now. But um the convention center looks amazing. It is ready to go for the weekend. And as you mentioned, it’s already go now. It is the Bomber VIP event. You mentioned Wade Miller’s there and Brady Olivea. Uh was Mike O’Shea hanging around the uh the VIP event. I did not see Mike O’Shea. Can confirm or cannot confirm that he is here. Um, but yeah, a lot of Bomber fans that I was talking to, that was the number one thing they’re talking about. Yeah, they’re they’re What are you hearing about Michael Shay? Did you see his the photo of him at the airport on the other day? Do you think he’s really going to leave for Toronto? Um, a lot of Bomber fans concerned. That’s the number one thing that everyone’s talking about, at least in the Bomber room. Obviously, when we get to Ryderville later tonight downstairs and we get to the Alowettes room and all of those things, they’re going to be talking about a massive game this Sunday for their for their organizations. But yeah, Bomber fans having a good time. Uh Wade Miller putting on an incredible event. Shout out to him putting on the media party last night as well as Farhanology at Dave Naylor. I was there with Remiss and Liss. Awesome night at Bell’s Kitchen. And today it’s continued through this VIP event. Like I said, there’s a lot of Bombers players out mingling with fans. They’re bringing, you know, wine and cheese and whatever you want around right up to. And I’ve got a pass because I had to do this hit husk, but I’m ready to wrap it up and get back upstairs. But uh this this has been insane. Like Wayne Miller is putting on a great event and it’s only Thursday at 3. Well, uh Remis said he had so much barbecue last night at Bells that he is still yet to put anything into himself today. So uh now it’s time to pony back up and get a couple in you and have a good time. Um listen, I won’t let you leave without getting your take on the big news in the last hour. I’m sure you’ve seen this. We just fired up the clean line lines and uh our boy Dylan Samberg back in um on a moment too soon. And as we talked about with Ken Weeb, a lot of the things that we sort of projected have happened. Nike coming back in albe it on the fourth line. Luke Shen out of the lineup, Colin Miller in with Big Stan on the third pairing. And no surprise that Slamberg back with his old running mate, Hermantown n fellow Hermantown native Neil Peon on that second pairing. Yeah, I’m so pumped for this game tonight. Hus, Dylan Samberg is back. I tweeted out the other day, tongue, you know, firmly planted in cheek, that the Winnipeg Jets should add a 6’4 left shot defenseman who takes the toughest matchups and wins them at an elite rate and they should do it this week. Thanks for taking my advice, Winnipeg Jets. Dylan Samberg is back and uh this is going to be such a like a calming effect on this blue line, I think. You know, Stanley and Pian very much so, you know, they had a positive five on five goal share and all of those things. So, the Jets didn’t completely get burned by that pairing, but Samberg being back, that pairing being able to take the toughest matchups and win them at an elite rate like we saw last year would be such a huge development for this blue line. And I like the reinsertion of Colin Miller. I didn’t I don’t think that Luke Shen has had the best road trip by any means. Uh, and I thought that game, you know, last the the past number of games, I thought, you know, maybe we could see some Colin Miller. I like that move to bring him in as well. So, I’m excited to see the look of this defense court tonight. Obviously, I’m a big Dylan Samberg guy, and you’ll be hearing lots of Samberg propaganda 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning on WST Sunday Live. But Nyquis coming back as well as good news. You know, he’ll start on the fourth line, but I don’t who knows if that’ll last. You know, if the second line isn’t playing well, he might bump up into Messikov’s spot. Lot more options coming back here. And Morgan Baron, Cole Keepy, uh those guys seem to be close to returning. So, lot of options coming down the road here for Scott and Neil. Getting Samberg back is easily I think the biggest impact impact addition out of the you know Baronss and Keeps and Nyquist that were still left to to come back. Yeah, I mean listen there was the two key there was the three key guys out at the start of the year. Adam Lowry came back took him a couple games. He was phenomenal along with that line. I mean maybe the best line in the last two games for the Winnipeg Jets. Um Cole Perfetti now back. You’re already seeing some chemistry uh with Jonathan Taves. Um, I don’t think it’ll take a long time for Neil Pianc and Dylan Samberg to get reacquainted with each other. Uh, and that’s great news for the Jets. Of course, Joey Decord, who shut the Jets out in that game earlier, he’s on IR, so it looks like it’s Connor Hellabuk and Philip Grubower um doing it up tonight in the 900 p.m. start. Uh, you’ve got plenty of time to enjoy Grey Cup festivities before tonight’s puck drop. Connor will let you get back there to enjoy touchdown Manitoba. Folks, if you’re down there, keep an eye on him. Make sure he’s uh keeping it keeping it straight. No, seriously, have a great time. We’ll look forward to seeing you on the weekend. Maybe touch base tomorrow and uh hopefully have a a great season debut for Samberg to talk about and of course much more from all the fun in downtown Winnipeg for the 112th Gay Cup. Yeah, postgame reaction later tonight. I’ll have all the stats on Dylan Samberg’s return. I’m sure he’s going to absolutely dominate the expected goal share tonight. Um, and yeah, this this is just it’s bumping. I can’t wait to spend the next couple hours here today checking out, you know, all of these rooms and check out the shop behind me and this outdoor social part that I haven’t even looked at yet. There’s this like I’ve gone to Touchdown Manitoba, which is in the bombers room. There’s like five or six team rooms and there’s the eastern social hall and there’s the outdoor part and there’s the UFW where there’s the bouncy castle and all of the kids stuff and it’s going to be such a fun weekend hust. And to top it all off, I think we have a I a Bombers fans might not like it, you know, like it’s Saskatchewan versus the team that knocked out the Bombers. Objectively, a great matchup for the CFL with Davis Alexander going up against Trevor Harris, 39 years old, hasn’t won a Gay Cup as a starter. So, I’m very much looking forward to the game uh and the festivities all weekend long here. Brad Paisley tomorrow night. I’m going to the concert as well. That’s a part of the weekend. So, thanks for having me on. We’ll be sure to touch base over the weekend and uh lots going on here. Great stuff, Connor. Yeah, CFL team parties get going at 4 until 1:00 a.m. tonight. And uh the Cruise Light concert series headliner is tonight is the Watchmen. I believe our boy Isha Boy Bruce is going to be DJing at that as well. And uh the new meanies, a very popular Winnipeg band back together. They’re participating in that tonight. That’s going to be from 6 to 1. And then of course we’ve got the Grey Cup um Club Region Casino tonight for the CFL Awards. Connor, what do you think? Trey Vavl, rookie of the year, special teams player of the year, both or neither? I think rookie of the year for sure. Special teams player of the year I’d like to see as well. I hope he sweeps it. I hope we get some, you know, good bombers news this week because like I said, everyone at Touchdown Manitoba is very stressed about Mike O’Shea and maybe there’s bad news on the horizon next week in terms of that. So to get some good news Trey Vel recognized for his efforts this week would be absolutely awesome. And I will say I think the Eastern Social Hall, I saw a sign here. They’re showing some hockey games tonight. They’re going to have a screen going. I think the Leafs are playing tonight and that’s obviously the Eastern Social Hall. So, they’re going to play the Leafs game. They’re showing the Jets game later as well. So, hey, if you’re looking for a spot to watch the Jets game, even you could come here. There’s millions of screens, millions of parties. Some somewhere something will have it on for sure. The Bombers thing will almost certainly have the Jets game on as well. So, lots happening downtown, man. Lots happening. Good stuff. All right, Connor, you take it easy. enjoy the game tonight. We’ll look forward to your postcam recap on the WST channel a little later on today. Uh listen, there’s so much going on with the Gay Cup. We got to talk more about it. We have CFL 110 coming up live in just 2 minutes. So, let me quickly hit the uh cool bet lines for tonight. Um I can tell you right now, Montreal is still plus 165 on the money line. I don’t think that’s going anywhere. Count me in. Alowettes on the money line right now. We’ll hit the plus four as well. That’s going to be the pick for the game. Jets tonight in Seattle. Uh minus 147. Now that’s gone up over the course of the day. Seattle plus 125. Big slate of games tonight. Uh if you go to the combo cards, kind of taking a big swing tonight with a nice boost. I believe Jake has called this one uh Oh yeah. Ride with Hussy California because we’re taking the ducks over the wings. the Kings over the Leafs and the Sharks over the Flames. That one is boosted from plus 805 to plus 926. And of course, we got a pretty ugly Thursday nighter, the New England Patriots. 12 point favorites right now to the New York Jets. Uh Rob Gronkowski is being honored tonight by the Patriots and he’s retiring a Patriot. Uh I this is my bet for tonight. I I’m not taking the point spread. Obviously, the Pats are probably going to win this game. Hunter Henry, tight end for the Patriots. Anytime touchdown, plus 148 with a tribute Groon spike in the end zone. Book that plus 148. I’ll be on it. I think New England rolls, but uh such a big spread. We’ve had a lot of big dogs cover on Thursday nights, so we’ll roll with Hunter Henry props for the game tonight. Um 9:00 tonight, Jets in Seattle dropping the puck. And of course, Connor will have postgame reaction for you later on tonight or first thing in the morning. So, make sure to check that out when you get up. And tomorrow we’re gonna have a massive show. Uh Hammer coming up who’s going to join me in just a moment for CFL 110 with more on the Gay Cup. Mike McIntyre is going to join us. Uh Pat will be joining us just before he gets on the plane to come to Winnipeg for the festivities on the weekend from Kbet and much more from the game. And of course we’ll hear from Scott O’Neal and everything else from tonight’s hockey game. That is going to do it for us. Thanks to Brandon, James Duffy, Bombing, Connor, Rob Vanstone, Michael Reis, and all of you. But don’t go anywhere, folks. We’re going to really dive into Mike O’Shea’s future and what Hammer’s hearing on our Gay Cup edition of CFL 110, which is live right now on WST. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you tomorrow right here on Winnipeg Sports Talk Daily. Oh my god. Shut it down. Let’s go home. Thanks for tuning in to Winnipeg Sports Talk daily. Make sure to subscribe on YouTube and your favorite podcast feed at winnipegsportsalk.com. [Music]

Andrew “Hustler” Paterson hosts Winnipeg Sports Talk Daily with Michael Remis. They count down to the evening’s Winnipeg Jets game vs. the Seattle Kraken and discuss Grey Cup Week in Winnipeg. Guests: TSN’s James Duthie, Brandon Rewucki of the Skates & Plates podcast and Rob Vanstone of Riderville.com.

Topics:
Intro, Grey Cup Week, Jets vs. Kraken tonight (0:00)
Darrin Baming @BonfireWPG (24:44)
TSN’s James Duthie (36:42)
Brandon Rewucki of Skates & Plates (1:07:12)
Rob Vanstone of Riderville.com (1:25:47)
Connor Hrabchak live at Touchdown Manitoba (1:45:57)

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