Halford & Brough in the Morning - A Canucks Kraken Rivalry Is Brewing

Episode Date: September 25, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk last night's impressive pre-season debut with a win over the Kraken at Rogers Arena (6:00), plus the boys look further into yesterday's performance by the Canucks (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Whoa, wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose to the f***ing Canucks? You're listening to Halford and Brough. Well, Lennon holds in. Ferracci, left circle. Pass down low. It's a big score! Yeah, it's a rival team, Seattle. You know, we're close to them.

Seattle! Rojas on the ground at third. Machado touches third. Fires to second. Out there! Out at first! Oh, my goodness! It's a triple play. There's nothing more I love than pushing it on another grown man and just taking it over.

Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It's Halford. It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello.

Half and Broth of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Well, they'll pay the highest prices on scrap metal.

Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sorfy, what are you waiting for? Kintec, we've got a big show ahead on a Wednesday, big sports night ahead on a Wednesday as well.

Guest list begins at 7 o'clock with the host of Hockey Night in Canada's After Hours, Scott Oak, is going to join the program. His new memoir, For the Love of a Son, detailing the tragic and unfortunate passing of his son, Bruce, is now available, so we'll talk to him about that. The book actually comes out in January of 2025, but you can pre-order your copy now, so we'll talk to Scott about that coming up at 7 o'clock.

7.30, Vanni Sartini, manager of your Vancouver Whitecaps. Tonight, the Caps will go for their third straight TELUS Canadian Championship against hated Toronto FC. Drone FC, led by John Herdman, featuring the Italians at BC Place. We'll talk to Vanny about that at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Randy Janda is going to join us.

Color analyst for your Vancouver Canucks right here on Sportsnet 650. We will look back on last night's victory in the opener at Rogers Arena against the Seattle Kraken. We can look back on last night's victory in the opener at Rogers Arena against the Seattle Kraken. We can look ahead to another game tonight out in Abbotsford as the Canucks take on the Calgary Flames, the red hot Calgary Flames. Now that game's not on TV, correct?

It's not on TV. You can only hear it right here on Sportsnet 650. And you have to use your imagination. You do. Theater of the mind. They call it. And you just have to trust that Batch isn't lying to you.

He did a backflip! There's no way for you to check that. You'll never see that again. I don't know how to segue that into monster trucks, but we're also giving away a four-pack of tickets to Monster Jam on Saturday at the Pacific Coliseum today. Every day this week but we're also giving away a four-pack of tickets to monster jam on saturday the pacific coliseum today every day this week we're giving them away they do backflips

there they do do you know batch is going to do the play-by-play yeah if you want to listen to it and not see it which you don't really capture the true essence of the monster trucks but it's a close second and there he goes and he's over the car. Yep, and he's on top of the car, and now the car is crushed, and everyone is happy, and we celebrate. Do you think Monster Truck Rally has ever had radio play-by-play? I bet they did. Back in the day?

I bet they did. I bet they might still. They might still. We can ask Batch. I don't know. Best What We Learned is going to get a four-packet tickets to see Monster jam on Saturday, the Pacific Coliseum start getting them in.

Now Dunbar Lumber text line is six 56 50. I'll also say, if you want to weigh in on anything from last night's game or any thoughts from the early parts of this Vancouver Canucks preseason, get them in because we are doing all Canucks for the first hour of the program, six to six 30, six 30 to seven,

all Canucks. We will run through everyone that played last night. There was a lot to get into. There's a lot of audio to play as well. And we can dive into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket to hear from you, the listeners. Working in reverse on that guest list. 8 o'clock, we got Randy Bjanda. 7.30, Vanny Sartini.

7 o'clock, Scott Oak. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Two power play goals powered the Vancouver Canucks

to a 3-1 victory in their preseason opener against Seattle on Tuesday night at Rogers Arena. Nils Hoaglander and Philip Hronik scored with the man advantage. Pugh Suter added an empty netter, and that was more than enough. Artie Seelov's made 18 saves on 19 shots. 3-1 the victory for the Vancouver Canucks over the Kraken in a spicy,

spicy preseason affair. Yeah, it was fun. It was entertaining. It was a good game. It was pretty quick. It wasn't plodding whatsoever, and there was some energy to it. Should we go something to keep an eye on. I think the Canucks were saying it was a rest day.

But it was clearly in the advertising. Do you remember when we went through it? It was like, oh, they're going through it. They're saying this guy's going to play in this season, preseason game, and these guys are going to play in this one. And him and Besser were supposed to play yesterday. Besser did play. And he was on a line with Suter and Lekermackie, but I thought that was going to be Miller's spot that Suter was in.

We're not going to make a big deal of this, but let's just keep this in the back of their mind that they advertised that Miller was going to play yesterday. He didn't play. So I think we start with Artur silovs um and he was really good really calm really composed played the whole game which is sometimes rare in a pre-season game um early on he had to be really good because the canucks had a bit of the jitters a bit of the giveaways a bit of the case of the puck is bouncing off my stick and I don't know where it's going.

And I thought he was really good and he was probably their best player overall. Rick Talkett, I think he knows that there's a lot riding on Seelov's going into this season. I mean, Talkett's pretty in tune with what's going on with his hockey team, right? And the one thing that he mentioned both last year in the playoffs and now early this year is that Seelov's never seems to get rattled. And I think there's two different types of rattling that could go on here. In the postseason last year, it's nerves, right? Like you get

thrown into this big spot. There's a lot riding on, you know, your performance. In the preseason, it's janky play, and it could be pretty erratic in front of you, and you've got guys that aren't really NHL-caliber guys. And nothing seemed like there was giveaways. You mentioned there was giveaways in the early part of the game.

And he's like, well, it's my job to cover up the giveaways. And Seelovs looks calm through all of it. So here is Rick Talkett on his number one goalie going into the season, Archer Seelovs. You know, the same as last year in the playoffs, you know, very calm. There were some breakdowns. He was right there in position.

That one, you know, side-to-side play, you know, when we gave the puck. Actually, I had a couple of times. Just a very, you know, he just doesn't get rattled. You know, you can see that demeanor in him. You know, I really enjoy that. You know, you can just tell. Like, I don't think I ever see him get rattled you know you can see that demeanor in him you know he uh I really enjoy that you know you can just tell like he's I don't think I ever see him get rattled you know and he's a guy who gets put in some interesting situations whether it's being third stringer to

starter in the playoffs or what he the kind of situation he's in right now what does it say that he he's able to maintain that demeanor in these situations. Yeah, when you call his name, it doesn't matter. A playoff game or first preseason game, blue and white scrimmage game. No, he's just a very calm kid. He's very confident. You can tell. And I think he's got the demer. He looks at Demmer.

He looks up to him because Demmer's the same way. So if they are able to withstand the loss of their Vesna caliber netminder and Seelovs can come in and provide the kind of goaltending, let's be honest, when you see other high end elite goalies get knocked out of action. You remember Tampa Bay last year when Vasilevsky was hurt? I mean, they essentially had to rush him back because it was just not working. Matt Tompkins wasn't cutting it. It just wasn't happening with the backup that they had. And that's fair. I mean, it's not quite to the level of some of the backup

quarterbacks we see in the NFL where the play just falls off a cliff. Usually it doesn't work like it, but I have seen instances in the NHL where you have a top flight goalie that gets knocked out and the floor just falls out from under your team. So if Seelos can come in and do this, and I'm not talking about just like holding the fort, but thrive.

But he doesn't have to be at a Vesna level. He just has to be good. But imagine if he's at that level where he wins you the odd game. And I think most importantly, he's not giving up any of the back breakers that you kind of come to expect from a traditional backup goalie. They could be, I mean, they'll be laughing. What are they paying him?

$850,000 this year? Yeah. That's going to be one of the better contracts in the NHL. So who do they start tonight in Abbotsford? That's a good question. It won't be Seelovs. I think Ty Young was on the bench as the backup. Maybe he gets some time.

Maybe Yuri Patera gets some time. I don't think it will be Kevin Lankanen. He just met with the media yesterday. He was on Canuck Central yesterday. Yeah, so that would be probably a little quick for him. I don't know if they brought that up with him. If anyone listened to that,

I don't listen to the station. Text in to the Dunbar Lumber text line. I consciously try not to. At 650-650, the Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at DunbarLumber.com.

Okay, let's keep going through this list here because, A-Dog, I was very impressed with Leckermacky last night. Well, well, well. I don't know why you're taking that view. Well, look who comes crawling back. I respect it. I respect it a lot. I thought he looked really comfortable with the puck. He did have a bit of a shaky first shift, but I'll allow it.

First shift. He was comfortable with the puck. I noticed when he was out there on the power play, which scored two goals without Pettersson, without Miller and Quinn Hughes. Trade those guys. He's got some nifty moves, too. He did this little kick from his skate to his stick with the puck.

Yeah, well, the most important thing I saw was composure with the puck on the power play, and he protected it. He used his body to protect it, and he made some nice plays. He had his head up. He made a nice cross-ice pass at one point. Picked up a second assist on the power play.

That was Hronik's power play goal. Then got another assist on Suter's empty netter with a really smart, again, composed pass off the boards when he could have tried to score, I suppose, from his end, but he got his head up, he recognized the situation, and he recognized it quickly, and he made a really nice bank pass off the boards to Suter, who picked up the puck through the neutral zone

and ended up scoring into the empty net. He's going to play again tonight, and I assume he'll play tonight with Petey and DeBrusque on the line that was together throughout training camp. So I know Talkett liked his game as well. Yeah, before we get to the audio, I do want to say we kind of talked about this yesterday and I'll reiterate it now. The likelihood of Lechermacki making the team is still probably slim. And we understand that training camp and specifically the first week of preseason,

not the entire preseason, because I do think that guys can kick the door down. But the first week of preseason was funny. Elliot Friedman was talking about this on 32 Thoughts yesterday. He was saying, be cautious of what you take away from that first week of preseason.

Every time, every time, every time. Because it's really, really the exhibition season then. Although last night's game did have a bit of spice to it. And the young guys are way more amped up for those games than the veterans. 100%. That being said, the messaging from the team, and these are the decision makers on the Vancouver Canucks. This isn't the out-of-shape talking talking heads at 613 in the morning doing this. Like we're just relaying what we hear.

And as a matter of fact, we're just going to play the audio from the head coach. Talk. It says he's going to keep getting looks at this because he's got a high IQ and he's a talented player, which can only lead me to believe that he's going to get more looks at it because the head coach said it, but here, here it for yourself.

Rick Talkett on Jonathan Leckar-Mackey following a 3-1 win over the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night. Yeah, just very crafty, smart guy. Pretty good patience with the puck. You know, I really liked him. Even on the empty net goal, you know, he didn't rifle it down. He made a nice bank pass. Things like that, I think he's hockey IQ's pretty smart kid um I think he's gonna get more and more comfortable

so uh you know I talk and mention the same sort of things that we did um patience with the puck even on the power play when in theory you've got more time with the puck um a lot of teams will pressure the puck carrier and I just thought he did a really nice job not forcing passes. I remember all the forced passes we saw in the power play when it was struggling last season. He used his body to protect the puck, and he just found the right guy to move it to. Never skated himself into trouble, never tried to force a shot,

didn't get off a shot a couple times, but didn't panic. And he was also part of the puck recovery efforts as well. So listen, one game, but so far so good for this kid. He had a good training camp. You know, he was given the opportunity to play with some top players. And how do I put this nicely? He hasn't blown it yet.

Yeah. You know, like I don't want to, I don't want to be mean here, but Pod Coles in last year was given an opportunity and he blew it. Okay. Right? Well, I think that's a good, you know,

and it was like, and he was gone right away. He was cut and gone pretty much right away. Here's what I want to say is maybe the conversation shouldn't necessarily be, is he going to make the team or not? Because it's probably a bridge too far. And maybe it's too black and white where there should be some nuance here. I don't know if it is a bridge too far. It depends on health.

Let's say if we're going to take a positive away from this, it's that a guy who I think it's fair to say that there were some questions about him after he was taken 15th overall in 2022 because he had a very rough time in his, what was it, plus one draft year, right? To see the ascension of his game and to see a line of progress that has, I mean, aside from some valleys early on, to see him continually get better and shine on big stages, right? World Junior MVP, big big stage gets the job

done that's impressive goes to nhl camp gets a pretty plum assignment playing on the top line looks good that's a good development even if he doesn't make the team out of camp given their lack of draft stock and amount of high-end picks that they have there was a lot of pressure for lech romacki to not bust. Right? So if it's trending in the direction of, you know, I would say the anti-pod Colson, that's huge. That's huge for the organization. Yeah.

It's, you know, when you're talking yourself into a player, I don't feel it many a time. I don't feel like we're doing it with Lekromackie right now. Let's talk about the first goal scorer of the night. And that is Nils Holeglander, who scored and Shorty quickly pointed out, wait a minute, you don't see that very often, because it was on the power play. Hoeglander scored, what, 24 goals last

season? None of them were on the power play, which is a feather in his cap. Not a criticism, but last night he was on the power play, and it was a really nice passing play. First of all, I went from Wolanin on the right point, who made a nice play to get it over to Ratu,

down low to Carlson. And then Carlson quickly back up to Hoaglander in the slot and Hoagie buried it. Really liked that. First of all, I liked that they worked it down low. How many times did I say it last year? Like, you got to work the puck down low on the power play. You can't just be like, let's get it back to the point and fling it on net.

Right? Like, you absolutely, that has to be, I realize it's not the 1980s and it's not like Gretzky's in his office, but like you have to go low high on on the power play at least it has to be one of the things that you do now there's still time for the bomb from the point as we saw later on from heronic but there's got to be a lot of different plays that you work so that was really good to see first of all from the power play and it was also really good to see holglander who had a very long conversation about about a week ago he shows up in camp in great shape and gets recognized by the coach the coach says really impressed with Holglander

he must have done a lot of work in the offseason he's one of our fittest guys here and in the first preseason game the first goal of the season he gets rewarded for all that hard work. I think he clearly got the message that he couldn't rest on his laurels, even though he did have a good regular season. The Canucks brought in a lot of wingers. The competition was amped up for his spot. And I'm sure he wasn't thrilled

with how the playoffs went for him. So good to see from Hoaglander. We all know that this guy has a lot of potential. It's a consistency thing with him, and it's earning the coach's trust. It's earning the coach's respect. It's earning the coach's appreciation. And from the outside looking in, it sounds like he's doing that. You know, it's interesting because earlier this week,

Cole Perfetti finally got his contract done with the Winnipeg Jets, right? He was a holdout RFA. He missed all training camp and then they finally got a deal done. They bridged him. And I started digging a little deeper into it. And the parallels between Perfetti's terms of scoring. Hoaglander actually had more goals. He had 24 to Perfetti's 19, but both had the same thing happen at the end of the year. The offense dried up. They started to maybe have their game questioned by their head coaches, and they were both healthy scratches in the playoffs. Now, Perfetti was sat down for a lot longer. He missed almost the entire playoff. It wasn't a long playoff for Winnipeg, but Hoaglander played more, but didn't really have the impact or the effect.

And it was really the same thing from the head coach. The head coach questioned the overall effectiveness of their games, right? And if you look at them, they're fairly similarly aged players. Hoaglander's got more experience and he's a year older, but I thought it was interesting. There was a message sent to both these players

and it was, yeah, you scored goals, and you racked up some points. And you played well. And you played well. You did well. You did well, but... When the playoffs came around, your game wasn't good enough, plain and simple, right? And there's different ways guys can take that, right?

Perfetti held out of camp. Let's talk about Atu Ratu because I don't think anyone's stock has risen more than his has in the last few weeks. He was great on face-offs. I don't know if he lost a draw last night. He earned a nice assist, as we already mentioned, on Hoaglander's power play goal when he takes that pass from Ratu. And he makes just a really direct play. He goes, I'm giving it to Carlson and Carlson's going to give it back to Hoaglander.

He hit the crossbar in the second after getting a nice feed from Garland, I think it was, behind the net. Made some nice defensive plays too. I think Harm on Twitter was pointing out one that he made down low defensively, and that is important. If he wants to be a center in the NHL, you've got to be good defensively,

and you've got to play all 200 feet of the ice. You've got to make some plays defensively down low. And by the way, that's why you've got to be a good skater if you're a center. Yep. And that's why he's worked on his skating, because you've got to get up and down the ice, the whole ice, not just the wingers that are like, I'll go from blue line to maybe the offensive zone. Right. Like, you know, I, I know it's not that like that anymore, but, um, I think he's been, um, a really nice development.

Most surprising development for me, for sure. I did not see this coming. Because, because because you know you know why possibly i won't put words in your mouth but did you just kind of forget about him last season a little bit or not not forget about him just not think about him well remember every time we checked in on abbotsford he was an afterthought like we're talking about not that he didn't play well though but we were like we were we were on the baines train but also when we talked about ratu last year i distinctly remember it was like is he a winger is he a center and that was

what they were trying to figure out down in abbotsford and he was flip-flopping between the both now it might have been that that ended up being a positive because it maybe i don't know made his game more well-rounded or understood the game better playing two positions as opposed to one whatever the case um he looks and it sounds like he's making a real um like there's a real chance he's gonna make this team which i wouldn't have said where does he fit though 4c do you want to hear the audio let's play the audio from talking because talking actually had to ask reporters yesterday he's like how many draws did he win and that's how this clip starts listen to the things that he checks about Ratu's game and tell me if he doesn't sound like a guy that could be a 4C on this team.

Here's Rick Talkett on Atu Ratu. What was the face-offs tonight? 4-3-4. Yeah, I mean, there you go. And I think he plays a heavy game. He's not afraid to get in there. He gets in there. I think he likes the heavy game.

So he just keeps working on his skating he keeps playing faster which he is and he like i said i i don't think there's been a day that he has not worked his ass off you know like he's always got his motor on so he's trying to make the team that's what i'm looking for guys like he's just trying to elevate himself you know he's gonna make rookie mistakes but uh we can live with that if he keeps working i still think it's a long shot for him to make rookie mistakes, but we can live with that if he keeps working. I still think it's a long shot for him to make the team

just because Bluger's going to be back at some point, I imagine, fairly soon. And then you've got Suter, unless you bump him

to the wing, there's another center. And I know people will probably be like, why would you talk up Nils Amon? Well, Nils Amon kills penalties, and Ratu only spent a little bit of time killing penalties last night.

Nils Amon was their top penalty-killing center last night. Yeah. I mean, I know they were playing with half a lineup, but that is what he would bring to the table. And I don't know, maybe the Canucks want him to keep playing big minutes down in Abbotsford because at some point they're going to have to replace guys like Bluger. And maybe that's what they're targeting for Ratu.

Eventually there's this overtaking of Teddy Bluger. Here's the thing, and as we have this first half hour celebrating all of A-Dog's takes with Lekromackie first and now the insane depth of the Vancouver Canucks. Last night, if you watched that game, there were three or four guys that, let's be honest, probably aren't going to be on the opening night roster that looked really good. Like, I thought William Carlson looked really good, right?

Carlson. Linus Carlson, not William. William Carlson plays for a different team. I thought Linus Carlson looked really good like i thought william carlson looked really good right carlson lenis carlson not william carlson plays for a different team i thought lenis carlson looked really we got him now we really do have some wild bill here depth down the middle baby like it is it's funny because one of the things that we've bemoaned is the lack of uh american hockey league and prospect talent that this current group inherited from the previous regime but slowly they've kind of started to build it up where you're like you're not overwhelmed by it you're like oh this is intriguing right you can play yeah lekaramaki ratu uh carlson lenis not william you're looking at all

of them you're saying this is kind of impressive and it bodes well for the future because in the inevitability that injury hits and when we do our NHL whip around, we can talk about all the injuries that are hitting teams like this, this, this, and this. It's happening across the league early this year. You're going to need guys, right? I mean, here's the thing. Have you thought about, and not to besmirch the guy,

but Arsh Deep Baines, I haven't really thought about him at all. This preseason, because there's been so many other guys that have jumped to the forefront and made themselves relevant and made themselves noticeable in preseason action. North Creek Dan takes in, I unfortunately missed the game last night, would be interested to hear how DPD played with Philip Peronik. Well, let's get into that on the other side. There's lots more players that we want to talk about

after last night's preseason opener for the Vancouver Canucks, it was a victory over the Seattle Kraken. We've got an open segment on the other side, so text in any of your questions or comments into the Dunbar-Lumber text line at 650-650. You're listening to the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks.

Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. Here it comes. 6.33 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough in the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help

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Recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Okay, let's just keep going here. We had a good vibe in the first half hour of the show. It's weird for this show. Usually it's stilted and awkward and angry, but that was fun and energetic and exciting. So I think the last question was about DPD

and how he looked on a pair with Philip Perip pronick um i thought he looked as i expected him to look he was uh he's a big dude and he i think wants to be physical i think he struggled a bit though nothing to be concerned about. A little jittery maybe. He needs AHL time. Yeah. You know, go down there and be a stud in the AHL. I wasn't super impressed with his game. It wasn't quiet around him.

Too noisy. Yeah, and not all of it was his fault when there were breakdowns in the zone. But yeah, I just, like, I never, I never thought that DPD was going to be a guy that was going to make the team anyway. Like it doesn't really make sense that he would be. He's, he's going to go project. He's a, he's a project. Yeah. And, and not that he's like, he's not a project in the sense that we got to teach him everything, right? He's been playing in this, you know, weird league or whatever.

He hasn't. He's just, he just, he's a young kid and he's a defenseman and he's not Quinn Hughes and he's going to take some time in the AHL. And I think the ideal scenario for him would be to spend, frankly, the entire season in the AHL. Go down there and be really good. Get some good coaching from Manny Malhotra and learn the North American game and really go down there and be one of the leaders and one of the studs in Abbotsford.

Yeah, he just turned 20 a few months ago. He was a third-round pick, and you can do the percentage chances on third-round picks eventually making it to the National Hockey League. He's played a grand total of 12 games of North American hockey, eight in the regular season with Abbotsford,

and then four more in the playoffs. So he is raw, and he's a project. And I think expectations should be high, but they also have to be pushed three or four years down the road because he's got a lot to learn. He's not close to being an NHL player. Let's talk a little bit about the guy that he did pair with,

and that was Philip Hronik. Hronik, I thought, had a decent game. His passing was a little off at times, but he did score on an absolute bomb of a one-timer in the second period. Two power play goals for the Canucks, and I was joking on Twitter, the power play is fixed. You don't even need Miller, Hughes, and

Petey out there. You've got to fix. It's no problem now. Someone responded, yeah, imagine if you trade those guys, all the cap space it opens to. All you have to do is get rid of your best power play guys, and your power play will get better. No, it's good. You know, Philip Peronaik dealt with, you know, I know he didn't admit it to JPAT, but there were lots of reports that Philip Peronik was dealing with a pretty painful elbow injury last year

that affected his shot, and it didn't look like his shot was affected, certainly on that goal last night. I continue to wonder what the plan is going to be for the pairing. Hronik and Hughes have been separated. They're like the two kids in class, though they can't be together. Yeah. Sometimes when you have twins and then you put them in different schools so they can develop their own identities. But I don't know if ultimately by the start of the regular season if they're uh if they're going to be back together when i was in elementary school i had three buddies in a class and eventually the teacher

put us in the four corners yeah you have to break them up you can't let them you can't let them stay together enough uh the four corners boys so the defense is probably the least intriguing of all the positions going into the season because you kind of know what you got. You've got, I think, eight. Friedman will slide in as number eight or seven or whatever. Or they might carry seven. But whatever.

The point being is they've got the guys. They're healthy. It's really just kind of where they line up. And I honestly think that at the end of the day, the answer might be the old KISS philosophy, like keep it simple, stupid. Just keep the pairing. Can I just say something, though? Sure.

Because I don't think people are expecting Wolanin to make the team. You know how we talked about the Canucks bringing in another puck mover just in case once in a while they need to mix it up? Sure. They got one. Got one at home. Why do we need to buy Justin Schultz? We got here. Wolanin at home. Yeah, right. Sure. They got one. Got one at home. Why do we need to buy Justin Schultz? We got here.

We got Wolanin at home. Yeah, right. Yeah. Do you see a huge difference between Wolanin and Justin Schultz besides the fact that Schultz is a righty and Wolanin's a lefty? Every time I watch Wolanin...

On that power play goal, I thought he made a really nice play to get the puck over to Ratu. He didn't get an assist on it, but that was a nice composed play. Every time I watch Will Lannan play, I'm always like, this guy feels like he should be closer to the NHL.

Because he's not close to the NHL. I mean, he's in the American League. He's blocked out. Yeah. It just doesn't feel, it feels like the road to NHL minutes is a long one for him. Because he's not a big hulking defenseman.

And that's how a lot of teams are developing or building their defense. Especially this one, right? Yeah. Well, especially this one. And they want to have the puck mover in Quinn Hughes and Phillip Ronix, a puck mover too. But if they're on the same pair, then they have four giants basically playing together.

And those guys know how to kill penalties. I mean, one of the big things about Forbert, who I didn't think looked particularly good last night, but he's a good penalty killer. That's his bread and butter and day RNAs that way as well. And then you've got Myers and Soucy, and Myers was certainly part of the narrative last night.

So I don't know. Yeah. I mean, for, I don't know why it got so spicy. I was trying to check on Twitter and someone suggested that the reason that Borgen jumped Garland at the end of the period was because Garland was yapping at him the whole way down the ice.

And I have no verification of this, but it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. You can see that happening. Right, just they're skating alongside one another, and he's just like, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap. Taka called them rivals. Yeah. He said they're rivals.

Seattle's a big, big rival of them. We don't need to go to the tape on this one. Rick Taka did mention twice that it was a quote-unquote rivalry game. I'm like, okay. You know what? I'm here for it. Why not? We need to try and get this thing going if the head coach is ready to put it on and make it sound like it is sure but um myers was very involved physically in the game yesterday and uh do you have the

we you know we don't need to play the clip i can just paraphrase it he basically said that he didn't intend to uh superman dive at borgan and like drive him into the boards the way that he is happy just because he's tall borgan's head went down though right before it right so that's what that's what i've always talked about and we've talked about on this show and joked around it's a pack mentality sure if someone does something to one of your players that you don't like you have to do something about it you know hoaglander was the first one in there well okay and then myers rolls in there and does it it's it's not like hey where's our enforcer well that's

funny that you mentioned that because the one part of the clip that was interesting was myers sort of muttered he's like well i didn't want hoagie to have to get in there like it's like that's not his job that's my job that identification it might seem like a really small thing but that's important right do you remember when Luchich ran over Ryan Miller and Tyler Myers didn't do much that was tough it was tough look and that was a long time ago I know it was a long time ago he was a long time ago, I know. It was a long time ago. He was a younger player. But I remember watching that and going, buddy, you're a giant out there. You've got to do something there. And then Paul Gostad had to fight.

Because he was Ryan Miller's best friend on the team. It wasn't like he was a fighter or anything. And then... Myers was so nasty in the playoffs last year, and it looks like he's just carried that over. Yep. I think he's just carried that over yep i think he's really found his niche as the big old uh kind of crafty dirty guy it's great i'm i'm all here for

it now someone texts in oh really can you name how many nhl players want to stand up to milan lucic that's a tough one granted yes yes it was want to there's no want but but but that's that's the thing right like it's he just ran over your goalie it's in the moment you got to do something yeah even here's a stick him love running over the goalie bruv you were talking about the other day as a joke um not according to the one listening in the in this in this texter's defense we're probably not doing the most adequate job of uh relitigating that moment that dark moment in buffalo sabre's history because it wasn't on myers he was just one of the many guys in buffalo that got called out for not doing anything let's make that abundantly clear yeah okay and then it sort of mushroomed to the point where they were like well

now someone has to do something and paul gostadad was like, fine, I'll do it. Right? That was how it ended up. I will say this. I think it always stuck with Ryan Miller. Because you remember when Troy Stetcher got jumped by Matt Martin? Remember Ryan Miller come flying in? You got to stick up for your teammates.

It's hockey. Ryan Miller proved the point that anyone can do it. Even the goalie. You just got can do it. Even the goalie. Yeah. You just got to do it. Even the goalie that's 150 pounds soaking wet. You act first and think about it later. I always remember the ref helmet cam footage of that.

Yeah. Because he was like standing in the crease and you just see Miller dropping the gloves. He built up a lot of momentum because he was skating as fast as he could. And then he just kind of like torpedoed into. And that's what you got to do. It was great. Ryan Miller was one of those guys that when he was signed, I was like, I don't know if I'm going to like this guy.

And by the end of it, I loved him. I thought he was just the consummate pro and just an all-around good guy. A few people texting in about Sammy Blay, who's here on a PTO and comes in with, I suppose, and I know Sat was talking about this on the intermission, with an opportunity with Dakota Joshua being out who knows how long. But I don't think he did much last night. Tockett actually mentioned him, and he was one of the guys where he was like, I need to see more, essentially.

I'm paraphrasing. Yeah, yeah. He's got a contract in Abbotsford. Sammy Blake, not Rick Talkett. Rick Talkett's going to stay in Vancouver. And I just think that that's his future right now. He might be one of those guys. But it's just a minor league contract, right?

Yeah. He's not on the NHL. He's not on the NHL roster. But you know he's going to end up in Abbotsford. I do wonder if he's a guy, because he's had a lot of injury problems. I do wonder if he's a guy that they're going to say, hey, go to Abbotsford, show us what you've got,

and then you'll be in line to maybe convert this into an NHL deal further down the road. But I mean, it's not, I don't think it's there right now. And part of that has to do with the fact that there are other guys that are showing significantly more, I would say. Yeah. now and part of that has to do with the fact that there are other guys that are showing uh significantly more i would say yeah in terms now i know blay has the type of profile that those guys

don't where it's like you're sort of a bigger body that can bang and crash and maybe give us a couple chances to lay hits and he just he hit him but it wasn't like a sharp hitter yeah i just wouldn't i just out there i just wouldn wouldn't expect that to sort of convert itself into an NHL deal for him. We already went over Will Lennon, so that's a good one. You want to talk about my favorite, Vilmer? Vilmer Ulrichsen? Vilmer!

So, yeah, when you talk about guys like DPD, who are far away. My dog doesn't like that. No, no. I do like it. There's a skit going in my head now of German Flintstones. And it's just, Wilma! I was using the credit card. Focus, focus.

He got into scrap last night and... Charge it! God, I'm dating myself. A little bit. A little bit. That's okay, though. He's in the DPD camp of you're intrigued by him and there might be something there, but it's going to be a while before you see it manifest itself.

He's not even going to Abbotsford. He's going back to the OHL. Yeah, but I'll say this. I had no idea who Vilmer Ulrichsen was two weeks ago, and I sure do now, and that's a feather in the kid's cap, right? That's essentially what players of his ilk, in his draft pedigree, at his age,

and where he's at in his professional development, that's really all you can ask, is you go from being someone nobody's ever heard of to like, I remember that guy. Yeah, his production wasn't very good in the OHL last season. It didn't stand out, but you can't teach size. And by all accounts, so Rick Tockett was saying, I saw him at development camp the year before. I saw him at this year.

He made progress. And that's the only thing you can do. And I think when you drop the gloves in a preseason game, if you're challenged and you fight, that shows that you're willing to do some hard things and you're willing to, you have the courage to go out there and get noticed. And I think that is a feather in his cap. I've said that twice already.

It's a good feather in his cap. And there's so many feathers in people's caps out there. Do people still do that? Looks like a turkey. But it's good. And I'll be curious to watch from afar how he does with Guelph this year. Okay, let's jump into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket here at

650-650. Your thoughts on last night's game. Looking forward to tonight's game in Abbotsford. Friendly reminder, no TV for the game tonight. It will not be on Sportsnet, the television version. It will be on Sportsnet's game. Looking forward to tonight's game in Abbotsford. Friendly reminder, no TV for the game tonight. It will not be on Sportsnet, the television version. It will be on Sportsnet 650 batch and Randy Janda will be on the call

and Randy's going to join us at eight o'clock. This one is from Evan in Aldergrove. It's a two parter. One, Linus Carlson, who is not William Carlson, looked unreal tonight. He deserves a spot

if he keeps that up. Evan then continues, of all the younger guys, Carlson looked the most ready for the NHL. Detailed player who plays heavy. So the thing with Carlson that always sticks out to me, and I mention it every time, is he was the guy that they trusted to put in the lineup

in the playoffs last year to sort of, and I hate putting it this way, but just go out there and make sure nothing bad happens. Play a nice, sound, responsible game. If we give you a checklist of things to do, you can tick all the boxes. You're like the honey to-do list. Mow the lawn.

Don't be a problem. Don't be a problem for us. They're not difficult tasks. They're pretty simple, but if you do them well, everyone will feel better. And that's kind of what he is. Now, I don't know. The problem with that is there's a lot of guys that can do that.

Right? Some guys to make the NHL need to have a specific skill set. Or like in the case of Ulrichson, like you said, can't teach size. Like he has something that other guys don't have. You run into a dangerous. Well, you don't want to be too conservative or you're Pod Colson. Right. And you're just kind of killing time out there and not really making anything happen.

But he made a really nice touch pass to Holglinder. That's what I'm saying. I don't think that Carlson is that. I think he's got enough play-makeability, vision, all the things that you like in a creative player, but also has that responsibility. Like I said, I think that even though it was a small message, it was a message sent by the coaching staff last year that they plugged him in in the playoffs. He's in a log jam. It's a crowded spot where he wants to try and get in, and that's playing on the wings at the NHL level on this team.

So what do we look for tonight in Abbotsford? Well, one texter pointed out, and it's not talked about enough, that both Zdorov and Lindholm looked invisible last night. They weren't very good last night. No, not their strongest effort. I think they've lost a step. Yeah. I just didn invisible last night. They weren't very good last night. No, not their strongest effort. I think they've lost a step. Yeah. I just didn't notice them.

They weren't up to play. And by the way, speaking of the play and not joking, did anyone notice that the Canucks were intentionally playing a lot faster? Yep. And maybe that resulted in a few early turnovers because they were trying to make plays. And it is a – I sound like Toritz here. It's a mindset of playing faster.

It's getting the puck and going, you know, and getting your heart rate up a little bit, but not too much. And just wanting to make a play. There was a, move the puck quick, quick, quick, get it up the ice. I know, I think it was Shorty and DT spot shadowed it. But there was one breakout that moved it like lightning quick out. And I think part of it is you have faster players for sure. But the other part of it is the mindset where it's like like we need to play the puck and we need to play it quickly

and definitively is the big one like you can't have any sort of like wishy-washy i'm not sure what i want to do everyone on that one and it's one breakout so whatever but everyone knew what they wanted to do where they wanted to be and what the end game was, right? And where they wanted to be is a big one because you can go out there and say, play fast, but if you don't give a little bit of direction and Takeda's talked about landmarks on the ice where they want

to be, that just makes it so much easier. If you're a player and you're like, okay, here's a situation, where am I supposed to be right now? It's like hitting your mark and acting. Sure. You know, like, where are you going to walk okay, here's the situation. Where am I supposed to be right now? It's like hitting your mark in acting. Sure, sure. You know, like where are you going to walk out to onto the stage or whatever?

And we'll see how it goes. You know, playing fast can be harder for some players who want to play a more, I don't want to call it a plotting style, but more of a, just a slower style. It's hard. You got to make quick decisions. You got to move your feet.

You got to, you got to get your head up. And as soon as the puck's on your stick, you got to think about, you know, first of all, are you moving your feet, but also like getting rid of the puck and playing it up. And it might, it might result in more turnovers. And the Canucks were lucky that Archer Seeloff was dialed in right away. Otherwise, Seattle could have easily been off to a two-goal lead last night. So tonight in Abbotsford, it's the visiting and hated Calgary Flames coming to town. A brief moment to talk about this team.

So there's always that one team or maybe a couple teams that either take the preseason more seriously than the rest or just have an unreal preseason. It doesn't often translate into regular season success, so you don't really read too much into it. But I will say, Calgary's played three preseason games already. They're a perfect 3-0-0. They scored six goals in each of them. They beat Seattle 6-1.

They beat the Oilers 6-1. And then they played the Oilers. It was a split squad, actually. So they beat the Oilers 6-1 and 6-1. They beat the Oilers 6-1. And then they played the Oilers. It was a split squad, actually. So they beat the Oilers 6-1 and 6-3. Calgary is one of those teams. You know how we talked about the young guys take the preseason a lot more

seriously and their hair is on fire and they really want to impress. Well, Calgary has a bunch of these guys, especially on defense. And again, I was listening to 32 Thoughts yesterday. Freed said that he's had people reach out to him saying that the guy that's really turned the most heads and opened the most eyes in Calgary

is Hunter Bruce Davids. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I don't know if he's going to play tonight. I do not have Calgary's roster at the ready, but apparently he's playing at a level where he might end up being on the NHL roster this year. Yeah.

Right. And he's always going to be a guy for him, but there's always going to be a guy to monitor. Yeah. Because he was drafted by the Canucks. I have no problem with moving them along for what they got in Lindholm, because I think that's what the system is designed to do. He was a third round pick.

He might turn out to be a really good defenseman, but in the moment you wanted to make a run in the playoffs and you got to pay the piper sometimes i'm going to be interested in his expertise is what quinn hughes does so he might have been redundant blocked at the nhl level blocked to the nhl level blocked on the power play you know i know you can you're allowed to have more than two puck movers on the team or sometimes you can even have three puck movers on the defense i i realized that yeah but um you know i think that was a guy that they realized like quinn hughes is going to be here for a while i don't know if there's a spot for you yeah and you know i'll be very curious to see if he plays tonight if he does how good that he looks of course we won't be able to watch the game though because it's not going to be televised

but you can listen to it right here on sportsnet 650. Speaking of things you can listen to on Sportsnet 650, in the next hour, we got some guests. Scott Oak is going to join us on the other side. Scott, of course, the host of After Hours on Hockey Night in Canada. His memoir, For the Love of a Son, is going to be released in January of 2025, but you can pre-order it now. It is about the tragic passing of his son, Bruce, to a drug overdose a few years ago,

which did lead to the Bruce Oak Recovery Center. And all the proceeds from royalties from Scott's book are going to go towards that recovery center. So we're going to talk to Scott about that on the other side at 7 o'clock. At 7.30, we're going to talk to Vanni Sartini. The Whitecaps are in action tonight for the Canadian Championship presented by TELUS.

It is the third that the Caps are going to be in in a row. This is their third appearance in the Canadian Championship, and they've won the last two. So a chance to three-peat tonight for the Caps against Toronto FC. We'll talk to Vanni Sartini ahead of that game tonight. I should mention, Jason, 50% off all beverages, alcohol or otherwise,

prior to kickoff tonight. So you can have a good time. So you'll be there. I will be there. Hour one is in the books. Hour two is coming up. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show

on Sportsnet 650.