Halford & Brough in the Morning - An Outstanding Debut For The 4 Nations Face-Off

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus they talk an exciting start to the 4 Nations with Sportsnet senior NHL writer Eric Engels (26:57). 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.

Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- Marder to work. He's in. Marder! He's in! Marder! It was a tie! When you were a kid, do you dream of that moment? Yeah, definitely. I thought it was a big time player making a big time play at a big time moment. What a freaking booze. Four nations facing off. Good morning Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody. It is Halford in his breath. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios of beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and bruv for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour One of the program. Hour One is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Footwear and Orthotics working together with you and Step.

Got a lot to get into on the program today on a Thursday. Guest list going to be in at 6 30 this morning. We're going to go to Montreal. Scene of last night's epic opener to the four nations face off two of the nations faced off. Eric Engels, our guest at 6 30. He was in the building for the very exciting start to the tournament. He also has a great piece up on Sportsnet.ca about Sydney Crosby further cementing his legacy in Canada's opening win over Sweden. It was a lot of fun.

The atmosphere was, I was told it was electric in the building. We'll get more from Eric who is live on location for that. And then we'll look ahead to tonight's game. We get more nations facing off tonight when USA takes on Finland. At seven o'clock this morning, Mike Tenier, our NFL insider, is going to join us on the program. So Mike lives in the heart of Eagles country. So I want to ask him, cause he's written about this a couple of times,

what it's been like this entire week now that the Eagles have won the Super Bowl and got to go back home and celebrate. It was funny when I was flipping by that Raptors sixers game, the whole arena was green. Everyone arrows like, I'm going to wear my Eagles jersey. Also drunk. Probably still drunk.

Yeah, probably still drunk. Yeah. Mike also had, check out this line from Mike, his scathing takedown of anyone criticizing Jalen Hurts. You know how we were talking about it the other day? One of our textures called Jalen Hurts. You know how we were talking about it the other day? One of our texters called Jalen Hurts middling.

Mike wrote, go ahead, list him the 17th best quarterback in the NFL or whatever. You film sniffing podcast geniuses of quarterback micro analysis. He was angry. Yikes. We're gonna talk to Mike at seven o'clock. I've got him at number 15.

Right. You film sniffing podcasting genius. He's angry. Yikes. We're gonna talk to Mike at seven o'clock. I've got him at number 15. Right. You film sniffing podcasting genius. We'll also get into some off season NFL stuff as well. That's at seven o'clock with Mike Tanier. Eight o'clock Thomas Drance, the Drancer from the Athletic and Canucks talk right here on Sportsnet 650. Speaking of Canucks talk, did you see who him and Jamie Dodd had on the program yesterday?

Refresh my memory. Mikey Moe. Oh, that's him and Jamie Dodd had on the program yesterday? Refresh my memory. Mikey Moe. Oh, that's right. Mike Modano was on the program. He was talking about the 1990s World Cup and how it was just like a war out there. So it's a pretty good get. We'll talk to Drancer about that. We'll also ask him about everything that him and the boy genius, Harmon Dial, have been

doing over at the Athletic. Who might the Canucks pick up ahead of the March trade deadline? We'll talk to Drancer about that at eight o'clock. Finally, we are yet again, every day this week, we're keeping with it. We're giving away a pair of tickets to see the HSBC Rugby Sevens later this month at BC Place. If you want to go, be, call our number seven for the Sevens at 8.15 this morning. Phone number here, 604-280-0650. That number again, 604-280-0650.

Sevens tickets going to the seventh caller at 8.15 this morning. Give us a ring, you can talk to Adog. That's also included in your prize. Working in reverse on the guest list, eight o'clock it's Drantz, seven o'clock it's Tannier, 6.30 it's Tanny or 6.30 it's Engels. 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? Missed it? 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 or resources in safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Mitch Marner scored 6-0-6 into overtime last night.

And Canada recovered after blowing a two goal lead to beat Sweden 4-3 in overtime in the first game of the Four Nations faceoff at the Bell Centre in Montreal. You know what? I loved it so much. Greg, I want to hear it again. Chris Cuthbert on the call. Maybe the only time I'm ever going to cheer for a Mitch Marner goal unless he does it again in this tournament.

Here's Canada's game winner in OT. Cosby took a look, doesn't have pressed legs with him. And he'll drop it back. Marder to work. He's in. Marder! It's Marder in overtime! Pretty great start to the tournament, man, I'm not going to lie. It was an entertaining night. It was an entertaining game. It was a entertaining game. It was a terrific finish. It was a really good time.

Yeah. And I think if you were surprised by the intensity or you were surprised by the quality of the hockey, then you really weren't paying attention to what the players have been saying for a few years now in that they want best on best to be back and you know, you can say it's been nine years or 11 years, depending on what you thought of the 2016 world cup doesn't really matter. It's been a long time. And a lot of these guys, um, have not been able to participate in this sort of thing.

And, um, you know, they are all, if you make it to the NHL and you're one of the best players in the NHL, you're pretty competitive person. into the NHL and you're one of the best players in the NHL. You're a pretty competitive person and can you imagine, you know, you're, um, McDavid, right? That'd be cool. That would be cool. That'd be awesome. He's fast.

Except you'd have to live in Edmonton, but you know. It's tough. Not everything's perfect, but you're so good at the game. Wouldn't you want that opportunity to play with the best and represent your country like you've seen others do, like you've seen Sydney Crosby do, and then Sydney Crosby had seen Gretzky and Lemieux do it. And you know, you, you, you go back, um, in the

history of the game. And so, you know, in 2016, McDavid was part of the world cup, but he wasn't playing for Canada. He was playing for team North America. Again, such a stupid tournament, but, um, you know, now it, it, it's everyone, all the best Canadians are on team Canada. And I don't know.

This is a, here's a challenge for the listeners. Okay. Have, has any team outside of an all star team been able to put together, one, two punch like Sydney Crosby and Nathan McKinnon on one line and then the next line has McDavid. You know where it really stood out was in the overtime yesterday.

Is it felt like every shift it was like, here comes McDavid, here comes McKinnon. I thought it was just cross meeting, we get to play until late in the overtime. I thought it stood out in the first period. Well, it did for the Swedes. Yeah. And I know.

That power play too, it's like we're never taking a penalty ever again. I know, I was like, what are you doing, Nylander, keep your stick down for God's sake. No more penalties. Yeah. I mean, it started off with that power play and then Canada looked dominant

in the first period and we were all, you know, going, ah, the Swedes are going to give up and credit to the Swedes. They came back and maybe Bennington would want that second goal back and some people didn't like the first one. But, you know, the third one's not his fault. And frankly, I think Canada let their foot off the gas a little bit.

I mean, Sweden's got a really good team too, right? Let's be honest. There's a lot of really good players out there. Um, but you know, it was coming up to the end of regulation and Canada had like 19 shots on goal and I tweeted that out and everyone was like, Rick talking hockey, baby. I'm like, come on. He's got his influence on the team already.

He's like yelling, dump it in, dump it in, get it deep. At any rate, that was just really fun. And Canada, US on Saturday, if that's what Canada, Sweden was, I can't wait. I'm glad that that game happened to kick off the tournament because, and there's a lot to unpack there from your opening soliloquy, but I want to start with the intensity that Canada showed right off the bat. And I don't think that Sweden was prepared for the level of intensity that was

going to happen right away. I don't know whether it was just nerves or they weren't sure how this tournament was going to go. Or if they just flat out weren't ready for it. They go into it and say, Oh, does Canada take international hockey seriously? I don't know. Maybe they were like Justin Trudeau and those political ads where they just weren't ready.

I don't know. How about, um, they're just like not as good as Canada when Canada is finally going all cylinder. But they were when the game went along. And they were still, they were still like, I think, I think that was Canada's fault. Like Canada let their foot off the gas. Again, if you put, you know.

See, I'd push back on that. Okay. Well, let me push you first and then you can push back. Okay. Um, what team in the world could possibly push back to, using pushback too much, but like, but like you, again, you've got one line with Sidney Crosby and Nathan McKinnon and they were incredible.

And then another line has Connor McDavid. On paper, Sweden's top two centers were Ilias Pettersson and Mika Zabaniad. Now we'll talk about PD later because he was not one of their top six players. They wasn't, you know, like his ice time was way low yesterday, but I don't know, like it's just, it's such a challenge when you've got the

ability to send over two incredible lines, basically. Yep. The, I mean, I don't know what they had a lousy first period. So it's funny if you're the TNT broadcast who was the rights holder for the game yesterday in the U S had Wayne Gretzky come on at the intermission and Gretzky ripped the Swedes for their effort and the first period that they had.

It's funny, actually a couple of the Swedish news outlets, including Express and wrote about it this morning, anecdotally, when they were talking to a bunch of the Swedish players. And then I was listening to Sam Hallam, by the way, we should probably just refer to him by his actual name, as opposed to Sam Hallam. Sam Hallam.

Sam Hallam, we're, no, no, Sam. No, don't give it off Sam Hallam. In his post-game media availability, which I listened to this morning, he was saying, we felt like the first period was about Canada coming out and dictating, but we didn't play well. And he acknowledged it, it was a bad start.

The mistake by Nylander was very costly. He said in the last six to eight minutes of the period, he felt like they got a little bit better, but he fully acknowledged, he's like, we got dominated in that first period. Now the interesting thing was, tactically, he made a bunch of changes, including where the ice time was going,

and the interesting thing was, he switched around all his D pairings after the first period. And what he ended up doing was putting Headman with Gustav Forsling, and then making that the top pairing, and then they both played close to like 30 minutes. And then they did a really nice job there. He was also-

Whose ice time got cut? All right, let's do it. Trivia time for the listeners. If you had to guess who received the fourth lowest ice time among all Swedish forwards yesterday, feel free to answer. Tik Tok, Tik Tok, Tik Tok. It was Elias Pedersen. Now granted the three guys below him played

significantly fewer minutes. I mean, it kind of is what it is though. Pedersen had 1632 and then you had three guys, Lindholm Arvidsson and Gustav Nyquist that were like 10 minutes. Basically got deployed like a 3C. I noticed him twice. Yeah.

I noticed him twice. When did you notice him? I noticed him twice. Once on a two and one where instead of shooting it, he passed it back to the point. And once at overtime where he had a pretty good look, but fan on the shot. And I'm not being sarcastic.

Those literally were the two times where I'm like, oh, there he is. I did not notice him much last night. I noticed him on Marshaan's goal, but it wasn't his fault. It was a pretty brutal giveaway by Forsberg who didn't get the puck in deep and then Canada turns it up the ice so quickly. Oh, I know. Like it was just like boom, boom, boom, boom. Second there's a giveaway. It's like, see ya. And PD was stuck in the neutral zone, but honestly it wasn't his fault.

Okay, so real quick, because there's about a million other things I wanna talk about, but 16-32 time on ice, which was low. Credit would just one hit and one shot on goal. I had to go through and manually count face-offs because they didn't have all the stat sheets up at nhl.com. Two of 12 in the face-off circle, which is not great.

So, you know, it was a tough, as Jason said, it was a very tough go for a lot of Swedish players last night because Canada came out on fire and dictated for the first period and you know, stretches at time. I, I, um, I'm an enthusiastic PD critic, as you know, I'm aware I'm not that last night doesn't do it.

It doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't, I just, I just put the numbers up. There's no Swedes out there that I was like, they were terrific. I thought Lucas Raymond was really good actually. Yeah, okay. He's a talented player. And then Gustafson Annette was really good, I thought.

Yeah, but I just, I don't think it's, if you're gonna criticize Pedersen, criticize him for his play with the Canucks, but like last night, I don't know. I mean, if you want to say like, um, he did not look like a top five, highly paid player in the NHL. That's perfectly fine, but that's not a new take. You said that by the way.

That's, but that's not a new take, right? Like. But again, you said it. And it's, and it's not even, and he's not even close right now. So. Anyway, there's a lot more I want to get into on the Canadian side of things. But again, you said it. And it's not even, and he's not even close right now. Yeah. Anyway, there's a lot more I want to get into on the Canadian side of things.

I want to play some audio from John Cooper. And I want to circle back to what you mentioned earlier about guys like specifically, I think McDavid and McKinnon understanding that this is the first of their moments internationally. And I think what they got to see last night was what it means to be a Canadian hockey icon because there was the pop that Mario Lemieux got

when he was introduced to the Bell Center. And that was apparently like, I don't know, 109 on the decibel chart, whatever that is. It was so awesome. It was huge, right? And of course it was because it was a French Canadian icon in Montreal and all that, but it was also because the things that Lemieux did

internationally, and he was there as a sort of like senior captain official of the Canadian men's national team. Then there was Sidney Crosby, and the pop and ovation that Crosby got was secondary only to Lemieux, and this was pregame. And as John Cooper points out in this clip, this is for a guy that, reminder, has played his entire career in Pittsburgh. It's not like he spent any time in Montreal

aside from when he's been there as a visitor, but the pop before the game, the three assists during the game, the player of the game award afterwards in which he got another huge ovation. Here is John Cooper on Sidney Crosby's night from the opening night of the Four Nations face-off. I don't I could kind of get to write a book on just my time around Sidney Crosby in this short little window I've had. I think

if you were really listening what happened at the beginning of the game when everybody was announced and that Mario Lemieux's roar aside, Sidney Crosby, I mean, the roof was coming off and it's, you know, he's been a Pittsburgh penguin his whole life. And that just shows you how many, how much people care about him and respect him in this country. And I thought that was, you know, if I'm going to think about my top three or four moments of this it'll be the ovation Cindy Crosby received from this what a crowd and but just his demeanor on the bench that just says all

the right things at the right time and then you need a lift and teams push and he's the one that sets up the helper and then you need a lift and teams push and he's the one that sets up to help her. And then you need a lift and overtime and he's the one that sets it up. And just there's, it's no coincidence. His record of when he's wearing a Canadian Jersey, that's, it's not fluke. And he will go down as the greatest player to ever represent his country. If not, he's gonna be on the Mount Rushmore for sure of people that have thrown the Canadian jersey on.

Coop is so smooth. I know. It's almost like he was a lawyer or something. There were some people that were saying, I guess in light of, and the Shea Thader injury, which we'll get to in a sec, but they said he looked really tired and drained, and they're like, you're only one game into this one.

I think it's- Who, Coop? Yeah. He always looks kind of a little bit like- I think he's really into it. Like he manages and coaches, not irrationally with it, but with his heart, honestly. He's very invested, and he is, as you heard in the clip,

a huge amount of respect for the players and what they're doing and what they're going through. And I think he really lives it, And he is, as you heard in the clip, a huge amount of respect for the players and like what they're doing and what they're going through. And I think he really lives it and it is stressful doing what he's doing right now. I mean, you're tasked with, it's almost, it's one of the more unenviable jobs when you think about it, cause everyone expects Canada to win.

Any failure or falling short of that, right? Coop is always in control of his own press conference, right? Yep. He's going to go at his own pace and he's a very, he's a very thoughtful coach. So he was talking about Sidney Crosby and he put it really well, his importance to the game and

how good he's been representing his country. Hands up, you were watching last night and thinking, is he just going to waste away the rest of his NHL career in Pittsburgh? I think a lot of people were thinking that. And it got me thinking, if Sid were to ever agree to be traded by the Pittsburgh Penguins and go play in another uniform, and he didn't come to Vancouver. Okay. Okay. And didn't come to Vancouver. Okay. Okay.

And didn't come to Vancouver. Classic Halbro, stacking hypotheticals. No, no, no, but we've always, we've, we've already talked about the possibility of Sid come to Vancouver, where would be the best place for him to land? Okay. So I've come up with some options here.

Montreal, the respect level there is off the charts and they've got a good young team and who knows in a few years or maybe a year or two, maybe they're ready to take a stab at winning the cup. He played junior in the queue. I remember he like even took some French lessons because he went there. There is obviously a tremendous amount of respect for him in Montreal.

It's almost like he's French Canadian. because he went there. There is obviously a tremendous amount of respect for him in Montreal. It's almost like he's French Canadian. Um, Colorado to play with Nathan McKinnon. What about, and this doesn't get discussed much, Edmonton to team up with McDavid. Stop. How about just, how about just at the time, whichever Canadian team is closest

to breaking the cup drought because. Sidney Crosby to Winnipeg. Imagine if he added to his legacy by helping to break that drought. The thing about going to Colorado with Nathan McKinnon is I'm sure Sid would enjoy it because he's friends with McKinnon. And that's the team that gets talked about the most, I think. And also like they needed to see, um, the, the need is there, but it's kind of like, well,

if you went to Colorado to win a cup, you're like, all right, that's cool, I guess, but Colorado's already won a cup, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's not, it's not Canada, right? It know, it's not Canada, right? It's not Canada. And I wonder if that interests him at all, especially the possibility of maybe going to Montreal to play.

So I was thinking about this last night and I did wonder if Montreal might look at this and say a couple things. One, Crosby's not slowing down. Crosby's not slowing down in the slightest. At 37, he just went out and had a three assist player of the game performance in a best on best international tournament. And it's not like one of those, you know,

oh, like he's not a legacy pick for the team or anything like that. He's still playing at a very elite level. Would Montreal be willing to take the risk of cashing in some, and I'm talking like key prized young assets, which is probably what it would take to get him out of Pittsburgh and say, it's gonna be worth it for the influence he's gonna have

on the remaining young players and what he's gonna do to us as a franchise, even though we know we might only get like two or three or four years out of him. And let's be real, once he starts hitting 40, you're gonna be like, how high a level is he gonna play at? I do wonder if that might be the play in something that Crosby might even entertain,

like the only place I would leave Pittsburgh for to write that second chapter. Yeah, you know, because I mean, I don't think he wants to be a rental anywhere But don't but don't you think this is gonna there's gonna be a lot of conversation after watching him play at this level I and you know, it just seems like it's the perfect storm for this conversation to occur. Now, Sid might just be like, hey, you can talk all you want. I'm not leaving Pittsburgh. That's why I signed there. I only want to wear one jersey during my NHL career and that's the way it is. I am a Pittsburgh penguin.

Well, his buddy Nate McKinnon might convince him, hey, you want to, you know. Yeah, well, I'm sure it's already come up. The thing with Colorado, and I hate putting it this way. Nate doing some light tampering. Right, just the most gentle of tamperings. The thing with Colorado is it wouldn't feel special. It would feel special to Sid, I guess, if he really wants to play with Nate,

but I'm with you, right? Like it wouldn't, it would be like, okay. They both won cups. Did Ray Bork not feel special But that was one a cup but he Cups Crosby's one cups going to a location and then winning a cup is not an easy thing It was a lot different even you Ray Bork and you we even you know that yeah, right? You're just being difficult No, I just being very difficult. I mean it's not like it's just like odd another cup big deal

That's a huge deal if he goes and wins another cup. But the whole thing with Bork, the whole thing was that he'd never won a cup. That was the thing, like you go to a team and see if you can do it, and that's what he did. Boston shouldn't have been terrible. Sid's already done it, and you've got this storyline, well that's the thing, they weren't terrible.

They weren't terrible. They weren't terrible. Um, they just weren't quite good enough. You've got this drought that's going on in Canada and you've got this guy who has done so much for Canadian hockey, you add it all up and you're like, what's one more thing that you could do. Yeah. In your incredible career that has seen you score one of the most memorable goals of all time in the Olympics?

That's seen you win multiple cups with your NHL team. Like what's one more thing you could do help break the Canadian drought? Yeah, and for me, Montreal would be the one. Again, the difference is if Winnipeg's knocking on the door, is it like Sidney Crosby to Winnipeg? That has a different feel to me as well. No, but you're looking at it from the fan perspective.

We gotta look at it from Crosby's perspective. Crosby's perspective. He probably doesn't wanna go, but if he were to go, he'd be like, well, I'd like to play with one of my good buddies. No, it would be- He was a Habs fan growing up. And his dad was he were to go, he'd be like, well, I'd like to play with one of my good buddies. No, it would be. He was a Habs fan growing up. And his dad was a Habs fan.

It'd be Montreal. It would be Montreal. If it was for the emotional and for the feels, it would be Montreal. And I'm confident projecting that onto the conversation. I think number two. He thinks about the fans too, right?

Like he thinks about, he thinks about all, all that sort of thing. And, and, and, you know, like, look at the, like that was a recruitment by the Montreal fans last night, whether they were that, whether that was intentional or not, you know, and you know, like, look at the, like, that was a recruitment by the Montreal fans last night, whether they were that, whether that was intentional or not, you know, and you know, they're going to talk about it.

Yeah. You know, it's going to be all the talk in Montreal is any way we can get Crosby to the Habs, their young up and coming team. From one legend to another, I now need to tell you about Denny's, that's right, the restaurant, True North Taste Awaits with Denny's 100% Canadian Beef Burgers

made with new shredded iceberg lettuce on a brioche bun and all the classic ingredients you love. We will continue the conversation about the four nations face-off, Sidney Crosby, Montreal, the electric scene last night. Coming up next, Eric Engels from Sportsnet is going to join us live from Montreal. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks.

Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. Morrissey went to the pinch. Crosby delayed and sets up Marner, full stride into the zone. Mitch Marner scores! Mitch Marner! An overtime winner for Team Canada! 6.32 on a Thursday, happy Thursday everybody, Halford Brough Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough 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, sales, financing, service or parts. We are in hour one of the program. Eric Engels is going to join us from Montreal in just a second here to kick off hour one. Hour one of this program is brought to you by Campbell & Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-pound.com today. To the phone lines we go. Eric Engels from Sportsnet joins us now on the Haliford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

Morning, Eric. How are you? Oh, I'm just waking up, just pepping up after quite a night. How was it last night in the Bell Center? Just let us know. It looked amazing, by the way. Like, if you could have dreamed this up after nine years of not watching the best players in the world play against some of the best players in the world, we know some of the best players in the world that are not here, but like, let's just take it for what it is. You have a team that has Sydney Crosby, Connor McDavid and Nathan McKinnon, and they're all getting on the ice together, 56 seconds in. You know, it's pretty much how you would have imagined it in your mind. Like it went as

expected and you know, that the fans in Montreal know how to treat something like this. And we got a pretty good sample of it with Crosby giving the performance that he did, but it started in the warmup with them recognizing Sid above everyone else. And well, he delivered. That'll go down as one of the more memorable nights covering hockey in the last 17 years for me. Is there a way to gently ask Sidney Crosby in the next media availability, if playing for the Montreal Canadiens would appeal to him at

all, because I think today there's going to be a lot of talk about, you know, is Sid really going to end his career with a bad Pittsburgh team or is there any way that some team, maybe the Montreal Canadiens could get him out of there? I think it's a conversation he'll allow to, to, to evolve in every other circle other than his own, right? Like, I don't, you know, Sidney Crosby well enough by now after 20 years

watching him in this league and, and, you know, I think one of the coolest things about Sidney Crosby is unfortunately for all of us, there was a lockout when, when he was emerging, but we all got to watch his last season in junior, which was pretty special. Like by now we have a pretty full book on how this guy operates and he certainly won't feed those narratives. But I think we will over the next, you know, if not days, you know, over the coming weeks as the trade deadline approaches and as Sid continues

to dwindle on a team that is headed in a different direction. I think it was really interesting, we talked about this in the open, that there was that sort of symbolical passing of the torch of the Canadian hockey icons when Lemieux was there and he got his huge pop and then Crosby goes out. And I don't think coincidentally has three assists in his name, the top player of the tournament. And you just mentioned it, like with the huge gap that we had in international best on best,

the two guys that you look at specifically are McKinnon and McDavid and they're probably, I mean, I wonder if they'll even have a fight among themselves is who's gonna be the next guy to have that great moment because really it's what's missing from both of their resumes not through any fault of their own but they got to see firsthand what it means to a Canadian crowd when and you know Cooper pointed this out in the post game like Sidney Crosby spent his entire career as a Pittsburgh Penguin and that's the kind of reception

he gets in Montreal because they understand how much he's meant to Canadian hockey. You guys would understand, I probably did like 15, 20 radio interviews in the lead up to this tournament, which was too long, honestly, like two days of practice, a full morning skate and waiting until 8.20 for the puck to drop after nine years of, you know,

being deprived of two Olympic games and another 23 team being put together that robbed us of the opportunity to see these three players play together. But one of the things I've been saying over and over again is McKinnon's here, McDavid is here, and after them at 37 years old, Sidney Crosby is the best player on this team. And for him to come out last night and essentially confirm that in one fell swoop was, it was special to see.

Like, you know, there are generations of hockey fans that will talk about what he has done in the Canadian uniform and the freshest generation will have this in mind. A performance like last night that cements it. But, you know, it'd be one thing if he was 37 years old and it's one of those last chances to see him. It would be another thing if he was kind of like Mario Lumiere in 2002 and 2004 for the world cup where, you know, he made some great plays and he was a leader, but like, was he the best player on the like Saka Kinnikimla kind of carried those teams.

it kind of carried those teams. Crosby, the level that he is still at is what makes this so much more special. And it's, it's conceited. McKinnon is a better player at this point. McDavid is a better player at this point. And on a team filled with some of the best players in the world and some of the best who have ever worn that Canadian uniform, Crosby is right underneath them, like he's just there. So I just think it's amazing to watch him perform at this level and on this stage. And injured. He's not even at 100%. Like, it's unbelievable.

So with all that we're saying and you know, was an incredible performance by Sidney Crosby. How did Sweden force this game to overtime? Like what, you can't just put it all on Jordan Bennington, can you? Honestly, like what a strange, no I wouldn't by the way and look I have a pet peeve about us in general and I I'm not just talking about the media fans, what we've come to expect from goaltenders in an age where shooters are the greatest they've ever been from first line to fourth line,

nevermind in a best on best competition where everyone can really fire the puck. And like, I understand Jonas Brodeen shot goes in from a bad angle, okay, you can hang that on Bennington if you want, despite the traffic that's in front of them. The goal that Adrian Kemp is scores, he's on a one on two walking to defensemen into the slot and using them as a screen and firing off doubt he's stick. Like I know the puck didn't hit doubt he's thick, but it's, it's, you could say, look, these are the saves you have to

make if your Canada's goalie. And that is a perfectly valid argument, but we never gave enough credit to the shooter. And that was a great shot from a place where he never should have gotten to in that situation. And as far as Sweden is concerned, I mean, what was somewhat jarring was I kept having that clip of Wayne Gretzky from the, the boys on the bus running through my head in the first period of, uh, she's asked, you know, if this is stressful for him and this is the 80, you know, 85 or 86 oilers, 87 oilers, whatever it is. And, and he goes, no, like, no, I don't care about the pressure.

Like I, when I get out there, you know, I just want the puck and you guys could get your own puck. And that was what was running through my mind watching Canada dominate Sweden over that first period. Like Sweden is not a push over here. They have an incredible roster from top to bottom and their defense might be the best in this tournament. And they needed 17 minutes to get a shot on that. Like, and it came from the point from, from Goose, that for his leg with five minutes left in the game, they had more shots than Canada. They're a good team.

Like Drew Dowdy called it the fastest game he's ever been a part of. And he was, you know, the number one defenseman on the 2010 team and found his way up there again in 2014. Like, I think people who thought this wouldn't be the type of exhibition we got last night are in for a surprise because what's coming next with Finland and USA locking up in what will be probably a more physical matchup and then Canada and USA on Saturday I think we're gonna see something really special. How big a loss is J. Theodore?

It's a big one, right? His mobility, his speed, and the fact that Canada is extremely depth deep as a nation on the right side and on the left side. Well, Travis Sandheim, without any disrespect to him, is coming in as the replacement. He doesn't exactly have the same resume as J. Theodore. I kind of think it's unfortunate as Canada, as Elliot Friedman reported, you know, they have the opportunity if they suffer another injury to bring two more players here, um, cause you don't, you obviously don't want to have

a depleted roster going up in a competition like this, not with what's at stake, but also just in terms of the safety of the players in general. Like it was tough for Canada to play at that speed with just five defensemen and they admitted it, which is not something I would expect them to hear from them, but that's what they said. Um, I thought that ran through my mind, just looking at that kind of shallow left side defense pool is a shame that Caden Gouli got hurt because, you know, just watching him here in Montreal, he is a perfect shutdown and

has a team Canada kind of brand all over his game. You go through the next options on the list. It's, it's Morgan Riley. It's, it's, you know, Mario Ferraro. It's, uh, like not, not exactly the types of names we've associated with the greatest Canadian blue lines we've seen over the last, I guess, 25 years of international hockey. So look, like Theodore is an excellent player.

He was really looking forward to being here to see him go out as early as he did on a clean play with Campa. And it looked like to me, it looked like he jammed his wrist, but I'm not a doctor and I'm not going to prognosticate what his future looks like for the Vegas Golden Knights over the next couple of weeks or a couple of months, whatever it is. But where do they go from here? Like, do you call on, I think of a guy like Weger who has played the left side, uh, as a righty, which is a rare thing. I think of Tanev who's like, Gulley is his brand is, is, is Canada through and

through in terms of how tough he is to play against and he's unheralded as a puck mover or maybe we don't even get there and Sandheim just fills in and they don't have these guys they put on notice even come to the tournament because everybody remains healthy I'm knocking on wood for that outcome throughout the whole turn like for all the teams Finland's already been decimated. You just, you don't want something that's so great. That's happening here to have that negative kind of vibe about it. That players are getting hurt at a time of the year where their teams are

desperately going to need them coming out of this. Well, uh, Eric, um, real quick, cause I know we got to let you go. Um, how much are you looking forward to Saturday when it's Canada, U S and how much do you think the Canadian players feel an obligation to the past that they come out there and they play Canada's, let's face it, number one rival now as hard and as fast as they can.

I'm really looking forward to it. And without sounding like, like a hockey player, I kind of want to see what's going to happen with USA-Finland first, right? Because what if USA, for whatever reason, and I know people think this is impossible, loses to Finland in regulation? Like is this an elimination game for them essentially on Saturday. Uh, Canada robbed themselves of a point by allowing Sweden to come back from down three, one, uh, and if they were to lose to the U S and regulation after the U S beats Finland, you know, they put themselves in trouble of not

being in the championship game. So it's like the stakes. It's not just how excited I am to see these two nations play against each other, especially with the hype around the Americans, their goaltending that matchup. And, you know, Canada with the three headed monster that we were talking about earlier. And by the way, for my money, a five on five, the best line on the ice was, was Braden point, Brad Marshawn and Seth Jarvis, which I don't think anybody would have made a prop that on that.

But like just the possibility that the stakes raised significantly between now and then puts it over the top. And I have a lot of friends in the States who watch football and basketball religiously and tune into the odd hockey game. And I told them, if you're not watching USA Finland tonight, you better be watching Canada USA on Saturday because America has put together their best team ever and Canada has three generational players leading it and it's just gonna be something unbelievable.

I can't wait. We can't either. Saturday's gonna be a lot of fun. Hey, Eric, thanks for doing this today, bud. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the tournament. I don't think I need to tell you to enjoy it, but enjoy it anyway. gonna be a lot of fun. Hey, Eric, thanks for doing this today, bud. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the tournament. I don't think I need to tell you to enjoy it, but enjoy it anyway.

Yeah, a lot of fun. Take care, guys. Enjoy it yourselves. Yeah, you too, thanks. That's Eric Engels from Sportsnet here on the Halford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Okay, Halford, so a lot of people are texting in confused at the idea that Canada could call up players. So my read on this is that there's a bit of ambiguity here

because some people, including Chris Johnson, long time hockey reporter, tweeted out last night in the wake of the Shea Theodore injury that rules stipulate that you can only call somebody into this tournament on an emergency basis if you suffer so many injuries that you fall below 18 healthy players on your roster. Then Elliot Friedman last night in a very brief article that he wrote for

Sportsnet wrote the following, here's what we're looking at. Canada will be allowed to put a defenseman or two quote unquote on notice. So if there's another injury and we hope not, one will be able to join when the series switches to Boston. Since these players may be away on vacation, proper notice is necessary. Again, hopefully none of this will be necessary. So I think what's going on here is

because this is an NHL and NHLPA joint venture, I don't think that they're beholden to anybody's rule book. Yeah, they can do what they want. I don't think it would're beholden to anybody's rule book. Yeah, they can do what they want. I don't think it would be anyone's, let's say for example, Travis Sennheim goes into the lineup on Saturday, gets hurt against the Americans and the Canadian team is now down to five healthy defensemen. I don't think it would be in anyone's best interest to be like, well, them's the rules Canada, you have to play with five defensemen moving forward. And Elliott put it as last night,

there was kind of like a handshake agreement between all four countries that if the scenario turns out that you lose say two defensemen out of seven, so you're, you're, you're limited to five, then you will be able to call it in. So it's, it's, it's not like, it's not like Canada is just making up rules. Right.

As it goes. I think it was discussed. And even though the rules are the rules, the NHL and the NHLPA made the rules so they can change the rules as long as all the other countries are kind of like, yeah, that's cool, we discussed this already. So it is definitely worth paying attention to because Shay Thador was going to be a very important part of this blue line.

And without him last night, you had, and by the way, Kale McCarr, I think played half of the overtime and he played 28 minutes all told. Devon Taves was at 25 plus. Morrissey and Pareko were both at 23. I thought Morrissey had a bit of a tough night. Well, I thought Doughty had a bit of a tough night too. Yeah.

He ended up with the low man in terms of ice time. Fast out there guys. Yeah. Well, given that he's one of the. It was fast. It was fast. And he was one of the oldest guys on the team going in and don't forget, he's missed close to

40 plus games this year with the injury. He only just came back. So it wouldn't be surprising at all to see the game move a little quicker than Drew Doughty was moving. Might be a little too quick for Colton Pareco too, right? Like you're looking at, um, in, in Theodore, you've got one of their best puck movers, right?

Like he's, he's, he's an underrated player. He's a real solid player. So, um, if I'm the United States now, you know, you're, you're, you're trying to force as many mistakes as possible because if you're looking for, um, vulnerabilities, it's probably not in the forward group in Canada. No, it's either going to be on the

back end or, uh, in goal. Do you go back to Bennington for game two? Yes. No, without, no, without hesitation. Cause it's, it divided our Sportsnet panel yesterday. Mm-hmm. And I, look. I would not bring in a new goalie

for the United States game. You know what I would say? I would have brought in another goalie if there was a really good second option there. Mm-hmm. Exactly. Right? It's like.

I mean, before. Well, you want to go to Aiden Hill. I'm like, do you? Yeah. Think of what Team like, I mean before- Well, you gotta go to Eden Hill, I'm like, do ya? Yeah. Think of what Team Canada has been through before. It's like, well, Bordur, you know, I don't know. How about Luongo? Yeah, okay.

Yeah. Bordur or wah, hmm. Yeah, yeah, right? But now it's kind of like, well, are you gonna give, and also Binnington might destroy the dressing room too, so- Sure. You need to snarl on the ice too. He rules through fear. Right?

So. It's going to be chippy out there. They need the edge of it. I want to play the audio from John Cooper in the post because he was asked about Bennington. Nobody asked if he would commit to Bennington for the second game. It was more just about the performance last night.

Here's what Canada's head coach, John Cooper, had to say about his winning goalie Jordan Bennington after last night's game against the Swedes. We spoke and when I you know told him he was gonna start tonight and we just talked about you know playing in big moments and big games and he's done it all and even in his cup run he had to go on the road to win game seven and but in the end I said you're gonna have a team that's gonna be playing hard in front of you. Make the saves that you're supposed to make. Maybe slide in one that you're not and

that's what he did. And you know when you need the big save and overtime he made it and gave us a chance to win what he did. And you know, when you need the big save and over time, he made it and gave us a chance to win and we did. I think that big save and overtime that he made got him the job on Saturday. That sounded. For sure. That sounded like a coach that had no interest

in changing goals. No. He's like, yeah, I'm fine with Bennington moving forward and it's probably the right call. It's probably the right call. And it does add an element, I'm not going to lie from a purely fan perspective, like entertainment value, it does add an element. I'm not gonna lie from a purely fan perspective, like entertainment value, it does add an element

because as dominant as Canada can be, you're reminded that there's Jordan Bennington back there. And I am now, I'm gonna pivot quickly to tonight's game between the US and Finland, because I keep another one like back and forth. Do you stay with Bennington? Do you go with Hill? Another back and forth.

Do you want the US to come out and look like an absolute wagon tonight and blow the doors off the Finns? Or do you want Finland to beat the US and then put the US in desperation mode in a virtual must win on Saturday against Canada? Yes to both. Right.

I don't think both of those. The thing about the Americans is that they have often looked really good at the start of tournaments and then wilted. That was 2014. That was the case in 2014 and a lot of the critics said that they changed their games. They changed their game for the Canada game and I think they probably did, but they were scoring a ton of goals in the preliminary games, not the group stage

or whatever it was. Sure. And then they played Canada, what was one, nothing for Canada. That was it. Canada snuffed them out. Now, Canada had something to do with that. That was one of the best defensive performances I've ever seen from a team. And I think though, if the Finns were to

somehow beat the Americans tonight and then Canada essentially had the opportunity to eliminate the Americans Saturday night in Montreal, it would almost be just like, I couldn't say no to that scenario. I'm leaning. You know, even though we, we, we'd rob ourselves of a Canada, US final. See, that's the thing. I'm leaning that way, but I'm also leaning the way of... I would love

Saturday night to be a prize fight in the... If you're gonna have a trilogy of great... I'm using the boxing analogy here, right? You kind of want one to set up the other. If the US comes in with their collective chest puffed out and guns a blazing and it's like the offense is firing and Hellbuck looks unstoppable, or sorry, unbeatable, that to me might be the most tantalizing thing for Saturday. Because really what you want is you want Saturday's game to set up the final, right?

You want the round one of Canada US to set up round two. Which would set up the Olympics. Right, and that would be the trilogy. Lot of table setting. But that's what you want. Yeah. So I'm going back and forth on this one. Here's the other important part of this.

I'm glad that that game and that tournament started the way that it did yesterday. Because Canada made it abundantly clear right from the start that it was like, it's like, I used this line yesterday, but like we're here to kick ass and chew gum and we're out of gum. Like they were not messing around.

They were not effing around at all to start. There was physicality right away. I thought it was really interesting when Rasmus Dahlien, it was Dahlien that chucked Connor McDavid to the ice. And it was almost like his wake up call. He's like, okay, like this is, we're going to have to be very physical.

Yeah. There's an element here. And again, I'm not trying to project that Sweden was like, we're going to take this like the All-Star game. Like when do we do the skills comp? Like it wasn't that, but I don't think that in the first period that they were ready for what

was about to come. They figured it out. So you got to credit them for coming back in the game. You do a hundred percent. Like, and, and again, I mentioned this off the top, um, Sam Hallam, Sweden's head coach, Sam Hallam, he made a lot of tactical adjustments and

they talked about it afterwards that really allowed them to slow down the Canadian attack. But he said in the first period, he's like, we did nothing right. Our puck management stunk. He said they lost pretty much every puck battle in the first 10 minutes that they could. They looked so slow. Right. But they looked like they just weren't ready. They were almost shocked by how physical Cannon was going to be. It's like, I thought we had an understanding. We were going to

do it one way and Canon was like, no, we're gonna come out, we're gonna hit, and it's gonna be physical. Like, McKinnon had four hits in the first period, right? He was ready to go. How about Adog last night in the group chat? You were shocked by just how excited and energized and intense everybody was.

Yeah, well, I'm gonna be shocked as a strong word. I just wasn't sure if it would be as intense as it was. Although, I mean, obviously, thinking to Bruff's point, well, it's been so long since Best on Best. A lot of these guys have never worn a sweater before in international. So I got all those parts. I said to A-Dog, I was like, do you even listen to the show?

He's like, I must have been cutting audio. We've been talking about this forever. The right answer would have been no. I don't count for it. Well, the first thing I said was what show? But yeah, no, I was pleasantly surprised at the level of intensity. Because I wasn't sure if it would be like that. I mean, I knew it would be better than an All-Star game

in terms of the buy-in by the players. But I- Pretty low bar in the intensity scale. Sure. The All-Star game intensity level is about a 0.5 out of 10. And I could not remember 2016. It was so long ago now, I couldn't remember how intense the turning was. I remember thinking it was fun. I liked it a lot more than you did.

But I didn't really remember what it was like. Because there were no stakes. Yeah, but once I saw that first big hit last time, I was like, oh, okay, these guys are really into it. And that was awesome. Yeah, it was awesome. Okay, are really into it and that was awesome. Yeah, it was, it was awesome. Okay. Uh, Mike Tanner is going to join us next.

Uh, we'll talk a little NFL look back on the Superbowl with, uh, and look ahead to the off season with Mike, our regular, uh, weekly NFL guest, and then we've got an open segment, uh, in the 730 segment. I want to talk about the 2028 World Cup that was announced and maybe we can go through a little trade deadline stuff that we were going to

get to yesterday, but didn't get to. Feel free to text in to the Dunbar Lumber Text Line at 650-650. You're listening to the Halford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650.