Halford & Brough in the Morning - Another Canucks Season Is Upon Us

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they preview tonight's Canucks season opener versus the Flames (6:00), plus they talk the latest NHL stories with Sportsnet's David Amber (27:31). 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- Score! Dylan Gunther lights the lap. Utah on the board first. Their first ever goal by number 11. On an 0-2 pitch, a missile. Fernando Tatis Jr. electric. Hopefully a night's a big thing for everybody. It's going to get really hard. Let's do that hockey. Good morning, Vancouver.

6-0-1 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. This is 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 as well. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brougham 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 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays 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? That wasn't a good start by me on the first day of the Canucks

season. It's okay. It's not a good omen. We're going to power through. We're going to force our way to success. Press to success pressure meets pressure we're gonna embrace the hard all right hard is apparently turning on your microphone that wasn't your fault that wasn't my fault though you know whose fault it was t-bars who's to say really it was greg's um okay we got a lot we got a lot to get into i'm kidding don't give me the look laddie gives me that hound dog expression every time don't give me that look i didn't even know what you said dog expression every time. Don't give me that look. I didn't even know what you said.

Don't look at me, Greg. Don't look at me. I'm just giving you a look. Such a Greg move. Okay, we got a lot to get into on the program today. Big guest list on, yes, of course, the opening day for your Vancouver Canucks. I'm going to start, actually, with the rundown for today. For those of you out there that complain that Sportsnet 650 doesn't have enough local programming,

consider that the pregame show tonight basically begins three hours before puck drop with Canucks Central. That goes from four to six. From six to seven, it's the Canucks pregame show. From 7 till whenever, it's the actual Canucks broadcast, Batch and Randy bringing you the Canucks in flames at 7 o'clock. Then, after that, until 11.30, it's the Canucks postgame show. So we are your home for all things Vancouver Canucks, and all of your live local coverage begins this morning, of course, with us on the Halford & Brough Show.

Our guest list today, 6.30, David Amber. and all of your live local coverage begins this morning, of course, with us on the Halford & Brough Show. Our guest list today, 6.30, David Ambers, 7 o'clock, Frank Ceravalli, 7.30, Eric Francis, 8 o'clock, Randy Janda, 8.30, John Shorthouse. What a lineup. Shorty's doing our show? Shorty's going to make an appearance on the radio. Fine, what's the latest I can come? And the answer is 8.30. So he will be joining us at 8.30.

It's a lot of Canucks talk, a lot of look ahead at the flames as well we're gonna do that with Eric Francis we're gonna go around the National Hockey League Frank's gonna be joining us we might have to turn the comments off for that one and then of course it's 6 30 David Ambers we look forward to tonight there's five games across the National Hockey League tonight six Canadian teams in action three Canadian games so there's three Canadian games, so there's a lot to get into. There's a lot to get into on the show today, so without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody

what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. 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. We shall begin with your Vancouver Canucks who returned to practice yesterday. Made a minor but significant roster move by waving. Mark, don't call me Elliott Friedman for the purposes of sending him to Abbotsford. And then the Canucks got to the business of practicing. Garland was back on the third line with Suter and Nils Hoaglander.

The bump down effect means that Aturatu will likely be a healthy scratch tonight when the Canucks take on the Flames in their season opener at Rogers Arena. Yeah, what are you going to be most curious about tonight against the Calgary Flames? Probably Sprong now. After talking to Talkett yesterday

and trying to shoehorn in my, I watched Monday Night Football and I saw that Derek Carr had four different offensive coordinators in four years and Daniel Sprong's had seven coaches in seven seasons. You know, what's kind of held him back and what's going to elevate him? Tuckett was pretty impressed with it.

It seemed like he was pretty impressed with how high the ceiling could go. I think everyone knows how low the floor can go. Did you notice how much pressure he was putting on them, though, to take advantage of the situations they're going to be in? Because the thing I'm going to be most curious about, especially since tonight is a home game and Rick Tockett's going to have last change, is that he's going to be able to get the matchups he wants. And it sounds like he's going to try and get some good matchups for that. You can call it the Sprong line if you want.

I'm going to call it the PD line. PD, Sprong, and DeBrusque. I'm out here playing 4D chess because I'm just going to talk about Sprong and DeBrusque. So I'm not talking about Pedersen while I'm actually talking about Pedersen. Right. I've kept it ahead of the game here. So Sprong is like a proxy for Petey for you? And then I'm like, who's the second most interesting player?

He talks about Sprong a lot. Who's the second most interesting player? I'm like, Jake DeBrusque. So that's what you do, right? But that's the line for me. It's funny how we didn't immediately say the goaltending, though. Until it, if it craters, not until it craters. That's a bad way of phrasing that.

If it craters, obviously it's going to jump to the forefront of all discussions. But, you know, it's funny. Like you go around the league and you look at all the other pundits from all the other broadcast networks that are doing their predictions and everything, and they all kind of say the same thing. It's like, we're not worried about the Canucks goaltending because the Canucks don't seem overly concerned. Oh, you didn't hear Kipper yesterday.

No, did Kipper push back against this narrative? No, he didn't push back against it. He just had his own narrative, and he was just like, the Canucks got to be really worried about this guy. Really worried about Demko? Yeah okay yeah um yeah see there's two fronts on this one is demko and the other is what's going to happen when demko's out of the lineup now demko's out for a month or demko's out for multiple months that's a different conversation yes i think most people are of the opinion that lankanen and Seelovs, or even if just one of them can play well and you can ride that guy, should be able to – the phrase I hear a lot is hold the fork down

until Demko is back. But the questions then start, first of all, when is he going to be back? And second of all, is he going to be able to stay healthy? Is he going to be at the same level as he was before? Is he going to have to deal with some discomfort? Is that going to affect his play? But that's questions for another time. Kippers is thinking the long-term worst-case scenario,

which the Canucks are like, la-la-la, we don't want to hear about this. Let's kick that can down the road, because the Canucks have the Calgary Flames tonight. I am also curious, and this is kind of big picture, because we went into last season and the Canucks played the Edmonton Oilers in their first game. And you'll remember,

they hadn't looked that good in the preseason. I don't think there were a lot of signals in the preseason. I'm not just talking about the 10-0 loss to Calgary because that was just, I mean, whatever. They played scrubs in that game. But overall, I didn't think they looked that good in the preseason. I don't think there was a lot of things pointing to us

to like this incredible start that they were going to have and incredible season that they were going to have. And you remember they started it out by blowing out the Edmonton Oilers. It wasn't just like, oh, they beat the Oilers. They smoked the Oilers. I think we were consciously last year looking for what's

going to go wrong, because we were trained that way. Yeah, but there wasn't much going right. There really wasn't. But that's what I'm saying. And then it ended up being, well, it didn't matter that much wasn't going right in the preseason because they very quickly figured it out as soon as the puck dropped for the regular season. So I'm curious if they're going to be able to just raise the bar again.

And if this is going to be a season of – do you remember what we used to call the Canucks? First 2011 reference. They just knew how to win. They're like clinical winners. Right.? First 2011 reference. They just knew how to win. They're like clinical winners. They just knew how to win games, even if they didn't play well. Sure. They found ways to win games.

Can the Canucks graduate to that level this year? Well, it starts tonight. I don't know if they graduated to that level, or at least we didn't give them credit for graduating to that level. We were just happy they were winning games. We don't need to clinically win games. Everyone was put away like, yeah, no problem. No problem.

We know how to do this. We got a blueprint for this. That's what I'm hoping the Canucks get to this season. But until then, every game is going to be kind of like, okay, well, let's see what they got. So if you're into the betting side of things, the Calgary Flames, there's 10 teams in action tonight. There's five games across the NHL.

Calgary's the biggest underdog on the board across the 10 teams. So if you want to talk about games that, and I know it's the first game of the season, and I know we shouldn't be getting into like expected win games, but the Canucks, this is the kind of game, the kind of game, even though it's the first game of the season, even though it's the home opener and all that stuff, it's a game that the Canucks should win.

Just hypothetically speaking. The Seahawks were big favorites over the Giants. And then, you know, they took care of business, right? Clinically. All joking aside, we might have learned more about who the Seahawks really are from that loss against the Giants and that loss against the Lions. For me, anyway.

Because they weren't expected to win that game against the Lions. And they went in and put a good fight up. And then it's like, well, what are you going to do now? And then they went and laid an egg and looked really bad against a sort of mediocre opponent. There are some take care of business. The hockey seasons are very different, obviously, because there's 82 games. And even Rick Taka was talking about it yesterday.

He was saying, listen, people put too much into the first game. And naturally we do because it's the first game. We've been waiting forever to do that. And he was kind of joking. People will say if they win 5-0, they're going to win the Stanley Cup. If they lose 5-0, oh, God, what's going to happen? There is less pressure on the Canucks this season to have a good start to the year but overall if you take a step back the expectations are much higher

yeah I was just kind of like conceptually playing off what you were saying where it's like on a 82 game schedule throughout the course of it there's going to be nights where a good team plays a not good team and the good team to prove it is a good team. We'll take care of business that night. It might not be flashy. It might not be, you know,

can be fully related half the time, but you get the win. Good teams know how to win. It's a cliche for sure, but it also rings true in situations. So yeah, is this game maybe not the perfect example? Probably, but overall,

Calgary's not expected to be a good team this year. They probably won't be a good team this year. They're not very talented. I think overall the expectation is that should be the Canucks control this game. Right. You know? I know Calgary's got a potentially good power play,

so that'll be a test for some of the new penalty killers for the Canucks, but at five on five, I think if you look at the talent of the Canucks, the depth of their forward lines, their first pair certainly, and then you look at the Calgary Flames and what they've got, the Canucks should control this game at five on five. They should have more chances to score. And if they do that, we'll see how it all shakes out.

The NHL had three games yesterday, and it really was confusing with Seattle starting at 1.30 in the afternoon. Love a Tuesday matinee. Way to go, NHL. I'm like, I'm not watching this. I'm running my errands in the middle of the day. Why did they do that again? I was very confused by it. They wanted a triple header.

They wanted a triple header that didn't overlap. But your season opener in the afternoon? I know. They wanted a triple header, but I don't understand why they didn't go with, you know, I don't know, like 430 back east

or something like that. Yeah, they had one game. No, at any rate, it doesn't really matter. The Kraken blew a 2-0 lead. The St. Louis Blues exploded for three quick goals in the second period.

I think they were all in like two minutes. A minute and 55 seconds, three goals. Pretty stinky goal that Grubauer allowed to Broberg. Blues fans love this guy. Yeah. Huge, huge, great move.

Great move by the management to get him out of Edmonton to tie the game. And then 20 seconds later, a sloppy crack in turnover led to a Jordan Cairo breakaway for his second goal of the game and ultimately the game winner the first goal had the first game period had no goals third period no goals second period all the goals um I just wanted to point out that Shane Wright did not have a point zero points for Shane Wright zero points for Shane Wright so it looks like I was right about that one did you see that that the Seattle Kraken named

their second ever captain yesterday? Right before that game? Uh, yeah. Ebbs? Jordan Everly. Yeah. Second ever captain.

They celebrated his anointment of being the captain by blowing a two goalie and losing 3-2 in their opener, which was a Tuesday matinee affair

in Seattle. So the second game was Boston at the Stanley Cup champ, Florida. Yeah, watch this one. And how did Corpus Allo look? He look good? Look solid?

Okay. We were talking about this prior to you coming in. They got smoked. And it was, Corpus Allo wasn't great, but I don't know how much of a difference Swayman

would have made in the first period because the Bruins were awful. Like they were flat. It was the kind, you know, it was Ryan Callahan and John Butugras were on the call for ESPN and they were, you know, Callahan kept saying probably one of the tougher openers if you're on the road is going somewhere where it's the banner raising.

And they, they actually didn't have the super long pregame ceremony because of the hurricane. They had a muted one, but there was still enough energy in the building and the emotional tribute video to the Stanley Cup champs. Then Florida came out and they were on fire. Like, they just physically dominated Boston. I think the shots at one point were like 15-1, 16-1.

Like, Boston had nothing going in the first period. And that game was over real quick. It may have been a bit of a rally the Bruins did late, but it was a final 6-4 for the panthers over the bruins and i mentioned you mentioned corpus alo jeremy swayman obviously didn't play they were talking about it they're like are they gonna put swayman in because corpus alo got singed for four goals in the first period i'm gonna put them in now but no they didn't they stuck with them and then the bruins made a late rally but it was it was florida's game pretty much. And the Panthers celebrated by announcing

that they have agreed to an eight-year, $56 million contract extension for Carter Verhage, who scored some pretty big goals for them in the playoffs last year. He's a good player. He's a good player. He has a good story, right? So the chronology, real quick, is he got drafted by the Leafs.

He got traded to the Islanders. He got cut from the Islanders. He went to the ECHL. Then he managed to crack Tampa Bay's roster. And then he just kind of bounced around. He ended up in Florida. And now he's turned himself into a $56 million player. He did a lot of that before he was 30.

Yeah. I mean, he's before he was 30. Yeah. I mean, he's only 29 years old. Yep. So is that contract, is that a comp for Besser? Statistically, it's got to be, right? They're pretty similar in terms of statistical profile. 34 goals in 76 games last season.

How old's Besser? Besser, what is he? Verhage's 29. Besser's 27. what? Is he Verhagey's 29? Besser's 27. 27. He just turned 27 in February. Okay, so he's a year. 28 next February.

That's how birthdays work. Right. So he's maybe like in terms of the contract. A little bit younger. A little bit younger? Yep. How would everyone feel about that contract for Brock Besser? 29-year-old

Carter Verhage for eight years feels like a lot. You know when you just get your gut reaction to something and immediately... Now, you are talking to the guy that doesn't think any contract should be over four years. I don't know if I could do it to myself for eight years,

let alone another person. And how old are you? 33. Right. For anything, right? I don't think marriages should be that long. Katie's listening. She's like are you? 33. Right. No one for anything, right? Yeah. I don't even know about hockey. I don't think marriages should be that long. Katie's listening. She's like, no,

just five year deals. And then if you want to extend, you extend. Yeah. Like four, maybe eight is a lot. And again, he's been a very good player for them. He was a big contributor.

It seemed like every time that I watched a playoff game last year during the run to the Stanley Cup final, Cardiff or Hagee scored a big contributor. It seemed like every time that I watched a playoff game last year during their run to the Stanley Cup final, Cardiff or Hagee scored a big goal. It seemed like constantly. So I get it. It also does feel like a contract that's paying him retroactively.

It just does. It feels like Florida, a little bit, is paying him like, thank you for this great run and thank you for giving us a lot of value on a cheap contract prior to this.

And those were always bad deals. They never turn out well. Now, we have seen other guys. But they're also in their window right now. Sure. You don't worry about that. That's really important. I mean, they're clearly Stanley Cup caliber because they won the Stanley Cup.

They sure did. So you want to keep that group together as long as you can and try and win a few more. Well, my understanding was they did feel the sting of losing so many guys this past offseason that were key contributors. Yeah, Montour. Yeah, and eventually you're going to have to, I mean, Oliver Ekman-Larsen, like how are you going to compensate for that loss?

You have to keep guys around. And I think with Verhege, there was a sense of like, and this is where the besser comp might get interesting like he came to florida and then just sort of continually proved his worth and when they they elevated him and asked him to do more in a bigger role verhege stepped up and did it you know what's the other thing that verhege did last year the best are also did they scored in the playoffs right i, there's a direct comp right there. I wonder if the Canucks would go eight years with Besser, though.

That's the thing. I don't know. Who knows? Same logic could apply, though, right? If you're in your window and you're in your window, you worry about the now and you worry about the later. Later, you kick the can down the road. There was a hockey game in Utah last night, and Utah won it.

Now, they only beat the Chicago Blackhawks, and the Blackhawks made a bit of a push in the end, although it ended up being 5-2 because Utah had a couple of empty netters that overbetters loved, by the way. How about that crowd, though? I got to say, that caught me by surprise. I wasn't sure what to expect. They were excited. They were rocking.

They are very excited. It was very, very loud. Are we giving them a standing ovation for being loud in the first ever game? It's nice to see. Did you think they'd be? Did it not warm your cold, dead heart to see hockey fans enjoy hockey in Utah? This is the narrative. No, I've never dreamt of hockey fans in Utah.

It was a nice moment. You know, if I could have one wish. Yeah, exactly. The good people of Salt Lake City have a hockey team to cheer for. It was a very nice moment. I'm going to interrupt here because the narrative that A-Dog is pushing is the one that I brought up yesterday that I kind of am skeptical about, too. That people are pushing that the move to Utah is going to be the magic elixir

that's going to push this organization over the top. I don't know about that. That's exactly what they were like. But the season opener was impressive. Goal? What was impressive about it? The crowd was loud. That was it.

I mean, that's what I mean. Did you see the crowd in the Canucks games in the playoffs last year? They were loud, too. This is Utah. Yeah, but what did you expect? I didn't expect that. I wasn't sure. What expansion team has been like, meh?

To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was not sure what the crowd would be like in Utah. Well, did you think that they might not sell it out or something? No, I figured they'd sell it out, but I wasn't sure how loud it would be. It was really, really loud. It's a loud building too. The fans are really into it. No, that's good. I'm not trying. Whether that

continues after the first game, we'll see, but as far as that game goes, it was really cool. But if you go and you look up stories on Utah Hockey Club right now, go Google them. Everyone is talking about the magical atmosphere and how. And I'm like, that's great. Like, it's good that they got out of Mullet Arena, and it's good that they're in a sort of semi-real NHL rank,

and they've got passionate, engaging fans. And they got a real owner, right? Even though he kind of gives me startup ceo vibes every time i see him the fact that the home crowd is cheering for the home yes that's a big part of it too i'm not ready to make the leap to brough i'm not i'm not making the leap oh they're cheering and skipping red star well a red star red one what are they coming what's going on right now statement about utah i'm trying to find hold on hold on i'm trying to find the happy medium What are they, communists? What's going on right now? Gold star. Statement about Utah. I'm trying to find the happy medium between your lovable naivete

and Bruff's constant negativity. Somewhere in the middle. Okay, can I just admit something? I was only flipping there once in a while anyway because I was like, I'm not watching Utah-Chicago when the Padres-Dodgers game is on. The real crowd. Apologies. Apologies.

Because that Padres-Dodgers game was awesome. It was a very interesting game because it started out. Great pitching battles down the stretch. It started out with a lot of runs. But down the stretch, there were none. And the Padres held on for a 6-5 win. And, man, you know what like it's just great to see the excitement of the fans in San Diego I just love to see fans excited I don't know what I mean they're respecting but they finally got a baseball team yeah they got a

baseball I mean that is an intense crowd what that was last night uh the final out, the final strike was incredible. So maybe I'm disrespecting Utah a little bit. Maybe a little. And because I'm like, I only flipped over there a couple times. I'm like, oh, Dylan Gunther scored. Good for him. Who cares? Flipped back to the baseball game, which actually has gravity.

Yeah. Dylan Gunther scored twice, as a matter of fact. Something Dan Riccio pointed out on Twitter. I'll add. What levels of upset would it be if the Padres pulled it off? twice as a matter of fact something dan riccio pointed out on twitter i'll add uh what levels of upset would it be if the padres pulled it off not as big as when they beat the dodgers when they beat the dodgers in 2022 the dodgers were a 111 win team like they were dominant dominant uh this padres team is is loaded and we were talking about our new favorite closer

robert suarez prior to the show and i love his pitch selection because it's like fastball, fastball, fastball, change up, fastball, fastball. And he was like clocking 101. And it's funny now because the closers, I was talking to my buddy who's the big Padres fan. And he's like, ooh, I don't know. They're asking Suarez to get four outs. I'm like, come on, man. There's been a lot of blown saves in these playoffs. And good closers, too.

It's one of the things that I don't like about modern baseball. Right. They're like, it's like us complaining about working for three hours. Yeah, hope his arm doesn't fall off. Yeah, it's four outs, man. Come on. He throws 101 miles an hour. He can do it.

Anyway, it was a good game last night. Also, the Grimace-led New York Mets got a win as well. So they now push the Phillies. game last night. Also, the Grimace-led New York Mets got a win as well, so they now push the Phillies. So the Phillies and the Dodgers, who have been sitting in wait for the wild card to be over and the DS are just sitting there waiting, they're on the verge of being eliminated in the best of fives.

The Mets, who are on quite the roll, Pete Alonso, another home run, so they beat the Phillies 7-2, so they're up to one of their best of five. The Padres are up to one of their best of five. So those could be over real quick. There's going to be a lot of channel flipping tonight. It's pretty crazy right now.

Sportsnet, a very fine company and a fantastic broadcasting outfit, had so much stuff on yesterday, right? Had the baseball, and then you had, you know, I'm flipping back, and I'm watching, like, Utah get their first ever NHL game. This crowd is electric! Dana White's Survivor Series is on there, or Contender Series or whatever they call it. All the stuff was on Sportsnet last night. Your home of

sports. Okay, we got a lot more to get to on the program today. David Amber is going to join us next. We're going to look ahead to a busy night nationally for Sportsnet because we got six Canadian teams in action, three all-Canadian matchups on a Wednesday. We've got Toronto-Montreal to start things.

Then, a doubleheader at seven, so you talk about channel flipping. You can go back and forth between Edmonton and Winnipeg, and then of course, your Vancouver Canucks taking on the Calgary Flames. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. The Roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions' 70th season. Get your

tickets now at BCLions.com. You're listening to the Halford & 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 4-6pm weekdays

and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 6.32 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford, bruv. Sportsnet 650. Not just any Wednesday. A Eurodance Wednesday. It's Eurodance Wednesday.

This is for Linus Allmark. He will be dancing to this in the discotheque. His family in the club. Linus Allmark. He will be dancing to this in the discotheque. His family in the club. Linus Allmark signs a four-year, a very reasonable term, four-year contract extension. But with some good cashola. $8.25 million AAV. $33 million to remain in the Canadian capital. Good Canadian content today

for the NHL. Ottawa's not playing, but they managed to work their way into the news. All the other six NHL Canadian teams are going to be in action tonight. But yeah, all mark four years, $33 million to stay with Ottawa for the foreseeable future. Cheaper than swimming.

He's 31 years old, so that doesn't seem to stop anybody nowadays. Well, I don't think that he was going to get an eight-year deal. If he was in Florida, he might. Right. They give everyone term. Carter Verhage, Sergei Bobrovsky. Shusterkin wants a 12-year deal.

You can't do those anymore. I don't care. I want it. Figure it out. Find a way. Figure it out, Igor says. Figure it out. Okay, before we get to David Amber, we've got to take care of some business.

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 with anything you're looking for. 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 pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling. they recycle, you get paid.

Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. Sportsnet, Hockey Night in Canada, NHL host David Amber here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, David. How are you? I'm doing well, guys. I like the little club track you played as you were getting through the news. And congrats to Ottawa because remember how ugly the whole Swayman episode was?

They quietly just went about their business. They signed their guy. It wasn't a rental. Bring in for one year. They finally have some goaltending stability. So that's a great storyline. Meanwhile, the earth, it's scorched earth. Everything's on fire in Toronto right now.

As Elliot Friedman dropped a freach bomb, if you want to call it that and said that Dennis Hill will be is on his way to Montreal to join the Leafs. And we're not exactly sure what the situation is for your listeners who are unfamiliar with Dennis Hill to be sort of the young up and coming goalie for the Leafs. And that's a nice storyline, but kind of like when you bring in, she loves you're going,

well, what the heck's going on with the guys who are supposed to be in that? So the question is, what's going on with Joseph Wall, who was supposed to be the starter tonight in the season opener versus Montreal? So there is some drama certainly brewing in Leafs land already, and it's not even game one yet. How are Leafs fans feeling about the goaltending situation, regardless of what happened today? You know what actually guys they're feeling well i can't speak for everyone but the people i've spoken to and certainly the analysts we have um luke gastik has great things to say about stolarz who he played with uh calls

him a great athlete uh some of our other analysts were actually pretty uh excited nick kiprios justin bourne just sort of said the addition of Stolar is a guy who's won a cup, a guy who had the best five-on-five expected goals against in the entire league last year, albeit as a backup to Sergei Bobrovsky, a guy who's 6'7", you know, isn't in the infancy of his career. I think he's 29 or something along those lines,

but he has a pedigree here as a guy who's sort of established himself in the league to some degree and if joseph won it was a massive caveat uh which seems to be going in the wrong direction potentially now but if joseph walk could stay healthy which he hasn't been able to do um that they like the tandem a lot of people were actually saying they've strengthened their goaltending position compared to samsonov who you know just had so many mental breakdowns in his in his time in toronto and um and what they had last year so there was some optimism and maybe that's all out the window now i can't wait to see what happens the drama's already started and he'll be should be expected to be with the leafs tonight so we'll see what this all means. Who's the last goalie in Toronto that was like a long-term goalie

that pretty much everyone trusted? Curtis Joseph. Yeah, Cujo. He's the first guy to walk the line. Cujo. The answer is Cujo. That's a long time to wait. Felix Potten.

Yeah. Johnny Bauer. No, it's been a while. You know, they've had like – listen, Freddie Andersonerson had some great moments but you're talking yourself into him i can hear you right now right yeah that's what i'm talking about i'm trying to i'm old now i'm trying to jog my memory i was there was a there was a massive butt coming here guys and the massive butt was was he got injured a lot and he you know we were even seen in carolina and they're it's not it's not saying he's you know not a gamer I mean he had blood clots last year like that's a legitimate problem but he did have a lot of injuries in Toronto and you just didn't know

when you're going to get them in the net so yeah it's been a while guys that's been one of the that's been pardon me that's been one of the issues but I again whenever I get asked about the goaltending in the Leafs I say one. Why have they been eliminated all these years in the playoffs? It has nothing to do with goaltending. It actually has nothing to do even with defense. It has a lot to do with the fact that this dynamic offense that's during the regular season, a top one, two, three, four scoring unit, dries up. They went one for 21 in the series versus Boston.

And here's something that's startling. So the Leafs have played in five winner-take-all, one-game elimination, winner-move-on scenarios in the last seven years. So this group, five of them, right? Montreal, they played Boston. They've had a couple. Tampa, they had a game seven.

They lost. Columbus, they had that best of fives during the bubble. In those five losses, they've scored a grand total of four goals. Think about that. It's hard to win when you're scoring zero goals or one goal. So that's what it comes down to. Overtime game seven versus Boston, they lost two to one. I mean, Samsonov wasn't perfect.

He certainly played well enough for them to win. So again, it comes down to goals are harder to come by that time of year. And the core four who are so dynamic during the regular season have a much more difficult time putting up numbers. So if you really, you know, I'm simplifying it, but it's not necessarily just as easy as saying, well, if they had a better goalie, they'd be, you know, they would have much greater playoff success in the last seven, eight years. So why are things going to be different this year? Or why do they hope or think things are going to be different this year? They've got a new head coach in Craig Berube,

but he's not exactly known for run-and-gun hockey. Why do they think that the problems that have faced them in the past, the ones you just mentioned, are going to change? I think you just said it. Craig Berube is not known for run-and-gun hockey. Run-and-gun hockey doesn't necessarily win you just said it. Craig Berube is not known for run and gun hockey. Run and gun hockey doesn't necessarily win you. It doesn't win you a Stanley Cup. Which team allowed the fewest goals in the league last year? Florida Panthers. Hey, they won the Stanley Cup, right?

You know, it's not as simple as that, but I think to play a brand of hockey that's much more north, south, much less east, west. Colby Armstrong said it best that we're doing a little television hit with him and basically said you know the leafs need to figure out how to live another day you know if it's if you're going in on a two on three through the neutral zone you don't have to try and make something happen there's no harm in dumping it in live to see another day live to see another opportunity um you know, be opportunistic. Don't try and force things. And often these guys are so good, so creative up front,

you know, I think there's arrogance might be a strong word, but I think there's a confidence that they can make things happen. And then the puck goes the other way. And next thing you know, it's in your net or you're getting pressed and having shots on goal and having pressure, et cetera. I think between the philosophy that Craig Berube is going to bring a different style of hockey, plus, you know, I don't need to tell your audience this. I mean, you know, Chris Tanev, a legitimate, you know, stud defenseman. Finally, they have that compliment for Morgan Riley.

And I know he's 34 years of age, but he plays the prototypical winning style of hockey that you see in the playoffs. We saw that with Brandon Montour, with Aaron Eckblad. We saw that with guys in Florida last year. We saw that the year before with Petro Angelo and Shea Theodore in Vegas. We saw it the year before with guys in Colorado, Josh Manson, etc. That's the kind of guy the Leafs have coveted and wanted. They thought they had it a few years ago with Jake Mutz,

and he got injured right away and wasn't able to be that guy. If Chris Tanev could be that perfect complement to Morgan Riley, that right-handed shot stay-at-home defenseman, that really helps things. If they get the OEL from Florida, a guy who also won a Stanley Cup last year, and not the Vancouver OEL, that really helps things. So I think between shoring up their blue line, bringing in Berube, a year more maturity on their core group of guys,

that there is a confidence there that they could be, this could be the year. We'll see, but there is at least a little bit more optimism. What's the hook for the Habs this year? I mean, it was, for me at least, I wanted to see how Patrick Laine looked. And then he got hurt, so unfortunate, during the preseason. Are we talking about some of the young guys on that team?

Absolutely. It's another year of learning for the Montreal Canadiens, essentially. How do you guys feel about them? They finished 27th in the league last year. We don't talk much about them. We honestly like for how many Stanley Cups they've won and how, I mean, I think the league is so much better when Montreal is good and relevant, but they are not relevant in our market.

I don't know about Toronto. Yeah, I mean, what I would say about Montreal is they're in a rebuild and they're in the middle of it. And to be honest with you, I think it's pretty exciting, right? When I look at the young blue line, like this Lane Hudson, keep an eye on Lane Hudson. I consider him Quinn Hughes' light. He's smaller than Quinn Hughes, but, boy, can he skate and move the puck.

He's got a little bit of Adam Fox in him. He's just so crafty. That would be the word I use. He's fun to watch. Logan Millieu is another up-and-coming young defenseman they have. Reinbacher, we know, has the knee injuries out for six months, but he's a guy I'm talking about two years from now or even next year. Gooley.

So they have these great little nucleus of young defensemen coming up. They have all sorts of draft capital, which I expect them to move some to get some more legitimate, ready-to-go NHL players into the mix. They're probably trying to find the right suitor to move some of their draft capital. And then up front with Slavkovsky, Caulfield, and Suzuki, you do have a nice nucleus, and potentially Kirby Dock, who's only 23 years of age. So you do have a nice nucleus, but they're just not ready.

When you look through the Atlantic and you've got staring down Kucherov, you're staring down Matthews, you're staring down Pasternak, you're staring down legitimate superstars. And these guys aren't on that level yet. And collectively, they're just not ready to make that jump. But there is some optimism moving forward, and they're building. Kent Hughes is doing a good job. Jeff Gordon and Kent Hughes and Martin St. Louis, guys, this is pretty funny.

He's the fifth longest tenured coach in the league. I know. It's crazy. It's nuts, right? It's crazy. Yeah, and there'll be a question once they get to a certain stage. Is Martin St. Louis the guy

who's been there to help develop these young players? Is he the guy to take you through? And by all accounts right now, you'd say yes, but yes, never no. So they do have some chips to play down the road if they get to that stage.

But as it stands right now, I think what you're selling, if you're selling the Montreal Canes, you're selling hope and optimism for the future. And they're a good, fun, young, young dynamic group.

They haven't had a 40 goal score guys since Vinny damn Foose. I know. Think about that. They haven't had a lead. I mean, we've talked about that. When we do talk about the Habs, we talk about them in the sense that they just have had elite forward centers in a long time.

We were talking, we were bringing up Kovalev for some sort of comparison. I mean, it has been a long time. And I think for all the studs that they've got on the back end, and definitely the future does look promising on the back end, they need to find a difference maker up front. That's not going to be just like, Suzuki's good, okay? Caulfield is good, but I think if they were on a Stanley Cup winning team,

they probably wouldn't be the best forwards. Yeah, and listen, that's a fair statement. The only caveat I'll put there is they're incredibly young, right? Let them grow and mature into what they're going to be. We haven't seen the best of Nick Suzuki. All Nick Suzuki's done is every year scored more goals and had more points than the previous year. That's all you could ask him to do.

And he plays every game. He has not missed a game professionally, right? And he takes all the big draws, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Could Nick Suzuki be that guy? He could be that guy. Is he going to be a 120-point guy? No, but there's not that many of those. I mean, but he might be a 90-point

guy who does everything you want to do. So I'm not ready to discount him yet, and I do think Caulfield, when all is said and done, will be the next 40-goal score on Montreal. He's just that dynamic. So I think there is some optimism there, guys, but I don't think anyone

is picking them. You know, they're Canada's longest long shot to win a Stanley Cup or make the playoffs, and I think that's very reasonable expectations for them. Well, let's talk about Canada's favorite to win the Stanley Cup, and that is the Edmonton Oilers, who will play the Winnipeg Jets in the second game of the Canadian Tripleheader tonight.

We talked about this a little bit, I think it was with Ferraro yesterday and how the Oilers have allowed a lot of goals in the preseason and Dry Saddle has been so-so and they're trying to figure out who are going to be the top wingers there. Skinner, I think, has looked so-so, but it was the preseason.

I'm just really curious to see how the Oilers start the season because they'll want to avoid the type of start they had last season, but I also think it might be tough for them coming off going all the way to game seven of the Stanley Cup final and knowing now that it's not a sprint, it's a marathon marathon that maybe things won't feel so urgent to start the season for them. Did you see McDavid's media availability yesterday?

And he was asked about coming so close, and he just said, guys, we're done talking about last year. And I think that's going to be the strong messaging throughout that dressing room. We're not guaranteed anything. It's not automatic you get back to a Stanley Cup final. We have to earn everything. We saw how poorly we started last year.

You know, let's turn the page. I think what will help them is, as you mentioned, they added Skinner, they added Arvidsson, they've added a few different parts, different guys who weren't part of that run last year. And I just think the overall maturity of the group will assist them in moving forward. This isn't a young, you know,

Zag Heimann and Corey Perry. These guys have been in the league a long time and they're not going to get caught up in sort of the hype of being the Stanley Cup favorites. Having said that, you know, there's going to be some question marks. The blue line doesn't look like a Stanley Cup winning blue line, top to bottom.

It just doesn't, right? Like, you go through the teams that win the Stanley Cup, they all have the Victor, Hedmans, Petrangelo, they have these stud guys there. And when you look at Edmonton, and Bouchard is an elite, elite, elite offensive defenseman, but I don't think he's, you know, I don't think when guys are in the offensive zone against Edmonton, they're, oh, Bouchard's on the ice.

I better look out. He's not a closed-down, shut-down guy. Darnell Nurse is good. He's had to be stretched in all the minutes, and sometimes that takes a toll on him and who they're going to partner with him this year to get the best out of Darnell Nurse, who's such a key cog for them. So there's things they're figuring out as well, guys.

But you have time to figure it out. And unlike being the Montreal Canadiens in the Atlantic Division, the Edmonton Oilers in the Pacific Division, which many would argue is the weakest division, sort of top to bottom, right? Obviously, you have Vancouver and Vegas, et cetera, but it's not as deep or as good as some of the other divisions. So they're going to have the ability to sort of sort things out and get their footing and go from there.

But I don't think there'll be that sort of Stanley Cup hangover. I just think the group is too driven and too mature to fall into that trap. I noticed that a lot of people on the Sportsnet.ca NHL Insider predictions have Edmonton winning the Stanley Cup, an overwhelming amount, as a matter of fact. Are you in that group? I am. I am. I am. And I thought about it for a little bit.

I mean, listen, they're predictions. I'm wrong every year, so don't worry about that. Did anyone have Vancouver? I'm not sure. Nope. There was majority Edmonton. There was a couple Floridas. There was a Dallas.

There was a New Jersey. That's it. Huh. Did no Rangers? Didn't anyone have the Rangers or no? Not a Dallas. There was a New Jersey. That's it. Huh. Oh, did no Rangers? Didn't anyone have the Rangers or no? Not a one. Overwhelmingly Edmonton. Yeah.

Yeah. Like here, look. I hope they miss the playoffs. Yeah. As a neutral observer, I hope they won, crash, and burn. But two, I definitely understand why. It's the perfect recipe and formula. They got as close as you can get last year,

and they're hungry, and all the narrative cliches are there. They also... And they have Conor McDavid. Yeah. Right in the world. And then, you know what? I've said, I think the Evander Kane thing might end up being addition by subtraction.

Also, you get Arvidson coming on board for cheap and Skinner coming on board for cheap. They tick a lot of boxes for a team that went to the Stanley Cup final last year. So I get it from that standpoint. Look, at the end of the day, it's McDavid. He's going to win one. Can we just add

how much more interesting McDavid is now that he's been to a big game agreed win or lose and we've seen i mean behind the scenes stuff but more that his his narrative is so much more interesting than it was before last year when he was just yeah he's really good and we said so many times on this show is like he's gotta play in a big game he's gotta good. And we said so many times on this show, it's like, he's got to play in a big game. He's got to. And, you know, people say, well, he played in the, you know,

conference finals. Like, yeah, they got swept. He didn't really play in a big game. He's played in a game seven now. So that's like, that adds to this. Like, now he's got this burning desire to overcome what happened last year. For me, it just makes him so much more compelling yeah you know what i'm so glad we got to see a little bit a glimpse into how competitive

he is and we already knew that but to see it so raw so visceral what he's just it's not good enough when he's just chewing out the team and you know we're in the finals right now and you know he's got what michael jordan and what sydney crosby and what you know tiger woods he has that killer instinct it's a different game it's not tiger woods who can just control everything on his own he can only control what he can bring to the table but it was just good to see that sort of intensity from him because you're right when you do the interviews with him he's so monotone he's so vanilla he doesn't give you a lot um but you know i want to bring up a point you when you're making about evander kane evander kane could be the kucherov for edmonton yep imagine a healthy evander kane rolling in day one of the playoffs a mark stone

right it's that that meme we see on on the internet of that wrestler who's in the wheelchair and then jumps up, you know, with a fake cast, right? Like, it could be one of those, it could be that moment for Edmonton. So they might be adding a power forward without, you know, without helping circumvent the salary cap because he's supposed to be gone for the next six months,

which would take him literally to April, literally to the Stanley Cup playoffs. So we don't know that that's going to be the case but there's certainly a lot of interest that they're they're stockpiling their team getting ready for you know it's funny they're probably one of the only teams where it's like stanley cup or bust yeah you can't another fan wouldn't be like oh great we got to the stanley cup final no that would be disappointing to them it's stanley cup or bust for that one group, and that's an incredible amount of pressure.

So that's going to be a really interesting storyline. And as you said, I think it adds a little bit of interest. It adds another level to the interest surrounding the game's greatest player. And when all is said and done, guys, if he can get 18 points in the first 10 games, he becomes the third fastest ever to 1,000 points. We're not watching just a great player. We're watching one of the all-time great players so i think that's pretty cool uh it is also a great i hope he has success for canada at the four nations and the olympics yeah i can't i can't wait to cheer

for him you know and not be terrified of him that's what i'm looking forward to a quick question who do you give the seat to because this is something i've been debating is it is it cross that's what i say i say it's crosby he's still playing an elite level it's not sort of the old uh lifetime achievement award like he's still and he's a guy that people galvanize to and he's done it on the international stage you know no no greater than in vancouver in 2010 is there a guarantee that sid makes the olympic team though he'd have to fall off pretty hard, I'd say. Oh, was he not one of the – I don't even remember. Was he not one of the first five named?

No, I'm talking about the Olympic team. The four-nation team. Oh, the Olympic team. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, nothing's guaranteed. Like, a lot can happen between – you know, it's two years. But, I mean, if he's anything close to what he is now, I don't see how you'd keep him off of it. Right. It isn't – That to me two years. But, I mean, if he's anything close to what he is now, I don't see how you keep him off of it.

Right. It is. That to me, yeah. Sorry, go on. It's okay. I was just going to say, it's an awesome lineup tonight, by the way, for those that don't know. In addition to the three all-Canadian matchups,

you've also got Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins hosting the New York Rangers at 430. And then the three games starting 7 o'clock our time tonight, you get Edmonton hosting Winnipeg, Vancouver, of course, hosting Calgary. And then you got Vegas, Colorado as well. Those are three good games. That's a pretty good night for hockey. So, David, without –

And Padres, Dodgers. And we got the baseball. So, David, without letting you go, I know you got a lot on your plate for today. Enjoy tonight. It should be a lot of fun. We'll do this again next Wednesday. Yeah, we're really excited to have it going.

And yeah, you know what? I'm hopeful for a really great year for the Canucks. We've got Demko back in that. And let's see what they can start out with tonight against Calgary. So thanks, guys. Enjoy and enjoy the games tonight.

Thanks, David. David Amber, Hockey Night Canada, Sportsnet NHL host here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hour one in the week. He's so positive. We should be more positive like David Amber. He's always looking on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet. 6.50. Hour one in the books. He's so positive.

We should be more positive like David Amber. He's always looking on the bright side of things. It's a nice feeling, you know? It makes you warm inside. I bet he loved that crowd in Utah last night. He loved it. He just loved it. Just warmed his heart.

His heart is like your heart is too warm. Checking his Twitter. Can confirm. He did mention it. Historical Utah Hockey Club. Hashtag Utah Hockey Club. Zooming confirm he did mention it. Historic goal, Utah Hockey Club. Hashtag Utah Hockey Club. Zooming on rough, watching it, it's like the Grinch thing where it zooms on the heart and it's like...

Nice goal, should have stopped it. Actually, you know what? The goal, all joking aside... It was a very nice goal. All joking aside, the Canucks could have had Dylan Gunther. He's got a really good shot. Quick release. He's a good player. I just try not to think about that whole thing

because it makes me sad. Well, to warm everyone's hearts, Frank Zeravelli is coming up next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.