Halford & Brough in the Morning - Apparently The Canucks Need More Poise

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

In hour one,  Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk last night's disastrous Canucks home loss to the Kraken (6:00), plus the boys discus the top stories from around the NHL with Sportsnet's Luke Fox (27:24). 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-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- It's all 25 Vancouver shots for his fifth career shutout. And the Canucks are f***ed. I think we had some guys that really gave some effort, but I don't think we had a lot of poise tonight. There's some plays there, some poise stuff that we gotta, you know, we just gotta relax in certain situations. They just played sucks. I've seen teams suck before, but they were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked.

Good morning Vancouver, six o'clock on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody, it's Alfred and his broth at 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.

Morning. Ladi, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alfred and broth of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, yet 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. Okay, so I, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. Okay, so I gotta read this. My voice is hanging on by a thread, kinda like Rick Talk at Sanity.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. He sounds all right, right guys? Yeah. Yeah, normal breath. There's gonna be some voice breaks today. Nice. Adog will enjoy that. We'll voice breaks today. Nice.

Adog will enjoy that. We'll make a compilation. Yeah. We do have a big guest list ahead on a Thursday here on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. It begins at 6.30. Luke Fox, Sportsnet NHL national writer, is gonna join the program.

We'll go around the NHL with Luke. We'll also discuss the Toronto Maple Leafs, who clinched their ninth consecutive playoff berth yesterday. That's the longest active streak in the NHL with Luke, we'll also discuss the Toronto Maple Leafs who clinched their ninth consecutive playoff berth yesterday. That's the longest active streak in the NHL. Big win over the Panthers. Greg's just staring at them. Nine consecutive first round exits. I know they've been.

One second round exit. One second round. Eight first round exits for the Leafs. We'll talk to Luke about all that at 6.30. 7.30, Justin Dunk is going to join the program from Three Down Nation. We will talk to Luke about all that at 630. 730, Justin Dunk is gonna join the program from Three Down Nation. We will talk some CFL. Yesterday, obviously, we passed along the news that the CFL appointed Stewart Johnson as the league's 15th commissioner. What is to be expected from the former TSN president taking over from Randy Ambrosio?

We'll get the answers to that at 730 with Justin Dunk from Three Down Nation. At 8 o'clock this morning, Thomas Drance, the Dr Drantz-er from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks talk here on Sportsnet 650. Another awful home performance for the Vancouver Canucks last night, a five nothing loss to the Seattle Kraken. Third time, third time that the Canucks have been shut out at home this year. And that happened a grand total of zero times, zero times last year. Yeah, it shouldn't ever really happen.

So we'll talk to the Drancer at eight o'clock about that. Another really, really tough night for the Vancouver Canucks at home in front of the ticket buying public, five nothing loss to the Kraken. So Working Inverse on the guest list, eight o'clock it's Drancer, seven thirty it's Justin Dunk, six thirty it's Luke Fox. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. What happened is Brats 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. As you heard in the intro, Joey Dachauer made 25 saves for the Seattle Kraken. Thatcher Demko made 14 for the Canucks, a 5-0 win for the Kraken or more as it relates to the show, a 5-0 loss for the Kraken or more as it relates to the show, a five-nothing loss for the Vancouver Canucks, their third loss in five games. It has been a nightmare stretch after a little bit of optimism on the road and another gigantic thud at home for the Vancouver Canucks, a five-nothing loss to the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night at Roger's Arena.

Okay. So I'm going to kind of interview you about this game because I wasn't able to watch it. I only heard the last little bit in the car, um, courtesy Brendan Batchelor in Randeepe. And, um, so I'm going to interview you. Okay. Um, was this the Canucks basically going, man, reality is setting in, it hasn't started out well. The Kraken get one, then they get another,

and then it's like, we got nothing and it's over. Well, it's a great question, Jason. I would say that there were a lot of signs yesterday that the players acknowledged that the season is done. Yeah. They had two power plays in the first period. I don't really think we need to parse down the dynamics in the inner workings of the actual game,

but there was two power plays in the first period where the Canucks had an opportunity to do something, anything to try and get off on a good start and get off a good foot and they didn't do it. And then it just became a goal, goal, goal, goal. And finally goal, the fifth goal for the Seattle Kraken yesterday with not a lot of pushback.

There were some testy moments where the players on the ice showed a little bit of punch, literal, in trying to show that they weren't happy with the way things are going, but it wasn't even nearly enough. And it was, I don't wanna say it was the white flag, but it sure felt like the white flag from the players.

Yeah, they're. So I, I saw the highlights obviously, but yes. Um, was it weird? Some of the stuff like the Debrusk turnover wasn't weird, but it was bad. Thatcher Demko didn't look great in goal. That was bad. And, um, I know we probably want to talk about other

stuff, but I find it really odd that Tocket pulled the goalie. I find that there's something weird about that. And if it was in a vacuum, if it was just by itself, I'd be like, cause I know what he said after the game, we can play the audio, but down four nothing in a game where they haven't had much, the season's

pretty much done, and it comes right after a game where Tauke was criticized for not pulling the goalie. So I threw it out on Twitter as soon as it happened yesterday. I just want to remind people of what happened in Winnipeg. They were down three one, Thatcher Demko looks like he's like, are we going? See, there went my voice.

We going? And I don't know if Tauke forgot to pull the goalie. I don't know if he was kind of like just like in a daze or something like that on the bench, but didn't pull the goalie. And a lot of people made a lot of it. I heard it, you know, sat wondering about it in the post game show. And as you should wonder about it, your season's on the line, you're down two and you don't pull the goalie.

But then the next game it's four nothing and you pull the goalie. That's, that's weird to me. So I put it out on Twitter and the two tweets is I was on a tweet storm last night, two of them. First one said, pulling the goalie in this moment, that's just sending some sort of message, right?

And then my followup and subsequent tweet was everyone can feel free to guess exactly what the message is. Cause I am out of ideas. Rick Tauke, it was asked about pulling the goalie while down for nothing with just under five minutes remaining yesterday. We don't have the question in the audio, but I'll paraphrase.

It was very cleverly asked by whomever asked it. I think it might have been Drancer saying, in the past, Rick, you've talked about your players needing to earn the goalie pull. So what in this instance suggested that the players had earned it. There was a little bait being dangled out there for Rick Tauket. I don't think he necessarily took it. You be the judge. Here's what he said about pulling the goalie down 4-0 with just under five minutes remaining

in an eventual 5-0 loss to the Seattle Kraken. Last night, here's Rick Tauket. Well, you just try to, you know, you're looking for who's giving up, who's not, and you wanna see, who knows? You might need it on, what are we playing on, Saturday, a six on five goal, like you might as well do it. So, you know, why not? That's the way I look at it. So he caught himself there.

Okay, that was not a confident answer. He caught himself. He caught himself when he said, I'm trying to see who cares and who doesn't. And then he quickly reverted to, we could also get some reps with the man advantage. I don't buy any of that. Yeah.

I honestly don't buy any of that. That did not sound like an answer that was, I don't know. That was weird, man. It was yet another weird moment in the season. Yep. It was bizarre when it happened. I don't know what to make of it. It was bizarre when it happened and-

There's like three or four different explanations in there, and none of them sounded convincing to me. The only one that I thought where he might go down the road of chastising his players for the crappy performance was I want to see who had given up and who hadn't. But then he quickly just diverted off to, well, we could use some reps on the six on five

in case we need a goal on Saturday when we try and get another game in the bag. But did he sound super dialed in then? He was like, when are we playing again? Saturday? No, I mean, again. I probably would have ignored it if it hadn't followed up that Winnipeg game where he was criticized

for not pulling the goalie. Yep. There has to be a relationship there. You would think. There has to be. You would think, and they asked the question. I mean, that's the big thing about this is they went and asked the question

about as directly and straightforward and forthright as you can. Like, I mean, we could go back and replay the auto, but the question that was asked was as straightforward as possible. It's like, why would you do that? You said in the past that the guys have to earn a goalie pull and they were down four

nothing, it was one of their worst performances of the year at home. I don't want to criticize the person that asked the question, but I wish the Winnipeg game had been referenced. Like I wish the question had been, you didn't pull the goalie when you were two down in Winnipeg, but you pulled the goalie when you

were four down against Seattle. We got a chance. What are we doing here? We got a text into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650 650 and it said, Tauket is paying attention to what the critics are saying about him. It was clearly a shot at those who criticized him for not pulling the goalie in Winnipeg, but was it a shot at outside the team or inside the team? I mean, that's a great question because there

was zero, I want to just. It's like I don't think talk, it cares what's, what anyone says on the post game show. Yeah, yeah. You know? But in case anyone missed the game last night, there was a 0% chance that that was going to provide any spark, any optimism, any hope. Like if you were watching the game, that was,

you know, dead men walking in blue and Seattle taking over that, that game was dusted. The only thing that they could have done at that point was ruin Joey DeCore's shutout. That would, that was it. Right. And I don't think that was the, uh, the reason that the talk it was going to the goalie. But see, if he would have said that I would have bought it because you don't like to get shutout on whole mice.

You could have said, listen, we're down for- Sure. You should have said that actually. That's exactly what he should have said. If you, if you wanted to lie about it, he should have said, well, you know, we've had a lot of bad performances at home and I know you want to get into this.

We've had a lot of bad performance at home. I wanted to give our fans something, maybe even just a goal, just give them something. And then I'd been like, okay. Three putt Shane texted into the Dunbar-Lumbertex line. If I was talking next game, I pulled the goalie right off the opening face off. Let's get this going right away. And then three putt Shane says, I feel sorry for him. Now a lot of people would disagree with that because they're getting frustrated with talking.

There is a real divide among the fan base right now. A huge divide. There is. And well, we can fan those flames. If you want to text into the Dunbar Lumber Text Line at 650-650, Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and rental warriors for over 50 years, visit them at one

of their three locations to serve you or online at dunbarlumber.com. So I have actually, I was actually in attendance for I think two of the shutouts. So I'm kind of happy I wasn't at the game. You were the devils and the predators. Yes, I was, I mean, you and I were there. We were there for the shutouts. So I'm kind of happy I wasn't at the game. You were the devils and the predators. Yes, I was, I mean, you and I were there. We were there for the devils.

That was Hues of Palooza, which was terrible. Yeah, that was bad. This one was bad. But I mean, how many dreadful home losses have there been this season? Is it 10? Yep. Like, is that around there?

Because I keep coming back to, they lost to Buffalo at home. They lost to the Islanders earlier in the season and that was like a terrible performance. Just horrible. Philly, Philly, who's a bad team, they lost to them at home. Nashville, twice at home.

And Nashville's one of the worst teams in the Western Conference. Seattle, twice. And Seattle's miles away from the playoffs. Take your pick of the number of bad teams that have come into Vancouver this year and have left with two points in their pocket. They have 15 home wins this year, 15.

There's three teams in the NHL that have 15 home wins or less this year. And it's the Vancouver Canucks, the San Jose Sharks, and the Chicago Blackhawks. So you're in company with two of the worst teams, the two worst teams in the NHL and you in terms of home record. I do wanna get into some of this home record stuff

and the lousy performances at home, but since we're already talking about Rick Tauket and we're already talking about a divided fan base and people that are maybe getting tired of his message, a few people pointed out to me last night and and then as I heard it a couple times, there was one word, one specific word that Rick Tauke really harped on in his post-game media availability yesterday. And it had nothing to do with pulling the goalie.

There was one word and one specific word that kept coming up again and again and again. And thanks to Laddie, we've got a special compilation for your listening pleasure. Here's Rick Tauket and the one word that kept coming up over and over and over again in a five-nothing loss to the Seattle Kraken. You know we had a couple power plays there you need some poise there I didn't think we had some poise then they got a couple of quick goals on it so like you can see guys were getting nervous chasing the game. I didn't think we had some poise. Then they got a couple of quick goals on us. You can see guys were getting nervous chasing the game. I think we had some guys that really gave some effort, but I didn't think we had a lot

of poise tonight. There's some plays there and some poise stuff that we just got to relax in certain situations. Intensity, but relaxed. There's plays there and I just think we're not finding them. A lot of missed nets, nets block shots the same old story We just That's where the poise is, you know You know the guys gonna be in front you got to fake it go around and then shoot it like these are the poise place

76 shot attempts are I mean I like it But you'd like to see more we've talked about being able to shoot somewhere where the goalie might give a rebound instead of him missing that and then starting to break out. So this is a...but that's poise. We gotta keep working on that stuff. Now if I told you once, I've told you a thousand times, poise counts! It's just as important as the others. Swimsuit! Eveningwear!

Talent! Poise! That was actually talking at the end there in the locker room. Look at Tyler Myers. Swimsuit! Evening wear! I thought when I first heard it, I was like, man he saved poise a lot. It would be amazing if there was an immediate follow up question. Do you think the Canucks

needed more poise? It's so fitting though because... Also please define poise. It has been the thing that he's talked about all year. It's not the process, it's the problem. It's that we don't have the guys that can execute it and they don't have poise, ding, when it comes time to putting the puck

in the back of the net. I also get a chuckle when he's like, we gotta keep working on that. Rick, there's seven games left in this season. Game 75 that we just played. He's like, there's what? It was pretty remarkable to hear him say it again and again and again.

The fact that he hasn't blown his top yet is maybe a credit to his poise, honestly, because we played audio yesterday from Patrick Waugh just losing it on Anthony Duclair, apologizing mid rant. I'm sorry that I'm losing it on him, but he knows. I think talk's starting to crack though. I mean. I hate to go back to that goalie pole thing.

Well, I don't because it's weird. Well, it's action speaks louder than words sometimes, right? It's a cliche, but it's a cliche and people use it for a reason. Someone texts in and is like, is this what we're talking about now? Are we talking about goalie poles? I'm like, well, yeah, because that really stands out to me. One game and in that Winnipeg game, like the Canucks were closer to making the

playoffs during that Winnipeg game than they were during the Seattle game. No. Right? Like, you know, I mean, they were both very low chances, but it was a higher chance against Winnipeg. The Winnipeg game was still in the balance at 3-1. This one, I know, it's five minutes left to get one, and then all of a sudden it's four.

No, don't even go down that road of trying to justify the comeback narrative. It wasn't happening. The Canucks were dead and done and dusted. I've got more audio here actually as well. You got to get the captain's response after a game like that and a performance like that, especially at this time of the year. So this is a two parter and Quinn Hughes had absolutely zero time for questions or analysis about his team being mentally

and physically fatigued. It got brought up. There's a follow up question that we've got in the audio. Hughes wanted no point of it, no part of it and pay close attention to the points that he makes throughout this answer, because it's not just a stock answer and a stock reply. He could tell that he's thought about it,

and there are very specific examples that he's pointing to here. This is the captain, Quinn Hughes, following a five nothing loss to the Seattle Kraken, talking about how he doesn't want to discuss mental and physical fatigue. I think you guys are mentally tired from the chase. I don't know, I'm not going to comment on guys being mentally tired or physically tired.

I think that if you went around the league everyone would say that they're mentally tired, especially the guys that played at Four Nations. I don't know how many guys on our team we have, like an NNPD and that's really it. I don't think there should be any excuses for that. Is it tough when you're playing what feels like a dozen game sevens in a row, where the stakes are that intense? It's just a reality. I mean, if you ask the St. Louis Blues, if they're mentally tired from playing game sevens

every other night trying to win, they won 10 in a row, so they're not using that as an excuse. They're just playing good hockey. So I love the answer from the captain. He specifically made a point of, you know, when he talked to all the guys that played in the Four Nations,

he said, we only had two of them, and those two did not participate in last night's game. So the subtext there is that nobody should have been that flat in a playoff chase when, and he followed it up with, go take a look at the St. Louis Blues. They were in, at one point this season, a much more dire position in the standings than the Vancouver Canucks were. And they have come together at the toughest time of the year with a bunch of guys that played in the four nations tournament as well and have gone through the grind and have won 10 in a row. Any thing about the Blues?

I'll give them a ton of credit is they found ways to win. Dare I say they've had poise. They found ways to manufacture wins and points and results when they haven't been at their best. And that's been, I say at times, the complete opposite of what the Canucks have done, especially on home ice, especially on home ice. So Mike, the Canucks have seven games left. Five of them are at home.

Yep. That's a problem. I know you wanted to talk about the home record and you know, you and I chatted a bit on the phone last night and we were talking about all the dreadful losses and I'm like, well, I don't have a theory on why. How could you? Like I can't prepare like five minutes on, here's why the Canucks have been so dreadful

at home this season, because I just don't know. I mean, we were talking about the Kings and the opposite, right? They're unbelievable at home. Can't lose. And I'm always kind of like, well, is there a good reason for that or? I don't, here's the thing.

I don't know, I can't explain it. Here's the thing, cause I framed it in a way last night where it was like, when you do your end of year autopsy and you miss the playoffs, a lot of that autopsy is trying to figure out why you missed, right? It's gonna be a long autopsy this year, man. So they're gonna do the obvious ones that are legitimate. Tons of injuries, lousy blue line to start the year.

I can't believe that Juleson and Day Harney and Branstrom combined to play 97 games this year. When I saw that number, I was almost jaw dropping and I don't get stunned by a lot of stuff anymore. But there's gonna be some obvious things that they look at from the autopsy where they're like, this is where the season went wrong and this is why we missed the playoffs.

When it comes time to dissect the home ice record, I have no idea what findings you could possibly have that would lead you to say this team for some reason or another couldn't get it done on home ice. Maybe they lack poise on home ice. In front of their fans, they feel the pressure and then poise goes out the window. The crushing weight of the pressure of last change, is that it? I don't know.

They won 27 games at home last year. There were only nine games at Rogers Arena last year where they didn't get at least a single point. Rogers Arena was a difficult place to play last year. Really was. Top seven or eight record in the National Hockey League at home. 27 wins out of 41 took care of business. This year it's not just been bad. It's one of the three worst home records in the entire league. You have no hope, no hope of making the postseason if you're down there with the sharks and the Blackhawks in terms

of wins at home. You're nowhere close. So I, I mentioned how it's going to be a long autopsy. Can you imagine the brain trust gets together after this season? Maybe they have a whiteboard and Patrick Alveen's got the, got the pen and he's like,

all right, where did things go wrong this year? Let's, let's list all the answers here. And they're just like, bad home record or star players were fighting and we had to trade one of them or whatever, we're going through the list. The blue line was- Rick, I noticed you wrote poise in really large letters. Yeah, I did.

Poise is a problem. Poise has definitely been a problem. The whiteboard would be full. It was like, we're gonna have to bring in another whiteboard here. Two whiteboards? It's gonna be, it's gonna be, actually it's gonna be a real challenge

to try and drill down on what exactly went wrong. That's what I was saying. Like when you start to, and I've kind of been doing it slowly over the last couple of days, and you start to compartment I've kind of been doing it slowly over the last couple days and you start to compartmentalize the individual issues that led to this very very discouraging and disappointing season the list gets pretty long and Some of them you can explain

some of them you really can't and That is what's gonna be the difficult part for this team going into the off season is trying to explain what nobody can explain, trying to solve a problem that doesn't really have a solution. Why did we stink on home ice with the type of regularity that you have to call it an issue? You can't just say, well, you know, sometimes you get the bounces or sometimes you don't or, you know, Homer away, it's all wins at the end of the day. It's clearly not. There, I mean, to get shut out three times on home ice, it can't be something that's allowable

or something that becomes, with any kind of regularity. And getting shut out by lousy teams on home ice, it's not like he came in and we're playing the top teams in the league, I was shut out by Nashville and shut out by Seattle. On home ice. Joey DeCourt is going to the Hall of Fame in fairness. He made 25 saves last night.

Not that many of the difficult variety. Like he was fine. Like three quarters of a point shot. He was fine. He made that one really nice glove save off O'Connor. He did make a nice glove save off O'Connor. I think that was one of the ones that Tuckett was talking about poise.

Like he got a bear down in front of the net. I don't think O'Connor did anything wrong there. He fired it pretty hard. He got a poise it you got a poise More poise would have put a less fire poise is just as important to swimsuit. Yeah, so we're We're gonna spend a lot of time today talking about what the Canucks did and more specifically didn't do last night We are gonna turn our attention to the rest of the National Hockey League for a little bit coming up on the other side Luke Fox NHL writer from Sportsnet is going to join the program. Seven o'clock. There's a cascade of text coming in, is there not? You seem to be monitoring it

closer than I have. I just see the counter going up and up and up. So, in the seven o'clock hour, if you want to get your text read, send them in. Dunbar Lumber Text Line is 650-650. There's a lot of people and there's a lot of angst and there's a lot of frustration. So, we'll dive into that at seven o'clock. But Luke Fox is coming up next on the Halford and Bref 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 Sports everybody. Halper and Brough, Sportsnet 650. This one's actually really rad, I'm not gonna lie. Some of them are kinda like cheesy. I actually like this one. It's pretty good. Trash Thursday. Still going strong here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough 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. This is the song they're playing on Wall Street right now. Yeah. The sell, sell, sell. It is. Oh, well, you still can. It is befitting that this hour 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 1170 Pal Street in Vancouver to the phone lines we go Luke Fox from sports net joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on sports net 650 what up Luke

Luke Fox from Sportsnet joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. What up Luke? How are you guys? We're good. Did you stay up late last night and watch the Vancouver Canucks game, 730 start our time, 1030 start your time, or did you go to bed before that debacle? I was up a little bit, but you know, because I was working on my story from the Leafs game. But then once I checked the score, I was like, I don't need to rubber neck this one,

see another disaster. It was rough. And there was a lot to take away from that game. And Rick Tuckett's remarks afterwards and a very bizarre goalie pull with his team down four, nothing with five minutes left, was a talking point as well. So I kind of want to dovetail that into something that you wrote about after John

Tortorella got fired in Philadelphia. This is basically on the subject of coaches, you know, being exasperated or showing signs that they're just over it or whatever. So a lot of people were talking about the comments that Tortorella made after that game, that sort of infamous game now in Toronto that eventually led to dismissal. But you astutely pointed out that not enough people were paying attention to the sort of infamous game now in Toronto that eventually led to dismissal. But you astutely pointed out that not enough people

were paying attention to the comments before the game. Can you walk our listeners through this and kind of give them a guide to what a tapped out, a checked out head coach sounds and looks like and the actions that he did? Yeah, it was really a really funny day because he held court for a long time before what ended up being his final game as Flyers coach in Toronto.

And they were coming off a shellacking by Chicago, which we all know is a rebuilding team as well. And the first thing that struck me as odd is he came out to talk to us that morning, even though it was a full morning skate, he didn't even bother to put on his skates and go on the ice and coach his team. He just left that to the assistants. And that struck me as really odd. Like we often see head coaches, if it's an optional, maybe leave that to the assistants. But the flyers

had just had a day off. They're getting ready for a nationally televised, fairly big game in Toronto, a lot of eyeballs. And the head coach doesn't even go on the ice to run practice, even though it was a full morning skate. So that struck me as odd. And then just the tone and how upfront he was about how he himself and the executives talk regularly about how this was always the plan. It was almost like, Hey guys, we've never even intended to try this year. We were always going to sell at the deadline. Right. Uh, and then once it actually started, but he was kind of saying once, you know,

that's fine and good that that's the plan. But then once it actually starts happening and you're a bad team, shedding off what little veterans and talent you have, he said, it sucks. It really sucks. It's hard when you're in it. And he gave like, you know, a theory and I love it. Like I love the honesty, right? Because we, you know, us in the media, we get a lot of just, you know, glossing over the truth, but he was very raw in his comments. He's like, it really is crummy when you're, when you're in it, when you're a bad team that decides to get worse. And he's like, yeah, I know it's the plan, but it's no fun.

And he sounded, you know, like a guy that had lost the joy for, for coaching or at least coaching that type of team. And the way I looked at it is it's one thing if you're say, Jeff Blaschow with the red wings, when they were going through their really tough years. Sure. You know, they're kind of still in it. But when you know, when it's just, hey, it's your first job. And it's like, I just want to get my foot in the door in the NHL. But for Tortorelli, he's been to the top of the mountain. And I just walked away from that scrum, giving the sense that I don't know if this guy has

the heart to do this with a bad team anymore. And that ties into what's going on in Vancouver and the rumors that would Rick Tauke want to be the next head coach in Philly. And I wonder, does Tauke want to go through those tough years? I mean, he lived it with the Coyotes. Does he want to go through those tough years? I mean, he lived it with the coyotes. Does he want to go through that again? And I know he's buddies with with Brie Air and, you know, he's the Flyers legend to a degree. But it takes it takes a lot to want to, you know, go through the tough years and the Flyers still have a bunch of tough years left.

I mean, we've seen the exasperated coach in the NHL in recent years and we just saw it with John Tortorella. I go back to Paul Maurice when he had his exit from the Jets and that was a guy that was just tired and burnt out and you know he didn't essentially didn't want to do it anymore and we're looking at this year you see some frustrated comments over the last few weeks from Rick Tocket, you go to Patrick Wa with the New York Islanders. We mentioned it in the intro, you know, just blowing his top finally with Anthony Duclair and you know, ripping the player

very publicly and you know, very, very, it was a savage set of comments that he threw at the guy. The big picture in all of this is that this is what, losing weighs on players, it also weighs on coaches. And what we've seen, I think, over the last couple of years is coaches almost tapping out when they're like, you know what, maybe I've reached either the end of my rope or I've gotten as much as I can out of this group and it's time for me to move along.

Yeah, I mean, I think we saw that even with Jim Montgomery. Yeah, good point. In his final days in Boston. Right. His job was on the line in the Leafs series and he took a shot at Pasternak, which raised a lot of eyebrows.

And then he comes into this season and he's he's hard on Marsha and blowing up on him on the bench. And, you know, I think when you're at the end of your rope, you're just pulling on any string you can. And it's hard not to draw a parallel,

talk about making an unusual goalie pole or some of his comments. Like when you're at your width end, you start doing unusual desperate things and it's usually a harbinger that maybe the time is winding down. Now, I don't know what you guys are saying though because of Elliott's report that the Canucks are going to hold him to his option, but like how do you hold a guy that doesn't,

and I'm not saying he doesn't want to be there, but if that's how he feels with all the drama and then suddenly the losing, like how do you force a guy to coach? It just, it seems like a disconnect there. Yeah, we talked this through a lot over the last few days and the theory we came up with is, you know, the Canucks or whoever leaking that news to Elliott Friedman and also Thomas Drantz here is that

they're sending a message to other teams around the NHL, like maybe a Philly, like don't even bother reaching out to Rick Tocket because he's ours and we have contractual rights to him. Um, but like, I think we've also concluded that it would be very, very surprising if they actually force Tocket to come back to coach the team, if he didn't want to, and they did so without an extension for him.

Um, so we'll, so I don't know if that's, I think it's more a message for the rest of the league than it would be for Rick Tocket that you're here, whether you want to be or not. Because that, you know, Tauke's message has essentially been twofold. Number one, I'm not talking about my contract right now because I'm focused on the season.

Okay, fair enough. Although I don't know if I a hundred percent buy that, but let's say I do. Number two, he also says, listen, we're going to have to have some conversations about the direction of the team. And that's where I'll be curious to see what happens. Because what does he want from the team going forward? And what are they able to do?

The whole thing in Vancouver right now seems to be, what do we have to do not to win a Stanley Cup, but to keep Quinn Hughes from leaving in free agency in two years. Now those two things are connected because I don't think you're going to win a Stanley Cup anytime soon if Quinn Hughes leaves, but it's going to be a very interesting conversation,

I think, between Tocket and management because they do have a good relationship that goes all the way back to Pittsburgh, but you know, sometimes you do have disagreements that affect that relationship. And I think it's so important that the coach is a hundred percent invested, especially in the NHL, like the assistants can run the X's and O's, but the head coach has to be your chief motivator.

Like you want to run through a wall for the guy. And players aren't dumb, like they can sense it. So if the coach has one foot out the door, how are you going to get the players to buy in? Like the margins are so small in this game that teams that are giving full effort and, you know, buying into the system,, it's imperative if you want to get anywhere. Especially if you're a team kind of in the middle ground like Vancouver. So if they hold him to come back, but he's only half-hearted about coaching, the players will smell that and you won't get a good team. Like if he's not 100% in, he should just be 0% in and they should find someone who actually wants the job. One final one before we let you go

and it is about the Leafs and I guess we'll continue this coaching conversation because Craig Berby has come in and done his thing. What's been the general consensus on the job that he's done this year in terms of changing the culture, changing the style of play and the way some of the guys play and how they are projecting as they go into the playoffs. Yeah, they've bought in and it's a harder style of play and it's a complete reversal

from what Sheldon Keefe had them playing which was more of a puck possession game. You know, enter the zone with control, a lot of East West. Uh, Borube wants a simplified game. He wants the chip and chase and for check harder. They want, you know, shots from the point with lots of screens and greasy goals. Like he gets a big smile on his face when he talks about greasy goals, rebounds and, and tips and second and third opportunities where before the Leafs really liked to rush and control and set up the pretty play.

So they didn't change much of their personnel and they're kind of banking on this new brew based style to get them farther in the playoffs. And he's kind of sticking with the same formula that won him a cup in St. Louis in 2019. So it's the new sell. We can't sell you on a new core, so we're going to sell you on a new style. And to their credit though, the players have bought in, it certainly hasn't been all 82 games. It's a hard style to play. It's almost like a Florida Panthers light in terms of it's relentless and it's taxing. So they do let their foot off the gas. Even last night, the second period wasn't great. But when they buy into it and they execute it, they're very dangerous because they have those elite finishers. And yeah, it's good. It's

gonna be fascinating but II am a firm believer that they need to finish first in the Atlantic and get themselves an easier matchup with say Ottawa. They have to take a plane down south because man, the Panthers are, you know, even if you survive

them, they're gonna take a pound of flash out of you. Luke, this was great but thanks for taking the time to do it as always. Enjoy the remainder of the regular season. Will touch base again as we get closer to the playoffs. Okay. Awesome guys. Always good to talk with you. Have a good one. Yeah. Likewise. Thanks, Luke. That's Luke Fox, a national NHL writer from Sportsnet here on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. We should probably dive back into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket at six 5650. It's popping this morning in the wake of the Vancouver Canucks 5-0 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night at Rogers Arena. There were so many, you know, not surprisingly, so many talking points, most of them of a negative variety. When you get blown out

at home yet again and you do it when your playoff lifeline is, you know, slowly fading away. You put forth that kind of effort, the remarks afterwards, the goalie pull, take your pick. There's lots of different things to discuss from last night's game. Uh, this is a kind of a depressing one from Eric. Eric Texan. I love the depressing text.

I've given up on the season. I listen to audio books or podcasts to fill the time I would spend listening to you guys. I feel bad for you. This is your job. You'll have to talk this stuff out for months now. That's rough. Good luck. Don't feel bad for us. Don't feel bad for us. Never feel bad for us.

We'll still have some laughs along the way. Don't cry for us, we're already dead. Yeah, there's that part of it. But Eric. The season's toast though. Can I interest you in some CFL talk? 7.30, Justin Dahlung. Unsigned text, the Canucks was largely on management.

They did get lots of credits last year. Yeah, they did. But consider they signed two feuding players to long-term contracts in your core group. They signed Pedersen to 11 plus mil, legit 11 mil players don't need let's go PD chants in the playoffs. Three, the EPJT debacle still lingers in the locker room chemistry issue. Okay so all those points were right. I'll just say this, I actually, and I firmly believe this. I don't think that you can point to one particular individual or group or trend that sunk this season

because so many things went wrong. Yeah. Every time I think about one thing that went wrong, someone will remind me, they're like, what about that other thing? Like, oh, the Miller and Pedersen rift. Don't forget about the injuries on defense. That's why they got to bring out the whiteboard. And then, yeah.

And then the whiteboard just gets more and more added to it as you go along to where you have to bring out the second whiteboard. Like, yes, management deserves a share of the blame. But to say that they are majorly or mostly responsible for this, and this isn't to take away from their share of the blame, it's just there's so much blame to go around.

Yeah. But I do think that there are some things where you can say, yeah, that's, that's an easy answer. Like the defense at the beginning of the season, it wasn't good enough. Right? So you can put that at the feet of management.

Yeah. You can be like, D'Arnais wasn't a player. Was not. You know, uh, and that. D'Arnais, Juleson and Brandstrom playing nearly 100 games combined is- Yeah. I mean, that's an indictment.

No, they're not NHL defensemen. Okay. Sorry. But the thing is, is like, you do that and you're like, as management, if you're honest with yourself and you hold yourself accountable, you say, that's on us. Yep.

I think the thing with Pedersen and Miller, and if you wanna call it locker room issues, that's a little more complicated. I put that on the players to be honest. No, no, no. But now... Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I do. Don't tell me no. I don't think it's as black and white as that. Can I explain it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Do you put any of it on the fact that Can I explain it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

Do you put any of it on the fact that everyone knew that there were issues and that you still sign these players to long-term contracts and you still let it get to that point? Now I know what you're saying because management was aware and they tried to intervene and you know, even some of the players tried to intervene and you know, even some of the players tried to intervene and then it just couldn't work out.

And we don't know the exact details of what happened or who was more to blame between JT and Pedersen or whatever, what happened. You know, they ultimately trade JT Miller, but I do think that you have to go back and go like, what could we have done differently here? Like that, that, that you can't just be like, ah, it's their fault. I mean, you made those decisions and it ended with trading one player out and the other could

be related to all this. Another guy is completely lost his game. So yes, mostly it's on the players, but you're you're in charge of the team. You're either the president or the GM or the head coach of the hockey team. And that spiraled that out of control. I will say this.

I can't just put it all on the players. I can't. In the annals of professional sports, there have been countless, I repeat, countless teammates who have hated each other. Countless. Bleacher Report's got about 27 different slideshows, if you wanna go Google it up right now and look at it.

Countless examples across all sports. And somehow, some of them were able to coexist and do their jobs. And I think that if you can point to all the other sports and all the other, you know, I understand the bad blood and bad things were said. But at a certain point, and if you're a boss, and I mean like a manager of these two people at a certain point you do have to say you guys have to figure this out it's

not like you're getting paid minimum wage to be here. Telling them to figure it out didn't work. I know it didn't work but that's on the players. Not working is on the I mean I'm defiant in this one like you gotta be able to figure it out you have to be able to figure it out because that is part of your job as a player. As a player, you don't, you're not an independent contractor. As a player, you're showing up with a group of 22 other guys to try and win something. Yeah. Right. And it falls equally on both guys. It does. It does. There

have been worse relationships between teammates than JT Miller and Julius Pedersen. I'm confident in saying that there have been way worse relationships between teammates than JT Miller and Julius Pedersen. I'm confident in saying that. There have been way worse relationships in professional sports. Way worse. And guys have been putting together like, you know what? You're on the payroll, figure it out. And it might, it could be like cold and caustic and maybe not sensitive to the feelings involved, but it's also the reality. Because there have been countless, countless players have hated each other, hated each other. But does it come down to, I don't want to act like they're in elementary school here, but was there a lack of supervision? It does sound like it's in elementary school at that point.

Could you imagine? Where is the supervisor? PD and Miller are alone right now. Yeah, but why are they sitting together in the lunchroom? Yeah, this is not gonna end well. This isn't gonna end well. Somebody's gonna cry. What's going on here? The crazy part of all of this is that the rift and the dynamics of it was, again,

just one part of a bigger issue. And they thought that they had fixed the rift by moving J.T. Miller. I mean, that was, and again, even though Miller disagrees with it, Rutherford made a very, very direct, like public messaging campaign that the rift was the driving force for the trade.

Right. And I don't, I mean, maybe years from now, it'll be looked upon differently. But I mean, management was like, okay, it's that big of a problem. we're going to fix it now. Uh, Tatiana in Langley, Texas, at times it literally felt like management was stirring up drama in the media so that no one was looking at their failings.

See, I don't, I don't agree that it was cover for their failings. Like Tatiana, I don't want that it was cover for their failings. Like Tatiana, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but maybe you're sitting there going like, okay, I'm going to stir up drama between some of my star players. So no one talks about the defense that I've put together. Right.

I think this management group has a style of putting players under pressure intentionally and calling them out intentionally and hoping for a response. Yeah, it's brash. And I think it backfired. Well, it didn't work this year. I think it backfired. I think-

It didn't work for Pedersen. Well, it certainly didn't work for Pedersen. It didn't work for Pedersen. Right? It was not the way to go about it. They did it. They did it. What you do sometimes is you go, I hope this player gets to the point where, like the Tortorella

coaches like this, right? Where he's like, I want you to bark back at me. I want you to give me an F you I'll show you. And it didn't work. It probably made Pedersen play worse, which made JT Miller angrier. Is that possible? Speculation here, but I think that's not bad speculation. bad speculation, you know, if it's such different personalities, Miller and Pedersen, so different. And so I go back to the original thing where, you know, Halfords only blaming the players, but

I think as management and maybe even the head coach, you have to know your players and have to know whether they're going to mesh. Don't forget, this is also two players in your leadership group. Like that's your, okay, Quinn is the captain and we have no complaints with Quinn. Well, you have two guys that were wearing A's,

that were fighting with each other. And even if you want to put a hundred percent on the players, part of management has to be questioned about why did you think this was going to work? And when it didn't work, aren't you partly responsible for doing this? You locked these guys up for years together

for big, big money. You had to trade JT Miller for probably less than you could have gotten for him because of that situation. And now you're in a situation where is Pedersen even tradable? You can blame the player for sure. They take responsibility for it, but the decisions on this fall with management. Yeah. The Pedersen contract situation, as I've said before, and I mean, you said it too, it's not anything like I own, but the Pedersen contract has a chance to go down in history as one of the biggest managerial blunders in Canucks history, in Canucks history, from the

way it was handled to the way that there was that undertone of strong arming him into it, to how it's played out over the first year, and then to how they reacted to him underperforming on that contract, all of it. It stands to go down right up there. In the 50 plus years of Canucks hockey is one of the biggest managerial blunders, and they got to own that, for sure.

We gotta go to break. When we come back, we get an entire open segment. If you want to text in, Dunbar Lumber Text Line is 650-650. Way in. Anything about last night's game. Rick Talkett's bizarre goalie pull. The five nothing loss. The now basically snuffed out playoff chances.

We've got an entire open segment. We'll dive into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. It's 7.30. We are gonna talk some Canadian Football League. It was a big day yesterday for the Canadian Football League. They have a new commissioner, Stuart Johnson, the former president of TSN is in. We're going to talk to Justin Dunk from Three Down Nation about the move, what's expected of the new commissioner, where this league is going moving forward.

That's all coming up in the seven o'clock hour, so don't go anywhere. You're listening to the Halford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650.