Halford & Brough in the Morning - Are The Canucks Exploring The Trade Market?

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason look around the NHL with analyst Ray Ferraro (1:38), they preview Saturday's West Semi-Finals with BC Lions head coach Rick Campbell (23:03), as his squad gets set to take on the Riders, plus they explore potential trade ideas as the boys wonder how the Canucks could improve their defense (42:28). 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.

Ferraro, Ferraro, let's chat with Ray Ferraro. It's time for Ferraro, let's talk to Ray Ferraro. Ferraro winds up with a shot, score! Ray Ferraro, breakaways on side, scores! Three-bound score! Ray Ferraro! Ferraro, Ferraro, it's time for Ray Ferraro! Ferraro, Ferraro It's time for

Ray Ferraro Let's chat with Ferraro It's time for Ray Ferraro 7.03 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda,

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We are in Hour 2 of the program. This is the track that's sweeping the nation. You guys got a shout out on Hockey Night in

Canada for this little ditty. Yeah, we did. Pretty impressive. Nice. Ron McLean likes it. Loves the dogs. We are in hour two of the program.

Ray Farrar. He compared it to a Tom Petty lyric. Well, he would. He'd be the guy to do that. That's next week. Hour two of this program is brought to you by Jason Hominuk from Jason.Mortgage.

If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him on the internet at Jason.Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him on the internet at Jason.Mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.

So, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec, to the phone lines we go. Ray Ferraro joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Ray. How are you? A little weary, I've got to be honest with you, you know? Yeah.

You guys are our two. I started this morning in Tampa, and I'm now in Washington, and I just took a picture of my hotel room gate because I can't remember the hotel I'm in

nor my room number, so I got a chance to get here after lunch. You know, I need to get back here at some point. Well, how was last night in Tampa? It was really good. They did a really nice job.

And, of course, Sam Coates first came back there after 16 years in Tampa. And he's a really popular guy. He built, you know, not just a legacy on the ice but off he was you know very involved in the children's hospital and um he and his family have you know i mean he literally grew up from an 18 year old into into someone with family and kids and connections to the community and they they they really did a nice job and and i think the game probably turned out just the way most people in Tampa wanted it. He got a couple of points and Tampa won.

And, uh, it was, it was a good night. It was, uh, it was really start to finish was a really, really well done production by, by Tampa. So I imagine you've got the Caps and the Rangers tonight, correct? Yeah. Oh, we can't fool you. Yeah, I'm looking at the schedule right now and it says ESPN.

That's why. I know you are. And you were like, I'm in Washington now, and then I just put it together. I'm pretty quick, Ray. Are the Caps for real? Because they look pretty good. You know what?

They're an interesting team because they look pretty good uh you know what they're an interesting team because they were the the oddest of the 16 teams last year that made the playoffs um their their goal differential was like minus 35 or 36 it seemed every night they would win a game you'd be like oh my god how did they do that and charlie lindgren was unbelievable and goal and well they kind of won three to two again like you know like it was nothing really um added up for them except they got 91 points they made the playoffs and then they got i mean it was no contest in the first round they lost in four games to the Rangers. But then I think they had a really good offseason. Like they added a couple of defensemen, Matt Roy and Jeff Chikrin.

Or not Jeff Chikrin, geez, Jacob. Jeff's his dad. He's not playing anymore. And so they added the two defensemen. They added a couple of forwards, Dubois and Maggiapane, and they both played really well. Dubois is kind of the big story, right, because he's running out of teams here. And he's, you know, you've got to – it's nice to have people talk about all the tools you have, but you've got to apply them.

And he's been really good early. And, I mean, they're scoring some goals, which they didn't do last year. I mean, for 20 years almost, we've talked about the Caps and Ovi hand in hand, and he's got two goals and one of them is into an empty net. So I really don't know how much of a factor he is right now, but I think they'll be in that mix for the last playoff spot. I don't think much more than that because I think their depth will probably get them over the course of the season. How much pressure is on the Rangers this year to win a Stanley Cup?

Huge, huge. I generally don't say that with teams, but they've got 13 guys, now 12, with Lafreniere signing in the last year of their contract. This is a really good team. They're deep. They've got skill. Really, really great special teams, both of them. They're well coached.

And last year, I mean, they ran up against Florida. And I mean, I didn't think the series was as close as six games. Like it didn't look, I did that series and Shusterkin was amazing and I thought he kept the series closer, but I've liked a couple of things the Rangers have done here. One is they, through necessity, Ryan Lindgren got hurt. He broke his jaw in the preseason.

So they moved Keandre Miller and Adam Fox together. I like that. That gives them a more mobile pair. Lindgren is a defender and a glue, blood and guts guy. But I know him and Fox had played together for years back to the

u.s development program but i think this is a good move to get miller into that role it's allowed them to kind of balance out their pairs i think a little better they've got a functional third line which is critical if you're going to go deep right and um you know the heidel was back and healthy he's a he's a good player really good will cooley is a developing power forward like he's good and big and uh laviolette calls him when he goes into four check he makes a lot of noise you know like you run some people around and capo caco is back and healthy i mean they're i think those things make them a different,

more balanced team than last year. Do you think there's any way that Shusterkin is not their goalie long-term? Like, is this contract situation? Yeah, like it'll get done, right? I think so. I don't possibly know how it can't unless he's asking for some salary that they just can't stomach. And when they say he wants to reset the goalie market, I don't know exactly what that means. I don't know what exactly that number is.

I do think we get really tied up in the number as opposed to the percentage of the cap. And with the cap going up and, you know, the teams are, you know, in constant communication with the league, even though the league doesn't have numbers for this year about projections into next year's cap and how that might affect the way that they go ahead and negotiate a deal as significant as Shesterkin. The one thing about a deal of this length and purported dollars is that you have to play a lot. Because let's assume he makes $12 or $13 million. And say he's only good for 48 to 52 games a year. That means about 30 games of the year, you've got $14 million sitting in a ball hat.

Right? Like, it just takes such a chunk out of your cap in those games that he's not playing. But if he is that much of a difference maker and i think shisterkin is amazing i think he is just a phenomenal goalie um i would go to almost any length to get him signed um i just i just think the guy's outstanding but every team has their you know has not just one guy to sign you know like i said the rangers got 12 and you know you got to put a team together it's it's not golf there's some teams that just have like a plethora of luck or development i don't know whatever whatever it is at certain

positions like you think about all the great goalies that have been in New York. Canucks fans know Mike Richter well, and then you had Henrik Lundqvist, and now it's Shusterkin, and then Boston. I always think of them as like a defenseman factory. They've had so many great defensemen. Pittsburgh's had Sid and Mario. Edmonton has had McDavid and Gretzky. And then you've got teams like Montreal. Not that they haven't had great players in the past, but more modern. They're like, when was our last great number one center? It seems

unfair and fair. But man, the Rangers, when was the last time they actually worried about goaltending? Well, I think Mike Richter came in in the late 80s, so it would have been just before that. I mean, just think of that. So I'm a Red Sox fan, and from, I think it was the Second World War through the retirement of Mike Greenwell,

they had three left fielders. They had Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice, and Mike Greenwell. Not had three left fielders. They had Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice, and Mike Greenwell. Not bad. That was it. You know, and like, and so like, just think you're a kid,

you get drafted, and you're like, maybe I won't play left field anymore. I'll try somewhere else. Like if you're, I know that, you know, you always got to draft for depth, but if you're,

if you're a goalie, and you've been drafted by the Rangers in the last 20 years, where are you going? Your best shot is to be the backup. It's amazing. Right when you could see that Lundqvist was losing a little bit off his fastball, oh yeah, here's this fourth round pick and geez, he's supposed to be really good. And then he shows up and

they're like, wow, he might be better than really good. We're speaking to Ray Ferraro here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Ray, Jason mentioned the Pittsburgh Penguins there. What did you see, or maybe the question should be, what didn't you see from the Penguins on Saturday night in that loss?

He saw Daniel Sprung just walk right past Eric Carlson. I know you got a good view of that one. should be what didn't you see from the penguins on saturday night and that lost he saw daniel sprung just walk right past eric carlson i know you got a good view of that was there a speed difference there between the two teams uh on saturday no you know you know what they're all speed difference yes for sure i mean i i mentioned it that uh one of the biggest challenges the penguins have like for a team that likes to play fast and likes to play direct most nights they're the second fastest team on the ice like that yeah you just and and the problem is you can't just change that you've got guys that are um that are at points in their career that they don't go as fast as they used to go they can't play as committed a style as they used to play on a night-to-night basis because

they're older um the sprong around carlson play that was an effort play like that like that was howie meeker would have would have said he went around him like a hoop around the barrel and so for people that are too young to remember howie meeker go listen to some of his stuff if you can because it was hilarious. Hilarious. But, I mean, what can you do until these players are able to be moved on from contracts that you're saddled with? You're going to be what you're going to be. Like, every trade almost that Kyle Dubas has made has been a player for another player, but a draft pick.

And while we all look at the players involved, it's really the draft picks, the accumulation of picks that they're trying to retool this team. And how are you going to do it when you've got Carlson, got Carlson, Latang, Malkin and Crosby, and they're all in their upper thirties. I think they're the second oldest team in the league or no, are they the oldest? They're in the top. Yeah. They're in the top three.

Yeah. Yeah. Because Edmonton's the oldest all of a sudden. And so you, you end up like with this team of guys that in theory should be able to, to be something, you know, something competitive. And unless they're firing on all cylinders, they're, they're really not. Like I, they just looked at times they looked and they have looked demoralized.

I mean, they got, they got run out of the building in Edmonton. That was, you know, that was bad. And then you could predict with reasonable certainty that they were going to be better in Vancouver than they were in Edmonton. I mean, they gave up 50 shots in Edmonton. I think they gave up damn near close to 40 in Vancouver. And so while there's lots of talk about Tristan Jari, it's probably the guys in

front of them and in front of the other goaltenders that are of the real concern. I mean, there's concern for Jari, of course, but holy man, you can't be giving up 40 shots a night and you're going to be second place a lot. When you're at ice level, you're working between the benches,

which guys stand out more of the really, really fast guys. So the really, really slow guys. The fast guys. Yeah. Because everybody is, it's funny. The really slow guys, they still go pretty good. I think there are times where we all forget that you know the pros are pretty good players nhl nhl caliber skaters across the board yeah like so when we

talk about somebody that's slow they still get around pretty good now there's not very many guys that stand out really slow i'm not gonna because i don't really want to pick on anybody, but there's, there's a couple I've seen this year that have, that I went, oh my God, they're not very fast. But for the most part, when Connor McDavid goes by the bench in full flight, like it's, like, it's almost, it's like breathtaking, honestly. Like, you're like, how does he go like that when that kid in philadelphia that just got sent down jet luchanko he went by the bench in vancouver like with the puck and i'm like i can't believe how fast he was so like those guys really still to me stand out like like they're just there's something to watch there there's very very, very few guys that, that look fast, like super fast,

because everybody's pretty quick in the league today. What do you think the key to speed is? Like if you're talking like, like a skating fundamental that these guys do really well. Oh, I would say, well, first of all, there's two types of muscle. There's slow twitch and fast twitch. Yeah, I got the slows. Yeah, if you're blessed with fast twitch, well, you're already in the game, right? Like you've got a chance. The way they train now is, or not now, the way you train is power and agility.

And the technical aspect of the stride has been, I'll say, perfected, but nobody ever really talked to players of my age or younger than me about stride length and return of the stride once you push to get your foot back underneath. We didn't learn that. We just skated. Some guys were fast and some guys weren't. Now, if you look at the way the the technical

guys skate they're they're able to to skate like on a wide base and their extension and return is like it's dialed there's no extra effort or waste of energy in that stride that that to me blessed or mixed with the power that you've built in the gym and maybe touched with the gift of the gods is what makes people fast. I want to talk about playing a thousand games in the NHL because you played 1,250 games in the NHL plus 68 more in the playoffs. And we just saw Tyler Myers play his thousandth game when you played 1,000 games do you remember that game and do you remember what you were feeling what what were you most proud of um I remember the game we uh. It was the end of February 1999.

We played in Dallas in the afternoon. We lost 1-0. I got scored on on the first shift, and I was minus one. That's what I can tell you about the game. It didn't go so well. I was really proud to get to 1,000 games, and there's a couple of reasons why. One is you have to be good enough to get there.

You have to be productive enough. You have to do your job enough times that they're willing to bring you back 1,000 times. You don't just get to show up. You do your work. You are productive. You are an effective NHL player, and you're lucky. Because there are so many guys that, for various reasons, some injury-related, some they just lose their way, they just don't get there.

Well, most don't. Most don't. Most don't. And so I was, I don't know if this sounds corny or whatever, but like my dad ran a concrete business that his dad started in 1947. And so when I grew up, I watched my dad go to work at six o'clock in the morning. He could start his truck right underneath my bedroom. I never needed an alarm. I could hear his truck start and I woke up up. And then he'd go to work all day, and he'd be at my game at 4.15 when I played minor hockey. Like, he never missed. And I watched this week after week after week after week,

just the ability to work, the capacity to say, okay, this is what I've got to get done. And I really think that was kind of the key to my career was that I could work. I liked the work. I accepted the ups and downs and I was hungry, like a starving guy hungry to play in the league. And I think at times it made me a little selfish, and I probably could have been a better teammate at some point, but I was, man, it was oxygen to me to play in the league.

That's cool, man. We're going to end on that. That was very well put for a tired guy in Washington. Maybe you're getting a bit loopy. I hope tonight I don't start talking about Stan Lekos because he's not here. All right, Ray. Enjoy the game tonight. It's the Capitals and Rangers on ESPN, and we'll talk again soon, pal.

You betcha. Have a great week, guys. We'll talk to you next Tuesday. Thanks, Ray. Appreciate it. That's Ray Ferraro here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Okay, quick reset here as we hit the midway point of the show. We've got a lot more to get into on the

program. Coming up next, head coach of your BC Lions, Rick Campbell. The Lions haven't played in an awfully long time, but the last time they played, Campbell's big gambit sitting down Nathan Rourke and putting Vernon Adams Jr. back in the starting role at quarterback paid off

with the season-ending win for the Lions anyway against the Montreal Alouettes. They will play on Saturday, 3.30 kickoff our time in Regina against the Saskatchewan Rough Riders in the West Division semifinals. Rick will join us at 7.30 to talk about that. At 8 o'clock, it's part two of Ferraro Tuesdays

here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Landon Ferraro is going to join the program after working on the panel yesterday in the Canucks' overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. It was Landon, it was Satt, and it was Murph yesterday on the panel. So Landon will join us at 8 as we dive back into the Canucks talk. Coming up, we will talk to Rick Campbell. We can probably run around some of these stories

from the NHL that we didn't get into. Maybe we can touch on the unstoppable, Mr. Unstoppable, Mr. Unlimited, Russell Wilson, another victory for him, and the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday on Monday Night Football. There's a lot to get into. It's a great time for sports.

You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks talk jamie dodd and thomas drance we'll dive deep into all that's happening with the vancouver canucks listen 12 to 2 p.m on sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts 7.30 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda, North Vancouver's

premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help you with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program.

Is it the music? It's music. Ooh, he card read good. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominuk from Jason.Mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. I am kidding. Let him do that. Visit him on the internet at Jason.Mortgage.

Your British Columbia Lions are on their way to the playoffs. It's Saturday, a 3.30 kickoff, our time from Regina. They will be taking on the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the West Division semifinal. Joining us now to discuss that game and more, the head coach of your BC Lions, Rick Campbell, here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Rick. How are you?

Good. It's good to talk playoff football. Yeah, it's exciting. The two games going this weekend. Very much looking forward to seeing what your Lions can do in Regina. Before we get into the matchup against the Rough Riders, I do want to go back a little ways to the final game of the regular season, that win over the Montreal Alouettes, in which you put Vernon Adams back in the starting role behind center what did you see from your offense led by Vernon Adams Jr. in that game that maybe you

hadn't seen in previous weeks beside of course the 27 points you put on the board yeah well Montreal was testing us they were blitzing us and putting pressure on us and on the flip side they were putting their DBs one-on-one in the back end. And credit to our whole offense and VA for buying a little bit of time and being able to get some deep shots behind those guys. So that was good to see. And then our team played with good energy the whole game. And that was also good. Both quarterbacks are good quarterbacks.

I think it goes without saying. But there are obviously different styles of quarterbacks. If you were to explain to our listeners, what's the one difference? Quarterbacks are good quarterbacks. I think it goes without saying. But there are obviously different styles of quarterbacks. If you were to explain to our listeners, like, what's the one difference? What's the one thing that you guys have a different look for when it's Nathan Rourke behind center and Vernon Adams Jr. behind center? What would that thing be? Yeah, well, one is you're right about them both being really good players and really good quarterbacks. And they do do a lot of similar things.

Vernon's a very vocal guy, gets really excited, really gets the guys going, so that's really good to see. He did, early in the season, he was doing a really good job of doing some off-schedule things, as we would say, so whether that was making a blitz or miss or taking a deep shot downfield just to test DBs out, he's willing to do that. So that was a big help to us early in the season. In hindsight, was bringing back Nathan Rourke

more complicated than you might have anticipated? No, he's such a good player and a good a good guy and he's gonna be he's gonna be good the the only thing i that amazed me at the time that he was pulling off as he had been through multiple playbooks and multiple teams in the nfl and then with vernon being hurt he literally had to shift gears and play in a game right away you you know, back to the CFL, 12-man football, you know, different defenses, different fields. So that was a tall task, but I don't regret doing that. I think he gave us the best chance to win at that time, but it is a tall task to ask anyone, including Nathan, who's never going to back down from a challenge to make all

those transitions that quickly. Did it create any mixed feelings in the room with guys who might have felt a loyalty to Vernon Adams? I didn't see it that way. So they both respect those guys very much. So I think you can say you feel bad for Vernon. Someone could say that about just the way the whole thing plays out, but I never sensed anyone was divided or they're such likable guys and they root for each other and they help each other out. So it was never an issue of division or anything like that.

It's more of choosing between two good things and just trying to manage it the whole way. I've said all along that to bring Nathan back, Vernon had to be part of the deal because he was too important to the team. And I also said that it was going to take both of them to get it done this year, and hopefully I get proven right. So how are things going to be different this time in Saskatchewan? Because the last time you went there, it didn't go very well.

Yeah, we got to take care of the football, period, and create some turnover. So we spotted them seven points on the second play of the game, a bit of bad luck just the way the ball bounced. But obviously we still have to overcome that. But they were up 7-0 on the board. We're on the road. And so you spot them those seven points, and we never dug ourselves out of that hole.

But that's job number one is to take care of the football on our side and also create some turnovers on defense or special teams. And we can play. I think that score got a little bit out of hand, but I think it's going to be a close game, and I know our guys are looking forward to it. What do the Rough Riders do well that you have to be wary of? Like I said, turnovers are number one.

They play well all around, so offense, defense, special teams, they don't really have a glaring weakness, so they play the game well. But they've been living off turnovers. They're number one in the league, and obviously that swings football games. So like I said, we want to be aggressive and do our thing, but at the same time, make sure we're taking care of the football when we got it. We're speaking to BC Lions head coach, Rick Campbell,

here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. There's an interesting dynamic on the sidelines here, Rick. You're a veteran of the CFL playoffs with a 5-3 record. Your opponent, Corey Mace, it's going to be the first time that he's ever coached of the CFL playoffs with a 5-3 record. Your opponent, Corey Mace, it's going to be the first time that he's ever coached in a CFL playoff game. If you were to go back way back eight games ago and talk to rookie playoff head coach

Rick Campbell and say, this is the biggest difference between regular season football and playoff football, what would that thing be? Well, what do you want me to do? Help the guy out? Just help yourself out. i'm just kidding i just um i know i know uh cory well i coached him back when i was a defensive coordinator in calgary and um you know this the stakes get higher and um you know people people are obviously the intensity

goes up because it's an elimination game but the recipe for winning and how you make decisions doesn't change. So I always remember that is that everybody's amped up and ready to go, but you know, playing good football and making good decisions by the coaches and players, all that stuff that doesn't change. So you stick with your recipe for winning and go from there. The season series was split between the two. The Lions took the first one in week six.

The Rough Riders took the second one in week 19. So the rubber match is on Saturday. Rick, thanks a lot for doing this today. We really appreciate it. Best of luck on the weekend in Regina. Go get a win. Let's do this again next week when you guys are ready to face the Bombers. Sounds like a plan.

Good talking to you guys. You too. Thanks. That's Rick Campbell, head coach of your BC Lions here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. I went back and looked, I forgot that that win that they had against Saskatchewan early in the

season was the one where Vernon Adams threw for a cool 451 yards. Is that good? That's pretty good. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's pretty good. We have the stats on that,

by the way. Yeah, we've got all the stats, all the numbers. I got completions, attempts. Is it a PDF page? No, it's dynamic. You can flip back and forth, toggle, if you will. What year are we in?

It's the genius sports at work. This toggling is Randy Ambrosio's legacy. I can look at both teams' stats. James and QB texting into the Dunbar-Lumber text line. We'll do a little more Canucks talk now. And he texts in, man, we had no business even getting a point last night. I was there. That was the sloppiest I've seen them play, except for Lankanen, in such a long time. So many passengers. Yes, it was not good, especially the first half of the game. The Carolina Hurricanes, a very good team, a very fast team,

a team that knows how it wants to play and usually plays that way. They should win a Stanley Cup at some point or at least get to the conference finals. They were on and they were winning every race to the puck. They were winning battles all over the ice and they got out to a 3-1 lead. And then the Canucks, to their credit, turned the game a little bit. There was a mistake, I would say, from the Carolina goalie

that allowed them to eventually tie it. I don't know exactly what, what's his name? Kuchetkov. Kuchetkov. Pokchetkov. Yeah, was doing there. Yeah, that was a heck of a move there.

I don't know what that was, but I like it. Did he get out pretty much to the blue line there? Yeah, he wanted to take a faceoff. You know what, though? He made a couple saves being aggressive in the game. He made that one on DeBrusque where he went for the poke check, missed, but dragged his toe. Isn't that kind of a deal-eddy?

That's interesting. Yeah, they have T-shirts in Carolina, apparently. Yeah, live by the sword sword die by the sword like you're gonna be aggressive you're gonna be aggressive he's a goalie version of a gunslinger little bit that's a good analogy a dog do coaches like that too no well i mean look stay in your net i don't mind that in this cookie cutter world of nhl goalies where everyone's trying to do the same thing there's one guy one guy guy in Carolina who's just racing out to the middle of the ice to make a play.

I just want everyone to know that. Sprong did well to maintain control of that. It was very patient from him. I would have just winged it towards the net. Man, when you watch Sprong play, it looks like he's got everything you need to be a big-time player. And then other times, nothing.

And then other times, just, just I think a lack of awareness. But man, he's not a small guy. He's got speed. He's got a great shot. He is... It's no wonder everyone, there's so many teams that have taken a chance on him, right?

He is very much a all tools, no toolbox kind of guy. It didn't work for them, but maybe for us. Maybe for us. So the Canucks have a practice today at 12 o'clock at Rogers Arena. They play New Jersey tomorrow.

And there's a couple things. We already mentioned this earlier in the show, but if you're just tuning in, there's a couple things that you should watch for today at practice. Number one would be on defense, Derek Forbort is expected to return to the team. So do they put him in immediately? And because of that, how does that, what's the knock-on effect of that? I would be shocked if

De'Arne plays against the New Jersey Devils. It's either going to be Forbort returns and Branstor moves over to the right side or Forbort returns and Juleson comes in or Forbort's not ready and it's Juleson and Branstor. I would be shocked if De'Arne is playing against the Devils. He had a tough game. So that's one thing to watch for is what the bottom pair is for the Vancouver Canucks.

Maybe they shake it up even further and split up Soucy and Myers. I don't know. The other thing, and perhaps the more interesting thing, is the power play because Rick Tockett said yesterday after the game, we're going to have to make some changes to the power play. Yep. And I don't know what that looks like. You'll recall last season that the Canucks did split up at one point. JT Miller was on one unit and Elias Pettersson was on another.

So there is a precedent for this happening. And I don't think anyone has played well on the power play for the Canucks. But I do think that Petey had an especially tough time out there with the man advantage yesterday. And I do wonder, and this would be a fairly big deal, if Petey is on the number one unit when they practice today. Another thing you can look for, by the way, they practice at noon today. So you will get news of what the lineup is going to look like on Wednesday.

For Huesapalooza, I might add. A reminder, that game on Wednesday, late one, 7.30 start. And I think that has to do with the fact that it's a doubleheader for a lot of the broadcasters. They want to make sure that the Hughes Bowl gets uninterrupted viewership. What? So late. Well, we're going.

Yeah, have fun. Yeah. Thanks for the invite. Well, it wasn't our job to invite the dogs. It's not a dog night. It is a Hughes brothers night. Are you aware that in the nine games against his brothers jack and luke quinn hughes has never scored a goal against the new

jersey devils so that's uh it's because he's the thoughtful brother well i think it's gonna happen on wednesday you're calling it now yep that's my bold take on that one quincy only defenseman that scored a goal this year for the canucks he's their entirety of their offense from the blue line. So a lot of people are texting in about Jake DeBrusque. Yeah. Wondering about this guy. And I think he kind of flew under the radar at the beginning because the Canucks for the most part were playing all right. He had a really good chance to score last night

and the aggressive Kachetkov made a good save on him. He then returned to the bench and promptly destroyed his stick. So I think it's safe to say that there's frustration on Jake DeBrusque's part. DeBrusque is not part of PP1 right now because he was replaced by Connor Garland and he might be frustrated at that.

And if you think about what people were saying when DeBrus was signed, it was like, oh, finally, there's a guy to play with Petey. Well, he's not even playing with Petey. So he's not playing with Petey, but he is playing on a pretty good line with JT Miller and Brock Besser. So I don't think he's going to be super upset about that,

but he could really use a goal score soon. So he had an exclusive interview with Daily Hive prior to last night's game. We're talking about Jake DeBrusque, and he did say that his start has been, quote-unquote, pretty disappointing. I don't think DeBrusque was going to shy away from it. He understands, given he's from a hockey family

with a lineage with his father, Canadian guy, he wanted to come back and play in a Canadian market and embrace the good, bad, and otherwise. So he understands that this was part of the formula, that it could go. I'm sure he envisioned he was gonna you know shoot out of the gates and he was gonna play with peterson there was gonna be goal scoring but

the flip side of it is if you don't produce you better own it or you better acknowledge it because everyone else is going to and like you said the dunbar lumber text message in basket um it's it's harsh right now and it's part of the game it's part of when you sign up to play in a passionate market is people want results and people have expectations. I mean, he just hasn't been impactful. No. He's watching him play. He has no goals in eight games. No, I know.

But it's more than that. I think you just don't notice him out there as much as you would like i noticed him last night right the chance i mean especially in the third i thought he was effective the chances were there he should have scored because the goalie actually missed what he was intending to do with the poke check they can go in those are the kind of things that happen when you're not feeling it he's got he extra long toes that allowed him to make that save. He's long-toed. I think that DeBrusque's start and the disappointment and the angst

both from him and the fans also has to do with the fact that Sherwood has looked great. Heinen has been, production-wise, more effective, I think. I know maybe the counting stats will say that it's pretty negligible. Well, he's on a good line. He's part of a good third line. That's the eye test part of it. If you were to say of the new guys that have come in.

I've noticed Heinen more than DeBrusque. I mean, you could say that you might have noticed Sprong, probably for bad reasons too, but in terms of impact. Impact works both ways. A fair amount of good too, though. Yeah, 100%. I mean, Sprung got chastised and punished more. Yeah, it was a mistake he made in the Philly game,

where he essentially just left his point man, and then lo and behold, that point man gets the puck and scores the tying goal. But I do think that comes with the territory of who Daniel Sprung is and how he arrived. You are a guy that is now existing on year-to-year contracts in different places because no one's giving you the leash or the rope anymore it's like well we've seen this in other places right so I'll be very curious to

see what happens at practice today what it all looks like and what the lineup decisions are going to be made especially on the power play I want to play Rick Talkett on the power play one more time because he's sounding a bit exasperated by this. Yeah, we're going to have to make some changes. Not working hard enough. Very lackadaisical, and it's a high-pressure team. We had the odd time when we had a couple looks. Actually, the game plan worked.

When Hughes threw at the net, we had Millsy almost scored in front. That's the key against this pressure power play is being able to make one or two plays and get it to the net. I thought a couple of guys there were playing slow. You can't play slow against a high-pressure PK. You just can't. So we're going to have to make a few. I think I'm going to make a couple of changes. We'll talk tomorrow.

So that's going to be interesting to watch if they work on the power play today. I imagine they will if they're making some changes. Another score that we haven't mentioned from last night, and I wanted to mention this because Halford had a hot take, another hot take before the season started. It looks great right now. And that was that Vegas was going to miss the playoffs. Well, they might be the best team in the NHL right now. And that was that Vegas was going to miss the playoffs. They might be the best team in the NHL right now.

The Vegas Golden Knights improved to 7-2-1 with a 5-0 drubbing. I like that word. Of the Calgary Flames. They're averaging like eight goals a game. But the collapse is imminent, right, Haliford? The collapse is imminent. They're scoring goals at the kind of clip that I know it's unsustainable, but I'm scared that it's not because I'm like,

wow, they're going to do this all year. They got plus 19. They're doing this because of your hot take. Is the Flames magic over? Yep, that was it. They had a fun run. They're done? Never forget those first four games of the season, Flames fans.

I noticed that Flames fans are starting to criticize Jonathan Hubertoto once again yeah it was inevitable yeah yeah yeah uh calgary they're not they're not the look of the team on paper they're not they're not good well calgary's lost three in a row that 401 start is now a distant memory because they've lost four or five they just got blanked last night they got dummied by vegas in every imaginable category they didn't get enough shots on that uh they turned the puck over like crazy i was watching the postgame media with um the head coaches whose name has escaped me now anyway um calgary's um and it just was a disaster apparently i only got to watch bits and pieces of it because i was too busy watching my beloved san josearks. Ryan Huska.

Yeah, it just came to me. Thank you. I was watching San Jose get its first win of the year, kind of keeping an eye on what was going on. But you knew at some part Calgary was going to wobble. I think the real question here, because this is going to be important to other teams in the NHL, is how badly they bottom out.

Because everyone's looking to pick scraps off the carcass here and around the trade. Yeah, Canucks fans, we get 10 texts a day, Rasmus Anderson. My response is always like, all right, yeah, he's a good player and he'd make a difference. What are you willing to give up? Hoaglander. That's not going to get it done.

It's not going to get it done. First round pick? So I did want to do it. Well, that's what it's going to take. I think if I'm Calgary. You really need a defenseman, though. If I'm Calgary, I'm like Tom Willender is going to be the guy. Yeah, but not a chance.

Not a chance? Well, I don't know. Rasmus Andersen's pretty good. He's pretty good. The Canucks are in it right now. You want Calgary to win the cup with Bruce DeWitts and Willender? Yeah, right now. All of our defensive

prospects. I mean, the Anderson piece would be the thing to make the Canucks a truly elite contender. They're a top four defenseman away, I think, and you're

going to have to wait on... Man, that'd be a rough trade. And you also got to wait on what's going on with Demko. Yeah, you're going to

have to wait on the whole Calgary situation to play itself, because it's not like they're going to start waving the white flag because they lost five games. No, it'd be like a deadline deal, if anything. Yeah, you're going to have to wait on the whole Calgary situation to play in something. It's not like they're going to start waving the white flag because they lost five. No, it'd be like a deadline deal,

if anything. I mean, they like to do their, the Canucks sometimes would like to do their shopping before that. And there are reports out there from Frank Ceravelli that the Canucks are already,

you know, taking a look at the defenseman market. You remember, they didn't wait until the trade deadline to bring Zdorov in. They did have an injury to Carson Soucy that they were responding to in some way.

But I think right now with the play of De'Arne and, you know, they're just probably looking at this blue line and going, it's not quite up to snuff. I wanted to bring this up yesterday because we did spend a lot of time yesterday talking about the Canucks' depth at forward and how it's probably among the best in the NHL

in terms of depth, lines 1 through 4, and guys forwards 1 through 13 on the roster. My mind grapes did get going, and I'm like, I wonder if that's going to be parlayed into we can afford to move a forward out who would have tangible trade value because at a certain point like when we talk about dakota joshua i think docket would be signing off on the hoglinder trade yeah right like okay that's what i'm saying that's what i'm saying like i'm not even joking. If you're looking at this team right now,

you're saying, where does Joshua fit when he's ready to go? Because he's playing, right? The Cucks have too many forwards. You can delay the inevitable. There's going to be injuries. But I know there's going to be injuries. But those are the conversations that you have where it's like, can we take away from our forward group where we've got tangible, tradable assets,

and if we hit an injury, are we going to be okay, and are we going to be able to sustain it? It's worth it if it's Rasmus Andersen. Right now, I would say, and here's the funny part of it, is Baines deserves to be in the lineup. Sprong deserves to be in the lineup. I've liked bits and pieces of Oman's game. He's probably rightly on the outside looking in

from time to time, but he can play. He's a guy that's proven that he's got the trust of Rick Talkett and he can go. Now we're talking about when Joshua comes back,

are you going to have a guy on the outside looking in that deserves to be in the lineup as opposed to, well, he can have a seat because he's an extra guy. And I think that's maybe where they end up being, which allows you to say, do we explore

a trade moving a forward out in part of a package to get a defenseman back? Okay. Landon Ferraro is going to join us next. The second Ferraro of the show. Landon was at Rogers Arena yesterday to watch the Canucks and the Hurricanes. So we'll talk to him about that, about what he saw and where the Canucks might need to improve before tonight's game, or tomorrow night's game against the New Jersey Devils.

You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.