Halford & Brough in the Morning - At Least Everyone Had Fun

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss last night's 8-5 Canucks loss, albeit an entertaining one, to the Florida Panthers (3:00), plus they chat the latest NHL news and note with ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (27:14).  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-na. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Mackie Samiskevich, into the Vancouver Zone, cut him to the front of the goal, shoots. What a saved by Yuri Patera. That's good. Now Miko, a left point, he's up a shot, they score. Left circle, into the slot, side of the goal. for Reinhartney-frontly score.

That's bad. They're pulling offense and you can't exchange chances, but, you know, we were right there and made a couple mistakes at the long time. A great opportunity squandered, absolutely. A crushing blow? Yes. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody.

It is Halpert and his brothen in Sportsnet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adol, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning. you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Sands and

Associates. Score a debt freedom hat trick. One, no more interest, two, much lower payments and three, financial peace of mind. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio, Kintech, Footwear, orthotics working together with you and step you know who we're not sponsored by who's at cloud flare oh i know cloud flare is causing problems in the world today well not so much problems

amazing things because uh twitter is down x is down chat gpt down several transit infrastructures globally down letterbox down unbelievable you know some have said and warned for years about the potentially ugly consequences of big tech companies underpinning the world's online plumbing. I'm not one of them, though. I don't even know what underpinning means. Go big tech. All right. We got a lot to get into on the program today.

Guestless today begins at 6.30. Greg Wischinski from ESPN is going to join the program. A couple of busy nights here on the NHL calendar, six games last night, including Vancouver's wild eight five loss in Florida. Eight games on the slate tonight, so plenty more to look. forward two. We'll talk to Greg at 6.30 about all that. 7 o'clock, Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks is going to join us. He, of course, was on the call last night for that wild 8-5 loss to the Panthers in Florida last night.

Just a ton to unpack from that one. A couple Canucks debuts as well, lost in the 13 goals that were scored. Canucks finished a road trip getting three of a possible six points, which is very 500 of them. We'll get into all that and more with Brandon Bachelor at 7 o'clock. 8 o'clock, Mike Kelly, NHL analyst from SportsLogic and NHL Network, will further to our conversation yesterday about the current state of the NHL. Are there more mediocre teams than ever?

Is there more parody than ever? Who are the truly great teams also want to get into what guys are playing their way on and off Olympic squads? We saw a few of them last night, maybe, in Florida. We'll get into all that and more with Mike Kelly from Sports Logic and NHL Network at 8 a.m. Not even going to work in reverse on the guest list. It's got so many things to get into on the show today.

So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened?

Miss that? You missed that? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCCSA. Aalias Patterson scored twice. Quinn Hughes had three assists,

but the Vancouver Canucks still lost 8-5 to the Florida Panthers on Monday night in Florida. It was a fun game. At one point, A-Dog texted the group. This game rocks. It was an A-Dog kind of game. There was lots of goals, maybe some, I don't know, some Sellies. Was there a Mishy scored?

Yeah, no Mishies, but some Sallies. It was entertaining. It's pretty grouch. It's been fun to watch. Hughes pile up the points and it's been encouraging to watch Elias Pedersen find his confidence offensively.

The Canucks scored 14 goals on this road trip with all the injuries they've suffered, including missing Connor Garland last night. A one one and one road trip against Carolina, Tampa and Florida, you know what, that's perfectly acceptable. It's fine.

Here's the butt, which you knew was coming. This Kinex team is a bad defensive team. the amount of chances that the Canucks are surrendering on a regular basis. It's not compatible with winning. Like you can't play like that and expect to win on a regular basis. No NHL team has given up more goals. I'm sure some of it is personnel with the team missing the likes of Bluger and forbort,

but you'd be foolish not to wonder about the effect of going from Rick Tocke at hockey to whatever they're playing now under Adam foot. This is not me advocating a return to Tockeet hockey because we all knew that particular style had its limitations. You know who else knew? Rick Tocke, because he tried to adjust the style last season, didn't work. So I'm not pining for that sort of hockey. Believe me, I'm not.

But surely there's a happy medium to be found because the Panthers at times last night seemed to toy with the Canucks. They're like, do we need a goal? Yeah, you need a goal. Okay, let's go get a goal. Wow, we got a goal. Five on five, power play for the Panthers, whatever.

You know, they buried a lot of chances. And really, this isn't just about last night either. In fact, it's mostly not about last night. That was a scheduled loss, having played the night before in Tampa, and with Yuri, Patera, and Nat. it was like, you know what, we've got three or four points on this road trip. Let's just do our best against Florida.

This is really about the underlying defensive numbers, whether you're talking expected goals against, which you can find out a public website like Natural Statrick, or you listen to what Kevin Woodley has been saying on the station referencing the clear site analytics numbers that show the Canucks are dead last in things like East West, below the hash mark chances, which, by the way, those are really good chances. If you think about if you're close to the net and you're making an east-west pass,

the goalie's kind of like, hey, those are hard to stop, Lattie. East-west below the hash mark, tough stops, right? Dislocate your hip and you get your leg over there. He sounds easy to me. And I think, what are we, a quarter of the way through the season, right? Remember a lot of people who are like, I'll let you know what I think about the Canucks after 20 games? 20 game mark. Well, what do you think?

And some of those people will bail on that. We're like, well, there have been so many injuries. Let's go. Let's kick the can down to the 40 game mark. I'm going to wait until American Thanksgiving. I'm still trying to answer the question because Adam Foote doesn't give us a lot. What are the connects trying to be? You know, like what's their identity?

Again, not advocating a return to talk at hockey, but we knew what they were trying to be. you know they even had like an advertising you know like they had their advertising built around the word structure right even their advertising was structured back in the day sure you know why it had structure all over it um if i'm being honest i and and and you know i'm trying to figure out like what is this what did this management group try to put together along with the coaching staff i think it all probably starts with having good goaltending which is why so much was riding on Demko staying healthy. A healthy Demko means you can get the defense involved more in the rush

because the risk of, you know, giving up an odd man rush the other way, well, you got Demko back there. A healthy Demko means you can blow the zone when you see a potential rush chance because if you happen to turn it over on that attempt, well, you know, you got Demko back there. A healthy Demko means your backup is Kevin Lankinen and not Yuri Pater. Now, having said all this, I still don't think any of this excuses some of the defending that we've seen from veterans like Tyler Myers and Marcus Pedersen. But I do remember in the preseason when we were talking about the new style under Adam Foot. And it seemed like the coaching staff was going to give the players a bit more freedom to use their instincts and just play hockey.

And certainly that's what a lot of people wanted for a guy like Alias Petter. And I think that's maybe helped Elias Pedersen a little bit. Although, a lot of his good stuff has been in the defensive zone. He might be their best defensemen so far, not named Quinn Hughes.

All that sounds great in theory, like more freedom. That's what people said about Bruce Boudreau. Remember Kevin Biaxa went in and talked to the group and he said, you should appreciate playing for Bruce. You have unlimited freedom. He gives you the freedom to just go out and play.

And then you remember that some players need less freedom, not more. Some players thrive in a structured environment where they're just saying, like, here's what you do. Yep. This is, this, this is what you do. I think Tyler Myers is one of those guys. You know, in a system like that, you don't have to, you don't have to cover for others as much because those players have jobs to do, non-negotiables, right? they're going to be standing right there and you can trust that they're going to be there making a play. Everyone just does their jobs.

Foot has actually mentioned this. It was early in this season, he was saying that the Canucks have been trying to help out their teammates too much, which sounds noble helping out your team as you want to help out your teammates. But what it looks like in reality is a lot of running around in your own end. Yeah, you look and feel and sound like you're chasing the entire game. And that's what the Canucks do. That's where good teams will absolutely pick you apart. You get running around, seams open up, passing lanes open up,

and good teams will go, boom, boom, boom. Behind your goalie, whoever it is. That happened seven times last night, eight if you're counting the empty netter. So let's hear more from the Canucks head coach right now. This is Adam Foote yesterday. And we'll start with the actual question off the top as well from one of the reporters. I think it might have been Dan Murphy, but I'm not 100% sure. regardless, let's hear now from Adam Foote following an 8-5 loss to Florida when asked about

Vancouver Canucks team defense. Do you think it was just a couple of eight counts, or what do you think of defensively of the team effort tonight? We try. I mean, we tried. There was a couple, you know, we weren't under a stick at one, and the tip went in, and then, you know, we went out wide on the rush for a 10 seconds left of the period, which is not what we usually do.

But, you know, back-to-back, maybe there's some fatigue that's in as well. But, you know, I thought Pedersen and Huggie and, you know, Peronic and came that, like, our older veteran players were going, they were humming. You know, a couple of mistakes at the wrong time with a team like that, their experience are going to make you pay.

You know, but we have to find a way to take some of the good stuff that happened out of that, too. So Foote's been leaning on the couple of mistakes or small mistakes or just a couple of errors. You've done it a lot over the last few games. Just a couple here and there. Just a couple in an 8-5 loss where you got out shot by nearly 30. But I think when you talk about trying to figure out what the Canucks are trying to be,

we're trying to figure out what the Canucks are trying to be. I do think that you hit the nail in the head and you said a lot of it was predicated on having really good goal tending. And if you remember, going into this season, there was a lot of talk, perhaps more than any other facet of the team about what the dynamic duo, of Thatcher Dempco and Kevin Lankin was going to bring to this team. It was going to bring stability.

It was going to bring solid goaltending on a nightly basis because they had confidence in both guys. But it was understood that Demko was the 1A and Lankan was the 1B. Dempco might not play as many games as he had in the past.

But when he played, he was potentially, and here's where I think the whole thing came together, he was maybe going to cover up some of those mistakes that Adam Foot talks about. You know those couple of mistakes

that you make every game? If you've got an all-world goalie, sometimes he cleans them up. And what we've seen is, one, Demko hasn't been healthy enough to play with regularity. Two, Lankin and hasn't been Demko. And then three, in the first quarter of the season, I don't think anyone anticipated that Yuri Patero was going to make a start, except for Greg who's waving his hand. No team in the NHL has conceded more goals than the Vancouver Canucks after last night.

Yep. That's not good. That wasn't in the plans. 23 power play goals conceded in 20. games, which is the worst mark in the National Hockey League as well. And there's a lot of... The P.K. is atrocious.

Is by far the biggest problem. And poor David Kompf was thrown in there last night. And he didn't help defensively. He was on the ice for four goals. Yeah, three at five on five. Yeah. So that's a tough night for him.

But I mean, look, like he just... That's like the second time this season the Canucks have just like thrown a new guy in there, right? With no, no practice. There was two guys made their... Lucas Reichel, like, was, you know, like, still in his Blackhawks gear when he was playing pretty much. Two Canucks made their Canucks debuts last night. It was Petera and Kompf.

Yeah. Like, that's a big deal, right? They have not played with the team this year. They haven't got to see, like, do we often give up this many goals? And one of the guys, like, yes, we do. This is what we do. But they don't keep the puck out of the net with any sort of regularity. Now, that's said... He comes in, he's like, so what do we do on the PK?

I was like, we were hoping you would have some ideas because we don't know. It's like, what the hell is a PK? That's what you hear we're for. Oh, that thing. I do want to say this, though. Despite all of this, and in our ongoing efforts, some would say over the top to try and find some positivity

amidst the negativity, I went out of my way to find this clip on the Panthers website yesterday. This is a second consecutive game where the opposing coach, unprompted, has praised the Vancouver Canucks, for their resiliency and never say die attitude. I don't know what's going on. I don't know if Cooper and Maurice decided that they wanted to throw, you know,

some flowers towards Adam Foot and the coaching staff. But this is Paul Maurice after the game. Not asked about the Vancouver Canucks, by the way, going out of his way to talk about how the Vancouver Canucks are such a good comeback team and some praise for Quinn Hughes as well. Here is the Florida head coach, Paul Maurice, after an 8-5 win over the Vancouver Canucks last night. This is a really good comeback team and they've had an awful lot of success.

They've got some skill and they're dangerous off the rush, but they're really dangerous to the puck up top because of Hughes is so dynamic up there and his ability to find a stick and find a hole. They're just not out of games, and they've proved that on this road trip. Hughes has 10 points in his last three games. Pedersen has four straight two-point games.

That's good. That is good. And to add another good to the pile, they're a very resilient team. At 5'2 last night, at the end of a road trip where they got out played for the majority of it and they had their fourth string goalie

net, let's not forget that if everyone is healthy Tolapila would have been in there instead of Yuri Patera. So with your fourth stringer and net down 5-2 at the end of a road trip I would have been like, okay, just pack her in boys, make sure nobody gets hurt, everyone get a nice twirl, get some stretching at the end, have a beer and let's get on the plane.

They fought back and they got it to 5-5. They do this with pretty decent regularity. Now you don't love that you have to constantly come back because it means that you're conceding a lot of goals. But the team is a hundred percent more invested in games that look like they're going to go out the window than they were last year.

Last year there was way too many times that the score would go two, three goal deficit, and it would be L. Foldo. And that would be the end of the night, and it would be like, this is a brutal night at the rink. Halford is still mad about that New Jersey game. That was the one. We were there for it. Was it six nothing?

They scored two goals while I was in the elevator. It went from 4-0-0-0-0 while I was in the elevator. I'm like, he's got, aren't even trying it's Quinn Hughes's a special night. It's his special night against his brothers. And look what happened now. Anyway, I digress. Yeah, Quinn Hughes, I mean, he's, he's, I think he was pretty far down in the list of NHL defensemen in scoring, and then, like, they just add 10 points in the last three games.

I think that was, like, second in scoring. Yeah, I think he's all the way up to second among defensemen in the NFL. I do want to talk about Pedersen because, as Halford mentioned, four straight two-point games. I think he's now up to 19 points in 21 games, so almost a point-of-game player. His first goal last night came off a great pass from a Vander Cain on a 2-1. Quinn Hughes was part of that. 4-A as well. Pretty easy finish for Pedersen there, and he looked confident doing it.

I really liked his second goal because it started with the puck on his stick. In his own end, he protected it in his own net, in own end. He got bodied a little bit, but protected it, made a nice move to start the breakout and went off on a rush with, I think it was Kiefer Sherwood and Tom Velander. And Sherwood ended up getting Pedersen, the puck in the slot. Yeah, nice little pass. Really nice pass and an even nicer finish, beautiful backhand roof job pass Babroski last night.

I think Babroski stopped like 10 shots last night. He did. And he's like, I got to go to the win. That's what women do. So you mentioned that the Kinecks scored 14 goals over the course of the three games on this trip. Do you know how many shots they had over the? 50.

They shot 28% over three games. Is that good? Is that sustainable? Are we supposed to be happy about this? Maybe we got a thing here. I don't know. Maybe it's our thing is that we shoot close to 30%. Other teams waste their shots like Carolina.

waste a lot of shots. The post game show said that the Canucks actually had a ton of shot attempts last night and it just, they missed the net with like a really high, high degree of difficulty. It's hard to miss the net as much as they did. But they finished, the final shot total was 41.15 and that is not great.

You know what bothered me the most? Was that they gave up 41 shots on a night where Patera was a net. You would have thought that they would have bent over backwards and moved heaven and earth to try not to hang this guy out to dry. Now I know, a brief word on him. he made some great saves.

You played one of the great saves in the intro. That might be save of the year, the one that he had in the first period. There was also some times where you're like, that looks like a guy who hasn't played in the NHL in three years and is maybe a little slow to react to the speed of the National League. Fair enough. You cannot hang that on him at all. And it is kind of brutal that the guys in front of them didn't do a better job

of clearing the front of the net, getting in front of more puck, doing whatever it took to try and protect the guy that hadn't played in like three years. Like you know what's coming. And I know that they fought tooth and nail to get back in the game and they made it 5-5 and they deserve a lot of credit for that. But you mentioned two guys in particular

with Myers and Pedersen. Like those are veteran guys that even if they're having problems in the system, you still rely on them for a lot of different things. It wasn't just them. I mean, Vielander on the sixth goal, the winning goal, that was what Foote was talking about. He didn't get under a stick.

And he just let the guy, tip at home. No, I know. Patterson was taking bad penalties. It wasn't good. And it's frustrating on a night where you look back on it and you're like, did you catch Florida on a sleepy night

where maybe you could have stole something? Yeah. Did you also hang your goalie out to dry? I'd say yes. And that's a frustrating thing. Now in the same breath, they did some things last night that were admirable.

I think that might end up being the identity of this team. Is that they do enough things to make you not hate. them but they're not going to be good enough to go anywhere of significance they're just going to kind of be hanging around this 500 mark all year long yeah you know but not to the point where you're like dreading watching the games because yeah I'm gonna be honest it was a fun game the road trip was entertaining they went to overtime in carolina they scored six on answer

against Tampa Bay and they there's a 13 goal game on a Monday night in Florida but you'll sign up with some with some big hits yeah it wasn't yeah it was uh horrible officiating well yeah that's part of the NHL experience. Mark in white rock texts in to the Dunbar Lumber text line. He says,

fans don't know what this team is. Management doesn't know what this team is. The players don't know what their identity is. Sometimes we wear black and red sweaters,

sometimes blue and green. Who knows? Our pets' heads are falling off. Yeah, it is the, the, the, it was always going to be

interesting to see which style the Canucks played this season because I think they were hanging their hat on style change

and if you go back to the off season there were the meetings with Adam Foote and Adam Foote talking to all his players to the point where Quinn Hughes was like, hey man stop calling me, I'm on vacation and I think the obvious

thing to conclude from that is that the players were going to have some input on how they were going to play and it was going to be different than it was under Rick Tocket and we wondered, okay, well you know, we'd seen enough of talk at hockey and even though it did have some semblance of success we knew that you know

wasn't a long term like you weren't going to win a cup i don't think playing rick talk at hockey um and the players maybe it stopped enjoying playing rick talk at hockey but like that looked like bruce budro hockey last night like why does the pendulum have to swing so aggressively like I don't think they're designed to be giving up this many goals. I think they're a counter attack team though. A little bit. But I also think that entire premise was predicated on having

better goal tending or having more regular. Like I don't think it's a good, don't get me wrong, I don't think it's a good strategy or a good blueprint. They weren't so badly outshot under Rick Tocket because they were, they just weren't allowing as many shots. Like, what were the shot totals from the road trip? It was like they were badly outshot in Carolina

and badly outshot in Florida. Yeah, I think the, I think it was a lot of it was predicated on Demko's going to be here and he's going to be healthy and he's going to be that Petcher Demko. Vesna Calibir, Thatcher Demko. So they could take a few more chances? And then when we need to rest him, which will be more than previous years,

we've got Kevin Lankin and we have faith that on those nights if we pick and choose selectively, we can get, And now, I mean, what can you say? It's Patera and Lankinen. And, I mean, there was some thought that Lankinan was going to go three and four nights. By the way, I think that we've accurately hit the nail on the head in our analysis of the team because the text message is coming into the Dunbar Lumber text message in Baskett are polar opposites.

Back to back. Like we got one from Sam and Lake Couchin, my favorite listener. He said, negative, negative, negative, that's all you guys are. That was immediately followed by another text that said, enough and yawn with all the positivity. You see, when you trade back and forth and say, I'm going to say something good about the team, then I'm going to say something bad.

It throws the listeners into a tailspin. They don't know what to make of it. But that's the team. It's very confusing team. That's on me, by the way. I normally mute salmon lake couch, and it's part of my morning routine. I just go mute for 24 hours.

Yeah, now everyone that texted, oh, by the way, we can also respond to text now. which is good. Cloudflare wiped that out earlier in the show. Okay. I wrote back and I said, cloud flare. I said, thank you Sam for listening and writing as always. You are appreciated. That's a lie, Sam. If you did not text in, my day would

not be any different than it was if you did text in. It would be better. We got a lot more to get into on the program. Greg Wischinski's going to join us on the other side. We're going to go around the National Hockey League. Six games last night, eight games tonight. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. We try. I mean, we tried. You tried your best.

And you failed miserably. The lesson is, never tried. Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. Play there by Pallorn who steps in to steal the part two-on-one with Zellwiger. The trailer Seneca makes the pass. Seneca stops in there to win the game.

Great look by Seneca. Anaheim pulls one out of the final line to Sutter. 633 on 8 Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough, SportsNet 650. They said it couldn't be done. Said you couldn't play in Anaheim-winning overtime goal clip over the ESP. music, but Greg, Greg showed him what's up. Nice work, Laddie.

I didn't want to solely the music. It's such a good tune. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sports Night 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Only a license, insolvency trustee can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees to learn how. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Greg Wosinski from ESPN is going to join us in just a moment here, the highlight of Hour 1. Hour 1 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. To the phone lines we go. Greg Wasinski from ESPN joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

What up, Wish? You know, listening to the ESTN theme under a duck's game-winning overtime goal, I was expecting to hear Paul Korea's name being uttered somewhere in the highlights. Real old-school Disney vibes going on there for sure. Yes, the mighty ducks of Anaheim.

Bring it back, I say. Bring it back. The world's ready for it now. Do you believe in the ducks? Are these guys for real? No. Okay. Listen, they're for real in the sense that I think they've got a very intriguing balance

of veterans and young stars. Like, no doubt they're on the right track, and no doubt Joel Quinville's going to, his arrival, I think, has instilled a confidence in this group that perhaps they didn't have for Greg Cronin and I think that's important

and so the start that they have they're going to be relevant, they're going to hang around I predicted before the season that I thought they might be a last week of the season elimination but when you open the hood of this team and look inside they still can't defend at all

like they're last in the league and expected goals against at five on five they're last in the league and shot attempts given up at five on five on average. They have relied overly on Lucas Dostal to bail them out this year, and he's played to basically a Vezna level. So I talked to Pat Verbeek last week for a story, and he said, you know, our hope is that that improves over time and that giving Joel Quenville a run with this team will allow

him to instill systems that are going to bring those defensive. numbers into at least middle of the road, but until that happens, like, I can't take them seriously as a contender. They just give up way too much and are overly reliant on, admittedly, one of the best goalies in the league right now. Is Chicago the same story with Spencer Knight? In some ways, I mean, Knight for sure has kind of had the same transformative impact, for sure. I mean, like, to have a guy back there be that competent, I think certainly helps a team that's young and a lot of significant places.

And I think he's also been pretty much one of the best stories in the league so far too as far as the redemption arc. But if you look at the numbers, the ducks are 32nd, the Blackhawks are 29th and expected goals against so far this season.

And then again, like you mentioned, Chicago, same story, 29th in the shot attempts they're giving up per 60s. So two very similar teams. I would say, though, like top to bottom, I think the ducks have more on their roster right now than Chicago does. You know, whether it's the, you know, Leo Carlson and the Young Wave

or the veteran guys like Crider and Truba that have just been transformative for that team. So I have a bit more faith in them sticking around as a contender than I do the Blackhawks, but you're right in both cases. It's two porous defensive teams that have gotten outstanding goaltending early on in the season. I was checking out the expected goals against percent. 60 on Natural Statrick recently because the Vancouver Canucks are there but you know another team

is Winnipeg is I actually haven't watched much Jets hockey this year but I've noticing their underlying numbers are not encouraging what's going on with them yeah they've been poo-poo and their fans

their fans have certainly noticed this and you're right I mean like it's it's a situation where you're wondering whether some of the defections that they've had and some of the issues that they've had are starting to creep in. I mean, you know, you lose a Nick Eilers off that roster and all of a sudden the configurations of things change and, you know, maybe there's some slippage here and there. And it's kind of inexplicable for a team that has been that good statistically to kind of fall into this mire. And you're right. At this point, if they're given up three expected goals against, per 60, which is currently 30th in league. By the way, the Ducks are 31st, Blackhawks 28th in that. I had some older numbers I was looking at.

So I just want to clarify, for those of you out there, that are tabulating with an abacus, all the things that we're talking about. Who's last? But the jet, I was reading some stuff about me just over the weekend, and there's definitely a notion that things haven't come together for Winnipeg quite as people would have expected. But, yeah, that's a number of veteran teams right now.

It's a real topsy-turvy league. And, you know, we're just over a week away from the American Thanksgiving cutoff of, you know, you better be in or else you're in trouble, playoff stuff. And I don't know how many of these teams that we all expected to be in the playoffs are going to be in playoff spots in just over a week's time. And so you wonder, okay, does that mean that we've all misinterpreted what the standings are going to look like before the season? or does it mean that we're just going to have a real anomalous campaign

where teams that are on the outside looking in are going to eventually end up in these playoff spots as the early starters fade? I do wonder if it's going to be the latter because we talked about this yesterday and we're going to have Mike Kelly on the show at 8 o'clock to continue this conversation as well. But it certainly feels as though the mushy middle

is bigger than ever in the National Hockey League and whether that's just too many mid-teams or it's Gary's parody. I'm not sure, but you could make the argument that there's maybe one really great team in Colorado. And then there's a handful of good teams. And there's an awful lot of average teams right now. And that's reflective in the standings, but I think also with the eye test as well. Gary's parity would be a great, like, fruit stand.

I just realized. Gary's pair. Gary's pairs. Gary's parity. I would go there. How about a cumquot? So do you guys call it a cumquot in Canada? I have no idea.

You doing Betman at a farmer's market selling coming. Yeah, I was doing Betman. You're like, I'm quiet. No, I have like nine impressions. I use them for several different people. And I was crushed by Ryan Lambert and Down Goes Brown to never do them anymore after being on Puck Soup with them for many years. So consider yourself lucky that I whipped out the Betman as it were on this broadcast. I think part of the thing about the Thanksgiving cutoff,

like, okay, so you look at Tampa, right? We all kind of feel like Tampa's going to be okay. They've had some injury problems, what have you. If they're on the outside looking in, you're pretty confident they're going to make the cut. You look at Florida. They're treading water. They're just trying to get to a kachuk coming back,

and then hopefully down the line, Kulkoff comes back, and then, you know, God willing to make the playoffs, Barkoff comes back. So you've got a couple of teams on the outside, in the East that you're pretty sure are going to be in it at the end. You have the Oilers on the outside looking in. You have the mammoth on the outside looking in. I think those are two teams that I think a lot of us expect to be in the playoffs.

So there's a number of teams that are going to be right around the bubble. The margin between these teams, like you said, points-wise, is so small that we could see a pretty large number of these play-out spots turn over in a way that we don't normally. Or we're completely wrong. And the usual mojo that goes along with being at a playoff spot at American Thanksgiving, you know the trend hold i think the oilers are in are in trouble right now like they don't have i watch a bit of their game in buffalo yesterday and we've been talking about the oilers a fair amount and uh like they're who are their who their wingers are just non-existent like yeah you've

got you've got mac david in dry sidle but you know the goaltending still remains an issue but it's mostly it's mostly about depth i mean you know like we kind of joke in vancouver is Vasily Pod Colson their second best winger? Like what is going on in Edmonton? And I'm just wondering, well, what you think of them and whether or not they are, are they still like at Stanley Cup contender levels as currently construed?

And if not, can they do something about it? So you're saying it's almost like the kind of team where if you're the best hockey player in the world, you only take a two-year contract to stay with that team. I mean, I think we're seeing exactly. He's like, wait a minute, this Isaac Howard kid wasn't the answer or, you know, who's the other young guy that they're. Loving that Trent Frederick barely plays. He plays like eight minutes the other day. You're like Matt Savoy. Aren't you on the Rochester Americans? What the hell is happening here? Yeah, exactly. No, I think you're right.

I think there's definitely been some atrophy in that lineup, and I think that they've searched for ways to try to augment the group with some fiscally conservative acquisitions of younger players, knowing that they had to pay out a bit, and we'll have to pay out even more, obviously, next season for Connor, despite him taking the hometown discount. And so, like, yeah, you don't know what you got until it's gone, and a guy like Corey Perry, who, you know, was a Swiss Army knife for them

and was able to do a lot of, you know, dredge work down the line up and do fill in and score goals and do all that stuff. I was going to mention Evander Kane in that situation, but I don't think anybody listening right now would really consider him to be a massive loss for a team at this point. And so, yeah, they don't look like a team that's going to contend for the Cup or potentially make a third straight trip to the final. But this isn't the first time that we've looked at an Edmonton team early in the season and said they're a pile of dung.

Yeah. You know, this seems to happen to them. And then all of a sudden they find another level. The pieces start to fit and off we go. The gold sending remains just an absolute anchor around the neck of this organization. I don't know what the solution is there at all. but it'd be nice to find one if you're them. I mean, shoot, man, like, maybe grab the blues at a time of dire need

and figure out a way to grab Bennington at some point. I honestly don't know, like, what the solution is there. And then, you know, if you get Bennington, you're getting in a season, which he kind of stinks. So you're right. They don't look good at all, but I would caution to say that, you know, for those that want to dance in their grave should remember that they've not looked good at the beginning of the season in the past.

I think that there's another perennial playoff team from Canada that's in greater danger of missing this year than Edmonton and I've been cooking this one up in the lab I'm ready I think it's Toronto I think Toronto's you've been cooking it up in the lab I've been cooking along with everyone else no just me by myself Greg Bruby yelling at them out too

he's like I think we're going to miss nine years consecutively they've made the post season and it looks awful right now the goaltending the kind of prop them up last year is gone Marner is obviously gone. Matthews isn't there. And yeah, Baroube has all the signs of a guy. You know what it looks like?

Chris Tanev, man. He's the glue there. It looks like at the very end of Baroube's tenure in St. Louis where he was yelling and stomping his feet and screaming, and nobody was responding. Halford's like, I've invented stairs that move. I've never heard of such an amazing thing. And down. That's the key.

And Alford's like, I don't know about these sabers. no the leaves are in real trouble you're absolutely right i mean i i think we all knew that they would struggle to find a way to fill the hole created by losing a 100-point winger who excels in all facets of the game and obviously they've completely failed in trying to even get you know a martin nature's to replace miko rantin type situation uh to use a recent comparison like they've just they didn't even come close to addressing the loss of of Marner. You know, this could easily just be a step back

before a leap forward type season. I think the problem for the Leafs is that even if it is a leap forward type season, usually the way they leap forward is to spend a lot of money and the problem is under the rising cap, everybody's keeping their own guys. So, you know, the idea that you could have thrown

a billion dollars at Connor McDavid as a free agent and entice him to come home hoping that he's slept in Leafs jannies like their current number two center. You know, it doesn't, that's not a reality anymore. So, yeah, they're struggling. I've already seen some clarion calls for them to fire Craig Verrube and hire Pete DeBore.

But again, in the case of Pete DeBore, the teams that he's led to conference finals and the Stanley Cup finals are exponentially better and deeper than this Leafs team. Now, I will caution you, again, to say that there are some pretty important players that aren't in the lineup right now, chiefly among them, Chris Tanna, who I think does some really good things to them on the blue line, and also increases the compete level of a team that has looked absolutely particularly. Destrian, which is not what you expect from a Craig Brube team. But the thing, here's what they should do. They should just figure out what it takes to pry away Nazam-Codry and Rastas Anderson from the Calgary Flames and then see what you got. Again, I don't think this team is very good.

I don't think the construction of this team is very good. But if you really think that you could make headway and you're convinced that Austin Matthews isn't broken, then try to swing that trade. Because the good vibes of Cadry returning to Toronto, I think, are great. and he's a great player. And then I think Anderson seriously helps out a lot of their issues in the back end. That's what I would do if I were them. Okay, I can't believe who we waited this long

to bring this up. But as an ardent Devils fan, I got to ask you about Jack Hughes. I got to ask you if the Devils are indeed a cursed franchise. I got to ask you about the steakhouse in Chicago that's now been flooded with negative Yelp reviews because apparently it was at fault for slicing Hughes's hand open. Did you ever get to the bottom of exactly what happened?

I thought, like, I thought it was glass. but it was at a steakhouse he was at a team dinner which made what happened wish yeah just walk us through it first of all first of all there's like only a handful of true foodies in hockey writing it's like me

fludo in boston Eric Angles in Montreal because I'm one of the few I'm the only one who thought to go look at the Yelp reviews for Chicago Steakhouse to figure out if they were getting review bombed by by hockey fans

and lo and behold there's like one star reviews for the steakhouse being like, don't eat here. They'll cut off your finger if you're an NHL player. It's pretty great. I actually reached out to them yesterday, to the surprise of no one. They never got back to me.

From what I gather, it was glass. I'm still a little bit hazy as to how the glass thing happened. I've heard you fell or something like that. It could have been a lot worse than what it is, which is six to eight weeks after surgery. It didn't seem like there was a tremendous amount of tendon damage, which is really good news for the doubles and for Hughes. I lament the fact, though, Jason, that it wasn't a knife because the memes surrounding the steak knife thing were a lot more entertaining than the I Fell on Broken Glass thing.

If you do the Broken Glass thing, all you really have is DiCaprio literally cutting his hand and Django unchained in that one scene. And that's really all you have. Right. The knife thing, you have an endless array of different things. You have Bishop, the Android, and aliens doing the knife trick with his hand. the first thing I said was this definitely happened

because he was cutting Luke's meat for him you know there's a number of different things that you can say with the knife thing that you simply can't say with the glass thing and that's really my second thing my biggest problem is that one of the best hockey players in the world who also is going to be on Team USA is injured

my second most troubling thing is that we lost some great memes when it turned out to be glass instead of knives which I can't follow that but I do want to ask, are there as many interesting decisions when it comes to the USA hockey roster as there seem to be with the Canadian roster?

I mean, forget the goaltending. Like, you know, are they going to take Celebrini? Are they going to take Baderd? Are they going to take Sam Bennett? You know, like, from that Four Nations team, I think there could be quite a bit of turnover for the Canadian team. What are things looking like for the American team?

Yeah, I'd agree. and the Bennett thing's really interesting. He had a good game last night, but I mean, you know, if your team Canada, you're doing the same thing as Bill Zito did last summer, which is weighing the lack of regular season results with postseason impact, and I think he'll probably end up on the team because of that in a short tournament, and he's the kind of guy you'd want. It is interesting, though, as I watch Team Canada struggle with,

should we put on a bunch of teenagers onto this roster because that's how good they are? And meanwhile, here in the U.S., it's like, should we put a 55-year-old Patrick Kane in the lineup? is that something that we should do? We did invite him to Olympic camp. Does there still some juice to squeeze out of that lemon? In all honesty, it's an interesting situation with the U.S. roster because, listen, I fully expect T.H. Thompson to be on it. I fully expect Brock Nelson not to be on it, even though I think that Billy Garron loves Brock Nelson.

I'm not sure if the season he's had really warrants inclusion. you know they've got a ton of defensemen will probably have to make a decision on defense because Quinn Hughes God willing will be healthy the goaltending situation is probably as to be expected with Demko's health I mean it's still probably going to be

you know Hellebug Ottinger Swayman and you know they've got some decisions here and there but overall like you said some of them are a bit more philosophical as far as the direction they want on this team I mean if if you want to build this team like four nations and make sure that your bottom six a bunch of 200-foot guys that it might look a lot like it did last year

for Four Nations if you are a bit more concerned about finding that goal in an overtime against Canada than maybe a guy like Cole Caulfield makes the team. So it's more of a philosophical, I think, thing I think, for USA right now. It's a good problem to have

because they've got a ton of talent to pick from. But I am intrigued to see ultimately what direction they go for. And knowing Bill Guerrin, I'm sure it's going to be more in the lines of let's keep the quote-unquote one-dimensional players home and bring up a bunch of guys that are more in the Vincent Trocheck mold. Wish this was awesome, buddy. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

As always, we appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week and all the games tonight. We'll do this again next Tuesday. Thanks, boys. Thank you. Greg Wischinski from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Okay, coming up on the other side of the break, Brandon Bachelor is going to join us to kick off the 7 o'clock.

hour, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks. He, of course, was on the call for last night's 8-5 loss in Florida to the Panthers. We'll get Wishes' batches takeaways from everything that happened last night. We got an open segment at 7.30. So if you want to weigh in, Dunbar-Lumber text message in-basket is 650, 650. And you can also get your What We Learns in now, by the way. Hashtag him, WWL. What did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports?

So open segment at 730 following batch. 8 o'clock, Mike Kelly is going to join the program. NHL analysts for SportL Logic and NHL Network. We'll do some league-wide stuff with him as well. So a lot of hockey talk on the horizon. If you want to weigh in, again, Dunbar Lumber TechSline is 650, 650. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.