Halford & Brough in the Morning - Barn Burner At Mile High

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they chat a big 8-6 Canucks win over the Avs in Colorado (3:00), plus the boys look ahead to tonight's 'Nucks matchup at Quinn Hughes' Minnesota Wild (27:00). 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.

Whoa, wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose the fucking Canucks? Da-na-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You're listening to Halford and Brough.

Besser, cutting across the Colorado line, right circle with Rooms, and shoots and scores. What a wrist shot from Brock Besser. It's his 20th of the season and second of the game, and it's six. two Canucks. Labs don't know what hit them. And boom goes to dynamite. Just speaks to the guys. We've been talking about playing more aggressive and competing harder. And I think we've done that.

Good morning, Vancouver, 6-01 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brow. It is sports net 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Addo, good morning to you. Good morning.

Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alford and Breb in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have credit card debt? If you do, Sands and Associates can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We're coming to you live from the Kintech Studio, Steps Strong with Orthotics and Footwear. from Kintech. If you want to text into the show, 650, 650 is the number of the Dunbar Lumber text line trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber Online today. All right, let's get to our

guest list. It's the Duke Morning Drive brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 7 o'clock. Adnan Verk from MLB Network is going to join the program. We'll talk about the Blue Jays who lost to the Rockies yesterday and with it lost the series as well. We can also talk about ABS, the hottest thing in baseball. The twins set a record yesterday, Jason. Nine challenges in a single game. They won eight of them. Pretty impressive.

Was there any CB Buckner news yesterday? There was not in a good way. Oh. He took a hundred mile an hour foul ball tip to the head. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and I look like a jerk for calling him out yesterday.

You do look like a jerk, Gladys the game. How often do umpires leave games with injuries? He's a human being. He is. He's going to be replaced by a robot, but he's a human being. He's going to be replaced by a big robot. What is this doing to MLB umpires? We'll talk to Adnan and Verk about that at 7 o'clock.

7.30, Scott Rintoul's going to join the program. You of course know him as the former Sports Net 650 host. Now the host of the Better Sports Parents podcast. He had longtime NHL or Shane Donne on his pod recently. We'll talk to Scotty about the current state of youth sports, but maybe also get his thoughts on the local sports scene as well. Rintoul is going to join us at 7.30. 8 o'clock, it's Randy Janda, Kinnock's analyst right here on SportsNet 650.

He was on the call for an absolutely wild and crazy night for the Knox in Denver last night, in which the Kinnukes scored a season high, eight goals in an 8-6 win against the Colorado Avalanche. Lots to unpack there. I think in terms of at least the betting line. that was the biggest single game upset of the NHL season last night. Randiap's going to join us at 8 o'clock to talk about it all. So it's only three guests today. The first hour of this show is all uninterrupted Halbro.

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

Missed that? You missed that? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction. Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies to best in tools or resources and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. Last night at Ball Arena,

Brock Bester with the hat trick. Vancouver Canucks and a six game losing streak and boy, how did they? An 8-6 win in an absolute roller coaster against the Colorado Avalanche in Denver on Wednesday night. There are some Canucks games where I run through all the goals. I'm not going to do that this morning. It takes.

up the whole show. We don't have all day. But that was a really fun game. You know, sometimes, and we're going to have to do this probably during the rebuild, sometimes we're just going to have to enjoy a hockey game for what it is. Now, the Canucks haven't given us a ton of enjoyable hockey games this season. But last night, you forget about the standings. You forget about where the Canucks are.

You know, you forget about the fact that it's probably going to be a multi-year run. rebuild back to being a contender and you can just, you know, enjoy a hockey game. It was a wild one. True fun, Jason. It was true fun last night. It was. I'm sure the abs are furious with how they played. No fun whatsoever.

Because they were super sloppy right off the bat and clearly took the Canucks too lightly. But Colorado's lack of respect for the NHL's worst team made for a pretty entertaining game. So I'm glad they did it. I'm glad they disrespected the conversexed the conchews. Canucks in that fashion. That's the secret recipe. What is it? Oh, a lack of respect.

Vancouver went up early on a goal by Max Sasson, just 29 seconds into the game. Sleepy play by Josh Manson made that happen. And amazingly, the Canucks just kept scoring and scoring to the point. But they held a four-goal lead over arguably the Stanley Cup favorites in Denver. Now, in an eight-six games, the Av scored a few too. The Canucks were up 6-2 after Brock Bessor's second goal of the contest, and that was with about five minutes left in the second period. After which the abs proceeded to score four unanswered goals,

eventually tying it up with six minutes left in the third. Surely the Canucks were going to lose again. The momentum was not on their side. But the Canucks immediately answered the tying goal with a goal of their own. Marcus Pedersen. Everyone's expected him to score. Of all guys made it 7 to 6, and then Besser completed the hat trick

into the empty net. I want to play the winning goal by Marcus Pedersen, who had himself a night. One goal, the winning goal, two assists, plus four. Trade him now. Here's the winning goal by Marcus Patterson.

Can Oxler back four? in the Colorado zone. Brock Besser behind the net feeds high slot. Marcus Pedersen with the one-timer scores. Marcus Pedersen for the left circle beats Scott Wedgwood and the caducks have the lead back in this roller coaster of a hockey game. Vancouver leads seven to six with five 39 left. What is going on in this game? 13 goals. What is going on in this game? 14 goals by the end of it too. Brock Besser hat trick into the empty net. A lot of guys patted the stat sheet last night. Brock Bessor hat-trick to give him 21 goals on the season. Okay.

So I want to... I know this was in your notes. Okay. The part where I won the bet was... Wasn't in the notes because I had forgotten about our bet. Because every time... Listen, I don't want to disrespect you the same way the abs disrespected the Canox. But like every time I make a bet with you, I just assume I'm going to wait.

Because I normally do, right? Here, we need to clarify. I'm still waiting for that dinner from three years ago. Yeah, welching on that bet. I can't remember what that was from the Edmonton series. Oh yeah. Yeah. Which of course was two years ago.

We've had a few Christmas dinners since then. Don't count. I don't think those count. I don't think those count. Not part of the bet. Okay. Question. Not part of the bet. The bet that we had started with a conversation whether or not the Connucks would have a 20 goal score this year. That question has been answered. As you put it, Brock Bessor now has 21 on the year. I think it dovetailed into a conversation about who the Canucks leading score,

goal score was going to be by the end of the year. And you took Drew O'Connor. It did. So either way, it's not looking great for me. Because Brock Bester is now on a rocket ship to the moon, whereas Drew O'Connor, I believe, is still stuck on 17, which is a problem. So Jake DeBrusk has 17 as well. Yeah. He scored last night.

That's his 14th power play goal. I love that ratio, by the way. So in all seriousness, I know I said, oh, Trey Pedersen, Marcus Peterson now while his value is high, Jake Debraska's probably not going to be on the team next season. It doesn't sound like, I know he walked back those comments. earlier, but I think there's a pretty good chance that he's like, I'm okay

if you want to trade me, and the Canucks are like, we're okay with it. He's going to walk back the walkback. I wonder if he, well, I do wonder what's going to happen. Who knows? But some team out there that is struggling on the power play and needs a net front guy with great hands and the ability

to get there and get a stick in the right position or tip puck's home, that's a guy that you should target. He's very good at that. Now, at five on five, he needs to be more effective, but maybe with a more effective center or just a different combination, he can be.

We all know he came from Boston and there were inconsistencies there. So he's not ever going to be the perfect player, but there are some things that he does really well. And being the net front on the power play is one of them. So, you know, how you often talk about, when you get players on bad teams like this, you have to sell a story to other teams

about wanting to trade them. Yes. I think, I think that you could go to someone in the offseason and say, hey, we know we had a bad year and, you know, DeBrusk, like a lot of our players, struggled. However, consider what he was able to do, the rows that grew from concrete

in this awful year. I looked at it last night. He's seventh in the NHL in power play goals. Yeah. He's top 10. The leader is Wyatt Johnson, who I mean, he's got more than 50% of his goals on the paper. But if you look at it, and I know some of the names kind of jump out

and you're surprised that they're there. I think Nebraska would be won't. But you could say in a year where we were the worst team in the National Hockey League, this guy still managed to carve out a niche where he was a top 10 power play goal score in the NHL. Teams would absolutely, absolutely be interested in the choir. Just blame it on PD.

Just blame the 5 on 5 stuff on PD. We didn't generate anything at 5 on 5. PD on the power play to make things happen. Most of his passes on the power play that lead to goals, he's not moving his feet, he's just standing there. Yeah, right?

And he still has, he still has that great vision. And he's a good passer. I've compared him to an aging quarterback that isn't going to be mobile, but you can still make passes from the pocket. You know, it's like as long as he gets protection, a lot of his assists are on the power play,

and that pass he made. to DeBrusk was a really good one. He just, you know, when he's got time and space and, and, you know, like he's, again, he still has, has the vision, but at five on five, he's not very effective. Now, Brock Besser is having a lot of success in the last little while because I think he's got a line or he's got a center that works a little bit better for him. I mean, Brock was stuck with David Komp for much of the earlier, of the early season. Yeah, Adam putt mentioned that.

Well, it's like, it's like, oh, did he? What did he? What do you say? Well, he's talking about Brock's season and how he was able to break out offensive. He said, he didn't frame it quite as, you know, David Kump's lack of offensive prowess. He said that when he was playing with Komp, they were more of a defensively responsible line. That's the glass half full approach. That's the way you put it. Okay. That's the spin. Teddy Bluger also had a pair of goals, including one shorthanded.

Him not being moved at the deadline to me. And I know there's a multitude of reasons for. I know for sure. But that's the same thing as the heronic argument to me. I watch him play. How is he not on a team going to the playoffs right now? He would have been such a valuable addition to any team going to the postseason because he could do a lot of different things.

We've seen the heights of his offensive prowess when he was on the third line back in the day. I just feel like that was a real opportunity missed from an organization that, again, maybe isn't taking all the necessary steps to truly maximize assets going into a reboot. I know you like Bluger. I mean, not you, you, the collective you. Well, I do like Blugher. I like him too, but yeah, they should have been able to get something for him. Yeah, anyway, I just want to throw that in there.

He was on a line with Max Sasson and Linus Carlson, and we've spoken pretty glowingly about Linus Carlson. I think he's been one of the few good stories for the Vancouver Conucks, and I think it's certainly something that the development group in Abbotsford can hang their hat on because it took a while. And there was work to be done, work to put in, but the Canucks had got themselves a pretty good player in Linus Carlson. I remember there were rumors that Tampa Bay was interested in Linus Carlson

and when a team like that shows interest in a player like Linus Carlson, you know, you might have something. I also like Max Sasson on the wing. He's got wheels, man. He's up to 12 goals this year too, you know? And he's got finishing ability. Yep.

So try and trade them. There we go. Yeah. So get rid of that guy. That's going to be the punctuation to all of our analysis. now. So, having a pretty good year.

Look at all these guys you could trade for. You could have all these guys. Yeah. He's having a good year. You should absolutely consider trading them in July. They just decimated Colorado. Yeah. Colorado.

It was a decimation. Teddy Blugar worth at least two first round picks. At a minimum. I would, you mentioned to me this morning before the show that McKinnon did not speak. Well, if he did, we don't have the audio. Okay, we don't have the audio. But he was his usual, like, beastly self last night.

and his 50th goal of the season was an absolute beauty. I don't know if you'd say he broke Hironik's ankles on the move. Hironik kind of just fell, but he did Deke Rossi, and then he went around, I think it was Ogrin, and ripped a shot home. But he was also part of a bad turnover that set up Blugher's short-handed goal. He didn't make a very good play. Neither did the abs at the blue line. and he didn't really battle all that hard on the back check.

He kind of coasted back on the play. I know he might have been out of gas or he figured he wasn't going to catch him, but he didn't really try. So I think he was in a bad mood kind of all night, and he was kind of doing the Nathan McKinnon. I'm going to do this the whole thing myself. Yeah. And it ultimately didn't work out.

But look, the abs clearly thought that was going to be an easy game. And then when they went down one nothing, you know, 29 seconds in. I think they were just, I don't want to say it. They weren't rattled, but they were annoyed. Well, you know who was rattled, annoyed and pissed off was their head coach, Jared Bednar. And I made a point of listening to his postgame media availability because I wanted to get a sense of just how pissed off an NHL coach is when you allow eight goals at home and a loss to the worst team in the national hockey league. Just Shadenfreude or what?

Yeah, a little bit. I don't even know. I was, you know what? It was just my curiosity. I was just curious to see what it sounded like. Also, Jared Bednar is low-key hilarious when he speaks. If you think you have the Valley Girl thing with your likes and your ums, you have nothing on Jared Bednar.

Okay. Yeah. Can we hear it? Yeah, we're going to hear it right now. So this is... We were like bad and stuff? That's actually pretty close. That wasn't Jared Bednar.

That was Jason Brough. Another J.B. But here's the thing. This is the lengthiest answer Bednar gave yesterday. Everything else was real short. This is him talking. about a response and a reply to an interviewer, one of the reporters there, tried to frame it as like you guys had a nice

comeback after a bad performance and Bednar was not having any of it. Here's Jared Bednar after his team lost 8-6 to the Vancouver Canucks. I like the way we played in the third. But the reality of it is is if you want to win in this league, you have to play that way for 60 minutes. So we weren't even close. wasn't a great first and it got worse than the second. And then, yeah, like, if you want to hand out, like, badges for, like, good effort and stuff like that, like, I think we're beyond that, like, this time of year, you know, like,

effort for 20 minutes and doing the right things for 20 minutes isn't good enough. So the Connects have just had a couple of games where they played some good teams. Vegas and Colorado on the road. Vegas did not look very good in the first period against the Canucks. And, you know, they were playing for John Tortorella for the first time. And they just had their coach fired. And maybe they were a little bit nervous. But the Canucks played pretty well against them in the first period.

Vegas took over that game. Yep. And won. And then they go into Colorado. And, you know, I know Colorado took over that game. But that was just kind of a natural score effects to a 6-2 game. Sure. And I think the Canucks did well to obviously respond and ultimately win that game.

Because when the Aves, when the Aves tied that game, I was like, they're not winning this game. Like the Aves are winning this game. The Aves are going to say, we played one period and we still won this game. Yep. Yep. So good for them. Now it brings us to tonight's game. against Quinn Hughes in the Minnesota Wild.

Yeah. So I'm going to be very curious to see what the effort is like from the Canucks tonight. The Wild have not played particularly well since the Olympic break. They went into the break on a five-game winning streak. I think they had points in seven straight. But they're pretty much 500 or maybe even a little bit worse since then. They've only won seven games. out of the 17 since the Olympics ended.

Wild haven't played since Saturday 6-3 loss in Boston. So that's a few days off and some practice days. Laddie, do we have John Heinz talking about the Minnesota Wild? So while the Canucks have been on this road trip playing Vegas and playing Colorado, the Wild have been doing this. It's important. I think you have a couple days, like you said, I think you get a mental, physical break, which I think is important, particularly this time of year. But then we also have a couple days of practice before we play. And then we got the home game, and then we go on the road for a little bit.

And then you kind of have that final stretch. So it's a little bit of an opportunity for both of those things to have some good practices, but also have a couple days where you can get away from it a little bit, which I do think this time of year is important. So it's going to be another one tonight where the Canucks head into this as significant. They were massive underdogs. Massive underdogs. In Vegas, because everyone, including myself, figured that, you know, Vegas is going to come out with their hair on fire. Their coach just got fire.

Torches their new coach. And it didn't exactly play out that way. But Vegas eventually, I don't know, set their hair on fire? Yeah. And won that game. They go into Colorado, really, really tough situation just because Colorado's the best team in the NHL and the Stanley Cup favorites. Now, Colorado didn't have Kel McCarr.

maybe that helped them out a little bit, but I thought Sam Malinsky played pretty well for them. Now they go into Minnesota, and they've just played at altitude in Colorado, and it was a wild one. Now they go to go to Minnesota and play a rested and practiced up team. With Tolo and that. Yeah, with Tolo Pilo, well, assuming what doesn't go crazy,

but which he might, and put Lankin in there again. But there's going to be some motivated players, on both teams tonight. Hughes for Minnesota, but maybe even more so the guys the Wilde traded away in the deal. Rossi, Bouillon, and Ogren. I was reading a piece from Russo in Minnesota, just published a piece where he caught up with those three. I think he caught up with them in Denver

and talked to them about their return. And, you know, Rossi is going to be the most motivated. Sure. without question. You know, he He got disrespected by that organization. He never felt the love in contract negotiations

and he never felt that they trusted him to be an important player for them. Like he was knocked down to what, 4C in the playoffs and then they were like, yeah, well, you know, like, well, we're going to make it hard with it.

They didn't, you know, if he was a guy that they really liked, they would have been talking long-term contract. And ultimately they just kicked the can down the road on the contract situation, and then traded him to the Vancouver Canucks. I think if you got Rossi and I always say this,

those those quiet moments where the microphones were off and he's speaking candidly. I bet he would probably air a lot of grievances, specifically with Bill Garron. Just felt like he was never a Garron guy. And I think the worst part was that Garon made that really obvious in his public remarks about Rossi. He'll be motivated tonight.

You know, for his loss as this season is, these last two games last night and tonight's, a lot of intrigue around him, especially. I mean, on a personal level, sure I'm fascinated and I always were fascinated around a lot but I am genuinely fascinated to see what happens to these you can make an argument that this is the game where the Canucks get their asses kicked because they're on the second of a back to back they're going to be tired you mentioned they played at altitude also like I don't know if the young generation still puts money on the board but

you would think this is a money on the board game for Hughes going up against his former team right so they're going to be motivated Rossi might put up so that's what I'm saying I was going to get to the Canucks part of it's like there's also as much as kind of stack the deck against the Canucks, they do have three guys that are going back to their former team, and they're going to want to make a statement against their former and player. So there's a lot going into this game tonight. I'm curious to see how it turns out the line on it,

if I'm not mistaken, the Canucks are once again massive underdogs. They're plus 330 on the money line. They were plus 380 last night. So it's kind of comparable. Also, Minnesota needs to start winning some hockey games. You mentioned how bad their form has been post-Olympic break. they had a real opportunity here to catch Dallas and move into second in the division. Because Dallas has also been lousy.

Dallas has lost six or seven, if I'm not mistaken, as they go into action tonight. But the wild haven't been able to close the gap. If you look at that division right now for as elite as it is with those three teams, they're all kind of slotted into position. Like, I don't think anyone's catching Colorado at this point. I don't think Minnesota is going to catch Dallas. So it means it's going to be a two, three between the stars and the wild, and the stars are going to have home ice.

Maybe why those three teams are kind of... In cruise control? Yeah, in cruise control and not winning all their games. Okay. It's pure Halford and Brough in the first hour of the show this morning. On the other side, I want to talk about Quinn Hughes and whether or not we think he's going to resign in Minnesota. So text in your comments,

where do you think Quinn Hughes is going to be playing next season? those into the Dumbra Lumber text line at 650, 650. We can go through a couple other games in the NHL last night. The Pillow Fight division had a few games. And I kind of want to talk about the Ottawa Senators because my jackal media instincts

are feeling like there's a story there. Something's going to happen there. Allmark, Brady Kachuk. if this team misses the play check. Yeah, is there something going on there. So again, any questions or comments you have, text them in 650, 650 to the Dunbar Lumber text line. You're listening to the Alfred Ambrough show on SportsNet 650.

Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcast. 632 on a 3rd. Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brubbs, Sportsnet 650. Alfred and Brubb of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Hey, do you have credit card debt? If you do, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands-Trustee.com.

Still an hour one of the program. One hour of uninterrupted Halbro here. Hour one of this program 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. So I know it's not the Canucks problem or issue anymore with what happens with Quinn Hughes, but I am still extremely curious to see how this all plays out.

You're Hughes curious. I mean, he is a superstar in the NHL, whether you like it or not. and he still might move as soon as this off season. So we asked a few people, we asked our listeners, to text in and tell us what they think is going to happen with Quinn Hughes. And most of you texted in and said, he's just going to resign with the wild. I think it was Gabe and New West.

Quinn will stay with Minnie next year, but only if Minnie goes to at least the conference final this season. Otherwise, he's demanding a trade to New Jersey. Other one, another one, this is unsigned. Quinn will resign with the Wild. No chance. He goes from one of the best teams in the league to go to the Devils, who you can almost compare it to the Canucks with their playoff success with the Young Corps. Jack will sign with the Wild and Luke will get traded there in the latter.

years of his contract. Okay. So I'm sensing that some of you think that it's either Minnesota or New Jersey. I'm not convinced it's either of those teams.

Who do you think it is, Jason? I keep wondering about Detroit. Because... That's what I was going to say to. Because the Red Wings tried to get them. Steve Eisenman wanted to do the deal

and it sounds like that's where Quinn Hughes most wanted to go. He had, not his hopes, but he had his eyes on Detroit. Sure. He went to Michigan. He's from the area, right? Yep. And is one of his best buddies is Dylan Larkin. That's right.

Who's the captain of the Detroit Red Wings. U.S. guys. Right. So Elliot Freeman has reported. that Hughes wanted to go to the Red Wings. But Steve Eiserman balked at the high asking price it would take to get Hughes

without the guarantee of a contract extension. And it should be noted that when Quinn Hughes went to Minnesota, everyone from the Hughes camp made sure to point out that, look, this does not come with a guarantee of an extension. It just doesn't.

Now, Hughes, by all accounts, has enjoyed his time in Minnesota. He's liked the fan base. He's liked playing on a better team. They're playing the wheels off him to the point where I know some wild fans are like, are we playing him too much? But I don't think this is certain whatsoever. Like, I think not only are the wild going to have to show something in these playoffs, like they can't get the doors blown off them by Dallas.

I think Bill Garon is maybe going to have to lay out for Queen Hughes. Like, what's your plan to get this team better? Because I think there's still an issue down the middle for the wild. Like I, you know, like, do they have, again, it's boring to keep pointing this out. But do you have a Nathan McKinnon down the middle? Or do you even have a Dylan Larkin down the middle? I wonder if this entire thing, weirdly enough, hinges on if Detroit makes the playoffs or not this year. Because I could see a world in which Detroit misses.

Eisenman comes under even more fire and the realization that he needs to do something bigger and bolder than he ever has before comes to fruition. Also, if you're into nice syrupy narratives and great storylines, it would give the Red Wings organization a chance to write the wrong of several years ago

when they had a chance to draft Quinn Hughes and they passed to take Pavel Zedina. I mean, I just think that there's so many, when you brought up the Detroit thing, I kept kind of nodding my head and I looked at it from a few different angles when you passed along in the notes. I'm like, it just makes a lot of sense.

Cider and Hughes. It just makes a lot of sense. I mean, man, that would be an unbelievable pairing. It's just whether or not Detroit has the assets to make that happen. Also, Quinn could just resign with Minnesota. Now, Rager text in. Could Detroit just wait a year or two, though?

Rager Texan, I think he'll play out his contract and have every single team outside of Colorado willing to pay him close to 20% of their cap. Will Minnesota allow that? Minnesota will have to move him. Minnesota can't give up what they gave up and then unless they win the Stanley Cup. There is a small, yeah, there's a small regular...

And lose Quinn Hughes for nothing. I mean, I just can't see this. And Jay Texan, actually with a very interesting comment. The bigger question is whether the Wilde get back more asset value in a trade of Hughes than the Canucks did. You could make the argument that they could because it could come with an extension. Yeah. That's the big part of it is they could offer something that even the Vancouver Canucks couldn't offer. Quinn Hughes with a deal in hand. And I mean, that would be an amazing bit of general management from Billy Garron. I think Garron, look, the impression I got when, you know,

from the Quinn Hughes sacking up in his, you know, referencing what Billy did to get him in the door in Minnesota to, you know, the way that he's, Garin is very much like all in on Hughes. Yep. And winning. And then I think he's probably like, let's let the chips fall where they may afterwards.

And players do appreciate that. Yeah. There is a bit of, I don't want to call it guilt, but there is a, there is some appreciation from when you're showed the love, you're kind of like, eh, I'll show you the love too, I suppose.

But you know, okay. I'll love you. you back, Billy. You know what it does, though, is it gives a very strong signal to the player that this is a general manager that was proactive and aggressive in acquiring me. He might be willing to do that again and again to further build out this team. Now, he's not going to have the assets to make a kind of move that he already has. But if you're looking at and if you're just a random Minnesota wild player, you're like, you know, do I want to be here

long term? You have to, at the very least, you have to say, I've got a general manager that's not afraid to make big, bold moves. And in this league, That means something because the NHL is littered with executives who are too cautious and play things way too close to the vest. And at the end of the day, don't make moves and just kind of go with what we've got. But I-Eiserman could end up looking brilliant if he can pull this off. The wilder had a serious disadvantage, though,

if they wait to try movement at the deadline, especially if you're the Red Wings, because you're just like, well, we'll just wait till the contract ends. We know he's going to sign here. But they wouldn't do that. They'd do it this off-season. Yeah. You need to get an answer from Hughes this offseason.

You say, you're either going to sign with us or not. And if it's not, we're going to shop you. Put it this way. The least likely of the three options is that Quinn Hughes goes to free agency. Oh, yeah. Right? It's either you stay in Minnesota. Minnesota trades you to a place where you're willing to sign an extension.

I suppose in some very crazy world, he gets to free agency. But, I mean, look what happened at Toronto with Tree Living. They essentially let Marner do that. And that ended up being one of the big reasons why, Brad Tree Living is no longer employed. But if you're the Red Wings, couldn't you just wait it out regardless? Like even if you don't acquire him this offseason. Well, some other team could get him.

Yeah, but I'm saying if you know that he wants to come to Detroit. Like, if you're confident that he'll sign there. It feels like a huge, like, speculative thing, right? Because he went to Minnesota, and he's kind of been happy about testing it out and trying it out. Yeah, I guess there's that first class tampering, which never happens in the NHL. Elite grade A tampering. A lot of people texting in about... American players leaving Canadian markets.

And that brings me to the Ottawa senators, because I am curious to see what happens if Detroit misses the playoffs. I'm curious to see what happens if Ottawa misses the playoffs and maybe even just regardless. Because, listen, we all know that Linus Allmark has had a terrible season. And that includes missing some time for some mental health stuff that that sounded like it got pretty dark for him. There's always, just my opinion here. And this is kind of a comment on media and maybe fans, though.

When people come back from a mental health break, there's always this assumption like, oh, he's good now. Everything's fine. It's like Gary Woodland, that golfer, you know, oh, you, you. You came back from, you're playing golf now, and, you know, you had that PTSD diagnosis, and you even won a tournament. You're all good, right? Yeah. Like you're in the clear.

It doesn't work like that. It doesn't work like that, right? So I don't know what's going on with Lena Solmark right now, but I do know a few things about mental health. And it's not usually like, I had a thing for two months. You know, this is usually something that continually crops up and it becomes a challenge. And it's just something that, you know, people have. to live with. Okay. Let me introduce this audio. Yeah. So, well, so, yeah, so introduce it with,

with the backstory on what happened on, on this road trip through Florida for Ottawa because it just so happened that the Cachuck boys were able to do a podcast with their old man because Brady's Ottawa senators were rolling through Florida. Okay, so Brady's Ottawa senators, as you may know, employees, Jason just alluded to, goalie, Lina, All, Mark, and he took some heat over the weekend because he missed Saturday's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, according to head coach Travis Green. Allmark needed rest and was unavailable to start. Three days later, and we talked about this on the show, Allmark was back in against Florida,

that yikes loss, as you put it, to the Florida Panthers in which he allowed five goals in the first period and was pulled afterwards. During this trip to Florida, as you alluded to, the Wingmen podcast, thank God we have podcasts for players to speak their minds, because they have no other venue or avenue to do Brady, Matthew, and Keith Kachuk had a Kachuk roundtable in which they started going down the road of Keith talking about his playing days.

He also talked about getting into a fight during the NHL season, not long after he broke his wrist at the Olympics. Now, of course, his kids just played the Olympics. They came back from the Olympic break. So you can see how Keith was relaying his playing days to what his kids are going through currently. Then Keith started to talk about current players.

and I don't know if this part is in the audio, but I'll lead with it anyway. Keith joked, that's what happens, guys. You play through injuries. And that's when the audio really started to get interesting. We'll play it now. Here's Keith Kichuk from the Wingman podcast with his sons, Matthew and Brady Kichuk.

And I had a big cast on because I broke my wrist or something in the Olympics. So, yes, that's what happens to you play through injuries, guys. Holy Christ, this whole team. My pinky hurts. I'm out for six days. I knew that was coming. I knew Raywood, he said that. I'm like, don't say it.

I'm like, don't you say it. I just had a bad sleep, so I can't play today. Oh, my God. Disgusting. All right. Well, we're going to move on here. Can't play back to back. So, stress management.

That is crazy. I mean, back to back. That used to not be whatever. Grant Fure played 70 games in one year. I think 76. 76. 76. So it doesn't take a rocket scientist,

none of which were on that podcast to figure out. Yeah, real melding of the mind. They're just guys chuckling. Guys, aren't you busy with the Artemis 2 mission? So it didn't, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who Keith Kachuk was talking about, specifically in the latter part of that clip when he talked about, I just had a bad sleep so I can't play today. And then went on to say that Grant Fier played in 70 plus games in a national hockey league,

in a national hockey league season. Grandfier was a goalie, right? Yeah, that's right. So I now. And he was on his A game for. Every single one of those 76, you guys. People were having a hard time. Didn't need any breaks.

People were having a hard time trying to figure out the, I broke my pinky illusion. And that was either towards, I believe, Evan Rodriguez or maybe. Maybe of Matthew. But maybe Brady Kachuk, who had thumb surgery and missed six to eight weeks. Anyway, the point being, if we want to focus on the Ottawa point of this, and I think that's the important one to focus on, because I don't think anyone is really too critical of the way that the Florida

of Panthers are playing hockey right now, but a lot of people are critical of the way things have gone in Ottawa. And it's been a very, very tumultuous season for the Ottawa senators. If you want to just follow the Allmark narrative in all of this, you'll remember that earlier in the season when he took his first leave of absence for the team, there were a lot of rumors circulating online that the Ottawa senators felt they needed to address very publicly and very passionately, especially the general manager, Steve Stales. So there's been a lot of noise and a lot of drama around this Ottawa Senators team.

I'll say this. These three guys hosting a podcast and saying what they said only adds to the fuel behind the fire and the dysfunction that goes on with this Ottawa team that they've been trying to escape, but it seems like they can't get out of their own way when it comes to off-ice drama. So, Ladi, I'm going to put you on the spot here. How comfortable would you be if you were the general manager with Linus Allmark as your number one goalie? Well, you're intrigued because he has

Bezna capabilities. We've seen it before. So he has the high ceiling. But you can't really rely on him to be in the net in the moment that you need him in there for. Right? We've seen it a few times throughout his career. So he's the kind of guy you need to pair him with somebody

that you can trust as well. Like a really solid. I mean, he was Swamen in Boston was a great tandem. That's why it worked. Because you could give him those days off when he needed to. So I think you'd love to have him on your team just because of his ability. But there's like that management aspect to him being on your roster that you need to be aware of. I just want to jump in real quick. It adds a little wrinkle to it.

And that very well said. I just want to jump in because I think we want to make this abundantly clear that the way that we're approaching this isn't an endorsement and we're not condemning Allmark. Like I think we understand the issues there and we're trying to be sensitive to them. But we also understand that when you're a highly paid professional athlete, your team's counting on you, you know, there's an element like you need to be there, right? Okay. But do you have different needs? Not everyone can be Connor Hellebuck. And I don't want any of this

to go one way. I think we're trying to frame this as robustly and as full as we can. With the Kachukes, I'm going to say this. If you're as hardcore and as old school as Keith Kachuk is, is a moment of you not looking in the mirror and being like, hey, the guys back in your day go on podcasts and talk about the team and the stuff inside the room so everyone can hear it. I thought that stuff was supposed

to be Sancrescent. I thought that stuff was supposed to stay in the room. That you old school guys love that, right? Like, that's what bothers me about this the most. He's putting his sons in such a bad position, too. But his kids are, I mean, I've said this a million times. His kids have never met a camera that they don't like. Yeah. And you know what I mean? And for all of this nonsense and all this crap, these guys want to talk about how they're old school and they keep it real. And no one's as tough. And as old school as the Kachuk boys, asking any of those guys in the 80s and 90s when Keith Kachuk was playing hockey

if they were going to go and blab about what's going on the room on a podcast, right? The irony is delicious with these three, you know? Like, of all the places to do it. And I'm sorry that he threw his kids under the bus and put him in an awkward spot, but they invited it. Yeah.

You know what I mean? We have Keith Kichuk on your podcast, he's going to say some stuff. You know what I mean? Like it's hilarious to me. It's hilarious to be the double standard that's at play here, right? The modern generation is so soft.

Let's fire up the cameras and the lights and let's talk about it on our podcast. Give me a break. Okay. The pillow fight. Let's get to that because there was only three games in the NHL last night. The Canucks upset the Colorado Avalanche, 86. And if you missed our discussion on that crazy game, you can download the podcast. The Kings beat the Blues in overtime.

What a goal by Trevor Moore in overtime. That guy's a rocket. And the San Jose Sharks had a late comeback to beat the Anaheim. Ducks, 4-3 in regulation. Macklin-Colabrini, what a player that guy is. And also, Anaheim, come on, guys. You got to win this division. We need Edmonton and Vegas in the first round.

So according to Sports Radar, one of my favorite statistical websites, The Sharks of the first team in NHL history to win three consecutive games on game winning goals within the last 90 seconds of regulation. Celebrini tied it with the goal he pulled with about two minutes to go. And then Wenberg scored the winner, which Celebrini set up. We had the conversation like two days ago if Celebrini's going to work his way into being a heart trophy finalist. Man, he's making a hell of the case. And I want to write a wrong. I want to rescind something I said earlier where we had that ask us anything.

If you could take one active player in the NHL and put him on the Vancouver. Canucks roster, who would you pick right now? Yeah. And the answer that the texter said was Celebrini. And I said I'd have some time for the Matthew Schaefer conversation. I was wrong. I have no time for that conversation. I would take Macklin Celebrini

in an absolute heartbeat. And I wouldn't think twice about it. What he's doing this year, I don't know how many games people have watched the San Jose Sharks play this year. They should be nowhere near the playoffs. They are not a good team. They can't defend. I know,

Ascarov's a good young goalie, but he still has some pretty shaky moments. He's kind of like a beer league ringer. Yep. Like he's, he can do some amazing things. Yeah, my buddy Macklin's going to come out today. He usually plays in Div 1, but he's going to come down to Div 8 and try. It's amazing. It's amazing what he has done to prop this team up.

He should be in the hard trophy final three, but I just think it's so hard to eliminate one of Kutrov, McDavid, or McKinnon. Yeah. It might be he just gets squeezed. because his team isn't as good as theirs. If they make the playoffs, he's going to have to be a finalist. Between what he did at the Olympics and what he's doing with the sharks, is there a player that's had a better singular season in terms of like elevating their status than Mackles?

He might score 120 points as a teenager. It's crazy what he's doing. 120 points. It's wild. It's wild. And, you know, like Halford says, I mean, he's the only reason that the sharks are still in this. I have a question for you. They're very much in it too, by the way.

If it can't be Edmonton, Vegas in the first round, let's say Edmonton catches Anaheim for first place, which I think they might do. Are you okay with Edmonton, Utah, because Utah could maybe just as easily beat the Oilers as Vegas could? I'm okay with it. I feel like we'd get ripped off. We didn't get Emmington and Vegas in the first round.

I'd settle. Is Vegas even that, like, exciting to watch anymore? I think there's something there with Tortorella. I think there'd be tremendous energy in Utah. Yeah. If they got an Oilers mammoth first round series. And I do wonder if Utah has the ability to beat them. Yeah.

I wouldn't mind the matchup. Don't get me wrong. Like I think it would be wildly entertaining. And I think especially in the first round, when everyone's flying around at a thousand miles an hour, I think specifically that matchup would be great. Yeah. Edmonton, Vegas, in a Western conference

where a lot of the first round matchups aren't like grabbing me. Like I, and here's the thing. Like I know Dallas and Minnesota is a great matchup on paper. I'm not super enthralled by it. Like it's not, it's because we don't care about their fan.

And it's not a hate, they don't hate each other. It's not a heated rivalry or anything like that. Like they don't have a ton of history. Right. So I'm like, well, whatever, you know. And then you look at it, Colorado is probably going to wipe the floor with whoever they get.

The most interesting chase for me is who gets the final wildcart in the Weston gets in because if San Jose gets there, it's a great story. If L.A. gets there, it's just kind of a shoulder shrug. And it's almost like, well, this underwhelming season, although Preneran's been great since he's been there. He's over a point of game. If Winnipeg gets in, all of a sudden, you're saying, Connor Hallibuck, first round of the playoffs, David versus Goliath, in terms of seating. Yeah. Do they have a puncher's chance because they've got the best goalie in the conference going up against Nathan McKinnon and the high-powered

offense, that becomes intriguing. If Nashville makes it, I'm like, how? I don't want Nashville in there. I don't think they have the ability to beat anyone. No, I really don't. I mean, honestly, I think if it's Utah and Winnipeg, then you could have some upsets there. I think if San Jose gets in, they have a better shot of beating someone than Nashville, because they have the best player.

I think San Jose would be out in five games. Yeah, yeah, they might be out in three. But still, I think, I think, Anna's a lot. Anaheim could be out in five games. Yeah, Anaheim's a problem. Anaheim's a problem. What do you mean in what way? A problem, like they're not very good?

A problem top seat. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Because if you look at their record... I would choose Utah over Anaheim. There's two big problems with Anaheim. Anaheim has an 8-0 record in the shootout. That's one of them.

Utah hasn't been to a shootout. Anaheim has an 8-no record in the shootout and their minus 8 goal differential. Those are very, very troubling numbers for a team that right now is a top seat. Utah is a better team. You've got 29 regulation wins. Anaheim's got 24. And you mentioned the goal differential. Vegas has a zero even.

They're even goal differential. You could argue that Utah is a better team than Vegas, which is why I think Utah would have a better chance of beating Edmonton than Vegas. Vegas just hasn't been good this year. I don't know if Torts is the guy to get it out of them. Okay. Hour one of the program in the books,

an hour of uninterrupted hellbrough. Coming up on the other side of the break, Adnan Verk is going to join us for some MLB talk at 7. 7.30. Scott Rintoul is going to join the program. He, the host of the Better Sports Parents podcast, will also get his thoughts on everything that's going on on the local sporting scene. 8 o'clock

Randy Janda is going to join the program and then at 830 we're going to do what we learn. So we got two more hours to go, hour one in the books. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650.