Halford & Brough in the Morning - Can The Canucks Keep The Ball Rolling Versus The Jets Tomorrow?

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat NFL Wild Card Weekend results with Too Deep Zone's Mike Tanier (1:20) and also look ahead to tonight's matchup, plus the boys discuss the latest Canucks news with NHL.com & In Goal Magazine's Kevin Woodley (25:29). 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.

Music 7.02 on a Monday. Happy Monday everybody. Halford rough sports net six 50 halford rough of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver, Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for sales, financing service or parts. We are now in our two of the program. Mike Tanny or our NFL insider is going to join us in just a moment here to kick

off our two. Our two of this program is brought to you by Jason Hominuk from Jason.mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Just kidding, let him do exactly that. Visit him at Jason.mortgage on the internet. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, footwear and orthotics, working together with you in step. So this show so far has really run the gamut of everything that happened over the weekend in sports. First half hour, all Canucks.

Second half hour, got all the NHL stories out there and now we turn our attention to the National Football League. Five of six wild card games in the books. One more on tap tonight. Joining us now to talk about them all, Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the two deep zone sub stack. Good morning, Mike. how are you? I'm doing great and yes folks I'm indeed Mike Tanier, the president and founder of the Justin Herbert Skeptic Society. Okay let's start there. I was gonna start with the good

quarterback Jaden Daniels but I want to start with the other quarterback, Justin Herbert. It's funny I just went and got coffee in the break room and one of the guys that works at the other stations, huge Chargers fan, he just started talking to me about Herbert and how disappointed he was in that performance on Saturday. I believe Herbert had three interceptions all season, four on Saturday in a very disappointing game. Loss in Houston to the Texans. What were your takeaways there as the president of the Justin Herbert Skeptics Club? You know, Justin Herbert is a much better quarterback

than what we saw on Saturday, that's undeniable. He's also not really as good a quarterback as we've been hearing about for the last three years on the social networks. If you were a Twitter person, if you're now a Blue Sky person, you would think this guy walks on water. You would think he's the four time MVP and while he's very good, he is susceptible to sacks and pressure. And while he usually avoids interceptions, he usually avoids

interceptions because the chargers are playing weaker opponents or defensive, taking control of things. They run the ball a lot. So Herbert can kind of play within himself. So it's amazing to hear the conversation turn around Herbert. I don't want people to percolate and decide he's bad, but it's reassuring to realize this guy still has not led his team to a playoff win. He, you know, his, he is not statistically that superior, very good quarterback, not a great quarterback. Chargers

need to build a lot of things around them. Now let's go to the other end of the spectrum. A fantastic quarterback performance yesterday in the nightcap, the Sunday night air from Jaden Daniels. Of all the statistics and all the historical benchmarks of the hit, the one that really impressed me, because I knew this one going in, was that prior to yesterday, playoff rookie quarterbacks starting in their first playoff game on the road were 5 and 17. It was a tall order and a tall ask. Not only did Daniels push that mark to six and 17, but he did it in pretty impressive fashion.

How impressed were you with Daniels last night? I was very impressed. You know, that's an impressive statistic that he won against those odds. The one that was being cited a lot, that like the games in which the commanders never punted and never committed a turnover. I think that was the fourth one of the year. At first that didn't impress me. Then watching it last night I was

impressed by how hard it is to never punt in a game. You know the idea that the worst drives and in a field goal or a field goal attempt or maybe a fourth down stop you know at that the 27 27 yard line on fourth and one. That's what your bad drives do. Your good drives you score a touchdown. It's an indication of how efficient both Daniels and the offense is and I saw that against a tough defense and wanted to blitz him, wanted to play rattle the rookie against him and Daniels, you know, he could scramble away from danger. He's so confident when he checks down, he just dumps the ball to his backs or to the tight end and he gets productive yardage out of it

And then he can mix that with big plays So I feel like the Cinderella story ends in Detroit next week But what a Cinderella story it is and what a building block will be for this young man moving forward Does he always take so much contact in a game? I just felt like he took a lot of hits and you know, this is, this is a, a team that had RG three and you remember how good he looked to start and then he took too much contact and then he didn't look so good. Is there any concern about that whatsoever? Because I'm watching Gina Daniels and I'm like everyone else. I'm like, I love the composure on this guy. I don't want to

see him get hurt. There's a couple things there one is he can't slide he doesn't know how to slide like Michael Zick didn't know how to slide he's a terrible slider but during the regular season he did not take hits like that he would either dive to the ground like tumble to the ground or sort of do a tee ball or slide or he'd get out of bounds he was like oh I got two or three yards get out of bounds I think he was facing a defense that was bringing more guys on him. And also it was a playoffs and it was must win and things weren't always going

great for him. So I don't think he takes unnecessary hits. I have a funny feeling they're going to send him, uh, you know, to the Washington nationals to learn how to slide in the off season or whatever. But he's, he's not like Baker. If you watch Baker last night, he was taking those hits too. Baker loves it. Like hit me harder. Validate me. Jayden Daniels does not play like that.

Um, so I was going to ask you about the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback situation, i.e. who's going to be their quarterback next season. But I guess, do we have to discuss if Mike Tomlin's going to be their head coach next season? I mean, there's all of this muttering, like, hey, maybe we'd consider trading. Like, what a trade for Tomlin if we're open, which is almost like trying to bait the Raiders to make a phone call. I don't know what that's even supposed to represent. The Jets might offer you 10 first round picks and then you'd consider it. I have a feeling he's back.

One of the questions that's going to happen is, you know, they bring Tomlin in and they have these very amenable conversations because the Steelers are a very button down organization and they bring up his coordinators again. They bring up Arthur Smith again. Arthur Smith was not the solution at offensive coordinator. Somebody needs to come in to run this offense that isn't necessarily within Mike Tomlin's comfort zone. If Mike Tomlin says no to that, then if I'm, you know, the Rooney's and the folks running that organization, I say, well, maybe we need to talk about curtailing your contract length and, and, and shortening your leash a little bit.

But you're right. We have to talk about Tomlin. I have no idea how you move forward with the Steelers right now. No, neither Wilson or Fields was really under contract for next year. Neither one deserves it. But if you look at what's behind door number two for a playoff team that won't have like a top five pick, that's not very appealing either. I do want to point out that the Steelers defense was absolutely bludgeoned in that game.

The rushing totals at the end of it were Baltimore 299 Pittsburgh, right? Twenty nine. It was a man hand if Baltimore can get third and short. They have so many options there. Yeah. Right. And they've stopped making dumb mistakes because first of all they have Henry in the past they didn't have Henry. They've also added a little Mark Andrews push push if they want to do that. And of course Lamar can run a little you know option play himself. He doesn't run sneaks so many things. And yeah if they want to do that. And of course Lamar can run a little, you know, option play himself. He doesn't run sneaks. So many things. And yeah, if they've stopped being self-destructive and doing something goofy

in those situations, watch out, watch out Buffalo Bills. So I saw the word bludgeon being used in two different games. One of them was what Baltimore did to Pittsburgh on the ground. And the other one was what the Eagles did to the Packers. Cause if you look at the number, if you look at the numbers on Philly through the game, like Hurts only through for 131 yards, it was by no means an offensive masterpiece, but it just feels like Philly can just kind of grind you down and beat you down.

And that's exactly what they did to Jordan Love and the Packers on Sunday. Is that a fair word to describe? They don't necessarily beat you, but they kind of bludgeon you. They bludgeon you or they melt the clock on you late. They just say, we're just going to keep hitting you with Saquon over and over again. If we've got a six point lead, we're going to take seven minutes off the clock and either get a touchdown or a field goal on the next drive and put pressure on you. And the Eagles defense is really, really good.

Excuse me. The bludgeoning comes from the fact that all of the receivers were knocked out. All of the Packers receivers were knocked out and the poor Packers are trailing in that game trying to throw the ball to third string receivers. It wasn't going to work. So, is that an excuse for Jordan Love? Because there's been a tidy narrative about the Packers having, you know, always having this franchise quarterback. They go from Favre to Rogers and to Jordan Love. Is Jordan Love at the level of those guys?

Like is the narrative correct? Of Favre and Rogers? Yeah. The bar's set a little bit high. No, he's not, not yet. Um, is Well, you mean where the bar's set a little bit high. No, he's not, not yet. Is he, you know, a franchise caliber quarterback who's very, very good?

Yes, he's also a high volatility quarterback like Josh Allen was for early in his career where he's going to take those deep shots and make those mistakes sometimes when you take those deep shots. Because you're right, the first two interceptions by love were when he had his healthy receivers except for Christian Watson one was kind of really a bad throw the Zack bomb just stepped in front of the other one I'm Darius Darius Slay just

you know got better position than the receiver those aren't great throws for love but if I'm going to justify love a little bit from the third quarter on there's no Romeo Dobbs there's no Watson of course there's no Jayden Reed and he's out there throwing to Bo Melton and Malik Heath and guys you've barely heard of that's the point in which you say okay you don't expect anybody short of a Rogers for our quarterback to be able to do this with these receivers against this defense. We're speaking to Mike Tan here our NFL insider from the Too Deep Zone a presentation of the Clayton Public House to do this with these receivers against this defense. We're speaking to Mike Tan here, our NFL insider

from the Too Deep Zone, a presentation of the Clayton Public House. A reminder, we are giving away a pair of tickets every day this week and a $50 gift card to join Sportsnet 650 for the big football game at the Clayton Public House on Sunday, February the 9th. Call our number 5 at 815 this morning, 604-280-0650. That number again, 604-280-06 06 50 will mention this again before we do the calling

Mike I did want to turn our attention to Buffalo Does anybody have a more perfectly balanced offense in the NFL than the Bills? I think it was 272 yards in the air 210 yards on the ground. I did not realize this but this year they also became the NFL's first team to score 30 touchdowns rushing and passing in a single season It was all on display yesterday as they took care of the Broncos. Is that the most perfectly balanced offense in the NFL? You know, it might be I you know, I think of the Ravens offense for example as being comparable But if you talk about balance in terms of running inside, running outside,

running with your running back, you may be using your quarterback as a runner, screen passing, short passing and deep passing goal line solutions, third down solutions. If that's your definition of balance beyond run and pass, that might be it. It's the bills. And yet their offensive line with Dion Dawkins and Osirisiris Torrance and those guys that was really on display yesterday and the fact that they'll put six offensive linemen on the field and just play hammerball against you. The fact that they were doing against the Broncos defense, you know not the Broncos offense that's not real good. The Broncos defense

which was stuffing everybody this season and forcing mistakes was definitely a testimony to what the bills are capable of. And you know, I don't have a pick yet and Bill's Ravens, but I'm happy we're getting it. We're getting to the fireworks factory next week. We're getting to the games that we all were waiting kind of all season to see or see rematches of.

Okay. So you don't have a pick in the game yet, but do you have a pick for regular season MVP? Was it Lamar Jackson or was it Josh Allen? It was Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen was phenomenal. And I thought Josh Allen had it going into that like two great games stretch around Christmas where the Ravens beat up on the Steelers. And then they went and they beat up on the, uh, the Texans.

I think it was Lamar had all these, uh, yards passing and rushing. If you look at the rate stats, you look at DDOA, DER, QBR, adjusted net yards, quarterback rating, the old-fashioned one, Jackson wins all of those as a passer. He's number one in the league and all of those as a passer and he broke Michael Vick's rushing record this year. So it is hard to argue against him based on all the things that he accomplished. Again, Josh Allen's a bridesmaid here. Maybe he won't be a bridesmaid if the Bills get the win and he can get on and get to the Super Bowl.

So we got one wild card game left. It is tonight. It is the Rams and it is the Vikings. It's being played in Arizona due to the game being moved because of the wildfires in the Greedo Los Angeles area. What are you expecting from tonight's game, Mike? I think people jumped off the Vikings bandwagon in week 18 a little prematurely. I did. They went out there in that finale they were

playing well early in the game they didn't convert in the goal line a couple times and then the Lions steamrolled them and everyone said that's it Sam Darnold these these these are fraud let's move on I think they're the better team I think they're more balanced I think their defense has more weapons has a better scheme Obviously they have both teams have front-line talent at wide receiver, etc But I think the Vikings are more explosive. I think the Vikings take this game Mike. This was great man As always thanks for taking the time to do it. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the game. Excuse me Enjoy the game tonight. Hopefully it should be a good one. We'll do this again next Monday

You got it. Take care. Enjoy your week. Yeah, you too. Thanks That's Mike Tanny our NFL insider from the two deep zone sub stack here on the Halford and brush on sportsnet 650 What was your favorite game from the weekend? Ah last night's game. Yeah, although It was a sad one. So the betting group that I'm in we had a we had a we had a four game parlay We just picked moneyline. Yeah. And everything came down to bucks commanders and I was the one that pushed to include Tampa Bay on the Moneyline. You're not, you guys haven't been very good have you?

If you mean that we haven't won through 18 weeks of the NFL regular season, the opening week of the playoffs, then yeah, it's not great. Everyone, because it's, you know, everyone brings a bet to the table. Yeah. And then you put them together, you mash them into a parlay and then you go, and then that wasn't working.

So then we tried to collectively come together with a multiple, like it was, so this week we did four. We, there was, see, here's the thing. There was a debate on Texans chargers within the group. So we decided to just punt on it. We just took it out of the parlor Okay, we should have done that with Bucks and commanders. Yeah, because there was a difference no consensus Yeah, I see I have a few like betting staples and one of them is you don't bet on a rookie quarterback Especially on the road in their playoff debut, right? The numbers just don't play out very well.

Right. And then I'm watching Bo Nix goes and they lose. So I'm like, okay, it's holding set here. Like this is exactly how. And then I started watching the game in about five minutes and I was like, Jane Daniels looks really good. I'm screwed.

We're completely screwed. Yeah. He, he is in control of that offense. You know, when you watch a guy who's like that guy has got composure. It was really impressive what he did yesterday. I mean, it was a tight game. It came down to, and by the way,

for those of you that missed it at the end, the rare doink and infield goal. I like it. On a 37 yarder. Hockey player does that. Great shot. Kicker does it. Lucky.

What if he meant to do it? He was like, post and in. I think. Boom. We were talking, Bruff and I were talking about it. Mike Toreyko was on the call. And the kick did fade right late. So I think when it was hit, Toreyko just

had the sort of standard like, it's up and it's good. Right. And then he kind of had to change course. Because when it doinked, he didn't know if it went through right away. Yeah. And nobody really did. Because I mean, how many times have we seen it doink where it bounces back't know if it went through right away. Yeah. And nobody really did. Cause I mean, how, how many times have we seen a

doink where it bounces back out, not doinking in? Uh, most disappointing performance of the weekend. And I know the Broncos were the one that really got blown out. But for me, it's either the chargers or the Packers, because I think the Steelers were never going to pull that one out, especially the way the Chargers. Yeah. Justin Herbert. The Packers had nobody healthy by the end of that game,

although I understand early on, they really didn't look good. They here's the thing between the injuries and then like fumbling the opening kickoff. Yeah. Kicker missing a field well, like they had a lot of self-inflicted wounds that weren't Jordan Love in that game. Herbert against the Texans was a problem because when they needed him to elevate his game and make plays and not exist within this comfortable offense

where he didn't turn the ball over a lot during the regular season, but he also didn't have a lot of sort of big play, big strikes. They, you know, they played hardball ball. They want to control the clock. They want to not be an explosive offense, but be a sort of like rhythm, consistent type running game offense. Herbert existed great within that the moment that he kind of got forced into a bigger spotlight, it imploded on him in a major way way and I know a couple of the picks weren't on him but you can't tell me that there's not a huge level of disappointment when you

throw three interceptions all season and then you throw four in a playoff game so at the risk of being a bit of a negative Nelly not you not me you the football in the NFL first week of the playoffs and I think college football pretty disappointing overall. There have been a handful of good games for sure, but not as many as you'd like. The expanded college football playoff has been, I'd say a disaster. Yeah. I'd say it's been, the seating was all wrong. all wrong When you have your four teams that are getting the opening round by all going into those games as Betting underdogs and then really not showing up. That's a problem The entertainment value has been slim. There's been what two or three semi-competitive

I'd say two very good competitive games the rest you could maybe argue were semi-competitive. Here's the thing. When they expanded the wild card field for the NFL a couple of years ago, I remember being excited about it and then immediately being let down. Cause a lot of the wild card games were bad. The second week is usually the best. The divisional round is usually the best. Yeah.

So right now we've got Texans chiefs. And I think that one's quite compelling just because of the way the Chiefs went through the regular season, winning a lot of games, but not by much. Casey is a seven and a half point favorite in that one. That is the Saturday early game. Yep. And then commanders at the the lions and that one's

compelling because the lions are prime to go to the Superbowl this year, which is a weird thing to say about the Detroit lions, but also, you know, Jade and Daniels with that performance, there's going to be a lot of people like, oh. They're also absolutely playing with house money right now. Yeah.

The Manders, my beloved Manders. But that, that's not always a good thing. Sometimes you're kind of like, yeah, that's good enough. We won one point. That kind of player though, like they shouldn't go into Detroit. No, they should go for it, man. Just go for it. You remember when Baker Mayfield, the Bucks went in there last year and it, like they just refused to die. They had making big plays and they kept getting

after it and they were dialing up. Um, like Baker would hang in the pocket. Baker big plays with his feet. All the pressures on the lines here yeah like that's that's the approach that Dan Quinn and the and the Manders should have going into that game so then Sunday the early game we've got whoever's gonna win the Rams Vikings game and that one's in Arizona don't forget because of the fires in Los Angeles and they will play the Eagles and then the fourth and final game of next weekend is the one I think that everyone is

looking at and going, this is going to be awesome. Baltimore at Buffalo. It's going to be fantastic. I mean, you're talking about. Two, two candidates for MVP at the quarterback. If, if, if football was. And a great storyline and the Buffalo Bills and, and the, and the Ravens as well.

If football was not broken into conferences, you would make the argument that this would be like a primo Superbowl matchup because you've got the two MVP leading MVP candidates. And they're not even meeting in the AFC title game, they're meeting in the divisional round, like that is the best game on the docket for sure. Um, I, so anyway, back to your original. Do you think Bill's fans when they saw that they're like, come on. Yeah, I mean, that's the it was.

That's our first playoff game. Right. I this is the thing. Stupid Chiefs get the Texans. Right. That's why the number one seed is valuable. That's why the number one is, I mean, especially with this expanded field, you really see it now. Right. You look at what the road that the Chiefs are gonna have and it's like, they're gonna watch Buffalo and Baltimore

beat up one another. Like, I don't give the Texans much of a chance of going in there ahead and winning that game. I actually think seven and a half is a low line. I thought that was gonna be closer to nine. Like, I know the Texans played well and I know- It's just been so weird this year. Yeah, that's true.

Maybe the line will be too high because the Chiefs do kind of squeak out victories. But I'm pretty confident that the Chiefs are gonna win that game. I know that one guy who's a huge Texans fan and some reason listens to the show with regularity, gets very upset when we talk about the Texans. But I don't give them much of a chance in that one.

But I mean, the whole weekend for me is geared up to Sunday night when we get, or sorry, Sunday afternoon, late Sunday afternoon, when we get to watch the Bills and the Ravens, that's gonna be a lot of fun. Okay, we're gonna do a lot more Canucks talk coming up on the show. Kevin Woodley, 730, Ian McIntyre at eight o'clock.

A reminder, we're gonna do what we learned at 830. Get them in now, Dunbar number text line is 650-650, hashtag it WWL, and let us know what you learned over the last 72 hours in sports. Uh, before we go to break, I need to tell you once again about Rogers Xfinity TV. If you're looking for your favorite culinary content, look no further. The Food Network has all new seasons of your favorite food shows on channel 410. That's only on Rogers Xfinity TV.

Uh, Kevin Woodley coming up next, you're listening to the Haliford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd. And Thomas Drance. Get your daily dose of Canucks Talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650. Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. 731 on a Monday. Happy Monday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking

for, sales, financing, service or parts. As the music suggests, Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and Ingoll Magazine is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour two of this program, which we are right in the middle of, is brought to you by Jason Hominuk from Jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. No one wants to pay too much for their mortgage. Figure it out.

Visit him on the internet at Jason.mortgage. A quick reminder before we talk to Woodley, we need more of what we learn. Get them in. I know you people, you people, you all learned something over the weekend. Hopefully it was about sports. You had 72 hours to learn. I have yet to see an FA Cup.

What we learned? Not a single one. Why would any of you be texting in what we learned about the FA Cup? Get them in now. Dunbar and Lever text line is 650650. What did you learn over the last 72 hours in sports? Let us know.

Hashtag it WWL. Also, how did Huddersfield do? Were they playing? I don't think they played this weekend. What was the lowest division team to play? It was Tottenham went to Tamworth. They went to Tamworth? They went to Tamworth.

Tamworth in January. Tamworth, which I believe is 96 places below them. They're non-league. Mm-hmm one of their star players His full-time job is he's a he's a zipper salesman sells zippers. He sells zippers. I Can't tell you anything door. I don't know if it's like he's got a brick-and-mortar store Or if he does a door-to-door thing like the vacuum guy or what? Zip is do with an English accent. I can't do it. Okay, don't do that Anyway, Tam worth took Tottenham to extra time and then ang pasta koglu was like, okay, I'm bringing on the big guys So he brought on all of his guys and he scored three time extra

Anyway, I digress get him in in. Dunbar Lumbertex line is 650. 650, what did you learn over the last 72 hours in sports? Let us know. To the phone lines we go, a presentation of White Rock Hyundai. Kevin Woodley joins us now in the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Woods?

Not much. I'm going to need the listeners to help me out here. Yep. Did they all hear you guys in that intro and a big conversation about Mike Vrabel being hired in the NFL or is this like when I play gold there are multiple voices in my head? It was definitely you. I don't think you and I had a conversation about Mike Vrabel at the break, did we? No, it wasn't you guys. I was getting two conversations overlapping each other and I

thought to myself, I'm either losing it or we've got an issue what is the boyfriend he's referring to a technical difficulty that was oh not at Sportsnet 650 yeah yeah yeah it's psychological I thought he was talking about the demons in his head like Brabels a pretty good hire for the Patriots it's psychological warfare that we do to the guests on hold make them think that they're hearing voices yeah I figured Balak was screwing with me but he's probably not not even back yet. No, Balak's not back yet. I'm doing it for him. He asked me to do that.

You guys are just, goalies, we have a lot of things bouncing around in our heads at all times here, guys. So like adding something that's actually real confused me. Okay, well I apologize for the error. I'd say we'd try and fix it, but I know how that's gonna turn out. So I'll just say to the next guest,

you're not hearing voices. Kev, what did you think of the Canucks game on Saturday? An impressive, and I think I classified it as one of the most unexpectedly dominant performances of the year. Three, nothing victory. Shout out for Kevin Lankan and the Canucks against the Leafs in Toronto. Um, it was a low event classic. Uh, as my late, my late father would have loved it wherever he is now because it doesn't matter what the case is. He's one of those old schoolers, right? It didn't matter where the Canucks

did as long as they beat the Leafs. So that would have been like his Stanley Cup for sure. It was not pretty, but they got the job done. I wonder if that game is any different if a puck doesn't bounce off Brock Besser's leg 30 seconds in. Um, but when you look at the underlying numbers, it's, it's what you saw. And it's, it's not a ton more than Carolina, although it was hard to do even less than they did in Carolina. They're expected goals in that game was like less than two. They had five high danger chances, but as they have consistently for less than a while, the other team didn't get much either.

And so, um, they seem to be getting back to that really solid floor of really solid defense after pretty much a month of not doing anything at either end. How are you feeling about the Connexia goaltending right now? Like what have you seen from Thatcher Demko in his return from injury? Are you encouraged or worried or how are you feeling?

Uh, I mean, not worried. I, I, you know, I listened to Steven Valakett last week and you know, the one thing that ClearSight analytics has, the company he runs is a lot of tools to sort of like video tools to make sure shots are going on that, like to sort of pause and freeze and measure things, whether it's going to be between the posts or going wide, they have a tendency to over, believe it or not, as much as the NHL has cut down on how many shots they count, uh, thanks to gambling over the past year, uh, and, and goalies are lamenting it, they still tend to over count shots, um, compared

to what actually is a shot, but they also have the tool, the ability to sort of measure things like, you know, how far apart a goalie skates are when they're in their stance. And so I thought it was really interesting to hear him, you know, something I can't, couldn't have picked up to the naked eye that, that thatcher's save stance is eight inches narrower than it used to be. And there's a lot of conversations around the goal-turning world about stances and narrow stances and not getting too wide.

Cause as soon as you get wide in your stance stance you become immobile and the games become so east-west teams are taught to sort of get a goalie locked in low and wide and then move the puck laterally and so goalies are trying to counter that by narrowing up their stance. That would require an adjustment beyond just being off seven months like getting used to a slightly narrower stance even even though eight inches may not sound like much, um, it's a significant sort of biomechanical adjustment, but I'm not worried. Like I haven't seen when he needs to get low and wide, he gets low and wide.

I haven't seen any hiccups in his movement. I also wouldn't necessarily, even if this is a conscious decision, a narrow stance, I don't think it's necessarily anything related physically. I know, you know, obviously, the in Clark's not here anymore. He's got a trainer in Adam for Ancilla who works with Connor Hellebock and Andre Vasileski and about a dozen NHL goaltenders. And if you watch them Vasileski in particular this year, his stance has also narrowed. So, uh, I may just be one more thing that requires a bit of an adjustment for him,

but it'll come. It's just, I think it's just the time and the timing that comes with so much, uh, time away. He's the numbers aren't there, right? Like even adjusted, he's had some of their tougher starts in terms of his, what, two of us first three were some of their worst defensive performances of the year. And yet he's still underwater relative to expected to the point where there's a very interesting decision coming tomorrow night in Winnipeg.

Yeah. I was going to ask you, who do you start, Lankton or Demko against presumably Connor Hellebuck for the Winnipeg Jets. Long-term thinking, like I think Demko, like as good as Lichenin has been, and I should be the one shouting from the rooftops because we've been talking about him since July. As good as he's been, his ceiling, even when he's at his best, isn't quite at the same level statistically as what Thatcher Demko gives you. And so you need to get back to Thatcher Demko being a guy that plays regularly for you. But on form right now, and as much as I think in the last little bit,

Demko's not far off at all, like not at all. He's really close. On form, I don't know, given the importance of short term for this team right now and getting another result to finish this road trip. Um, I would have trouble arguing against starting Kevin Lankin and right now he's playing really, really well for them after, you know, some, some ups and downs himself over the last month. And let's face it, like this team has had it because of the guys that they were

missing, but my, my long-term thinking is like, I'd go right back to Demko and turn this into a rotation until one of them pulls away. But for the need to finish this road trip strong, I would not be at all surprised if they go to Kevin Lankin. How do you think Demko would take that if they went with Lankin and over him? Um, I mean, he's as competitive as they come. I think he would do and say the right things in terms of the team and how he acts around his teammates.

But I think privately, you know, he probably expected to come back and be in the number one seat by now. And that that's not a job you lose to injury. But, you know, he's also acknowledged it publicly a couple of times like how well Kevin Lankinen has played. He recognizes, I believe when you hear him speak that the importance Lankinen has played to this season still being a season. Where would they be if not for Kevin Lankinen is a statement that's been made a lot over

the first few months of this season and it's a fair one because without him you know as secure as I think they still are at the bottom of the playoff picture that's probably not the case without the way he's played for them and so I don't I think he'd do and say all the right things, but anybody as competitive as him wants to be in the guy in that. And I think, you know, probably would have expected a month into his return to be the guy in that. And certainly not the guy at worst or rotation, certainly not the guy who's getting bumped out of a rotation. So like the actual rotation where you just alternate games, we had John

Walton from Washington on the show last week and I was asking him about Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren because they've honestly gone every other game, every game this season except for one where they tweak the schedule so Thompson could play against Vegas, which was his old team. And it's worked out pretty well for Washington. Now the interesting thing is that Thompson has, I wouldn't say like significantly better numbers But he's definitely been the better of the two, but they've stuck with the rotation and it's worked You know thatcher demko's feelings aside. Could you make a case for the same thing being a good idea in Vancouver? You could you could right now just base the way on their, on the way they're playing,

in which case you get Demko tomorrow night, uh, against Winnipeg. Cause that's the thing like Calgary did this at the beginning of the year too, with Wolfson Bloodar for the longest time. And then one of them got a shutout and they broke it. Okay. And so it is, is the shutout of the Toronto Maple Leaf, the exception that allows you to, to sort of change your pattern. I'm actually of the belief that if you're gonna make it

a pattern, you keep it a pattern because everybody wants to play every game, right? Like that's just the reality. Tachiridemko's not unique in that regard. Like every goalie wants to play every game. And what's the next best thing? If you've got two guys and there's a tough time choosing between the two of them, it's every other game. And what's the next best thing? If you've got two guys and there's a tough time choosing between the two of them, it's every other game. It is in of itself. Everybody talks about,

Oh, if I play every game, there's, there's a rhythm. I don't have to worry about, you know, the, the, the doubt that can creep in. If you, you know, the winning you're in, which means losing you're out, like, Oh man, if I let in another goal and we lose, I'm not getting back in like this, this position is tough enough psychologically. Why would you add that layer to it? Like for all those reasons, a rotation makes a ton of sense.

And it's exciting to hear that Washington's had one of those Charlie Linger and I think out with a concussion now after that collision on the weekend. So, um, and there is a pretty big discrepancy. Linerin's gotten better as they've gotten, as the season has gone on, but Logan Thompson is near the top of the entire NHL right now. That's how well he's playing. So I think there's a lot of value in going that way at a time when what you expected to happen just hasn't expected. It hasn't happened.

I, you know, like you said, Demko's ceiling, as good as Lankton is, Demko's ceiling has typically been higher and he just hasn't got there. So in the meantime, while he's not there, you know, much like Charlie Lindgren getting to continue to play every second day in Washington, they're still getting results. It makes sense to go with the rotation.

Tell us about the season that Connor Hallebeck has had in Winnipeg. Uh, remarkable, probably going to win a second Vezna, once he got like six shutouts already. Um, his calendar year, 2024 was one for the ages. Uh, like he, he didn't just dominate goal attending over that calendar year outside of the playoffs, he lapped the field.

I think the next highest save percentage, well, there was Anthony Stolers, who was an outlier, but played less than basically half the games of Connor Hellebock in the calendar year 2024. He's like 10 points better. Like his save percentage is like 925 in 2024. And the next highest guy was 915. Like it's nuts. I would say it's a hashek level of dominance and then that's what it looks like on the raw stats, but the adjusted numbers, I mean, he's still near the top of the league. Don't get me wrong. And he's still at a level that has won Desna trophies in the past,

but there are other guys that are performing at that level. Again, smaller sample. What makes Hellebuck remarkable is that he does it so consistently and with the workload that he has. But like on an adjusted save percentage basis, Logan Thompson's been slightly better. Anthony Stoller's before he got hurt slightly better. Carl LaMelka quietly in Utah, slightly better. Dustin Wolf's right up there with him. Igor Shusterikin's right up there with them. Philip Gustafson. And so I think what it tells you when you see the results he has on the raw numbers, and again, everything I just said, like that's not a

knock. Like these are exceptional numbers he's posting. There's a handful of guys that are posting like really good numbers this year relative to the environment they're in. But what I think you have in Hellebuck and Winnipeg right now is a perfect marriage. You've got a goaltender who is at the peak of his powers and he's already won two business so we know what that peak looks like and you've got him playing behind a team and in a system that accentuates his strengths and doesn't expose his weaknesses and weaknesses in Hellebuck's terms it's relative right like it's it's it's East-West plays

he's league average at each East-West plays and that is a weakness league average isn't bad but relative to how good he is at everything else it's a weakness so it's a perfect marriage They're playing really well defensively in particular on the types of plays that have plagued him somewhat again, relatively in the past. And he is taking care of everything else, but this is, this is sort of a two-pronged story. It's Connor Hallibuch is dominant and it's a consistency and it's all, it's the way he does it.

That's so impressive. It's so unique He might read the game at a like he reads the game at an unbelievable level a Dominic hashic like level so You add that into them playing a good structured Structured defensively in front of him and you've got a guy who's probably gonna win this third Vezna trophy And you know if you're starting to get into the conversation with third fastest of 300 wins and you're starting to get into the conversation with third fastest to 300 wins. You're starting to get into the 100% no doubt slam dunk Hall of Fame territory and if he keeps this up for another five, six years, it's consistent as he's been at the top of

the league, you're starting to get into the GOAT territory. You're starting to have that conversation is, are we talking about like Hasek, Wah, Broder, like does he enter that conversation? There's still a long time to go, but that's the level he's played at for the last couple of seasons and he's doing it again this year. Kev, we spent a few minutes earlier in the show just ripping the Seattle Kraken and we ripped a lot of it, but I thought I'd save the goaltending aspect to you. Is Philip Gruber basically unplayable at this point? And if the answer is yes, why do they keep playing him?

Well, I mean, it was back to back the other night. Joey DeCord missed some time with an injury recently. I'm just trying to pull up the numbers on the fly to see how bad this is. And I'm a little worried about what I'm going to find. I like, it's been a really tough season for him. It's really tough because he's, you know, he's like, I really like Philip Grubauer. And at the same time, you know, when they signed that contract, it was curious to me. I thought they were really set up with kind of like, they had a couple of sort of Kevin

Lankinens, right? Like, like guys that I thought were really good bets, small sample success. Um, I think we're Grubauer where they needed, they needed somebody to kind of eat that first year, uh, because they weren't as good as they were supposed to be. They were a lot looser defensively and, and he bore the brunt of it. So maybe you don't get to Joey to court if he's throwing in there right out of the gate that first year in Seattle. But since then, I think a lot of us looked at that contract when they signed it and said, I don't know if this is a good idea. And here we are a few years later saying the same thing. He's, he's out of 88 goalies that appeared

in the national hockey league this year, he is 78th and adjusted say percentage, you know, like the other guys on this list are either young guys that haven't proven themselves like Arthur Shelops is below him. Billy Huso is below him. Kaden Primo who's in the American Hockey League is below him. As a matter of fact, other than Dennis Hildeby who's up because of injury right now, doesn't look like anybody below him in these rankings is still in the National Hockey League as of today so I guess that's probably enough set he's got an eight seventy save percent. Yeah they don't have an option in the American

League right now that they feel is better and that's not a contract that's easy to move. I mean is that something that you could say, Hey, Ron Francis, you should have had a backup plan. You should have a third goalie that's capable of playing NHL minutes because Grubauer is arguably the biggest reason where you are right now. Um, now I, I don't think the team in front of Grubauer is particularly good, but you know, eight 70. Now I don't think the team in front of Grubauer is particularly good, but 870. I know save percentages are going down, but that

is extremely low for a guy that's playing regularly. Yeah, no, and on the flip side, what makes it even more, stand out even more is that behind the same team, Joey DeCord is, you know, he's having now look at his adjusted numbers. They're right there with Kevin Lankinen, right? Like so top top 30 in the league, not again, like not not not top 10, but compared to where where group hour is, it stands out a fair bit. Now listen, like that game in Detroit last night, like backdoor tap ins deflections from unchecked forward standing right in front

of the net. But you're right. Like at the end of the day, it's hard to defend where the numbers are on the season as a whole. His expected is right around league average. So it's not like he's, you know, this isn't the guys in Philly. Um, and I've seen a lot of conversations about Philadelphia and how they don't have any goaltending and they've got to fix it. I'm like, how about you fix, fix an expected say percentage for two or three guys that's in the eight sixties, like fix that first. That's not the case in Seattle with Philip Gruber.

So, you know, you could point to that. Honestly, it's funny you say, you know, like Ron Francis, what are you doing going into the season? But honestly, you know, I think a lot of us kind of scratched our heads at the contract in the first place, given where they were, you know, coming under the expansion draft and some of the options they had. And honestly, I think if you were to look back at the time in Carolina, that was something that they struggled with in terms of figuring out was goaltending. Gab, this was great, man. As always, thanks for taking the time to do. I really appreciate it. Enjoy the game tomorrow night. It should be a good one. Yep. Thanks guys.

Thank you. That's Kevin Woodley, a presentation of white rock Hyundai on sports net six 50 visit the showroom on King George in white rock or online at white rock Hyundai.com. See this is what happens when the Canucks play a good game and they played a really good game Saturday in Toronto. They shut out the Leafs, but then what do we rip? The Kraken. Yeah.

Every time the connects play a good game, we should come in here and just rip the crack. You know who sucks? I'm surprised, you know, well, we're going to talk to IMAQ for the next, you know, 20 minutes to half hour about the Vancouver connects. And we haven't done a fair bit, but I actually thought that that Toronto game. And you don't want to put too much stock or emphasis into any of the really good performances this year because what's all almost every good performance this year from the Vancouver Connects has been followed up by kind of a dud

consistency has been such a huge problem with this team that you just you're almost holding your breath and waiting what What's gonna happen next? Now, this sort of current stretch of games, it's almost gonna be tough to judge. This is a real gauntlet that the Canucks are gonna go through here. This road trip was difficult. It's gonna end with, I would say, the most difficult game of the trip.

I know that the- Doesn't get much easier when they come home, you know. And now when you come home, you've got, uh, the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday, and then you've got the Edmonton Oilers, Saturday Night Hawk, Night Canada. You've got two of the better teams, two divisional rivals, uh, the Kings, despite losing

on the weekend to Calgary, I believe they had ripped off five straight wins prior to that. And Edmonton's Edmonton. I mean, that's a game that I think both teams are going to have circled on the calendar at the start of this week because. Well, I remember the last time that the Canucks hosted the Oilers on hockey night in

Canada on Saturday, the Oilers pumped them seven to three. And that was one of those games that we talked about where it was, it stood out because of how egregiously poor the team was. That was in the earlier stage of the season where talked about the six nothing loss to the Devils at home, the seven three loss to the devils at home, the seven, three loss to the oilers at home.

That was when they were playing really well on the road. And awful at home. And awful at home. Yeah. They had actually just come off a California road trip where they won all three games. And that game in LA people were pointing to and

saying, yeah, I mean, sure they beat San Jose, they beat Anaheim, but that game in LA, that was really good. And then they come home against the Hamilton Oilers and they got thumped. Okay. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the big football game on February the ninth.

Sportsnet 650 is going to be hosting a party at the Clayton public house. Uh, visit the Clayton pub.com Clayton public house, good food, good people, good times. If you get ahold of them and you can't get a reservation, you can't get in for the party, don't worry because at 8.15 this morning, we are giving away a pair of tickets

to the big football game party hosted by Sportsnet 650, along with a $50 gift card to the Clayton Public House. All you gotta do is be caller number five, five at 815 this morning. The phone number here, 604-280-0650. That number again, 604-280-0650. Be caller number five at 815. In addition to your prize, you'll get to talk to A-Dog,

which is a nice little consolation prize as well. Every day this week, we're giving away a pair of tickets and a $50 gift card. Get yours today at 8 15. You're listening to the Haliford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Even though eight inches may not sound like much.