Halford & Brough in the Morning - Canada Team USA Contain Canada's Firepower?

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

In hour two, Mike & Jason discuss Team USA's odds of stacking up against Team Canada at the Olympics with Victory+ NHL insider Frank Seravalli (1:19), plus they discuss yesterday's 5-0 shutout loss by Canada to the USA on the Women's side with CBC Olympics digital hockey reporter Karissa Donkin (26:41), and if Canada will be able to recover. 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.

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Happy Wednesday everybody Halford Brough of the Morning Sportsnet 650 Frank Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates Do you have CRA 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 now in hour two of the program, Frank Sarvalley from Victory Plus. It's going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 2. Hour 2 is brought to by Jason Homonick at Jason. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you.

Visit them online at jason.morgage. We're coming to live from the Kintech Studio, new year, new opportunity for comfort with orthotics from Kintech. So we will go now to the able, auction's hotline. Our next guest is a presentation of angry out or liquor. It is Frank Sarah Valley from Victory Plus here on the Halford

Inbrough show on Sports Night 650. Good morning, Frank. How are you? Pretty good. How are you guys doing? We're well. We are now less than 40 minutes away from the start of the much anticipated men's tournament at the Olympics. It's going to get started with Slovakia and Finland. We'll have to wait

a little bit to see Canada and the U.S. in action. I did want to ask you a couple questions about that great rivalry though on the men's side to start. I was perusing your latest frankly hockey on Victory Plus and I noticed you were talking about Canada's

great Olympic advantage. Can you explain to us and the listeners what that advantage is, Frank? So this is the best team USA that's ever been assembled. And the problem with that is there's still only a

co-metal favorite in this co-go-go-go-go- medal favorite, I should say, to open this tournament. And so when the margin is as razor thin as it is, to me, the key differentiator and why I believe Canada will prevail and win another best on best and gold medal is because of the experience. I mean, look at their lineup. 20 Stanley Cups collectively, five consmite trophies, and Drew Doughty and Sidney Crosby have a pair of Olympic gold medals. and then you contrast that with the Team USA roster

four total Stanley Cups, no consmites, no Olympic cold medals, obviously. It's not even close. And so if you're looking for one goal in one moment to win one shift or one period, I know which team I'm taking every time. To whom would that responsibility and leadership and maybe the experience factor fall

to on that U.S. roster. Is it one individual? Can you pinpoint one in particular? Well, if you're looking for it to be Austin Matthews, good luck. I mean, he's the captain of the team that has been home of the most disappointing playoff runs that we've seen in the NHL. And if you're looking for Stanley Cup winners, like I think it would have to be Matthew Kachuk or Jack Eichael. Those are the guys that really stand out with their experience to me that in big moments, they've found a way to be part of teams that have had lots of success. The biggest difference for the U.S. team from the Four Nations to this term is obviously the inclusion of Quinn Hughes. I was doing a hit on City News yesterday right across the hall in our studio.

And I did get asked the question. Is Hughes impactful enough that he would have made a difference in that gold medal final at the Four Nations? I was like, absolutely. When he's on his game, he's a top five player probably in the National Hockey League. How much of an impact are you? you expecting Hughes to make right from the get-go as the U.S. gets this tournament underway in the group stage? A massive one. I mean, your point is well made. The question is certainly interesting to think about is, would four nations have been

different? Would overtime have looked different? What would have happened had Quinn Hughes participated? And so that definitely stands out in a big way. But can the U.S. defensively contain the Canadian firepower. That to me is a question that has not been answered yet because the U.S. has

struggled to do it. How physical do you think this hockey is? I'm just wondering about Quinn Hughes and who's going to be teeing off on him because that's the game plan against him. We saw it in the playoffs when Quinn Hughes was still with the Canucks and there were times that Hughes handled it

and there were other times where he actually struggled with it. Yeah, and I saw in those playoffs series, how he was made to look relatively average. And you never know what he was dealing with or managing in terms of injury at the time. A couple years back, that was one of the huge talking points was, hey, you know, Quinn Hughes is banged up as in himself.

But that's going to be, that's definitely going to be the game plan for his brother. And not to invoke Jack on my own, but like, I think. he's one of the true X factors for the U.S. in this tournament. Because if Jack Hughes has to play center in order to be effective, then I think the U.S. should have made a different decision at the position. And I think you could have made alternate arrangements because that's the one thing that really stood out from Four Nations is that he really struggled and was not effective at all on the wing. And so it almost feels like it's center or bust. And that's probably a pretty uncomfortable position to be in with this coaching staff given a lot of the options that they have at

their disposal. What are you expecting from J.T. Miller at this tournament? As the reports are filtering out of Milan, it sounds like he's going to be a fourth-line winger alongside Hughes with Nelson in the pivot in the middle. But it also sounds like they're going to be deploying him as a pretty prominent penalty killer. Yeah, I figured that would be probably the big reason why he was selected to the team would be for that

penalty killing role. Not surprised that he's in that fourth line winger spot, and to be totally candid, I would not have had J.T. Miller on my Olympic team this year. I don't think he's, if you truly are picking based on

how players have played this year, or if you want to even extend, it to, if you want to include calendar year 2025, I think you'd be really hard pressed to say that J.T. Miller has lived up to that level of hockey based on what we've seen in New York. So I'm sure the general managers, I don't know, a few of them might take some time off, but I'm sure they're going to be talking trades during this Olympic break. Is Trocheck likely to be traded by the Rangers?

Could you frame it that way? I think, I mean, if we're dealing on like a 50-50, is he more likely than not? I would shade toward yes, more likely than not. I don't think it's like a 90% shot that Trochec is traded. But I think the interest, I think his prominence in the center marketplace, his cap hit and how reasonable it is and how productive and versatile he is, I think all those things add up to being a really important trade chip, yes. We're speaking to Frank Sarvalley from Victory Plus, our NHL and Olympic Insider here on the Halford

and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We spent a lot of time already analyzing Canada's opponents in the group stage. Check you at a start, followed by Switzerland and France, and gone through those rosters pretty thoroughly. In Group C, the U.S. has Latvia, Germany, and Denmark. In the group phase, Frank, which of those three is likely to give the Americans the biggest test? I think it's Germany. Philip Grubauer has played better this season than most people realize. Leon Drysaitel is an all-world player.

They've got some additional firepower and high-end skill with Stutzla and Petrka. I mean, you're talking about 70, 80-point players in the NHL in addition to Drystyl. can they make life painful enough or hectic enough for the U.S.? I mean, I think there's a reasonable chance that it's a relatively close game, but I think that's their toughest test in that group by far. And I think people have posed it as, well, you know, the U.S. is at a disadvantage, actually, because, you know, they're not likely to get punched in the mouth by anyone until you get to a knockout stage.

And it's like, okay, I get the premise. But at the same time, like, I'll take the easiest path possible. Thank you very much. Well, similar vein in the line of questioning here. Which of the 12 participants in the Olympic field do you feel has a chance to play spoiler? That's Chequia for me. And it's their goal pending that stands out. look they also have experience we talked about drew dowdy and fiddney crosbie having played and won in the olympics before

almost a quarter of chequia's roster five players have played in the olympics previously and i think that means something i mean the olympics are totally different beast than anything else it's a sprint of a tournament 30 games played over the course of 11 days they understand the nature of it, the rhythm, the village, all those different things that come with it. And I think with that goaltending trio and Lucas O'Sull, to me, he's had an up and down season, but he enters the Olympics as one of the hottest goalies in the NHL. He's got big game steel capability. And then you throw in David Pasternak up front and you've got a live dog.

Frank, going back to the American roster, do you think Matt Boldy gets enough, praise enough attention for how good a player he is? No, and I think much in the same way that somehow people around the hockey world that didn't pay enough attention to the Carolina hurricanes, they're like, holy smokes, look how good of a defenseman Jacob Slavin is

last year during Four Nations. Remember, like you could see the tweets filling your timeline and now I think a lot of people are going to have the same type of reaction or experience if they haven't been watching Minnesota with Boldie. And they're going to need him. Like they're looking for goals. They're looking for magic. Boldie is the guy that I'd have circled on that U.S. team that people aren't really talking about

that I think is going to have a monster tournament. Well, he's had some chemistry on the power play with Quinn Hughes in Minnesota. he's willing to shoot the puck, which Quinn likes. But, you know, I, I just, I'm actually very curious about power plays, especially with Canada, because Halford, you brought it up the other day, and I was like, what? And he was like, Colorado's got the worst power play in the NHL. I was like, what, with McCar and McKinnon?

And I wonder, I would just wonder how it's going to work. You look at that power play, and you're like, well, they're going to score every time they're on the ice. but sometimes these things are tough to predict. I remember years where the Oilers had trouble on the power play. I remember years when Pittsburgh, despite all their talent, had trouble on the power play. And man, that could be the difference between winning and losing gold medals. It could, for sure. And I'm with you.

I just think if I were John Cooper, which obviously I'm not, I don't have the suave or the personality. But I wouldn't be shocked to see them tinker with it a bit, and not in setup, but in personnel. Yeah. Like, you've only got so long to really mesh. And I think one of the cool things about Four Nations was watching little plays and sequences that they worked on

in just their short time practicing together that you could see them pull off in games. But this group, is so talented that if you were to take one of those guys off and flip in another player or two of the five, like it could click with the snap of a finger. And so don't, you know, it's great to give them some runway to find some competitive, you know, or comfortability. But outside of that, don't be afraid to switch it up. Like, it's okay. And if it doesn't work, you can always go back to what you originally tried.

Yeah, so the reports out of practice this morning is that Cooper's going with the nuke option when it comes to the first power play unit. It's going to be, it's wild to see this. McCar, McDavid, McKinnon, Reinhardt, and Crosby. So that's the first five-man power play unit. But you bring up a good point

because in a short tournament, it's two things. It's when it's trying to find something that works, but then when you find something that works, it's milking it for all its worth. Like you don't go away. You don't deviate you don't go away from it. Like, at the expense of do we need to get the other guys involved?

Oftentimes that's a no. Yeah. You've got a handful of games over 11 days. Find something that works and then milk it for all it's worth. For sure. And I don't think they'll be bashful about that. But, I mean, look, I don't think this tournament for Canada is going to come down to the power play or the penalty kill or which of their forward lines are going or aren't. to me it's going to come down squarely to can Canada get reasonable enough goalpending,

which I think is possible. But I think it's fascinating that Cooper said this morning that he's going to play two different goalies in the first two games. Now, I think the smart play is go with Bennington for the first game, and that way you've checked the box with the guy that, one for you at Four Nations and get a feel for where he's at. And then see if, you know, see how you feel about going back to him later. But it's interesting who that next guy is going to be because I think a lot of people have looked at the numbers and said, well, it has to be Logan Thompson.

But I'm wondering if, based on practices and who's gotten a net, does Darcy Kemper, is he the guy that goes in game two? So it's a bit of a mystery. but I think the smart play is Binnington game one, get that out of the way, and maybe he just runs with it. I mean, Doug Armstrong also spoke in Italy today

and I mean, he said, I'm very confident after hearing the same commentary heading into Four Nations last year and Bennington winning that he can pull it off. You know, I get what he's saying there, but it wasn't the same as Four Nations. Bennington's numbers were not

as poor as they are this. season. They are horrific this season. You can make the argument he's the NHL's worst starter. You know, there were some encouraging underlying numbers for Bennington heading into that Four Nations, even if his traditional stats weren't great. I mean, just look at the last few games he played for the Blues. It was allowing four goals, five goals, six goals. I'll get to be honest with, there's a part of me that kind of hope he looks awful in the Chechia game, even if Canada loses that game because I'm not sure where I am with my trust in him. And if he doesn't look good or he looks shaky, at least I know that they won't go back

to him. Right. And that's, I mean, that's the other part of going to him first, though. I think what you don't want to have happen is you start Thompson or Kemper and they look shaky. And then now you're going, oh, no, the guy we have coming out of the bullpen is the guy who's been the worst goalie in the league so far. Yeah.

What are you anticipating Sullivan's going to do with the goalies be? is the Americans, if I'm not mistaken, don't do the back-to-backs until Saturday, Sunday. Yeah, so everyone does get a back-to-back at some point during the group stage. I imagine that it's Hellebuck first, and then I think you'd go to Ottinger for one of those games, because given this season, given Hella-Bucks, I know he's a guy who likes rhythm and routine,

but given how this has played out with the knee and he's been fine, but hasn't been otherworldly, here. I think you go with Ottinger just to give him a taste and to not have your guy with the scope knee go back to back in a moment where you don't, it's not necessary. Don't have him

play the whole way through is the message. Yeah, is there any way that Swayman's that guy in, not Ottinger? I'd be surprised. Yeah. Not to say Swamen hasn't been good, and by the way, the numbers that you see on the page for Swamen

are, they're actually better than they appear because the environment for goal-tending in Boston so far this year has been awful. So he's actually performed way better than those numbers would indicate. What do you think the officiating is going to be like? I think all of us in Canada are like, we want Tom Wilson to be physical, but not too physical for international rules. Well, I think that's what everyone's holding their breath on.

You can kind of compute, okay, how does this team look, or what are the expectations for that team? but it's way more difficult to pinpoint the consistency and quality of the officiating because this is such a blended system. It's IAHF rules, which they've tried to meld toward NHL rules, but then half of the officials and linesmen are from the IAHF and not the NHL. So I'd imagine in bigger moments that bigger games, that bigger, games, bigger NHL heavy games, you're going to have NHL heavy crews, but you're also still

dealing with the IAHF rulebook, and there are nuances and differences, the headshots, like how that's the automatic two-minute penalty, but okay, you know, I saw Pierre LeBron's article in the athletic today who talked to the officiating director, and he said, well, yeah, but it's also a two-minute penalty in the NHL. It's like, yeah, but that's not really called all that often and certainly not as often as it is in the double IHS. So there are different little things that stand out and the officiating is it's going to be huge because, you know, you're looking at other teams that are more used to that standard that particularly the NHL heavy teams are going to have to adjust to a little bit more quickly. We are now just 19 minutes away from puck drop for the first

international best-on-best tournament at the winter games in 12 years Slovakia and Finland are set to do the business here in just a few minutes. Frank, with that, we'll let you go. Enjoy all the action that gets underway soon. We'll do this again next week. Thanks, guys. Head into Milan tonight. I'll be there in time for Canada's game tomorrow and I'll talk to you next week from Italy.

Beautiful, thanks, buddy. I appreciate it. Travel safe. Frank Serra Valley from Victory Plus here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sports Net 650 as I stumble over everywhere. that I'm trying to say here. A reminder that Frank is a presentation of angry otter liquor. You got it?

I did. Okay. Barely. So I had a hockey game late last night and after the game having a beer. And we were all talking like, what are the rules of hitting in women's hockey? And I was like, they're always asking me because I should know. I'm like, I'm not exactly sure. but I know that the PWHL allows slightly more hitting

than the international game. And of course, Mary Philippe Plan was hurt on a body check that was penalized. So I know, well, that one was illegal. Yeah. So Frank mentioned Pierre LeBron's interview with his name is Scott Zelkin. Zelkin.

And he's head of officiating for the double IAHF. What do you call it? The I-WHF. The International Hockey Hockey Hockey Federation. Okay. So here's a quote. It's an interesting quote. The last time NHL players were at the Olympics, the rule books of the double IHF and the National Hockey League were significantly different. Not only standards, how we penalize different fouls, but also just the pure and simple labeling of penalties and what you can call different fouls.

In the last handful of years, Zalkin went on to say those two rulebooks have come to the point where they are almost identical. There are a few nuances that are different and the fans may see some differences, but in general, the rule books now are really, really close. So that's the first thing that are in mind, in our mind, is helping to standardize the officiating really across the world.

I'm not a ref. No. I'm not, I yell at them. Yes. But I'm not a ref. And I can't tell you all the differences between the NHL rulebook. which sometimes confuses me anyway

with some of the things that we're debating in the game and things that are changing and evolving in the standards, etc. In the international game, which I don't really get to watch much. There's going to be NHL refs there, which is another wrinkle. I'm very curious to see if there's going to be

like a controversial call that is going to end up playing a significant part in this tournament. Well, we start getting to watch these games in just a few minutes time, and this will lead us into the one to watch brought to by Limitless AV, Vancouver's most trusted audiovisual integration experts. Second game today, just after 10 o'clock our time, it's going to be Sweden against Italy.

And we spent a lot of time on this show and this station opining and wondering and projecting what the deployment will be for Elias Pedersen. There is another Swedish forward, though, and a prominent one that you're going to want to keep an eye on, dare I say the one to watch today. And that's Philip Forsberg. according to multiple reports out of the Swedish morning skate and practices, Forsberg is being deployed as kind of a 13th forward among the group. Philip Forsberg? Very strange. Now, he was taking rotations from the injured William Nylander spot,

but with Neelander likely to play today, several reporters have suggested that Forsberg could be deployed as a 13th forward on this team. Right now, in case you're wondering about Elias Pedersen, he is still being flanked by Mika Zabinajad and Ricard Raquel. And if you look at the rest of the lines, they remain largely on change, except for the fact that Forsberg is skating almost as an extra. Now, I will say this. Practices have been closed for large chunks of them.

There hasn't been a lot of reporting and media availability. And as we've seen in Olympics past, things tend to change rather quickly. So we'll see what happens there. But you're one to watch today, really that entire forward group for Sweden, as they take on the Italians later this morning, in the second of two games to open up the men's Olympic tournament. That is your one to watch brought you by Limitless AV, specializing in seamless video conferencing solutions and hybrid workspaces. Book your personalized tour of their experience center today at LimitlessAV.C.A.C.

At the break, coming up in four minutes time, a little surprise giveaway. We're giving away a $250 gift card to Golf Town. Mom, Dad, can we go to Golf Town? We sure can. We have a $250 gift card. Be caller number five at 730 this morning. The phone number, 604, $2.8. 0-650. That number again, 604-280-0-650. Caller number five at 730 on the button will win a $250

gift card to Golf Town. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drans. 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. 733 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford, Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brub in the morning is brought to 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-Trustee.com for more.

We're in hour two of the program. We're the midway point of the show. Carissa Donk and CBC Sports Reporter covering a women's Olympic hockey is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour two of this program is brought to by Jason Hominoch at Jason Dow Mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, Then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason.com. Yesterday, Canada suffered its worst ever defeat at the Olympics and women's hockey,

getting slacked 5-0 by the Americans. Our next guest was there to watch it all go down. Carissa Duncan from CBC joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Carissa, how are you? Hey, I'm doing all right. Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on. We appreciate you taking the time.

What was it like? watching that unfold yesterday, not just a loss for the Canadians to the Americans, but as I mentioned, Canada's worst ever defeat at the Olympics, 5-0 at the hands of the Americans. Yeah, for sure. First time they've ever been shut out. Canada's only ever lost three times at the Olympics all three times. Well, now four times. All four times have been to the Americans.

But, you know, I think the most troubling thing about the loss was that Canada just, you know, couldn't get any chances beyond the perimeter. The Americans looked faster. We know this is a younger team. And yeah, it just wasn't the way that you would expect the Canadians to play at the Olympics. And, you know, the Canadians have been dominant at the Olympics. The Americans have dominated a little bit more at the world championships. And I think that's swagger that we saw in 2022 when they rolled to a gold medal certainly wasn't there yesterday.

Should we really be surprised, though, considering how the rivalry series went? Yeah, you know, I mean, I think, yeah, so the numbers say now it's seven straight losses against the U.S. dating back to the World Championship last year. Things were close at the World Championship with the rivalry series. You know, the first two games, you could kind of throw them out a little bit. And Renee Debian, their starting goaltender wasn't there. There was a lot of experimentation on the Canadian side, whereas the American state, you know, pretty steady with their lines using the same power play units we're seeing here at the Olympics. But, you know, I think they weren't any better than they were at the United States.

rivalry series. That's what their head coach, Troy Ryan, said last night. They haven't, they just haven't figured out how to solve a fast skating, you know, very mobile American defense. They haven't figured out how to solve somebody like Abby Murphy, who clearly got under their skin yesterday. She drew four penalties, you know, unfortunately for the Canadian. She's also very skilled. So she had three assists. And, you know, they kind of played right into her playbook. So this is a team that, you know, has, has been trying to learn from those losses to the Americans at the rivalry series, as you mentioned, and unfortunately it just hasn't happened yet. Does Troy Ryan need to throw out the original game plan and come up with a whole new one

if they meet again, as they should in the gold medal game? Is there any way that Canada could just try and make this game as ugly as possible, grind it out, and hope a few bounces go their way? Yeah, for sure. I mean, there's no doubt they have to find a way to, you know, to get closer to the American net what they were doing yesterday wasn't working. Yes, they were without their captain and their best player, Madi Philippe Poulnay. And Troy Ryan said yesterday he's optimistic that we'll see her later in the tournament.

So in a perfect world, if they meet again in the gold medal game, she will be back. And of course, we know what she can do on the stage. Nobody scored more golden goals than Marie-Philippe Poulogne. But, you know, they need, I think they need a little bit more speed, you know, particularly on the back end, but they also need, yeah, to find a way, like you said, to kind of grind it out. And I think it's sort of figuring out if they're coming at you with that sort of, you know, heaviness. How do you match that? And the Canadians didn't match that yesterday.

So, you know, it's desperation, its skill, its speed. And certainly the game plan that the Canadians used and that they were using at the rivalry series isn't working. So if there's any time to figure it out, it's now. Were you a little surprised that, I mean, Canada, one of the narratives, and we can get, we can keep on this for a bit. but one of the narratives was this is a veteran-laden team. They got a ton of experience. Were you surprised how rattled they look? Like they were getting called for icings just because they weren't carrying the puck

past the center line. You know, they looked, they looked rattled. 100%. I totally agree that they did. And, you know, Troy Ryan talked about that after the game. Whether it was confidence or not,

it certainly looked like it. And like you said, the icings, the constant off-sides were a good indication of that. He talked about their shoulders drooping on the bench. And this is a team that you wouldn't expect that from, even though, again, their captain isn't on the bench. They have a ton of other experience. We had Brian Jenner wearing the sea yesterday.

You've got players like Joss on the Rock, like Renata Fast, like Blair Turnbull, who also wear letters on this team. You know, Canada, their kind of superpower or advantage going into these games was that they had this experience. They've been there. They've done it. A lot of the American young stars, you know, this is their first Olympics. and certainly for most of them it's their first Olympics with fans,

their first kind of non-COVID Olympics. So that was supposed to be Canada's advantage going in is that nothing is really supposed to phase them. And starting the tournament, they had their first game postponed and then Poulin goes down. You know, they looked pretty resilient and that resilience was just gone yesterday. So they need to find that belief, I think, more than anything.

I read that the Americans have 16 players born in 1999 or later while Canada has just seven. On the American team, there's seven college players on that roster, and some of them are playing very important roles for the Americans. Did Canada have options to bring a younger team? Or did they have legitimate young players? What was the debate like concerning the roster ahead of these Olympics? Yeah, I think that is a conversation that we've heard a lot.

I mean, there were some younger players who were left at home. me think of somebody like Chloe Primerano, you know, generational defender, you know, 19 years old and is somebody who, you know, will be a star on this team going forward. You think about, you know, like a defender like Ashton Bell or a forward like Caitlin Kramer, you know, so those are people who were left at home. But they're also, I think, young players on the roster who maybe could, you know, be shouldering the load a little bit. You look at somebody like Sophie Jakes on the blue line.

You know, she's got one of the best shots from the blue line. in the PWHL. She's played in big game. She has back-to-back Walter Cup rings, you know, with the Minnesota Frost last season and the season

before. And, you know, she's just somebody who's playing on their third pairing right now, where you look up front, you look at Julia Gosling, who's been one of their best forwards,

you know, leading the team in scoring at this point with three power play goals. She's on their second power play unit. So I think there's also some young talent that they could be drawing from a little bit more who, you know,

would be on their roster and is in Italy, of right now. We're speaking to Chris of Donkin from CBC here on the Halfman Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Chris, I know you cover the PWHL closely for CBC and we were having this conversation yesterday

about the growth of the international game in terms of maybe not necessarily Canada in the U.S. but other countries either catching up or getting on a level playing field. I know it's early days for the tournament and I know it's still early days for the PWHL. Has there been any

significant markers that you've seen from maybe a correlation between the rise and the growth of the professional women's hockey league and what we're seeing in this Olympic tournament thus far? Oh, 100%. I think if there are folks who only watch women's hockey once every four years when the Olympics come around, I mean, first of all, I think you should watch more often. But second, I think if you're tuning in now and you haven't watched women's hockey in a few years, you'll notice it is a lot faster, and that is a result of the PWHL.

You look at a team like Czechia, for instance, they've got eight players who compete in the PWHL, Finland's gut four, and just having those players being able to compete every day against the best in the world, to shoot against, you know, the Canadian and the American goaltenders to battle against their players in practice. We do see, you know, that they're catching up. I mean, I think we also see the Canadians and Americans are getting better because, you know, just overall, this is an ecosystem where the best players in the world have the resources to actually be professional and, you know, to practice every day, to have access to all the

training resources that they need. So the game in general is growing. Are we at a point yet where, you know, we see parity between some of the European teams and North America? I don't think we're quite there yet. I think, you know, there is still quite a difference between those teams and between Canada and the U.S. But can I see, you know, a world in the future where we see Czechia or Finland,

you know, or maybe even several years down the road, a very young promising Sweden team making it to the gold medal game 100%. I could see that happening. So I know they were able to play four games of the rivalry series, and that's certainly more games than the men's team is going to be able to play together

right before the tournament or a few months before the tournament. But is it harder now with the PWHL to bring a team together? Is there less practice time together? Definitely. 100%. I mean, the way that the women's team used to be built is they'd do something called centralization.

So they'd all move to one place, typically Calgary, for months. And they would live together. They would compete against each other for, you know, a spot on the roster. And they would play tons of games during that time. Of course, that's not possible anymore with the PWHL. And the way that Canada did that was always sort of seen as a huge advantage for Canada, the way that they were able to kind of bring people together. It was something that Canada did very well.

So, you know, they had to do it differently this year. So Canada did a couple of training blocks instead, but certainly this team hasn't, you know, played together nearly as much. I mean, they haven't really had a whole lot of time together since the rivalry series. And even just during this tournament, especially with the game against Finland, getting postponed, they haven't really had much practice time. It's something Troy Ryan talked about yesterday. He'd like to have a bit more time to kind of work things out. So I do think you're seeing, you know, the effects of that.

Now, this is a team that, you know, there are a lot of players on this team who played with each other before, know each other very well with so many returnees from 2022, but you definitely have to think this would be a different situation if they'd had weeks and weeks of practice time since that last loss of the rivalry series to figure out what went wrong and try to fix it. If Canada is to somehow turn this around

and I would say at this point almost improbably capture gold over the Americans, who's one player not named Marie-Philippe Poulin that needs to step up and give way more than they've given already in this tournament. Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, you know, you look at Anne-Rene DeBien, she's somebody who's going to be crucial to Canada,

if, you know, if Canada is going to win gold. She's been incredible in the PWHL this past season. The last time she allowed more than two goals in the PWHL was last March, March 2025. So her performance against the U.S. of late has been quite uncharacterial. characteristic. You know, it doesn't rest entirely on her shoulders because she was hung out to drive, right? I mean, she was getting tons of grade A chances sort of on the doorstep, but she's someone who can

steal a game, and she's someone who I think the Canadians are going to have to rely on big time if they want to make it back to the top of the podium. Carissa, this was great. Thank you very much for taking the time to do this. We really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for having me, guys. Appreciate it. Chris Adonkin, CBC sports reporter covering the women's Olympic hockey here

on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Quick reminder, Chris's segment, brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody beats a Duick deal and why nobody has since 1926. Visit Duick GM on Marine Drive, visit them downtown, visit them in Richmond and visit them online at the duikato group.com.

So remember we were talking yesterday about the decision by Team Canada whether to stay in the Athletes Village or stay in fancy hotels. Yep. The Americans are staying in the Athletes Village. Oh, yeah. And Doug Armstrong was forced to address the issue.

Yeah, I saw that. Today he said, I think this has sort of grown a life of its own. This is no different than the tournaments we had before. We just wanted to give our players that option to stay where they're most comfortable to prepare for the games. Now, they're either going to all stay in hotels or they're all going to stay in the Athletes Village. Correct. They're going to stay in a hotel. Yeah.

And it's fine. It's not a story until it becomes a story. Yeah, the Americans will try and play it up. Yeah, 100%. And I would too. And I would too. Absolutely. There's some semblance of gamesmanship.

And if you can paint the Canadians as the prima don't really understand the spirit of the Olympics, well, by all means, we might say a few things about Americans these days. Yeah, and that's fair. What do you mean by that? Oh, nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Let's elaborate. When I was doing the one to watch brought to you by Limitless AV, I was,

previewing that Sweden Italy game later this morning and by the way things are now underway between the slowbacks and the fins Yeah this hockey is pretty good by the way I forgot how fast hockey is supposed to be I've been I've run a foul

Of I don't know if this is like this is a stark contrast Of what I'm used to I've run a foul I don't know if it got all the way To the level of the IOC But you have to be very delicate When you're on the air About what you can say and what you can't say Like I can't do a running commentary

No On the slowbacks Let's push it to see how far you can go I don't think we're allowed to mention it. I think I'm allowed to say that... Puck goes into the corner, there's a hit. Don't do it! I think you're allowed to say, like, right now,

they're five minutes into the first period and it's still zero zero. Whoa, whoa, whoa. They may or may not be five minutes into the first period. Who's to say? Well, I also have to be cognizant of the fact that there may be some spoilers for some of our listeners out there. That's trying to grow as a broadcaster and appreciate that.

Anyway, what's our spoiler? What's our... I think, you know what? I'm going to warn everyone. Yeah. If you don't want spoilers, God, I don't know how to do this. No, you just have to say, don't listen.

Don't listen? Because tomorrow at 740, Canada is going to play the checks while we're on the air. Yeah, the rule with Sports Talk Radio has always been, if there's a live sporting event happening that you are already talking about, be prepared for spoilers. Let's also, though, in fairness, and because it's not hard for us to do this. To warn people. Let's just say, hey,

something's happened in the game. Yeah, sure. So we won't react. Okay, none of us are we're all going to promise. None of us are going to be like, yes or no. I'll give everyone a heads up right now. Tomorrow at 7.40, it'll be Canada and check you. From that point on, you should be aware that there will be intermittent updates more often than not than if or when Canada scores in that game.

We will be saying, hey, Canada's on the board, so-and-so scored. and then we'll probably talk about that player or maybe the players that set it up. But let's give people a chance to, first of all, turn down their radios. For sure. Now, the reason I'm bringing all this up is I dial it all the way back to the original point

of this conversation. In previewing tomorrow's game, or sorry, the game later this morning between Sweden and Italy, I ran through the Swedish forward lines and talked a little bit about PD, maybe more about Philip Forsberg. I neglected to mention that Sweden,

early this morning rolled out what looked to be there to power play units Leas Patterson, maybe not surprisingly, is not on either PP1 or PP2 for the Swedes. And they are running... It's not surprising if they've been scouting the Canucks. They are running

a large majority of forward. They're going four one, four forwards one defense, but on both units, right? I mean, I thought maybe they go five forwards on one, but whatever. And yeah, PD is not on either. He'll be killing penalties, I bet. You never know.

I don't know what. He's shop blockers too. I really don't know. That's his best attribute now. Shop blocking, yeah. PP won for them the forwards of Raymond Kempay Neelander and Ericksonac and Pee Pee-P two. It's Brat, Raquel Zabinajad, Landiscaug.

So PD's not involved on either power play, at least prior to puck drop. I think he's going to have to battle his way back into the good books of Sam Halam. Yeah, I'm not sure Halam likes him all that much. Or trust him is maybe the better word. Well, you saw how it went in the Four Nations, and he played a smaller role in each game. And I think by the third one, he was the extra forward. I can't remember exactly.

He didn't play much, regardless. And, you know, I'm really curious to see how he plays. Now, this Italian team, which has a couple of kids from Vancouver, actually. on the team, which is cool. Yep. You know, this isn't a test for Sweden, the Italian. Those guys will play their hearts out, I'm sure. But Sweden should easily be able to take care of Italy.

So that's not going to be the test for them. Italy's the weakest team in this field. By far. By a considerable margin. Like even France has. By far. Yeah. If you were to stack the two up,

Italy's is the host. And it is going to be a real struggle for them. in a group where you talk about it, it's probably the most balanced of the big three and every group basically has one minnow in it. They should make a rule where France is allowed to take the French Canadian players. Well, I mean, there was some thought

that Italy was going to naturalize some players in the hopes of trying to grow a stronger team, but I think they went with a lot of players that were playing there domestically. Right. And guys that had Italian passports at the time. Nick Patan's brother is on the team, right? Yeah, I'm sorry, I forgot his first name.

Yeah, but it's just, to, it's one of those rosters that is so bereft of high-level talent that you can't envision a world where they're going to be able to pull an upset. Like you remember the upsets of years past, they did have the occasional NHLer or when Lavian nearly

stunned Canada in 2014, they had NHL caliber net minding, at least reasonably close to it, and a handful of NHLers sprinkled throughout. Those are the guys that kind of know how to neutralize a game. If you watch any of the big upsets happen, oftentimes it's because

you get a handful of guys that are committed, but with the know-how to shut things down, like it's very difficult to ask guys that haven't played at a high level to shut down high-level play. Yeah. Because they just don't know what it looks. Can I tackle them?

They just don't understand the danger spots, right? It's like it's trying to understand the build-up as opposed to like just pack the middle of the ice and block shots. It's not that easy. Sometimes it's just pure speed, too. Well, that's it. And like, you check McKinnon.

Well, you do it. I can't. I can't catch up to him. He's too fast. All of these guys are so fast. I cannot wait. Like Kenan and McDavid on the ice, the defenders is like, what's the game plan here?

Like, what are we supposed to do? So Justin Bourne, friend of the show, Fan 590, back in Toronto, tweeted out that the line of McKinnon between Hagel and Ryanhart, it's like a perfect line. And I couldn't agree more. Like I know everyone's excited and rightly so and interested about the line of McDavid,

with Celebrini and Tom Wilson. Yep. But McKinnon for me is the guy that I like to cheer for the most. He is so, first of all, talented, but also so intense and so powerful and so aggressive that I just love being able to cheer for him.

Yeah, I love cheering for McDavid and Sid as well, but he's my guy on this team. Okay, we do, so spoiler alert, we're going to practice here, okay? Spoiler alert from the Olympic hockey. Slovakia scored the first goal of the tournament. Uri Slavkovsky with a beautiful individual effort about seven minutes in to the first period.

Slovakia, a fairly significant underdog on the money line. I believe Finland came in as a 1.22 favorite on this one. Well, the Finns are already prepping for the big bronze metal game. Right. We're right on track. I just jigs the hell out of Canada with that. You did. You sure did. Uriya Slavkovsky, obviously having a good year for the Montreal Canadiens,

gets the scoring underway. First Olympic best-on-best goal since 2014 goes to Uriislovakki and the Slovakians who take a 1-0-0-0-1-0-1-1-Fin-Fin. Okay, we got to go to break. We got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Coming up on the other side of the break, we are going to do some football talk with our good buddy, Nick Shook from NFL.com. This will be our last hit for a while. with Nick, we will look back and put a bow on this NFL season,

just days after the Seahawks cruise to victory in Super Bowl 60. We'll also look ahead to what figures to be another busy NFL offseason, especially at the quarterback position. Yeah, if you need a quarterback on your team, well, good luck. So Nick's going to join us on the other side. And at 8 o'clock, we are also giving away a pair of tickets to see the Vancouver Giants take on the Penticton vs. That game is Friday, February 13th at the Langley Events Center.

caller number five at 8 a.m. gets the tickets. In five minutes time, call 604-280-0-650. That number again, 604-280-0-650. Caller number five gets a pair of tickets to see the Penticton vs take on your Vancouver Giants Friday, February 13th at the Langley Events Center. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.