Halford & Brough in the Morning - Could The Canes Put Away The Habs Tonight?

Episode Date: May 29, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus they discuss if the Carolina Hurricanes can dispatch the Montreal Canadiens in five games tonight with 99.9 The Fan host Adam Gold (27:31), as the Canes look to book a trip to the Stanley Cup final for the first time in twenty years.  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.

You're listening to Halford and Brough. The Spurs have pulled it up. Devinth game. Here's Jackson Holiday. And he hits a ground ball to Guerrero. He'll take it to the bag and the Blue Jays will win it. Are we just to assume that they're negotiating a contract with Manny Mal Hulcher right now? I believe that's the case.

Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody, sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford and his broth. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming live for the Kintech Studios in beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. Adaw, good morning to you. Good morning. Good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Are you drowning in tax debt? If you are, Sands and Associates can often reduce your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees.

Visit them today is Sands. We are an hour one of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintech studio, Step Strong with Orthotics and Footwear from Kintech. It's Ask Us Anything Friday on the Halford Rough Show. So we expect lots of texts into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650, 650.

trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations, find them at three convenient locations, or visit Dunbar Lumber Online today. Time now for our morning guest list. It's the Duick Morning Drive. Brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 6.30 this morning. Adam Gold is going to join us, host of appropriately,

the Adam Gold Show on 99.9.9 the fan in Raleigh, North Carolina. Yes, the Carolina Hurricanes can advance to their first Stanley Cup. final in 20 years tonight when they host the habs in game five of the Easter Conference final in Carolina. Adam's going to join us from Carolina at 630 to preview tonight's game. Also talk about what's been an absolutely dominant postseason from the Cains thus far. 7 o'clock, Teresa from AJ's Pizza is going to join the program.

Changing it up on a Friday. A reminder, a $100 gift card to AJ's pizza goes today, as Jason mentioned. You just sick of talking to AJ or what? AJ is indisposed today. So they're bringing in the co-owner and co-proprietor. A $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza is up for grabs. As Jason mentioned, for the best, ask us anything today. At 7.30, Gareth Wheeler's going to join the program.

He is the lead commentator for one soccer. Tonight, 4 o'clock, Canada's soccer will finally announce its 26-man roster for the World Cup. Who's in? Who's out? Will there be any big surprises? We'll ask Gareth about it at 7.30. Finally, at 8 o'clock, ooh, I've been waiting for. this one. Intrepid Connect's

reporter from Donnie and Dolly on Check TV. Rick Dollywall is going to join the program one day after getting repeatedly dunked on online for his takes about the Canadian Football League and its new streaming platform on DeZone. Dolly's going to join us and apparently he

wants to lead with this. He wants to lead with the CFL streaming. Oh boy. Okay. All right. Well, that's going to be interesting. Finally, not only are we giving away a $100 gift card to AJs today. We're also giving away the fifth of five, our last $50 gift card to White Spot. We're giving it away at 8 o'clock this morning. Caller number 5, 604, 280,0, 650.

Quality family time, guys, it isn't always easy to come by, but it is at White Spot where BC goes for that family feeling caller number five at 8 a.m. this morning. It's going to get the $50 gift card to White Spot. That's what's happening on the program today. We've got a lot to get into. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? I missed it? You missed that? Whoa! A noted change of tone this morning as we go from our intro to starting the program with some incredibly sad news that absolutely rocked the hockey world in the National Hockey League yesterday.

As many of you know and have heard by now, Claude Lemieux, four-time Stanley Cup champion, Konsmithe winner in 1995, and recent topic of conversation on this very show. died after taking his own life, according to authorities yesterday. Claude Lemieux was 60 years old. According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded just after 3 a.m. to the scene of an apparent suicide

at the family's furniture store in Lake Park, Florida. The office said the victim was believed to be Lemieux, later confirmed, found in a warehouse by one of his sons. So absolutely tragic news, all of which unfolded. Shortly we got off the air yesterday. And as many of you saw and heard and read, the outpouring of emotion and how upset people were, it flooded timelines and it really, really captured everyone

that was affiliated with both Claude Lemieux and his family and hockey in general, given what a career he had and how many different teams he played an integral role for. Yeah, and I think, you know, we don't know the story, you know what was happening in Clod Lemieux's life when he decided to take his own life but

it's it's just another former athlete who's done so and I know you know suicide is a problem that touches every parts of society but I think

in sports like football and hockey we've become accustomed to answering some follow or, you know, having some follow-up questions after the fact. And, you know, we're not going to speculate on what happened with Claude Lemieux. But he did play a very rough sport. And he was a cabotin in sport. But I think one thing that he'd want to be remembered for,

I think. And one thing that he is being remembered for is that he was on a lot of teams that won. And he may not have been everyone's cup of tea on the ice. And he certainly crossed the line at times in his hockey career. But he won a lot. and his teammates in many of the uh many of the tributes that went out yesterday um they called him a winner and I was reading an article by Jack Todd

in the Montreal Gazette and I kind of want to end with this um and Jack wrote that Claude Lemieux knew better than most what it took to win And that's belief. And he had a quote from Claude in there. And Claude said, I don't think it's magic. I think everything runs downhill. From the top down, if you have winners at the top, it starts to spread.

Losing spreads through your locker room quickly, but so does winning. Rest in peace to Claude Lemieux. And our thoughts go out to all his family and friends. we'll pivot now to everything else that happened yesterday, both locally and across the world of sports. We do want to turn our attention, as difficult as it might be, to the Vancouver Canucks,

as we continue to monitor the situation, closely monitoring the situation about the higher, pending higher, looming higher, Mani Malhotra as the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, to the point where we've got a 24-second audio clip from Elliot Friedman, the biggest update that we've had,

thus far. Laddie told us this morning. I was like, okay, let's run. Even Freeman, it's the question, actually. Excellent. Even better. Let's go now to the other. This is from Fan 590, the hockey show yesterday with Maddie and Futa, talking to Ellie and Freedom of where things are at with Mani Malhotra and the Vancouver Canucks as it pertains to the still vacant head coaching job. Here's Frege from yesterday. It has been

all quiet on the Western Front with the Vancouver Canucks. Are we just to assume that they're negotiating a contract with Mani Malhulcher right now? I believe that's the case. Yes. I believe they're in a conversation. And we'll see what happens. But at this point in time,

I've been given no reason to assume that there's anything that would prevent it from happening. Everything can change, but that's where I am. Rick Dollywell is going to provide us a Mani Malhotra update as well after he talks about the CFL TV deal. So that'll be interesting. Very few leaks out of the Canucks,

at least compared to the GM search. Remember all the leaks that we got out of the GM search? And some of the information turned out to be false. Do you remember that day, then it sounded like Evan Gold was hired? Like it was almost like a done deal. Do you remember the day where it sounded like Pierre Dorian was going to be the guy? Yeah. A lot of leaks.

Weird, huh? And now not so many leaks. I think that says something about the new people in charge of the Kentucky. and maybe it says something about the old people in charge. So it's less fun though. We need some,

I like leaks. Leaks for fun. Yeah, exactly. We know what? The great Pierre Dorian scare was one of the most was a Wikipedia page about it.

It's like it was a medical issue or something. Gary on. It was one of the most entertaining days of the, frankly, of the connects of this season. That was, that was while,

how the country was bullied by social media. How it unfolded. But, you know, The Canucks don't want those days anymore. That's too bad. You know, they want to do this thing patiently with less chaos. And I've come to hate this word.

I hate the word and how it's used just because I hear it all the time and I feel like it's a throwaway word. But noise. No, they want less noise. Yeah, that's fair. Noise is distracting. It always just seems like the throwaway line for players who don't really want to say like things are a mess here. So they say like, yeah, there's a lot of noise. We just want to silence the noise.

Yeah. There's a lot of noise. A dog might have stumbled on a fairly decent talking point here somehow. Do I have a conucks need to hire a leaker? No. That balance and that ying and yang and back and forth between from our perspective. And I'm not talking. This isn't just like a media,

navel gazing thing because there's tons of fans of this team too who live and breathe and want every bit and morsel of information. Oh, yeah. Leaks are the best. They provide a lot of great fodder for a market where, let's be honest, sometimes the on-ice product doesn't give you a ton to talk about. So the off-ice stuff really becomes central to the fan experience. Again, I don't want to make this about, well, we need stuff to talk about from nine to three on $6.50.

We're going to start ripping the Siddines. Yeah. Like, these guys are so boring. You're doing too good a job of keeping it quiet. But nobody's trying to stab anyone in the back yet. And I mean, they've been. on the job for a while now, but there should be issues. See, you're talking about something here that you're doing it tongue and cheap, but there's

also an element of other general managers and other president of hockey ops have used various media types and the power of the market to set things up ahead of time, provide a safe landing spot in the event that something goes parachute. It happens, right? And it's made for some very interesting times. And as you mentioned, the day of Dorian, like that was one of those days where you really got to see what Vancouver was about as a market. Because

you know, you jokingly say it, but I think there was some element to it. I think, Kinnock's Twitter potentially blowing the winds of change as this thing goes along. Now, that being said, do you think, by the way, yeah, do you think the Siddines were approached

right after the The Great Pierre Dorian scare? Because they said in that article with IMAC. You got to add the of 26 at the end. The Great Pier Dorian scare 26. Yeah. Because, you know, they didn't suggest that it's been going on for a long time.

And then they kind of said like, it all happened pretty quickly. Okay. Let's parse through this because we got the time to do it. I want to imagine every single bookmark of complaint is of Daxack-Aclini bookmarking every single tweet and just showing his phone to everybody in the meetings. Like, see, see this reaction?

This is all bad. Is it fair to suggest? Is it fair to put out there? This is a very blanket statement, but someone from within the Kinnock's organization put it out there that Doreon was in the mix to be hired as general manager. That it was put out there with intention. I don't think you can 100% conclude that, but I have thought about the possibility. Okay. Just to test the waters, right?

Or to, or he knew. what the waters would be. Whatever the case. Whatever the case. You can never fully predict. You can guess and gauge. So let's put it out there, right? That is, and that would be pretty consistent with the previous regime's

oft-used tactics to put stuff out there ahead of time just to see what the response is going to be, or just to provide a little bit of heads up to the market. Now, I'll say this. while that entire, you know, delicate dance with the leaks and everything is fun and entertaining and engaging, it is without question better for the organization to run a tight ship. If you want them to be competent in a straightforward moving motion and ultimately becoming a functional franchise, not the dysfunctional one that we've known over the last decade, right? That goes without saying.

Leaks don't really benefit anyone internally because all it shows is that maybe you got to weak ship or that there's issues, especially when it comes from the top that like when our communications are set forth, they're going to be straightforward and direct. And if someone in the media or someone has a question, they will come ask us and we will answer them accordingly. Can I also add that leaks don't always occur from the organization. There's all sorts of ways that information gets out. It's a good point. Whether it's agents or friends and family or whatever but some organizations have a reputation of and some general managers or presidents or whatever have a way of even limiting those leaks because they will say if this gets out this deal is done

like we're like Lou Lamarillo is kind of famous for that right great great point you know Lou loved it. And, you know, like if something would get leaked out, he'd find a way to, I don't want to say get revenge, but hold that leaker accountable. Yeah. It was almost a character test for Lou at a certain point. It was like, can I deal with this guy in the future? Yes. Can I trust this person? Now, on this subject, and what a great segue, we go now to the Bruce Cassidy situation, which took yet another turn yesterday. We're going to begin with Bruce Cassidy's appearance on the Spit and Chicklets podcast, in which Cassidy was discussing how he was fired on March 29th from Vegas. And yet now, May 29th, two full months later, is still unable to find work. And that's because the Vegas Golden Knights are preventing him from going out and finding another job. We will get the Vegas Golden Knights side of things in a second.

But now I want to play. It's about a minute and a half of uninterrupted audio. here's Bruce Cassidy talking about his situation and importantly, his displeasure with his situation on the Spit and Chickens podcast. Here's Bruce Cassidy from yesterday. Take us through your thoughts in terms of not being allowed to talk to certain teams right now. Does that upset you or is that part of the business? Like where are you at in terms of your next gig?

No, it's upsetting. I'm going to be honest because once you're fired, you know, your contract's basically terminated. But the one thing people don't realize is, all the deals, you know, they got the NHL bylaws, this and that, and I don't know everyone, but, you know, you have non-compete clauses. So I can't resign today and go work for someone tomorrow. I'm still, I can't work until Vegas gives me permission until this contract's up,

which is at the end of the next season. So, you know, if you resign, all I do is not get paid. So, I mean, you know, I got. Oh, interesting. You can't just forfeit. I did. I said, can't you just forfeit your salary and say, hey, like, I don't need your money. I want to go get the bag from somebody else.

So it's not right that they can let you, to me, it's not right. They can let you go and then still stop you from work. And that's where the bylaws are probably messed up a little bit. Yeah, and like I said, I'm not, those are in, I think everybody's contract. So that is what it is. But you can't do that. And I think they do that probably because they wouldn't want to coach in the middle of the year to resign on February 1st and go work up the street on February 3rd, right?

Because they like a better situation. I'm sure that's kind of why some of these things are written in. But in this case, yes, there was two teams at assets, public knowledge now. and I would like to talk to them. I want to go to work. I'm a hockey coach. As much as I love being around visit, TNT, I will get back to work.

So when I heard the clip, I was like, Bruce Cassidy's remarks don't exactly align with what Vegas general manager Kelly McCriman said originally. Remember, when Kelly McCriman, prior to the series against the abs, they had to take to the podium,

him and John Tortorella, and they had to explain why they got fined $100,000 in Dr. Draft Pick, because Torts didn't meet with the media after they got rid of Anaheim in the second round. Then he had to explain the Bruce Cassidy situation. Now, he put it out there that he had talked to Cassidy and that Cassidy understood the situation,

which I guess is technically true. Yeah, he, because Bruce understands it. Yeah. I think what Kelly McCriman left out is Bruce understands the situation and is visibly pissed with the situation. He did not put that point on now. Didn't McCriman at one point also say, or maybe it was reported that,

we're just so busy with the playoffs right now. We don't really have time to deal with this. But Kelly McCriman was not too busy. It's a yes or no. Not too busy, however, to appear on Overdrive, TSN 1050 yesterday with Odagh and Hayes and noodles in the boys to talk about the very situation

that he said he was too busy as a general manager to deal with during the playoffs. This is the quote from Kelly McCriman on the situation because one of the overdrive hosts asked him, do you have anything to say in response to what Cassidy put out there? McCriman's answer. This is me doing Kelly McCriman right now. It's only news because Edmonton leaked it.

This isn't something that came out of our organization. There's that leak stuff I was talking about. What is that matter, by the way? I guess. It's only news because Edmonton leaked it. Edmonton's the team that wants to hire him. Do you want my takeaway? It's only news because Edmonton leaked it?

My thinking there. is that McCriman is pissed off because he thinks there's an unspoken rule that this has been going on for forever and that other organizations have held other coaches away and it's never been made public, but Edmonton crossed the line by making it public. Maybe. That's what I think is going on right now. Because it was a bizarre answer. Yeah.

Your first answer is for everyone to blame the team that wants to hire Cassidy. Yeah. It's like it's only news because Edmonton leaked it and you're like, uh-huh. Yeah. What else? Yeah. What else you got, Kelly? Well, this is what else he said.

Me doing Kelly McCriman again. I've talked to Bruce, as recently as yesterday, I know how he feels. I know he wants to coach. He's a hell of a coach, and he's anxious to get going. Coaches, by definition, aren't real patient people. So I understand what he wants and why he wants it. At the same time, I work for the Vegas Golden Knights. So my responsibilities are first and foremost to the organization.

And that's as much as I'm going to say on it. Well, I mean, that's him admitting he doesn't want Cassidy to go to Edmonton. Yes. Because they're a division rival. He just doesn't want it. He doesn't want Cassidy to take. First of all, Cassidy is a pretty good coach, even though they fired him. And second of all, I don't know, maybe he's going to take some secrets there.

I have no idea. But Pierre LeBron in The Athletic reported that the NHL's perspective is that Vegas is within its contractual rights to do what it's doing and that it's in line with established league policy. What did you think when you read that? I thought that like on paper Vegas is within its rights to do that. And I think even though it might be an unwritten rule that once you're fired by a team, usually let that person go and talk to other teams. It's an unwritten rule.

It's not a written rule. And the written rule is the contract. And the contract says that Bruce Cassidy is under contract to Vegas. And as long as Vegas is still paying him, they can keep him from signing another contract to provide services for another NHL team. Which is exactly what our argument went. What about the wrinkle that even if he was to waive his salary and say, just don't pay me anymore.

I want to go work somewhere else. he's still under contract. Yeah. He's not a lot. You can't just like wave your salary. If you're under contract to someone, you're under contract to someone. Both sides. In the NHL, when there's a contract and what contract is voided, that's a both sides decision.

Yeah. It's not like one person says, no, I want out of this contract. It's both. But I think you can make the argument. When the team fires you and you relinquish your salary, both sides are. agreeing that you don't work there anymore and they don't pay you anymore. You can make the argument. Yeah.

You can make the argument, but it doesn't mean the argument's successful. I'm surprised. Okay. So it's funny that you mentioned the unwritten rule part of it because I think that's what Cassidy was, sorry, McCriman was alluding to here when he put it on Edmonton's shoulders. He's like, hey, this is there. This has been there for a while. This is nothing new.

Edmonton just decided to make it an issue. They knew that this was a longstanding NHL practice in line with established league policy. decided to make it an issue. Yeah. So that's an interesting wrinkle as well. My thing here is, look, to play devil's advocate to your devil's advocate, I get what you're saying.

The contract rules are the contract rules. You can't just change them because you don't like them. Yeah. They exist for a reason. Cassidy brought up an example of why they exist. You signed a certain term. I wonder if this, and because this is bad optics

for the National Hockey League, the fact that the way this is being framed, and especially, there's a reason, Spit and Chicklets had Cassidy on. Of course. They're very player friendly and in this instance they're very coach friendly. And they would not be, or this would not be

the first instance where Spit and Chicklets lit the match that started so. Remember they started the Mike Babcock thing and that ended with Mike Babcock getting fired his head coach in Columbus. So I will be very curious given, well, two things. One, Gary Betman's penchant for not liking distractions

and especially during what the Stanley Cup final is going to start real soon. this is looming over, not just the Cup final, but one of the teams that's in the Cup final. Yeah. And I don't see it going away. I like the idea that if Vegas wins the Stanley Cup final, they'll be in such a good mood that they'll let Bruce Cassidy go to Edmonton,

which makes me wonder, what happens if they lose it? Like, we're not letting you work ever anywhere. Okay, throw them in the hole. Yeah, seriously. All right. We got a lot more to get to on the Halford and Brough show on Sports 9-650. Speaking of Carolina, we're going to go to Carolina next. Adam Gold, 99.9

the fan, the Adam Gold Show in Carolina. We will talk to him in case you are unaware, let me remind you. The Canes can advance to their first cup final in 20 years tonight when they host the Habs game five of the Eastern Conference final. We'll talk to Adam about that and all things. Keynes, that's coming up at 6.30. 7 o'clock

we've got Garrett at 7.30, sorry, he's going to join us to talk a little Canadian soccer as we wait just hours away from the announcement of the roster, 26-man roster for the World Cup. Dollywall at 8 o'clock. What we learned is ask us at 830. We got a loaded show, lots more to get into. You're listening to

the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. It's Canucks Central on SportsNet 650. From exclusive interviews to insider scoops and post-game breakdowns, we've got it all. Tune in weekdays 4 to 6 p.m. on radio and on demand through your favorite podcast app.

32 on a fiesta Friday here on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Halverton in front of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Got debt? If you do, reach out to Sands and Associates during regular business hours, and they'll get back to you within 20 minutes. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com.

We're in hour two of the program. Adam Gold from appropriately, the Adam Gold Show in North Carolina is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour two, or hour one of this program is brought to by North Star, metal recycling. I almost said hour two. You did say, yeah. almost said hour two.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest price. He almost said it, Greg. Craig. Almost. Right. Greg. North Star Metal recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. Tonight

in Carolina, the Canes could advance to their first Stanley Cup final in 20 years when they take on the habs in game five of the Eastern Conference final. Joining us now, as mentioned, host of the Adam Gold Show. You can hear it on 99.9.9 the fan in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Adam Gold joins us now on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Adam, how are you? I'm doing well. We had a focus group spend like $50,000 to come up with that name. The Adam Gold Show? Yeah, same with us.

Yeah, it's not easy. Yeah, it seems good. Yeah, it covers all the bases, the host, the show, all of it. It's pretty good. Hey, I want to start with Rod Brindamore. I want to get right to it here because Rod's obviously very beloved locally

and he's got a chance to do tonight something that hasn't been done an awfully long time. He can become the first individual in the expansion era to reach a cup final both as the captain and as the head coach of the same team. The other guys that did it and won championships

are Toe Blake in Montreal half day in Toronto and my favorite Cooney Weiland who did it back with the Boston Bruins back in the early 20s. So there's some real cool legacy that Rod can create tonight in Keller, Aaron Carolina, although some people would say he already has. How beloved to figure is he locally, maybe even beyond the hockey realm,

because he's been there for so long, done it as a captain, and is now doing it as a head coach? I don't know that there is, I don't think you could put a value on it, to be honest. when it's all over, when he decides that he doesn't want to do this anymore. And hopefully by that point, they have won a Stanley Cup. I think we're into street naming, highway naming territory here. I mean, he wouldn't want it, but statues, all sorts of stuff. I mean, he's the most, he is the most important other than, even though, the ownership kind of failed at the time.

Peter Carmanos, who brought the team here, he's the most important person in the history of this franchise, of the Hurricanes part of this franchise. Biggest current star to not only, me, he got traded here. He didn't want to come here, but he willingly signed here. He could have signed elsewhere. He stayed. And then he fell in love with the organization.

organization. He fell in love with the area. This is home. And he resurrected it. I mean, he didn't do it alone, and he knows that. He is just one of the best people that this area has ever seen. I didn't even know how to quantify it. The hurricanes are 11 and 1 in the playoffs. They've won five games, three two in overtime. Five games by that exact score, three, two, and overtime. The hurricanes in those 11 wins, the most goals they've scored in any of the games is four. Is this the most locked in defensively? I don't know if you've seen any team play in the playoffs.

I mean, I don't want to go back to the dead puck era. I never want to go back to the dead puck era. But the one thing that I noted, there's two things. A lot of people hate the way that Carolina plays, even though it is effective. But second of all, and I think this is a real credit to Carolina, those last two games at the Bell Center in Montreal, completely took the crowd out of the game. And that is hard to do in Montreal.

Here's what I wonder. I wonder if Montreal played that way. And actually Montreal tries to play that way. or if a big market team played the way Carolina plays, I wonder if anybody would hate it, because I don't see why anybody hates speed, physicality, pressure. I mean, the only reason Carolina hasn't scored in this series, five goals a game, or more.

And there are two reasons. Jakub Dobish has been amazing. And Carolina really hasn't found their offensive flare yet. But it was the second highest scoring team in the league this year. Only Colorado scored more than Carolina. I don't understand the pushback on the style. It's not like when the devils just clogged the neutral zone and the left-wing lock of the night. D's, which slowed the game down.

This is not clutch and grab. This is in your face, speed, physicality, forcing turnovers. I'm blown away by it, and all I can think of is, and I hate to be this guy because I pride myself on not being everybody's against us because I don't think everybody is. But I just wonder if it was somebody else who was a different team in a different market, if we would be hating on it because, I don't know, I find the way Carolina plays exciting. Okay. You're from the Carolina perspective.

As a neutral, here's the thing. Here's the thing. It is a credit to how well Carolina can suffocate other teams. Are they fast? Yeah, and that helps them check. They shut down plays really quickly. And I think one of the reasons people are pushing back on this is because in the three series and I would say especially

Philly and especially Carolina or sorry Montreal there have been times when it looks like the other team cannot generate any chances whatsoever forget chances shots on goal

is it Carolina's job no no I'm not saying that I'm not saying that I'm not saying that I'm not saying that I'm not saying that I'm not saying that like I think they should take it as a compliment when you hear that because as a neutral what I want to see is scoring chances both ways. And that's what I want to see.

I'm not cheering for anyone and it's not like, okay, so we admitted this the other day. We are massive hypocrites because we watched a Canucks team this year that was dreadful defensively. Right? I mean, they're dreadful in many ways, but especially defensively.

And so we ripped on that. We ripped on that. We make fun of the Edmonton Oilers all the time because, yeah, they have McDavid and Dry Salton and they can score lots of goals, but they make ridiculous defensive plays and ridiculous defensive decisions.

You know, Evan Bouchard, terrific offensive talent. Sometimes defensively, you wonder what's going on. But we like watching Oilers games because you never know what's going to happen, right? If the Oilers are down, three goals, they can come back. If the Oilers are up three goals, they can blow it. with Carolina it's like when they get when they got that lead over Montreal

in game four it was like yeah why am I even watching this anymore they're done so I I think I mean it's you know your opinion you might have something to it that's Carolina and they're seen as a as a franchise that's kind of penny pinching and a franchise like that would play like this

right you know so I understand what you're saying because there is an outside perspective of Carolina. But I'm just speaking personally from like a neutral watching a game. I want to see both teams have a chance. And Carolina has been so good in some of these games

that I felt like the other team has no chance in this. Does that make sense? But that wouldn't be about the style. That would just be about the success. So that's what I keep hearing that Carolina plays a boring style

and I don't understand why anybody would say that if you love watching sports because I think Carolina plays an exciting style. It is their job and is their focus to eliminate scoring chances from the other team. And they don't do it by just sitting in front of their own net. They play better. I actually think I could argue they play better defense in the offensive zone than they play in the defensive Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

They have the puck, why they have the puck, you know, 70, almost 70% of the time in this series. So that's not about style. That's simply about, well, it's been lopsided. The Ottawa series was incredibly tight. And frankly, I think Ottawa was the best team that Carolina played so far in terms of the games really. being could have gone either way. And Carolina was better than Ottawa. Philadelphia,

blessed their hearts. They tried hard, but at one glance at Philadelphia, no chance at all. And frankly, I think a borderline playoff team that got hot at the right time and took advantage of a very soft bottom of the Metropolitan Division. Montreal's got so much skill. They terrify me. And I said before this series, because I think, I think Carolina's windows pretty open for the next four or five years. I think we're going to see this matchup. This ain't going to be the first time or the last time we're going to see Carolina, Montreal, go at it in a playoff series. I think we're going to see more of these.

I love the Canadians' future. I think they're just a little young. I think they're a little light. And maybe they're in the position that Carolina was in a couple of years ago against the Florida. or against the Rangers team that was better a few years ago. But I think Montreal is going to be awesome going forward. I actually said to some friends yesterday, like if I didn't have an emotional investment,

and I do, I admit this. I was a fan of this team. I grew up an Islander's fan in New York, but I moved here about the same time, Carolina, the hurricanes moved here. And over time, and honestly, I give Rod Brindamore a lot of credit for this because he really helped me out as I was starting to cover the team.

But I became emotionally involved. I mean, I work for, I do pre and post. I do podcasts. So, you know, it's part of what I do. But I know so many people. I'm not friends with players, but I have relationships with them. A lot of past players because I was here in 2002 and 06. So, like, it matters.

It means a lot to me that they succeed, that they get credit for the success. I don't even know what I was talking about, but I'm excited for game. I'm excited for game five. I rambled enough to completely forget what the point was. Yeah, I do that all the time. Don't worry. And I do a radio show too. I'm on from noon to three.

And it happens all the time to me. I don't know what I was talking about, but whatever's next. Let's go. How did Rod Brindamore help you out? Like when I first, I was mostly covering, I mean, I've been a hockey fan my whole life. But I was mostly covering college basketball. You know, that was our focus, my focus, college basketball, football, stuff like that, the stuff that historically has been, you know, the most important here.

but the hurricanes right now are very near the top of the food chain. And Rod just helped me understand players and strengths and weaknesses and walk me through like understanding more of the finer points of the game that I was just, like I look at all sports from, not an emotional, but I can boil all sports down to the same thing. And I still think in certain ways, I'm more about the psychology of anything than I am, the technical aspect of it. And that's one of the things I think I love about this team. But Rod just, he helped me a lot when he was an assistant.

And we've become friends. I mean, we don't hang out or anything. But he'll tell, like, if I need to know what's going on, Rod, Rod will let me know. So like I think about my favorite thing about this team is they are worker bees. They don't, the moment's not too big for them because they don't think about it. All they think about is what is next? They haven't thought for a second about, hey, if we win this, we can go to the Stanley Cup. They have not thought about that for a second, I promise you.

Montreal might beat him tonight, but it won't be because they were thinking about Vegas, the potential of playing Vegas. Montreal is good enough to beat anybody in any given time. I think that, but this Carolina team is supremely focused on what's right in front of them. And I know it's a cliche to say they do it shift by shift, but they do. They really do. It's uncanny. You can't get any of them to.

to even project what's happening next. Okay, I have one final question for you. Sure, I don't know. I don't know. I might just answer, I might just ramble about something else. I don't know if this makes me a bad hockey fan or not knowledgeable enough,

but I've only recently got introduced to Jackson Blake and how good that kid is. So I'll tell you exactly when I saw him, and it was actually against Philly, but not in the playoffs. It was Carolina's second to last game of the season, and it was a huge game for Philly. It was in Philly. And the Flyers ended up winning 3-2 in a shootout.

But in the overtime, Jackson Blake controlled things. He was unbelievable. And I came on the show the next day. I was like, has anyone heard of this Jackson Blake kid in Carolina? And, you know, he wasn't a highly touted prospect by any means. But, you know, you've been the NHM for three years. Yeah, he has, but, but like, I don't think, I don't think I'd ever really noticed him all that much, but, you know, maybe I wasn't watching closely enough. On that line with Stan Coven and Taylor Hall, Stan Coven gets a lot of attention.

Taylor Hall gets a lot of attention because he's, you know, former first overall pick for former Hart Trophy candidate. Like, where did this Jackson Blake kid come from? He's unbelievable. Well, it's great, Blake's great story. By the way, that line has probably been, I don't know, it's been one of the best lines in the entire league probably for the last three months. It is ridiculous how much fun they are to watch and they're defensively responsible. Now to Jackson Blake. It's really a second year in the league.

He'd had, I think, a game or two at the end of the 23, 24 season when Carolina was resting veterans. He was a fourth round pick out of North Dakota. He actually ended up being the runner-up to Macklin Celebrini for the Hobie Baker. So in college, he was obviously a dynamite player, and his dad played for the Islanders for a long time. I played for other teams too, but he's mostly an Islander, Jason Blake. And they couldn't be more different as players. Jason Blake was a gritty, fourth-line rat,

and Jackson, obviously, you see the skill. I watched – we went into the preseason last year, and we knew that there potentially was a spot available for somebody to show, show out in training camp. And a lot of people thought it was going to be Bradley Nadeau, who was Carolina's first round pick that draft year, high-scoring kid from Maine. And the first preseason game was here. And Jackson Blake was the best player on the ice. And I'm like, hmm, this kid's got something to him.

He's shifty, he's got great hands, looks like he knows what he's doing with the puck. And he played, I think, either four or five of their six preseason games. And he was noticeable every shift. And it wasn't until the last preseason game that I realized he was going to make the team. A, he played that many times. And B, in the last game, he was terrible offensively, but he made several good defensive plays in his own end.

And I knew then that the head coach could trust him. And by the end of the season last year, he had become a player that Carolina was resting so he didn't get hurt at the end of the season. And if you're just now understanding Jackson Blake is good, don't look at his contract. Don't because you'll be disgusted. when Jackson Blake signed his deal in the offseason, I said, why is he signing that? That was like the whole segment of my show was like,

what is wrong with him? Why did he sign that contract? Because I think he's got potential to be a, oh, year in, year out, 65 to 75 point guy. and in a year that guy is I mean the contract could double and it's crazy

that he is on a $5.1 million cap in crazy he and Stankovin combined are $11.1 million now that you brought this up and we do have a couple minutes here so I want to ask one more we talked about Rod we talked about the players on the ice the architect of this thing Eric Tulski can you let us know just how I'm

press of the body of work is, you know, running it back year after year, 100 plus points, every regular season. And having the, you know, the patience and the wherewithal to understand that just because it doesn't happen one year in the playoffs, it doesn't mean you blow anything up, you just kind of come back and go after it year after year. And it looks like this is the year they're going to have their breakthrough. First time to go to the Stanley Cup in 20 years. First of all, you know, it's funny. People talk about Tulski as though this is the year two of Eric Tolski. It's not. Actually, Eric Tulsky was hired by Ron Francis. Right.

Before Francis was let go by the organization after Dundon took over and before Rod Brindamore became the head coach. So Tulski had already been here. And Tom Dundan very much is an analytics guy and that's Tulski's deal. So among all the people in the room and it was a collaborative effort, Don Waddell was the GM at the time. Tulski's voice probably spoke to Dundon more than anybody else. So it's not just two years of Eric Tulski.

It's really been eight years of Eric Tulski. And what Tulski is is incredibly patient and super smart, obviously. You know, the chemistry and the physics degrees speak to that. But he is also smart about the game. and they are also smart enough to realize when things that they think would work don't. The ranting and thing, we don't have to get into it. It was more personality that he didn't want to be here, and it wasn't even him. But signing Michael Bunting as a free agent, realizing, you know what, he's not what we need.

And they moved him for Jake Gensel. The Gensel thing, everybody blew. That was really more about Tom Dundon than anybody else. That is, Jake Gensel would still be here. it would be a different team, probably, because Jake Gensel wanted to stay. And again, that's a Tom Dundon deal. But Tulsi is so smart, and they recognize market inefficiencies. They see players that they believe would work in this system that weren't working elsewhere,

like Keandre Miller. Go look at people's timelines who ripped that trade or when they announced that trade and see how many people thought that Keandre Miller was a bust was no good. I'm telling you, he's going to end up as one of the best defensemen in the league. And this system is built for Keandre Miller. Jacob Slavin looks at Keanre Miller and goes, man, I admire the things that he does. He is in some ways, I wouldn't be shocked if he ended up better than Slavin. He's 26 years old.

He's six, five. He can skate like crazy. He's got a great stick and dynamite offensive instincts. He created goals in each of the last two games, one for Taylor Hall, one for Jordan Stahl. He created the goal. And he gets primary assist on both of them, but he has been so good in the playoffs. I mean, you can just look at any statistical measure, and it screams that Keandre Miller has been one of Carolina's best players. but Tulski recognizes that.

Also the notion that if it doesn't happen, we have to blow it up, like might happen in Colorado. I didn't we have, don't we always say that this is the toughest trophy to win in sports? That there's more randomness in hockey than there is in other games, a goalie, a bad bounce, the puck ain't round, it's flat. I mean, all of these things that make hockey so amazing and at times random, we simply ignore. because our favorite team doesn't win. Like if Colorado fires Jared Bednar, I don't understand. He's a great coach.

They just, Kail McCar got hurt. He's too important to what they do. They probably weren't good enough, you know, in their second and third pair defensively. And then when McCar is missing because he plays half the game,

everybody's out of sorts. I just, I don't, I can't get it. This organization had a plan, stuck to the plan, is executing the plan. Tulski is at the forefront of it. And if it doesn't happen, like if Montreal comes back and win the series, they're not going to blow it up.

They're going to come back to next year. And Rod Brindamore will be the head coach. He's going to coach here until he doesn't want to coach anymore. He is the number one attraction, really, of the organization. I don't understand the rest of the league, I think. I understand what we're doing here. I really don't get the rest of the league. Well, Adam, I don't think you have to worry about Montreal coming back

because they ain't coming back in this series. So I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you, this isn't a jinx, but I'm going to tell you, enjoy the Stanley Cup final. And thank you for joining us on the show, and we'll chat again later. You got it. I'll be in Vegas if you need me.

Sounds good. Thanks, Adam. That's Adam Gold from The Adam Gold Show, 99.9, the fan, in Raleigh, North Carolina here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We got to go to break when we come back. Teresa from AJ's pizza is going to join us. Reminder, it's ask us anything Friday. Gareth Wheeler at 7.30 for some Canada soccer talk.

Rick Dollywall at 8 a.m. for some CFL talk. Big show ahead. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650.