Halford & Brough in the Morning - Could The NHL See Some Major Rule Changes Next Season?

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

In hour two, Jason Brough and guest host Jamie Dodd speak with Sportsnet NHL senior writer Eric Engels (1:02) live from the GM Meetings about the potential rule changes the league could be seeing next season, plus the boys chat with CJOB Winnipeg's Kelly Moore (24:46) about what the Canucks can expect from the Jets tonight. 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.

Welcome back to Half of the Brough here on Sportsnet 650. Jamie Dodd filling in for Mike Halford. Halford and Brough brought to you by the DeLari family of Honda dealers. Experience the DeLari difference today. Visit your nearest DeLari Honda dealer today. This hour is brought to you by Jason.Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you.

That's Jason.mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio, Kintec Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you and Step. Now joining us from the NHL GM meetings in Florida, also at Sportsnet covering the Montreal Canadiens, he is Eric Engels. Eric, thanks for doing this, how are you? Oh, I'm great

guys. How are you? We're doing well. So what's on the agenda at the GM meetings today? Great question. I wonder if they'll like, I wonder if they'll extend their three-hour session from yesterday on goaltender interference into today. It's like the never-ending subject that has no resolution.

So what was the takeaway? As you said, there's no resolution, but they spent an awful lot of time on it. I read your piece going through, they were showing tape and they're talking about the number of challenges being down and all of this and more things getting overturned. What was the overall kind of thrust? What were they trying to accomplish with all of that time spent on goalie interference yesterday? Look, ultimately they have a level of transparency that's very strong on this in terms of how they go about their process and wanted to make sure that it was most transparent with

the general managers. Give them an opportunity to voice their opinion on how they think these calls are handled from the situation room, from the officials on the ice, uh, and give them input because obviously they're the biggest power brokers in the game and have the ability to change the verbiage of rules if they care to, um, it, nothing would go into effect in season, but if for whatever reason, recommendations found consensus at these meetings between them, that something needs to change within the way that rule is written, you know, they have that power

the players obviously have to ratify any rule changes But you know that's down the line if for whatever reason something comes out of this but the main point here is is just to get the feedback from the 32 general managers in that room as to how the league is handling this, how they operate and as to whether or not there is consensus when these guys are able to look at it and remove the bias from the situation of like, you know, you're in a game, it's you and your rival GM and a call goes down and it either goes against you or for you and that will influence how you feel.

Well, how about you look at, you know, another 50 plays that get called this way and give us your opinion on which way you think the call should go. And you know, what we found out yesterday is that most of them had consensus on, on how those calls were ultimately determined. Uh, speaking with somebody from the situation room, there was like 54 plays that the GMs went over, uh, in their breakaway groups, they broke into like groups of seven, eight GMs. And that there was only two out of the 54 clips where they got push backs at like

they, the GMs felt that should have been called differently than it was ultimately determined. So, you know, for all of us sitting at home or at the games, thinking about how goaltender interference is such murky water, I mean, it is, because there's naturally so much context that goes into the subjectivity of making those decisions. But ultimately, we have come to understand what the standards are that are applied

in terms of whether or not a player was in the crease or outside the crease, if they made significant contact, if it was incidental, if the goalie had the chance to make the save in the end, if he had the chance to reset, all those factors that we talked about ad nauseam that lead to some of the confusion outside of these walls. Which type of situation do you think is the most confusing? And I know you just kind of briefly went over it, but for fans watching at home, are there any good rules of thumb to remember when trying to decipher for yourself, whether or not something should be goaltender interference?

I just think the hardest thing to decipher for anybody, fans, media, general managers, and even the people who are making those decisions, is the stipulation involved in the rule, the final stipulation, did the goaltender have the opportunity to make the save? Like, how do you create a general standard to be able to answer that question with so many different situations? I mean, I kind of loved sitting in that room yesterday

as the media was getting a presentation with Colin Campbell and Chris know, Chris King and Stephen Walkum and these guys reframing the word snowflake to say that these plays are all like snowflakes. They all look the same, but they're all different variations. It was a great reframing of the word considering the context that's been used in for the last number of years. You know, like that is is the hardest determination of, did he have a chance to make the save? Like, I was at a game last Saturday between Montreal and Florida. Nick Suzuki set up Alex Newhook on a rush play on a power play, like, flying downhill towards

the crease, and Gallagher arrives right as the puck lands on Newhook's stick and ends up making very slight contact with Bobrovsky, but Newhook is putting the puck in the shelf. And like in my mind there's no chance he's making the save, but I know that Gallagher has made contact with Bobrovsky in the crease and the goal that's been called on the ice a goal will be challenged and ultimately become one of the 60 of 105 that gets overturned. You know, speaking with the guys in the Situation Room yesterday, they basically said, like, if contact tends to happen with a goalie

on the side on which the puck is going in the net, that will influence the determination on whether or not he had a chance to make the save versus if contact was made superficially on the outside of the goaltender versus the other side of where the puck is going in, and they don't feel it really affected them, even though it was in the crease,

that might be one that slides. So again, I think the GMs, whether they agree with the reasoning on how those determinations are made or not, want to know what is the standard for determining that. And so I think that's why on a day where they were supposed to review all coaches challenges and all that stuff, the stuff that took up the most oxygen was goaltender interference. And I have a feeling that the meeting today started on the same theme just to kind of you know the GMs come back from their breakaway groups and provide feedback that's written and all this and the NHL goes away and takes that away and processes it and then the discussion

continues. Will they get to three-on-three today? I'm not sure. It didn't seem to be on the agenda but I have a feeling it'll come up. We'll see. Yeah, it's interesting, you know, to hear about all of this time spent on goalie interference. I think partly that's because it is such a complex issue. But, you know, reading some through the rest of your piece up at sportsnet.ca and you talk about some of the other data points that the NHL briefed the GMs on and it's a lot of things like you know the rate of close games is the highest in history. Second highest rate of comeback wins in the history of the NHL. Scoring is still very high you know even strength goals as a percentage of goals is very high. I imagine those are all numbers that the NHL is very very happy with right high scoring comebacks close games is part of the reason there's so much focus on goalie interference is that there's maybe a

fair degree of satisfaction with the state of the product generally yeah I mean I think if the NHL is presenting it they'll present the rosiest color picture you can find and they should you know that everyone says they don't market well but you know, at least they're marketing to their own constituents quite well and reasonably so, right? Like, I think we're all watching the same product here. Hockey's never been better in terms of where the game is at and how it's played. The skill is through the roof. The salary cap you can argue is a devastating element of how players earn their keep and

where it's kept NHL salaries versus some of the other sports. But what it has done in many ways is produce a league that is obviously close together. The parity that they wanted to achieve is there. I looked at the league before the season and my general view of it that I shared on several radio shows, podcasts, television hits and this and that is that there was five teams that were really the elites and about 20 in the next cluster that there's not that much difference between them that you may look at them on paper and say, well, these guys are way better than those guys, but ultimately they're, they're standing in the league would be determined by a good start,

good goal attending and health and any combination of those three factors and look like the most relevant numbers to me were less about, okay, we're into a fourth straight year of six goals or more. I think, you know, you look at the youth coming into the game, that's, that's just going to be a factor because of the salary gap. Um, the most relevant thing to me was like 14 of 16 teams in the East have held a playoff spot since U S Thanksgiving at one point or another.

Like there is not a great degree of separation no matter what you see on paper and then that's why we say the games are played on the ice they're not played on paper. Like any if you're a if you're a Vancouver Canucks fan and you are looking at them playing Nashville for a game you shouldn't be sitting there and saying well this this should be a win. Like it doesn't work that way at this level anymore. Any team could beat any team. I look at San Jose who is already eliminated from playoff contention, rightfully so considering where they're at in their build. They've had a ton of one goal games this season.

Like they've been in their games and the games that I watched them play against Montreal, the two of them, they played them hard. So I just think where we're at in general in hockey is we're getting, everybody's closer together and it just makes the race to the playoffs so much harder. Yeah, and one of those teams jockeying for playoff position is the team you cover, the Montreal Canadiens. A breakthrough year in terms of being close to the playoffs from Montreal. We'll see if they can pay it off with an actual playoff appearance. I know you have a piece where you talk to Kent Hughes up right now at Sportsnet.ca.

What's the next step of the process going forward, whether they make or miss the playoffs this year? What's next for Kent Hughes as he continues this process? I know he didn't call it a rebuild but whatever process you want to call it of getting the Habs back to being a competitive team? Well it's okay, I mean they've all acknowledged it is a rebuild but you know now they're moving into the next phase of it right? Like they were so stuck on the asset collection phase and you really can't, the thing about these rebuilds that we've learned just going from example to example is

you jump the gun in terms of making certain roster decisions at the risk of setting yourself back. And maybe the most important step you take is the cautious one of not jumping ahead too quickly. That's a really hard thing to do no matter what market you're in, but specifically in a market like Montreal where they've never gone through this before in their history. The winningest franchise in NHL history and have never even contemplated the idea of going

down the road of accepting some short-term pain for long-term gain. You look at the last 30 years of Canadians hockey going back to their last Stanley Cup it was it's been much more of a mentality of make the playoffs at all costs and see where it goes from there and try to compete but you know get into a place where you're, you're more of the medium level type of contender. And so you can't, you know, you're, you're always stuck drafting in a certain position and you can't collect the type of assets you would need to trade to be able to make massive moves. Um, you know, I think, you know, you look at the way Kent

Hughes and Jeff Gordon have approached their build in Montreal, they have not allowed the emotions and desire to win as fast as possible, cloud the importance of taking their time with each step and allowing the maturation of their roster to dictate what moves they make next. And then I think the biggest takeaway from my conversation with Kent, uh, in the interview that I posted and the column that I wrote is they have allowed their team to show them they're ready for the next step and whether or not they make the playoffs this year, which is still certainly a big question though, it's,

it's a little more in control in their control today than it was a day ago with Columbus losing in regulation and the Canadians being one point up on them with a game in hand and two points behind the Rangers for the second wild card position with 16 games to go. this team has grown and matured and the key players in their core have driven their success this year under the pressure of a playoff race. And that has shown Kent Hughes and has shown Jeff Gordon that we've collected all these assets and we feel comfortable now potentially spending some of them to really push this thing forward. And I think when you go through this process in that type of organic mentality, you're more likely to have a linear progression than you are to take a couple steps forward, then one massive one back and then one sideways and one forward.

And you get into this thing where something that you'd hoped would take five years becomes closer to 10. Um, I'm not going to sit here and say the rebuild is over and the Canadians are, I think the rebuild is progressing along a linear path, which is more than most rebuilds. In fact, all of them, I would say over the last number of years that we have examples of have kind of followed.

So I think that's a credit to the way this team has managed. How have the Canadians been able to handle that tricky balance between not trying super hard to win in terms of spending and thinking win now, but also not making losing acceptable within the room? Because it sounds like they've also built up their culture, whereas some teams, when they lose and they go into a rebuild, or as some

people put it, they tank, they lose that culture because winning isn't expected. Um, like as a metaphor, like separation of church and state, like I just feel management. There is a very harmonious culture around the Canadians, but the front office and their goals has not interfered with the goals within the room. They have not allowed what would be best for the quote unquote rebuild from a managerial perspective to cloud what will be best for the rebuild in terms of building up the culture you're talking about. That's a really good way to put it by the way, separation between church and state. It's, it's, you know, Marty St. Louis has been tasked

with one thing and one thing only go and try and, and win every game. And if for whatever reason, within a game, going to the last two years before this one, if for whatever reason, within a game, that game becomes out of reach. Use the opportunity to teach your young players and bring them along and give them development opportunities to make mistakes and learn from them in real time.

They also invested heavily in player development with guys like Adam Nicholas and Scott Pellerin and go down the list, Mary-Philippe Poulet, who obviously hasn't had you know, had a very active role given she's still playing hockey, but just the variety of voices they've brought in, the job they've done from scouting to analytics, but really the culture they've built within their room to never allow the idea that this team was going to lose a lot more than it was going to win through the first two years, but they were not going to actively try to do that. That's foundational to why guys like Suzuki,

Kofield, Slavkowski, and, you know, Hudson and Dobish and uh, uh, Struble and Jacki and go down the list of their young players who make up their, their potential coal and came up their potential core and Caden Gouy, like, those guys are driving what's happening right now because they have never adopted that mentality that it's okay to lose. And you know what's best for a team in the early stages of a rebuild? It's losing. But if you go about things in an honest way, you tend to believe the game will pay you back. And I think, look, if you don't have somebody like Marty St. Louis at the helm of it, I don't know where it goes. So it's, I think there's a bunch of reasons for why they

find themselves where they are in us. I don't want to glorify it because they're not in the best place in the national ocula yet, but it really looks like they're headed that way, especially with what's coming. Like Ivan Demidov is on his way. They're going to go, I think, very aggressively into the market, armed with what they need to be able to get better players to surround that guy. They've got a top line already that I think is one of the best in the league in terms of what you're seeing from Caulfield, Suzuki and Slavkovsky. You know, the youngest guy on that line is really coming into his own as a former first overall pick. Suzuki, outside of

Leon Drysettle, is the most productive player since the Four Nations break. He's certainly making a case that he belongs on Team Canada moving forward and Cole Caulfield has become like So incredibly rounded as a player as a guy who had a reputation is just a scorer He is a 200 foot player who at his size Engages physically all over the ice. So it's I think think, uh, I think you're going to see this continue to move forward. Eric really appreciate the time. Enjoy the rest of the GM meetings and we'll see if it's three more hours of

goalie interference meetings today for down there. Always a pleasure being with you guys. Take care. Thanks. Appreciate it. That is Eric Engels from Sportsnet covering the Canadians and then also doing the work down on the ground at the GM meetings in Florida. Yeah. And Eric is rightly careful not to take any victory laps yet because the Habs haven't done

anything yet. They haven't made the playoffs yet. Um, and they're in a race with the New York Rangers and a couple of other teams. Um, but for the most part, I think so far, and I've got a few friends who are Habs fans, they've been very pleased with how this rebuild has gone. And more importantly, they've been engaged with it. Yes.

I think the big worry for some teams is that you announce, okay, we're going to go through a rebuild and people say, okay, well, check back when you're good. Yeah. And I will check back in there too. And there's also the worry of, if we go down this uncertain path, what happens if we never come back? And the example everyone always brings up is buffalo.

You don't want to become buffalo. Which is why I asked Eric that question. Like how do you balance that? Because I think when the Canucks, you know, moved on from the Sedin era, from the 2011 era, you know, Jim Benning told me himself, yeah, we lost the culture. We lost the Sedin culture, even though the Sedins were on some of those teams.

When you, when losing becomes, I don't want to call it like acceptable and you don't have the right people in there, whether it's the right coach or the right young core players like a Suzuki or Caulfield, then you can run into real issues and you don't know if you'll ever come back from those. We don't have a ton of time here, but I do

find the Montreal example fascinating because as you said, no victory laps yet, but at the very least they've put themselves in a position to take the next step and to be aggressive and try to enter that contending team with a bunch of interesting pieces in their lineup. There's a lot you can learn. I mean, as, as Eric said, hiring Marty Saint-. Louis, right? Like getting a revered French Canadian with the

right attitude who can address the fan base, who can be kind of the face of the franchise while you're looking for the on ice version of the face of the franchise. That's a big deal. They also never truly went scorched earth like Chicago did. You know what I mean? Like they've still had veterans there. Like they didn't trade Joel Armia at this year's deadline. They had Josh Anderson, Brendan Gallagher. Like they've still had guys there to prevent them. They, they, they've never had that embarrassing season. Like Chicago and San Jose have had in recent years where it's like, oh man,

you're getting blown out every night. This is just a disaster. I think that's a big part of it as well. They've made some really smart moves and now we'll see what the next phase is. But I do think you're going to have a lot of people, rightfully so, holding up Montreal as kind of the template. Okay. This is how, especially they did in a Canadian market, in a hot Canadian market.

This is how you go about a rebuild successfully. We'll take a Canadian market. Exactly, in a hot Canadian market. This is how you go about a rebuild successfully. We'll take a break here. Kelly Moore from Winnipeg, from C-Job Radio in Winnipeg. He covers the Jets. The Canucks are playing the Jets tonight, so we'll check in on that game with Kelly. That's next here on Halford and Bruff, Sportsnet 650. I'm not gonna sit here and say the rebuild is over and the Canadians are... I think the rebuild is progressing along a linear path. Yeah, I'm thinking on making progress. Hey, it's Vic Nazar. Have your say and join me on The People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets,

weekdays three to four on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. ["Sportsnet 650 Theme Song"] Welcome back to Halford and Brough here on Sportsnet 650. Jamie Dodd filling in for Halford. Halford and Brough is brought to you by the DeLari family of Honda dealers. Experience the DeLari difference today. Visit your nearest DeLari Honda dealer today. This hour of Halford and Brough is brought to you by Jason.Mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. That's Jason.mortgage. If you're just tuning in now and you don't know, we're going to talk to Rick Tocket at the top of the hour, so about half an hour before we speak with the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. Yeah, Rick Tocket coming up at 8 and we've got a busy show. Batch is joining us at 8.30, but we'll squeeze some What We Learn in between talk it and batch so send your what we learned submissions in 650 650 to the dumb bar

lumber text line hashtag WWL what you learned in the last 24 hours in sports tonight the Canucks host the Winnipeg Jets best team best record in the NHL right now and joining us to talk more about the Jets from C-Job radio in Winnipeg. He covers the Jets, he is Kelly Moore. Kelly, thank you for doing this today. How are you? Oh, my pleasure, Jamie. So is this just like the ultimate dream season so far for the Winnipeg Jets?

Like what are the vibes around this team right now? Are there stakes to the rest of the regular season? It just seems like everything has gone as well as it could possibly go for the Jets so far this year. Yeah, it has been the dream following the nightmare, I guess, because last year, of course, this team had very high expectations going into the postseason, and the Colorado Avalanche turned out to be the porcupine at the balloon party pretty quickly in that first the ball. The ball was a little bit bigger. The ball was a little bit bigger. The ball was a little bit bigger.

The ball was a little bit bigger. The ball was a little bit bigger. The ball was a little bit bigger. The ball was a little bit bigger.

The ball was a little bit bigger. The ball was a little bit bigger. The ball was a little bit bigger. The ball was a little bit bigger. The ball was a little bit they've shown that they certainly wanted to apply that to what they've done on the ice. Getting off to that 15-1 start was incredible. You expected a little bit of a fall off, but

they've also had winning streaks of 11 games and another one of seven games. So there just hasn't really been any sustained letdown for this hockey club in any of the key areas, whether it's the goals against, whether it's the five-on-five play, whether it's special teams play, they've been remarkably consistent. There was at one point there where they went 0-4-19 in the power play, just going into and

coming out of the four nations break. But they solved that pretty quickly. So that's a, we haven't called it break. Uh, but they solve that pretty quickly. So, uh, that's a, we haven't called it a dream season, but I kind of liked that Jamie. What did the autopsy autopsy ultimately say about the jets in that series against Colorado? Because it must've gone beyond just

Hellebuck wasn't very good. Well, see, and I'm going to disagree until the cows come home on that. If you look back on that series and you look at Hellebuck wasn't very good. Well, see, and I'm going to disagree till the cows come home on that. If you look back on that series and you look at the quality of scoring opportunities that the Colorado Avalanche had in those games. And Jason, I agree, the goals against don't look

good on Connor Hellebuck, but if you're watching those games from the start, he kept the Jets in it for a lot longer than they should have been. They were completely outplayed by the Colorado Avalanche in that series. It wasn't even close. But eventually the dam would break through and then the four and the five goals against would look bad. But I'm not a big analytics guy I'm just not smart enough to understand all the ins and outs of it but you know the eyeball test told me that the Colorado Avalanche were given far too much rain in and around the net there were far too many rush opportunities for the Avalanche and

I don't think anybody could have held them off the score sheet. But you know, Connor Hellebuck has also been part of that group that in the match over the summer, when you guys asked about that, it was let's be five to 10% better on a player to player basis. And I think they've really taken that to heart

uh... i think that they have uh... employed that uh... throughout much of this season and connor hellebuck is part of that uh... he has had an incredible year right from start to finish tell us a bit about the year that elers has had because uh... here in vancouver we're looking at the list of pending unrestricted free agents and wondering which ones might make sense for the Canucks Yeah, well, Nikolai Ealers has had a real solid season. He did get hurt for a bit there then that that was one thing that

He really was mindful of going into last year was to try to stay healthy And he was able to do that after a couple of injury plague seasons the years before and this year he's been able to stay pretty much healthy as well. He's had a consistent year for the most part. He's played on that second line with Vlad Domestikov and Cole Perfetti but the big difference for Nikolai this year was getting promoted to the number one powerplay unit. He is such a big part of that. He is an electrifying player. I don't think that there's any individual player on the Winnipeg Jets who will score more take you out of your seat type goals. But what, at least in my opinion, what would hold him back in years gone by was the hope

plays. Throwing the puck into the middle, hoping a teammate would be there, but many times all of a sudden all you've done is fed into the transition of the opponent. He's eliminated a lot of those hope plays and as a consequence has become an even better player. He is a machine when it's you know he's a one-man zone exit. I mean he is incredibly good at getting the puck out of his own end and to the other end of the ice in very quick

fashion. So I don't think the Winnipeg Jets are going to resign him. I think they've made the long-term commitments so far to the players like the Mark Shaftley, like the Connor Hellebux. Next year, Kyle Connor will be up.

Josh Morris, he will be in line for one more fairly long extension and then you've got restricted free agents like Gabriel Velarde and Dylan Samberg who have had outstanding years that they're going to be looking at extending as well.

So there's only so much food at the trough. And all Kevin shoveled off has said, and you can read into this what you want is, I look forward to having the opportunity to celebrate a Stanley Cup championship with Nikolai in June.

Whenever he has been asked about how things are going on the opportunity to celebrate a Stanley Cup championship with Nikolai in June. Whenever he has been asked about how things are going on that front, his response has been pretty standard. Nick, at the beginning of the year, shut down the conversation pretty quick. And that's the other part of this dream season you guys referenced is because it's gone so successfully, there hasn't really been any side tracking issues with respect to the pending UFAs. Nicola is not the only one. Neil Pionk and certainly on the upfront as well, Mason Appleton is another one as is

Alex Iafalo and then we already mentioned the RFAs. So they're, Kevin shoveled itdeoff has said, I can't re-sign every one of them and also keep, you know, some young players coming up through the system. So I think, I think Nikolai Ehlers is probably going to be available come July the 1st. Which ones do you think Shavaldeoff would be able to keep? Is Neil Pionk, I mean, right shot defenseman that can play over 20 minutes a night and play well, he's going to have a market for himself. Yeah, he will.

In this market, and I'm not telling any trade secrets, everybody knows, you have to, not only do you have to find players who are a good fit, you have to find players who want to play here and You know it It's just the way this franchise has to operate that 50% of the National Hockey League does not want to play in Winnipeg So you're you're in a situation where you have players who want to be here And then they fit into your system, those are the ones that you really have to go after.

And Neil Pionk is one of those guys. He's from a smaller place in Minnesota called Hermantown. So Winnipeg is very accessible for family and friends to come up and visit. They just, he and his wife just had a baby girl just before the start of this season uh... so you know from a uh... a personal point of view it works as well but uh...

that you're a jay said he's a he's a right shot defenseman who's got a bounce back here right now he's out of a lineup that will lower body injury that's uh... going to keep them out of a week to week basis they're going to make sure he's one hundred percent before they bring them back in them of course the guy you're familiar with, Luke Shind, was acquired at the trade deadline and has done a really nice job as a partner with Dylan Samberg on that second pair. I think Alex Iafallo is going to be another player who they're going to target to retain because they just did

an in-season extension, which is a rarity for this franchise with Vlad Nesbikoff who like Alex Iafalo is very similar. They're Swiss Army knifes. You can move them up and down the lineup. They're incredibly unselfish players. Alex Iafalo has left a lot of offense on the table to play on the fourth line this year but whenever he does get elevated, then all of a sudden the points start to pop up. So I think those would be the two guys in particular, Piyank and I, a follow that Kevin Sheveldayoff would be targeting. Keeping in mind, you asked me for my opinion, I'm still trying to convince Kevin Sheveldayoff that he should

bring me into his inner circle to be an advisor. We're all working on that, aren't we, Kelly? But so, you know, I mentioned just we're talking about just what an incredible season it's been for the Jets, and it looks like they're going to have a pretty comfortable stretch drive here to be the number one seed in the West, possible president's trophy winners as well in the race with the Washington Capitals. And one thing I'm always curious about with a team in this position is the issue of complacency potentially creeping in before the playoffs, right? When you've had such a successful season,

there's not a lot at stake down the final few weeks of the season. Have head coach Scott Arneal or the players addressed that issue at all? Do you know, do you get a sense of how they are striving to avoid that complacency from creeping in before the playoff start? Yeah, I'll tell you what guys, with all the drama that you have had in Vancouver, it

has been very mundane here in Winnipeg because right from game one, that 6-0 win in Edmonton on October the 9th ninth the mantra has been it has been unchanged uh... guys uh... it is you don't just move on to the next game uh... whether it's been a win whether it's been a loss they have not deterred from that uh... even one iota

i think that's going to hold the very well it was interesting uh... uh... back when uh... j when Jim Montgomery came through with St. Louis. We asked him about that. Because Boston had that tremendous year a couple of years ago and then blew the 3-1 series lead against Florida.

One of the things Jim said he learned from that was that it was so difficult once you have that big lead and for the last six weeks or so of the season uh... to to to try to muster up that intensity of that urgency uh... it was uh... almost impossible to do for the playoffs so i think it's been good for the uh... the jet f they have a comfortable lead over dallas but

boy that could change on a dime uh... you know it was just on Friday night that the Dallas Stars had a chance to narrow that gap to six points with two games in hand. And of course, you know, it didn't turn out that way. So I don't think the Jets feel comfortable at all. I don't know that chasing the president's trophy is that big of a deal to them. What Scott O'Neill has been saying pretty much since coming out of training camp, winning the division is what they had set as a goal because they would much prefer to play somebody other than Colorado or Dallas in the first round and there would be a bonus

if you have the Stars in the Avalanche going head to head and right now that's the way it's playing out and so that leads us to tonight's game which you know could be a potential playoff preview but on the Jets remaining schedule they also have games against St. Louis and the Utah Hockey Club that could be potential first-round playoff previews so I think there's enough left in the schedule that they can certainly approach those games and maintain the incredibly high standard. I don't want to sound like I'm beating the drums for them. They do that well enough on their own, but they have been remarkably consistent and I don't see a fall off on that regardless of where they are in the standings. Is there a notable difference between what Scott Arneal preaches and what Rick Bonas

preaches or is there mostly been continuity? Continuity. I think that was one of the big reasons why they brought Scott Arneal in the first place because when Bones was hired here, he made it clear and I think the understanding was that it wasn't going to be for a long time it was going to be for a good time and what they did record it was to change the culture of this franchise around and above all of that will be a legacy uh... whatever uh... when a pig is able to

achieve over the next few seasons rick bonus's fingerprints will be on that but they also brought in scott arneal because they uh... were uh... it'll pretty confident will be on that but they also brought in Scott Arneal because they were you know pretty confident that he would be the right guy to take over from Bones and continue on. I think if there's the biggest difference I see between Scott and Rick there's a few subtle changes in terms of how they play. I think there's a little bit more of an attack mentality. I think that they're a little bit more

aggressive than going after pucks when they've lost them. I think that they're a little bit more aggressive than going after pucks when they've lost them. But I think Scott is a little more patient with younger players and boy Cole Profetti is a poster child for that. Now part of that was his own doing last year in the second half. His production completely fell off. he wasn't uh... i don't think he was is well i know he wasn't as complete a player uh... last year if he has been in in this season and especially in the second half he and dylan samberg are the two guys that have a really jumped up that have taken on leading roles and a lot of that i think is due to uh... scotter neal uh... and the uh... confidence and the

trust that he has shown in those young players. So looking ahead a little bit to the playoffs, Kelly, what is the weakness or number one area of concern for the Jets if they have one really going in to the Stanley Cup playoffs? Don't tell Scott O'Neill I look past tonight okay otherwise you won't talk. But you know what, guys? It's the playoff legacy that they have established and for all the wrong reasons. They have not been able to win a game in the postseason following a loss

10 straight times. And they haven't been able to get out of the first round since the pandemic year. And so I think while we're talking about the first round, the pandemic year. And so I think why you see them where they are on the Stanley Cup tote board is because of the

history that they've carved out recently with basically this core group of players. So I think it's more mental than anything else. They have to get over that hump. A, they have to get over that hump. And then they have to get over basically this core group of players so i think it's more mental but i think

else uh... date they have to get over that up a they have to get out of the first round if they're able to hang on to first place i think they certainly position themselves uh... with an opportunity to do so but more importantly uh... you'll break from game one guys uh... you know they have established this defensive foundation they were the jennings trophy winners for goodness sakes and what are they do

they got involved with us seven-six game right out of the heart and i think that's where colorado colorado realized okay we've got these guys where we want them and uh... the avalanche were able to take off from there uh... so i think being able to to main came the style of play that they have established over the

course of the regular season and bring that into the postseason is certainly going to be important but I think what we're all going to be watching for here how do they react to that first loss of the postseason can they pick up their bootstraps are they mentally strong enough to find a way to rebound and get back into the win column because that is what has plagued this hockey club in the playoffs for the last three or four post-seasons. Kelly really appreciate the time. Enjoy the game tonight. Thanks for doing this. My pleasure, fellows, anytime.

That is Kelly Moore from C-Job Radio in Winnipeg covering the Jets and weighing in on the powerhouse in the Western Conference and Govind texts in, man, listening to this person speak so glowingly about the Jets makes me depressed about the state of our team. You know, Quinn Hughes, after the Utah loss, was asked if that affected the belief in the room. And he said, well, I don't think it should

take away much belief. We could have separated ourselves and everyone knew how big that would be to beat Utah. But now we're in the same position of pretty much do or die every day. And that's exciting. Everybody should be up in here, meaning the dressing room. Everyone should understand where we're at and nobody should be shying away of looking at the standings. And this is the line that got me.

It's a nice opportunity to see what type of group we are. The question is, if the Canucks show what type of group they are, and that's a group that doesn't make the playoffs, will the management group listen to that? do you know what I mean yeah like like I think everyone should be like okay here's a pressure situation who is going to step up and who is not going to step up and for the guys that don't step up are you gonna make excuses for those guys or are you gonna say well you didn't step up so maybe you going to make excuses for those guys or are you going to say, well, you didn't step up.

So maybe you're not for us. It's, it's an interesting question because I've been looking at and saying, I don't think from management's perspective, there's much difference in between making the playoffs and missing the playoffs, not that they don't want to make the playoffs, but I mean, in terms of what they're going to do going into the summer, I guess you

could frame it as when you hear of Quinn Hughes say that if, if you aren't able to capitalize on this opportunity, does that tell you something deeper about this group beyond the fact that this was just a miserable season and there were injuries and so many weird things happening and Elias Pettersson's play fell off a cliff.

But I keep coming back to, okay, well, even if you think that, what are you going to do about it? Exactly. What are you going to do? Like start a rebuild? You're trying to convince Quinn Hughes to stay. So I think even if you think like, man, we're really disappointed with the character of this group.

Well, that's why you have to go to Quinn Hughes. Maybe a Leos Pedersen conversation, but beyond that, I don't know how much it changes. Well, you do have to, you do have to confer with Quinn Hughes about a lot of this, don't you? I would think so. Even if you're just under the guise of like, hey Quinn, can I pick your brain on this?

Yeah. Right? Like, what do you think? And just ask him lots of questions, not necessarily, you know, are you going to stay? Like start off with that. But I think you need to get him to speak openly and honestly as the captain of the team.

And I do think you have to listen to him, not only because you should trust him. He's a pretty good player and I think he's got a high character and he probably has some really good insights into that dressing room, but also because you do in a way want to make him happy. It's the Canucks and the Jets tonight at Rogers Arena. Rick Tocket is going to join us momentarily

here and it's also the 35th annual Canucks for Kids Fund telethon. Please join your Vancouver Canucks and make a difference in the lives of some very special children. Today is the 35th annual Canucks for Kids Fund telethon presented by TD. You could win a 2025 Corolla Hatchback CVTSE. Please donate online at Canucks.com slash telethon. That's Canucks.com slash telethon. Be a part of the team. Help the Canucks. Help BC Kids. We'll talk to talk it about the telethon and also about the Canucks next here on Hal Ferdumbrough Sportsnet 650.