Halford & Brough in the Morning - Do Bedard And Celebrini Make The Canadian Olympic Roster?

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus they talk the latest hockey news with Sportsnet NHL host David Amber (29:31). 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. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Maclin loads up, shoots. And it's shot! For the Hattrick, he's got it. Pot of an art. If I cancel, score! Hatrick, Jake Gunsell.

Is McLean is looking to go for goal. From the halfway line is Chip Schman. Godess. What is. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Wednesday. What an intro, everybody. It is Halford.

It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adon. Good morning.

Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brought for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling.

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Visit Duick GM on Marine Drive, downtown in Richmond, and at Duick Auto Group.com. The Duick Morning Drive. It's our guest list for the day. It begins at 6.30. David Amber, Hockey Night, Canada Sportsnet, NHL host is going to join the program. Scotia Bank Wednesday night at hockey tonight. A real Albertan flavor. 4 o'clock. Oilers head to Washington to take on OV and the caps. 4.30, it's the flames heading to Buffalo to take on the savers. Fun little nightcap game as well later this evening. Boston heads out west to take on the Pacific Division leading Anaheim Ducks.

We'll go through all that with David at 6.30. 7 o'clock, Frank Saravalli, our NHL insider from Victory Plus. We'll go around the league for all the latest news, notes, trade rumblings, and anything else. Frank joins at 7 for all that. 7.30, Brian Idalski, the head coach of the Vancouver Golden Eyes of the PWH is going to join us. Friday, November 21st, 7 p.m. Pacific Coliseum, the inaugural home game for the Golden Eyes

against their hated fellow expansion outfit, the Seattle Torrent. I hate the Torrent. What is the Torrent? Is that something to do with the Internet or the ocean? Both. Oh, okay. Yeah. Something that gives your computer a virus. Yeah, yeah. Right. We will preview Friday's big game. look ahead to the upcoming

PWHL campaign. Vancouver is expected to be one of the best teams in the league this year, at least according to odds makers. They have the best odds to win. I love expansion. The modern expansion.

You go right to the top. Vegas changed everything. You go right to the top. Seattle is also a very easy team to hate. Yes, that's true. They just named Hillary Knight, their captain. Boo. The American star.

It shouldn't be boo here. It's an easy natural rival. I love it. She's still playing. She's still going for the hated torrent. That's pretty impressive. He's one year older than me, bruff.

What are you saying? You are old. Brian I Dalski, the head coach of the Vancouver Golden Ice, will join us at 7.30. 8 o'clock, it's Randy Janda, Kinnock's color analyst

from SportsNet 650. On the program, Kinnucks had a travel day yesterday home from Florida. They will resume practice today at 1115 at Rogers Arena. That, of course, is ahead of Thursday's home game

against the Dallas stars. Dallas involved in a very dramatic, very dramatic home game last night against the aisles. Canucks talk. It goes at 8 o'clock this morning with Randeep Janda on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. That's the Doick Morning Drive.

It's in the books. Without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be.

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

Normally, when the Canucks have an complete off day and they're traveling and there's no news, it can be a struggle sometimes to figure out what to lead the show off with. But thankfully, a pair of North Vancouver kids took center stage last night. The only question was, who do we lead with? Connor Bedard or Macklin Celebrini. Macklin Celebrini, you get to ride in the front seat this morning because your hat trick was slightly more impressive. Yeah, you didn't need an empty nutter.

Yeah, like that loser butard. That was uncalled for. Maclin Celebrini completed his hat trick yesterday. Late, late into the evening, 252 into overtime. San Jose sharks were covered for a three to win over Utah in San Jose. Let's hear it right now, Laddie. Here's Macklin Celebrini. Game winning goal, hat trick completed in overtime.

Sharks win three two. Back over to Celebrini. Maclin loads up. And it's good! Just an unbelievable a game winner and a hatching. Just an unbelievable talent and what he's doing right now.

Him and Bidard kind of acknowledging one another and the exploits that they are up to this year and just going back and forth and like outwitting and out dueling one another. They have almost exactly identical. stats. They've each got 13 goals. Celebrini has 17 assists to Bedard's

16 assists. Did you hear about the record that Celebrini made? Celebrini now joins Gretzky, Crosby, and Mariel Lemieux is the only teenagers to have 30 points through the first 20 games of a season. Remarkable. Remarkable statistic. Here's some more numbers. I'm going to read you the

top five scorers in the NHL. Nathan McKinnon 33 points. Celebrini 30 points. McDavid. also 30 points Baddard 29 points Shifley 27 points three of those guys were not

on the Four Nations team for Canada because Celebrini and Badard weren't there and Shifley wasn't either You got snubbed Can't you can't Like I know Shafley had three assists last night

I think Shifley's gonna make the team I think Shifley's and I think Celebrini is going to make the team The only one that like I think Bedard will make it too but I think everyone should make it but do you remove yeah like can you can you only take two goalies can you not take a third could you could you say could you say um like is if if you don't 100 percent trust badard defensively right because there's a similar argument going on

with Evan Bouchard and our friend Justin Bourne went on social media the other day I was like you know what I would have Bouchard on Team Canada and I replied no I was like I retweeted it three times as much as I could like no but I mean I think they'd

I don't know how you leave how you leave a guy like badard off I mean what kind of argument could you make that he's not going to get any power play time or you need other guys in different roles is that the argument you don't trust them

based on how they're playing right now they're going to make it I don't know I don't know you need to play I think like 80% of certainty assuming they're still playing this way come time of the announcement they'll both make the rules to fill and there are also so many guys right now

that didn't play on that four nations team that also deserve to be there like we have not mentioned Nick Suzuki yet and I think he's a lock as the 3C on that team yeah now we could get rid of we I'm talking about but you know what I'm gonna do it We, they could get rid of Kinekeny probably won't be on the team. I don't know what you do with Sam Bennett at this point.

It seems like he might be one of the most polarizing guys on this one. But you need different types of roles. Like, Badarta isn't going to kill penalties, right? Probably not. Probably not. You're going to have to have those guys out there. And I know there are some people that just to say, well, just take the most talented guys.

And it's like, well, you know, like I know that sometimes Canada has erred on. on the taking too many plumbers and grinders and leaving talented guys behind. That's exactly what happened at the World Juniors, for example, right? And then all of a sudden they're like, why can't we score? Why are we working so hard with few results?

Yeah. So Phoenix just texted in. Take off Mark Stone. Take off Seth Jarvis. You put in the eye injury there, Phoenix. He's fine. He's back playing. Take off connecting.

Even if you do that, you still have to find space for, right now I would say, Suzuki, Shifley. Bedard, Celebrini, and Tom Wilson. That's five guys. Do you remove Bennett from the team? Maybe. Maybe. But he sure did a hell of a lot in the two biggest moments of last year, which were one, the Four Nations tournament,

two, the Stanley Cup playoffs. I think Mark Stone's a tough one because you just don't know if he can stay healthy. But before he got hurt this year, he had 13 points in six games. He was on fire. He is a very, very good player. Mark Stone is awesome. And in a big game, in a big situation, I would still trust Mark Stone over Connor Bedard. What do you do with Brad Marchand?

I think he's made it. Yeah, so do I. I think he's made it. I wondered about him, but what he's done for Florida this year is incredible. So let's go now. Travis Connectney, I think, is probably like, I'm not making the team. I'm not. Tip of the cap.

Well, Four Nations was fun. Yeah. Okay, let's turn our attention out to what Connor Bidar did last night because we've already buried it long enough in the show. We're 10 minutes in prior to Macklin's Celebrity's Hat Trick Heroics. late into the evening in San Jose. Connor Bedard scored his second NHL hat trick and his second in 11 games for the Chicago Blackhawks.

Blackhawks are on fire. They extend their team point streak to six games. It's a 5-2 victory over the visiting Calgary Flames who were in action tonight. Here's what Bedard's hat-trick sounded like into an empty net. See if you can recognize who's on the call. He's able to recover. He'll try it from his own zone for the hat trick.

He's got it. Connor Bernard. Second career hat trick, 5-2 Hawks. So I do think it's important to note right now that what Bedard and Celebrini are doing individually is amazing. The point totals are fantastic. The style of play is terrific. They're also doing it on teams that are winning hockey games.

Like this isn't a very classic good stats, bad team kind of thing. The Blackhawks are on. Well, Thanos is not that great. They're better than they were last year. They'll say that. They were flirting with a playoff position last week. week. Jamie and I mentioned one morning we came in, and the two wild card holders in the West were San Jose and Chicago. But Chicago's playing very well. We've mentioned. It's got a lot to do with what Spencer Knight's doing in net as well.

Chicago's got a plus 15 goal differential. They've won for the fifth time in six games. They collected 11 of 12 points over that stretch. They're playing well. Guess how many teams in the Western Conference have a better goal differential than Chicago? One. Colorado. Oh. And I'm Colorado in the conference. Colorado is obviously. been the best team in the NHL this season. But, you know, Chicago, if you're still in the conversation of,

can the Canucks get in the playoffs? Chicago could be one of those teams that throws a wrench into this because there might be five teams from the Central that make it because Colorado, Dallas, and Winnipeg are the top three teams. And then you've got Chicago, I think. a lot of people, especially Thomas Drance, expect Utah, to be in the mix for a playoff spot. And then that leaves, if that is the case, if that is the case, that would leave only three spots in the Pacific.

And right now, it's Anaheim, Vegas, in Los Angeles. That's right. Edmonton is not in a playoff position right now, and they're not playing all that well. Now, everyone will say, and I would probably agree, like, Edmonton will probably find a way into that mix but you know Seattle's in the mix too and I think you know after Minnesota slow start they've started to find their game a little bit all I'm saying is like come on Canucks get going I just hang in there well I was listening to sat and Dan yesterday and they were saying you know if if the Canucks had gone oh and three on this road trip they would have been like willing to say they're cooked

They're not coming back, right? And I'm like, well, you know, if all it takes is an extra loss and an overtime loss to say they're cooked, then, you know, they're on the stove right now, right? They are there or they're in the oven. They're on the burner. Right. Possibly the back burner. But the point remains. I kind of feel like this is how the season's going to go for at least, I don't know, another month and a half, two months where the connects are just teetering on one really prolonged losing streak, knocks them up.

because they are the dictionary definition of treading water right now. They're keeping their heads above. I don't know if their heads are above. Their heads are kind of like falling below once in a while and they'll be like, oh, you know. Maybe they've got like a straw, a tiny little straw. Their homer that's already stuck his head in the tar pit, but he hasn't like sunk to the bottom yet. Right. So his bum's still sticking in the air.

He's like slowly sinking, but he isn't completely submerged. By the way, can I mention one other thing about Conor Badard that I think is important. Bernard now in his third season served as an alternate captain for the first time in his career last night with various injuries to Blackhawks leaders, including the captain Nick Falino, who's on IR and Jason Dickinson, Vancouver's former favorite son. He's out of the lineup as well. So Badard now taking a leadership role in Chicago as well. Okay, Vance the Insulator texts in and he said he sent an early what we, learned.

Okay. But since we're doing what happened, I'm going to read it now. J.T. Miller looked like classic Miller on his giveaway and lackadaisical skate. Um, sure makes his trade look better and better. Um, Vance went on, but don't read the rest. But that defensive play against Vegas last night where his, as the kids say, controller disconnected. Yes.

looked a lot like his play. I think it was against the Kings one of his last games for the Canucks, one of them and I remember when I watched that play I was like he can't be on this team anymore like his head's not in it

he is not in a good place right now now I'm not saying that's the exact same scenario with the Rangers because obviously things were happening in Vancouver but you know I don't know if everyone listening right now has seen the play but essentially

he was on the he was up near the point. It was early in the second period it was 1-0 Vegas it was a play in the ranger zone as you mentioned Miller was up near the point and then just sort of disconnected the controller whether it was him or someone else and just kind of

stop skating. So he just stopped skating and his legs went straight like even Ovechkin was like hey man, you've got to bend your knees a little bit. You're going to move your feet, right? Like, it was, it was shocking to see, really. I mean, it wasn't the end of the game. And I know that he wasn't in, like, perfect position to make a play on the puck,

but the fact that he just totally strained up and didn't look engaged at all on the play, man, that's not good. So the Golden Knights went on to score on the play that we're talking about to go up 2-0. They eventually won the game 3-2. J.T. Miller obviously did not hear yesterday's show that he was the Limitless A.V. One to watch. He did manage to chip in an assist in the 3-2 loss, but not a great performance by him or the Rangers last night. Oh, he got watched.

He did get watched. A lot of people saw that clip. Right. Tusha, Greg. You know what? Not the way he wanted to be watched. It did work out in the end. Now, normally, we wouldn't spotlight a Dallas, New York Islanders game.

in the intro segment because quite frankly neither of those teams make a lick a difference to us given everything else we got to cover but uh Dallas is going to be in town on Thursday and the end to the Dallas Islanders game in Dallas yesterday was one of the most bizarre endings I've ever seen to a hockey game. I hope we got the bleep button at the ready because Patrick Wall was front and center in this one so with about 30 seconds left and the Dallas stars trailing three two there was a flurry in the New York Islander's zone and Miko Rantnan rode Romanov into the boards in a very, very nasty fashion, got him in the numbers. Romanov basically went shoulder into the edin boards and it, oh, it's on the TV right now as a matter of fact. And it was ugly. Romanoff was in a ton of pain when

he went down. Rantan got five in a game. The on ice microphone managed to pick up Patrick Gua going absolutely insane at the hit and threatening Miko Ranton, who is standing in the tunnel watching the replay. Patrick Guas, still got it. Still got it. So we'll just let the audio run here. It is kind of entertaining. This is not even the craziest part of this game last night, which the Islanders did

eventually win three, two, despite losing Romanoff to what looks like a pretty serious shoulder injury. He's in all kinds of pain. And there is. some verbal violence going on from the Islander bench. Patrick Waugh's maybe the most verbal and incensed and red. So if you couldn't make it out there, Patrick was saying to Miko Randen, when we play you in four months, you're not going to finish the effing game,

which is an amazing moment from a head coach. He knew the schedule right away. Pull out his phone for sure. Can you imagine? Hey, Siri, when do we play them again? Patrick Guas' coaching career has been a series of pizza. That's incredible. That's incredible.

Yeah. That's not all that this game knows schedules. That's not all that this game had. So, with the Dallas net empty, and now they're at five on five because they're still killing off the rant and penalty, Wyatt Johnson looks like he ties the game with 0.1, 0.1 seconds left on the clock, but hold on a minute.

It appears as though there's some pretty serious goalie interference on David Riddick. So video review comes out of way and I just want to play the theater here because with 0.1 second left, the Dallas Stars think they've got the most improbable comeback ever and here's the call as it happened live in real time on the ice. Wild game between Dallas and the New York Islanders last night.

everybody who's here in Dallas on their feet awaiting this announcement after video review the call of the ice is overturned we have a goaltender interference wow no goal 0.1 goes up on the clock they're pouring off the bench

0.1 on the clock they didn't even care that there was a point one left like all the islanders came out Riddick was like celebrating and throwing they were fired up because that game was so emotional at the end. Also, Bo Horvat got tossed out of that game. I couldn't really quite understand

what happened. He got a double minor for high sticking and then he got a 10-minute misconduct and then when he was in the box they just were like, just get out of here. They chucked him. I don't know. He likes to walk the line. Yeah. He scored another goal last night too. So he has 13. Always overstepping that line. Bo Horvett.

Yeah. So anyway, if you're wondering like what this means moving forward, well, the Vancouver Canucks might have caught a break because I don't think that Miko Ranton's going to be in the lineup on Thursday when the Dallas Stars take on the Vancouver Canucks. Almost everyone was like, that's a suspension. Don't you think it got turned around

a little bit on the play, though? Like his legs kind of got taken out from him by the Islanders player. You sound like Glenn Gulletson, because Glenn Gulletton in the aftermath was saying, look, I watched the replay. He thought he got twisted around. I thought he did too. Yeah, the only thing is is that he got a five in a game in the moment

and they did review it. That's why he was hanging around the tunnel. But that might also mean if he got five in a game, although it was so late in the game wasn't really... 30 seconds left. right? It wasn't much of a penalty for him. I mean, he didn't get to play for the final 30 seconds, but that's it. I don't know. We'll see what happens. I'm sure we'll get something from the Department of Player Safety today at some point. Is Romanoff okay? Okay, so I was reading Andrew Gross from one of the papers in New Jersey, he was tweeting in the aftermath and he said like no one in the room was happy afterwards even though they won this big game because Romanov was in serious pain and they were still livid about the hit because it did happen like a couple minutes prior to the end of regulation. So I got a feeling he's getting, you know, you can tell when guys get hurt and you know they're seriously hurt and oftentimes because they're kicking their feet around. Like he was yelling and screaming and I thought he might have broken his collar.

That's what I thought right away, right? So it was an ugly hit. If you get a chance to see it, I'm just floating around on social. Okay. It's been all hockey so far on what happened, but we have to mention some of the teams that qualified for the World Cup yesterday. Because we talked about this yesterday, that Scotland had the opportunity to qualify for the first World Cup since 1998 if they beat Denmark, which they did in very unscustom. Scotland-like fashion. A remarkable match.

Because they scored four goals. One of them was a bicycle kick, which I didn't think Scottish players learned. Scott McTominy. That's what happened when he went to Italy. All of a sudden, he got some flair. That was incredible. So Scotland qualifies for the World Cup. By the way, huge choke by Denmark, who still have a chance to qualify.

They're not dead yet. That was bad. And then Curacao. a country of like 150,000 people. 156 qualified. Now granted, they have all like Dutch players on that team and they were all like born in the Netherlands, but still an incredible story.

And perhaps the most incredible of all, Haiti qualified for the World Cup, which is, you know, I think most of us know what Haiti is going through, war-torn, gangsters essentially run that country. They haven't been able to play any of their games at home. They have qualified for the World Cup as well. That to me is the most remarkable of them all. The national stadium overtaken by gangs in March of 24.

So they played every single World Cup qualifying match on the road. And to qualify not through the Inter-Confederation Playoff, but to win the group and to top of the way that they did. First time in 52 years that Haiti has made the World Cup. You've got to go all the way back to 1974 for their last appearance in it. So a remarkable accomplishment by them. We're going to break, though. I want one more piece of audio,

and I do want to go back to Scotland. And I want to play what happened at the end of the match. I think I watched about 9,000 different videos yesterday of various pubs in and throughout Scotland watching the end of this match. So up 3-2 on Denmark, it was nowhere. near comfortable enough because a draw would see Denmark through and Denmark was pushing for the equalizer despite the fact that Denmark was down to 10 men and it went back and forth and back and forth all game it was like Scotland's in no Denmark's in Scotland's in nope

Denmark's in so in the 82nd minute Denmark scores to even it they're in Tierney scores in stoppage time to put Scotland up 3-2 but it's still hanging in the balance because Denmark is pushing bit of a blunder on that goal too wasn't it yeah a little bit terrible clearance by the Danish centerback so what happens at the end is It's cinema, it's art, it's everything that you love about sport. I'm going to throw this to BBC Scotland, and you heard a bit of it in the intro. This is the winning call. This is the Kenny McLean goal from center with Casper Schmichael pushed way up the pitch,

trying to find an equalizer. Instead of trying to kill the time, Kenny McLean looks up and sees the keepers out and tries to lob him from center. Listen to the Scottish play-by-play on this. It's theater, it's a great call. Take it away, Lattie. Scotland just need to hold out for a few more. seconds. My voice just needs to hold out for a few more seconds. As Gilman has it, he's

surrounded, he pokes the ball back. Surely now, Scotland, he'll hold onto possession. It's McLean. He's looking to go for goal. From the halfway line, is Chip Schen. Glorious, glorious, Kenny McLean with the halfway line, Scotland for, Debtor two, we are returning. To the World Cup, what a night! It was just an incredible day and night of World Cup qualifiers. So 42 of the 48 spots are now locked in. Six more still ago, there's some European qualifiers,

and there's two Inter-Confederation ones as well. But what a moment for Scottish supporters worldwide, and especially the ones that were at Hampton Park yesterday. That's an all-timer. That goes down as one of the greatest performances from the Scottish national team. I know they've been to World Cups, and I know they've done things

and I remember the Archie Gamble goal even though I was three years old but that is remarkable what they did yesterday. If we could get Scotland at BC Place, Scotland could come to Vancouver for the World Cup that would be the ideal team to have there. I have to agree.

Because they're fun and Canada might also be able to beat them. Right. So there's that too. Okay, before we go to break, I need to tell you about Duick-Armarine. You heard him at the top of the hour. Duick is rolling out the round.

red carpet for SportsNet 650 this Friday join us. That's right. Halford and Brough, live on location to check out Duick's Black Friday deals, including 0% financing on all 2025 models. You could drive away in a new tracks for as low as $94 weekly, plus get a limited time $1,000 Black Friday bonus on 2025 and 26 models and a Costco member bonus on 2025 and 26 EVs. You can check out all these deals at duick auto group.com and we'll see you Friday live on location. You're listening to the Halford & Brubb show on SportsNet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Richo and Saty R. Shaw, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post game show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app.

It is time for David Amber. He is on the hotline, baby. It is time for David Amber. He will talk some hockey, maybe. It is time for David, Amber. He is on the hotline, baby. It is time for David Amber. He will talk some hockey, maybe.

I'm on the hotline, baby. I write a bit of the mushrooms talking. I remember what I was doing at 23, pooping in my pants. There's a massive butt coming here, guys. No one's fighting Rick talking. No one wants to fight Rick talking. I'm on the hotline, baby. It is.

It's David. It is. It's David. Amber, it is. It's David. He's on the hotline. 6.35 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody.

Halford Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Get out of the penalty box of debt and back into the game with a financial fresh start. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in our one of the program. Still, David Amber, Hockey Night, Canada, Sportsnet, NHL host is going to join us in just a moment here. The highlight of Hour 1. 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 got a Scotia Bank Wednesday night doubleheader tonight. If it can match what Bedard and Celebrini gave us for the Tuesday night doubleheader, it'll be a beauty. Joining us now to break it all down. As mentioned, SportsNet Hockey Night in Canada, NHL host, David Amber here on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Morning, David. How are you?

Good gentlemen. Just get those two Vancouver guys on Team Canada right away. Like, we don't even have to talk about it anymore. We don't have to talk about it. We talked about it early in the show, and we were kind of like, is there any way that they can keep them off the team? What do you think? Well, I mean, it's so easy. Everyone keeps saying, put this guy on, put that guy on. That guy's really good. Put them on. I mean, someone's got to come off, right? It's simple math.

Listen, I think Celebrini and Bedard have done everything to showcase that they should be on the team. I think it's a slam dunk in many respects. The question that comes up when you talk about this in hockey circles is, let's use Bedard as an example. If Baddard is not in your top six, if he's not on your power play one, what is he going to do? He's not a grinding forward. He's not a checker.

He's probably not going to kill penalties for you. So, you know, you want to have some versatility, and that's why guys like Brayden Point are so effective. They could do all sorts of different things. You know, I'm just using points as an example. You know, that would be the one thing when you're Doug Armstrong in that management group. Where do you slot these guys, right? Do you want checking forwards guys who are, do you want Anthony Sorrelli, who can be such a tenacious pain in the bud or Travis connecting, et cetera, et cetera,

or do you want guys who are bona fide, you know, star players who can score, one-shot scores like Bedard. We saw Celebrini's overtime goal last night. If you haven't seen it, go look it up. It's unbelievable. It's a one-shot score where he makes something happen. A play that, you know, the Kinecteys and Sorelli's of the world just can't make. Or do you want to have them defined in certain roles?

To me, it would behoove Team Canada to leave these guys off. The fact they're so young, it leads into the World Cup 2028. It leads into the Olympics in 2030, when these guys will be the drivers, right? and these guys will be the focal point of the team. So to me, it's somewhat of a no-brainer, but I know it's not as simple as just saying, well, they're great scores, put them on the team. Well, you've got the Washington Capitals tonight.

They're hosting the Edminton Oilers. One guy, I think, that gets a lot of debate, certainly on our show, is would you have Tom Wilson on Team Canada? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, listen, I was arguing pretty adamantly last year during shows that Tom Wilson should be on the team. and, you know, I just, I actually said, because you're going to have the Cichucks and J.T. Miller running around.

And we saw that in the first nine seconds of the game versus the U.S. And Tom Wilson would be the ultimate deterrent. Doesn't mean those three fights wouldn't have happened at the start of the game. But instead of Brandon Hagel squaring off, you're going to have Tom Wilson squaring off. And maybe there isn't a second and third fight if Tom Wilson, you know, does what he can do. I don't think that's going to happen at the Olympics, though, because if you fight you're out of the game, right?

Like it's a little bit different, but I understand what you're saying, yes. Yeah, I still think it's a deterrent. Listen, one thing about Tom Wilson, it wasn't just like he's there to fight. This guy's a 30 goal score. This guy's used to playing with star players, and he hits as hard as anyone in the league. They are playing on NHL-sized dice in the Olympics, so he can skate regardless, but the fact of the matter is it's going to be a little bit of a tighter game. So I think you can certainly make a case for Tom Wilson,

but there's a whole slew of other guys who are just making such legitimate cases right now Tom Wilson certainly I imagine on the radar and under consideration but when you think about Shifley, Suzuki, the guys we just named, there's a lot of guys you know, Zach Hyman, there's a lot of guys who weren't at Four Nations

who are going to get serious consideration I imagine in the next few weeks. Well, you mentioned Hyman there. What's going on with the Oilers? They look no bueno. I don't know. I hope Monday was rock bottom because thank God that wasn't a sports net game because that was just dismal.

I don't know. They look tired. There's a lot of question marks. Like there is around a lot of the teams in the NHL right now and this compressed schedule, you know, it's affecting teams. But that was an absolute, you know, listen, it's been a rough ride.

And the two wins they have on this road trip were both those fluky wins, if you remember, where they, you know, kind of got a gift against Columbus and then got a gift the following game. Like, it could be worse than it actually is. They stole four points, essentially, on two kind of very fluky plays at the end of games. They haven't won in regulation since the end of October, I don't think. Yeah, no, I, listen, I don't have those answers.

I'm, you know, it's simple to say, wow, their goaltending is not great. Like, I get that, but it's more than that. The defensive breakdowns are poor. The lack of balance scoring has to be of concern. Jack Roslovick has been a really good. edition and now that Zach Hyman's back. Obviously, that's going to help things a lot. But boy, did they lay an egg on Monday.

I'd like to think they're going to have a bounce back tonight against Washington, the game we're airing. And certainly McDavid and Drysiddle are doing what they're expected to do. McDavid's been fantastic, as we've seen, and Drysiddle is putting a lot of pucks in the net like he always does. So I'm interested to see how that shakes down.

There's obviously a lot of pressure on Stan Bowman to address the goaltending situation because it just hasn't been good enough. a team, and we talked about this in our first show of the year, guys, it's Stanley Cup or Bust for Edmonton. There's no hey, hey, they won a round, they won two rounds, they got to the final. No one in their

fan base and even internally in their room is going to be satisfied with, hey, we got to a third straight Stanley Cup final. They don't want to be the Buffalo Bills of the NHL. So it's Stanley Cup or Bust, do they have the goal tending that's good enough on a consistent

basis to get them to a championship? And that's a big question that needs to be addressed. I look at their forward group beyond McDavid and Dry Settle more than the goaltending is kind of like, yeah, we all know, right? But like those goalies got them to the Stanley Cup final, right? I don't think this forward group is going to get them to another Stanley Cup final. There's been a lot of turnover.

And, you know, I know Ryan Nugent Hopkins is out hurt right now and Zach Hyman's returned to the lineup. But then, like, who they, like Matt Savoy and, you know, know, I think Isaac Howard's already been sent down to the H.L. You know, we know Pod Colson in Vancouver, and I think, you know, they're asking Pod Colson to be maybe a top six guy now, certainly middle six guy, and it's like, you know,

Tred Frederick hasn't done anything despite the fact that he got that long-term contract. I don't think this team has close to enough depth. I know you can play McDavid and Drysaddle 22, 23 minutes a night, but, you know, the guys like Corey Perry who were so important, those guys aren't there anymore. It's a really good point you're making, and I think that's really been a massive question mark

and the oiler fan base have wondered the same thing. Two years ago, they said, we need more veterans who are ready to win right now, and they let Fogel go, they let Holloway go, they let Ryan McLeod go, they let these guys go who are young, good skaters, you know, were pretty dynamic, you know, any goal scores.

They let them all go and they brought in the Arvidsons. You know, they re-signed Henrique and, you know, they obviously Van der Kaine and all these guys. And then this past off season, they sort of said, well, we got too old, you know, and they moved out all those guys. Perry, Evander Kane, Arvinson, Jeff Skinner, et cetera. So they kind of have gone, you know, they went older, more veteran. And then they say, well, we're going to bring in some young guys, you know,

and they get, as you mentioned, Savoy and Isaac. And it just hasn't worked yet. And they're not, it doesn't seem they're nearly. as dynamic as last year, and they certainly don't have as much bite as last year. One thing about Evander Kane and Corey Perry is, you know, when they're playing their best hockey, they're agitators, they're in front of the goalie, they're causing screens, they're causing commotion, and they don't have guys doing that. Now, Hyman's back, so that helps a lot. But it's a little thinner, you know, it's a little thinner, and it's

forced, it's forced Chris Knoblock to do the detonation of 29 and 97 together, and then what happens, then your other lines look, you know, even less, you know, scary. So I'm with you. There's a lot of questions there in Edmonton. Do I think they're a playoff team? I absolutely do. Do I think they're necessarily as good as the team from a year ago? I think the jury is still out on that. We're speaking to David Amber Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet, NHL host here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. A former Edmonton Oiler, that's the newest member of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Troy Stetcher. It's funny. I was watching an interview that Mike Johnson was doing the other day and he said he welcomed Stetcher to Toronto by saying welcome he getting thrown

right into the fire and he was like buddy I just left the fire so it was interesting to see well welcome to another fire and this is an injury fire in Toronto so Toronto gets the win yesterday we didn't play the Nielander OT winner in the intro because there's just way too many other things going on but he scored a couple goals last night the OT winner was great very talented yeah good one. Okay. What happened here, I feel like the result was almost secondary to the fact that there was another significant injury because Matthew Nyes was a late scratch with a lower body injury. Barube didn't have a timeline on him, so you put Nize next to, like, run through this list. Nize goes on a list next to Austin Matthew, Scott Lott, Nick Waugh, Brandon Carlo, Chris Tanev,

Anthony Stollers, and then for good measure, Sammy Blay gets knocked out of the game yesterday because Brube says he's coughing up blood. It is a mass unit right now for Toronto, and I do wonder if they're going to be able to survive having this many guys on the shelf. Yeah, I don't know what the status is for Matthew Nyes and actually heading down to the Leafs skate in about two hours. So I'll get a better sense of that.

But, yeah, I mean, we're seeing this around the league. A lot of injuries and a lot of significant injuries. But, you know, the Leafs have two of their top four defensemen out. They have three of their top. six forwards out like it is these aren't insignificant injuries and and their number one goalie and anthony stole ours is out so yeah it's a lot last night's win was really really important for toronto you can only imagine around here um it's tense people are getting concerned when you're sharing the basement in the eastern conference with buffalo and you're a hundred and eight

point team from a year ago that that's not where you want to be uh there's a lot of questions surrounding toronto you brought up some of the issues with the oilers well there's some similar questions about Toronto and their supporting cast and, you know, keeping the puck out of their net. Everyone said, well, Marner's gone. How are they going to score goals? That hasn't been an issue. They're amongst the league leaders and goals scored, but their second last only in front of St. Louis as far as keeping the puck out of their net. Like, they've just had such a tough time. Last year, they got great goaltending. This year, Stolars was average, didn't have Joseph Wall as that great tandem. Now Wall's back and now Stollers is out. So they haven't had that great sort of back in fourth tandem. And, you know, a lot of their mistakes maybe that were masked last year by

fantastic goal-tending, third-best save percentage in the league last year. They're down, I think, at 29th or 30th in safe percentage this year. It's just not getting it done. So there's a bit of, I don't want to say panic in Toronto, but there's certainly a lot of concern. And until you see Austin Matthews return, until you see Stola's return, until you see Chris Tanna return, I think those questions are going to remain. And even when those players were healthy, again, the least weren't doing so well. So there's a lot. There's a lot of concern here, and there is a feeling like, wow, we're not early in the season anymore. We're 20 games into it.

The only thing I'll say is there's so much parity in the league. The bottom of the league has picked itself up, the San Jose, Chicago's, et cetera, picked themselves up. And this is going to be one of those years where I think the Elliott Friedman, you know, American Thanksgiving metric of if you're not in a playoff spot on American Thanksgiving or out, I don't think that's necessarily going to hold this year because you look at the teams, the Washington's, the Tampa's, et cetera, the Edmontons, who aren't in a playoff spot, I just have a hard time believing all these teams are going to fail to make a bit of a run. And the gap is so close, I do have the feeling that there's going to be a lot of movement in the next, you know, three, four weeks here in the NHL standings. That actually leads me to my next question, and it's a really tough one. Who is the favorite to win the Atlantic Division right now?

Like Detroit's on top right now. Boston's second. And I think it's probably Tampa, but Tampa feels that, you know, I mean, we watched the Canucks go in there and they didn't play very well for the first little bit, but then they rattled off six straight goals to beat them six too. And, you know, Tampa has just felt a little bit off this season. And yet, you know, I don't know if Florida's going to win that division considering, yeah, but, I mean, without Barkoff and without Kachuk for a little while, I, I don't know.

They might be a little bit tired. God, maybe if you're the Ottawa Senators, you might be thinking we could probably win this division. I'm going to stick to my preseason prediction. You can timestamp us. I think I've said it on this show before, and I'm probably going to eat a lot of crow for this. But I'm picking, I'm just going to stick. I think Ottawa can win that division. And I'm still going to stick, even though this is just me being a jerk.

I'm going to still stick with Florida missing the playoffs. Wow. I keep waiting for... I like it. You know, Marshan's just been incredible. They know how to win games, and it's such a stupid prediction to make, but Barcoff is such a key miss. Kachuk is still just getting back in the next, you know, month or so.

It just feels like this window is open, and they've played more hockey than any team ever in a three-year span. I just have that feeling that the attrition is going to catch up to them, and I'm probably wrong, but I'm going to stick to that prediction, and so I'll have Ottawa winning the division in Florida potentially missing the playoffs. Well, Halford, you love a good hot take,

so you've got to tip your cap to that. Pretty excited about this one. The team that's been to three straight Stanley Cups is going to miss the playoffs. I was, I had to come up with... The L.A. Kings missed the playoffs after winning the Stanley Cup, I think, in 2013? Yeah.

Or maybe the year out of 2015. Yeah, they won in 14, they missed in 15. I was trying to cook up a hotter one than the Leafs missing the playoffs yesterday because it's not hot enough. It's not hot now. They're going to miss the boss. I got to come up with something more.

I guess maybe that pick going to Boston, that's something that could, I don't know, I'm working on it. Oh, my God. Speaking of Boston, as we end this hit here, that's the game on Sportsnet 360, and it's the late one, and it's in Anaheim to take on the Pacific Division leading. That's not a typo. Pacific Division leading Anaheim Ducks. How much attention have you paid to the Ducks this year off to a tremendous start? I believe that they are one point clear of Vegas for first in the Pacific right now. Yeah, they're so fun to watch guys.

I look at in the east, I kind of say, oh, when Montreal's on, I love to watch Montreal. They're just fun, dynamic, young, exciting, Damadov, etc. And Anaheim is sort of the equivalent. And obviously, you know, what Celebrini and Bedard are doing, you know, their teams are becoming much more relevant and interesting to watch. But just overall, and it's not just one player, like Cutter Goce, Leo Carlson, this rookie Beckett Seneca, who I've, you know, my son went to school, so I've had a chance to watch him play since he was like 10 years old.

I mean, they have some really great young players, you know, Mick Tavish, et cetera. Joel Clenville has been sort of the perfect fit there and I think knows how to sort of get the most out of young players. He did it with those cups in Chicago and now he's trying to replicate that. And the fact that they added in Crider and Truba, you know, kind of quietly stole those guys in away from New York, it's worked out perfectly. So they have this nice mix there. I consider them a legitimate team not a Stanley Cup contender

probably at this stage but certainly a legitimate team to make some noise and what was supposed to be just sort of the coronation of well Vegas gets Marner they're going to win the Pacific and obviously Edmonton Oilers

you know back to back Western Conference champs they're going to be in the mix and I think the doctor said you know hold on slow your role we're definitely here and we're not a joke team anymore so it's been fun to watch and they're just so exciting so if you get a chance and you guys obviously Kinnock's playing

what, three, four times in a year, you're going to get a good chance to watch their games and they're worth watching. So Oilers Capitals, Flamesabers, and the Nightcap is Bruins at Ducks. It's Scotia Bank Wednesday Night Hockey. David, thank you very much for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy all the games tonight. It should be a lot of fun.

Thanks again for having me on, guys. Appreciate it. David Amber, Hockey Night in Canada, SportsNet NHL host here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Got an update out of Dallas. Dallas Morning News reported. that no supplemental discipline is expected for Miko Randen after his hit on Alex Romanov last night

in that wild three-two win for the Islanders in Dallas. You gotta stop doing that. The nana-na-na-na-na-na. Just rub it in without that. There is again. It's so good. I can't stop. I'm, you know, we talked about this at the beginning of the show

is that if you watch it on replay, I think it's Scott Mayfield, who kind of gets tangled up with Randen And then Glenn Gulletson mentioned in the aftermath as well, like, we've watched it a couple times. He got twisted around a little bit. Yeah, he got twisted around. We don't think that this is entirely.

And it caused him to slam Romanov into the boards. That was my thing is, like, twisted around or not. He still extended his arms. And he got him in the numbers. And Romanov, I didn't realize this, but he had shoulder surgery on that same area a couple years ago. That is just an awful feeling when you're going into the boards, whether you like it or not. And you've got a little bit of time to be like, it's, it's, it's like, it's,

like being, you know, in a car accident, like, this is happening. Yeah. And, you know, he was in a ton of pain when it happened and Waugh was incensed. And I don't think that this news from the Dallas morning news is going to go over very well for Islanders fans. But as far as it pertains to the Vancouver Canucks who faced the Dallas stars on Thursday at home, at least for now, it sounds like Meekerrandon is going to avoid suspension and should be in the lineup when the stars take on the Canucks on Thursday. Okay, hour one of the program is in the books. Coming up in hour two, Frank Sarvalley. Our NHL insider from Victory Plus is going to join the program. We'll do the usual news and notes and trade rumblings

and everything that's happening around the NHL, at least what Frank is hearing. That's at 7.7.30, Brian Idalski is going to join the program. He is the head coach of the PWHL's Vancouver Goldnise, who will make their season. An inaugural game debut, it all happens on Friday at the Pacific Coliseum. So we'll do a preview of the game and the season with Brian at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Randy Jan is going to join the program for some Canucks talk.

8.30, we're going to do what we learns. But before we go to break, I need to remind you that Halford & Brough of the morning is brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody beats a Duick deal since 1926. Visit Duick GM on Marine Drive. You can also visit them downtown. You can also visit them in Richmond. And, of course, you can visit them on the internet at duik Auto Group.com. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.