Halford & Brough in the Morning - Evan Bouchard Shouldn't Be On Team Canada

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they look ahead to tonight's Canucks home tilt versus the Rangers (6:00), plus they chat the latest NHL news & notes with ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (25:55).  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.

Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- Towards Alex Ovechkin. Pinpoint to the top shelf. Yeah, I can't imagine what it would feel like to wear pants after not having worn them for some length of time. And they're still close enough, Johnny, to where they're smelling each other's breath right about now. Yeah, exactly. Got to break that up. Yeah, we had to be firmer inside. Yeah, we had to be firmer inside for sure.

Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is, Vancouver. 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. This is Halford and his bruv. It is Sportsnet 650, and we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver.

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powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sophie, what are you waiting for? Kintec. We've got a big show ahead on a Tuesday. It's the Canucks game day here on Sportsnet 650. A reminder, pregame, postgame, and the actual game, it's all right here on Sportsnet 650. Our guest list begins today at 6.30.

Greg Wyshynski from ESPN is going to join us. It's a very hockey-heavy show today. A lot of NHL talk. We're going to go around some of the bigger news there, obviously. Talk about the Vancouver Canucks. Talk about tonight's opponent, the New York Rangers. Wish will be joining us at 6.30 to talk about what happened to Aleksandr Ovechkin last night,

what happened to the Boston Bruins last night. We can look at the Rangers with him as well. The Chicago Blackhawks, not good times for the Chicago Blackhawks. So Wish will join us at 6.30 for that. 7 o'clock, Ray Ferraro can confirm tonight's Canucks game and the broadcast is indeed a Ray game. That's what we call them on the streets. We call them Ray games.

So Ray will be between the benches tonight, between the Canucks and the Rangers. Final game for that homestand for the Vancouver Canucks before they head out on the road. They play in Ottawa on Saturday, so they've got a few days off. So your last chance to catch some Canucks action this week. 8 o'clock, Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks. He'll be on the call tonight for the game.

So it's a big show. We've got a lot of guests. We've got a voice of the Vancouver Canucks. He'll be on the call tonight for the game. So it's a big show. We got a lot of guests. We got a lot of hockey to talk about. Without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance.

Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. In a rare bit of absence and void here, there was no Canucks practice last night. No Canucks talking points that we could really dive into. I lose my headset. I'm so excited. So we thought, let's go around the National Hockey League. Look at some of these other stories and teams that were in action last night.

We got to start in Boston. We absolutely have to start in Boston. I'm reading a headline right now in The Athletic by Fluto Shinzawa. Friend of the program. And this is the headline. Not that Fluto wrote this, but it's up on The Athletic. Firing coach Jim Montgomery is the Bruins' only logical move. That is a headline.

The Boston Bruins lost. That just spells it out. The Boston Bruins last night lost 5-1 at home, TD Garden, to the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night. That dropped their record on the year to 8-9-3. And this was a Blue Jackets team that didn't exactly come in on a heater. I believe they had one win in their previous eight. So they were struggling just as bad as the Boston Bruins.

Two shorthanded goals on the night for the Bruins. Yeah, I actually watched this game. I made it a point to sit down and watch, and it got more interesting as the night went on because this game was in Boston, and the Bruins could not get much of anything going. And you mentioned the shorthanded goals against the crowd at TD Garden was incensed more and more incensed as the night went on and uh grabbed some audio from the end of

the game and this is how it sounded as the Bruins finished a 5-1 defeat at home. Fosterly, back of the net with five. Lorai cranked it up the left side and all the way down, and that will do it. So this... That was nice. That was nice. That was nice.

It felt good to listen to that. Want me to play it again? It gives me strength. It feels so good. It. So good. That was nice. It felt good to listen to that. Want me to play it again? It gives me strength. Feels so good. Feels so good. So if they fire Montgomery, that means they've won two of the last five Jack Adams awards. Yeah. And they're both gone now.

They'd both be gone. Wait, who won the Jack Adams last year? Yeah, talk better be worried. Well, it's funny. You know, we were talking yesterday about how Rick Talkett is getting more and more criticism in the Dunbar-Lumber text line. It seemed like last season he could do no wrong. This season, Canucks get off to a, I don't know.

It's not a Bruin-esque start. I'd say a bit of a ragged start, even though the record isn't terrible. And more and more criticism comes in. I wonder if this all traces back in some way or another, in some of its retirement of Patrice Bergeron, certainly. That was a thing. But how much of it goes back to choking in the first round against the Florida Panthers after having that incredible season? What did they have, 135 points? Granted, they were still a decent team incredible season. What did they have? 135 points.

Granted, they were still a decent team last season. In fact, you could probably call them quite good. But when you have that type of regular season and then you lose in the first round to Florida and then the following season, even though you get past the leaps in the first round, you lose again to Florida, that must have an impact.

Maybe it's just a lineup thing. I don't know. I think there's a lot that's gone into it. I'm trying to point to one particular thing is, I mean, it's kind of what we do here on Sports Talk Radio is find out one thing and boil in on it. But there's so many different issues that are plaguing this team.

One of them, 100% is the gradual whittling away of the guy, not just good players, but the guys that had the identity andittling away of the guy, not just good players, but the guys that had the identity and the carried the culture of the team. Right. Like you can keep replacing Patrice Bergeron, but you're never going to replicate what he brought. And then one guy that is getting raked over the coals right now is former Vancouver Canuck,

Elias Lindholm. And he went on 98.5, the sports hub in Boston, and admitted that his game was nowhere close to being good enough right now. He said, quote, I think overall for myself, I just haven't been good enough. Wouldn't put the blame on something else other than myself. I just got to be better. And he was a no-show again last night in a 5-1 loss to the Blue Jackets.

So there's that part of it. I think the other part of it, obviously, is the Jeremy Swayman thing. And for those that haven't been following, it has not gone very well for Jeremy Swayman after... Don't miss training camp. Don't miss training camp. Don't miss training camp, especially if you're a goalie. Yeah, don't piss off Cam Neely.

Don't make Cam Neely call you to the carpet in negotiations publicly. Just take the money and play. Because what's happening right now is not only did he miss training camp and got off to a slow start, but he also did it. And the timing is crazy to me because you'd think in the first year without his best friend and hug buddy, Linus Allmark, this would be the year that you would really hone in on, I'm really going to make sure that i'm ready to go and i'm fit and i'm in a good headspace because my security

blanket is no longer here well that a whole situation played out probably the exact opposite the swayman and the bruins wanted it to play out now you're probably wondering why are we waxing on about this so much you've got to understand one nobody here likes Boston, so it's fun and it's easy and it's red meat for our listeners. Two, you might be witnessing not just the closing of the window in Boston, but also the beginning of some seriously painful times

because they just went out and made not one, but two high-end veteran free agent acquisitions in Zdorov and Lindholm that if this team is going in the wrong direction, will be seen as massive anchor contracts. Finally, I want to add, Nesson tried this thing this year. They're doing their version of the Manning cast.

Nesson is the New England sports network, and they carry a bunch of the Bruins games. So they're doing their version of a Manning cast, which is you bring in a bunch of ex-players, and it's an alternate broadcast. It's a simulcast where a bunch of ex-players sit around and talk during the game. If you've never watched one, it's kind of annoying.

I don't like it, but a lot of people do. Last night for Nesson, they had Andrew Raycroft, Tuca Rask, and Patrice Bergeron doing the alternate broadcast. Wow. That's a tough night to do that one with Bergeron. It was too hard to grab audio because part of the problem is it's just guys talking over each other the entire time,

and it doesn't sound great. It sounds like our show. Not the scripted brilliance of Halford and Ruff. You've come to know and love every morning. But what was the takeaway from it? All I know is at the end of the game, when the fifth one went in, they had stopped talking about the game entirely. I think they had Danielle Goyette.

Boston Fleet. Boston Fleet, yeah. And she was talking about their game. She was talking about shorthanded goals because they have the jailbreak, right? If you score a shorthanded goal, penalty gets wiped out. You're back to even strength. As she's talking about this, the Blue Jackets scored their second shorthanded goal penalty gets wiped out you're back to even strength as she's talking about this this blue jackets scored their second shorthanded goal and raycroft goes oh god did they just score another shorthanded goal and then the broadcast ended like a minute

later ross when reeled back in his seat back in his chair and there they were just perplexed at what they were seeing but you could tell there was a sense of kind of low-key embarrassment because they collected all these guys to talk about this bruins team that you know is a perennial playoff contender and remember part of that that great season they had a couple years ago they didn't lose at home like they were almost perfect at td garden and now they're getting skunked 5-1 by the columbusets. So you mentioned the guys that they have signed, Elias Lindholm, and obviously they brought in Nikita Zdorov as well. Who the fans don't love right now.

From the Vancouver Canucks. Brad Marchand, their captain, is a pending UFA. Is there any way he would go, you know what? I'm not Sidney Crosby. And I'm going to go somewhere else. Because this is not looking good for the Bruins right now. And we all know that Sid was like,

I don't need a lot of money. Just give me this under-market deal. Maybe Marshawn doesn't feel the same way, and maybe he doesn't want to do – remember the deals that Patrice Bergeron gave the Bruins at the end? And a lot of the reason was because they were contenders. Yep. And he's like, I want to win another cup. Because even though the Bruins,

I don't know if anyone remembers, they did win the Stanley Cup in 2011. A lot of people consider them overall, or had considered them overall, as underachievers, considering all the great regular seasons that they had, only one Stanley Cup for this team.

So they really wanted another one. I do wonder if a guy like Marshawn might be like, you know what? I'm going to go somewhere else. I don't have to play every game with the Boston Bruins. On that note, just because we like to stir it up, and it's Boston, so we're really going to try and stir it up. The Canucks should sign him.

Right, there's one. Canucks should swoop in. Freed earlier this season did report, both on Saturday Night Headlines and 32 Thoughts, that the Bruins and Marchand were getting closer to agreeing on a three-year contract extension. After that came out, Brad Marchand emphatically, emphatically shot it down.

Said the report is false. He said there's no truth to it. And I thought it was interesting that he shot it down because I was like, why would you so emphatically deny something that everyone assumes is going to happen? Brad Marchand in Boston, everyone just assumed that that was going to get

done because of what you said. So maybe, maybe there's something there. Also, as we put a bow on the box. Probably not, but maybe. I'm just throwing it out there. Also, David Pasternak, zero shots on goal last night. A 5-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets at home. So Marchand to Vancouver?

I think so. I think so. Let's put that out. Andy, clip that video. I think he does fancy himself like a Crosby type, though. They do train together. They're from the same area. So I don't think that's going to happen. I'm just throwing it out there because things are not looking good for the Bruins right now.

And Sid, since they do train together, might go to Brad and say, don't do it, man. Don't just do it for loyalty. Like, I'm screwed here in Pittsburgh. Have you seen us? Don't do this to yourself. You've got a chance. Sobbing uncontrollably.

I have so many regrets. The other big story last night came in Utah where Alexander Ovechkin scored another two goals to take the NHL lead at the age of 39 which is remarkable what he's doing and then the night took a really bad turn because with five minutes and 30 seconds left in the third period Ovechkin went I can't classify it as knee on knee. It was more like shin on shin with Utah forward Jack McBain. Went to the ice writhing in pain. Had to be helped off

the ice late. The Capitals none too pleased. Immediately fought McBain right after that. It did? Yeah. It was a total accident. You watched the clip. No. You know what, Greg? They did not take it as such. That's okay. Hey, we can get back to clean or dirty hits.

Do you just respond either way? We weren't even looking at each other on this one. The Vancouver Canucks didn't do it for Brock Besser and Quinn Hughes in recent games. And maybe that says something. I don't know. But this is about the Washington Capitals right now. Okay? We're talking about the Capitals.

After the game, a tight-lipped Spencer Carvery did not have much of an update other than to say that Alexander Ovechkin was being evaluated at that very moment post-game so we will wait with bated breath and see what's going on there because if anything was going to interrupt what was happening this year, unfortunately, it was going to be injury because Ovi sort of redefined this chase over the first six weeks of the season. We were kind of speculating when he would do it next season. Now, assuming he's healthy and is able to get back in, this season is absolutely on the table. I mean, he's just scoring. For sure.

This is the fastest goals per game clip that he has had over the course of his NHL career. He's gotten to 15 faster than he has in any other year. It's remarkable what he's doing. It's remarkable what the Capitals are doing. Was it you, Laddie, that was pointing out,

someone tweeted it out last night, that if the stars and moons and cosmic alignment happens, that it could be Ovechkin is in Vancouver with the Washington Capitals. Adam Kirstenblatt had a tweet. Potentially around the time where it could be Ovechkin is in Vancouver with the Washington Capitals. Adam Kirstenblatt had a tweet. Potentially around the time where he could be setting the record. Again, no one has any idea what clip he's going to score at,

but let's hope for everybody's sake that he is not significantly injured and that what happened in Utah last night won't keep him out of the lineup for long. Where do you want to go next? I want to go to the Oilers because the Oilers had a stinker last night. And this team, with all its offensive firepower, I mean, I'm shocked that Pod Kolzin doesn't have a goal yet. I watched him for years in Vancouver and he just had so much upside

offensively. Sam Montembeau. Sorry, I'm being mean, but they just got shut out by the Montreal Canadiens. 3-0. Not good. Sam Montembeau, 30 saves for a second shutout of the season. Habs defeat the Oilers 3-0. Should be mentioned that Connor McDavid, no points, obviously,

because it was a shutout. And should mention Darnell Nurse did not play in this game. He's expected to be out 5-10 days after being injured on Saturday by that illegal check to the head from Ryan Reeves. So it was, and that was an Amazon Prime game. By the way, on that note, our good buddy and weekly guest on this show, Adnan Virk, had a sit-down

one-on-one interview with Connor McDavid because he was doing the broadcast for Amazon yesterday. So we'll talk to Adnan about that later in the week when we have him on the show. So they haven't won in regulation, the Edmonton Oilers, since they smoked the Vancouver Canucks in Vancouver. They took the Islanders to overtime and won.

They took the Preds to overtime and won, but they lost in overtime in Toronto. And last night they lost to the Montreal Canadians 3-0. I think most of us seem to think that the Oilers will just at some point figure it out and go on a crazy run like they did last season. I still kind of think that, but you know, the one

thing that I wanted to say, and this is kind of apropos of nothing, but. Go for it, buddy. I want nothing to do with Evan Bouchard on team Canada. Yeah. He's having a terrible season. Like I, I, I, this is maybe, maybe kind of like a hot take and maybe this, I'm going with my heart a little bit more than, than my head.

But if you think about how the defense are going to line up on that team Canada on that right side, we all agree that Kael Makar is going to be the number one guy, right? We'll probably get most of the power play time. Do you really want Bouchard out there? Here's a better way to put it. No. Here's a better way to put it, which would be

kind of entertaining, especially since it's Vancouver here. Who would you drather have? We haven't had a rather for a while. Not a long time. Who would you rather have on Team Canada? Evan Bouchard or Chris Tanev? Tanev.

Didn't even have to think about it. I understand. I don't trust Bouchard, man. He just like, he just. You can't trust him because he routinely turns the puck over. And he just goes like, defensively, he just, he has some give up in his game. He reminds me a little bit of the Eric Carlson we've seen this season where he just, through the neutral zone, people fly by him.

They just go way past him. I don't even know if it's chalking up, like, yeah, the turnovers are one thing, but for me, it's that give up in his game that he's got he's purely an offensive defenseman purely i don't think that um i don't think that the four nations team would need that much punch from the blue line from the guys that they would already be able to line up that they would need to put in a guy that quite frankly to me i know i'll get some pushback on this but like he's a borderline offensive specialist because his defense is so bad. And he was, someone texted in,

Bouchard took the Canucks to school in the playoffs. He was excellent against the Canucks. He did, offensively. Excellent against them. I just thought, I think overall, you don't even need to say offensively. I think overall, he was excellent against the Canucks. And I know that some people took issue with, I can't remember who it was that said that Bouchard

outplayed Hughes in that series. He did. He did. He was more effective than Quinn Hughes in that series. And if you don't like that, well, go watch the series again. He was more effective than Quinn Hughes in that series. But on a Team Canada that's going to have Kale McCarr on it, how much redundancy is there on that?

No, you need... When you're doing roster construction, you can do two things. And Hockey Canada has gone back and forth about this. You can get guys that are fit-oriented that maybe necessarily wouldn't be, for example example a top 12 forward in the nhl but fit the profile of a guy that you need the chris kunitz one always comes to mind right that or you can go for they've done that to their own detriment sometimes absolutely or you can go fantasy hockey style like what the national

predators and barry trotz did this off, where you just get all really good players and then throw them together and say, hey, make it work. And then guess what? Sometimes it doesn't, which is what we've seen through the National Predators through the first six weeks. With a blue line, like I can understand the value of having, even Tanev is like a seventh defenseman. Like, you know, if you break glass in case of emergency.

Well, you've got to have guys to kill penalties, and you've got to have guys to shut down the other top lines look at the american team that they're gonna put together it's why i have time it's why i have to and i know people don't like it but it's why i have time for the conversation about tom wilson being on team canada i'm not saying he should be there i'm not saying that he should be a lock i understand the pushback but i also understand why you have that type of conversation is because you need guys to do different things you can't have guys all doing the same thing it becomes difficult for a coach right for moments of momentum in the game i actually wonder if bouchard's going to be like one of the controversial players that we'll discuss heading up to this four nations but more importantly ahead of the olympics what of team, how they build the roster,

those are always the fun conversations that you do have. Because, listen, Bouchard is a good player. Let's not drag this guy down as a bad player. It's just more that he has some moments that, you know, in one-game knockouts like the Olympics, do you want to have him out there in those situations, especially when you have a guy like Makar on the roster? If there was no Makar, then I would have time for it.

But there is, and he's one of the most brilliant offensive defensemen that we've ever seen in the NHL. How much of that redundancy is there? It's why I always thought it was silly that Burns and that Brent Burns and Eric Carlson, people thought, oh, that was a great idea in San Jose. Well, it wasn't because there's some redundancy there. You have to build a roster. It's why he hasn't worked in Pittsburgh,

having Letang and eric carlson together like usually they're just one of those guys right and the rest of the guys everyone has to play a role and when canada puts together teams yeah they often take these really good it's all good players that and you know some of them would be the first line center on some teams, but those players are willing to accept a lesser role. That is always the key is say, fine, I'm the one C on my team, but on this team, I'm the grinding fourth line center that can go out there and kill penalties, create energy on the forecheck.

I'm willing to do that for the team. And also I'm able to do that for the team. Well, I also think you can play your way out of contention. If you're off to a slow start to the season and you're not playing well, I don't think that past reputations should automatically grant you a spot on any team, especially as you pointed out in a short tournament. Do you want a guy going into a four or five game tournament that's have a crisis of confidence or looks like the puck is a live grenade on his stick at the moment like yeah he might be a great

player and yeah he might be a point per game defenseman over the course of 82 games but over the course of four or five his gaffes or where his game is at might sink you so you just don't take the risk especially when you've got a lot of other good options on the table. At any rate, I think, I hope we've made this interesting, this decision, because I have a feeling that Bouchard will be on the team. I have a feeling he won't be. But now, oh really? Now I'm just like, I'm setting it up. I'm setting up the narrative.

Told you. Look at that mistake. We got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Greg Wyshynski is going to join us next. We will talk Ovechkin. We will talk Boston. We will talk Chicago. Lots of hockey talk to come. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Greg Wyshynski is going to join us next. Next, we will talk Ovechkin. We will talk Boston. We will talk Chicago. Lots of hockey talk to come.

You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 631 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda, North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales

and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Greg Wyshynski from ESPN is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 1. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar

Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. Greg Wyshynski from ESPN joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Wish? Hey, how's it going?

We're good. I hope you're good., how's it going? We're good. I hope you're good. I hope Alexander Ovechkin is good. I hope so, too. I actually just, sorry, I just got a little buzz buzz from a source at the Caps who said that we should know something later today, is what I was told. So, breaking news, sirens. I think we all probably need that anyway.

So, like, I hope so too, man. Like, it was such a bummer to see that happen. It was obviously an accidental play that still resulted in Tom Wilson beating the crap out of somebody or attempting to. And, you know, like, it's incredible covers a lot of what obi's doing right now but i think the most incredible thing for me is that at this age he has more goals in his first 18 games than he's ever had before like that's like we've all talked about like you know how many goals a guy his age can score in a season yada yada yada the start that he has is the best start he's ever had in his career for a guy that's you know hit like 65 goals in the past so like that's career for a guy that's, you know, hit like 65 goals in the past.

So, like, that's the part that's the real bummer is, like, this is something we've never seen before. You know, now we have visions of him breaking the record this season. And if anything kind of, you know, subverts that from an injury perspective, it'd be a real bummer. And, again, like, you know, part of the reason he's been able to do this isn't simply just standing in the circle and, you circle and unleashing the howitzer on goalies. He's been mobile. He's been good.

He's been scoring in a variety of different ways. And it'd be a real shame if that was impacted in any way. So the big key to all of this, I'm assuming, is that he actually came into the season in shape this time and not the shape of round. Because we talked to Tarek El-Bashir a couple times last year when he got on a heater, Ovechkin got on a heater in the second half of the season, and he said he showed up

and he wasn't fit enough to play. And Spencer Carberry actually had to have conversations with him along the lines of, I can't play you enough so that you can try and make an impact on the game because the fitness isn't there. Is that as simple as it is that he just came in in way better shape than last year? I think it's that, for sure. I think he had a really strong training offseason from everybody I've talked to around the caps. But I also think that he's a prideful guy.

And, you know, when the last time that we saw Obrechkin last season was in the playoffs where, again, it looked like, you know, the Capitals are trying to, you know, have a cadaver on the ice that they were operating with a system of levers and pulleys. Like he was terrible. He did, he did nothing. Like he, it was, it was a shell of himself to the point where Carver is getting questions about whether or not he should even be playing in the series. And so like, you know, I've covered Ovi since he was a rookie. I know that he's got a lot of pride in not only, you know, his game, but perceptions of his game. And I'm sure that was a lot of fuel for him in the off season to not be the guy that everyone is calling, you know,

an old man that can't skate anymore, which is kind of the perception that was the playoffs. I mean, there was an injury involved there too, but overall it was clear people were kind of like, is this guy cooked? Is he going to be able to break the record because he looks terrible? It's interesting too when you look at how the Capitals have been able to do this, and they're off to another fantastic start this season.

They have really benefited from being able to get some of those onerous contracts either off the books or moved out in the case of kuznetsov and when people are saying like how are they able to do this because they did pay backstrom a lot of money they paid oshi a lot of money and kuznetsov a lot of money they needed to move those deals and very fortuitous i would say in a lot of those instances it wasn't like great managerial work or anything but uh it has allowed them to do this very strange retool on the fly that's worked because the Capitals look great to start the season. They do, but I do think you have to give them a little bit more credit than you're giving them.

Look no further than the Penguins, which is obviously the team that gets compared to the Capitals all the time for various reasons. We talked about it last week, I think, that the idea that you are rebuilding around one, I mean, that you're building a team around one guy versus three guys makes it a lot easier to do what the Capitals did versus what Kyle Dubas is attempting to do. But, you know, the thing about the comparison between those teams is that

you want to keep the guys that are your guys from those you know championship memories on the roster as long as you can and you know i'm sure if you asked over etchkin he'd love if backstrom was still there he'd love if oshi was still there he'd love if because netsoft could have gotten his act together and he was still there i mean these were really important people in obi's life and and you know on the ice and off the ice. The idea that the Capitals said goodbye to those guys but also managed to fortify the roster in a way that's made them better than they've been in years is really amazing. I understand what you're saying as far as the good fortune, so to speak,

of Backstrom's hip and Oshie's injuries and allowing them to free up some salary space and this, that, and the other thing. But at the end of the day, you still have to go out and find the right players to make the team competitive. Their vow to Ovechkin was like, we're not just going to have a shell of a team around you as you try to break this record. We're going to have a competitive team. We're going to have a playoff contender.

And they've delivered on that promise. I wish. Conor Bedard was playing in Vancouver for the first time the other night, and he had a he had a rough one he had a rough Vancouver debut didn't do much offensively then whiffed on a dump in that allowed the Canucks to score an empty netter to seal off the win I noticed that Bedard has been moved to the wing now in Jason Dickinson for thinking of former Canucks, is now his center. Probably not how he envisioned everything starting in Chicago. What do you make of his situation with the

Blackhawks right now? It's a classic young center move, which is that when you have a guy that is supposed to be a primary goal scorer who isn't scoring goals, and it's been a horrendous goal scoring season for Bedard so far. You move him to the wing, you try to get his confidence back from a goal-scoring perspective, and then you shift him back to center once that starts. The Devils did it with Jack Hughes. Other teams have done it with their young centers,

and they've struggled to score goals. It's kind of a part-and-parcel move for an NHL coach. His lack of goal-scoring is kind of incredible. I think there's a lot of reasons for it. The Blackhawks not being at all good, I think is one of them. I think some of the moves that they made in the offseason not paying off. I mean, like I mentioned this yesterday, maybe on Twitter or maybe on Blue Sky, where most of us liberals have escaped to.

I mentioned that, like, for all the talk about Taylor Hall getting healthy scratched, he has the same number of points in fewer games as Tyler Bertuzzi. You talk about busts as far as free agency goes. That's a guy in a multi-year contract that right now hasn't produced anything for that Blackhawks team, and they bring him in probably with the thought that he's going to either energize a second line to take some of the pressure off Bedard or play with Bedard and make him better, and he hasn't done either of those things.

So a lot of the moves that Kyle Davidson has made haven't really paid off necessarily, and I think that Bedard, that's part of the reason Bedard's stats are where they are, but it's also just you can tell the kid's frustrated. You can tell the kid rightly or wrongly believes that the Blackhawks should be moving up the standings at this point, as he probably grew up watching Sid and Ovi have relevant teams pretty early on in their careers,

and instead he's watching his team kind of backslide in year two. How much of a challenge is this going to be for the Blackhawks to create a half-decent team over the next couple of years? Because it's so hard to improve your team dramatically through free agency because so few quality free agents really make it to market and then you've got to bid with the other teams and you know sometimes these these really good players want to go to good teams and have a chance to win, whereas teams like the Blackhawks will sometimes have to overpay on guys that, you know, like Taylor Hall, his game wasn't where it was,

certainly where he was with the Devils winning the MVP. Just how challenging is this going to be for Kyle Davidson? So I was doing the math in my head to figure out, like, when Bedard was cognizant of the NHL. He probably wasn't even cognizant of the Capitals and Penguins when they stunk. His first years as a cognizant hockey fan

were what, around the lockout, the half-season lockout? He was born in 2005. Yeah, so like let's say his earliest memories of Sam is when he's like eight or nine or eight so that that puts him at 2013 or 2014 so yeah he he's only known the red wings to be bad which is kind of amazing when you think about that for for conor bedard like

what do you ever read puck daddy i don't know don't know. You know, that's an eternal question for me with a lot of players. There are certainly players that I've gotten to know a little bit, and then I suspect it's because they grew up reading Puck Daddy in some cases. In some cases, they've admitted it. In other cases, I just suspect it. But did he read Puck Daddy? I don't know. I feel like maybe someone threw a jersey foul post at some point you know you're speaking you know like

hey look connor check out this 69 jersey like probably at least once you know during his life the thing about the blackhawks is right now they have to they have to develop from within like you said i mean they tried to augment with three agents it hasn't necessarily worked all that well they do have a pretty decent amount of prospects in their system the big defense and the drafted last year it you know it doesn't work out timeline wise for bedard because he's extremely impatient but the best thing for them is probably to be horrible again you know and and and try to get another you know blue chip player that they can add to that mix for him and and have a bunch of young guys that can kind of all grow together.

Because essentially, if some historian shared the news of the Penguins and Capitals with Conor Bedard at some point, they would have said, yeah, Sid came up with Malkin, LeTang, Fleury all at the same time. Ovi came up with Backstrom, Carlson, and all these guys all at the same time. Like, the turning of the ship towards success for any young player is not because you're there. It's because you're there with a bunch of other people. Look at, I mean, like, as great as McDavid is, you know, the Oilers don't become the Oilers without Dreisaitl being there.

And so, you know, I think Bedard has to kind of be patient and understand that, that, you know, it's not going to be, you know, Tevo Terravainen that turns a team into a winner. It's going to be somebody from within the organization that gets the draft. Luke Richardson, I don't know if his seat is getting a little hotter in Chicago. The healthy scratching of Taylor Hall

didn't sound like it went over too well with Taylor Hall and said he was surprised by it. I was getting flashback to Torts and Sean Couturier last season, but there seem to be a lot of candidates for coaches on the hot seat in Boston, in Detroit. Jim Montgomery, how safe do you think his job is right now coming off a 5-1 home loss to Columbus? The Bruins got booed off the ice at TD Garden.

Well, it wasn't safe before the season, and so I don't think that there's been anything that happened during the season that necessarily makes them even safer, unless Don Sweeney and Cam Neely, the Bruins management, are kind of team Montgomery inso as like when you're starting goalie misses training camp for a money squabble, this is the end result. You get a guy with a sub 900 save percentage. He doesn't have a contract for next season.

They didn't give him one. They talked about like we're talking about it, but they didn't actually put pen to paper on it. So there is a certain lame duck aspect to the season for him anyway. And then the Bruins are as middling as they are. I mean, I still think there's the chance that it ends up being a trade versus being a coach firing, you know, unless they really feel like he's lost the team.

But yeah, I mean, his, his seat's hot. I think Richardson seats warming up, you know, depending on the night, maybe Greg Cronin out in Anaheim. You know, I've had people, you know, I talk to scouts sometimes when I go to these games, and uniformly they tell me that they feel like Anaheim's kind of a mess, systems-wise. So we'll see where it all ends up, but I don't think we're going to be long for a coach firing in this league.

Steve Iserman in Detroit. I feel like we talk about this a lot. It's kind of like, when is this Iser plan going to come into shape? They just had a pretty disastrous road trip out West. Uh, what's going on in Detroit? I mean, that's a little, a little on to another one, right? Like what are the expectations for that team? It's, it's clearly to be a playoff team this year. Um, you know,

and hope that this collection of players they have manifest that. You know, they hoped that they had fixed the goaltending by bringing in Talbot. They feel like they had a pretty good amount of talent on the roster, but it really hasn't manifested in anything. And again, like we've talked about it, the Iser plan is as confusing and formless as a plan can be because, you know,

they don't have enough blue chip to high end young players to really resemble what he did in Tampa. And, you know, they've tried to augment what's there with, with older veteran players. And it just seems, it doesn't seem like there's a real clear path for this team other than let's just run it back every year and hope that the, the, the, the right sequence of players clicks, which to me is not a plan, so to speak.

We're speaking to Greg Wyshynski from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Speaking of ESPN, your co-worker at ESPN, Emily Kaplan, big piece up right now on ESPN.com, why paying goalies is so complicated in today's NHL. And adjacent to the piece is a massive picture of Igor Shostakhin, who we're going to see tonight, presumably, when the Rangers

take on the Canucks 7 o'clock from Rogers Arena. Where are... Two questions here. Why is it so complicated to figure out what goalies are getting paid? And why is it so complicated for them to figure out this Shostakhin deal in New York? Well, I mean, because he's asking for a lot of money, and I think he's deserving of a lot of money.

I think Ivor Shisterkin is the second-best goalie in the NHL. The trick is whether or not you believe that you need to have the second-best goalie in the NHL to win. And by that, I mean paying the second- best goalie in the NHL to win. And by that I mean paying the second best goalie in the NHL the level of money he's looking for to retain him and whether that's really the best thing for your roster. I tend to believe it is. I think for all the talk about the Aiden Hills of the world

and the Stuart Skinners of the world that got the Oilers a couple of really good weeks of goaltending and didn't lose them a series necessarily and got them to game seven of the final. Like you have to look on the other side of the ice, the guy who won the cup. And, you know, I, I go back and forth, Trance and I always battle over Bobrowski has like our, our, our ongoing feud, me and Thomas Trance. But I tend to believe Bobrowski is a driving force for why the

Panthers won the cup and he makes a lot of money. And that contract has never really been one that's been celebrated. But at the end of the day, you know, the difference may be they had a guy that performs incredibly in the playoffs and the other guys don't. I'm a pay the goalie guy. I know there's a lot of concern and hand-wringing and trying to do it on the cheap. But unless you have a team that can do what Vegas did, which is have a tremendous defensive team in front of your goaltender, I think you need someone to stop the puck. It just provides stability, doesn't it? Yeah, I mean, unless he gets hurt.

I mean, that's the other thing about goalies too, is that it's a position in which you can tort your body like a pretzel and, and sometimes that ends up with guys getting hurt or, or as they get older, you know, guys getting hurt. So there's always the inherent risk there, but I'm with you, man. Like in, in a league in which you are you're trying to do everything you can to build a roster with the least amount of uncertainty, being able to trot out Igor Shichurkin 55 times a year

is as close to certainty as you can get if you're the Rangers. So you mentioned that he was the second best goalie in the NHL. Is it safe to assume that Connor Hellebuck is number one? Yeah. Okay. I mean, going away. Yeah, right. He's insanely good.

I mean, and, you know, me and Kristen Shelton are writing this thing on the, on the Winnipeg Jets that's going to come out tomorrow on ESPN.com, like a real deep dive into what the hell's happening with this team and why they're so, why they're so good anytime they don't play in Florida. But, but like his numbers behind all of that offensive success are stellar. I mean, like he's, he's stopping a huge number of high danger chances behind a of that offensive success are stellar. I mean, like he's stopping a huge number of high-danger chances behind a defense that is actually a little bit more porous than you'd expect.

He's sort of, again, to use the Shuriken example, when you talk to the Jets and ask, how are you able to do this? You know, inevitably the conversation goes back to the foundation that they have in goal. And knowing that they can make mistakes, they're not going to end up in the back of the net and knowing that there's going to be nights when he needs to bail them out and he will. And so when you have that level of confidence in your net minder, it really does lead to everything else kind of calming down and falling into place. And that's one of the reasons why they've been able

to be as good as they've been. So when we look back on it, is that deal that he signed the seven year, $59.5 million deal with a $8.5 million cap hit. Might that end up being more profound when it comes to goalies getting paid than any other deal? And maybe it's why it's just there. Can they're waiting on giving them possibly a 12 or 13 million a year. I mean, that's yeah.

I mean, I will listen, you know, both him and Shifley took less than what they probably would have gotten in the open market. I don't know about Hellebuck because... Yeah, I don't know about Hellebuck. I remember the market for goalies wasn't great, and I was wondering... Yeah, that's what I was going to say. That's part of the math on Tichurkin as well, is how many teams would open the vault to give him 11-5, let's say, over seven years. And, you know, that was also the thing with Hellebuck.

Like, how many teams would have done that for him? I think the Devils probably would have been one of them, if I'm being honest. But, you know, and honestly, there's a team in Philadelphia that I think would pay both of those guys. Hell, they might commit $24 million to Shisterkin and Hellebuck. But, you know, to circle back to your point, though, like, that's also part of this jet story is

remember back in like what was it 2023 they they they buy out the last season of blake wheeler's contract so your your captain your long-serving captain has been kind of a problem uh insofar as the decline in his game you cut ties with him they make the dubois trade and everybody's like why didn't you get futures back for dubois? Why did you get three roster players? All three of those guys are on this roster now. And then after that sort of tumultuous turnover of the roster, you shoveled day off, re-signed Shifley and Hellebuck to give this team stability.

It's crazy how, how well that, that, that year turned out for the Jets and is exactly why they are where they are right now. Without spoiling too much of the piece that's coming out, how much focus did you have on that Dubois trade? Because we talked about it last week and it's like the way that Sheveldayoff was able to get three, not just roster players, but guys that came in and contributed right away. And now it's like, oh, the Jets have this great depth of forward. And I'm like, yeah,

it's almost entirely because of the Dubois trade, which looks like an absolute fleecing right now. Yeah. And the one thing that we all kind of thought of in the Dubois trade, which is that, boy, this could look real bad if Dubois is still a little fussy guy. And Velarde is actually now real good, is exactly how it went. Dubois was a pouty little jerk in L.A. and they've shipped him out to the Capitals within a year. And, you know, Velarde built on the potential that he showed in L.A. to become a really good score for them, now even better, because, you know, they hired Davis Payne to figure out their power play.

Right. And both him and Ehlers are, you know, been pretty good parts of that offense. So, again, it was sort of a gamble to trade away an asset like that and not build towards the future. But, you know, clearly Sheffield Day Off knew, okay, I'm pretty confident I'm going to be able to keep Shafley and Hellebuck around. And if I do that, then it's a win now team versus let's get some picks for this guy. Wish, you're the best, buddy.

Thanks for doing this. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week. We'll do this again next Tuesday. Anytime. Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on. Greg Wyshyn Enjoy the rest of the week. We'll do this again next Tuesday. Anytime. Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on. Greg Wyshynski from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

So we're going to chat with Ray Ferraro next on the Halford & Brough Show. And I texted Ray last night and I told him, listen, I want to ask you about Marcus Pedersen because this is a name that is out there. The defenseman for the Pittsburgh Penguins is apparently available in a trade and it is being reported. Was it Josh Yohi was reporting it? I think out of Pittsburgh that the Vancouver Canucks

are in the mix. At least they've made calls. The Edmonton Oilers have been making calls on Marcus Pettersson. The Pittsburgh media guys are already doing the Hoaglander for Pettersson thing, just so we're clear. Yeah, and I actually reached out to Sean Judd Tilley last night, and I said, is he any good?

Like, what's his deal? Because on my social media, the time that I'm on it now, I see a lot of people in Pittsburgh complaining about Pettersson. You know, like, oh, come on. But if you go to Blue Sky, they're celebrating him. Right. Very positive. It's political.

It's tribal, like everything now. But Sean actually said, yeah, he hasn't been all that great this year. But Sean said, look, this guy's a good player. He's gotten better and better over the last few years. He said he's good defensively, good on denying zone entries, good skater. And then he said long arms, tougher than he looks. And I laugh because he's listed at 6'3 or 6'4,

but under 180 pounds. Yep. He's a string bean. Long, skinny reach yeah but at any rate so i'm gonna ask ray uh about marcus petterson uh ray knows every player in the league pretty well i think ray's probably going to maybe push back on the fit because if you add marcus petterson and he's a left shot defenseman does that truly address the issues or does it create more issues because you know you need right side guys yep right now when I was texting with

Ray I was like well you could move Branstrom over to the right side but he was kind of like ah then you're asking him to do a tougher job at any any rate, we'll talk to Ray about Marcus Pedersen and what he knows about the player and whether or not it could be a fit in Vancouver. Lots of hockey talk to come. Brendan Batchelor is going to join us at 8 to preview the New York Rangers side of things. We'll ask Ray about the Rangers as well

just to get a bit of a scouting report on the team that is coming into Rogers Arena, which has been a very easy place to play for road teams lately. And that's got to turn around for the Vancouver Canucks. Any comments or questions you have, we've got an open segment on the other side of Ray. Text him into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. The Bridge Street, Dunbar Lumber, and Ladner

has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at DunbarLumber.com. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.