Halford & Brough in the Morning - Everything That Can Go Wrong, Will Go Wrong

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

In hour one, Halford & guest host Jamie Dodd look back at the previous day in sports, they talk yesterday's Canucks loss to the Jets that resulted in Thatcher Demko leaving the game due to injury (3:00), plus the boys discuss the latest hockey stories of the day with Sportsnet NHL host David Amber (27:59). 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. Thatcher Demko has left the game. Kevin Lankinen has replaced it. That's right. This is my nightmare. It is what it is. Guys are going to miss games. Guys are going to get injured.

Passes into the slot. Filarney with a back-hander scores. That's it. Back to Winnipeg. Would you say it's time for our viewers to crack each other's heads open and feast on the gooing side? Yes, I would, Kent. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody.

It is Halford and his Brough. It is Sports Net 650. We are coming live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Although it's not Jason Brough this week. It's Jamie Dodd. Jamie, good morning. Good morning. Good morning.

morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Only a licensed insolvency trustee can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees to learn how. Visit sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are broadcasting live from the Kintech. Kintech footwear and orthotics working together with you in step.

Lots to get into on a Wednesday show. We got four guests on the program. Today we have a Canucks game to recap, just a ton of stuff to dive into over the next three hours. Guestless today begins at 630. David Amber, hockey night in Canada, Sportsnet, NHL host is going to join the program. We will look back on a busy Tuesday night in the NHL, including the Canucks 5-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets at Rogers Arena. tonight, Scotiabank Wednesday night hockey, a doubleheader on Sportsnet. First, you got the Oilers taking on Rick Tocke and the Flyers in Philly.

Then North Vancouver's very own Connor Bernard to Blackhawks hosting Jack and Luke Hughes and the Devils. Big Wednesday night doubleheader. David's going to join us at 6.30 to look ahead to all that. 7 o'clock Frank Sarah Valley, our NHL insider from Victory Plus. We'll whip around the league for some of the biggest news, notes, storylines and trade rumblings as we get closer and closer to America. American Thanksgiving. Frank is going to join us at seven to go through all that. 7.30, Parker Burgess is going to join the program. Head coach of your Vancouver Giants. Giants get back into action this Saturday, 7 o'clock at the Langley event center against

the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings. Parker will join us at 7.30 to preview that game and give us an overview of the season thus far. Giants not doing so great right now. They're on a three-game losing street going into Saturday's game. Finally, at 8 a.m., Randy Jand is going to join the program. Canucks color analyst right here on SportsNet 650. As mentioned, Canucks lost their second in a row last night, 5-3 to Winnipeg. The biggest story, though, wasn't the loss itself. It was the loss of Thatcher Demko, who exited after a three-goal first period with a lower body injury. Lots to get into with Randeep at 8 a.m.

Lots to get into, period, on the show. Very quickly, working in reverse, which serves no purpose to nobody, but I like doing it. 8 a.m. Randip Jan to 7.30, Parker Burgess. 7 o'clock, Frank Saravale, 6.30. David Amber. That's what's happening on the program today. Greg, 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? Miss it? You missed that? 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 BC-C-S-A.com. Josh Morrissey, a goal, and two assists. Jets beat the Kinnock's 5-3 at Rogers Arena on Tuesday. But the biggest story, Jamie, not Josh Morrissey, not the loss, but the health of Thatcher, Demko. Imagine if we were leading with Josh Morrissey today. And I did it. And I still did it. The number one takeaway from that game, Josh Morrissey, pretty good, three points. No, the biggest storyline. Look, there's a lot we could get into, right? We talked about special teams on the show. Yesterday, we can talk about where the Canucks sit in the standings, all of that, but it's

Dempco. That's the biggest storyline after the game. It was the biggest storyline going into the game. We posed the question yesterday in our preview of the game. Will Thatcher Dempco play? Well, he played. Maybe we should have changed the question. How much will he play? Will he survive the game without leaving due to injury? The answer to that one is no. He only played the first period. Kevin Lankin played the final 40 minutes. And there are, I think, big short term and long-term questions coming out of this game. So to catch everybody up, after the game, Adam Foote spoke to the media. Of course, he was asked, called it a lower body issue for Thatcher Dempco, said he was asked

straight up, was he ready to play tonight after missing those games with maintenance? And he said simply yes, and then he didn't know if he would be available for the road trip that they start on Friday. After that, so this wasn't from Adam Foote, but it was from a Canucks representative who talked to the media there. Okay. The update was that Thatcher Dempco's lower body, apparent lower body injury, which forced him to leave the game yesterday, unrelated to the maintenance days, the preventative maintenance days that caused him to miss the weekend games. Oh, that's much, much worse.

Yeah. That's much, much worse. To me, that doesn't sound better because now we have within a span of a week two separate issues cropping up for Thatcher Dempco. And in the short term, the Canucks start a road trip on Friday. They play three and four nights on the road in the Eastern Conference you need two goalies

so I think we're about to find out in all likelihood barring a miraculous recovery from that injury for Thadred Dempco we're likely to find out what Yuri Patera's got in store for this team

great which is great exactly where everyone wanted to be are you're petrified well I hate you just did that I also I guess that's pretty good that's pretty good I'm excited to see Patera Are you? I am.

Why? Because I'm the kind of guy that tuned into the 6-0-Abb's for Kinex loss last night. Seven-0. Oh, sorry, 7-0. I didn't tell how close I was paying attention to it. Who was a net for that one? It started with Ty Young. He did not finish the game.

All right. Lemieux came in after that. Lemieux? Yeah. I don't even know him. He was the E-C-H-L kid that just called up. Okay. So they've got options is what you're saying.

Good to go. It's not an e-bug. It's not an e-bug. Laddie's telling you they've got options. Okay. Please stop. Please stop. Sorry.

But I'll also come up with one more before we go to break. Okay. The Demko situation, what do you say at this point? Dear listeners, what do you say? When it rains, it pours. If anything bad can't happen, it will happen. Again, I was the one that came on the air yesterday and was trying, and this is a lesson to all you children out there, never be positive. But trying.

Never try. To give some gleam of optimism that if this worked, if giving Demco the weekend off and listening to both him, and in turn him listening to his body and listening to him listening to his body if this was going to work, it would be a great thing, a proof of concept even that the plan would work. It's your fault for not making Demko the one to watch.

If you would have made him the one to watch, he wouldn't have been injured. Yeah, I bet he would have, but however he was with the one to watch exit in the first period after allowing three goals. So as we're watching, just to give you an idea of the visceral reaction, as we're all watching this unfold. I think it was when Demko went across,

to stop Perfetti. If I'm not mistaken, that was the big save. Was that on Perfetti or I follow? I think it was on Perfetti. You could tell that he got up a little slow. But, hey, no problem. It was a big save. He sprawled out.

There was a stoppage in play. So maybe he was just collecting himself and taking his time. Then, shortly thereafter, kudos to the Sportsnet cameraman, who may be getting a reprimand. I'm not so sure. But managed to get as tight of a zoom shot as he could on Thatcher Demko's face behind the bars of his mask while he was stretching out

whatever he appeared to tweak on that save. And I looked at Demko's face and I said, I know that look. That look of pain, I have it any time I try and do anything athletic and in the aftermath. He's not feeling well. He's not feeling well.

This is science and medicine all playing out in real time. And then, of course, first period ends. Demco exits the ice. And then we were all greeted at the start of the second. I think it was Batch's tweet.

and then Shorty announcing it on the broadcast that it was Kevin Lanken coming out to start the second period. So just a gut punch in a game where Demko led in three goals in the first period, but the game was still hanging in the balance.

Canucks did reasonably well to put up more offense on the board and at times look like a fairly dangerous offensive team, but all of it gets overshadowed by the fact that, again, in a familiar refrain this season, another thing that couldn't go wrong

has gone wrong. And again, just to kind of reiterate what's coming up on the schedule for the Canucks and how that plays into Thatcher Dempco. Going into last night, he had been off for a week. The previous game he had played was against Nashville, in Nashville, on November 3rd. And then, of course, he backs up Kevin Lankin against Chicago, misses a practice on Friday for preventative maintenance, doesn't dress over the weekend, and then comes back last night. So that was a week off for something that wasn't even really regarded as an injury by the team.

Now, I know it didn't really crop up until later, but basically, that was a week between games and no it's just preventative maintenance there's nothing wrong they gave him a week off this is being acknowledged as an injury right even in the vaguest terms possible but it lower body situation for thatcher demco so at least there is an acknowledgement that this wasn't uh you know a newfound level of preventative maintenance where they're easing him back in and load management yeah this is an injury no no no this isn't preventative maintenance this is much worse yeah so if he was getting a week off for something that wasn't even classified as an injury. What is it

realistic to expect here? I mean, I would be, Adam Foote said they'll know more tomorrow or today. I think they're going to travel today. I'd be shocked. I'd be really surprised if he plays on this road trip. It would seem deeply unwise. I have no idea what's going on,

but just the facts as we know them right now, it would be really surprising. So then you're looking at, I mean, when's the most realistic time that Thatger Demko could possibly start for this team again? They've got these three games Friday, Sunday, Monday, coming back for Dallas,

that's best case scenario. If you're not going to risk playing him when he's maybe not necessarily feeling right and it's preventative, you're definitely not going to play him after he suffered an injury. If you're going to handle him with bubble wrap and like he's made a glass,

and I don't mean that as any disrespect, but that's how you have to treat him right now, then you can't take any chances. Exactly. And this is any, okay, Laddie, we got two clips in the folder from Adam foot on the goaltending. one is just confirming that it's a lower body injury for Demco

and the second one talking about the good goalie tandem and I kind of want to dive into this if only do get the official party line from the Canucks we'll start first and it's a brief clip but here's Adam Foote talking about the injury for Thatcher Demko Yeah the lower body and you know we'll find out tomorrow Now quickly pivoting to the goalie tandem Because that's what is sort of part and parcel

With every health related issue that Demko has is the company line is, well, we have a really good goalie tandem. This is the reason that we signed Kevin Lankin. And Adam Foote reiterated that after the game, especially since Lankton came in to play two of the three periods yesterday and we'll presumably be playing a lot on this road trip. Here's Adam Foote, once again confirming that he believes the Canucks have a good goalie tandem. Well, I think if you know, you look at the league, anyone that's won,

you know, gone deep in the playoffs, have a good goalie. And we've talked about this and being here. It's like football. need the quarterback and we have a good goalie tandem so um you know so it is what it is you know there's gonna guys are gonna miss games guys are gonna get injured so you can say you have a great goalie tandem but inherent in the word tandem like the two of them there's two of them yeah and both play right this is not what they envisioned when they signed both it wasn't that one was going to get hurt, another one was going to be forced to shoulder the load. It was that

they were going to lessen each other's workload and work in tandem to create one solid unified goalie like unit. And it's not going to happen now. Lanken, what happens here is your insurance policy kicks in, which is a totally different thing than a tandem. And the issue with the insurance policy in this case is that you are going to overwork Lankin. There's no question about it. They're going to overwork Lankin. They're going to overwork Lankinen. They have to because I think we already saw over the course of the weekend especially doesn't seem like they have a lot of organizational faith despite Lattie's pleadings to put Petra in that. And that's fine. It's the third goalie in your organization. They're not

often guys that you're like, we're really excited to go to him. It's the insurance policy's insurance policy. But they've got a big trip coming up and they need more wins. I know yesterday in my analysis was Kevin Lankin needs to let in fewer goals. Today's is they need more wins. They need more wins. Well, and again, they've got this three game road trip coming out. The schedule does lighten up a little bit temporarily after that. They've got two days off then Dallas, two days off Calgary, two days off Anaheim. So you could, if you get through this three game road trip, there's a stretch where you can ride Kevin Lankin in there for a little bit. Then you go into another back to back. But I still don't see how you can ask Kevin Lankton to play

three games and four days on this road trip against really good teams on the road with travel in there. That just seems way too much and too irresponsible. I think you're going to have to give Yuri Patera a game. But that's all short term. There's also the long term side of this. And Thatcher Demko leaving another game with an injury

it's starting to feel a little bit like the Philippeal situation. Now it's very, they're very different injuries, right? Because Philippeal, part of the conversation is, you know, what's best for his quality of life, right? His health, all of that. Should he retire? And we don't know, we don't have enough information to

to weigh in on that, but that's the conversation. It's not that for Thatcher Dempco, but when I say it feels a little bit like the Philippeal situation, it's in the sense that from a team building and team planning perspective, any plan that involves counting on Philippeal or Thatcher Dempco to be healthy is just kind of inherently flawed. If you're going into the season and say, this will work because Thatcher Dempco is going to be healthy and play 55 games

at a high level for us and be good in playoffs, that's just a deeply, deeply flawed plan. This is something Demko could be dealing with for the rest of his career. We can talk all about like, oh, this team is cursed and someone's got the voodoo doll. But Philippaedal leaving with a concussion and Thatcher Demko getting injured, those are foreseeable problems. Those are foreseeable issues and they don't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. What you do since Thatcher Demko is, what, his extension hasn't even kicked in, has it? So he's got three, he's got this year left at $5 million, then three more years left.

at 8.5 million. I don't know what the team building implications are for that, but at this point, until we see a full, healthy season at a high level for Thatcher Dempco, I don't think you can go into any year and pencil that in as part of your plans. Right. Counting on someone is an important thing.

On the subject of counting on people, the Canucks cannot count on anybody to kill a penalty right now. It is awful the situation at hand. And last night wasn't any better as they allowed two goals on four power play chances to the Winnipeg Jets. Yet another night, Jamie, where the special teams, I hate saying this, but everyone says the special team's not so special. At least in terms of trying to kill penalties,

this team just can't get it done with any regularity. And that penalty kill percentage keeps getting closer and closer to 60, which is a bad mark to be at. Yeah, it was 50% last night. Winnipeg went two for four in the Canucks. I mean, again, we highlighted the special team's battle. The Canucks got a power play goal. They went one for two on the power play.

So that unit didn't look especially third. threatening. It was a rush goal on the power play. But still, they got the job done. They put the puck in the back of the net. The penalty of kill could not keep up their end of the bargain. And for all the talk about, you know, slight mistakes and hey, these guys, there's a lot of new guys here and young players getting reps. You look at it. And there's also Marcus Pedersons out there. He's supposed to be a really good defensive defenseman for you. Tyler Myers. I mean, how many minutes has Tyler Myers spent killing penalties in his NHL career? An awful lot. Philipronic has been a horse on the penalty kill for you.

Connor Garland was a mainstay last year and has been this year, right? Like, it's not just young, new, inexperienced players making mistakes. Now, Blugher and Forburt, of course, will help a lot. Although Teddy Blugher, Adam Foote also said yesterday, more likely but not that he won't play on this upcoming road trip. So his availability continues to be pushed back. Forbort hasn't skated with the team. We haven't really got a recent update on him.

So, okay, it's great to say, well, Blugher and Forbord. will make a big difference. We don't know when they're going to have both of those guys back in the lineup. And they can't afford to keep hemorrhaging goals like this. The Canucks don't have enough talent to spot the other team at least one goal on special teams going in to every night. And that's basically the situation right now. The penalty kill is so leaky.

Teams have so much space to operate out there, so much room to make plays. And you know, the Gabe Volardi goal, it's a fantastic individual effort. He also had a ton of time and space right in the slot, right in the slot, right the bumper to make that play. And the notion that, you know, guys just need more reps. And as you pointed out, it's young players learning the ropes in the National Hockey League, eventually that excuse, and I will call it an excuse, is going to fall completely flat because there's been no improvements, right? All these reps and all these mistakes that have happened in games prior keep reoccurring with the kind of regularity that can sink you in a regular season, right? It's not one-offs.

It's, you know, you're looking at a power play. You're looking at a penalty kill that essentially gives up every second kill the puck's in the back of the net. And that's a dangerous way to live in the National Hockey League, especially against some of these teams with the offensive prowess that they've played against lately. Now, I said yesterday that I think this is a personnel issue. I still kind of maintain that. I'm becoming less and less convinced, though, that Bluger and Forbort are like the white knights that are going to ride in and save the day.

I think they'll make the unit better. but to what degree I'm not sure they're good penalty killers but it's only two guys and as you astutely pointed out there's a lot of veterans that have had a lot of reps at the NHL level that aren't getting the job done right now which leads me to believe that maybe this is a stylistic thing this is a strategy thing this is a way that they go about penalty killing rather than the deployment of the guys on it the other question is okay even if you say there's some future point where we're going to get bluegar and forward back and they're going to slide right in and they're going to dramatically change the fortunes of the penalty kill even if you accept that all that's true, when's that coming? When's that going to happen? And is it going to be too late? Because I think the other takeaway from last night is we're rapidly approaching the quartermark

of the season and American Thanksgiving and that magic number and all of that. The Canucks have the 28th best points percentage in the NHL right now. There's only, what, four or five teams below them in the standings by points percentage. Buffalo, St. Louis, Nashville, and Calgary. Now, that sounds worse than I think the picture actually is because it's still very early and the standings are very bunched up. And if the Canucks shock the world and win three games on this road trip, guess what? They'll be in a much better spot based on points percentage. But every other team that they're looking up at in the standings can say the same thing.

And if you look around what happened in the Western Conference last night, you know, Seattle picks up a point, even though they lose in a shootout to Columbus. San Jose gets two points. and that was a three-point game against Minnesota. So both of those teams pick up points. L.A. wins. There was a lot of not great results from a Canucks playoff perspective. I know it's early to be scoreboard watching,

but it all adds up. It all matters. And I just keep coming back to this idea. We can give them all the plaudits and all the credit in the world for treading water and being around 500. And, you know, as they were saying on the broadcast last night, they're always in it. They fight to the death at every game.

And they made it a one goal game late. And that's great. I don't want to take away from that. That is important. But at some point, that has to be, that can't be the standard. They've got to get hot. Like you're going to need to rattle off a stretch of seven, eight wins in 10 games. And if you don't have that, your Dempco, it's very difficult to see this team doing that.

But that's what it's going to take to kind of get out of this 500 around that malaise that they've been in for the whole season. Yeah, they don't have the components to go on a heater right now. I'll just say it like They certainly don't seem to And you want to know what the What are you talking about, Halford? Well, they don't have their best goalie right now They can't kill penalties with any regularity

Their number one center has three goals Through 17 games And right now, another good point you brought up This offensive surge that they've had Has been reliant upon Kiefer Sherwood who's scoring it I will say it At a probably unsustainable rate

And a handful of of other guys that are maybe contributing above their heads in terms of what they've done to the course of their NHL careers. So they're actually getting some really great depth scoring right now, and they're not keeping their heads above water. They are the fifth worst team in the NHL, as you said, in terms of point percentage. That's kind of the issue with treading water. Yeah.

Is that as soon as it slips a little bit, suddenly your head's below water. And all of a sudden, things aren't in survival mode. You're drowning. That's the fine lines between the two. it's not a healthy thing to tread water you're barely sticking in it but when things don't go your way and a couple things sort of conspire against you

suddenly you look and you're like wow we're down there with the buffaloes and the Calgary's and whoever else it was Nashville and St. Louis's of the world all of whom are off to crappy starts of the season and when you start saying well wait until we get healthy wait until we get all our guys back wait until the schedule becomes less compressed

everyone else in the NHL is saying that too because if you haven't attention. There's a slew of injuries across the NHL and there's a lot of teams that are kind of stuck in the mushroom middle. So they are also looking to make that leap forward at some point during the season. The point about the scoring, so why, Kiefer

Sherwood has 11 goals in 18 games now and the Knicks are under 500 in that stretch. You're probably not going to get another segment where he has 11 and 18. Probably not. Drew O'Connor is off to a really good start. Brock Besser is hot lately. Jake DeBrusk is really hot lately. That's four

forwards who are consistently putting the puck in the back of the net and that's lined up together for what a stretch of like a week 10 days and it hasn't translated to anything more than 500 yeah i said on the show yesterday leas peterson if this team is going to get hot at some point he has to get red hot at some point i know he had two points yesterday one of which was the funniest credited assist of all time as he sent a wayward pass all the way from the offensive zone but hey it went up on the score sheet the the depth scoring is going to go cold. Like he for Sherwood's not going to score at this rate. Brock Besser

will hit a slump. Jake DeBrusk will go cold. If that happens, I'm very concerned about what the record for this team looks like. Now that being said, again, I just want to point out, this team works incredibly hard. And I think it has more resiliency and more fight.

And I think it's shown more over the first 18 games of this year than almost the entirety of last year's team, which was an unlikable group of players for a myriad of reasons. And I know that a lot of came back. So it's like, how could someone go from being unlikable to likable?

Well, it happens sometimes. Guys change their attitudes. The environment changes around them. Things improve. I got no problem with the fight and will and grit of this team. I mean, yesterday, think about the body blows that they suffered during that game, right? Demko returns, gives up three goals in the first period, exits after the first period with an injury.

Hughes gets knocked out of the game with what looks to be a fairly significant upper body injury, you know, valiantly returns to the bench, jumps onto the ice and starts playing again. I sure would look like he got hurt in the third period. So this team suffers a lot of adversity and is very determined and has a good fighting spirit. And it will probably keep them afloat for longer than they should. But at a certain point, guts and guile and everything else isn't going to make up for the fact

that so many things, big important things are stacked up against this team. And yeah, it's kind of unfair. And yeah, it sucks. But it's also the reality of it. They're not going to win a lot of games if Demko's not healthy. They're not going to win a lot of games if they're killing penalties at 60%. And they're not going to win a lot of games if their top guys don't score at a better clip. And all those three things are happening right now.

And as a result, the connects are, what is it, 28th in the National Hockey League, as you mentioned in points percentage. We've got a lot more to get into on the program. David Amber, Hockey Night, Canada, Sportsnet, NHL host is going to join us. Next, we will recap last night's game, some of the other games that went on in the NHL, and then we'll look ahead to the Wednesday night's Scotia Bank Hockey doubleheader on SportsNet tonight. Lots more to get into, lots of hockey talk on the horizon. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show with Jamie Dodd 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 postgame 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.

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baby. It is. It's David. It is. It's David. Amber. It is. It's David. He's on the hotline. 634 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, featuring Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Only a licensed insolvency trustee can cut your debt by up to 80% with no up-front fees. To learn how, visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. Still in hour one of the program, David Amber is going to join us in just a moment here to highlight hour one. Hour one 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. To the phone lines we go, our next guest, Hockey Night in Canada, SportsNet, NHL host, David Amber, joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, David. How are you? Good, Mike, Jamie. How are you guys? We're well. You know, I got to say that the Canucks really do broadcasters a favor whenever they are featured on television because there's always something to talk about at the intermissions. I noticed every time they threw back to you and Sam yesterday, like, we have another massive breaking story to deal with. So it was Thatcher Demko exiting in the first period, Quinn Hughes exiting.

There was one to talk about the second period. Kiefer Sherwood got hurt in the third just to keep things spicy. and there's a lot of goals as well. So although they're not winning with regularity, at least the Canucks are providing some level of entertainment and intrigue on these broadcasts. Maybe intrigue, but not entertainment. My God, I mean, it's just a horror story,

the litany of injuries for the Canucks. And, you know, earlier in the night, we had the Leafs, you had Anthony Stolars leave with an injury, and then Austin Matthews leave with an injury, and then you see Vancouver go through the similar thing, their captain and their number one goalie. really crazy. It was great to have Quinn Hughes come back because he left

and I said oh God that does not look good the way his left arm was dangling his shoulder wasn't moving so to have him come back was a huge relief but yeah it's it's a bit curious you know was there a post game reaction to what happened to Thatcher Demko

I didn't you know I did go to bed eventually so I didn't hear what happened foot well they said it was different from the maintenance thing that kept him out over the weekend and they just said lower body and we'll know more today. So not much of an update, but that was the update. Yeah.

And it was the same news with the Maple Leafs Anthony Stollar's upper body, not with a lot of information. Austin Matthews with a lower body, not with a lot of information. So tough night all around. And listen, it's hard enough to win in this league when you're healthy, but when you lose

so many key components as the Canucks have, it makes it basically impossible. I think they've actually put a pretty good, you know, They've positioned themselves as well as they could under the circumstances, but, you know, we'll have to just wait and see what the Demco news is because that could be devastating. They also need to figure out how to kill penalty because that is, I mean, it's killing them right now. Yeah, and that's been an issue in the past, right?

Like last year was the exception, right? They were dead last in 2003. I remember they were like 70% or something. Last year, their PK was really good in Vancouver. And then this year they've regressed again. It's one of those peculiar. things. You know, year to year, certain teams just sort of, they get a system, it feels good, other teams make adjustments, see how they're defending, and then it doesn't work so well.

So it's a chess match, and now the move clearly has to be on the Canucks to find the right personnel and the right system that can, you know, effectively allow them to kill off penalties. And they've got to stay more discipline, you know, some errant sticks, some bad moments of taking penalties takes you out of game. So I'm sure that's something that Adam Foote in his, and as coaching staff are working on, but it just puts so much pressure on you to be exceptional five-on-five if every time, you know, you go on the shorthand, you're sitting there going on, man, this game's going to get away from us.

Okay, let's pivot to the Maple Leafs here, because if you look at the standings right now in terms of points, percentage, 28th in the NHL, Vancouver Canucks, 27th in the NHL, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Another loss to the Boston Bruins last night. You mentioned the injuries to Stolers, but I think the Matthews won, in part because of the guy delivering the hit for those that missed it

and didn't see it. Nikita Zadaroff with a hit on Matthews, exited in the first period, did not return. And this comes after a game on the weekend, where Zadarov was public enemy number one again for a gigantic hit on Scott Lawton and then knocked him out. So I imagine that Leaves fans can't be happy with Zadoroff. They can't be happy with where their team is at. I guess there's that happy overall in Toronto right now for the state of the Maple Leafs.

There's legitimate concern, Mike, with what's going on with the Leafs. And you've mentioned the Matthews issue, but beyond that. And to say they have the 27th win percentage, it doesn't even really tell the whole story. They've played 12 home games. 12 other 17 games have been at home. And they've played against teams that didn't make the playoffs last year,

a lot of the lesser lights in the NHL. So this was a time to sort of pad, you know, like, hey, let's get those early October points and we can chill out a little bit when we get into a rough patch or going a long road trip. Well, now they're about to go up against the best teams. they're about to hit the road for a huge amount of games. And, you know, maybe that'll serve them well.

We've seen teams go on road trips and it does turn things around. But it's, listen, it's a far cry from last year. And the Stolars, you know, you mentioned the Matthews situation. We don't know exactly the extent of, you know, why Matthews left and what the issue is. And if it's related to last year's back injury, we don't know. But the Stolars situation is just as problematic. The Leafs last year had one of the best goal-tending, tandem in the NHL. They had Joseph Wall, who hasn't played yet this year. He left for personal

reasons. He's now in a conditioning spin in the HL, so he's set to potentially return as early as tomorrow or Saturday. And they had Stolars who had the best safe percentage in the NHL. People forget, though, they looked at Stolars as the number one guys. He only played 33, he started 33 games last year, and that was a career high. This is a 31-year-old who's always been a backup. And now here it is, because Joseph Falls been unavailable, Stollars has had to go in, night in, night out for the Leafs, and something's happened now. And this is a guy who's had surgery on both his knees,

so he has a history. So it's pretty complicated. Without the exceptional goaltending, which may be masked some of the defensive problems the Leafs had last year, you know, you've put below average or average goaltending in the defensive miscues and no Mitch Marner, and it's been a recipe for disaster so far for the Maple Leafs.

So there's some massive question marks surrounding the team and how they're going to move forward. And until we hear what the extent of the injury is to Stolars and to Matthews, you can't really sort of assess how severe things are right now. But there's certainly some panic or at least some consternation here in Toronto thinking about what this might mean for the Maple Leafs moving forward this season. Yeah, and as you mentioned with so many home games and still struggling with the record near the bottom of the Eastern Conference

and the other thing that stands out is with the exception of Austin Matthews, who's, you know, not playing poorly, but not playing necessarily up to peak Austin Matthews. Their other top guys are having fantastic seasons, right? Neilander is racking up points. DeVaris at 35 is having another really strong season. Matthew Nyes is producing. You're getting all that.

You're getting that production from the top of your lineup. And yet the record is still what it is. Is that caused for even more concern and alarm potentially for the Leafs? Yeah. Listen, everyone said, Marner's gone. How are they going to score goals? That hasn't been the issue.

They're amongst the league leaders and goals scored per game. They've scored plenty of goals enough to win most of these games. It's the allowing of goals that is actually crushing them. They were top 10 last year in goals allowed. Again, they had exceptional goal-tending. They seemed to have more structure, and they were confident that they could win those two-one and three-two games. This year, it's been sort of firewagon hockey, up and down the ice,

all sorts of defensive miscues. Their penalty kill has really struggled at times. Their power play hasn't been very good. I think they lead the league in five on five goals, but they lead the league by a wide margin as far as allowing goals five on five. And it's just been a messy situation and untimely breakdowns. Yesterday they took a couple of penalties that led, you know, undisciplined penalties that led to goals.

So there's a big concern. What's going on defensively with this team? That was supposed to be the strength of the team, right? You have these six defensemen, went all healthy. And granted, Tanev's been injured and that's a key guy for them. but you have these six defensemen's in, you know, McCabe and Riley and Tannav and, you know, a group of guys here who collectively had had, you know,

thousands of NHL games, Carlo, et cetera, and they felt very strong about their blue line, OEL, you know, veteran group. And it just has not been good so far. And again, when you compliment the defensive breakdowns and the goaltending, you know, issues that they're having, it's actually been a recipe for disaster, allowing three, four, five goals, you know, any given night. And it's been just too big a hill to climb for them thus far.

We're speaking to David Amber, Hockey Night, Canada, SportsNet, NHL host here on the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Not a great night for Canadian teams last night, David. There's seven of them in the NHL, five of them lost, and the only reason one-one was because they were playing each other in Winnipeg in Vancouver. A tough night in Ottawa, two-nothing lead blown. They lose three-two-in-overtime, the Dallas. They also lose defenseman Thomas Chabot.

The injuries are piling up around the league. like crazy right now into pretty significant guys as well. So in Ottawa where, you know, they've already been with other services of Brady Kachuk for a good chunk of the season. Now they lose a very important defenseman in Shabbat. They're keeping their heads above water. They're 3-0 and 3 in their last six, so they're getting points. But you just kind of wonder when the grind, and this maybe is for a lot of teams across

the league, the grind of the compacted schedule, the amount of injuries start to pile up and really start to whittle away some teams. I'm glad you said that because I was going to say before we speak specifically about Ottawa, I think we're finding this league-wide. Vancouver is obviously probably leading the boat as far as number of guys on the LTIR. But the compressed schedule, the, you know, recovery is such a big thing. As guys say, rest is, you know, rest is a weapon, being able to rest and relax and get

your muscles back and get your fatigue figured out and the little bangs and bruises and everything else. Guys aren't having that time. It's like, okay, get on a plane. We got our next game. Get on a plane. We got our next game. or whatever the case may be, you know, three games and four nights and four games and six nights and five games and seven nights are not exceptional for any team this year.

So we're seeing a lot of that. And you're right. The Ottawa senators have actually been playing quite well. They've been surviving without their heartbeat and Brady Kachuk. And now we see Thomas Shabbat least last night's game. We're going to have to wait to hear what the status is there. But it's been a theme around the league. You know, I saw not just Demko and Stolars leave, I saw Freddie Anderson leave last night with an injury.

There's just been a lot of, you know, people want the players at the Olympics. The players want to be there. The fans want them to be there. The media wants to be there. We love it. But, you know, having this schedule, compressed the way it is, does have its drawbacks. And, you know, we can rest assured there's going to be a lot more injuries between now and when the Olympics begin. And then I imagine even coming out of the Olympic break, there'll be some guys who get banged up at the Olympics.

So the one nice thing is at the Olympic break, you know, 90% of the players are going to get that two and a half weeks to really recover a rest and hopefully, you know, be fit for the stretch run. So we'll see what it all, how it all hashes out. But right now, there's just a lot of teams saying, let's just stay healthy. That's got to be our number one weapon, you know. They say what's the best ability, availability, right? So you got to have the guys who are ready and able to play. And right now there's a lot of teams sitting there, you know, with banged up and battered guys and guys who are just not able to go. And it's making for a tough situation for the coaches and for a lot of the teams.

David, one of the games on the slate tonight, the Oilers playing the Flyers. And in Edmonton, another kind of slow start to the season. I know they get that big comeback win against Columbus the other night, but it's goaltending once again, the same familiar story in Edmonton, neither goalie playing well to start the season. Their team save percentage is 868. And even with Connor McDavid and Leon Dreis,

that's a really tough way to win games. What are the options they have and how long can they afford to be patient with this goaltending duo? So funny that you said, what are the options? I was having this conversation two days ago. Like, what are the options? Everyone's like, well, they better, you know, Stan Bowman better go get a goalie. Well, it's not Dominic Hachick and Patrick Wan, Kerry Price aren't sitting there saying, hey, you know, I'm ready to go. Like, I'm not sure what the options are, right?

Like, who is available out there? If you have a legitimate number one goalie, are you going to give them up? you know and at this point the bottom half of the NHL has moved up there's not teams already selling right if you know what I'm saying like the bottom half of the NHL aren't sitting there saying we're out of out of the playoffs already or we're rebuilding for next year no even the teams like st. Louis and calgary who are at the bottom of the western conference you're not waving the white flag at this point and you're not getting dust and wolf obviously at you know from the calgary flames you're not getting Jordan bidding from the st. Louis blues so I don't know exactly what the best off options are. And I'm sure Stan Bowman is sitting there and scouring, you know, every team's roster and sort of saying, what are, what is, who is a legitimate option? You know, one name that was, uh, uh, Ouka Peka Lunan and, or, I'm sorry, UPL. Did I get a thing right? Yeah, close. Um, for the purposes of the show. We got it. Yeah. You know who I was talking about. Yeah. Uh, uh, Ukopeca, Lukin, and there you go. Um, you know, is Buffalo going to

part with him? Is he the right answer? I mean, is there a guy who can kind of take the net away from Stuart Skinner or can maybe just compliment Stuart Skinner in net? And then they can kind of bat a little bit, 1A, 1B, and is that enough? I mean, there's so many good questions here, but you're right. Goaltending has been such a massive issue with Edmonton, and you know there's a pressure point right now being felt by that team and certainly being felt by the goaltenders themselves. And Chris Knoblog was asked about it and, you know, his answer almost went viral because he didn't, he was in a condemnation of the goal.

wasn't an endorsement either. And, you know, and he kind of got caught in a moment there. And I don't blame them for how we answer the question, but it's just, you know, it's got to be the overall feeling in that franchise of, you know, goaltending isn't the, you know, the one problem they're having. They're having all sorts of defensive breakdowns and they don't have as much complimentary scoring, you know, as they'd like for their superstars. There's a lot of other issues there, guys.

But the number one glaring problem has been the lack of consistency with their goaltending. they're hitting the road for a seven-game road trip Eastern road trip they start in Philly we have it tonight on Scotia Wednesday night hockey and maybe just maybe this could be sort of that galvanizing turning point get away from the glare and the home fans who are booing them during their game Monday versus Columbus like maybe this could be that moment

but there's certainly a lot of question marks surrounding that team and you have to imagine that management staff is doing everything in its power to sort of see what options are out there available to fix some of the issues they're having so far Well, the second game of the doubleheader is going to be Connor Bedard and Chicago Blackhawks hosting Jack and Luke Hughes and the New Jersey Devils

which promises to be a pretty entertaining high scoring game and if you look at the wild card standings in the Western conference right now, the two teams currently holding those wild card spots are Connor Bedard, Chicago Blackhawks and Macklin Celebrini, San Jose Sharks. Then we're almost the 20-game mark of the season

so, you know, as we focus I know the both of them are kind of in tandem now on all these conversations, but focusing on Bedard, for the longest time with Badard and Celebrating, it's been like, they're young and they're putting up points, but it's been on teams that are at the bottom of the standings. Well, not anymore. These are two teams that might not

be there at the end of the season, but at least through the first quartermark of the season, they're playing well enough to be in that wildcard contention. In the case of Bedard, just a tremendous rebound from last year, which was a really disappointing year for him, and now we get to see him tonight on Scotia Bank Wednesday night hockey. I love

this story, by the way. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but, you know, wouldn't it be great if we're staring down the next generation of OV versus Cid? And again, I don't know how to be the case, but wouldn't that be nice if these two young superstars, you know, people were ready to quit on Bedard last year, and I thought this is insane. The kid is 19 years old. He's in his second year. He's led the team in points both years, right? Like he's been a 20 plus goal score both years. He's led the team in points. He's done everything he could without anything around him to help him. Finally, he's getting some support around him.

He's improved his game, and he just turned 20 in the summer, and here he is, you know, lighting it up amongst the league leader in points. And he's that one-shot score. We're seeing that incredible shot that allowed him to score a goal per game in the WHL. So he's rising to the start on that many of us predicted he would have. And Cellebrini has been, you know, people are calling him Crosby Light. He is that good. So imagine Celebrini, you know, age 19, Bedard, 20, and these two guys can kind of carry the flag as Sid and OV, you know, eventually set off into the sunset. So that would be an incredible storyline, incredible rivalry, and they're good buddies.

That's the best part of it. And they could both be wearing the red and white for Team Canada in Milan in February. So there's so many good storylines here, and it's great to see sort of the next generation of young stars starting to really blossom. And don't forget about Leo Carlson guys in Anaheim. He's another star. He's another, you know, he's got all the makings of being a great, you know, 15-year NHL star player. And there's an embarrassment of riches.

And they're all in the Western Conference, those three guys. So it's going to be really interesting moving forward as some of the teams start to move up the standings and kind of put a little pressure on the teams we're used to seeing at the top. David, this was great, buddy. As always, thanks for taking the time to do it. Enjoy Scotia Bank Wednesday night hockey. really good games on the slate. We'll do this again next week. Yeah, Jamie

Mike, thanks so much. Enjoy the games and hopefully good news coming as far as Thatcher Demko's concerned. We'll look for that. Yeah, we'll find out more today. Thanks, David. That's David Amber Hockey Night Canada, SportsNet NHL host here on the Halford & Brough Show with Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet 650. Okay, the first hour of the program is in the books.

Hour 2 on the horizon. Frank Sarah Valley, our NHL insider from Victory Plus is going to join the program on the other side. We'll whip around the league for some of the biggest news, notes, story and trade rumblings currently going on with Frank at 7. Then at 7.30, we're going to talk to Parker Burgess, head coach of the Vancouver Giants.

Giants are back in action this Saturday, 7 o'clock at the Langley Events Center against the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings. A preview to tomorrow's show, Thursday show, we're going to be giving away tickets to that game. I'll give you all the details later in the program and then again tomorrow morning, but we are giving away Giants tickets this week for their game Saturday, 7 o'clock at the Langley Events Center against the Edmonton Oil Kings. 8 o'clock Randy Jan is going to join the program

That's when we'll dive back into the Canucksentric Talk We will find or try and find out what's going on with that Shredemko I doubt we get any updates during the show today But we might find some stuff out later in the day And then at 830 we're going to do what we learn So get them in now Dunbar number text line is 650 650 hashtag them WWL and tell us what you learned

Over the last 24 hours in sports It was a busy night in the NHL We haven't really got to many of the stories aside from the Canucks and the Jets and I guess the Leafs and the Bruins. So if you want to weigh in, WWL is the hashtag. Dunbar Lumber TechSlam is 650. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet, 650.