Halford & Brough in the Morning - Forearm Shivers Are Legal In Hockey Now

Episode Date: June 12, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus they talk Stanley Cup Finals news with Sportsnet NHL analyst Jeff Marek (27:00). 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 da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da Edmonton is running out of gas. The attrition on them is really starting to go. Blue Jays to strike away. And he got him. Garcia using that high fastball to strike out Dunn. I'm a small-town Connecticut girl, and I always love these. This market loves young guys. Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Bradford. 601 on a Wednesday.

Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Bradford. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. Adog, good morning. Good morning. Laddie, good morning. Hello, hello. Halford and Bradford in the morning is brought to you by

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We are in Hour 1 of the program. 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. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio.

Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sophie, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that is what you are waiting for. Big show today on a Wednesday after a very quiet night in the world of sports. Jeff Merrick is going to join us at 6.30. He's the host of The Jeff Merrick Show

and the 32 Thoughts podcast. 7 o'clock, Mike Morial is going to join us, senior draft writer from NHL.com. We'll get caught up on all the things that Mike learned at the recently completed NHL Scouting Combine. Wait, I thought we don't care about the

draft. We do now because of Macklin, our dear son, our local boy, Macklin Celebrini. I feel like... Is there any way he could fall to the third round? Probably not. And I only say probably because you're saying there's a chance. Mike Morial is going to join us at 7 o'clock to talk a little draft

and look at what he learned about Macklin Celebrini at the NHL Draft Combine. 7.30, John Molinaro, Sportsnet soccer writer, is going to join us. I'm excited. I'm excited because we are now just two days away from the start of the 2024 European Championships. It's going to open with the host, the Germans, hosting the Scots. Germans are slight favorites in that match. But Germany hasn't been great lately. They have not.

You know who else hasn't been great lately? Scotland. Yeah. Well, they qualified for the tournament, so that's a win. But Germany hasn't been great lately. They have not. You know who else hasn't been great lately? Scotland. Yeah. Well, they qualified for the tournament, so that's a win. Actually, you know what? Getting to the Euro is their Euro. So we'll talk to John Molinaro about all that.

Getting to the Euro is their Euro? Do you mean their title, their European Championship? I said what I said, and I stand by it. Getting to the Euro is their Euro. Okay. Okay? We're going to talk to John Molinaro at 7 30 about that so tournament and then you know in eight days time we get the start of the copa america which normally would get zero mention on this show but canada is not just

competing in the copa for the first time it's the copa america by the way the copa command is a totally different thing canada's not competing in that. They are not only just competing, they are in the opening match of the Copa America against Lionel Messi and the top-ranked team in the world, Argentina, in front of what's going to be, I think, 73,000 at last attendance figures based on tickets sold in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Did you see Ronaldo the other day scoring twice for Portugal? He's still got it, baby. So they had a side-by-side picture of him because he played in the 2004 European Championship. 20 years ago, I believe, by math. 20 years ago. And then he did a side-by-side, and there he is, still going 20 years later, representing Portugal

in this year's 2024 European Championship. So John Molinaro is going to join us at 7.30. But all that, 8 o'clock, big get here. Really tough to book him, but we managed to land Satyarsha, who will be on this station later today because he works for the station and has a show on this station. So one of the things that I heard Sat say, and I was actually texting him about this yesterday,

and I've been wondering about this, is the timing of the Filip Peronic situation. I remember thinking, don't they have to figure this out by July 1st? Because if they don't have it figured out, then don't they have to go out and, you know, sign some defensemen in free agency, and maybe you pay a little bit more to get Chris Tanev or one of these right-shot defensemen in. So we'll talk to Sad about that, because I think he was hinting that the Canucks are going to put a little pressure on the Hronik camp

to get this deal done in the next couple of weeks. Well, that's great, because we saw during the regular season how well it plays when you put some pressure on a guy to get an answer from him about his contract status so i'm looking looking forward to seeing how that plays out for philip haronic so working in reverse haronic's gonna have a tough august yeah you know like maybe don't maybe we don't pressure guys maybe we'll have to make their own decisions i don't know anyway eight o'clock satyar shah 7 30 john molinaro seven o'clock mike morel 6 30 jeffrick. It's a big show.

We've got a lot of guests. We've got a lot to get into. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? 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. With all due respect to the Blue Jays scintillating 3-0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers last night

in what really was the only sport story of significance. On the field, the playing field. We are going to start with the Stanley Cup final. So after all the hoopla and all the chatter and all the consternation, hand-wringing and arguing online, it does seem as though Leon Dreisaitl and Alexander Barkov are likely to play in game three of the Stanley Cup final. Leon Dreisaitl, in news that was reported first by Sportsnet's Elliot Friedman,

sounds like he's going to be eligible to play for the Edmonton Oilers. He will not receive suspension for his forearm shiver to Alexander Barkov in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, which, of course, the Florida Panthers won to go up 2-0. On the subject of Barkov, his status is still questionable, although there were some positive signs on Tuesday. He took to the practice facility ice in Florida. By the way, I went down the rabbit hole this morning

of monitoring flights out of Florida. I don't know how I landed on this, but the Edmonton Oilers left Florida on Tuesday. Yeah. They didn't head straight to Canada, though. They had to make a pit stop in Kansas City. I don't know why. Okay.

It was just a flight plan. The Panthers are going to fly today, nonstop, on their Delta Boeing 757, all the way from Florida to Edmonton. There's no way you found this information. You found this information tweeted out or on a blog. Yeah, tweeted out. Andy Slater, who has a lot of flight information. It did kind of sound like you were like, I was looking at some special site myself.

I did go down. Instead, you just like found a tweet and you were like, I will admit, I did go to the guys that give the information to Flightradar24 on Twitter. Okay. I couldn't make sense. I can't read what they were. I don't know how they got the information they were putting out on Twitter from what they were looking at.

I'm like, it just looks like a lot of yellow dots. I don't know what those mean. That's why Twitter is telling me. So anyway. Should we get one of them on the show to explain? You know what? It wasn't worth it. I thought it would be more entertaining and interesting.

There's a big storm in Florida right now. So they were saying, it was funny, this Andy Slater guy who was doing all of the translation on Twitter, the flight translation, said that a lot of Florida Panthers fans are having a tough time going to Edmonton because there's a bunch of storms in the area right now. And I was like, Andy, I mean, how many Florida Panthers fans are really going to Edmonton? Right? They can just wait. There's several. You think?

Tens, dozens, if you will. Now I'm on Andy Slater's account. Yeah. And those yellow dots are planes. Yeah, he did a new graphic. Oh, I see. Okay. So anyway. Why didn't he just turn the dots into little tiny plane thingies?

Like, make it so much easier to read. He did. Oh, did he? Andy Slater did, yeah. Good. So I will say that the only reason I'm bringing this all up is because I was like, why are the Florida Panthers still in Florida? They should be on their way to Edmonton.

But they practiced yesterday in Florida. And there was a question of whether or not Barkoff would get on that flight. That's the other reason that I brought it up. So Murray said that Barkoff passed a needed evaluation on Tuesday, but he did not confirm nor deny whether or not he actually went into official concussion

protocol. He also said that he didn't want anything more to do with the discussion about the play itself or how Barkoff is doing. All he said was that he did not get any worse from Monday night when he suffered the hit from Leon Dreisaitl. So I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that Dreisaitl is going to play on Thursday night in Edmonton for game three, and so too is Alexander Barkoff.

You know, sometimes I wonder what it's like to be George Peros during the Stanley Cup final, the head of player safety. How does he watch the games? Does he just sit there and go please god nothing big happened nothing controversial happened he must have been praying that Barkov was okay now some people will push back and say well he shouldn't be doing that he should just look at the play and see if whether it's suspendable um i don't know maybe he does love to dig into a tough decision i have no idea why anyone would want this job so maybe george peros just has that desire to be put in tough situations but think about having that job is it even possible to have that job and avoid criticism?

No. Like, there's never a time when both teams and their fan bases are like, well, that was a perfect decision. George, chef's kiss to you. I could not agree more with that decision that you made. I wonder, I actually wonder how long you can even work that job. He got promoted to the head of the department in 2017.

So he's been at it a while. I just, I honestly wonder because I am a very empathetic person. That's what a lot of people say about me. Many people say I'm empathetic. Very, more and more. And I just wonder what it's like to have that job during the Stanley Cup final on a play like that,

where the injury isn't obviously long-term. The play wasn't so bad that you were like that's an obvious suspension now some people will reply yes it was right but it wasn't it wasn't because but it was but you know like because i i know it's funny because i was listening to sat yesterday i think it was sat and he was saying like i don't understand how i think he was saying, I don't understand how – I think he was saying, like, I don't understand how people don't think this was a more serious play or a worse play. Or I guess, like, he's saying it should be suspendable. But I looked at it, and I was kind of like, yeah, he got his hands up a bit,

and I guess, you know, like, he caught the side of Barkov's face, right? You can describe it all the way. Just a little forearm shiver. Just a little one. It. Just a little one. It wasn't a massive one. Like a rapper. But at any rate, because I'm such an empathetic person, I really do wonder what it's like to do that job

and really how long you want to do that job before you go crazy. And you must be a person that is able to deal with criticism. Can you imagine if George Peros searched his name on Twitter? Oh. He'd be like, I don't think I'm doing a very good job here. No. He would have to exist in a vacuum in so many different ways. Yeah, yeah.

What I kept coming back to. And it would be impossible to remain, quote unquote. Everyone's like, I just want consistency on these plays. And you're like, man, I don't know if that's possible because everyone reads these plays differently. And one, what about this one, is in their mind, they're like, that's a perfect what about. But in George Perrault's mind, they'd be like,

those plays are completely different. And then it just becomes after a while, yeah, they're totally inconsistent. I think the issue, and it's a great conversation to have because he's got such a thankless job, especially in moments like these where the stakes are so high. I go back to Carson Soucy getting suspended during the Canucks-Oilers series.

I saw a bunch of tweets about that. Imagine how Carson Soucy gets suspended during the Canucks-Oilers series. I saw a bunch of tweets about that. Imagine how Carson Soucy gets suspended for a play where he, you know, like Connor McDavid wasn't even hurt, and he gets a one-game suspension for that. Barkov is hurt. At the very least, he had to leave the game. And Soucy gets a one-game suspension. You have to remember how these work.

And I hate that I'm in the position of defending the Department of Players. George Peros Jr. over here. I think you're actually older than him. I probably am, yeah. He's got a better mustache, though. It's true. They're both fine mustaches. At any rate, you have to remember that

the way you determine a suspension is the first step you take is, is that a suspendable play? You don't jump right to the injury. Some people want you to, but you don't jump right to the injury. You start with the act, not the consequence. Now, what a lot of people will say is they'll watch that dry saddle hit on Barkov and be like, yeah, that's a suspendable play, and he was injured, so suspend him.

Shots to the head. And hey, I might even agree with you, but I think the dry saddle play on Barkov didn't look as bad as the Carson-Suse cross-check to Connor McDavid. They will say that that Carson-Suse cross-checked Connor McDavid. They will say that that Carson Soucy cross-check, that act itself, they don't want to have any part of that in the NHL. Yep.

So that's the first step you have to take. Now, please don't yell at me. I'm just explaining it. If you think that the dry sidle play deserved a suspension and then that play by itself in a vacuum, forget about the injuries, rose to the level of a suspendable play then i'm not going to push back on you too hard like he he got him pretty hard in the head so it was a forearm you know like so so but but but definitely from a perspective of you know which play like looked worse or which play do you want to mostly get

out of the game? Like cross-checks to the head. Well, yeah. But, okay, here's the thing. I think we exist in a society where there's a legal system that has legal precedents, which are basically like an authority to decide subsequent cases, right?

There's, if something involves identical or let's just even go similar facts and circumstances that's what legal precedent is i mean this is a very very basic explanation of how legal precedent works but it's there as a guideline and i think a lot of people want that same like um process and standard to apply to what george peros is doing and it's just it's not realistic yeah for example in the case of carson souci v connor mcdavis if there's a precedent on the books that you can't cross-check the best player and the star player in the head but you could probably do it to somebody else they're not making it publicly available but you know probably do it to somebody else. They're not making it publicly available, but you know that's a conversation.

Like some guys can get away with some things and some guys can't. Yeah, you'd be foolish to think that that doesn't enter at least the thought process, even if no one will say it out loud. There's a text in here. But it's not written down in any law textbook. No, no, no.

It's a quiet, understood, behind the scenes. If that was Fel instead of dry style he might have been fined maybe suspended bingo yeah yeah but it wasn't it was dry right well that was the thing i mean everyone's thinking it right now so i'll just say and we'll get our first 2011 reference out of the way aaron rome was suspendable that's right it's just the way it is and that's why it's such a maddening uh It's why it's such a difficult job to have, because you are at the mercy of the commissioner, general managers,

board of governors, everyone probably weighing in and getting their two cents in your ear. And then you've also got to try and make, do you think Paris goes to Batman and is like, yo, can I suspend dry saddle? And he's like, no,

he's like their best player. Did you just text in this into the dunbar lumber text line george peros says gary should i suspend this guy no george he has a star yes george he is a nobody thanks gary great minds think alike great minds think alike yeah i mean listen you can you can have as many conspiracy theories as you want um but i think uh gary can i no you cannot okay yeah i think i think it's very very possible that if that was a depth player on let's say it was cory perry and he had played you know i think cory perry might have got suspended i agree because it wouldn't have i mean if you suspend a guy that would cost them the series right like that's the thing like

dry saddle getting suspended could potentially cost them that one move could cost them the series, right? That's the thing. Dry sidle getting suspended could potentially cost them. That one move could cost them the Stanley Cup. Someone just texted in, Guys, what you're talking about, isn't that crazy, though? Do we want it to be like that? Shouldn't all the players be equal in terms of discipline? Well, of course they should be, but they never will be. Yeah, yeah.

Like, never. That's not going to happen. Look, all leagues have a different set of standards for different individuals. They're just written out differently. Look at what the NFL has done and the lengths that they've gone to protect quarterbacks. It should be more like the criminal justice system where everyone is treated equally. That's right. Right?

Everyone gets treated equally in the criminal justice system. It's true. You just get everyone gets a fair shake. And everyone will go to the same prison if they are found guilty. It's the same across the board. Yeah, I mean, I think hockey is very, very unique within the sporting landscape. Never mind the regular life landscape. Because there's the element where the guys on the ice for the longest time were allowed to administer justice and police the game themselves.

That adds a whole different dynamic, because for the longest time, what would be one person? Well, he was just defending himself is another person's. Yeah, but he cross checked a guy in the mouth. Yeah. You know, and there's a lot of other sports just outlawed that entirely well the department whatever it was called before they went with the department of player safety which sounds aurelian frankly um the department would even like when brian burke was running it he would look at it he would be you know when with beret on churla he would look at it, he would be, you know, with Buray on Churla,

he would look at it and go like, well, Buray was getting run a lot. Yeah, he looked at it, I mean, I hate using the term, like the hockey, he looked at it like a hockey man. Yeah, yeah, he looked at it like a hockey player. Yeah, he's like, well, you know, you understand how he got to the level of nearly decapitating Shane Churla, it's because the stars were running around. Yeah, Burke was like, actually, we have awarded Pavel Bure a $1,000 bonus. Let's get him a present.

Yeah, good for him. He's sticking up for himself. Now that we've, I will say, I remember this distinctly, and people have kind of analyzed it in the aftermath. There was almost a very weird sense of, I don't want to say pride, but there was almost an understanding that because Burry stood up for himself and it wasn't one of his teammates that delivered the cheap shot. That's what I'm talking about.

Yeah, that was almost played to his benefit. They're like, well, it was the dirtiest elbow we've seen in decades, but the little scamp did it himself. He didn't make Sergio Mameso go do it. And that's a weird dynamic that exists in the game. And I think you have to acknowledge it and that's a weird dynamic that exists in the game and i think you have to acknowledge it and just say at sometimes because it is at the end of the day it's just hockey and it's just sports you can just kind of say yeah you know what it's one of those weird quirks of

the game that makes it interesting and makes it compelling and look it's given us 21 minutes of content right off the hop of a show uh there wasn't a whole heck of a lot else that happened yesterday but i do want to play some audio and I kind of want to have this conversation and we can revisit it later. Russell Wilson has rediscovered the Fountain of Youth and it's in Pittsburgh of all places. Russ

arrived at Steelers minicamp yesterday. Minicamps opened across the National Football League. These are noteworthy only because of the fact that they're mandatory and if you don't show up like Aaron Rodgers, you could be subjected to a fine. So Russell Wilson showed up yesterday and he's got all the confidence in the world now.

New starts, new beginnings. I've actually got the audio here. Some uninterrupted Russell Wilson as he begins the newest chapter of his life, this time as a Pittsburgh Steeler. I feel the family youth. I feel revived in every way, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. I feel confident.

I think at some point you've got to know who you are as a player, as a man, as a competitor, as somebody who's been fortunate to be able to play in this game. I don't doubt it. I just trust it. I felt really good last year playing you know um i felt really confident in the midst of everything and so i think right now i have all that confidence times 10 okay seahawks fans listening right now yep are we still hoping russ fails i thought about it i saw you pose this question last night you know what what? No. Yeah. I'm good.

No, but do you want him to? I want him to succeed. Succeed in a big way? Sure. Why not? He's in a different conference. The only time the Seahawks will ever see him is in the Super Bowl. Right?

Right. I mean, he went through not just the humiliation of having this gargantuan contract and failing miserably. He's going to lead the Broncos to Super Bow to super bowls plural and then he was cut and dropped after two years there was also the public ridicule of the personality and the broncos nation country let's ride all that he's changed though do you think he's been humbled exact same person so if he hasn't been humped if he if he himself mean, it was a humbling situation from the outside looking in, but did he see it that way? I don't even care what he sees it as.

Right. Right? You know, sometimes you can be. He did deliver the Seahawks or help deliver the Seahawks a Super Bowl. Hey. I will always have that for him. You know what? That love for him.

I love a good redemption. It's more empathy for me. I love a good. Yeah, you're very empathetic this morning. I like, i love a good more empathy for me i love a good yeah you're very empathetic this morning i like i love a good redemption story more than anyone and to be dead honest he was not that bad in denver last year no he wasn't i as a matter of fact i thought how they how they did him you were so naive with that situation you were so nice i wasn't naive my my original stance still makes total sense

that a guy who was away from the game for a decade was going to be like, ah, this sucks, and he was going to leave. That was my thought on the whole thing. But that was wrong.

He was brought in there to drum him out. But it wasn't naive. He was going to look at the situation. Well, look at him now. Look at what the situation is. They got Bo Nix and Jim Stidham.

They're going to stink until they're good, and then he's not going to be there because they're going to bring in another coach to make them good. But the to stink until they're good, and then he's not going to be there because they're going to bring in another coach to make them good. But the point with Russ was last year, I think that he probably did enough to get another kick at the can

as the quarterback of the Denver Broncos. But it was very obvious that Peyton wanted no part of that relationship. Or yeah, they saw the writing on the wall. And to be honest, a lot of it had to do with not how Russ played on the field, but how Russ came into the situation and basically alienated himself from everyone in that organization. Teammates. Mr. Unlimited. Right?

I mean, he's a strange guy. We're rooting for him now. Rooting's a strong word. Rooting's a strong word. Rooting is a strong word. If it happens, I'll be happy. Okay. If it doesn't, I'll be like, this is his career. Because he's an old guy now, so we usually support the old guys.

I also don't think that he's going to be able to keep Justin Fields off the field. We'll see. I think he's a better quarterback than him right now. We'll see how long that lasts. The Steelers also have a new offensive coordinator, which they badly needed after watching them last year. Blame Canada. No longer.

Okay. Jeff Merrick is going to join us next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, 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 now time for Jeff Merrick.

Jeff Merrick is joining the show. It's ready for Jeff Merrick. Now it is time for Jeff Merrick live from Dulhans. It is Jeff Merrick on behalf of the Brough Show. 6.32 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough Sportsnet 650. on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford, Braves, Sportsnet, 6.50. Euro dance Wednesday.

Euro dance Wednesday. Hi, boys. What is the place where Jeff Merrick is live from? You just made science. It sounds like Toontown. Dunkart. Oh, okay. D-U-N-K-A-R-T.

A very much not real German town. Yeah. Could be, though. But-U-N-K-A-R-T. A very much not real German town. Yeah. It could be, though. But it could be. Yeah. I think it's a combination of Dunkirk and Frankfurt. Yeah, there you go. Yeah.

I know where the origin story was. Having been to Dunkirk, I can tell you it's beautiful. Halberd Brub of 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. Jeff Merrick is going to join us in just a moment here. Before we get to Jeff, I need to tell you that this entire program,

and our one specifically, 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. Host of the Jeff Merrick Show. Host of the 32 Thoughts Podcast. Author of the Rink Fries blog on Sportsnet.ca.

Jeff Merrick joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Jeff. How are you? I'm well. Can you pronounce a dry-cidal like that? Come up on the second syllable or syllable as we say here in North America. Dry-cidal. Dry-cidal.

Dry-cidal. Dry-cidal. You know that Leon would love that music, by the way. Second syllable, baby. Second syllable. Let's go. Hey, Jeff, here's a question for you on the subject of Leon Dreisaitl. What do you think it's like to be Department of Player Safety head George Peros watching these games in the Stanley Cup final?

I feel like, and when it comes to Leon Dreisaitl specifically, when you have a situation like that, I would kind of really hate Jay Peros because nothing he does exists sort of in a vacuum. There's a lot of people that are around him that advise. And I can't remember the last time that we had opinions so split. I mean, just publicly to say nothing of privately that you're being tugged in a whole lot of different directions where, you know, there are some that are saying now the two minutes is enough. There are some that are saying like, no, that's got to be a suspension. There are others that are probably saying, you know what,

that's a December suspension, but it's not a June suspension. And you kind of have like all these advisors around with you, all these people that he normally consults with. And I'm guessing they all had a different idea of what should happen here and Peros I would imagine just kind of said on Monday night guys let's sleep on it and make up our mind in the morning that's kind of how I feel um yeah well we'll see if Barkov is really injured although that shouldn't come into play because we first look at it and we answer the question, did the play rise to the level of a suspendable play?

And then we look at the injury. But we all know that that doesn't probably happen as purely as they would like to. I mean, I just can't imagine. I can't imagine that it doesn't creep into the decision process a little bit that's dry-sidal versus it was someone like, I don't know, like an Aaron Rome type of player, for example. I really think, like, first of all, no one's totally clean when you're in the Department of Player Safety

because it's tough to have a completely objective opinion on an infraction. I think that's true of everyone who works either as the head of the Department of Player Safety or is in a supporting role or a consulting role, whether it's Damian Echeverrieta, whether it's Patrick Burke, like, take your pick from all the people that are around. Like, everyone's seeing this thing differently. I think when it comes to injury slash suspension, they probably look at it like, right away when there is an obvious injury right away, I think it does put more weight on the idea that the infraction here should be more substantial.

But, I mean, I've seen how it works. Like, I've seen the, I've had a look sort of under the hood here. And, like, they have, like have that very specific and deliberate process. One, does it rise to suspension? And then B, now we start adding multipliers. And one of the initial ones is, is there an injury? But I don't think anybody, because we're all human beings. We see things with different eyes, can be completely objective when it comes to any infraction like that,

which is why it's important, I think, to have a lot of people around to weigh in on it, which is what makes the dry side hole one so complicated, because everybody seems to have a different opinion on it. Yeah, why do you think they ultimately said that that play didn't rise to the level of suspendable? I don't know, because for me it was. There was feet off the ice. There was elbow to the jaw. There was a level of frustration that everybody on the Oilers had at that point.

You know, it's funny. I got a note from someone, not in the NHL, but in the, let's just say, NHL orbit, who said Leon Dreisaitl should pay Sam Carrick's fine. Totally. Yeah, like Sam Carrick. Yeah, it's weird. For the most part, I'm not as hard on the Department of Player Safety as others are because I think it's impossible.

Like people say, we just want consistency. I'm like, you try then. You try. You will not. Thank you. So Peros has had that job. I think he was promoted in September of 2017, took over from Stefan Kentel,

and he's had the job for seven years. And you know, the amount of whatabouts, what about this? What about that? Like there's millions of comparisons and some of them might make a good point for sure, but it's just a very, very, very difficult job because there are so many factors to consider. Sometimes you might even make the wrong decision. And to allow, to say like we want consistency, it's like what does that even look like?

Is it just like a blanket suspension for every time a guy's head is touched? That's not realistic. I've always asked this question is it possible just to have an elbowing penalty like is it possible that every elbowing penalty has to be a suspension is what i like there there is like a two minute minor for elbowing in the rule book it is possible but i'll throw another one out yeah at you as well. And I think that this should be part of the conversation around the Leon Dreisaitl-Alexander Barkov situation.

It's the managers that dictate how they want the game officiated and how they want supplemental discipline to be handled. If the NHL general managers wanted, you know, the old, remember Brendan Shanahan was throwing like eight games at everybody

that one preseason? And Brendan Smith got like 11 games for something. And everyone went like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing here? And Shanahan's like, I'm trying to correct behavior. And all the managers said like, okay, we understand that, but yeah, you know,

not that much. We want you to correct behavior, but like, do we have to have nine or 10? So if they wanted to, they could say, look, we want the penalties to be more severe. And I know that every team,

when it's like, it's always when your bull gets gored, that all of a sudden you want a massive suspension and this is ridiculous, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But the managers have the ability here to change the way that George Peros and his Department of Player Safety levy suspension. But the problem is, and this is where I think this is a part of the Leon Dreisaitl conversation that I don't think many of us, if any of us are really having right now, part of the issue is by keeping suspensions low, like put it this way, I know they gross about it publicly, but privately managers don't want huge suspensions. You know why? Because you can see Dreisaitl doing something like this. You can see Ovechkin doing something like this. And do you want a precedent where, uh-oh,

now we've got to sit Dreisaitl out for 10 games or Ovechkin out for 10 games because it's feet off the ice and elbow to the head? Make no mistake, in the back of their mind, all managers are thinking like, oh no, you know what? I can see JT Miller doing this. That's an intense player. I could see him for a moment getting snappy, and maybe he does something similar. And if I'm on board with these eight or nine game suspensions, what Dreisaitl did, that means my guy had potential to be sat

down for eight or nine games so as much as you hear public grousing about it the back of a lot of GM's minds are okay let's not go crazy with these suspensions because one day it might be my guy and I don't want him to be hit with like a nickel or a dime on something like that yeah Quinn Hughes runs hot sometimes. Be careful what you wish for Canucks fans. That guy, you never know. Listen, there's some robust players on that team. You know the people we're talking about. I know.

Who you can see like there is a Zadorov there. Well, we don't. He's probably on another team soon. We'll see. Yeah, we want him suspended. Jeff, how much trouble are the Oilers in after going down 2-0 to the Florida Panthers and, frankly, having a far worse Game 2 than the Game 1? And just, you know, I guess the only good thing for the Oilers is they get two days off as opposed to one day off because they do look like,

well, they look like the Florida Panthers did last year or the Vancouver Canucks in 2011. They were just so injured that they were running out of gas. Yeah, and that's the thing we said about the Panthers going into the final. Unlike last year, they look healthy. I know everyone's got something and is hiding something, but by and large, the Florida Panthers got two long breaks here in these playoffs, and that really helped. They came into this one

looking like the much healthier team. You're right. Just take Leon Dreissel, for example. Does he look like Leon Dreissel that we're used to? No. Would it surprise you? Pick the injury. Back, knee, whatever. It's Leon Dreissel. Ankle. Who knows? Would it surprise you if at the end of all this he says like yeah i had this issue and i wasn't 100 and i had to get this shot and this freezing and just just to get out that wouldn't

surprise anybody um you know darn el nurse you know bless him all he could do was sit on the bench and say like look chris i can give you 30 seconds if you need. I'm here for you, but I'm not going to be able to give you much. Evander Kane is clearly hurting. And at the beginning of the series, you know, when you looked at how aggressive the Florida Panthers are, I think a lot of us said to ourselves, you know, they're going to need a really healthy and angry Evander Kane here to deal with the Sam Bennetts and the Matthew Kachuks. And if he ever gets in there, Ryan Lomberg, these types of players.

And he hasn't been able to be healthy through two days. So, I mean, there's a lot of things here. I guess through all of it, you can't blame this on the goaltending. Like, we're not talking about, oh, Stuart Skinner's losing it here for the Edmonton Oilers. They've mustered one goal in two games, and that was by, checks notes, Matthias Eckholm. But I still do think the main thing for the Oilers is they look like they're tired.

They look like they're hurt. Elliot was mentioning the other day on the podcast, it feels like, and he's there on the rink, that the Oilers are already running out of gas. It's been a long stretch here for them. I mean, essentially, they've been running hot since the coach change. To me, the biggest one is the injuries and just the energy that's left. And they're playing against the worst possible team. If you're tired and banged up, who's the last team you want to play

in the entire NHL? Florida Panthers. I was talking to one coach last weekend who said to me, here's the thing you need to know about the Panthers. He said, they don't give you any room to move. He said, you know how frustrating it is when you're on the ice and you feel like you can't move? You get tired after a couple of periods.

You're frustrated. You're angry. And then you start making dumb mistakes. And that's when they start picking you off. And that's when they start getting to work. So they're probably play given the nature of how banged up they are physically, and how they are mentally and the lack of production and all the ice bags in the room. This is the worst possible team for the Oilers to be playing right now. Well, the Panthers become the latest team of, I don't know, there's probably like hundreds of them that realized in hockey that in order to actually win a championship, you have to be 100% committed to defense. I just want to read their goals against stats from last season

when they still managed to go to the Stanley Cup final but didn't win it. They allowed 272 goals during the regular season. This season, they allowed 198. That is a significant increase or increase in better defense. Just like the Tampa Bay Lightning learned that you can't run and gun your way to a Stanley Cup championship. Well, the Florida Panthers are learning that too. I feel like this happens all the time. And yet people are still like, you can't just be a defensive team.

I mean, you can't, but you have to be a defensive team to win. You have to play good defense to win the Stanley Cup. This is why I always have a positional bias when it comes to the draft. Like on a 50-50 pick, I always go with the defenseman. Between a center and a forward, I always go with the defenseman. You're right. Or a defensive center. Or a defensive center. Yeah, like, again, like we talked, you know, about the 2011, sorry,

2011 Boston Bruins vibes of this Florida Panthers team. And, like, you know, you've got Barkov playing the role of Bergeron. And, you know, there's Wayne Gretzky, who, with a little bit of shade, if Patrice Bergeron says, you know, saying that, you know, Barkov's the best defensive center he's seen since Brian Troche, kind of ignoring the guy that just won six Celtics and was nominated for 12 of them. But anyway, we'll let that one go on, Wayne.

That's okay. But, you know, you have a look at the teams that have won the Stanley Cup of recent note. Like, what do they all have in common? You know, whether it's Vegas, and you mentioned Tampa, I'll throw Colorado into that mix, and throw the St. Louis Blues as well. Like, what do they all have in common? They all defended well.

They all really, really defended well. You know, it's really interesting the way that hockey has sort of swung back in some ways, you know, going back to 20405, you know, the lockout and how it became the fly zone NHL. And it's like, there's room for everybody now. And here come the water bugs. And this is fantastic. And accent on offense.

At the end of it, it comes back to, like, you know, who can handle it physically and who can defend, right? Which is why, like, and, you know, we put so much premium at the draft every year on defensemen that, you know, put up insane numbers and kind of ignore the ones, you know, the players that can defend well. Like, look at how great Alex Petrangelo was last year, right? And look how great he was in the St. Louis Blues when he won the Stanley Cup in 2019. Like, these types of guys that can defend well.

And when you have, like, four or five of them, like, good luck beating that team. But the interesting thing about the Florida Panthers is, like, all of a sudden, you're getting, like, significant contributions on the back end from the castaways, right? I mean, we talked last time about Gustav Forsling and Oliver Ekman-Larsen. I mean, there's, like, Brandon Montour. It's almost like they have one first overall pick and then a bunch of guys that were not wanted on the voyage, and they've turned this ragtag group into one of the best blue lines

in the entire NHL. We're speaking to Jeff Merrick, host of the Jeff Merrick Show, and the 32 Thoughts podcast here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Jeff, before we let you go real quick, I wanted to introduce something that we're going to touch on later in the show. I was listening to the Jeff Merrick Show yesterday. You were talking about Sam Reinhart. You were talking about Ryan O'Reilly. You were talking about Sam Reinhart. You were talking about Ryan O'Reilly.

You were talking about Jack Eichel. And all of them have one thing in common. Can I throw Brandon Montour in there too? What is it, Jeff? Tell our listeners what it is. Buffalo Sabres. Yeah. They've become like the Montreal Expos of the NHL, the team that sends great players elsewhere to great success. I just sort of threw it out there as a conversation point. I don't know if that, I guess it would have been like the 2017 Buffalo Sabres team, you know, might have been the

one that we're most discussing here. I don't know if they're the answer to the question, which is which team has sent the most players to other teams to win Stanley Cups, but it sure feels like it's the Buffalo Sabres, doesn't it? Like it really, I guess if the Florida Panthers are able to do this again, like not that Buffalo Sabres fans, you know,

need to need to wake up in the morning again and say, thank you, sir. May I have another, but the Buffalo Sabres of Florida wins. This is about to say thank you sir may i have another because there's another couple of ex-buffalo sabers that have gone to much cleaner pastures well i bring it out because vancouver fans have looked at the stanley cup final and it's hard not to look at the one that got away and gustav forsling and then the one that got bought out in oliver eckman larson but

i did not realize the volume of former Buffalo Sabres currently participating in the Stanley Cup. Kulikov's there, Evander Kane's there, there's Ocpozo. There's all these guys, but the big three, really. I'm still frustrated seeing in my eye Doug Lidster lifting the Stanley Cup for the New York Rangers. Played like eight years for the Canucks. Then I think he went to the Blues, and then the Blues traded him to the Rangers that year, won the Stanley Cup against the the Canucks. I think he went to the Blues, and then the Blues traded him to the Rangers that year,

won the Stanley Cup against the Vancouver Canucks. Take that, Ray Bork. Take that, Ray Bork. We got our Doug Lidster. It was the 2017-2018 Buffalo Sabres. Their three leading scorers were Ryan O'Reilly, Jack Eichel, and Sam Reinhardt. They won 25 games that year.

They were horrible, which really makes you wonder what the hell was going on in Buffalo. For those three guys to be on the same team would be that bad. And that's where Ryan O'Reilly talked about losing his passion to play hockey and everybody freaked out. It's like, here's a guy that's just talking honestly. Like, how many other players feel the exact same way? O'Reilly just made the mistake of verbalizing it at closeout day, and everybody lost their minds. And then it was like, well, we have to get rid of Ryan O'Reilly.

Like, why? I'm just being honest. Like, he's beaten down. Like, I understand. It's a bad season. And then, again, like, not to bemoan the fact, but, like, I would blame the Buffalo Sabres doctors for losing Jack Eichel. Like, you know, the artificial disc replacement issue for losing Jack Eichel. Like, you know, the artificial

disc replacement issue cost them Jack Eichel. You go right down the list and the amount of times, and I love the Buffalo Sabres. I don't cheer for any teams, but the team that I get closest to cheering for is the Buffalo Sabres. I grew up watching French Connection.

And I grew up watching, you know, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres on WGR and the voice of Ted Darling. That's the team that I start every season with just saying, please, let the Buffalo Sabres, like, just have a decent year. Have a good year. Like, just don't embarrass yourself. And that's why I keep coming back to this, like, team that keeps, you know, stepping on rakes.

They're sideshow ball. Like, it doesn't stop with the Buffalo Sabres. And, again, next year, if there's no playoffs, it's going to be a bloodletting. And it should be with this organization. But yeah, that one was kind of stunning. And again, I don't know the answer.

Maybe that is the ultimate answer that they've sent to most players to Stanley Cup pastures. But it is kind of overwhelming. It's just staggering when you look at the amount of Buffalo Sabres players that are on the horizon here to win the Stanley Cup.

Do we even mention Ocpozo? I just did. Oh, okay. Right, yeah. Yeah, Ocpozo's there, too. You know what's quietly funny about the Buffalo Sabres is that they tried how many coaches after they fired Lindy Ruff? Seven. Like all different types, too. Like, we'll bring in the nice guy, the tough guy,

the guy from Europe with some interesting ideas. And then it's just at the end of the day, it's like, let's just bring Lindy back. He knows where everything is. Yeah, I know. Let's just bring Lindy back. One fish, two fish, three fish, blue fish. Yeah, let's bring in the soccer guy who's going to go to war

with Jeff Skinner from Newport. Who's Newport? Are they powerful at all? Is that a good thing to go to war with Newport Sports and take things out on Jeff Skinner here and scratch him and make him a fourth liner at $9 million? That'll go well, right, Terry? Jeff. Oh, well, back to the divorce.

The better of the two Jeffs. Jeff, this was great. Thanks a lot, as always, for doing this. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the game tomorrow night and the rest of the series. We'll do this again next week. It should be fun talking seven days, boys. Thanks, Jeff.

Appreciate it. That's Jeff Merrick, host of the Jeff Merrick Show and the 32 Thoughts Podcast here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We are going to go to break on some very sad news from the National Basketball Association. The Los Angeles Clippers have just announced that Jerry West, the personification of basketball excellence and a friend to all who knew him, passed away peacefully this morning at the age of 86.

For those that are unaware, Jerry West is one of the most central figures in the growth of the National Basketball Association over the last four or five decades. His silhouette is the inspiration for the NBA's logo. He hit one of the most famous shots in NBA history, his 60-foot heave at the buzzer in the 1970 NBA Finals. He had unbelievable amounts of success as a player and then as a coach and then as an executive where the NBA underwent the growth from sort of being like a second-rate league to one of the most powerful and visible leagues in the world. And he was a part of all of it. And it's

going to be mentioned tonight, obviously, the timing with Game 3 of the NBA Finals going tonight in Dallas at 5.30. But to pass along the news from earlier, Jerry West, the logo of the National Basketball Association passed away at the age of 86. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.