Halford & Brough in the Morning - Frank Seravalli On David Jiricek Rumours

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli (1:17) about the likelyhood of David Jiricek being traded to the Canucks, as well as a look around the trade market, plus the boys speak to Vancouver Giants bench boss Manny Viveiros (24:55). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Sarah Valley Frank! Cerebelli! Frank! Daily Faceoff! Frank! Frank! 704! Frank! On a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough for the morning.

Brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Frank Cervalli is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 2.

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We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec, to the phone lines we go. Frank Cervelli joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Frank. How are you?

Good, boys. How are you doing? We are well. I got a lot of things I want to ask you about. Jurecek and the goalie market, the Flames, the Rangers, and the Sens. But I want to start with the Vancouver Canucks. A broad overview as we get from the quarter mark here, game 20 to game 21, and then tonight in Pittsburgh.

What are you hearing on the Canucks front regarding anything? J.T. Miller, Thatcher Demko, whether the Canucks are just waiting to get everyone back in the fold before they figure out what they need moving forward. Do you have anything for us, Frank on the local hockey squadron? I do. That certainly seems to be the plan that they want to,

their, their quest is to get a full compliment of players and roster as they built the team really before making any more significant decisions beyond that. They haven't been able to do that as we know, not just from, from Demco, but you know, Dakota Joshua missed, obviously a big chunk of the year to this point. And now Miller is, is out. I think the hope is that at some point, you know, when they get back,

that potentially Miller could be back. And that is still certainly in question. But I think there's lots of hope that Demko could make his return before the end of this trip. How would you classify the current temperature of the trade market because it was I was joking the other day you've got two struggling teams in Pittsburgh and Nashville and they managed to combine for the Phil Tomasino blockbuster like not exactly shaking things up in a significant way but it almost kind of struck me as something where it's like well they were able to make a move

which is a good thing otherwise it's been very quiet to start the year and we are coming closer to american thanksgiving which is the first real sort of fence post mark for the nhl yeah i would i would classify it as as simmering we'll get to it in a second but the david urachak situation is is ready to unfold um you've got a number of struggling teams and you've got a team that, I mean, at least in the standings, isn't struggling in the New York Rangers, but has expressed a desire to shake things up. Look, I think there's been way more activity on the trade front in terms of conversation, not in terms of actual execution

and getting something done, but there's been way more chatter and conversation than a typical year for November, I can say that. Regarding Jiricic, were the Canucks ever in on this, or was it never an option for him in Vancouver? I guess it depends on how you would classify as in. Did the Canucks have conversations with the Columbus Blue Jackets about trying to acquire him? Yes. Did they ever seriously go anywhere? I don't think so. I mean, I believe they presented an

offer that, you know, Columbus, you know, needed a lot more. And so I don't think that the Blue Jackets, or I should say, I don't think the Canucks were willing to engage on a level that the Blue Jackets were looking for in order to try and get Jirichek. So certainly interested in the player, but unless there's a significant change in the package or what the Canucks are presenting, I don't believe he's going to be landing in Vancouver.

What are the industry's thoughts on the player? Because he's obviously a highly touted draft pick. He's only two years removed from his draft year. It hasn't been super overwhelming statistically at the NHL level, but it's also an organization in Columbus that has had problems, you know, building their prospects up and developing them into full fledged NHLers. I feel like sometimes they rush guys along.

So is this sort of a sense of Juracek as a guy that will flourish and blossom somewhere else, just maybe not necessarily in Columbus? Yeah, that's the thought process, certainly from other teams and why they're so interested. They see a future 50 to 60 point power play quarterback at a six foot four right shot d that can step right in and you know if not produce you know in a big way this year maybe needing one more season uh potentially to go or at least a half year to play games in the ahl that's the thought process around the league i mean he's there's a guy that's pretty close to ready-made, like knocking on that door in terms of his development path. So that's where the interest comes in.

How it's devolved and unfolded in Columbus is an entirely different story and situation. I think the tough part is the fact that it's spanned now two different regimes, two managers two head coaches um look last year and what took place him getting shuttled back and forth between the nhl and ahl um and being a very productive ahl player for almost 90 some games now um they i think the hope was that this year would be a fresh start so when he's been in the lineup he hasn't really received much of an opportunity and you know playing 12 minutes a night i think the tough part was when he started becoming a healthy scratch for 37 year old jack johnson and christiansen and then now you pluck dante fabro off of waivers another right shot guy

and all of a sudden he's in the lineup before you are. I think that kind of, I don't know if that was the nail in the coffin. Things were already pretty difficult, I think, for Juracek to see a path for himself in Columbus anyway. But when that happened with Fabbro, I was like, man, that's a really tough spot. And that's why this has sort of picked up in a big way so the tough part is for Columbus he's probably exactly if you think about it long-term perspective probably exactly what they need which is why they're taking their extra time to make sure that they get the right package in return so who wants the move more here the Blue Jackets want to

trade him and get something good in return? Or does Jurecek want a fresh start somewhere else? No, I would classify it as Jurecek wanting a fresh start somewhere else. I think they've made it known to the Blue Jackets, like, look, we don't see a path here. It's clear that with the way you're deploying us, me, you don't see a path for me here, so let's just call it what it is and move on we're speaking to frank saravalli from daily face off here on the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 the goalie market frank

sure seems as though carolina and colorado would be two teams interested in adding a guy i guess the question is who do you add who would be available right now is it john gibson and then not a lot of other good options yeah i'd add in dan vladar a guy was on our trade targets board last week um look dustin wolf has grabbed the ball and run with it in calgary he's getting more and more of the work share he's going to get more difficult competition which vladar really shouldered for most of the first quarter of the season for Calgary. And he's a pending unrestricted free agent. I think the asking price on Vladar is a second round pick. Coincidentally enough, Colorado's second round pick for this upcoming draft already belongs to Calgary. But is there something that Colorado can do to help fix this. 8.55 save percentage. Like, we're on track to be, if you're the Avalanche,

the worst save percentage of any team in the salary cap era. Like, hard to do. I think the Blue Jackets a few years ago were 8.64, and that was one of the worst in a long time. 8.55 is unexplainable. So it feels like they're the most urgent need. I understand the point that people have made about Carolina and their goaltending situation, given Freddie Anderson's pension for injuries

and the fact that Kochetkov went down over the weekend. But to me, Kochetkov, look over the weekend but to me Kochetkov look you never know with concussions but it seems like he's responded at least according to Carolina sources better or more quickly than a lot of people might have envisioned given the nature of it and he's really not insanely far away from coming back so can Spencer Martin hold down the fort between now and then for a team that has never really placed a ton of value in going out and spending to acquire a goalie? You mentioned Dan Vildar and the Calgary Flames, and Calgary's been a very good story this season. As we get closer to American Thanksgiving, they are in a playoff spot. I don't think a lot of

people anticipated that. They play hard, and it's a tough team to play against on a nightly basis. I was listening to a hit that you had earlier in the week and you were talking about, I believe, now correct me if I'm wrong, with someone from the Calgary executive saying that part of the reason they're having success this year is they've got guys that actually want to be and play in Calgary. If I've got that right, can you expand on it a little bit further? Because I think it's really interesting. Yeah. So think about the guys that were out the door last year. The door off made his trade request. He lands in Vancouver relatively soon.

Lindholm rebuffs the Flames on a massive contract offer. He gets sent out the door. Jacob Markstrom expressed his unhappiness with the team's competitive path. He's gone. And it's not that those guys are bad guys or malcontents or anything like that. I think at a certain point, everyone in that room was looking over their shoulders saying, okay, who's next? What are we doing here?

Who's going to be here for the long term? And it created a really tough environment for those guys. I think as soon as they got out of their cars every day at the rink, it was clouds over their head, tough place to be. And the losing obviously certainly doesn't help. This year heading into camp, not only did they kind of clear the room of players who didn't want to be there, but there also seemed to be this against the world mentality that that group has latched onto that we've seen in NHL history in terms of a path to the playoffs can actually be a pretty powerful thing there's been a number of teams in in recent years that have that sort of aura and vibe around them and Calgary this year has a bit of that and so just speaking to people in their front office like they've said hey last year even

after wins being in our dressing room or around it wasn't a place you wanted to be this year totally different feel uh the goaltending has certainly helped in a big big way particularly for a team that struggles to score they've been 18 consecutive games now without scoring more than three goals in regulation. I just think there's power to the energy that they have, and the goaltending can carry them a long way. I'm telling you, if they continue to get this goaltending, I don't see the Flames missing. And is it fair to suggest that if this continues along, it'll alter whatever people might have thought that the flames might do going into the trade deadline

well i i maybe there was a misconception about that from the beginning because i don't think the flames really wanted to try and make significant moves this year given all that we just talked about they really wanted to try and keep this group together as long as they could and wanted to subtract or minimize the noise around the group. So Anderson, Rasmus Anderson, was a guy that people had focused on really early on, mostly just for pure, hey, typical hockey deadline deal. This is a guy that has a year left on his deal could be really valuable as having a fantastic season might the flames have to do something i think really maybe outside of dan vladar there's not really a ton that they have to do and it better be something good if if they're going to want to do something if that makes any sense. Not to say that they're not going to, just that if they're going to make a trade,

it's going to be for something of significant value to get back. Yeah, they're not just going to be like, all right, fine, we'll trade everything that we can. So the New York Rangers, when the news broke that they might want to shake up the roster and I saw Chris Kreider's name out there I was like what like aren't the Rangers their record looks good and then I figured maybe I should watch one of their games so I tuned in to their performance against the Blues the other

day at MSG and I know that was a big game for the Blues because it was Jim Montgomery's first game in charge of the Blues so maybe they had some extra juice because of that but the Rangers were dreadful man not only did they lose the game they could have lost it by a lot more than they did and maybe I got a better understanding of why management is impatient with this team what's going on there so the long and short of it is that Chris Drury, their GM, sent a memo to all 31 other teams saying that he's open to shaking things up, open for business. And two of the names specifically that were mentioned in the memo that are available that he's interested in dealing are Jacob Truba,

the captain and Chris Kreider. Now the Kreider part, I think caught even some Ranger fans by surprise, given his value as a net front presence. True, but no one's surprised at. And I think there's some thought within the Rangers front office that they're just not at the echelon that they need to be. You mentioned the eye test, and certainly they're not passing that. From a pure standing standpoint, they're fine.

They're right in the mix, 12-7-1, and I think a couple teams that are much below them in the standings have kind of said, oh, well, the Rangers are going to shake things up. What does that mean for the Sens and the Red Wings and a bunch of other teams that are sort of in that same mix, but lower. I think when you consider the big picture from the New York Rangers, how do you get out of the East?

How do you have a chance to compete for a Stanley Cup? I think the loss to the Florida Panthers last year really kind of said to them, we've got a ways to go to get there to beat a team like that. And as much as they maybe wanted to make some changes last summer for, for cap reasons, for things that didn't materialize or couldn't get over the finish line for no trade clauses that ended up hamstringing their summer, they weren't able to do as much surgery as they maybe wanted to. And now this is, with this somewhat at times lifeless start, this is perhaps a time to revisit it.

So who would some of the motivated dance partners be here? Ottawa, would they be in the mix? Would Philadelphia be in the mix? I'm trying to think of teams that are maybe looking to do the dance with the rangers here if anyone well that's the tougher part is finding matches just based on the way the nhl works in general right you've got teams kind of in different piles or camps of hey we're a rebuilding team we're looking for futures hey we're a win now team we're looking for right. Hey, we're a win now team. We're looking for right now to help us. And I think unfortunately there's not enough intermingling between some of the teams that are in relatively similar circumstances or situations. There's, it's so rare to see a, yeah,

I'll trade you bow and Byron for Casey Middlestat. We don't see the traditional, and I hate the term, hockey trade. We don't see that anymore. And I wish we did because it'd be so much more fun to talk about. And instead we're trying to kind of piece together, hey, I can trade you Chris Kreider. That's the thing. You're asking about a dance partner. Okay, so who are the teams that could use Chris Kreider

that are in a win-now mode? Okay, so if you find a list of them, that's great. But which current piece are they willing to pluck off of their roster in order to send back to a Rangers team that ultimately wants to chase the Stanley Cup. Hard to do. Yeah, I hear you. Frank, this was great, man.

Thanks for taking the time to do it as always. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week. We'll do this again next Wednesday. See you guys. See you later. Frank Cervalli from Daily Faceoff here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Speaking of trades, Jason, should announce we're almost halfway through the show that the B.C. Lions made a fairly big trade yesterday. No huge surprise because the Lions announced they were indeed going to trade Vernon Adams Jr. And they did that yesterday by sending him to Calgary in exchange for a handful of draft picks going with V.A. to Calgary and getting a handful of draft picks back from. It was a very CFL picks back from, you know, it was a very CFL trade. That's I don't know. Someone texted in earlier and they're like,

what did you think about the return for Vernon Adams jr. And I said, I actually don't really know because I don't know how the CFL trade market, at least in depth, it's usually draft picks. Yeah. It's usually draft picks. There's so many free agents in the CFL.

Like it's just, you know, that's how you build your team for the most part. You signed guys in the offseason. I'm a little upset that he went to Calgary. You know, look, it's a nine-team league, so it's not like – You're going to see him next year regardless. Yeah, you're going to see him regardless. But, you know, I'd like to keep Calgary down as much as possible but they were down this year um i would yeah jake mayor will not be going back to the calgary stampeters yeah i mean look uh i'm sure dave dickinson is really

happy to get vernon adams jr there because the quarterback play there was not good. And frankly, they need to reinvigorate the market there for CFL football. It's fallen on pretty hard times in Calgary, but my focus is still very much on the BC Lions and what they're going to do next because they still don't have a head coach. Yeah, that's the next big one. You know, is it going to be Buck Pierce?

It would make sense given his standing as the offensive coordinator with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. And I think it is really important that they get a coach that is going to have a good relationship with Nathan Rourke because as much as, yeah, the defense needs to improve and obviously the line play needs to improve, next season is so much about getting Nathan Rourke back on track and getting the most out of him because he is still going to be their most important player he's going to be their most marketable player and he needs to play

well and he needs to play at a level where people are interested in going to the games and watching him play. And I would presume that their head coach is going to have more of an offensive lean to him. Well, look, there's a real opportunity here. If we want to talk big picture in terms of star potential, face of the team, face of the league, Rourke has got all of that at his disposal right now. And it's a massive problem for the league that there just isn't enough of that.

Who is, which is, this is a crazy thing. I don't know if we, do we do this with Moj? Sort of. I kind of said like Moj, who is the biggest star in the CFL right now? I mean, I don't know what to say. Zach Kolaros? Brady Oliveira?

That was the one that jumps to mind because he won the most outstanding player. And Kolaros, if he's the star of the league, he was terrible in the league's biggest marquee event in the Grey Cup. Yeah, he's won before, but I don't think anyone's ever watched Zach Kolaros and been like, I am on the edge of my seat. This is an incredible performance by Zach Kolaros. If you want to talk about quarterback being the most important position

in the sport, right now in the Grey Cup, the marquee event for the league, you had Zach Kolaros throwing a boatload of interceptions, losing to a backup quarterback in Arbuckle. My point here is that it is wide open for Rourke to go in and dominate as the best passer in the league because he has that potential. He does. But they're going to need to surround him with a head coach and an offensive coordinator or maybe that's one in the

same who is able to um turn this offense into an elite passing offense um yes funny news from the nfl daniel jones is signing with the vik Yeah, I was wondering if that was going to happen. They asked O'Connell about that the other day, and he was very coy talking about how much he liked Daniel Jones. Obviously couldn't talk about a player that wasn't under contract. I understand that it's sort of a short-term, this-year-only kind of thing, because they've got J.J. McCarthy in the wings, right?

But, look, here's the subtext to that entirely. No one was ever really sold on Sam Darnold. He got off to a very nice start to the season. The Vikings got off to that really great start. And then things slowly started to get whittled away where people weren't like, oh, this is just a blip. People were more like, oh, this is what the Vikings really are and this is what Sam Darnold really is.

One four in a row. I know. The offense has not been great. Yeah. You know? Anyway, I hope the Vikings have a lot of success going forward because they play Arizona next, or at least the next week. Manny Viveros from the Vancouver Giants is going to join us next,

and then 8 o'clock we'll talk to to Rand Deep about last night's game in Boston, a win for the Vancouver Canucks, and tonight's in Pittsburgh, hopefully another win for the Vancouver Canucks. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us

weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650. Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. 7.33 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, four parts.

We are in hour two of the program. Vancouver Giants head coach Manny Viveros is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour two of this program is brought to you by Jason Hominick at Jason.Mortgage. If you love paying more for your mortgage, then don't visit Jason at Jason.mortgage. I'm kidding, of course. Absolutely do that. Again, it's not.ca or.com, but Jason.mortgage.

To the phone lines we go. Manny Viveros, head coach of the Vancouver Giants, joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Manny. How are you? Morning, guys. I'm doing really well.

Thank you. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We appreciate it. So the first of the CHL USA Top Prospects game Went last night, your guy Cameron Schmidt, a goal and an assist And a 6-1 win for the Canadian Hockey League

We've talked a lot about what Schmidt's Done this season already, can you expand On it for the listenership, let us know What the young man is all about after a good Showing last night in the Prospects game Yeah, I know, I thought Cameron a good showing last night in the Prospects game. Yeah, I know. I thought Cameron looked really good last night. He scored a typical Cameron Schmidt goal, you know, breaking down the wing with speed and, you know, and then just beating the goalie on the glove side.

Cameron's been, he's had an outstanding season so far for our team. We've always known Cameron's had that offensive ability that he could break out at any time and light it up, but the most impressive part with Cameron this year so far is his play without the puck, and he's really dialed that in, bought into it, and

understanding that for him to get better and also to improve his draft stock is that he's going to have to learn to play without the puck, and he's certainly done a really good job of that this year. So what kind of things do you work on him with that in regard? Well, you know, one area with Cameron, you know, last year as a young guy, as a 16-year-old,

he used to fly the zone all the time. He would be, you know, he wouldn't spend a whole lot of time in his defensive zone coverage, and we've got him to understand that uh you know the type of speed that he has and and the more connected he is with his teammates in the defensive zone coverage uh he's still going to get the same amount of chances and even more so that's something for him uh he's really understood that uh if he defends first in his own defensive zone, he's going to create more chances later on in the offensive zone by spending less time in there.

So that's something that, not just Cameron, I'm talking about 90% of young players that do in the Western Hockey level. Once they understand that it's beneficial to defend, we spend more time in the offensive zone. What's Cameron's personality personality like i'm sure a lot a lot of nhl teams are going to start wondering about this stuff because they're going to be wanting to get to know more about him than just his stats and you know his his size is going to be um a factor in the draft but uh you know so is his personality well he's a competitive young man you can see that

every day in practice and and even more so this uh you know the second season in the western hockey league here um it doesn't matter how big the opposition is he doesn't back down and uh he will try to be first on pucks or if not he'll try to you know use his uh his speed and his and his leverage as far as getting in front of uh players and stuff like that so he's uh that part is extremely competitive young man and uh you know you know just just one year uh of having him with him last year you can see how much uh you know Cameron all these kids how much they mature and he's certainly uh focused and certainly knows what his goal is eventually. We're speaking to Vancouver Giants head coach Manny Viveros here on the

Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Cameron at the ripe old age of 17. I mention this because Ryan Lynn, a 16-year-old who's on your blue line, scored his first career goal last weekend. Tell us a little bit more about this guy, 16. That's awfully young to be playing such an important position on the Blue Line and to be playing the role that he is on your team. Well, guys, we're going to – you might as well just copy and paste this next –

this conversation that we have for next year because that's the exact same conversation we'll have about Ryan. He's been outstanding. You know, as a 16-year-old, probably the most difficult position to play outside of goaltender at a young age he's certainly playing like he's been in the league for three or four years already here so really

quite surprised at 16 he's coming in and he's playing so well but not completely surprised really bright young man got a great hockey mind. His feet and his legs are, you know,

for him, his biggest asset. He's able to do so many things that a lot of players at that age or even an older age in our league can't do. And he's been really impressive to watch and very excited.

Can't wait to see how he develops for the rest of the season here. How do the older players on your team treat the younger players because back in the day it wasn't wasn't so well it wasn't wasn't so good has that as that as the culture changed in in junior hockey yeah that's that's done you don't ever get that you still have your hierarchy which you still have to have within your within your team and that but um, you know, the respect that the players treat themselves, whether they're a 16-year-old or a 20-year-old,

is, you know, it's just really impressive to watch. The kids certainly understand that, you know, what happened years and years ago is not allowed in the game anymore. And rightly so, it shouldn't be. And so our kids, like anything uh you know you come to work hard every day like you're going to earn respect uh more importantly within your when your dressing room and that's something that uh with especially young players this has been so so uh fun to see so is it more supporting the younger players as opposed to making their

daily lives terrible yes Yes, 100%. That's the best way to describe it. One of the things that we tell our older players is that you remember when you were 16 and how you wanted to be treated. So that's something that's important that we want these players to mentor our young players and help them, not just the hockey part,

but more importantly, off ice. It's a lot. And for a young player, as a 16-year-old in our league, to handle the first time being away from home, you know, you've got to manage your time off ice. And, you know, it's a little bit daunting at times, but when you have players that have gone through that before, it sort of makes their transition easier.

The maturity between a 16, the difference in maturity between a 16-year-old and a 19-year-old or a 20-year-old, it must be massive. It certainly is. You know, and everybody matures at different ages either, but something you certainly notice that age group between a 16 and 20-year-old, how much a difference it is as far as, you know, just the development and just growing, you know, as a young man. And I noticed that when I was in the American Hockey League, it's the difference between a 20 year old and a 25 year old.

So it's not just, you know, between 16 and 20. It certainly translates to the next level also, too. But again, having that big brother type of guy around your group all the time within the team certainly makes that transition and help these young players out. Landon Dupont, I know he's not one of your players,

but you guys are going to be seeing him and the Everett Silvertips this weekend on Friday. He is the first ever WHL defenseman granted exceptional status. What do you know about DuPont? What are you expecting to see from him and the Silver Tips this weekend? Well, we've seen them once this year at the second game of the season, but we've certainly seen some tape on this young man and also this team.

They're legit. They're, in my opinion, one of the favorites out of this whole West division. Very good team, very similar to how their identity and their culture have been built over the last six, seven years is that they're going to come after you and they're going to be fast and tenacious. So that's something we're going to have to be ready for and we certainly will be.

But obviously, I'm looking forward to see also to a bit of a fan of the game too, seeing this young man for a second time around because what I've seen on tape is quite special. A pair of games this weekend for the Vancouver Giants at the Langley Events Center. You got one Friday, 7 o'clock against Everett, and then Sunday, December 1st,

to kick off the month of December against Seattle again. All of them at the Langley Events Center. Visit them at VancouverGiants.com for tickets. Manny, thank you very much for doing this today. We really appreciate it. Good luck this weekend. Thanks, guys. Always a pleasure. Thank you.

Manny Viveros, head coach of the WHL's Vancouver Giants here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet. 6.50. So I wanted to get to a few more Canucks stories that we didn't get to because we were breaking down last night's game against Boston and tonight's game against Pittsburgh. But yesterday, General Manager Patrick Alveen,

and you can read these comments at sportsnet.ca in an article by Ian McIntyre, did have some comments about JT Miller and his personal leave of absence. And he said, first and foremost, I'm very proud of JT seeking help. I don't know if he said it, but I believe that he's going to be a better person, better teammate, and better hockey player when he returns. And we sure miss him. He's such an impactful hockey player. I think we have, and the league has, all the right support to help him. So when that was put out, a lot of people went, oh, okay, well, it's not an injury then.

And I was thinking about this from a Canucks perspective and a PR perspective and a respecting JT's wishes perspective but also the fans and the media and wanting more information and the Canucks are probably feeling a lot of pressure to provide some information and this is a tough situation for the Canucks because people want to know why Miller suddenly left the team I've had calls on this. Every person that I come up to that knows I'm in this business, first question, what's going on with JT Miller? And I say, I don't know.

I don't know. And when you don't give any answers, people speculate. And when you give little hints like he's seeking help, which Patrick Alvin did, people speculate, frankly, even more. Well, what does he need help with? All that being said, if Miller doesn't want the reasons out, then that's his right. But it is one of the drawbacks of being rich and famous.

You know, kids, they all want to be rich and famous. Well, this is one of the drawbacks of that. People are curious about your life, whether you want them to be or not. It's all a very unusual situation. And obviously we all hope the best for JT Miller. I don't think that needs to be said. I guess we'll find out stuff when we find out stuff

or we won't find out stuff and we'll just get on with our lives. Doesn't make for the most uh engaging sports talk radio it's such a huge elephant in the room that that's the thing that's really tough and you know you know we're just in the position to be like well hope he's doing okay i hope he's all right um i want to get to a kind of a funny story and it was on the spit and chiclets podcast and it was bruce budro saying that he was threatened and he was they said we'd fire you if he kept doing those cameo videos okay does everyone know what a cameo video is why don't you explain let me wind this back for our listenership

here uh cameo is a website an app where celebrities make short videos oftentimes greetings happy birthdays etc etc in exchange for monetary reward. I'm sure you've seen them in the past. You can get John Taffer from Bar Rescue to wish your brother a happy 37th birthday, and he'll gladly do it. He puts his phone up to his face. He hits record. He natters away for 45 seconds. You pay him $250.

Boom. Easy transaction. Easy way for the celebrity to make some cash. Natters away for 45 seconds. You pay him $250. Boom. Easy transaction. Easy way for the celebrity to make some cash. Easy way for you to say that John Taffer told your brother happy birthday. Simple. I actually have a clip from one of his cameos. You want me to play it?

I do want you to play one of Bruce Boudreaux's cameos, Greg. Let's hear it now. This was right before the season that he got fired when things were looking a little sketchy during training camp, and I guess he made one for a Canucks fan, and he tacked this on at the end. No, we haven't had the greatest training camp success, but we are going to be fine. So, of all the NHL head coaches that were employed at the time, I think Bruce Boudreaux was probably number one

of guys most likely to do a cameo. Don't you think this just... He's big, he's gregarious, he's lovable. Bruce, there it is. How many coaches were getting their names chanted at that time in the NHL? So Bruce said, hey, why not? He's like 67 years old.

He's like, let's give this cameos a shot. And then, according to Bruce B boudreaux in retelling and recounting this time in his life on the spit and chiclets podcast boudreaux said canucks general manager patrick alveen quickly put an end to his days on cameo and threatened to fire him if he didn't listen the quote was i remember when i was in vancouver i'd get a cameo request once a week or something I wouldn't get a lot of them Patrick Levine came in and he said by the way, you can't do any more cameos

you do them, you're going to get fired and I go, okay, so I cancelled them right away so actually, he still has an active cameo account, you just can't request any videos from Bruce Boudreaux I think he forgot to uncancell it Do you think this just perfectly encapsulates the differences

between Bruce Boudreaux and the type of person he was, the type of coach he was, and the current Canucks management who are very serious? And I want to make this abundantly clear. They're very serious and both ways have their merits.

Exactly. I don't want to ways have their merit good and one is bad and one is a winner and one is a loser but it's just the remember how awkward it was it was a bad fit it was a bad fit of personalities it was a bad fit of personalities and the way that Rutherford put it he said Bruce was the right guy for the job before I got there when the Canucks needed a few hugs and some love and some appreciation and there was some immediate um returns from that and it was the Bruce there it is era but long term Bruce was not the guy because that's not how they want to go about their business. I mean, look.

And what was very awkward about this whole thing was the contract situation with Boudreaux and the fact that this management group did not want Boudreaux to be the coach. After the Bruce, there it is year, for whatever reason, I don't know if it was ownership saying, well, we got this contract and he's your coach or whatever. Maybe there was some hesitancy

to fire Bruce Boudreaux because the fans liked it. Regardless, that was, when we all knew Bruce Boudreaux was going to get fired, one of the most awkward few weeks or felt like months of the Canucks ever in their franchise it was it was very very difficult and I just think this whole thing shows you how different the fit was like Bruce was willing to go on cameo and wish people happy birthdays and make you know make some jokes and just like, you know, like, Hey,

it's Bruce Boudreaux here. Hope you're having a great day. And then the Canucks manager was like, stop doing that. We don't run like that. Yeah. There were two completely different approaches to the job, the industry,

the profession. There's a lot of adjectives you would use to describe Patrick Alvin. Lighthearted would not be one of them. He is about as serious an individual as you're going to get. And that's great. I love the work that he's done. But in order for him to operate the way that he does, he needs to be very serious.

And that's just his personality. What would a Patrick Alvin cameo look like? Hello, this is Patrick. It is your birthday today. Goodbye. Yes, you were born on this day. It's like the Dwight Schrute birthday poster, which is, it is your birthday, period.

Right. No exclamation marks, nothing. But there are lots of people that exist like that, and lots of people that exist like Bruce. The issue was when they have to work together to achieve a common goal, because you've got two very different philosophies on how to get to the end game.

And you can say, well, one person's is better or one person's is worse, but all it really shows is that you need alignment in an organization. You need everybody to be on the same page. You need, sometimes you do need everyone to be of a, of a like mind of a similar

mind because it's very difficult sometimes and in this instance it's almost you bring up the perfect example it is the perfect example because on one hand you would say well who cares it's harmless it's harmless yeah it doesn't matter and then the other side of it would be like well but that's not how we want to conduct ourselves you're're like, well, that's a good point, too. You just need to have everyone on the same page. And that's why I think it was very important that they identified early in the process that Rick Talkett was their guy. Because I can see a lot of commonalities between the way Patrick Alvin does his business and the way Rick Talkett does his business. I mean, I think Rick has a sense of humor. And I'm sure Patrick has a sense of humor, right?

But it's not that. But it's just the way they present themselves to the world. They have the same haircut. Another short one? Yeah. High and tight, like Johnny Unitas. Not too much off the top this time, please. Okay, real quick.

We got one final hour to come on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650 Randy Bjanda is going to join us on the other side We will look back to the game last night, a 2-0 win for the Vancouver Canucks against the Boston Bruins 32 save shutout for Kevin Lankanen We'll also look ahead to tonight's game against the

Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins are lying in wait They've been licking their wounds since they lost on Saturday and I do wonder what kind of impact that game is going to have on tonight's game. Because not only did the Pittsburgh Penguins get blown out 6-1 at home to the Utah Hockey Club on Saturday night, it was also the night in which Sidney Crosby scored his 600th career NHL goal. Now, unfortunately, the celebration, although it occurred,

felt a little hollow and was a little muted because the Penguins lost 6-1 to Utah on the very same night. And there were probably some bad feelings hanging around throughout the team, not just because they got skunked on home ice, but also because their captain got this milestone and they followed it up with an absolute clunker of a performance at home. So I'll be very curious to see how that plays out

this evening. Don't you think if they were going to take a hey, we got to pull it together game, they would have done it already? It was after the game in which Crosby fought. Maybe they just can't. I don't know if it's so much can't. I think they're more than capable of playing better hockey than they are can't. I don't know if it's so much can't.

I think they're more than capable of playing better hockey than they are right now. I think that there are some serious disconnects on this team. And I also think that... Man, I keep coming back to Carlson. What a dumb acquisition. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

It was so dumb. It was dumb when San Jose did it. Yes, but you could also make the argument that, sadly, Eric Carlson is not the biggest of their problems right now. The biggest of their problems right now is that almost every single move that Kyle Dubas has made since then has not paid off. The forwards that he's acquired, none of them have worked. Poulier-Yarvey hasn't worked.

Beauvillier hasn't. You're not putting that up with the Carlson, though. They don't take nearly as much cap space. The opportunity cost that the Penguins punted on when they acquired Eric Carlson is enormous. The Canucks right now are going to go into Pittsburgh tonight and two of their most valuable players are going to be guys that are on the cheapest contracts on the team in Kiefer Sherwood

and Kevin Lankanen. Making those moves at the bottom end of your roster matter. Getting value deals when you're as top heavy as the Penguins are matters. And Dubas is whiffed on all of them. Maybe Phil Tomasino will turn it all around for Kyle Dubas. We'll find out tonight.

Pittsburgh Penguins host. He's getting a hat trick for sure. I wish I had. The Alfred and Brough bump is going to be alive and well tonight in Pittsburgh. Hour three is coming up. Randy Jett is going to join us next. This guy's pretty good, actually. You're listening to the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.