Halford & Brough in the Morning - Frank Seravalli On Rick Tocchet's Future With The Canucks

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

In hour two, Jason Brough and guest host Jamie Dodd chat with Daily Faceoff NHL insider Frank Seravalli (3:50) about the future of Rick Tocchet with the Vancouver Canucks, plus the boys talk some 'Nucks with beat writer Bob "The Moj" Marjanovich (23:15). 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.

Frank! Sarah Valley, Sarah Valley, Sarah Valley Frank! Sarah Valley, Frank! Sarah Valley, Frank! Dearly face-off, Frank! Cerebelli! Frank! Daily face-off! Frank! Welcome back to Halvin and Bruff here at Sportsnet 650. Jamie Dodd here for Mike Halford this week. Oh boy, Halvin and Bruff has brought you by the DeLari family of Honda dealers.

Experience the DeLari difference today. Visit your nearest DeLari Honda dealer today. This hour brought to you by Jason dot mortgage if you love giving the banks more of your money then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you that's Jason dot mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintex studio Kintex footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Frank Zervalli will join us in just a few minutes here, but first of course we got to check in with our guy from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. It is AJ. AJ, what's going on man? What is going on? I thought I was subbing for Frank, but I like that music. You got any

inside scoops for us AJ? Come on, pull your weight. Hey AJ, I heard Laddy might want to get some security. Yeah, well, it's what I learned. Jimmy's not all that happy that you insulted his friend. Ooh. A little basic comment. Jimmy Aces. Yeah. He's friends with Halford. Well, he feels like he's an extension through me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, he just listened. Everything will be okay. just apologize on Monday and we're good if If if Jimmy aces were to introduce Halford to his friend, would he say this is a friend of mine? Yes Okay, so we all know what what Jimmy ace is all about. All right I better better watch how far better come back Monday a little less basic then Monday a little less basic then. Okay.

And then maybe I'll apologize. Oh my God. Blaming the victim over here. Double down. My goodness. Wow. That sensitivity training you went to on Monday didn't pay off apparently, laddie.

Yeah. Wow. And Jimmy does have a good lock for us today. Oh. He likes liberty. He likes liberty over Oregon. Okay. All right. All right.

Yeah. So I imagine there's going to be a lot of March Madness at AJ's over the weekend. Oh yeah. It's going to be great. And then on Sunday you got the triple Lindy. You got happy hour all day, you got March Madness and we got pizza. Okay.

Yeah. Well, the pizza part is really important because you have a pizza shop. Right, exactly. Okay. And I guess you can also catch the last half of the Canucks Rangers game on Saturday morning, 10 AM, start our time.

What time does AJ's open on Saturday morning? Well you can knock on the door at 11 we'll let you in you can watch a second and third period. Okay. Okay. Perfect. AJ's gonna be a busy great weekend at AJ's. I might even drop by to watch a little ball. Thanks for joining us and have a great weekend buddy. Yeah you guys too take care. That is AJ from AJ's Pizza. And of course, uh, AJ's Pizza on East Broadway celebrate every goal at AJ's Pizza gets $6 pints of Pilsner during Vancouver hockey game

nights only at AJ's Pizza. And the, the hot tip there, Liberty over Oregon in the, um, or sorry. Yeah. Liberty over Oregon in the NCAA tournament, a classic 12-5 upset pick for the major. There's always a 12. There already was yesterday.

McNeese, McNeese State took down Clemson. Sounds like geese. It does sound like geese. The McNeese geese. It's an analysis. That would be actually an amazing team name. What a fantastic name that would be. All right, now joining us from the Daily Face Off, he is NHL insider Frank Saravalli, a presentation

of angry otter liquor. Frank, how's it going today? Thanks for doing this. I'm good. Good morning, guys. So lots going on even post-trade deadline here with the Vancouver Canucks. And one of the news items in conversation this week here has been Rick Tuckett's future with the team.

Will he be here next year? When will that all get figured out? We heard earlier this week Patrick Alveen said they'd like to get things figured out sooner rather than later. They obviously like Rick Taukett a lot. Taukett was on our station, on our show actually earlier this week, and he basically said, hey guys, I'm trying to make the playoffs. I don't really have time to be thinking about this right now.

What's your read on where this situation is headed and when we could expect a resolution between Rick Taukett and the Canucks? Oh, I think you're right. If they were up to the Canucks, they'd love to have that done and settled and in their back pocket. Understanding that Rick Taukett is going to continue to be their head coach for the foreseeable future. That said, um, I don't think my understanding is, and according to what Rick talk had said, I don't think that there's been much by way of, uh, talking or negotiating. I do think the focus has been on trying to keep this team in a playoff spot or, um, in the hunt. And that's been the number one goal.

So look, um, I think the lesson here is not all that dissimilar to the best or conversation if you wanted to keep him and not saying that they won't, but this could have all been handled. This was, this is the reigning Jack Adams award winner from last season, who by every single metric and measure had an unbelievable year. Why wasn't an extension done before allowing him to go into the final year of his deal? Now we understand there's an option year and I, it's not clear yet as to whether or not it's a mutual option or a club option or a target option. But don't leave that till March or late March of the following season in which he could potentially walk at the end of it because it's just one more unsettling

factor to this year. Well, how much could all of this be Rick Tocque not wanting to, um, without knowing what the future is going to look like in Vancouver, lock in to being the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks? Well, I think a lot of it, of it if I were in his shoes, again not understanding what how the option functions because no one has shed light on that yet, but if I were in his shoes I'd say okay look at the incredible drama that's played out around this team this year. Is there a potential that even

Elias Pedersen is moving on in the summer? And frankly, what's the competitive posture of this team moving forward? It's not just the drama and the headaches, but will this team have a chance to win as constructed? I'd want to wait and find out as much information as possible before making that decision. It would have been a totally different conversation and he would be locked in again had you just taken care of business when you should have last summer. But the reason I likened it to Besser is because it's no different than Besser coming off of the 40 goal a year.

They say, oh, okay, well, let's have you go prove it and do it again. And then they try and em you up on the AAV because they don't want to pay you at your highest value. Same thing is going on with pocket. They essentially said, hey, we know that you're the reigning coach of the year. We know that you've done a fantastic job and the staff that you've assembled. And I wanted to clarify that because for whatever reason I was getting shots thrown my way on social media, not shocking coming from your market, but

the fact that I said that this staff from pocket and foot with the Sabines chipping in and all the experience that they have from top to bottom and Quinn Hughes has said this, that is the best coaching staff that he's played for, um, that it is a top five staff in the league. And that beyond that, um, they've essentially made the same dare. You, you won coach of the year. We had a great year. We were one win away from the conference final. But we're not going to get an extension of that.

Why not? Why didn't you? You make the comparison to Brock Bessar. I think it's a good one. Now in Bessar's situation, obviously coming off the 40-goal season, he hasn't been able to duplicate that this year. And that's probably cost him some bargaining power even when he hits July 1st he'll still get a nice deal but obviously a different scenario than if he had come out and had another 40-goal season with Tauke it I don't I'm not sure I get the sense that he's really hurt his market value that much by what the Canucks have done this year do you have a sense of just kind of how in demand he would be around the league

and has he done enough even considering how difficult this season has been to kind of make a case to be in the upper echelon of coaches when it comes to the salary he's making on his next deal? Yes, I think in some ways, and this is going to sound funny to say, he's done a better job holding this group together this year than he did last year. The team was way more talented last year. There was no drama, there was no hiccups, and you had a healthy Quinn Hughes having a Norris Trophy season,

and up until basically the 90-yard line of the season or 95 90 yard line of the season or 95 yard line of the season, you had your franchise goalie and Fatser Demko having a Vezina level season to the point where he was a finalist. So then you take this year, you inject all the drama that's been there and chaos, and this team might still make the playoffs

with a vastly depleted roster. I can only tell you this with absolute certainty. I know that there are teams right now that have had coaches signed up for next season and beyond that would fire their coach into the sun to get their hands on Rick Tauke. So his market value has only gone to increase and I think everyone, not everyone, but I think there's six, seven, eight teams in the league that are waiting to see how this plays out to understand whether or not they might be able to get it. Very interesting Frank. I mean we kind of have an ongoing thing in this market where the media, for the most part, has defended Rick Tocket and we get all sorts of text messages to our Dunbar lumber text line wondering why we keep defending Rick Tocket.

Can you share any more about- That's okay, just run him out too. I mean, go ahead. Can you, can you share any more about like, so that, so you're talking about like specifically his name comes up and they'd be like, I would fire my coach if we could hire Rick Tocket. Yes. Okay. I want to talk about the New York Rangers

because the Connex are playing the Rangers uh, tomorrow and we all know about the big trade that because the Connex are playing the Rangers tomorrow and we all know about the big trade that happened not too long ago. We haven't heard anything about Peter Lavie being on the hot seat. Wink, wink. Okay. All right.

I hear what you're doing there. Um, what, besides maybe a coaching change, um, what else could the Rangers do this off season? Because we all know that they've already made the JT Miller trade and they've moved out Truba. But I know, I guess Chris Crider could be on the go as well. But are we talking this off season, let's say the Rangers miss the playoffs, are we talking about a

fundamental, big, huge change? Or like how much more could the Rangers do the playoffs, like are we talking about a fundamental, big, huge change? Or like how much more could the Rangers do this off season? I think a fair bit because the one thing that stands out for me is they still haven't really nailed down what their defense core looks like moving forward. Like you've got Fox and you've got Schneider. What are you doing with Kay Andre Miller who are going to be the pieces that are left that you're building around foundationally. And I start with the defense because that to me is the fundamental area that this team has really struggled with.

They year in and year out have not defended well enough as a team in front of Igor Shesterkin. And until that's fixed, I don't know that anyone's going to be taking the New York Rangers seriously as a team that has a chance to win. And you can bring in Gerard Gallant, you can bring in Peter LaVillelette, you can trade Jacob Truba, you can trade whoever else that you want to jettison from this team. Until that issue is solved, they're not in that category. And obviously the way that this year has played out. To be honest, I'm shocked that we've had the blow-by-blow reporting from what's happened in Van this year. I mean, what's happened in New York from start to finish with a team that had way more expectations this season, why that, like that stinks. It, something reeks there with what's going on the way that

that team has rolled over they quit in December they somehow kind of made it back into the mix or hung around in the mix and they still like they have a game like they did the other night against Calgary seven shots or two periods why why isn't there more reporting being done from that locker room to understand what's festering in there and trying to fix it because they should be way better than they are talent wise. Again, not saying that they're a contender, but if you stack up, at least to start the season, the Rangers with the Sens and Canadians and other teams in that mix, like why shouldn't the Rangers be on par or close to the Hurricanes

or closer to some of the other teams in their own division? I don't really understand it. Have you heard any hints about what it might be? Cause I always assumed that, um, it was some sort of, the players were upset with management when Drury made Crider available and Truba available. And I think maybe especially Crider, they're kind of like, maybe Drury was

hoping to like, I don't know, scare them into playing well and they kind of took more of a, I don't know, an FU approach to it. And I don't even know how much that was necessarily a scare tactic. Like obviously a real thing because he ends up moving Truba anyway. And you asked about fundamental changes. Like I think they'd like to do more surgery, but they're also stuck with some contracts that really aren't very palatable. I mean that Mika Zbenecchuk deal as different as he's looked and come back to life since

J.T. Miller arrived and you could bump him to the wing, it's like they've got some stuff that is really going to hamstring them and that's part of the deal. But I do think Chris Drury would like to be aggressive and try and solve for some of that. And no, I haven't been able to put my finger on or get to the bottom of why it's been such an issue. Frank just doubling back to the Canucks here you know we have talked obviously a lot about Brock Besser unrestricted free agent coming up here we haven't talked as much about Pugh Souter who's also a pending UFA he gets to 20 goals the other night against Winnipeg

for the first time in his NHL career he play center, he can do a lot of different things. Do you have a sense of what Pugh's suitors, the demand there would be for him on the open market? What kind of contract he would be able to command if he gets to July 1st? I don't really yet. Obviously, you know, what Rick Tauke said the other day after hitting 20 and Cha-ching like it is definitely a different threshold. I think it's slightly early to really walk through some of the projections and I think even some of what you've seen on social media probably be needs to be readjusted up. It's definitely been a big year, but I do think there's also a limit to what teams are willing to spend on someone like Suter. As diligent as he is, as much of a Swiss army knife as he is, the production's been great. But again, how much of that is replicable or duplicable?

As consistent as he's been in his career, I don't know that he's hitting 20 again. And so someone will pay him. I also don't know if it's going to be the Canucks. Uh, was it worth noting that Terry Pagula was, uh, in Utah yesterday to watch the Buffalo Sabres lose again and not only lose, but score into their own net? Um, I mean, owner watching his own team play,

not really notable. What was notable was that photo that was taken with him and Kevin Adams on entirely different sides of the suite. That was quite something. Is Kevin Adams like, like I don't know why he's still the GM of the Sabres? Are they just waiting till the end of the season

to make that official? I don't get the sense that that's the case. I mean, is it possible that they move on, of course? But I believe Kevin Adams and Terry Pagula to be very tight. And again, not to say that he won't do it, but this is year five and not only no success to speak of, but the team having gone backwards again. I don't even know what the sell job would be from Adams to Kagula. We're gonna rebuild it again for the fourth time? Like I don't... What's the pitch? And if the pitch is let's be more aggressive or do the same, I'd argue that he's had enough of a runway to show that he cannot accomplish what he's seeking to do

Frank we just saw the Canucks play the Blues last night Dylan Holloway Philip Broberg both score in that game Of course That's a huge part of the story of the Blues season the double offer sheet success that gets them both out of Edmonton And they're both having really productive years for the Blues and they're both having really productive years for the Blues. I'm very curious to see what the offer sheet market looks like if it materializes at all this summer in the NHL, because on the one hand, you have now a recent example of it working out really, really well for a team in the St. Louis Blues,

but you've also got the salary cap going up so much. So I don't know if there will be as many opportunities for teams to kind of put another team in such a tight spot that they have a realistic chance of getting a player on an offer sheet. Have you heard anything about whether the offer sheet market could be active this year or does the salary cap increase maybe take it off the board a little bit as a potential tool for GMs? No, I think it's still a real possibility and I've referred to this summer tongue-in-cheek as sort of the summer of offer sheets. And I know of at least one owner who has tasked his manager after watching how that played out and the Blues being able to get to young players that have fit perfectly, he's tasked

his manager with going out and getting a player via offer sheet this summer. Now it depends on a bunch of things. You mentioned the cap, but the other thing is who actually makes it to becoming a restricted free agent. You can't provide an offer sheet to a player that has a new deal. Uh, and Wyatt Johnson, such an underrated part of the Dallas Stars deadline day, yeah, you get Miko Ranzenen, but he has the same agent as Wyatt

Johnson. And not only do they get cost certainty before signing Miko Ranzenen, but it now takes a significant threat off of the table this summer for the Dallas Stars that a player like that fundamentally changes the market for offer sheets possibilities this summer. So yeah, it will depend on who's available and really the level of aggression from a team to be able to pull it off. But I think what last summer did was it opened the eyes of so many who say, you know what, you can't get players. It never works. That's not a legitimate method to acquire players.

Owners have watched it. Other managers have watched it and turned around and said, yeah, here's proof that you can. And it was executed in such a manner that even if one of those guys just worked out from a cost perspective on your cap it was worth the gamble to try and do it and what you had to give up. Frank really really appreciate it great stuff as always thanks for doing this we'll chat next week. Have a good weekend guys. That is Frank Saravalli from daily face-off

Frank on Sportsnet 650 brought to you by Angry Otter Liquor your hockey headquarters for your favorite game day beer wine and whiskey more at Angry Otter Liquor dot CRS we'll take a break here Bob the Moj Marjanovic on the other side we'll chat Canucks with Bob here on Halford and Bruff Sportsnet 650. I did not eat four burgers. Yes, it's the Moch. I don't want to go to Winnipeg. Nobody wants to go to Winnipeg. Yes, I love food. It's the Moch. I went online and kind of did a little surfing.

Jamalala. Yes, it's the Moch. Halpert's fine, but you know, Bruff is just grumpy all the time. Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, Moch, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, moach, Moj, it's the Moj. All right. Big jingle day on the show here. Welcome back to Halford and Brough Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough brought you by the DeLari family of Honda dealers. Experience the DeLari difference today. Visit your nearest DeLari Honda dealer today. This hour of the show brought to you by Jason.Mortgage.

If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. That's Jason.Mortgage, if you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. That's Jason.mortgage. As you heard in the intro, they're now joining us. Of course he is. Bob, the Moj. Marjanovic, Moj, what's going on, man? Good morning, gentlemen.

Good morning, bruv. Good morning, counselor. Good morning. You know, sometimes I think of lawyers as intelligent individuals. Right? Well, that's your first mistake, Moj. My father's a lawyer. My boyfriend is a individuals. That's your first mistake. Lawyer daughter's a lawyer. Sometimes you know you kind of get these lawyers that are kind of a little off. You know what I mean. Like there you know Jamie the week starting on a Sunday.

What's next. The Earth's what lunar landing was. I don't know what to tell you. It's correct. It's just it's just Fact the guy who created the book said on the seventh day. I'm gonna arrest guess what he didn't rest on a Monday or Saturday, I should say he rested on Sunday like who may Theological debate here on the radio if you. I want to stay away from that one. Isn't Saturday in some religions a Sabbath? Yes, very much so, yes. Yeah, okay. Look at us. Raph, I don't know how you've been able to take it all week long.

Well, you know, when the comparison is Halford. Yeah, well, that's true too. It's a nice, Halford's on vacation and let's put it this way, so am I, Moj. There you go. What did you think? Like a married couple, you just need your time away from one another, so am I, Emoj. There you go. What did you think? It's like a married couple, you just need your time away from one another. Yeah, exactly, or a divorce. What did you think of that game last night?

Was it a point gained? Was it a point lost? It was such a roller coaster, I couldn't keep up. Yeah, it was a roller coaster and I think we're right back where we started from. You thought with a game like that that there might be a little bit more definition and clarity after a team got two points out of it. Well, there were three points awarded last night.

So in a way, we're kind of right back where we started from. I mean, when I look at that game last night, fellas, I think it was almost like a microcosm of the Canucks season, wasn't it? I mean, you kind of had a decent start, then you had a bad part, then you kind of rallied. And I think in the end, you're going to wind up losing. So, um, for me, I looked at it and I thought this, this game kind of really kind of embodied what the Canucks season has been about.

It's just been a roller coaster for most of the part. And you know, part of the playing games at this time of the season, when you're in a playoff race is these moments get under the microscope, right? And certainly on the OT goal, people looking at Pedersen turning the puck over, Jake DeBrus making the line change. But on the Holloway goal, Tyler Myers drawing a lot of the flak. What did you think of his play and his read in that moment? I didn't really have that much of an issue with the fact that he came over. Cause if you look at the one angle, it looks like Hughes is going to get beat. So obviously Myers is trying to take away a dangerous threat, but there's, there's an

old expression in sports. If you're going to make a mistake, do it at a hundred percent. Don't get caught in no man's land. And for me, the issue wasn't as much as Myers deciding to come over and help Hughes out. The issue was that he kind of then started to peel back and obviously seeing that Hughes had the situation under control and that's where he gets caught in the no man's land. Yeah, you got to stick on it, but still the puck gets the Holloway winds up scoring. If you're going to make a decision, stick with the decision. If he just continued to go on

the pot carrier and help Hughes out, maybe that path doesn't cross. But when he gets caught in no man's land, that's the problem that I have, or that's the part of it that I have a problem with is that he didn't commit one way or the other, and that's what wound up resulting in the goal. Do you think Hughes at times, and we can hardly

blame him for this, is trying to do a little too much? Oh, I mean, last night, fellas, I don't know about you guys, but there were times in that game where you could see Hughes, like he was gassed, like he was on the ice. And, you know, in certain instances, you expect them to, to gain a zone entry or to beat a more checker. And we've seen that when Quinn Hughes has been obviously on the top of his game for, you know, 98% of the time. But I mean, last night there were times where he was being hounded and just deferred. Um, I don't know if it was fatigue.

I don't know if it was the injury acting up that he's been dealing with, but yeah, I mean, last night it was, it was tough watching Quinn Hughes particularly at overtime because it wasn't the Quinn Hughes, particularly at overtime, because it wasn't the Quinn Hughes that we're accustomed to. So what do the Canucks need to do down the stretch to get into the playoffs? You know, everyone's been talking about say

93 points, right? And I mean, you're talking about a Canuck team now that has to go in a bit of a roll. I mean, you look at the blues, they're seven and I think they're 10 and three in their last 13 games. I don't see the blues continuing at this pace moving forward. Right. Um, let me ask this to you guys. You think 91 gets you. Do you think maybe 92 gets in this year rather than say 93 or 94? And if that's the bar, you know,

maybe you go seven and five or's the bar you know maybe you go seven and five or whatever the course of your last 12 games you don't have to go eight and four or maybe even nine and or nine and four yeah one of my takeaways from last night Moj was you know all these teams in the pack they're there at this in this part of the standings for a reason they're flawed teams and I grew if you I'm not as well as st. Louis has been playing and as soft as their schedule is to finish the season. I'm not sure I see any team running away with this.

So, you know, 90, that might be pushing it, but 91 points, I wouldn't be shocked at all if the team that gets in eventually finishes with 91 points here. Yeah. And as a result, I mean, maybe the Connexco seven and five down the stretcher, maybe that's good enough, which, you know, in this season, as we're talking about, you're talking about all the

teams being flawed. Maybe that's good enough to get the Canucks in. Moj, do you want to do an Ask Us Anything? This one just. By the way, what do we got? This one just came in from Gunner from Kelowna. Um, and he asked while covering the Lions in Hamilton, if he has ever had Canada's famous Hutch's

fish and chips, which is an iconic and historical fish and chip restaurant. Laddy, have you heard of that? Absolutely. Yeah. Hutch's is amazing. And maybe some follow up thoughts just on fish and chips in general.

Okay. First off, I have it and now I will be. You haven't been to Hutchins? No, I love Hamilton. To me, I love Hamilton. It's a great town. It's blue color but it's got a real cool vibe to it. What's that one little district there down there? Hess Village. What was it? Hess Village, that's it. Yeah. Thumbs up on Hamilton and I'll have to check this fish and chip place out. I like fish and chips. My favorite fish and chips is White Spot.

Like that's my go-to for fish and chips. But the key with fish and chips is please just make sure that you cook the batter all the way through. Nothing worse than having fish and chips and the batter is like, you know, maybe. Oh yeah. 75%. Soft.

That's a hard pass. Yeah. And yeah, like fish and chips. And the other thing too with the chips, the thing I like about White Spot is the fact you get those Kennebec fries, right? You cannot go wrong with Kennebec fries. Um, what's your sluggish rating after fish and

chips, like out of 10, because mine's an 11 and it's the only thing that keeps me from ordering fish and chips. If it's the middle thing that keeps me from ordering fish and chips. If it's the middle of the day or whatever and I've got things to do, I'm like, I don't know if I can afford this. Probably an eight. Yeah.

Is it the most sluggish of the foods? No. Like a big burger. Oh no no. A heavy burger? No no no, fish and chips. Fish and chips more for you? Fish and chips for me is the-

That's wild to me. It's a high slug factor. Heavy burger. I think a fish and chips more for you? Fish and chips for me is the- That's wild to me. It's a high slug factor. Heavy burger. I think a fish and chips is like light. Oh my God, you're a hell for- I have a light snack here of some fish and chips. Like for me pasta, like that for me is the heavy. Yeah, yeah.

If I eat like a plate, and you know, as you get older, you don't eat as much obviously, right? But like, man, I just have a plate of pasta now. I'm like, I'm down and I'm trying to stay away from pasta, a little low carb diet. But man, um, I have pasta. I'm probably like a 15. Really? Man, believe it or not, we're getting a lot of texts in about food that makes

you feel sluggish from our listeners. Uh, Benny, Benny texts in KFC makes you sluggish. It's not even close. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. Yeah. I see. I don't know though, but like KFC, it's not,

again, does that really fill you up? You have to get a lot, you have to eat so much of it, like KFC food is kind of. Do you have a hollow leg or what the hell's going on here? KFC to me is kind of like, um, like classic North American style takeout Chinese food. Where it's like, you're not full.

You're half an hour later. You're not full. I'm full after KFC, man. Here's the thing about KFC. You are impressive. You, you don't eat KFC that often, right? Like, I mean, it's not like, so here's the thing when you do eat KFC, right?

Usually you have a real serious craving for it or, or any fried chicken or, you know, we're talking about KFC could be Popeyes or whatever. So you have a real serious craving for it. So you kind of like, I want to get into this. Well, the next thing you know, you've plowed through like four or five pieces and that's why you have that sluggish rating, right? Go up to whatever, a 15 or 13, because you've had so much of it. You just don't have like one piece or two pieces of chicken because you rarely eat it. And when you do, you much of it. You just don't have like one piece or two pieces of chicken. Cause you rarely eat it.

And when you do, you have that craving. And when you have that craving, you, like I said you plop through four or five pieces. Well, let's rank cravings then is, is fried chicken at the top of like all of a sudden it just hits you. Maybe you walk by and you smell it and you're like I need that and you can't stop thinking about it.

I think fried chicken for me is like at that level. Like you say Moj, like I don't have it, actually I have it more and more now because it's made such a comeback, but before I remember I'd be like, man, I haven't had fried chicken for a while. Now I really want fried chicken. Then I have fried chicken and I'm like, I don't want fried chicken for at least a year.

It's funny you mentioned fried chicken. I don't know about you guys, but like, have you seen like a proliferation of like these fast food fried chicken? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's like nuts. You can't go like a block and a half with bumping into some. It's carrying our economy right now. Fried chicken. Yeah. You know what I find as I get older, what I have craving for is just, and you mentioned it

Mo, it's just like a big plate of pasta. no just a big plate of pasta and some meat sauce. Oh I just thinking about it now. I'm like I want that tonight moat Have you ever had Korean fried chicken mode specifically? I was just gonna say is that Chico chicken like I think it might be like Because there's like a bunch of great Korean fried chicken places in the West End where I live and oh my god It's just incredible. What's the name of the fried chicken places in the West end where I live. And oh my God, it's just incredible. What's the name of the fried chicken place off commercial that's just killer? Oh, I can't remember.

I've never had it though, cause the lineup is too long. Yeah, it is so good. And I'm trying to remember the name of it. I should. I'm sure someone will text it in within five seconds. That chicken is tremendous. That's like a go-to place for chicken in Vancouver.

Down low chicken shack? Down low, yeah. There we go. Thank you to TJ and-to place for chicken in Vancouver. Down low, chicken shack? Down low, yeah. There we go. Thank you to TJ and Langley who got that in real quick. Down low, down low, it's down low. Shout out to TJ and Langley for getting it first. All right, Moj. He's probably in the lineup right now.

Everyone's pretty hungry now, I think, although it is 7.43 in the morning and there's been a lot of fried chicken talk on the Halford and Bref show That's what you got when you book Moj as a guest down on Friday Moj. Have a great weekend pal All right guys. Have a great weekend. Enjoy That is Bob the Moj Marjanovic here on Halford and Bref Sportsnet 650 somebody texted in so what does Dodd Find filling or make him sluggish Definitely the it's cliched but the turkey dinner on Thanksgiving or Christmas

and that's more like the volume than yeah right it's also the stress of the family mashed potatoes are but I was thinking like Shepherd's pie is a big one like I feel like super sluggish really Shepherd's pie you're not full of your guys are you getting me a plate of the heartiest meals you can get sluggish it's just dinner. That's normal dinner. You're asking us what's wrong? You can like crush fish and chips. And you're like, that was a nice light snack. The other thing though is I find,

and I know it's not so much sluggish, as much as it is like my stomach feels wrong is too much red meat or like red meat with a really rich sauce on top of it. You know what I mean? That will hit me. I feel like I might have a heart attack here. When I was younger and I would go to a nice steak house, I would always be like, well,

I'll go to order the biggest steak. Of course. I get the smallest one now. Well, I don't know about the smallest one, but I used to go for the 22 ounce New York strip or whatever. Yeah. Now I'm probably, and then your night is ruined Now am I sweating what what is going on? I'm probably going for like the you know like the 14 ounce rib eye or something like that

Okay, let's get back into ask us any things and a reminder if there's a hundred dollar pizza gift card to AJ's pizza And here's one with a pizza emoji from Jay, who asks if the Canucks miss the playoffs by two points or fewer, which game or games will you look back on with the most regret? And this is of course coming off a game where the Canucks yet again lost in overtime. Um, I don't know if you see that last night as

one of those games where you'd look back on it. It would have to be for me, like they lost three, two at home to Buffalo. It's, I think the clear winner is the Seattle game where they're up what, four one. Oh yeah. With like five minutes left and they lose in overtime.

So you still get a point and it's not a team that's going to beat you for a playoff spot or anything. But if you miss by a point. But what about losing to Buffalo at home? That sucks. Don't get me wrong. I can't even keep up with- But you weren't up four one, you weren't up three yoles

with five minutes left in that game. Yeah, but so there was a game earlier in the season where they lost five two to the Islanders at home too, which was just, just a dreadful performance, but maybe, maybe I'm getting the answers. Like maybe those are the wrong answers. Yeah. Not like, Oh my gosh, how did we blow this? How did we not get more points out of this type losses? That's the difference for me. And that's why the Seattle one could know you guys have done like the Mount Rushmore of bad losses, but that's why the Seattle one. I know you guys have done like the Mount Rushmore

of bad losses, but that's a different conversation. I think, because there's been some really ugly losses, but if you're just talking about the ones that will haunt their dreams, if they miss the playoffs by a point or two, I think it's that Seattle one where you're up so big, so late. So the schedule for the Canucks going forward, uh, at New York to play the Rangers, uh, and again,

10 AM start our time tomorrow. Uh, then there's a day off. We'll see if they practice on Sunday. They have a team day off today. Um, as they go from, they probably flew out of St. Louis last night and got into New York and they have a team day off, I don't know, they go shopping or something.

Uh, they play the Rangers tomorrow and then I bet they'll practice on Sunday. And that will be interesting to see if Thatcher Demko is a full participant at that practice because they play New Jersey on Monday so they can stay in the same hotel, play the Rangers and play New Jersey. And then they've got the Islanders on Wednesday.

So they could also practice on Tuesday somewhere in that area. The road trip continues or ends in Columbus and Winnipeg. So with the travel is going to be harder to find practice time for that. But the fact that they're in that New York area to play the

Rangers, Devils and Islanders from Saturday to Wednesday, like they should be able to find at least one practice time. Yes. Maybe two. And we'll see about Phillip Heidel as well. Like they miss this guy. Well, Heidel didn't travel with them.

So. Oh, he didn't. Okay. But Thatcher Demko did travel. Thatcher Demko did and he was skated with them, so. Oh, he didn't, okay. But Thatcher Demko did travel. Thatcher Demko did, and he was skated with them in St. Louis yesterday, and I heard IMAQ on the post-game show say, don't expect him against the Rangers, but wouldn't be surprised at all

if he plays against the Devils, and then if he doesn't play against the Devils, it would actually be surprising if he doesn't get in against the Islanders, right? So no Rangers for Demko, it sounds like, but assuming everything goes well for him in, in practice and there's no setback or anything, either the Devils or the Islanders sounds like a very likely spot to see that your Demko.

So if Halford were in, we'd have already talked a lot about Canada's loss to Mexico last night, down in LA, which was doubly disappointing because the Americans were upset by Panama. So Canada was looking at the opportunity to play Panama in the finals for the opportunity to win their first trophy since 2000. The game obviously started really poorly for Canada.

They surrendered a goal in the first minute. I think it was 47 seconds in or 48 seconds in. And it came off a, probably a bit of a, an aggressive, a overly aggressive or maybe reckless throwing from Alistair Johnson. But, you know, there were some bad bounces along the way and, uh, Mexico scored to go up one nothing. Now when they did that, obviously I was, uh, upset about the bad start, but I also thought,

you know what? I've seen this happen before in a lot of games, especially, you know, soccer where there's an early goal and then the team that gets the goal is suddenly defending the whole game. And Canada has the offensive capabilities. It is still weird, like to me that Canada's strengths are actually the offensive abilities

and the talent they've got in an attacking way. And I thought for sure that Canada would score on Mexico, but you know, Mexico, they're kind of like a wily vet of a soccer country and they know how to disrupt an attack. And Canada's attack, even though they had quite a bit of possession in the game, they never really found those great opportunities.

Now, did the refs blow it on that penalty, what should have been a penalty? Yeah, they did. I'm not a soccer expert, but I'm going to defer to the many people I asked and granted some of them might be biased, but a lot of them were shocked that Canada wasn't awarded a penalty and if they score on that, it's 1-1 in a completely different game. Ultimately, Mexico deserved that and you can say, one, one and a completely different game. Ultimately Mexico deserved that.

And you know, you can say, well, that was a learning experience for, for Canada, but it was also just really disappointing. I guess if there's a silver lining, it's that Canada will get an opportunity to play the Americans. Yep. In the third place game. But it's good. I mean, it's place game, but it's good.

It, I mean, it's, it's, it's good for them to get these tests, but if they go into this semi-finals and they lose to Mexico and they lose to the Americans, all of a sudden you're kind of like, all right, well, Jesse Marsh was getting a lot of positive talk and rightly so, but all of a sudden you're like, are you going back to the drawing board on some stuff, on some planning? And I also think what's really important against

the Americans is that, you know, Jonathan David has to not create more, but like they need to create more for him and he needs to finish his opportunities. As they say in soccer, he needs better service. Wow, I was going to say also, he needs to be clinical. He needs to be clinical. He needs to be clinical.

He did have kind of one half chance where he blew it over the bar. He was wasteful. He needs to be clinical. There you go. And they need to figure out where Alfonso Davies is best suited to play. Again, I'm not a soccer expert, so don't yell at me, but you know, playing for Bayern and playing for

Canada, they're very different, right? So where do you want them? Do you want them left back or do you want them on the wing? Because last night, I, listen, I realize he probably feels a lot of responsibility to carry Canada, but near the end of the game, man, he was, and for a lot of the game, he was just

playing this hero ball. Like he, he, I'm like pass it, man. Like so many giveaways and he needs to trust his teammates and realize that they are good players, but they also just, they were just sloppy yesterday. They're wasteful. It was also interesting, I thought really interesting to hear Sharman on the show yesterday say, okay, they've got him playing at his, at the correct position now at left back. He's one of the best left backs in the world. And that's true. And I can understand,

and look, Sharman knows so much more about soccer than me. So I, I defer to him on this and I can understand obviously wanting saying, Hey, Alfonso Davies, you play left back for Byron. We're going to keep you at that position. But I also, you know, you know how like in football, certain positions are just way more important, get paid way more, right? Like you're never going to make as much money as a middle linebacker as you are as an edge rusher, because it's just not as important as the game. Like that's fullback, left back or, you know, the, the wide backs in soccer is they're not considered a premium position. Those guys don't go for crazy transfer fees,

even if they're the best in the world, because it doesn't impact the game as much. Now, if you're elite, it's still really good to have an elite one, of course. But I do wonder for Canada, even though they've accumulated more attacking talent, if you still have to look at it and say, we need to put this guy to position where he can consistently impact the game at a higher level

than he can at left back. Uh, okay. Uh, we've got Rick Dollywall coming up and Rick just DMed me and said that, uh, he does have an update or some information on the Pugh suitor contract situation. So I don't know what that update is, but we are going to talk to Rick Dollywall next on the

Alfred and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650.