Halford & Brough in the Morning - HalBro On Petey's Performance At The 4 Nations

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

In hour three, Mike & Jason discuss Elias Pettersson's performance at the NHL 4 Nation's Face-Off (3:00), plus the boys tell us what they learned (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.

801 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. Alfred Ruff, Sportsnet 650. You know what I love the most about the show? That even though sometimes, sometimes we have an adversarial relationship with the listeners. Sometimes I call them chuds. Sometimes. Sometimes I call them chuds. Sometimes.

Sometimes, Ruffle respond in the text message in basket angrily. Sometimes it's adversarial. But when there's a hot mic in the commercial, it warms the cockles of my heart every time that they will race to their phones and text in and be like, guys, hot mic, don't say anything that's gonna get you canceled. I gotta say though, PSA, if you are listening on the stream, it's too late. It's too late.

You're about two minutes behind, it is far too late. Whatever Michael said has gone to air. That's what makes it great. While futile, they still try. God bless. I don't even know what I was uttering. I think I was just uttering like nonsensical, like hey brother, hey like, hey brother.

Hey brother. That's the Tobias. No. Was it Tobias? Who used to say it in Arrested Development? Hey brother. That was Buster. It was Buster, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was Adog. It was Adog. Hey brother. Yeah. The closest Adog. It was Adog. Hey, brother. Hey. The closest representation to me on a TV show. It's true.

There was one guy that texted in about my take that Pee Dee has the yips that I actually think I might need to call the Vancouver Police Department for protection. Side note, we have a bit of an issue going on. We have some problems. I have been threatened via the Dumberlumber text. He's not even joking. It's just like a full blown threat. OK.

You are listening to the Haliford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. We do have a police presence out front. Haliford and Bruff 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 or parts.

We are in hour three of the program. Get this, no guests in hour three. It's just an hour of pure unfiltered Haliford and Brough. Hour three of this program is brought to you by Campbell and Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-Pound.com today. Okay. We need some more, oh actually, we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio,

Kintec Footwear and Orthotics working together with you in step. We need some more what we learns into the Dunbar Lumber Text Line. This half hour segment is going to be the four of us doing our what we learns and I'm going to start. And then the next segment is going to be the four of us doing our What We Learns and I'm going to start. And then the next segment is going to be you guys with your What We Learns, texted into the Dunbar Lumber Text Line at 650, 650. So I'm going to start with my What We Learned and what we learned is.

Is it a little peaty? I guess we got to talk about Pedersen again. So here's my take and it's going to be angering to some of you, but I have been calling it like I see it with this guy for the last year. I've taken a lot of heat for it. I've been right. That was bad at the Four Nations guys.

I'm not sure it could have gone worse for him. He was a total non-factor out there. The worst part is that the rest of the hockey world was paying attention to it. There was articles in the Athletic written by Fluto Shinzawa who's usually a Boston writer and I was like, what's going on with Pedersen? And people in Vancouver I saw in the I was like, what's going on with Pedersen? And people in Vancouver, I saw in the comments were like, where you been?

And at this point, it would take a lot of guts to trade for him, given his play and contract. The only thing the Canucks could really sell is that, oh, he just needs a change of scenery and he needs a big summer of getting stronger and getting into the gym. Because even if you do use the excuse that he's injured, which the Canucks have not, that's not

really helping his trade value. You're essentially going like, don't worry. He's not terrible. He just has chronic knee tendonitis and a wonky wrist. Like, don't worry, it's fine. Okay. Let me jump in just for a sec. That is the sort of like glass half empty part

where you're like, whoa, but he's hurt. And I'm like, that doesn't make it that much better. He's just prone to injuries. By the way, again, I will ask the question, do you think the Canucks would have let Pedersen go to this tournament if they really thought he was injured? I also saw a few people, man, the grasping

at Strauss got sad yesterday. People were like, maybe he had the flu. It's going around the tournament. Like, do you think Sweden would put Pedersen on the bench if he had the flu? Zabinijad had the flu and Raquel had the flu and they were out of the lineup. And it mean nothing.

Put him in the dressing room and it was like, oh, he's got the flu. So don't talk to him. Don't sit too close to him. Oh, these benches are sure tight. Right? Like I would also like to point out that in light of the fact that Zabinajad and Raquel both missed

the game with the flu, that was two of Sweden's top six forwards through the first two games. So without Sweden's, two of Sweden's top six forwards in the first two games in the third game, you would have thought that that would present more of an opportunity for Elias Pedersen to play minutes. He actually played the fewest of the entire tournament, nine minutes and 54 seconds time on

ice again, without Zabinajad and Raquel in the lineup. Just wanted to put that out there. I wish I didn't have to pile on here, but I'm going to call it like I see it. And when I watched him on the ice, my thought was he doesn't belong on the ice in this tournament. He didn't belong with the best players in the world. He brought nothing to the table.

And it was even worse when he got bumped to the wing yesterday because a winger needs to have an attacking mentality and he doesn't have that right now. He's got a hang back and at least play well defensively mentality. He's got an F3 mentality. And it's funny because the Swedish coach Sam Hallam said, you know, and he was spinning a little bit.

He said, and this is part way through the tournament. He said, yeah, he's put a really good effort in taking responsibility with the puck playing good F3, being strong in the defensive zone, four check. I'm like, I didn't see any four check. And the reason he's playing F3 so well is because he's hanging back. And that is the responsibility of a centre in some ways, you know, the wingers are more going to be more responsible for the four checking. So as a centre, sometimes you got to stay on top of the play a little bit more.

But when he was kicked to the wing, I was kind of like, well, what's he going to do there? What's he going to do on the wing? And it turns out what he was going to do is get benched for the third period. Now feels like a good time to point out that the Canucks had two players at the Four Nations faceoff, Kevin Lankenen and Leas

Patterson, and the leading Canucks score at the tournament was Kevin Lankenen. Ritake matching. One. Pedersen. One point to zero points. It is kind of crazy that the Canucks are facing a future without Pedersen, Miller and Horvat.

Miller and Horvat are already gone. Pedersen could be gone. And for all the good things that management has done here, if they do make the decision to trade Pedersen and don't get great value for him, that is a massive, massive L for Rutherford and Alveen. That's three star centers, all gone for various reasons. And I realize that Horvat and Miller were used to improve the blue line and hopefully trading Pedersen would net them something useful. all gone for various reasons. And I realize that Horvat and Miller were used to improve the blue line and

hopefully trading Pedersen would net them something useful, but you can't win a cup without a number one center. So how are they going to find one if they trade Pedersen? That's why as much as I've criticized Pedersen and I've wondered, ah, should they trade them? criticized Peterson and I've wondered, should they trade him? I could easily see them gambling on keeping Peterson and hoping he can turn around. Frankly, it might be the smart bet, given how difficult it would be to find a number one center in a trade or free agency. There's nothing coming down in Abbotford in

terms of future number one centers. They got a good winger in Leckermackie. Um, you know, in the city, he's not playing in Abbotsford, but Tom Willender is a good young defenseman, they got on the right side. Nothing at center though. So if you're management, you might be tempted to just gamble and keep Pedersen and hope that, you know, a, a, a, a, a, a,, if there are any with Pedersen, while also trying to deal with some of the mental issues, if there are any with Pedersen, and then you hope that he comes back. Because if you trade him, you tell me how are

you going to find a number one centre? What are some names out there? Were you going to get Conor McDavid out of Edmonton? Yeah, that's the first one I had. You know, like are you going to get. I'd go for him. Are you going to get Sid out of Pittsburgh? You know, like those are long shots, guys.

And, you know, it might be like, okay, even if it's like a 20% chance that Pedersen can regain his form, maybe that's a gamble you're willing to take because if you trade Pedersen, then like, what have you got? What do you got Dylan Cousins and Philip Heidel down the middle? Is that, is that the future you're looking at?

Okay. Well, good luck winning a cup with that. It's a very difficult situation that this management group is in, very, very difficult. Yeah. I think the folly or the error of our ways might be constantly looking for a solution when I'm not sure that there's a good one.

I just, I think that the more the picture comes into focus and it kind of is now like we've kind of run out of reasons to hope that it's gonna magically turn around I think and by magically I mean the snap of the fingers like the flashpoint moment you know and you know what the next one is right you heard Craig Simpson talk about the next one's gonna be to make the playoffs like here we go it's playoff time. This is when everything will turn around. And we're past like once bitten, twice shy.

It would be eight or nine bitten at that point. I don't know if there is a really good solution and that's probably why the tone of the conversation is so negative and the feedback to it is so dour because people wanna have optimism that it's going to turn around and people want to believe that things are going to get better. And that's just an inherent belief that some

people have. They're called optimists. They exist out there. They're nice, friendly people. They always assume that things are going to turn out and it's the power of positive thinking. And they get conned out of all their money a lot. That's right. Put a billion dollars in like boner coin or whatever the latest get rich quick. It's going to go up.

It's going to go up. What's the new meme coin? What did you just call it? Boner coin. A lot of money in boner coin? Yeah. I thought you, oh stop. What?

There's like every other sort of like joke meme coin out there. I think we could start one. We should have an adog coin. Well, that would be too successful. We can't do that. I'm learning all the terminology so I can have a conversation.

I don't know what any of the terminology means. Yeah. I don't either. A-dog would be the next huck to a girl. I put 200 into A-dog coin, but then I got rugged, and now I don't have any exit liquidity. I think I nailed it.

A-dog to Maui. Yeah. Predictably, and I wanted to do this I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it.

I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it.

I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it.

I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. I think I nailed it. It's kind of probabilities right now. What are you more likely to, how are you more likely to find a number one center? By trading Pettersson and hoping one falls into your lap somehow or by keeping Pettersson and hoping he can regain his form? That's a, like, here's the thing, I don't know. I don't know the answer to that question and I'm glad it's not me that has to make that decision. But what I'm hoping, one of the interesting things that Patrick Galvin said,

and this was about a month ago, is that we are going to use all the resources that the Canucks have to get his game back. And a followup question to that might've been, oh yeah, what are those resources that you're talking about? Is he talking about strength and conditioning? Is he talking about sports psychologists? Is he talking about the medical group? Electric shock therapy.

Is he talking about the, group? Is he talking about the- All of it. Ketamine department or what's going on here? Do they have one of those? I mean, they should. It's all of it. It's all of it. I would imagine. Well, I don't know. That's what we, we don't really, we don't really and truly know what the Canucks 100% think

about what's happened with Pedersen. You don't know. There's just been a couple hints here and there. Like. We don't know what's going on, man. There's still a debate as to whether he's heard. Well, we're all wondering, even if you don't believe that's the main issue, we're all

wondering if there's like, is it like 10% of the reason or 20% of the reason? I've pretty much like resigned. This is a way I'm going to phrase it too. I've resigned myself to believing that he's hurt and he might, even if he's not, or even if I don't even necessarily truly believe it, it's just easier. You resigned yourself to thinking that he's hurt? Well, no, like I don't think that he's hurt, but I've resigned myself to being like, sure's just easier. You've resigned yourself to thinking that he's hurt? Well, no, I don't think that he's hurt, but I've resigned myself to being like, sure, he's hurt.

That's where, when people ask me now, or when we have the conversation, I'm like, yeah, sure, he's hurt. Okay? There's no other, nothing makes sense, none of it. I think my take makes sense. I honestly do. I've seen this happen before. I've seen it happen in other sports.

I think he's, I think his body essentially is not communicating well with his brain right now and he's paralyzed out there. I've never seen anything like this in the NHL. Yeah. I mean, that's the one, yeah, but right. I can kind of understand it in the sports where you have the monotony of a simplistic task, like throwing the ball across the plate. one, yeah, but right. I can kind of understand it in the sports where

you have the monotony of a simplistic task, like throwing the ball across the plate or, you know, trying to do a golf swing that you've done a million times over. What about, what about shooting the puck? Um. Like the yips doesn't just happen with chips and putting, like there are full on driver yips where

you like, something happens with your swing and you're like, oh, it might be like, you're just kind of like your, your, your hands feel like they're going to explode as soon as you make. I don't know. That's the best theory I can come up with. Well, it's good. I, you know.

I like your theory. There's just too much. I just took the easy way out. Yeah. He's hurt. Nah, he's hurt. Anyway, moocow him cause I got my, what we learned coming up. There's just too much. I just took the easy way out. He's hurt? Nah, he's hurt. Anyway, moocow him, because I got my what we learned coming up.

Ah! My what we learned is that while the NHL was having a sick weekend, basking in the glow of all of the excitement around the four nations face off, the NBA was having a terrible weekend. Did you pay any attention to what was going on in the NBA this weekend?

First off, did you even know it was All-Star Weekend? Yes, because Mack McClung is incredible. Okay, so Mack McClung, now he did win the dunk contest for a third consecutive year. He's only a second player in NBA history with an asterisk because he's not an NBA player, but third straight year that he's won the dunk contest, that was kind of cool on Saturday. The real, real downfall for the NBA happened on Sunday during their three hour all star game event, which was a presentation that lasted three full broadcast hours, yet someone timed it in the three hours.

Do you know how much actual basketball was played? 48 minutes. 30 minutes. Oh, 30 minutes. 30 minutes of basketball. It featured the kind of lackluster, lazy, not interested play that you would normally get, but with a whole bunch of weird theatrics

and new designs and wrinkles throwing into it. A terribly unfunny performance from Kevin Hart, who was acting as the on-court MC and was talking throughout the game. So it's funny. I'm going to read the lead from NBC News' piece. It's a perfect encapsulation of how weird and terrible the NBA All-Star game was. This is from NBC News. Shaq's OGs won the 74th annual NBA All-Star competition Sunday night,

reaching the target score of 40 faster than Chuck's global stars. Did any of that make sense to you? That was the lead from NBC News. One more time, one more time. Shaq's OGs won the 74th NBA All-Star Competition on Sunday night, reaching the target score of 40 faster than Chuck's global stars. And then NBC. The OGs just wanted it more. The OGs wanted it more. Then they played a game of horse to cap it all off.

So they had a four team single elimination tournament, as mentioned, the target score 40. The teams were drafted by the TNT guys, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O'Neal. And then the four team was drafted by Candice Parker called Candice's Rising Stars. And that was comprised of guys that won Friday night's Rising Stars game,

which was like the rookies versus the sophomores. The NBA, bottom line is it was an awful experience and an awful weekend. It got panned by everyone that watched it. The entertainment value was nil. There was so many cringe-worthy moments on Sunday. And I bring this up because there's a personal Howlboro connection to terrible All-Star events.

Jason and I, at the time, fortunate, in hindsight, maybe unfortunate, we went to the 2015 NHL All-Star game in Columbus, which now, in the history books, is regarded as the All-Star game that was so bad that it forever changed how the NHL did its All-Star games. Back in 2015, it was the last time that the NHL ever used the traditional five-on-five, three-period, 20-minute format for an All-Star game. It was awful. The final score was 17 to 12. It

broke all sorts of quote unquote scoring records because there was 29 goals over a 60 minute game. It was impossible to sit through. It was terrible to watch. There was no energy, no entertainment, zero juice in the building. Did the goalies show up? They did.

They were like, no one did anything. No one played any defense. No one bothered to back check. Like it was just kind of, it wasn't even a practice. It was just a, like a Sunday skate stick and puck. It was terrible. It was horrible. And that damn Canon kept on going off. Incessantly. Because there are so many goals.

So the interesting thing about the 2015, and I remember working it. And then the next year I nearly fought Brent Burns. The NHL decided they were going to have two things. They were going to have the, the brough versus burns fight, and then they were going to have the, anyway, uh, they decided after 2015 that we can't do this anymore. They reached their breaking point with the all

star game. They're like, we can't have it the same way that it is. It was sort of the last time where everyone watching it said, we can't keep doing this without actually doing it. And they finally did something. And I wonder if the NBA has reached that point

because this weekend was so bad. So the reason. And it got, pardon the pun, but it got dunked on by the NHL. So the reason I got into it with Brent Burns a little bit is when they did go to three on three and they changed the format, I asked, I guess in hindsight, it was not the most

delicate question. I can't even remember what my exact words were, but essentially- It was a very bruff approach. It was essentially like, hey, are you guys going to try now? And he got very offended. And he said, well, what do you want me like, eventually saying, like, do you want me to like hunting down guys on the back check? I'm like, do you want me to like hunting down guys on the back check?

I'm like, I'm just, I'm just wondering like that. They're giving you a million dollars to win this tournament. They've completely changed the format, Brent. So maybe like there's a reason for that. And then I don't know who it was, a Sharks teammate is like, do you need help over there Brent? And it was kind of funny. I was like, listen, and then, and then here's the funny part.

The even funny part. He goes, what do you want these games to be? One, nothing. And then the final game, and everyone was saying, oh, this best of three is way better. Guys are trying. Final score in the final game, one, nothing. I believe it was Corey Perry that intervened too.

It wasn't Corey Perry. Oh no? It wasn't, no, no, no. It was a Sharks team. I talked to Corey Perry that intervened too. It wasn't Corey Perry. Oh no? It wasn't. No, no, no. It was a Sharks team. I talked to Corey Perry later and one of my biggest accomplishments as a beat reporter was getting Corey Perry to laugh, because he is very miserable.

And I said, like, wow, that was a lot. You guys are almost out of breath. And he laughed. And he's like, that's the first time I've laughed in 30 years. Then he cried. Then he cried. Then he laughed. But anyway. The NBA All-Star game is a problem for the same reason that the NHL All-Star game was a problem. Guys aren't trying.

Guys aren't trying. Right? Like you want to see effort. You saw it on the weekend because. Torrible. There was, I would say an unprecedented number of non-hockey people weighing in on hockey over the weekend. I don't I mean, outside of the Olympics in 2014, when TJ Oshie, that was the last time I remember it being that pronounced where, you know, everybody that had no clue what hockey was about was into hockey. And a lot of the NBA guys were saying like,

this is very, very damaging to the NBA's brand. And at one point was a really fun weekend for them. The NBA All-Star game used to be dunk contest was kind of my C, three point contest was a very big deal. And the All-Star game was truly All-Stars in the fourth quarter, trying their hardest and trying to beat one another because there wasn't that physical element of getting hurt.

You can go out and play hard in basketball, not risk injury. It's just the facts of it. And LeBron punted on the game like 24 hours before it was supposed to start. And the league is in a bad spot right now. If you're not paying attention to the NBA all that much, the league is in a very bad spot.

The on-court product is not appealing to a lot of people because it's way too three-point reliant. Load management has become a detriment to the league because guys are taking off way too many games. And last year's playoffs were a disaster and that's seeped into this year's coverage. Also, if you want to get real deep on this, TNT, who's in its last year of holding NBA

rights is going out, uh, pissing and moaning and being real bitter about losing the rights because they were lined up on the weekend during their own broadcast to talk about how bad the product was. Yeah. Right? They're like, we're out of here anyway.

Right. They weren't carrying water like Bref and I for the four nations face off. Okay. Give us a moocall on that. I think we've got some, what we learned from the dogs as well. And we'll also go into the Dunbar Lumberge

text line and read your what we learned on the other side of the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canuck Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen four to 6 PM weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. Now for my favorite part of the show. What did I say?

Talk to the audience. Oh, God, this is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. On the show. On the show. On the show.

On the show. On the show. On the show. On the show. On the show. On the show. On the show. On the show. On the show. 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 three of the program. It is what we learn time. Hour three is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-pound.com today. ["The New York Times"] Some business to attend to here.

I need to tell you about this new contest we're running. It's called the Ultimate Vancouver Hockey Experience. Sportsnet 650 and Waypoint Insurance want to give you the Ultimate Vancouver Hockey Experience. On March 15, Chicago and their young megastar, who could that be, are in Vancouver and you could win a chance to see it live plus an overnight stay at a luxury hotel in Vancouver. Whether it's a home game or a road trip, Waypoint is always the right call

for your home, business or auto insurance, top shelf insurance and a top shelf hockey fan experience. Enter now on our contest page at SportsnetCA forward slash 650, look for the contest page, you'll find it. The contest closes on March 2nd. Three young megastars landed slikert. Every day until March 2nd we are going to guess which mystery Chicago young megastar and who it is. I don't

know. We don't even know what team it is. Arvid Soderblom? Chicago. Well, it could be the wolves. Could be. Do they show up the wolves? I don't know. Find that out too. So many mysteries involved with this contest. It's a very exciting thing. Okay. Because we had an hour of uninterrupted Halbrow in the final hour of the show today, no eight o'clock guest, no eight thirty guest. We said everyone is responsible for bringing a what we learned to the table. Jason did his. Shockingly, it was about Petey. I know. I know.

And Adog threw me under the bus again. We went the whole first hour and it was my idea, my idea the whole first hour, we're not going to talk about Petey, we're not going to talk about Petey. But of course we have to talk about Petey at some point, considering all the texts we're getting in. And then you bragged about not talking about Petey. So Adog with the one video clip that he posts every day,

here's the clip he went with, is my quote, Pedersen didn't belong with the best players in the world, he brought nothing to the table. every day, here's the clip he went with, is my quote, Pedersen didn't belong with the best players in the world, he brought nothing to the table. 10 second video. Yeah! No context, that's all it is. Just staring dead into the camera. But frankly for analysis, that's all you really need.

It's good analysis. So one of the great, as we take everyone behind the scenes, how the sausage is made here at the Haliford and Bruff show, it's all hot mics and videos. Adog relishes the opportunity to take, of the three hours of broadcasting that we do, he'll try and find the most inflammatory Bruff clip that is designed to get hate replies on Twitter.

Designed, and he's like, look at this engagement. Yeah, look at all the threats on my family. At least I've stopped tag look at this engagement. Yeah, look at all the threats on my family. At least I've stopped tagging you in it. Yeah, we figured it out. Yeah, of course listeners tag him instead now. Ignorance is bliss. So anyway, and then Adog puts up the video and then there's a lineup of people, most of whom their accounts are either blocked or muted, then reply. Okay, but to be fair though, there is at this point of the whole Pederson saga, very little pushback against him. Like you have the crazy still that swear by the injury and threaten our families and all

that. For et cetera, et cetera. But that's like honestly probably 1%. Like most people at this point are either apathetic to it or resigned to the fact that he's not the same player anymore or just flat out agree with Bruff on the yips or whatever theory you want to throw out there. I don't see a lot of negativity with this. I did it first, when this whole thing first started, tons of pushback, tons of negativity.

At this point now, not so much. I see a lot of negativity stemming from fatigue. Yeah, and I get that. I've got it. I've got it. I've got fatigue, but how are we supposed to do a show? It's the biggest story. It's the biggest story. What else is there?

For the Canucks at this tournament, we talked about the Canada story and the America story for the whole first hour while ignoring multiple texts into the Dunbar Lumber text line. So for the people out there that are like, everyone's sick of this story, stop talking about it. It's like, no, they're not. Multiple texts, every text.

They're still curious. It is a, it's a fascinating story. Well, I'll say this. I did notice the rest of the North American landscape kind of picking up on this because there are so many eyeballs on this tournament. I mean, that was part of the reason why I was asking Wyszynski about the number, television rating number that they did in the States, which

was 4.4 million peaked at five for the Canada US game on Saturday. So you've got the media that's covering the tournament and it's kind of taking a first look at like, Hey, I've noticed Pedersen's struggling this year and then. Has this been happening? And then, and then they ask us.

Only for a year. Yeah. We're like, no, it has. I know our games are late. And then. Has this been happening? And then, and then they ask us. Yep, only for a year. Yeah. We're like, no it has. I know our games are late. And then there's a lot of people that are tuning in and watching the games. So it's become a story that has expanded beyond this small bubble of Vancouver, where we talk

about it endlessly. So, and that adds fuel and that adds oxygen or whatever else, right? And I think that's the new wrinkle to Pedersen's performance at this tournament because his play on the ice was not really a huge shock to anyone who's been paying attention in Vancouver, but other people who might've been like, yeah, I

heard he might've been struggling and there's some rift with him and JT Miller or whatever. Like that was the story that got most of the attention. Now everyone's like, that got most of the attention. Now everyone's like, whoa. But then it got. This guy is struggling and like, you know, that other teams are thinking this too.

All of a sudden I noticed, you know, people from, uh, online that are like Sabres fans or Islanders fans or, you know, hurricanes fans or whatever. They're like, wait a minute, like flyers fans are like, I was like excited at the notion that, that Pedersen was available and hoping we could get them out of Vancouver. Now I, I don't know about this now.

Yeah, Connuck's management is probably like, oh no, everyone else saw our dirty laundry. It's. Right. We were going to have problems now. We should have kept him away from this tournament because he has crippling, uhling knee tendonitis, Adogs words.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Clip that. OK. Real quick before we turn it over to the dogs for their what we learns, I should note, earlier in the show, we made mention of the fact that the Boston Bruins have officially ruled out

Charlie McAvoy for the Four Nations final on Thursday in case you missed it. McAvoy went the foreign nations final on Thursday in case you missed it McAvoy went to Massachusetts General Hospital overnight for what Frank Sara Valley According to his sources said was an infection stemming from an injury that he had suffered during this tournament this morning The Bruins announced that McAvoy was out for the remainder of the tournament Emily Kaplan from ESPN She is reporting that Team USA is talking to, I guess, the NHL and NHLPA about the rules to see if they can get an injury replacement for Charlie McAvoy,

not unlike what the Canadian team was able to do after Shea Theodore got hurt and then Kael McCarr had to miss the Saturday game against the USA because he had the flu. Canada would have been down to five defensemen. They called Thomas Harlean in an emergency situation. The US is trying to figure out if they can do the same thing ahead of Thursday's game. Right now, their sixth defenseman is Jake Sanderson, who drew in four McEvoy for Monday's loss to Sweden.

So we'll keep you updated on anything that might happen there. They let Quinn Hughes come back, it's like, I'm nuts. I mean, you know, honestly, one game, could you imagine? I don't think it's going to happen. I mean, it'd be fun to watch, but at the same time, it'd be absolutely awful for Canada. Also, Emily Kaplan is reporting that she has been quote unquote, reassured that both Kachuk brothers are going to play Thursday against Canada. So of the injuries, Matthews, who missed the Sweden game, was never considered

serious anyway, and he's going to play both Kachuk brothers are going to play McAvoy out. So there's your update. That's your, what we learned for the four nations final on Thursday. Okay. Which dog wants, you know what? I'm not even going to ask. I want laddie to go first.

I want you to tell us what you learned over the last 72 to 96 hours in sports. Well, first I'm gonna say USA, you are allowed a defenseman replacement, but it has to be Darien Hatcher coming out of retirement. That's it. That's all you get. Good pull. Brian Rafalski, also acceptable. I learned that I am very depressed going into this baseball season. Why's that? Vladdy Guerrero and Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro all met with the media this morning and Deneed in Florida all met with the media separately. Which is not a good sign and Vladdy said a lot of things, including this. No, we did not get an agreement today. I mean, they had their numbers. I have my numbers. But you know, it's just business like I always say things happens. But we all good. Hold on. No deal. That was his interpreter. That was the translator.

I was like, man, Vladdy really picked up English quick. That's impressive. You can hear him talking below the translator. Yeah. Okay. So there was a... Now walk me through this. There was a deadline. No bueno. Well, he didn't want to negotiate during the season. So he had this self-imposed deadline that, hey, if we don't get a deal done, I'm not going to negotiate during the season. So he had this self-imposed deadline that, Hey, if we don't get a deal done, I'm not going to negotiate from this point. If you want to drive a dump truck full of money up to my house, I will sign,

but I'm not going to change my number. I'm not going to do any negotiating with you while the season's going on. Well, he's at camp now. It started, so no deal in place. And it sounds like they weren't even close on a number. That's the other disappointment. Do you think they're still going to get it done? Because I always think with these things, if the

team wants them and the player wants to be there, and we all know that the Blue Jays have a lot of money at their disposal, there should be a way to get the deal done. So what a lot of Blue Jays analysts and fans have come to the conclusion is that this front office to get the deal done. So what a lot of Blue Jays analysts and fans have come to the conclusion is that this front office doesn't see Vladdy as worth the money that he's

commanding. That's the only reason why this deal wouldn't get done. Because like you said. There's such a wide margin, maybe there's such a wide margin that even though, yeah, we want to keep you and you want to stay and we do have lots of money, like we're not willing to crazy

overpay in our opinion. Yeah. From Atkins and Shapiro standpoint, that probably makes sense. From everyone else that follows the Blue Jays, that makes zero sense because we don't give a damn about the salary cap. There is no salary cap in baseball.

I don't give a damn about how much money Rogers is spending on Vladi Guerrero. Give him what he wants. We want Vladi to stay. He's going to be a, maybe not a generational player, but he's one of the best sluggers in the big leagues. Why wouldn't you want to keep that guy

around for 10 plus years? For a guy that wants to be there. Yeah, how many players. And that's the, that's the problem with being in Toronto, like there's a lot of people that. He's already there. Yeah, yeah. I mean, like they've tried with other free agents

and they're like, ultimately I want to be somewhere else. And, and you know, Toronto is not alone in that area, but if they do have a star that does want to be there and wants to be a Blue Jay for life, man, they got to get them locked up. And it's not even just the fact that they couldn't get this deal done and failed in that regard.

It's the way they come out in the media and the words they use, especially Ross Atkins, I've seen a hundred people describe it like this on social media. It's like chat GPT talking through a human. It is the most blathering, nonsensical, long statements that you could make while saying nothing at all. Kevin Shevoldaev is like, good, good.

That was well done. It is so frustrating as a fan of this team to see that as the face of the team coming back as, hey, here's the reason why we didn't sign Vladdy. And it makes no sense, zero sense. Shapiro and Atkins might be the most unrelatable executive duo in sports history. Like when they talk, it's just,

it's almost like they don't understand that there are fans who consume the product. It is, it's way too machine-like, it's way too business-oriented, and there is a sense, it's not quite talking down, but there's a sense of never being relatable, and those two embody it more than. Never getting to the point.

Yeah. Never telling us the true story. You think we're stupid? Why are they still there at this point? Obviously the management, like higher than them, likes them, thinks they're doing a good job. Shapiro did a great job with the renovations of the stadium. I feel like they might resonate more

towards an upper executive class than to the middle fan class, where when you speak in those terms and you speak about efficiency and what a divide though Yeah, what a divide doesn't come down to success at the end of the day. They've had one Wild-card game. That's why I'm saying like so Doesn't make any sense. The fans are frustrated fans are confused. It's not good. Mook. Yeah And finally it's lovable a dog. What did you learn? Well kind of sad news

And finally, it's lovable adog. What did you learn? Well, kind of sad news. The father of Italian chocolate and the creator of Nutella, one of my favorites, he passed away on Valentine's Day at the age of 97. Francesco Rivella, the chemist. His blood sugar was through the roof. Look at your Lord, man.

Made it all the way to 97, though. You should have seen the cremation that could see him for miles. His last words were, give me one more spoonful of Nutella. Francesco Ravella, the chemist and driving force behind Nutella, Kinder Surprise, and Ferrero Rocher. Rocher. Rocher.

Ferrero Rocher. Ferrero Rocher. Ferrero Rocher. Got a lot. He joined Ferrero back in 1952 and is considered to be the father of Italian chocolate. So raise your Nutella spoons up and salute. Are you a big Nutella toast guy? I do enjoy it. Yeah Surprising I hate Nutella. I so and it countless countless children and really I think it's maybe the current generation is I don't know

How enthusiastic the modern generation is with Nutella, but my generation, countless kids went to school with a Nutella sandwich. Well, that's not, that's not, it's not a chocolate sandwich. It's not a chocolate sandwich, yeah. That's when they banned peanut butter, that was the, that was the replacement. Fine, we'll give you chocolate.

It's got some nuts in it, but they're not gonna kill anybody. Advantage Nutella. It's not for a good, Kinder Surprise, though, very underrated, got a lot of the little toy inside. It's awesome. It's true. Kinder, Kinder's, they, that, the chocolate sucks. Yeah, who cares? It's all about the toy Which Americans can't be trusted with? So explain this you still get a happy meal explain this yeah, Americans can't be true. I mean the toys good

Oh my god, so you don't you yeah kinder surprise our band in the states They are not allowed to sell them in United States of America It's too much surprise as the little toy inside is a choking hazard. Yeah, Adog's been doing the merge like three times. Too many Americans have just been putting the whole egg in their mouth. Back again, are you? Chopping down. Mr. Cole, we cannot stress this enough.

You need to open the egg first before you consume it. All right, give us some mook on that. Sadly, we've only got a few minutes to go into the Dunbar lumber text line. Let's print them out and I'm going to rattle through these. I know, I know, I know, I know. Go. We learned humanoid edition is brought to you by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. AJ's original signature pies are a must try like the Detroit inch thick crust, crispy cheese, top with Parmesan and basil. Order online at AJ's.pizza. Mike in Nanaimo, what we learned, I learned that the four nations couldn't have worked out any better. Canada in the final versus USA and all

the Canucks participants have been knocked out and will get a good rest before Vegas on Saturday. All the Canucks participants, doing a lot of heavy lifting there, two of them. Lankanen, yeah, I'm glad that he's going to get back and get a little rest. He got even more rest because he got pulled from that game yesterday. I can't remember who the other Canuck is. Adam, Lankanen, yeah, I'm glad that he's going to get back and get a little rest and. He got even more rest because he got pulled from that game yesterday. I can't remember who the other Canuck is. Adam, the former bath guy, what we learned, I learned that with the snow gone in the lower

mainland, the rest of Canada will go back to hating us when we start golfing in February. I was looking at the forecast and I was like, oh, I got to get out to the driving range pretty soon. Little wet, little wet, but that's fine. What did you say? Laddie was doing a temperature check this morning. Yeah, it was minus 40 in Saskatoon,

and minus 26 in Calgary, and minus 12 in Toronto. And it's eight and rainy here? Plus eight, five to eight in Vancouver today. Way to go Vancouver. Good. Todd has bad takes, what we learned. Canada dodged a massive bullet with Quinn Hughes not playing in the Four Nations. The US power play with Huggy would be terrifying.

It's not a bad take, Todd. Well, now they're not going to have McEvoy and that might've been their first pair in theory, have Quinn Hughes on the left and Charlie McEvoy on the right. Now McEvoy is out if you missed the news, will not play Thursday against Canada. Um, yeah, Canada will be out without a couple

of good defencemen in Patrangelo and Shea Theodore. But, uh, I'm going to be really curious to see and hopeful and optimistic that the addition of Cale McCarr, who didn't play Saturday against the Americans will help Canada create more scoring chances because for all the talent that they've got up front, they did not create many scoring chances on Saturday. Eric, the unemployed, unemployed Halbro pod junkie.

There's a lot there. Hashtag WWO what we learned. Uh, the Halbro show in conjunction with the Hollywood theater doing a foreign nations faceoff final watch party. Yeah. I'll get all the information out on Twitter and everywhere else.

We're just working through some of the details. Maybe we'll do some pricing as well. But for those of you that have listened to the show and come to our watch parties before, Hollywood Theater on West Broadway in Kitsilano, great venue. We did one for Canada at the World Cup. We did a couple of them for Canada at the World Cup,

actually. We also did one for the Canucks Playoffs last year. So we'll be doing on Thursday night as well. Jay, with what we learned, that's actually a question. He says, if the four nations were utilizing the NHL point system, would Sweden have made the finals? No, I don't think so because Sweden would have finished with four points. They got overtime, two overtime losses in the win over the United States. So that's four points, they got overtime, two overtime losses in the win over the United States.

So that's four points. And Canada would have had four points? No, how many points would they have had? Canada would have had. Four points. Yeah, two wins, two wins, right? The overtime win and win over Finland, they would have four points and they would have had

the tiebreaker against Sweden because head to head, they beat Sweden. But the States would have also only added four points. Right. So that's where, and then Sweden would have had the head to head over the States because they beat them in the final. The States would have the head to head over Canada because they beat them on Saturday.

Oh, right, okay. It would be very complex. You'd have to go down to goal differential and everything. I don't, when you put that on a Twitter yesterday, I know you were saying, I know the genesis of what you were trying to get at. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can also see how it was misconstrued.

Yeah, because it's Twitter. The moral of the story really isn't about the point system. It's never tweet. Yeah, I know. I keep making that mistake. Never. I just keep making that mistake.

Tweet. Uh, Mike, the urologist from Brockville, where we learned lots of people noting the issues with the NBA, even Draymond calling the league boring. Is there a real issue here and does it even matter because it seems like they'll always get the viewership regardless. I think they got an issue.

There's a difference, you know, they will always get the viewership in terms of they'll get more than hockey, but I think their biggest, there's two big issues. Number one, the games aren't very good. There's way too much three point shooting and that's analytics. And it makes sense that they're doing it, but it's not appealing to watch. And number two, I realized that they want to go global and that the global growth is important for them, but their bread and butter is still the United States

and who is going to replace the likes of LeBron, Steph Curry, Katie. You know, it's like, it's like, yeah, there are some other stars in the NBA, but they aren't at that level. It's like tennis, right? They had the big three and yeah, there's some young stars in tennis. Of course there are. They're always

going to be up and coming stars and in basketball, there's always going to be up and coming American stars, but not like that. Yeah. Someone might emerge, but it's not happening right now. Just like a tennis star might emerge and you might get a, you'll never get a big three like that big three. You'll never get Federer and Nadal and Djokovic playing at the same time again. I don't think because it was such a moment in time.

But for the NBA right now, they've got a lot of problems and a lot of those came bubbling to the surface over the weekend in which the league just got annihilated on a national stage in a weekend where the NHL was being praised for doing something right. It was quite the dynamic contrast over the weekend. It was a lot of fun to watch. It's been a lot of fun to be back in the studio. Thank you all for joining us on a Tuesday. Just two more sleeps away until the rematch on Thursday between Canada and the US at the Four Nations final. We can't wait for it. But for now, we got to say goodbye. Signing off, I have been Mike Halford. He's

been Jason Brough. He's been Adog and he's been laddie. This has been the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Sportsnet 650 breaking news. This isn't a joke. This is real. Halford and Brough are still in studio. We don't normally do this, but we're going to do it for this particular breaking news story. According to Team USA head coach Mike Sullivan, Quinn Hughes is going to Boston to join the Americans for the finale of the Four Nations Face Off. Quinn Hughes apparently will be available for selection

when Canada takes on the US in the foreign nations finale on Thursday in Boston. Hey man that's that's awesome good for Quinn it's good for the tournament. Canada gets McCarr back the Americans get Quinn Hughes back all's fair let's have a great game. Once again not making it up Quinn Hughes is going to join team USA for the finale of the Four Nations Face Off.

This has now officially been the Halford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650.