Halford & Brough in the Morning - How Do The Canucks Handle Goaltending With Demko Out?

Episode Date: October 1, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they chat last night's Canucks pre-season shootout  loss to the Oilers in Edmonton (6:00), they discuss yesterday's Seahawks loss to the Lions (15:00), plus they go around the NHL with ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (25:59).  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-d Side of the goal for Sherwood. In front. Beats. He scores! What a pass from Kiefer Sherwood. We were working so hard sometimes we'd give our sticks, but that'll come. We have to embrace the hardness. Gives it to Amin Ra. He's going to throw it to Jarrett. It's a goal! To the end zone! Jarrett goal! Oh!

Baby on the receiving end of a pass from Amin Ra. St. Brown! Oh no! We suck again! Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford and his bruv.

It is Sportsnet 650. He's going to throw it to Jarrett. And guess what? Spoiler alert. He did. You are listening to the Halford and his bruv show. And Jarrett has caught it for a touchdown. What kind of name is Jarrett?

Apologies to all the Jarretts out there. You are listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. What was that? Was that the Lions call? Yeah. I hope it wasn't the Seahawks call. I sound very excited when I'm calling the other quarterback by his first name. Halford and Brough in the morning is coming to you live from the Kintec Studios

in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to youDawg, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brougham of 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 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle.

You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec. He's going to throw it to Jared.

Jared. Hello, Jared. This poor guy. We probably caught this otherwise good broadcaster at a bad moment. One more time. Come Hello, Jared. This poor guy. We probably caught this otherwise good broadcaster at a bad moment. One more time.

Come on, Jared. Catch it. He's going to throw it to Jared. Come on, Jared. Jared. Jared, do it, man. Catch that football,

Jared. So whoever that guy is, I don't know who he is. Normally, he's the thrower, and now he's the catcher. He also called him

football is crazy. He also called him Amon Ra. So I guess he's a first name guy, right? Which is fine. Anyway, I feel bad. We shouldn't make fun of broadcast. Yes, we should. Who are we to make fun of anybody? You think he calls every football player by their first name? I'm kind of wondering now. I'm not too sure.

That would be kind of funny. Andy. What? First off, before we do anything, I know this is a big day for you because it's the start of October. Yes. Which of course is National Chili Month, where we all celebrate our favorite spicy Mexican stew. We could do that as well, yeah. But it is also the month of Halloween, my favorite holiday. Adol gives out chili on Halloween. Gulp.

I don't know why you're looking at me about this. I don't know what you're going on about chili for. I don't know why you're looking at me about this. I don't know what you're going on about chili for. I don't know why you had your microphone on. Isn't this when you normally talk about who we're going to have on the show? Yeah, we are. 630 Greg Wyshynski is going to join the program from ESPN. We're going to spend. So here's what we're going to do.

We're not going to go too deep on the hilarity that's going on in Boston right now. We're going to talk to Wish and we're going to talk to both Ferraros about this. Yes, it's Ferraro Tuesday on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Ray Ferraro is going to join us at 8. Landon Ferraro

I already got it wrong. Ray Ferraro is going to join us at 7. Landon Ferraro is going to join us at 8. There you go. Landon Ferraro is going to join us at 8. Ray Ferraro is going to join us at 7. Soon Ferraro's going to join us at 8. There you go. Landon Ferraro's going to join us at 8. Ray Ferraro's going to join us at 7. So this is going to be a thing that we're going to do throughout the year. You all know Ray, of course. Longtime NHL player.

He's going to serve as an NHL analyst for our show. Landon, also a former NHL player. 77 games, 7 goals. Not a big deal. And then we're going to talk to him. He's going to be doing a bunch of work this year as a Canucks analyst on Sportsnet and Sportsnet 650. Also at 7.30, our weekly BC Lions guest is kick returner Terry Williams. We're going to do what we learned

in the 8.30 hour. And by the way, Major League Baseball playoffs start today. Hard lines for the Arizona Diamondbacks yesterday, who had to sit there and watch them get eliminated after the Mets and Braves split. But we're not going to gloss over that because the playoffs start today.

I liked all the jokes that Mets fans were making after they'd won the first game in very dramatic fashion, by the way. And then they were all coming up with their lineups for game two. I was like, oh, Bobby Bonilla is going to get in there. We still got him on the payroll. May as well play him. Good on that. So working in reverse on the guest list We may as well play him. Good on that, yeah. So working in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock, Landon Ferraro,

7.30, Terry Williams, 7 o'clock, Ray Ferraro, 6.30, Greg Wyshynski. We got a lot to get into. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was busy. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler

by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. We begin with the Vancouver Canucks. It was a. We begin with the Vancouver Canucks.

It was a valiant effort from the Vancouver Canucks on Monday night in Edmonton. But that valiant effort, it fell just a bit short as they dropped a 3-2 decision in the shootout to the Oilers in, thankfully, their penultimate preseason game. So I'll just say really quickly, the Canucks were playing without the likes of Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, JT Miller, Brock Besser, Tyler Myers, Connor Garland, and Phillip Hronick, to name a few. And those shorthanded Canucks did well to keep pace with an Oilers team that had the likes of Connor McDavid, Leon Dreisaitl, Jeff Skinner, Victor Arvidsson, Corey Perry, and of course,

our good friend Vasilipad Kolzin in the lineup. So not too much to be taken away from the game other than it was a very good effort from the guys. I will actually throw very quickly to Canucks head coach Rick Tockett, who emphasized that despite the fact the Canucks had a shorthanded lineup on the night, he thought it was their best effort of the preseason. Here now, Canucks head coach Rick Tockett

following a 3-2 loss in the shootout to the Edmonton Oilers. Well, I just, no, I thought we played solid in Calgary too. You know, obviously we got to make some plays, you know, hold some pucks. I think there's some plays there to be made. I think sometimes we're, you know, we're working so hard. Sometimes we grip our sticks, but that'll come. You know, that's still a little bit of that summer hockey

in us a little bit, but tonight, today was our best effort, I think. A solid effort tonight. Yeah, it's not about the wins and losses. I really, the group really did a great job. I'm really proud of the way they played. I just like the way that they stuck with it. It's a good hockey club over there, you know, and I think we did a nice job.

So before we get into talking a bit about what happened last night in Edmonton, just to set you up for the week, the Canucks have one preseason game. Right. That's it. And that is Friday night at Rogers Arena against the Edmonton Oilers. And then they have a few more days off and they start the regular season next Wednesday. They are going to practice today. So we'll see if they come up with some lines

that might be interesting. We will also, I guess, start to see if they start cutting some players because they're going to get down to their, you know, by all accounts, certainly J.D. Miller has said this, that they're probably going to play with pretty much their full team Friday against the Oilers in their final dress rehearsal,

and they all get very excited for dress rehearsal. Very excited. Who doesn't? And there are still some things that we don't know for sure. We don't know who's going to start the season on a line with Petey and DeBras. So maybe we'll get some clues at practice this week as they continue to work on things. Yesterday they released Sammy Blais from his PTO.

I don't think anyone was super surprised by that. In theory, it might have worked with Sammy Blais coming in and providing some physicality, especially early on if Dakota Joshua misses a bunch of games, but I don't know. He just didn't show enough. And the canucks already are at like 48 out of 50 contracts so it was gonna be tough for sammy to get uh a contract with the canucks i think he would have really had to to stand out and i don't know if he's

any contract with anyone because he already has a contract with Abbotsford. Yeah. Oh, with Abbotsford with Abbotsford. Oh, right. Okay. Okay. So, okay. Perfect. All right. Well,

good for him. Um, so, uh, the Canucks will practice today, 12 o'clock at Rogers arena, and then they'll have a media availability, um, after that.

So we'll see if there's anything to come of that. As for last night, the story of the game, Alfred already kind of mentioned it. The Canucks had a bunch of guys that are either fighting to make the team or will be in Abbotsford for sure. And they did pretty well. You know, you had like Max Sasson getting a lot of minutes out

against Connor McDavid and, you know, Atu Ratu as well. Atu Ratu had a big big night like in terms of responsibility yeah he was out for a lot of draws yeah yeah he was playing against mcdavid and dry sidle like pretty consistently and i think it was the cory perry goal that connor mcdavid assisted on atu ratu looks like a lot of nhl players out against connor mcdavid he's like what just happened why am i standing this way what am i looking here? I have no idea what's going on. But overall, the Canucks, I thought they brought a really gritty effort in. I'm sure a lot of them before the game were looking at their lineup and they were looking at the others' lineup and going,

oh, we're going to have to bring an effort here. And they did. They weren't overwhelmed by the moment. And probably most importantly, if we're going to talk about anything, they got a really solid performance from Kevin Lankanen in goal. Yeah, that was the big takeaway for a lot of people. And I know on the postgame show, kudos to our postgame show. Bick sat and ran deep, doing the roundtable, and Bick asked a big question. Who's your opening night starter

when the Canucks open their regular season next week? Because Kevin Lankanen, although it's been a very brief appearance, plural, there's been two of them. That was his second yesterday. Everyone was pretty impressed, including the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks,

Rick Talkett. Here's what Talkett had to say about Lankanen following the shootout loss in Edmondson last night. Very well. Solid. I just like his, he was really good at handling the puck for us too on dump-ins. That really helps. I think he helped our D a lot.

Made some great saves when we needed to be. And I think the guys in front, when we did give him stuff, was usually on the outside. I love hearing coaches squirm when they're asked about goaltenders. He was pretty good. It's so funny. It's so funny. Talk brings out some good cliches.

He's like, you look big in there. He was moving well. Good puck handler. That was pretty good analysis, right? I don't know how comparatively Seeloff's puck handling is, but maybe that's when a Lankan in strengths can help him on the dump-ins. It is. I don't want to go down...

The relationship between the Canucks and Ian Clark is so bad now that Ian Clark actually gives Rick Talkett bad notes to say about the goalies to make him sound bad. He was wobbly out there. And that's what you want. You want a wobbly goalie, apparently. I don't know. Okay, so I don't want to go down the road too far.

I appreciate what Bick was trying to do yesterday. And it's been like a week since we've had a goalie controversy. Maybe not even that long. Maybe it's been a few days. So drum one up about who's going to be the night one starter. I don't necessarily want to go there. I think the focus should be that the Canucks waited an awfully long time

to get Lankanen in. He obviously hasn't had a lot of reps with the team. He doesn't even have proper equipment. He's still wearing his National Predators gear, which looks very garish alongside the Vancouver Canucks colors. It's very clashy. It's still wearing his National Predators gear, which looks very garish alongside the Vancouver Canucks colors. It's very clashy. It's not good.

So outside of that, it is a positive that he looks this good. And I think what we're going to end up seeing, aside from the nominal like your night one starter means something represents something, and I'm sure it'll be Seelov's going in to game one. I do wonder if this is going to be a true 50-50 split uh until Thatcher Demko is going to return whenever I think it just depends how they play I think it just depends how they play I think you have to I mean there's going to obviously be a schedule in terms of workload because I don't know if you're aware of this or not but it sure seems that the Canucks are a little bit more uh interested in in managing

their goalies workloads Thatcherko, or otherwise moving forward. But if they can pull a rabbit out of their hat and get good, solid rotational goaltending from two guys that are making, what, less than a million dollars each, that is some fine cap finagling from the Vancouver Canucks. Guess when their first back-to-back is? Start of the season October 9th. They go Calgary-Philly to start, right?

Yeah. So they start the season October 9th. Guess when their first back-to-back game is where they would essentially have to play both goalies. It's in October. It's not. It's not in October. No, it's mid-November.

Really? Yeah. Oh, wow, that's way later than I expected. Yeah, so they go a long way without any back-to-back. So that's good in terms of not having to force anyone into a game. But I think the Canucks should feel pretty good about their goaltending heading into the season,

all things considered. Sure. Obviously, you'd like Thatcher Demko in there and you've still got the big picture worry about the injury and how it's going to affect, let's be honest here, his career. We still haven't seen him come back and play a game. So we don't know, first of all, how he's going to look with this injury

and the main line of thinking that everyone has been putting out there is he's going to have to get used to this. And it's not something that you can just like, it's cured, right? He's just going to have to get used to this. There's going to be some discomfort and maybe he'll have to affect some things with his style. Like, I don't think he's going to be like, I don't, I don't go down anymore. Right. Like, you know, like I, I, I'm a stand-up goalie now just like the old time, right? Because of this popliteus in the back. But there might have to be some adjustments. So we'll have to see about that.

So that big picture thing is still hanging out there. Yep. But in terms of how the organization has, number one, had Artie Silelov in the organization and developed him nicely and he looks pretty good. And then bringing in Kevin Lankanen, I think they did as well as they could have, all things

considered. Other takeaways from last night. Goal scorers were Arshdeep Baines on the power play and Nate, don't call me Schmidt, Nate Smith for the Vancouver Canucks. Atu Ratu and again in the postgame, the guys were talking extensively about the work that he put forth, especially in the face-off circle.

The debate really, I don't think, is whether or not Ratu deserves a crack at the NHL level. I think he does. I think the question is with everything as it pertains to trimming the roster down to 12 or 13 forwards, and we don't know what they're going to keep yet, whose waiver eligible and who's not, and we all know the situation's there. It might not necessarily about that he deserves it.

It might be that it makes more sense for the team to make other decisions to keep guys up. And, you know, there was a good point brought up yesterday. Like, if Ratu deserves to be on the team and you keep him as a 13th forward that he's in the press box, does that help him any? Should he just be down in Abbotsford playing as much as possible as opposed to being with the NHL? Because his waiver is exempt too, so just send him down.

Being with the NHL club is great for him. He gets an NHL paycheck and it's a feather in his cap. But if he's not playing, it's not helping his development any. Well, let's see if guys like Teddy Bluger are going to play on Friday against the Oilers. We'll see how much he practices this week. There's a lot of practice time this week for the Vancouver Canucks. Let's talk about the Seahawks.

Yeah. Last night in Detroit, they lost a very entertaining 42-29 decision to the Detroit Lions. This was always going to be a tough challenge for the Seahawks going on the road against a very good Detroit Lions team. Maybe the number two team in the NFC. A lot of people are picking them to go to the Super Bowl. So this is a team on the rise. It sounds weird to say the Detroit Lions are really good, but the Detroit Lions are really good. And the Seahawks also went to Detroit with a ton of injuries on the defensive side of the ball.

And the defensive side of the ball, of course, is the side of the ball that Mike McDonald, the head coach, was brought in to fix. And even though they got three victories to start the season, they were 3-0, this is still a work in progress for the Seahawks. And I think we saw that last night, especially on the defensive side of the ball, because the Detroit Lions at times looked like they were going to do anything that they wanted. Okay, get the Mike McDonald audio ready. I do want to play it because I get what you're saying.

I think everything you said was right about that game. That was a tough game. I don't think the Seahawks were expected to win. It was their first significant test against a good opponent, let's be honest, this year. They ran up their 3-0 record against inferior opponents. And the defense was very, very, very banged up. Like, they were missing four starters, okay?

Detroit's defense didn't play too well either. No, they have problems tackling boy mafe and uchenna nuosu so you lose your two best edge rushers you also lose maybe your two best d linemen and leonard williams and byron murphy the second so you're decimated up front okay i get all that that being said they were completely permissive yesterday. We're not talking about a bad defensive performance. Their defense at times was non-existent. Jared Goff completed every single pass that he threw yesterday. Jared!

Jared, the guy from the intro, did not miss a single pass that he threw yesterday. And it wasn't like all dump-offs. Nope. He was making every throw that he wanted to make. Sometimes he was catching them. Not his throws, but other guys' throws. So here's Mike McDonald after the loss, a 13-point loss on the road in Detroit,

talking about his football team falling to 3-1 on the season. It's obvious we're not the team that we want to be yet, and we shouldn't be the team that we're going to be. We have time to grow as a football team. We have a short week. We have to have a sense of urgency about it, and we need to take the next step. As many problems as they had on the defensive side of the ball, I do want to point out that I think the key play of the game happened early in the game, and it was when DK Metcalf fumbled. Detroit was up 7-0 at the time, and Seahawks had the ball, and they were driving, and Metcalf made a nice catch,

and then he just tried to do too much after the catch, and he didn't protect the ball, and the Lions knocked it out, and it was returned all the way down to the Seattle 14-yard line, and then with the Seahawks defense on display, the Lions quickly made it 14-0. And that could have been a 14-point swing there. It was a costly fumble. And it was going to be really hard to come back and win after that. You're down 14-0. And I will compare it to the President's Cup where on day one, you're losing 5-0. And even though there was a valiant effort to come back, it was early on in the game that it was really,

like the realistic chance of coming back and winning that was lost because the Seahawks chased the whole game. And it looked at times like, well, if they can get a stop here, maybe they're going to catch them. But they never came up with enough stops. But they were in this position basically where it was going to be really tough to come back.

And I don't want to sit here. I'm not going to say DK Metcalf cost them a game because he didn't. He was otherwise brilliant. I mean, what was it, seven catches over 100 yards. He was incredible. Geno Smith threw for almost 400 yards. It was an offensive performance almost for the ages for the Seahawks in terms of yards gained.

But because they were constantly chasing, Detroit probably made some adjustments on defense, and they were like, all right, fine, rack up these yards. We're just going to get the ball back, and we're going to score a touchdown of our own. The thing that bothered me about – I think you're maybe right about Metcalf. I'm not sure yet.

I'm still working that one out. I don't think that was the decisive play of the game. I think the decisive plays of the game were the 70 yard touchdown that detroit scored and the uh the wide receiver pass to quarterback yeah yeah there was a lot of big games but i'm just you know if you're in a if you're in a tight game on the road against a good team and you're the underdog and you've got all these injuries you can, you can't make a mistake like that. You've got to protect the ball, right? You've got to protect the ball.

They made countless mistakes on defense, like not being able to pick up Jared Goff in the flat and prevent him from catching a touchdown. I guess my point is this. It's frustrating from the standpoint that if your quarterback goes on the road into a hostile environment and throws for 400 yards, and you put up 30, they put up 29 points.

So they put up 30 points with 400 passing yards. You should win that game. You definitely should not lose that game by 13. And I know that they were decimated on defense. And I know that. That's why I give them a break. And I know that this probably isn't that good of a team at the end of the day. That's also why I give them a break and i know that this probably isn't that good of a team at the end of the day that's also why i give them a break this is a process but sometimes bad teams

get results and they win games and that was frustrating but overall i think they probably got there the most alarming thing for me is that um i don't i like jared goff set a passing record yesterday jared goff with no one has ever gone a perfect 18 for 18 he's gonna throw it to Jared and caught a touchdown yeah um

it was it was he was perfect they had no pass rush whatsoever no

they had no turnovers they had no turnovers at all it's like getting upset at the Canucks for losing a preseason game oh no

no no it's not when you don't have that many guys in the lineup at all. It's like getting upset at the Canucks for losing a preseason game. Oh no. No, no. It's not. When you don't have that many guys in the lineup. It was not doing anything even schematically. Like if you're getting torched, change something up. Yeah. Right? Every time that they brought pressure, it got completely

nullified because it was like the play calling was a step ahead. I don't know. Maybe I've just mellowed in my old age that I'm looking at the team and I'm like, yeah, they're banged up. Detroit is good. I think a lot of us are having trouble with coming to grips with the fact that Detroit is good. And they're a very creative offense, as you saw.

They've got a very creative play caller. They do some fun things on offense. And unfortunately, if you're a Seahawks fan they did them against the Seahawks last night okay we are up against it for time here in the first half hour of the show we got a lot to get into on the program today we are going to be going to the guest line next Greg Wyshynski is going to join us from ESPN we need to talk about this Jeremy Swayman Cam Neely Don Sweeney spitting chiclets situation in Boston because it has become the story of the preseason

and Cam Neely really upped the ante yesterday with his remarks at the press conference we'll talk to Wish about that, Ray Ferraro is at 7 BC Lions kick return to Terry Williams at 7.30, Landon Ferraro at 8, I mentioned that the MLB playoffs start today, there's 4 games we will also discuss the passing

of MLB's all-time hits leader, Pete Rose. If you missed that yesterday, he passed away. It was announced in the late afternoon at the age of 83.

We'll discuss that as well. It is October. There is a ton of things going on in the world of sports. We will try and get to as much of it as we can today on the Halford & Brough 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 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. Can you share any other specifics here, be it what his ask is in terms of dollars or term? Well, I don't want to get into the weeds with what his ask is, but I know that I have 64 million reasons why I'd be playing right now.

Woo! Cam Neely! That was the soundbite from yesterday. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. But was it a liar soundbite? Was he being a liar? We're going to ask Greg Wyshynski about all this, because there are many layers, including that one, to this whole saga.

Or saga, if you will, in Boston. Greg Wyshynski is going to join us in just a moment here. Before we get to Greg, I need to tell you that Halford and Brougham 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 one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. Greg Wyshynski joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Wysh. How are you?

I'm doing good. I've got zero reasons to be on your show right now in Cam Neely parlance. One day we'll start paying you for these. So what's funny about Neely yesterday is I read some of my colleagues

talking about whether he was trying to communicate something to the Swayman camp. Like this is, you know, the amount of money that we're willing to go with. No, man, we saw the full sea bass yesterday. That guy was perturbed. He got a question about like how much Swayman's asking for. He said he was surprised by how much it was. And then that, you know, that number he threw out there was clearly nearly kind of speaking off the cuff

and being a little pissy about the situation. But his mistake obviously is stating an actual number and then allowing the Swayman camp to swing back the other way and play the victim in the sense of like, well, you've never given us that number. Well, sure, they might've given us that number. Well, sure. They might've given you a 63 like that could have been the number, but in factual, it could be factual that 64 was never the number.

So there was a little bit of PR going on last night, obviously, you know, the swimming camp, Lewis Gross coming out and being perturbed, you know, saying that, you know, swimming was treated unfairly by having all this publicly aired. camp, Lewis Gross coming out and being perturbed, you know, saying that, you know, Sweeney was treated unfairly by having all this publicly aired and trying to obviously curry a little bit of public favor in what is a beautifully contentious contract standoff between a starting goalie and his team. Do you think they'll salvage this at some point soon?

Yeah, I think so. I think so. Sweeney has already kind of used December 1st as the deadline for it, which was already a signal that they knew that they were going to have to dig in and really kind of grind this one out with Swayman. Here's the thing about Swayman. Here's the thing about Swayman. If this thing really boiled over and came to a head and

all of a sudden it's like he asks for a trade or they decide that they're going to trade him, I think he knows inherently that the teams that could give him the money he's looking for probably aren't the Boston Bruins. You know what I'm saying?

The Boston Bruins are an original six team. They are, you know, well-managed for the most part. They're competitive for the most part. It's a really great hockey market. There are definitely people that will throw upwards of like $8.59 million to Jeremy Swayman. It's just the ones that really need a goalie. And those ones are probably not as prestigious as being the starting goalie

for the Boston Bruins. We're speaking to Greg Wyshynski from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Okay, let's turn our attention to some preseason stuff. The look ahead to the regular season, you have your bold, big 32 predictions up on ESPN right now. We teased this last week when you were talking about it, but it's out there for everyone to consume publicly now.

You're one for the Vancouver Canucks. Elias Pettersson bounces back big. And then the final sentence, PD is prime for a return to form and a monster season for the Vancouver Canucks. What gives you so much confidence, Greg? What gives me so much confidence? Fantastic player.

And, you know, I think the potential is there for him to bounce back statistically. Again, some of these predictions are pretty bold. I think this is more of a layup. I mean, he had 89 points in 82 games, and people were like, what's going on with him? I think, you know, a season that crests to 40 goals is a possibility. I just think he's going to be really good this year. I think the season that crests to 40 goals is a possibility. I just think he's going to be really good this year. I think the Canucks overall, offensively, are going to be really good. I love the tour group that they have right now.

And so I'm expecting a big PD run this year for this team. How do you see the division playing out? We've been talking a lot in the last little while about how the Drew Doughty injury might affect the playoff race. You know, you got the Oilers. A lot of people will probably give them first place in the division, assuming they don't get off to another start like they did last season. Vegas is still in the mix, Vancouver, and then LA with this Drew Doughty injury. I know they got some good young players and we'll see if Brant clark can um kind of accelerate his development path to try and uh make up for dowdy's absence but how do you think this is going to affect the kings so i'm glad we're having this conversation because i had to figure all this stuff out

yesterday for a taping and uh and so the pacific division i'm breaking this news on the show i haven't even put this out on ESPN.com yet the finish will be the Edmonton Oilers the Vancouver Canucks the Vegas Golden Knights and the LA Kings get the first wild card the struggle I have with trying to fade the Kings and the Dowdy thing is one thing

understanding what the hell they'll look like under Jim Hiller is another because I don't like I know they're not going to play the same kind of, like, defensive set that they played under McClellan. They've already, you know, shown that in the preseason, but I ultimately don't know what impact that has on the team. I wonder if Byfield has a little bit of a step back trying to, you know, transition to the center spot.

He's going to be flanked really well with Fiala and Fogle, but, you know, it's a lot easier to put up a lot of points when you're on the wing than if you have the responsibilities of a center in the NHL. That being said, though, like, and you guys know this, the rest of the division is garbage. Like, unless the Anaheim Ducks make a Herculean leap forward, I think, you know, a team like the LA Kings is going to bank points against Calgary. They're going to bank points against San Jose. That might be enough to keep them in the playoff picture.

Do you include Seattle in that garbage category? The only thing we call Seattle is boring. We're just really disappointed that the team is so boring because we were hoping for more of an interesting rivalry to at least start their time down in seattle you know how like the recycling bin is near the garbage but it's not garbage you know like but it's still grimy it's still a little dirty and grimy it's gross but it's kind of fun to look inside and see like what soda people are drinking or like you know if there's a lot of booze here.

Yeah, exactly. Like how many Coronas somebody went through during a football Sunday. Like that's the Kraken for me right now. Like they're still kind of a garbage adjacent, but definitely more interesting than, you know, the Ducks and the Sharks and the Flames insofar as their playoff prospects.

I don't know if they'll... they're clearly not as interesting on the ice as some of those teams. But as far as being a contender, they're much more interesting. But that being said, like, I don't think they're as good as the Kings. They certainly aren't as good as the other top three teams in that division. And, you know, we've been talking for multiple years now about how this team is kind of a personality-less, sort of not exactly direction-y team

as far as what we know they're building there, which, again, as I try to tell all the youngs that might not remember this, was the thing we said for years about Ron Francis' Carolina teams. That's just what they were. I mean, they were just like treading water. Every single year was, will they make a big swing at the trade deadline? And then they don't. And then they're just like treading water. Like every single year was, will they make a big swing at the trade deadline? And then they don't. And then they're just kind of like average.

And this is sort of where the Kraken are. And it may just be symptomatic of the way this man builds his hockey teams. The Vancouver Canucks played the Edmonton Oilers last night in exhibition action. They're going to do so again later this week in their final preseason game. I bring up the Oilers because Face Off, the Amazon Prime NHL docu-series, the two-part series where it focused on the Stanley Cup final between the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers. You got a chance to take it in.

You tweeted, no hyperbole. It's HBO 24-7 good. You will never see Connor McDavid in the same way again. Without spoiling too much for some of our listeners that might watch this thing, why was it so good and what was so compelling

about it? First of all, the name of the show is officially bugging me because whenever I hear it, I expect to tune in and watch Josh Volta

or Nick Cage's Castor Troy. There's one face-off and it's already been claimed. There's one face-off. And granted, it's face-slash-off. We all know that canon claimed. There's one face-off. And granted, it's face-slash-off. We all know that canonically.

That's how it's written. Do you think that movie was realistic? I feel like there's some plot holes in that. I mean, it's a lot more realistic now than it was probably when it came out. It's true. You could 3D print a new face at this point. What about the rest of their bodies? Because there was a relationship with the wife.

Are you trying to say that Nick Cage and John Travolta have different bodies? I'm suggesting that there might be some subtle differences because they're not identical twins at all. And she didn't notice. She's like, well, well, how many times you hit the prison cafeteria? Anyway, I'm sorry. Go on. That was a movie from a long time ago.

And I remember when I saw it, I was so young that I was like, this is a really good movie. So, like, here's, okay. So, I tweeted that out the other day. And I'm serious. Like, we talked about, I think we talked about the first episode last week and how I was a little bit disappointed by it. It was a little too NHL Network documentary for me. I didn't really connect with it in the same way that I thought I would.

The last two episodes of this show, man, they do a two-parter. It's on the conference final and then the Stanley Cup final, which obviously they've got amazing material to work with, with one of the most historic comebacks in, in playoff history. The McDavid stuff is amazing. Like you, you seriously get to see sides of this guy's personality and emotions that

you don't get to see before. And that's really the thing that stuck with me is like, he, I think a lot of people have come to appreciate McDavid's the best player on the planet, but also that he might be an android. And not only the yelling stuff that they've shown in the trailer, but other stuff. It's fantastic stuff in covering the biggest star in the NHL in ways that I don't think any of these shows have necessarily done before.

Even when Sid was on, it wasn't as good as this. So do you think he intentionally keeps that behind the scenes, the personality that he shows in this show, or do you think when he meets with the media, he's just a different type of person? No, it's very central to the locker room. It's not for us. It's not for the media, it's not for us.

It's not for the media. It's not for fans. It's clearly for the people within that room because that's, that's where all this stuff kind of happens. Right. I mean, I don't think that's a spoiler to say that. So, um, so I, I, when I, when I say you get to see sides of him that you never get to see before, it's because we're not privy to it. We're not privy to seeing the kind of leader he is. We're not privy to it we're not privy to to seeing the kind of leader he is we're not privy to seeing what a a historic stanley cup final loss does to a guy like it's it's really fascinating and and it's and it's exactly what you want out of a series like this which is

to show us parts of the game and bring us places that we can't go like i'm sorry like i'm not too interested in willie neilander walking his dog in Toronto. Yeah, no, I thousand percent agree. Show me the pressure moment. Show me the moments that we all wish that we were there to see. Yeah, but what I was going to say is I am interested in Connor McDavid hanging out with his dog in his weird house. Like, the show takes you places on McDavid that you've never gone with them before. I'm telling you. I might be overselling it. You guys might tune in and be like,

who cares? Or you'll just watch the clips on social media and be like, what's the big deal? But I was really struck by how well it was made. And again, I put those 24-7 shows on a pedestal. I think it's the best NHL-related media that's ever been created

for this league in the last 25 years. And I think the last two episodes of the show are the closest thing that's come to it since the second season of that show. Now I'm starting to wonder how he is with his dog. Does he yell at his dog or something? Is he very intense behind the scenes? Hell no, man. That guy loves his dog.

That man loves his dog. Yeah. But maybe he has high expectations for him. For a dog? Yeah. He's like has high expectations for him. For a dog? Yeah. He's like, you're Connor McDavid's dog. I don't know. He doesn't play fetch and he's yelling at him like, you know,

Darnell Nurse just had a turnover. Well, okay. Speaking of expectations, how high are yours for the Oilers this year? Because I look at it and I think they've got the fuel of getting as far and as close as they did, but falling short. As far as teams that go that deep, and usually, I mean, you look at all the departures that the Panthers had, like the Oilers didn't really have any of that significance.

And they added Arvidsson and Skinner, and they managed to do the long-term LTIR dance with Evander Kane because he put off surgery for so long so I look at this and it's it's rough because as a you know ardent Vancouver Canucks fan looking at the division you don't want to kind of cede anything to the Oilers but they look very very prime to be very very good and very very hungry this year and that's kind of a scary proposition it is and again like as we saw last season when mcdavid and dry side will feel aggrieved and feel like you know enough's enough they end up you know going all the way to game seven in the stanley

cup final so they still are hungry they fell short they're probably even hungrier than they were last year so just based on that know, they're going to be great. If they play at the clip they played on after Knobloch was hired. I mean, they're easily going to be first in the division and maybe first in the conference. The interesting thing that's changed for them though. And I wonder if you guys agree with this,

like last year was not only we've, we've got to win our first championship as these generational players. It was also the future's a bit cloudy. Well, it's a lot less cloudy now because Dreisaitl is clearly going to be there long-term. He's there because he knows Connor is going to be there long-term. Now, granted, this might all be stuff that they knew going into last season,

or it's stuff that's come to light because of how good the season went. I don't know, but I kind of feel like their window now is a little more wide open. Like there's a little bit more breathing room. There's less urgency to have to win last season or this season before Dreisaitl's playing center for the Bruins because they know that they've got the runway of both being there for maybe the rest of their careers. So I wonder, just in the back of your mind,

like 5% you breathe a little bit easier knowing that you're going to get a few more cracks with that other guy on the team. What did you think about how the whole Evander Kane development went down with him waiting so long and then finally having his surgery right before the season starts? Halford mentioned LTIR,

but I don't think the Oilers are actually in LTIR. They're like the Canucks. They're trying desperately to stay out of it so they can accrue some cap space throughout the season. But I do wonder if he will eventually get pushed into LTIR and then the Oilers will add something at the trade deadline and then, oh, Evander Kane's ready to go for game one of the playoffs.

Of course they will. Why are we even speculating? Like, that is, you don't wait until September to have your surgery unless it's explicit what the progress in the plan is going to be. And if you're Evander Kane, you should be fine with it because your goal ultimately is to win the Stanley Cup. You can't magically get better. It's going to take time to rehab.

You might as well just space it out and allow the team to get even deeper at the trade deadline and then come back in game one, mark stone the whole thing, and be a conquering hero. It makes total sense. Unless you're Evander Kane and you're like, well, I really want to play. In which case, then maybe that's another discussion to have.

But from the team perspective, this is just how it works. If you have the opportunity to do this and you have a timeline that isn't going to necessarily raise suspicion with the league as far as an injured player, and I don't even know what can raise suspicion with the league when you have a guy that can't play game 82 but then plays like 36 hours later in game one um then you might you might as well do it it's within the rules of the cba and other teams have clearly benefited from it and benefited in in the case of some teams where they won the stanley cup because

of it uh just uh some thoughts on pat Patrick Laine and the tough outcome for him and getting hurt in the preseason like that. This was a story that we were looking forward to following, and now I guess we're going to have to wait. You're going to have to wait, but I might have missed it yesterday in my complete euphoria over the Mets winning. Do we know definitively what the injury is yet? Definitively, no.

Yeah, so, I mean, maybe they're hoping and waiting that conditions change or maybe it's not as serious as we all thought. I don't know. I mean, I kind of find it odd that we haven't gotten a full diagnosis of what went on with his knee on that hit. I mean, I know that he was observing practice the other day. He was on crutches. But to your point, like, it's super sad. I think that's one of the big redemption arcs

that we were all looking at for him to go there, to play well, to recapture the magic and maybe contribute to a Montreal team that might outkick its coverage a little bit. I mean, sometimes in this league, you can go a long way on the strength of one line, and that's Lufkoski, you know, Caulfield, Suzuki line last year towards the end of the season was incredible. And so, you know, you have that, you throw in what they have down the line. If line is healthy, you throw in some pretty good goaltending.

Like they might be a team that should be a little bit closer to that pack of Ottawa, Detroit, and Buffalo than a lot of people give them credit for. Before we let you go, NHL Board of Governors meeting. It doesn't sound like there's going to be a vote on expansion, which is interesting because expansion has kind of been a hot topic issue over the last little bit. Everyone's suggesting that the cities of Houston and Atlanta are somehow in the mix. What do you know?

What are you hearing? Anything on either expansion being voted on today, not being voted on or being a back burner issue for a little bit? Well, I'll let you know when I go there. I'm going to throw my head in after we get off the phone. Beautiful. Because you're in New York. Yeah, I think it might be one that waits more towards the middle of the season.

It's just from the conversations that I've had. One thing that's interesting, I was talking to a few people that were wondering if this round of expansion was being fast-tracked to get ahead of the next CBA. And the concern may be that because there's such a windfall from expansion and the players don't see any of it,

that maybe they would try to push to get a slice of that pie in the next CBA. And I checked on that with some player sources, and I don't know if that's accurate, to be honest with you, because of two things. One is more teams mean more jobs. I don't think the players really want to stand in the way in any sense of more expansion coming to the league, because ultimately it helps the union to have more players in it and the other thing too is that that's a to use the bill daily parlance that's a that's a real hill to die on man if you're going to go and and take on the owners and they're never going to get

away yeah try to take away their expansion lottery winnings i mean my god like what would you have to give up uh to possibly do that and i think that there are so many other things that the players would want to dig their heels in on before they they go after you know more of the owner's money when it comes to expansion so i don't know that it was a theory floating around there and uh and and i i'm not sure if it really holds water the nhl is going to be like we are definitely not going to the olympics anymore that is over and it's over you guys is it is it straight like it's got to be uh atlanta and houston all right there's nobody else in the mix that i could think of i mean i don't i don't think so i mean those are the two places that are most prominently mentioned i mean obviously atlanta has a couple of different people looking to build an arena as part of a big land project.

You know, the wild card, the only wild card might be might be Phoenix, you know, with with Morello out of the mix, with the rights to all of the IP reverting back to the NHL, as far as we know. And, you know, that's a situation where they clearly want to go back there. But they need a real strong owner and a real hockey arena. And those two things, I mean, at least one of those things is nowhere near being done. But that's the only way they're going back. So, yeah, I think the focus is on Atlanta and Houston.

But, again, they're not going to go with an uneven league for all that long. So we're definitely going to go to 36 at some point. And then, you know, maybe Phoenix gets in in that round. Greg, you're the best, buddy. Thanks for doing this. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the Board of Governors meetings today. We'll do this again next Tuesday.

Anytime. Thanks, pal. Thanks, bud. Greg Wyshynski from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Ray Ferraro is going to join us next, and we'll talk NHL. We'll talk Vancouver Canucks. But I'm also going to ask Ray about Pete Rose because Ray and I were texting back and forth about Pete Rose last night. And, um, you know, we'll just talk about, uh, raise a big baseball fan. Um,

and we'll just talk about his personality because I think with the passing of Pete Rose, you know, the easy thing to do would be to reignite the hall of fame debate. But for me, it's kind of like, I don't know, is this boring to constantly do that? What, what I think is interesting is just to talk about Pete Rose's life, all the things that he accomplished and what drove him to be such a competitive and obsessively competitive person, but also the fact that all those things maybe that younger listeners that don't have the experience, that's how I like to put it, or age, quite frankly, as Bruff and I, Pete Rose was the most, at one point, probably the most famous and infamous athlete of our generation.

If you go back to the late 80s and early 90s. Pre-OJ. Pete Rose, yeah, right. Pete Rose transcended sport the because he was a flashpoint for so many debates in north american like culture and lifestyle and society right he was doing something right this was when sports betting existed in the shadows right you didn't have advertising on television this was a time where i have a bookie it was a nefarious act and he was also and it was such a parallel because he was widely regarded as

the most hard-working charlie hustle there was an all-american sense of like he pulled himself up from his bootstraps made himself into the best player in baseball because he was the hit king. And then there was this other side that, and I think because gambling existed in the shadows, so too did the Pete Rose alter ego to a lot of the general public. And then everything came out. And then you really got a sense of the sort of ugly side of a guy that had one. Right. I mean, there's no denying it. That when I say he was the most famous and maybe most infamous. And, you know, when you tell the story of Pete Rose's 83 years on the planet, all of it gets involved.

And rightfully so. You can't tell his story without mentioning this chapter of, quite frankly, unseedy behavior, not just involved with gambling either, right? Like he had a lot of personality traits that people found troublesome, to put it mildly. So, yeah, I'm very interested to talk to Ray about all that. Ray Farrar is going to join us next on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

And before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. The Roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions 70th season. Get your tickets now at bclions.com.