Halford & Brough in the Morning - iMac Talks Canucks + What We Learned

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

In hour three, Mike & Jason chat with Sportsnet's Iain MacIntyre (:54) ahead of tonight's Canucks home matchup versus the New Jersey Devils, 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.

8.03 on A.O. Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough for 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 3 of the program.

Ian McIntyre is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 3. Hour 3 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. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, what are you waiting for?

Kintec, to the phone lines we go. Sportsnet's very own Ian McIntyre here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, iMac. How are you? Oh, man, I was worried there until about four seconds ago. I think I had three different shows in my ear on hold. It was wild. Oh, are we good?

It was very trippy. I don't know what was going on, but I'm glad to hear you guys loud and clear. Nice to be on with you. Nice to have you on as well, and thanks for taking the time to do this. I was perusing your latest piece on Sportsnet.ca during the break, and very nice symmetry there tying in quinn hughes family reunion which is going to happen tonight 7 40 note the start time now it gets later and later as the show goes on uh so it's the hughes of palooza tonight and then i had an interesting

alignment there where you're talking about you know quinn hughes being the oldest son in the family and the connectivity there and then the connectivity he has on his team as a captain and the leader for the vancouver canucks yeah yeah and the reason we're talking about that particular c word again is because of because of the power play and things that uh rick talkett had alluded to at the end of last season and the start of this season about these guys needing to be connected. And if we want, we can try and delve into that. I'm still not sure exactly what talk it means by it. But it just struck me, Quinn Hughes as captain

and seeing how he's evolved and matured and the person that he's kind of turned into before our eyes here because he arrived in Vancouver as a kid. I had a feeling that he would be kind of taking this personally, that this would be wearing on him, this idea that the group has to get together. And so I asked him about that, and he said, yeah, you know, he feels responsible at times for making sure that everyone's happy

and comfortable being here. And I know a lot of people instantly read into that, well, he's talking about Elias Pettersson, because everything these days we instantly read into, well, it's got something to do with Elias Pettersson. I don't think it's that I think it's just this sense that the group has to be close uh it has to be uh on the same page on the ice and you know right now it's just a little bit disjointed and I think that really bothers Quinn. It's an interesting conversation to have,

and it's an interesting dynamic, the notion of connectivity and being connected. Because as you pointed out in the piece, it's as much about philosophy as it is about tactics. And, you know, one could be about how you're connected off the ice as a band of brothers and teammates and everything. And then there's an actual physical connection on the ice and they both have

to do with one another. It's very complex, but it does kind of fall at the feet of the captain because at the end of the day, he's the leader. Yeah. Well, it's all this big swirling mess of human dynamics, right? And, and, and, you know, who's close and who's not, I think in, you know, in Rick Talk, it was the one who, because I've been trying to get him to clarify a couple of times, including yesterday.

Sure. He says it's not tactical, right? And then there's a description from him about basically being unselfish and how good a teammate are you? And when things aren't going your way, what are you doing? And I think specifically getting back to the power play, what he sees as the problem, I think most of us see it. But when their plays don't work, then what happens?

And we know that their plays haven't been working. Pedersen has two shots so far this season on the power play and, and Brock has four, Quinn has six. So it's not like anybody is, is generating a whole lot, but when those plays aren't working, then what are you willing to do? Are you going to get out of your silo, get off your Island, your spot on the ice, and generate something else, go to support somebody,

do something to create space for someone else, or are you going to stand and wait and hope that the play works, that you're going to get that cross-ice pass, or you're going to get that low to high slot one-timer. And right now, there's just not enough adaptation and improvisation. And to me, maybe most damning at the moment, and Rick Talkett saying that the guys aren't working hard enough because I said to Quinn, shouldn't that be the baseline at a minimum? Shouldn't that be what you go out and do every power play is outwork

or at least try to outwork the penalty killers? And he said, yeah, you can feel like you are working, but maybe you win three battles and it's the fourth one that you don't win that costs you you know you do have an extra skater out there there isn't there isn't really any reason to get outworked around the puck you should always have more puck support uh as a power play than the penalty killers do and if the penalty killers are so overloaded on the puck you should be able to exploit that as well on on the weak side of the ice so it's interesting to watch it's i think important to remember that we're we're only eight games in but the problems that carry over always

feel bigger like this isn't a new thing this has been going on basically uh well middle of november was when it started to cool last year so this is almost a calendar year and we know that it cost them significantly uh in the playoffs and you know it's supposed to be different this year and everybody that's one thing everybody agrees on is that that this should be an elite power play. And so far it hasn't been. How many times, I mean, you've been in a lot of talk at scrums. How many times has he said Pedersen needs to move his feet? A lot. A lot. I think it's probably with a lot of players.

I know he said that about JT Miller. He said that about Brock Besser. You know, it's kind of a common thing, but I think it's obviously a recurring one with Elias. And, you know, it feels like, it felt like after last game, after that Carolina game when Rick Tockett stopped himself, you know, he gave Holglander a blast, and then he mentioned Pettersson, and then he said, well, he's not going to stop and single out that line even though he already had.

It felt like he's on the cusp of frustration, frustration is something coaches never want to admit to feeling because it implies that maybe you're out of ideas or that you're angry at a player and that's not necessarily a healthy thing when you're trying to help someone but it i think the leash is getting short i was really surprised yesterday actually especially after talking it said that there were going to be changes on the power play that we didn't see any changes on the power play. It was the same guys run out on the first unit.

So we'll see how much longer he's willing to go. If the power play doesn't start going, and especially, you know, it doesn't have to score, but man, it's got to be more dangerous than it's been in some of these games, and especially last game. It was absolutely inert. The best scoring chances on the Canucks power play were for Carolina. And I'm not trying to be funny or exact. That's the reality.

They had a breakaway out of a box. They had another two-on-one where Langton made one of his best saves of the season, in which he's already made a lot of good saves. The power play has to start being a factor for this team. And if it's not soon, I think we're going to see some significant changes. And whether that's Pedersen, whether Garland comes off, whether somebody else goes, they try somebody else in the bumper, whether they put, you know, Kiefer Sherwood in front of the net.

I don't think this coaching staff is just going to let this go much longer. Do you expect Lankanen again in goal? I sure hope so. And I would say yes, because I really don't see a reason to go back to Shelob, especially, you know, when Lankanen has been so, so he's not just playing well, but he's been necessary. This has been necessary for the Canucks to play well, for him to play well.

You know, they're not scoring six goals and winning by four. So you can say, well, we'll give Shilov a chance. And, you know, if he's not right on his game, at least the offense is humming along. They need Lankanen. The schedule has been very friendly to them, both in terms of its spacing and the opponents, although obviously they're getting a couple of really good opponents,

including one tonight in the New Jersey Devils, I don't see a reason at this stage to go away from him. If it was Thatcher Demko as the starter and healthy, and wouldn't that be nice, by the way? Yeah, I was going to ask you about him next. Not that there's anything wrong with Lankanen, but this is the story that's kind of submerged right now, but it'll rear up again at some point.

But if this was Demko doing what Lankanen's doing, you would just say, yeah, keep going with him. It's early in the year. He's fresh. He's playing great. Just stay with him. So that's what I would do, but they never ask me. They still, in all these years, no coach has ever asked me who would I start in goal.

What did, what did you make of the update on, on Thatcher Demko? Uh, it sounded positive, but it also sounded, you know, like nebulous. Was that a good word? Like, yeah, I say it sounds repetitive and I don't mean to be cynical about it because, you know, I'm not a cynical person, but we have heard this update in that form a few times. In fact, have we heard any update that's different in essentially what he said, that Thatcher's having good days and that's all they want, if he can stat good days.

I know it's great that it was four days in a row apparently but uh you know it's i'm trying to do the math in my head now since thatcher demko spoke to us on day one of training camp it's more than five weeks since then and we we're still not seeing him on the ice with his team. So it's a big concern. Anytime one of your core players has a serious injury, and I don't think anybody thought that this was going to be serious. I don't think the Canucks thought. Even through the summer, had they thought, this is just my take,

had they thought that there's a chance that sure demko might miss two months of the season whatever however long is going to be out he's obviously going to miss a lot more than two weeks which i think was the initial hope coming into training camp but had they known that he could miss months i don't think they would have waited until training camp to go out and get another goalie. And maybe they were hoping that Yuri Patera would just look fantastic at camp and he didn't

and maybe that swayed them a bit. But the fact that they waited until the training camp was underway before they circled back and got, got Lankanen, um, tells me that they didn't know that it would be this serious. This is, you know, it's, it's a problem. The thing I keep thinking about too, is even when he's back, like I expect him to come back at some point, but even when he's back, are we all going to be holding our breath, watching him and, you know, praying that he stays healthy and praying that he knows how to manage this

issue that he's got? Yeah. Well, I mean, that, that was going, even had Thatcher been healthy for the start of the season, we'd have been asking those questions right because this is this is this is part of it as a starter if you're going to be the guy that plays 50 to 60 games and and hopefully no he's not he's not again asked in his career to play 60 at least not here but if if you're going to be that guy and and we see now how the goalie market, the wage market is just going to explode here, right? Like with a couple of the recent contracts and a couple more that are to come. If you're thinking about that kind of investment for Demko and his contracts up in two years,

well, you have to have a degree of confidence that he can play a full season. And I think he knows that as well. So I think we'd have been asking these questions. Even had his rehab gone fine, you know, having missed the playoffs, injured in game one, injured late in the season, then came back, and I think he played twice before the playoffs.

Even had the rehab and summer gone great and he felt fine coming into training camp, we just still had these questions. And now that this injury has turned out to be as serious and indefinite as it is proved, it only highlights that question. It makes it an even greater concern, an even bigger X factor to Demko and the Canucks. It's can he stay healthy?

But I will say this, and, you know, if it's not obvious to everyone already, I'm pretty good at making obvious statements. But whenever Thatcher is ready to play, Kevin Lankanen isn't going anywhere. So whether they carry three goalies at times, whether it means that Shilov, who is still waiver-free, goes back to the American Hockey League, as popular as he is and as great a story as he was for the Canucks in the playoffs last year, Kevin Lankanen isn't going anywhere. They're going to hold on to this guy as a potential life raft.

Obvious or otherwise, we love your analysis on the show, Ian. Thank you very much for doing this today. We appreciate it. Enjoy the game tonight. We'll do this again soon. I will. I'd enjoy it a lot more if it was starting at 7.05 or 7.10. I know.

We've got to go. We've got to go, and we've got a morning show. Yes. The tomorrow show is is gonna be a disaster yeah well you don't have to write a thousand words oh that's true post games so thank you that okay all right enjoy you guys bye uh ian mcintyre from sportsnet here on the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 let's get them on at 6 0 5 a.m tomorrow we're so hard done by having to watch hockey for a long time. I like how you put it that we got to go. We got to go. Oh, it's going to be so hard.

That was Jason, by the way. I'm excited. I'm an old man. I'm an old grouchy man. I love doing stuff. Here's what we learned for you, by the way, courtesy Elliot Friedman on Twitter. Okay. Good news is, thankfully, the worst case scenario is averted with Connor McDavid.

Looking like at least a couple of weeks, but exact timeline to be determined. I don't know what they were talking about with worst case scenario. Like what? Like a broken leg or something like that? Yeah, well, I think they might have broken a bone. Oh, okay. High ankle sprain was also a-

High ankle sprain is a tough one to come back from. That's weeks. Yeah. Okay. Well, that might be it though right versus a broken leg yeah it might be the high ankle sprain it is better than a broken leg yes because elliot's saying it's looking like at least a couple of weeks that he's gonna miss you know i've been told that sometimes like a really bad high ankle sprain you're almost better to just have a break

because it can go clean and then you can get it back high ankle sprains do tend to linger you guys spend a lot of time in a walking boot the chris tannett memorial walk what affects you for a long long period of time um okay i want to very briefly um discuss tonight's opponent because we haven't done it yet and i feel like sometimes you can gloss over the opponent because it's like who cares cares? It's San Jose. Then you get really important matchups like Hughes-Apalooza and Quinn and Luke and Jack all on the ice together. And as I said off the top, the winner gets to ride in the front seat home with mom on the way from the game. The Devils are a very interesting opponent, almost regardless of whether they had two of the Hughes brothers or not. They are 6-4-2. So they're tops in their division.

Tops in the Metro division. This is with going through a four-game losing streak in which they were bleeding goals like crazy. They went 6-5 OT loss to Washington. Six goals is a lot, right? They followed that up by allowing eight. Eight in an 8-5 loss to Tampa Bay. So after two games, you're like,

let's tighten it up next game. They lose 5-3 to Detroit. Then they tighten it up and they only lose 4-3 to the Islanders. But at that point, you're looking at it and you're saying, man, this team doesn't really seem to have any more defensive structure than they did last year, which was kind of a tire fire of a

year. They won on Sunday against Anaheim. They won six, two. So they snapped the four game losing streak. But if you look at this team and you look at their current form, I think it's fair to say that we might be in for some high octane offense tonight at Rogers arena. They have guys that can score.

I think everyone knows like Jesper brought is very good score. He's got 12 points in 12 games. Nico. He sure. Who's got 12 points in 12 games. Nico Heischer, who's on fire right now. He's tied with Cole Caulfield for the NHL lead in goals with nine. He's got 12 points in 12 games. Timo Meier, Jack Hughes, they are 11 and 10 points each. Stefan Nason

has 11 points in 12 games, which is wild, but he's also scoring with regularity. If you look, they're involved in a lot of high-scoring games. They have a lot of high scorers. That's the good statistics. The bad statistics are the numbers on Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen are real bad.

They have two goalies. Both are sub-900 save percentage. Some of it has to do with environment for sure. At the same time, was it woodley they came on the show they said like he there's some metrics that show that marky actually might thrive in a more chaotic environment where he's facing a lot of shots right now i don't know thrives in chaos this might be that it's not volume it's just like a lot of high dangers without a lot of that was just how he was developed in vancouver yeah like i'm used to facing a lot of shots like i follow a lot of devils fans on yes because i grew up a devils fan and their goalie coach is taking a ton of heat

right now dave ragalski and they've had poor goaltending for basically his entire tenure and he's really feeling the heat right now from the fans because they seem to have everything else figured out right but the goaltending just still isn't there. So it is a goaltending. The goaltending hasn't been good. It hasn't been good. Okay, so they've rotated. They've gone Marky and Allen through the last four games.

They've just gone back and forth. If they follow the rotation, tonight's an Allen game because Markstrom played the last one against Anaheim, but I feel like it's got to be a Marky game. Especially if Marky got a win in an Anaheim. Yeah, a range game. Right? Yeah, you've got to be a marquee game. Especially if marquee got a win in an anti-venge game. Right? Yeah, you've got to start marquee tonight.

Was Jake Allen in there for like nine goals in one game? Eight against Tampa Bay. Right. Including the one where Tampa Bay shot it from their own side of their own blue line. Oh, yeah. I think that was the eighth goal, too. That was. He's like, damn it.

It has not been my night. This is not Jake Allen's night. I wanted to keep it to seven. Jake Allen, yeah. Okay. Not been my night. This is not Jake Allen's night. I wanted to keep it to seven. Jake Allen, yeah. Okay, I want you all to get your What We Learns into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. We have a dearth. Someone used that earlier.

We have a dearth of What We Learns in the Dunbar Lumber text line. So text them in 650-650. Turn this dearth into a girth. I've got a girth of text. I've got one or two What We Learns that I want to read on the other side. Some NFL stuff. Aaron Rodgers has a drink that he's using.

I'm aware. I want to know if anyone's tried this before. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Vic Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets weekdays 3 to 4 on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. Now for my favorite part of the show.

What'd 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. 832 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough for 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 on hour three of the program. It is what we learn time. Hour three 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. All right. The dearth of what we learn is no longer.

We got a bunch of them coming in over the break. It's now girth. A girth. I don't think that's it. You made that joke before and nobody laughed. It's not a joke. There was a dearth and now there's a girth. We didn't need any of those hand movements.

It's thick and full. Okay, stop that. So we're going to do our... We are streaming, remember. I can do hand gestures. Yeah, no, no. They will be turned into GIFs. No one's done that yet.

Just wait for it. We're going to do our What We Learned first, though. Jason's going to start with Aaron Rodgers and his magic elixir. Yeah, he calls it a little fountain of youth. And it's steroids. No, just kidding. It's chock full of amphetamines. Cayenne pepper and water.

The shot of ivermectin. Suggested to him by teammate Thomas Morstad. Rogers, who's been dealing with all sorts of injuries, I think he's got a hamstring, knee, ankle, said he started drinking cayenne pepper and water before the Jets' Week 8 game and has continued this week in preparation for a Thursday night against the Houston Texans, which is probably not what the Jets need like a Thursday night.

Oh, good. A short week. Short week for our very old quarterback. Have you ever tried this before? I've never heard of this cayenne pepper and water. I have not tried it, but I have definitely heard of it. So the tea, the brew, if you will, is actually cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and then it's like steeped or whatever. Remember those Tim Hortons commercials?

Bro, it's steeped. Steeped, or you can serve it cold or warm. So you can have it as a tea or you can just have it as a drink. Well, you can't just have a glass of water and pour some pepper in it and then drink that? I think you have to infuse the water. You have to brew the drink. I don't think you can just dump the stuff in. Oh, really? Why not? Because I don't think

it blends together. I'm going to try when I get home and I'll get back to you. So apparently it's good for pain relief. Metabolic health. Improved protection against disease. Well, that's very important. You know what else helps that? It's vaccines.

And here come the texts. health heart health at any rate aaron rogers i don't want to protect against disease i'll just drink cayenne water so i have to admit i um like i i wanted the jets to be better than they are not because i'm a huge fan of Aaron Rodgers or anything, but I do tend to cheer for the old guys now. And I was hoping that this would be a storyline, and I think the season's just going to... Would you be at all surprised if Aaron

Rodgers just almost shut himself down? What if the Jets are 2-9 and they've just got no chance whatsoever? Is he going to just keep going out there? I wonder if he would shut himself down with the purpose of, like, I want to play again, so I'm going to protect my body here. I don't know, man.

You think it's the end of the road? Well, see, I think probably some team would give him a chance. I think the Jets are going to have to move on from him. I think this chapter, yeah. This is not, this is not working. I think that you could run it back. If there's some semblance of improvement down the stretch,

because he's just so banged up and old, but the caveat that everyone is going to have is that they were robbed of what it truly could have been because of the Achilles, right? Because you're basically saying you missed one because of the achilles right because you're basically saying you missed one year with the achilles and then you came back and spent another year basically trying to get back up to speed that's going to be the only thing that everyone's going to hang on to i do think there's some validity to it now but then he's just another

year older and he's got all these other injuries too the reason i think they might need to move on is because it's the jets it's that organization i think other organizations and franchises could have figured it out but they are in the wrong market like new york and they're just getting savaged by everybody right now right they're calling it like one of the biggest um debacles in the nfl one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history and you got to remember um at the the highest levels they keep you know grasping at straws to make this thing work yeah you don't have cayenne peppers right now right aaron rogers doesn't want to show up for the preseason and ota's cool uh he doesn't like the head coach we'll get rid of him he wants his buddy davante adams back we'll go get him like everything that

you know and we lost to the Patriots. And now we're going to go, damn it. And when we lose this week, we're going to be two and seven. Like they're, they've got problems because they're the Jets. I think if it was another franchise, they might be able to survive it. All right. Give us a mookow on that. So I learned that in addition to keeping an eye on the Canucks game tonight,

because I will be, you know, at it. I'm also going to be paying very close attention to the game between the Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning. And it's not just because this is a rematch from the Stanley Cup Final a couple years ago. I now have zeroed in on the Colorado Avalanche as being the we're in trouble team.

I know that they rebounded from their bad start to the season and they won four in a row. They lost their last game 5-2 to the lowly Chicago Blackhawks. Like, Conor Bedard's once out of there. How could you lose to that team? They're 5-5. I'm going to read to you the forwards that are currently out injured for the Colorado Avalanche

and then read the forwards that they have to play because of this. Okay. Forwards that are currently out of the lineup for the Colorado Avalanche. Gabriel Landeskog, Valery Nechushkin, Arturi Lekanen, Jonathan Drouin, Ross Colton, and Miles Wood. So I would say that's... Colton would have been scoring too. Is that recent? Yep, just happened.

That is six forwards that I would say are probably in your top nine. Yeah. Right? So that's not good. Here now, our guys that are playing tonight, at least in terms of what daily face I've had out there, there are most recent like line rushes.

Their first line winger with McKinnon and Randon is Nikolai Kovalenko. Sounds good. Their second line winger. A lot of syllables. European. Probably fast. Their second line winger behind him is Ivan Ivan. Oh, yeah.

I like him. Right. Their third winger behind him is TJ Tynan. Their bottom two centers are Parker Kelly and Matthew Steinberg. And their fourth line right winger is Oliver Shillington. He's a defenseman, though, isn't he? What's interesting about him? Is that he's a defenseman.

He is a defenseman. I am also going to read you the save percentage of one Alexander Georgiev. I'm stealing my thunder, but okay. 8-22. So guess what else is happening tonight for the Colorado Avalanche? A Kapokakinen sighting? They are playing their third goalie of the year. It's the first start for Kapokakinen.

Over 8-Kiv? For those wondering, by the way, Nikolai is the son of Andre. Yes, that's right. So we talk about all these teams that are in a really bad spot. Colorado is, right? They have the second worst goals against in the NHL. They're allowing 4.1 per game. If you bet the over in every Colorado game, you're going to win money it's it's a it's a lock it's a stone cold lock they don't have anyone that can

play defense their forwards are all brand new to the nhl goalie is a literal shooter tutor and their goalies they're just they're like please try and stop a shot please yes someone just texted in parker kelly i think that kid goes to daycare with my daughter. There are a lot of Parkers at that age. A lot of Parkers. A lot less Kellys in the 90s, but a lot more Parkers. Anyway, what we learned is that I'm keeping an eye on the Colorado Avalanche because they are in a bad way right now. Moo cow me.

Someone just texted in, bet they wouldn't mind Eric Branstrom right now. I don't know what they were doing. I really don't. Eric Branstrom could have played forward. He'd be playing forward for them right now. Laddie't know what they were doing. I really don't. Eric Branstrom could have played forward. He'd be playing forward for them right now. Laddie, you got to

what we learned. I have a follow-up what we learned. From my yesterday what we learned with Zach Ostapchuk getting the call-up first time this year with the

Senators, the former Giants captain. Didn't waste any time. He got his first NHL point in that 8-1 slaughter that came on Noah Greger's second goal of the year.

He's apparently playing for the Senators now. And Zach Ostapchuk had a nice little breakout pass in the neutral zone and ended up getting the secondary assist for his first career point. You know who else had a big night for the Ottawa Senators last night with a Vancouver tie? Adam Gaudet. He got it. He had two goals last night.

They were both called up at the same time. I don't know what to make of Ottawa. I know we talked about it earlier. Is Gaudet waiver exempt for like 30 days? Because he was on waivers earlier, right? And he cleared? Yeah, he must be. And where's their, is their minor league team in Belleville?

Belleville. So that's when, it's like the Abbotsford one. You can just send them up and down every day if you want. And Gaudette, by the way, with the two goal performance, now on pace for 41 goals this year. Think he gets there? The power of sage and crystals. All right, let's print out some submissions into the Dunbar Lumber text line.

Jamie, the Armstrong fisherman, what we learned. Alex Ovechkin scored twice last night, and he's on pace to hit 40 goals this year. Hot take, he beats Gretzky's goal record this season. We'll see. I mean, I kind of hope so. I'd rather him beat it sooner rather than later. I don't want it to... Or not beat it?

Well, yeah. Just throwing that out there. I mean, it's possible. It's not a guarantee that he's going to do it, but I think he's just going to stay in the league until he does it. So you know what I like doing sometimes is going to NHL.com and reading the game recaps because they're very, like, associated press style, and they always include a quote.

And sometimes you can read them out of context, and it gets really funny. So Ovechkin, I think a lot of people knew, like, he didn't have a great start to the season. He looked kind of how he has the last couple years. Like, he takes a while to get going, right? A little beer league. Are you a little beefy coming in?

Yeah. He's like, yes. So anyway, the quote from Washington coach Spencer Carvery on Alex Ovechkin. I thought he was fantastic tonight. I thought he was skating. So there's more to the quote. But if you quote but if you read it like that it's really funny there was also one from marty saint louis last night because they got skunked uh eight two by the kraken and marty saint louis we seem to have problems on tuesdays because tuesdays am i right

is the week prior on Tuesday, they lost seven to, to the Rangers. Now I'm sure in context, they're hearing him say it. It might've been like Garfield's like, I have that problem with Monday. The next Tuesday game.

He's just like, Oh God, it's a Tuesday sitting there sadly eating lasagna. He's like, Oh man, Tuesday games. Am I right? Okay.

Uh, Spencer maple Ridge. What we playing team Tuesday games this year? Tuesdays, am I right? Okay. Spence and Maple Ridge, what we learned. I learned that on Monday, New York became the first city to have a team lose in MLS, NBA, Major League Baseball, and the NFL on the same day. The Rangers had the dignity to wait 24 hours to lose. Yeah, because the Rangers lost to Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. They got dominated. I know the score was relatively close, but the shots were very l Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. They got dominated. I know the score was relatively close, but the shots were very lopsided. For Washington?

Yeah. I think it was 40. I wonder if the Caps are legit. I can't tell. It's a funny team. I'm going to pay more attention to them now because that one guy yelled at us for not talking about the Caps, but I will pay more attention to them. Matt, not on the island.

Hashtag WWL, what we learned. I learned the yankees should stop pitching to freddie freeman so i was watching the game yesterday did you see that sign at the game some guys a yankees fan had a sign that said please stop freddie freddie please stop so i think it was with two outs in his second at bat And the broadcast actually brought up the idea of intentionally walking him because that's where they were at in terms of him ripping apart the Yankees.

Like in a situation where there was, I think it was two out and nobody on. So in a way it kind of made sense because it's like, just give him first base. It's not like he's going to steal. He's playing on one leg. By the way, I have had... He's not, yeah, he's, I don't, I don't think he's, he's not nearly as's going to steal. He's playing on one leg. By the way, I have had... He didn't play on a grand ball, though. He's not...

Yeah, he's... I don't think he's... He's not nearly as hobbled as he was. I have had a couple people text me and suggest... Suggest that we might have, like, a Curt Schilling bloody sock conspiracy. That maybe it's not as bad. Just because he's succeeding while injured? Oh, he must not actually be injured, then.

It may be coming from a Yankees fan. I'm just throwing it out there. Yeah, he's... With the initials A and J? But he's recovering. No, no, he must not actually be injured then. It may be coming from a Yankees fan. Just throwing it out there. Yeah, he's... But he's recovering. No, no, no. He's recovering. I'm just... The conspiracy theory

is that it's just all show. Like Curt Schilling's bloody shot. Like a rallying point. Kaiser Sosa, basically? Well, because both happen against Yankees, right? Well, they're just trying

to use it as a rallying point. That's what the Yankees fans are getting at. If Freddie wanted to go full heel, he would come out with a sock covered in blood, right? Or a red paint.

I would at this point, I would, and I would be hobbling worse than Kirk Gibson. And then he turned into a bad person. Yeah, right. And then just be a miserable human being for the rest of the time. Juan from Comox.

What we learned, Real Madrid are a mess. How long until we see Ancelotti coaching either the Whitecaps or Canada? Are they a mess? No.

They're not a mess. They're having a bad couple weeks. I guess we need to go back and discuss, because we said we were going to do this yesterday and then we ran out of time.

So the Vinny, Real Madrid, Ballon d'Or scenario. Cole's notes version is Real and Vinicius Jr. both thought that he was going to win the Ballon d'Or scenario. Colesnode's version is Real and Vinicius Jr. both thought that he was going to win the Ballon d'Or, which is awarded by the French footballing media for the best player in the world.

The Golden Balloon. Okay, that's as basic as I can explain it. The results were leaked, which was weird because usually that's real cloak and dagger behind closed doors. No one finds out beforehand who wins, but for some reason this year it was quote-unquote leaked. And then Vinny and the Real Madrid teammates and Ancelotti all said,

we're not going to the ceremony. This is a big deal in soccer. I'm trying to, it's like the Oscars for soccer. It's red carpet. Guys show up in tuxedos. It's a big deal. So some people were saying this is just sour grapes and poor sportsmanship on the part of Real. It's not.

So there's a subtext here. And I kind of I had to do a lot of reading to really get to the root of it. In Spanish, too, which was impressive. My Spanish is not muy bueno. I was like, what's going on here? There's an underlying sentiment that Vinny and Real Madrid feel as though he is being punished or somewhat ostracized for his ongoing stances and fights against racism in football, because he has been one of the more outspoken people in a very demonstrative

way. When he's been the subject of racial taunts while playing for Real. He's marched off the pitch. He's been defiant saying we need to make this stop. We can't keep giving out very soft punishments and then the same people coming back. Why would he be punished for that, though? Just let me finish the story. So there's actually been two landmark cases in Spain because of this where fans have actually faced legal action

as opposed to like you're not allowed back in the stadium. His notion, and he hasn't said this explicitly, so I'm trying to be very careful in framing this, and I don't particularly want to defend it as your question. I'm just explaining what I know. I'm not going to defend the position because I don't think I know enough about it or where his roots of the issue come from but he he is a sort of indicating that being so outspoken and constantly challenging the um lawmakers and rule makers of the game in trying to eradicate racism that there's somehow a pushback against him.

Now you can read into that what you will. There's also another wrinkle to this, which I was completely unaware of that, uh, Real and UEFA are still at complete loggerheads because Real was one of the trailblazers for that breakaway super league and that they feel that they are being ostracized and that they're not getting a fair shake from uefa who are in lockstep with the ballon d'or warding is this all a little bit unfair to rodri because he's good yeah and he

had a good year i think it's very unfair to the guy that won yeah and also um so there's a lot of like underlying sentiments here and backstories and angles. And if you're not familiar with the story at all, trying to understand the subtext and the backstories, you're probably like, what the hell is he talking about right now? Right. But that's why I said yesterday, like there's a lot of layers to it. And there's a lot of different soccer. So dramatic. Right. Everyone's so dramatic. Put it this way. It wasn't just about being snubbed for an award. There was a lot of layers to it that went into it okay so someone texted in as dearth brooks what we learned even with the starting goaltender injured pd playing at 60 percent miller maybe at

80 percent the defense still figure thing figuring things out and new additions like DeBrusque finding their feet. The Canucks are on pace for over 100 points this season. Can't wait to see this team at 100%. This is why the Pedersen story gets so much attention. This is why we're really wondering about Thatcher Demko. This is why we spend time talking about, you know, fixing the second or the third pair on the Canucks defense is because we see the potential here.

The potential is immense for the Canucks. If you really put your head down and you think about it, you go, okay, if they got the starting goaltender in Thatcher Dampko and he's healthy, one of the best goalies in the league. They've already got the Norris trophy winner in Quinn Hughes and a pretty good running mate for him in Filip Peronic. Up front, I don't think the Canucks have had this depth in a long, long time. I couldn't tell you. They might even have better depth right now than they did back in 2011. Because remember, AV was often hesitant to play his fourth line.

A long time ago now. So the depth up front looks good. You got JT Miller right in his prime, right? He's playing the best hockey of his career. Brock Besser's playing the best hockey of his career. If you could add Petey to that, at his potential, and then you've got Jake DeBrus, and all these other guys contributing,

the potential is right there. So my thought on the matter, actually, is I'll go in a totally opposite direction. They're not firing on all cylinders, and they're not at 100%. And it's still gone relatively well, right? One regulation loss in eight. They got 11 points from eight games.

I mean, there's some teams, like the Devils tonight, you look at them in the standings, and yeah, they got 14 points, and they're 6-4-2, but they played four more games than the Canucks. Like the Canucks in terms of points percentage, despite I think everyone acknowledging

that they haven't been at their best, have done a good job of, you know, banking points and getting some results and everything. I kind of look at it in the same vein that you're saying, like the potential is high

and they haven't hit it yet. No, I don't think it really even close. I'd be more worried if this was them at their max like well they hit 100 like this is the best they're going to be and this is it i'd be more concerned because i don't know how much success down the road or when games matter in march and april and may where they'd be but i mean i'm i look at i'm like you know way to grind out some I mean the comeback against Carolina they didn't play well in the first two periods but they had the talent and the ability to scratch and claw point out of it so you have to take that positive and then I guess if you see the negative which was the first 40 minutes another positive is you could play better you haven't hit your potential yet you

haven't gone to your ceiling yet, which is a good thing. Unsign what we learned, and we'll end on this. If my dad didn't give me a right-handed stick, I would be making millions in the NHL right now instead of four years of university.

When in doubt, blame your parents. That's right. They probably let you cry, too. Yeah. That's why you're weak. You're weak. Well. That's why you're weak. You're weak. Well, there's a good note to end the show on.

We've got to get out of here for today. We will be here tomorrow, and we spent the better part of the show apologizing for what kind of shape we're going to be in tomorrow. Because we're going to the game tonight. We're going to have a good time, and puck drop is in until 740. So tune in for whatever hijinks ensue. I guarantee we'll be here. You should just come

here after the game and sleep over in the studio. That's not a bad idea. Come dressed as a hummingbird and go eee. Yeah. The footage will be

great. We'll leave the stream on all night. Oh yeah, it's Halloween tomorrow. Yeah. Oh yeah, that's right. The Halford and Brough

Halloween Spooktacular is tomorrow. There's so many reasons to tune in tomorrow, so please make sure you do so. For now, though, we gotta say goodbye.

Signing off, I have been Mike Alford. He's been Jason Brough. He's been A-Dog, and he's been Laddie. This has been the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.