Halford & Brough in the Morning - Is Gavin McKenna The Real Deal?

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

In hour two, Mike & Jason discuss the latest around potential first overall pick Gavin McKenna with The Athletic NHL's Sean Gentille (1:13), plus the boys chat some of the other top stories from around the NHL (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.

Happy Monday, everybody. Halford, Brough, Sportsnet, 650. Halford and Brub in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have CRA debt? If you do, Sands and Associates can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands-trustee.com. We are now in Our 2 of the program. Sean Gentilly from the athletic NHL writer is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 2. Hour 2 is brats by Jason Hominak at Jason Dowmortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money,

then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason.com. We're coming you live from the Kintech Studios, Step Strong with Orthotics and Footwear from Kintech. To the Able Auctions hotline, we go. Our next guest joins us from the athletic. Sean Jantilly here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Sean?

What's up, boys? How are you? We are well. I got to ask first question. We should have done this before. we're not professionals, but for the article that you co-wrote with Scott Wheeler about Gavin McKenna, were you the one that were boots on the ground in State College, Pennsylvania? The Pennsylvania guy? Yeah.

Is this how it worked out? You were the one that got to go to Penn State? Yeah, I got to make the very glamorous two-hour-and-ten-minute drive to the east from Pittsburgh and hang out in State College for a couple days. Yeah, I've been there a few times on McKenna duty over the last. last couple months. Always always a great, great time going and hanging out at Penn State. So tell us first what the head coach Guy Godowski had to say about what has been a pretty interesting year for Gavin McKenna at State College. Yeah, it was funny. This is, it was,

when I ended up in Godowski, it was just post-game after, after they beat Minnesota in the in the Big Ten tournament. God, what day was that? It was Wednesday last week. And you could tell he was like, he's a pretty astute guy. So he brought up McKenna's play away from the puck and how good it's been like unprompted, right, as an answer to another question. And then he talked about how the team, how his team handles adversity in general.

That was someone else asked that question. And he pivoted, of course, to talking about McKenna. Like he knows, he knows the kind of stuff he's getting asked. and I think he knows, you know, the most beneficial way to frame this sort of stuff. So, yeah, Gavin McKenna great away from the puck. The team knows how to face diversity because he knows how to face diversity and yada, yada. So he knew it was coming. And he sounds like a guy who's completely aware of the player he's coaching, you know,

and in some of the narratives that have developed over him over the last few months. So, yeah, it was a good play by guy. I think he understood the assignment on his end. Do the scouts that you reached out to agree with you that his play away from the puck has improved? Probably not as much as Goudowski says. I think it's more, yes, it's better, but also that's kind of damning him with St. praise. I think there was a lot of criticism, especially at the start of the season, you know, from October, November, December there.

So it's better, I think, would be the consensus, but also that's more just an indicator of how much work there was to be done. And it's fine. He's a winger. He was 17 years old, like 15 minutes ago. Like he didn't turn 18 until Christmas. So, you know, it's okay. It's okay to have things that you need to work on. And that seems like, you know, some positive stuff has happened there.

He's definitely spent a lot more time in the gym. that was also a big thing that people were worried about, just how, just how, how thing is. But it seems like he's taken, you know, some real advantages of the kind of amenities and stuff that they can offer on that end of thing in the state of college, too. So, yeah, like, it's been good.

He's a better player now than he was, you know, four months ago. And I don't know how much more you can ask beyond that. Yeah. Well, I was going to ask you, I mean, the reviews for McKenna at the World Juniors were, let's just call the mixed reviews. I think you can see the obvious vision that he's got as a playmaker.

But then oftentimes you were like, he's a little on the outside too much. Defensive play sometimes doesn't look all that urgent to come back and provide back pressure. But we've certainly been noticing here in Vancouver that his point totals have been increasing a lot at Penn State. Has he taken his game to another level since the World Junior? years?

It seems like it. You know, and the guys that watch him more frequently than I do, you know, seem to agree with that. He's one of those guys, and I think this got hit on in the piece. Like, there's certain players that, like, they're just, they're going to produce. Like, you can't, you can't really avoid it. And I'm trying not to compare him to Artemmy Panarin or Nikita Kutrov or whatever, but, like, because that's crazy.

Those guys are, you know, whatever. Kuchra is one of the things. one of the three best forwards in the league at this point. But, like, you can see why those, why those comparisons stick in some regards. Because he dictates the pace, you know, with the puck on his stick from the wing, which is, which is rare. And, yeah, like, he's a guy who maybe, when he's, you know, certain portions of the game will be quiet. And it's like, all of a sudden he just directly set up, you know, two goals in eight minutes. I think he's one of those guys who's, you know, maybe there will be stretches where he's not going to wow you.

And if you really want to look at him and pick stuff apart, like you'd be able to do that. But also, he's just so incredibly skilled and so smart with the way it goes about is business and his, in the offensive end that, you know, the production is inevitable, I think, in a lot of regard. And I think we've seen that play out to a pretty real degree over the last few months. Hey, Sean, what's the latest on his legal issues? I don't think anybody's all that concerned about them at this point. Like, the big development there was he was initially charged with a first-degree felony, which is serious stuff. Very real jail time is attached to that charge.

But the DA immediately ditched it, right? like the DA reviewed surveillance can footage and, you know, went back and found out that the other kid wasn't as injured as badly as, you know, he initially said, the cop initially said he was coming out of the report. And he's like, okay, this charge isn't fair. It's not going to stick. It doesn't apply here. So we're going to throw out the big scary felony that has the 20-year maximum prison time sentence and then kind of take it from there. So what you have now is he's facing one misdemeanor. all charge, which is something that very, very frequently, especially when you're talking about,

you know, 18, 19, 20-year-old kids who've never been in trouble before, it just, they end up in a diversionary program or community service or stuff like that that doesn't really carry any super long-term, like long-term issues. Like it wouldn't result in a criminal record? Because that might be a hassle for traveling. That's a good question. That's a good question. And that's something that there's something that there's.

still not, there's still not any, immigration law is tough and immigrationalized different than criminal law. That's something to remember too. What's viewed as a misdemeanor by a criminal court might not necessarily be viewed that way by immigration lawyers. But that, again, all that was more of an issue when the felony charges were on the table. I think, you know, there's a very real chance based on the people that I've talked to that he comes out of this without, you know, without a long-term criminal record that this is something that gets, you know, worked out and struck. Like, the case is not going away.

The charges aren't going to get dropped. He did, you know, he is on video apparently punching somebody, right? Like, there's no way around that. So he's going to have to face, you know, even if it's something super minor for that. But at the same time, man, like, I think stuff is shaping up for him, you know, at least when you look at immigration and things like that, it's best case scenario relative to where we were a month ago. Anything else that stood out to you when you were writing this piece

alongside Scott Wheeler at the Athletic? Anything, any of the scouts said, anything that we should keep our eye on ahead of the draft? Man, I just, he's really, he's really fun to watch, and that sounds basic and simple, but just silly stuff, you know, the stuff he does on. zone entries. Again, the way you just control the pace of things

with a puck on his stick. I think that's why if I'm picking first overall, and I'm the Vancouver Canucks, I think like in this draft class where there's not any other one player who is really leapt above head and shoulders above everybody else,

I think that's what makes him a viable pick there, man. Like he's a guy where it's easy to, it is. I don't and we'll keep bringing up Artemi Panarin comparisons, but there's a reason that that's what scouts look at him and see. Like that's very, very real, where he's a guy who controls, controls his own line,

controls the power play. He's incredible there. The vision and the mental side of the game is very, very obvious with him. What's his shot like? Because I've only seen him at the World Juniors, and, you know, I see him as this great playmaker. And you're right, when he enters the zone and he kind of slows it up, and, like, he's got the puck, and, you know, he's waiting for the defenders to come at him,

and that's going to open up a pass, a passing lane. And he's just got, he's got great vision. But, you know, I also know he scores a lot, but I didn't really see much of the shot at the World Juniors. Is he going to be a big-time goal scorer as well? I think I can imagine him, you know, he's, we're not talking about a kid that has like a Phil Kessel wrister, right? Like that's not, I don't think that's necessarily in his bag. But I can also imagine him, you know, mixing that in more as he gets older and as he gets stronger. And my God, I'm comparing him to Panarin again.

but like we saw that more with Panarin especially as Perrin kind of hit his beak right like he he started out as more more of a past first guy and then you know a few years ago he's top five top ten and shots I think what's important for him is that the willingness to shoot the puck continues to grow like physically I don't see any issues there and I think you know he's got it he's got that sort of sick sense of knowing the right you know when to make the right play at the right time. And it's easy to imagine him, you know, kind of porting that logic over more to shooting the puck.

Like physically, like, yeah, he's not, I don't think he's going to win any awards with, you know, the release or the velocity there, but also, like, it's hard for me to believe that, you know, he's not going to mix that in more and more, especially when you, especially as he gets older and adds strength. We're speaking with Sean Gentile, who is the athlete. man on, what is it, man on the ground for Gavin McKenna in the state of Pennsylvania, but also. Yeah, I'm the state college bureau reporter. You also cover the Pittsburgh Penguins who are still in a playoff spot.

I got to ask you, Sean, if you were to ask the penguins privately and with, you know, maybe a lie detector, how surprised are they that they're having this season and how much, if any, does it change their plans going forward? That's a great question. I don't think they're surprised anymore. I think probably until, let's say, Christmas, maybe a little bit before Christmas, I think there was some of the great shock there.

But they had a dip in like mid-November where they were blown games late, and it seemed like that was the wheels starting to wobble on a team that everybody thought was going to be, you know, whatever, one of the five worst in the NHL ahead of the season. And they seem like a good story, and then you start to see them, like, again, falling apart late in games,

they had a few brutal late losses in a row. And a lot of people were like, okay, this is it, nice story. It's December 19th now. Time to go in the tank and, you know, rack up. rack up lottery balls. And then they bounce back from that. And I think that is what, you know, sold a lot of people on this team,

at least as early as to the season. Like, sometimes stuff just works. Sometimes all the flyers that you take, you know, hit at the same time. And I think Duvitz deserves a lot of credit for that. Like, Anthony Manta's going to score 30 goals this year. Like, right? And I think guys like him and Parker Watherspoon,

who's like a top, is a legit top pair of defensemen for them and Justin Brazo who's been great when he's been healthy. Like all these players who they took flags on just to seemingly either fill out the roster or turn into tradable commodities at the deadline, ball hit in one way or another.

And I think it became clear, you know, a couple months ago that something funky was happening there. So, yeah, I think there is some degree of surprise, but also they've been consistently just a pretty good hockey team since day one. And I think people have, internalize that to some degree. Like the trade deadline

there's a reason that you didn't see them trading, trading guys away. Like, Manta is still on the team, Brazo is still on the team, Blake Lizotte, guys like that who, you know, seem like tradable commodities maybe to, in a lot of ways, like, they didn't go anywhere. And I think that is kind of

their course adjustment based on how good the team has been this year. It's that players like that were probably starting to get traded or still around. Like, they're willing they're willing to hold on to those tickets throughout the end of the regular season, you know, because the team's been good enough to earn that. What's it been like watching the local kid, the 18-year-old Ben Kindle,

who I got to say has exceeded probably every single expectation they must have had on him this year? I like never seen, I don't think I've ever seen a kid who looks weirder in an NHL. Like he looks like he's 18 and he looks like he's, 11. Yeah. Like I, I honestly God, he's the youngest looking person I've ever seen play in an NHL game. And that is, that required some degree of, yeah, adjustment. You're like, this is a sixth grader who's out there playing like tough minutes on a

on a third line, right? But he's been, he's been really good from the start, man. He was, he was good in camp. I, they definitely did not anticipate him coming in and being the player that he's been. But it was also pretty obvious, you know, pretty early that he was, you know, one of the nine best forwards on the team and credit to him. They were like, yeah, you show you can stick, you're going to stick. And I think he's been basically good since the jump. I think the Olympic break helped him.

I think he was starting to maybe run into some kind of wall physically. And then he had a few weeks off. And he looks like he's, you know, it's agreed with him well. Yeah, he's a good play. but anybody's saying that they anticipated this in year one from him is not being honest. Real quick, Sean, when is Sid back? He's taken light contact now, so shouldn't be that far. When was May or March 2nd or what was it?

Late February when it initially happened. He said four weeks after the injury, so I think it's fair to say that he's ahead of schedule. Yeah, I mean, he's a freak. What else can you say? Sean, this was great, buddy. Thanks for taking the time to do it, as always. We appreciate it. We'll do this again soon as we get closer to the playoffs.

Yes, fellas. And anytime, you know that. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. That's Sean Gentilly from the athletic NHL writer here on the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650. So I guess we should probably clarify. McKenna's season isn't over at Penn State. They did lose in the Big Ten semifinals to Michigan,

but they've got a birth into the NCAA championships. I think they're the 10th-ranked team in the country. is going to still get a chance to play. And, you know, it's funny. His whole season has kind of been this weird experiment because of everything that happened. Like he was kind of the first to cross a lot of these bridges, right? The first highly touted first overall pick to leave junior to go try his luck for

what, and everyone understood this was going to be a one year thing in college hockey. He had a program that wasn't a traditional powerhouse. But it's becoming becoming a powerhouse. Remember they had the decision. on ESPN and it was broadcast across America. And it's interesting because when the hype going into this season was built up, there was two ways it was going to go.

He was either going to meet the hype and be this LeBron James-esque superstar in college hockey or he wasn't. And how are we going to react to that? It's not fair to say his season at Penn State was a bus. No, not at all. But it also hasn't lived up to the hype. And that's partly due to the height. But I wonder if also some of the dividends that he got from playing at Penn State,

for example, access to a great weight room, fewer games so you can go work out, is that going to pay dividends later on for him? Exactly. I mean, he was very skinny when he went to Penn State and watching him in the CHL was kind of like, oh, that guy's, that guy's skinny. Yeah. And, you know, you need to, you don't have to be, you know, You don't have to be a giant and the strongest guy in the league to excel in the NHL,

but you do need a certain level. Yeah, because I think a lot of people think the story gets written and it's always this like upward trajectory where you go to the next level and you dominate and you go to the next level and you dominate. He wanted to challenge himself and he got challenged. Yeah. Big time. Yeah. By the way, did you know, do you know the penguins are one in 10 in the shootout?

And Anaheim, which is still somehow leading the Pacific Division, are. 8 and 0 in the shootout. They could win the Pacific Division in large part because they're really good at the shootout. Do you have the standings in front of you? Yeah. How many shootouts have the Canucks been involved in this year?

It doesn't feel like... The Canucks are 5 and 2 in a shootout. Really? They've been to seven shootouts? And they're a great shootout team. Well, yeah, but they try... Because they often try and just get to the shootout. But I don't remember... Just because you're not watching the games.

Yeah, well, you know why. No, there's a reason for that. There is a reason for that. Okay, I got to do the one to watch, brought to you by Limitless A.V. Vancouver's most trusted audiovisual integration experts. Tonight, it's the world baseball classic, everybody. Italy, Venezuela, Michael Lorenzen going for the Italians tonight. He is got a lot of pressure, having put up a terrific performance in his previous start against the U.S.

in that upset victory in the group stage. if, and I'm more talking to Italy side of things because I want Italy to win tonight, Brough wants Venezuela. If Italy wins tonight, Aaron Nola would be lined up to take on the U.S. in the final, so it bodes well for the Italians. It's been a great tournament thus far. Venezuela back in the semifinals

for the first time since 2009 loaded lineup, Ocunia Jr., Garcia-Aryaz, Ezekiel Tovar, who came out of nowhere with three hits against the Japanese and that semifinal wins. So, a quarter-final win, sorry. So big game tonight. It is a five-a-class.

clock start first pitch at five and then they get things right underway again tomorrow in the final USA will play the winner of Italy Venezuela tonight in the world baseball classic final tomorrow but tonight you're one to watch Italy Venezuela at five o'clock on sports net that is your one to watch brought to you by limitless AV specializing in seamless video conferencing solutions and hybrid workspaces book your personalized tour of their experience center today at limitlessavie. dot CA. Okay, we've got an open segment on the other side. Kevin Woodley's going to join us at 8 o'clock, talk a little goaltending and Vancouver Canucks as a whole. Text in to the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650, 650, any questions or comments. We'll try to get to them on the other side of

the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Strance. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to two on sportsnet 650 or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. I like this. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I like it. It's nice. This could be an A-Dog soundtrack.

A little bit. Just going about his day. This plays in my head 24-7. Yeah, yeah. Just, what you doing there, bud? Oh, you know. Just live in life. Every day is what we learned.

A song is called Lollipops. That's all right. You are listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. It keeps going. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have credit card debt? If you do, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. This is it today at sands dash trustee.com.

When I hear this song, I expect the answer to do you got credit card debt to be like, it's okay. Everything will turn out fine. Yeah. Don't worry about it. We'll do anything. We are an hour two of the money. program. But seriously, it can build up. Yeah, I would definitely call Sands and Associates.

Hour 2 of this program. Bride 2 by Jason Homonick at Jason.orgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason. Dot mortgage. Halford, we got a question from Brandon from T-Town into the Dunbar Lumber Text line,

and it kind of hints at something that you wanted to talk about today. And Brandon texts in, he says, for a team that's in full rebuild. in a franchise that clearly struggles with the culture in the room, talking about the Vancouver Canucks, would it not make sense to bring on board Kevin BXA as a be more like me,

kind of like drill sergeant major in the room, not in a bullying way, but in a lead by example way. All of our problems seem to come down to a poor culture and mixed locker room. Imagine just bringing in Kevin BXAzer. Like, what's my job? It's just kind of just tell guys how to be.

What would you say you do around here, Kev? He's like, bring up the vibes, tell guys to be tougher. Yeah. So. Tuffing up over there. Biazza took center stage on Saturday night. Thanks to the mushroom cloud that is the Radco Goudis, Austin Matthews, knee on knee. What started as a knee on knee hit grew and grew and grew. And, you know, I love the conversation.

I love the debate because I think there's a lot of different conversations to have about this, right? Yeah. So let's see here. there's obviously the immediate damage, which is a five-game suspension for Goudis and the season-ending injury for Matthews. Then there's discussion and debate about the suspension and how they go about going those suspensions.

And then, of course, the added element here is that the Toronto Maple Leafs in the immediate aftermath of the hit did not stand up for their captain. So Kevin BX on Hockey Night and Canada on Saturday night took to, I think it was the second intermission panel, to talk about courage and the lack of it. that the Toronto Maple Leafs had

trying to defend their captain, right? And we're going to play the audio now. Another different direction this conversation went in. Here's Kevin Baxson talking about how he would fight anyone, including Andre the Giant, to stand up for his guys. So why was there nobody coming to his aid right away? For me, it's two things. It's selfish, right?

It's a selfish reason where guys were like, well, I don't want to go do something and maybe get suspended or fine, or maybe I lose my ice time. Or it's, you know, even the worst one is a lack of courage. And do we not value courage enough anymore? And courage is something like jumping on a guy, like getting in, being a team, and everyone getting it. And in the third period, all these highlights are from the third. But for me, the damage was already done when there was no initial response.

And I just think about, like, when I played, like, the Siddings were the untouchables. You know, prongs for you would have been like a team of Solani and Niedemeyer, Kelly. You play with Wayne Gretzky. Like, if those guys got touched, I would fight Andre the Giant. I would jump on Andre the Giants back and I would expect all four other guys on my team to do the same thing. So there's a conversation

that's happening now and later on in the broadcast it sort of moved itself over to the Vancouver Canucks about team toughness and it being the talk of the town and how this is going to rip the Maple Leafs apart if they weren't ripped apart already and then it pivoted to the Vancouver Canucks about what they're about to embark on

which is season after season of losing hockey and maybe some games getting away from you and building a team to get through those dark times. And one of the thoughts is make yourself as tough as humanly possible for a variety of reasons. One, inevitably as you go through these growing times and growing pains, there's going to be some games that are pretty ugly and are going to get away from you. And the other team might be running up the score, taking some liberties or whatever. and it's nice to have a bunch of guys that are willing to, one, stand up to that.

And then two, it does have to be said, getting into some fisticuffs and getting into some, you know, chaos in those moments does deflect away from the guys that are quite frankly getting their ass kicked, actually playing hockey. Is that the league anymore, though? I mean, when I was growing up in the 80s, the connox were terrible and they would often try it and bring in young guys into the lineup. and the way the league went down there, you had at least one enforcer. Some teams had two or three. You know, the Canucks, when Trevor Lyndon was drafted, for example, had Garth Butcher and Ronnie Stern in the lineup. And then eventually, of course, they found Gino Ojic. And, you know, in some of the years where they really struggled going forward, they had a bunch of goons in the lineup.

You know, they brought in Bershear as well and Gino was still there. Like they would have two of these guys, two or three of these guys in the lineup every night. But the game was was different. Well, it lent itself to that. I think the idea would be, it's an archaic notion. And someone's a dinosaur mentality. And BXA was alluding to Brian Burke saying, like, if you can't give him a win, give him a fight every night. Sure.

Right. Now. But Burke is very old school. I think that the idea, though, the idea being very hard to play against, even if you're light on talent and you don't have a ton of goal scoring and you're not going to win any games. I do think it's important to be hard to play against on a nightly basis.

And we've talked about this before. In the context of the modern NHL, toughness isn't what it was in the 80s and 90s where toughness meant bare-knuckle fights and enforcers and like we're going to hit harder. You can be hard to play against and you can be toughed in a lot of different ways in the new NHL.

That courage quote that Biazza had is key for me. You just need to have the courage. to do it. I mean, look, if Radco Gudis takes out your best player and he is prepared for whatever's going to come at him,

it takes courage to go and address it. You know, you might, you might get punched. Courage is the right way to frame it though, too, because you have to be able to act on instinct and not worry about anything else. That's part of courage. A little bit of its blind faith to be like, I'm doing this.

We're going. And I'm going to have a, uh, uh, the belief that my other teammates are going to be with me, so I'm not going to be the only one going over to Rodko Gudis. Because I'm telling you. Who's honestly, his beard could beat me up. Yeah, like two-thirds of the Leafs. His beard could have taken all of them out.

But they should have tried. They should have tried because what's happening right now is a public skewering of that group. And here's the interesting thing. There were already major, major questions about the intestinal. little fortitude of that team and about totally how soft they were and it went into how unlikable they were and how they couldn't ever do anytime they were put to the test it felt like they always failed and that test

could be a toughness test a courage test the playoff test every time the going got tough that team and that group always fell short and this is another example of it but this one's different because this is a more primal thing right you see one of your best buddies and captain leader get hurt. You would think that part of the courage part would be like, fight or flight, like I'm just jumping in, I'm taking care of this right now, to hell with the consequences. And they don't have that.

And it got a huge spotlight on it. And now we're still talking about it. It's a Monday. It's like five, six days since. I was kind of playing devil's advocate there with the whole, you know, is the league like this anymore? Because while it might not be the 70s, 80s and 90s, there is still something to be said for a team coming together when it decides to start sticking up for each other. Ask the Tampa Bay Lightning.

They've won Stanley Cup since they decided to do that. And now they're, you know, if you were to say, who's the roughest and toughest team in the NHL? You'd probably say Tampa Bay. Buffalo. Buffalo's a big example right now. Buffalo had an issue with it. And they decided that's not going to happen to us anymore.

and combined with the talent that they've amassed, you can see what they're doing now. Mark in White Rock texts in, and he says, in regards to toughness, who cares if it's not what the league does anymore? Make it what you do as a team. Separate yourself somehow.

At least it would be entertaining while losing every game. I agree with that. I mean, the Canucks have this opportunity now to reset what they are all about. Yeah. They have this, it's right in front of them. You know, it might, it's going to take a little bit of luck, and it's definitely going to take some time for the Kinnocks to re-inject this team with talent.

But they can change the narrative on this team. And the narrative on this team right now is that it's been a broken room. Yeah. You know, the guys that were supposed to be their core have, they disintegrated. They fell apart. You know, whether it's J.T. Miller and his fight with Olias Pedersen or Quinn Hughes, eventually just saying, like, I want out and really not looking all that good on his way out the door. You have an opportunity to reset everything now with regards to your team.

and at first it doesn't have to be winning it just has to be as you say it's such a cliche but hard to play against don't don't give anyone don't give anyone a free night at Rogers Arena where they're like this is easy like it was too easy for the Crackin

on Saturday night you know I mean the Canucks had bad line changes I mean the goaltending was a little bit shaky and then you look at the the game and you're like, wow, how did the Cracken feel after that game? Probably pretty good because they were able to go back home and pump the Florida Panthers the very next night. You know, like they didn't, you didn't really do anything to the Cracken.

You just gave them some exercise. And that has to change going forward. Yeah. Like, it's funny because you know, you look at Curtis Douglas, who they picked up off waivers. Like he's top 10 in the NHL in penalty minutes and he's designed to make life harder on opponents. And it's not because he's got blazing speed or this elite skill set that's going to drive guys nuts on a nightly basis. It's because he's 690s physically imposing. You can, you have a weird opportunity in front of you when you hit the bottom of the barrel like this where all of a sudden, everything is open to you in terms of opportunities.

There's a world of opportunity open to you in terms of where you want to go from here. You can't get any lower. You can't be any worse. And you are an identityless organization. right now. If you were to ask the casual NHL fan what they thought the identity or what do you think of the Vancouver Canucks? All it would be right now is losing. Disfunction.

Basically, that's it. And those things are not necessarily like characteristics or traits. They're the current state of the team. You know, like it's eventually you get out of dysfunctioner or you hope to anyway. So they do have an opportunity here to really reinvent

what they are and what they want to be. And I think they should reach out to Kevin B. Exa, by the way. I think they should as well. Yeah. I mean, I understand that there are some archaic notions here. Some of this stuff, quite frankly, you just can't pull off. But I think it's core, the genesis, the idea of it, be tougher to play against.

That would be hilarious, though, if they just went full goon show. Like, we're going to give, we're bringing them back. We're going to have an 80s goon show out there. Try it for one year. I do feel like there's a bit of a rebound happening in the NHL because, For a few years, I felt that the league was not nasty or physical enough. I don't know if I can say that the league isn't nasty enough now because there is some nasty stuff going out on the ice.

You know what it's coincided with. Post-Olympics, post-trade deadline, playoff push. I don't think it's that. I think it's before all that. I think it's before all that. I think we've seen for the last few years that the NHL is getting, nastier, and it actually brings us to another topic of conversation, and that is the Department of Player Safety,

because I wonder if it's also coincided with the Department of Player Safety, not handing out very long suspensions. The fact that Radco Goudos only got five games for that knee on Austin Matthews, I mean, that's, I don't know if anyone agrees with that. Well, one guy that didn't agree with the process was Edmonton. Oh, there's Captain Connor McDavid. who was asked about the Austin Matthews, Radco Gutus incident, the knee-on-knee hit, the subsequent five-game suspension for Gudis,

because, of course, one, McDavid is a star player. And two, not too long ago, there was a lot of criticisms lobbed at a suspension that McDavid got, remember when he got tangled up against the Vancouver Canucks and got a three-game suspension. The league does not do a good enough job of protecting its players and that McDavid was forced to protect himself. Anyway, Conner McDavid had an interesting turn on the question about

suspensions in the Department of Player's Safety, wondering if the entire thing needed to be re-examined this off-season. Here's Connor McDavid over the weekend talking about the Department of Player Safety. Yeah, you know, I think the player safety has

done their best. It's not an easy thing to do. You know, with that being said, I think that there is reason to take a look at how the whole process works, you know, if every time there's a suspension, everybody complains about it. Well, why don't we take a look at the process

and figure out if there's a better way to make sure that both parties are happy because, you know, it seems like there's a lot of frustration there. I think there's mainly interest as well, the owners, the GMs, they're in it too. Well, you can't suspend our player for too much, so they've... I can't speak to that. I can't speak to that. I'm not an owner. I'm not a GM.

I'm a player, and I can say that from the player's player perspective, I think every time there is a suspension, most times there's a suspension, there is a lot of frustration from the player side. So why don't we take a look at the process and figure out a way that works for everybody? So the process right now, I think it does deserve, at the very least, an off-season re-examination. Well, the Board of Governors is meeting in Florida. Yeah. And I'm sure Gary Bettman is going to be asked about.

Connor McDavid's comments. So, for example, this most recent suspension that got levied, Elliot Friedman reported over the weekend that Brad Tree Living, the general manager of Toronto Maple Leafs, called the Department of Player Safety and made a strong push for harsher discipline. And then Frege kind of did a synopsis of recap of what Tree Living said, quote, this is bad for the league, it's our captain, it's our best player. Imagine if we were in a playoff race.

Imagine if he lost playoff games because of this knee-on-knee. And there's a couple things here. One, it does seem kind of crazy that the general manager of the team that employs the guy that got hurt is making a call in lobbying for a suspension. It almost feels like that shouldn't enter into the equation. Well, at least Gudis isn't a repeat offender.

I mean, first time, never done it before. But you're half joking. Perfectly innocent man. Right, but you're half joking. Just innocent men? But you know, we're just innocent man. You know what part of, you know what Anaheim part of their defense was, is they're like,

you need to be more lenient on him because he hasn't been suspended in so long. Oh, come on. I'm dead serious. It's so stupid. He's like one of the most like, he's been going to all his meetings. He's like one of the first guys you think of in the league for dirty hits. He may be the most dirty player. So you've got all these out, the point that I'm trying to make is you've got all

these outside influences, trying to do exactly that, influence the decision making. You also don't really have a set guideline. it seems as to what a suspension, like the punishment that fits the crime. Like what is the proper suspension? You and I were both shocked by the rest of the season. You and I were both shocked by the Malkin suspension.

You know, we were like, oh, maybe a game or two for that. And then it's five games the same as Radco Gudis, which seems totally ridiculous to me. You take one guy out for the remainder of the season with a pretty serious knee injury. The other one, yes, it's a slash to the head, which sounds awful. But no. But he was, he was, he was, fine. He was fine. And I still haven't really ever come to a proper understanding about the injury that is caused by the action. Because sometimes it seems like it matters and sometimes it seems like it doesn't. Yeah. You know? I think, yeah. And I think this is just what Connor McDavid is saying, let's revisit all of this because it seems like some things have just gotten a skew with the process. Does that make sense? Like let's just relook at all this. Um,

and even the notion of if it's a phone hearing, five games or fewer. If it's not a phone hearing, then you can go longer than that. Why? What are we doing this for? Can I throw a question that you guys? Yes, you can, Greg. Is it a bad look that the head of the Department of Player Safety is a former goon who also is the CEO of a company named Violent Gentleman?

I think that's the head of player safety. I get what you're saying. I get what you're saying. I just think that's all sort of like superfluous noise. It doesn't help though. Is it? I don't think it dramatically affects his decision making. I think he's been doing the job long enough that he knows.

Whereas I think the biggest issue that they have is there's way too many outside influences that are got the line of the Department of Player Safety or have an in or want to make their case. And it doesn't seem like there's any sort of set way that they go about. The dartboard thing. They've been doing this for like it feels like decades now. Is everyone going to dartboard? Is everyone going to be able to come together on one agreement, on what the standard should be? 100% no.

Because the standard seems to shift, right? Sometimes it feels like the Department of Player Safety goes, all right, we're cracking down on whatever, or we're just cracking down in general, and then the suspensions come out, you're like, whoa, right? And then that seems to just get chipped away, like that resolve to send out these strong suspensions. And it probably is because the GMs and the owners,

I think that was spec talking to Connor McDavid, they start lobbying the league and saying like, hey man, like I, you know, I'm paying these guys millions of dollars. Hockey's a rough game. It's a violent game. You can't, you know, A-Dog says, we'll toss him out for the rest of the season. That's easy to say when it's Radco-Gutis. What if it's Connor McDavid that does something like that?

No, it's why it's Radco. Why is the rest of the season? Because it is Radko Goody. Here's the question. It would be different for a guy that has never done it before. But if this is a repeat offender, knocked out Austin Matthews for the rest of the season. Like, whatever, 12 games left anyways, 14 games left.

Maybe that's something that... It's not like it's that many games you'd be giving them anyways. The season's almost over. Maybe that's something that they could come together on. Stricter rules for repeat offenders. The thing is... I thought that was a thing. It wasn't that a thing already?

It is a thing, but you can reiterate that. And you can strengthen that result. resolve to crack down on second and third time repeat offenders. The issue with what you're talking about, though, is it would also be just an arbitrary decision that's made without precedent and without a guideline set. Like, you're like, throw the book in them and throw one up for the entire year. Then the PA is. Haven't they done that before, though?

But they, the PA is now faced with a problem because they represent Radco Gudis just as much as they represent Austin Matts. It's always been a weird situation for them, right? So it almost is like you want to take the ruling part out of it and have a guideline. Like, this is, this is the rule. If you do this, this is what you're getting suspended. Have very finite rules. So there's no arguing about it.

I would say the PA actually more represents Goudis in this situation. 100%. Because they are the ones, if there's an appeal, they're going to be the ones launching that appeal. But they should also be representing, I don't know, Austin Matthews. Right. Whose season is like turf now. Now this is the other thing is when Tree Living makes the call to the Department of Players safety, he has to throw in the, what if this was a normal Maple Leaf season where we're

going to the playoffs and Austin Matthews is now missing the post season? When I saw it was a phone hearing for that, I was like, are you kidding me? And I don't normally get up in arms about suspensions because I recognize how difficult that is, but this one feels like it could spur some change. Yeah. Kevin Woodley's going to join us next. We'll talk a little Vancouver Canucks, maybe talk a little about Nikita Tolopilo, who I want to know what Kev thinks about his future as an NHL goal.

He's certainly shown some really good signs, but Saturday against the Cracken was not a strong performance by total appeal. So we'll talk to Kev about that. I also want to talk to him about the Oilers goaltending situation. I guess Connor Ingram is the starter now. He's their guy. Yep. Chris Knoblock came out and said,

like Connor Ingram is our guy. He's our starter going forward. So, man, the goaltending situation in Edmonton. It's a story that never ends. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Well, at least Gudus isn't a repeat offender. I mean, first time, never done it before. Okay, but you're half joking.

Perfectly innocent man. Right, but you're half joking. But you know, we're just innocent men. We're just normal men. What do you mean, normal men? We're just innocent men.