Halford & Brough in the Morning - It's The Frozen Frenzy Tonight In The NHL

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they discuss which new Canucks players have been the most and least noticeable (6:00), plus they preview the NHL Frozen Frenzy with ESPN's Greg Wyshynski (25:36).  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.

Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- Slings it. Complete. Henry at the five. The king is in! Five touchdown passes for Lamar! Back to the point, the headman, to Pagel. Back to Kucharaba, pass to Hagel, a shot. That's knocked down, the rebound! Snow kept out! Holy mackerel, what a save! Nelson Mandela said, I don't lose, I either win or I learn. Good morning Vancouver, 6-0-1 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. It is Half or I learn. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford.

It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. And we are 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 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 Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid.

This is the 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. Soar feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec, we have an absolutely huge show on a really, really big sports day today. First off, happy...

What's it called? Frozen Frenzy Day. Bro's it called? Frozen Frenzy Day. Broke the website. Frozen Frenzy Day to everyone that celebrates all 16... Or sorry, all 32 teams in the NHL over 16 games today. So you'll notice the Canucks have a weird start time today. Right. They're all

different start times? Yep. And this is of course to celebrate NBA opening day. What better way to do it? The NHL is like, we're throwing it all at you. Take that. Everything we got. Pay no mind to the basketball. Every

hockey team we got. Empty the chambers. Go. Just go play. Oh, you're starting your season today, are you? Well, guess what? That was a nice start of the season you had there, basketball. So the hockey begins at 3 o'clock our time, and then games face off every 15 to 30 minute intervals until 8 o'clock our time.

So it starts with the Caps and the Flyers, and it ends with the Kings and the Golden Knights. So what a great day to have Greg Wyshynski from ESPN on the show because this is an ESPN initiative. He'll be joining us at 6.30. So the Canucks start time is what hour time? 6.15? 6.15.

Such a strange start time. So that's 8.15 in Chicago. Yes, that's correct. Okay, so we've got 8.15 in Chicago. No, 8.15 Eastern These are all Eastern times 5.15 our time

7.15 in Chicago Frozen frenzy is tearing us apart It's confusing everyone That's a terrible idea We're going to have Greg Wyszynski on Never do this again The orchestrator This is a terrible idea One of the orchestrators of this nightmare. How'd you let us build bug beds? This is a terrible idea.

One of the orchestrators of this nightmare will be joining us at 6.30. Also, Ray Ferraro, who is also partaking in the Frozen frenzy. He's going to be on the call. He's doing all the games. He's doing all 32. They're just bouncing him around America in a jet. One period. Yeah.

He's going to join us at 7. New intro. Alert. Alert. Alert. We have a new Ray Ferrar 7. New intro. Alert. Alert. We have a new Ray Ferraro intro as well. Oh, boy. The dogs were in the lab cooking it up. They're very excited.

That's going to happen at 7 o'clock. 7.30, Mark Lazarus from The Athletic in Chicago is going to join the program. The Canucks are taking on the Chicago Blackhawks tonight from the United Center. The end of a road trip for the Vancouver Canucks, so we'll talk to Mark about that. 8 o'clock, Brendan Batchelor who will also be on the call tonight for that game right here on Sportsnet 650. We have another $100

gift card to give away. $50 gift card. $50 gift card to give away to White Spot. I copied it from yesterday's notes. That's my bad. We're going to give that away to a caller, and we're just going to announce it at a certain point in the show when we're available to do it. So you've got to be on your toes, you've got to have a phone,

and you have to be able to call 604-280-0650 at the appropriate time. Also, you cannot have won a gift card or anything from Sportsnet 650 in the last 90 days. A $50 gift card to White Spot up for grabs. It is Frozen Frenzy Day. It is NBA opening night tonight as well. A doubleheader for the NBA. Only four teams playing?

Get it together, basketball. We got a lot to get into on the program. 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... 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. The Vancouver Canucks

did practice in Chicago yesterday, but they did not practice with JT Miller, Jason. Yeah, Suter was in there filling in for Miller between Besser and DeBrusque. It remains to be seen if Miller will play tonight, and if he does play,

I doubt he's going to be taking face-offs. One thing I wanted to talk about today was the power play. The Canucks also practiced the power play, and I thought it was interesting that Baines and Garland were bumped up to PP1. This is all courtesy of Thomas Strance's Twitter, by the way, while DeBrusque was bumped to power play two. Now, granted, Miller wasn't at practice,

so you have to take all of this with a grain of salt. I don't know if Baines was the placeholder for Miller or Garland was the placeholder for Miller. I saw that Garland was playing on the flank, and that's usually where Miller plays. So maybe Rick Tockett thinks that Baines could be one of the answers for a struggling power play. Baines did score on the power play, I think, a couple of times in the preseason.

I know he had at least one on the power play in the preseason. But I think overall, without getting into the minutiae of what they did yesterday, power play hasn't been very good. It has not lived up to its potential. Now, if you look at it statistically, three goals in five games is not a complete disaster. I even think they scored once right at the end of a power play that wasn't officially a power play goal, but effectively was. But you watch it the last few games, it is failing the eye test.

And the analytics, if you look at it, it's suggesting that it's been one of the worst in the league in terms of expected goals. So it's not creating the chances that you would like to see. Chicago, believe it or not, has had pretty good special teams so far this season, both power play and PK. But I was just wondering, has this kind of flown under the radar

with some of the other stuff that we've been focusing on first of all the results that the canucks have been getting uh started out not so good but lately they've been better um elias peterson has been very much under the microscope and part of the conversation and i realize he's part of the conversation when it comes to the power play but i thought the power play would get more attention overall this season, but other stories have kind of usurped it. And I don't know if Rick Talkett worked on the power play as much as he'd have liked to during the preseason and training camp.

And we're still seeing, I think a problematic power play given the, given the talent that the Canucks have well it also isn't very surprising that talk it's already gone to the can you use a line blender on the power play sure why not unit blender we'll call it that gotta be a better name for that but there's been a real I mean we've talked about this countless times already there has not been a lot of patience with any grouping any pairing any line any combo in the first five games of the season. Tog, it's been very quick to change when he sees something he doesn't like.

Yeah. And I wonder if this is maybe more message sending along those lines, which is, hey, we're not going to give you guys an extended period of time to figure it out. You're all big boys. You all have offensive talent. You all know how to do the things we want to do. Now go and do it. That being said, I think there's a couple important caveats that you brought up.

One, there's some new guys that are being into the lineup, and we'll get into Jake DeBrusque in a minute. So there's going to be an adjustment period for sure, even if you've had opportunities to go over the video and work on the things you want to work on. And two, it hasn't been horrible. I know it's failed the eye test. They did connect a couple times.

I thought it looked good against Calgary in the first game. Well, yeah, it did. Yeah, it did. So you're talking about the last. The second unit scored one of those. Right. But that's not a bad thing. No, no, no.

That's not a bad thing. But I think it's not a bad thing. And you want the second unit to contribute. But the most important unit is the first unit because they're often out there for a minute and a half yeah i thought i mean i think the biggest issue with the storyline right now is that we have focused on other things there have been other things that have been more prevalent and more pressing if the power play was over or if it was like you know philadelphia's power play over the last two years by the way i

know you brought this up yesterday but it was hilarious that the Flyers start on the road, have a pretty decent showing on the power play on their road trip. They come home, first power play, they don't score. Boo-birds right away. Like, they were all over it, right? So the ghosts of the last two years on the power play had hung around. And that's part to do with this, too, is that I think a lot of people have trepidation over what they saw

from the second half of the season last year from the Canards. They just can't even get set up, though. That's a problem. With their entries. And I wonder if putting Garland out there is part of that because Garland has a way of, you know, just snaking his way in there and at least setting up.

What I've seen so far just reminds me a lot of what we saw down the stretch and into the playoffs last season is just a power play that's out of sync and it's disappointing because this for the coaching staff and the players was a big off-season project like how are we going to fix the power play and then i'm watching it and it's like well it looks about the same yeah i mean okay well let's talk and part of it looks about the same. Yeah, I mean, okay, well, let's talk. And part of it probably is also to do with Pedersen. You know, Pedersen hasn't been as confident as we'd like to see him,

but I'm certainly not putting it all on him. You know, there are guys that just have to do a better job of finding ways to enter the zone and get set up and then do something once it is set up. Yeah, once they set up, I like to think about it like they should always be asking, like, where's Quinn Hughes? And then when Quinn Hughes doesn't have the puck, it's like, why isn't the puck back with Quinn Hughes?

Well, JT Miller makes a lot of things happen too. I think he's actually the key to the power play, to be perfectly frank with you. I think Quinn Hughes is an important part, but JT Miller is the guy that makes the passes on the power play the the real chance creating plays so um and he's been off he's been off a little bit like we talk about jt miller being a gunslinger and he's slung he slung it a little too recklessly out there. And so you have to respect possessing the puck on the power play.

And that involves getting set up. That involves your passing, but also your recoveries as well. And when I watch it, I'm like, they're all failing, the eye test. The entries are failing. The passes to create The entries are failing. The passes to create dangerous chances are failing and the recoveries are failing. So that creates a failing power play. And I do also think that it's noteworthy that Jake DeBrusque is now off that first unit, at least based on what they did at practice yesterday. I don't know if this is they're not happy with Jake DeBrusque did on Power Play 1 or they want to spread out the talent a little bit.

So Power Play 2 yesterday was Hoaglander, Sprong, Heinen, DeBrusque, and Hronik. So that's noteworthy because only one defenseman on the second unit Power Play. Oftentimes they do two defensemen. What has everyone thought, by the way, of Jake DeBrusque? Because not only is he off power play one now, he was supposed to play with Pedersen, and now he's not playing with Pedersen, and I'm not going to put that on Jake DeBrusque.

He's now on a line with besser and miller while pd has found some limited success with hoaglander and garland uh i i wish i had a better answer like a more like definitive we haven't seen him play much he's fine yeah it's been fine the production is fine four points in five games granted all of them are assists um it's funny because as i was researching this question last night believe it or not we do do prep for this show um he's been i'm like oh he's been more physical the last two games i've noticed a more physical lean slant to his game because he has 12 hits over the last two games but then i'm like well wait is that just me projecting because i saw the numbers like there's a noticeable jump up in hits over the

philadelphia and florida games compared to the first three where there wasn't much at all so i look he's got a lot of the similarities that i saw from his game in boston to be honest there was times where he would have a sort of straight line attack i don't think it happens often enough i'd like to see it more often but he's obviously got good skating ability and he's got good enough size and he's not afraid to go at defenders i think because he's got a good skill set too i'd like to see more of it i don't know how much the opportunities have arisen because he's been bouncing all over with his line mates right usually continuity certainly hasn't been super noticeable though right i would not classify him as super noticeable no yeah no dogs

a dog you're probably really excited about de brusque like everything else with the connects except a harney i thought he looked fine there we go yeah but not like amazing fine he's been fine i'd like to see him stick on the first power play unit though he did have success in boston with the man advantage in two different spots. I know he played the bumper a little bit early on. That's he had like 15 power play goals over two years. Yeah. He looked pretty good with Besser last game.

I did notice him with Besser a couple of times. All of the new guys I would kind of classify as fine. I think Sherwood's grown into it the most over the last two games. And that again is because of the physicality. And that's noticeable, right? Like when a guy is mixing it up and throwing hits you're like oh he's he's skating everywhere this is the kind of the time of the year he covers a lot of ground out there sure would

so you're gonna know you're gonna notice him he's a good skater but this is the kind of the time of the year though where you look at it and you're like it's still a really small sample size yeah i feel like we don't have a firm grasp on a bunch of stuff other the only thing that's really been definitive over the first five games is that lankanen should be getting the majority share right now and silav should that's it yeah even the petterson stuff i mean it hasn't been what we expect from the all-star level petterson but i don't know whether it's because we're compensating and we're looking for things in his game or he is actually making gradual progressive steps but everything else

has sort of been a okay this feels like a work in progress but it feels like it's working towards a positive rather than a negative that's me anyway armchair canuck texts into the dunbar lumber text line at 650 650 uh and says that the power play looks the same because it is the same talk refuses to lean into his own philosophy and learn to play uncomfortable. If the players have gotten any direction whatsoever for coaches on the power play, it doesn't show. The only direction seems to be go execute. Scott texts in, I barely noticed DeBrusque, to be honest.

Yeah, I think these are things that have somewhat flown under the radar with so much focus being on, again, the results for the Canucks And also Petey Petey has kind of blocked out all the other topics Because we've been so focused on that And maybe that's our show's fault, I don't know about that But Petey also has a lot to do with the power play we've been so focused on that and maybe that's our show's fault. I don't know about that. But Petey also has a lot to do with the power play and DeBrusque has been just,

I think he's been fine, but I don't know if that is the impact that he wanted to make. It's funny, I actually read an article about how the Boston Bruins are missing Jake DeBrusque and And the article, I think, was just looking at the stat lines because they said, Jake Dabrusk has been off to a red-hot start with Vancouver with four assists in five games. And I'm like, I wouldn't describe his start as red-hot. Red-hot's doing a lot of heavy lifting on that one. It's been fine.

Tonight's opponent, the Chicago Blackhawks. It's funny, this dynamic that's at play with, you know, there's like a new Conor Bedard, not necessarily in talent level, but in Macklin Celebrini. I feel like we've actually paid more attention to Macklin Celebrini, who by the way, is going to be out another couple weeks now. The Sharks just announced that last night,

so that's a disappointment. But it is an opportunity for Vancouver fans, I assume a lot of them, to get their first look at Conor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks tonight when they host the Vancouver Canucks. I find this team very interesting this year because I remember when they did their end-of-year media availability last year in their locker cleanouts, there was a real sense of disappointment of how that year went. They knew that they weren't going to be competitive and they weren't going to be good,

but the Chicago Blackhawks were a very bad hockey team last year they were they were really really bad to the point where conor bradard's illustrious rookie season i wouldn't say i was marred by the fact that the team was so bad but the team did a lot of losing and really didn't look competitive on a lot of nights and i think that had to do with a combination of things they had some unfortunate injuries in the lineup they were young, and they put a lot of guys in positions to learn the game on the fly. And you'll notice this year, if you go through their lineup, they have really insulated Conor Bedard and some of these youngsters with a lot more veteran presences.

Yeah, IMAC actually had an article on Bedard, and you can read it at sportsnet.ca. It's not so much on Bedard as it's on the Chicago Blackhawks. And he notes that uh chicago gm kyle davidson went out and added uh tyler batuzzi tavo taravainen uh d-men alec martinez and tj brody uh the blackhawks of course traded for ilia mckeah and we'll see if he can make an impact um and they also got back from injury Taylor Hall. And Taylor Hall, what, played like nine or ten games

for the Hawks last season before he went out with a season-ending injury. And IMAC spoke to an old Canuck, Jason Dickinson, who is still there, and he said, I think there's a feeling of maturity in the room, not that people were immature last year, but the games were immature how we were losing. They were immature. Not that people were immature last year, but the games were immature, how we were losing.

They were immature. Yeah, they were immature. That's what Jason Dickinson is saying. Not to say we were immature, but we were pretty immature. I think it's interesting that they sent that young D-man, Kevin Korchinski, to the AHL this season.

And they were in that tough spot last year where for him, Korchinski, it was either play in the AHL this season. And they were in that tough spot last year where for him, Korchinski, it was either play in the NHL or go back to junior. And they, like a lot of teams in the Blackhawks situation, felt, all right, let's put him in the NHL and see what happens.

And I wonder if they might have made the wrong call on that because I think he lost a lot of confidence. That's what it sounds like. It sounds like he was playing a bit of a passive game because maybe the game was a little too hard for him, a little too fast for him. Now he's down in the AHL trying to find his game,

and they can't afford to whiff on a pick like that. I think it was the number seven pick in the draft. Yeah, I think they understand what they've got with Bedard, and I think they understand that they have to make sure that they get this right and they don't screw this up because that is, I mean, we've talked about him being a generational talent. And based on his rookie year, you would start, I mean, you're putting him in that class.

You're not saying he's McDavid because there's one McDavid and there's only going to be one McDavid. But there's an opportunity for Bedard to be something incredibly special. And they know, also with the litany of controversies and off-ice scandals that the organization has had,

they're in a real very finicky spot, right? Like, they cannot mess this up because they've got an opportunity to have this next generation come through and be very good and very talented. And you'll notice,

like you mentioned with Korchinski, they also are healthy scratching Khrushchev tonight, who last year was their second leading scorer as a young guy. But he's had a slow start to the season. And they've raised the bar, right? They're like, we're not doing this anymore. And actually Lazarus, Mark Lazarus from The Athletic, who we're going to have on the show in a little bit,

has an article out talking about how they might be screwing up Lucas Reichel's development because they're really sheltering him with minutes right now. They've got him playing as a 4C as a young guy. Whereas last year, all the guys we just mentioned were like, go play. Just go play hockey and try and figure it out. And now you're going to see a very different Chicago team going into tonight's game against the Canucks. Only one NHL game last night, and it was the Leafs beating the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Leafs chased Vasilevsky. Would they get four goals on 16 shots or something like that? He did not look sharp. Four goals on 14 shots. It was even worse. There's a good backstory here. Last night was Monday Night Hockey on Amazon. And what

Amazon did for the first time is they offered a pregame show that was 45 minutes in length. It had no announcers or broadcasters whatsoever. And it was just multiple cameras from inside and outside the arena looking at fans walking in, players doing warmups, etc. It was just this thing that they did. Right. etc it was just this thing that they did right they captured andre vasilevsky during the warm-up skating out aggressively to the center ice line and then snow showering morgan riley yeah and i was like are they buddies and then morgan riley's reaction clearly indicated they weren't because

he's like i did not appreciate that one bit and i was like what a weird thing but it was a totally weird thing i thought they was a totally weird thing. I thought they were buddies. Of all the things. When I saw that. Yeah, of all the things for a goalie to do, too. Like, why would you intentionally fire up the other team? I don't get that at all.

I don't know if it was that. I think it was just part of Vasilevsky's routine. He always skates hard to that spot, and he doesn't care if there's another player in the way, apparently, but he probably should have waited. Goalies are unpredictable, man. Maybe Vasilevsky's true. No, it's the opposite.

They're so predictable. He has to do the same routine is what I'm saying every time. So that was one of my takeaways from that game. The other one, Oliver Ekman-Larsen, the ascension of Oliver Ekman-Larsen. Who is this guy? A folk hero in Toronto. He absolutely trucked Jake Gensel last night on a reverse hit. I think he actually got a penalty for it, if I'm not mistaken.

And him and Gensel were going on a reverse hit. I think he actually got a penalty for it, if I'm not mistaken. And him and Gensel were going at it all night. And it was like just another feather in the cap for OEL, who I think, I'm going to say it, might be the Maple Leafs best defense right now. Yeah, Vasilevsky wouldn't try that with him. No, he went after Morgan Riley, the second best defenseman on the team. Anyway, we got a lot more to get to on the program today. Greg Wyshynski is going to join us on the other side.

Ray Ferraro coming up at 7. Mark Lazarus at 7.30. Brendan Batchelor at 8 o'clock. So much hockey talk. So much hockey talk. Well, every team is playing hockey today, so we've got a lot to get into. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks 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. 631 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough 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 1 of the program. Greg Wyshynski is going to join us in just a minute here to kick off Hour 1. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. They pay the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you

get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. So I guess when we talk to Wish, we got to say, sorry about the Mets, sorry about the Jets, congrats on the Liberty? Let's ask him now. Greg Wyshynski from ESPN joins us here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Good morning, Greg. Did Jason get it right? Yeah. I liked the Liberty. Did Jason get it right? Yeah. I like the Liberty. I kind of got into it this year. We went to a playoff game earlier this year. I think it's more like it's kind of the localist team because it's the only one that still plays at Barclays Center.

RIP the Islanders year at Barclays Center here in Brooklyn. And the games are extremely fun. It's just a different... I'll tell you, the biggest difference for me is I don't think I've ever been to a sporting event where there was actual heat between teams. Like, they're playing Las Vegas, who is definitely a rival. And at no point during this playoff game was the crowd chanting, something sucks.

It's a weird place to be. Because, like, every other sporting event that you go to, when it's a rivalry, you be because like every other sporting event that you go to when it's a rivalry you're going to hear that kind of chant and at this place it was a much different vibe so yeah i was really happy for the liberty i was sad that uh the uh the tearful whining of the minnesota coach uh somehow detracted from their championship um you know here's the thing about officiating this is a really important point I want to make, and I think hockey fans know this inherently. The goal is to not put yourself in a situation

where you could get jobbed by a call. That's the whole thing. That's why you want a two-goal lead in the third period. That's why you want to be up by, like, four points late in the basketball game. Don't put yourself in a position where you could get jobbed by a specious call. And guess what? It won't change the tone of the game for you. It won't turn the game.

You won't feel like it got stolen. But you put yourself in a situation where it could affect you, well, then that's your own problem. Then you blew it. So we mentioned all these sports that you've been privy to over the last little while. Now tonight, ESPN, the orchestrator of Frozen Frenzy. First off, what are you doing?

Oh, by the way, first, happy Frozen Frenzy Day. Second, what are you doing for ESPN tonight? How are you going to be attacking this 32-team, 16-game schedule? On my couch. Nice. It's just pretty dope. Nice. No, I wish that we had some sort of alternate broadcast-type dealie

that follows the games. I've pitched that a few times, and nothing came to fruition, unfortunately, for it. But, no, I wrote a thing giving a reason to watch every team this year, tonight and beyond tonight, for the casuals that might be tuning in for a 32-team extravaganza tonight. But other than that, man, I'm just going to flip it on at six for the casuals that might be tuning in for a 32 team extravaganza tonight. But other than that, man, I'm just going to flip it on at 6 for the Caps

and Flyers and watch this bad boy all the way through to Vegas and the Kings tonight. It's going to be, it's fun. And for me personally, like, you know, I've definitely watched a lot of hockey since the season started, but there are certainly some teams I haven't checked out yet. So this is a good night to kind of dip in and see what's going on

with some of these teams too. You know, even though this thing completely threw us, it took us like 10 minutes this morning to figure out what time the Canucks game started. We figured it out eventually. But, you know, we were talking about this and then the Amazon broadcast last night where they did like a 45-minute, no announcers, no broadcasters pregame show with a bunch of cameras just floating around the rink and the outside of the rink.

And, you know, you've got all the Amazon docs that are out there. It is interesting to see people pushing the boundaries and trying new things in the broadcast realm and sphere because for a long time, hockey's been, you know, very traditional in the way that the game is produced and packaged and approached. And I think things like this are good. Like, yeah,

throw every team on the ice one night and stagger the start times and let's see what happens. Let's give it a shot. Well, look, I mean, you guys used to work at NBC. You know what happens when the rights are held by one company and it's

monolithic and they don't feel like they have to try. Like why try? Like you're not competing against anybody. You know, if hockey fans want to watch hockey, it's the only place to do it. So you don't really have to get too adventurous in trying to attract an audience. When you share the rights amongst several networks

here in the States, Turner and ESPN, you know, obviously the Amazon streaming deal, it's going to create all these opportunities to really have really talented people approach the game in different ways and do so in a way that is going to, you know, differentiate your coverage from those of your competitors.

So, you know, if you watch the coverage here in the States, there's no question that, you know, TNT's got a great studio show, with Biz and all them. So if that's your cup of tea, great. Here it is for you. If you want to watch what I think is like incredible game presentation

and inventive game presentation, I think come to ESPN and find that. And so, you know, like I think it's part and parcel with competition, with having your rights spread across several properties, and that's not always where the NHL has been. But they're there now, and you can see the results. So, Wish, one of the games besides Canucks and Blackhawks that I'll be keeping my eye on tonight is Nashville hosting the Boston Bruins just because Nashville could really use a win.

What do you make of their 0-5 start? I mean, it's one of those deals where, I mean, in the beginning, the power play wasn't working at all. I think they were like 0% for the first two or three games. But, I mean, you know, when you have such an influx of veteran talent from outside the organization and veteran talent that includes, you know, one of the greatest goal scorers of all time in Stephen Stamkos and a consummate winner in Jonathan Marsh. So there's going to be some pieces moving around the lineup.

There's going to be trying to figure out exactly how to maximize their play. In Stamkos' case, he clearly hasn't been on his game yet. And I think that's probably because his world got rocked. You know, he's probably still getting acclimated to the strange environs of Nashville and wrapping his head around how everything, you know, worked out with the Lightning. So I give him a little bit of time. I agree with you. I mean, you never really want to, you know, spiral like this early on.

It is interesting to note that they're going to have a hell of a thing coming up next Monday, which is Stamkos' return to Tampa for the first time. So it'd be good to maybe get a W on the board before then, I think, if you're Stamkos and the Predators. So I keep waiting for the Atlantic division to change. And I know we're still early into the season, but if you pull up the standings, top four teams, Florida, Toronto, Boston and Tampa Bay, bottom four, Ottawa, Montreal, Buffalo and Detroit. is it just going to be more of the same this season or do you think any any of those teams in the bottom four can launch some sort of attack on the top four teams that have just been making the playoffs every year for what seems like 100 years now well i'm holding out hope for for the sabers i think them to make the playoffs and and obviously like it hasn't been the greatest

start starting with two losses overseas is not great. And so far, the biggest concern might be the fact that their offense is starting to turn a little bit, which is great. But they've given up 26 goals in the season so far, which is a lot. And so, you know, one of the things that I was kind of wagering on with with Lindy Roth coming back was that he was going to be able to coach them in the way that he coached the Devils a couple years ago, which is accentuate the offensive output while also making them a bit stouter defensively. And that just hasn't happened yet. So, you know, they're interesting. I'm not a Wings guy. I thought, you know, people putting them in the playoffs before this season

was the hope and prayer that the Red Wings could be a playoff team because we missed them, right? But I don't think they're a very good team. And then the other one is Ottawa, which is kind of a fascinating team in the sense that, you know, they were completely subverted by their goaltending last season. They were last in the NLD and state percentage. They bring in Ole Mark.

If he can stabilize things and if Forsberg has really anything left, and I've talked to some goalie experts that think that post-surgery he's not the same goalie. That's a talented team, and maybe if they have the foundation of better goaltending, they can weasel their way into a wildcard spot. We're speaking to Greg Wyshynski from ESPN here on the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet

650. Okay, let's run through this. From the goalie perspective, Jeremy Swayman got his contract. Linus Allmark got his. Jake Ottinger got his. Joey Decord even got his. When is Igor Shostakhin going to get his in New York? And how much is it going to be for? It's going to be, I mean,

it's going to be clearly north of $11 million per season. That's one. I think he's going to, I'd be really surprised if that number came in any less than that on an annual basis. The real question is, you know, when does he want to sign? You know, and does it help him to go through a season where he, like, say, wins a Vezina? Does the price tag go up?

You know, is it a wait-and-see kind of situation like that? Or is there a way to try to get this thing done in season, even though Tishurkin and his camp kind of put an artificial deadline on if we don't get it done before opening night, we're not going to get it done until after the season. So I don't know, but they know what the price tag is and they know what they have to pay to keep him around. And he knows inherently that A, he's probably one of the top three goalies in the league

and that B, they don't have an alternative if Ewers and Tishurkin is not their goaltender. So it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out, but I'm pretty sure that in the end he's going to get the money he's looking for. Speaking of goalies, is there one out there that Colorado can go get? I'm kind of interested by some of the Mackenzie Blackwood talk. Blackwood's an interesting goalie in the sense that I think the right team, insulated by the right players in front of him, he can be okay. I never really recaptured the Magic from about four years ago

when he was really good for the Devils. But, I mean, of the available options, he might be one of the most intriguing. And obviously, you know, San Jose's modus operandi is probably not to be all that competitive this year anyway, so you could probably prime away. So I'm intrigued by that as a possible fix, but yeah, they need to figure out something there because it's subverting a lot of the positive things that I think are happening on that team despite the rough start.

Yeah, if you look at their, you know, just a simple analytic like expected goals, they're right up there, but their save percentage just just a simple analytic like expected goals they're right up there but their save percentage is just so low do you do you think they will try and do something or will they hope that georgiev can find his game i think the latter to be honest with you because i know their fans i i'm i'm not i think he's an incredibly average goalie but i know that they have they have more faith in him than we have faith in him, I think. So, you know, the goalies out there that are going to be available to you are not necessarily going to be, you know, game changers anyway.

They're more like stabilizers, if anything. So I think their best bet is to kind of just roll with what they have and hope that, you know, things turn around, and in particular for Georgiev. What have you thought of Pittsburgh so far? We've talked on this show about how it's incredible that gino for at least a little while was leading the nhl at scoring at was he 38 years old so that was a good story but you know overall they're three and four uh they seem to have goaltending issues or at least defensive issues themselves and uh

you know we're all watching the penguins just because sydney crosby did agree to stay there he signed he signed an extension there and he's missed the playoffs the last two seasons and frankly it doesn't look like a playoff team right now it's not going to be a playoff team let's not be let's not be silly about this they're they're not they're not a very good hockey team. You're hoping that the core four in Pittsburgh can carry you to a postseason, and you're hoping that Tristan Jari and Nadelkovic and the kid can kind of come together and be a solid goaltending battery. But this team has given up 31 goals in seven games.

They're not very good defensively. You can't really depend on the totality of that lineup to be good enough to, I think, be a playoff team in the Eastern Conference. We've talked about this before. The plan in Pittsburgh is you've got to serve at the pleasure of Sidney Crosby.

And so if Sid wants to stay and he wants his friends to stay with him, then that's just kind of how it's going to be until they decide they don't want to be there anymore. Is that good for business? I guess it is, even though they're not winning. Is it good for laying the groundwork for the future? Absolutely not. They should trade Crosby tomorrow if they really wanted to build

towards the future. They're in kind of like that purgatory right now, and they're going to be there until these guys no longer want to be in the National Hockey League. Is Sid just going to go down with the ship? I mean, look, I think you just have to look over at Washington, right? I mean, I think there's a notion of maybe at some point, you know, they get the mix right. They get the right goalie in there.

They can be competitive. They can play playoff hockey. I would be really surprised if Sid had any delusions of grandeur that he was going to win another cup with this current incarnation of the Penguins. He's already won a few, so I don't think it's

necessarily top of mind for him to win another. But I think there's always the hope that they get the mix right and that in these waning years of this group being together in Pittsburgh, they can at least be relevant. And that's not to say they can't be this season. I mean,

it's not been the best start, but it's not as if they're like, you know, a trash heap right now. I mean, they're like you said, they're, they're three and four at this point.

So I think the hope is that maybe the mix can get them close enough to the bubble. They can sneak in, play for relevant hockey, but I don't think that any of these guys have any um delusions that this is a cup contending team how has ovi been so far i know i know the caps have played the devils a couple times so i thought you might have uh seen him play a few times better than the playoffs last year which is good i mean like the playoffs last year was like watching Weekend at Bernie's with the way that he was skating around the ice.

You know, he's been, he's been, he's, you know, I mean like, you know, you know what you're getting out of him right now. The velocity of skating is not there. The shot is still there. You know, you worry about him on the power play. I mean, that's kind of just where he's been for the last couple of seasons. But, but, you know, in the time that he can play, thankfully he's not been any of the liability that he was from that

Rangers season last year. We're speaking to Greg Wyshynski from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Given that every team is in action tonight and you get a chance because of the staggered starts to see them, I'll ask you what you mentioned off the top. Who are you going to try and pay attention to that you maybe haven't paid attention to so far this season? I haven't really seen a lot of Winnipeg. Neither have I.

And we're close to Winnipeg. I feel like I need to check in and see what's going on there. I mean, obviously, the offense is really churning and they're getting the goaltending not only from Hellebuck but from Comrie, too. You know, I had somebody tell me before the season that the Eric Comrie that we saw in Buffalo will not be the one that we see in Winnipeg

because it's a much more comfortable situation for him, which I assume means that he's not playing behind the Buffalo defense anymore. So that's one that I'm intrigued by. And then this L.A.-Vegas game, I'm intrigued. I've admittedly not seen the Kings yet. And, you know, they're going to struggle without doubt. They're trying to just maintain until maybe you can come back midway through the season.

I think Kopitar is off to an incredible start. And I'm intrigued. I don't know what a Jim Hiller team looks like yet. So maybe I can get a better sense of that watching them against the Knights tonight. So I watched the Kings when they were... So they've got this growth. This is the last game, actually,

that they play on the road. They started with seven straight road games because I guess there's renovations going on at Crypto.com. They're turning it into a big NFT. I think what... Now, I probably caught them on a bad night because they were playing back-to-backs

in Toronto and Montreal, but they looked like one of the slowest teams in the nhl outside of fiala they looked like they had no one that had legs and again it could have been the fact that they were on the road or whatever we saw them enough last year they played a lot of dowdy that's a big yeah well you're a minute guy yeah greg mentioned that one and i'm looking at it and I'm saying they had a team last year that kind of against their will bought into what Hiller was doing and what McClellan was doing with the very defensive style of hockey. It got blown apart in the playoffs.

And then they kind of doubled and tripled down on it with the decisions that they made in the offseason. And in a league where it seems like everyone's trying to go younger and faster and more up-tempo, the Kings are trying to do the opposite, but I don't know if they've got enough talent or natural ability to make that winning hockey. First of all, it's not slow. It's methodical. That's how I used to explain my performance in gym class in high school. No, you're right.

And in fact, they've also traded away speed. I mean, Alex Ayafalo is one of the faster players you could watch in the Western Conference. And, you know, they included him in the Dubois trade to Winnipeg. And so they've not really done a lot to augment that roster with with Burners. And I mean, you know, like you said, you look around the league, it's it's there. There are teams that put guys in their bottom six that might not be all that great players, but they're there because of their legs. And there's just not a lot of that in L.A. So I'm intrigued to see him again. I have a soft spot in my heart for Kopitar.

You know, I think we spend so much time – I read about this today, that we spend so much time sending adulation towards another 37-year-old center in this league in 50 Crosby that we forget that Kopitar is still out in L.A. doing his thing and being really productive in doing it. But the one guy that's intriguing to me is Byfield. Yeah, I was going to ask you about him. Yeah, so he broke out last year playing on the wing, and then after the Dubois trade, they're like,

we're going to move you to center. We expect that's where you're going to thrive in this league and be a star in this league. And I haven't dove too deep into the numbers yet, but a cursory glance tells you that it hasn't necessarily clicked with him quite yet. And they had him playing with Fiala, you know, and trying to juice his offensive numbers at center. So I'm intrigued to see what that looks like because that's a huge, huge thing,

not only for this season for the Kings, but going forward to get Byfield to put up the kind of numbers he put on the wing as a center in this league. Yeah, when I watched him, actually, it was funny because Byfield was back on the wing. And they were saying it was like they were struggling and they were looking to get a jump. So I think that's kind of what Hiller does when it's not working

is he just goes back to the fact of like, let's just play him outside and see what he can do there. And again they've got some depth there. I mean like they have the know behind them too. They have got some center depth but like again that's essential for this team. Like they got to get him going at center. So Wish do you cheer for the

Dodgers now? Like you have to. Well they just beat your Mets so that's hard to do sometimes to cheer for the team that beat your Mets, so that's hard to do sometimes, to cheer for the team that beat your team. I am painting my face blue in preparation for Friday. I've renamed my youngest daughter Mookie. We're full speed ahead, Dodger Nation, now,

to take care of these horrible miscreants from the Bronx. No, I will never root for the Yankees. I actually think that the Mets or the Dodgers would beat the Yankees. I've been left pretty unimpressed with the Yankees. So, I don't know. We'll see. Hopefully the Dodgers can take care of business. Hopefully there's only like one bullpen game against the Yankees.

That's like one of the reasons why the Mets had a chance. They kept on doing these dumb bullpen games. It was funny. Last night I was going through your Twitter because I was prepping for the show. I'm like, okay, what are we going to ask Wish? I'm like, a lot of baseball and NFL and WNBA talk out of Wish or not a lot of hockey talk to grasp onto.

I have been, listen, I've been very honest about this. My life has been summarily consumed by the Mets in the last month. Isn't that fun, though, when that happens with a team of yours where you're just like they're rolling and you just get so into it? It's not even rolling. It just felt magical. It felt like this was going to be the season with the Grimace stuff

and the comebacks and the drama. It's been a very long time since then. That's made me cry. Yeah. And, and that's definitely happened multiple occasions in the last month and a half. So I promise, I promised that my Twitter feed will be,

will be refocused. Oh, we lost him. Oh, well, well, Greg, we should get everybody.

Oh, well, oh, well, we, yeah, you know what? We're right up against it for time. Anyway, can you call wishback and say goodbye on our behalf? Greg Wyshynski, everybody. Oh, well. Oh, well. You know what? We're right up against it for time anyway.

Can you call Wishback and say goodbye on our behalf? Greg Wyshynski from ESPN. Mine too. Jason's fine with you potentially dropping off the face of the earth or whatever happened to your phone. That was odd. It just dies. Sometimes phones die.

Maybe he just got really emotional because of the Mets. I did want to ask him, now that the season is done, how are you going to look back on it? Because I was with them I thought the magic was going to run until the World Series I thought they were going to get there so you just have it you just you just know how to calculate magic yeah because yeah I've seen it I've seen it happen before where teams get somewhere on momentum and emotion and vibes. And then I've seen it where it doesn't last. You've seen it.

I've seen it. I don't know how to calculate it, though. No, but I carry the why. You know, there's an algorithm. Alfred's got the formula. Yeah. Vibes plus momentum. Square root.

Yeah. And then you divide. I knew magic and vibes were connected. Divided by grimace. Yeah. And then the square root of good times. I knew magic and vibes were connected somehow. Divided by grimace. Yeah, and then the square root of Hawk to a girl, and you've got the entirety of Matt's season. That was also my concern, though, was that they were going to get in the World Series against the Yankees,

and they were going to either be on fumes, and then it would have been flat. I didn't want to say this in front of Wish, so thank God his phone died. This is a better World Series. Yeah, Yankees-Hodgers is going to be incredible. I hope it goes the distance. Ray Ferraro is going to join us next, and the dogs have cooked up a new song for Ray.

So I'm hoping, number one, that it's a good song, and number two, that it doesn't anger Ray. We're going to talk to Ray about – actually, we're going to talk to him about distractions and how to block out the noise in the wake of what Elliot Friedman had to say about Elias Pettersson on the 32 Thoughts podcast.

You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.