Halford & Brough in the Morning - It's Time For The Canucks To Rebuild

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

In hour three, Mike & Jason discuss the latest 'Nucks news with Canucks Talk host & The Athletic Vancouver's Thomas Drance (3:29), plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

What we just have to call Thomas Dran's erotica. Coorsing. Thomas Transclerotica. Expecting goals. Thomas Transcerotica. Top model. Thomas Grant Erotica Ra Rush

Thomas Grant Erotica P.D.O. Thomas Transclerotica. 8.03 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 6.50.

Halford and Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Score a debt freedom hat trick. One, no more interest. Two much lower payments than three. financial peace of mind. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour three of the program. Thomas Drance from the athletic Vancouver and Kinnockstock is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off our three. Hour three is brought to by Campbell & Pound real estate appraisers.

Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell dash pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintech studio, Kintech Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you in Step and A-Dog posting yet another Pedersen video has got the Oh, no. I mean, like, it's so predictable. Oh, no. Here's a reply, hey, let's bash him some more,

get something else to talk about. We talk about a lot of things. It's just that A-Dog only posts the videos online when it's about Elias Pedersen. Think of this show in the last little while. We talked a ton of baseball with the Blue Jays. Yeah. Talked a lot of white caps.

A lot. Both on the field and off. We talked about the BC Lions and how they've turned things around. They've got a big game against Saskatchewan this weekend for a trip to the Grey Cup. So we're talking more and more about them. But every time we talk about Pedersen,

Adog's like, that's the video for the day. Now, Adog, tell them what else happens every time you put up a video of Pedersen. We get lots of clicks and people seem to really enjoy the content. So like when people... It's an evil, evil, evil circle that we're in. So when... When you complain that Halford and Brough are just doing things for the clicks,

it's not actually us, it's A-Dog. He is the evil mind behind. I could post the positive media videos, but that doesn't fit my narrative. Yeah, yeah. He is the evil guy behind the scenes, right? No one expects him. I thought he just liked candy and cats. No, no expects the butterfly.

It's, it's, you just, we just encompass social media. The entire thing, how it's supposed to work, right? There's lots of good quality content we could put out there. Yeah, well, that's not as entertaining. He's also left out the fact that the guy who's chirping him about that has about 1,600 numbers in his username. That's about sums up. Those are the guys you have to take most seriously.

Of course. The more the numbers, the better, really, when it comes to the usernames. Do you have a read you need to do before we get to your answer? I already did it. Oh, good. Okay. To the phone lines we go. Thomas Strance from the Athletic Vancouver and Kinnockstock joins us now on the

Halford and Brush Show on SportsNet 650. What up, Dranser? Adog needs a jingle for his click date Pedersen video of the day. Oh, my God. That's what you need. That would be extremely meta. It's a good idea.

It's time to bash him. Do you want to start with the Kadax or their Jack Adams caliber coaching? Where do you want to go first? Oh, come on. Yeah, I mean, we can start where you want. Here's where I'd start to be honest with you gentlemen. And I thought Quinn Hughes, you know, talking about, you know, Spencer and I played well, but did you see any, and I loved the word outlandish.

Did you see any outlandish saves last night from him, right? No, he saw the puck way too easily. Way too easily. And, you know, I mean, Garland crossed crease after he picked off that pass on the power play, sick play, by the way. That was a great save by night. He got Reichel on the breakaway. although, you know, Reichel's finishing game is

hit and miss. I'm more miss. McKayev like? I don't know. McKayev scored last. I was going to say like McKayev at least has that backhand move on on breakways, right?

Like, so. Anyway, the truth is, is that the shot counter tells you one story of the game, and I do think the Canucks were the better team in the second period, but this was a game in which the Canucks and the Blackhawks at best looked evenly matched, right, at best, and then the Canucks broke in the third period, right? And the Blackhawks broke them. I mean, the Blackhawks hit them for the exact same seam pass to find Bertuzi

back door twice. Yeah. And then, you know, there was an awful lot of puck watching on both the McKayev and the second Bertuzi goals, right? And then the Canucks score two in quick succession in garbage time to make the outcome look better than it was. It was, you know, a really dismal 10 or 12 minute performance in which, you know, the Blackhawks having bent but not broken in the second period broke the Canucks thoroughly shattered them. And, you know, I was watching that game and talking to my athletes.

colleague, Mark Lazarus, a bit. And, you know, after the second period, the thing I said to him was like, the meanest thing I can say about either team is that they're evenly matched, right? And this is where, this is where I think it's time for this market, right? And this organization and most importantly, Canucks ownership to take a deep breath look at the NHL standings consider what happened last night

and ask yourself the following question have the Anaheim Ducks the zombie Phoenix Coyotes now the Utah Mammoth the Chicago Blackhawks teams mired in long rebuilds disciplined rebuilds rebuilds that haven't even gone well

have those teams now passed the Vancouver Canucks right like that's the question this organization should be preoccupied with that should be keeping them up at night like in the are we even seeing the ducks and the Chicago Blackhawks in the rearview mirror anymore right or have these teams been able to rebuild and slingshot past us again because you knew it was going to happen eventually

it was just a matter when it was going to happen right I mean, I think so. Like, I think we knew that. But I don't know that the reality, the reality of how stuck you get, right, when you're constantly trying to win from the middle, right, is I think something that people have talked about for a long time. We saw the Kings, like, you know, my time back in Vancouver covering this team six years now. Um, you know, the kings were like the example that I'd point to of like, look,

they rebuilt and they're better than the Canucks now, right? They made the playoffs five straight years. They haven't even done a good job with it, right? They didn't even hit on their draft picks. They drafted like Alex Turcott in the top five and he's a good role player. Quentin Byfield's awesome, but like he's, you know, not a dude, not a capital D dude. He's not Celebrini. He's not baddard, right?

but Brant Clark hasn't turned into a top pair guy. I mean, and those are their three, those are their top 10 picks. Yeah. Like they've missed on all of them. They've still made the playoffs five straight years because they spent four years being disciplined about rebuilding. Right.

I mean, it's a powerful tool even if you don't hit on the dude. And when you do, right? When you do or when you hit in bulk, I mean, it can happen for you pretty quickly. And so I just sort of look at this and think, this is, if you're never aspiring to anything, you're never going to build anything. And that was the fear that I come out of last night with.

It's like, wow, it's Chicago in the rearview mirror, even. Like this Chicago team that looked like a complete tire fire 12 months ago. They get a credible NHL coach in. They hit on a couple more dudes, a couple more guys, like a couple more good players, a Rinsell, an Oliver Moore here, right? Like, not, not huge stuff, right? The Lebsunov, their number two overall pick, picked the head of Demadov. Like, that doesn't look like a great decision.

Yeah. Right? They've got that Anton Ferndel guy who's not even there. He's a year away, at least. So, like, they've got more coming, and they haven't even done a great job of it. And the power of having a guy like Connor Bedard in your lineup, right? the power of that is still so, so potent in this league that, you know, another team can do smarter stuff than you can, you know, on and on.

And you're still going to have a shot to swing shot past them over not even that long a time horizon, two or three years. Okay. I'm glad you're going down this road because I think sometimes everyone looks at the Canucks purely through the prism of the Canucks and they don't take the wide lens view and be like, look at what else is happening around the league. And I just want to bring out, you talked about to have the Blackhawks,

you know, slingshotted past the Canucks. I look in the division. I'm looking at what Celebrini is doing already. I'm like, how much longer is it before? Now you've got to talk about, well,

we're in a division with McDavid and Celebrini. And I don't think that's hyperbolic at this point because what he's doing, he's tied with McDavid for the NHL scoring lead. He scores three points almost every night. And I know, you know, I know San Jose's still kind of down bad, but they're also, I think, are 4-1-1 in their last six. And they look like they're going to turn it around relatively quick.

To what end, I'm not sure, but they absolutely hit on Celebrini. He's the first overall pick, but he absolutely hit on him. And Will Smith looks awesome. And he's in the division. They're in the division. Do you want to hear a crazy stat? I do. I love crazy stats.

Okay. In the last six years, the Kinnaks have drafted in the first round three times. Right? Yep. Chicago has drafted 13 times in that same time span. Right. I mean, yeah. The thing that boggles the mind about the Canucks is they operate like they're going for the Stanley Cup.

If you look at the number of draft picks that they've traded away. And you can say like, yeah, but those got. good players but yeah to one end did you ever get like a great bargain on them though you know well a lot of the times when you trade away these first round draft picks you're bringing a guy and you almost immediately have to pay for them so right but but you know i just go back to you know even that 2011 team that team wasn't put together with a draft and developed strategy i know they had the sidines and i know they drafted kessler but like they also went out there and made made some big moves, you know, some big, you could say, impatient or the other way, the other

side of the coin would be aggressive moves, you know, making the trade for Luongo. I mean, they tried a little with Matt Sundeen. They signed Dan Hamhus in free agency, Michael Samuelson in free agency. They made a smart trade with San Jose to get Earhoff in. So it feels like even when they put together a good team, the strategy kind of has always been the same under this ownership group and I just wonder when we talk about this like is it ever going

to change? Yeah, I don't know right? I don't have the answer for you. I don't understand how it could not just because it's so obvious what's ailed this franchise across the last six years

is just an inability to take a beat to leverage you know honestly leverage the power of patience to accumulate talent in a league where a lot of teams, most teams operate like the Canucks do in any given season where they want to make the playoffs where they want to win, right? You can, you know, teams will pay Peter, will Rob Paul to pay Peter and, you know, it would sure be nice to be Peter just once if you're watching this

Canucks team operate. So, you know, look, it was a thought that I couldn't escape as I reviewed what I thought about the game last night. It's just like, even Chicago, right? Even Chicago, 12 months removed, not even six months removed, from being like the watchword for why you shouldn't rebuild. Remember when they came into Vancouver late last year? They looked dreadful.

And the Canucks beat them six to two, and Badard looked. I mean, he ended up taking a misconduct and getting kicked out of the game. I think he was just so frustrated. He was so, so frustrated, yeah. But, you know, look at the work he's put in, right, and the skating speed that he's reached. I mean, he could have

had, this is the other part of, like, the Canucks were dominant, look how many shots they got. It's like, but Art could have had a hat trick in the first period. He was slicing them up every single shift. Every single shift, he was generating a quality opportunity to score, right?

The Canucks generated shots in the first period, but they were surrendering a ton, right? Like, this team hasn't played good hockey, no matter who's been in the lineup all year. That's the other truth of this, right? As much as we want to say, there's injury context here, and, like, it was fun to watch them stormed Dallas in that second period and then beat Washington and, you know, hang on against Chicago, that three-game win streak before Heedle got ruined. And even if we accept that once they lost Heedle, they fell beneath a search. a certain baseline of credible NHL-level centermen

and that context has to be considered here. And all of that's there. The truth is that they haven't played good hockey no matter who's been in the lineup all season long. And, you know, I don't know what that means, right? It hasn't been a huge sample. It's not like we're confident or I'm confident that Chicago is going to end the season

with more points than the Canucks. But you watch the two games that these teams have played over the course of this year. And you think it's possible. In fact, you know, like I'd put it at even money. I don't think the Canucks are materially better than the Chicago Blackhawks team. And I don't think the Chicago Blackhawks team is making the playoffs. So, you know, follow that logic.

And you'll kind of get your answer. Yeah, I mean, the injury thing now at this point, I'm like, okay, well, last night's team, you're missing Bluger, Forbort, and Hoaglander. Because I don't think Heel's anywhere close to coming back. And I'm not sure he's going. going to come back. So I'm almost ruling that out. And yeah, that's unfortunate and that's too bad, but that's also

one top nine caliber guy. And it's also a team banking on a guy that this issue was out there from years ago, right? So it was an inherent risk coming into the season. So if you're going to play the risk game, you have to understand that it might not go your way.

That's just, and I get what you're saying. I mean, he's a two see and name only in some way. shape or form because he's not necessarily that guy. I mean, Hoaglander's a top nine guy. Like Hoaglander, I would love to watch a Hoaglander shift right now. Like I would love to watch a fast Kinnock's player who can score and is going to win a ton of battles. Play a shift. I mean, that's a guy who can help you turn momentum on any given night and maybe can threaten to finish

the season between 35 to 45 points depending on power play time, right? Yeah. Like, I would love to watch that, right? Like, Hoaglander's a good player. Blugher would help the penalty kill, but he's a fourth line guy. Derek Forbert's a third pair guy and would definitely help the penalty kill, but if you're putting him in and taking Elias Petterson out,

I know Pedersen was scratched last night, but Petterson's been good on the season. You know, I don't, that's not like leaps and bounds. You're not leaps and bounds better because you have Forbert back over Pedersen. And when you're injured, if you look around the

league there are countless examples of teams that have either their star players step up and shoulder more of the load or roll guys step up and perform above their heads now the latter i could say well you can't necessarily expect that but in this instance you can start looking around and i'd be like on a team that desperately needs players to step up like where the where's de brusk in all of this like he hasn't he hasn't played any better he hasn't performed above his head he hasn't gone beyond expectations he's kind of been the same sort of peripheral player and if the argument is going to be well he doesn't have the players around him to make him better

it's like well but that's not the right answer to this thing because injuries are going to happen a lot you need guys to step up not become wilting flowers in the moment and let's I mean let's talk about a guy who has been I think Vancouver's second best skater on the season second or third and that's Philippronic right to contextualize this entire conversation Stillopronic has four points, the most of any Canucks defenseman five on five this season.

He's playing 25 minutes a night, right? The Canucks have 13 goals when Peronix on the ice and only five against five on five. Given how this team's minus 10 overall cold differential, like, kudos to him, right? He's played well. He stepped up. He's played awesome hockey. Maybe, you know, penalty kills probably the only blemish. but you can live with it

point is this guy has played like a top pair defenseman he is played like a top pair defenseman with Hughes or without Hughes right this guy's been awesome awesome and you know we we sort of

come back to that trade probably the best version of the trading draft picks for a player right like you can't come up with a better version of it than that well

Detroit has a top four right-handed defensemen in their lineup on an entry-level contract right now from that trade, right? Two years on, right? Like, would the Canucks be better off given their sort of the state of their franchise with Heronik in the lineup? Absolutely crushing it or with, you know, two guys from that draft class, right? Without the pressure to pick a defenseman at 11, do they take Zach Benson? do they have a young forward in the lineup, right? Do they take ASP, you know, with the pick that they traded for them? Who's going to be just a step? Are they in a better spot then?

I mean, this is what I'm talking about. This is the thing where it's like you can absolutely crush the trade, win it decisively, and still not end up moving forward if it's not the right thing for your franchise and the big picture. And to what end? That's always, that's all, isn't always that the question? Like, with the connects? Like, to what end? What are you, where are you going to?

Where are you going to go with this? I remember saying that with J.T. Miller. And it was like, you know, he played well for Vancouver. You're really good. And I know. A player of historic significance for the franchise. And then to one end. You know, it just.

Yeah, they won two playoff rounds. Yeah. in his tenure in which he was one of the top 10 scoring players and like acquired as a winger ended up becoming a hundred point center right like top 10 center i mean a 99th percentile outcome in terms of what he contributed um at a different position than he was acquired to play and on and on right go down the list of things that happened that made miller a larger than life figure and they win two playoff rounds

across his seven Canucks seasons. So what's the lesson there, Dranser? Got to accumulate, man. You gotta be willing to accumulate and look, this team will spend to the cap, right?

But sometimes the investment needs to be in non-player personnel if you're going to build a winning organization. Like sometimes you've got to look at the bigger picture. And sometimes the investment is we're going to take two years without there being win now pressure on this team. We're going to make sure that we take advantage of selling at the trade deadline instead of not doing so. We're going to be willing to trade

good players at the peak of their value as opposed to making the argument that we can't live without X, Y, Z, middle six-winger who's run hot, right? Tanner Pearson extension, stuff like that in non-contending years because what we want are the picks, the volatile assets, the, well, we're not sure what it is. It's like, yeah, that's the good thing about it, right? That's the good thing. You need to go out and have some wins and have some misses, but you need to make those volatile bets in volume.

And the reason for it is that you need a lot. You need a lot. to win in this league, and you need a lot more than you've got. There's no cavalry coming in free agency, right? You can try to trade your way out of it. Fine, but, you know, like, there's been a lot of trades that Jim Rutherford and Patrick Albine have made that have worked. There have been a lot of value-free agent signings,

depth guys that have come in and been more than depth guys, you know, your Dakota Joshua is your key for surewood tier guys. this management group has executed decently well, right? They've made good draft picks. They've made a lot of good trades. They've, um, you know,

got, got core players. We weren't sure we're going to sign and stay to sign and stay. Like a lot of the execution's been fine, but because they've, you know, in my opinion missed on the big picture, right?

Um, you still end up in this zone where sort of entropy rules and it's impossible to escape, to escape the middle. It's just a slow slide back, a slow, like, matter of decay. Oh, it's another week on SportsNet 650. Drancer, thanks a thing.

Another week of decay. Yeah. But it's almost Friday. Dr. Answer, let's be real. Let's be real. We're doing sports talk radio on an AM, on an AM wavelength. Like, like, decay is our business, boys.

Yeah, it's true. Slowly with our way. We're barely hanging on ourselves. with our commitment to mediocrity. Yeah. I'll enjoy the weekend, Drans, and we'll do this again next Thursday. Cheers, boy, sight.

See what I'm Thomas Trans from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks Talk here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. Oh, God, I'm depressed. Well, that happens. We got one final half hour to go on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. For those asking in listener land about the podcasts,

we're still having issues, eh, Doug? Is that correct? Oh, they're very down. They're very down. Podcasting is down bad. Apple. Spotify, wherever. They're not working. The podcast is not a thing right now.

So we are trying, we're working, and we're aware of the problem. So if you want to text in, save the text. We are working on it, but I'll let you know the podcasts are down. We'll try and get them up as soon as we can. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Richo and Saty R Shaw, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post game show. Listen, 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays.

and on-demand through your favorite podcast app. Now for my favorite part of the show, what I say? Talk to the audience. Oh, God, this is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. on the show

835 on a Thursday happy Thursday everybody Halford Brough SportsNet 650 Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates get out of a penalty box of debt and back into the game with a financial fresh start visit them online at Sands

dash trustee.com We are at hour three of the program it is what we learned time hour three is brought to by Camel and Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound visit them on the internet at camel dash pound.com.

It's it, hey. Okay, I'm going to start. And I learned that while one campaign for a Vancouver coach to win Coach of the Year is in full force, another campaign for a Vancouver coach to win Coach of the Year has come to a sad conclusion. and that is because the MLS announced today

that the Siggy Smith, MLS coach of the year is not Esper Sorensen and your Vancouver Whitecaps. Instead, it is Bradley Carnell of the Philadelphia Union. Remind me, what was the score when Philadelphia came to Vancouver to play the White Caps? Oh, that was 7-0 in favor of the Vancouver White Caps, Jason.

That's interesting. MLS even paying attention? I will okay I will before I do this I will say that Carnell is probably deserving of not necessarily beating Yesper but he's a worthy winner

they won the supporter shield did they not and they were not good last year yeah they had a 29 point turnaround I'm trying to find the line oh this is I don't know who writes MLS press releases but other clubs might want to consider hiring them this is from MLS

Quote, most impressively, Carnell cultivated a holistic team approach that was reflected in Philadelphia starting 25 different players throughout the season across 29 unique starting lineups. Holistic. It was holistic. End quote. Was Yesper not holistic enough? We'll never know. Philadelphia Union sponsored by Goop. That's a good, that's a good poll. Yesper actually won the media vote So the voting on this is very complex Media players

And then club technical staffs All vote So there's three separate categories Media player club Yesper actually won the media vote But lost the player and club vote And that's how he finished second overall In the voting

I'll say that I think he deserves to win it over Carnell because of one, the fact that he absolutely trounce Carnell in a head-to-head 7-0. I feel like that should count for something. Yeah. And also, I know there weren't a lot of like hot preseason predictions for Philadelphia to be as good as they were.

But Philadelphia as a club was in better shape going into this season than the White Caps. I'll just leave it at that. But whatever the case, there's still the big trophy to be won, which isn't the Siggy Schmidt coach of the year trophy at the MLS Cup and I got hopes for the white caps to go all the way but kudos to Ysper for finishing is the runner up

that is what I learned and you can mook out was he officially the runner up did they have to vote? Yeah I just went through it all. Okay. I've been preparing for my what we learned and I know you made was it Cutter Gochier the one to watch? Yeah Cutter Gochay's the guy. Okay here's another one

to watch. All right. Also brought to you by Limitless A.V. there's a little bonus hit for you Linus Olmark the goalie for the Ottawa senators I believe he's going to get the start tonight against his old team the Boston Bruins

his save percentage is 861 it's bad even for the 80s that's bad and here's a quote that he gave to the Ottawa citizen and Bruce Garriac he said it is what it is

and this is about the criticism that he's receiving there are so many things I'd like to say to all the people all the doubters all the so-called experts that I cannot say to the media everybody has a right to their own opinion but the only opinions that matters

are the people around me that I do care about and my coaches what everybody else says they're entitled to say whatever they want because I don't give too about it and then he said, wait a minute, can I say that? Two croup, two, he said two craps about it. And then he said two poops.

It doesn't give two. Poop mouth. I just don't give poop mouth there. Two poops about it. He doesn't care. I don't give two poops about it. He don't care. So he also knows that he needs to play better.

I think this sends defensively. He needs to play better. But Allmark, I mean, they gave him a. big old contract and it's got a few years left on it they've had some of the worst goalt this year because the few games that they've given to the other go it's his name levi merilinen he's been awful too and i know greener i've watched a few of their postgame media veils and he kind of went in on marillanin once when he gave up seven like a young guy yeah he's like but he hasn't done the same for all mark and i think that's greener being smart

I'm probably going to give a longer leash than 11 games to a former Vezna winner. It's just me personally speaking. He's frustrated though. But he's frustrated and it's the team obviously with Maryland and not having any success either. It's not all on the goal tendons. The Sins kind of have a history like the Canucks too

of getting off to shaky starts. So people at the beginning of the season in Ottawa are especially like triggered by slow starts and a lot of people in this town are like are we doing this all year again? Did you, by the way? To which my answer is probably, Speaking of the Ottawa senators

Did you guys all see this story about Arthur Calliyev Their farmhand who's playing In he's playing in Bellevue right Former Hamilton Bulldog gambling debts? It's not really I guess it's a gambling debt to his ex-girlfriend Or

debt to his ex-girlfriend For a myriad of things including What she alleges To be funds that she gave him And then he gambled away But 32 thoughts From Elliot Friedman that published the other day

said the NHL is reopening a review into Arthur Calliyev and I guess these claims that were made Molly Walker had the original story in the New York Post and it was largely based off an interview and allegations made by

Calleo's ex-girlfriend because Caliab used to play for the Rangers. He's now with Ottawa. Ottawa hasn't offered a statement about this but the story really blew up because it was one of those very typical New York Post tabloid style story

the way it was laid out. splashed and everything. And now there's a lot of questions. I guess the two big questions that the NHL has is, did you bet on hockey and did you bet illegally? That's what Fridge had in his piece. So we'll find out more about that. So interesting times in Ottawa to put mildly Jason. Another gambling story.

We're getting a few of those. Who would have thought that when you legalize all those sports betting and you and you advertise it to everyone? And you provide ease of access with your phone. Back in the day, you had to, you know, call up a bookie or go to a casino. Now it's just so easy. Who would have thought? You had to show your face. Like the next, next thing, next thing they're going to tell me is that there's a problem with vaping.

Nah. Nah. That would be the next Ottawa Senator's scandal via vape scandal. I forgot they had Shane Pinto too, right? Yeah, yeah. They got a lot of history. It's what the Ottawa senators and scandals. They had the taxi scandal in the backseat of the taxi.

That was an Uber. Was it an Uber? Yeah, I forgot about that one. Who were there? They were smack talking their coaches? Yeah. Who was the coach? Was it Corey Cluston?

I forget. Someone like that. You remember that one, right? Yeah, but there were so many little like senator stories. Do you remember we used to call them the most underappreciated soap opera? Yeah. Because they were an amazing soap opera, but they were so small town that people were like, eh. Carlson and Hoffman's wives?

Yeah. I forgot about that one. What a franchise. I think they thought a lot of that stuff would go away when. when Meldick passed away and the ownership passed on to a new guy but I guess they've still got that

I don't know what do you call it the culture of Yeah I don't know what it is Ontario stank on them Yeah Ontario stank Okay moot cow

That it? We all good? Let's fire up the Dom Matrix print out some humanoid submissions For what we learned Her rager is like What we learned Brought to you by Fanduel

Yeah, that's right. Here I am, like, suggesting last night, we go check out those odds on a Connor Bedard anytime goal score, who, by the way, talk about hitting late. I was sitting on pins and needles there. And then when Spencer Knight flipped that puck out, to clearly go for a goal himself, people were like, that's a pass.

I'm like, that ain't a pass. That's a shot on now. What a moment for Connor Bedard. Anyway, what we learned, humanoid additions brought to you by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway, our favorite AJ's sauce pie, an upside-down version of the bar pie with fresh mozzarella and bread.

Basil only at AJ's Pizza order online at AJ's. Dot pizza. Also, if you want to try something cool, get the bar pie with the Goldie toppings. Go. McKenzie and Alder Grove, what we learned, after Drance just punched me in the face with reality, I'm more ready for a rebuild than I've ever been. And this time, it doesn't feel like back-to-back wins will change anything. I just want to go over the Canucks schedule.

Just hang in my head. I can't. Can I just say one thing about the rebuild conversation? You know how bad it's gotten is that you don't even have conversations about whether or not you should rebuild anymore. You have conversations about whether it's worth having the rebuild conversation. Because everyone knows the arguments, right? Do you understand how pathetic it is to have a conversation about a conversation? Are we going to do this?

Whether or not you should waste your breath. That is, and that's a viable five days a week conversation on Sportsnet 650. Everyone knows the argument's for and against and the conclusion is like, there's no 100% silver bullet way to rebuild, but I think you can kind of handicap the chances, at the very least. There are other markets. There's downsides to every possible avenue. The people that don't want to rebuild at this point are like less than 10% of the fan base,

probably less than 5%. Like honestly, like, maybe less than 1%. I don't, I can't hear, I don't see anybody online at this point over, after the last 10 years and seeing all these teams lap the Canucks being like, nah, this course seems to be working out well. Let's just hold tight. What percentage of the people are like in the hang in there? It'll turn around.

I see like, yeah, it's got to be like 1% of this point. Like clearly most people realize it ain't working. So this is the schedule for the Canucks. They go Columbus on Saturday, Colorado on Sunday. So that'll be interesting to see how they deploy the goalies because it's actually three games in four nights all at home. Columbus, Colorado, and then they get Monday off. Tuesday, it's the Winnipeg.

Jets in town. And then they head out on the road for three pretty tough games. They're at Carolina, at Tampa Bay, and at Florida before they're home to play Dallas and Calgary. The Florida teams maybe aren't quite as daunting as they look, just staring at you in the face, because there's something off about Tampa. Right now, and then Florida has some key injuries out of the lineup. So they're not quite the Stanley Cup finalists that they were, or the Stanley Cup winner back-to-back Stanley Cup winners, you know.

Scott with what we learned, hashtag WWO, what we learned. Well, it's easy to get on EP40. Let's talk about Jake DeBrusk in his five points in 15 games. O'Connor has five points in 15 games. Ratu has the same points in less games played. McKeekern has one point in three games played. Heidel has two less points than only six games played. Sasan has the same number of goals

unless games played. What exactly does Jake DeBrasch do? You want to know the most concerning part about Debrusk right now? Traditionally and historically throughout his career, he's been a streaky score. When the goals come, they come in bunches. So

here's a problem. He got his first goal of the year in the first game against Chicago on October 17th when they won 3-2 in a shootout. He didn't score after that. He went three straight games. goalless again. Then he picked another one up against Montreal at the end of

October. And you're like, okay, maybe now he'll start putting a streak together. That didn't happen either. He went four straight games without scoring a goal after that. Then he scores in Nashville and I saw some people online pointing out, hey, go back to last November. That's when DeBrusk really took off and his goals

all came in bunches. Well, scores one goal against Nashville, follows up Chicago last night, zero again. I mean, there is a guy. There as a guy in he was a veteran enough player and is a talented enough guy that he should be taking and I don't mean the lip service responsibility afterwards we're like I got to be better yeah he's I'm kind of tired of hearing that from him okay do that during the game instead of

saying it afterwards because on a team that desperately needs guys to step up right now like I'll say this about cane at least cane was prevalent last night yeah 10 shots on goal right and he scored at the end he got one to go finally at the end right de brusk finished that game with four shots on goal which is fine. It almost feels like a lot for what he did last night. Finishes minus one. Everything else is goose eggs across the board. There's a guy that's

been in the league long enough and can understand where his team is at. You need so much more from him. I think he's trying. I think he just doesn't know he's not playing with any specific purpose right now. Like a, you know when he's trying to, he's chasing it. Sure. And I do think

he's trying, but as man, it's... I think they're all trying. Yeah, I think they are too. That's the saddest part. That's the toughest part of this whole thing. Oh, sorry to interrupt. I just got to mention the podcasts are back up. Okay.

They're working. Excellent. The hours should start appearing in the next 20 to 30 minutes. So we're back up to it. The conversations this St. Louis are having right now, and we played the audio earlier where the captain and the head coach are ripping their total lack of compete.

I don't think anyone could go in after a Kinnock's game and say that. No. Far from it. I think sometimes they're trying. too hard, right? Like they're like Adam foot put it. Sometimes you're you're trying to make up for another guy on your team here. You help out your teammate, but then you leave your position, you start chasing and you know, Tyler Myers was doing that last night. Like I would never hammer this team for a lack of try, want, will. Never. They work. They try hard. They're just

not that good at it. I want to end with these two what we learns. Woodrow the eligible bachelor. What we learn with the lions and white caps playing games with high stakes in November, they deserve more oxygen in this market. We're trying. We're trying. We're trying to talk more white caps than talk the BC Lions.

But people, the majority of people still texting and want to talk about the Canucks. We'll talk about the Canucks as well. Greg and Pitt Meadows, what we learned. Vancouver Sports Radio is better when it's not just focused on a bad local hockey team. Listening to more soccer talk and all the baseball talk recently has made the show better.

rather than having to rehash the same connects problems for months on end. Thanks, Greg. That means a lot. We'll continue to do it. There's a lot of different things that are going on right now. And if you don't want the negativity in doom and gloom around the local hockey squadron, pivot elsewhere. We'll try to make it as entertaining as possible.

I find it sometimes like when people text in and they're like, this is boring, that sucks. Don't talk about this. Part of the reason I get upset is I do take it as a personal, failure, because I think our job is partly to make things entertaining. Yeah, to engage people, to engage their minds. Not have this stuff just

handed to you on a platter, all this information or whatever else, right? Because here's the other thing too. On certain levels, the Canucks have kind of what they want right now because there's no outside noise, there's no controversy, there's nothing other than just sort of like

meh hockey, but they've done a decent job of silencing the noise and the criticisms around the players. they're insulated from it. They're banged up and they're injured, but all of the noise and all of the drama and everything else that's gone around this team from years past, it's kind of not there.

They're just this entity that exists game to game. And we'll be back tomorrow morning to talk about it. For now, though, we've got to say goodbye. Thank you all for listening and thank you all for contributing. We'll be back tomorrow with a bunch of giveaways, including the $100 gift card day, Jay's Pizza on East Broadway. For now, though, bye-bye, everybody. Signing off, I have been Mike Alford.

He's been Jason Buff. He's been A-Dog and he's been Laddie. This has been the Halford & Breff Show on Sportsnet, 650.