Halford & Brough in the Morning - It's Time For The Hughes Bowl

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports including a crazy incident at the World Series (3:00), they preview tonight's Canucks home matchup versus the Devils (6:00), plus they go around the NHL with Sportsnet's David Amber (26:52). 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- Drilled left field. Fernandez. Bang. Goal. Grand slam. Anthony Bumpey. He loves being a Yankee. Just as importantly, though, he loves the guys he gets to go do it with every day. Ovechkin gets a return. Wrist shot. Score! Alex Ovechkin.

Goal number 856. Good morning, Vancouver 601. On a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. This is Halford and his brouh, it is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintex 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 Brouh for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for,

sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio kintec canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands

of five-star google reviews sore feet what are you waiting for kintec got a big show ahead on a wednesday guest list begins at 6 30 david amber hockey night canada sports net nhl host we can go through all the games last night two can Canadian teams in games involving eight goals, but on very different ends of the spectrum for the Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Canadiens. We'll talk to David about that at 6.30. 7 o'clock, Frank, Sarah Valley. Big hockey show today. Lots to get into across the league and with your Vancouver Canucks as well.

7.30, here's an interesting one. NHL Giants skills coach Caden Jarvis, brother of Carolina Hurricanes up-and-coming star Seth Jarvis. So I don't know Caden very well, Laddie, but you're around the rink at the Giants. You spoke highly of him. What can we expect from Vancouver Giants skills coach Caden Jarvis today? He's a very intelligent guy.

I know the Giants organization is proud to have him. I've done interviews with him at the rink because they like to get him out there, and I think it should be a good interview. He's an interesting hockey guy to pick his brain. His brother's quite the character. Yeah, and he is as well, so it'll be an interesting interview when we get him on.

Cool. 8 o'clock, Ian McIntyre, Sportsnet's very own. We'll talk to him about the Vancouver Canucks ahead of tonight's game. Note the start time. 7.30, Canucks, Devils, Huesapalooza. It's the battle of all three brothers to see who gets to sit in the front seat of the car on the ride home from the game at Rogers Arena.

Canucks, Devils tonight. Is it a doubleheader on Sportsnet? Is it the Jets and the Red Wings to kick off in Detroit at 7.30 Eastern time, and then the Canucks and the Devils at 10.30 Eastern time. Everyone will be tuned into that first game to see how Detroit's life is like without Ole Matta, because they traded him yesterday. That's the big story there. The Ole Matta-less Detroit Red Wings.

How will they survive without Ole Matta? Anyway, we've got a big show ahead. We've got a lot to get into. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was...

We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? 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.

Briefly, very briefly at the top of the show, we are going to start with the baseball because the New York Yankees staved off elimination. Last little bit of staving from the New York Yankees. Thanks to Anthony Volpe's third inning grand slam. Overcoming more heroics from Freddie Freeman, who went yard again. A record-setting home run. Poor Freddie Freeman. He's like, okay, I guess I'm going to have to homer in game five now.

It was looking so good for me. You know, a four-game sweep. I have a home run in each. Poetry. But no. The Yankees. Freddie's like, bring on game sweep. I have a home run in each. Poetry. But no, the Yankees. Freddie's like, bring on game six. I'll homer in that one as well. So going back to his previous World Series appearances,

he's now homered in six straight World Series games. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy stuff. Amazingly, that story takes a backseat to, one, the Yankees winning and, you know, forcing game five tonight. And then two, this situation with Mookie Betts and a Yankees fan in the outfield by the name of Austin.

Tim Robinson. Oh, no. He did look like Tim Robinson. He was a chinless Tim Robinson. So I'm. What's his name? Anthony Coppobianco. What?

Anthony Capobianco. Sorry, I pronounced it wrong. Capobianco. What? Anthony Capobianco. Sorry, I pronounced it wrong. Capobianco. Capybara? And it's also Austin. So I got both his first name and his surname. But I feel like that's appropriate. You got both parts of the name wrong.

Yeah, but I feel like that's somehow appropriate for the fact that this guy is a walking chud. So the 38-year-old Capobianco was tossed early in the game on Tuesday night when a fly ball into right field was caught by Mookie Betts and then quickly wrestled out of the glove of Mookie Betts by this guy.

Quickly? Pretty quickly. Pretty quickly by Capobianco. Now, the play on the field wasn't really altered by what happened because the umpire immediately ruled the batter out. Betts really didn't make a big deal of it, and he didn't make a big deal of a postgame either.

And Capobianco was tossed from the game. Yeah, Betts didn't make a big deal of it because he didn't want to, like, he's like, game five is here too, isn't it? Yeah, and he was very smart about it, right? He's like, he actually said postgame. He's like, I moved on, he moved on, we're cool. We're just trying to focus on the next game. Smart by Mookie Betts, stupid by his fan.

And the crazy part is that the story didn't really end there. Because ESPN went out of their way to find the guy and then interview him at a local bar nearby. Oh, God. Is this guy going to become a celebrity now? A little minor celebrity? He told... He's going to be on a podcast with a Hawk 2 girl. He told ESPN that the Yankees told him that he's going to be allowed back in for Game 5

because he's a season ticket holder. That's wild. That is absolutely wild that he's allowed back in. The Yankees, as per ESPN, have not issued a statement yet. Crazy. You can't. That just can't be allowed. You know why it can't be allowed?

Because this guy. Are you not allowed to do that? Is that against the law? But here's the thing. Is that illegal? This guy. This is America. This guy in the ESPN article was defiant in his actions.

He acknowledged that he screwed up in that moment. And he said, quote, I was like, boys, I'm out of here. Meaning he knew he was going to get tossed. Then there's this quote, but I patrol that wall and they know that. He's a season ticket holder that sits along that wall. What does that mean? He patrols that wall.

That means if there's a foul ball hit, this insane asylum feels as though he has as much right to the ball as the players. Like he protects that wall like the players do on the field. Right. Which is an amazing thing to say when you think about it. Like he's helping out the team. Yes.

He's basically like, if you come into my territory, you're going to have to fight for a foul ball with me. This isn't helping Yankee fan reputation, I got to say. Here's his other quote. We always joke about the ball in our area. We're not going to go out of our way to attack. I dispute that. But if it's in our area, we're going to D up.

Someone defends. Someone knocks the ball. We talk about it. We're willing to do this. I don't know if this guy has zero self-awareness or if he's daring the Yankees to not let him back in. But, I mean, we've talked at length about... I guess, is there a difference between being a fan in the foul line, like in the foul territory, as opposed to the home run territory?

Is there a difference there? I would say... From a rules perspective. If you just, I mean. Like as a fan in the foul territory, would you be encouraged to do that? Or is there still the same rules? Like the Empire can say he would have caught that. So it's fan interference.

Well, that's what I mean. Yeah. I mean, it would have been fan interference in foul territory or home run territory. Right? Yeah. And as far as. So what is his thinking there? His thinking is that I guess he's going to make life maybe harder.

Like maybe you could interfere. You could have your hands in front of the ball and then snatch them away at the last second. His thinking is, I'm part of the team. Yeah, that's the sad thinking. Very sad. I'm excited to see him at game five, though. That should be good.

Anyway, there's your World Series recap. We do have to get in to the Vancouver Canucks stuff here. The Canucks returned to practice yesterday. Now, it was interesting because following the loss to Carolina on Monday night, I think you and I both expected some big, big changes to the power play because Rick Talkett said there's going to be changes coming to our power play. So we were like, hmm, he's not a liar usually. However, in this instance, there were some minor adjustments

to the way guys were aligned on the power play, but the personnel remained the same. As for the lines and the deep airings, Arshdeep Baines got a bump up to the top line with Pedersen and Garland. That slid Hoaglander down to the fourth line with Suter and Sprong. And as you astutely pointed out, you thought Desjardins might be dropped for tonight's game. Wasn't that astutely. I'm just trying to give you praise.

Wasn't astute at all. Yeah, but Jason was right at practice yesterday. Bronstrom-Juleson. The Bruleson, as I like to call it pairing, is now a thing. Forbort and Desjardins were the extras. Yeah, I think they're going to wait for Forbort to get in the game. Maybe he'll get in there down on the

California trip or, you know, frankly, maybe he's going to have to wait if Eric Branstrom keeps playing well. I guess they could try moving Branstrom over to the right side, but we'll see how Juleson does as well. I thought Juleson had a rough game earlier in the season.

So that right side remains a bit of an issue. And the left side is more, I guess it's more interesting because you've got Forbort, who I didn't think played that badly and hasn't played that many games and unfortunately just lost his father and now is returning to the team. And you've got Brandstrom, who a lot of people are pretty impressed with, but I think people are also kind of like, let's see how long he can do this. Do you remember, and this is maybe a little unfair to Eric Brandstrom, but do you remember when Derek Pouliot was traded to the Canucks from Pittsburgh? Sure do.

He had a few good games to start. He had a very nice little start to his career as a Vancouver Canuck. And then it kind of fell apart. And he became Derek Pouliot again. Now, in Pouliot's defense, he was playing too much. The Canucks defense was, I remember we had that joke. It was like, why is Pouliot playing so much?

Oh, right. He's a top four defenseman on this team, so he kind of has to. It's by design. Yeah. But I think he eventually just lost his confidence and lost the trust of the coaching staff, et cetera. So you do have to be patient with a guy like Eric Branstrom

because you have to wait until he makes a big mistake and see how he reacts to that. And pounce on him. No, but no, we don't pounce on him. Just see how he reacts to that. And pounce on him. No, but no, we don't pounce on him. Just see how he reacts to it. Because the way he plays, there are going to be mistakes, and that's fine, but you can't complicate those mistakes or you can't let it, you know, compound in your mind.

Yeah. So power play. I've got some audio here from Rick Talk. We can get into the way that they were lined up in the formation. But Talkett had an interesting quote when he was sort of going on and on about why he didn't change the personnel. But it was almost more of a mindset and approach with regards to the power play. And I've got some Kiefer Sherwood audio because I think these two things might be aligned. Not necessarily Sherwood going to the power play, but the way that Talkett wants the team to approach the game

and the man advantage. Here's some interesting remarks from Rick Talkett on the power play following yesterday's practice. Take it away, Laddie. Yeah. You know, I got Yogi to do it. His presentation, his stuff has been outstanding. So if you can't I mean

it's got nothing to do with coaching you know he's done an unreal job like he's given him some really good structure I really believe it's now it's it's the intensity of the awareness things like that so that's the the boxes that the guys are gonna have to check right now is it basic sometimes when you you're talented you think you can just skill your way and that doesn't work so um you know we just gotta you know it's not horrible i think we're 20 percent but it's it's it's not a good taste we don't have a good taste in our mouth with it so but they don't either trust me so i think it's more of beating your man to the uh your check coming up

with those loose pucks. I think somebody told me, Alex, I think we're one of the worst teams at picking off rims. Those are possession plays that we need to do. We have the guys that can do it. We just got to make sure that we're more intense when we do it. It's too fancy. Everything is too fancy right now. Yeah, you got to win battles on the power play.

You got to maintain possession. And when you're pressured, sometimes there's going to – a free puck is going to develop, and you've got to get that puck. And you have to respect the possession of the puck. And sometimes that even means taking a hit to make a play. If someone's pressuring you, you draw them in, take a hit, but also make sure you get rid of the puck. And there are too many times where the Canucks,

because they're trying to make some fancy plays out there, it looks like, I don't know, it looks like they're not respecting possession of the puck enough. Like you have to be hungry to get the puck enough like you have to be hungry to get the puck and then you have to create chances and then if the chances fail and there's a loose puck you got to be hungry to go get it back i know exactly what talk it's speaking of here it's like when you have the amount of talent that knox have on that first unit power play there is that inherent probably desire to go

tic-tac-toe, ping, ping, ping, ping, and have one of these great highlight reel goals where all five guys get a touch before someone taps it in at the side of the net because the passing was so elite.

And then he, but he, I mean, Tuckett said this numerous times and he uses either pretty or fancy, but he's got a point, like oftentimes the way that you score on a power play is fired on net and then there's a bounce or there's a deflection. It's not a point, like, oftentimes the way that you score on a power play is fired on net,

and then there's a bounce or there's a deflection. It's not a pretty goal. It's not going to show up on highlight reels. It's a broken play that you've got to take advantage of. But on a broken play, there's usually a loose puck that you've got to get to first. Because you have a numerical advantage on the ice. You have five guys. The other team, they only have four.

Yeah, and it's inexcusable to get outnumbered in the corner, for example. Like you have to, there's some recognition too. So Taka mentioned that, hey, we're 20% on the power play, which isn't terrible. But if you look at the underlying numbers of the Canucks power play, for example, you could look at goals per 60 expected.

It is very, very low. They're basically not creating many chances. Right. I also wanted to play some audio yesterday. He was asked about Kiefer Sherwood being on pace for approximately 12,000 hits this season. And, you know, Talkit alluded to, there's two things Talkett likes doing

when he's got the highest appraises one is you reference Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins that's pretty high the other one

is referencing his time in Philadelphia when he played with the Flyers because he liked those teams a lot well they were good teams they were good teams

and they were physical and they were mean and they were nasty so in talking about Kiefer Sherwood there's a Rick Talkett Philadelphia reference here here's the Canucks

head coach on one of his new forwards who is right up there among the NHL leaders in hits. Yeah, I just remember when I played back in Philly those Philly days, we had a team that hit a lot. And it's contagious, right? And he's just, he's a guy that, he's an old school guy. You know, he goes through people. And it's not, it's not that you have to kill a guy i i think that um he goes through people or he's on his check and it makes it difficult you know nobody wants to play against the guy when he's on the ice it's like they're looking around and he's hard

to play against and i think we we we got to get more of that from some of our guys um and you know we'll work on it i mean it's so obvious what he wants right now. He probably sees too much summer hockey or river hockey or whatever he calls it. Too many guys on the perimeter and a team that's too fancy and too pretty and not dirty and greasy and grimy enough. He wants more of it on the man advantage when they're even strength. I mean, the penalty kill's been good, but I'm sure you'd like it on the penalty kill as well. I just want them to be harder to play against physically.

I think that there's a huge difference between finishing a check and embracing contact. That's a good way of putting it. Do you know what I mean? Like if there's a loose puck and the opponent sees it and you see it, are you going to embrace contact in that situation because you know finishing your check is actually not like if the other the other person's in a defensive

position right they're not they're not unless they pull like a reverse hit on you which is rare they're going to brace themselves to get hit and then you hit them and then you move on yep right yep it's a little bit different when you've got two players each going for the puck and you know so are you going to be are you going to go in there and you might get a stick in the nose or something like that you never know what's going to happen when you go for a puck might get an elbow something might happen but are you going to happen when you go for a puck. It might get an elbow. Something might happen. But are you going to go in there and embrace the contact and be willing to sacrifice your body?

And importantly, do it repetitively. It can't just be a one-off. And that's what Token means when he says play through people. You're not going to be on the outside of a battle poking at it. You're not going to be just waiting for something to happen. You're not going to be waiting for your teammate to go get the puck you're going to go in there and you're going to help too and you're going to go through guys and that means like chipping them trying to get them off balance you don't have to knock them down but you got to spin them around a little bit

get them off balance and then you get the puck see it's interesting because the notion of the big explosive blow-up hit has kind of been eradicated from the game for a variety of reasons. One is the health of the players, right? These gigantic open ice hits and hits to the head and everything. You want to take them away. But two, and you see it in the NFL, is they're trying to teach players that, you know, you can still be physical and there's still be hitting and be contact without the one big decisive blow like i was funny because i was watching uh i can't remember which nfl game it was over the weekend but they were talking about the way that they were approaching hitting an opposing quarterback and it

was like you need to put him on the ground you don't need to have that one gigantic hit where you're leading with the crown of your helmet you're trying to ko him with one hit right but unless it's russell wilson in which case it's great. But the cumulative effect is keep knocking them to the ground, like do it within the rules and make it a legal hit. But if you've got the motor to get up and do it again and again and again, you're going to start to make the quarterback feel it. And so if you tie it back into hockey parlance, a guy starts thinking about it.

Like it was funny when they had the delay a game penalty. was it was it goss despair that flipped it over the glass uh in the carolina game and sherwood started chirping him because i think he'd just been tired of getting cats tired of getting hit all the time right that's the cumulative effect there is that there is that yes for sure but what i'm talking about more is just getting a body on a guy. So he loses his balance a little bit. Yeah. You know, like a lot of the times they'll teach you, well,

don't hit them right in the middle because that's easier to actually maintain your balance, get them off balance by hitting them in the right hip or something like that, spin them around a little bit. So I think that's what Taka is talking about overall. Just embrace embrace not the hardness say it embrace the contact because it's part of the game and play through guys and don't

be on the outside of the battle okay finally from practice yesterday we got a thatcher dumko update from the head coach rick talking on the latest on the canucks number one goalie uh brackets on the shelf uh here is rick talkett on the latest on thatcher demko i think he's had like four really good days i can i can tell you that so i you know which is good it was like you know um i think when you have a guy out you know when he starts to feel good he stacks some consecutive days together that's a really good thing so So that's positive. So we've heard this before. Yes.

That Dr. Demko has had a bunch of good days in a row and it is now October 30th and I know the Canucks haven't given us a timeline. In fact, they've been very specifically saying like, listen, we're not going to provide a timeline on this, but you know, at the beginning of the season, we're kind saying like, listen, we're not going to provide a timeline on this. But, you know, at the beginning of the season, we're kind of like, all right,

we'll get through October and see what's going on in November. Well, November is just around the corner, right? A couple of days away. And so with each passing month, you're kind of like, hey, what is going on with Demko anyway? Right? Because he doesn't seem,

let me put it this way. It doesn't seem close. Like he's not out there practicing. You know, with Dakota Joshua, he's part of the group. You know, we've seen the progress. He's like, oh, he's not wearing a non-contact jersey. That's good.

Oh, they're talking about, well, maybe he'll go down to Abbotsford and get a conditioning stint. Although I'm not sure that's going to happen. Taka was talking yesterday about, well, maybe he'll go down to Abbotsford and get a conditioning stint, although I'm not sure that's going to happen. Taka was talking yesterday about, well, maybe I'll just put him into the NHL lineup and gradually ramp up his minutes. And I think with Dakota Joshua, we're talking a matter of games. He's a few games away. I don't know when he's going to play again, but he's out there with his teammates. He took some line rushes with Pettersson and Garland, so he subbed in for Baines on that.

And that just seems like an obvious position for him to play. You know, maybe he's going to play with Garland and Pettersson. I don't know if that's where he starts. Who knows? But if Baines is there right now, Baines is, unfortunately for him, a guy that you can send down to the to the AHL without waivers so maybe that's the move so we can see it we can see it coming we're like okay like that that's coming soon right Demko the only time we really

see him is like hey there's Demko standing next to Tyler Myers in a suit in a very in a very weird way though that's kind of, I actually expect. He's with the team, but he's not participating with the team. The only thing I expect now is that we don't have any clarity. If that makes sense, like you expect the vagueness of it all.

I don't know if you can expect vagueness, but I do because everyone that we've talked to that has any inkling of what's going on, the messaging does remain the same. It's an incredibly unique injury, and perhaps more concerning than the actual injury

is that there's no blueprint for recovery. You can identify what's hurt, and you can be like, wow, that's rare, but at least I know what the injury is. The comeback from it is the tricky part because it certainly seems as though there's a pain management and pain threshold part of it that you have to get used to.

And who knows how long that takes, right? You have to adjust your movements to maybe limit or alter the pain. It's all very, again, vague. And that's all that I've really come to expect from this. We can ask Frank later in the show. Are we assuming that Lankanen starts tonight? I was. Yeah.

I mean, the schedule's been great for the Canucks. And by the way, the Canucks got an unfortunate piece of business here with Demko. There's nothing they can do. He got hurt. It's a rare injury. They're trying to figure it out. The lifeline that Kevin Lankanen has thrown them,

not only from an on-ice product, which is he's getting wins and playing great, but also has completely alleviated a lot of the consternation about when's Demko going to get back and do we need to rush him back? He's been a godsend. And the third part of all this is

the schedule has been amazing as far as just running him out there. Like, I don't know why you wouldn't at this point. I know you want Cee-Law to play. I still wonder if you're going to have a bit of a fatigue factor if you just keep playing him in these games, even though they haven't been on back-to-back nights. He's still playing a lot, and he hasn't been an NHL starter.

Like, I want to play him. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. But I don't want the Canucks to burn him out. David Ambrose is going to join us next. Frank Cervelli at 7 o'clock will talk more about the Thatcher-Demko situation and also ask Frank about this report of his that the Canucks are already scouring the market for defensive help.

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. 6.32 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda,

North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. David Ambers, Sportsnet, NHL host is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling,

they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. David Amber joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, David. How are you? Good, guys.

How are you? Good. I want to start in Edmonton. We're better than Edmonton right now, I feel. The team is 26th in the standings. They have nine points through ten games. They are dead last in the NHL in goals with 22, and they just lost Connor McDavid.

Now, here's the question, David. How long have they lost Connor McDavid for? Well, I'm not a doctor. I'm barely a journalist, well i'm not a doctor uh someone's barely a journalist so i'm not gonna i'm not gonna try to play doctor all i'm gonna say is um yeah this is a big day i know there's a sort of a collective you know they're hoping to be able to exhale uh oiler nation after the news today uh we had gene principale on our show yesterday and gene at least had a sort of first person account of what he saw he saw conor mcdavid post game walking

around without assistance that's a good sign you know he traveled with the team to nashville and then had to leave to go to edmonton for further re-evaluation so there are some good signs but again you just never know until we hear what the team says, if they needed imaging, MRI, or whatever. That's a big thing. But the first thing you said is you're concerned of Edmonton. And yes, they have scored the fewest goals in the league. Yes, their PK is the worst in the league.

But if you take a closer look, when it comes to shots on goal first, high danger chances first, slot shots first, it doesn't add up. It's kind of like, you know, when you look at a guy's shooting percentage and a guy's shooting 30%, you're going, I'm like, this isn't sustainable. He's going to end up shooting 12% at the end of the year, or a guy shooting 2%. It finds a way to work itself out. So I would say there is some concern with the Oilers

and the fact they haven't played very consistently or well, but you kind of also have that feeling that, you know, things will be a market correction, and despite the fact they're having trouble scoring and having defensive breakdowns, that some of those things are going to get, you know out in the wash but again the big caveat is what what's the number what's the deal with 97 if it's a week it's one thing if it's two months it's another thing so we're hoping and expecting to hear some news today what is going to be the price to add a

defenseman in a trade because i know edmonton is probably going to be in the market for one and we talk a lot about Vancouver being in the market for one there is just like a there's just a lack of good defensemen in the NHL it's it's crazy if you if you can have three top four defensemen on your team you're laughing a lot of teams just try to do the best that they can yeah I mean Ole Mata if you ask what the price is i guess only mata just got traded from detroit to utah for a third rounder um you know whatever you consider only mata 30 year old defenseman who's been in the league for 10 years um yeah people say the right shot defenseman arguably is the most coveted position in all of hockey because there's just a dearth of them. And when you get a mobile, you know, a good puck moving, active, right-handed,

you know, let's say a physical defenseman, you don't let them go. So there are not many out there on the market. That's a great question. And you know the Oilers are probably in hot pursuit of figuring out what they're going to do with their blue line. And we talked about this last week, right? They lost De'Arne, CeCe, Broberg, obviously. You know, not the nucleus. It's not Matthias Ekholm.

It's not Evan Bouchard. But they lost those periphery guys that you need, those depth guys that you need and serviceable guys. And Vancouver, probably the same boat. And I can tell you there's a whole bunch of teams that would love to have another number three, number four defenseman in their disposal. So the cost is probably going to go up and up and up, and maybe Utah, you know, and Bill Armstrong

made a nice move yesterday by picking up Mata for just a third rounder because you imagine that price might get higher as the days and weeks go on. How's the Leafs' new look, blue line looking? They also extended Jake McCabe, who's been a good player for them. Some people have concern about the age of the Leafs' defense and how they've committed to, frankly, a bunch of old guys. But right now, in this season right now, how has it looked?

Improved. It's funny, and this season right now, how has it looked? Improved. It's funny, and this must drive your listeners nuts, but OEL isn't looking like the OEL of Vancouver. I can't explain what happened to OEL in Vancouver. It was inexplicable. We then saw what he was like in Florida. He was exceptional, insulated with that group, certainly, but a very solid player and a big reason why they were able to win the Stanley Cup.

And he's come to Toronto, and he's come as advertised. He's been physical. He's been quarterbacking the power play, even though the power play has struggled. It's been really on him. He's done his part. He's come as advertised, and people have been excited. Tanev, I believe, leads the league in block shots.

It's just a matter of him staying healthy, right? He just plays like such a warrior. He's the kind of guy you need to win playoff series like you saw with Zdorov last year. Like, those types of players are fantastic. You know, so it's been a beefed-up, different look to the blue line. And by all accounts, I think they feel pretty good

comparatively from a year ago. I pretty good uh comparatively from a year ago i think it's been upgraded from a year ago so i think i think there's some optimism surrounding the blue line there's still defensive breakdowns um collectively and i think that's something that craig berube is continuing to work on but in general i think the blue line and certainly the new additions have been met with a lot of favorable early returns as far as what they've done so far. We're speaking to David Amber, Sportsnet NHL host here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You talk about teams that might be looking to add in.

Interestingly enough, Kyle and Elliot on the 32 Thoughts podcast, the most recent one, were talking about the Montreal Canadiens potentially looking to bolster their lineup. Now, I wonder if this is because this season, it has been great for Montreal. They got absolutely skunked last night. Awful game for Sam Montembeau against the Seattle Kraken.

And I know that a lot of people were saying, well, this kind of was on the goaltending. There was a bunch of goals that went in that should have been saves on. This wasn't necessarily a typical blowout, but the results really haven't been there for this team. I know frustration hasn't set in because they're still in this build, but I have noticed a couple times this season where there have been some early wobbles,

and there's been some response either from the players or the coaches. So what's your temperature gauge on Montreal right now? Yeah, that's a really good question, guys. I do wonder what the mood is in Montreal. I think the fans have been pretty patient. You know, remember, they got to the Stanley Cup final in that goofy COVID year in the Canadian, the all-Canadian division.

And then since then, they have finished in the bottom five in the league, right? They had first pick overall the following year because they went from Stanley Cup finalists to last. You're now hoping to get those returns on these young players. When you talk about the prospect of them wanting to add a defenseman, I believe that. And I think part of it is you can only carry 50 contracts. And if you look at what Kent Hughes and that management team have done, they compiled so many draft picks, which is great. You have all this draft capital, but you can only have 50 contracts. You can only

have so many 18 and 19 year olds in the system, right? So you have to have NHL serviceable and ready players. And I think they want to get rid of some of this draft capital. They have two first, two seconds, I think three thirds and three fourths in this upcoming draft. I mean, think about that. That's huge. Move some of those picks. Get some bonafide NHL players here. Solidify the situation. Because when you think about Nick Suzuki and Caulfield and, you know,

Gooley, et cetera, there's only so much losing you want this young nucleus to have to absorb. And then it becomes too much, you know. And we've seen that maybe in Buffalo. Buffalo might be the best cautionary tale. It's all great to have these fine young parts and Darlene and everything else, but if this year after year, it's just perpetual losing,

it's hard. It's hard to get out of that. So you want to get a little bit more of a winning culture around you, and the way you do that is get some bona fide players there. So that wouldn't surprise me at all, and as far as what the temperature is like there, I think it's it's frustrating i think there has been an understanding hey there's

gonna be baby steps but i think they'd like to see the process be you know moving in the right direction at a bit of a more rapid pace so uh yeah last night was ugly you know two games ago montabot has been pretty exceptional this year same thing happened last night where you had four goals allowed in the first like 10 minutes that happened two games ago, Montepo, who's been pretty exceptional this year, same thing happened last night where he had four goals allowed in the first, like, ten minutes. That happened two games ago as well. So they've had a few stinkers, and I am wondering. I'm going to keep an eye on guys. I'm just wondering what the gauge of the feeling is there,

and what do you do? You know, Martin St. Louis has been this great coach for the young players and everything else, but what else are you going to give to him to his disposal to try and kind of get a bit more of a winning culture and a bit more positivity with that franchise moving forward does anyone play wilder games than the Ottawa Senators they've had some big score lines this year what's going on in Ottawa I haven't actually watched many Senators games this year I just keep on seeing like last night, they beat the St. Louis Blues 8-1. They had earlier in the season

an 8-7 overtime win over the LA Kings, so I guess they're scoring a lot of goals. They are. You should be watching. They're entertaining. They have a lot of good young players, as you know, and they play at good pace. Travis Green

probably isn't exactly the style he's hoping for and knows it's probably not going to be a winning formula come April if you're playing this kind of up and down style, but it's been really fun to watch some of their games and they've been on the wrong end in some of those games too, so

just don't know what's going to happen, but I would take the over every time pretty much in Ottawa, but I do think there's a feeling like, hey, we're heading in the right direction. They've rattled off a few wins here. Allmark's healthy. Allmark looked good last night. And I think there's a higher level of accountability.

In the postgame comments last night, Travis Green said this group is so desperate to win and the guys are willing to change their habits to get the team desperate to win and the guys are willing to change their habits to get the team together to win so that's pretty positive praise from a guy who doesn't give out a lot of praise and Travis Green as you guys know so I think there's some optimism there the Atlantic has just been such a goofy start every single team Montreal Boston Toronto Buffalo Detroit they're all lumped in like it's all like sort of one or two points separating those teams.

I know we're only 10 games into the season, but we are, you know, you're starting to get a sense of what the teams are, and they're all sort of muddled around the same spot. So there's, what brings optimism for Ottawa, their guys, is they've buried themselves in Ottawa, you know, a number of the last five years. Their start's in October, November, and that's been it.

They're done by, you know, by the October and November, and that's been it. They're done by the middle of November. The season's effectively done. So the fact that they're right there, in fact, currently they even sit in a playoff spot, and I know it's extremely early, but just the idea that they've come out of the gates, their starting goalie was injured for five or six games. They didn't have all-mark, and still they're above.500.

So I think there's a pretty good feeling there, and they certainly have seen that St you know, Stutzler and Kachuk and Bathurston and when Pinto's healthy, etc. They have these good, young, dynamic offensive players. So putting the puck in, that's not going to be an issue for the Senators this year. So tonight we got a doubleheader, Sportsnet.

You got the Jets and Red Wings first, followed by the Hughes-Palooza Devils and Canucks. I guess you almost had the perfect story for the first of the two doubleheaders that the Jets were going to come in a perfect 9-0-0 but Toronto had to go and ruin that but still you get a Jets team that's uh first in the NHL not just in points but in a lot of different categories and it's funny if you search social media or you watch like five minutes of TV and you get any sort of NHL punditry now everyone is talking about Kyle Connor and his ability to score goals and that's going to be on display tonight when they take on the wings yeah he's just one of those sneaky goal scorers

and I think we talked about him last week when I was on the show and I said he's a little bit like Besser um he's just been he's been like Besser he's just been this great producer but he's been even more consistent right right? Six times 30 goals. I think he scored 40-plus, 45-plus two years ago. He's a dynamic scorer, and he kind of does it quietly. And again, if he played for the Rangers or played for a bigger, different market, we'd probably give him a lot more love. But here's a guy who's going to be front and center for the Four Nations faceoff

for Team USA. And we're going to also focus a little bit, you know, in prepping for tonight's show. He does a lot of those little things. You see the results on the power play and the goals. He does a lot of the back checking and the smart little tricky plays that you go, Hmm, I didn't even recognize that that was him doing it. So we're going to give him a little love in that regard tonight as well.

And yeah, the Jets, I think the other thing you can and yeah the Jets uh I think the other thing you can say about the Jets is what is their identity and you look at that third line with Appleton and Nita Ryder and Larry and you go wow like they are just they grind you and that's the kind of line that when you have playoff success it's those kind of guys that are stepping up and kind of carrying a lot of the load and not leaving it all to the superstars. So they're a good, balanced team, and we certainly are excited to have them on the air tonight. And then, as you mentioned, the Hoosapalooza is going to be fantastic.

I might have to steal that tonight, fellas, because that's a good way to put it. Yeah, we're really excited for that as well. You know, it's great Luke Hughes is back now. And, you know, just to put a bow on that that Ottawa Senator thought something I should have mentioned Jake Sanderson guys man he is he's really good he's really really good and you know he might not have exactly as much offensive you know upside as as Quinn Hughes but man does he control the ice when he's out there. He plays 24, 25 plus minutes. He's up and down the ice.

He skates like the wind, his sticks always in the right spot. And, you know, it's kind of cool to be able to watch Quinn Hughes and Luke and Jack do their thing tonight, but watching the Senators a bit more, as I've been doing this year, Jake Sanderson is definitely a guy, you know, I'd like to see you guys keep an eye on because he's, he's really an exceptional player. David, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

Enjoy all the games tonight. It should be a lot of fun. We'll do this again next Wednesday. Yeah, awesome. Thanks for having me on, fellas. Enjoy the game. Yep, you too. Thanks, David.

David Ambers, Sportsnet Hockey Night Canada NHL host here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Text in to the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650 if you have any questions or comments. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650 if you have any questions or comments. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at DunbarLumber.com. James from Richmond.

He says, I'm living and working in Montreal now, I can tell you firsthand that around the water cooler, the fans are freaking out and losing their minds with the way things are going. They totally understand clearly it's a rebuild. They just don't see a way out and even a little step forward being taken. There is potential in Montreal. They do have some good young players. Nick Suzuki is still young.

Cole Caulfield is off to a great start. He's got like nine goals in 10 games. Tied with Nico Heischer for the NHL lead. We'll see Nico Heischer today. Slavkovski, Kirby Dock, these guys are all young players and on the back end, they've got Lane Hudson that they're really excited about.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some of the young prospects that they have in montreal ghouli is a good player i think he's hurt right now lots of good young players is it all going to come together who's going to be the goaltender of the future and also do they have a superstar there i think think that's, that's my question of Montreal. Do they have a guy who is like Quinn Hughes in Vancouver? You know, it's all well and good to have a good young defenseman like Lane Hudson, but there's a huge difference between having a very good player and having a great player. I don't know where the Canucks would be without Quinn Hughes. He is, if you just, he's the captain. Analytically, you look at what the Canucks are when he's on the ice

versus when he's not on the ice, and there's no comparison. He controls games. He is by far the best Canucks defenseman in franchise history. He was adjudged to be the best defenseman in the NHL. Yeah, yeah. There you go. Pretty straightforward. And that's just the difference.

Down the middle, I like Nick Suzuki as a player. Is he – where is he? Because in order to win a Stanley Cup, you either need a Hart Trophy guy or a Selke Trophy guy. We're talking about the elite of the elite. And that's where I look at Montreal and go, what are you guys really? Are you a collection of pretty good players,

even young, or, you know, like, where is the true upside where you're going to go from a potential team, a team full of potential, into an actually good team? Yeah, well, I mean, part of it is when you're good and when you're bad. I think we've said the same thing about Detroit in their rebuild and stockpiling of young prospects. Is it a bunch of goods and not greats?

Is it the Hall of Good and not the Hall of Fame, hall of great you know um i think montreal is in the same boat sometimes you can go through the right steps and you can take all of the approved blueprints to a rebuild and sometimes it just doesn't work i mean i look at. What more could you say about Buffalo? There's been so much talent going through there. So look at their blue line. They've got two first overall picks. Yes, they do. One of them is their captain. Plus Bowen Byram. Yep. They got good players. Now

Bobby from the Docs says, I don't know what any team would be without their best player. There's best players and there are best players. There is a big difference between taking the best player. There's best players and there are best players. There is a big difference between taking the best player off of Montreal and taking the best player, Quinn Hughes, off of Vancouver. I don't know what to tell you.

Like Connor McDavid in Edmonton, there's a reason why there is so much concern and I wonder how many games he's gonna miss etc etc like there's a huge difference there the conversation isn't about what any team would be without their best player the question is how good is each team's best player yeah yeah the connection connects are extremely fortunate that they have Quinn Hughes. They are extremely fortunate. There are teams that are clamoring for what the Canucks have in Hughes and the Avs have in McCarr and any other,

the handful of guys you want to put in that rarefied area. I'd say probably there's probably five guys, not the burger chain, five guys that you would put in that list of like elite norris caliber defensemen and that means there's 27 other nhl teams that don't have it don't want it you could say the same thing about centers maybe you extend it to more than five but the point remains there's superstars and there's elite talents with the point jason's trying to make i think is that you get them but there's only a handful of them. And you can go through the right steps to rebuild and we're going to stockpile draft picks.

We're going to draft high. And then sometimes you look back and it's like, okay, it was a good draft, but it wasn't a great one. It wasn't a franchise altering one. It wasn't a generational talent type one. I think we talk ourselves into generational talents all the time because people want to believe that the way you get better is you go down to the bottom of the league,

you get the high picks, and then those high picks always turn out to be great players. And they don't. Like, they just don't. Look at Buffalo. You explain to me what's going on in Buffalo. They did everything right by the books. They got really bad.

They got Jack Eichel. They got Eichel, Darlene, Power. They had so many bites at the apple, and they're still terrible. I don't know if they're terrible. They're pretty terrible. But they're still not elite. Standing-wise, they're fine. At least the city's nice.

Right. The city's terrible. The market is just zoned out. And sometimes things break your way, and sometimes they're fine. At least they're terrible. At least the city's nice. Right. Like the city's terrible. You know, the market is just zoned out. And sometimes things break your way. And sometimes they don't. Montreal's, I think, a very interesting study because when Hughes and Gorton kind of took this thing over, everyone had a lot of faith. They're like, they're doing it the right way. They're bottoming out.

Look at all these great guys that we're compiling here. And then a couple of years go along and you're like, yeah, Suzuki's good. It's like kids in a car ride. Are we there yet? Yeah. Are we there yet?

They were really excited for the car ride to Disneyland. Cause they're going to Disneyland. Right. And it was great. The first, the first few hours you're talking about the rides and then, and you get into Oregon and you're like, are we there yet?

Like Cole Caulfield. Before Cole Caulfield got to the NHL, everyone was like, this guy's going to be amazing. And then you get there and you're like, okay, he's good. But there's some, you know, there's some inefficiencies to the game. There's some weaknesses to the game. You are right, though. He is having a great start to this season. Nine goals in ten games.

And you know what? We'll get into it at a certain point today. We do need to talk about this new Jizzy Devils team that's coming into town tonight because they are extremely interesting. You've got the return of Jacob Markstrom to Vancouver, which is always fun. Hughes of Palooza, which we talked about.

I don't think they've solved their defensive issues. They are almost worse defensively. Somehow. Whatever happened with their goaltending in the first part of the season where both guys were really good, both Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen have a sub-900 save percentage. I don't think their environment is great for the goalies.

Frank Cervelli is going to join us next. We'll talk about the Canucks, apparently, according to Frank Cervelli, scouring the market for defensive help. How easy is this going to be to find defensive help in this market? You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.