Halford & Brough in the Morning - Kane Plays 1000

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss yesterday's Canucks loss at Vegas (3:00), plus they chat what has been a busy week for the Philadelphia Flyers with reporter Kevin Kurz (27:29). 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.

You're listening to HALFERN to the backhand. He scores. Avander Kaine in his 1,000th game in the NHL. Special moment for a caner and his family. You know, that's a milestone. It's tough to get. Hit hard. Fair ball. I think I got my swag of back. Good morning, Vancouver, 6-01 on a Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brough. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Adaw, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have CRA debt? If you do, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees.

Visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North. metal recycling. Vancouver's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit the Mid-1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

We're coming to you live from the Kintech Studio. Step Strong with Orthotics and footwear from Kintech. Guests on Sportsnet 650. Call in on the ABLE Auctions. Hotline email sales at A-B-L-E auctions.ca to get your business assets sold and your build and

clear it. And one more. If you want to text in to the show today, 650, 650. That is the Dunbar Lumber text line trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online today. Oh man, what a sports day we have ahead on a Tuesday. And what a show we have ahead on a Tuesday. I'm going to do now the Duick Morning Drive. That's our morning

guest list. Brought you by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 630. Kevin Kerr is going to join the program. Flyers. beat writer from the athletic. Get this, Jason. A 10 game Tuesday in the National Hockey League on the last day of March, happy pre-April Fool's Day to everybody. It will feature 20 teams in action tonight. 16 of them are either in a playoff spot or within five points of a playoff spot. And that includes Philadelphia, huge game for the Flyers tonight as they take on Washington. This is also expected to be the NHL debut for Porter Martone. The Michigan State product, Philly took sixth over all at the 2025

NHL entry draft. Kevin Kerr's going to join us at 630 for that. 7 o'clock Joe Siddell, Blue Jays, Broadcaster for Sportsnet is going to join the program. The J's first season of the series. It went great. They swept the A's. The J's second season of the series not off to.

Why are you saying the season of the series instead of series of the season? The series of the season. Because I wrote it, Series of the season. Okay. What did I say? The opposite. Season of the series. Dang it. I was off to a good start as well. It's the season of the series.

Yeah, it's the song, isn't it? Oh, that's what it's from. It's from that song. The Jays were routed by the Colorado Rockies yesterday and newly acquired pitcher Cody Ponce went down with a lower body injury. Joe Siddles going to join us at 7 to discuss all that and more. 7.30, Nick Kippreos is going to join the program. Host, host of Real Kipper and Born Sportsnet Fan 590. Kipper was all over the NHL general manager beat yesterday.

So first, he reports that Connects. GM Patrick Alvin does not expect to be employed beyond this season. Then Kipper was boots on the ground in the Sportsnet Studios when the Leafs announced that they had fired their GM, Bradtree Living. So lots to get into with Kippur at 7.30 this morning. 8-10, Landon Ferraro is going to join the program. Canucks analyst for Sportsnet.

Canucks lost again last night, this time in Vegas. And John Tororella is a Golden Knights coaching debut. Not a bad effort by the Canucks, though. You heard in the intro, it included Evander Cain, scoring in his 1,000th NHL contest. We'll get into everything with Landon Ferraro at 8.10 this a. m. So lots to get into on the program. I'm not

going to run it in reverse. Without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was We know how busy your life can be. What happened? I missed it? You missed that? 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.com. Are we going to begin with the Vancouver Canucks or are we going to go right to Toronto? No, I think we should. Like a couple of public corporate guys. I think we should start with the Canucks because there is a pretty interesting angle on the Vegas side of things as well.

The Canucks didn't win last night. That's not news. But I think a lot of people thought that this would be a blowout for Vegas. I know I certainly thought so. I know one of the bets you made suggested that you thought it might be a blowout for Vegas. You know, look, John Tortorella's first game behind the bench for an underachieving Golden Knight's squad that just got its coach fired and still has a lot of talent in the lineup. And on the other side, the NHL's worst team by a mile. There was blowout potential last night.

And yet it didn't play out that way, not right away at least. Instead of coming out with their hair on fire and looking to impress torts, I'm going to be so good for torts. Vegas came out looking nervous and sloppy. The Canucks held the lead after 20 minutes with Evander Cain, scoring the opener in his 1,000s game. It was a nice goal, too. Jake DeBrest started the two-on-one and gave Kane the pass.

Kane teaked out Aiton Hill, and it was 1-0 for the underdogs. A pretty cool moment for Kane. it was cool that it came in Vegas because the fans in Vegas hate him based on some older rivalries there. Now, does Vander Kaine have a history in Vegas? Well, okay, look, that's okay. And he also had a rivalry with Ryan Reeves of the Golden Knights back in the day. The Kane's going to celebrate his milestone game Saturday in Vancouver

in front of friends and family in his hometown when the Canucks host Utah but that was a pretty cool moment for him, and it's a great accomplishment to make it 1,000 games in the NHL. Look, the Golden Knights did eventually find their legs in the second period, and no surprise with the depth they've got up front and really all over the lineup except for maybe an goal. Vegas can roll three lines featuring Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Mitch Marner, Thomas Hurdle, plus a few others,

and some decent defensemen to boot. you know, there's a reason their coach got, got fired. They've got a ton of high-priced talent. So they were bound to take over this game eventually, and they finished the period with a couple of late goals to take a three-two lead into the third period. The Kinnock's second goal came off a Brock Besser tip on the power play, assist to Hironick and Elias Pedersen.

So Besser now has a solo lead in Kinnock's goals with 18. I'm winning this bet. Losing bets like crazy. As I usually do. Left and right. And Elias Pedersen now has points in five of his last seven games. He'll almost certainly finish with the most points on the team. How many points is that?

That's not important. I'm trying to be positive. Anyway, the Canucks. How many points is that? I don't know. It's in the 40s, I think. Anyway, the Canucks played a, you know, a half decent third, but they couldn't tie it up. Vig is scored into the empty net.

I don't know how many MTCHAC has conceded this year. I'll tell you how many. Not enough. It's a lot. I needed another one. Oh, yeah, for your bet. I took Vegas minus two and a half on the puck. Oh, I see.

So you added up. Normally the puck line's one and a half and you just said, like, I'm, I'm going to go two and a half here. I was going to go three and a half at one point. All in all, despite, I'm sorry, you lost your bet. It could have been worse for Vancouver. It was a solid effort, certainly compared to some of the games we've seen recently.

Just a couple other notes that I don't want to pass along. If you've got any questions or comments, text in to the Dunbar. brother on the text line at 650, 650. The Kinextra has four young defensemen. Normally, or not normally, but yeah, normally, I would say. They go three young defensemen and three vets, but they went with the four young ones last night with P.O. Joseph taking a turn in the press box.

It was a tough night on the score sheet for the third pair of DPDia Mancini, each of whom finished minus two. You know, on a better and deeper team, those guys would probably still be in the H. And hopefully V-Lander might be too. Hopefully getting fast-tracked will end up being a great learning experience for them. Mistakes are fine and even valuable in the long run, as long as they don't kill any confidence. The Canucks, I also thought, did a good job sticking up for themselves in a game where the Knights were trying to oppress their head coach. And we all know what kind of guy Torts is.

He's not a guy that likes his players to back down from anything. So the Canucks were prepared for that. Teddy Blugher dropped the gloves. DPD, although he might have had a tough game positionally at times. He was involved physically. Linus Carlson didn't back down. It's good to see.

I don't know if Torts was on vacation prior to taking the Vegas gig or if he just happened to be the lighting in Vegas, but he looked very tan, very healthy and very ready to go. Very tan, right? Okay, I'm not, this isn't just me making this up. So even Jean-Principé was like,

that guy looks pretty good right now. So jealous. 22 empty net goals, by the way, according to stat news that the Canucks have conceded. That seems like a lot. It's a lot. It feels like a lot. It feels like a stat that you get when you're dead last in the National Hockey League. Anyway, back to Torrella.

He got named head coach on Sunday. His first game was Monday, and it felt like everything was new. In his pre-game media availability, I noticed that his Vegas Golden Knights track suit still had the crease lines in it from when I've been taking out of the original packaging. So everything was new. And Torz alluded to this in his post-game remarks. We'll play them now.

talking about what he saw from his team, how he had to shake off a little bit of the coaching rust, and everything else from his first win as a Golden Knights head coach, 4-2 over the Canucks. Here's John Tortorella. Yeah, we were, we looked nervous in the first period. We just, and we were slow. Second period was night and day.

I thought we made, first period, we were making way too many DDD plays, looking for a partner and playing sideways. Second period, so much better. far as just playing north and playing up the ice. It gave us quite a bit of momentum. Jesse. Hi, Jesse Granger with the Athletic.

For you, how normal of a game was it? Are you still kind of wading into things? Or were you doing what you normally do behind the bench? Yeah, there was some rust. I think for half the game and the boys let me do it. I was calling Dowled by a different name. I didn't even realize I was doing it. I'm sure you'll hear about that eventually from these guys.

but yeah, once, once, it wasn't too bad. I got a good feel for the lines, still trying to learn nicknames and stuff like that when you're calling all people to go up. But yeah, it was good. It was good. And I've leaned on the coaching staff quite a bit. They've been great for me.

Tough night for Nick Dow. Not only did his coach not know his name, he got knocked out of that game by Atu-Ratu reverse hit. Yeah. That's funny that he That torts is trying to learn the nicknames In the first place Mark Stone It's probably stoner

Stoner Stoner over the boards Is it Stony? Dow's like the fact he didn't know my name Hurt more than the injury Yeah it was a big trade deadline pick up torts Come on Is it true he's only signed for eight games?

Yes Well and the playoffs Oh yeah Yeah yeah The worst thing for Nick Dow It was after he took that elbow from Ratu He didn't know his name either No he was in bad shape

Yeah that was super wobbly Yeah, I just stick on the way off. I was surprised he came back in the game. Yeah, I wonder if you went and saw the spotter and then they cleared him. They didn't really, there wasn't so much. I don't think the spotter called it. I think it's a training staff was like, I think it's pretty obvious that you have sustained a head injury. Yeah, but you're right.

He did come back, which I was also surprised by that. Okay. Speaking of surprising news, we got some out of Toronto yesterday when the Maple Leafs announced that they had fired their general manager, Brad Tree Living. The team announced the decision in a statement Monday, night, like an hour and a half before a puck drop of what was for a team that wasn't playing for much. Maybe their most important game of the season in the revenge game in Anaheim against Radco Gudis and the Anaheim Ducks. There was no indication on who would replace tree living. It caught a lot of people by surprise the timing of it. I want to throw to some more audio now.

This is Elliot Friedman, Nick Kiprios, and Justin Bourne, kind of parsing through the news in real time because they were working the broadcast because Sportsnet had put together a fairly big panel for this very big game in Anaheim. So here now, Fridge, Kippern, Born on Brad Tree Living's dismissal in Toronto. I think why now is because I think Brad Tree Living forced the issue. Look, everybody knows it's been reported. Toronto's been conducting conversations around the league looking into what they're going to do. And Nick, my sense of it is was Tree Living just said, look, if you're going to make the change,

make the change. Yeah. And Justin and I and Sammy McKee, we talked about this on our real Kippron-Born show. I had heard some rumblings that something could happen today. But then I looked at my clock and I said, we're mere hours away from puck drop. I still find it peculiar that they would still want to make this announcement just about an hour and a half roughly away from puck drop.

I don't know if they've noticed, but there's some things going on tonight in the game. I think he was worried it was going to leak. Even if it leaks, Elliot. I mean, it sends a shockwave. I've been in dressing rooms before where some news of this magnitude can totally disrupt your thought process going to puck drop. I found it really strange.

So it's the timing to you that you're not surprised by the actual event. No, absolutely not. But mere hours before puck drop, I think it could have waited. You know, for me, it's just a lack of decisiveness kind of defined how we got here, right? This has been a couple of years where, you know, tree living hasn't made a lot of decisions that the least needed to make hard decisions. And I feel like this was going to happen at some point. So if it's going to happen, you know you're going to pull.

the trigger. Here we are. So the Leafs were a mess this year and it was just actually yesterday we were talking about the Leafs and how I wonder if they've gone through the season like the beginning. It's like maybe we can salvage

this thing and then it gets to the end and they might be thinking man we need to do some pretty bold stuff here. Now who knows like let's say if Doug Armstrong comes in and replaces Bradgerald And that's kind of the rumored guy.

He's leaving the St. Louis Blues. And maybe he goes to Toronto and takes over there. In what capacity? I don't know. I don't know if they're going to get a president, whatever. But he might be like, well, I'm not, I didn't take this job to trade Austin Matthews. I didn't take this job to trade William Neelander. We're going to keep trying to be competitive while they've still got those guys.

Who knows? But, you know, James Merle had a really well-reported piece in the athletic. this morning and he wrote that according to a source in the organization, Keith Pelly, who's the new CEO of MLSE, was quote unquote very present during the Leaf's bungling of the trade deadline earlier this month, which was not the best showcase of the team's decision-making process and one of the final nails in true living's coffin. according to Myrtle Pelley spent the intervening week surveying leaf staff and people around the team and league

about where things went wrong and true living's role in that decline you know I think Trill Living is the kind of guy that talks a good game and he gets along with everyone which is important he can talk to the corporate types which is important but let's think about the state of the two teams that he left in the last few years. His resume stinks. The flames he left in need of a rebuild.

And even though a lot of people might not have predicted what would happen to Hubert O's career after coming over from Florida, you know, those two contracts he gave out to Cadry and Hubert O, maybe the flame should have chased futures instead, but they wanted to stay competitive. And in Toronto, you know, I think you went in there maybe just thinking, ah, this team's just got to change its DNA. You know, it's got to change, change its attitude. And they bring in Craig Baroube, and I still think Baroube is a good coach, but maybe it was just a bad fit for this Leafs group. Or maybe that Leafs group, not maybe.

I think in hindsight, what was needed was more bold and decisive action. creativity, you know, make a big move. Well, let's be real here. And it was just functional because, you know, there were still leftovers of the Shanahan, Dubas era, Lamarello, and all the years of playoff failure as well. And, you know, Mitch Marner, they didn't get to turn him into anything except they lost him for nothing to Vegas and aren't restricted free agents.

see and the Leafs were just, they were just dreadful this year. I mean, look, let's just not bury the lead here. The biggest issue and the number one reason that Tree Living's very short tenure in Toronto will be remembered infamously is because he couldn't find common ground to figure out what to do with Mitch Marner. That was ultimately his undoing.

They have nothing to show for that deal right now. They had one roster player added, Nicholas Waugh, who was later moved to the Colorado Avalanche. And you cannot, you cannot let, a guy walk in the manner that he did when he was providing as much as he was providing on a nightly basis during the regular season to the Maple Leafs. He was their leading score from the time that he broke into the NHL as a leaf to the time that he left. And they just were unable to do anything. They were unable to broker a deal, even though he went into that last year of his deal as a UFA.

We hear countless times across the NHL about how important it is to get something for your assets and not let them walk. And it almost felt like Tree Living was either above that or it was beyond. him, but whatever the case, it marked his entire tenure in Toronto because the biggest difference for a playoff team last year in Toronto to the non-playoff team this year for me is that they had Marner and they didn't. And he was unable to recoup the proper assets. He brought him Barube, which I thought was a fine move, but ultimately it didn't make enough of a difference.

And he goes down now, as you astutely pointed out, the architect of two Canadian teams, Calgary and Toronto, that were left in way worse shape than when he inherited it. Can I read a scathing paragraph from Myrtle? I would love a scathing paragraph from Myrtle. He writes, as bad as the Leafs have been on the ice this season, cratering to the bottom of the NHL standings the past two months. It's somehow been worse behind the scenes.

The richest team in the league has now become its most small-minded and timid, afraid to do anything approaching creativity or boldness. They've become completely paralyzed, not only by their failures on the ice, but also by the dysfunction that's settled in the past three years, which is why they've done absolutely nothing to address their issues all season. Yeah, I mean, Tree Living kind of rode with whatever he inherited,

minus Marner. Yeah. And he tried to change the coach, which other general managers there have tried, and it ultimately hasn't worked. I think that he had an opportunity to really shake up the core four, and he just either through, fear or through trepidation, or maybe he just wasn't a savvy enough dealmaker, he just couldn't

get it done. And ultimately, again, like, you, that's a bad, bad rep for him. I wonder if he's going to resurface somewhere else. I already heard rumblings that Nashville could be interested in bringing him aboard as they're not trying to manager. But if you're looking at the body of work that he's done in Calgary and Toronto, I don't know why you'd hire him. By the way, we need to talk before we go to break because we run up against him for time.

We do need to talk about the other Toronto story. I know very Toronto said. I was going to give you credit because Max Domi I didn't need credit for it. Everyone knew Max Domi was going to fight yesterday. He fought twice. He fought twice. And he did well. He just came out throwing bombs. Okay. Can we let's talk about the Goudas fight. And I want to talk about the elephant in the room and the point that I don't think enough people have brought up. Okay. I don't know. I know

what you're going to say. So say it. Goodest didn't fight back. We're all clear on this, right? No. Radcoe Goose didn't fight back. I accept my pummeling. I don't know if he could get one in because Domi just came out wailing on him. You know how... He looked like his old man. It's Radco Goudis. You know, you could have got a punch.

You know what's a good strategy to getting a punch it is trying to throw one at any point during time. Because Domi was just wailing away on him. They were sizing each other up at the start. I accept my fate. I think that might have been, yeah, that might have been the most fate accepting fight. Domi's like, this is awesome. Yeah, Goudis knew he had to take... I'm the strongest man in the world.

I'm going to fight again in this game. Why is it not going well this time? That would have been awesome if he got beat off the second time. Gudis just throws one punch, knocks him out. Who did he fight the second time? Minchikov? Yeah, he did. Yeah, don't we fought Minchikov.

He was ready to take on anybody. Wasn't he was saying before they got a bunch of stuff, like, I want to atone for my mistakes and all this stuff. So it's pretty clear what his mindset was. That's why everyone was assuming that's why I was working on the way that. So in the terms of, of the code, is that more honorable taking a beating

without fighting back or less honorable? More honorable. But you didn't put up a fight. I'm actually surprised he did it, to be honest. I mean, I'm like, I'm going to fight back. I'm kind of with brefries, like, you kind of need to throw a punch at a certain point to make it look like a fight. Like, to make it a fight. Yeah, right?

Because he just kind of took a beating. The code is a very fickle thing. It's like a boxer taking a dive. Like, you got to throw at least one punch. But good on Goodos for you. Was Gutis the whole time? Like, I deserve this. A little bit. There was a shame spiral involved for sure. He knew what he had to take.

But anyway, I guess if you're a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, and I don't know, but are you happy with the end result there? Because I saw a lot of a lot of back patting. Well, they also won the game. Yeah, they did win the game. They came back and won the game, which I did not care for because I really want Anaheim to win the division. So we get Edmonton, Vegas in the first round.

Anaheim did pick up a point. The ducks and the oilers. have each played 74 games. The ducks are four points up on the Oilers, but the Oilers are probably going to have the tiebreaker, and the ducks are five points up on Vegas, and Vegas has played one more games than the ducks and the Oilers. So it's a two-horse race between the ducks and the Oilers, I think, for first place.

Maybe Vegas could go on a new coach bump, but frankly, I wasn't that impressed with Vegas last night. I know they took the game over in the second period, but of course they're going to take the game over. They look great. They're playing the Canucks. Anaheim's not good. The biggest issue with Anaheim finishing first is I'm not sure they've got the guys to do it.

Ketergoche got hurt last night too. Yeah. Well, they're not that they're not that good. Right. I think that division, despite the standings right now where it looks like Anaheim might be in the quote unquote driver's seat. I think it's wide open. If Anaheim plays Utah in the first round,

I think most people are going to pick. Utah's a betting favorite though, for sure, yeah, right? Despite the fact they won't have home ice. And like, I want to see Edmonton and Vegas in the first round as much as anybody, but it's hard to count on anything because I think Edmonton's the best of the three teams, but it's not by

a big margin and I'm not 100% sure of that statement. Okay, we got to go to break. I mentioned earlier, busy night in the National Hockey League, right? 10 games on Tuesday. It's the final day of March. So 20 teams are playing tonight. 16 of them are either in a playoff spot or within five points of one.

And that includes the Philadelphia Flyers. Rick Tocket and the Philadelphia Flyers, they could draw even with Columbus tonight. Everything breaks their way. So we're going to talk to Kevin Kerr's coming up next. And you know what I want to ask Kevin? What do you want to ask Kevin? Are Flyers fans enjoying this or hating this?

It's a fair question. Because they could miss. Because what if they, what's most likely right now is they just miss. And by being in the mushy middle, well, we all know what the problem with the mushy middle is. there's a reason that the Canucks fans are actually excited that the Canucks are in dead last.

So Kevin Kerr is from Philadelphia, Flyers Beat Writer for the Athletic, is going to join us coming up next on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on SportsNet 650 or wherever you get your podcast. 633 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough of SportsNet 650.

Halfford and Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Hey, do you have credit card debt? If you do, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at sands-trustee.com. We are still in hour one of the program. Kevin Kurs, Flyers Beat Writer for the Athletic, is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour one of this program 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 Able Auctions hotline, we go. Our next guest from the Athletic in Philadelphia. Kevin Curtis joins us now on the Halford & Breath Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Kev, how are you? Good. How are you guys doing? We're well. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

So my first question, the Flyers enter tonight's action on a three-game win streak. They're 8-1-1 in their last 10. at the beginning of March, they were six back of the wild card. If they went tonight, they could actually move into that wild cards. But my question, though,

Kev, are Flyers fans actually happy about these developments? Yeah, that's a good question. You know, there's been a lot of frustration, I think,

just not necessarily this season, but a buildup of what's going on, basically for the last, almost for the last decade and a half, right? But I think it's important to keep in mind that this is the third year of the new management group, right? This is Danny Breyer, Keith Jones, and now a new coach in Rick Tocke. This was never going to, you know, the playoffs were always going to be a bonus.

They wanted to make it, but they never, you know, that wasn't necessarily the expectation. It was just, they're trying to slowly build this thing. So, you know, will they be happy? I would think if they somehow get in and end up playing Pittsburgh in the first round, that'll sort of rejuvenate a lot of maybe the casual fans that haven't been paying attention. a whole lot throughout, you know, Phillies runs and Eagles Super Bowls. In terms of the hardcore fans, I mean, a lot of them are, are frustrated with how long, you know, they've been sort of irrelevant, frankly.

What has been the key to this surge throughout March? Well, excuse me, it's, you know, defensively, they've been pretty strong all season long, right? That's what Rick Talk is known for, and they picked it up really quick at the start of the season. off in January, and that's returned here post-Olympic break. You know, defensively, they've been one of the best teams in the league. And they're getting saves from both of their goaltenders now. That wasn't always the case. You know, Dan Vodar has been pretty steady throughout the course of the year,

but Sam Erison was, you know, I think he had the worst numbers in the league going to the Olympic break, and he's been lights out since play resumed, a 5-0, I think, a 9-33 save percentage. So they're getting the saves, and the offensive started to come around. The power play still stinks, and that's an issue. but if you just watch them, you can tell they're starting to execute Tocke's system a little bit second nature now.

Waiting for traffic to get in front of the net before they take the shot, just getting bodies there, which has been a real problem for this team dating back to before Tocke got here. They're small up front, so that's maybe not going to be perfect, but they're going to insert a pretty big guy in the lineup today.

I'm going to be interested to see how that works out with Borda Martone getting in there because he really, frankly, is exactly what they need. I mean, he can finish, which is something this team has lacked for a long time. He's got size. They're small, still small up front. And like I said, the power play has been terrible. I'm going to be interested to see how Tockech is on the power play.

How is Matt Fe Mitzkhov doing? He's been better. He's been better. You know, the expectation, I think, is we're not going to see a fully effective Matt Vey Mitchcock until next season, just because the nature of, you know, his conditioning and how it's been really a process to get him back up to speed. But, you know, he's, I think he's said all the right things, even though he's still speaking through an interpreter to us. You know, he told us he was going to work hard over the Olympic break. He was training twice a day.

You can see it in the way he's been playing. You know, for him to be effective, he's not a speedster, right? He's got to use his body position. He's got to knock guys off the puck when battles along the wall. And we've seen that much more often over the last couple weeks than we did in the first couple weeks. Now, you know, he's still trouble scoring goals. He's still having trouble finishing. But, you know, the power play, he's been a little more effective at five-on-five.

He seems to be developed in the history with all the case. He's been really good. So we'll see. I don't think it's not going to be a snap of the fingers and suddenly Matt Benichikov's going to go off. Like I said, I mean, Danny Breyer has even said it publicly that he doesn't think that, you know, Like I said, it's going to take Mitchcroft a whole off season, I think, to train before he, you know, next year is when we'll find out what Matt May, Matt May, Mitchcock really is in my mind. You mentioned he's not a speedster. I think that's kind of an understatement.

Is there any recognition that he needs to get a little faster? I've been watching some Flyers games recently because I think it's a pretty interesting story of what's going on. And, you know, you can see his talent, but he is slow, man. He is really slow. Yeah. Yeah, he's slower than he was last year. There's no doubt just watching him. I mean, he's been caught on breakaways from behind at least half a dozen times a season.

So that's absolutely got to be better. But again, you know, he's not going to be Owen Tippett out there, but in terms of the way he can move his feet. But he can be better and we'll see if he gets there. So we know that in the NHL, if you don't have a top line center, you don't have much of a chance to win a Stanley Cup. you know even some teams are desperate for for second line centers right now the the flyers have I guess top two centers are will you tell me Christian Dvorak and is it

Zegra's playing center right now he is yeah you know and and he's been he's been okay there I'm skeptical that he's a top line center on a good team I don't think he's I don't think he's quite there but he has been in the center at the center lately too and Noah Kates has been there too right and you know with Dvorak and Noah Kates you have two pretty solid middle six centers, but you're right. There's a lack of a top end, the number one center here. Do they have anyone in the system that might one day get there? I know, I don't know I think about Jack Nesbitt, but I know they drafted him 12th overall last year.

It's kind of what I come back to with the Flyers, right? Until they get that, until they get that one C, are they going to be able to be competitive in the NHL? and, you know, are they going to have a chance? I mean, they can play talk at hockey all they want and maybe in the playoffs be really good defensively, but, you know, you need that top end to really actually compete for a cup. Yeah, that's 100% fair.

You know, in the system, they focused on resocking that position a little bit. They took Jet Lucchenco a couple years ago in the first round. He was 13th overall. Nesbitt, like you mentioned, was 12th overall. They've got a kid Jack Berklin who, was a second round pick, but he was outstanding in the world juniors, captaining Sweden. And I think he might, there's a case that he made, he might even be the best center prospect in the system right now.

But are any of these guys true bona fide number one centers? Probably not. It's still early. We'll see how these guys develop. But you look at those three guys. I think your first impression is that it's probably not number one. They're probably more number two, three, four type guys. So it's the position they put themselves in.

They knew, I think, at some point when they started this whole rebuild that they didn't want to tank. They didn't end up tanking. They still got some good players in the draft out of it between Mietchkoff and Porter Martone and some other guys that we've seen come up lately. And some guys that are still in the Phantoms on the minor league team. But, you know, it's probably going to take a big swing. It's going to take a big trade. in the event that Austin Matthews becomes available, and the flyer's going to be one of the first teams on the phone to Toronto,

whoever's on the show there, absolutely they will be. So it's not an easy path they've chosen, but their whole way they've gone about this is they wanted to restock the system, they wanted to keep their picks, they wanted to develop some of their prospects that aren't yet in the NHL so that when the opportunity does come up to take a big swing on a guy like that, and Matthews or whoever else it might be, they're going to have the assets to get it done.

and we'll see. It's no sure thing, but I do, I do think they're going to have to make some sort of a big transaction this summer. I think the time is going to be right for that, particularly with the way they've been playing lately in the way the young group seems to be coming together during these last few weeks. We're speaking to Kevin Kerr's Philadelphia Flyers, beat writer for the athletic here on the Halford and Breff Show on Sportsnet 650.

Flyers have a huge game tonight against Washington and a busy night in the National Hockey League. Kev, if you had to pick one guy, which one player on the Flyers roster has flourished the most under Rick Tock in his first year on the job? I'm going to cop out and say two guys. Owen Tippett and Jamie Drysdale. Tippet especially in the last couple weeks, he's been their best forward. He's not just scoring. He's making an impact every night. He just, he's got a whole different attitude on and off the ice, it seems. I think for him, it's a lot of confidence. And I think, frankly, his name was in some, pretty bogus trade rumors early in the season. The flyers never really were looking to trade them. I mean, would they have maybe traded them for a high-end center? I mean, that's always possible.

But after the trade deadline, he really took off. So I think he's a little bit of a sensitive guy, frankly, and I don't mean that in a bad way. I just think he's, that's just him. That's just his personality. And when that trade deadline passed, and, you know, he's got a pretty significant, no move clause kicking in on July 1st, I think he realized that, you know, I'm, I'm going to be here for a bull by the horns here. And he's done that. I mean, it's, it's been nightly doing him just about every game. And then Jamie Drysdale on the back end, you know, an offensive guy, it's his defense

that has been really taken a step forward. He's not blowing the, you know, he's not scoring, he's not blowing teams away with his scoring. He's, he's defending really well. And he's using his shot much more effectively now, too. And that's led to maybe a few secondary assists. So those are the two guys that I think you really look at and they're sort of driving the bus right now. And Noah Cates, I would put maybe as a secondary guy, he's been really good too.

He's in all situations type guy developing into a little bit of a team leader, I would say. And that's what you want to see. That's what this organization wanted to see with these young guys. You want to see, especially under Rick Hockett, right? It wasn't about making the playoffs this year. It was more about watching some of these or hoping some of these young players develop and take steps forward. and a lot of cases they have and they're like I said,

they're sort of leading the way right now and probably more so or just as much as the veterans are. We're having a bit of connectivity issue here, but I'm going to try this anyway. One more question. I've got to ask you before we let you go. Having covered and followed the last days of John Tortorella

in Philadelphia, how shocked were you that he resurfaced in Vegas? Well, I knew he wanted to coach again. I found out pretty quickly after it ended here in Philly. It was pretty ugly ending here, frankly. So I don't want to say I'm surprised. He resurfaced, but listen, if you're, when you're hiring John Tortorella, the big games left, you're not really looking for exes of those in my mind.

You're looking at a guy that's going to come in and give a kick in the ass to a team that's underachieving right now. And I mean, is there anybody better for that than John Tortorella? Probably not. Kev, this is great, man. Travel safe. Enjoy the game tonight. We'll do this again soon. All right.

Thanks, boys. See you. Thank you. That's Kevin Kurs from the Athletic in Philadelphia on a train, probably to Washington, here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. So I know we're going to have Kipper on the show later. 7.30. But I do want to mention what he wrote yesterday on Sportsnet.com.

And this was before the Trillivings News broke in Toronto. So he was just going through. Actually, no, it wasn't. Maybe he edited it because he said in Toronto, Keith Pelly made the first move among these teams on Monday firing general manager Brad Trillivis. Yeah, they went back and edited the web copy. So this was prior to the Trilliving dismissal, Kippmer had a piece talking about general manager moves across the league, including potentially Patrick Covey.

Yeah. Kippert was like, wait, can you just put that in there? Yeah, I had that. He writes, in Vancouver, there are strong suggestions that change is coming, but to what extent remains? unclear. Until there is a better understanding of Jim Rutherford's full commitment to a rebuild, things remain fluid. Either way, I hear GM Patrick Alveen doesn't expect to survive past this season. Now, apparently he expanded on those remarks on Fan 590 yesterday with Bourne.

And he said that Alvin is, we don't have that. We do have the idea, as a matter of fact. Yeah, yeah. Things are happening here at the new studios. Oh my God. We got symmetry off the charts. Here now is Nick Caprio's, who we will have on the show coming up at 730,

talking about the Patrick Alvin's situation in Vancouver. No real sense right now in terms of, we've heard Jimmy Rutherford all season long pretty much talk about rebuild and kind of took a while for him to get there, right? Yeah. But they sure committed. And where is he?

They weren't going to do that going. No. No. Dolly wall comes on our. show and says they're trying to win this year every time so they were forced so in saying that it just in terms of jimmy rutherford you know where is he on on this on a short or long-term deal if he's interested in going through the process of it aquilini family obviously the owners uh francesco is is the face of it no real sense too in terms of huge commitment out of him yet much like the

leaves, everybody's waiting. Patrick Alvin, I think, is told a few people close around him that he does not expect to be back. So does that mean Jimmy stays on? And does Jimmy even move to a role where it's less day-to-day? And then they bring someone else in. Nobody really has a sense just yet what direction Vancouver is going in. But once again, that's a market where, people ultimately expect changes to what degree we don't know yet for sure it's so funny because

on a day-to-day basis i go back and forth based on what i'm hearing and i'm like they're really going to come back with brotherford alveen and foot get the band back together you know then then then we'll have dolly well come on the show and just be like you think this owner you think this owner you think this owner wants to pay guys to not work for her? I'm like, no, I don't, but I also think they should probably consider making changes. And then there's yelling. He wants to pay guys to work poorly for him.

Yeah. Makes sense, right? Do you want to pay them to continue to do damage to the franchise? And then again, with the yelling. You know, they have decisions to make on all three. And I think based on what you've heard from me on the show. maybe you two, Halford, all season. You can probably guess which way I'd go.

But, you know, they have massive questions to answer because if you're, let's say Patrick Alvin is fired. He doesn't expect to be back, so. Let's say Alvine is out at the end of the season. Okay. Well, then who's hiring his replacement? Jim Rutherford. that's what it seems like. But should Jim Rutherford have any role in this whatsoever?

No. Yeah. You know? Mm-hmm. And then, you know, then you've got that head of coaching decision that you have to leave to the powers that be. But who is that? Because with Jim Rutherford as the president of hockey ops, it has always felt like kind of a, well, I'll say it. there was sometimes when Alvin felt like the general manager

and sometimes when it felt like he was the assistant general manager. Does that make sense? It was kind of a hybrid role? Yeah, I don't. It was a hybrid role? I don't think that you need to even be that like around the bush. So I think that's exactly what it's been. I think here's a all frame.

I think Rutherford, when it's suited him, he's acted as the general manager. And when it's not beneficial to him, Patrick Alvine's the general manager. Does that make sense? When it's befitting for Rutherford to action, as the GM, he will act as the GM, but when it's not, suddenly Alvin's the GM. That's how it seems to me. So you want to talk about a fall guy now?

Well, it'll be, oh, the general manager, Patrick Alvin. That's how I see this playing out. And I don't agree with the way that it's going to play out, but I think that Rutherford's put himself in this position from day one to have, uh, I guess a fail safe or there's a buffer between him and the front lines. And it's always been Alvin. And that is also going to provide him maybe an escape here where you can make a significant change getting rid of the general manager, but is it a really significant change?

I would say no. But I would say Rutherford has been in charge of the big picture, right? Can we all agree that Rutherford has been in charge of the big picture? Look, no further than the Quinn Hughes trade. Well, what about the Elys Petterson contract? Sure, take that into consideration as well.

There were people within the organization that were pushing back on that. He made that happen, and he made the decision, I would imagine, to, now there might have been but from ownership to make moves in order to keep Quinn Hughes. And that failed. You know, it's the guy who's been charting the path for the Canucks.

And then Alvin kind of does the work on the phones, right? He's making calls. You don't think he's making calls? That sort of stuff. Why would you allow him to choose the next general manager? I have no idea. Why? And then after he chooses that general manager,

what's his role? Is he still going to be the president of hockey ops? Is he going to be an advisor? But if he's an advisor, what power does he have? And why? You know, it just seems to me that the Canucks have an opportunity right now. And yes, it would take some investment. It would take some money and you'd have to eat some money.

But there's an opportunity right now where everyone can agree they're going in a rebuild. Right? So hire everyone new and be like, your job is the rebuild. Because that wasn't Jim Rutherford's job. In fact, it was less than a year ago. He was saying we aren't interested in a rebuild. He's also 77 years old. And there's no way, not no way, but a little chance that he would be in the organization for as long as the rebuild is going to take.

This rebuild is going to take years. and they've got a lot of stuff to do. They've also got to get, you know, things like a practice facility built. Like, so get a president in there that can handle that sort of stuff. I don't know if they want to take the practice facility file and give it to someone else, maybe on the business side of the organization. But, you know, you got to get aligned. You have to, and if you're going to hire a president, you have to let that guy make his choices.

What are they going to do? Let Jim Rutherford pick. the general manager and then Jim's like you know what I'm done so are they going to hire a president there and then the president comes in and be like I want to pick this guy well unfortunately that's how I see it playing out start with start with

the president unfortunately that's how I see it playing out they're having the same top talks right now in Toronto right like are they going to are they going to bring in another Shanahan type right but the big difference in Toronto is that they've got a clean slate to work with it's wide open

now Keith Pelley can go and he can hire anybody he wants, in whatever position he wants, whatever front office structure they want to have, they've now cleared the decks. If you don't get rid of both guys here, you have not cleared the decks. I don't think you can start fresh. And I don't think that you can have the kind of rebuild that you and I are talking about when you've got the architect and the destruction guy, the construction guy from the previous regime, because that's what it would be. And this, I know it sounds harsh, and it might sound like we're advocating for people to get fired. And I never want to do that. But at the same time, if you're talking about how these organizational structures work, sometime turn over at the top

has to happen, whether it's fair or not, or whether it's justified or not. And I know people's jobs are on the line, but you are talking about building something from the ground up. You are at the bottom floor, starting from scratch. Everything is on the table. So you need to have people putting the building blocks in place and putting the foundation in place that have a real clear vision for five years down the road, not one year down the road. Can I also just add one more thing? You can add whatever you like. And Joe Siddell is going to join us on the other side and talk a little baseball.

But before I do, I mean this says no disrespect to Mani Mahautra or Ryan Johnson. Those guys could well be the best fits to, you know, Ryan moves into the GM position. Manny becomes the new head coach. but before that decision is made, can we expand the horizons, please? Sure. Can we maybe not promote from within the organization that has produced the NHL's worst team by a mile?

I hear you. I think Mani Amalcher has, he's a very smart hockey mind, high character. Did a good job, obviously, last year in Abbotsford. This year he's been dealt a terrible hand in Abbotsford. but I think he's a good coach and he's going to be a good coach in the NHL one day.

I think Ryan Johnson, every time we have conversation we're like, we like that guy. He's a high character guy, you know? But there's sometimes a sense and I get it from the Canucks fans.

It's like, well, okay, so this guy's going to take that job and this guy's going to take that job. Let's have some interviews here first. You know, let's go out there. Do the Canucks ever do that? Do the Canucks ever just line up like 20 guys? and just be like, we're going to do a bunch of Zooms here.

You know, like, you know, the NFL coach? All the same time. They're just like, they bring in like 20 guys, and then they filter it down to that, and then they filter it down. And they have some internal candidates sometimes. Sure. They're a part of that process.

Just go through the process. Like, you don't have to identify someone now and zero win on that person and make sure you get that person. Go out there and talk to people. Does it take some work? Yes. Do you have to reserve some board rooms?

space, yes, you have to make some calls. It is a lot. And then the decisions are tough. But this is very, very important. Inflection point for the team. So let's get this right. Joe Siddell coming up next. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.