Halford & Brough in the Morning - Low Event Hockey Is Fine When You Shut Out The Leafs

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports (3:00), they talk Friday and Saturday's Canucks action as the Canucks were shut out by the Hurricanes and shut out the Maple Leafs in response (6:00), plus the boys discuss news and notes from elsewhere around the NHL (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Whoa! Wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose those f***ing Canucks? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- You're listening to Halford and Brough. Just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber. You go and do something like this. Kevin Lankin and stops all 20 shots of the Maple Leafs threw at him. And it's a 3-0 win. And totally redeem yourself! Ha ha! Yeah! Ah!

Ah! Ah! Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Halford at his broth. It is 4th and at 6.50. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios

in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Arash, good morning to you live from the Kintec studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Morning. Hey dog, good morning to you. Good morning. Arash, good morning to you as well. Morning. Half a breath in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier

destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by 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 This is the 1170 Pal Street in Vancouver and we are coming to you live from the kintex studio kintex footwear and orthotics working together with you and step Yeah, dumb and dumber reference right off the bat in the intro 6 o'clock in the morning on a Monday

How befitting of the Halford and Brough show. Yeah, that's perfect. We got a big show ahead on a Monday. Guess let's begin. You're dumber. Okay. I'm dumb, but you're dumber. We have a big show ahead on a Monday.

Guest list begins at seven o'clock. Mike Tannier, our NFL insider, our Monday morning quarterback, courtesy of the Clayton Public House. We'll be joining us after five of the six wild card games from the NFL wild card rounder in the books. Congrats to the Texans, the Ravens, the Bills, the Eagles and the commanders. They all punch our tickets to the next round.

Tonight, the last of the wild card games goes from Arizona as the Rams host, the Vikings to see who will get the final spot moving on from the wild card round. We'll talk to Mike about all that at seven o'clock seven 30 Kevin Woodley, NHL.com and in goal magazine. Lots of Canucks talk today on the program in the wake of Saturday's impressive three, nothing shut out victory over the Leafs in Toronto. We can also get into some goalie stuff with Kev, a head of Vancouver's game in Winnipeg on Tuesday, where they will face the NHL's

top goalie and Connor Hallibuch. That's at 730. Eight o'clock, IMAX going to join the program, fresh off traveling with the Canucks, where at times over that recent road trip, he was the entirety of the media on the road. So we'll talk to him about everything that he took in over his journeys back East. He also most recently wrote about Elias Pedersen and his great effort against the Leafs on Saturday. A selkie worthy performance as IMAAC and some of Pedersen's teammates were calling it. So, well that's at eight o'clock.

7.30 is Kevin Woodley, seven o'clock is Mike Tanier. I have two real quick announcements here. The first is that Sportsnet 650 is hosting the big football game at the Clayton Public House on Sunday, February the 9th. Which game is that? The big football game. Which, yeah, but what game is that?

The big football game. It's a local game. It's a local game. It's involving two football squadrons. We are giving away a pair of tickets every day this week and a $50 gift card to the Clayton Public House for the big football game. We're going to give them away to caller number five at eight 15 this morning. Again, caller number five at eight 15 phone number

six oh four two eight oh zero six 50 six oh four two eight oh zero six 50 is the phone number. The Clayton public house. Good food, good people, good times. If you have nowhere to go for the big football game on Sunday, February the ninth, and you want to go give us a call at 815 be caller number five finally also need to announce that sports net 650 Is one of the presenting sponsors of this year's RBC? JCC sports dinner three days after the big football game on Wednesday February the 12th at the higher Regency You know who the the prize guest speaker is for this year's JCC Sports Dinner? Richard Sherman.

Yeah, pretty impressive that you knew that and that they got Richard Sherman. I'm gonna go on there so you're like, tell stories about Russ. Why does he suck? Don't do that. How big a loser was he? If you actually know what,

if you spend that much money for a table, you can yell whatever you want. I can do whatever I want. Yeah, do whatever you want. You're free to say stuff. Anyway, those are our announcements. We'll mention those again throughout the show. We got a big guest list ahead We got a lot to get into so without further ado a rash. Let's tell everybody what happened

We know how busy your life can be. What happened? 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. Saturday night in Toronto, Kevin Lankton made 20 saves for his fourth shutout of the season. Quinn Hughes, Golden and an assist Vancouver Canucks

beat the Toronto Maple Leafs three nothing in Toronto on Saturday night. Yeah, say what you will about the Canucks, but these guys are hanging on despite dealing with a ton of adversity and noise this season, a bunch of injuries, a bunch of soap opera stuff, that the damn media keeps fanning the flames of it. They have not really sustained a long losing streak and they've gained at least a point

in 29 of their 42 games. Just 13 regulation losses for the Canucks, which is up there with the fewest in the league. Not very many times they lost in regulation. Now, one of those regulations losses came Friday in Carolina where the Canucks were shut out two nothing and had just 14 shots on goal. Then the adversity, more adversity. Cause they got snowed in, in Carolina and had to fly to Toronto on the day of the game. Suffice to say, it did not look promising, but they got off to a great start against

the Leafs with Brock Besser redirecting a Tyler Myers point shot. Love those point shots. We say it on the show every time, you know, keep shooting from the point. Only point shots really. Tyler Myers point shot pass from Leah's. Tyler Myers, point shot, pass from Leas Pettersson by the way, and Brock Besser, tip to pass, Dennis Hildeby, which sounds like an old man. You know old man Dennis Hildeby?

He's a good guy. Old man Hildeby. Old man Hildeby lives in that house on the hill. 31 seconds into the game. That's all the offense they'd actually need, but just for fun, Quinn Hughes scored a goal on a point shot that Leafs defenseman Simone Benoit actually whacked in himself.

It looked for a while, I think Garland might've scored, but it was actually Benoit that put it in. Past ol' Ben Hildeby. Yeah, past ol' Ben Hildeby. Dennis Hildeby. Simon Ben past old Ben Hildeby. Dennis Hildeby. Simon Benoit. Then early in the third, the Canucks snuffed out any chance of a Leafs comeback.

When Hughes danced around, he did his thing. He danced all around the Leafs end before dropping to Kiefer Sherwood in the high slot. They're like, let's try a different way of shooting. And Sherwood ripped one home in the high slot off a one timer. Quinn Hughes, brilliant as always.

And I hope the people back East got a look at what I'm calling Hart Hughes. Oh, that's a nice one. Hart Hughes. It's got a certain ring to it. Certain je ne sais quoi. Uh, the Canucks did finish with only 18 shots on goal, so like four more against Carolina. So that remains a thing,

but the Leafs themselves only had 20 and there's something to be said for that. You know, most of these games, even if the Canucks aren't getting many shots, their opponents aren't getting many shots either. Elias Bederson had a terrific game. Yep. Only one secondary assist on Besser's opener, but his defensive performance was a big reason the Canucks kept the Leafs at bay. And it was, it was one of those noticeable defensive performances to the point that the broadcasters were saying things like, Peterson has been a defensive monster

tonight. And his teammates, some quotes, and we'll talk to IMAC who gathered these quotes. Quinn Hughes said, he was amazing. A couple of guys on the bench were yelling, Selkie! After one of the shifts in the third, Kiefer Sherwood said it. He said it himself to Petey. He said, that's a Selkie kind of game. That one shift in the third, he's blocking shots and

defending stuff that doesn't show up on the stat sheet. Actually he does, block shots, Kiefer. sheet. Actually he does block shots, Kiefer. It's not just hits and goals, Kiefer. But I'm just sure what's that that leads to winning hockey and, you know, great players, this is me talking now, not Kiefer Sherwood. Great, great players find a way to make a positive impact on a game and they do it consistently. Pedersen did it Saturday with defense. Yes, he's been reliable defensively

for most of the season, but that game felt different. That one felt different. There was an aggression and a relentlessness to his play in his own end that was good to see. He wasn't kind of just like in the right spots. You know, we all know he has great anticipation. He added some, again, aggressiveness to that great anticipation. He always plays this position well. It was good to see and hopefully he can build off this. Hopefully the Canucks can

build off this. In the back of my mind, I've got Drance's sleeping giant theory. I'm keeping track of it either to say Drance, great job, or Drance, you're an idiot. You thought this team was a sleeping giant? You got to keep receipts in this business. And Drance has this theory, in case you haven't heard it, that the Canucks are a bit of a sleeping

giant, then when they get everyone back and everyone starts to perform at their level, this is a team that could be much better than their current record. So yeah, I was thinking about that. Um, truth time, I didn't watch the game in real time on Saturday night. I was down in Seattle, very difficult to find, uh, any sort of broadcast outside of the crack and in Seattle, Not the greatest hockey market on the planet, but I managed to do my research. I listened to the post game show. I watched a 30 minute abridged version of the game. The now one of the takeaways, it was funny from Bic and

Satz specifically on the post game show was that, you know, if you look at a lot of the metrics, it wasn't entirely different from the game that preceded it against Carolina They got some tips. They got some tips. They got some luck. I mean their first two goals Both point shots which I was like, oh god. Okay now they're gonna keep doing them Cuz they it's work as they worked against Toronto, you know a bit of a lucky tip I would say by Brock Besser and So, you know, a bit of a lucky tip, I would say, by Brock Besser. And, you know, the Quinn Hughes goal was an own goal. Yeah. And that's lucky. Right. And I would say and not the Pettersson was bad by any stretch of the imagination

on Friday against Carolina, but Saturday was a pretty inspired performance, especially defensively. That is pretty much how they're going to have to play it. And some of the breaks that they're going to need to get with the current style and that being very low event hockey that they're going to have to play it and some of the breaks that they're going to need to get with the current style and that being very low event hockey that they're playing. The key now is going to be can they do that with some level of consistency because I go back to that interview that Patrick Alveen had with Ian McIntyre on December 31st of last year in which he said what are we as a

team why do we have these good efforts one night and a bad effort the other night? If you look at individual performances that the Canucks have put up in games this year, you could put that Toronto victory right up there with the four nothing victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion, Florida Panthers. Yeah. Right? The three one win against Colorado.

But here's the thing. Do you remember the game that was sandwiched between the Florida game and the Colorado game? It was a five-1 loss to Boston, maybe one of the worst games of the year. And that up-down, up-down, peak-valley, peak-valley style that the Canucks have had has made it tough to buy into the sleeping giant thing because there needs to be more regularity with these performances. I need to see, I'm talking about me personally, them to be able to deploy with these performances. I need to see, talking about me personally, them to be able to deploy the style of play and

be successful over a stretch where it's like, okay, they could rip off five, six, seven wins in a row. The players. Trey Redwings are doing right now. The players want to see it too. You know, Kiefer Sherwood said after the game, we needed this, we needed a, a kind of a statement win to get our mojo back and

kind of turn our season around. And like you've said, and you're right, they've had some statement wins, but the statements haven't meant anything ultimately. They've been followed up with an equally bad statement. Yeah. And there is that potential, I suppose, because Tuesday they're in Winnipeg to complete this very tough five game road trip.

Now the Canucks are one, one and two on the trip. They're in single points in Montreal and Washington. The single point in Montreal was probably disappointing, the one in, in Washington, well, maybe a bit disappointing too, because they outplayed the Capitals, no points in Carolina and none, I don't think were deserved and two in Toronto. Uh, the jets have been stumbling a tiny bit lately.

Not much, but they've lost a few games in the last little while, but they didn't earn a solid three, nothing win over Colorado on Saturday. And you look at their lineup and they don't have many weaknesses. They score a lot with help from the best power play in the league. I was surprised to learn that actually. Their power play is clicking in the 30%. Uh, and they don't give up much with help from the best goalie in the world. So they're going to be decided underdogs Tuesday in Winnipeg and

we'll see how they end this trip. One, one and two so far on this trip, considering everything they're going through, not terrible, not terrible points in three of the four games. We said five. Considering the quality of opponents too, right? We said at the beginning of the trip I remember we both said five of ten points would be Not good against this gauntlet of a road trip. You could deal with it

And then we kind of joke like they should all be loser points five straight loser points And they didn't held a hold up there into the bargain which is too bad losers Yeah But now they've got an opportunity in Winnipeg to get the six, which that would be, I mean, I know it's only one point difference between five and six, but getting six points, given how tough things felt at least felt after the Carolina game, where not only did

they get stifled offensively, they really couldn't muster a lot of shots on Dustin Tukarski to rebound the way they did in Toronto. I would also add that that was one of the more unexpectedly dominant performances that I can remember this group putting forth in the last couple of seasons. If you had put in front of me, here's options A, B, C and D for what's going to happen on Saturday. Under none of those would I have had, oh, I think the Canucks are going to go in and absolutely stifle the

Leafs, shut them out and force them into playing a no event game. There were no high danger scoring chances in the third period of that game. According to what sat and Vic were saying on the last game show, Toronto had four high danger chances the entire game. So they, I mean, the Cox went in again, day of the

game, you know, your schedule is all kind of up in the air. Obviously, no one was happy with the performance in Carolina. And they don't just go in and sort of squeak out a victory or rely on, you know, the goalie to post 30 or 40 plus saves. They went in and dictated how they wanted to play. That's what the style that talk it has allows you to do is you can dictate how the game is going to be played. Brackets boring. But

but if you don't if you don't play it to as high a level as possible, you end up with Friday's game. Yeah, which is where you walk off the ice and it's like, oh, it was close. And we hung around. But you also put up 14 shots against a 35 year old American league goal. And we put our fans to sleep. Which is nothing to hang your hat on, right?

So just to poke fun a little bit at the Leafs, did you see the difference in opinions between the players and coach and some of the. I did. The top stars there. So this is from the Sports Nut article. Chris Tanev says they outworked us, out competed us, and that's why the Canucks won.

We need to play our game better. That's why we lost. Craig Borube had a similar quote. He said, I don't think we won any of the rebound battles, said more and they need to more energy. And then there was Mitch Marner. I liked it.

I mean, I thought we played well. I really did. I think just the last couple of games we've been, we've given up plays to teams that aren't missing on them. And Morgan Riley said, if you look at the score afterwards, it doesn't look that good. But you know, it's a close game. Austin Matthews, I thought we had chances, just couldn't capitalize such a disconnect there. And the Leafs top stars in their,

in their last game before the Canucks game, they lost Carolina. And I think the top line was something like minus 17 combined. Yeah, that's right. There was two guys that were minus six and one that was minus five. I didn't even know you could have that big of minus in a game. It's funny, I was chirping Sam McKee,

the Kipper & Bourne producer back and forth on Twitter, and he hates that team. And it's hilarious because they were, at least at the time of that game, first in their division. So they have like this great record and they look on paper like they are terrific. Yeah. But I was talking to Sam about it and he's

like, no man, it's just like their goalie wins them games. They don't score, they don't hit. It's just, he does not like them at all. I reached out to a couple of Toronto writers before the game and I was like, could this be the year for the Leafs? And they're all like, no, I don't think they're that good.

And I was a little bit surprised. Yeah. I was surprised to hear that. But you know, with Craig Barube behind the bench, I think they're playing a much different style than we're used to with the Leafs. So maybe they'll be kind of unimpressive through the regular season and not the high flying Leafs that are scoring a ton of goals. Maybe they'll be a better playoff team. I don't know.

Is anyone all that impressive in the East right now? Is anyone, is anyone in the league? Yeah, it's like super, super like Winnipeg. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. It is probably Winnipeg. I know, but like you're like, yeah, yeah, but you know. It is a weird year.

It's a weird year. I was having a conversation with someone the other day, and they said it was like, four years of the flat cap has come home to Roost, and everyone is the same. Yeah. You know? Everyone can just afford pretty much the same team. And I know that's a big deal.

Well, I might go by 9 mil next year, so maybe that'll help. I know that's exaggerating, but you know, like everyone can just afford pretty much the same team. And I know, I know that's exaggerating, but you know, I, you know, I think Vegas is good in the West. I still think Florida is very good. Yeah, I think Florida, but they have been all that good. Um, well they haven't, I mean, there's no team that is, but there's no team that's running away with anything. No, I know. That's what I'm saying.

That's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's no team that you're just like, whoa, these guys are an absolute, nobody's beating these guys. Yeah. I mean, I think the one thing that we've seen the last couple of years is the teams that have staked themselves out and have done that. And I go back to the Boston team of two years ago that had that

unbelievable regular season, and then we're bounced in the first round of the playoffs. I mean, there is, I know, I know people don't like the notion of, well, just get into the dance and see what happens. There's a facet of that approach that does make sense because, um, when there's parody among the top teams, you do kind of look around and you're like, well, why not us? You know what I mean? Like if you're, if you're in a group of let's say six or eight teams, Yeah, but one of the top teams is still very likely to come out with it.

Yeah. But I'm, you know, right now, the way that you're looking at the, like the table or the standings or whatever, if you just do the league wide version. Yeah. I'm looking at Columbus and going, even if they make the play, as they know, No, no, no, no, not them. But I'm saying if you're in that group of top six or eight teams, like you would consider yourself a contender. And I think there's a lot of teams that could right now, because I don't think as you to your point almost that there's any one particular team that's established itself as like the alpha, maybe Winnipeg, maybe Winnipeg because they're so

balanced and they're so that they mean what they've done this year is pretty impressive. And we're going to get to see a little bit of it on Tuesday when the Canucks go to win a big by the way a couple Other news and notes we need to pass along about the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday Canucks general manager Patrick Alveen announced that the club is placed Eric Branstrom on waivers for the purpose of assignment To Abbotsford in the American League in case you have not noticed Branstrom hasn't played a lot recently. I believe his last game was the New Year's Eve game against the Calgary Flames.

He's been out of the lineup, despite a lot of consternation from various media outlets who really wanted to see him back in the lineup. And a lot of fans. To me, this one was pretty cut and dry. Coaching staff doesn't like him and doesn't trust him. That's it. They know who they're playing instead of.

They've got a game plan. They've got a game plan. It's a low event game plan and Eric Branstrom kind of does his own thing. You can absolutely disagree with the tactical and strategical approach. 100%. That's, but here's the thing. If you don't have the trust of your coaching staff, it's very hard to make an

argument for you because even if he, let's say he does get into a game, let's say prior to getting waived, they decide, okay, Branson, we're going to give you another look. How many opportunities do you think they're going to give him within the 60 minutes of that game? Probably not a lot because they just don't trust him defensively in a lot of situations. The Canucks still have an extra defenseman on the road with Day

RNA as the healthy scratch on Saturday. Breezeboi played almost 17 minutes on Saturday. As his great story continues, the great story of a lot of people in this fan base were like, he's still in the organization. Did not think I'd see Guillaume Breezeboi playing this year, but here they are. The Philip Peronac watch is on too.

He's been on the ice with the Abbotsford Canucks. I have no idea how far away he is. I know he's skating and practicing with the Abbotsford Canucks and the reports are good on his rehab, but I'm certainly not anticipating him in the lineup anytime soon, just because he's still got to get back and start practicing with his teammates and the Canucks have to make sure that he's a hundred percent before he returns.

And there's still the ongoing watch for a trade for defensive help. So Brandstrom is on waivers and he'll get a chance to go down and play with the Abbots for Canucks, assuming he clears. The other tiny bit of news and notes, and we, we saved this for last. We didn't want to start with this.

We barely want to mention this thing. The Petey Miller thing was pretty quiet all weekend, except for Elliot Freeman reporting that the Canucks are willing to entertain trade talks with teams in the Western conference. I would still be surprised if there's a trade and it involves like a division rival. I would be shocked.

Right. I would be shocked if we saw, you know, at least Pedersen has been traded to Calgary. Didn't see that coming. I'd be shocked if they trade them. Yeah. But, um, you know, going to a division rival, I don't know. But I think, you know, the management group

wants it to get out there. Like all options are very much on the table. Okay. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about Rogers Xfinity TV. HGTV has a new address. All the latest HGTV shows are now available on channel 409 on Rogers Xfinity TV.

Coming up, we are gonna dive deep into the National Football League. Mike Tenier, our NFL insider from the two deep zone sub stack. We will look back on the five wild card games that were. We'll look ahead to tonight's game, the last of the wild card round. It's the Rams, it's the Vikings from Arizona.

That's tonight, you're listening to the Halford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satya Arshaw, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post game show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. Yep. 6 31 on a Monday. Happy Monday everybody. Halford Brough Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts.

We are in hour one of the program, entire first hour, uninterrupted, Halford and Brough 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.

So we went over the Kucks story in our, or the first segment of the hour. I want to touch on a couple of other NHL stories. And this has become almost a favorite topic of mine. I'm going to, I'm going to rip the Seattle Kraken because I don't know if anyone else is doing it, especially in Seattle.

I know it's a new hockey market, but do they need help in ripping a team because the Kraken are terrible. You've got to wonder if something's going to happen there. Freage reported over the weekend that Todd Laiwiki, their CEO, was on the road with them in Buffalo and had a meeting with them in Buffalo and they had not been playing well. Now in Buffalo, they fought back from a two nothing early deficit and beat the Sabres six to two.

That's Buffalo. That's what the Sabres do. They're very mentally weak. But then the Kraken go into Detroit the next night and they're down for nothing after the first period. And I think they finished, what was that? They lose six, three or something like that. Six, two.

They won six, two, then they lost six, two. Okay. Yeah. The Kraken are terrible, man. Like having watched them play the Canucks. Now I know the Canucks blew that three goal lead and lost to the Kraken and needed extra time to beat them in their next game. Like the Canucks weren't playing all that well at

the time, especially defensively. But I've watched a few Kraken game. There's nothing there. That team is just so bland and not good. It's, you know, it's not like they're, we play a stifling way, you know? And I realized they got goaltending issues, but it goes beyond that.

I just, uh, you know, I just, I just look at the way the team has been put together and I look at, you know, the coach Dan Balsma, really? And I just wonder what they're doing because I want the Kraken, I don't want them to like win a Stanley Cup, but I do want them to be successful in Seattle because I want them to have a good rivalry with the Canucks and look, it's still early

in their tenure. I'm not suggesting that they're in big trouble or anything like that, but man, are they boring. I don't like anything about this franchise. So a few of the outlets that actually do cover the team with regularity are openly asking the questions if another change is on the horizon because one, the Leibicki presence, which apparently is a rarity. He doesn't really travel with the team ever and make appearances on the road to speak to the group. And I think the other part of it is this is a team that was facing a lot of pressure going into this

season to make some sort of stride forward and try and reclaim whatever little bit of magic they had from that one playoff series. So they gave big money to Chandler Stevenson and Brandon Montour. So the change that everyone was talking about is the guy that signed those contracts and that's Ron Francis, the general manager.

So, um, his track record right now is of the eight years that he's been a general manager in the NHL, his teams have missed the playoffs in seven of them. Right. And that was the years in Carolina where they constantly underachieved. The goaltending was a huge problem.

It's very damning for him and his resume and CV that the same inability to find goaltending consistently has plagued him in Seattle as well. He kind of made the promise at the beginning of the year. He was in an article in the Athletic. He said that he had an obligation to the ticket holders to put a team on the ice that will compete for a playoff spot.

Not only are they not competing for one, like they're gonna be, if they keep up with this trend of losing far more games than they're winning, they're gonna be closer to the lottery by the trade deadline than they will be to be in a playoff spot. And for a team that will always be in the shadow of its not so older expansion brother in Vegas.

There's that real big brother, little brother dynamic at play in part because of just the timing, but also Vegas has achieved so much and been so bold and so aggressive and relentless in its pursuit. To the point where there's been some bloodshed with guys that they've let go. Then you get this almost polar opposite cracking team that is conservative and doesn't make the big splashes. And you mentioned even, you know, you're coaching higher after Dave Haxdahl is Dan Bilesma.

Like a name that has a little bit of cache that you gotta go back a while to find it now. But hardly anyone that was like an inspired hire. He was the guy that was coaching the American league team. They just kind of brought them up. And you're going to make Chandler Stevenson rich at 30 years old and Brandon Montour who was, look, he was good for the Florida Panthers, but I don't know if he's your number one defenseman or anything like that. They got a lot of guys who you're kind of like, yeah, he's a good player, but he's making a lot of money. You know, Vince Dunn making $7.4 million.

I don't know. I, I, I'd be curious to know what the listeners think about the Kraken if they think about them at all. They don't. Like do we in Vancouver have to rip the Kraken in order for them to get any pressure on them? It's the Mad Men meme. It's like, I don't think about you at all. Yeah.

I don't want to, I don't want to insult Seattle, but they don't know hockey in general. They don't. That it's not a, it's not a hockey market. I know, um, you know, some kids play minor hockey down there and they've got some teams in the dub. So there's a handful of people that know hockey, but it's not, it is weird. I mean, this is the cultural thing between Canada and the United States. It's a three hour drive to Seattle, but the hockey knowledge does not go past that. I just wonder if there are some people down in the media there that are like, I don't really feel comfortable criticizing the team because I don't really know much about hockey.

Yeah, I also think there's a part of it where it's such a crowded market. I think over the last couple of years, you saw not a renewed interest, because it's always been there. But the you know, the revival of UW football when they got to the national title game, and there was such a seismic landscape change in college football with the realignment of conferences and everything that added to other things that would distract people from the crack. And it's easier to not pay attention to them than to criticize them. It's easier to push them onto the back page than it is to write about them on the front. Because it's going to be even easier when the NBA returns. And people are talking about this franchise and when their criticisms come out, the majority of the ones that I read were,

here's our biggest criticism, the novelty has worn off. Yep. The novelty is it's gone. There's no sort of like, hey, we got a shiny new toy here. It's, well, the toy isn't as shiny, it's not as new, and when you play with it now, it doesn't really do anything. It doesn't win hockey games, it doesn't really do anything. It doesn't win hockey games.

It doesn't win with any sort of regularity and it's mired in like what 11th, 12th place in the conference. It is too bad because, you know, selfishly, but from a local perspective, I've always wanted this thing to take off. I've told this story about a million times now, but what the hell is my show? I can tell it a million and one when the cracking broke into the NHL. my show, I can tell it a million and one. When the Kraken broke into the NHL, you and I had made editorial plans for the show

to have a regular on the show on a weekly basis and just naturally assumed that there was going to be an inherent rivalry between the Canucks and the Kraken. There was going to be the bizarro world, Halford and Bruff that were down in Seattle that covered the team as Pat and we could talk to them. And none of it, none of it is materialized. I know Rob and Suri texted in

that he's gone to a couple of the games and said that maybe in the building there's a rivalry between the two. But outside of that building, Rob, you're very hard to find. My point is that the team is terrible. Yeah, I know. Someone texted in and said, there's no needle movers that the team is terrible. Yeah, I know. They're just, you know, someone texted in and said,

there's no needle movers on the team. And I would agree on that. And is there anyone who's going to be a needle mover? Is Matty Benir is going to take his game to a way higher level? Is Shane Wright going to take his game to a super high level? Who have they got in the system that is going to provide the star power that's going to get people talking about this team. You know, even when the Mariners have been mid, which they have been a lot,

you know, they would have stars. You'd be like, Oh yeah, I'll go watch him pitch or I'm going to go watch him play. Sure. Right. You need something like that. And the Kraken just don't have anything. And I just wanted to go watch him pitch or I'm going to go watch him play. Sure. Right? You need something like that. And the Kraken just don't have anything. And I just wanted to rip them. I just wanted to do it for the Seattle media.

Maybe you'll take my lead on this because the team is not projecting well right now. You know what they could do? Local Seattle media. They could create a rift between two of the best players on the team. That seems to get some attention I think is you're responsible that they haven't done that. Did you see what so I think they oh Only in a Canadian hockey market will you hear the media criticizing another city for not being negative enough about their team? It's true. It's a funny job. Step it up for sure. It is good. But like you know

the team is is bad and if you're down in Seattle and like, if an NBA team came here, I wouldn't feel comfortable, you know, criticizing. I wouldn't know, right? Like I, it's like when I talk about soccer with you, I'm always kind of like, hey, is that the right way to go about things? Is that the way that like,

I think there's probably some people down there that, that feel that way, right? You know, I'm telling you, you know, Seattle, that your team stinks. And it's going to be hard to improve this team because you've added a lot of contracts now that I don't know if they're going to age very well. And so now you've put yourself in that problem and your young quote unquote stars are not really close to superstars. They're not. The moment that Chandler Stevenson contract got signed, that was a top 10 worst contract

in the NHL at the moment. It wasn't great. I didn't show it. And I'm a big fan of Chandler Stevenson when he was a three C. 100%. You know, I'm like a 1C. We were, Drance was trying to talk me into the Kraken in the aftermath of that blown game, the blown lead where the Canucks fell apart late in the third period. But even he said, he's like, everyone out there was at least trying except for Chandler Stevenson. So he's in the Tyler Bertuzzi category of I got paid in free agency. I'm not doing anything right now. Okay, the reason I brought up that the Seattle media

need to come up with an imaginary rift is because that's what they did in Boston. I can't, unfortunately, this happened right after we got off the air on Friday. This was gold, manna from heaven, I cannot believe it. So it began when I guess the Boston version of Haliford and Bruff, WEEI's Rich Keefe, and it was the Keefe and Jones show and Rich Keefe

decided that on his show he was going to have a fairly lengthy rant slash report and I want to classify it as such that there was a rift in the Boston room between Brad Marshawn and David Posternok. Here's what it sounded like from Rich Keefe of W.E.I. will play the audio now. But Scoops Keefe. Yes. With a tremendous, impeccable track record. True. What are you hearing on the Bruins, Keefe? Well, what I'm hearing is this. First of all, what we can all see is that there are a mess on the ice, right?

They've lost six in a row. But what I'm hearing is they're also a mess off the ice right they've lost six in a row but what I'm hearing is they're also a mess off the ice apparently the locker room is a disaster and David Posternak is at the center of that David Posternak has told the team he doesn't want to be on a line with Brad Marsh and and it may stem from Brad Marsh and calling out Posternak for some of his play throughout the year so Posternak maybe your best player 60 goals score all that stuff also the Main reason why it is a disaster inside the locker room So that's pretty tasty right here. That's intriguing. I've got love a good rift

I think we had one locally even more excited about what was going on inside the room now I immediately believed it right 100% didn't need to fact-check it didn't it Just like twice I was all in on foster knock hating Marsha. You know who wasn't in on it Brad Marshawn so in one of the better rants that I've heard from a player in recent times He went about two and a half three minutes uninterrupted Addressing this rumor that came out of WEI's Keefe and Jones show. Uh, you've managed to parse it down a rash, right? To like a cool 140. Yeah. 145. Okay. A lot of feelings.

Here is Brad Marshawn feeling all the feelings about his alleged rift with David Posternock. Yeah, I, uh, I've heard, um, you know, what, what was said in, in the media this morning. It's unfortunate. I know reporters have a job to do. That job is a report on the team and usually you try to be fact-based. But when there's just blatant lies told in the media, that's where there's a problem. The fact that this guy has a

platform and he's just making stuff up is embarrassing and there's zero truth to anything that he said on the radio this is how you lose your job very quickly the fact that he's gonna have a job after this is insane because Paso and I are best friends we've had an incredibly close relationship for a long time the only reason we'll play together is so that we can spread depth through the lineup. There's zero truth to him being a problem in the room. He's one of the most loved guys in the room. There's zero issues in the room at all. And the fact that they say that he's in the center of anything

is a completely fabricated lie. So this guy has zero merit to anything he's saying. It's very frustrating because this is what happens obviously. We have not pulled our weight this year. We have not had the season that we wanted to have. But I'm not going to let some random guy come in the media and just spit absolute nonsense. And so I mean, from this point forward, this guy has zero credibility.

The fact that he's coming out with this is ridiculous. It's embarrassing. And you know, it just, anything that he puts forth in the future is now not going to be deemed as true. You know, I still think there's a rift. Yeah, it feels like Rifty to me. Sounds like a rift here. I don't know.

Doth protests too much, Brad Marshon. Rich Keith, by the way, is standing by his call. He tweeted out the video of Brad Marshon's availability and he said, now I got Marshon calling for my job. No one acts this way if the story is really false. Thanks for the confirmation. Ah, Boston sports. It is terrific. The Bruins, I mean, what, listen, rift or no rift.

Marshawn is absolutely right that the reason this is all happening is because the Bruins are not winning hockey games. They're not winning hockey now on Saturday in Florida they went down and got a good four three overtime win over the Panthers but before that they dropped six straight I watched a bit of their game Thursday in Tampa Bay and they needed a goal late and like they just they don't have they don't have the scorers.

Posternok and Marshawn, whether they're getting along or not, those are the only two guys that you can really trust to score. They miss Jake DeBrusk. Yep, big time. And when Jake DeBrusk left, there were a lot of Bruins fans that were like, oh, hope Lindholm can score. Well, Lindholm, that's not really his thing. He's not a big time goal scorer.

So it's it's There's two things the big takeaways from that one. One was when he was like, Pest is my best friend. Like I was, he did really get it in the feels there. And I think that when he also said he's like, hey, the only reason we're not playing together is because we need more balance in the lineup. Like they are very cognizant of the fact that they are a flawed team. And I know he kind of went on to say, we're not pulling our weight, we're not playing as well as we could. I'm not sure that they can play an awful lot better

because they've just been whittled away over time. And this is another case, you want to talk about a team that went out and splashed big and free agency. The Seattle crack can go out and spend big and free agency and get a center and a defenseman. and neither of them have panned out. Well, look at Boston, Lindholm and Zadorov have been big time disappointments for a team that let's be honest, had much higher aspirations, I think than the Seattle crack and did this year.

Like Boston was anticipating a return to glory on the backs of landing Lindholm and Zadorov in free agency. It's gone almost the exact opposite. It's always a problem when you get guys and you expect them to play at a higher level than they did in their previous team. You know, it's a problem. And I think anyone that scouted Lindholm in Vancouver would have said, yeah, that guy's a solid number two center, maybe a number three center. But it looks like he's slowing down

a little bit as he reaches the age of 30. And he's not quite the dynamic player that he was when he was playing with Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Kachuk and was probably the least talented of those three. And he is a solid center. But if you're relying on him to put up a ton of points, you're probably going to be disappointed. I remember my first kind of perception of Lindholm in Vancouver. I was like, oh, he's slower than I thought.

He's strong. Yep. But he's definitely slower than I thought. And, you know, the Bruins kind of have that plotting style now. And not in a good way, you know? They, I don't know, I mean, the playoff race in the East is fascinating with all the different teams still involved and Boston has fallen to a wild card

spot, the top wild card team, 47 points in 45 games. Right on their heels is Columbus, who have played two fewer games, so they've actually got a higher points percentage than Boston at 46 points. In fact, Ottawa has a higher points percentage than Boston, and so does Detroit, and so does Montreal. Well, you got to watch out. Boston is in very much, very much in jeopardy of missing the playoffs. So the team that minus 26 gold differential, that ain't good.

The team that everyone needs to keep an eye on right now out of that mushy middle in the East is the Detroit Red Wings. Now, of course, they thumped the Seattle crack in six to yesterday. They have now won seven games in a row. They are seven and one under their new head coach, Todd McClellan. I don't know what he's done to their power play since taking over, but they are 14 for 28. They are clicking at 50 percent under Todd McClellan and against the Kraken.

They scored on all three of their first power plays. I don't know what he's done to change things up. I don't know how you go from having a sort of mid power play. Well, his one is key of the power play against the Kraken was he was playing the Kraken and then Grubauer. And then DeCord. It was a tough night for Bogo. It was funny.

I saw the goal that beat, I think I saw the goal that beat DeCord. The fifth goal that Detroit scored was on the power play and the Kraken were just hanging back. They just gave them the shot. I guess that's their way, they pack it in, in front of the net. But it was actually quite funny. I'm like, is anyone going to try and check anyone

on this penalty kill? Or are you just going to stand there? And they did some good standing around. So longest win streak in Detroit in 13 years, you have to go all the way back to the Mike Babcock era to have a seven game win streak where the, and now you're looking at that race. So Ottawa won a couple of games over the weekend. Uh, impressive wins too, without Linus Allmark and that's, so that was good for

them, uh, Buffalo's fallen completely off, but that, yeah, that race does get interesting and you know, we've spent about zero minutes talking about Columbus and how they've managed to work their way into that second wild card spot. And they don't seem to be going anywhere. They've got a pretty good record at home. They score a lot of goals. They score a lot of goals.

I mean, look at this comparison. Bruins, goals for 116. Okay. Context. Columbus, 149. Yeah. Scored 33 more goals than Boston playing two fewer games in only half the season. And that is considerable. Now they give up too many goals. That's a problem, but they're actually a pretty fun team to watch. Now, I want to add one thing. Could the Calgary Flames please go away?

They're not going away. Those guys are hanging in there. A lot of it's Dustin Wolf and good for him, but Jonathan Hubertau is having a bit of a bounce back season, he's got 18 goals. I think he had like four last season. Yeah, so Calgary going into tonight's action, one point back in the Vancouver Canucks

to the final wild card spot in the West with a game in hand. Calgary had a big victory over the Kings over the weekend. And that was one where the two guys that you mentioned were major contributors, Jonathan Hubertos scored again. The story has really been the goaltending. Dustin Wolf has been phenomenal. For a Calgary team that had good, it was weird, because when they had Marksman, they had good performances.

Like he'd stand on his head and make like 38 or 40 saves in a victory, but the save percentage was a little low. Wolf at home this year has a 936 save percentage. Like at the Saddle Dome, he's been very difficult to beat, and they just keep hanging around and hanging around and hanging around. That has been one of the most impressive performances, not just Wolf, but that entire Calgary team,

because I had very low expectations for them going into the year. I did not have them on January 13th of 2025, being right in the thick of the playoff chase. Who's going to win the Calder? Because Dustin Wolf's a rookie. And then you've got Lane Hudson in Montreal who we saw He's a good man. I'm on the Macklin celebrini train. I think a little kid. Yeah, and he

Awesome performance in spite of the fact that he missed a bunch of time earlier with the injury. It's a good It's a good race though for sure because Hudson sort of announced himself early and has managed to be a really high end point producer on the blue line. Mitch Goff in Philly as well as part of the race. I was really impressed with Lane Hudson. He was like, there was an element of Quinn Hughes there. He's like a Kirkland Quinn Hughes. Kirkland Quinn Hughes. I like that.

Yeah. Yeah. I like that. Okay. Before we go to break, I need to tell you more about Rogers Xfinity TV. If you're looking for your favorite culinary content, look no further. Food network has all new seasons of your favorite food shows on channel four 10 on Rogers Xfinity TV. Coming up on the other side of the break,

we dive into the national football league with Mike Tannier, our NFL insider, a five of six wild card games in the books. The six goes tonight. It's the Rams and the Vikings. You're listening to the Halford and Bref show on sportsnet 650.