Halford & Brough in the Morning - No Excuses, We Have Protein Shakes Now

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason go around the NHL with Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli (1:27) including the Utah Hockey Club's first regular season game and what Brock Boeser's next contract might look like, plus they chat with Sportsnet Calgary's Eric Francis (24:50), as the Flames get set to take on the Canucks tonight at Rogers Arena. 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.

🎵 Frank! Sarah Valley. Frank! Daily Face Off. Frank! 702 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough. I forgot that part. I always forget that part. It just comes out of nowhere.

You'll get it one day. Yeah, I know. You are listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly,

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To the phone lines we go. Frank Cervalli, Daily Faceoff, joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Frank. How are you? Pretty good, boys. How are you doing? We are well. A lot of news.

A lot of news. Guys getting signed to contracts early in the season. Let's start with the most recent one. Linus Allmark ups or re-ups, I guess, because he is technically a member of the Ottawa Senators. Before playing his first game in the regular season, he signs a four-year pact. It's the exact same cap hit as Jeremy Swayman. Did you see the headline that Ottawa came up with? I did not.

All in. I get it. They're all in on Linus Allmark. Frank, what did you think of the deal? I can kind of envision those two guys doing one of those signature post-game hugs right now, virtually. Getting the same AAV. It fits. It makes sense. I mean, he has a Vezina.

The big question for me is he had a ton of support. They both did in Boston with their structure and their defense. I think this year is going to be one of the ultimate litmus tests we've seen when we take what we know is a good goalie and put them in a different system. I mean, we've had some other, you know, notions of the test, watching Cam Talbot go from Ottawa to LA and et cetera. Like it's, there's other ones, but it's an interesting data point

that we're going to be able to really kind of key in on this year in terms of, I think that's one thing NHL analytics really struggles with is isolating goalie from structure. I'm glad you brought this up because we saw the other half of it last night with the Boston Bruins who had Younis Korpisalo and I'm in no way blaming him

for that loss but it wasn't Allmark or Swayman in that. Four goals in the first period. I don't care who you are. That ain't it. It was not good. It was. I mean the Bruins got outplayed. I think the shots at one point were like 14 or 15 to 1. The ice was tilted but Korpisalo like you said, wasn't

Swayman and it wasn't Allmark. And I think it's really fascinating that we're going to get to see both guys in totally new environments because, yeah, they're not going to have the bromance and the hugs and everything. But Swayman's never started more than 43 games in a season. And Allmark's

31 and going to a team that isn't, as you mentioned, isn't exactly the most airtight defensively. So do you think we could see both guys have some real early struggles and adjustments as they get used to life apart? And then obviously in their own respective situations, things being different. I see certainly less of an adjustment for Swayman. I mean, that top four that you've got in Boston

is as good as anyone in the league. McAvoy, Carlo, the door off is now your four. Hampus Lindholm, I mean, it's good. So he's going to have lots of help, plus the way that Boston defends as a total team effort, I think is totally different than 27 other teams in the league. So I don't see a huge adjustment period for Swayman I was wondering if he's sitting on the bench last night watching that kicking himself saying man four goal first period had I waited just another week I might have gotten

another two million dollars because the Bruins would have been desperate but um nonetheless I think it worked out pretty well for him in the end 66 million dollars seems beyond fair given what you just mentioned that there's still a slight bit of this prove it factor for him that exists okay we got to get to utah because you're live boots on the ground reporting on the scene in salt lake we were already talking about the crowd last night and then andy said that he was impressed by it. Ruff was like, whatever. Whatever. I was watching the Padres. And then I'm like, you know what?

We'll wait for Frank because you were there. And you were there the night before too. So set the scene for all of our listeners. What was it like in the lead up in the anticipation of the game? And then the game, Utah wins its first ever regular season, game 5-2 over the Blackhawks. Well, it was loud for sure. And the excitement

and certainly the nervous energy was there. I also think there's a bit of this awkwardness that comes with having something so totally new. And what I mean by that is, and maybe you guys will appreciate this when I say it, watching last night's game really through the prism of so many thousands of people that I've never seen an NHL game before, it was kind of like sitting in a restaurant and watching two people on a blind date. Nice. I love watching that, too. Is it going well?

Yeah, well, that's the thing. Like, there's nerves, that's the thing. There's nerves. There's excitement. There is anticipation. There's two entities that don't know each other at all. And you've got this fan base that wants to cheer but doesn't actually even know what to cheer for. They have no emotional connection to any of these players.

They're trying to learn, like, you know, they score a goal and like, they're putting the lyrics up on the screen because they're trying to get you to sing along. And like, there's this whole sort of feeling out process. But maybe the coolest part about all of that is we know there's going to be at least 40 more dates here. And there's obviously going to be hundreds beyond that. But watching this sort of love affair blossom like it's it's as cool as it gets so you think the the first date went well i do i mean yeah they got they got they scored a win i'll say that uh the other thing with utah and i've been noticing this the last few days is there's a lot of pundits who are picking them to make the playoffs and i think the the linear one of them

there yeah right you're in there as well the linear narrative is i keep using the like the phrase magic elixir that moving to utah is going to you know fix all the things that ailed this team and that the majority of things that ailed this team. And the majority of the things that ailed this team were off-ice problems. Like on the ice, they're good enough to get there. It was playing in Mullet Arena and getting changed in the college bathroom and all that stuff. And now it's like you've got a competent owner

and you've got an arena and you've got all this stuff and now it's go time. I'm not 100% sold on it, but a lot of people are. And you're in that camp, correct? I am. I think this team is really well positioned for the present and the future.

First off, just looking at their surroundings, I think there's a ton of the Western Conference that has a soft, mushy middle. You've got your super elite teams and cup contenders at the top. And then I don't think there's a ton that really differentiates anyone from anyone else. So there's an opening, there's a window to do it is one. Two, it can give you a stone cold mortal law guarantee that that line that Utah has of Gunther, Cooley, and McBain, it might be low-key one of the best lines in the league. They are really good, and Gunther was flying last night.

You've got foundational pieces. Then you were able to add Sergeyev. You add Ian Cole, who's riding a personal nine-year playoff streak that obviously last year included Van. And then you've got all those distractions that you talked about taking away. These guys couldn't get protein shakes after game. The lowest bar possible was not being met for an NHL team. Why couldn't they get protein shakes?

So Ryan Smith, when he bought this team, they flew them here last year, basically told everyone, hey, you've been traded to Utah. We have to make 1,000 decisions between now and puck drop. That was in May. They said, can you just tell us what's important to you? Because we don't want to have to guess. And they just said, yeah, like, could we just get nutrition? Could we get a team chef?

Could we get better hotels on the road? Could we get a better plane? Like, they were just sort of normal. That's what every other team in the nhl does we would just like to have that that it's kind of like they've been freed up now to just play so their team mantra their team motto this year is no excuses which i love to hear because they've got some really nice pieces but now they don now there's no distraction of like, hey, are we going to be playing here?

Hey, why is it that we take the ice in our 4,000-seat arena that half of them or more are fans of the other team? All that stuff is gone, and now you're also going to get the emotional bump of what we just talked about of playing for a place that really wants to have you. Frank, Carter Verhage signed an eight-year deal with the florida panthers uh what was the what was the total money there 56 million dollars or something like that by seven eight times seven is that a is that a comp for brock besser and whether it is or it isn't um are you hearing anything about brock besser and is are there any talks going on or anything that you're hearing at all whether it is or it isn't. Are you hearing anything about Brock Besser?

And are there any talks going on or anything that you're hearing at all? I'm not. I haven't asked, to be totally honest. He's on the list of players that, you know, I have entering the final year of their deal that certainly need to be followed up on here. So I haven't asked, to be totally candid. Getting through season preview week as you guys know is something um but when it comes to that being a comp i i don't see it i i know like

metrics wise it makes sense um but to me this is is really Florida playing on and using their no state tax advantage. Brock is already pretty close to that number at six, six, five, if I'm not mistaken. Um, and yes, for Hagee is a couple of years older, although he has, um, you know, less NHL wear on his tires because it took him a little longer to break in. So you could look at it and say, yeah, 42 goal scorer, 40 goal scorer, does this make sense? Does this compute? But I think if you put it in terms of Brock being younger, plus not having that no state tax advantage, I think that comp totally skews that was way under what market value should have been yeah I just wonder how interesting this situation is going to get because

Patrick Galvin has said that he's going to wait a little while to see how Brock starts the season because he wants to see the I think the key word was consistency, that he can repeat what he did last season. And he even made some remarks that he said he thought Brock Besser let his foot off the gas a little bit after he got to 30 goals, which we kind of thought, is he joking? Like, because he ended up with 40. So it was a pretty good season overall. So let us know when you check back in on that and uh how the negotiations are

going because you know it's it's going to be a big number for brock besser and not that brock doesn't deserve it but i it's a matter of how to deploy the cap space the best way and i just wonder how like what do you what would you say is the the percentage chance of him staying with the canucks i'd say it's from his perspective is probably pretty high the interest would be there given what he said a year ago that i think really helped change the entire tenor of his season hey i, I don't want to get traded. I want to be here. I want to be part of the solution. But from a Canucks standpoint,

I mean, I'd be waiting as long as I could to see whether or not he comes out capable of duplicating it. What happens if, you know, you were to push and push this summer and you get a deal done and you pay a premium based off the 40-goal season, and he comes out and has 23 again. Not that that's bad.

It's just that players always want to be paid for their absolute best. And I think the Canucks made it really clear, especially to Bo Horvat, that they weren't going to be paying it, you know, for one moment in time. And I think that, you know, especially that start that he got off to that year, that's what really kind of drove a lot of people crazy. And I just, I'm not saying I'm not a believer. It's just that I'd want to see it again. I'd want to at least see the start of it again before really engaging and going down that path. We're speaking to Frank Cervalli from Daily Faceoff here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Speaking of contract negotiations, Frank, where are things between Igor Shosturkin and the New York Rangers? Well, I think there was a lot of consternation in the New York market yesterday.

Hey, where'd this come from? Who's leaking this? Where's it like? I don't know that it really matters. But the fact of the matter is the Kevin Weeks report is 100% accurate. The New York Rangers put eight times 11 on the table for 88 million and it was rejected. That means like we've known that Shisterkin has has been asking for something that starts with a 12 for a while now the rangers have limits like they intend on putting a

championship team around shisterkin if not what what's the sense of paying your goalie that much and they i don't i truly don't believe they're stretching into the 12s. They may move a bit, but I don't see a drastic shift toward the player. And I don't, like the fact that they've already acknowledged that they're willing to pay him that much, making him the highest paid goalie of all time, surpassing carry prices 10-5, to me, I don't, I don't know what more Shostakhin can gain. Like, just look at it from a pure math perspective, okay? Sure, sure.

Because the Rangers have the ability to offer the eighth year exclusively, to get $88 million over seven, the cap it needs to climb to 12.57 on the open market. Like there might be a team, and it only takes one that'd be willing to do it, but that's also just to match. Unless there's a no state income tax team, and I think you're running out of them pretty fast when you look at Vasilevsky and Tampa.

They're just coming off of Bobrovsky's deal at some point in Florida. Soros already re-upped in Nashville. And they've got Ottinger in Dallas. Like, Vegas maybe? But, like, beyond that, how do you get to that number on the market? Well, the goalie market's been fascinating. And here in Vancouver, it's doubly fascinating because of everything that's going on with Demko, right? addition to the health concerns it's like oh yeah he's also

going to be heading into the last year of his deal next year he's eligible to sign an extension at the end of this year's and if we were i remember looking at the shisterkin situation in july thinking like this is really going to set the bar for what's coming forth and now you see this great i don't know if it's a reset of the goalie market, but goalies are definitely getting paid. Like that's two in a row now that are making eight plus. Shuster can make an even more than that. So it's all a very interesting dynamic leading in to what's going to happen

with Demko on top of the health situation. But these are also happening at a moment in time where for the most part, half the league or more is trending towards paying their goalies less. It's, it's look at how many contending teams this year are paying half to their total tandem of what the Bruins are paying justice. Wayman. Oh yeah.

I mean, well look at Colorado tonight, right? Colorado, Vegas, like go through the list. Washington, playoff team last year. I think they're spending $2 million total.

We're speaking to Frank Cervalli from Daily Faceoff here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Looking ahead to tonight's action, obviously you've got the three Canadian matchups, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver, Calgary. You got Colorado and Vegas. You got New York and Pittsburgh. We spent a lot of time talking about Pittsburgh as well with the Sidney Crosby extension going into this.

It's a very confusing future because everyone knows with the veteran group that they have, they want to be back in the playoffs, but they need to actually play better hockey, get a better power play in order to get there. What's your outlook on Pittsburgh this year going into a season where they haven't made the playoffs two years in a row, they're looking to get back in, definitely not looking to miss for a third consecutive season? I mean, they can start with two things. One, don't lose so many games in overtime. They've got 19 overtime losses, not shootout,

19 overtime three-on-three losses not shootout 19 overtime three on three losses in the last two years and that goes hand in hand with point number two they have to play with more pace they just don't they're they're in the bottom three in the league in terms of overall total team speed and i didn't see any massive upgrades on that front in the summer i love kevin hayes but he's not a burner he's the opposite of one so i think that's that's a hugely problematic part of pittsburgh's game that they have to somehow sort out and if it's not a personnel thing and it's more of a thinking thing then that needs to be it too um but yeah i mean look the heat is on and the heat is on eric carlson to have a better

year and it's been a rocky training camp with the injury that he's gone through and it's great that Sid has taken less and continued at 8.7, criminally underpaid, basically almost for the entirety of his career. And I know that sounds funny to say for a guy whose career earnings are, I think, second best or best all time. But if you're going to give up the money, which is totally within his right, you have to have trust and faith that it's actually going to be distributed correctly on your team. You can make the argument that the money that Sid isn't taking is going into Eric Carlson's jeans, which, again, still helped me understand that trade and why they needed to do it, which turned into the 14th overall pick in last year's draft.

Real asset out the door, plus that's $10 million that you can't spend elsewhere. I don't see how Dubas turns this around while Sid is still on this contract. I just find it really hard to picture a scenario how it happens. They're trending down not up yeah like how do they how does he pull a rabbit out of his hat when he's got i mean carlson's 34 letang's 37 geno's 38 like this is an old team i I mean, like Brian Rust is old. He's 32. Ricard Raquel is 31.

And you're talking about the pace. And, you know, you mentioned Kevin Hayes. The first guy I thought of was Gino, right? Like watching him sometimes, you're like, yep, he looks 38. And I'm just, I'm trying to, and I've got things wrong before. And maybe there's a master plan there, but I don't see how it turns around while Sid is still in his 30s. He's 37 right now. How quickly can you reinvigorate this Penguins group

when you've got all these commitments to other guys? And that's the scary part. They've missed the playoffs with Sid being elite and they missed the playoffs again in a in a full year with Crosby and Malkin like for most of the last 10 years like they haven't had a full season for from both of them I just I don't see a path I don't see who they're knocking out, who they're taking out to get in. Frank, great stuff today, bud. As always, thank you very much for doing this.

Appreciate you taking the time. Enjoy all the games tonight and the rest of the week. We'll do this again next Wednesday. Thanks, guys. Have a good one. Yeah, you too. Thanks. That's Frank Cervalli from Daily Faceoff here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet.

6.50. Big hockey show today. Big. Lots of hockey stuff. We barely mentioned the baseball. Why? What's happening in hockey? Nothing really. Nothing. Just some games. Some stuff. We ran through a lot of last night. We've gone around the NHL. There was three games last night.

There's five more tonight. The Vancouver Canucks, your Vancouver Canucks, are taking on the Calgary Flames. Joining us next on the program, Eric Francis. We'll break down this Calgary Flames. Joining us next on the program, Eric Francis. We'll break down this Calgary Flames team. A lot of new faces in the lineup, although some familiar ones for Vancouver hockey fans. First line featuring Andre Kuzmenko and Sam Hanzik.

A lot of Vancouver connections there. So we'll talk to Eric Francis about that at 7.30. 8 o'clock, all Canucks. We're going Canucks heavy in the 8 o'clock hour. Randy Bjand is going to join us at 8 to preview tonight's game. And then at 830, the play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks for Sportsnet. John Shorthouse is going to join the program to talk about what to expect tonight and from this season. We've got a lot more to get into.

Eric Francis is going to join us next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet at 6.50. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650. Or catch up on demand through your favorite

podcast app. 7.31 on a Wednesday. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of 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, four parts. We are in hour two of the program. Eric Francis from Sportsnet Calgary is going to join us in just a moment here.

Set up the other half of tonight's game. Vancouver, Calgary, 7 o'clock, Rogers Arena. You can hear it all right here, including it feels like seven hours of pregame and postgame on Sportsnet 650. Hour two of this program is brought to you by Jason.Mortgage. That's Jason Hominuck at Jason.Mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Just kidding. Let him do it.

Visit him at jason.mortgage. To the phone lines we go. Eric Francis joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Eric. How are you? I'm good, boys. How are you? We're good.

We're fired up. It's ready to go tonight, 7 o'clock, Rogers Arena. It's the Calgary Flames. We're getting caught up. We're getting up to speed with what's going on in Calgary, but we did take note of a good Vancouver Giant, Sam Hanzik. The story,

the best story, and maybe the Flames' best player in training camp. For the listeners that might not be up to speed with what Hanzik's done this preseason, let us know, and how he elevated himself to start tonight on the top line for the Flames. Yeah, it's done this preseason. Let us know and how he elevated himself to start tonight on the top line for the Flames. Yeah, it's a pretty incredible story.

Like, the Calgary Flames obviously in a bit of a rebuild, and they've kind of always hoped that youngsters would step forward and make their decisions tough in preseason, but nobody, I mean nobody, like I bet even in management, nobody could have predicted that sam honzek would have made the team coming out of camp last year in camp he was their first round pick he was underwhelming is probably the best way to put it he was you could hardly see him out there he left camp probably thinking oh my god like i'm a mile away from being an NHLer, but he put together an incredible off-season program

working with Martin Pospisil and came to camp, and he was incredible. Two points, or two goals, seven points, let all. I think he was like fifth in league scoring in the preseason. I know that counts for nothing, but when you're a rookie trying to make a name for yourself, it's huge. And not only that that but he was throwing

his weight around he's a pretty big kid you know people who've seen him with the giants uh know that he's talented but you know i don't even know if they would have thought that he would be ready to make the jump right away and we'll see right he may not make it much past eight or nine games or he may stick the whole year but uh right now he's on the top line and uh it is the feel-good story of camp for the flames for sure as a as a whole as a team is there any element in calgary that's like maybe we'll go out and shock the world and make the playoffs and show everyone well just had a yeah that's what the players are rallying around that possibility and mich Backlund is the captain. He keeps pointing back to 10 years ago. It's a long time ago, but similar situation

where the Flames are starting to kind of rebuild a little bit. They had a rookie named Gaudreau. They had a guy in his second year named Monaghan, and Sam Bennett was a rookie as well. There was hope that maybe the youngsters would be good, and maybe they could shock the world. But anyway, everybody had written them off. I remember some of the predictions said that they might be last in the NHL,

and they ended up finishing third in the division, and they beat Vancouver in the first round of the playoffs. So that's the kind of hope that they're clinging to. Listen, the last couple of years have been pretty big expectations in Calgary. There's also been a lot of noise, a lot of distractions, pending free agency and all this for all their big stars. This year, there's nothing. This year, it's nothing but crickets and low expectations.

And the players are kind of saying, well, let's embrace this. Let's just ride with this. Let's just enjoy being in the NHL and see if we can shock some people. The one thing that they're going to try to do is they'll work every team because that's really all they can do and so we'll see if they can do that um do you think if things go as expected and the flames are not a playoff team are we going to see some more guys uh traded out of there. I'm thinking about Kadri, I'm thinking about Mackenzie Wieger and Rasmus Andersson. Yeah, that's,

that'll be the noise that we were talking about that'll come back if we get past Christmas and this team is, you know, starting to fade.

You know, I think topping that list would be Rasmus Andersson. He's a very emotional guy. You know, a lot of his Swedish buddies have been traded

out of the city and I think that if the losing kind of compounds, my guess is a very emotional guy. You know, a lot of his Swedish buddies have been traded out of the city. And I think that if the losing kind of compounds, my guess is he and the Flames may part ways this year. But he still has two years left on his contract. You know, he says now that he's in, he wants to be part of the solution, not the problem. You know, a guy like Coleman's got another couple of years left. I can't see him

getting traded out of town. He's the kind of guy you build, you know, he's the kind of guy who can teach your youngsters how to, how to be pros. You know, Weger, no, I think is in for the long haul. I think he's going to be a future captain of this organization. So I don't think you'll hear his name, but Dan Vladar is a guy who will be a very interesting one. If he's having a really good year, the players are going to have quite a decision on their hand whether to sign him long-term or let Dustin Wolfe take over as the goalie.

Those names that you throw out there. Codry is an interesting one, too. He says he's in for the long haul, but things change, and he's quite an impressive asset for a lot of teams so he could be a name that you're going to start to hear in the new year yeah so do people just look at jonathan huberto's name in the lineup and go well that's something we're going to have for a few years

i think you nailed it like i don't you know last year everybody came into camp going okay well hopefully he'll turn it around and it's really important that he does. He had a bad year. You know, it's one-off. But now that it's been two years in a row and we've seen, like, nothing, nothing from this guy, I think that's what people are resigned to, the fact that they've got seven more years of nothing. And, you know, I think that sets him up for possibly being a pleasant surprise

because he can't be worse than he was the last two years, guys. I mean, 55 points, 53 points. You add those together, his last two years in Calgary, they still don't equal the point totally he got his last year in Florida. So, yeah, we'll see. No one's losing sleep over it, though. They're just expecting very little. We're speaking to Eric Francis from Sportsnet in Calgary here on the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. But we'll see. No one's losing sleep over it, though. They're just expecting very little.

We're speaking to Eric Francis from Sportsnet in Calgary here on the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I know we touched on the goaltending briefly there, but I got a two-parter. One, what's the plan for workload between Vladar and Wolff, and how much pressure is on these guys? Because they're both talented, for sure, and they both got high upside, but they're also pretty inexperienced. Yeah, and that's why i think

expectations are so low for this team i mean they've got quite a lot of veterans up front you know their their forward ranks aren't too bad but but at the end of the day yeah if you go into a season i think the two of them combined have like i think 90 starts in the nhl i think wolf's got 13 something like that anyway yeah that's, that's a tall order, right? Like to ask two unproven goalies to carry a team through the whole season. So in terms of how they divvy out the starts, I'm pretty sure we're going to see Vladar start tonight. And then I think after that, as the coach said, we'll see.

That's kind of how he said, we'll see. I think it's just going to be an open competition. You play well, you win, you get the next start. You don't play well, you lose, the other guy starts. So, that's the way they're going to go. I think that's the way it's going to be all year long. How nasty a piece of business is this Flames

team going to be this year? Because I did notice they're pretty physical in the preseason. Preseason is what it is, the preseason. But like, none of them are bigger than Klapka, who's an absolute monster out there, and he likes to apparently use that size. And I noticed on the back end, they've got some big guys as well.

And usually with the teams that maybe don't have a ton in the skill and the high-end elite talent department, you do sort of get a more rough-and-tumble team. Is that what Calgary's going to try and do this year? Yeah, I mean mean as much as you can do that in today's nhl it's not like 10 20 years ago chaos could ensue but you know klapka for those who haven't heard or seen him like he's six foot eight tallest guy in the nhl right now three two 235 pounds so he's on a fourth line with ryan lomberg who embraces chaos as well. So that'll be a kind of an interesting line whenever they're on the ice.

And yeah, I think mocking it up would be a good way of putting it. I think they would like to do that. It is kind of an all for one attitude. So if anybody's ever hit or, you know, you're going to see guys jump in and protect each other, especially the young guys.

So, yeah, I, I think that playing a physical brand is certainly part of their recipe for success if they have one. And the other thing, like I said earlier, if they have any chance this year, it's going to have to be by outworking teams every single night.

So with that outworking, you know, that means hitting, that means, you know, using a lot of speed. So we'll see if they can bring that on a regular basis. With that out working, that means hitting. That means using a lot of speed. We'll see if they can bring that on a regular basis. It's quite a tall order for some team to bring that much energy every single night. Hey, Eric, who turns it around quicker, the Stamps or the Flames? Is the CFL still going? I didn't know that that was still a thing. It's crazy how far the CFL has fallen in Alberta.

Do people care there? Do they care? They just don't. Have they lost a generation? Yeah, yeah, guys. When we always said with the CFL, what's going to happen when this, all the old fans that are propping it up right now, what happens when they're gone?

And that's exactly where we're at in Calgary. Listen, I think, look, I covered the CFL for 20 years. Like, I used to love the CFL and defended it every turn, but I can't anymore. I really think COVID just killed the CFL because, you know, I couldn't name you more than one. I could name the quarterback, but only because everyone's moaning about how terrible he is. And then other than that, you know dave dickinson is a good friend and obviously everybody respects the hell out of them but um you know there's no there are no household names yeah the crowds are the crowds are dwindling stadium's terrible uh but i could go on and on

but the the biggest thing guys is like for 30 years I've been in Calgary, the Stampeders have been one of the best teams in the NFL, in the CFL, for 30 years. Up until, what, the last three years, and now they're terrible. And that could be the death knell. That could be the end for them. I don't even know what that means. People have been predicting that the CFL would die for 50 years, but it is a non-entity in calgary sorry for my voice boys i don't know what i don't know what happened i think it's screaming for the stampeters all year i lost my voice

yelling at jake mayor that's the name that's the name yep well eric i'll tell you what go rest your voice because you're gonna need it tonight it's the flames in the canucks seven o'clock from rogers arena thank you very much for doing this today. We appreciate it. Enjoy the season. I'm sure we'll be doing this again soon. Yeah, let's talk soon, boys. Good luck to your Canucks. It'll be a good year. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. That's Eric Francis from Sportsnet in Calgary here on the Halford & Brough

show on Sportsnet 650. That Flames top line, by the way. I think we mentioned this yesterday. A lot of Vancouver flavor. Former Vancouver Canuck, Andre Kuzmenko. Former Vancouver Giant, Sam Honzik. And then Nazem Khadri. No ties to the organization whatsoever.

So the way the Canucks are going to line up. Did you hang up the phone? I can feel the feedback. I can hear the feedback from the phone. We should hang up the phone. All right. Yeah. Okay.

So the way the Canucks are lining up tonight, you're going to have the Miller line with Besser and Heinen. You're going to have Petey with Sprong and DeBrusque, and that'll be an interesting line to watch for numerous reasons. Number one, you've got DeBrusque, who was the big off-season free agent addition. You've got Sprong, who was the hopefully great bargain addition, who's getting this opportunity to play with Dabrowski and Petey. And, of course, you got Petey. And we all know the story around Petey,

especially if you listen to their show. The third line does not feature, in case you're just joining us, Atu Ratu. Based on practice yesterday, it looks like Ratu is going to be a healthy scratch. Suter, Pew Suteratu is going to be a healthy scratch Suter Pew Suter is going to play center between Garland and Hoaglander so they went with the veteran there and then a fourth line of Teddy Bluger with another new addition Kiefer Sherwood and Nils Amann and you know depending on how probably Suter looks with Garland and Hoaglander may determine if Ratu gets in on Friday,

and maybe if Amon doesn't look all that great, maybe Baines gets called up and plays on Friday. Those are all things to monitor, but for me, I want to see what the PD line looks like. I think we saw some glimpses of PD during the preseason, but, you know, I get yelled at whenever I even talk about the preseason. I don't think PD looked back during the preseason. I thought, again, there were some moments where he made some nice plays.

There was that nice backhand pass to Carson Soucy. There was a nice little tip play across the crease in overtime to DeBrusque. Those were all good moments for Petey. But I think what we're looking for from Pedersen, and this is not me saying it. Well, it is me saying it. But it's also Rick Tockett saying it because he came on our show and said, these guys have to dominate

because I'm going to put them in positions where hopefully they're going to get favorable matchups and they have to take advantage of those. So it starts now for PD as far as I'm concerned. So look, I'm dropping a look. 746 might've been the first one of the show. I don't remember. There's going to be a very concerted effort.

And there already has been, if you listen close enough, from this management group and this coaching staff to name check PD and hold PD accountable. I've said this from the moment that they got DeBrusque and Sprong in the door. Management systematically went about removing that excuse from last year's equation. The rotating cast of wingers. That's gone.

You remember when Patrick Alveen went up there and he said it was my fault that Ilya Mikheyev was elevated to a top six forward role. That was on me. They took accountability and they took responsibility for that part of the equation. The rotating cast of wingers. The inferior wingers. The guys that didn't have the talent level and couldn't score. Now they've put them with DeBrusk and Sprung. And here's the thing.

It's not just playing Petey with DeBrusk and Sprung. It's playing them when they've already got another line that opponents are going to have to account for with miller and besser like you talked about finding matchups tonight against calgary part of that is that you're not a one-line team you're not relying on petterson and sprung and de brusque to do all the heavy lifting offensively we're going to try and get you out against the Pospisil line. He's a tennis player? Yeah, right. He plays hockey now?

Because you can put Miller and Besser and Heinen out and probably get equal, if not better, offensive chances in production. You'll hear it. And I think now you're talking about creating environment and creating opportunity for players. Well, right now, the Canucks have very clearly painted a path. Put down the stones and did the work in between. This path is there for Pedersen, and you said it, to be a dominant player. Not a peripheral player. Not a guy that gets 70 to 80 points

over the course of 82 games. It's we've paid you like an elite player. We've surrounded you with better wingers and we're not a one line team anymore. So go dominate. Go do it. Go do it. If it doesn't happen now, that's when I'm,

because I've been very loath to raise the red flags i've been i've been hesitant i have yeah because i've been raising like a thousand of them part of this to be a foil like we have enough red flags out there we don't need anymore i've been having i've been a little loath to do i've been hesitant but at the same time can i just say that the reason i've been so hard on pd is because I've seen what he can do. Yeah, that's the whole thing of it. We've seen him dominate games, so it's like, just do that. And like, we shouldn't.

So this organization, the management, the leadership of this organization has come in and said, we got to raise the bar. Right? Have you liked the results of raising the bar? Looks pretty good, right? It's exciting when you raise the bar. Let's keep the bar high for Petey. He's certainly getting paid like a player that should have a high bar. So yes, it's nice that he goes out and makes the odd nice pass. You know, that's great. He's got a ton of talent, but there is a difference between chipping in with the odd nice play and controlling a game. And Petey's line needs to control play when he's out there. Yeah.

And I allowed for when you're like, I've seen where he's been. I'm like, okay, then let's look at it through a different lens or prism or whatever. He got into a month-long funk last year like players have done in the past i mean talk it came on our show yesterday and talked about like players go through down times i haven't seen many like that you have i haven't like i haven't like i haven't seen guys struggle okay i'm just telling you that was, in my opinion, more concerning than most slumps. So it's my opinion on it. That's fine.

But it's a slump. Okay. Right? So the idea is you allow the player the opportunity to work his way out of it. And I go back to what I said. What the Canucks have done is said, hey, we're not going to let the pieces around you contribute to whatever's

going on with your play anymore. So Joven Texan, what type of production do you guys need to see in the first five to ten games to keep Sprong, Petey, and DeBrus together going forward? Points and goals? It's not, it's, I mean,

I know this is like a dinosaur thing to say in the analytics age. It's all of us watching these games and going, yay or nay. Do they have chemistry together? If they're not scoring any goals, it's a problem. If they have zero goals. Is he moving his feet? Is he winning battles? Is he playing through players or is he reaching and poking for the puck? I mean, it's a limited

sample size. Is it one and dones in the offensive zone or is there going to be consistent pressure in the offensive zone? Is there good defensive play? You know it when you see it. Yeah. That being said, it was a limited sample

size, I just want to say, but Petey and DeBrusque in the preseason, when they played together, looked very good together. They looked like they have chemistry. I don't know about Sprung. Okay, really? Because they didn't play together, Sprung. No, no, I take Sprung out of the mix here.

I was like, Petey and DeBrusque look like they could be a thing. So hopefully that continues on. Which moments are you referring to? The game at Abbotsford? That was the one, I think. I think it was the only game where they did it. And they look good in practice. I'm just saying they look good in practice, don't they? And they look like they have some chemistry,

so let's hope that they can put them together for more than one game. I'm putting zero stock in the preseason, because you could tell that the Canucks cared virtually nil about the preseason. Of course. Miller chose not to participate in it until the end. Garland at the end was like, I'm kind of banged up. That was the only thing that I took

from the preseason with the veteran players was when Target was like, yeah, Garland probably could have played tonight, but why? That was the preseason to me. It was great for guys like Ratu and Oman who earned their way onto the team, but everyone else was just like, don't get hurt. Don't get doubted.

Don't get line-aided. Just get through it. Yeah. I think I've given a few games away. All the reservations that this collective has, for me, starts tonight. Because tonight the games matter for real. And again, I said like, you've gone is the,

well, it's just the preseason excuse. And gone is that you have crappy wingers excuse. Do you remember last season? It was like, well, he's nervous about his contract and then it got signed that's gone too well it's the expectations of the of the contract once the playoffs start i mean surely then he'll race his game that is also gone well he doesn't have any wingers yeah he doesn't have any wingers right yeah that's what i love now he has wings and then i'm just watching the games i'm watching i'm like yeah he's not playing very well has anyone noticed that but that's what i love now he has wings and then i'm just watching the games i'm watching him like yeah he's not playing very well has anyone noticed that but that's what a good playing well that's what good management good and good coaching is about though right is you when part

of it is if you want to look glass half full it's we've put them in a good situation if you want to look at it more caustically and more pessimistically it's like we've removed all your excuses we've taken away the opportunity for anyone to make an excuse for you. You are responsible for you. I could not be cheering harder for this guy because, in my opinion, if Petey returns to the Petey that we have seen in the past, the Canucks are a legit cup contender. If he doesn't, they're not.

That's what's at stake here. Well, weirdly enough. And sorry if you say that's putting pressure on a player. You signed a big money, long contract to stay in Vancouver.

We love hockey. We expect a lot out of our players. Welcome. You're right, though. And Rick Tocket is saying the exact same stuff.

Weirdly enough. So last year. The Canucks will win a cup if PD isn't their best player. Well, okay, last year I said it was Demko. Or at least 1A1B. I said, given how this team traditionally plays defensively, Demko's their most important player.

That was going into last season. This season, Demko's taken a step back, obviously. And this season now, the most important player on the team is Pettersson. And I'm not saying that to diminish what a Norris Trophy winning defenseman brings to the team. What I'm saying is Pedersen is going to decide the outcome of this

season more than any other player. Yeah. So why do you hate Quinn Hughes? There we go. That's what I needed to hear. But we know Hughes will be awesome, right? That's the thing. You don't have to worry about Hughes. You beat all the texters to it Greg you know you know Hughes is going to be dominant and fantastic and he'll probably be a Norris candidate again heck maybe even a hard candidate but I mean like it's like no it's Hughes is going to be great Demko hopefully he's going to come back it's all

about Pedersen it's all about Petey just like Bruff said if the Cubs are going to win the if the Canucks are going to win a cup, Pedersen has to be dominant. Okay, we're going to go to the 8 o'clock hour. Even more Canucks talk to come here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. First... We're a little Canucks heavy today. A little Canucks heavy.

Should we dial it back a little bit? Should we? To that one guy who texted in for the 10 seconds that we weren't talking Canucks this morning? It was longer than that, dear texter. I'm just joking. Randy Bjand is going to join us next.

Then John Shorthouse is going to join us after that. We've got one final hour to go. Canucks heavy here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.