Halford & Brough in the Morning - Nobody Panic

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports (3:00), they talk Friday's Canucks loss to the Flyers (6:00), plus they chat the latest NHL news with Sportsnet's Kyle Bukauskas (28:58). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- Morgan Frost beats Kevin Lankanen and the Flyers win their first game of the season. We just now got, you know, it's two overtime losses now. We need to make some big plays here. I wouldn't last five minutes, I don't think. Which I know me not lasting five minutes is no surprise to anybody. Good morning, Vancouver. Seven o'clock on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. This is Alfred at his brow, fit his sports net 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios

in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving, fam. Happy Turkey Day. What up, fam? The Halbro fam. We're all together. Stop saying fam. We all, fam. Happy Turkey Day. What up, fam? The Halbro fam. We're all together. Stop saying fam. Have we all had our dinners and whatnot? Mine's tonight.

Mine's yours tonight? Okay. Yeah, I have overeaten. Yeah. I might be a little sleepy today. I think most people are in the same boat. Okay. The same gravy boat, if you will.

Oh, okay. I'll stop. Halbro 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. It's actually hour two.

Hour one is hour two. Hour two is hour three. Hour three just disappeared into the ether. Wait just you're you disappeared into the ether hour two wait you're you and i'm me don't get smart with me kid uh hour two of this program the hour we're in right now is brought to you by jason hominick from jason.mortgage if you love giving the banks more of your money then don't let jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you that's jason.mortgage it always throws me off when i say don't let jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. That's jason.mortgage. It always throws me off when I say, don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you.

And then I look up and I see you, because I think I'm talking about you, Jason. But I'm talking about Jason Hominuk, Jason. I wasn't going to do it anyway. There are too many Jasons. Then I would seriously not let Jason shop around. This one looks fine. Yeah.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, what are you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, what are you waiting for? Kintec. We're rambling along here and making light and having a jokey good time because the guest list is going to be real quick today. Cal Bukaskis.

That's the guest list. Yeah. He's going to join us at 7.30. Co-host of the 32 Thoughts podcast. Can you run that down for me again? Sure. 7.30. Cal Bukaskis.

Can you work it in reverse? Yeah. Now do it in reverse. 7.30. Cal Bukaskis is going to join the program from the 32 Thoughts podcast. They dropped an episode overnight. We'll do almost all. Actually, not almost all.

We will do all of the Canucks stuff ourselves. Me, Bruff, and the dogs. Sat was going to join us this morning, but he's a little bit under the weather, so he's going to rest up for Canucks Central later today. So we will run you through everything that happened on Friday against the Philadelphia Flyers. Saturday's practice,

the Canucks flew yesterday, and I can confirm they arrived in Tampa safely, and everything is set to get underway. Still, the game is a go for Tuesday against the Lightning in Tampa Bay. So that's your Canucks update there. We only have the one guest today. We've got a lot to get into. We've only got two hours today on the show,

but we have a million different things to get into. Canucks, Whitecaps, Lions from a local perspective. We will get into everything. All of them great. It was not a great weekend for local sports. There's a spoiler alert. And we'll get into the NFLfl story if we can lots to get into from the nhl as well if you're freaking out if you're freaking out about the canucks start to the season just think it could be worse you could be the edmonton oilers that's what's happening on the program

today laddie let's tell everybody what happened hey did you guys see the game last night no what happened i missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happens brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Okay, let's dive right into it here.

Morgan Frost scored the decisive shootout goal for the Philadelphia Flyers in the fifth round of the shootout. Vancouver Canucks lose 3-2, their second shootout loss to start the season on Friday night at Rogers Arena. So if you got any texts or comments, text them into the Dunbar-Limber text line about the Canucks' start to the season. Two games, two losses, but also two points.

The Bridge Street, Dunbar-Limber, and Ladner has moved progress way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, but also two points. The Bridge Street, Dunbar-Lumber, and Ladner has moved progress way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at DunbarLumber.com. The text line is 650-650, and we had a few texts in already. Is it time to panic? And no, it's not time to panic.

It has not been a disastrous start for the Canucks by any means they could be and probably should be 2-0. The problem is they're not. That is also right. Against Calgary, they should have been able to protect a 4-1 lead, but couldn't. I think you can hang that on Archer Seelovs personally. Now, the team in front of them made a few mistakes,

but with competent goaltending, I think they should have won that game. Now, I guess Artur Silevs is their goalie for, or at least he's one of their goalies for, uh, who knows how long. So that might be reason for worry. Uh, but against Philadelphia, Kevin Lankanen started and played much better. The problem with that game was they couldn't convert on some of their early chances,

and they had a lot of early chances, and the Flyers stayed in the game, and the Flyers played pretty well overall, and the Canucks ended up losing in a shootout. So overall, you're looking at this team and going, are you happy with how they started? Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

But are you panicking about how they're starting? No. And I think there are reasons to think that some of the new guys will get acclimated to the group. And I don't think you should expect that type of performance from Archer,elovs in every start I don't know how the Canucks are going to do the goaltending down in Florida um now the easy response would be like well just give Lankanen all the starts I thought he was good against

Philadelphia well he was good against Philadelphia but Rick Tockett said, if I play Lankanen in Tampa and then Florida on Thursday, then Seelov's hasn't played for 10 days. Yeah, that's fair. Right? So it is a challenge right now after the way that Seelov's played in his first game, but I imagine he's done some work with the new goalie coach, Marco Terranius. Yes. Which is –

You're better than Dollywall already. Dollywall, better at Dollywall, better than Dollywall. I will say, though, that this is not me. This is not me making it. I was very quiet on social media this weekend. Good for you. Very quiet, didn't say a thing. Two games into the season, and the pressure on Petey is officially on.

IMAC was writing about it. You know, like he basically wrote the story about Saturday's practice where Elias Pettersson spent 20 minutes chatting one-on-one with assistant coach Yogi. I can't do his last name. Svejkovski? Svejkovski.

Yeah, that's a tough one. Why do we think more Smiths on the team? Come on. Okay, Don. It's just easier to say. More Canadians, too. There it is. It's so talk it after the practice said it's one of his better practices today.

And I think there's some reasons for it. I think today going out early, working on his game, I think he's going to have to have that approach now for a while and that'll get his confidence higher. So yeah, we have a plan with him, and he will just chip away at his game. Tons of things leap out at that statement.

Number one, the Canucks have a plan with this guy. Normally when you hear, we have a plan with this guy, it's, this guy's been hurt for six months it's like a recovery and return to action or it's like uh we're trying to just get this guy back and running for for some reason that's when you hear you know we have a plan with this guy and also guy. And also, I don't think you have to read between the lines anymore to deduce that the Canucks want Petey to work harder on his game. Rick Tockett said on our show last week that he wants Petey to be obsessed with hockey like Sidney Crosby is. And when you're the fifth highest player in the league, making more money than Sid, by the way,

the Canucks should not expect anything less from this guy. Get on the ice early. Stay late. Do whatever you have to do to get yourself out of this. Because right now, I don't think Petey played terribly in games one and two. I think't think Petey played terribly in games one and two. I think he was better than he was in the playoffs.

But I don't think he's been good. Okay, let's see if we can parse through some of this because we're going to go back to Friday's game and on one of the Philadelphia goals, Petey was the culprit and in a move that when you're talking about things that jump out at you

from Rick Talkett's statement, let's just play the audio from Friday because Rick Talkett was direct, forthright, and took dead aim at what the issue was on coverage on one of the Philadelphia goals. We'll let the audio speak for itself. We'll pick it up on the other side. Here's Talkett following the 3-2 loss to Philadelphia in the shootout on the coverage of one of the Philadelphia goals. Let's hear it.

Pedersen was fat-flooded. He's got to gap up, and he's got to be on the wedge guy. And then we played the rush wrong. So when it's a three-on-two, I think our D got to just protect the guts of the ice, let the shot on the outside. So it's a tech-tech. So a couple of detailed mistakes. We'll correct it.

And had a bit of a different look on their second goal. You had a different line out on the ice than you usually have switched up Sprung. And where was the defensive breakdown there? Yeah, Sprung overplayed the rail guy. If he just stays back, like in this spot, that's where the puck went. That's where he's got to be. He just overplayed that side.

So we'll correct that again. So Patterson, your fault for the first goal. Sprong, your fault for the second goal. Taka does not sound thrilled. He does not. He does not. Did you see how mad Taka looked? Yeah, he looked very...

On the first goal against, it was the short – it was the Canucks were – it was when Pedersen got caught flat-footed, although it sounded like Toc said fat-footed, which would have been kind of funny too. Yeah, Pedersen tried to knock a puck down. He couldn't knock the puck down. He was just standing there.

And then they went in on three on two. And then the second goal, which was on Sprong. Sprong, for some reason, starts floating all the way over to his off wing. Totally left his point man. Point man wide open. And then the point man walks in and has a nice shot and scores. I mean, you know, the Sprong one was like, what are you doing, man?

Right. Like, what are you thinking could be the benefit of you, the off-winger, coming over? Like, where are you going? Where are you going? And that's the book on Sprong, right? Gets lost on the ice. And coaches don't trust him.

The reason I played the clip was because, and I'm glad that you brought up how frustrated talk it looks. Now, we should mention that when television cameras pan over to the bench, they're doing it in the hopes of garnering a reaction or catching a coach in a frustrated moment. I don't know how much of Thursday Night Football you watch with the Seahawks, but they cut over to Mike McDonald approximately 9,000 times during that game because the Seahawks were getting gouged on defense

and they're like, let's see what the defensive guru thinks about this camera, right? They've done it with talking a lot over the first two games of the season because... He's looked very annoyed. Yes. And they've done it because the Canucks have, in case you haven't noticed,

blown two third period leads, something that when you talk about identity, their identity last year was, we don't blow third period leads. that when you talk about identity their identity last year was we don't blow third period leads they were 42 one and four when leading after two periods last year so what's going on i think the talk gets frustrated with um what he considers their identity i know that he mentioned talking about having to start going through people and not battling hard enough and the third one is i don't think he's going to couch individual criticisms anymore.

And I think that that starts with Elias Pettersson is I don't think that he's afraid of talking about him. I don't think he's afraid about criticizing him. And here's the important one. I don't think he's going to be afraid about calling him out if he's underperforming because we talked about it at length over the summer. PD, you got line mates he's got

even more new line mates now too yeah because sprung sprung yeah you're you're done right they're like you know what we'll get rid of sprung do you want us to get rid of sprung we'll get rid of sprung so they put uh heinen up there now with de brusque and pettersson and i do wonder if this is about hey we're not going to let any, I won't use the swear word, any crap slide. Like, it's not happening. We are on a trajectory upward. We want to be a better version of what we were last year and we feel like we should be. And that means holding a higher standard across the board.

But when you're talking about identity and you're talking about standards, I mean, let's be real. You have to look at your star players and your highest paid players to set that bar and set that identity. Petey doesn't seem like one of the leaders on the team by any means, does he? He's the financial alpha. Yeah. But, you know, you got Hughes as captain, and we all know that he's done a good job in leadership.

Miller is the emotional leader. And then basically it's not good. It is not good when the Canucks give Pettersson that contract. He's two games into that contract, and they're talking about how they want him to work harder. For example, when we talk about leaders and alphas, which I hate talking about alphas, but it's the terms of the day. I have to use harder. For example, when we talk about leaders and alphas, which I hate talking about alphas, but it's the terms of the day.

Like I have to use it. Quinn Hughes played 31 minutes and 30 seconds against Philadelphia. That's five minutes more than anybody else on the team. It's the second game of the year. We should mention that Tyler Myers got hurt early

in that game. Yeah, no, for sure. But you could have given one of those minutes to another defenseman. Could have had him closer to 30. I mean, there was a concerted effort from Tuckett to be like, that guy's my leader. He's my best player. And I'm going to put him out there to make a difference in this game because some other guys might. I honestly think the Canucks best forward so far might have been, might be like Teddy Bluger. Teddy Bluger's

playing well. And by the way, Talkett was asked after Friday's game why Pedersen's line didn't play very much at five on five. Talkett's simple response, Bluger's line deserved the time. Yeah. Bluger's line deserved more minutes. And they did. Did you watch them? They looked good.

They scored. I thought Bluger was – I think Bluger's been very good. Very good. And I'm kind of waiting to see a little bit more from some other guys. You know, game one was sort of the JT Miller show. And then game two, I guess we can call it the Teddy Bluger show if you want to talk about the forwards. But that's why it's an interesting dynamic. Because I think when you came in and you're 100% right, there's no time or reason to panic.

There's not. They haven't played terribly. No, not even close. They have not played terribly. Like I said, I would have taken this step further. If you have almost any other goalie in net for that first game against Calgary with a 4-1 lead going into the second, you need to lock down a 4-1 lead over 40 minutes against a Calgary team that only had like five high danger chances.

Yeah. If you had flipped it and Lankan was in there, you're probably winning that game. Philly, Philly was fine. I thought they were a decent test. Like, I mean, they're an okay team. They're nothing great. They're probably not going to be a playoff team in the East.

And the connection had been up two or three, nothing after the first. But here's the thing. In both those games, they didn't do the things that good teams should do. Get out to the lead against Philly. They didn't do it. Finish the job against Calgary. They didn't do it. And that's probably what's driving Talkit nuts right now.

Because he knows. Good teams do these things. And I don't think he has the patience that he would have had last year. And it's interesting because one thing I noticed about Talkit last year, he's very cognizant of how his words can be taken out of context or what he how he says has gravity right gravitas if you will yeah he's also very cognizant of the market he's in he's also very cognizant of not um like being too demonstrative on the bench because he knows the cameras are on him do you remember he got caught last year

pumping his fist when they won a big game? And he was upset about it. And he was upset because he got caught on camera celebrating. I'm like, dude, you won. But that's who he is. So he knows the cameras are on him constantly. And he's still very visibly annoyed on the bench. That tells me something.

That he's like, this is not how I want it to look. And maybe there's a bit of... I think he might be a little bit frustrated with himself because he's mentioned it a few times that what they focused on in training camp weren't the staples, weren't the trademarks of the team. And maybe that's why their identity slipped a little bit.

But there's a definite sense of frustration there, for sure. It's not panic time, but there's frustration there, for sure. I bet they're glad to be going out on the road, to be honest. We've got to talk about the other two local sports teams. Aw, do we?

The BC Lions are a disaster. An absolute... They got destroyed in Saskatchewan. What was the final? 39-8. In a season with very

several lopsided scores. The Lions suffered maybe their worst of the season at Mosaic the final? 39-8 in a season with very several lopsided scores. The Lions suffered maybe their worst of the season at Mosaic on Saturday. 39-8. So they will not host a playoff game. Nope.

They won't host the West final. They won't even host the West semifinal. They will host the Grey Cup. Yeah. If they're going to host the game this postseason, it'll be

the Grey Cup. So in case you didn't watch the game against the Riders on Saturday, the loss was not all on Rourke, and his first interception wasn't his fault at all, but he has not delivered elite quarterback play. I'm not even sure he's been average. Maybe he's been average. I'll give him that he's been average.

It's the CFL. Yep. They got one game left. Maybe he's been average. I'll give him a he's been average. It's the CFL. Yep. They got one game left. It's a home game against Montreal, and it is essentially meaningless, but I'm still very curious about it because you got to wonder if they're going to give Vernon Adams some reps in that last regular season game.

Again, a meaningless one based on the standings. They're either going to go to Saskatchewan or Winnipeg for the West Semi. Sasky's still got a chance to finish first. Yep. The Bombers are in the driver's seat, but it could happen.

Or do they use that game against Montreal to give Rourke more practice and hope that something finally clicks with him and his receivers, and it just hasn't worked. I mean, the defense obviously didn't play well either, but turnovers were the story against the Rough Riders. Most likely? Six turnovers.

I'm going to tell you what's most likely. Not a guarantee, most likely. Six turnovers. I'm going to tell you what's most likely. Not a guarantee, most likely. This team is just broken, and this season will not be salvaged. No. Let's face it, the odds they can win back-to-back on the road in the playoffs in Regina and Winnipeg and get to the Grey Cup at home are pretty darn low. It's the CFL, so there's always a

chance. I've seen the BC Lions do crazy things. I've seen them get off to a horrible start to the season and win the Grey Cup. I've seen them go into Calgary and win a game they shouldn't win back in the 90s and go on to win the Grey Cup. Part of the charm of

the CFL. I would sooner bet on Rick Campbell getting fired though. Like if you're honestly, if you're talking honestly about this, and I know that sounds harsh, but I do not like Rick Campbell's chances of surviving this. I think it would take a Grey Cup, I guess,

appearance at minimum. No. But we are on the verge of one of the most disappointing seasons in BC Lions history, and I feel badly for the owner, Amar Doman. Given all the excitement this season started with, given the investments made to bring back Nathan Rourke and Matthew Betts, the potential of hosting a great cup, with Nathan Rourke and Matthew Betts, the potential of hosting a great cup with Nathan Rourke at quarterback,

no less. And it is all just like, it's like gonzo right now. Like I don't know what the point spread would be. Let's say they go play Saskatchewan in the West Semi. What's the point spread? Riders minus 10? I was close to 10. Maybe Shaden closer to a touchdown, just 7, but whatever.

I get what you're saying. The Lions, since that 5-on-1 start, have had one terrific game, and that was the one in Montreal. Yeah. And that was the one we all thought, oh, they turned the season around. But that is looking more like a blip than anything else because then they came home and they had that horrible game against the Argos and then it's gotten worse.

Yeah. Look, we've talked a lot about the Lions this year, a lot more than in the history of Halford and Brough and Curtin blog on the air we ever have. And it was with, I was justified. We were excited about what ownership had done.

We were excited about the possibility of having the Grey Cup in Vancouver and the BC Lions playing it. All of it was justified. So the scrutiny was going to be higher because of that. And now I think whatever negativity, however you want to spin it, pessimism about this team, that's all justified too because there are late season collapses, and then there's whatever the hell the Lions are going through right now.

And this is, like, that game meant a lot on the weekend. And they lost by 31 points. Like, you can't go into a game late in your year with the playoffs on the horizon with something of significance at stake and lay a complete egg and put up eight points of offense. Did you see what? Turned the ball over six times. Did you see what Jacksonville head coach Doug Peterson said

after the Jaguars went to London and got blown out by the Bears? Paraphrase. It was like, it looks like a lot of quitting. And he was saying, we've got a culture problem here. I mean, I was thinking in the second half against the Riders, like, do you guys have any pride? What's going on here? The one thing that will always befuddle me about this season

is that in a year where Doman was pulling out all the stops, no expense spared, no price tag too high to get the team over the top, why there wasn't a coaching change to try and salvage this thing as well. Because the wheels had come on way before this.

I think it was right around the time they went to, remember they lost 25-0 to Winnipeg in early August? Yeah. That was a warning sign. Who gets shut out in the CFL? What do you do if you're Rick Campbell? Don't make a joke here. Don't be like, Get some resumes out.

Yeah, right. I'm just going to preempt that Halford joke. Update my LinkedIn. What do you do in the game against Montreal? Do you have to pick... Do you use that game against Montreal? And Montreal, I don't think, has much to play for. So I'd have to double check that, but I don't think...

Montreal has nothing to play for. Okay, so Montreal might not even be playing all its starters, but do you give equal reps to Rourke and Adams and do you make it almost an audition? No, because you already made your choice. Do you think you've already made your choice or Rourke's your guy?

You've already made your choice. If you go now and you flip in the final game of the regular season, then you're not even a coach at that point. You're just flip-flopping. You're just on the whims of like, ah, let's just try something. It was interesting that VA didn't even come in.

And you know why? Campbell said because he didn't get enough first-team reps during the week. And I was like, it wasn't a problem the last time you put him in. He had no first-team reps and you threw him in. So that doesn't hold any water. Yeah, man.

He's lost right now as a head coach. Yeah. And it's hard to watch. Kyle Bukoskis is going to join us next. We'll talk about some other NHL stories. The Calgary Flames are hot. The Edmonton Oilers are not. And that's weird.

We'll talk about, I got to say, I got to say, the Leafs look good. They do. Winnipeg looks good. Winnipeg looks good. Winnipeg looks good. So we'll talk to Kyle about some other NHL stories. And then we've got a whole hour at eight o'clock just to chat with you via the Dunbar

Lumber text line at 650-650. We'll talk about the Canucks, the Lions. We haven't talked about the Whitecaps game. They lost in heartbreaking fashion last night. And I would say slightly embarrassing fashion as well. I was there. So we can talk about that. NFL, Major League Baseball, the Dodgers are off

to a pretty good start. I don't think they're going to give up a run ever again, the LA Dodgers. Yeah, they figured it out. It's crazy, man. It's crazy. The Padres scored six runs against them, and they were like, all right, no more.

And they meant no more. So lots more to come on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.mm weekdays and on demand through your

favorite podcast app 7.32 on a Monday. My favorite song. Alfred Brough, Sportsnet 650. Alfred Ruff 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. Kyle Bukoskis from the 32 Thoughts podcast is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour two of this program is brought to you by Jason Hominuk 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 that.

Visit him at Jason.Mortgage. Not.ca, not.com. The internet has.mortgage now. Go visit him. Jason.Mortgage. You kind of had a Christopher Walken thing going there for a second. Explain. You went like, just kidding.

Go do that. Like the way you did the read there. You should do that. You got to get the inflections right. Yeah, the inflections has to start out a Christopher Walken thing for a second.

I'm not good at impressions. No, I know. Period. Really bad at them. But Walken's is really tough to do. Yeah, you have to get, there has to be like an intro line that gets you going

and then that's how you get into the rhythm. Because if you miss the inflection, which is very, like it's sporadic. It's everything. Yeah. The ship's fast enough for you.

Oh man. Then you end up sounding like that. Yeah, yeah. If you miss it, that's what it sounds like. It's everything. Yeah. The ship's fast enough for you. Oh, man. Then you end up sounding like that. Yeah, yeah. If you miss it, that's what it sounds like. Sounds like he needs some gabagool. What? All right. We covered the Canucks extensively in the first half hour of the program. Let's get to some of these other stories across the National Hockey League. Joining us now, as mentioned, Kyle Bukowski, host of the 32 Thoughts podcast here

on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Kyle. How are you? Good morning, gents. Happy Thanksgiving. That was a pretty good walk-in. I'll give it to you. That was pretty good.

And he's smiling. He's very happy with himself. Very happy. Very happy. I want you to start with the Edmonton Oilers. So we were saying in Vancouver, don't panic about the start. Yes, you failed to win a game, Canucks, but you got two points out of two games and you lost both in the shootouts. And you could be worse. It could be Edmonton.

Edmonton is now 0-3-0 getting roundly outscored, losing to the Calgary Flames. And by the way, I mentioned this pre-show, the Canucks should be praised for being one of the teams to take a point off this juggernaut Calgary Flames team, who are now 3-0-0 themselves.

We'll get to Calgary in a sec. What did you and Elliot talk about with regards to the Oilers in this very slow start to the season, which is reminiscent to their start to last season? Yeah, well, I mean, there was lots of talk, as you can imagine, about the disallowed goal on goalie interference there with Perry just on the inside of the crease there and the goal being way back. I don't know what your guys' thoughts on it, but to me, it's like one of those

don't love that it's not a goal, but it's pretty black and white in the rule book that if you go into the goalie's crease, whether you are intending to make contact with the goalie or not, you are asking for trouble. So for all the discourse after the fact of how are you supposed to know you can't, you know, it's at the coin flip every time. I have no idea how that rule is called. Like that's the one on the goalie interference where you're like, you kind of can tell right away if that box is checked, it's probably going to be disallowed. So, you know, you go from that. So there was that.

There was the offside call. They called another go back. So two instances where it could have been 2-0 Edmonton, and then they both go the wrong way for them, and Calgary got rolling, and it just kind of felt like almost watching them against Chicago a day previous where they're pressing, they're pressing, but nothing seems to be coming natural offensively. Chris Knobloch still trying to find the fit with his top six.

Jeff Skinner started with McDavid on Sunday. By the end, he had put Connor and Leon back together, as he's not adverse to doing, of course, when the time calls for it. Victor Harvinson saw some shifts up there late in the game, and they're still trying to find answers for the best way to utilize their top guys. So the point I made on the podcast today was, if you look at the quotes from some of the players, and Chris Knobloch after the game, just reading them and hearing things like we're disconnected,

need to have better practice habits, desperation is in there. Like you read that, you're like, oh boy, this is a team that's starting to panic already. But when you listen to it, when you see their body language as they're talking about those things, it's kind of a tells a different story for me. So, obviously, not ideal, but

as I say, it just seems like nearly going here. Once again, as you say, they went down a similar path a year ago. Nothing seems to have come naturally just yet for this team. They're trying to find their footing again.

And the Allianz mentioned their shooting percentage on the gate is like 3%. So you're not going to win with that, but you also know it's not going to stay that low as things get going here. They've got two good players. So yeah, to borrow a line from the Oilers captain, it's not ideal, but it's something they've been through before. What about these Calgary Flames? I mean, we all know what happened against the Vancouver Canucks. They did not get off to a good start to the season. They were

down 4-1, but battled back. I think you could put that one, their first game on Archer Seelovs, and unfortunately it's hard to single out a single guy for any loss,cher Seelovs. And unfortunately, I mean, it's hard to single out a single guy for any loss. But Seelovs probably should have made some saves. But, you know, credit to the Flames because they went and beat Philly 6-3.

And then in that game last night against Edmonton, I thought at least that the Flames took over that game in Edmonton. Which I didn't really expect to see. You know, I thought the others are going to be the desperate team in the third period. They're going to be the ones that take over that game, and maybe it'll be the Flames hanging on. Didn't turn out that way. And, you know, it's a line of, it's like Anthony Mantha,

Pospisil, and Jonathan Huberdeau, who have added so much to that team. What have you thought of the Flames so far this season? 3-0, unexpected, undefeated team. Right, like between them and Utah, I think that's the biggest surprise for me out of the gate that three games in and not a blemish yet. You mentioned Anthony Mantha, prize for me out of the gate that three games in and and not a blemish yet uh you know you mentioned anthony manza and and you're watching you know how he started the year in calgary i

mean this is a guy who i mean he was healthy scratch went four of the seven games uh in the playoffs last year with with vegas against dallas um and and you can see why when you're watching how he started here with the Flames, why he was a first-round pick all the way back in 2013. And probably what's infuriated many a team executive is he's gone from Detroit to Washington to Vegas and now Calgary along the way because when he's at that level, he is a real handful. But it hasn't always been there consistently,

and I think that's why you say he's had a couple of different stops now as his career has unfolded. But whether it's the connection there, the Quebec connection with Jonathan Huberdeau that's to tell things and just a fresh start, whatever it is, for Calgary's sake, if he can keep it going, like that's like what a great ad that that becomes that they made in the offseason. I mean, who knows how long this continues to go for for Calgary, but I think it's a real testament to a group of players.

And you go back to the beginning of training camp, Naz and Kadri and some of the veterans being asked about, you know, the guys that have been around, the older players, like how committed are you with kind of the path that this team is going here? Can you withstand sticking around for a rebuild? And I'll give Kadri credit for coming right out of the gate then and saying, like, let's pump the brakes on all this rebuild talk here. Like, we haven't even played a game yet.

And they've come out and, you know, made a little bit of a statement here in the early going. I mean, it's kind of the plus side if you can kind of catch the right wave of not having a ton of expectations externally around you, you know, you've got a younger roster and some players that are still trying to very much prove themselves in the NHL that are playing free here out of the gate, and it's resulted in some pretty good results.

And a neat moment, of course, for Justin Kirkland, getting his first career goal, 28 years old, drafted 10 years ago, over 400 games in the American League. What a journey. And you couldn't wipe the smile off of his face there. Former Kelowna Rockets. That was just a cherry on top for a dynamite weekend for the Flames and great first week of the year for them.

Getting back to the Oilers, is it fair to look at their lineup right now, and there have been some changes, is it fair to look at their lineup and wonder if they need more depth? Yeah, well, certainly I think on the defense, that's going to be something that's going to be a big talking point and certainly a point of focus as things go on here. I believe on the forward side of things, you know, they're going to sort themselves out.

I mean, they miss the Evander Kane element, no question. But like Jeff Skinner scores his first there on Sunday night. That was a lone bright spot for them. You have to think as Victor Arvidsson gets more familiar and comfortable within that whole dynamic there, he'll start to be more of a contributor. But it's on the blue line, I think, where the biggest issues are out of the gate, right? Good on Travis Dern

a forward Canuck there got a lot of time for that guy earned a contract coming in on a PTO he got into the lineup over the weekend but it feels like there's still a lot of uncertainty there, right? Two years ago they made

a considerable move to acquire Matthias Ekholm, and that changed their blue line considerably, of course, and the trajectory of a guy like Evan Bouchard. And I wonder, you know, we had Gene Principe on the podcast there last week, and he made the point, like like i could say that there's another matthias eckholm somewhere in the league that they can go grab this year um but something along those lines as you know they've they've made a point they want to accrue as much cash space as possible to give them as much flexibility closer to uh the trade deadline and and i wonder if that's kind of

what what they're they're targeting where they want to allocate a lot of their assets and flexibility towards is to bring in somebody else on defense that can make them a little bit deeper because yeah I'm with you I think the forward side of things will sort itself out but on the

blue line I think is where they've still got to find some answers yet We're speaking to Kyle Bukoskis from the 32 Thoughts podcast, Sportsnet NHL host here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We need to talk about the other surging team in Canada, the Winnipeg Jets. First 3-0 start

in franchise history. Shifley's playing out of his mind. Halibut's playing out of his mind. I don't know if, Brough, you saw the goal that they scored against Minnesota. Pulled the goalie? First period, three seconds left, they pulled the goalie for an extra attacker. Lowry back to Shifley, bang. Do you think Minnesota was like, ah, that was a clean

draw, we lost. We should have mucked that one up. I think it was just sort of emblematic of the fact that everything is going right for the Jets right now, and they look like a very good team to start the season. Yeah, like credit to them coming into Edmonton the way they did opening night.

And yeah, the Shifley goal there against Minnesota, and even like the wild stack four there along the right hash mark. Yeah. And you're just going like, how does the shot get through? Like, it's one thing to get it off in time, but it doesn't hit a skate, a leg, or nothing along the way. Just a heck of a job there, and then

Kyle Connor in overtime. I mean, I feel, you know, there's still that idea that, you know, if a goalie gets beat short side, it's like, oh, that's a bad goal. Like, I just, you know, the shooters are so good nowadays. Like, you watch the, you saw any of the Montreal-Ottawa game on Saturday, but Cole Caulfield from kind of down closer to the goal line, you know, goes up short side high on Allmark. And you can see where Allmark was.

You're like, what else are you supposed to do there? Like just the smallest of windows. And, you know, the best shooters these days, like that's enough for them to do damage. But, yeah, I think that was just a really nice way to finish off the first couple of games for the Jets. And they're another team too where, you know, I think, and we've talked about it and certainly we're not the only ones where,

you know, after, you know, new head coach here, Scott O'Neill, coming from, you coming from the assistant side to now being the man in charge. And not a ton in the way of ads over the offseason. And, you know, naturally, and how they went out against Colorado in the first round last year, you know, it's in human nature to kind of cool on them a little bit coming in. But they're another team, let's say, in a different position,

different stage of things of Calgary. But another one that, you know, maybe weren't the sexy pick to be, you know, a team that was putting together some wins right out of the gate. But, you know, they've found a formula here in the early going. I mean, the last couple of years, they've been good off the start, and then as the season goes on, that's when some of the issues have crept up for them.

So, yeah, good on them for the way they've begun things here, but as we get deeper and deeper into things and have more of an example size, that's one team I'm really going to be curious to see how they handle it all. I wanted to ask you about the Ottawa-Montreal rivalry. Always looking for who's ratcheting up the hate, who doesn't like each other right now.

I know that they had a high level of animosity going into the season with all the shenanigans from the preseason game. They played on Saturday. Habs win 4-1. Sam Montembeau continues his mastery over the NHL to start. But given your proximity to Ottawa specifically, but to this rivalry, how much do these two teams and fan bases really dislike each other

at the current moment? Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. And you can to i mean 2013 is really when it started and they met in the playoffs that year that was the eric griber hit on larzeller you know the big line brawl in ottawa later on in that series ottawa wins that one they met two years later montreal wins that series in six um and then know, it went dormant for a little bit, but it's right back again. Like, I think of this current generation of fan bases,

like it really started up again in 2018, where Montreal takes Jesperi Kotkaniemi, the Senators take Brady Kachuk, and right away it was like, okay, who got the better guy? And certainly the Senators have a right to feel that they won that one. And then, you know, as the years have gone on, Stutzla comes into the mix. And a couple years ago where, you know,

Brendan Gallagher had just a gem of a postgame, calling Stutzla out for maybe going down a little too easy at times. That only infuriated things further um when arbor jack guy first came onto the scene at at rookie camp um i mean he did some real damage in the rookie camp games against ottawa that was kind of the first like hey who is this guy um and of course you know he's become a much more known name since then. So I look at, I mean, you've got Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, a little triangle of teams in the eastern part of Canada here on the NHL map. And all the kind of back and forth that happened between the three

over the course of the year, definitely right now, Montreal and Ottawa are the most vicious. And it's a shame that they haven't met in the playoffs for, you know, almost 10 years here now. But because they're at kind of similar stages of trying to get back there again, you know, I think that probably leads into it. I'm not prepared to say it's quite at the level of what, like, Vancouver, Edmonton was out there for you guys last spring.

But, man, there is no love lost here on the ice or within the social media space either. It seems everything is on the table whenever these two teams get together. Six games on the slate tonight. A whole bunch of good ones. We've got afternoon hockey today, too. Florida and Boston meet again. Sidney Crosby back in Montreal. We were just talking about the slate tonight. A whole bunch of good ones. We've got afternoon hockey today, too. Florida and Boston meet again. Sidney Crosby back in Montreal. We were just talking about the Habs.

So lots to dive into on Thanksgiving. Kyle, thanks for doing this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the games today and tonight and the rest of the week. We will do this again next Monday. Okay, great. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Kyle.

Thank you. Yep, that's Kyle Bukowskis from the 32 Thoughts podcast. Sportsnet NHL host here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You know who could use a win today is actually Colorado. Yep, they are struggling. Forgiev got pulled again over the weekend, eh? Old Forgiev. What's going on there?

Was it four or five this time? I don't know. I just saw that he got... So there was a couple different stories that I was trying to follow that opened up last week. One was like Utah who are now 3-0 as well. We need to talk about them

maybe a little bit later and Dylan Gunther. But the other one was there was the goaltending issues in Edmonton with Skinner. And Skinner actually played okay in that loss to Calgary. He definitely wasn't

on the hook for it, but the Oilers are still 3-0. Took a slash too. 0-3. 0-3. And then the other one was Colorado. Yeah.

So they lost to Vegas 8-4 in their first game. And then they came home and they had the Columbus Blue Jackets. So you're probably thinking, oh, they'll get a win there. 6-4 for the Blue Jackets. So the Avs host the Islanders today. So they need to get on the board. The high-scoring Islanders will surely take advantage of them. That's one to monitor, though, because we talked about Colorado

just slowly being whittled away, like what happens with all the good teams. It's very difficult to retain the core group that was that dominant when they won their cup. And then some, not only guys leaving the team, but guys having Landis Kog, Nachushkin, those types of issues. And you keep trying to plug the holes in the dam, and you keep trying to find... You're robbing Peter to pay Paul sometimes, right?

Bone Byram's a good defenseman. Had to do it to get Casey Middlestat in the door. And then in that, it sort of became one of those things where it was like, well, who's available? Well, Georgiev was available at the time, and they made a gamble. Through two games this year, that gamble is not paying off. Other games to monitor tonight, I mentioned Sidney Crosby and Pittsburgh.

So they got a, I don't want to say like important win because we're early in the season. Here's the thing. There's certain teams and certain organizations that are going into this year with so much at stake that the beginning of the season absolutely matters, right a slow start could absolutely kill you i put buffalo in that category yeah i put pittsburgh you got a big win right i'd put over la i put pittsburgh in that category i don't put edmonton in there because edmonton proved last year we can get off to a slow start and then we'll rip off 16 wins midway through the year. Sabres got a big win over Florida. Yeah.

And that should be noted because Florida is shorthanded. They don't have Barkov. And I think there's a couple other guys, but the Canucks are going to play the Panthers on Thursday and the Panthers won't have Barkov. So that's good news for the Vancouver Canucks. Yeah. And I'm going to be dead honest. I haven't done a very thorough pre-scout of tomorrow's opponent,

the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tampa Bay season, obviously, at the beginning of it, has been interrupted due to Hurricane Milton. So you haven't had a huge look at what they've got going forward. But for us, this will be my first look at Jake Gensel as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning. I haven't seen him play yet. And we'll probably do a little bit more.

I'm wondering if we should try and book someone from Tampa Bay Lightning. I haven't seen him play yet. And we'll probably do a little bit more. I'm wondering if we should try and book someone from Tampa Bay to talk about the team and to talk about the current state of affairs because obviously everyone's thoughts aren't necessarily with hockey, given everything that's going on with the storm rolling through. But anyway, that's tomorrow for your Vancouver Canucks. They get back in action. Whatever comes

from today in Tampa Bay, the rest of the show is on the station today. We'll have the information for you. We've only got one more hour of the show left, but it is all Halford and Brough, and we should open it up to the listeners. If you're listening today, two things. One, hey, give us a shout. Let us know where you're listening from on a holiday Monday.

If you're working on a holiday or you're up early, attending to some affairs, maybe you got the turkey in early because you need 10 hours of cook time. Shoot us a note. We'll do shout outs in the second hour of the show. We can get into everything else that we've missed in the world of sports. We'll circle back on all this Canucks stuff as well because there was a lot to

unpack from the weekend that was. We'll try and get to some NFL stuff as well because it was a very busy weekend in the National Football League and we got Monday Night Football as well tonight. And we'll try and squeeze in some baseball. One hour left. Don't go anywhere. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.