Halford & Brough in the Morning - Oooo, Mystery List!

Episode Date: April 22, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they hear from Elliotte Friedman (13:16) regarding the Canucks GM search (3:00), plus they talk all things NHL playoffs with Sportnet's David Amber (30:24).  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to Halford and Brough. Lozer shoots. Scal! A fan of floater. That goes in! Are you kidding me? Floater toward Lukan and it bounced through him. Good morning, Vancouver.

Six o'clock on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is Halford, it is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Mark. Addog, good morning to you.

Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you. Hello, hello. And intern Jordan, good morning to you as well. Good morning. Halford in front of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Do you have payday loan debt? If you do, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees.

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We got a lot to get into on the program today. We will begin with the Duick Morning Drive. It's our morning guest list brought to by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 6.30. David Amber, Sportsnet, NHL, Hockey Night Canada host. It's going to join the program. Another great night of Stanley Cup playoff action last night. Four games.

Two of them decided in overtime. One of them, probably after a lot of you were in bed. And the second one, second time in as many games. Tampa Bay and Montreal go to overtime. David is going to join us to talk about a overtime. all at 6.30. 7 o'clock, Frank Sarah Valley is going to join us. Our NHL insider from Victory Plus,

we're hearing lots of names. As you mentioned, Jason, attached to the vacant GM job in Vancouver. Lots of names, lots of lists. A lot of lists. Not one, not two, but three, a mystery list. Maybe Frank can tell us about the third mystery list. We can also get updates on the GM

searches in Toronto and Nashville, maybe as they pertain to Vancouver. And maybe just maybe, we can preview the three games, not four tonight, but three games. on tap tonight in the Stanley Cup playoffs. I know. Only three. I know. Frank's going to join us at 7 o'clock. 8 o'clock, Randeb Janda is going to join the program. Knoch's analyst

for Sportsnet. We've yet to put a bow on this season with Randeep, who did join us diligently throughout the regular season. We can talk to him obviously about the Canucks GM search as it is underway. And on Hockey Night in Punjabi, which of course he is a part of the panel, Kane sends. They're covering that one so we can talk

to him about what's going on as the series now shifts to Ottawa. Randipe's going to join us. at 8 o'clock. We got a lot to get into on the program. Big show ahead, big guest list ahead. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was...

We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? Whoa! What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training.

Visit them online at BCC. S.a.ca with all due respect to another exciting night of Stanley Cup playoff action. I think we have to start with the Vancouver Canucks general manager search here because it's heating up. Names are flying around and there are lists. Plural Jason lists. Yeah, we'll get to the list stuff soon. And Laddie, let us know when you've clipped the latest 32 thoughts because there's some more information coming from Elliott Freeman's podcast. Yesterday's, I guess, big report was that the Canucks had asked permission.

mission to speak with former Sabers GM, Kevin Adams. And just imagine if someone had told us this in December, we wouldn't probably be all that surprised at the connection we're looking for a general manager, but maybe we'd be surprised by the name of Kevin Adams because he was the one that was finally fired by the Buffalo Sabers. When he was let go, everyone was like, man, what took so long because the sabers are still a disaster? Now, of course, the sabers, almost as soon as they fired Kevin Adams, caught fire and are now in the playoffs for the first time in forever. And we joked a lot in January and February whenever the run started.

We were like, have ever seen a new GM bump before? Like, what the hell was Kevin Adams doing in Buffalo? It's pretty funny that in hindsight, people are like, actually you put together a pretty decent roster, right? Made some good trades. You know, this is his team on the ice. But Halford wasn't a terrible culture? One of the big things that was held against Adams in Buffalo.

it's kind of funny to look back on some of the culture-related quotes from a year ago when Kevin Adams went up there with Lindy Ruff after yet another season where the Buffalo Sabres failed to make the playoffs and said things like culture is earned in terms of your daily habits and the things that you do and what I believe we need to probably reflect on and do a better job of and I shared this with the players over the last couple days is more of our players starting with looking in the mirror first. That starts to build a culture of accountability.

So there were issues going on in Buffalo. And was it not Kevin Adams that had a major PR blunder with his infamous palm trees remark? That was him. What did he say? said like we don't we nobody wants to come to buffalo we don't have palm trees or something like that and then it's a fairly decent paraphrasing wasn't as sharp but yeah that was the idea was that it was buffalo it was tougher to attract players and they don't have the palm trees that some of the other places have like florida that's a reference to florida yeah and uh so sabers fans immediately galvanized around that quote and started bringing inflatable palm trees to sabers games and stadium security was like i don't know what we're going to do with all these palm trees Now, the one thing he did do well in Buffalo was follow orders from ownership.

And I'm just going to read a paragraph from the athletics report on the Kevin Adams interview. And I think this part was probably done by Matthew Fairburn of the athletic. I'm just going to read it here. Sabers owners, Terry and Kim Pagula, made a surprising decision to fire general manager Jason Botterall in June of 2020. a few months after the pandemic put a stop to the NHL season. They replaced him with Adams. During his first day on the job, Adams was tasked with firing more than 20 people in the organization,

including scouts, longtime executives, and AHA coaches. So he's willing to do when ownership is asked of him. He is, I guess, an unsurprising candidate only because, well, one, it's been said that the conundership, we're going to do an exhaustive process in terms of creating a list of potential candidates, interviewing a lot of different people, and from all different genres of experience. People that have a ton of experience, people that don't. People that have served as a GM before, people that haven't.

So that part, I guess it's not that surprising. What is surprising is that anyone would be interested in Kevin Adams after the way things ended in Buffalo purely from an optic standpoint. I know that he put together the... the foundation of the roster that is currently now tied 1-1 and it's opening round playoff series with Buffalo. But if you go and you dig a little deeper and look underneath the hood of what happened in Buffalo,

a lot of people said that there was a clear, clear shift in organizational seriousness and discipline after Adams left and went Kecklein and took over. The record bears that out. I mean, you can't ignore these numbers. On the day Kevin Adams was dismissed in Buffalo, the Sabres were 14, 14, and 4 and tied for last place in the Eastern Conference.

Since Adams got fired, the Sabers have gone 36, 9, and 5. They won the Atlantic Division and they made the playoffs for the first time in 14 years. We're talking a dramatic turnaround. There was a quote from Alec Tuck about, I'd say a month into the Kekeleinen rain in Buffalo where he said our group has responded.

There's a maturity and development in this group now we're a hard team to play against. We're now miserable to play against. And a lot of people were pointing to the fact that Kekkelaining came in and was sort of a no-nonsense. We're not screwing around anymore. It's time to take this seriously. And they never got that vibe under Adams.

So is it the right kind of higher? Well, we're not at that stage yet. Yeah. It's okay to interview them. Yeah. I would say that interviewing a lot of people is always the way to go. You can pick people's brains. You can get intel.

You can also find out. what outside people think about your organization, right? Are people going to come in and they are going to, you know, blow smoke up here? You know what? To try and get the job? Are they going to be honest with you? All those things matter. I think it would be very useful to interview Kevin Adams.

I mean, I'm kind of torn down in the first part. But that's just because, like, it's hilarious that the connects are actually interviewing him. I think, I just think it's funny that in a few months we've gone from, he's fired in Buffalo and the Sabres are still a disaster to, like, maybe he could be the Canucks next GM. Well, he was one of the biggest main character general managers in the league this year. I mean, there's no way to ignore it. He was a huge story, not just in Buffalo, but across the National Hockey League.

Buffalo could actually directly or indirectly provide a couple of candidates because Sam don't call me Ace Ventura. I think he's an analyst guy. That actually has a history with Rutherford going back to Pittsburgh. A lot of people have wondered if he might one day get a general manager job. and then there's Mark Bergevan. Yeah, he works for the Sabres right now. He was brought in by Yarmou.

I can't remember what the role is, but he's with the Sabres right now. And I know, Ben Coosma wrote a piece for the province speculating on whether or not Mark Bergevan could be a fit for the Vancouver Canucks based on his experience in Montreal in a pretty tough Canadian market. Now, Elliot Freeman went on Edmonton radio yesterday.

Oilers now. And made some comments about the Canucks having two or three different lists of candidates for general managers. And I think a lot of people are like, what? I don't, why don't they just have one list? Probably makes it easier. And Freed said there's Rutherford's lists. There's an ownership list. And there might be another one.

Ooh, a third list. And I think a lot of us were kind of like, did Finn put together? a list. I like that they have a secret list. That's cool. Yeah, I knew you'd like that. The mystery list. I knew that would be...

Ooh, mystery list. Yeah, I knew that would be the first time you chimed it. I'm glad you did. It's in a big box of a bunch of question marks on it. The one thing I was wondering is if they they reached out to someone outside the organization and had them put together a list. Actually, that's the second thing I thought.

The first thing I thought was Michael Bublai's list. But the second thing I thought was that it was definitely a consultant's list. Okay, so Fridge... And the one thing that, or another thing that Freach said yesterday on Emminton Radio was, I think if it was Jim Rutherford's choice, it would be Ryan Johnson. Currently with the organization, an associate, an assistant GM or associate GM, I can't remember what his title is, but he is the general manager of the Abbotsford Connection. And we all know about Ryan Johnson.

So here is Fridge with an update on the Canucks situation, and this is from the 32 Thoughts podcast, which published this morning. So Rick Dahlwellawal reported Ryan Bonas. Matthew Fairburn reported that they want to speak to Kevin Adams. I believe that they are interviewing formerly Ryan Johnson this week, and there's more. And so, again, Some people asked me about Oilers now, and I said there was two, maybe three lists. I think Rutherford has a list. I think ownership has a list.

I don't know if it's as simple as saying that Rutherford is interviewing some newer people and ownership is interviewing some more experienced people, but I do think that that's kind of the way it looks. because I've heard that there are some fresh names here, ones that may not have been connected to any other search, working on those, and I think there's some experience names there too. And that's kind of how I heard it was being split.

I did mention that it's possible there's a third list. I'll see if I can figure out if that's true. But I did hear it on Tuesday. Should it be concerning that there are separate lists at this stage of the process, or is that kind of normal? I don't know that that's normal, but I'll tell you this. This has been a year for very, very unusual searches. There's things about the Nashville search that have been a little bit unusual to me. there's things about the Toronto search that have been a little bit unusual to me. So I can't say I'm hugely surprised that there's things about this

Vancouver search that sound a little bit unusual to me. Like if you're one of those people who's like the NHL has been doing the same thing over and over and over again and it's time to do things a little differently, well, we're setting new records for that this timeout. Not all at once, everyone. Not all at once. Yes. We're definitely, if you're one of those people who's like,

Angel also do things a little differently, you've got to be ecstatic right now because there's stuff I've been hearing that has been way out of left field. And I will, and I will say this, like this whole Vancouver thing, I will say this until I'm blue in the face.

I think if it was totally up to Rutherford, he would promote Ryan Johnson, and that's where we'd be. so what is going on here? I'm stealing this from Laddie, be like, I'm getting reports now that there is a fourth list. There is a fourth list. Well, apparently the trend across the league with the teams that are looking for general managers

is that things are upside down. Left is right, right is left, down is up, up is down. Everything's different from the traditional ways. You know, when people said that they, you know, when people say when, you know, I wish the NHL would do things differently, I didn't hear anyone say like, yeah, like, you know, when they put together lists of candidates for general managers, why not have multiple lists? I wish, I wish.

No, but nobody has, nobody has said that. And, um, this is a, this is potentially a very weird dynamic. If Jim Rutherford has one list and he's doing interviews of those guys and Kinnock's ownership has another list and they're doing interviews of other guys, I thought this was going to be a in tandem thing. And that's what Jim Rutherford suggested on Friday at his press conference when he said, yeah, I'm going to do some interviews. And if ownership wants to sit in, they can do those if they want to ask some questions. And, you know, I know it's been reported that the final decision on this, I think it was Drager that reported it.

The final decision is going to be Aquilini. So what is what is Rutherford's role in this? Like, this is bizarre. Yeah, but I have no idea what's going on because if we're to take whatever. And Friege was obviously light. on some details. And I know with these situations when you're trying to get inside information

and get people to talk off the record, people are obviously going to either speak in code or not give away everything that they've got because it becomes quicker and easier to identify them as the leak or the mole. But if I do wonder if part of this is maybe there's an unprecedented level of

active employees that are being asked to interview and you're needing permission to speak with them. I don't know if that's part of it, but it sounds like that's definitely something that's happening, not just in Vancouver, but also in Nashville and in Toronto. I don't know what makes Nashville and Toronto's searches so unique in their own rights either. I don't know if they've also got multiple lists coming from ownership and the president of hockey ops. It seems all very strange, but also...

There isn't a president in Toronto. Right. So there's not even a guy to put together a list. But also, I don't really care. All I care about is who the higher ends up being. Like, however you want to go up, about getting the guy in place. Part of it is the way... I care. I care about this just because what is going on with this process. Are Rutherford in ownership not working in tandem here?

And I'm not saying... Well, maybe they divvied up the... Maybe they're like, you take that side of it. You take that side of it. That's what it could be. That doesn't seem all that crazy to me, right? That's what it could be. We don't have a ton of time.

You got the, like, the young analytics guys or I'll take the retreads over here, you know? You take four guys golfing. I'll take four guys to a restaurant. Well, maybe they each read off their lists and then they match up the names that are on each list and then the third list is the matched up names and those are the names they talk to. I think the most important thing is that, right?

It's like, we have no matching names. Yeah, we're in trouble. At the end of the day, I want them. This guy's dead. The one thing that... Ross him off. The one thing that I am... The one thing that I am kind of optimistic about

is that it sounds like they're actually interviewing a lot of candidates. Right? What's the one thing that, you know, and Frege brought this. up and other people have brought this up. They've always sort of hand a handpick successor ready to go in a lot of these executive roles. And we often wondered, did you do your due diligence before putting Jim Benning in place or before putting Jim Brotherford in place? How many people

did you interview? How many different individuals did you talk to you of potentially taking this job? So if they're doing a lot of interviews, the methodology I can kind of put to the side. I'm very glad you can put it to the side because I can. I can put it to the side because I cannot. I mean, this is a very, very important hire. I want, I want the process to be functional as opposed to dysfunctional. Brockford, Vancouver throws this out there. This is just, we're all just speculating because this is just a weird situation. Maybe it's not, but it sounds weird. Brockford, Vancouver says, um, I think there is way more with this situation. I think J.R. is interviewing

potential new GMs. I think ownership is interviewing potential new presidents or GMs. That could be it too because we don't I mean that maybe that makes sense because Rutherford would not be

would not be hiring his replacement. No. He's hiring Patrick Lillbby. Maybe ownership wanted yeah. Maybe maybe that's how they divvited it up. It's possible because we have heard that there could be two hires and they go with a president of hockey ops and a general manager. Okay, so that's all we know on the Canucks GM search.

Maybe it's dysfunctional. Maybe there's a perfectly good reason for these multiple lists. Let's go to last night's action in the Stanley Cup playoffs. We've only got a few minutes here, but we'll try and get through as much as we can. Sure, we've got an open segment in the 7 o'clock hour as well, which we can get into some of these. but let's start with what in my mind, in my estimation has been the best series thus far, and that's been Tampa Bay and Montreal.

Two games of two have gone to overtime. Last night, J.J. Moser scores at 1248 of OT to give the lightning an all-important victory, evening the series at one, and here's what it sounded like in overtime. To win the game for Tampa Bay, Moses,

the series at one. So that was a huge win for the lightning, obviously. It might have been a season-saving win for them. Well, you know, when I go down 2-0 heading back to Montreal where it's going to be absolutely insane, and the habs are good. If they get goal-tending, the habs are very good.

The one thing I will say about the lightning is they are lucky that they won that game because for the first half of that game, I would say that they were playing like a bunch of idiots. Well, at the end, too. Well, look, they won the game, though, right? So, you know, Corey Perry goes out there and takes some penalties. He basically took the lightning off of a power play and put the habs on one with his decision making.

And I get that's their identity, right? Like, we're the new goons, right? Like, I understand it. Florida changed them, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, I think Columbus too, right? Like, like going back to getting eliminated all those years ago, they decided we're going to bring in some toughness. and they've really run with that. But, you know, Kutrov was playing like an idiot for the first half of that game.

And he was lucky that he didn't get called for multiple penalties. You know, there was, I think it was Josh Anderson. It was a blatant interference call and no reason to do it. And it should have been called. There was another slash. Slash the players stick out of his hands. Might have been a bit of a soft call if it got made. But they were playing with fire.

And then the half. Inexperience started to show. Like, there was a bit of a, there's a bit of trend of plays. There was one play where Demadoff didn't even come close to gaining the center line and iced it. Like, he either should have tried parter to gain the center line or one of your favorites, just do a soft dump into the corner. Instead, he just blatantly iced it. Now, the Habs didn't pay a price on that one.

but for me it kind of started to show a bit of a trend Slavkovsky who was such a key player in game one and to his credit I suppose earlier in game two dropped the gloves with Brandon Hagel who then dropped him yep but he fought he also had a really bad giveaway that led to a Tampa goal and then now do Kirby Doc

and then Kirby Doc had a similar play to I guess to Demadoff where he didn't game the line and he iced it and it caused a goal against. So the game kind of flipped from the lightning, I thought, playing somewhat recklessly and running around and not looking all that organized. And Montreal, you know, after the first period, I think at a 12-6 advantage on the shot clock and they looked like they were going to take a two-nothing win. And then all of a sudden, I guess the lightning pulled it together and Montreal showed a bit of inexperienced. that's the way I saw it at least.

If you're Montreal, you're absolutely fine with what happened over the first two games in Tampa Bay. You got the split. You were an overtime goal away from taking a commanding two-nothing lead on the road. You're good. If you're Tampa Bay, you've got some concerns because they really, you talked about the stupidity. And that's what John Cooper called it after the first game when they took all those penalties. You really didn't see them clean up the stupidity. The penalty by Sabrin.

And by the way, John Cooper's got to own some of this. Why on earth would you have fourth-liner? Scott Sabrin out at the end of a three on three, a two two tie in regulation with minutes to go. Why would you even put him in that position? He takes the penalty on Anderson, which was a clear retaliatory penalty because Anderson's been running around nailing guys the entire series. And scoring goals. Yeah. So I don't know exactly what to make of the Tampa Bay side of things.

I think that they're going to be super energized from that goal by J.J. Moser, what goes without saying. but also if it's not Slavkovsky, the best player in that series right now is Hegel, and it's not even considerably close. And I actually think right now, if you were to ask me, I'd say Hegel's been better over the course of the two games than Slavkovsky.

If you're Chicago, I know Chicago is still in a rebuild and they got a good return for Hegel, but do you think there's any way they thought he would become the player that he is right now? Probably not. You know, where he's on Team Canada and, you know, actually a pretty good player

for Team Canada. Terrific. And you watch him now and he clearly stands out. Like, I think it was set on the broadcast yesterday and I agreed with it. He's the heartbeat of the lightning right now.

Brandon Hegel. They identify, they do a good job of that is identifying guys that might not fit the age curve of a particular team and then try and get them, like they like getting guys

that are in their RFA years too. Like, Hegel's going to be 28 this year. Right? And you're talking about a Chicago team that going into this new season in the fall when Hague will be 28 probably isn't a playoff team again. So was it a good move for them?

Yeah, I'd say so. I mean, it's not unlike the conversations we're having about erroneic right now. Great player. You love to have them. Does he fit your age curve? Probably not. But you also have that conversation about Detroit.

You know, should they have traded them away? I agree 100%. Should they have traded away? Could they have used them? Probably. It wouldn't have had to blow their brains out on Justin Falk then, which was really dumb and could cost them even more in the draft lottery.

Yeah, the lightning going for it, I don't want to get going here, but the lightning going forward are going to be really interesting because they play with a certain edge. And it is part of their identity. And I personally, I love it. Yep, that's good. I think it's great. I think it adds a lot to the league.

I think they have turned into the villains of the NHL in some ways, which is hilarious because Coops their coach. And you're like, coops like this, but he is. Like, he's a Prince George guy. He embraced this sort of stuff. So, you know, You know, it's part of their identity, but when you have an identity like that, you have to balance things.

And you have to know when the right time to mix it up is and when the wrong time to, you know, play on the edge and play a little recklessness. Because, you know, it really could have led to them being down to nothing in this series, especially if the HABs had scored on that late penalty in regulation. you know, it would have been the first game. They gave up three power play goals and Coops after is like, we've got to take less penalties. And then the second game, can you imagine if they had lost that on a dumb penalty with two minutes left in the game? We'll continue this conversation with David Amber.

Coming up next on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. It's Canucks Central on SportsNet 650. From exclusive interviews to insider scoops and post-game breakdowns, we've got it all. Tune in weekdays 4 to 6 p.m. on radio and on demand through your favorite podcast app. It is time for David Amber. He is on the hotline, baby.

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pooping in my pants. There's a massive butt coming here, guys. No one's fighting Rick talking. No one wants to fight Rick talking. I'm on the hotline, baby. It is. It's David. It is, it's David.

Amber, it is, it's David. He's on the hotline. 635 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sports Night 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Are you getting collection calls? If you are, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up 80% and stop those calls.

Visit them today at Sands-Trustee.com. Still an hour one of the program. David Amber Hockey Nighting Canada. The SportsNet NHL host is going to join us in just a moment here. Our one of this program is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid.

Visit the Middle 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the Able Auctions Hotline we go. Our next guest is a presentation of Angry Otter Liquor. David Amber joins us now on the Halford and Breath Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, David. How are you? Jason, Mike. I'm doing well.

How are you guys? We're well as well. we get to dive into all of these series with you right now because we spent the early part of the show talking about the Canucks GM search. So let's get into the one that we did manage to talk about. Montreal, Tampa Bay. It's often said that styles make series

and I think we've got a great stylistic matchup here. You get the old veteran angry, kind of rough and tumble. The angry old man from Tampa. And then you've got the young, skillful up and comers from Montreal. Lo and behold, I would say, and I know it's early days and everything, but the best series so far out of all of the eight, this one between Tampa Bay and Montreal.

Agree or disagree, David. Yeah, it's been fun. I mean, it's hard to argue with two overtime games and all the behind the scene, all, you know, after every whistle, the scrums, we got a, you know, Brandon Hagel and a Gordial hatrick last night. It's had a bit of everything,

some great goaltending. It's been really good. I will say, did you guys see Ottawa, Carolina game too. Yep. A few talking points from that one, I would say. Yeah, I mean, that to me was the best single game. It was just

the pace of that game up and down. Lena Solmark was sensational. So was Freddie Anderson, except for that second goal. So that one game stood out to me as the best game I've seen so far, but I'd say you're right. The best series, Tampa, Montreal. It just feels like it's going to a seventh game already.

The teams are so evenly bash. It's just been, it's been fun to watch. I know we were all looking forward to the scene in Buffalo and in game one. It certainly didn't disappoint, especially the way that that game ended. But, you know, I can't imagine the scene in Montreal. I know they were in the playoffs last season, but it feels a little more real this season and like they've got an actual chance to win this series.

What do you think is going to be like in Montreal? It's going to be nuts. And the scene in Buffalo wasn't, I mean, it felt like a football game. I mean, those fans are insane, right? It's a football or a NASCAR wrestling crowd in Buffalo. They're there to party. They're there to drink their faces off. You know, it was quite a, it was 14 years of pent up, whatever,

and it was just letting itself out outside Key Banker, you know, which was fun to see. And then that comeback in game one, four goals in, what, six minutes or something? It looked nuts. I was like, damn, I wish I was there. I know. It looked so much fun. But Montreal is going to be, it's going to be nuts. And I think you hit it on the head. Last year was like, hey, we snuck in. No one expected us to be here. We're happy to be part of the dance this year. It's like, no, we want to make some noise. We belong here. And, you know, they finish with the same amount of points as Tampa. Yes, they're the road underdog, if you want to put it that way. But I don't think that many people will be shocked if Montreal does get through to the next round. The scene in Montreal this weekend, and it's weird they're not playing on a Saturday. I don't understand this scheduling, really. But they're playing Friday and Sunday.

So I guess you could argue they, in a way, get two weekend games. So there's that. It's going to be dynamic. And you heard a few of the Montreal players last night. Disappointed that they, you know, I guess you could say squandered the opportunity to sweep Tampa in Tampa in the first two games. But they all said, we just can't wait to be back on home ice because I think that's a discernible, you know, advantage. Not just the atmosphere guys, but Kevin Vioxed made a point of this. You know, Nick Suzuki and Caulfield have been kind of held at bay five on five.

so far in the series. And that's kudos to John Cooper getting the defensive matchups and the offensive matchups he wants against that line. Let's see when Martin Sinloi has the last change, you know, if he can find a mismatch there against the third or fourth line of Tampa in an offensive situation where you can get Suzuki and Caulfield get them loose a little bit five on five and that can be a big difference moving forward. You know, Montreal, if they can get goaltending and so far they've been getting pretty good

goal tending, they could go to the Stanley Cup final. I'm not predicting it. I'm just saying, I know you've said similar things about Ottawa, right? And they're in a really tough series with Carolina. But I just feel like the East is just wide open. And there are multiple teams, two Canadian teams, that could in theory,

like it wouldn't be crazy if they made a run to the Stanley Cup final. Oh God, not at all. I mean, the East is wide open. It really is. It's completely upside down from a year ago. The bottom four teams in the Eastern, the playoffs this year. I mean, that's nuts. It is wide open.

And you mentioned the goaltending. Here's the thing. Like, what's the most assured goaltending in the Eastern Conference? You know, Stuart Skinner in Philadelphia, Dan Vlodar, or sorry, Dan Bladar, Philadelphia. It might be him. You know, it's just a, it's, yeah, Dovish has looked just as good as anyone else, if not better. So you're absolutely right. I have, yeah, this is what I think makes the playoffs really compelling this year is there is so many,

I don't even know if you call it underdogs. I guess this is what Gary Bettman was sort of fighting for, right? Parody in the league, salary cap era, and on any given, you know, night or series of nights, a team can pull through. You know, even Colorado in L.A., and I recognize Colorado's won both games, but those have been dog fights. You know, I got home last night out of state. studio and I caught the third period of LA, Colorado and the overtime.

And I was, you know, there were three minutes away, L.A. from tying that series. Not that I don't think Colorado is going to win the series, but we're now staring down two, two to one games. That's what it's been so far in those games. The margins are so, so close. And like you said, in the Eastern Conference, that's really magnified. We're speaking to David Amber Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet, NHL host here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650 on the subject of goaltending, David, specifically in the East. What does Buffalo do

for game three now? Because Uke Pekyllukin, and, you know, several people pointed this out on social media in Vancouver. He had his Dan Clucche moment, perhaps, with that goal allowed by Morgan Geeky, the sort of flip in from center. And then, after allowing four, was pulled from that game by

Lindy Rough, 16 seconds in to the third period. What is Rough do for game three now in a series of tied one-one? That's a really good question. I heard U.P. Luchanan's postgame news conference, and he certainly said all the right things. He sort of said, luck, I made a mistake, he pushed past that. He wasn't hanging his head. He didn't look like, oh, oh, you know, he's lost his confidence. He was saying all the right

things, you know, which to me, Lindy Ruff chose to start him in game one. You know, why not go back to him? But you're right. I am sure there's going to be a lot of conversation, and this will be the chat over the next 48 hours in Buffalo, I'm sure, is what's going to happen here. And Alex Lyon, if you guys remember Florida a few years ago, he was a big reason why they made the playoffs. He had that incredible run down the stretch where they had to win those last seven, eight games to get into the postseason. And he was part of their run to the Stanley Cup final that year. So he has played in high leverage moments. And, you know, he had a great season. They've sort of had this two-slash-three-headed goaltending monster in Buffalo all year.

when you throw Colton Ellison in the mix, too. So I honestly, I'm interested to see, but my guess would be that UP Luchanan, you know, gets back in there because he did make some big saves, you know, previous to that fluky goal. You know, Buffalo needs to get the lead here. They came from behind in game one. They've barely played with a lead in this series.

So I think, you know, get Lukin in there, get the first goal, let him play with a lead, let Boston chase a little bit. and see how that goes. Another team that's trailed for the most part throughout their series. And this is definitely the most surprising results of any of the series so far as Pittsburgh being down 02 in its series to Philly after losing both games opening in Pittsburgh. So the series shifts back to Philly tonight.

It's a 4 o'clock puck drop. It's the first of three games tonight. How are you expecting maybe a two-parter? I think we know what the reaction is going to be like in Philadelphia for this game and this rivalry. but how does Rick Tockett's team respond because there is that chance of being too eager, too excited against the Pittsburgh team that's pretty much in like can't lose territory right now?

Hopefully Pittsburgh is a little excited. They haven't even looked like they've looked like, they've looked like nothing. I've been really disappointed in the Penguins. Yeah, I mean, I think that's been one of the big storylines is just how stifling this Philadelphia team has been so far and frustrating. And did you guys see Crosby in game one?

Yeah. He was losing his mind. And, you know, you're winning when you have their other team's best players, you know, worried about other things. And they have just been, it's been a steady diet of just bump and crash and flash and annoy. And it's worked perfectly. And Dan Vlodar has been fantastic. Guy makes 52 starts for the regular season. Doesn't get a single shutout and then shuts out Pittsburgh in game, too.

I know what you're saying about their home ice, they want to show things to the fans. The one thing is, and you guys know Rick Tocke it as good as anyone or as well as anyone, he has a good way to reign in his team. Not get too high, not get too low. It sounds like such a cliche, but I bet you he's sitting there and he's probably preaching to them like, this is a zero-zero-zero game.

Yeah, we won the first two, but if they come and win game three, it's a whole new series. And preaching probably, we need to stick to the discipline that we showed in the first two games and not get ahead of ourselves. But this is everything. I mean, tonight is the series, right? And it could completely, it's one of those swing games

where if Pittsburgh wins, suddenly, we have a series. But if the Flyers win, it's a massive road for Pittsburgh. I am really interested, though. And you know what? It feels to me and watching, I haven't watched a ton of this series, but I've watched it enough to sort of say, God, Pittsburgh looks like the slower team generally.

Yep. you know guys doesn't it feel like they've run not run out of gas but like we talked about how old they were the whole season and now it's like oh yeah they look old now well david a texter uh earlier in the week made a great comparison and he compared the penguins to the two thousand fourteen 15 canucks now the canox had just cleaned house and and they brought in willie de jordan as head coach and uh you know jim benning was there Trevor Trevor linden was there and you may remember in that first year they made the playoffs and it was you know it was after the torts year and you know people were like ah the the canucks need to rebuild including mike gillis who got fired for saying it but you know they they didn't rebuild they made the playoffs and they took kind of some victory laps because of it you know they were like you know a lot of people said we should have torn it down but we didn't and we made the playoffs and the sedans look good and then they came up against young calgary in the playoffs and

I'm not saying Calgary's Philly, but, you know, they lost that series to the flames, and it became very, very apparent that even after they had that great regular season, there needed to be big changes and there was going to be some pain. Yeah, and maybe they've just delayed the inevitable, right? Like, I don't think anyone's looking at this Pittsburgh team and say this is a Stanley Cup caliber team. So if the goal is to not just make the playoffs but to win a Stanley Cup, they probably have to, as you say, like in earnest begin the rebuild. One thing I will say, and leave Sidney Crosby out of this because he's just above and beyond like what a team does.

I think Sidney Crosby has earned the right to do what... If he wants to be traded, he can ask to be traded. If he wants to stay in Pittsburgh for another three years in play, he's earned that right. I think you have to leave him out of the equation. But when you go through, they have a series of free agents, including Stu Skinner and Anthony Manchin, I mean, they could definitely change the complexion of this team

and do some things so it does feel and look different. And maybe they delayed the inevitable for a year because they weren't really expected to be here. So I understand the notion of what you're saying. And I don't disagree with it. And I'm sure those are the sorts of conversations that will have to take place at a high level this off-season. What are we going to do here?

And it's not like full rebuild. It's not like that at all. It's more just, you know, do we have to accept that we've got to move on? I think the eldest team in the league, I think we have 12 guys, 30 and older, which in this day and age is ancient, as we know, it's such a young man's game. So those are some important questions to ask. I would still love to watch, you know, Crosby have his moment in this year's postseason. It's been three years since we've seen him in the postseason.

I'd like them to go out and have a night where he's doing dynamic things, and they've really, you know, done a great job of stifling him so far. But again, we've learned in our lifetime of watching hockey, never discount Sidney Crosby and the power he has to take over games and kind of pull his team up from their bootstraps. So we'll see what tonight brings, but I agree with you big picture. Philosophically, this is a team, the Penguins,

that are going to have to get younger and have to sort of retool their lineup from what it is today. Is Connor McDavid going to have himself a night tonight against the Anaheim Ducks? How embarrassing. he didn't even get a point in game one. Fortunately, the Oilers, well, fortunately for the Oilers, they were able to win that game. You know, on the one hand, you could say, well, good for Anaheim for keeping McDavid off the score sheet, but the problem is they lost

the game and now he's going to come into game two and be extra motivated if that's possible to have himself a night. I view this through the prism of that was the perfect game for the Oilers. Every storyline. Drysaddle comes back, amazing. Jason Dickinson, he was a game type decision, scores two goals. Caponin scores two goals. McDavid held off the score sheet. Somehow they went. Connor Ingram, despite allowing three goals, he made some massive saves and got a little lucky in the last 50 seconds when Grandlin missed the empty net. But Ingram made some big save. So I think that was sort of another question mark.

It wasn't, if you said, hey, the Oilers won four to three, how does this play out? We're all saying, well, MacDavit, four points, the power play this, this, this, none of those things happened. It was a perfect blueprint to win a game unconventionally for a team that that's on how they win. And now you know McDavid's going to be Big David because that's who he is. And it's it could be a very tough night for Anaheim because McDavid is one of the few players in this league who can take over a game. And certainly they're going to have to play with a lot of

discipline because the Oilers Power Play, we all know how lethal that can be. So what's fun about that series, guys, is, again, I think we kind of go in. Most series, it's two to one tight checking. I'm expected it'll probably be like a six-five game tonight. I just think that's how this series is going to shake down. So it'll be a lot of fun for us to see. Multiple lead changes. You know, despite the fact that McDavid didn't get a point,

I thought it was very much an Oilers game in game one. You know, they go out to the two-nothing lead. And I don't think anyone's comfortable, you know, and then all of a sudden, wait a minute, Anaheim's winning this game. And then the Oilers are suddenly in this position and be like, all right, let's go. Let's score some goals. And then they did. And I've talked about it a few times, maybe talked about it too much.

But on the winning goal, that zone entry by Drysiddle where he just takes on two ducks and gets it in there. And then Podkosa makes a nice pass to Kaepinan. But, you know, I'm watching Drysiddle and be like, was this guy supposed to be maybe not ready to play this game? Because I don't know what they did in Germany, but he looks pretty good to me. Yeah, you know, and a few guys have talked about it who played the game, and it's just he's a different animal. Like, guys who miss a month usually take some, you know, four or five games to get where they feel physically, psychologically, emotionally, where they need to be not this guy. He's an absolute warrior. I mean, look at his numbers.

He actually is in the all-time greats when it comes to playoff performance, and that it's not a small sample size anymore. Leon Drysiddle's been, you know, when I don't know how many 15 playoff series or something. something like that. His numbers are outrageous, right? Outrageous. So he's a total dog, and it was great to see him back because there's a guy, and I know we all talk about McDavid and his want and desire for a cup. And having spent some time with Leon Drysettle, he's just as competitive. He is just as, you know, you know, understated maybe compared to McDavid and the emotion we saw in that behind the scene series, but I'm telling you, it eats a,

this guy to win a championship in talking to him. And he's as fierce a competitor as there is in the league. And, you know, I think that's the beauty for Edmonton, that two-headed monster on a night when McDavid was really struggling, certainly by his standards. You know, Leon Drysettle took over the game at the most pivotal time and ultimately led to the Euler win. So, yeah, it's funny. I don't know what the regiment was.

We don't even exactly know what the injury was. It was kind of an innocuous injury that kept them out. the last month. But clearly, I actually said this going into the playoffs, certain players who had time off before, it sometimes serves them well. You know, Zach Heimann had some time off as well. And you want

these guys to be as healthy and ready to go as possible. And Leon Drysaddle looks like he's perfectly ready to go. 143 points in 97 playoff games for Drysiddle. In terms of points, in terms of points per game, there are not

many in that category. You're talking about Gretzky, Lemieux, McDavid, and then dry-siddle, it might be dry-siddle there, so it's pretty incredible. Good chat today, David, enjoy the games, as always, and thanks for joining us. Yeah,

thanks so much, guys, enjoy, we'll talk to. David Amber on SportsNet 650 was brought to by Angry Otter Licker, plus program members, save for game days at Angry Outer Liquor, like Ole, Double Shop Margaritas, and Paloma four packs for only 1499. Oh, those are good. I like the Ole

Palomas. More offers at Angry Otterlicker. Dot CRS. Don't just... It's a nice summer drink. They are good. It's a nice summer drink. Olau'll it makes a lot of good stuff. But again, don't just settle for what I'm reading about. You have to go to angry otterlicker.cr.s for more offers. Will the, will the otter be there? No. He doesn't work on the website. Oh, okay. He's more of a cashier kind of guy. Yeah. He's had a number of HR complaints. Yeah, don't make eye contact with him ever. Okay. Yeah. We got a lot more to get into on the program. Hour one is in the books. Our

two is on the horizon. Frank Sarah Valley, our NHL insider from Victory Plus is going to join us. Maybe we can get some more information on the Kinnock's GM search, the names, the list, all of it. Frank's going to join us at 7. 7.30, we got an open segment. We still haven't gotten to a couple of games from last night,

including the late one, which ended probably when most of you were in bed. Colorado did end up winning in overtime against the Los Angeles Kings yesterday to take a 2-0 series lead there. So we can do the open segment at 730. 8 o'clock Randip's going to join the program. 8.30, we're going to do what we learns. That's your chance to be on the radio.

It's all coming up in the final two hours of the program. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650.