Halford & Brough in the Morning - "Operation: Keep Quinn Hughes Happy" Is Fast Approaching

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk yesterday's Abbotsford Canucks playoff loss that puts them up 2-1 in the series versus Texas, they hear from Elliotte Friedman on Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes (3:00), plus they talk the latest NHL news with ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (28:23). 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-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- for Carroll and front shot scores! A second shorthanded goal for the Texas Stars! That's such a downer. All right, give us a mooner. Hello, I'm Dr. Cheeks. I'm doing my rounds and I'm a little behind. Good morning, Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody, it is Halford and his bruv. It is Sportsnet 650, we are coming live

in the Kintec studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello.

Halford and bruv of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 5-star reviews. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. We're right at the start of the show. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics, working together with you in step. We got a lot to get into on the show today. It's a four-guester, and we got two guests in the eight o'clock hour, Jason,

so know what we learned today in the traditional format. We might sprinkle some in throughout the show, but the guest list today begins at 6 30. Greg Wyshinski, our ESPN insider from for the NHL is going to join us. It's media day today at the Stanley Cup final in Edmonton. Just one day ahead of the start of the series tomorrow. Wish has a huge profile piece up right now on ESPN about Brad Marshawn. Brad Marshawn says he wants to live in the moment in this Stanley Cup final. He don't want to miss a thing. That's nice.

Anyway, we'll talk to Wish about that. I also want to ask. Now I'm tired of the Brad Marshawn story. I was like, I was like, yeah, it's, it's funny how, you know, he's become this, uh, this kind of wise character. Now I'm like, it's a little too much. I'm back to not liking him.

Good. Right ahead of the Stanley Cup final. That's good. I also want to ask Wish, what the heck is going on with the Dallas Stars? I know he's ensconced in Stanley Cup final talk, but the Dallas Stars sure took on a main character energy yesterday. We'll get into that and what happened as well,

but Greg Wyshynski at 6.30 to talk about all that. Seven o'clock, we asked yesterday, what's it like to be a fan of one of the worst teams in the 122 year history of Major League Baseball? Then we started thinking, what's it like to cover one of the worst teams in the 122 year of history of Major League Baseball? So we got Patrick Saunders,

a Colorado Rockies beat writer for the Denver Post. He's gonna join us at seven a.m. at 10 and 50. That's their record through 60 games, 10 and 50. Colorado is off to the worst 60 game start in MLB's modern era. So we'll talk to Patrick about all that at seven o'clock. Then at eight o'clock, going to be joined by Nathan Rourke, studying quarterback for your BC Lions. The Lions open their season this Saturday at 7 p.m.

against the visiting Edmonton Elks. And that, of course, will be preceded at 5 45 by Snoop Snoopaloo. Bring your green hat. He will headline the concert kickoff series at BC Play. So Saturday should be a lot of fun. We'll talk to Nathan about that. Working with Buck Pierce this preseason, the New Look offense. Maybe we'll even get a couple of questions in about his his famous brother,

who's now a member of the San Francisco 49ers. That's at eight o'clock with Nathan Rourke. Eight thirty. Very excited to get this guest on the show. We've been chasing him for forever. Jesse Marsh is going to join the program. Canadian men's national team manager. Canada has a very busy slate upcoming. They're going to play the Ukraine this Saturday, then the Ivory Coast on Tuesday. And then the Cunca Cap gold cup starts against Honduras

on Tuesday, June 17th, right here, BC place. Of course, Jesse Marsh will miss the first two games of the gold cup, because he's still suspended for that red card that he took in the nation's league against the US. So we'll ask him about what's the plan there. That's why we love him. That's why we love him.

What are you going to do? Do you have walkie talkies? How are you going to get down to the pitch? Talk to the guys on the touch line. He should be like, we've got a secret program. We've been working with some drones. Jesse, don't do that. Apparently, this is round-upon.

I didn't know this, but they don't like it when we use the drones. So Jesse Marsh is going to join us at 8.30. It's going to be the final yes to the final segment of the show today. We are giving away yet again for the second day in a row. We're doing it every day this week. A $50 gift card to White Spot awarded daily caller number five at 815 this morning. So right in the middle of the Nathan Rourke interview,

the phone number is 604-280-0650. That number again, 604-280-0650 that number again. 604-280-0650. A $50 White Spot gift card. White Spot BC Spot to celebrate all of life's big and little moments. Okay, that is what's happening on the program today. It's a big show obviously. We got a lot to get into.

So without further ado, 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 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 happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca.

We should start with the Abbotsford Canucks. Their reign of terror over the Texas Stars ended last night. Hopefully just abruptly, they did lose Game 3 of the Calder Cup Western Conference Finals at the H.E.B. Center. The H.E.B. Center, Jason, a five to law. Call it the Hebb, the Hebb, the five to law. So thank you. Or the Abbotsford Canucks, sorry, a five two loss. They call it the heb. The heb. They have five two loss. So the Vancouver or the Abbots or Canucks, sorry. Against the Texas stars on, on Monday night.

I, uh, the show should apologize. We apologize. Uh, we made yesterday, uh, about Archer's sea loves and, uh, whether his tremendous play in the Calder Cup playoffs should make the Canucks think any differently about their off season, about what they're going to do for the goal tending. You know, we ask questions like, is Artie ready to be the backup next season? And then the star scored five times on him yesterday.

Thirty six shots, five goals on everything changes after that. Forget that plan. Don't trade Demko. I don't even know what plan we endorse. I don't think we endorsed a plan but I talked about it yeah we just talked about it could they do that and sorry Artie so game four you'll get you we won't talk about it we won't talk about it so then prove us wrong again or whatever in the next game is the Halford Brff jinx. And that's on us. That's on us game three. Don't worry about anything. That was our fault.

We won't ruin it again. In Arthur Silov's defense, it should be noted that the Abbotsford Canucks did not play very well in front of their netminder yesterday. Their once seemingly unbeatable penalty kill was dinged twice as Texas scored twice on the power play. Here's a crazy one Texas scored twice yesterday

Shorthanded anyone want to wager a guess on how many shorthanded goals the Abbotsford Canucks gave up during the regular season? The answer is zero none none. They didn't give up a single Shorthanded goal during the regular season. This is a big time how far to brought What do we do? The statistical anomaly alone anyway Linus Carlson did score again for the Abbotsford Canucks, but it was a very one-sided game for the Texas Can I play a bit of audio Greg? You absolutely can you may have heard it in the, and I talked to you before the show, Halford,

but the Texas Stars apparently have the loudest goal horn in the history of hockey. 15 seconds left, Lindemann with a shot, scores! Here's Hughes, backdoor pass, Blumel scores! Hooroo, Blumel shot, scores! Huck loose and they score! Strongess! Who shot scores Gets it back for Carol in front shot scores

That's that's overpowering the broadcast Sound that loud does it? Was drowning out Brandon Astle's call, I guess it's a smaller arena. It's not like a big NHL arena Sounds like they get like their horn. It sounds like the Dallas Stars Just in a smaller arena to the have they said that the head is quite small and intimate. I'm just kidding I don't even know what a TV is, but they guess they go all out in Texas. Okay, bigger in Texas This is a this is a really dumb question to the point where I'm like Is this what it feels like to be ADOC? Are all the horns actual horns or are some of them just played over the speaker?

Good question. Because is that one just Dallas's horn that they play over the speaker? If it's that loud, I'm guessing it's the real horn or a similar horn to what they have there. But there are a few teams that do play it through the speakers. Okay. And I know way too much about this than I probably should.

Okay. I love it. But different- Like do the Canucks have a real horn? Yes, the Canucks have a real horn and it's tuned to sound like the fairies actually. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Uh, the, this horn in Boston and the horn in the New York Rangers arena are played through the speakers because of local municipal laws about blaring horns indoors. This is the most interesting. Certain places don't let you have indoor horns. This is the most interesting ever. Really?

Yes, including Boston and the New York Rangers. So if you listen to the- That was a good follow up question. If you listen- Are you really the head of the Quiggy Bar? What? Really? That's why when you hear the Rangers of Ruin score,

it's the same amount of honks. It's a clip. They're playing a horn clip every time. Wow, I didn't know that. That's so impressive, Greg. Do you know what the loudest gold horn in the NHL is? I thought it might have been Dallas. Chicago.

They were in the first, too. 120 decibels. There you go. Roberto Luongo would know. Roberto Luggo would know that. I heard it seven times. One. Hey, hey, hey, hey, here's a good set. Here's a good seg. OK, there's a lot of noise in the NHL right now. Oh, you know what?

Well, let's go. We got to get into this. OK, so all due respect to the Abbots for Connection, we're moving along here because there there does appear to be some heat, heat emanating from the National Hockey League non-Stanley Cup division. Let's go through some of these key dates first because I wanna give everyone a sense of where we're at and what the next few weeks are gonna be like.

Cause we only get a couple of really good weeks in June, leading up to the end of July, but before everything falls off. Okay, it's June 3rd today, that's important. weeks in June leading up to the end of July, but before everything falls off. Okay. It's June 3rd today. That's important. Does everyone know that? That one is important because, you know, live in the moment like Brad Marshawn.

In fact, it's media day today at the Stanley Cup final in Edmonton. So we'll probably for tomorrow's show at the very least, we'll have some audio to play if there's any good stuff coming out of Edmonton at media day. Game one of the Stanley Cup final is tomorrow and Gary Bettman is scheduled to do his annual state of the league.

Now, if it goes seven games, game seven will be on Friday, June 20th. So that is the last possible day of the Stanley Cup final, June 20th. The scouting combine is on now in Buffalo. They do it in Buffalo every year, right? It's their signature event. That's their thing.

Buffalo loves the combine. We're never losing the combine. It's all years built around this in Buffalo. So right now there's interviews with the players going on. So all the organizations are there talking to 18 year olds and asking them really tough questions. Um, and that goes on through, through this weekend, basically.

Um, the draft is June 27th to 28th. So June 3rd today, draft 27. Three weeks away basically. Three weeks away from the draft and then free agency is July 1st. So the Canucks are going to be busy over the next few weeks. There's no way they're going to wait until July

1st to make all their changes. In fact, Rutherford made an interesting comment at the end of the season when, when he said, if we have the cap space, we'll try to be active in free agency, which I suppose means there's a chance they won't have much cap space by that point, most likely because they've traded some form of futures, be they picks or prospects for actual NHL players

with actual NHL contracts. So these next three weeks, pretty much, we're looking at it. I mean, the three and a half weeks maybe, maybe some of their work gets done at the draft, but because it's a virtual draft this year, and Gary Bettman is like, the teams wanted it this way. I said, I wouldn't do that, but they wanted it this way. So I guess after the draft, because we're hearing some people that say, maybe we shouldn't do it. Well, you wanted it. Guilty mom mode of Gary, Batman.

People are saying a lot of these deals. Well, where is everyone right now? They're at the scouting combine. So maybe that's where some of the stuff is going to go down. Okay. So you mentioned the Vancouver Connects there. maybe that's where some of the stuff is gonna go down Mm-hmm. Okay, so you mentioned the Vancouver Canucks there talk about a great morning of segues Paul in the Okanagan formerly the Sunshine Coast texts in very interesting Intel on the Vancouver Canucks from Elliot Friedman on the Kipper and Bourne show yesterday Well, Paul, guess what? We've got that audio for you two clips show yesterday. Well, Paul, guess what? We've got that audio for you. Two clips each on the teams. I would say most important players,

one on Quinn Hughes and one on Alias Pedersen. The first is Freage talking about a question posed by Nick Caprio about the noise, the noise around Quinn Hughes this off season. And if it's going to linger all the way to say July, Elliot said there's one way for the Vancouver Canucks to silence all this and there's only one way and that's for the team to return to its winning ways. Here's more, Elliot Friedman on Fan 590,

real Kipper and Bourne yesterday on the future of Quinn Hughes. There's only one thing that's gonna change all this and that is Vancouver has a really good year and Vancouver's a contender. Last year when they went to the second round of playoffs and took Edmunds into seven games, nobody was talking about any of this stuff. Nobody. And this year, they have a nightmare of a year. They trade Miller, they missed the playoffs, their coach leaves.

Now this comes out. I think guys don't leave situations where they think they can win. Guys want to win. Unless they got two brothers they really want to play with. Yeah. But you know what? Yeah. You know what, Nick? I got to tell you something. I think if he thought Vancouver was a winner, I don't even think this would be a question. I really don't. If he thought he could win here, you know, you can, like the thing is like, I had one agent say to me a couple of years ago,

he had a player that was a little bit unhappy and he had a team that had like a monster deal on the table for him. And he said, he said to the player, the one of the things they talked about was like, like you could win here. And he goes, yeah, and they got a lot of money on the table. Yeah. He says, look, like if you sign the contract and things go badly, you don't think we can maybe force an exit to go somewhere else. Like you can always do that. Paths can always change. You know, these agents, they have a lot of power.

Players have a lot of power. Situations go badly. Players have more power in the NHL than they've ever had before. So I look at it this way. If you're Quinn Hughes, I think more than anything else, he wants to win. And if the Vancouver Canucks are in position to where are in a situation where they can win, I don't think we're hearing a lot of this noise. But

like Jim Rutherford is a smart guy. He doesn't throw that comment out there at the end of the season by accident. He knows they had a really hard year and if they had and if it continues to go like this Queen News is going to start looking and saying I don't want to be somewhere where I'm not going to win. So I don't think this is a question if the Canucks are a winner. I think it's purely a question because they're not going very well. So that sort of starts to point everything in the direction of where this summer is going to go. If you're fully invested in what Fridge is throwing out there, there's a couple of things and you'll hear it in the second clip as well. Jim Rutherford has once again moved to the forefront of all these discussions.

Yes, Patrick Alveen is still the general manager, but it's very clear between the media availabilities and the insiders talking that Jim Rutherford is the driving force behind a lot of the decisions that are being made and The clear and obvious one here is that this team has no interest no interest in a dog's far-fetched plan of you know trading Quinn Hughes this summer that the entire Impetus of the organization is get better get back to winning and do whatever it takes to get there now We've gone through this exercise before. A lot of people disagree with it. A lot of people don't think it's possible. You pointed out on a number of occasions, rightly so, I might add, how difficult the task at hand

is going to be between what's available in free agency and what might not be available in free agency and what little they have to trade. So, let's pivot to another piece of audio. This, of course, also talking about trades. Friesen was asked about Elias Pedersen and his future. Now note in this clip, not just about how he downplays the possibility of a trade, but also yet again,

how important a role and figure Jim Rutherford is in all of this. This is Elliott Friedman. Same thing. Kipper and born yesterday, fan 590, talking about the future of Elias Pedersen in Vancouver. Jim Rutherford is the guy who spearheaded signing Pedersen. He was the guy who was most behind it. He was the guy who wanted to do it. I don't think everybody in the Vancouver organization

was sold about it when they did it, but Jim Rutherford who had the biggest voice and the biggest vote, he was. And so you have to tell me that he's changed his mind or he feels there's something he's got to do differently. Now, I think at different times this year, the Canucks really thought about it. You know, I think one of the issues was that Pederson struggled so much this year, that it kind of hurt his value. And I don't think they, look, I mean, ultimately the better thing to do, Nick,

is solve your problem as opposed to trade your problem. And I think that is their goal. The other thing too is, you know, if you're concerned about Quinn Hughes' future and clearly they are, how do you feel about yourself as an organization if you have a situation where both Hughes and Pedersen could be gone in a couple years. I think you would consider that a major disappointment. So I know they've looked into it, I know they've considered it, I

think they know exactly what his value is, but I always remember that Jim Rutherford was the guy who made the decision to sign him. It wasn't unanimous, he did it. So you've gotta convince me that Jim Rutherford has changed his mind. G, who do you think, which members of the Vancouver organization, I don't know if they're still there, but which members of the Vancouver organization

do you think might have been, you know, like, I don't know if we should sign this guy. Did anyone of significance leave this off season? To the fact that Jim Rutherford was the driving force behind it, even though there were some dissenters in the Vancouver organization, or at the very least, some people going, I don't know if you should do this. Who do you think that could be?

It could be anyone, I suppose. It really could be, Jason. Yeah, yeah, it could be anyone. Did anyone leave? No one of note. Let's just call them Rick T. He didn't quit though. He wants to make that abundantly clear.

No, no, no, that's too obvious. That's too obvious. He did not. Our talk it, okay. His contract just expired. That's right, yeah, he didn't just leave. There's nothing to see there. So there's nothing to see there.

In the interest of being fair and calling out pipe dreams and everything, I am going to put a lid on my continual. I think it's best for all parties involved if they trade a Leah's Peterson conversation, because I just don't think it's going to happen now. I think I'm ready to face reality and quit talking up something that's just not going to happen. And I had a good run. I'm proud of myself. I pat myself on the back.

I stuck to it for a while, but if we're, if we're going to talk about things based in reality, as opposed to a pipe dream, then I'm going to stop trying to put force that in there. Cause I just don't see it happening now. You know, what's funny though. Um, I mean, Pedersen had, had a bad season and it was for everyone to, to look at and the

entire league saw it at the four nations. Um, but, you know, this happens all the time in hockey. Pedersen hasn't played for a while and there has been some idea like, okay, well, he's going to work out. He's going to have, he's going to be motivated and he's going to go back to Sweden. He stayed in Vancouver for a week and worked out in that show dedication. Almost every day.

And everyone's like, you know, he's got a lot of pride and he's going to come back. What I have noticed on the social medias is that fans from other teams now are like, okay, I want Pedersen. Like they've got their list because Center is so hard to find and players like Pedersen when he's on his game, as we saw, which is why he, I mean,

he was in the market for that contract that the Canucks signed. The Canucks did not sign that contract. It wasn't like a crazy ask given what he'd done in the past. And that's why this show was so hard on him. And that's why we've been unwilling to lower the bar for him and celebrate how great he's been defensively. Yeah, but like that's not the entire package.

That's what we, we need more. So other, other fan bases are like, okay, well I'm putting my list together of players that I want. And there's a lot of them out there. They're like, go get Pedersen. Like we need a one C. We need, we need a guy with, with elite talent. Go get that guy.

And I realized fans aren't general managers, but sometimes GMs do act that way, right? A little time goes by, they start thinking about it and they're in a position where they have to go find someone. There are a lot of fans in say, Buffalo right now, that are like, go get Elias Pedersen. You're never going to have the opportunity to get a player like him, like you are, like you can now. So it's funny because you're saying I'm going to stop this Trey Pedersen stuff.

I think you should at least keep an open mind over the next little while, because Kipper made an interesting point in his trade boards piece that was up on Sportsnet.ca And he basically said a lot of people think I'm paraphrasing here that his value has gone Don't be so sure about that. I don't think it's necessarily gone. I never did I thought I mean you could trade anyone in this league and they are losing the trade though. They had it win that trade Yeah, but I mean that that's your management knows that.

And that all goes into part of the equation. But my whole point is like the also would use like the trade with what Hughes want that trade. We're in operation. The other party who's happy now. That's the other part. I think he's happy. So does Quinn Hughes want them?

Because if he doesn't want them to trade before they're not going to trade them, right? So I'm going to keep an open mind on it because I think there's going to be such a dearth of options available in free agency. And we'll get into that conversation a little bit later in the show as well. But I do I get exactly what you're saying is recency bias is a thing. When you're watching someone struggle, you're like, oh, I don't want any part of that player.

But when you don't watch them struggle and it's been a couple of months since you've seen it. I can absolutely understand. I've seen it historically in the past in the National Hockey League, where executives do talk themselves into a rebound or there's something there. And you brought up a good point. Sometimes it's dictated not necessarily by the player you're getting, but the players you're not able to get right when you miss on your first few targets and you need and you're desperate for a the players you're not able to get. When you miss on your first few targets and you need,

and you're desperate for a center or a right-hand, or a right shot defenseman, or a third line left winger, or a backup goalie, you end up talking yourself into a solution because it's the only solution available. And that does happen sometimes. But I'm just trying to be as. Caps talks themselves into Dubois. And it worked.

And it worked for them. I'm trying to. There are gonna be plenty of examples out there of like, well, look it worked. And it worked for them. I'm trying to- There are gonna be plenty of examples out there that's like, well, look at these guys, it worked for them, might work for us. I'm trying to be a reality-based guy for at least once in my life. And so this pie in the sky nonsense

that I'm always clinging onto. And I keep looking at it and I'm like, I know that I think that it would be best for all parties involved if this was the summer that they had their amicable breakup. But the more I look at it, the more I hear. I agree with you. I agree.

I think it's most likely that they keep Pedersen. But I just thought it was interesting that now that the Canucks haven't played games for a while, and it isn't front burner a story, right? People are like, okay, we'll go get this guy because everybody knows what happens and everyone knows the story now Yeah, you know, it's like absence makes the heart grow fonder, especially if you don't have a good center to begin with Okay, we got a lot more to get into on the Haliford and Bref show on sports net 650 We are gonna continue. I like I like the possibility that just as you're like, okay, I'm out on trading PD That's when it's gonna happen. I mean am I doing this on purpose? Who's to say my weaponizing it?

I don't know very good player shakes loose from another team that might be facilitated into a Pederson trade Oh, I mean, I'm willing to keep an open mind. You never know what could happen in the offseason You don't you really really don't we? But a dog will that make Quinn Hughes happy? I don't know. Okay, really don't. That's a tease. But hey, dawg, will that make Quinn Hughes happy? I don't know. Okay, we gotta go to break. Now the operation is convince Hughes to trade Petey. Okay, we gotta go to break now. We're way up against it for time.

When we come back, Greg Wyshinski is gonna join us live from the Stanley Cup Final. It's media day today. Game one tomorrow. We'll talk to Wish about everything that's going on at the Stanley Cup Final, including his big deep dive profile piece. I'm Brad Marshawn. You're listening to the Hal Ferdinand Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 PM on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 6.32 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. Hal from Brough of the Morning is brought

to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. I'm still marveling at your horn knowledge from earlier in the show. You like that, eh? It was pretty impressive. That's all I got. So because there's a video game theme song going on right now, the origins of your horn infatuation is from video games?

Yeah, I told you in the break, it was back in the day, they used to let you import your own audio clips into the NHL video games. And I had to make sure every single team had the right sounding horn, because I'm a huge loser. What a nerd, eh? Get a load of this guy. We are in hour one of the program. Greg Wachinski from ESPN is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour one of this program is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid.

Visit them 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. The Power West Industries Hotline. Greg Wyszynski now on the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Wysh? There's nothing wrong with making sure that your video games are accurate. I remember when I was a kid,

I would spend like an hour moving players around the different rosters to make sure that they all were the current rosters. Oh, I did that too. In the NHL. You had to do it. Oh yeah. And sometimes it would be through like weird trades or whatever,. You had to do it. Oh, yeah. And sometimes it would be through like weird trades or whatever.

But you had to do it or else the integrity of of sitting down and eating frozen cardboard pizza and drinking Mountain Dew while playing this thing for hours on end would be would be undermined if you didn't do that. I remember playing NHL 94 and being very insistent that they they had to be the right lines that the teams were using at The time except when it came to Terry yake on the Hartford whalers Then I'd move them up to one seat for some reason video game Terry yake was a thousand times better than regular For he was a deuce unstoppable him and Jeff Sanderson. They were really good together. Anyway, we're going down a road here

We should probably stop Let's focus on the Stanley Cup final year and Brad Marshawn's role in all this first off Begrudgingly kudos for an excellent profile piece on Brad Marshawn. Thank you Begrudgingly for you, but but great for me having read it Good, I hate all of this Rat King Dairy Queen and not looking back. Living in the moment, Brad Marshawn is right now, eh, Greg? Yeah, he is.

It was interesting. I chatted with him a bunch during the Eastern Conference final, the series that I covered, while everyone else was on the other one. And we had lots of time to talk. And he really had his world rocked by that trade. The idea of him no longer being a Bruin, I think he fancied himself a Bruin for life, which obviously is kind of a rare feat for a player in today's NHL, which is so transient

to be able to play for one team your entire career. So that happening, the trade happening, him being down here without his family for the last few months, like it all kind of just made him rethink things. And he said, you know, a lot of the stuff that was happening in Boston, he just kind of like took for granted. He was stressing about what the end result of things are going to be rather than enjoying the moment. And so he's sort of, I mean, for lack of a better term, like recaptured the joy of being with the Panthers and being with a fun room and knowing what his role is in that room.

And he's played really well. The two things like Panthers wise, you should pay attention to. One, his line with Anton Landell and Ito Lusterainen really has been one of the best lines in the playoffs. And I think when you start to kind of break down this series, I'll do respect to the Oilers depth, like that line could be a real difference maker

in this series. And the second thing, and this is one of my favorite things about the article, like when they lost Brandon Montour and Ryan Lombard to free agency, they lost two guys that liked to talk to the media a lot. And so one of Paul Moritz's things about Marshand is, he's a guy who will always talk to the media a lot. And so one of Paul Moritz's things about Marshand is he's a guy who always talks to us and so other guys don't have to. And Paul made a joke about how like Alexander

Barkov is one of the greatest players in the world, but it's not like he's going to have a podcast when he retakes, which is true. So having Marshand there to kind of like relieve the pressure of some of these more private, quiet guys to put themselves out there, I think is an underrated aspect of why they acquired him. I like the part where he left his family to go to Florida and it was like, finally I got some time to think. I got some time to think and pull my thoughts together. Oh my God, I found it.

Um, so. I, I plan on, I plan on discovering the meaning of life over the next two and a half weeks, boys, uh, here on the series. Are you ready to do it again? Are you ready for, for, for the travel? Edmonton to Fort Lauderdale isn't the most, uh, isn't the easiest flight plan.

I've been told that people hate when the media talks about the travel in a series, but I do think that there needs to be an exception for this series. Like this took at least two to three years off my life last year going back and forth between these cities, the furthest apart cities. I think, uh, you know, you could imagine in the final. And just like, it's a lot. I mean, there's no real connecting, there's no real direct flights between the two cities. It's a lot of connecting flights.

It's a lot of planning your life around travel. There's one day coming up where I think I'm just on planes and in the airports for the entire day, trying to get from one place to the other. So it's a challenge. And also I'm reminded as I, as I wake up here in Edmonton, having gotten in last night and look out my window at a parking lot filled with construction equipment, the juxtaposition between waking up in Fort Lauderdale and waking up at Edmonton was something that I forgot about from last year's series as well.

Yeah. You're not going to get your early morning swims in the ocean and in Edmonton. You might get some construction sounds though. It's you know, like that's, that's what you got there. Um, do you see, so what's changed, uh, since last year's series has, I don't know who you picked or who you thought was the favorite last year,

but is it the same as this year or something switched? I think I probably picked Edmonton last year because I picked him to win the cup before the season and I'm not one to, to, to switch off. Um, my teams, uh, I, I, uh, I, I did, I picked Dallas to win this year. So obviously I had a chance to pick a fresh winner here in the final.

So let's start with what's changed. Both teams are better. Like both teams are legitimately better. Obviously Edmonton, I think, has filled out its roster with maybe its best or at least most effective supporting cast around Dry Cytolin McDavid to the point where those guys don't need to be the heroes every single night for this team to win, which is quite a feat. And then they've also really unlocked something defensively that they hadn't shown in the

regular season at all, where they're limiting opponents to like four shots on goal for three straight games in the Western Conference final. That's remarkable. That shows the maturity, that shows an ability to close out games that I don't think the Oilers had last year. But the Panthers are better too. I mean, I mentioned Marchand solidifying that third line that allows them to keep Evan Rodriguez and Carter Verhege in their top six, bouncing in between the Bennett line and the Barkov line. And so all three of those lines are

better now, but the biggest change, and I think I have a column coming up at some point this morning on ESPN about who I'm picking in the series. The biggest change is Seth Jones. So last year, the second pairing for Florida was Nico Mikola and Brandon Montour. Pretty good. Now it's Seth Jones and Nico Michola and it's awesome like it's really good. Their numbers analytically are off the charts they produced offensively. Michola has really leveled up as a player and Jones

is perfectly cast in a second pairing role in a way that he wasn't in Chicago ever. So they're definitely better and Edmonton's definitely better and should be a really good series. The aforementioned piece is up at ESPN.com right now, so we're not doing any spoilers. So tell everyone Wish, who's your pick? First of all, kudos to my editors for getting that up. I wrote like 2000 words on a plane hunched over an economy on a West jet. So it probably wasn't the greatest prose. I'm sure it reads better than a note that

it wrote. Okay. Just to be clear, just to be clear, I am looking at the everyone's picks. That article has been up this morning. So it's like you bought the choosing full. Yeah, I have a full like Bill Barnwell, ask explanation as to why I've made my pick. Panthers and Six is the pick. And look, I want nothing more than to see Connor raise the cup. Like, I want him to win. I really do. I don't want there to be any caveat to this kid's career.

I want him to be celebrated as a hockey deity. The way that our sport operates, you need to win a Stanley Cup in order to really be considered in the pantheon or else people are going to be like, you did everything but win the big one and that's just how it works. It's not fair to him, it's not fair to any player, but it's just how it works. So I was relieved when Ovi got his, I was relieved when McKinnon got his, and now it's McDavid's turn and I hope that he wins it one day. I just don't think the Panthers are going to let them.

I think they are the, for lack of a better term, countermeasure to the Edmonton Oilers in the way that they're built, in the way that they play, and mostly in the way that they will take what you give them and make the most of it. If you watched any part of that Carolina series, like the Hurricanes are not giving away a series. They're not giving away a lot of offense. They play very stingy.

So when the Panthers had their opportunities, they ripped open the wound. In every one of their wins, they scored multiple goals in the span of four minutes. Like they're a blood in the water team and it just that speaks to how opportunistic they are and how they're not going to get booboo faced and rattled if they can't do the things they like to do like Dallas did where you know in the third period of those games they sulk they sulk if they get down one nothing. That's not the Panthers. And so I think what Edmonton is able to do from almost an intimidation standpoint

with the way that they play and the players that they have, it doesn't have an effect on the Panthers. And so Panthers and six, if I'm wrong, great. Connor wins. If I'm right, then we're watching one of the best built playoff teams of the last 25 years. Can we chat about the Dallas stars for a bit? Because I would love to talk about this team that made me look like an idiot by not winning the

cup this year. And, uh, and let's, let's all take them to the woodshed together. Well, uh, I'd love to get your thoughts on why when Edmonton was able to take a lead Dallas looked so toothless. There were a couple of games where Dallas had decent starts and they had some opportunities

and Stuart Skinner made the saves that he needed to make. But oftentimes after that, if the Oilers got the lead, and a lot of credit goes to the Oilers for how they checked and how they defended the middle of the ice. But man, I was like, don't the stars have a bunch of guys that can score because right now they just look like a bunch of guys. Yeah, something happened.

Like you think about the team that showed so much mental toughness in beating Colorado in the first round without Hayskinen and without Robertson, like that is a legitimate surprising result if you think about what they were missing and what Colorado had. And then you know they they handled Winnipeg pretty well but they went into some really a really tough place to play and a tough place to win and and did okay for themselves in that series. And so like, I don't know where that mental toughness went because you're right. Like when, when it would be one nothing and norm,

typically it would be one nothing in the first period for Edmonton. They kind of like got away from their game and, and, and it sulked a little bit. And you could see the body language change in the bench. And then, you know, later in the third period of these games, they couldn't generate anything against the St. Vincent team. And again, that's full marks to the Oilers for really learning how to defend and close out games well and full marks to Skinner, who I think had some really good games in the series.

But it just did not look like the same Dallas team. I don't know what happened to their attack. I don't know what happened to their confidence. I don't know what happened to their confidence. It just kind of went away against Edmonton. And maybe, I mean, the only thing I could think of from sort of like a psychological standpoint is that this is now a team that's lost in the conference final three times.

So maybe they feel like there's a ceiling. Maybe they feel like there's a certain here we go again aspect to not being able to play their game and feel as good about themselves as they did in the two previous rounds and thinking, oh geez, you know, we've seen this story play out before. Um, Pete DeBoer, um, when we brought up, could he be fired after that series ended?

Just, you know, the way that Dallas looked, it looked like they lost their composure at times and his comments on Jake Ottinger, which have apparently rubbed a few Dallas stars the wrong way, our response was like, well, who are they going to go get for a coach? The Boston Bruins seem to be having a lot of trouble deciding on a coach. Has Pittsburgh actually hired a guy yet?

I can't even, I can't even, yeah, right. Like, so who are they going to go get? Maybe there's a better candidate for the Dallas stars, but what do you think about the future of Pete DeBoer? That's a tricky one because like you said, it's not only that there's a candidate that really jumps out at you as far as being an upgrade or the guy that can maybe unlock

what's been locked for that team in the conference final. But I mean, you gotta remember this is a business. I was thinking about this a lot with Brynda Moore in Carolina. They keep bumping up against the conference final ceiling too, but they're also a team that goes on these deep playoff runs and creates a lot of revenue for their team that you don't budget for before the

season. I mean the Dallas Stars have made three straight trips to the conference final. That's a ton of money added to their bottom line every season and you can't underestimate what that means for these franchises and say what you will about Pete's inability to get past that round, but he gets them to that round and they have regular season success. He has the highest points percentage with Dallas that he's had with any team he's coached. So there's a lot of stuff that's got a counter balance with the fact that this guy threw their franchise goalie under the bus, Like, and he very much did.

And it was embarrassing and it was dumb. And even if you wanna like say that pulling him was the right decision, and by the way, if you really wanna shock a team's system, probably do it before the game, like by sitting, I don't know, Jamie Bend or something, like really shake things up if you want to rather than trying to ask Casey to Smith to win a definitive game in the playoffs. But the tacit admission that he doesn't believe that Ottinger can beat the Oilers is something

you can't recover from. Like they're going to see him again. Like Ottinger is obviously going to play McDavid and dry saddle again at some point. And the minute that matchup is set, every single question is going to be, your coach doesn't believe you can beat this team. Like, that's not great. And that's a complete self-own on the part of DeBoer. I'd be surprised if they fire him only because he has a year left on his contract. And the last thing I'll say about DeBoer is that he did something very, very interesting in his press conference that I don't think has gotten enough notice, which is that he

talked about how sometimes teams take multiple seasons to figure themselves out, and he referenced the Washington Capitals. Now, if you look back at the Washington Capitals and how long it took them to win, it took them exactly four years under Barry Trotz to win. They couldn't get past the second round. They lost in the same round of the playoffs, three straight years. Dallas has lost in the same round of the playoffs, three straight years. And in the fourth year they broke through and won the cup. So very,

very shrewd, smart. This guy's thought about this a bit comparison by, by Pete DeBoer. Wish you're the best buddy. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the Stanley Cup final. We'll do this again next Tuesday. Anytime. Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me.

That's Greg Wyshinski from ESPN here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I did want to cut them early so we could spend a few minutes following up on the Dallas thing. So we mentioned this right off the hop for the show that Dallas took on real main character energy yesterday. It's seemingly everyone in the hockey world was throwing something out there, either speculating on what the Dallas Stars were gonna do or suggesting that they've heard something

that the Dallas Stars are going to do. Jeff Merrick from Daily Face Off had an article out there talking about potentially cheating Jason Robertson. Kevin Weeks from ESPN tweeted out a picture of the American Airlines Center with the eyeball emoji. You know what that means? Something's happening here. Right. I don't know what that means. I never know what his tweets mean. It's always something on the horizon with Kevin Weeks.

You never know exactly what it is, but you know, something's cooking. The fourth period weighed in about the Peter DeBoer thing, talking about how he clearly ruffled some feathers with all of his antics at the end of that series, and then in the aftermath as well, the post-game media availability, the exit interviews, exit interviews with players. Tim Cowlishaw from the Dallas Morning News,

out of nowhere, not a hockey writer normally, had a huge piece up in the morning news talking about how if Jamie Ben comes back, he should not be coming back as captain. Now here's the thing that's important to remember about Dallas. He's going to get the Dustin Brown. Well, he'll have a statue then. Probably not a statue. Probably not.

But here's the thing about Dallas that we know from the past is that oftentimes. The organization and the executives within that organization get on, I'll use some soccer parlance, the front foot when it comes to putting things out there. I mean, if you'll remember a few years ago, it was the team president, Jim Lights, calling up reporters to say, Hey, you know who you should call out publicly in your publication? Please rip my team. Yeah. They should make a statue

of that. That was why it was a great team on the phone. Just called up reporters. He's like, you know, who's not playing well real well right now. Tyler Sagan and Jamie Ben. They stink. And they hung up the phone. Yeah. You should look at their contracts. They're not small. So there's a history in this organization of stuff getting out to a number of people, either to spark the narrative or to set people up for what's about to come. And with the amount of information

that was available yesterday and the amount of whispers and rumbles and rumors that were going on with the Dallas Stars yesterday, it's fair to assume that there might be some leaking going on. Now the other interesting- Well, they've got an interesting off season. Oh, sorry, go ahead. The other interesting thing with this team is that they do fit that criteria that we've been talking about, me in particular, for weeks now.

When a team gets bounced out of the playoffs, oftentimes that's more damaging than not making the playoffs at all. And with the case of the Dallas Stars, some people would look at it and like, what the hell are you talking about, Halford? They went to the Western Conference final three years in a row. They were the final four. Teams would die to be in that position. There's something to be said about hitting the wall three consecutive years.

Yeah, we had the wall three consecutive years. Yeah, we had the same conversation with Carolina. And we had the same conversation with Toronto, except they didn't get nearly as far and they waited nine years. And Toronto got to the point where the fan base was openly reviled with the team in front of them. And a lot of people said the Shannon plan ultimately failed because there was too much patience and too much loyalty. I think it's a fair criticism. I do wonder right now in Dallas, if that third consecutive Western Conference final defeat was the end of the road for some certain key players there.

And it's hard not to look at Jason Robertson's name popping up time and time again in trade rumors, but you hear- But he was the only guy that started finding his game at the end of that series against the Oilers. I'm kind of with you, like of all the guys that you're pointing the finger at, is it really him? But here's the thing. He's got one year left and then he's got a sign, he's an RFA, then they've got to make the decision on him. He's 25 years old and with his production and with the cap going up, you're talking about a major raise for that guy.

They've already committed to Miko Rantinen, who's got a $12 million cap hit until like 2033. They've already committed to Rupé Hintz and of course they've got some commitments on the backend to the likes of Miro Heiskenen and Essel Indel and Jake Ottinger in goal. Yep. So do they want to lock in this core and that

includes Jason Robertson. Now I would think that they might want to think about their commitment to Wyatt Johnston, but he's only 22. You'd probably say, okay, we're going to give you some time, but they have already committed to him as well. So they might also want to bring back a guy

like Matt Duchesne. Sure. He's a leading scorer. He was their leading scorer. And in order to bring him back, maybe they got to move some pieces around. So the Dallas Stars are definitely a team to watch. Okay, we got to go to break. When we come back, our next guest on the other side covers what is right now one of the worst teams in the 100 plus year history of Major League

Baseball. Patrick Saunders is a Rockies beat writer for the Denver Post. The Rockies are having a truly historically awful season. What's it like to cover a team with that much losing this early in the season? We're going to talk to Patrick about that on the other side. It should be interesting. Stick around. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.