Halford & Brough in the Morning - Parsing Through Patrik Allvin's Spicy Comments

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

In hour one, Halford & guest host Thomas Drance look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they discuss some interesting comments from Patrik Allvin on the play of the team as well as that of one Elias Pettersson (6:00), plus the boys chat the latest NHL news with ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (27:36).  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 da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da Looking, throwing, Enzo caught. Touchdown, Detroit Lions. Amon Ross, St. Brown. He's going to throw it to Jarrett. Does Pedersen's level of play give the team any pause? Can he live up to the value of the deal that he signed? It must be wonderful to ring in the new year over and over and over. Please kill me. Good morning, Vancouver. 7-0-1 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody.

Happy New Year's Eve, everybody. This is Halford and his bruv featuring Thomas Drance. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Thomas, good morning to you. Good morning to you. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning.

And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough to the Morning is brought to you by Jason Hominuck from Jason.Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. I am joking. Let him do exactly that. Visit him on the internet at Jason.Mortgage. This show is also being presented by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. It is the final show of 2024. Thomas Drance is riding alongside of me as we bid farewell to 2024. Before we get into anything, Thomas, can you tell everybody about the good folks at Kintec Footwear and Orthotics? Kintec.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Footwear and Orthotics is powered by thousands of five star Google reviews Soar Feet what are you waiting for? Kintec we did it bud we made it through 2024 barely well there's still an hour and 58 minutes left

but we're that much closer to 2025 and we have a big show ahead we have lots to get into on the program we got a pair of guests today Greg Wyshynski our NHL insider from ESPN, is going to join us at 7.30. Very appropriate that Greg joins us on this, the last

day of 2024, because the NHL has decided to schedule all the games throughout the course of the day on December 31st, including, and I totally forgot about this, the Winter Classic. Oh, wow. I did too. That's today. That is today, friend. Usually that's a New Year's Eve game.

So do you think they've... It is New Year's Eve. Oh, sorry. A New Year's Day game. Yeah. Do you think they... Is that a response to the college football playoff? I have no idea what it's a response to.

Because there's three bowl games tomorrow. All I know, and you're probably right. All I know is that this game will be played on a Tuesday midweek at 2 o'clock in the afternoon from Wrigley Field. It is the Chicago Blackhawks with Conor Bedard. Do you know who they're playing? Yes, they're playing the St. Louis Bears. There we go.

There's a single game on New Year's Day in the NHL. Yeah, they balanced it well. They balanced it well. The, what is it, Greg? Who is it, Greg? The Devils at the Kings. Classic. 2012 Stanley Cup rematch. Honestly, that sounds pretty funny. I Who is it, Greg? The Devils at the Kings. Classic. 2012 Stanley Cup rematch.

Honestly, that sounds pretty funny. I mean, it's a good game. Steve Bernier dropping a ceremonial putt. Nice call. So we got a ton of hockey to get into with Greg from the NHL front. 13 games today. There's basically hockey all day. Puck drop starts at 9.30 our time this morning and then goes throughout the day.

We can also ask Wish about the World Juniors because he has written the most profound and important piece of the tournament thus far, explaining why Team USA chose Free Bird as their goal song for the tournament. That, of course, the 1973 rock anthem from Leonard Skinner. So we'll ask him about that when he joins the program. 8 o'clock today, Brendan Batchelor is going to join the program. Batch is going to be on the call tonight, six o'clock. Canucks,

Flames, from the Saddle Dome in Calgary. Just to set the schedule for today, Dan and Sat have Canucks Central starting at three. Dan and Sat then have the pregame show starting at five. Batch and Rand Deep on the call at six o'clock. Reminder, it's all right here on Sportsnet 650.

And then after the game, for what many of our listeners counts as a legitimate New Year's Eve plan, we got the post-game show. That's going to go right until 11 o'clock. Again, it's all right here on Sportsnet 650. So we got a big show ahead. We got a lot to get into. This is, in addition to being New Year's Eve, a tremendous night in sports.

Drance mentioned the college football playoff. We got one tonight, Penn State, Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl, my favorite of the bowls. And then, of course, Canada, U.S. The Fiesta Bowl is not your favorite of the bowls. You like it more than the Sugar Bowl. More than the Rose Bowl. More than the Pop-Tarts Bowl.

Actually, no, I do like the Pop-Tarts Bowl. Yeah, the Pop-Tarts Bowl is number one. And we've also got Canada and USA, of course, from the World Juniors at 5 o'clock, so there's a lot of stuff to watch tonight. And we're also going to unpack the sick performance by Missouri in the Music City Bowl yesterday. One of my favorites. We're going to look at what Iowa did and whatever bowl they played in

yesterday. What about the Snoop Dogg Bowl? There was only one bowl yesterday. Iowa lost to Missouri in the Music City Bowl. In the Music City Bowl at Nissan Stadium. Where, by the way, Mizzou kept losing all their weapons. Unbelievable performance from their quarterback, Brady Cook. I have to take your word for all of this,

that their quarterback is indeed named Brady Cook. I don't know. He could be named Brady Cook for all I know. I don't know. I don't know. It doesn't matter. He went there. Okay.

Yeah, no, my takes are real, unfortunately. We have a lot to get into on the program. Wyshynski's going to join us at 7.30. Batch is going to join us at 8. But before we do any of that, we need to tell you what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What happened, as always, is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Greg's got a look on his face back there. What's up, Greg?

Oh, it's the Leonard Skinner thing. You said Leonard Skinner. You said Leonard Skinner. Oh, my God. Like, pronunciation's never been my strong suit. I think everyone understands. Leonard Skinner to his brother. Not Leonard.

Lenny. Okay. We need to get into what happened yesterday. not Leonard Lenny okay we need to get into what happened yesterday and there was one major story that took Canucks land by storm

Canucks Twitter Canucks Blue Sky if that is a thing or if you used to join all of it and it was that on Monday our very own

Ian McIntyre published his end of year interview with Canucks General Manager Patrick Alveen and Patrick Alveen your Canucks general manager, decided to end 2024 with a bang

in a very candid, very frank, and very revealing conversation. It was very cool, guys. Don't look at explosions. Right? Just, like, toss the match and walk away from the car. You see what's going on behind me? I don't need to look at it. I already know what I did. I couldn't believe it was Alvin. I'm like, is this Patrick Alvin that I know? Like, the guy that never gives you anything ever?

You know, is dropping all these bombs on you? It's like Leonard Skinner versus Leonard Skinner. Yeah, like, who is this guy? Patrick Alvin. Patrick Alvin, as I do the Coles Notes version, said, Elias Pettersson, JT Miller, and Brock Besser have underperformed this season. He also said that a Pettersson trade was possible, And he also said that head coach Rick Tockett needs to find solutions so that the team is more consistent. Okay, then there was a lot to unpack here. Let's

take a look at some of the highlights. So I'll break this down into about three or four important parts. And the first is that Patrick Albine... Do you want to play a game? Do you want to break them down and then we determine whether or not there's meaning there or no meaning there? I do love games. I do love parsing words. I do love finding meaning in things. Let's parse words and be like let's go overblown versus

like fair point. In terms of the reaction that you've seen online. Drance, I like your style. I like your moxie. I will read verbatim the quotes from the piece. These are all Patrick Galvin. I'm not going to do the voice. I'm just going to read them straight. Oh, my God.

Please do not do the voice. Nope, not going to do that. We've had issues with people doing voices on the show before. We're not going to do it ever again. On the Canucks' quote-unquote best players underperforming. Now, I think it goes without saying that this is not meant to include Quinn Hughes and Thatcher Demko for a variety of reasons. Really, this is focused on the three guys, Elias Pettersson, Brock Besser, and JT Miller. From Patrick Alvien's mouth to your ears,

I think it's fair to say that you expect your best players to be the difference makers and the best players when you need them. And unfortunately, I think we haven't got the most out of those specific guys. If those guys would have performed to their capability, I think we probably would have won a few more games. So it's hard. Do I expect more from them? Absolutely. Alvin then went on to say, I'm happy that Brock is scoring goals here lately, but I would have him in the same boat as Petey and Miller in terms of giving us more when we need more. There is more to give. Absolutely.

Trance, your thoughts? I actually think there's a lot here, but I don't think it's necessarily a lot here from the vantage point of, and we'll get into it more once Patrick Alvin discusses trading Pedersen and company. What I do think this absolutely is, is a revealing of a,

of a true internal stance that there is frustration about this club's inability to play the right way consistently, right? That that has been simmering among Canucks management for months. And, and I think it's only gotten more pronounced over the course of the last couple of weeks where, you know, as he calls out, and I think it's only gotten more pronounced over the course of the last couple weeks where, you know, as he calls out, you have those performances against the Avalanche

and the Florida Panthers. Right, which we will get to as well. Right, and then you have these performances where it's not just that you lost a game in which you played well, right? It's games where it's like, did they care? Did they try? You know what I mean? Like the work rate's not there.

So I think that's been simmering. And I think now, right now, I mean, how are you winning games? If it's not Besser, if it's not Miller, if it's not Dabraskan, if it's not Petey, getting back in your lineup in the next week. So, you know, a shot across everybody's bow. Straighten up. Straighten up and play really hard right now because our season might be on the line over the next six games. I think this is very much a quote that we should make a lot of.

Okay, on Elias Pettersson, and there are a couple, but the first is not about the trade, which we'll get to in a moment, but about the player's performance thus far and what the player has done since signing his $92.8 million contract extension earlier in 2024. Again, here's Patrick Alvin on Pedersen. I think, again, it comes back to expectations and preparation, how you prepare yourself. I don't believe that he was aware of just how hard it was going to be. Just because you achieve one thing to get the long-term extension,

life just gets harder. You haven't really accomplished anything. You're not even halfway there. And that's in brackets to winning a Stanley Cup. And then obviously the mental part comes in there too. And suddenly you feel the pressure. Drance, thoughts? I mean, I think the... i think it's interesting in that petterson has

been completely unwilling to share any details about what he's been going through over the course of this season that's a good point and so alvin at least you know hey look he's feeling the pressure um you know uh how how he's dealing with expectations and preparation and growing into this deal is a work in progress and there's a lot of pressure on the men. That might be the most insight we've gotten into what Pedersen's gone through over the course of this season. And it came from his general manager.

Yeah. To me, everything that Alvin said about Pedersen, I could feel myself nodding along, almost like reflexively without even thinking about it because I was like, yep, yep, yep. It all makes sense. There was a lot of pressure on the player. He probably either was unaware

or maybe was like intentionally, willfully ignorant towards it, or it's something I can ignore or something I can push to the side. No, he intentionally, he had no desire to talk about it. Right. And that's another big part of this. I'm like, I, when the Canucks were in Chicago, which was pretty early in the season, I had a one-on-one conversation with him and asked in the politest possible terms

about sort of where his game was tracking, what was going on, just trying to understand it. And he was so unwilling to talk about it. Right. Right? To the point where I literally made the case, I was like, Elias, I'm going to write about this team four times a week and talk about and talk about your struggles for 10 hours on a week and i'd love to have something actual to say from you or i'll just make it up like it would help me to know that sure or i'm just gonna like say what i think you know yeah and um and he was like you don't need to know anything it's like okay cool man great and here's the here's the thing

that players don't get in those situations like this, this was at the absolute apex of the Pedersen pressure. He was so dismissive and rude through the interview. If I'd run that transcript, which I would have been completely fair because it was on the record, it would have been a, like, 48-hour story adding pressure to the player. Right. Which, you know, I'm not in the business of doing that no matter what they say about me in the inbox.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's just like, it's so, and so, you know, I thought that commentary, in addition to the commentary I'm sure you're about to get to about Pettersson not facing the music, it's just like, be a pro, man. Be a pro. It's a good point to bring up because when your general manager says it in the way that he did

and very much acknowledges that yeah there's a lot expected of you the bar has been raised and you're getting compensated rather well like it's not as if there's this huge burden of pressure that doesn't come with any reward this This is close to $100 million. It's there. It's real. And I think the important thing is no one's going to shed a tear within the organization for you. This is the kind of things that professionals go through, and the elite players are able to deal with, overcome,

and then thrive with expectation, pressure, all those sorts of things. Do you think they regret signing him to that contract at this point? Or if they're starting to? Later in the article, Alvin reiterates for, I don't know, what must probably have been the millionth time in his mind, that he believes in the player. He believes that he can be elite. He says that he could and should be a top flight number one center in this league.

But he also had, and very candidly answered the question about trading Elias Pettersson. And IMAC asked him, and he responded in tow. I've got the entire quote here. I once again will read it aloud. So he's asked about potentially trading Pettersson. And he says, while smiling, and this is courtesy of IMAC, well, you know Jim's history

that of course a reference to his boss Jim Rutherford we want to build a team that sets us up for long-term success building around the long-term deals with Miller and Petey having Quinn and Demko locked up Filip Ronik and Jake DeBraska I mean those are big pieces Petey has shown up to this point that he is an extremely talented, quality player that could and should be a number one center. I believe in him. I believe that he's capable. But he needs to mature and understand that there are certain expectations

and it does not get easier. And you need to face the music when things don't go well. Is it possible? I guess I would say anything is possible. And then like Kevin Garnetti pointed to the sky and yelled, anything is possible. I got a question for you guys regarding that. Is that,

is what Alvin just said there, mostly him wanting to light a fire under PD to play better? Cause they're like, Oh God, we have to, our star has to play better because we have this contract. Or is there some part of him that's like, you know what? Anything is possible.

Anything is possible. Or is there some part of him, thank you, Laddie. Or is there some part of him that's like, look, if he's still not playing great, write up and tell us, no move clause kicks in. We got to launch this guy to another team if the season goes sideways. I read almost the entire interview as... A threat?

No. Or like a lighting a fire? As Alvin trying to like, you know, like a lion tamer snapping to just try and settle everything down and get everyone's attention. You know, one thing I've noticed throughout this season covering this team and listening to all the audio and on and on, do you remember when Rick Tockett would like lay in very honestly to this team, like after wins or after like he'd tell you what he actually thinks?

Have you noticed this year that he's like much more protective, much more upbeat, much more positive? And when bad things happen, it's we got to flush it and move on to the next. Right. He's he's completely changed his communication in the media. And, you know, look, I think this organization wants to prioritize holding people accountable. Right? This is not a kumbaya approach. This is a, you know,

we want if a guy does something that's unacceptable for them to be benched regardless of how sick they are. That was like a point of contention between Boudreaux and management was there were like moments where players would do all manner of mistakes, turnovers, lazy line changes, and there'd be no repercussions. Right, but that's because Bruce was Bruce. He'd rub a little scamp and rub him on the head and go back out there and drag it. And by the way, there's some wisdom to that. Sure.

Like there were moments where that worked even for Bruce and Matt. But it's not what this management group wanted. No, it wasn't. That's not how they want to do business. That's not how they want to approach things. And I just think this is Alvin being like, this is an essential moment in our season, and we definitely want to call everyone to attention

and get everyone focused. That's it. With that said, if it doesn't work, is there a chance they still move on from Pedersen prior to... I don't... Personally, I'd be pretty surprised. And I don't... I think this is just like Alvin being very literal.

I think Alvin was asked a question, right? And the question, but is moving your 26-year-old star actually possible? And he's like, well, you know Jim's history, right, as like a qualifier. Then he mostly says positive things about how he still believes in Pedersen. And then he comes back to his goal of lighting a fire under the player. And then he ends it with, but to answer your question, anything's possible. Anything is possible!

And then like, I think iMac, I'm sure it was pretty weirded out when he did the like full on Kevin Garnett, like tongue out of his mouth. Patrick, what are you pointing at? Pulling his hat down over his eyes. Just overwhelmed by the moment. That's how I read this. Okay, but what if it doesn't go well and you're then stuck with Patterson's contract? What are you doing right now?

I'm just asking. I'm just wondering what would happen in that scenario. Because then you can't move him, right? Or it would be very hard to move him with the NMC kicking in. I'll point you to the last part of the question, which is, yet again, anything is possible. Anything is possible. But also, like, oh, no. Yes, but you have a finite window of that, though.

Oh, no, we're stuck with a guy whose floor is point-per-game centerman in his mid-20s. Oh, no. Look, I think you, I don't think... Even when he doesn't play amazing, he's still very good. I think the, at the end of the day, no matter what he says here, the eight-year extension the club signed him to and pushed really hard to get done last year still speaks more loudly. You know, in terms of

where the club's positioned here yeah i look i think we need to take this as uh when presented the opportunity to speak alvin opted not to punt but opted to speak right he didn't do the kevin shovel day off would just say a lot of words without saying anything he chose his words very carefully and i think maybe in some cases he didn't choose them carefully probably talked a little bit off the cuff or at least more off the cuff as patrick elvin can get you kid me for example that was insane i i think i think he i think he's very deliberately trying to go in there and light a fire under a team that needs it for example on that, it was not just the players that were receiving

criticism. There was... How should I phrase this? I'll read the quote so you can figure it out yourself. But I would say there was some questioning of the job that Rick Tauket has done, unlocking the problem, finding the solutions as to why this team is so wildly inconsistent

this year. When asked about the job that his head coach has done, is this all on the players or is this on the coaches? Well, here's what Patrick Alvin had to say. I think it goes hand in hand with the players, right? I believe that Rick is a great coach and a great communicator, and I believe that the

players have responded really well. But again, I think his job, and I know that he's working on it every day, is to find solutions to be more consistent. It's tough if your home record isn't better. I do know that Rick is well-respected by the players, and I know how hard he works, and I know that he doesn't shy away from the ownership

of not being at the level where he expects the team to be at. He then went on to say, but we play tremendous games against Florida and Colorado. And then in between, it's just like, what happened here? What are we? That's a very interesting quote from your general manager. It honestly sounds much more like a Canucks talk bit. Yeah.

What are you? What are they? What's their identity? Honestly, I swear that's something i've said like in the last two weeks and it's fair yeah it's a fair when when the general manager is asking the questions that fans and media alike are asking uh it one sort of validates what all the chuds are saying but two um it definitely lends credence to, okay, well, we're not making this up or we're not seeing things that aren't there.

And I mean, I think the one thing that I've harped on with Bruff throughout the season is I have been alarmed at the number of no-shows that have happened on home ice where there hasn't really been any sort of visceral reaction to it. And I'm not talking about, you know, a Pierce Sixer or a Brujaha at the end.

But I go back to the New Jersey blowout, the Huesa Palooza game, where they lose 6-0 on home and just get absolutely drubbed. Slaughtered. Like just beaten. Beaten down. Like a drum. Yep. The 7-3 to Edmonton, which was another profound game

because there was the rivalry from the playoffs last year. And you just kind of get your teeth kicked in. Repeatedly. Yeah. The 7-3 to Edmonton, which was another profound game because there was the rivalry from the playoffs last year, and you just kind of get your teeth kicked in. Repeatedly. Yeah, there's been so many of those in sort of big moments on home ice that you just wonder, what's happening here? Or what isn't happening here? Or you go back to the question, what are we? What is this team?

Because the head coach hasn't taken them to task in the aftermath in the way that i thought that he would have you remember the first couple games that rick talker was in charge he wasn't afraid to call the team soft he wasn't afraid to say things like i wish we had 10 practices so we could figure out like all these things that we need to address very blunt very forthright i wonder if alvin speaking this way might embolden the head coach to start speaking in a similar fashion yeah they also had the no show against that the islanders that was an ugly game and that was like dakota joshua's first game back remember the five nothing loss to the islanders yeah and then they had the i think i guess it was

like four three loss to the St. Louis Blues, but it was just a parade of breakaways to the absolute definition of a mid-hockey team. And that was in Thatcher Demko's first game back. So there's just this repeated... Right, the Demko first game back, yeah. There was another one, yeah. But these games should matter to people. The Hughes game should matter to the Devils.

The Oilers game should matter to people. Like, the Hughes game should matter to the Devils. The Oilers game should matter to this team. The getting Joshua, like, they don't seem to get emotional lifts from what you'd expect them to. That, to me, is always a concern. That, to me, like,

is an added sort of data point where it's like, do you compete hard enough for each other? So it is the Canucks and the Flames, 6 o'clock tonight

from the Saddledome in Calgary. A reminder, pregame, postgame, and the actual game all right here on Sportsnet 650. Coming up on Sportsnet 650, the hockey talk continues. Greg Wyshynski from ESPN, our NHL insider, will whip around everything that's going on last night in the league, tonight in the league, 13 games on the slate.

Do you think he's got Ashton Jean-T takes? Oh, my God. Fiesta Bowl takes from Greg Wyshynski? One can only hope. Stick around. You might hear him next. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show with Thomas Drance 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 p.m. on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 7.32 on a Tuesday. Halford, featuring Thomas Drance on Sportsnet 650. Featuring the Chrono Trigger soundtrack I don't even, like, I know what this is I was saying Final Fantasy to Greg

Yeah, 100% It's straight up that this is an RPG Like, you're about to cast Ice 3 against Greg Wyshynski Halford does not know what you just said, by the way RPG's a role-playing game? Oh, wow, you know that part Dude, Halford definitely played some turn-based RPGs I'm still trying to figure out where Greg is.

You think no? Trust me. You never played Final Fantasy? I played Final Fantasy. Does Zelda count? Nope. Absolutely not. Dreads, don't do this to me.

Love you, Zelda. Where do you find these tracks? Where are all these ESPN remixes? You just search for them and they appear. You're very good at what you do, Greg. There's many different remixes of that little tune. I'm going to make it my New Year's resolution to tell you more often what a good job you do here, Greg. That's my goal

for 2025. I try. Do you think Zelda is the forest sprite that's channeling Robin Hood, or do you know that it's the princess? What? He doesn't know what you just said there. Trance, trust me. We've gone down this road. It doesn't go well.

The closest thing we've come to video game talk is one time Brough played Pitfall. That's it. Pitfall. Yeah, that's it. So just trust me. It's not going to work. Was Pitfall a real game

or just one of those free games you got with old school Windows? Yeah, it was that and Minesweeper. We do have a three-year-old Commodore. We do have Wish on Hold, by the way. Oh, yeah, right. Greg Grosinski. He's going to have to hold a littleeper. We do have a three-year-old Commodore. We do have Wish on Hold, by the way. Oh, yeah, right. Greg Grosinski.

He's going to have to hold a little bit longer because we do have some business to attend to. Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda,

Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts.

This hour of the program is brought to you by Jason Hominuk from Jason.Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at Jason.Mortgage.

To the phone lines we go. ESPN's Greg Wyshynski joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Wish? I'm trying to figure out, Halford, asking if Zelda is an RPG. Is him hiding his nerdery or trying to go fake jock? I can't figure it out. Like, which one is it? I think it's just an example of him being uncultured.

I'm going third way here. You guys know I'm sitting right here, right? By the way, I'm pretty sure that the thing we just listened to, the ESPN we just listened to, is the end credits for ESPN. Whenever ESPN goes off the air permanently, that's the song you're going to hear over all of the Japanese names that designed the game. When you beat the final boss, when you finally beat Stephen A. Smith at the end of it.

Yeah, that's right. Right before they played that music, Trance was running around telling everybody in the studio that the kill screen was coming up. Hey, I just hope ESPN doesn't go out to Goodreads. That's a very deep cut. You know what? It would be probably too on the nose for some people.

Okay, so Wish, when I told Andy, oh, can you find out where Greg is? Because I assumed you very well might be in Chicago for the Winter Classic, but you are indeed in Brooklyn, and that means that you're not going to be at the Winter Classic, which I'm not going to lie, it took us by surprise that it was one today, that it was two being played at two o'clock

in the afternoon our time. We knew the teams involved. We knew that it was going to be that it was two being played at 2 o'clock in the afternoon our time. We knew the team was involved. We knew that it was going to be Chicago and St. Louis at Wrigley Field. Obviously, it's a nice little – I had that game circled on my calendar as one to ignore, Wish. Well, first of all, I'm not there because it's – we've been talking about ESPN. That's a Turner joint today, right?

So it's not a necessity for me to be there to support coverage. But I'm really bummed about it because the Smashing Pumpkins are playing the Winter Classic, and I'm not going to be there to see my favorite band at Wrigley Field, which kind of stinks. I was texting with somebody from the NHL who said their sound check was epic and it made me even tatter. But the downside, like you said, is that if I do get to see, you know, zero or a cheer of rock played in the friendly confines of Wrigley Field, I then have to watch the Blackhawks and the Blues play a hockey game.

So there's like a downside and an upside, I suppose, with reclassification. But, you know, why is it being held today? It's being held today because the NHL does not know, and I don't think anybody really knows, what the ultimate impact of the college football playoff is going to be with these games not simply just being bowl games today, but being meaningful mid-round playoff games for the national championship. And then also, also you know to go

back to the tv side of things i think turner is going to pick up some college uh football playoff games in the near future so i think right a little maybe a little bit of a test run to see if the winter classic can thrive on new year's eve i actually love the idea i i never liked the idea of a new year's day winter classic going up against not only like groggy people recovering from the night before, but also like crazy college football, occasionally the NFL. Like New Year's Eve is a place where they could stake out territory, hold the game, you know, in the afternoon and then you go right into your festivities. So I actually kind of think this is a good thing for the league if they keep it on December 31st. I get why they're doing Chicago and Wrigley, too.

It's picturesque. It's a big market. It's been a darling team for the league and for a variety of the networks and broadcasters. The only issue this year is that Chicago has absolutely not held up its end of the bargain. Deeply unserious. They stink. And it was funny, after they got bombed earlier in the week, it was one of those, like, oh, we suck again kind of things.

And I know that there's – it's almost like everyone is just waiting for this organization and Conor Bedard to take that leap forward. And this winter classic felt like, oh, here's a platform to go do it. But they could – I mean, it's hard to be going in to a marquee game like this in worse form than the Blackhawks are this season. I know Emily wrote about this for ESPN as well. Yeah, for sure. I mean, they tore it down to, you know,

it's like they excavated the house all the way down to the earth's core. And now they're trying to build back up again. You know, it's like they did what they needed to do. Because I think Bedard is obviously a special player and is going to be, you know, a solid franchise player for them for years to come the problem is and I think it's something that he's learning firsthand is that in order to build around that guy you you need a slew of other good players and and that takes a lot of time I mean you know it takes time you know it's not like there's a Malkin there for Sid. It's not like there's a Backstrom there for Ovi. It takes time to get those other guys in the lineup and in the organization

to really start to move forward. And you can see Bedard's frustrated about it, and he obviously has his own timeline in mind for where this team should be. And it's going to just take a little bit longer because they really did tear down everything to get him. There's not even an Eklund for Celebrini, right? Like he has no running mates. Or Will Smith, yeah.

Yeah, like I'm at the point of hoping that like Nazar can just like be a good young player for him to at least riff with a little bit. Yeah, I mean, you know, they've got a little bit on the blue line, you know, but up front, you're absolutely right. Like there is nobody else there that is even in the conversation as far as being that great complimentary player for Bedard. So like it stinks for him. It stinks for the league, obviously, because they clearly want the Blackhawks to be in a position of prominence as quickly as possible. I do think it's interesting, though, that for all these years, we've all talked about ad nauseum the idea of how do you market hockey? Do you market teams? Do you market rivalries?

Do you make it star-centric like the NBA? And I think the NHL has kind of decided that they're going to roll the dice on the Winter Classic at times to just go with a star. Like, Bedard is the reason you tune in to watch this game other than a game being held at Wrigley Field again. You know, there was some talk, I think, recently, I don't know if it was Elliot Friedman or somebody else, about, you know, trying to maybe put Sid and Ovi in a game against each other again before they retire.

Which, again, you get Penguins' capital. That's great. But, like, that's ultimately why you tune in is for those two players. So it is interesting to see the NHL inching towards, you know, let's market our stars a little bit more and build games around our stars. But then the run, the risky run is okay. Well,

but our gets hurt two days before the winter classic and now you have the empty shell of a franchise up against the St. Louis blues. By the way, the other thing about the really field thing is, is Steve mayor, who we all know from the NHL, who's the guy that has orchestrated all of these events for the last like 10 or 15 years um didn't get a crack at fenway has gone to fenway to do it in his style and didn't get a crack at wrigley because it was the second one

they ever did for the winter classic and now he gets his chance to put a stamp on that game so there is a certain amount of like we can revisit these places because we didn't really know what we were doing the first time we went to them. And now the league clearly has a better handle on how to put on an outdoor event. We're speaking to Greg Wyshynski from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. So the first game today, 12.30 Eastern, 9.30 our time. It's the Bruins at the Capitals. Alex Ovechkin is back.

He's back scoring goals. Scored number 870 over the weekend. It is prominently featured pretty much everywhere on every site and every network that covers hockey. Do you have an inkling, a nod to the likelihood, the statistical probability of him breaking Gretzky's record this season now that he's missed the five weeks? I haven't seen the latest probabilities.

I know that we were tracking it on ESPN as far as how many games it might take and that sort of thing but i think he's going to do it i mean the fact that he's he's come back from that break and and and has you know kind of picked up where he left off is is remarkable in and of itself and then the other thing too and this harkens back to kind of when the chase started to come into sharp relief as far as it actually being a possibility. You know, one of the things that Ovi wanted was not simply to just be on a team that was meandering towards his retirement. And then, you know, he's trying to break the record. And that's the only reason you care about the Capitals. You want it to be on a competitive team and, you know, by some really smart investment

in younger players and some pretty good acquisitions of veterans. They're one of the best teams in hockey. So the idea that not only is he looking like he's 10 years younger, but he's also playing on a team that's pretty damn good makes you really believe that he's going to break this thing this season. The Canucks wish just to ask you about the local team, get that outside perspective. Patrick Alvien sort of did the cool guys don't look at explosions thing

with an interview that he gave to our colleague Ian McIntyre in which, among other things, he called out the inconsistency of his team, the inconsistency of some of his star players, and suggested that anything is possible Kevin Garnett style in regards to the possibility of moving Elias Pettersson I mean what do you make of this team and sort of what they're looking at over the next couple weeks at least in Quinn Hughes's absence yeah I mean first of all on the Pettersson thing I I will I will put myself myself down on the ledger on saying that it would be a

titanic mistake to move that guy. Like I know that there's a certain amount of scapegoating and I know that the, there's a certain amount of, you know, a civil war going on with regards to, you know, whose side you're taking in the Miller Pedersen beef and all this other nonsense there. But I just think he's a uniquely talented player. Is he perfect? No. Is he an ideal playoff performer? No.

But I think that's the kind of guy that you move and then you really regret it within two to three years. As far as the team goes, I mean, it's simple. They're incredibly average insofar as what they score and what they give up. I mean, I think they're right now minus one goal differential last time I checked, but I mean, they're kind of scoring as much as they're giving up per game, and that's not a sustainable thing in this league. So, you know, they've got to kind of just stay the course through injuries at this point,

but it's clear that, you know, the best news for them is that average might get you in because, you know, of the teams that are behind them, yeah, there's a chance that Jimmy Montgomery's Blues are going to just pick up enough points here and there that they're going to make a threat for the wild card. And, you know, there's a chance that Utah can go on a heater if their goaltending cooperates in the second half, but I'm not really scared of the flames. I'm certainly not afraid of the Kraken and then everybody else is kind of,

you know, near the bottom of the, of the scared of the Flames. I'm certainly not afraid of the Kraken. And everybody else is kind of near the bottom of the conference. So if you're the Canucks, I think you're still feeling pretty good about life. But you just need to kind of get your house in order. We're speaking to Greg Wyshynski from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. So of all the things that are on tonight, you can throw Canada vs. U.S. at the World Juniors onto the pile. I know you wrote the singular most important piece of the tournament when you broke down why Team USA chose Freebird as their goal song. One, how much attention have you paid to the tournament thus far? And two, how glued are you going to be to Canada-USA tonight? Well, obviously, I paid a lot of attention to Latvia beating Canada.

That was a really big night for me. You saw that, didn't you? Oh, yeah. I mean, that's really for me when World Junior started. It may have actually started that night. I have no idea. As far as the game tonight, it's on NHL Network,

which means that I have to use a system of levers and pulleys to watch it because I don't have it on YouTube TV. You have to check into a hotel, I think, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I mean, well, it depends. Is the hotel near an NHL event because they take off HGTV and they put on NHL Network or they take off some other cable channel

and they put on NHL Network to make it seem like it's a big deal? Look, not to sidebar rant here for a second, but the idea that all of this stuff, you know, regular season NHL games involving marquee teams, world juniors, the women's world championships, the men's world championships, that all of this stuff is relegated to a channel that no, that like half the country doesn't get and nobody watches is just a confounding thing insofar as growing the sport. It's just insane to me that they keep this channel going. Like, I don't know if it's just because they want NHL listed amongst NFL and NBA and MLB.

Like, if they don't have their own channel, then somehow they're a lesser league. But it's just so dumb. It's so dumb to not have your product in front of the faces of all your fans, especially something where, you know, it's the next wave of young stars in the league. That being said, I'll find a way to watch it. USA Canada is the easiest sell in hockey. I've said for years the two most recognizable things for

a casual sports fan in hockey are the Stanley Cup and a USA Canada battle. That's it. They'll tune in for it. That's why I'm excited for Four Nations because I think that the casuals are going to really find that game at Bell Center and they're going to love it. So I'm excited for tonight.

Obviously, with the success they had last year, it's a good team. I do expect we'll hear Freebird, I'll say at least three times tonight against Canada. I'm glad you brought this up as a sort of appetizer to the Four Nations face-off because if you talk to the players and you listen to the players, they're very excited about it. They have bought all in to the concept of best on best international competition granted it's not a full-fledged olympics and not all the participants that you want there but it feels like they've been so starved that they're just relishing any opportunity to go and do this and i you know i hope that the fan response kind of matches the

players excitement for it. Because if you listen to guys talking right now, they're all talking about, okay, well, we're out of the Christmas break, and now it's a sprint until the Four Nations. And we were talking about, you know, you can see the guys that got snubbed from the rosters and how they're responding to it. Mark Shifley in Winnipeg, visibly upset and clearly upset

that he didn't get named to Team Canada, and he's really taken off since being snubbed. So I do hope that the players' excitement about it will be matched by the fans' and media's response to it as we get closer to February. Yeah, well, also keep in mind that, you know, they are going to be breaking for something that involves patriotic pride,

battling each other in an actual hockey game, bragging rights and stakes on the line, rather than, you know, being half drunk and trying to shoot a puck across the ice and do a shoebox at the All-Star game. Like, of course, they're going to be more excited about this. It's like an actual thing that they can get excited for and want to be part of. But yeah, I mean, listen, if you talk to any of the young American players, at the very least, I wrote a story about this last year, the idea of, you know, the anticipation of all these guys

getting a chance to finally represent their country and potentially win gold for the first time since 1980. It's there. I mean, whether it's the Huges or the Kachuks, you know, even Austin Matthews, who's not exactly the most hype guy in the world, talking to him, he's excited about it. It's, you know, even Austin Matthews, who's not exactly the most hype guy in the world talking to him. He's excited about it. It's this moment that they've been waiting for.

And, and I'm sure it's the same on the Canadian side, except, I mean, not the same. I mean, let's be honest, like the Americans are always the ones with the chip on our shoulder. Just by virtue of being born in the United States, you are not good at hockey compared to your friends in Canada. We all know this, and that's why the American and Canadian rivalry thrives.

Greg, you are the best. We've loved having you on the show for another year as we close the book on 2024. Enjoy the game tonight, and regardless of how many times that Freebird is played, just enjoy it. And thank you for doing this all year long. Happy New Year. We'll talk again in 2025.

It is absolutely my pleasure. And it's wonderful to be on with both of you. I'm happy that Jason's not here. He's just kind of a wet blanket, I'll be honest with you. And, you know, I love the man. I love you all. Happy New Year to everybody at the station. And Happy New Year to all of my friends in Vancouver who I know have loved and supported my work through the years.

Thanks, bud. Have a good one. Greg Wyshynski from ESPN, everybody, here on the Halford & Brough Show featuring Thomas Drance on Sportsnet 650. We've got about four minutes until break. Brendan Batchel is going to join us on the other side. He, of course, is on the call tonight, 6 o'clock, Saddledome in Calgary. It's the Flames, it's the Canucks. Who starts in goal For the Vancouver Canucks

Tonight Thomas Drance Who gets the nod For this brief Two game road trip That begins tonight In Calgary And then carries on To Seattle

Which will be the first game In 2025 My gut is Kevin Lankanen Even if you're gonna split it Don't you wanna give Demko the redemption shot Against the Kraken Ooh

God you're good at narratives yeah I think I think you're right that's how I do that's how I don't that's what I want to see just from a narrative perspective but also you know I I mean I think teams and players do think about stuff like that yep that was by far Demko's worst performance since returning from injury against Seattle yeah so give him a Well, and did you see last night? So here's one thing that I always want to look for too sometimes. Like the Kraken have not been good this year, but in some ways they're better than their record.

Like a lot of their issues have come with Philip Grubauer. Yeah. Now granted, Joey Decord's hurt at the moment, but until they beat Vancouver Right they'd won Three of Grubauer's 13 starts You go 500 in his starts

In your backup goaltender's starts And they're absolutely in that like Calgary Utah Vancouver mix In that wildcard race So you know I I like to look for moments in a season, potential pivot points, things that teams can build off. Like, do the Canucks do what they did in October and November of last year

without crushing the Oilers 7-2 on opening night? Probably not, right? Like, one result happened and it snowballed. I kind of watched that crackken-Utah game with a different level of interest. Now, I watch a lot of Utah games because I actually have a lot of Utah stock. But their first

period and their third period last night looked phenomenal. They looked awesome. The best that they've looked all year. Maybe a little bit of juice from that Canucks comeback see we have very different opinions on what we saw from Seattle on Saturday I thought they played badly I thought they were terrible terrible for 55 minutes yeah okay I thought we might have been

no no no no no they sucked I kept looking at them and I'm like I don't understand how you can be this sort of middling for an entire game not only did they look middling they looked occasionally disinterested yes that was the other part of it i would say chandler stevenson was the only player i've seen on rogers arena ice look more disinterested this season than chandler stevenson was brandon sod wow and brandon sod like that i saw him on the tuesday i started texting everyone i was like why does brandon, why is Brandon Sod forechecking gently? Right. And then that week, he got scratched and then requested a trade.

And it was like, yep, that tracks. Yeah. So you saw the same from Chandler Stevenson? I would say not to that level. I wouldn't have described him as forechecking gently, but there's not a lot of strides in his game. And for a guy who needs to be fast to be effective,

I can understand why he hasn't been. So it's, let's say, for sake of argument, it goes Lankan tonight, Demko against the Kraken later in the week. Then you kind of open up the conversation

that we were having yesterday about how does the split happen after that? Well, because you've got the back-to-back. So that's the other thing. Whoever starts tonight, if you're going to split them on these next two games, which Talkett said he hadn't decided, but he intimated he will, will get two of three. So if you go Lankan in a night, it's like we split on the road trip,

but really you're giving Lankan, you're giving it's like we split on the road trip but really you're giving Lankan, you're giving Demko one game this week until you get to Montreal. And I know we're up against it for time so bear with me, but yesterday I started watching the New England Patriots dynasty documentary on Apple TV.

The assassination, the public assassination of Bill Belichick's reputation. I can't wait for you. Please text me when you get to the documentary effectively accusing Bill Belichick of being responsible for Aaron Hernandez's actions. Okay, I know about the latter half of the doc. Fabulous. The first episode, when it goes back in detail about the quarterback controversy. The Bledsoe.

At its infancy. Yes. At its infancy. And this is when Tom Brady has a very small sample size as the starter. I think it's about five games in. And he, like, looks doughy. Right. They have a clip from one of those old school sports reporters TV shows

where they get the four talking heads from the newspaper just to say, and Bob Ryan's one of them. And I don't, I apologize for not knowing the other scribe in the moment, what his name was, but the unnamed scribe says, I think we have a potential quarterback controversy brewing here. And Bob Ryan just goes, is apoplectic

because he's like, you're just doing this to try and generate something that's not there and it's sensationalistic and it's wrong journalistically because you know that with a $100 million contract in hand and the fact that he's the face of the franchise, Drew Bledsoe is the starter the moment that he comes back.

And then, of course, the next scene cuts to Drew Bledsoe comes back from injury and then of course the next scene cuts to drew blood so comes back from injury and tom brady remains the starter in new england thereby starting one of the great quarterback controversies ever in the history of the sport and i'm not saying it's happening here all i'm saying is that when you have a singular position where one guy can only do it there can only be one quarterback one starting quarterback and there can only be one starting goalie. These conversations are inherent. And when you have the conversation,

it's always going to take you down that road of, is there a controversy brewing? It's an inevitable thing. Every time that one plays and the other doesn't, it's not so much what the guy in net does, but it's what would happen if the other guy was in net. That's a very important thing here. It's like whenever Tom Brady went out and had a clunker in his rookie season,

it wasn't just that, oh, the young guy's struggling right now. It's like, well, but we've got a guy, a veteran guy, the face of the franchise sitting on the sidelines. What would happen if he was in for that game? And that's what you're going to get now moving forward because as you pointed out yesterday, points are at a premium when you don't have Hughes and Hronik in the lineup. And both Rutherford and Alvina publicly mused about whether or not

extending Lankanen should be something they consider. We've got a lot to chew on in the final hour of the program. Don't go anywhere. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show featuring Thomas Drance on Sportsnet 650. It's wonderful to be on with both of you. I'm happy that Jason's not here. He's just kind of a wet blanket.