Halford & Brough in the Morning - Quinn Hughes Gets The Norris Nom

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

In hour three, Mike & Jason discuss the Avs Stars series with Colorado Hockey Now's Aarif Deen (1:11) and if the Avalanche have a chance to get past round one after going down 3-2 versus Dallas, plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). 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.

It's with Rantanen! Fed there! Score! Meko Rantanen against Colorado! 8 o'clock on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. BC's first trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them on Sands-Trustee.com. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you and Steph. We are in hour three of the program. Arif Dean from Colorado Hockey Now is gonna join us to talk a little avalanche after they fell behind three two in their series against the Dallas Stars,

now facing elimination going into game six. Hour three of this program is brought to you by Campbell and Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-pound.com today. To the phone lines we go, very happy to have our next guest back on the show, Arif Dean from Colorado Hockey Now joins us

on the Haliford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Martin Arif, how are you? I'm doing well guys, how are you? We're good. That was not a very impressive performance from the Colorado Havillage last night. I read your piece on Colorado Hockey Now. These are my cup picks.

I know. Like the Avs, I thought they're going to win the cup. Now they're one loss away from getting eliminated in the first round. What's going on with these guys? Uh, they did like they, they blew it. They blew an opportunity to come home with an opportunity to end the series on Thursday and now they have to dig deep. And like I wrote they either

have to force a game seven which they've not had much success with in recent years while also considering the fact that they lost in game six at home to Dallas a year ago and that might be in the back of their minds as well. So the series is not over we've seen time and time again in this series that the momentum shifts night to night. And it starts with the Avalanche have this under control too. Well, Dallas just won two and over time. Well, Colorado just dominated. Well, Dallas just dominated.

So I suspect it's gonna keep going in that way, but this just made it a whole lot harder for coming out and having the game that you did yesterday. What's the most concerning, what has been the most concerning development for the Avalanche through this series? Kale McCarr has looked like a regular human. Yeah.

That's the biggest one. There's no way around it. He's not generated. I mean, the Avalanche were already, and I know he plays on the other side now, but the Avalanche were already and I know he plays on the other side now But the Avalanche were already going to There was already going to be a question mark with any playoff series they played because this was going to be the first time that they Don't have McKinnon and Ranton and they just have McKinnon

Obviously nature's hasn't produced the way that McKinnon or that Ranton and has in the past for the ad can or that ran to and had in the past for the ad. Uh, but the three headed monster has turned into just Nathan McKinnon. Now he's the guy with five goals. Kilmachar is not produced yet. Uh, the way that the Dallas stars is top guys who had all been struggling in the series finally came out yesterday, including me, Correnton and started to put up some points, you're, you're going to need that from Kil Kel McCarr on Thursday in order to get the series back to seven. It is funny.

The NHL just revealed the Norris Trophy finalists. They were Queenie Hughes, Kel McCarr and Rurensky from Columbus. Because when they revealed the Vezna finalists, we were all talking about what's wrong with Connor Hellebuck and Hellebuck and McCarr are both heavy favorites to win their respective trophies, but they're also getting a lot of criticism right now. What does, what exactly does like McCarr need to do

differently? Is it just produce or is there something specific that you've been watching that you, that you think he needs to do better? So in game five, he actually, he had a lot more opportunities than he did in previous games. So it looked like he was starting to generate some good chances and some good looks at the net. The goalie at the other end, Jake Odinger is pretty good. So that was a little bit of a struggle, but just defensively, there's been some turnovers.

There's a lot of, you know, you've probably noticed this yesterday, but a lot of Dallas gets a great opportunity or Dallas scores a goal and the camera pans to kill McCarroll with his head down. Like just the turnovers is just, it's been a very unorthodox week and a half. Uh, and it could be one of two things. It could be, you know, he rested the last three games of the regular season. It could be he's playing with something or it just could be, Hey, the best defenseman in the world had a bad week and a half at absolutely the worst time. Uh, but it's, it's, it is a little funny cause the last couple of years since the Avalanche won the Stanley

cup, the last couple of years has been, uh, McKinnon, Rantzenen and McCarr are doing all the production, you know, adding Valerian Natchushkin doing all the production and zero depth behind that, you know, except for a couple guys here and there. Now they've got the depth scoring and it's the top of the lineup that's struggling. So it's kind of funny to see how the Avalanche, you know, Chris McFarlane went out and got depth for a reason and now the top of the lineup is not producing the way the top of the lineup should. So now you're kind of stuck in this weirdness that we're in right now where you know, you need Kel McCarr and Nathan McKinnon and Val Natchushkin and Artur Ilyekin and you need

those guys and Marty Natchez to do the scoring. Otherwise the series will be over before game seven. How scary do you think McKinnon is behind the scenes right now? No, I would not want to see. I mean, if you guys caught, there was a shot at him when it was three and a nothing on the bench. Absolutely given it to Charlie Coyle. Like one of the most respected veterans in the

NHL, he was just snapping at him and then goes out and sets up a goal and then scores a goal and suddenly it's three to two and it's like, oh boy. But having Gabe Landis go back is good to reel in McKinnon a little bit in moments like this, but he's probably not too happy. How have those additions worked, Charlie Coyle and Brock Nelson? Because there was quite a bit spent to get

those guys in and a lot of people at the time were like, ooh, watch out for the abs. Yeah. So Charlie Coyle has made a lot more of an impact than Brock Nelson, simply because the expectations of Charlie Coyle are not as high as Brock Nelson. And Coyle has passed his expectation with flying colors, I think in the last eight or

nine games of the regular season, it's been a while now, but Coyle had like 13 points to finish off the season. He was incredible. He was spectacular. He plays such a good defensive game. And like I look back now and I think back to those years that he had in Boston, I could see why that team was so dang aggravating cause this was your third line center behind Bergeron and Creechie.

Like he was, he's such a valuable piece to the lineup, even when he's not producing. You can see why he makes the money he makes and why he gets the minutes he makes, uh, he gets Brock Nelson has been a little bit more of like a very, he's been a very boring second line center. If that makes any sense, like, uh, he's not, he's not by any means playing poor, but he's not wowing you in any way. Uh, defensively, he's pretty responsible, which is a good thing because he's not completely invisible when he's not producing like, you know, no disrespect to him, but how Casey Middlestad once when there was no points, uh, there was nothing

there with somebody like Brock Nelson, you at least get that responsible veteran two way game, but his production hasn't been up to par with what the avalanche we're hoping for, at least not yet. Uh, I thought he was spectacular in that first game with Gabe Landis, God, the one, uh, on Saturday where he set up landis cog and had that really good rush end to end. Uh, but unfortunately that game for those two assists, those are the only points he has in the series. Uh,

he's only played 19 minutes once he's played, you know, be that game for those two assists. Those are the only points he has in the series. He's only played 19 minutes once. He's played, you know, around 14 or 15 minutes for most of the series because he's not playing enough of the type of the game where, you know, Bednar is throwing him out there every other shift. It's usually Nathan McKinnon being thrown out there. You know, it's we're back to the same issue we've had since Nazim Qadri left. You don't have a first line center, a second line center, a third line center, and a fourth line center. You have a first line center who's like this crazy superhuman of a guy. And then you have a bunch of like two and a half, three and a half line centers.

Like you don't have a second line center right behind him who you can trust to play 18, 19 minutes a night. What do Avs fans think about the power play right now? And how much blame is Jared Bednar and actually Jonathan Duran getting for it? No, boy, Duran's eaten a lot of it. To be honest with you, I never thought I'd say this, but Gabriel Landisca coming back when he came back lot of it, um, to be honest with you, I, I never thought I'd say this, but, uh,

Gabriel Landis got coming back when he came back, uh, may have saved what little life the Avalanche have left because they needed that sixth, you know, forward to play in the top six and drew in a struggled so much in the Ross Colton injury has basically made them run out of options except for the captain who hasn't played in three years and looks like he hasn't skipped a beat but in regards to the power play in from what I've seen from the fan base and obviously social media and comments on Colorado Hockey now things like that like those are a very small portion of the fan base people are not happy with the, people are not happy with the coaching.

People are not happy with the power play because of how games two and three unraveled because the avalanche, uh, you know, since game four, even with that big shout out victory, there doesn't seem to be a lot of positivity because, well, you guys had a lead in the third period of game two and game three and lost both of those in overtime. You blew it. You blew overtime. You blew it. You blew it. You blew it.

Now, if you lose game five, you're going to be on the brink. And that's exactly where they are. I don't think people are happy with that. Um, and that goes to the power play because they had a power play to start over time in both games two and game three. And if you remember game three was the one where there was a double minor for high sticking called on Mason Marchment. The Avalanche had three minutes and 21 seconds of a power play at a start OT in game three at home in Gable and the Scogs first game

in three years did not score two minutes later. Mason Marchment, the guy who came out of the box set up Tyler Sagan and he scored. And, and, uh, there's a lot of pressure, like no, no ifs, ins or, or buts around it. Like there's so much pressure on this team right now to come out in game six, whether it's a close game or not, there's a ton of pressure to come out and force game seven and give yourself an opportunity to steal this thing back. Is Jared Bednar safe if the Avs lose this series?

I don't know. I keep going back and forth on it. We just saw Mike Sullivan move on, obviously, in a different situation. From everything that Chris McFarland said to us in March, and genuinely, genuinely. When Chris McFarland speaks, that dude lawyers like you wouldn't believe. He says so much and at the same time, nothing at all. But the only time he ever actually said something that matters is whenever he answers questions about Jared Bednar, he will go out of his way to talk about how

much of a great relationship they have and how much he believes in him and how much that's his guy. And I do wonder, I do wonder if, uh, like if they lost on Thursday and let's say they lost, I don't know, three to one with an empty net or like, is it a fact that not just you lost the first round series to the Dallas stars? Like in the end, Pete DeBoer and Jared Bednar, like one of these guys is going to lose a first round series, unfortunately, because of the way that the first round and the playoff format is nowadays where two of the best teams in the NHL are going head to head in round one, but is the fact that you played a Dallas

Stars team without Miro Haysken and without Jason Robertson, is the fact that you led in the first four games, you led for all but 62 seconds or let me say you trailed for only 62 seconds and it was a two to two series and the, oh, for, you know, the, the, oh, and two and overtime games and the power plays. Like, there's that put more of a microscope on him. I think so. Um, I would be completely shocked if he got fired because I think he's got such a big, you know, he's got so much respect and such a big name in the organization

that I don't know if they would let him go. Um, but I, I, we've seen crazier things in the NHL nowadays. And I was looking at the, the longest tenured coaches yesterday after Mike Sullivan was let go. And it's like John Cooper, Jared Bednar, and then I believe the third longest tenured coach is Marty St. Louis, who was hired friggin' February of 2022, I want to say. Like they don't usually last outside of Cooper

and, or sorry, Bryndamore first and then St. Louis. Like they don't last outside of Cooper and Bednar and obviously Bryndamore is a very unique situation as well with his like lifer deal in Carolina. Yeah. Well, we've been talking a lot about that in Vancouver because Rick Tauket, who seems like he as well with his like lifer deal in Carolina. Yeah. Well, we've been talking a lot about that in

Vancouver because Rick Tauket, who seems like he just got here to Vancouver is now the eighth longest tenured head coach in the NHL. Wild. Which is crazy. There might be a new head coach here in Vancouver as well. We still don't know on that.

Yeah. Tell us a bit about Marty Nacius and how he is fit in Colorado because there was a time when it looked like Nacius might come to Vancouver and in a Leos-Peterson trade. That never happened. He ends up going to Colorado and he had some pretty big shoes to fill because he was

essentially being tasked with replacing Rantinen. Yeah. And he was never going to do that. with replacing Rantanen. Yeah, and he was never going to do that. It's such a difficult situation. He looked really, really great when the trade first happened, but by the time his regular season ended, I don't think he produced that a point per game clip with the abs, I think he had 27 and 30, uh, something along those lines or 28 and 30, I should say, uh, which is still pretty dang good, especially for a guy

who, you know, was playing 20, 21 minutes a night with the avalanche before that hadn't barely ever played that much. I think like, if you look at his top 10 ice times in his career, like seven or eight of them are with the abs and he just got there 30 games ago. Um, so he's playing a lot and I think that might have something to do with how much he slowed down is him not being used to this. Uh, in the playoffs, what I've noticed from him is he's doing a lot of the things that you do in the regular season where you rush end to end and you don't tighten up as much defensively.

Uh, so he's fumbling a lot of pucks and things like that. And I think with time he will get better. And you know, whether that's a little run that the avalanche go on this year, whether that's another year of playing with Nathan McKinnon and this group, um, for potentially Jared Bednar, like I think it'll get better. I just do believe that, you know, it is a big drop off from Miko Ranconen. There, there's no other way to say it. Uh, but the reality is if you didn't make that deal, um, Miko and you weren't going

to sign Miko, you're, you don't have Miko Ranconen in two months or Marty Nacius or Jack Jury. assigned Miko, you're, you don't have Miko Rantinen in two months or Marty Natchez or drag jury. So, uh, I get what the avalanche we're going for, but it was always going to be, uh, tough shoes to fill and pretty much an impossible task for Marty Natchez. Just considering the numbers that Rantinen and McKinnon have put up together for the last five, six years. Like it was going to take a miracle for him to come out and do that. And obviously he's not doing that.

Not yet. Um, you know, Miko And obviously he's not doing that. Not yet. Um, you know, Nico Rantinen is not doing that on the other end as well. It kind of hurt everybody, but, uh, um, I still think he can be a very good player. I just don't think we're ever going to look at him the way that we did. Nico Rantinen in 2023 and in 2022, where there was a lot of talk about the Avalanche having not just two of the best players in the world, but three of the best players in the world. Obviously we look at Miko Ranton differently now, but back then he was considered to be that. Do Avs fans still look back on that whole episode and go like, why didn't we

keep him? Why didn't they get him signed to the same deal that he signed with Dallas? He wasn't going to be making more than McKinnon. He would have made more than McCarr, but that's, that's a whole different situation there. There must be some people in Colorado that are like, I still don't understand what happened there. So I think that the general field, there's a lot

of people now that have kind of, uh, I don't agree with it, but I've kind of turned on Miko Rantunen because they start to hear the numbers and, and, you know, as soon as he signed in Dallas, it went from, well, why didn't we, to this guy's a trader? Like there, there, there's been zero logical conclusions about what happened there with Miko Rantunen now.

Uh, if you were to ask me how I would feel about that, like I go back and forth every single day on one hand, uh, you know, Pierre Lebrun's been covering this series and I, and I talked to him the other day when we were in, uh, I think it was game two in Dallas. And he said something along the lines of, and he probably, I think he wrote about it in the athletic too. He said, uh, I bet you if Miko knew when he got that $11.65 million deal from the avalanche, that that was going to be the last offer he gets. Cause that was like December.

Uh, no team decides in December that, you know, this is it for an offer with one of the best wingers and one of the best players in the NHL. Uh, he said, I bet you if he knew back then that that was going to be the final offer he got from the Avalanche, he would have just signed it and stayed. And I bet that probably would have been how he looked at it too. Miko hates everything about what's gone on and he's trying to make the best of a situation that he did not think he was going to be in. So I go back and forth on it.

On one hand, it's nice for them to have the extra calf space and the ability to go out there and, and do more things. But on the other hand, uh, it, you know, he's not having a great playoff, but Marty Natchez in a year is due for a contract. And if he asks for nine and a half or 10 million, well now you're, you basically went, you saved $2 million, which is a fourth line center nowadays. And in a couple of years with the rising salary cap, it's not even enough for a fourth line center.

So I'm really curious to see how it plays out. I still don't know how I feel about the whole thing. I do know that when that deal first happened, I thought this team was toast. That was a complete shock the moment that I found out about that trade. I could not believe it. But here we are now. The Avalanche found a way to go out and do like three or four other things and really make themselves into a contender. And now they've got Landis God back too. So all eyes are on Marty Nacius. All eyes are on what he does.

I don't know how this is going to play out, but I do know that when it first went down, there were not a lot of people that were happy with that deal. Well, they won't be happy if Dallas loses on Thursday or sorry, Colorado loses on Thursday. So we'll be keeping an eye on this series. I still believe in the Avs. They're still my cup pick, although they're behind

the eight ball right now. I do too. I still think they will win game six. What happens in game seven? I don't know. Cause they haven't, I don't know if you guys know this, the Avalanche haven't won a seventh game of a series, I believe since 2002, the series before

Patrick won, the Avs lost 7-0 to Detroit. Like it has been a long time ago. And the Nathan McKinnon era, they lost to Seattle a couple of years ago. Before that, they lost to Pete DeBoer's Dallas Stars in 2020. They lost to San Jose in 2019. Like they've, they've lost quite a few game sevens in their era as well. Araf, this was awesome, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the remainder of this series for however long it goes.

Hopefully we can do this again maybe in the next round. Sounds good, thanks a lot for having me on. Yeah, thanks for coming on. That's Eryf Dean from Colorado Hockey Now here on the Haliford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. The whole thing seems weird to me. What's that? The whole situation with Rantanen.

It seems like nobody got what they really wanted. Like Rantanen doesn't seem thrilled that he's not with the abs anymore. Right. He signed a deal that, like I don't think shocked anyone in its size or scope. If he had signed that deal with Colorado, he'd

be making less than Nate. So the structure would have, you know, still been there. They've, they've got Kale McCarr on a really good deal for the next few years and the cap's going to go up a lot. I don't know. I just, it just, it just felt weird. It felt like the Avs, maybe there's something else there that we don't know.

It felt like they kind of. To me it felt like it panicked. It felt like they jumped the gun. Yeah. I don't know about panicked. Well, it felt like they jumped the gun. Like they felt maybe they got the wrong signal from Rantanen, like, oh, this is going to be an

impossible negotiation. This guy's act asking for like 14 million a season, way more than Nate and there's no way we're going to be able to do this. But maybe Ranton was just negotiating, right? Did he negotiate too hard to the point where they were like, well, we're going to trade you. Cause that was really interesting what

Arif said and he'd had a conversation with Lebrun and Lebrun surmised, I mean, could be wrong about this, but if he had known that that was going to be the last offer that he got from the Avs at like 11.6 or something, he would have probably signed it and just gone, all right, I want to be in Colorado. That guy was miserable in Carolina. Clearly. Yeah, he didn't want to be there. And it feels like him going to Dallas is like, well. He did sign there, so you have to say.

But he had to sign somewhere, right? Well, he could have waited until the office. Go back to Colorado. He could have slow played the entire thing. Whatever the case, I think it's a fair conclusion to suggest it was a misstep from Colorado. Because with all the things that they had going in their favor this year,

that was one that felt like they shot themselves in the foot just a little bit. By the way, those are the games from last night that we've already covered quite thoroughly. There are four games in the National Hockey League tonight, Stanley Cup Playoff Action. There are two elimination games on the slate, Toronto, Ottawa.

Obviously, Ottawa's looking to stave off elimination. My favorite time of the year is the playoffs where we get to use the word stave. You don't get to use stave very often during the regular season. Stovved. Stovved. And then of course, New Jersey and Carolina where the Devils will like to stave off elimination as well. We also get the latest

chapter of the Edmonton LA series tonight. I do wonder if the Kings are gonna bring back the harmonica class from the Koreatown Senior and community center because that was their good luck charm I don't know. Do you go do you risk going back to the well too much? They won game yeah, but if they do it and they win they have to ladies are exhausted Give the kazoo troop a shot waiting in the wings There were harmonicas in games one and two and the Kings won.

They should be doing this the rest of the playoffs for as long as they're in it. There were no harmonicas in games three and games four. Yeah. If the Kings lose this series, the regret is gonna be off the charts. See, that's where I could see a coaching change happen if they lose.

When we talk about those first round losers. How long has she been there for? Who cares, that doesn't matter, it's Jim Hiller. If they lose that series, I would not be surprised if there was a coaching change in Los Angeles, right? Yeah. You've got the inability, again, to get past the Oilers in the opening round.

You've got an egregious coaching blunder at a pivotal time of the series, the challenge in game three. And you've got a guy with all due respect to Jim Heller. It's Jim Heller. We just lost all our listeners in Port Alberni. Thank you. I know he's a local guy

and I know he's done a decent job there, but you know what he feels like to me? A guy that's still the interim head coach. I kind of agree with you on that. I'm sorry. How many people have to be reminded, wait a minute, who's the coach of the Kings again? It's not.

Jim Miller? Yeah. So that's how I feel about it. He also got, uh, his, his back was very much up after game four when he was asked about defending the lead. And it was a totally fair question. It was changing your approach in the third period.

Totally fair question. And he got very defensive about it. I mean, that was a tale of two games. The Kings looked really good for the first half. They got the three one lead and then Edmonton really took over. And that included all the, like in overtime was terrific.

It was, it was really exciting hockey, but Edmonton very much had the upper hand. Yeah. So he should have expected a question about, you know, did you do the right thing and how you played? And he could have easily said in a, in a calm manner, he should have been like, look, we didn't want to change the way we played, but it's easier said than done psychologically to

still be aggressive when you've got a two goal lead, knowing that the other team has McDavid and Dreisaitl. Boom, question answered. Look at this. But easier said than done. I think I know who's gonna replace Jim Hiller in LA. Although I- Former youth hockey coach Jason Brough. Not former.

Current youth hokey. Hokey. Hokey, that is kinda hokey. I also probably would have had trouble maintaining my composure after those two losses. God bless some of these coaches. I don't know how they do it. I mean, sometimes I don't know how they

don't swear at the podium. I have no idea how they don't. Like they've just. Oh, you think you'd do a better job? Well, why don't you just try it then? They've just finished like a super intense emotional game. They're all fired up.

Like Cooper last night, I would have lost it. Lost it in the, I would have been like, we're talking about everything today guys. Like get your notepads out cause we're going to discuss everything about what just happened and how we got screwed over. I'd just be like, well, you're ugly. You're listening to the Howe Friend and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Get your, what we learned into the

Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. It's Canuck Central with Dan Riccio and Satya Arshah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post game show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. Now for my favorite part of the show. What does that say? Now for my favorite part of the show. What does it say? Talk to the audience.

Oh, God, this is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. On the show. On the show. On the show. 834 on a Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and 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 Sands-Trusteecom. We are in hour three of the program, it is what we learn in time. Hour three is brought to you by Campbell & Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound, visit them on the internet at Campbell-pound.com today. So I learned in a very interesting way, the lack of attention I've paid to the Minnesota

Wild Vegas Golden Knights series just played itself out in the previous segment because as I was running through all the games that were going on tonight we didn't even get a chance to mention that it's game five between the Wild and the Golden Knights. Series is tied at 2-2. How much of this series have you watched? I've watched a little bit. I've seen some of the over times. I have not paid any attention to this series. There's always one series every first round where for whatever set of circumstances, either your lack of interest or the time that the games start or there's an overlap or whatever,

you just not dialed into. And unfortunately, because I think it's actually been a really good series, I have not paid any attention to Wild Vegas Golden Knights. Well, I just said, over time. So there's been one overtime. So I obviously haven't paid that much attention to it. I love all the overtime.

They've all gone to overtime, right? I love all the overtime. I saw Gustavsson made one big toe save. Right, everyone's got these sort of anecdotes from the series. That's it. Caprizo's been really good, Boldy scoring. Thomas Hurdle's scoring a lot of goals.

I'll try and tune into that one tonight. Anyway, that's what I learned. Jason, you've got a, Jason's got a basketball, what we learned, an NBA one. It's remarkable. Yeah. I learned that Heat Culture died last night. Thanks for coming out.

Miami Heat, they were swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers and they lost at home in game four. It was a tight one. 138 to 83. It was. And it's on the same day that the golden state warriors got a big win.

Thanks in large part to the rough and tumble play of one Jimmy Butler. Yeah. J. Mon Green got into it. It's been a chippy series that one, but back to the heat. So I actually tuned into the NBA on TNT post game show just to hear what those guys were going to say. We don't have the audio, do we? Yeah. So Ernie Johnson called it. He thinks it's the worst basketball game he's ever seen. I think he said that at halftime and Charles

Barkley said that he doesn't like to use the word quit, but he said it was like a master class in quitting. Yeah, yeah. What the he did yesterday. Yeah. Had to be. They were at home.

The highlight. They got blown out in both those games. The highlight pack was incredible because it was just a series of half-assed lob passes that were getting picked off by Cleveland defenders and then no one sort of tracking back to make up for it. Like it was, I actually felt bad for Eric Spolstra because those are the kind of performances that

get coaches fired. I don't think he's going to get fired, but those put your job security into question. Cause it was so bad. He said afterwards, I hope that players became better from it, but damn, it was humbling. This series was humbling. The Caps had a 60 point lead at one point.

You don't. Again, this is in Miami. at one point in game four. Again, this is in Miami. This is also in the playoffs. You played well enough during the regular season and the play in to get to this point. Didn't Miami beat Atlanta to get into the playoffs? Do you think Atlanta was like, we could have done better than that?

And then Atlanta watch, he's like, maybe it's good that we're not here. Cleveland was significantly better than the heat for sure. But that was that, that is embarrassing. You don't see teams lose that badly. You can get swept, but you know, you have the competitive sweep sometimes, or you have the one where you're really close for the first three games and then you're deflated.

This thing was just a nightmare from beginning to end for the heat. Are the Lakers going to go out to Minnesota? Doesn't look good. I know it's not. Does not look good. It's not tonight. Um, if I have time, I'm going to watch a bit of the Clippers Nuggets series.

Cause that's been pretty good, but you know, that would be a massive disappointment for not only the Lakers, but I think the NBA in general. So. Although the GM in Dallas is probably like, come on Minnesota. Yeah probably like, come on. I don't know if Nico is going to be able to hang his hat on this, but there are, if you Google.

Looked out of shape to me, I don't know. If you Google Luca Doncic defense right now, all the replies are, and all the responses and everything else, there's about 18 different articles being written about he's just helpless. NBA insider blasts Doncich for his lack of defensive effort, like all the skeletons now with Luka. There's two primary ones.

One is that he's not in good shape and two that he has no interest in playing defense. And if you're going to win in the playoffs, you can't do it. Now granted, they made the NBA finals last year with him not playing a ton of defense, but. And win. Yeah.

And it weren't even particularly close. Um, if they go out in round one, it is a terrible for the playoffs because from a ratings and narrative perspective, you want that team to go as far as possible, but there's also going to be a major look under the hood of like, what exactly are we moving forward? Cause LeBron gets a year older.

Luca getting a year older, isn't great for a guy that doesn't keep himself in the best form. Like you kind of wonder his physical window, how, how open is it? It's going to be a very interesting off season for the Lakers if they bow out. Okay. Mukow that.

Laddy you have a what we learned. Yeah, I have a What We Learned and it might come as a bit of a surprise to you guys. This one's gonna be about Lin-Manuel Miranda. You know who that is? No. He helped bring us Hamilton. Hamilton. And also Moana Incanto, the music for that movie.

He was part of the- Hamilton's a Broadway play. I know. Yeah, yeah. He's also not the city in Ontario. How does this relate to the Haliford and Brough show? Well. It's about Hamilton. It's about Hamilton the city, I can tell you that.

It's the worst musical I've ever seen. Well, his next project, you guys, he let it slip on the red carpet that he's actually working on a project about the Molina brothers. Yes, the three Molina brother catchers that played in Major League Baseball. Benji, Yadier, and.

Hamilton Molina. Jose. Frank. Jose. That's what got him interested to begin with. Wait, his first name's Hamilton? So there is a connection. Apparently he's a big baseball guy.

I hope so. His family is rooted from Puerto Rico. And he's actually the cousin of current MLB, Jose Miranda. I didn't know that. Did not know that. He's actually related to a current MLB. But apparently they all come from his hometown, the Molina brothers, and he wants

to pay homage to them and make a movie about their rise to stardom. And that's his next project. Is it going to be animated or? Or musical perhaps? Maybe. A baseball musical about three brothers from Puerto Rico. That could, that's got a lot of potential.

Who was the best Molina brother? Was it Yadier? Oh, Yadier by far. Yeah, Jose was pretty good. Benji had probably the second best career out of the three, but Jose was pretty much a backup his whole career. So Yadier is the clear. Yadier played for like two decades.

Yeah, and he's like a legend in St. Louis. Yeah. Do you think when you have the success that that guy has, you're just like, give me any topic. I will make a successful movie or musical from it. Well, the tweet. It almost becomes a challenge. It's like, uh, okay, three brothers, they're catchers from Puerto Rico.

Do it. It's like challenge accepted. The tweet I saw is that he's always looking for ways to bring more Latino talent to the forefront. This is another way for him to cast some more people in some roles that he obviously has fun with. The topic of baseball is something that Lin-Manuel Miranda enjoys, not something I knew.

I'm proud of you for bringing that up because I genuinely learned something there. Thank you. Moocow. Ah! Fire up that dot matrix. I'm proud of you for bringing that up, because I genuinely learned something there. Thank you. Moocow. Ahhhhhhh! Fire up that dot matrix. A-dog was going to do the rock and roll Hall of Fame musical inductees for the fourth time.

Who's Chubby Checker again? We're going to cut him off instead. What we learned human- No, I was going to do the font thing. I know. You wouldn't steal a car. You remember that ad? Well, apparently they stole the font and they're being sued just say nothing and let them die on the vine here Listeners will know what I'm talking about. Now we have you don't know which is weird though

I mean it was such a popular ad campaign in the late 90s You know why you know how we're gonna do this I'm gonna ask all the pertinent questions to make this a useful what we learned We got so many what we learned from the listeners. One, what the hell are you talking about? You wouldn't steal a car. That's an advertisement. And that's a commercial from the 90s. Late 90s, early 2000s, so you wouldn't steal a car. And the purpose was to make it a sort of like play on you wouldn't steal music like from Napster or some of the other file sharing. Correct. Yeah. And you wouldn't

steal a car. Yeah, you wouldn't steal a car, so why would you steal music? Now, what's the kicker? They stole the font. It's like an iconic font that they used in the ad. And apparently, it was pirated. Irony. Yeah, that's the joke. Lin-Manuel Miranda stole the font.

Did the sigh come across on my mic? He will be making a musical about it, though. Okay, what we learned humanoid edition is brought to you by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. You gotta try the bar pie, 14 inch cracker thin crust topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella and cheddar only at AJ's Pizza, order online at ajs.pizza. A lot of people steal cars too.

What we learned unsigned, I'm currently in Cancun, bragger, and met some blues fans from St. Louis. I told them I hope the blues beat the Jets, and they were super surprised. I had to explain to them that I want the Canucks to win the cup before any other Canadian team. Congratulations to pass that great message along to around the world.

You know, all of this stuff is just like, I have to roll my eyes because a lot of people I talk to, you know, family and friends is like, you know, I hope it's the Oilers or the Jets that, that win the cup because I think it'd be good for Canada. And I'm kind of like, I just have to sit there and take it. Yeah.

Cause like you sound like a jerk. If you're talking to casual. More of a jerk in your instance. Casual hockey fans is like, oh really? I actually want those fan bases to feel pain. There is, especially with everything that's going on politically, I don't know if you guys are aware, but there was an election last night. We need to bring Canada together, right? Right. There's a lot of Canada unity, Canada first, Canada together.

I was like, that does bring Canada together. When. Nothing brings us together by booing other Canadian fans. Yeah, exactly. When the Leafs get eliminated. That brings Canada together. From the playoffs every year.

Canada never is closer. Yeah. You know. That's like a national holiday in every other Canadian city other than Toronto. Exactly. Yeah. Right.

And when the Oilers go out, that'll bring people together. Absolutely. And when David leaves Edmonton, that's going to bring a lot of people together. Exactly. Unless he leaves for Toronto. Uh, some breaking news here.

I might break the country up. We don't need the sounder. As if Alberta needs any more reasons to leave. Some breaking news here from Sportsnet's very own Elliot Friedman. Aaron Echblad is going to have a phone hearing with the NHL's Department of Player Safety following his hit on Brandon Hegel last night.

The hit, of course, that was not penalized in any way, shape, or form is now going to get Aaron Echblad suspended. What a league, everybody. What a league. I enjoy that when you said his hit on, who did he hit? Brandon Hagel. It sounded like he was hired to kill him.

I mean, it was kind of. That looked like it. Yeah. Give him the forearm shiver. Honestly, you can't watch that on replay and have any justification for the hit and then any reasonable explanation why the referee didn't take a look at it. He was staring. Crazy man. Forearm shiver.

The referee also watched Brandon Hagel crumple to the ice. Yeah. And then- Are you okay? Right. What happened? Yeah. Anyway, in case you missed it, as per Freage, phone hearing coming for Aaron Echblad later today.

Henry and Comox, what we learned, I learned that the whole of English football will be supporting Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final, so Man City don't win again. So. Everyone loves an underdog story, just like the Whitecaps beating Miami to make their final, hopefully.

Yeah, that ain't done yet. That is not done. There's much to be decided there. The English football campaign has been wildly bereft of drama and excitement and intrigue. And that includes the FA Cup final. I mean, now it's like who gets into the Champions League in fourth position, right?

No disrespect to Crystal Palace who perennially sit and finish 12th in the primary league. I think that's their destiny in life. They made an FA Cup final like 10 years ago. Didn't they? Yep. But this, I mean, you got to admit this FA Cup final, the matchup, it's not exactly.

Do you remember when Watford went and played Man City and they lost six-nil? Friend, I do. That was over real fast. I don't think, actually, you know what Palace played really well last weekend, they had beating Villa. Like I, they'll put up a fight, but I don't even

know what a city would be favored in the books, but it's gotta be, they gotta be a pretty heavy favorite. Well, they want to win something this year. Yeah, exactly. Mike, the urologist from Brockville, what we learned, none of these NHL playoff teams are powerhouses this year.

They all have their flaws. It will be interesting to see what team can lean into their strengths to overcome their flaws. That's the NHL now. That's, that's just the league. Every year we go in with like 10 or 11 teams that could legitimately win the cup. And a lot of them are matched up with each other

in the first round. Yeah. Look at Dallas, Colorado. I tried to shortlist prior to the playoffs teams that I thought like legitimately. Now like, Oh, everyone's got a chance, but legitimately could win. Cause like I, I gave the devil's zero chance.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe Minnesota not. Yeah, the Sens, the Habs. I was like, there's no way like you might win a round. Uh, I had it at about. St. Louis probably not. Yeah, the Sens, the Habs. I was like, there's no way. Like you might win a round. I had it at about. St. Louis, probably not. Not.

Although you never know. See, I think what St. Louis is doing right now is taking advantage of a clearly like flawed Connor Hellebuck, right? Whatever's going on in the moment. I think they're doing some good things though to beat Connor Hellebuck. I would have's going on in the moment. They're doing some good things though, to beat Connor Hellebuck. I would have a hard time seeing them replicate this level of success against another contender

in the west, but who knows how the, after this, like all of a sudden the field drops to four, you know, four teams. Anyway, um, I had it at about eight teams that I thought could legitimately win the cup this year and that's a lot. But in the NBA, it's like what, three? Yeah, if you want to. So you're

going Boston, Cleveland, Oklahoma City, I don't know who else. Well the Warriors have worked their way in state. The Warriors have worked their way into that conversation right now. Yeah. Because I mean they're up 3-1 on the second seed in the west but everyone said getting that seven seed to play the second seeded Rockets, kind of where everyone wanted to be. Cause while the Rockets had a great regular season, they're kind of a weird team, like they don't have one star player that does the scoring. Like it's balanced around like this green and Sangun and everything.

They're a good team. But what would the odds be that one of Oklahoma City, Boston or Cleveland wins the NBA title. High. Minus 600, minus 1000. And then I get, like I said, maybe you could talk yourself into the Warriors, Nuggets, Clippers, maybe, but it's not the same, it's not

the same level of parody in the NHL, not even close to be honest. A couple Rick Taukett, what we learned, Johnny Mack, what we learned, the Canucks are mishandling the Rick Taukett negotiations to take the Philadelphia and New York options off the table. Management should have simply said, we will exercise our option, invest to the cap max this summer and provide you with a generous long-term extension by the trade deadline, provided the Canucks are safely in the playoff hunt.

Well, here's the problem with that, Johnny Mack. provided the Canucks are safely in the playoff hunt. Well, here's the problem with that, Johnny Mack. If the Canucks forced Rick Tocket to come back to the club next season and they said, we'll give you a generous long-term extension if you're safely in the playoff hunt. Like that's not motivating for a coach. No. And you got to make sure that the coach. No. You know, you got, you got to make sure that

the coach feels appreciated. And I will read this one from Marty the Red next, what we learned. The Canucks want to sign Tocket now, like they did with Petey. No problem there, right? So if he signs, we'll have two important pieces here that kind of want to be here signed under pressure.

You're extrapolating a lot with that. And I know I've been the one that's kind of hinted at like, does Petey really want to be here? Let's, let's go over how he actually signed that contract because. You were the original. You could say, well, he looks miserable all the time and then I think you could say that he was

kind of strong armed into that contract. Um, I don't think it's totally the same situation with Tocket because they have taken that option off the table. There's no, there's no strong arming that they're doing right now that we know of. Now it might come out that Tocket would love to talk to some other teams right now and see what

they've got on offer. And the Canucks have said no, but I think it's been reported that no teams have officially requested to talk to Tocket. So the Canucks could play hardball, but there's no indication right now, at least publicly, not that we know of that they're doing that. Before we go, I'll just pass this one along.

Rod Brindamore has just announced that Frederick Anderson is out yet again tonight. Got knocked out of the last game, game four, on a hit from Timo Meyer. He's out tonight for game five and considered day to day, so it's going to be Pieter Kochetkoff in that for the Caroline Hurricanes as they look to eliminate the New Jersey Devils this evening. Okay. That's it for today, everybody. Four games on tap tonight in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It should be a lot of fun. We'll be back

tomorrow to talk about them all. But for today, we got to say goodbye. Signing off. I have been Mike Alford. He's been Jason Brev. He's been a Doug. He's been entered Kieran and he's been laddy. This has been the Alford and Brev show on Sportsnet 650.