Halford & Brough in the Morning - Ray Ferraro On Locker Room Banter

Episode Date: December 3, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason discuss the latest from around the NHL with analyst Ray Ferraro (5:40), plus they hear from Minnesota Wild radio commentator Joe O'Donnell (26:00) ahead of their home matchup tonight versus the Canucks. 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.

Ferraro, Ferraro, let's chat with Ray Ferraro. It's time for Ferraro, let's talk to Ray Ferraro. Ferraro winds up for the shot, scores! Ray Ferraro, breakaways on his side, scores! Rebound score! Ray Ferraro! Ferraro, Ferraro, it's time for Ray Ferraro! Ferraro, Ferraro It's time for Ray Ferraro

Let's chat with Ferraro It's time for Ray Ferraro 7.04 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford & Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for,

sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Ray Ferraro is going to join us in just a few minutes here to kick off Hour 2. Hour 2 of this 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. Who loves giving the banks more money? Obviously, I'm being sarcastic.

For more on this development, visit jason at jason.mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sorfi, what are you waiting for? Kintec. Before we get to Ray, who's going to be a few minutes late today. We are also waiting for Ray.

You know? What are you waiting for? Kintec? Oh, right. We're also waiting for Ray. That would have been the good segue. That would have been better than just blurting out Kintec. But Ray.

No, it's not going to work. I can't do it now. Ray's going to join us in a few minutes here. We should talk briefly about a Monday Night Football game that prior to kickoff, I was like, we're not going to talk about this on Tuesday. It's the Browns and it's the Broncos. Who cares? And then the Browns and the Broncos put on a show

for the ages of Monday Night Football. Well, Jameis Winston did. Broncos had something to say about it. Yeah, Bo Nix had that very nice touchdown pass. That 100-yard touchdown pass. Oh my God, that was incredible. That was pretty nice. Also, the Broncos defense, two pick sixes in the game,

although Jameis Winston did have something to do with that. So I tweeted out after the game, Jameis Winston is the most entertaining football player alive. Now, you'll note, I didn't say best. I didn't say greatest. I didn't say goaded. I just said entertaining. Because entertainment means that you're constantly forced to watch

because you never have any idea what's going to come next. And that is the best way to sum up Jameis Winston football. You never know what's going to happen. I compared him to a great action movie in that, you know, won't get a lot of love from the critics. Sure. Might not even make sense. The premise is ridiculous.

And when you hear Jameis Winston, sometimes you're like, this whole premise is ridiculous. But man, it's fun to watch. It really is and um i think um i was i was actually trying to think last night who is the jamis winston of hockey is there one because for golf i was thinking the first name that came to mind as another athlete phil mickelson before he started winning majors. Sure. Incredible talent, but he would always make some horrific mistake right at the end.

While going for it. Yeah, while going for it in a big way. You remember at the U.S. Open when he hit driver off the tee and he shouldn't have, and after the tournament he's like, I'm such an idiot, right? Yeah, when he finally broke through and actually won majors, it was kind of like, yeah, this is less interesting now, right? Be crazy.

Do stupid stuff. Make the wild decisions. But he's kind of that high-risk, high-reward type of player, both on and off the field, if we're being honest about Mickelson. But back to Jameis, is there a guy that plays like – the first name that actually popped to mind was Evan Bouchard, but I'm not sure if that quite fits. No. I just can't if that quite fits. No.

I just can't believe that I did that. I am such an idiot. Yeah, that was Evan Bouchard. Okay, so the problem with the Mickelson comparison is that, I'm going to be perfectly honest, he's been too successful. He won. Part of Jameis' thing is that, okay, so last night, for example, the box score is remarkable

Jameis Winston threw 58 passes yesterday and he completed 34 of them he almost threw for 500 yards he finished with 497 and he threw for 4 touchdowns like there's only a handful of people that can do that in an NFL

game it's hard but he also threw 3 interceptions four touchdowns. There's only a handful of people that can do that in an NFL game. It's hard. But he also threw three interceptions, two that got returned for touchdowns, and he had the now infamous line, overnight it became famous. This is what Jameis Winston said after throwing three interceptions, two of them returned for touchdowns against the Broncos on Monday Night Football. It's an opportunity to continue to glorify the Lord even through the toughest circumstances. I know I'm better than this.

I know. I'm just praying for the Lord to deliver me from pick sixes. That's just, that's not me. Phenomenal game, offense, do some great things, but I messed it up. Deliver me from pick sixes? I would like to be there live while he's praying.

I'm just praying for the Lord to deliver me from pick sixes. Not the win, just the pick six part. As they say in the Old Testament, deliver me from pick sixes. Ray used to pray to be delivered from back checking. What a segue! Ray Ferraro joins us now on the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Good morning, Ray. How are you? I'm good. I often thought the Lord was busier than watching me play hockey. Or Jameis Winston play football, maybe. Yeah, I just, I don't, you know. Yeah, when I listen to that, I'm like, oh, gee. I don't even know what to say. Like, you know, like, yeah.

He's okay. I'll say this. He's a very interesting character, right? And it was funny. He is. One of his old teammates, I think it was Jerome Ford, running back. He had the best line ever. He said that when Jameis comes into the huddle to call the play,

he delivers it like he's got a secret to tell everybody. And then I pictured it, and I'm like, I know exactly what he's talking about. You know what? Let's throw Ray on the spot. We'll ask him, was there ever a guy that you played with or against or a player that jumps out as someone that was like the ultimate high risk, high reward or took crazy chances, had crazy talent, but made horrendous mistakes. Well, I think we watch one now in the game today.

It's Eric Carlson. Yeah, that's a good one. And there's really no more, like, I think he's the perfect example for what you're talking about, because you have to almost not care what the negative is. Most players will get to a point, and everybody's got a different threshold because of their talent, and they'll go, I can take one more chance and I might get burned here. And for everybody, it's a little different. For some guys, it's carrying the puck 10 feet. They shouldn't carry it 11. For some guys, it's, oh, there's only two D back there. I'm going to try and beat them both.

Right? Everybody's got a different threshold. But for Carlson, it's like he never sees sees a play. He doesn't think he can't make. And that's, that's, that's the high risk and high reward. I mean, when, as I think back, like Alex Kovalev was like that, one of the most talented players I've, I've ever seen. And Al would do things on the ice. He'd be like, I don't, I don't even know how he thought of that. Like whether it worked or not was irrelevant.

It's like, how did he even think of that? And he would be the guy that jumps out first for me. I wanted to ask you what you thought of the Rangers last night losing 5-1 to the Devils. It feels like something's got to give with the New York Rangers, considering all the noise around them and the fact they are not playing very well right now. Well, yeah, I mean, a lot of times when there's noise, that's the time to settle it down and don't do anything because everybody's well aware of the position that you're in.

But the fact that Chris Drury sent out that memo to the other teams and said, hey, we're open for business, and that's where Truba and Kreider's name got linked in there. When he sent that out, it's impossible for that to stay quiet. You're sending it out to 31 other teams. Somebody's going to say something to somebody. And so now that it's out it's it's impossible for that not to be a lightning bolt into the middle of the locker room and you know i've been in enough

rooms to know that that wasn't a one-day talking point that's that continues and as the team has struggled and continues to struggle and continues to bleed chances, which is really, you know, it's been the story of their season. At the beginning of the year, they had a really good start, but their goaltending was out of this world. The record really didn't indicate the same style of play. So I do think that there is something that it feels like there's movement. I'm going to agree with you that there's movement that would be rather imminent.

Now, here's the other part to it. Great, you can want to make 10 trades, but you've got to be able to make the deal. You've got to make the money fit. You've got to make the players fit. Like the Crider and Truba have 15 team no trades, I think. And so say you were able to get somebody interested, what kind of return are you getting when the whole league knows that you need to move somebody?

So he's in a tough spot. Chris is in a tough spot there for sure. And I'm sure it was not much fun last night in the garden for the fans and the management coaches to sit there and watch the team from across the Hudson come in and give them a boot in the rear end. Ray, how many stories from the dressing room do you remember but just wouldn't tell on the air just because there is that,

I don't know if it's like a legal privacy a legal privacy issue but you just don't want to tell those stories because those stories that 20 20 maybe yeah like there's lots i mean if you sat around and there's lots of goofy stuff that happens and guys say stupid things and you know somebody comes in with a terrible haircut and you know it's open season that sort of stuff but um there'd probably be i don't know 20 maybe that you're like that's nobody's business kind of like i don't know you're you hear it talked all the time like it's family and i wouldn't say it's necessarily the same as family but there's i don't know there's certain things that you just you know that that get said or you laugh at that maybe aren't as much for the public as you'd think, I guess.

I want to be clear here. This isn't hockey. This is every locker room. Every locker room. I played baseball until I was playing in the NHL. And the locker room in baseball was every bit the same as one in hockey. It was the same. And that's one of the great parts of being on a team

is that you get to hang around and you got to kill time and there's i don't know where you're going with this what happened that you you want to that you're asking about but there's yeah there's something i i just wonder about some of the arguments that might happen or some of the like i i'm thinking about i'm thinking about the Rangers right now, specifically, and what would be said in the room after it got out that Chris Drury had sent out that memo to the NHL GMs. And maybe it's not in the room. Maybe it's not a room-wide discussion, but maybe it's the players because there are so many ways

that this could go with the team. I guess Drury was hoping like all right it's going to be a kick in the pants like we better play better or else they're going to trade some of our friends away you know especially crider seems to be quite popular but it could also be like hey guys let's have a mutiny right you know like okay and i don't know how it all i don't know how it all works like well guys go off small groups go ahead no not that so i think the what would happen is the news would get out and the thought would be what the was that like what's going on here like guys would be pissed off and they'd want to know like what's going on guarantee

you if there are 22 guys in the room and there are 16 different agents, because some guys might represent a few, all of those agents got a call that day. They all got a call. What are you hearing? What's going on? Is this got anything to do with me? Like it becomes survival in a hurry. But at the start, the first thing would be guys would be sitting around having a coffee and go what the was that did you know anything about this like what have

you heard and so there would be an agitation more than anything right away and then like every other thing the quest for knowledge like what is going on and now how uncomfortable is everybody at this moment because everybody's trying to figure out how once the big story comes out everybody's trying to figure out how does it impact me so basically it's like all office gossip which we've been a part of at the radio station. Oh my God, we're losing our jobs. That guy should go,

not me. Well, but what else can it be? Because nobody would have any real knowledge, right? Like if, if that, if that email or that,

whatever, however they send it out, went out this year, this two weeks ago, when everybody hears about it or the first guy hears about it, he asks the second guy and within three minutes, 14 people know about it. And then everybody wants to know what is going on here. And you can imagine how it makes everybody uncomfortable because then jacob

truber chris crider walks in the room and everybody would stop wouldn't you you wouldn't be able to tie my skates again yeah yeah exactly you wouldn't believe this but we were just talking about you and you know like like, like it, it would be a really uncomfortable thing. And I, the, the results since that memo came out, I think speak for themselves. Yeah. They need a, they need a guy that makes the joke to break the tension. It's like, Hey Jacob, I was just looking at my phone. Have you seen this? Well, there will be gallows humor at some time,

but I don't know in the first day if there's much of that. I want to talk about Philip Hronik and just get your thoughts on the situation that he's in, apparently trying to decide if he wants surgery or if he wants to just rehab it or maybe there's a decision on the type of surgery that he's got to have, but also the situation that the Canucks are in

because people are putting together some timelines and going, all right, well, if he's going to be out three or four months, why not just keep him out the entire regular season and pull a Vegas, you bring someone in, and then you get to keep Hronik, too, for the playoffs. Now you've got to make the playoffs, but, you know, it just seems like with this situation,

there are a lot of balls in the air for Hronik himself, but also the team. Well, I suspect there is, and there would be an announcement of something if there was something to announce. Um, I broke my leg and dislocated my ankle in November of 92 and for about eight, a little less than that, five or six days there, they were debating whether to do surgery or if they could reset the ankle if it because it

there was something about the i can't even remember anyway something they thought they could reset it and so they tried to reset it which was brutal and then after a day they did an m two days they did an mri and they're like, yeah, it's not going to work. We're going to have to do surgery. So like they were, we were exploring other avenues than surgery. If you can avoid surgery, you'd like to avoid surgery. And so that, if you go to see outside doctors, which happens frequently that, you know, the team doctor makes an evaluation then there's a couple of different guys that might be specialists in this case and shoulders um that you would go see them and they would have their opinion and they would have maybe a different way to to fix it um

uh to repair it to avoid a surgery they Everybody, there might be three or four different ways that get presented, and then Hronik and his agent, they have to decide what's the best course of action with the team. And so once they get that, then there's, that lays the road out in front of Patrick Alveen and Jimmy Rutherford, right? Like that just, that lays the road out there. And so until then, there, there's lots to talk about,

but none of it's really, you can't really explore any of it too deeply until you get the final answer health-wise. You got Boston and Detroit tonight. I'm curious about the Red Wings. I know we've talked about Boston before, especially in the wake of them getting rid of Jim Montgomery and then bringing in Joe Sacco.

But it was funny because we were just talking to Wyshynski, and he said that the next coach to go might be the guy from Detroit, Derek Lalonde, because it hasn't been the sort of trajectory that they want in Detroit about getting back into playoff position. What's the vibe or the feeling you get ahead of this game today from the Red Wing side of things? They're edgy, right? Like their penalty killing is the worst in the league. Their power play is one of the five best and they don't score any goals. So their five-on-five play doesn't help them at all.

Of course, we saw on the weekend when they take a penalty, they can't kill that off either. And the thing that happens, I'll say about, when you have a number that's that bad for Detroit, you almost have to draw a line in the sand and say, it doesn't even matter where we rank in the league anymore we have to look at it from now because they could go on an amazing run for a month and go from 32 to 27 like it's not even going to matter anymore their their number is so bad

they're giving up a power play goal virtually every game and so um they've got like you know that five on five scoring's not great they can't kill a penalty they're goaltending now they've got villi husso in goal because we saw talbot left the game he's hurt he's not on the trip uh alex lion is hurt so they're kind of dancing around that they don't have a true number one centerman i I think Dylan Larkin is an awesome player, but he's a two for me. So you don't have a lot of creativity in the middle of the ice. And if you don't,

and the Bruins are one of those teams, you struggle to score. You know, the middle of the ice has to distribute the puck. It has to, you've got to facilitate offense. And if you don't have the right people, then you're going to struggle in that regard so uh detroit they you know derrick alone used yesterday in an interview used the term uh we just can't get any traction we play two or three good games and then we slide back and that's kind of where they're at you know they're yet

they're i think they're what are they three points they're, yeah, I think they're, what are they, three points, four points behind Boston. Yeah. Right now, it's not like it's a catastrophe. But, you know, Buffalo, Ottawa, Detroit, this is the second year where it's felt like one of these teams is going to break through. And are they? I don't know.

We're 25 games in, and you can see how hard it is. Man, the Bruins power play versus Detroit's penalty killing. The worst power play in the league versus the worst penalty killing in the league tonight on ESPN. Yeah, I think they're just going to play Plinko. Let's just drop one of these discs from the top, and whatever happens, this will be more exciting than what's going to happen out here. Ray, enjoy the

Planko tonight. Have a good call. We appreciate you doing this as always. Enjoy tonight and everything else. We'll do this again next Tuesday. Talk to you next week. Thanks, guys. See you, buddy. Ray Ferraro from TSN ESPN here on the Alfred and Brough show. What? You can say the letters TSN.

It's not like it's going to get you fired. If I'm going to get fired, it's going to be for a good reason. Some silent alarm is going off in the back here. I don't know what it is. There's a man in a suit that wants to talk to you after this segment. I got a good development for the Vancouver Canucks going into tonight's game against the Minnesota Wild. The Minnesota Wild have placed Matt Zuccarello

and Jonas Brodine on injured reserve. Zuccarello on LTIR, Jonas Brodine on regular IR. Just celebrating other people's injuries. So they'll be down a couple key performers today when they take on the Vancouver Canucks at the XL Energy Center. They've still got a pretty good team, though. I was hoping you were going to say that Fleury's going to start on goal, but I think it's going to be Gustafson. Fleury got, yeah, so I was going through the goalies of record for the last eight or nine games or whatever, and

Fleury got his token start two nights ago. So I doubt that they'll go back to him now. Well, we'll talk about this Minnesota Wild team, which believe it or not, I'm curious about, and we'll talk about

them next with Joe O'Donnell on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Big Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets weekdays 3 to 4 on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 733 on a Tuesday, day two of our series.

It kind of sounds like ACDC. This is a close to. It's a long way to the top. Close as we could legally get to playing actual ACDC. No, no, no. It's the road ahead. The long road ahead. To the top. Turn it up.

It's a long road to the top. Why are they playing? This is bad, actually. Why are they playing? This is bad, actually. Why are they playing Dollar Store ACDC, you may be asking? Well, every day this week, we're giving away a pair of tickets because ACDC is back touring. They will be right here in Vancouver, BC Place, April of 2025. We're giving away a pair of tickets today.

Now, this might be confusing, but we're not giving them away to a texter. We're giving them away to a caller. Caller number 10 at 8-15 this morning. 8-1-5. Don't start calling too early. A-Dog's not going to pick up the phone. And besides, you'd be the first caller

and you wouldn't win. Start calling at 8-15-604- 280-0650. And even if you don't win, start calling at 815-604-280-0650. And even if you don't win, you get to talk to A-Dog for a little bit. What a consolation prize. About five seconds of conversation. Tonight, Vancouver Canucks take on the Minnesota Wild. Five o'clock puck drop our time.

A reminder, pregame, postgame, and the actual game all right here on Sportsnet 650. Joe Donald, the play-by-play voice for the radio for the Minnesota Wild, is going to join us in just a moment here. Before we get to Joe, very quickly, Halford & Brougham in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff

that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour two of the program. Our two is brought to you by Jason hominic of Jason dot mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. I am joking. Let him do that.

Visit him now on the internet at Jason dot mortgage to the phone lines. We go play by play voice, the radio play by play voice of Minnesota Wild, Joe O'Donnell here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Joe. How are you? Good, guys. Mike and Jason, thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on. We appreciate you taking the time. So before we dive

into a game preview, let's look at the Minnesota Wild season thus far. Best start in franchise history. 60-4-4 going into tonight. And they've done it with a lot of man games lost due to injury and playing well

below the salary cap ceiling because of course they're still carrying those hits with Ryan Suter and Zach Parise. So I guess my first question is, how surprised are you that the Wild have gotten off to not just a good start, but the best ever start in the history of this franchise? When you phrase it like that, I'd say probably pretty surprised.

I sort of thought this would be a team that'd be scratching and clawing for a wild card spot, you know, probably second half of the season. Sort of like we saw last year after they made the coaching move. They made a significant push and it just derailed their season a year ago. This year I thought it would probably be pretty similar from a standpoint of looking at a lot of veteran guys to bounce back, to have better years, hoping for better goaltending. They didn't really make a lot of significant roster changes

other than adding Yakov Trenion in free agency. They did sign a bunch of two-way players, trying to add depth to your point to get through the injury bug when it hits. But the story this year so far for me is it's sort of varying. It's a different guy every night. It's a different storyline every night. Great goaltending has been there from opening night. Let's not forget that, and that's crucial to win the National Hockey League.

But some games it's the power play. Some games it's the role players. Some games it's Kaprizov, who's been outstanding, or Boldy, who's been just as good. It's just you really can't seem to put a finger on one reason why this team's been winning. Mark of a good team is that different night, kind of different recipe for success.

All that said, what can you say about the season that Kirill Kaprizov is having? I mean, it's been amazing. You know, and I got a bone to pick with the National Hockey League. I just can't understand why a guy loses a point streak because he misses a game due to injury. Right. So his point streak because he missed a game due to injury. So his point streak on the road, which was seven games, came to an end because he missed the contest in Calgary.

Then the next road game, he goes out and gets another point. He's just been unbelievable. Every night, highlight reel plays. But the thing that John Hines and even his predecessor, Dean Epperson, always talk about with Caprice's office, the work ethic, the care about winning. It's not about points and accolades for him. That means he's got to play in the five-on-six situations

or back check or a little bit harder or whatever. There's no question that the work ethic from him is there. And whoever he's on the ice with, he just makes them better. And John Hotton, with other lines, like if the fourth line's not going or if Kaprizov's not going in a certain game for whatever reason, he doubles to get him going, seems to get the team going.

He's certainly a hard trophy candidate right now and he's just been outstanding. Hey Joe, we're just going to drop the call just for a sec because the line isn't perfect, and we'll get you right back if that's all right. We're chatting with Joe O'Donnell about the Minnesota Wild, and we were joking earlier in the show, I'm actually kind of curious about this team

because you got Kirill Kaprizov, who is currently the NHL's leading scorer. He's got 38 points in 23 games, more points than McDavid, more points than whoever, Leon Dreisaitl, Marty Natchez is second, and then Jack Echol is third with 36 points. But the Wild have Kaprizov on the wings, Matt Boldy on the wing. But I want to ask Joe next, if we got you back, Joe, I want to ask you about the centers,

because the centers are often a point of contention for the Wild and their fans. They've had some good centers. I don't know if they've ever had elite centers. What does it look like down the middle for Minnesota? Well, Jule Eriksson-Eck is probably a very underrated player across league circles and other fan bases, but Minnesota appreciates his two-way game, his net front presence. He's a pain in the you-know-what for other teams to play against.

He hasn't had quite the goal-scoring productivity that he had last year when he had a career high in goals. But, in fact, he has just one goal in November, and it came on the 1st of November. Did break his nose earlier in the season, but he tried to come back and finish the game. He's a warrior. And I don't think much changes with his game night to night.

Like, you know what you're going to get from him. Marco Rossi's a young kid, obviously, a young Austrian. He sort of had a breakout year last year. The first year he was able to stick in the NHL, finish with 21 goals, and 34 of his 40 points last year were at even strength. So he wasn't getting a lot of power play time, but was still producing. He's done well pretty much with whoever he's played with this year. And has a point in, I'd say, you know, 80% of the games this season.

And then from there, it's, you know, it's been kind of either Ryan Hartman or Freddie Goudreau. Both can play center or the right side. So that gives the Wilds some flexibility. And then Murat Husnadinov, who missed a couple games with a lower body injury, is back in the Wild some flexibility. And then Murat Husnadinov, who missed a couple games with a lower body injury back in the Wild lineup. Young Russian kid who kind of centers that fourth line, kills penalties. He brings a speed element to the

bottom six, which obviously you need in the NHL. So those are kind of the four or five main guys when you throw Goudreau and Hartman in there. Both kind of playing the center ice position at times this year. But really, it's Eriksson, Eck, and Rossi as far as the top six. Here's another guy I want to talk about. Brock Faber.

Are Wild fans pinching themselves that they've got this kid that was born in Minnesota, he went to the University of Minnesota, played for the Gophers, was the captain of the Gophers, wasn't drafted by Minnesota, but the Wilds somehow found a way to get him in a trade. And now he's developed into this, you know, Norris Trophy candidate type of player.

Yeah, he's been unbelievable. The poise and presence that he's had since he came out of the University of Minnesota, right to his first NHL game April a couple years ago, it was evident right away that the moment wasn't too big for him. He played like two regular season games, jumps into that playoff series against the Dallas Stars, and he was one of the Wilds' best defensemen.

Last year, I thought he should have won the Calder Trophy. Obviously, Bedard gets a lot of fanfare. But with Bedard missing so much time last year I thought he should have won the Calder Trophy. Obviously, Bedard gets a lot of fanfare. But with Bedard missing so much time last year in favor, you know, top 10 in the league in time on ice, 150 blocks, had like 40 points basically offensively as a rookie. Like, I thought he deserved a little bit more consideration than he got. But, yeah, the Wild fans are head over heels for this kid. He will probably be the future captain of the Minnesota Wild.

His leadership, his presence for being such a young kid, you just get that vibe when you're around him. He plays in pretty much every situation. The power play wasn't running so great with him on the top unit, so he slides to the second unit early. It doesn't matter to him. He's a winner. He's a kid that wants to win and i really think they got look the la kings are happy to have kevin fiala on that deal but the wild weren't going to re-sign kevin fiala like

they weren't going to be able to give him a seven times seven deal or whatever so to get brock favor back in that deal um you know just honestly, it feels like a steal for the Minnesota Wild because this kid's going to play top-end minutes for the next decade. So, they've got a Hart Trophy candidate in Kirill Kaprizov. We didn't even talk about Boldy, who's probably going to be on the

American team at the Four Nations. We're sore about him because the Canucks should have drafted him. And you've got Brock Faber, one of the best instead it doesn't matter and Pod Colson who's now with the Oilers and then they've got Brock Faber one of the best young defensemen in the league now I want to talk about their goalie Philip Gustafson yeah I think a lot of people might be surprised if they haven't been following the Wild to see just how good he's been. Easily a candidate at this point in the season

for the Vesna. I expect he's going to start again tonight? That would be my expectation. He's really become the bona fide number one. Going into the year, there was talk about Jesper Valstead, the young Swedish goalie, with Fleury and Gustafson, so maybe going three goalies. That plan never really, thankfully, needs to come into play because Gustafsson and Fleury have been so good. Fleury hasn't lost in

regulation, and Gustafsson, outside of one or two starts, the rest of the time he's just been absolutely rock solid. He's sort of the Gustafson of the 22-23 season where he surprised a lot of people and probably a lot of folks within the wild organization because he was so good after being traded from Ottawa. Last year, he was 35th in the league in save percentage. He was under 90% in that category. It just wasn't good enough, especially for a team that wasn't going to score four goals a night and for a team that went through so many injuries. But this year, we've gotten back to that Gustafson from a couple years ago, just so calm back there, absorbs pucks, not a lot of big rebounds,

not a lot of wasted movement. He seems to be really comfortable with his game. He even talked about last year maybe trying a bit too hard, maybe trying to be somebody that he wasn't personality wise or to live up to the contract or whatever it was he's very comfortable kind of in his own skin right now the Wilder playing great in front of them the other night Buffalo they blocked 31 shots I mean they're doing it as an entire team defensively they're not cracking in big moments at third periods and tight games and they're getting great goalsending they're not giving up a lot right the odd man rushes are down the high

danger chances are down from a year ago but gus has been so good uh and really with him and flurry right now the wild have a great goaltending combo and flurry's kind of taking a back seat in the humble hall of fame way that you would expect uh when he gets his starts he's ready for him but gus has been the guy most nights two out of three games essentially, and he's been great. We're speaking to Joe O'Donnell, radio play-by-play man for the Minnesota Wild here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. A reminder, Canucks are in Minnesota.

Puck drop is 5 o'clock our time tonight. You can hear it all right here on Sportsnet 650. So in LA and everything else that the Minnesota Wild have done this season on the ice, they've also been very active off the ice. Part of probably the biggest trade in the NHL thus far, the David Juracek trade, getting him from Columbus. Are they expecting him to be in the lineup soon?

I was reading Russo's piece in The Athletic, and he suggested that he might not play tonight, in part because you don't want to change a lineup after a win, and an exciting win on the weekend against Nashville. So will Juricic play tonight and if not when I don't know the answer to when um I think they want to get at least I'd imagine a few practices under his belt um you know the Wild just this morning announced Jonas Berdine's on IR that That's a retroactive move. But other than that, you know, defensively, and John Hines has said this since early in the season, they don't think they have a seventh defenseman. They think they have seven defensemen, right? To make that distinction that if it's John

Merrill or Declan Chisholm, that's essentially your sixth defenseman any given night. He's never let either of those guys who ever went out sit too long. So if everybody's healthy, every couple of games, he was flip-flopping kind of who that sixth or fifth defenseman is, depending on how you want to look at it, because he wanted everybody to stay involved, wanted everybody to feel part of it, and nobody's game was really that bad where they deserved to be in the press box.

So right now with Brodine Hurt, they've got six healthy, and Juracek is essentially the seventh. My guess is they want to make sure he's completely comfortable with the system, have him work with the skating coach Andy Ness here, continue to develop his footwork, and then, you know, if he's needed, jump in a lineup. Now, they didn't make this move, I'm sure, for him to sit, right? He was sitting in Columbus.

But there is some work to be done. I think Minnesota views him as a little bit of a lineup. Now, they didn't make this move, I'm sure, for him to sit, right? He was sitting in Columbus. But there is some work to be done. I think Minnesota views him as a little bit of a project. But when you're talking about a former six overall pick, right shot D, good size, great shot. I think it was just too good to sit and pass, you know, to pass up on the opportunity to move. They gave up prospect Damon Hunt

a bunch of picks. Damon Hunt is NHL ready. He is NHL-ready. He was NHL-ready last year for the most part, and the Wilds got a couple glimpses of him in the NHL last year and this year. The issue was, as far as left-shot ego, the Wilds have Faber, they have Middleton, and they have the first-round pick, Zeef Booyam, who everybody expects when he finishes at Denver at the end of this year will join the NHL immediately and has star potential so

like where's Damon Hunk going to play over the next four or five years if those are your three left shot D and everybody's healthy so unfortunately had to give him up in the in the deal with the Blue Jackets but I think the Wild are pretty comfortable with where they were at on the left side defensively well I wonder if they're going to have to have a conversation with Juracek as well and just be like hey man you're going to have to have a conversation with Juracek as well and just be like, hey, man, you're going to have to be patient here. Because if you're looking at the right side, I mean, God, the Wild with their right side defense, like, we're so jealous of you. You got Brock Faber, you got Jarrett Spurgeon, who I know is 35,

but he's still got some game. And then you would have Juracek. Well, I know Bogosian's there as well. He's kind of like that veteran right shot guy that's good for your third pair. But Juracek is going to be there. How many minutes can he expect to get if Faber plays a lot and Spurgeon plays a lot? Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, obviously something was going on in Columbus, right?

Either they didn't believe he was ready. Maybe there was an issue there with what he believed and his agent believed compared to what the Blue Jackets believed. So he might be in another situation where he's not just going to come and jump right in the lineup. He's going to have to earn it. But I would like to think he's in a better situation, right? The Blue Jackets under Dean Everson have been a bit of a surprise. They're hanging around 500, which is awesome to see. But the Wild are, you know, hopefully building something here, not only for this year, but for the future.

And if your tech wants to be a part of it, you might have to kind of check the ego at the door and understand there's some work in his game that needs to be done before he's going to start eating up 15 minutes a night on a team that now all of a sudden has aspirations, not only at a playoff spot, but possibly like one of the top three in the Central. So it's crazy how quick things can change as far as expectations and in-season moves when you start to see how things are shaping up in a given year.

But it could be an interesting dynamic as Jurecic gets up to speed here. When do they put him in the lineup? How much will he play? If everybody's healthy, how do they rotate guys in and out? So hopefully it's a good problem to have. Joe, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the game tonight. Have a good call, and thank you again.

Yeah, thanks, guys. Sorry about the phone issue earlier, and call anytime. All good. No worries. Thank you. That's Joe O'Donnell, Minnesota Wild, radio play-by-play man here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I want to say one thing. Why is Zuccarello out?

I just looked it up. What's going on there? It's not good. So, I didn't, this happened a while ago. First off, it was a shot delivered by Brock Faber.

It's Faber. It's Faber. And that's actually how Zuccarello sounded after that shot hit him. Brock Faber hit him in the testicles with a shot. And ruptured his testicle. Oh, my testicles.

We shouldn't laugh. Yeah, I was going to say, you can't just put it out there. I'm not laughing. Hey, who was it? It was Faber. It was Faber. Hold on, can you do it again? It's Faber.

Pointing at him while I say that now that's funny matt who was it the old high voice after a shot in the balls gag so you know how this whole thing that's how i hit that note i sat on my own ball yeah you don you want to know how he did it yeah crossed my legs were bad you know how this whole thing uh came out publicly was uh marcus felino went on one of those uh it's called 93x the half-assed morning show which i can only imagine is very similar to this show um so he it's and so they had him on for like of those, like, ah, just a bunch of guys sitting around shooting the crap.

And he went into great detail about what happened. And he said he got hit in the groin by a Faber shot. It ruptured his testicle. It dented his cup, like, to the point where they were showing it around being like, look at the damage that it did. And then they said one zuccarello was in the clear and it was just going to be it was a ruptured testicle it wasn't like anything surgically i'm done with this conversation i i've heard enough it's the dangers man i've heard some as a goaltender i've heard some absolute horror stories about cup related incidents and i do not need you don't wear

a cup though do you yes you wear double sometimes in the NHL a triple cup because you are that concerned about when I was coaching little league we had a kid and he wanted he never got to backhatch but he wanted to oh no so I was like okay sure like I didn't even think to ask him if he was wearing a cup and then the first pitch that he took the pitcher bounced it about a foot away from the plate. And I got him right in the Yamaguchis. And let me tell you, that kid learned a valuable

lesson that day. I was like, you can't show up not wearing a cup. This is the exact reason why. Was he still excited about playing catcher? He was busy crying at the point, so I couldn't really... None of the messages were getting through. We joke, but it's horrible. And if you understand what goalies go through like they wear a goalie jock which is essentially two jocks and then they wear a double jock and then they wear a player's jock

underneath their goalie jock so it's a triple layer of protection because you are not getting one there the last did that kid let the ball get past him yeah you should have been like way to keep it in front of you he He didn't. It rolled behind him as he was writhing in pain on the ground. I'm like, the ball's behind you. Go pick it up. Anyway, who delivered that shot again? It's Faber.

It's Faber. Ah, we're the worst. That's my favorite song of all time. Rest in peace to Chris Faber's song. Let it play out a little bit here. I miss it. I know. It was the first one,

I think, that we ever did. It was. It was too short-lived. Anyway, wherever you are, Chris Faber. Faber had to go get a job

with the Canucks. Jeez. He had to be a responsible journalist. Way to think about your career, Faber. And not show up on the morning show. Okay,

final hour of the program coming up. We go from one radio play-by-play man to another. Brendan Batchelor is going to join us next. He'll be on the call tonight when the Canucks take on the Wild 5 o'clock from the XL Energy Center in Minnesota. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.