Halford & Brough in the Morning - Ray Ferraro On Tocchet Criticism & "The Rift"

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason talk some Canucks with NHL analyst Ray Ferraro (4:35) on the coaching performance this season of Rick Tocchet thus far, as well as hearing Ray's thoughts on "The Rift", plus the boys dive into the text message inbox on if criticism of Tocchet is fair or not (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.

Ferraro, Ferraro, let's chat with Ray Ferraro. It's time for Ferraro, let's talk to Ray Ferraro. Ferraro winds up with a shot. Score! Ray Ferraro! Breakaways on site! Score! Rebound score! Ray Ferraro! Ferraro, Ferraro, it's time for Ray Ferraro. Let's chat with Ferraro, it's time for Ray Ferraro. 7.02 on a Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour two of the program.

Ray Ferraro is gonna join us in just a few moments here to kick off hour two. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Homonuck at jason.mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. I am joking, let him do exactly that.

Visit him on the internet at jason.mortgage. We're broadcasting live from Kintec Studio. Kintec, footwear and orthotics, working together with you in step. So does it really say we're broadcasting from Kintec Studio? Yeah, I know. Not the Kintec Studio? we're broadcasting from Kintec Studio? Yeah, I know. Not the Kintec Studio? I know.

Just Kintec Studio? I am Ron Burgundy, and I just read what's in front of me. I don't hate it. Fewer words means we get through it quicker. I must have read the other read six million times, never memorized it. I have memorized. Really?

You couldn't say it right now? I don't think so. Wow. I would be a nightmare if I had't say it right now? I don't think so. Wow. I would be a nightmare if I had to do a school play or something like that. First of all, because I'm 48. Right. What's that guy doing?

I would not remember any of the lines. Nothing. The 48-year-old man keeps yelling, line. It's like a dude on stage up there. Okay, Ray's going to join us in a minute. We should reset what we've been doing for the first hour of this program. And that's asking you, the listener, the collective listener, what are your thoughts on

Canucks head coach Rick Tauket and the job that he's done? And why are we asking this? There seems to have been a fair amount of criticism lobbed at the reigning Jack Adams winner for NHL Coach of the Year. People seem upset about, well, one, where the team is at in the standings, two, the style of play, three, and this is the one that I've noticed and I have some time for,

maybe the ghosts of the playoffs, specifically the second round against Edmonton, where it seemed that times that it was a real slog to generate offensive chances. And there was, you know, I think against Nashville too. But Nashville, I felt like they controlled it a little bit better. Yeah. Edmonton, it seemed like they were the second best team

on the ice for too many long stretches. Cause they were. Right, but too many long stretches. Yeah, yeah. And then. I think Edmonton went to the Nashville playbook though, in terms of blocking shots and fronting shots and just, you know, and some of that has

carried over into this year where you're looking at the shot clock at any point in the game and going, is that it? That's the total number of shots. So if I were to have one criticism of Rick Taukett, I would wonder, I would wonder, not necessarily like this guy's a dinosaur. I would just wonder why the Canucks couldn't create more working the puck down low in the

offensive zone, as opposed to constantly going back to the point for point shots. Now there might be a good answer for that, but I would, you know, I feel like the Canucks as a team sometimes go back to that safety valve, throwing it back to the point just a little too often, and it becomes predictable in a bad way. Sometimes there's predictable that's good. Sometimes there's predictable that's bad and

they don't get to the inside enough. predictable in a bad way. Sometimes there's predictable that's good. Sometimes there's predictable that's bad and they don't get to the inside enough. I mean, with the puck, I'm not talking about going to the net looking for a rebound. I'm not talking about going to the net looking for a tip. I'm talking about taking the puck and getting it either by skating it there or passing it

there to the front of the net for slot shots. Yep. That's what they don't do. I know that's easier said than done. I realize it, but I think you got to find a way. Let's go to the phone lines now. Ray Ferraro joins us here on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Ray, how are you? I'm doing okay. Home, which is a good thing. And just, you know, high on my calendar of priorities was to talk to you too this morning.

I imagine it was number one on that list. Well, it wasn't one, but it was high. Hey, before we get into this hockey nonsense, how was Anfield? Oh my God, amazing. Yeah. It was. You know, everybody says, oh, you've got to, you've got to enjoy that game day atmosphere. And it's really unlike anything here.

First of all, if if you've ever been to Europe, people that are listening, like there are no parking lots around the stadium because that's where everybody lives. The houses are, you can literally throw a baseball from the gates of Anfield, like you'll walk in to somebody's house. It's great, isn't it? It's amazing. So like there's no cars. And so we had an Uber driver that could take us a certain place and he dropped us off.

Everybody's walking. So what happens is that people park their cars mostly downtown at Anfield or in Liverpool, and it's about a mile. And so people take two hours to walk to the game. They walk, they stop, they have a beer, they have a burger, they go to the next pub. And so by the time, like, you can just feel the energy as you get closer to the stadium. And then we walked in and we went for a tour in the afternoon. And it's just like, it's like history oozing out of every brick of the place. It was amazing. And then in the game, I was laughing, I'm standing with our next, our 15 year old and he's the guy that gets up at, uh, at five in the morning on Saturdays cause you can't get the score or watch it

later. You got to watch it live. Right. And, uh, um, they're losing one, nothing. They conceded in the first five minutes. He was so stressed until they scored. And then they scored, I go, can you breathe now? And he's like, oh, that's better.

That's better. And they won three-one. It was, guys, it was amazing. It was one of the greatest live events that I've seen. And it's just a game in the middle of the prim season, right? It's not like it was a high level pressure-filled game, but oh man, it was just amazing.

Did you learn any new like swear words? Some good English, what is it? Scouser swear words? Okay, but the Scouser language is a whole new thing. Oh yeah. What is that? I don't know. Ask the Beatles. Like it's not even a, I had to ask like when we

were checking in a couple of times, like what's that? Pardon, what's that? Like I couldn't even understand. I was just checking in. I've checked into 15,000 hotels. How different can it be? Then I found out I'd given a deposit earlier. I didn't even know what was going on. So no, I didn't, I didn't learn anything specifically, but it was all like, I No, I didn't learn anything specifically, but it was all like, I might as well have gone to a different country, like that doesn't speak it. It's not even English, is it? I, yeah.

There's been, well, it's the same in a lot of those cities. I remember being in Manchester and talking to some of the cabbies. I'm just like, uh-huh. I don't know what you're saying, but I'm just going to say, uh-huh. It's just. So are those local dialects kind of?

Yeah. I mean, there's a cockney that will kind of, that's London. That's like a working class London that you might see in like Guy Ritchie movies. That's the rhyming slang. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's quite, and then I mean, the easiest to understand is the posh, but you're kind of like, it's uncomfortable to listen for some reason. Well, I will say this. I was doing my pretend accent on the way over and

my, my teenagers were like, you have no idea what you're talking about. No idea. Please do not embarrass us in front of. I hope you embarrass them idea what you're talking about. No idea. Please do not embarrass us in front of them. I hope you embarrass them a little bit. That's not. Every opportunity I kept saying to the boys, I'd go up to the Reds, up to the Reds.

And I'd go, and I started talking about my club and they're like, you are such an idiot. Well, they should appreciate a dad that took them on that trip. That was very nice of you. Oh, we had a great trip. It was beautiful. Awesome.

Um, so I want to talk a little bit today about the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, the reigning coach of the year. And we are noticing, uh, quite a bit of criticism in the market for Rick Tocket. Now, sometimes this can just be the loud minority. Um, but I just wanted to get your thoughts on the job that Rick Tocket has done with the Vancouver

Canucks this year. Does anything stand out for you? Well, I, I, I'll plead to a little bit of cheating here because I was listening to you guys on the way in because I was a little late and you know, you're talking about getting the puck off the boards and into the middle of the ice. And if we go back to training camp, they wanted to play a little more transitionally, right? They wanted to, they talked, if you remember, they talked about landmarks and ways to break out. And so I think there was an effort to try,

I won't say open it up, but it kind of is, kind of open up the game a little bit. And it didn't really work. And I was just doing our podcast with Draggs and there's not, and this will get back to talk in a sec. There's not been a week this year, it seems like that nothing has happened. Like from the moment that I think we all found out that Dakota Joshua had been diagnosed with cancer and had surgery and then Demko's knee and he wasn't going

to be ready for camp. Remember when that showed up, you're like, well, wait a minute. He was almost ready to play. It felt like in game seven. And then, so then there was Demko and then Miller wasn't at camp. He was just kind of dealing with something and he played one game and then the season started and Petey got off to that really slow start. And then he started to climb out of the thing. And shortly thereafter, Miller laughs for 10 games. And then he comes back and, you know, when you're dealing with something, it doesn't just go away, you know, you're, you're continually dealing with it.

And, you know, last night was his best game by a country mile and not just because of the four points, although that certainly does, right? Like he's, yeah, he's got to, he's got to produce for you to say, Oh, that was a great game. And he's, yeah, he's got to, he's got to produce for you to say, oh, that was a great game. And he was fantastic. And so in that time, then Hughes and Pedersen go out. So if you were ever trying to get the team to change the way they play, and I think talk really wanted

things to change because he kept talking about it. There's been no time to get it to change because they kept talking about it. Um, there's been no time to get it to change. They haven't even had, uh, um, they haven't had a run of health that a style change would take hold or identity change would take hold. They haven't had it. And so you revert back to what is best. And that's, I get it. Like the puck stays outside and then it's a shot pass

and then it's an attack of a net. Um, I'd like to see the puck go inside more too, but they haven't had the opportunity to build any of that. Like none of it. Like just thinking, I hate talking about last year cause it might as well be 40 years ago, like for every team, like last year, the New York Rangers won the president's trophy this year.

They're going to have to go on a great run to make the playoffs. Like how the hell does that happen? Right? It's the same guys are mostly the same guys. So last year we always can, you know, no matter what happened with the lines, Garland and Joshua went out together. And whenever things were kind of off kilter, those guys would have a really good shift, whether it

was Bouguer or Souter in the middle of them or, you know, like, and not that hasn't happened this year. Garland's played himself into a different place. Joshua has not quite caught his stride and now he's hurt again. So like, I think there's a lot of factors in it and I can see where people are frustrated. I mean, there's like two players you can not be, three players you can probably not be frustrated with. players you can not be, three players you can probably not be frustrated with. Um, one is Garland.

Um, one is Hughes and one is probably Lankton and although, you know, although he's only got, he hasn't won much of late, although I don't know how much fault it is of his, but, um, he's getting into the point where he's playing too much and probably needs a step back. But what are you going to do? You got to wait for Devco to get healthy.

Like it, it is like a, like bubbling water. Like it's always something popping up. It's whack, it's whack-a-mole actually. You, you try to solve something and oh, here comes something else. And so I get where the criticism comes. Like, why can't you come up with a way that everybody plays more tightly.

It's because there's issues to fix all over the place. And it's not just specific here. Like you can look to honestly guys, and I'm not trying to deflect, but you know, I do a lot of games that involve other teams and holy smokes, there's a lot of issues in a lot of places. There's very few teams that are like, yeah, we're pretty happy with our first half. Very few. Well, what I find interesting is that we get a lot of

techs suggesting that Tauke wants them to play this super conservative style of banging it off the glass and out or dumping it in. And then a few times after the game, including last night, he's like, I'm begging guys to make plays here. Like I'm begging guys to do something with the puck, make a play, don't just be whacking the puck around,

you know, do something and you know, it's kind of the opposite of the safe play. And yet he, what was that? Thanks, Alfred. And so, but then I come back to like, does he have the personnel, especially on the back end, to make plays? Like some of those guys, you know, when they have the puck on their stick, it's, you know, it's concerning

when the puck's on their stick too long. You're just kind of like, get rid of it, get rid of it. And I just wonder if he's stuck in the middle of wanting his guys to make plays, but also knowing that some of them just aren't capable of making plays under pressure. Well, the puck moving, pressure breaking defenseman is gold. Just think as much as when Quinn's out of there, I did laugh and I do laugh when I hear both fans and people that cover the team here, oh you can see how much they lack a puck mover when Hughes is out of the lineup. Sure, take Cale McCarr out of the lineup in Colorado.

See what they look like back there. Then you got Keaton Middleton moving the puck, right? Like, holy smokes, you can't take one of the best couple of guys in the league and take them out. And then you take the second guy out to a defense in Heronic, to a defense that was already

looking to add somebody. Well, of course it's going to look like that. It honestly, the fact that the, if the puck doesn't move in, in rapid speed on the tape to the right guy from your D, your offense is going to die. We will die. We all think, um, as players like at Centerman, we always think we're really important. I always felt like we really helped drive the offense.

You did, you were. Your centers are important, come on Ray. Well, yeah we are, but if the puck keeps coming and some D shoves it up your rear end all the time, you're like, could you put one on my stick, please? I remember having a conversation with Kurt Fraser in Atlanta. Now we were terrible, right?

And so our D would get it and for safety, they would always flip it out. So finally I'd had enough and I went to him, I go, hey Kurt, I feel like I'm on the punt coverage team. Like we get the puck, they lost it just under the clock. I skate like hell down the ice and the other D goes D to D and passes it back into our zone. Can we at least try to make a pass?

And the fact is the guys that were back there, they didn't want to make that next mistake. So they're like, the safest thing is when the puck's off my stick. And you can you can tell a good team so easily. You know, we look at analytics or whatever. But if you sat there with a piece of paper and a pencil, pick a couple of guys on any team, and mark when they have the puck, who has it next, which team?

I'm telling you, you'd be surprised because a lot of the D around the league that can't play in pressure, like it's a step above them, they, you know, they bang it off the glass or chip it out and that's a safe play, but the other team has the puck next, just mark it on your paper. You'd be shocked how many times that happens. Yeah. So I know that the rift between Miller and Pedersen, it could be a bit of a red herring or

it, you know, we don't know how much it's impacted the play of the two players, but clearly the organization based on multiple reports has had to spend energy on it. How much do you think that's weighed on a head coach and can you ever remember a situation in your career, maybe where a couple of guys weren't getting along and the coach had to

get involved and spend some energy on a situation that you really didn't want to spend it on? Not as specifically as this, but I mean, there were, there's plenty of times where guys don't all go for dinner together, right? Like where you're like, you know, some guy goes to dinner here, but I don't want to go, that guy's going. And so like that does happen. Guys sit at other ends of the bus or opposite sides of the plane. Like it does happen. When you're spending energy on it though, like I think there's a

weariness that comes with it all. I just did the Rangers in Washington this weekend and then they were in Chicago the next day. I was in studio and I'm watching Vinny Trocheck do this interview, you know, paraphrase and he was asked, you know, what can be done to turn the team around and he's like, when I come up with that answer, I'll let you know. But they interviewed Lavielette behind the bench and he's like, yeah, that was a pretty good start. Like they all seem exhausted. And so to your point, like if you're dealing with it, it becomes exhaustion, right? Like time and time again. No, some of it they're not even talking about anymore. The media and the podcasts and we're all talking about it because that's what the job is.

Right. But they're probably not talking about it anymore to the extent that that we might still be. The best example I can give is before Tampa Bay won the Stanley Cup in 2004, Tampa Bay won the Stanley Cup in 2004. Uh, Vinnie LeCavier and John Tortorello were not, they weren't even in the same book. I was going to say they weren't on the same page. They weren't in the same book. And so Jay Feaster was the general manager. He called them both into an, into a meeting and he said, I'm not firing you and I'm not trading you figure it out. And then he left and they won the Stanley Cup. So somewhere they came to some kind of piece because I think, if I remember

correctly, and they didn't have the media infiltration that, you know, of so many podcasts and outlets and radio, you know, like all of it that we have now. But at some point that just went away there. Right. They were like, okay, we got it. And they moved forward. And, um, I don't know what the answer is here. Um, you know, I, I don't know.

I do know that they don't like playing a hell of a lot better would probably solve a lot of problems. They can only be a shell of themselves if Miller, Pedersen and Demko are not themselves. Those three guys, I mean Quinn has been an afterthought because he's been so great all year, but without them, they're, I mean, those are your headliners. Pick three players on any team in the league and diminish their production, and that team is not as good, no matter who it is, right?

Like it just can't be. Ray, before we let you go, you worked Caps Rangers over the weekend, right? Yes. Give us a little look ahead because the connects will be in Washington tomorrow night to take on the Capitals. Um, much different team than last year. Um, they're going through a little bit of up and down right now.

They, um, last year, I want to say they scored 218 or 220 goals. One of the worst in the league. Somehow they made the playoffs. They had like this crazy goal differential. They, they went out in the off season. They added six players. Um, uh, Logan Thompson was in gold, uh, Chikran and Roy on defense and Duhaime, Dubois and I think, oh, Maggiupani.

Yeah. And it's changed their team. They spent all of camp getting their D up into the rush, uh, creating offense. Um, you know, like trying to be a, a more dangerous team. And that's what they are. There were chances there. There, there are chances there. There are chances against Washington and they're willing to give those up because they score at a

much higher rate. Dylan Stromes had a fantastic year. He hit the ditch here for about two or three weeks and he was really good on Saturday. He had a goal and then an assist. A guy to look at, Canucks fans won't know him because we don't see the caps much, is Alexi Protas. This guy's a monster. And last year he scored three goals in his last 56 games. Yeah, I was wondering, how is he second on the team in scoring? I was like, Alexi?

Is that even how you pronounce it? That's an interesting spelling. Yeah. And so he, uh, uh, at the end of last year, uh, Spencer Carberry had a meeting with them, you know, what they have in their year end meetings. And he's like, you got to get better shape. He's like, when I watched the games at 30 seconds on your shift, you got your knees straight.

You can't move. And so he went home, his brother, they, they traded up in the draft to get his brother who plays in the Ontario League. They lived, I think in Belarus. They went home, they live in a small place. They did nothing but skate and conditioning all summer. And he said he came back, he looked like a completely different person. And so he is big and he'll go to the net and he's You know, he plays on one of their top two lines and they got that number eight guy that you know is off to You know is still still magnetic when you watch him play, right? Like like he he scored on Saturday the place just erupted and you know, they're all there to watch that right? It's getting close

Right. This was great as always. Thanks for taking the time to do we appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week We'll be doing this again next Tuesday. Yeah, I talked to you then. Thanks guys. Thanks buddy. Thank you, Ray That's Ray Ferraro here on the health and a rough show on sports net 650 open segment coming up so we can dive more Into the Dunbar lumber text message in basket and everything that's going on where we ask the listeners what their thoughts on Rick Tauke. There's a lot of texts coming in, a lot of texts that we flag so we can get into those. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about Rogers Xfinity TV.

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Weekdays three to four on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 733 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour two of the program right at the midway point of the show. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominock at Jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your money mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you.

Visit him on the internet at Jason.mortgage. Okay. We now need to address, I think we've had enough time till the listeners weigh in, text to the Dunbar lumber, text message in basket, 650, 650, their thoughts on Rick Tauke. Also if we can get to the bottom of why there has been increased criticism for Tauke's coaching job this year off a very successful campaign in which I will remind you he captured the 2024 Jack Adams award for NHL coach of the year.

What results, what comments, what feedback, what answers did we get in the Dunbar Lumber text message in basketball? Uh, Trembas and Cilowak texting. Sorry who? Trembas. Trembas. Yeah.

Remember when Tocket would be critical of the, when the defense would be giving up scoring chances and goals. How many times last year did we hear, you have to protect the guts of the ice. Look at how many cross-seam passes are made by opposing teams this season. I'm starting to get concerned that Rick has lost the room. We've lost our identity and this team is in big trouble.

I mean, when they keep talking about we've got to get back to the team, has lost the room. We've lost our identity and this team is in big trouble. I mean, when they keep talking about we've got to get back to our identity, the conclusion might be that they have lost a bit of that identity. Part of their identity last season was protecting leads. Do you remember how good they were heading into the third period with a lead this year? Complete opposite. So here's the tough part I have with, um, everything that talk it wants them to do that they're not doing. I think, um, and there, there's a number of examples, right?

He mentioned a couple in the post game yesterday, talked about gap control. He talked about, what'd he say? They were too slappy. They were slapping pucks around when they were under pressure. He wants them to hang on to pucks, make plays, make plays for each other. It seems as though his preferred style of play,

like tactically, there's specific areas where guys need to be, and there's specific areas where guys need to be and there's specific plays the guys need to make, like there's do's and don'ts and we call them like trademarks or signatures or staples and everything. It also seems though when he talks to the media that there's an instinctual part of the game that players need to understand that this group isn't understanding. Like when he says we need guys to make plays or we need guys to bear down or we need guys to deal with pressure,

that's not really instructive. He's not telling them how to do it. He's just telling them to do it. Yeah. Right? And I, so there was one example where he said, like if a guy goes diving in to make a play, the second defender can't be as aggressive.

He almost has to read. Don't follow up. He has to read off that. And actually, you know what? The perfect example of that came in the Nashville game. Okay. When, and it was the only non-empty net goal that was scored on the night.

The Stamford School. Kiefer Sherwood fell down. Okay. Okay. And he was the third man high on the four check. Okay. Breezebois kind of dove in and tried to make up for Sherwood falling down by chipping the puck down the wall. He pinched in a little bit, but he couldn't get it deep.

Then that led to an odd man rush the other way. Vinnie Derenet is back there like, oh, I got a lot of guys to cover here. And ultimately, Forsberg and Stamkos made some nice passes, but they had the time and space to do it because it was an on-man rush. That might be the kind of thing that he's talking about. That's a great example. So in that instance, there's two ways to look at it. One is that a well-schooled and well-coached and well-drilled team knows how to make the reads in those situations. That shouldn't be a mistake that happens. There shouldn't

be a breakdown that happens because you should know where you're supposed to be in every situation. Yeah. Our guy just fell down. Maybe don't risk making this worse. The counter argument to that would be, I'd say two words, Guillaume and Brizbois. Like he's, I mean, he's in there. Yeah. I was in Abbotsford when you said that, Rick. Yeah, right.

I played an NHL game in like two years. Yeah. I went back. And he did get back into the play to his credit. Sure. And I probably you wouldn't blame him because he was just trying to make a play. Yeah, he was making a play. But within the framework of how the team is supposed to play, the way that talk, it likes it is that if everyone does their particular role, very

specifically will be okay. And if one mistake is made, we're okay. Right. If two mistakes get made, then we're in trouble. Now, uh, Breeze Ball is a perfect example of this. So because he's in the lineup, I went back and looked last year and the number jumped off the page to me, six players, Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, Connor Garland, JT Miller,

Brock Besser and Philip Ronek. You could argue the team's top four forwards and top two defensemen. Those six players, how many games do you think that they missed altogether last year? Six players, 82 game regular season. How many do do you think that they missed altogether last year? Six players, 82 game regular season. How many do you think they missed last year? Five.

Three. Yeah. Three. JT Miller alone this year has missed 10. Nevermind the rest of the guys that have missed time. I was thinking about this the other day. Do you remember how reliable that third line of Garland, Bluger and Joshua was? And then when Joshua- It was a safety and Joshua was? And then when Joshua got hurt, it was like, we missed the third line so much.

How many nights do we say the third line is the first line? Yeah. If the first line didn't show up, it was okay because that trusty third line was always there and he could throw it out. So part of what happened last year was everything went right. Everyone was healthy. Everyone bought in. A bunch of the all-star game.

And then things started going a little bit sideways. Even then though, compared to the sideways nature of this year. So I would say. But they had to break up that third line a few times because they needed to bump Garland up. Yep. And things started to wobble a little bit.

So can you, would you argue that maybe. And Demko got hurt. Maybe that Rick Tocket was the benefactor of having everything go right last year for a long stretch of the season. I think everyone recognized that. Sure. Even Rick. So now I, so I get why people might want to criticize the coach here because when things

wobble and you're not at your best, it is often on the coach to find solutions. And I will go back to that interview that IMAC had with Patrick Alveen. We focused on what Alveen had to say about the players. You gotta remember, Alveen also talked about the coach. Now here was the quote. I believe, this is Patrick Alveen, I'm not gonna try and do like an accent or anything,

I'm just gonna read it, like me, Halford. Ahem. I believe that Rick is a great coach and a great communicator, and I believe that the players have responded really well. But again, I think it's his job, and I know that he's working on it every day, to find solutions to be more consistent.

It's tough if your home record isn't better. And then he went on to say, I don't understand, and I'm paraphrasing this part, how we can look great against Colorado and Florida, and then what happens to that team in some of these other games. And fairly or not, that falls on the coach. Consistency and performances, night to night, period to period, that's the falls on the coach. Consistency and performances night to night,

period to period, that's the falls on the coach because those are things that perception wise, I think you're supposed to be in control of. Slow starts, which I think sometimes fairly or unfairly coaches get tagged with. But those are the things when a coach gets fired, that is the first thing that people get people point to. Oh, they didn't start on time.

They never looked prepared. They never looked ready. And I, you know, when the, when the general manager says it's the coach's job to find ways to be more consistent, that's a criticism. The team's not consistent and the coach isn't figuring it out. I've got a good theory and I actually did think about this from Danny in Brookswood. Okay. Now it's a very long text.

So Danny, I hope, I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to paraphrase your text. Um, he's basically saying that it starts out while most members of the media generally try to represent fans. I still think there's a reality to the fact that media controls the narrative. And last year the media

loved talk it and Danny is saying I think for some of the fans that really liked Bruce Boudreaux they were quiet last season when the media fawned all over talking and talked about some of the practices that he had and they got them back to basics and helped rebuild the culture. But those fans, they were quiet because they loved winning, but they never quite bought into the talk at love fest because they still had feelings for Bruce Boudreaux now, as soon as things are getting hard for Rick Tauke and they're going back to a bunch of the things that people said before Rick Tauke was hired as in don't hire this guy. He's too conservative.

Look at what happened in Arizona. And they're going, now it's our turn to be loud. You had last season, now it's our turn to be loud. What do you think about that theory? Do you understand that theory? Yeah, I would push back maybe on the number of people, like the Boudreaux Stans, do kids still say Stans?

Is that a thing? Look at me, Zach, you're young. I, sadly, I think so. Danny and Brookswood basically summed it up by saying, maybe some fans weren't as all in on the talk and narrative last year as we thought, but since winning cures everything, it wasn't much talked about. I mean, for me- Do you remember the first game? Didn't Taka have some booze when he was

introduced? Yeah, but for me speaking as a media member, the only thing I cared about last year was that they had, what was it, 50 plus wins and a hundred plus points and got within one game of the wins and a hundred plus points and got within one game of the Western conference final. Like I feel it's weird to say that winning masked anything. Winning is the only thing that matters. I don't care about style points. If they put it this way, if what the Canucks are going through right now, that this very, um, kind of grindy ugly, although last night's game was entertaining unesthetic in it is that a word unesthetic could be in aesthetic

in aesthetic yeah not aesthetically pleasing if this if this results in a playoff spot and a shot at doing something in the post season and getting through a really rough patch. I'm fine. I don't think that style points necessarily matter in the NHL. So I want to read a few more texts. You guys are out of your mind if you think you find a better coach than Tachin for next year.

It's simply not his responsibility to construct the roster. The Canucks have two to three NHL defensemen currently. So the reason, if you're just joining us, the reason we're talking about this is that both Halford and I and other members of the media were surprised at some of the venom.

Very, very surprised. That's directed towards Rick Tauke. Very surprised. And we're trying to get to the bottom of it. So we're not saying that Rick Tuckett is doing a bad job, although there are things that I wonder about and I've talked about the end zone offense, you know, do they need to keep going back to the

point as often as they do? Couldn't they try and work it down low a little bit, even if you're working it down below, you know, right into Gretzky's office behind the net and try from there? I don't know, you know, right into Gretzky's office behind the net and try from there. I don't know, you know, maybe not. I have a question for you guys. Yes.

Would you blame the Canucks' poor home record more on the coaching staff not preparing the players or is that more on the players not getting prepared themselves? Players. Players? Players play. Because that's the only criticism I've heard of talk that I I kind of like I get what He's they're saying but I don't really know enough about what goes on behind the scenes players play like if you need a coach to come in and

Cattle prod you to get ready for a home game for a home game Like there's certain games at home this year where I'm looking at the group and I'm like there shouldn't be there gonna be anyone to tell you what's gone wrong and what needs to change here. And, you know, sometimes I think that the only reason Tauke doesn't blast the team publicly, the only reason is because he doesn't want to deal with the aftershocks of the media.

Otherwise, I think he'd be more than happy to do it. Brandon in Vancouver texts in my concerns with Tauke are much more about Xs and O's, specifically this team's lack of offensive creativity and inability to generate shots and chances. This goes back to the All-Star break from last year. That's almost a full season sample, including the playoffs, where we've been one of the worst offensive teams

in the league. Yeah, you know what else happened at the all-star break? Yeah. I'm not going to say it. Um, okay. There's another element to all this is we, we love to try and shoehorn in, uh, football, the English variety to hockey. Yesterday, you came up with a Trent Alexander Arnold

Eric Carlson comparison, which was very good. You're not gonna get that in any of the radio shows. Quite frankly, any other platform. I think we had a Harry Maguire, Dion Faneuf one. Both of them were like, I don't know how we came up with that. But Gareth Southgate, who managed England for an awfully long time, is now no longer

the manager of the English men's national team. Thomas Tuchel is taking over. Yes. A German in charge of England. I'll table that conversation for later. Uh, Cole's notes version on the South gate era. Um, the style of play was very dour, very boring and at times many times was called out for almost being unfair to the amount of talent that he had at his disposal. That they would play low event, low scoring, let's make sure that nothing happened matches. Tournament football and guess what? They did pretty well in the tournaments but

couldn't ultimately get over the hump. And that's what ended up killing his public perception in the end. If he had won all would have been forgiven and forgotten. They never won a championship. They got to the final of a Euro, they made you know runs in World Cups, they got close but they never won and his legacy is always gonna be a guy that almost had, um, intentionally played a negative style of football and almost, almost made it work, but didn't. What does that have to do with Rick? Talk it.

I think that if you watch this team play long enough, you will see that they are loaded with talent and players that can go and score. And I think we saw a lot of that under the Boudreaux era, but I think his belief is that if we can keep enough games close and keep it as low event as often as possible, it'll get us through an 82 game regular season. It'll get us to the playoffs. And then, then it's a crap shoot that playing one goal games and getting it back to the point and firing shots on goal with a lot of traffic and scoring greasy goals in the postseason. Maybe things break our way.

I honestly think that that is part of the recipe, and I can understand why people are probably freaking out at their radios right now, hearing this, because you know, you look at the, and I'm sure Drance is like, that's not a way to attack and approach the game. I'm not agreeing or disagreeing, but I think when I watch and having watched talk, its teams previously play, there's an idea that keeping things tight in a game where crazy bounces happen, isn't the worst strategy and can get you certain places that high risk hockey might not. That make sense?

Yep. No, for sure. I think the talk of thing overall, whether or not you think he's doing a good job or not, it's really something to start monitoring. And I've been trying to talk about this, but it hasn't gotten much traction. There's no guarantee this guy's back next season.

Right. Like I think we all need to recognize that. There's no guarantee Rick talking is back next season. The team has an option on him, but that's not the same as, yeah, he's got a year left on his contract or whatever, you know? Like, do you think he wants to, okay, oh good. Thank you for exercising your option on me. All I did was win coach of the year last season. Oh, I'm so grateful.

Yeah, just to make sure that we're clear right now, this isn't about the Canucks giving Tocket another kick of the can. I think Rick Tocket, if he wanted to go out and try and test the job market or try and see what other teams might be interested in his services, I'd bet there'd be several teams interested in acquiring him. I think, I mean, his stock, especially after winning the coach of the year last year, probably couldn't be higher and he might not be enamored with the situation. I'm sure he likes the situation that he's in because it got him an opportunity to win

the award last year and get to the second round of the playoffs game seven. And he's got good players to work with. He's got the best defenseman in the NHL to work with. That's a lot. Defense man, not defense man. Defense man singular. One Quinn Hughes, 43. The flip side of it is there are other markets where

you deal with less media, you deal with less pressure. You deal with a different player group. Maybe you don't have a room where two of the highest paid forwards have a rift with one another. Nope. It's all part of it. Yeah. I also think that that's, if there's one big

difference from last year to this year, it's that Tuckett's clearly had to deal with more adversity in 38 games than he had to over a hundred plus. A lot of adversity through 38 games. You also have to remember that if Tuckett does sign a contract extension, it's not going to be for like a year. Right. You also have to remember that if Toca does sign a contract extension, it's not going to be for like a year.

So it's like, do I really want to commit to this? Do I really want to stay with this team for three or four more years? Because you've got to look at this situation and you've got to look at your best players and go, can they really get me over the hump and get this team over the hump more importantly? Can I win a cup here? Because Rick Tocket, I'm sure he, you know, there's something to be said for, hey, we're going to pay you for three or four years and we're going to pay you a lot of money. You know, that's obviously part of it.

But there's also for, for, for talking, he's got options. You know, you go back to TV, I'm sure TNT would take them on or someone would take them on as an analyst, make money there. I'm sure he could get a coach with an, he'd get a job with another team. J-Rock, J-Rock.

So there's another option there. J-Rock in the Okanagan just said, talk it to the Rangers. Ooh, J-Rock. I like that you're stirring it up this early in the morning. It's dicey, spicy it to the Rangers. Ooh, J Rock. I like that you're stirring it up this early in the morning. It's dicey, spicy. I like it.

The coaching element of all of this is one of the, how many facets are we up to now in this Connect season? Six, seven, very important facets, very important elements of this season that need to be analyzed and need to be answered going forward, right? What are you gonna do with Miller? What are you gonna do with Pedersen?

What are you gonna do with Besser? What are you gonna do with Tauke? Like those are four very big questions that don't have answers right now. And they all sort of need them. And then in the midst of all this, it's like, oh yeah, by the way, we're trying to keep our heads above water

so we can hold onto that second wild card spot. And then someone will be like, what about Demko? And that's another thing you have to consider moving forward as well. There's always these questions that need to be answered. And when things are going great, like they were last year, answers seem like they're easier to come by. When it's rough like it is right now, all of a sudden the future starts getting a little murkier and the answers aren't as clear.

Anyway, we gotta get going on a break. On the other side, the second half of Ferrari Tuesday's Landon Ferrari, Connex analyst is gonna join the program. At 8.30 we're gonna dive into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. Get some what we learneds in. Hashtag them WWL and tell us what did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports?

Anything across the NHL, NFL, coaching, hiring, coaching firings, guys that are keeping their jobs want to look ahead to the playoffs. We can do that. Anything you want to talk about, hashtag it WWL and tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. Dumbar Lumber Text Line is 650. 650. Finally, before we go to break, another message courtesy of Rogers Xfinity TV. Get set for adventures. Discovery Channel has moved. All the latest seasons of your Discovery favourites are available on Channel 411. Again, that's on Rogers Xfinity TV. You're listening to the Haliford and Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. Some bee shoves it up your rear end all the time.