Halford & Brough in the Morning - Should Sam Bennett Have Been Suspended?

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look at the previous day in sports including a controversial game one in the Leafs Panthers series (3:00), plus they talk NHL playoffs with ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (27:04).  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- want something in this life, have to work for it. Now quiet, they're about to announce a lottery number. Please release the balls. And the first overall selection in the 2025 upper deck NHL draft belongs to the New York Islanders. They're down by one, Courtney got it! Aaron Kort with a deep shot! Good morning, making it over 6 o'clock on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday Tuesday everybody. It is Halford at his breath, it is Sportsnet 650 and we are coming to you live from the

Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey dog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford at breath of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first

and trusted choice for net help. With over 3,000 five star reviews, visit them online at sans-trustee.com We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal North Star Metal Recycling they recycle you get paid visit them in 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio Kintec footwear and Palo St in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Lots to get into on a Tuesday show loaded guest list. Two games in the Stanley Cup playoffs tonight. Guest list today begins at 6 30. Greg Wyshinski, our insider, our NHL insider from ESPN is going to join us. We will recap an eventful night in the

National Hockey League last night. The Islanders, as you heard in the intro, they won the draft lottery. The Leafs beat the Panthers in the opening game of their round two series. And we've already got controversy stemming from the Sam Bennett Anthony Stoller's incident from last night. We'll talk about all that. We'll talk about all that with Greg at 6.30 this morning. 7.30 Jason Greger is gonna join the program from Sports 1440 in Edmonton.

As I mentioned, two Stanley Cup playoff games tonight on the slate, including the nightcap, the Oilers and the Golden Knights in Vegas, round one of their series. How different a challenge does Vegas present to Edmonton over the Kings? We'll talk to Jason Greger about that at 7.30. Eight o'clock Jesse Granger is gonna join us.

Vegas Golden Knights reporter from The Athletic. We'll get the flip side of that series, talk to Jesse about a Golden Knights team that quite frankly we have not spoken much about this season. Didn't talk a lot about them during the regular season. Barely talked about them during their round one win over Minnesota. Yeah, cause it was like, they're still good.

Yep, they're still good. All right. They ticked all the boxes, they're still good. Yep, they're still good. All right. They ticked all the boxes, and they just won a bunch of hockey games. So we'll talk to Jesse Granger about them ahead of tonight's game. Edmonton, Vegas, the other game tonight, of course,

is Carolina. And Washington. We have a giveaway today, everybody. A ticket giveaway. Vancouver Canadians, the Seas, and the Everett Aquasocs at the NAT on Saturday, May 17th. It's a Sportsnet 650 presentation, Women in Sports Day, special guest appearance by Sportsnet's very own Hazel May. Game time is 1 0 5 PM on the 17th.

Caller number 5 this morning at 8 15. Again, caller number 5 at 8 15 will win a pair of tickets to the Seas game on Saturday, May 17th. The phone number is 604-280-0650. That number again, 604-280-0650. Call it 815 today. It'll be right in the middle of the Jesse Granger hit this morning from Vegas. Okay, I'm not even gonna work in reverse on the guest list. We got so much to get into.

So without further ado, laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how missing your life can be.

What happened? Missed that? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best tools, resources and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. We've got a bunch of NHL stories we need to get into from yesterday. He's the best in tools, resources and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca.

We got a bunch of NHL stories we need to get into from yesterday. Let's begin with the action on the ice. William Nylander, another two goal performance from Willie Stiles. Also an assist all in the first period. Toronto Maple Leafs hold off the Florida Panthers 5-4 in game one of their round two series.

But the big story, Jason, the biggest story of them all happened midway through this game when Sam Bennett, do we call it accidentally on purpose? Sure, why not? Glanced Anthony Stoller's with his elbow. Anthony Stoller stayed in the game for a short while, but later skated over to the Toronto bench where he vomited, then exited the game

with concussion symptoms, left the rink after the game and went immediately to local hospital for further evaluation and now the controversy ignites. Will Stollers be around for the remainder of the series? Will Sam Bennett face supplementary discipline for his hit? No penalty on the play by the way. It got fireworks early yesterday in game one between the Leafs and the Panthers. I've watched this replay approximately a hundred times and I'm not joking about that because if you go on social media, you can watch it, you know,

a very short clip and it just gets played over and over and over again. With a hundred viewings, did you come to a conclusion? It doesn't, I'm going to get yelled at. Thank God I'm not in Toronto right now, but it doesn't seem like a lot. Like I know he, he, he like ran into him. You monster.

Like it's, it's, it's, it's goalie interference. But I mean, what do you see when you see it? I, it just seems like he, he did like, he. you see when you see it? It just seems like he, like there's definitely. I see a dirty player. There's definitely contact, but you know, compared to an elbow that you would see in like a body check or something, like I'm sorry, I just, I'm trying to look at it,

and you said he glanced him, that's the way I see it. A glancing blow. But like. But an intentional glancing blow. Okay Mike be serious have you looked at it over and over again and what do you do you see like a crazy dirty play? I see you know what you know my biggest issue is with it is the guy that delivered it. I'm gonna be dead honest. If it was anybody else, I'd maybe- Talk about the actual, talk about the actual contact to the whatever it is, side of the head, back of the head. I don't even, it looks to me like he goes through-

It's not brutal. It's not a crazy brutal elbow. It felt like it could have been avoidable. But it was avoidable. It was definitely still- It was avoidable. That's what I'm saying. But here's the thing But here's the thing.

Here's the thing. The way the Department of Player Safety looks at these things is they go, okay, they don't start with the injury. Remember, they don't start with the injury. They go, does this play rise to the level of a suspension? Correct. Right? So it has to start with that.

And then they go, okay, if it does, then they start determining the injury, right? It had the number one thing is, does it rise to the level of supplemental discipline? And for me, that's kind of like, oh, if there was a goal score there, they'd review it. And then they call it back because it's goalie interference, right?

Like maybe a little bit more than the average goalie interference. I want to ask Laddy this, this is why we have him, because he knows what it feels like to be a vulnerable goalie in that position. What did you think when you actually saw the play? Am I crazy?

Like, am I, am I, am I, I mean, yes, but- It sounds like you're saying that it's okay to do these kinds of things, as long as you're sneaky dirty enough that it doesn't look as bad as it possibly is. That's what I heard well, I but it sounds like you're saying that it's okay to do these kind of things as long as you're sneaky Dirty enough that it doesn't look as bad What I heard I'm not saying that at all As long as you get away with it is fine for me. It's the intent intention It's the intention he did mean to go through and he did mean to bump stole ours

And it's not a bump well It's and if when you're in that position It's not really about the quickness of the head or how hard the guy hits you It's the angle that they come in on he's a six foot two two hundred plus pound man Flying through the lip of the crease and when you get your head clipped like that when you're down in the butterfly You're in a very vulnerable position You said it yourself and it's about the angle that you're kind of your head is it's like a whiplash on this effect Okay, does it look like, but it's extremely dirty

and it sent him to the hospital. This is interesting because I think- Did that alone send him to the hospital or was there, he took a puck off the mask earlier in the game, right? Now what he said actually might strengthen your argument because you're talking about the intent of it all. You're talking about the actual execution of the play.

And if you watch the play over and over and over again, like you said, a hundred times, no one's gonna say it was egregious, it was intentional, it was filthy because it wasn't. There's a lot of different factors that go into it. And the one that I keep coming back to is I'm like, it's Sam Bennett, right? Sam Bennett is a line stepper.

Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. But then you bring up a good point by saying that that wasn't the first bit of head contact that Stoller's received in the series. Whatever the case, here's what I know. This set the tone for the series, not unlike what the Florida Panthers did in round one, which was be the physical aggressors.

Again, cross that line habitually. Aaron Echblad is now served a suspension from the previous round for his hit Matthew Kichak also delivered a questionable hit as well. This is what they do This is what they do. They go they'll go into areas. They'll go into situations and they'll put themselves into collisions Where these effects and these outcomes can happen? That's kind of Florida Panthers hockey. I mean, they don't make any bones about the fact that sometimes they're out there and they're out there to hurt, they're out there to hit

and they're out there to hurt. And in this instance, this could dramatically alter the series. Cause I know Joseph Wall got thrown into a tough situation last night. Like I, you know, one minute he's laughing on the bench with Stollers. The next minute he's not laughing because Stollers

is puking. And then the next minute he's in the game. So there was a real 180 there, but he did not look great. I think everyone can agree with that. He actually said in the post game, he was just chilling. He was just chilling, he was having a laugh. And then all of a sudden he's like, wait a minute, he's throwing up.

This is getting more serious by the minute. Why don't we play some audio? I'm sure we've got some audio of what the coaching staff had to say. Well, I got Paul Maurice's reaction after. Okay. Your vantage point of a play involving Sam Ben and Anthony Stolar, Stolar is obviously leaving the game.

Not nearly as good as the referee's vantage point. Standing right there, he saw it. So coach is coach. You know what? We're hopeful for Anthony and his health. Like, we love that guy and we hope he gets better real fast. I've answered one on it. I understand that you're late.

The referee is standing right there when it happened. And then you will do your thing and the league will do its thing and I'll coach the next game. So everyone's got their opinions on this. Like, you, you know, it's, it's funny coming into the Dunbar lumber text line. There's, there are totally divergent opinions on this. Some people see it like you, Mike, like it's, it's a, it's an elbow to the head. He got hurt.

Um, and I assume you think he should be suspended and other people are sending, texting and saying like I'm basically echoing what I'm saying. Like I don't see the egregiousness of it. Was there contact? Was it a penalty? Was it a minor penalty for goal interference? Yes.

Yes. They didn't call that either. As Paul Maurice pointed out, there was a referee staring right at it. It was also a blindside headshot though. When you say blindside headshot, what people would imagine is not what you would see on the video, I'm sorry. Still what it was.

So how else would you describe it? The delicate dancer. I would describe it as a player skating through the crease and unintentionally, unintentionally, like accidentally on purpose. Oh whoops didn't see you there. Making slight contact. Oh there's goleys in the crease now? Wow. What did they put those there? Oh, there's going in the crease now

Wow, they put those there. What is your head doing in the way of my album? Sam Bennett actually said whoopsie just because you intentionally did something does not mean it rises to the level of suspension I don't think sorry. I don't think he's getting suspended the results in the guy going to hospital Yeah, I don't I don't I don't think he will be suspended for this I will say this the delicate dance of the National Hockey League and its suspension system is full blown right now. So here's what we know after the game. We already played the audio from Paul Maurice.

Craig Barube said, elbow to the head, clearly clear as day. And his very brief remarks about what he thought about the hit. So much like that first round series in Tampa Bay with between the Lightning and the Panthers, you've got the two head coaches at complete opposite ends of the spectrum. Obviously, they're doing their politicking, right? They gotta get out there, and they've gotta try and make their message very clear.

I wanna talk about the actual game, though. Yeah, let's do it. And here's a question I have for you guys, okay? Is it harder to protect the lead in the playoffs? Now it is. We just saw it over the weekend. Two games- No, compared to the regular season. Compared to the regular season, is it harder to protect a lead?

Because look, was it the last Canucks game where, or one of the last Canucks games, where they had that crazy comeback against- A historic Dallas comeback. Against the Dallas Stars. So that was the regular season and that was about as meaningless a game as possible. But two factors I think could play into the answer being yes, could. This is just a theory I've got.

Number one, obviously you've got more desperation from the team that's down. That's the most obvious point. But number two, I wonder if psychologically the team holding the lead feels more pressure to just, or more of a urge to sit back a little bit more because the stakes are higher and they get into more of a conservative mindset out there. Like, you know, when you, when you, when you've got the lead

and your coach is saying like, don't stop attacking, you know, don't go into a shell during the regular season, you're like, okay, yeah, no problem. But when you are protecting the lead in the playoffs and you know how important it is, your instincts are going to tell you to not take a crazy risk. You don't want to be, for example, Quinton Byfield, who made that ridiculous

mistake against the Edmonton Oilers. You don't want to be that guy. So you are more probably willing to just go, okay, I'm either going to dump it in deep and get off on a line change or are you going to put it off the glass? And it's just, I don't know, it's just a theory I came up with.

It could be totally wrong. I'm sure, I'm sure people could crunch numbers if they wanted to on, on leads in the playoffs versus leads in the regular season. But to me, these last few games that we've seen, I mean, the Leafs, yes, there was another factor in that, another goal he had to come in yesterday, but the Leafs nearly blew that last night. So. Four one lead.

I was waiting for the, it was 4-1 takes on social media. They never, they never manifest. I think I saw a couple actually though, but okay. So there's a couple of interesting theories on this. Back in 2022, the Athletic did a huge deep dive on multi-goal comebacks in the National Hockey League, both regular season and postseason. Postseason, it obviously is more magnified because

there's fewer games, everybody's watching. And there was a sort of old trope or theory that, you know, you get a one goal lead in the playoffs and then they're not calling any penalties. So you just batten down the hatches and you can you can choke the life out of a game. Not so much anymore. One of the theories that former Kings head coach now, Red Wings head coach, Todd McClellan has was that in the modern game, there's way more talent throughout the lineups. So you don't necessarily just have like two top lines that can score.

You have four. So when you're rolling lines out, especially in a third period, you can load up the ice time for your top guys, but you can also give your third and fourth lines minutes and they can score. So that's been an uptake in the scoring overall. Another one, and this was interesting, especially with playoff comebacks late, and we saw this specifically with Winnipeg

or the St. Louis Blues, is the advent of pulling the goalie way earlier in games than previous, right? Like having the goalie out with three, three and a half minutes left, having six attackers on the ice, sometimes all six being forwards, like if you're getting really desperate, right?

And then you look at what Winnipeg was able to do against the St. Louis Blues, for example, on Sunday, when the game tying prophetic goal came about, it was like Ehlers at the point, you were able to load up that entire unit with your best offensive players. And again, you wanna talk about depth and scoring. It wasn't Kyle Conner, it wasn't Nikolai Ullers

getting the goal, it was Cole Profetti scoring the game tying goal with less than three seconds left. So there's a bunch of different theories as to why. I will say this, the other side of the coin, very much, I think it's harder to defend leads now than it ever was before. I mean, if you go back to when Bref and I were young men in the 1940s, but even later than that, go to the tooth, go watch a playoff game from the 2000s.

If it was a two, one lead going into the third period, chances are that game was ending to one. It would be clutch. It would be grabbed. There would be no penalties called. There wouldn't be a lot of power play opportunities. And you could salt away a one, one goal lead in the playoffs used to be not insurmountable, but close to it. And that's way different now. Derek in the Ridge texted in and said, bruv, you're echoing exactly what

Drew said, Drew Doughty said in the exit interviews yesterday. It never was a conscious decision to sit back and protect leads. Quote, it just happened. That's what Drew said. LA was guilty of that on a number of occasions in that series, getting up and kind of having the foot on the throat and then not being able to finish the job.

I don't know if that's a coaching thing. I don't know if that's a mentality with the players. I think that's an instinct that kicks in, especially when you got McDavid and Dryside out there. Just soak up the pressure. Yeah, well don't, and I also think maybe that the byfield mistake might've played into

it as the series wore on. Sure. Right? Like you're like, okay, don't do something dumb like that, don't try, you almost like don't try and make a play if there's an easy chip out, but the easy chip out taking that route sometimes gets you into trouble. Did you see that Byfield was asked about his gaffe?

What did he say? He said he's going to be thinking about it all summer. Yeah. So it's still sticking with him. It's just, I mean, sometimes you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. You just have to, you know, what is the right play in that scenario?

Well, if Byfield would have beaten, was it Bouchard at the point? And he got it out and he put it into an empty net. That was the right play, right? But it's not that black and white, right? Yeah. You know, but because Bouchard ended up making actually a nice play on the pinch, the right

play was chipping it out. You know, the right play is the one that helps your team. The one that works. The right play is the one that works. And sometimes we try and put the players in a box and say, no, you got to do this every time. You got to do this every time. And it's like, well, that's not how hockey works.

That's not how sports works. The only thing you should do every time is a successful play. Yeah. You are a hundred percent right on that, right? Like, I mean, maybe there was something you could say about, take the decision out. Maybe it's in the execution. Well, if you're going to make that play, make sure you protect the puck. Yeah.

You know? Yep. Shield your body. So as talk says, I'm a big body position guy, right? Get your body in the right position to shield the puck and don't let Bouchard stick get in there I'm gonna miss that all the I'm a big blank guy Big not going in the room guy or not a big going in the room guy. I'm gonna miss all that. Okay New York Islanders yesterday won the NHL draft lottery moving up a whopping ten spots

And it was also the NHL's first ever live televised draft lottery, moving up a whopping 10 spots. And it was also the NHL's first ever live televised draft lottery drawing. The Isles had a 3.5% chance of securing the first pick. They had the 10th best odds out of the 16 teams, and they will now select for the first time since 2009 when they took John Tavares first overall with the pick. So the Islanders jump from 10th to first as the biggest ever involving a team winning the number one pick.

Big moment for the New York Islanders. Did you happen to watch the broadcast last night put on by John Buchagross and Gary Bateman and Bill Daley and everybody else? I did not, how was it? I'll give him credit. The transparency was absolutely there. My favorite character of the night was the guy

that wasn't allowed to look at the ball machine and could only look at the clock. So there's a clock that counted down from 30 every time. And then at the end of 30, he was the one responsible for telling them to draw a ball. That was- Please release the balls. And then Gary Bettman said that. It'd be a good magic. Release the balls. It'd be a good magic trick if after they were like, okay what you have just seen was rigged

Yeah, how did he do it? Well, if you see some of the top illusionists or whatever you're like, how do they do that? This is so that you know what actually that would be very funny if a magician Name name a guy like David Blaine. Okay Ravine, you know, it'll be really funny David Blaine does the NHL draft lottery that would be pretty good and he rigs it and then all of a sudden like you see in his hands it's like I'm holding the Chicago Blackhawks okay so that's funny because there was how did he do it there was a ground that is like oh wow there was a groundswell of people who were like,

this has been gifted to the Islanders because they were supposed to have next year's All-Star game, but now obviously that's been turned upside down. Those are equal. Yep, so they're like, here you go, take the first overall pick. Also, the broadcast featured one of my favorite moments,

Islanders legend Ken Morrow was the one that was, you know, kind of, I think, forced, honestly, to be on camera because they don't have a general manager, right? Like, Lou Lamarello's not there anymore. So, they did the multi-cam view with all the different boxes on screen with Ken Morrow there and he was sitting there in his suit and everything and then they cut away and then the Islanders won.

They came back and Ken Morrow was wearing a hat. It was like, all of a sudden they're like, okay, now this is gonna be better because now you're gonna be wearing an Islander's hat and he was all happy and talking about how it was great for the franchise. I'm like, who put the hat on him? Who made that decision? Was it a lucky hat?

No one will ever know. But the Islanders win the draft lottery again, first time since 2009. The Canucks, in case you're wondering, will draft 15th overall. I suppose not moving anywhere, staying in the spot that they went into the lottery with. Okay. Um, in the seven o'clock hour, we've got an open segment, the first segment of the second hour. Um, we're going to talk to Greg Wyshinski next. Um, but in the second hour of the show, I want

to talk about the Canucks, not so much who they're going to draft 15th because they're not going to draft anyone. They're probably going to trade that pick. That's right. Um, but I just want to talk about, um, the last few years and how relatively few draft picks the Canucks have actually made. And in particular in the first and second rounds.

And one of the things, there's a number of things I want to talk about, but one of the things I want to ask you, the listener, is do you feel more of a connection with players who are drafted and developed by the Canucks? We're not talking about trying to make a better team here, right? It's not necessarily a debate about whether you should use all your draft picks or if it's okay to trade away some of these first or second round picks.

I'm asking you the listener, if you feel more of a connection with the guys who are drafted and developed by the Canucks. So text in any answers into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and renter warriors for over 50 years, visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at dunbarlumber.com. So Wish is going to join us next. A very plugged in guy in the NHL.

So we'll ask him about the Bennett hit on Stolarz and whether or not he's heard or he thinks it's going to end up in a suspension. Well, maybe we'll also get him, get into that conversation about protecting leads in the playoffs and whether it's not, whether or not it's tougher than during the regular season. We've got a very interesting show if we're

going to be talking about suspensions, cause it tends to anger up the blood of the listeners. I can only imagine what it's like in Toronto today. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drantz. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks.

Listen 12 to 2 PM on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 6.31 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. Halperd Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halperd 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-trustee.com. Emily Kaplan of ESPN reporting, nothing confirmed yet, but I don't believe Sam Bennett will receive supplemental discipline for his contact with Anthony Stolarz in Game 1.

Bennett Stolarz was probably a missed penalty on the ice, but the Department of Player Safety doesn't give suspensions based on outcomes, only the act. Which is what we were talking about earlier. The first thing they look at is does this rise to the level of a suspension? So when I watched that play, I thought if they give a suspension for this, then every little bit of contact with a goalie in the crease will be a suspension which will make laddie happy, but not many others.

Chris Johnson, Siege from TSN and the Athletic is tweeting out the exact same, the Bennett not expected to face any supplemental discipline for his hit on Anthony Stoller's last night. Greg Wyshinski from ESPN is gonna join us in just a second here. Before we get to Greg, I need to tell you that our one of this program is brought to you

by North Star Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go, ESPN's Greg Wyshinski now on the Halford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Wyshinski now on the Halford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Wish?

I think it's also a situation where, like you guys pointed out before, let's say, I know they don't suspend to the results. That's the thing that they always say. But let's just say, for example, a team loses their starting goalie on a play that could be injurious. Yes.

On the play last night, it's kind of hard to figure out where the injury occurred as you guys are talking about before. Wouldn't you agree? Yeah. I honestly, I've watched it. I said earlier in the show, I was like, I've watched this thing a hundred times. I'm still not exactly sure what happened. So I'll just jump in here. The first, there was two occasions where Stoller's mask got dislodged. The first came at five away to the first period when it was a shot from Sam Reinhardt, struck him up high.

Play was immediately stopped. Stoller's adjusted the straps on his mask, got back in there. About two and a half minutes later, that was when the Bennett incident occurred. Again, stoppage in play, Stoller sort of gathers himself, plays a little bit more. Then there's another couple minutes that lapse,

he goes over to the bench and then as we saw, sort of refunds his lunch or dinner or whatever, and then he's pulled out of the game. So you're right in that instance is that we don't know exactly what caused what when, but there's a lot of other factors here. I mean, I was pointing to the one that the guy doing the elbowing, at least the second incident anyway in Sam Bennett,

it's hard to give him the benefit of the doubt given his pension for habitual line stepping. No, that's that's for sure. And that's why he'll get paid handsomely this off season. Maybe in Vancouver. He needs a. Yeah, I mean mean everybody needs a perpetual line stepper. I say as we welcome Chris Pronger to the ESPN broadcast last night. No, and I think that's an important point too, which is that like why are we having this conversation about a play that as Jason points out is probably a little bit more commonplace than the NHL would like to admit with regard

to fly by head jostling of goalies. It's because we saw Stolar's lose his lunch on the bench and not return to the game. And it's because it's Sam Bennett who is, I mean, you can't even call him sneaky dirty, he's just dirty, right? So like these two factors combined make this one where I think a lot of people including you know Emily and CJ were looking towards player safety this morning to see what they were gonna do but you know based on their history and based on what they look for and based on the play itself I didn't necessarily anticipate anything coming down which is not gonna set well with our friends in Toronto but kind of where

I thought it was going with player safety this morning. You nearly said Vancouver because people in Vancouver are always complaining about something or other. I said Vancouver because I'm on Vancouver radio, you constant material jerk you. Hey Wish, we were having a conversation earlier about protecting leads in the playoffs and we were wondering if it is tougher to do it than during the regular season. Now we saw lots of comebacks in the regular season, so we shouldn't act like this never happens. But two reasons I would put forth if I was going

to try and support this theory, which I have no evidence to support. Number one, the other team is obviously going to be a lot more desperate. There's less give up in the playoffs. And number two, the stakes are so high that I think psychologically, it might be tougher to, you know, keep playing aggressive, don't go into a shell, etc. What do you think? Well, let me try to support your theory and let's include also Let me, let me try to support your theory and let's include also it's heavier hockey and more taxing hockey.

And so when you get to the end of the game, you know, some of your best players are going to be on the ice at the end of the game defending. Because that's just how the league is now. So when you consider how much they're putting into the previous 59 minutes, it's, it's only natural that maybe they don't have a lot of gas left in the tank at that point. Now, on the other side, I have to say that we've had tons and tons and tons and tons of third period comebacks in the regular season. So I think what we're seeing in the playoffs and the regular season is a function of the scoring being so ridiculously high in the league right now. I think it's like the fourth time in five seasons,

you've had a goal per game over six. We're seeing scoring levels and power play conversion rates that we haven't seen since the mid 1980s. Like when there's this many goals, I think it's only natural that you're gonna get third period comeback. But I think that's only natural that you're going to get third period comeback, but I think that's probably our culprit right there.

Well, the team that's feeling it the most right now in terms of blowing things is the, oh God, I'm just, people are going to clip that. The Los Angeles Kings who fired their general manager, Rob Blake, yesterday, and we're all kind of waiting word on the head coach, Jim Hiller. What did you think of the LA Kings going out yet again to the Edmonton Oilers in extremely painful fashion this time?

And what do you- We're all waiting on the fate of the guy who can't coach in the playoffs? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. Is he gone? I kind of forgot that he was there last year, to be honest with you.

I forgot about the whole interim thing, but he obviously didn't really learn much. The coaches challenged the blockhole, the way that that team played when it had a lead, the refusal to play the totality of his roster in the playoffs. You go back to the exhaustion factor. He's running, you know, like 38 year old Andrzej Kopitar and Drew Dowdy into the drown in first round series games because he doesn't want to play his depth. Yeah. Because he was out of his depth. So yeah, he's of course, he's gone. I can't imagine a scenario in which a new a new GM comes in and is like, I got to be in the Jim Hiller business. But that being said,

you know, the thing I heard last night, and I think others have heard it too, is that, you know, Mark Bergevin has been there as a consultant. I think that there is a certain cultural connection, shall we say, between Mark Bergevin and Luke Robitaille. And there's a lot of chatter now in the echo chamber of the NHL that Bergevin should end up being the guy out there in LA. As the general manager? Sure. I don't know. Like everybody's a dual title now. I'll tell you this, I think the Islanders are gonna be in the dual title business too. I think the next person they hire will probably be a president general manager type.

I thought at the beginning of their search, they might go dual, they might go like old president, young GM, but the more I hear about it, the more I think they're going to hire somebody who can do both. So in terms of the coaching decisions, Mike Sullivan's the only new coach that's been hired, right? Have I, have I missed another one? I saw Andrew Burnett is going to stay in Nashville. Um, I guess maybe, um, some teams were waiting

on David Carl, but he's staying at DU. I read a, uh, I read a column in the Denver Post yesterday that was saying they should fire Bednar and hire David Carl. So that's not going to happen in Colorado. What is the biggest thing you've been hearing in terms of coaching because the Vancouver Canucks don't have a coach either. The David Carl thing is interesting to me, um,

because I do think that geography matters to him. He's got a young family and I do think that geography matters to him. He's got a young family. And I do think that he wouldn't mind being the head coach in Colorado avalanche. But I think timing is kind of impossible for him for that job. Like you're walking into a situation where they need to win sort of now. Right. And you're walking into a situation where you're going to be a rookie coach coming in from the NCAA, uh, walking into a room that Nathan McKinnon owns. That's like the easiest

landing spot if you're David Carr leaving it with the job that you really want. I'm intrigued because when I talked to a bunch of people at the start of the playoffs, a lot of them assumed that Rick Cogut would be the coach of the Flyers by now. So is it a function of them maybe going in a different direction? Is it a function of other jobs you might want coming open? I don't know, but I feel like he might be the domino we're waiting to fall right now. Well, I also assumed that he'd take Adam Fo Foot with him, but now we're hearing that the Canucks might be interested in hiring Adam Foot as the head coach, which is wild to me

because he's pretty inexperienced. Adam Foot has a pretty good publicity apparatus, I think, because all of a sudden it's like Adam Foote is front and center and all this stuff. I don't quite understand it myself. To me, if you were going to do that, you hire him a whole trip, don't you? Well, the only connection that I can kind of see is that everything the Vancouver Canucks are doing right now is trying to appease Quinn Hughes and make everything good for Quinn Hughes. And Hughes apparently had a very good relationship with not only Rick Tauke, but also Adam Foote.

Adam Foote was in charge of the defence. So, you know, it's hilarious. Every little thing that happens is about Quinn Hughes. Like, did you see the Canucks Twitter account or X account yesterday? It got hacked. I did see that Jason.

And there was all this crypto stuff. It was hilarious. And I'm joking here, but people were probably like, oh God, is this embarrassing for Quinn Hughes? What does he think about the social media team? So that's kind of where I landed with Adam Foote, but I honestly don't see him as a realistic head coach. First off, the Devils have a very good social media team.

So I want to point that out. Back here in any of this. Shut up, Wish. Secondly, there you go. That solves all your problems. Just name Jack Hughes head coach. I don't know if that's a violation of his player contract, but it's a way to get the two brothers together.

I don't know. I mean, that kind of makes sense, I guess. Like if you want to appease your best player, hire somebody that understands and coaches his position. I kind of get that. But if you really wanted to appease your best player, I mean, I don't know what the answer would have been. I mean, I guess maybe you keep JT Miller or Rick Tocque.

I don't know. But I mean, that's kind of where we are is there might be no peas in your best player when you get rid of the coach that you really liked. We're speaking to Greg Wyshinski from ESPN here on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. We've absolutely buried the lead here with Wish. We should have led with the fact that Greg Wyshinski of ESPN was live inside the 2025 NHL draft lottery live from Secaucus, New Jersey yesterday

for the league's first live televised drawing of the draft lottery. Tell Wish our David Blaine theory. Jason thinks that the NHL should hire a magician to do the subsequent draft lotteries and then unveil some sort of like, look, it was rigged all along. That'd be fun.

And then gives away, and then gives away who wins the selfie trophy. That's the last time. That's the last time we had a magician. Yeah. And anyway, this, this shows harebrained theories aside. What would walk us through last night? What was it like? I don't know how it played on television, but I think that format is a market improvement

over Bill Daly and the placards. It was better. I can tell you definitively, it was better than Bill Daly and the envelopes. Yeah, because at the end of the day, when you get down to the final, the number one pick in the old format, you have like three teams at most. And then last night you had seven and you got to see, you know, it was

like watching a lottery drawing. Like you got to see what numbers you're holding and what, what you need to come out on the, on the final ball. And I just thought that it was, first of all, you got to give the NHL credit for the boldness and trying it because that format is fraught with technical potential technical difficulties and embarrassing stuff that could happen if your machinery breaks or if the odds board doesn't doesn't work but it works and so you got to give them credit for trying it and then I give them

credit for acknowledging that something that happened behind closed doors, and I asked Batman about that last night and he just kind of said it was just tradition. There's still like functional reason to do it outside of maybe some quality control. They decided to bring that into the open and have the public and the fans get to experience it. So I, it's not something the NHL is always really good at in letting us into their processes, but last night they decided to do it and can you always, how exciting it's going to be next year when we do have a generational talent at the top of the draft.

Well, for now, what changes for the New York Islanders? What could be some knock-on effects of winning the first overall pick? And the consensus, I don't know if there's a strong consensus on number one, but the consensus is that the defenseman Matthew Schaefer will go first overall. It's a really interesting year for them to have the first overall pick because they're going to have, it's going to be post Lula Marillo, right? It's going to be a new general manager and president. It's going to be a team that is, I think, moving into a mode of trying to sell tickets and create revenue streams as much as they can that building.

And so does Matthew Schaefer defensemen do that or does James Hagen's Long Island native forward from an NCAA team do that? And so he might not be the best guy in the draft, but there's going to be, it's going to be like, it's going to be like Montreal has to draft the French-Canadian pressure on the Islanders to draft a Long Island boy in the draft. When was the last time a first overall pick got traded even like in a move down? Like I know what happened with the Sedines, right? But that was a while ago. Am I missing one obvious one?

I don't, geez, that's a good question. I'm not positive when that happened. That's a good question. Off the top of my head, I don't remember. Cause they could in theory, if they don't, if they're not, the consensus picks, and I'm by no means a prospects expert But Schaefer and Misa seem to be one and two. I don't know if there's a strong consensus on those

What have you heard wish? I've heard that Schaefer is the consistent consensus first overall pick but it's not on the level of like We'd be shocked if it was somebody else and it certainly isn't on the level of like you've got to get this guy you know so I don't know well I admit that I am NOT the draft expert I only become one for about a week at the end of June. Yeah me too. I'm just reading the same central scouting reports that you are in Bob McKenzie's list but that's kind of the read on it that I have. What do you expect, uh, from the Colorado avalanche this off season?

We've been really trying to get the, uh, CID to Colorado rumors going, especially since, uh, the two best friends are off to, uh, the worlds in Europe together. We're wondering about some of the conversations that, that might happen there and the fact that the Avs still have a problem at 2C. Well, I guess the two things I'd say about that

are one, Sid's not leaving Pittsburgh until Malkin leaves. I can't reiterate that enough. And two, if he does leave, doesn't he want to go to a winning team? Hey-o. Hey-o, yeah. The Crosby to Books Colorado thing is a pipe

dream that's not going to happen. So it's a waste of everybody's time to talk about it until after Malkin leaves. I mean, I can't stress this enough, but he's not going to all of a sudden be like, peace out Gino, I'm going to go play in the Western Conference for the first time in my career. Like it's insane.

Okay. So what is Colorado going to do then because this can't keep happening? I don't know the answer. I mean, I do think that Bednar is probably in a bit of trouble. You have to imagine that because of the context in which they lost that series.

I mean, they lost that series to a team that was missing their best defense who knew their second leading scorer. Now, St. Louis found out the next night that that's obviously a recipe for success. This does not have the best of tension or second leading scorer in a game because Winnipeg beat them in the same scenario.

But like, I don't quite know because they did all the things they need to do to try to build the team. I love their trade deadline acquisitions. You know, they clearly have something in Mackenzie Blackwood. Other than figure out what the hell happened to Kale McCarr in that series,

I don't quite know what the recipe is for them. Was the Miko Rantanen decision in the looming shadow over the entire series, is that what's gonna eventually undo or maybe like cost one of those guys their jobs, McFarlane or Jared Bednar? Well, it's a good question. Cause I mean, they made it,

it's not as if when you make a financial decision like they made it and not giving Rantanen the contract he was looking for, that management and ownership isn't involved in some way in figuring out those numbers, right? So like, I don't think that's completely on Chris McFarland. Where I think it gets interesting with the Rantanen debate is kind of two-pronged. On the one hand, they made the decision to try to find a team-moo version of Miko Rantanen by making the Martin Natchez trade and saying, well, maybe we can get something out of this guy that's like, you know, 70% of Rantanen without having to pay Rantanen the money. And the other part of it though, is this is a pretty good hockey team.

And so just like Carolina, they had to make a decision on whether or not they wanted to keep me go rent in for a cup run or let them walk for nothing. And they made the decision to be proactive and trade him. And I think every GM would probably make that call, except when you look at what happened to the playoffs, they were one Miko ranting in a way of getting past Dallas. So it's an interesting philosophical debate. The second part, at least, the first part, you could, you know, there's all this mystery about what the contract offer actually was and who's paying what.

But in the second case, it's cut or dry. It's either you trade them or you keep them for a cup run and they made their call. And I think in hindsight, it was the wrong call. Wish, by the way, a couple of people have texted in and said they think that the last time a first overall pick was traded was in 2003. And this guy has been in the news a little bit. Florida held the first overall pick, traded it to

Pittsburgh who were able to draft Mark Andre Fleury. Mark Andre Fleury, that's right. And the Florida Panthers drafted Nathan Horton third overall. We are all getting very old. Nathan Horton, Ruins legend. Yeah. Yeah.

All right, Wish, always fun to chat with you buddy. Talk again next week. Yeah, for sure. All right. Take care, boys. with you buddy. Talk again next week. Yeah, for sure. All right. Take care, boys. See you, buddy. Greg Wyshynski from ESPN here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Okay, quick reset on the show here.

We are hour one in the books, hours two and three still to come. Coming up at seven o'clock. We got an open segment here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. We can get into a variety of things if you like, if you want to weigh in. Dunbar Lumbertex line is 650, 650.

730 Jason Greger is going to join the program from Edmonton. Two games tonight in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. You got Washington and Carolina in the first game and then the nightcap. Edmonton in Vegas to take on the Golden Knights. Speaking of those Golden Knights, 8 o'clock Jesse Granger is going to join the program. So we'll talk to him about the Vegas side of things. It seemed that we have not spoken a lot about this year on the program. Before we go to break, I do need to tell you about Jan Pro from conference rooms,

the kitchenettes and everything in between Jan Pro keeps workplaces, tidy, clean, and disinfected. For a free quote, visit JanPro.ca. Okay. For the next segment, we're going to talk about the Canucks draft this year. Um, as of now, they're going to draft 15th overall. Um, are you okay with them trading away that pick to chase a top six forward and, uh, try and help keep Quinn Hughes in town or is that the

wrong way to go about doing things considering the lack of first and second round picks the Canucks have made, relatively speaking, in the last few years and the position they're in. The other thing that I want to throw out there, do you feel more of a connection with players that are drafted and developed by the Vancouver Canucks?

We'll get into all of that on the other side of the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650.