Halford & Brough in the Morning - Thatcher Demko Is Back! (In Pog Form)

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk Thatcher Demko's return to the Canucks for tomorrow's matchup versus the Sabres (3:00), plus they discuss the top hockey stories of the day with Sportsnet NHL host David Amber (27:42). 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.

You're listening to Halford and Brough You're listening to Halford and Brough Two seconds left tries to get it into the goal priest He scored Through traffic off sticks They score Pavel Dorafiav

With 12.1 seconds left. A hit fake and a shot. Scor! Gail McCar! Rips her home with eight seconds to go. Shot, re-sout, score. Carter McDavid, with one second left.

Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brow. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming here live from the Kintek Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. Adaw, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Scor a debt freedom hat trick. One, no more interest, two much lower payments,

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This show, this show right here is coming to live from the Kintech studio. Now's the time to maximize the benefits of custom orthotics. Before the year runs out, visit Kintech.net. Got a big show ahead. Big show ahead on a Wednesday, a four guester here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. It's time now for the morning drive. Brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. Guest list today begins at 630.

David Amber, Hockey Night in Canada, SportsNet NHL host is going to join the program. Four games in the NHL. tonight sports net's got two of them Scotia Bank Wednesday night hockey it's the Red Wings and the Flames followed by the Kings and Cracken David will join us at 630 to talk about that 7 o'clock

Frank Sarah Valley our NHL insider from Victory Plus is going to join the program we'll ask Frank for the latest on what he's hearing about Canucks trade plans including those involving Quinn Hughes Frank's going to join us at 7 730 Paul Hamilton's going to join the program

Sabres reporter for WGR Sports Radio 550 in Buffalo Sabres are in Vancouver tomorrow to take on the Canucks after a wild O.T win in Edmonton last night. Paul joins us, Sid, for an early Sabres preview at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Randip Jand is going to join the program. Canucks color analyst on SportsNet 650. Big news for the Canucks yesterday. Thatcher Demko declared himself ready to go to take on the Sabres Thursday night. We'll talk to Randip about all that and more at 8 o'clock. Reminder at 8 a.m. this morning

Right around the time Rand Deep joins us It's Halford & Brough's 12 days of Christmas Listen to Haliford & Brough Every day until December 16th For your chance to score an early Christmas present We're giving away some cool stuff Restaurant gift cards Tickets to sporting events

Canucks tickets yesterday Where are we in the days? Today is eight if I'm not mistaken Already at eight I'm pretty sure we're able Is that lords a leaping or swans of swimming Okay, I don't know the song very well. I think we're past Gieselang.

Captain Zatradin? We're not doing that today. Yeah, we're not doing that today. It's probably a Kintech thing. I don't know. Anyway, we've got a lot to give away. Caller number 5 at 8 a.m. this morning, 604-280650.

That number again, 604-280650. That's what's happening on the program today. It was the Duick Morning Drive brought to you by the Duik Auto Group. Without further ado, Laddy, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened? What happened is Brad Tewan?

The BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCS.a.com. The Vancouver Connect sort of practiced yesterday. An optional with 10 skaters and a couple of goleys, including Thatcher Demko, who after missing the last 12 games with the lower body injury, will return to the crease on Thursday when the Canucks host the Buffalo Sabres at Rogers Arena. Yeah, as you mentioned, only 10 skaters, mostly young guys out there.

Plus Demko and Lankan, most of the veteran skaters took the option. They had a season ticket holder event last night as well, meet the players. I'm sure Quinn Hughes got some questions from the fans last night at Rogers Arena. Pedersen did not practice yesterday although that wasn't unusual because as mentioned most of the veterans took it off

but it's possible according to Adam Foote that he could practice today Foote sounded pretty optimistic yesterday that Pedersen is fine now I don't know how much time how much more time he's going to miss

but maybe he's going to be ready to go against the savers the Canucks do practice again today at 11 a.m. at Rogers Arena. So we'll know more about what we can expect to see about against the Buffalo Sabres tomorrow night. Thatcher Dempco was the big story yesterday

and it did some media. And what did you, what audio did you clip from this? Because I actually haven't heard it yet. No problem. I listened to it this morning. and Dempco held the scrum, which lasted about five and a half minutes. He was pretty tight-lipped on a lot of things. Let's throw that out there. Not being rude or defensive or anything like that.

Demko, not me. I'm never those things. He just was pretty short with his answers. He was asked how he's feeling. He said good. He was asked if he's ready to go. He said yes. He was asked the moment.

He was like, a kid after school. I was like, how was school? Good. Did you enjoy your lunch? Yes. Did you see the snack I packed you? Yes. Demco answered just like that.

Mom, stop asking me questions. And then And it was weird that he called Koo's mom But whatever Demko was asked about Potential Olympic participation And he also punted on that one Said you're going to have to ask Billy about that one

That of course Being the American Olympic GM Another GM with a nickname I know Oh Billy I might have You know what That might have been me subconsciously doing that

He might have called him Bill I might have put a Y on there I'm not too sure However He was like Quinn was talking to Fitzie though Wasn't interesting Those guys have talked every day They're very close.

They're text buddies. They're on a chat. It's called, get me out of here. Yeah, please, Fitsy, please, I beg of you. Anyway, there was a good answer that he gave talking about after the summer that he had where he anointed himself and the organization anointed himself healthy and ready to go. There was another health setback. And he seemed pretty open and willing to talk about the challenges and the frustrations from that,

but kind of wanted to push back on the narrative that he's. injury prone. I'll let the answer speak for itself. Here's Thatcher Demko talking about his return, his health, the summer that he had, the season that he's gone through, here's all of it. Thatcher Demko meeting with the media yesterday following Kinnock's practice. Unfortunately, you can't, you know, look, I mean, I know what you guys do and there's a narrative around the whole situation, but, you know, any guy can go through and have a great summer and then get hurt. So, you know, it's, you know, I have sitting there, you know, pretty much to speak myself, up for a week and you know you feel guilty and you feel bummed out and pissed off and all those

things but you know it's part of the game and I can only control so much at the end of the day I know that I'm doing everything humanly possible preparation wise education wise I have a great team that surrounds me and helps me do what I can to make sure that I'm ready to play and yeah I mean I'm I'm the guy who feels it the most when when things don't turn out the way we wanted to but yeah I've been working hard and ready to go so Demko is right there is a narrative around his situation and it's a simple narrative he can't stay healthy yes and you know I'm sure if he thinks truly thinks like this is just something that could happen to any goalie has nothing to do with my prior injury history I just just got hurt anyone can have a great summer

and get hurt. Yeah. But I think with what's happened to the Canucks this season and all the question marks around a player like Quinn Hughes and all the question marks around the direction of the team, it's more than fair to wonder about the future of Thatcher Dempco in Vancouver, even though he just signed this contract extension. And he had that quote where he said,

like, if I could sign forever in Vancouver, I would have done that. What does his future hold in Vancouver? It seems very, very difficult to predict because let's stay he remains a Canuck. How many games is he going to play? Is he going to be able to stay healthier than he has in the last little bit?

Let's say the Canucks go to him and say, what do you think about moving on? Would a team even take him on? Could you sell any team that would be looking for a goalie like Factor Dempco on him, knowing his injury history and knowing that he's got a pretty healthy cap hit after this season. Was it eight and a half or something like that for three more years? Man, if you're bringing in him, you better be real confident that he can stay healthy. but how could you be real confident that he can stay healthy?

It is one of the few very interesting storylines to follow with this team on the ice for the remainder of this year. Again, I know I'm probably writing this off early. I know I know against... No, you're not. I know that they'll probably go on some sort of win streak, whether they'll get to within six points of a playoff spot and people will be like, uh, I'm not ready to break. Yeah, it'll be the last 10 games to season. Anyway, let's come out of the bottom five.

I don't think they will. I don't think they will. Calgary went seven, two, and one in their last ten. So it's not out of the realm of possibility, but I want to shelf that part of it. Because my ideal here would be, there's not going to be many really interesting storylines and narratives playing themselves out on the ice. A lot of it is going to be off the ice,

the trade rumors, the rumblings, all that. Maybe Quinn Hughes's body language is an on-ice thing. But Demko, for the remainder of this year, that might be the most interesting storyline on the ice. Because if he can stay healthy and play, It does two things. One, it does give them a better chance of winning. I mean, it's hard not to look at what's going on.

And guess what? A lot of people are like, I don't like that. So there's that angle. I don't like that. And if the Canucks go into a quote-unquote rebuild, where winning is not the number one goal, it's acquiring young assets. Could you make the case? You know, Kinex fans will be like, now he'll stay healthy.

You know, now he'll probably play all 82 games. If everything's on the table, then everything's on the table. And Demko would be one of them. I would suggest that. But on the ice, he's now got an opportunity to do like two or three things, to be honest. One is to show that he can stay healthy. And I think that's the biggest one of them all, right? He has to be able to show that what he was talking about, anyone could have got hurt

after having a really good summer where they feel hit is honest and legitimate and true. And I think he believes it. And more importantly, I think he feels like he has to believe it. The mental game is probably so taxing and sort of trying on him right now that you have to think, hey, I'm not broken down. I had a really good summer. I felt healthy. I got hurt just like anybody else might have.

This is a groin injury and I'm coming back from it or whatever. So can he come back and play? Because you do have to point out the fact that since he got hurt, it's been almost over a month. It's been a month in five days. The Canucks won four games, four games while he was out. I think there's a correlation there between him not being available

and the team winning four of 12 games. Absolutely. They were 7 and 7 when he got hurt. That's not a great record. It's better than 6 and 7. Yeah. But they were a different team with him when they had a take-your-pick.

Lankan hasn't been good. Petra in his one appearance was not good. Total appeal has barely played. It's been a lot of Lankan and it's been a struggle. Now, the other part of it is if he does stay healthy and plays out the remainder of the year it changes a lot of things

for the conversation about his future his trade value where he might go whether they might be willing to consider moving him or not and here's another one let's say hypothetically Demco and Pedersen play on Thursday

against Buffalo who's really missing from the lineup at that point? Heedle Blugher and Forbort He'll be the big one Right but considering what other NHL teams are going through at that point. If you've got that much of your lineup healthy and ready to go on Thursday against Buffalo, you're pretty good, you're in pretty

good shape by NHL standards in a condensed season. There are other teams dealing with massive, massive injury issues. If you have your 1C and your number one goalie back in the lineup and you got your number one defenseman and Quinn Hughes. And all you're really missing is your 2C and a depth C, like you're 2 in 4C. So yeah, you're still weak down the middle. You're still in pretty good shape, comparatively speaking to a lot of other NHL teams. So that's the other thing that Demko on the ice brings back into the

fold. Okay. Nick Kemprios weighed in on the Quinn Hughes situation and here's something he wrote and you can read the article on sportsnet.com. He said, the market for Hughes

may be much wider than just New Jersey. The Canucks believe there are teams completely open to the idea of trading for Hughes to have him as a two-year rental. Without any assurances, he'll stay past his contract expiring in 2027. These teams see Hughes as a final piece that could help them win or be a threat in 2006 or 20207. And this has always been the part of the Quinn Hughes situation that

I feel has been kind of like underrepresented it's always been like you know well he's going to go to New Jersey and it's always been about the extension that he's going to sign this offseason wherever he signs it the lack of trade

protection for Hughes is huge he could theoretically be traded anywhere and even if a team isn't ultimately able to resign him it's still worth a massive of Hall to get him guaranteed for two post seasons.

We've heard about New Jersey, Detroit, and Philadelphia. But just think, I haven't heard anything about this team, but just think about a team like Carolina. Sure. Okay? The Hurricanes don't have a defenseman like Hughes. They have a very good defenseman in Jacob Slavin. But Slavin's more of a two-way defenseman, right?

He's the ultimate defensive defenseman, I would say. They've got Shane Gostis bear running their power play now. And their power play isn't great. I have no idea if the canes have the pieces to make a Hughes deal happen. But I'm just using them as an example. Imagine one pair with Slavin and another with Quinn Hughes. If you're, imagine having that. It's like, who's on this pair?

Quinn Hughes. Who's on this other pair? Jacob Slavin. Should we even bother having a third pair? Let's just roll those guys out. How could you not investigate the possibility if you're a team like the Canes? Like that team Carolina, they've been so desperate to get over the hump. And it wouldn't just be like, okay, we've got one year to do this.

It'd be two. If you're a decent team and you don't already have a Norris caliber defenseman, you should be calling the Canucks. I think Freed just floated the idea of the Washington Capitals. That makes sense. I mean, you know, you got a good team right now. And there is the element of Ovi's not going to be here much longer, right? Like, why not make one last, you know, one last try at this thing?

They're already a good team. And I think Kippa just made a good point. Like, let's, it's all well and good to talk about New Jersey, Detroit, Philadelphia, for obvious reasons and be like, okay, well, he'll go there and then he'll stay there forever, right? But what about a team that just picks them up as a rental? Yeah, I hope the mentality from the rant and trade is prevalent in these talks. Let's say hypothetically they go down the road this trade deadline. The random deal, which was a pure rental twice, netted some pretty big returns for both teams, right?

You got really good young players moving in both ones. I mean, Naceous is a little bit older, but Stankovin got moved as well. And that was for a guy that, I mean, if you want to talk about getting Hughes with a little bit of security and a little bit of term, you had no idea what you were getting with Brandon and the Carolina Hurricanes found out the hard way. Now, the interesting thing that Carolina is, you know, I don't think that that would necessarily shy them away from doing it again because of what you mentioned partly, which is you get a guy with a lot more term. So you get an opportunity to get him in the door for one playoff run and then spend a lot of time convincing him to hang around after the contract. And you know what? this off season, you can be like, okay, well, if he doesn't want to stay, we'll cut our losses and maybe we'll flip them. And we're still going to get a huge haul. Or we could just keep

them for a year. Which is also what Carolina ultimately ended up doing with Randon in a shorter term. Okay, last night in the NHL, that was a wild night in the NHL. I watched the Buffalo Edmonton game. And start right there. Man, there were some things that happened in that. The Sabres went up 3-0. This game is in Edmonton. And Evan Bouchard, I would say, had an all-timer giveaway on one of the Buffalo goals

but then the Oilers went into the third period and Connor McDavid scores like 10 seconds right in and everyone in that building was pretty sure

that the others were going to tie this game up but they waited until one was it 1.9 seconds left in the

third period to tie it up and everyone's thinking okay well the others are going to go win this in overtime and then more shocking defending from Edmonton, and yeah, Evan Bouchard was on the ice,

he didn't make all the mistakes. But three on three, we're now quite used to... It's a lot more low event than it was when I was first introduced. It's more just like, hey, you got your guy, you got your guy, don't let them beat you, and there we go. There's three of us, and there's three of them. Defend them up. The Sabres had the puck in the corner in three-on-three in Edmonton's end.

And, like, they all went to the one guy with the puck, and it left, too, was that Alex Tuck? Yep. Wide open in front of the net. Some of the worst defending I've seen in three-on-three overtime since teams kind of figured out how to play it. When it first came in, they were like, oh, that guy's wide open. That was crazy. Three-on-three is awesome. And then, you know, they coached it up a little bit, and you don't really see that very often.

But, man, what a game last night in Edmonton? And there was some great hockey, some sloppy hockey, and Buffalo goes into Edmonton and gets the win. Yeah, tuck with the OT winners, you mentioned 33 seconds into the overtime. So Buffalo comes into Vancouver with a little bit of momentum after losing a pretty ugly one in Calgary in their previous game. Sticking with some of the Canadian teams, interesting development from Montreal yesterday. We had Eric Engels on the show yesterday talking about the NHL Board of Governors meetings in Colorado, but also what's going on with the current plight of the Montreal Canadiens. We talked about the goaltending where yesterday the Tampa Bay Lightning put six past the Montreal

Canadian and then a 6-1 drubbing in Montreal, a game in which both goalies, Sam Montembo and Jakub-Dobesh both made an appearance. Who started that game? Dobish started it. I believe it was Doebusch Inn. Yes. Allowed three goals on 14 shots. replaced after the first period

Montembow mop-up duty three goals on 13 shots might be Jacob Fowler time Thank you Lattie So it'll be Jacob and Jakob The two goal senders Montembo came into the game Don't worry guys I got this

Nope I don't I have not seen the goal yet But apparently one of the goals that he gave up to Darren Radish was it had stink lines on it And it was not good So an hour after the game The Habs announced that they made a trio of recalls From the HAL's Laval Rocket Including

Fowler. Tell me more about this guy, Laddie, because he's lighting it up in the American League. He's a former third round pick. He's their brightest goalie prospect. Although I guess you can consider dobish one as well, given his age. Tell me more about him, though. Yeah, he's pretty young. He's 21 years old, and he's pretty much straight out of college. He was in Boston College. There's a lot of pedigree. Pretty high draft pick. Third round, I felt he should have got higher in the draft than 69th overall. Nice.

But yeah, like you said, he's been absolutely unbelievable for LaValle in the HL and since basically his last year of college he's just been on this upward

trajectory really really fascinating name to watch so are they keeping two goalies that's keeping three

goalies then or they're going to have to for now and here's the thing Montembow isn't quite

the Silavian version of unplayable but he's the backup now I think he is man he might be

I think he is he very well might be understanding it and Dobish they've asked a lot of them early in the

season and I think you saw, and I know we played that clip where he was crying after their OT lost to the devils, I think that may be underscored how much pressure is on a young guy that I don't think expected to be the starting goalie for the Montreal Canadians this year. So they're given another guy a chance. Very young, but there's a big piece of it Sportsnet.com by angles talking about how the recall of Jacob Fowler might not be as risky as something, bringing him into this pressure pack situation. So the three goalies for Canada, the Four Nations were Jordan

Bennington, Sam Montambeau, and Aiden Hill? Yeah, that's right. Okay, so Aiden Hill's doing the best of all three of them, and he's got an 8-88. He's not playing right now. Yeah, and he's out. He's hurt. Yeah. Right. And Bennington's got a 875. Yeah, and he's platooning with Hofer. Hofer played last night in their loss, and they're just bouncing back and forth. Hofer's showing some life, at least. Yeah, but neither

them are very good, but Binnington's been bad. Like straight up bad. Montembow's the worst of all of them. Mm-hmm. Those were the three Canadian College of the Four Nations. Bennington's probably going to be on the Olympic team, but there's definitely going to be two new ones. Pete DeBoer better get comfortable with Logan Thompson. Yeah, in a hurry.

By the way, so I know there's been a lot of talk about the woods in Colorado, McKenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgwood. Did you see what happened in that game last? So here's the thing, and I know we're up against it for time. Because of the TNT broadcast, they started that game in Nashville super late locally. I think it started at around 8 or 8.30 local, I think, yeah. So not only did it go to overtime, it went to the shootout. They were in the rink in Nashville at 11.30 at night local time watching the shootout.

And the shootout went super long because Scott Wedgwood was in the game and he was in the shootout. And when Philip Forsberg made a shootout move, he collided with Wedgwood. Wedgwood's head snapped back and then it kind of bounced off the ice. And then there was this long, awkward pause where nobody did anything. and you started to realize that the NHL's concussion spotters were like Wedgwood has to come out of the game

in the shootout so they take Wedgwood out and Blackwood who's just been sitting there for all 60 minutes of regulation all of overtime and all of the shootout has to go in and they're looking at each other on the bench and they're like, what do I do? He went in and didn't have to face a shot

because Gabriel Landisog missed right away so the game was over so thankfully he wasn't pressed into any real action but a very bizarre circumstance The National Predators ended up beating Colorado very late into the evening last night. So there's a lot that's going on in the National Hockey League. There's a lot going on tonight as well.

David Amber, Hockey Night in Canada, SportsNet, NHL host, is going to join us on the other side. A lighter night, only four games, but there's still the Scotia Bank Wednesday night double header so we can get into that. Friendly reminder that this segment of the show was brought to by the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody beats a Duick deal since 1926.

Visit Duick GM on Marine Drive, Duick downtown, Duick in Richmond, and Duick, online at Doick Auto Group.com. David Amber is going to join us next. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. It's Canucks Central on SportsNet 650. From exclusive interviews to insider scoops and post-game breakdowns, we've got it all. Tune in weekdays 4 to 6 p.m. on radio and on demand through your favorite podcast app. It is time for David Amber. He is on the hotline, baby. It is time for David Amber. He will talk some hockey, maybe. It is time for David Amber. He will talk some hockey, maybe.

I'm on the hotline, baby. I'm ready to the mushrooms talking. I remember what I was doing at 23, pooping in my pants. There's a massive butt coming here, guys. No one's fighting Rick talking. No one wants to fight Rick talking. I'm on the hotline, baby. It is. It's David. It is. It's David. Amber, it is, it's David. He's on the hotline. 633 on a Wednesday, happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet, 650. Halford and Brub in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Only a license insolvency trustee can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees.

To learn how, visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. The midway point of hour one, David Amber, Hot. Hockey Night Canada is going to join us in just a moment here. The highlight of hour one. 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 the Middle 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go, our next guest. Hockey Night Canada, SportsNet, NHL host, David Amber, joins us now on the Halford and Brush Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, David. How are you? Gentlemen, I'm okay. I'm still reeling from last.

night I was in studio and it was an ofer for Canada. It was not pretty. Started with a Habs blowout loss and ended with an oiler shocking overtime loss to Buffalo. So it was a rough night all around for the Canadian teams. Did you know, did you guys know, that last

night, and Laddie got this in the intro this morning, the first time in NHL history there were four game tying goals in the final 15 seconds or less of regulation. There was the McDavid Edmonton that we played. We didn't mention Beckett Seneca scored with 0.01 seconds left to tie it up there.

And then the other two were Pavl Dorofa for Vegas and Kail McCarr in the late game for Colorado. So first night in NHL history where that's happened. So you got a tall order to try and match the excitement last night, David, even though it didn't go great for the Canadian teams. It was exciting. And we were watching Sam Cousentino and I. We had them all on. And Seneca, by the way, he might be the front runner for rookie of the year.

He's been sensational. I've been watching him play since he. He was about 10 years old. My son went to school with him, and he has been just a standout kid since he was, you know, quite little. And when he was taking third overall, if you guys remember, he had that classic reaction. He read his lips, and he's kind of dropping a bunch of F-bombs. He was so surprised that Anaheim took him third overall. And a lot of people were because Demadov was still on the board, and Ginnla was still on the board,

and a bunch of really talented players. But, you know, Pat Verbeek, the early returns are. amazing so far because Seneca leaves all rookies and goals and points and right now he's probably the front runner to win rookie of the year, although there's a lot of hockey left to be played. But there was certainly no shortage of dramatic finishes

last night. It was really fun to be in studio and watching these games all unfold as they did. Oilers was a bit, you know, and McDavid scored with what one second left, right? 1.5 seconds left, which was incredible, but then it all fell apart in overtime for them. What

what do you think the HABs are thinking about their goal-tending situation right now? It's actually, it's hard to watch Montembeau right now. I feel quite badly for him. Confidence is low. It started out so well. Dobich started out 6 and 0 this year. You kind of looked like, okay, well, if Montembeau's confidence isn't there, Dobish will be able to spell him.

And, you know, it's just been hard because Dobish made his fourth straight start yesterday, including a back-to-back on the weekends, and he looked a little fatigued. Tampa scored in three of its first six shots. And post-game, Martin St. Louis, said this has been a real theme with us, allowing their first goal, having to chase games. And it's just they lag, they sag and on the bench, it's very demoralizing. It's the word he used. Guys get kind of, oh, no, here we go again.

And that's not all on the goaltender, certainly the team in front of them. There was some great A chances given up that led to some of those Tampa goals last night. But I think they're a little concerned, and here comes Fowler, and everyone's been touting Fowler is sort of the next big thing in Montreal, and we all know they have a history of drafting and developing and having star, you know, Hall of Fame goaltenders, and maybe Fowler is the next in that line of, you know, price and wah and dry it and et cetera. We will see.

But the fact that they called them up right immediately post-game said to me, like, wow, this is something that has really caught the attention of the house management and they want to at least if nothing else, sort of see what this kid can do potentially and see if there's a fit there while Montenboe and Dovish get their confidence back. Hey, Dave, remember, it might have been last week or two weeks ago when we set the over-under on the number of Canadian teams

that would make the playoffs. And at the time, Ottawa was the only Canadian team in the playoffs. Well, this is how crazy the Eastern Conference is. Ottawa is now second last in the Eastern Conference after losing three straight they've only got two more points than Buffalo and Ottawa is no longer in a playoff position we don't talk much about the Sends but what's going on there?

That's a great question you know last night was really disappointing loss for them and it's funny I was we did our hockey central show before the games and Mike Fuda talked about You know, it's been a little bit of puck luck, too, like bad puck luck for Ottawa. They've certainly had their chances. They've run into hot goaltenders.

You know, you can kind of chalk up some of it to that. But at the same time, if you go through an 82 game schedule, every team's going to have that kind of run of like, oh, shoot, you know, we're up against the team that's running hot or whatever the case may be. That wasn't the case last night. They went up against a pretty desperate Devils team that had lost five in a row. But to me, you're Ottawa, you're on home ice. you know, this is one of those games

where you have a great opportunity against one of those East teams you're trying to climb past. And they make just bad mistakes at inopportune times. They're kind of level 10 mistakes. They're playing a solid game and they're doing everything they need to do and then, you know, two guys are out of position.

One guy misses a puck battle and next thing you know the puck's in their net. Like it's just been a series of those moments from the games I've watched to the Senators. It's just when they have breakdown, They have bad breakdowns, and more often than not ends up in the back of their net. So that, you know, I'm probably simplifying it a little bit. But the whole Eastern Conference guys, I mean, this is, it's kind of wild.

Like, literally there's nine points separating first from 15th. If you want to go further, there's 11 points separating first from last in the Eastern Conference. 11 points first to last. Montreal, by the way, last night, we went into last night's game and we said, if Montreal wins in regulation, they could possibly climb past six teams. That's what was at stake. Like if the other games worked out the way they needed to, they could have climbed past six teams yesterday.

Instead, they lose in regulation badly, and they slip a spot in the east. So instead of climbing over a bunch of teams, they fall another step behind, and that's how tight things are there now. How many teams are we convinced are good in the east, though? Maybe like Tampa Bay, Carolina, Washington, And that's it, maybe.

I mean, I really like Washington. I just, I want to see how severe this Ryan Leonard injury is because he's been playing so well. But I love their mix of young guys like Leonard and Protis. And then obviously the season veterans like OV and Wilson and Carlson. I love their coach. Do you ever see, you ever go online and you see their sort of post-game celebrations and they're sort of like where they give the game of the puck of the,

you know, game player the game award out and things of that nature. They really look like such a solid team to me. They look like they really, the personalities mesh in their pregame rituals and their post game, you know, ceremonies, you know, and I'm not trying to make more of that than it is, but I know most really good teams have that kind of chemistry and that love for one another. And I think it's genuinely there in Washington. And it starts with their head coach who I think just sets a really good sense of

the culture on that team should be, and then OV and the rest of the veterans kind of take it from there. I like that Washington team, and they also have pretty solid goaltending we've seen this year. The rest of the teams have been hard to, it's hard to pick through them. Like, Carolina's a good team, but do you trust their goaltending at the end of the day? I'm not sure I do. Well, now that they've got Brandon Bussie, who can't lose a game apparently, he's won seven in a row or something like that. I want to, you know what? I often have a tough time remembering who is Carolina's goalie because they've changed it.

a few times. So the number three, you know what, though? I want to talk about the number three team in the east right now, just for a second, because there's a former Vancouver Canuck who's doing the business there. The New York Islanders, I don't think they're one of the best teams in the East. I'm not sure how much longer this keeps going, that they are a top three team in the East, but it is wild to me, wild that the NHL's leading goal scores right now are Nathan McKinnon with 24, Morgan Geeky, who we don't talk about enough either, with 22, tied for third, Jason Robertson, and Bo Horvett has 19 goals already for the He's playing out of his mind.

It feels like he's making a real strong audition for Team Canada. I don't know if it happens, but whatever the case, he deserves a ton of credit for what he's done with this Islanders team this year. He came so close to having a hat trick to win it in regulation for the Islanders. Honestly, he's playing great guys and commanding the puck. He plays power play. He can kill penalties. He wins face off.

I mean, I don't have to tell you guys. He was the captain of the Canucks. I mean, this guy is a bona fide star. And, you know, it's been great to see what he's been doing. And along with Matthew Schaefer, it's been, you know, resurgence of that Islander team. I don't know if they're a Stanley Cup contender. You know, they do have good goaltending as well with Sorokin. So that's something that a lot of the East teams would love to have is just a solid game in, game out,

number one, bona fide goaltender. But Horvats been great. And quite frankly, with all the hoopla about Bedard and Celebrini, which is well deserved, he's been a little bit lost in the shuffle, right? Like early in this season, we're talking about Suzuki and obviously Tom Wilson's name keeps coming up and all these are deserved candidates and Wyatt Johnson. But Bull Hobat should be right there.

He could play in all situations. He'd gladly be on the fourth line if that was the role handed to him. Like he's not going to be one of those guys, you know, moaning and complaining about anything. He's another leader who thinks the game a lot like the top players on the Canadian team, right? Like, he has that same hockey IQ like McKinnon, like McDavid, et cetera.

You guys have seen that. I, you know, I'd love to think he would get that opportunity. There's just not enough seats at the table for everyone. So these are some huge, huge decisions coming down in the next couple weeks. And, you know, does anyone have more pressure right now in hockey circles than Doug Armstrong and that management team figuring this out? I don't think so. Well, another name to throw in there is Mark Schifley.

He had two goals last night. get this for ice time for a forward he played 25 minutes and 47 seconds against Dallas in a 4-3 loss which probably says something about the struggles that the jets are having that they're willing to play the wheels off of a guy like mark shifley because they're so desperate for wins right now what do you think's going on there yeah they're they're so top heavy that top line of connor shifley and valardi we did a jet's game last Wednesday or two Wednesdays ago, and we had a graphic. I mean, they're scoring like 56% of the forward goals, and that might even be more now

based on what's happened in the last two weeks. You know, when you're dependent, when one line is scoring more than half of your forward's goals, the other, you're just not getting any contributions from the second, third, or fourth line are not nearly enough. He actually scored two goals, and they moved him down to the third line to prop them up. That's how he played 25 and a half minutes last night. so they were basically not double shifting them but they were playing them on two different lines and you know he's been that good and their head coach was asked about it after the game

and he just sort of said we're trying to get other guys going it is an issue like i i'd always sort of looked at winnipeg as a solid playoff team but two things are working against them that division is ridiculous Colorado Dallas Minnesota three sort of top teams and the fact they're missing hellabuck and they you know and they're missing eelers the Eler's departure, you know, I think it's hit them harder than they anticipated. I think they said, well, we have Cole Perfetti and Aiafala. We have some guys who could fill that void. And to date, they have not filled that offensive void.

So it's too top-heavy on the offensive side of things. Poor Eric Comrie has never started more than 20 games in his career, right? He's 30 years old. He's always been a backup. Hellebuck gets hurt. And now he's been thrust into a role where he's playing basically every second night. and it's just, it's asking a lot of him. He's a gamer and he's doing everything he can,

but this isn't the role that he's designed for, right? So they can't dig to big a hole. It's not like the East where you can lose three, four games, win two games, the next thing you know, you're right there because there's just no great teams. The West has some real solid teams at the top and Winnipeg. If you keep sliding, you're going to be climbing a massive hill.

Listen, I'm looking at the standings right now. They're 12th in the West. They're just two points out of a playoff spot, so plenty of time, but they've got to correct things, and there's certainly a sense of urgency there, which is two wins in their last 10 games. Okay, David, before we let you go, set up tonight, Scotiabank Wednesday night hockey on Sportsnet. Well, we got Detroit and Calgary, and on the surface, people are probably going to Detroit and Calgary, but Calgary's playing actually exceptionally well right now. They've won three in a row.

They're scoring goals, which they weren't doing before. Rasmus Anson, who I know there's all the speculation about when's he going to get traded. Well, he's been playing fantastic. I think he has like 15 points in the last 10 games or something like that. He certainly, if he is going to be traded, he's upping what they're going to get in return for him each and every game. You know, and Dustin Wolf's been very solid. He sort of rebounded from the start of this season. So the flames are looking a lot like that 96-point team from a year ago.

And, you know, they've moved past a couple teams, including Vancouver, obviously, in the West. So, you know, they have an opportunity tonight to leapfrog, Seattle, Winnipeg, and St. Louis. Like, this is what I mean. The teams are so bunched there. It's funny, right, to say that, but they do have a chance to sort of leapfrog a few teams with a win tonight. So that's what we've got on the slate, Calgary. Detroit, they're playing a lot better. They're in the playoff mix.

There's a lot of pressure on Steve Viserman. And you guys will be interested here in this sense. the lot of speculation is if Quinn Hughes doesn't go to New Jersey that Detroit is the possible suitor they have the assets they certainly have the want Quinn Hughes I believe lives in Michigan

in the off season I'm correct about that right? Yeah yeah yeah yeah you can connect a lot of dots here there's a ton of pressure on Steve Viserman it's been nine years since Detroit has been in the playoffs right we forget about that because all we ever do is talk about Buffalo So from a Kinnock standpoint, from a Vancouver standpoint of watching tonight's games,

you want to see some of the guys who potentially could be moved down the road for Queen Hughes. If there is any sort of truth to that rumor, Edvidson and Marco Casper and these guys, you get a chance to see them tonight on Scotia Bank Wednesday night hockey. And our coverage starts at 5 o'clock Pacific time. David, thanks for joining us today. Enjoy the games tonight. Yeah, thanks so much guys for having me on. enjoy, we'll talk soon. David Amber Hockey Night

Canada SportsNet NHL host here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet, 650. I was going to read these texts anyway, but now that David ended like that, I'm going to read them into the Dunbar-Lumber text line at 650-6-50. Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and runner warriors for over 50 years. Visit

them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at Dunbarlumber.com. Jamie and Chilliwack says sarcastically, he goes, it's so nice to hear the media in Vancouver spend their time talking about nothing but how to trade Quinn Hughes, what that would look like and how it would work for the other team. How about we talk about how Quinn Hughes should stay?

And he's the best defenseman and one of the best players in the NHL and how stupid it would be for this team to even consider moving him early. I feel like the media is trying to will a Quinn Hughes trade. It's really sad. I will agree with you on that last part. This is all really sad. One other text unsigned said, honestly speaking, say Hughes goes to the Olympics

creates an amazing defensive pair and controls the game and quarterbacks the power play leading the Americans to a gold medal sucks but a good possibility is he now happy and content to play it out with Vancouver or is he now even more disillusion

with his club team after the experience his value will rise after the break regardless everyone's going to love playing with this guy later boys got to go to work okay first of all have a good day at work yep don't text and drive drive safe to work um yeah i i i i understand uh where jamie and chelawak is coming from

it's got to be frustrating to hear nothing but like where is he going to go and what could the canucks get i i've always just said like i call it like i see it sometimes i'm wrong but i'm 99% prepared for him to be gone yeah i don't want it to have i'm i'm with the ethos of what jami's saying like i think I think it's a, I think it'll lose the trade. It'll be a huge step backwards for the organization. I don't trust the management group to use this as a pivot point for a rebuild or a retool.

I think it'll end up being something along the lines of what you say, where everyone ends up yet again talking themselves into the package that they get in return as opposed to being genuinely excited about what they get. That's how I see it. You have a franchise icon. have the best defenseman in hockey, you have a Norris trophy winner. You're trying to get that back, at least in terms of value in a trade, and more often than not, you don't.

Rule of thumb as a trade is, you trade the best player and you don't receive the best player, you lose the trade. I don't want it to happen. I hate that it might happen, but I'm with you on one factor. If you look at everything that's going on out there, and you look at it objectively, we're not trying to get the player traded. We're just looking at what's going on out there. oftentimes when there's this much smoke there's fire yeah and he just uh he hasn't really

suggested anything that suggests like he hasn't said anything that suggests he wants to stay right now people will kick back and they'll say well they've never suggested that he wants to leave either and he's never said that publicly and that's also true we rely on the information that we have through insiders, reporters. Yeah, sometimes there's some. How about common sense? Yep. How about common sense?

That's also a part of it. Like put yourself in his shoes and ask yourself the question, would you want to stay? I mean, I like Vancouver on a personal level. I have a lot of ties to the city, though. Yeah. My brothers don't, you know, play somewhere else. Right.

You know, like there's all these things. But again, I think this is, Jamie and Chilliwack I get the frustration I really totally and everyone should and maybe we should spend more time just venting about how this got screwed up

as opposed to looking towards the future but it's hard to wallow that often in the mistakes that have been made and how you got into this situation Is it worth discussing ways that they could keep them or has the horse left the bard? Drance had a fairly decent roadmap

when he came on our show a couple weeks ago when he kind of pooh-poohed the idea of trading him in season this year. And he's like, you go to the off-season and you just, you load up and you almost make it your one final salvo, your last shot. Maybe you win the draft lottery, McKinnon's here. Yeah, you put your best foot forward, you put on your bow tie, and you're like, we're going to put our best package. And that's contract and everything else on the table. Rough them up a bit if it comes to that, right? You never know.

Anyway, I think what you do is you say, hey. I'm in a room. We know this season wasn't great. It went off the rails. However, this is the presentation. It can be a slideshow. It can be like Mad Men back in the day where you get Don Draper up there

with some very nice color boards and he's showing you everything. He's saying, this is the pitch, this is the plan. We've got a massive contract offer for you. There's all these things that we can do within the CBA now that you might not be able to do next time. You have to sign a deal. We're going to give it that one last good college try

and see if it works. so for Jamie and Chilliwack there's an option for you that is definitely something that's in play and viable but you're reading that we're trying to read the tea leaves and it doesn't seem like that's happening exactly I really wonder

if management has gone to the same playbook as they did with Pedersen where Pedersen wanted to wait until the off season before he made a decision on his extension and they were like no no we're not playing it like this I'm the boss

and you're going to tell us what you're thinking and they leaned on him and they said okay well if you're not going to give us a decision then we're going to trade you to Carolina it was like fine I'll sign the contract essentially

that's what happened and boy did it turn out great so they went back to this playbook again maybe I mean I take the Pedersen thing away I mean we discussed this not as kind of like

leaning on Quinn but just going to him before the trade deadline because I do believe that it's worth exploring what you could get for him and you go to him and you'd be like listen Quinn we're not going to lean on you but could you please tell us what you're thinking because it's possible

like if you have no intention of staying and regardless of any slideshow or draft lottery win if you just want to leave eventually because you want to go play with your brothers can you please just tell us right because then at least we have options we have more options

We could trade you before the trade deadline, or we could wait and get you signed to an extension and then trade you then, whatever. Just let us know. And I, if I were to guess, if I were to guess, those types of things have been done. Or in some way. Like they have an idea of what's going on.

This segment of the show was brought to you by JanPro. From conference rooms to kitchenettes and everything in between Jampro, keeps workplaces tidy, clean, and disaffected for a free quote, Visit them online at Janpro.ca. Coming up on the other side of the break, hour two, Frank Saravalli is going to kick it off our NHL Insider from Victory Plus. You're listening to The Halford & Brough Show

on Sportsnet, 650.