Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Arty Party Might Be Over

Episode Date: November 28, 2024

In hour one, Mike and Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk yesterday's Canucks loss to the Penguins (6:00), plus the boys look at other stories around the NHL including Bedard and Celebrini comparisons (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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 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 Bears right wing to the Vancouver line. He scores. Well, we just give the goals. You know, and then get a couple of goal melts that just found their way in. They claw back to make it 5-4, but ultimately fall by that score. Yeah, I like the battle back from us, but we can't come up with an effort like that to start and expect to win a game. As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly. Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Alfred and his brother, the DisportsNet 650. We are coming to you live from

the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddy, good morning to you. Hello, hello. And intern Spencer, good morning to you as well. Good morning. Alfred and Bradford in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour 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 at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.

Sore feet? What are you waiting for? Kintec. Guest list today begins at 7 o'clock. Yeah, that's right. One hour of uninterrupted Halbro before we get to Thomas Drance. Not in his usual 8 a.m. position. 7 a.m. for

the Drancer this morning. We'll look back on the Canucks 5-4 loss in Pittsburgh. We'll talk about the state of the Canucks blue line as well with Drancer. He wrote about that for The Athletic. You can hear him on Canucks Talk as well. 7.30, James Sharman from the Footy Prime podcast is going to join us. Andrew and Victoria, here's your early warning. 7.30, soccer talk.

Big news for Canadian soccer this morning, Jason. Canada achieved its highest ever FIFA ranking. 31st in the world. We're 31st. We're 31st. We're 31st. The chant just rolls off the tongue. It's so natural. We're coming for you, Hungary,

currently 30th in the world. And forget about you, Serbia. We got you in the rear view because they're 32nd. Watch out, Laszlo Panaflex. So we're going to talk to James Sharman about that. We'll talk about City.

We'll talk about Herdman. We'll talk about Sartini. All at 7.30 with James Sharman. 8 o'clock, we're going to talk to James Sharman about that. We'll talk about City. We'll talk about Herdman. We'll talk about Sartini. All at 7.30 with James Sharman. 8 o'clock, we're going to go to Abbotsford. Brandon Astle, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver, or the Abbotsford Canucks, sorry. How about those Abbotsford Canucks? Winners of four straight.

And they got their goaltending sorted out. That's going to be a theme today. Can we have one of them? Maybe. Maybe we can have both. Ty Young, Nikita Tolopilo. Four goals allowed in those four wins, by the way, I might add. Start the 20-year-old.

That's what I said. How many goals did the Canucks allow yesterday? Five, right? In their last four games, all wins, the Abbotsford Canucks have allowed four. I was wondering if Darren A could play for C-Labs. He's a big guy. He's a healthy scratch. He's a big guy, yeah, right?

Time to the net. Taka does think that C-Labs isn't playing big enough. Get a bigger guy in there. We're going to wait for Laddie for this. His movement's a little choppy, but man, he's big. All right, that's the guest list today. Brandon Astle with an Abbotsford Canucks review at 8. James Sharman for a little footy talk at 7.30.

And then Thomas Drance from The Athletic Vancouver at 7 o'clock. That's what's happening on the program today. Oh, before I forget, you mentioned it in the intro. Happy Thanksgiving, America. I hope everyone enjoys their day of football in Turkey. We won't be doing a ton of football talk today because, quite frankly, the games aren't that great. We've got a lot of hockey talk to get into.

So without further ado, Laddie, 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?

You 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 in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Brian Russ, rusty, had a goal and two assists. The Pittsburgh Penguins jumped out to a 4-1 lead,

held on for a 5-4 win against the Canucks at PPG Paints in Pittsburgh on Wednesday night. Yeah, I guess the Canucks made us keep watching that thing, and they made it interesting in the third period because the Penguins aren't exactly a lock-it-down type of team, but it was too little too late after a brutal first period put the Canucks in a big early hole, and it started with Artie Silovs overplaying a point shot, got too aggressive, got caught out of position, lost his net, and the Penguins were able to find the net. Not for the first time last night. The Canucks did tie it on a nice second effort by Atu Ratu, but then came the defensive breakdowns. On Pittsburgh's second goal, Carson Soucy chased the puck area

all the way to the point. Then Noah Juleson did some chasing of his own, leaving Ricard Raquel all alone in front. You can't leave Ricard Raquel all alone in front. You can't leave Ricard Raquel all alone in front. Cannot expect to get punished. On Pittsburgh's third goal, it was Soucy and Juleson again, the dynamic duo. This time on the PK, Soucy couldn't deny the pass in front

and Juleson couldn't clear it. You know, Seelov probably wasn't looking big enough according to Rick Tockett in there Pittsburgh's fourth goal was an outright structural collapse Eric Carlson hit a wide open and I mean wide open Sidney Crosby with a stretch pass Crosby dished it to Brian Rust who easily scored into the open net this time it was Tyler Myers who got caught flat-footed through the neutral zone, leaving Hughes to play Crosby and Besser to take Rust. Spoiler alert, Besser could not take Rust. And so the Penguins took a 4-1 lead into the second period where they quickly made it 5-1 on another goal by Rust.

Myers again didn't look great. Neither did Brandstrom. Neither did Seelovs. Of course, as I mentioned, the Canucks were playing the Penguins. So you knew things could still get interesting, which they did. Suter scored to make it 5-2. Hughes went coast to coast to make it 5-3. Then Petey scored late to make it 5-4.

But as Batch said, that was as close as the Canucks got. Yeah, the refs made a couple of weak calls late on Garland and Ratu, but the Canucks dug their own grave with that horrendous first period. Okay, so there's going to be a lot of talk about goaltending today on the show. Ian McIntyre, our embedded Sportsnet.ca writer, was on the road with the team. Let's play the audio first because Rick Tockett's postgame remarks were very brief.

It was just over two and a half minutes in length. And about half of it was iMask. iMac. iMask. iMac. iMask is a totally different thing. Asking specifically about Seelov's Lankanen and the issue where it's becoming more and more likely that Seelov's might be unplayable. I'm just saying it early, 6.07 in the morning.

Let's hear from the head coach and our very own Ian McIntyre in this back and forth. It's about a minute worth of audio. Rick Talkett and IMAC following a 5-4 loss to Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh on Wednesday night. Yeah, he's struggling. He's got to battle. He's got to get bigger in the net and battle.

It's the NHL. It is what it is. He's got to work tomorrow in the net and battle. That's the NHL. You got to, it is what it is. You got to work tomorrow and get his game. You said, I can't remember which of his games he played, where you talked about his body language because he looked like he was down on himself. Do you see some of that? Does he look like a guy right now who's not getting confidence? Yeah, it's the goal mouth stuff that seems to be going in all year,

and I think he's just got to get a little bit bigger in there. I don't know. I have to talk to Marco, the goalie coach, but it just seems like, you know, I guess when you don't have confidence, you sink in your net. So, you know, he's got to battle. It's like everybody. You know, when you're struggling, you've got to battle through it.

In that respect, does it make it harder to rest Lankanen when you know that he's struggling? Well, you know, you've got to battle through it. In that respect, does it make it harder to rest Lankanen when you know that it's already struggling? Well, you can't run lengths too much. We did it earlier on, and we've got to be careful on that. Was it a consideration to play him back-to-back or not? No. No. That's too much risk for injury.

Just so we're clear, the only reason he didn't play last night is because there was a risk for injury. That was it. It wasn't like they felt like maybe Seeloff's going to give us a start or maybe he's going to give us a good performance or he's earned this one. He was in there because he had to be in there. Well, I think it's also the risk of Lankan not playing well

because we talked about them overplaying him or maybe playing him too much and I think that showed in the Islanders game on November 14th and that was his sixth straight start I think and then Seelovs they were they played three games in four nights so Seelovs was gonna get one and he got the Chicago game and he won that, but you know, Chicago. Yeah. And then Lankanen was in the very next day for the Predators game. And that was the weekend that the stuff happened with JT Miller. So the focus in hindsight has been about that weekend, but goaltending wise, Lankanen didn't play well in the Islanders game and he didn't play well in the Preds game.

And then he got some time off because Seelov's got the Rangers game, which I don't know, he wasn't play well in the Preds game. And then he got some time off because Seelov's got the Rangers game, which, I don't know, he wasn't terrible in, but he allowed four goals and the Canucks lost that one four to three. And then Lankanen came back and he's played well in Ottawa and in Boston. And if you're looking at this road trip now,

their next game is Friday. It's an afternoon game, 12 o'clock start our time in Buffalo Lankanen is definitely going to play that one and assuming you know nothing crazy happens like assuming he stays healthy I think he's going to play Sunday in Detroit and he's probably going to play Tuesday in Minnesota if the plan is to play Demko Friday, December 6th, that first game at home, back at home against Columbus. I hate piling on Archer Seelovs. I really do.

Because the Canucks didn't play. I don't even think it's worth analyzing that much, to be perfectly honest with you right now. Like, I, I, I. There's no. So don't, so don't, so don't pile on. He's, he's not, he shouldn't be in the NHL right now. He should be in the NHL.

Okay. But that is a huge problem. Well, yeah, I mean, this is all, this is, but this is all a, this is all a trickle down effect from Demko being hurt. I get that. This is all, this is, this is, you know, like I, I, I wonder, here's a good question to wonder, actually, if Demko hadn't been hurt, would the Canucks have said, okay, Seelovs, you're our backup?

They probably would have. And then they might have been in a tough position where they would have been like, ooh, we've got this guy coming back from an injury, and we don't want to overplay him because last time we overplayed him. And now the backup, the other option would be Patera, which isn't great, and then you're tempted once again to overplay Demko.

So thank God that they did go out and get Lankanen, not just for the start when Demko's out, but for the rest of the season when we either don't know how Demko's going to be playing, but even if Demko comes back and he's terrific, you still don't want to overplay him. And the problem when you don't have a trustworthy backup is that you overplay your starter.

So this is what I'm talking about. It's not just about last night in Pittsburgh. Like let's make this abundantly clear. There's a lot going on here. One of which is that, and iMac tweeted it out and wrote about it. And it was the reason he was asking, talking to all these questions, is that you're getting to the point of the season where Seelavs might be unplayable.

Like if you put him in, you have to go in on the pretext that you're going to have four goals allowed in the game. Because that's what the average is right now. And I know that there were defensive breakdowns in front of the guy. I've also been a goalie where I have been playing on teams where I'm over my head. It is the worst feeling on the planet where you know that you just can't do the things that are relative to

the level of play of the guys in front of you. If you give up four goals a game, every game that you play in the NHL, something's up. That's it. You're not making saves that you're not supposed to make. You're not making saves that you should make. They scored four last night in a lousy performance. If you say two of

those are directly on Seelov's, at the very least, do the math. You should be in that game maybe getting a point. I mean, the first one overplays a point shot, leaves his net open on the carom. And then why don't we just say the fifth one too right now my i don't know what myers was doing and branstrom didn't look very good in that like the the seas

parted for rust but we had talked a lot about how many times sea loves has been beaten cleanly yep and that was the example of that laddie what do you think about all this Yeah I had to look at the tape again To see if there was any kind of deflection But it looked like it was a clean shot off the wing Which is not good that's not a good sign when you're being Beat from a distance on a clean shot Especially over the glove Can we point out that Archer Seelov's is

Six feet four inches tall And He's listed at six foot four inches tall Whatever the case whatever the case okay whatever the case i know that you hate the analysis of the goalie looks small in there and that he needs to play bigger but sometimes the eye test i don't know if it necessarily matches up with the numbers but there is a case to be made right now that when you see him in net it's like i think i'm gonna shoot because i feel like my chances are increased

because he looks like he's going to have a hard time making this. My theory is that he got overaggressive on the first goal. He was like, he was like, so he was, and then he was like, oh boy, don't be too aggressive. So he's kind of caught in between being overaggressive or not being aggressive enough. so he's just kind of lost what do you think about that theory laddie well i think on that particular goal i just saw the replay again there's no no tip or deflection i think it was a righty coming off the right wing

and he just didn't set himself up in the right position he didn't shift over properly and yeah so that's that's the fifth goal the rest yeah that's the fifth goal, the rush goal. Yeah, that's the fifth goal, and that's just a mental error for the goaltender, right? That's just not getting set up positionally correct for a playoff of the rush. And that's such a – I know the Canucks did come back eventually, but a lot of that is on the Penguins. Like, the Penguins are terrible, man.

Yes. Like, I don't think Carlson cares. Do you see that backhand pass that he made from behind his own net? He's just like, ah, whatever. And Garland's like, thanks, buddy. I don't know if it's not caring so much as it is like, yeah, let's try it. And you know what was really frustrating, too, as I get caught on yet another aside,

was when Garland hunted down Carlson and four-checked him, and then, you know, like, that wasn't a hook. But because Carlson, you know, his battle level isn't that high, Garland wins that battle. And then the ref is like, yeah, okay, I guess he grabbed a stick and then Garland couldn't believe it, right? He's like, what? Like, are we not allowed to stick battle anymore in the NHL? It's like, if this guy's not going to try,

it doesn't mean i should get a penalty for it that call with that call was soft yeah and by soft i mean bad like not good refereeing in the slightest like i don't even think he got his hands no with the with the first foray into his stick if we want to go down the road of things that we don't because normally we here on the halvard and brett show we don't complain about goal i don't we don't complain about officiating but we do complain there was also there was also an awful non-call on um jake the brusque which should have got them to the power play a second period where he was just flat out tackled the front of the net the call on crosby too that raw two got i mean like however i think the ref was like uh oh it's high sticking

no wait it wasn't uh okay it's interference we'll just make something up on the fly now look with regards to the goaltending i actually i'm kind of with you it's like it's interference. We'll just make something up on the fly. Now, look, with regards to the goaltending, I actually, I'm kind of with you. It's like, it's not worth analyzing each individual goal because this is a bigger picture story. You bring up a great point with what would have happened if they hadn't have found Lankan and they would have rolled with Seeloffs because the thing here is a lot of people seemed convinced

and to a certain degree, I even was, The thing here is a lot of people seemed convinced, and to a certain degree I even was, that when he played in the playoffs last year, at the very least, the very least, he was capable of being in the National Hockey League. It's not a super high bar. When you backstop a team to Game 7 of the second round of the playoffs and your end sort of statement of fact is, well, I think that's proven that he's good enough to be in the NHL.

It's not a huge logical leap, right? Yeah. But you can't play him right now. I don't know what other way to say it, but if you play him, you're basically saying, dear opponent, here are your two points right now. Jeremy Insuri texts in, yeah, unless you're Chicago. Right.

Any chance having Ian Clark being off the ice is affecting Seelovs. I mean, Clark isn't really part of the organization anymore, frankly. They can say he's a scout. He's out there scouting. Okay. He's essentially been banished. Yeah, well, he's not working

with Seelovs at a regular basis, right? I mean, I don't know. But, I mean, we wondered how this would affect the goalies. Let's see how it affects Demko on a daily basis. I think there's something to it. You know?

Can you explain the dynamic that's at play here? Because a lot of people credited Clark last year with not just working with Seelovs, but also maybe finding particular spots or times to get him in and to play him.

That's the big thing, I think, not just being off the ice, which is obviously a major factor as well, but yeah, there's one less voice in the room for Silas now. Pushing for him, advising the coach when would be a good time to start him, like you said. I think there's more to it than what we're leaning on here with the Ian Clark adjustment. Because Lankan and Marco Terranis had a relationship pre-existing, correct?

Yes, and he's doing great. And he's working with his goalie coach every day. What a shock. Possibly really exemplifies how important it is to have that symmetry between a goalie coach and a goalie that know each other and have a history of working together. Terranius is always like, Arthur? No, it's not Arthur.

And I feel bad. I don't feel comfortable with this relationship. I feel bad positioning it this way, but it's hard to look at it and be like, well, if you've worked with a guy before, you've obviously got a coexisting relationship as opposed to a new guy that you have to build that with. And that's exactly what's going on right now. And then look at the numbers.

Numbers play that out. Bill in Pocotex in, Seelov's is not NHL ready, but Susie, Myers, J julson are becoming unplayable as well and then he says three years of myers was there a bidding war no but there actually would have been like myers would have got that contract somewhere with the demand for right shot defense especially with size and myers was very good in the playoffs last night they did switch up the pairs you know they had Susie with Juleson

and Myers with Brandstrom and halfway through the game I was like okay fine put Susie and Myers back together right I mean that's how bad that's how bad it got I mean Susie and Juleson weren't good together and you know if we're talking about you know C-Lobbs shouldn't be in the NHL I mean frankly I'm watching Juleson half the time. I mean, like, you're an AHL player, too. Yeah, he's a quad A. Yeah. He's a tweener.

All those things. He's your, and I would be surprised. Well, geez, I don't know. I don't know what they think of Darren A right now. But I don't know if he's healthy, put him back in there. Because the Juleson thing isn't working. But Soucy isn't playing well. Myers isn't playing well.

And I think as good a story as Branstrom has been, he's not the answer either. He's a good story as a third pair guy that can give the Canucks some puck moving. But look, on that fifth goal that we're all ripping on Selah's for and Meyer's for, like, Branstrom is way out of position too, right? Like, you can't get, you can't allow Brian Russ to just part the seas on a defensive pairing.

Some of the structural stuff last night was atrocious. The fourth goal, Eric Carlson has all the time in the world to just give a stretch pass to Sidney Crosby, who you might want to check. Sure. And he's wide open. I don't know what Myers was doing getting caught up the ice when Sidney Crosby is out there. And then that puts, I guess it was Myers and Hughes together, that puts Hughes in a tough position. And he's like, okay, well, I guess I'll take Sid. And Sid is like, okay, thanks.

I'm just going to pass it to Russ now. Myers is nowhere to be seen, so that's on Besser to come back and take Russ, and he didn't come close. I mean, that was just an absolute breakdown. If it was football, you'd be like, wow, that's a blown coverage right there. Burn the tape on that one. You mentioned Brock Besser. Question for you.

Now that he's had a couple games back in the lineup, is it time to put Besser with Petey and DeBrusque and put Sherwood back with Bluger and Heinen? Yes. Okay. For sure. But I also think in these last two games especially, I know they beat the Bruins,

but they didn't have much going on offensively, and they really missed Miller. We can say, yeah, put Besser with Petey and DeBrusque, put Sherwood back with Heinen and Bluger, and that was a trio that was going really well earlier in the season. And we would talk about the Canucks depth and the new guys that have really found something. But they miss Miller.

Man, they really miss Miller. Offensively, I know Petey scored last night. I didn't think their line was that good. Their line was dreadful against the Bruins. They're badly outplayed. And that was one game where I actually didn't think Sherwood played all that well. I'm not going to blame him, but, you know,

I still watch Pedersen skating, and I'm like, the guy does not have the burst that he used to. It's good that he's finding ways to produce, and he scored again, and that's great. He's still not the same player that he has been at the peak of his powers, and he needs to get that back, and the Canucks need to get Miller back. Again, I said this a week ago when I said I'm getting worried about the Canucks. Actually, it might have been more than a week ago.

I can't remember when it was. It was all the little fires. I was like, there's little fires burning everywhere on this team. And actually, there's some big fires burning right now. Yeah, yeah. But big fires with little fires, and they look ragged. That's how I would describe them. They look ragged, and if you look would describe them. They look ragged.

And if you look at the schedule that they've got remaining on the trip, they're in Buffalo at Detroit, and I know those teams are still not great and they're still trying to get out of their rebuild. Buffalo's not playing bad hockey right now. They really aren't. I think they got goalied by Minnesota last night. And, you know, Detroit, that's going to be a weird one because it's 9.30 in the morning, our time.

And then they're going to finish off the road trip in Minnesota against a very good wild team. I know they've been good on the road, but this isn't, despite the opponents, like with isn't, despite the opponents, like with this current state of the team, this is not going to be an easy road trip to finish off in a good way. Well, and we saw that on the homestand where we thought that there was going to be some relatively quote-unquote easy games on the homestand, and they only managed to get four out of a possible 12 points.

Now, despite the fact that we've said all this, I will say, it is that first major demarcation of the NHL regular season today. American Thanksgiving, November 28th, 2024. And if you're looking for glass half full stuff from the Halford and Brough show, I will point out that the Vancouver Canucks are indeed in a playoff spot by the slimmest of margins.

25 points. The second and final wildcard spot is there right now on American Thanksgiving. But to add even more optimism to the mix? I'll say this. The Vancouver Canucks have games in hand on practically everybody in the West. Two games in hand for most, except for Dallas, who is also at 21 games played. So it's for all of the mini fires that are seemingly growing and maybe turning into like full five alarm blazes

things are still going okay they've actually survived a lot of these fires reasonably well thanks in huge part to how good they've been on the road but as you mentioned it doesn't get any easier moving forward and a lot of the cupcake games are in the rear view now so we'll see what happens moving forward

we got an open segment on the other side so text into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650 Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and reno warriors for over 50 years visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at dunbarlumber.com the Dunbar Lumber text line is angry this morning. Angry at the Canucks. Angry at us, really. It's like we criticize Seelov. It's like, what about the defense? We criticize the defense. Are you guys scared to call out the coach?

It's one of those times right now where everyone's got a take on the Canucks. And I'm sure there's someone who's going to text in like, why are you guys being so critical? They've got a lot of injuries right now. So it's just one of those mornings in Canucks land where the sea is angry, my friend. We got an open segment coming up. We got a bunch more hockey talk to come.

We're going to whip around the NHL, a bunch of Canadian teams in action. Last night, you're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks listen 12 to 2 p.m on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts yeah he's struggling um you know he know, he's got to battle.

He's got to get bigger in the net and battle. It's the NHL. You've got to do what it is. You've got to work tomorrow and get his game. Thrash Thursday, baby. Thrash Thursday. Let's go. Oh, man.

This isn't going to help Bobby in Vancouver who just texted in. Everyone needs to R-E-L-A-X. Relax. No, Bobby. Bobby is too cool to worry. He says, my one concern is the way Susie is playing.

Only one? Bobby. Buddy. Calm Bobby. I like it. That's your new nickname. Calm Bobby. Calm Bobby. Nothing's going to bother Calm Bobby. Brackets. Except for Susie. Okay. Alfred and Brough in the morning. It is the show you're listening to. Not Thrash Metal Thursdays. We're still

workshopping that. No. Okay. Alfred and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are an hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling. They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. Let's talk about some of the things that happened in the National Hockey League last night. We'll also jump back into the Dunbar Lumber text slide. Read some of your texts about the Vancouver Canucks.

It's all hockey here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Real quick, a couple people have texted in about the hit that Philip Hironik received late in the third period of last night's game against Pittsburgh where it appears like he might have hurt his right shoulder. Folks, we have

no information whatsoever. Talkit wasn't asked about it at the game. After the game, he wasn't willingly offering it up. He's like, you guys didn't ask me about Phil. Do you want me to tell you what's going on? That didn't happen. Hello. We have one reporter on the road. It's IMAC, and he was focused

on the goaltending. Rightly so. So, we've got Drance coming on the show at 7. We will ask him and he was focused on the goaltending. Rightly so. So, we've got Drance coming on the show at 7. We will ask him if he knows anything. He did tweet out yesterday about the amount of minutes that Hronik has played lately and the fact that he might have suffered a shoulder injury late in that game. But we have no information.

Sorry. But we have addressed it. Next game is going to be like, alright Day or Nay is coming in. Oh, so that means Juleson's coming out? No. You'd think. Imagine the right side of Myers, Juleson, De'Arne. No. Even Calm Bobby couldn't take that.

He'd frigging lose it. Calm Bobby's erasing his once clever moniker as we speak. Okay. Scores Canadian teams around the National Hockey League last night. Not a great night for Canadian teams, save the Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Canadiens. We'll get to them in a sec. Leafs got pumped yesterday by the Panthers.

5-1. Big story here is that Austin Matthews missed his ninth consecutive game. They have no idea when he's going to return to the lineup. They go into every game. It's the same media cycle in Toronto. They go into every game optimistic that this might be the game that he returns, and then they don't hear anything in the 12 hours prior

to the game, and then they go off for warm-ups and he's not there. He's nine in a row now. Have they even identified what it is? Nope. Do you think it says Popliteus? Maybe. Actually, check that probably. Everyone's got a Popliteus problem now. It's all, have they even identified what it is? Nope. Do you think it says popliteus? Maybe. Actually, check that probably. Everyone's got a popliteus problem now. It's all the rage.

The Germans love poplitei. That's why you go there. He can't put a helmet on because of his surgery. You're the worst. Oh, yes, right. Also, he would have gone to Turkey for that. Can't play without a helmet. That's the rule.

I think you go to Germany for your veneers, and I think you go to Turkey for the hair. You have to let it breathe for 10 days. So I've been told, I don't know. It's a big topic of conversation on my men's league team, actually. Oh, my God. Can you imagine? Austin Matthews, I'm not taking any questions on my hair.

But it's so full. Comes back completely new hair, dude. It's very lush. Austin, can you just? Nope, I'm not doing it. But it looks a lot. Nope. So anyway, we don't know what the injury is.

But he's missed his ninth straight game. Leafs lose 5-1 to Florida yesterday. The Flames managed to get yet another point. They carved another point out of Toronto... Detroit yesterday, sorry. But Detroit wins 2-1 in overtime. Not a single goal scored at 5-on-5 in that one. That was all a special teams battle. Hey, the Jets have hit the skids.

They've lost three of their last four. See, they peaked too early. They're still 18-5 overall. The Canucks are going through all their issues right now. Get them out of the way. Habs win. No one really cared. The Sens, I don't know who stayed up to watch this one. The Ottawa Senators won a hockey game yesterday, 4-3,

in which they were outshot 38-11. Let me repeat that. They scored four goals and won 4-3, and they were outshot 20-11. Gaudette scored twice. 39- 11. I've got 38 to 11 here. You said 20 to 11 just now.

They were outshot 39 to 11 by San Jose. Yes. Adam Gaudette in the third period scored a goal to win it on the only shot that they had in the third period. That's efficiency. I was watching the game like, I've never seen anything like this before

they had a shooting percentage of like 40 in the game it was remarkable San Jose actually comes up with some energetic performances you know why Macklin Celebrini he's really good he scored again last night and it's funny because when we talk about the

Conor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini evolutions Bedard came in with Celebrini evolutions. Bedard came in with so much hype and was, you know, we talked about the ESPN and TNT things and going to an original six team, going to a big market in the U.S. Celebrini came in. Now, don't

get me wrong. There was hype around Macklin Celebrini. We're all cognizant of this. Everyone knew that he was going to be the first overall pick, but because of where he went, let's be honest, San Jose gets zero national coverage. It was not a super exciting, super sexy place for him to land as far as NHL national coverage goes. And quite frankly, I think people had more tempered expectations

because he wasn't the Bedard-esque prospect coming in. You look at him now, even though his rookie campaign has been interrupted by injury, he scored his seventh goal of the year last year. He's having a really good year. He's better. I'm saying it right now. So you're not alone.

Calling it now. You're not alone in this. I think it's erroneous. By the way, you tweeted out last night. Bedard scored last night. Did you see the celly? I did see the celly and also heard what he said afterwards. He was like, I was just so desperate to score a goal

that I would have taken one off the face to score. You could hear the sigh of relief and the exhale all the way from, I think the game was in Chicago, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, yeah. It was one of those gigantic look to the heavens, huge sigh. You know what it was like it was one of those gigantic look to the heavens you know what it was exactly like up the back it was exactly what like when pod coles and finally scored for the oilers yeah same feeling except pod coles and hadn't scored in like 300 games did you see who got a shout out last night i did not who jordan bennington

oh yes that's right he also became That seems to be the consensus now, right? The savior. Bennington and Aiden Hill will be the top two goalies and then someone else will be the third goalie. Aiden Hill got hurt last night, came back, played great, made a huge save in the third period. Bennington became the St. Louis Blues all-time leader in goalie wins last night with that victory.

He passed his agent. Mike Liu. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Liu was number two. Yeah. Liu? Yeah. Liud was number two? Yeah. Liud was a good goalie.

I know, but I don't remember him so much as a blue, as like also a whaler. Yeah, he wrote an article actually, I think in NHL.com. Mike Liud did? Yeah, he did. He was talking about how he loves the fact that Jordan Binnington became the guy that passed his record. So yeah, I am ready to not embrace, that's not the right word,

but accept life that I'm going to be cheering for a team in a matter of months. I'm going to full-heartedly, too, that has Jordan Bennington in there. You're going to be like, yeah, bitter! It's going to be to court. It's going to happen. It's not. It's going to be to court. Come on, man, read the tea leaves here.

They're not going to do it. I don't like tea. Not reading those leaves. I'm less interested about the goalie situation than I am about Come on, man. Read the tea leaves here. They're not going to do it. I don't like tea. Not reading those leaves. I'm less interested about the goalie situation than I am about whether or not they take Bedard and whether or not they take Bouchard. Taylor Hall had a hat trick yesterday. Taylor Hall's not going to kill us. I respect your hustle.

I respect your hustle, but that's not happening. Taylor Hall, he's back. So I had this in the notes last week, and we just ran out of time on it, but NHL.com did a huge interview with Doug Armstrong about the four nations face off. And the one thing that he kept reiterating, like he almost had to convince the NHL.com guy because they they're into the fantasy aspect of right. Let's do another mock draft. Let's do a fantasy draft. Let's see what we can.

And he's like, yeah, there's not many spots up for grabs. He's like, every time that we get together, the brain trust, we all have the same guys on the roster. Yeah. Which leads me to believe that I think a lot of these guys that we've been talking up in the media about, are they going to work their way in? Or are they going to play like...

I would put Bedard's chances of being on that Four Nations face-off team at like 10%. Really? Yeah. It's not there. Well, I mean, he says that most of the spots are taken.

Yeah, most of the spots are taken yeah most of the spots are taken but I'm sure there's one or two where they're having discussions it's always just the final one or two celebrating makes it over Bedard well well one of the issues that Bedard has is the last time he played for Team Canada was at the Worlds when he was basically like a fourth liner and then just wasn't playing at all yeah right and I mean Hockey Canada is Hockey Canada it's all the same guys that are making the selections. Well, I think one of the things that people are,

like, let's take Bedard out of this. Sure. But one of the things that people really like about Celebrini is he seems to be committed defensively.

Yep. You know? And I guess we can't take Bedard out of it because that's not what people are saying about Bedard, right? And he's been pushing

so much to score goals that, you know, it's hard for him. It's hard for him. He doesn't have very good teammates. But also, he's probably got to get stronger, and he's got to round out his game to be more NHL ready. So, you know, if you were to ask me, like,

do you think they'll take Bedard, I would probably lean no. But I also know that Hockey Canada is often an organization that's like, we want to get this guy into the mix. I get that. I do get that. But I guess it really comes down to how seriously everyone's going to take the tournament.

Because you don't... I think they're taking it seriously as a warm-up for the Olympics. I'm serious. I know. If that's the case, then you've got to put your best foot forward. Cause let's be honest.

Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. The strength of the Canadian team would probably be at the positions where Bedard would work his way in. Right. There there's just a glut of guys where you'd say it'd be really hard to leave him off the team to bring along.

And I don't want to call him a project, but he would be there not because of that tournament, but because it would be a sort of fertile breeding ground for his international experience. I mean, you make a good point, and I think with Bedard and Bouchard, it's kind of one of those questions where you're asking the same question.

Are they redundant? Yes. Is Bedard redundant up front when you've got McDavid and McKinnon, or do you need to add a checker at that role or someone who's you know i'm not saying like a you know a grinder a fourth line grinder i'm not like key for sure what should be on the team like you know i'm i'm saying that is there is there you know i always think about the guy that always pops to mind is like a brendan morrow

type of player right who is a very good, a top six player on his team, but has the ability to play that bottom six role and give you the things that you need to do to be successful as a team. And the same goes for Bouchard, right? When you've got Kael McCarr on the team, do you need an Evan Bouchard? And are you willing to accept the defensive weaknesses that maybe a Bedard would have or a Bouchard would have in a one game playoff type of scenario so right now right now the six that a lot of people seem to think are going to go for Canada because

Dowdy's not going to play obviously I mean unless no there's a remark on the team there unless there's a remarkable health I mean I guess it guess he could still come back and play in December and January. No, no. Well, team Canada hockey is high on him. I know. Team Canada is high on him. But anyway, let's say for sake of argument, it's Dougie Hamilton, Kale McCarr, Josh Morrissey, Alex Petrangelo, Shea Theodore, Devin Taves.

So you've got the pairing from Colorado, ready-made with Taves and McCarr. That makes sense. You've got the one from Vegas with Petrangelo and Theodore, that makes sense because they play together. Morrissey probably deserves to be there. And I would say Dougie Hamilton probably deserves to be there as well. I think some people might have some pushback on that. So that's six. And then at that point, you go back to your redundancy argument.

It's like, well, who is Evan Bouchard really going to knock out of that group with his particular skill set but he might not play right and then it's like well if you're going to bring a seventh guy do you maybe bring someone that's got a little bit more versatility to his game i.e. can play better defense as a defenseman you know what's interesting and we talk about the Americans and how their roster looks really good now and they've got really good goalies and finally they've got centers that can maybe not quite match Canada's but better match Canada's than in

the past and the blue line as well the blue line is like for the Americans it's not great no no no it's just it's just the guys aren't playing all the Rangers right the name it's actually interesting because like if you were to look at it on paper It's just the guys aren't playing. The two Rangers, right? It's actually interesting because if you were to look at it on paper,

the name value would be like, oh, that's good. But there's a lot of guys right now that are struggling. Fox and Keandre Miller, are those guys probably going to make the team, right? But are they playing well enough right now? Well, they're not. And you bring me nicely to it. Quinn Hughes is on the team, and he's playing well. He's playing great. But I'm glad you brought up the New York Rangers

because I do want to get into this. So yesterday, prior to their game, their fourth consecutive loss, this time it was to the Carolina Hurricanes, Chris Kreider had a very interesting and very candid interview with Molly Walker of the New York Post. Now, she went and talked to Kreider specifically because Chris Kreider's name is out there in a big way right now. Elliott Friedman reported it a couple of days ago.

The tweet actually dropped when we were on the air and we discussed it at length. Chris Kreider essentially had his name put out there as potentially being available by trade from general manager Chris Drury. And in the subsequent reporting everyone was like oh yeah that's right drury's not even backing down off it so the names that are out there are truba who was already out there crider which i think took a lot of people including you and i both by surprise and k andre miller's came out name came up a little bit as well so chris crider has an interview with Molly Walker,

and he starts talking about, first, his health, or lack thereof, about how he's had a bunch of different back issues. And it's funny because Rangers Twitter was like, did Chris Kreider just low-key ruin any sort of trade value that he had on the open market by telling everyone that he's 33 years old and has a terrible back injury. So anyway, I don't know if that was clever or not by Kreider. He was doing the interviews like, I'm just in so much pain right now.

Just got 18 boxes of Robaxacet in his locker. Anyway. Can barely get out of bed. So there's that element of is it Kreider is not near 100%. And then there's this other subtext here where all the players seem to know that Drury can be pretty cutthroat when it comes to making changes. And the article that Molly Walker of the Post wrote referenced what they did with Barclay Goudreau this summer where they kind of circumvented his no trade list

so that they could get rid of his contract, which is they kind of did him dirty anyway. So Kreider says like, yeah, I'm aware this is going on. I've actually had conversations with Drury. Then there's the money quote. He says right now with the group that they won the president's trophy last year. They're the best regular season

team and then they kind of got exposed in the playoffs and he says now i think it's pretty obvious there's frustration angst and tension in the room good we're 20 games in let's go through this s word s word right now and figure out who we are so So I'm ready to designate the Rangers as being right in it right now. They are, despite their record and despite the fact that they are, you know, it's American Thanksgiving and they're in a good position as far as the playoffs go. There's a team right now that is at some sort of weird inflection point and boiling point.

And it seems like they are wound tighter than a spring and you're just waiting for something to let it like uncoil and just pop and i don't know what it's going to be if it's going to be a trade or if someone's going to freak out or what but there's a team that i definitely am keeping my eye on moving forward their last two games since all this stuff as you mentioned right the game against st louis which was was Montgomery's first for St. Louis, the Blues badly outplayed the Rangers at MSG. And then last night in Carolina, they blow a lead, and they lose 4-3 to the Hurricanes.

And all of a sudden, people are like, but the record's so great. Well, the record looks kind of decent now. It's 12-8-1. Yeah. The record is falling. And the process, I didn't watch last night's game in Carolina, but they did not look good against the Blues at MSG. A lot of people have texted into the Dunbar-Lumber text line and asked, what are the Canucks going to do about their defense? And I apologize, there's a lot of texts in, and I lost a few of your texts, but one of them basically said, guys, don't worry too much

about the defense because there is no way this current defense will be the defense when the Canucks start the playoffs, assuming they get in. They will use their first round draft pick to go out and acquire a defenseman. And I think it was one from Comox said, what do the Canucks even have to trade? Surely they're not going to give up another first round draft pick. Okay. I think this goes well into our conversation that we're going to have with

Thomas Strance. Sure. Because the other thing that you got to think about is what the Canucks have prospect wise either in Abbotsford or that you got to think about is what the Canucks have prospect-wise, either in Abbotsford or just in the system in general. And it begs two questions. One, which guys could be ready for a call-up later in the season?

Maybe it's Kudryavtsev. Maybe it's, remember, Cole McWard? He tried to make DPD. But also, and I think this is a pretty good question that a few people have asked, do the Canucks go all in or do the Canucks take a big swing this season? Will they deem it worthwhile to trade for, say, a rental defenseman?

I hear what you're saying. You know what I mean? Is this the season to do it? I'm picking up what you're putting down. Just given all the little fires that are burning, again, we don't know what Demko's going to look like when he comes back. We don't know how this thing with JT Miller is going to pan out. That's still very much a wild card.

It's an elephant in the room, but it's out there. And frankly, the team just looks ragged right now. They do. Right? So last season, you remember they made moves, and a lot of the times it would be you'd hear this sort of thing. We think this group deserved it. We think this group deserved something to help them

because they put in such a great season. They put in the work. Let's give them all the help we can to see if they can do something special in the playoffs. And they won a round, and they pushed Edmonton to seven. Does this team right now, would you be sitting there going like, let's reward this group?

I know it's only a quarter of the way through the season, but that's kind of the question that you have to start pondering if you're management. They have to have a look and see what with Demko. I think so much of this contingent on Demko. If Demko comes back and he plays at a level that you're comfortable with

and Lankan is still doing Lankan and things, I think it completely, completely changes that conversation. You got to remember the other thing about last year that you've neglected to mention there. This team was at optimal health last year. What was the most concerning injury they had? Soucy? Well, Demko down the stretch.

But when they made the trades. Demko was healthy and a Vezna caliber goalie when they made the trades. When they added and they went all in. Yeah, Soucy got hurt a little bit. He had two injuries. The most crushing injury that the Canucks had during the regular season last year was Soucy.

One singular injury. And they got Zdorov right away. This year they've already had Joshua missing a ton of time. Besser getting a concussion. Miller taking a personal lead. That's three key

injuries that have already happened. Someone texted in about Derek Forbert and I'm like, yeah, it doesn't even seem like Forbert's been part of the team because he had the personal leave and then he got hurt and by the way he's going to be out a few more weeks they've had more key injuries and more man games lost to injury through the first 20 games this year than they had all of last regular season so to say you know do they look ragged I'm like yeah to a certain degree there's reasons for it we tend to focus on everything that's happening on the ice because you know that's what we see,

and that's the visual representation of it. And I do think that the blue line has been a miss for this team. Like, you're talking about Noah Julson playing. And really, if you think about what they signed in the offseason and then what they traded for with Branston, Julson should be the eighth or ninth defenseman on this team. Definitely. Right? And he's playing.

And he played last night. And it went great. And it couldn't have gone better. Chef's kiss. Yeah, it was, it's one of those things where, okay, if you're going to that, that first round picks burning a hole in my pocket, I got to go make a deal. You got to let it burn until you see what this team looks like at full health. Now there's a, just to keep extrapolating. And I know we're up against it for time, are you going to see this team at 100% and at full health? That's a fair question to ask right now, because it sure seems like every time one guy comes back, another guy gets hurt.

God forbid if Rona gets hurt. We are going to talk about that with Drance coming up on the other side. Rager texts in, pushing it to next year as risky as that'll be Demko's final year at $5 million and another year of contending get ticked off of Quinn Hughes' contract. You have to push every year with Quinn, in my opinion. I know, Rager.

It's tough. These decisions are very tough. It's very stressful following this team on a daily basis. Drance is going to join us next. Before we go, though, a couple quick texts. I am here for Thrash Thursdays. Hashtag let A-Dog cook. Kyle, the bus driver. James from

Richmond, loving the thrash. Got everyone in the office headbanging. Everyone loves unlicensed thrash metal. Sounds great to me. Is it Christmas time already? One guy was like, could we have a country-themed day? Never going to happen.

Nope. Thomas Drance is going to join us next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 6.50.