Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 10/22/24

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they go around the NHL with analyst Ray Ferraro, plus they preview tonight's Canucks road matchup in Chicago with radio commentator Brendan Batchelor.  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 the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Lamar wants to throw. Slings it. Complete. Henry at the five. The king is in. Five touchdown passes for Lamar. Back to the point. The headman.

To Pagel. Back to Kucharaba. Pass to Hagel. A shot. Back back down. The rebound. Snow kept out. Paulie McAdoo.

What a save. Nelson Mandela said, I don't lose. I either win or I learn. Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brough.

It is Sportsnet 650. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello. Halford 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 in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by

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Soar feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec, we have an absolutely huge show on a really, really big sports day today. First off, happy, what's it called? Frozen Frenzy Day. Broke the website. Frozen Frenzy Day to everyone that celebrates. All 16, or sorry, all 32 teams in the NHL over 16 games today.

So you'll notice the Canucks have a weird start time today. They're all different start times? Yep. And this is, of course, to celebrate NBA opening day. What better way to do it? The NHL is like, we're throwing it all at you. Take that. Everything we got.

Pay no mind to the basketball. Every hockey team we got. Empty the chambers. Go. Just go play. Oh, you're starting your season today, are you? Well, guess what? That was a nice start of the season you had there, basketball. So the hockey begins at 3 o'clock our time,

and then games face off every 15 to 30 minute intervals until 8 o'clock our time. So it starts with the Caps and the Flyers, and it ends with the Kings and the Golden Knights. So what a great day to have Greg Wyshynski from ESPN on the show because this is an ESPN initiative. He'll be joining us at 6.30. So the Canucks start time

is what hour time? 6.15? 6.15. 6.15 our time. Such a strange start time. Yeah, so that's 8.15 in Chicago. Yes, that's correct. Okay, alright. Okay, so we've got, no, yeah, 8.15 in Chicago. 8. that's correct. Okay. All right. Okay, so we've got... Yeah, 8.15 in Chicago. 8.15 Eastern. These are all

Eastern time. So confusing. 5.15 our time. 5.15 our time. 7.15 in Chicago. Okay. All right. Frozen frenzy is tearing us apart here. It's confusing everyone. That's a terrible idea. We're going to have Greg Wyszynski on from ESPN. Never do this again. The orchestrator of this thing. This is a terrible idea. One're going to have Greg Wyszynski on from ESPN. Never do this again.

The orchestrator of this nightmare. Don't let us build bug beds. This is a terrible idea. One of the orchestrators of this nightmare will be joining us at 630. Also, Ray Ferraro, who is also partaking in the Frozen frenzy. He's going to be on the call. He's doing all the games. He's doing all 32. They're just bouncing them around America in a jet.

One period. Yeah. He's going to join us at 7. New intro. Alert. Alert. We have a new Ray Ferraro intro as well. Oh, boy.

The dogs were in the lab cooking it up. They're very excited. That's going to happen at 7 o'clock. 7.30, Mark Lazarus from The Athletic in Chicago is going to join the program. The Canucks are taking on the Chicago Blackhawks tonight from the United Center. The end of a road trip for the Vancouver Canucks, so we'll talk to join the program. The Canucks are taking on the Chicago Blackhawks tonight from the United Center, the end of a road trip for the Vancouver Canucks.

So we'll talk to Mark about that. 8 o'clock, Brendan Batchelor, who will also be on the call tonight for that game right here on Sportsnet 650. We have another $100 gift card to give away. $50 gift card. $50 gift card to give away to White Spot. I copied it from yesterday's notes.

That's my bad. We're going to give that away to a caller and we're just going to announce it at a certain point in the show when we're available to do it. So you got to be on your toes. You got to have a phone and you have to be able to call 604-280-0650 at the appropriate time. Also, you cannot have won a gift card

or anything from Sportsnet 650 in the last 90 days. A $50 gift card to White Spot up for grabs. It is Frozen Frenzy Day. It is NBA opening night tonight as well. A doubleheader for the NBA. Only four teams playing? Get it together, basketball.

We got a lot to get into on the program. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I 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. The Vancouver Canucks did practice in Chicago yesterday, but they did not practice with JT Miller, Jason. Yeah, Suter was in there filling in for Miller

between Besser and DeBrusque. It remains to be seen if Miller will play tonight, and if he does play, I doubt he's going to be taking face-offs. One thing I wanted to talk about today was the power play. The Canucks also practiced the power play and I thought it was interesting that Baines and Garland were bumped up to PP1. This is all courtesy Thomas Strantz's Twitter, by the way. While DeBrusque was bumped to power play two. Now, granted, Miller wasn't at practice. So you have to take all of this with a grain of salt.

I don't know if Baines was the placeholder for Miller or Garland was the placeholder for Miller, I saw that Garland was playing on the flank, and that's usually where Miller plays. So maybe Rick Tockett thinks that Baines could be one of the answers for a struggling power play. Baines did score on the power play, I think, a couple of times in the preseason. I know he had at least one on the power play in the preseason. But I think overall, without getting into the minutiae of what they did yesterday, power play hasn't been very good. It has not lived up to its potential. Now, if you look at it statistically, three goals in five games is not a complete disaster. I even think they scored once right at the end of a power play.

That wasn't officially a power play goal, but effectively was. But you watch it the last few games, it is failing the eye test. And the analytics, if you look at it, it's suggesting that it's been one of the worst in the league in terms of expected goals. So it's not creating the chances that you would like to see. Chicago, believe it or not, has had pretty good special teams so far this season, both power play and PK. But I was just wondering, has this kind of flown under the radar

with some of the other stuff that we've been focusing on? First of all, the results that the Canucks have been getting started out not so good, but lately they've been better. Elias Pettersson has been very much under the microscope and part of the conversation. And I realize he's part of the conversation when it comes to the power play, but I thought the power play would get more attention overall this season, but other stories have kind of usurped it. And I don't know if Rick Talkett worked on the power play as much as he'd have liked to during the preseason and training camp.

And we're still seeing, I think, a problematic power play given the talent that the Canucks have. Well, it also isn't very surprising that Talk, it's already gone to the, can you use a line blender on the power play? Sure, why not? Unit blender, we'll call it that. Got to be a better name for that. But there's been a real, I mean, we've talked about this

countless times already. There has not been a lot of patience with any grouping, any pairing, any line, any combo in the first five games of the season. Tog, it's been very quick to change when he sees something he doesn't like. Yeah. And I wonder if this is maybe more message sending along those lines, which is, hey, we're not going to give you guys an extended period of time to figure it out. You're all big boys.

You all have offensive talent. You all know how to do the things we want to do now go and do it that being said i think there's a couple important caveats that you brought up one there's some new guys that are being into the lineup and we'll get into jake debrusk in a minute um so there's going to be an adjustment period for sure even if you've had opportunities to go over the video and work on the things you want to work on and two it hasn't been horrible i know it's failed the eye test they did connect a couple times i actually thought it looked good against calgary in the first game well yeah in the first period yeah it did so you're talking about the last the second unit scored one of those right but that's not a bad thing no no that's not a bad thing but i think it's not a bad thing and you want the second unit to contribute,

but the most important unit is the first unit because they're often out there for a minute and a half. Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest issue with the storyline, right, is that we have focused on other things. There have been other things that have been more prevalent and more pressing. If the power play was over, or if it was like, you know, Philadelphia's power play over the last two years. By the way, I know you brought this up yesterday, but it was hilarious that the Flyers start on the road, have a pretty decent showing on the power play on their road trip.

They come home, first power play, they don't score. Boo birds right away. Like they were all over it, right? So the ghosts of the last two years on the power play had hung around. And that's part to do with this, too, is that I think a lot of people have trepidation over what they saw from the second half of the season last year from the canards they just can't even get set up though that's their entries and i wonder if putting garland out there is part of that because garland has a way of you know just snaking his way in there and and and at least setting up um what i've seen so far just reminds me a lot of

what we saw down the stretch and into the playoffs last season is just a power play that's out of sync and it's disappointing because this for the coaching staff and the players was a big off-season project like how are we going to fix the power play and then i'm watching it and it's like well it looks about the same yeah i mean okay well let's and part of it probably is also to do with petterson you know petterson hasn't been as confident as we'd like to see him but i'm certainly not putting it all on him i you know there are guys that just have to do a better job of finding ways to enter the zone and and get set up and then do something once it is set up yeah once they set up i like to think about it like they should always

be asking like where's where's quinn hughes and then when quinn hughes doesn't have the puck it's like why isn't the puck back with quinn hughes well jt miller makes a lot of things happen too i think he's actually the key to the power play, to be perfectly frank with you. I think Quinn Hughes is an important part, but JT Miller is the guy that makes the passes on the power play, the real chance-creating plays. And he's been off a little bit. We talk about JT Miller being a gunslinger, and he's slung it a little too recklessly out there.

And so, you know, you have to respect possessing the puck on the power play. And that involves getting set up. That involves, you know, your, your passing,

but also your recoveries as well. And when I watch it, I'm like, they're all failing the eye test the entries are failing the the passes to create dangerous chances are failing and the recoveries are failing so that creates a failing power play and i do also think that it's noteworthy that jake debrusk is now off that first, at least based on what they did at practice yesterday. I don't know if this is they're not happy with what Jake DeBrusque did on power play one,

or they want to spread out the talent a little bit. So power play two yesterday was Hoaglander, Sprong, Heinen, DeBrusque, and Hronik. So that's noteworthy because only one defenseman on the second unit power play. Oftentimes they two defensemen yeah um what has everyone thought by the way of jake debrusk because not only is he off power play one now he was supposed to play with petterson and now he's not playing with petterson and i'm not going to put that on Jake DeBrusque. He's now on a line with Besser and Miller, while Petey has found some limited success with Hoaglander and Garland. I wish I had a better answer, like a more definitive answer. We haven't seen him play much.

He's fine. He's been fine. The production is fine. Four points in five games, granted all of them are assists. It's funny because as I was researching this question last night believe it or not we do do prep for this show um he's been i'm like oh he's been more physical the last two games i've noticed a more physical lean slant to his game because he has 12 hits over the last two games but then i'm like well wait is that just me projecting because i saw the numbers like there's a noticeable jump up in hits over the philadelphia and florida games compared to

the first three where there wasn't much at all so i look he's got a lot of the similarities that i saw from his game in boston to be honest there was times where he would have a sort of straight line attack i don't think it happens often enough i'd like to see it more often but he's obviously got good skating ability and he's got good enough size and he's not afraid to go at defenders i think because he's got a good skill set too i'd like to see more of it i don't know how much the opportunities have arisen because he's been bouncing all over with his line mates right usually continuity certainly hasn't been super noticeable though right i would not classify him as super noticeable no yeah no dogs a dog you're probably really excited about de brusque like everything else with the connects except a harney i thought he looked fine there we go yeah

but not like amazing fine he's been fine i'd like to see him stick on the first power play unit though he did have success in in Boston with the man advantage in two different spots. I know he played the bumper a little bit early on. He had like 15 power play goals over two years. Yeah. He looked pretty good with Besser last game. I did notice him with Besser a couple times.

All of the new guys I would kind of classify as fine. I think Sherwood's grown into it the most over the last two games, and that, again, is because of the physicality. And that's noticeable, right? When a guy is mixing it up and throwing hits, you're like, oh, he's skating everywhere. This is kind of the time of the year. He covers a lot of ground out there, Sherwood.

So you're going to notice him. He's a good skater. But this is kind of the time of the year, though, where you look at it and you're like, it's still a really small sample size. I feel like we don't have a firm grasp on a bunch of stuff. The only thing that's really been definitive over the first five games is that Lankanen should be getting the majority share right now

and Steele should. That's it. Even the Pedersen stuff, I mean, it hasn't been what we expect from the all-star level Pedersen, but I don't know whether it's because we're compensating and we're looking for things in his game or he is actually making gradual progressive steps, but everything else has sort of been a, okay,

this feels like a work in progress, but it feels like it's working towards a positive rather than a negative. That's me. Anyway, armchair Canuck texts into the Dunbar lumber text line at six 50, six 50, uh, and says that the power play looks the same because it is the same talk

refuses to lean into his own philosophy and learn to play uncomfortable. If the players have gotten any direction whatsoever for coaches on the power play, it doesn't show. The only direction seems to be go execute. Scott texts in, I barely noticed DeBrusque to be honest. Um, yeah, I, I think these are things that have somewhat flown under the radar with so much focus being on, again, the results for the Canucks, um, and also Petey. Petey has kind of blocked out all the other,

uh, topics because we've been so focused on that and maybe that's our show's fault. I don't know about that. But, you know, Petey also has a lot to do with the power play and DeBrusque has been just, I think he's been fine, but I don't know if that is the impact that he wanted to make. It's funny. I actually read an article about how the Boston Bruins are missing Jake DeBrusque. And the article, I think, was just looking at the stat lines because they said, Jake DeBrusque has been off to a red-hot start with Vancouver with four assists in five games. And I'm like, I wouldn't describe his start as red-hot.

Red-hot's doing a lot of heavy lifting on that one. It's been fine. Tonight's opponent, the Chicago Blackhawks. It's funny, this dynamic's opponent, the Chicago Blackhawks. It's funny. This dynamic that's at play with, you know, there's like a new Conor Bedard, not necessarily in talent level, but in Macklin Celebrini. I feel like we've actually paid more attention to Macklin Celebrini, who, by the way, is going to be out another couple of weeks now. The Sharks just announced that last night.

So that's a disappointment. But it is an opportunity for Vancouver fans. I assume a lot of them to get their first look at Conor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks tonight when they host the Vancouver Canucks. I find this team very interesting this year because I remember when they did their end-of-year media availability last year

in their locker cleanouts, there was a real sense of disappointment of how that year went. They knew that they weren't going to be competitive and they weren't going to be good, but the Chicago Blackhawks were a very bad hockey team last year they were they were really really bad to the point where conor bradard's illustrious rookie season i wouldn't say i was

marred by the fact that the team was so bad but the team did a lot of losing and really didn't look competitive on a lot of nights and i think that had to do with a combination of things they had some unfortunate injuries in the lineup they were really young and they put a lot of guys in positions in it to learn the game on the fly and you'll notice this year if you go through their lineup they have really insulated Conor Bedard and some of these youngsters with a lot more veteran presences yeah IMAC actually had an article on Bedard and you can read it at sportsnet.ca it's not so much on Bedard, and you can read it at sportsnet.ca. It's not so much on Bedard as it's on the Chicago Blackhawks. And he notes that Chicago GM Kyle Davidson went out and added Tyler Bertuzzi, Tevo Taravainen,

D-men Alec Martinez and TJ Brody. The Blackhawks, of course, traded for Ilya Mikheyev, and we'll see if he can make an impact. And they also got back from injury Taylor Hall and Taylor Hall what played like nine or ten games for the Hawks last season before he went out with a season ending season ending injury um and IMAC uh spoke to an old Canuck Jason Dickinson who is still there and he said I think there's a feeling of maturity in the room not that people were immature last year but the games were immature how we were losing um I think they were

immature yeah they were immature that's what Jason Dickinson's saying not to say we were immature but we were pretty immature um I think it's interesting that they sent uh that uh young D-man Kevin Korchinski to the AHL this season and they they were in that tough spot last year where for him, Korchinski, it was either play in the NHL or go back to junior. And they, like a lot of teams in the Blackhawks situation, felt, all right, let's put him in the NHL and see what happens. And I wonder if they might have made the wrong call on that because I think he lost a lot of confidence.

That's what it sounds like. It sounds like he was playing a bit of a passive game because maybe the game was a little too hard for him, a little too fast for him. Now he's down in the AHL trying to find his game. And they can't afford to whiff on a pick like that. I think it was the number seven pick in the draft. Yeah, I think they understand what they've got with Bedard.

And I think they understand that they have to make sure that they get this right and they don't screw this up because that is, I mean, we've talked about him being a generational talent and based on his rookie year, you would start, I mean, you're putting him in that class. You're not saying he's McDavid because there's one McDavid and there's only going to be one McDavid.

But there's an opportunity for Bedard to be something incredibly special. And they know also with the litany of controversies and off ice scandals that the organization has had, they're in a real very finicky spot. They cannot mess this up because they've got an opportunity to have this next generation come through and be very good and very talented and you'll notice like you mentioned with Korchinski uh they also are healthy scratching Kershev tonight who last year was their second leading scorer as a young guy but he's had a slow start to the season and they've raised the bar right they're like we're not doing this anymore and actually Lazarus Mark Lazarus from The Athletic who we're going to have on the show in a little bit has an article out talking about how they might be screwing up Lucas Reichel's development because they're really sheltering him

with minutes right now. They've got him playing as a 4C, as a young guy. Whereas last year, all the guys we just mentioned were like, go play, just go play hockey and try and figure it out. And now you're going to see a very different Chicago team going into tonight's game against the Canucks. Only one NHL game last night, and it was the Leafs beating the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Leafs chased Vasilevsky.

Would they get four goals on 16 shots or something like that? He did not look sharp. Four goals on 14 shots. Oh, it was even worse. There's a good backstory here. Last night was Monday Night Hockey on Amazon, right? And what Amazon did for the first time is they offered a pregame show that was 45 minutes in length. It had no announcers or broadcasters whatsoever. And it was just multiple cameras from inside and outside the arena looking at fans walking in, players doing warmups, etc.

It was just this thing that they did, right? They captured Andre Vasilevsky during the warm-up, skating out aggressively to the center ice line, and then snow-showering Morgan Rielly. Yeah. And I was like, are they buddies? And then Morgan Rielly's reaction clearly indicated they weren't. Because he was like, I did not appreciate that one bit.

And I was like, what a weird thing. That was a totally weird thing. I thought they were buddies when I saw that. Yeah, of all the things for a goalie to do too, like why would you

intentionally fire up the other team? I don't get that at all. I don't know if it was that. I think it was just part of Vasilevsky's routine. He always skates hard to that spot

and he doesn't care if there's another player in the way apparently, but he probably should have waited at least. Goalies are unpredictable, man. Maybe Vasilevsky's Maybe that's the wild card. No, it's the opposite.

They're so predictable. He has to do the same routine is what I'm saying every time. So that was one of my takeaways from that game. The other one, Oliver Ekman-Larsen, the ascension of Oliver Ekman-Larsen. Who is this guy? A folk hero in Toronto. He absolutely trucked Jake Gensel last night on a reverse hit. I think he actually got a penalty for it, if I'm not mistaken.

And him and Gensel were going at it all night. And it was like just another feather in the cap for OEL, who I think, I'm going to say it, might be the Maple Leafs' best defense right now. Yeah, Vasilevsky wouldn't try that with him. No, he went after Morgan Riley, the second best defenseman on the team. You're listening to the best best defenseman on the team. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Ferraro, Ferraro, let's chat with Ray Ferraro. It's time for Ferraro, let's talk to Ray Ferraro. Ferraro winds up with a shot. Score! Ray Ferraro. Breakaway. Onside. Score!

Three-bound score. Ray Ferraro. Ferraro. Ferraro. It's time for Ray Ferraro. Let's chat with Ferraro. It's time for Ray Ferraro. 7 o'clock on a Tuesday.

I'm fired up. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Ferraro has lost all meaning. Yeah. I would not be surprised if when we go to the phone, he is not on it. We'll see in a minute. I got to attend to some business first. That's pretty good, though. It's kind of an 80s vibe.

Those were Ray's best years. You put in a lot of, like, goal calls. Honestly, there is an evolution of the guest jingle here. There was a lot to pick from with Ray. He's got, I think, 500 of them. Yeah, like, there's a lot there. I like it. I appreciate the dogs.

Andy, you're the musical songbird of our generation. This is great. Let's do the business before we get to Ray. Half and Breath of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program.

Hour 2 is brought to you by Jason Hominuck at jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, don't visit Jason at jason.mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soar feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec.

I'm not even going to look at the in-basket. We're just going to go straight to Ray Ferraro. He joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Ray. How are you? Who is responsible for that? Not me. Not me.

I didn't know he was doing it. Everybody's running like rats now on the ship. No! A lot of people like the jingle, though, Ray. So, I don't know. You might be stuck with it. I got to be honest. I like the goal calls.

It's kind of nice to remember. Yeah. You know, I'm like, obviously you don't dig too deep. You know, there's a lot of games where you didn't hear much of that. So I like that. So I'm a fan. Ray, so I texted you last night and said, I want to talk about Elias Pedersen and what

Elliott Friedman had to say. And in a nutshell, Elliott Friedman, based on some of his reporting, thinks that Elias Pedersen has to block out the noise and get over some of the criticism that he's going to face in the Vancouver market because it's not going away and there are techniques to block it out. And I thought, what a great question to ask Ray would be, how would you deal with playing in the social media era? Because I have seen you on Twitter before and you are not afraid to snap back at people. Well, I like to think that I've gotten better at it, like not as much. But I think that that's really kind of instructive to if this stuff bothers Pedersen, that it's easy to say just don't read it.

But just think of how often you pick up your phone and read something. And if you a player doesn't need anyone anyone he certainly doesn't need the media or the fans telling them whether they play good or play poorly they know like that honestly guys it's one of my one of the things i miss the most about playing was the um the instant evaluation i had every night like i didn't need anybody to tell me whether I had a good or, or a bad night. I walked off the ice and as I was getting changed, I,

I knew, right. So he knows whether he's playing well or not, but sometimes it would, it's pretty easy to, to dig into your phone and start reading social media stuff. I mean, like I've had to learn, like when I broadcast, that I just can't look at it because nobody writes in to say,

oh, gee, that's a great point you made, or that was a really good thought. If they don't agree with your opinion, they call you an idiot. And that would be the kindest stuff I get. But for a player, nobody's writing in to say, hey, I know you tried hard tonight. They're like, you sucked tonight.

You were terrible. You missed this shot. You blew that path. You should have had that coverage, whatever it is. And so the, or you could get 15 good things said about you, and one guy says that you suck, and that sticks to you. And so the obvious way is to not look at it, but it would have been really hard not to look at it

like if it bothers them i get why it does but the the solution is just don't care don't look who cares good or bad because none of it helps you i just wonder too if if looking for the good stuff can be part of the problem too because you almost get reliant on the praise. It's like, I mean, the social media companies know what they're doing when they have a like button. So people are trying to make comments on social media that people will like or retweet because it also feels good to have someone say nice things about you. So in a way you almost have to, yes, you have to ignore the good or sorry, the bad,

but also don't be chasing the good. That's my point, Jason. Just don't look. There's a number of players that I've read about that say they just delete their social media during the season. And when you think of it, I'm on X because I like the information that I get from around the league. A local writer will write an article. I can zoom into that article i can pick up a few more little tidbits that i can use because they're they're on the ground in that city

um so that otherwise there's no real reason for me to read it like like what's the point am i are you am i reading it for information? There's probably other places to go to get more reliable information or less of a sewer to wade into than that. So if you're looking for, if you're on there chasing the good, as you put it, it doesn't help you anyway. Like, it it doesn't help you anyway like it really doesn't it's the coach doesn't come in and say hey you got 1800 likes yesterday on on your game like it's

it's all immediate and it's all internal and it's only to do with the little bubble around your world. Like, that's it. Who cares if a fan loves your game or hates your game? Because it doesn't help you. It really doesn't. You know, the other thing that Freed was talking about was, some of this is market-specific too, right? He was talking about Canadian markets and Vancouver specifically, that you're going to be subjected to more opinions, good,

bad, and otherwise in certain markets than you are elsewhere. And that's what happens when you sign up for it. And he likened it to a risk reward thing, right? Like the reward is high. If you win, especially in the Canadian market and it can be risky too,

because when you're not winning, things can get pretty tough. Like, do you distinctly remember that? And I know the media landscape has changed, but from your playing days where it was one market would be dramatically different than the other like for i mean all due respect to the atlanta market but i can't imagine the the knives were out with the media in atlanta when you were playing for the thrashers for example no i i mean the as you

were talking through that i mean right away I thought about the difference of playing for the Rangers as opposed to playing really anywhere else that I played. Like, we would get off the bus in a city and there'd be people there waiting for Messier or Leach or Richter, you know, to get their autographs. And, you know, as you're walking by the fans are waiting. They're like, hey, are you going to win the cup this year? It was October. And I was like, man man nobody was ever asking that anywhere else i played like the expectation and the hope in a big market the number of people covering the team the volume of information that's babbled about about you and your team is is wild compared to some other places and the risk reward like that he's talking about i i don't i don't think there's a risk to it

the reward is greater there than it'll ever be like can you imagine if the Canucks win the Stanley Cup yeah right could you imagine it forever if the if the Leafs ever win a Stanley Cup could you imagine like it's not that uh places that win they don't hold players in high esteem but in in Vancouver or Toronto like or the Rangers like look at that 94 team hell it's been 30 years since they won. We still celebrate the 94 team in Vancouver and they didn't even win. Correct, and they came second. But it's like it would be another level,

a completely other level to win in those cities. The reward is almost endless. Ray, of the players that you played with or just knew, who was best at blocking out the noise? And the follow-up question would be, do those players really just not care about what people think or are they just better at hiding it? Well, again, there was so very little

of that right like it was just in the newspapers yeah and on the radio and that was it so the people like twitter basically is you know the all the other people that you would never have come into contact with bitching about you at the at the bar or wherever they're watching the game and they have a forum to get it into the public space where you would see it because i'm sure when i was you know playing in hartford there were guys that went to a game and said man ferraro suckedo sucked tonight. Well, yeah, but that's fine. I didn't hear it. What difference does it make? Now you read it, and so

it would be a big difference. But there are some guys that like, I would say, you know, you'd have to ask them, but I think like the very best players, they have an ability to bubble themselves around the biggest moments.

And nothing gets in. Like, there's just nothing. And I think it's part of a skill set. I think you could work at it. I know that if I were playing today, I would have to work at it. Yeah. And really, there's a great phrase, I love it, because I think it's so apt for a lot of things,

is that you can get caught punching the wind. And you think you're making headway, but you're just punching the wind. It's going to keep blowing and it's um it is really um it's really pretty destructive i think for a player to to spend time trying to find something positive or to search out what are people saying about me i i i see no benefit to it but i see why it would be really difficult to just ignore it i remember remember asking Jonathan Taves before a big game, I think it was a cup final game, what do you think about before a big game? And he said, hopefully nothing. So I always thought that was a good takeaway. Moving on to the Vancouver Canucks, I know you've done a few of their games and you watch them. We were talking earlier about the power play

and how it is still failing the eye test. It does have three goals in five games, so that's not a complete disaster. But what are you seeing from the Canucks power play that needs to improve, if anything? Well, it's funny. I just finished taping our podcast. We were talking about the Leafs power play because Craig Berube is not very happy with it. And I compared the Toronto power play, the Edmonton power play, and the Vancouver power play. And to me, they're all very similar in their struggle right now. There are times it looks fine where guys are exchanging positions

and they're skating from left to right and then they flip-flop sides. But the puck never gets to the net. All three of them are the same. And as much as you'd like to move and create maybe coverage problems for the penalty killers, if you never shoot the puck, basically what happens is they start to get a little more central and a little more stable. They don't move. Even though you're moving, you're just skating around them. But the net's still in the same place. And until the puck goes to the net, you shoot it,

you get a rebound. Now they challenge for the rebound. You get it before them. Now you move it really quickly now you've got somebody out of position so when i watch the canucks power play and again i'll compare it to the oilers who are i think they're one for 16 or something or other in toronto they all have really great players on it and the puck doesn't move fast enough and so right now it's like it's kind of lethargic. The penalty killers, they can move with the players. Like if you picture Hughes going from right to left

and Miller's going down to the goal line and Pedersen's coming up over top, penalty killers don't go anywhere. While you're skating 30 feet, they're not going anywhere. They just kind of glide along with you. But if you zip the puck around a couple times and get a shot and it gets through, now there's a rebound and you have a puck battle, you have one extra player. You're never open until you get the puck.

So if they have two guys, you need three. Get yourself to the puck, get it, move it, shoot it, and then you can start moving the play that you'd like to get which is the maybe set up a one-timer or something where Hughes is moving around but at the beginning guys like it just looks like they're just skating around the outside of the penalty killers and I'll say it a third time it's exactly the same as what I see in Edmonton and Toronto it's very good players that just haven't haven't found the urgency yet to shoot and retrieve which the best power plays all do yeah that's an interesting thought because the loose pucks

create like you have to if you shoot the puck the other team has to move out of the position if the loose puck goes somewhere because they got to go compete for the puck but then you got to win those battles and you got to win them quickly because then you've definitely forced those guys out of position what about the well you know what's funny let me get let me give you one let me give you one example is detroit had one of the best power plays around like in the when they were winning the stanley cups and who was the key who was the key oh they were they had nick ledstrom gee that was pretty key but they you know they had eiserman but thomas holmstrom was like a bucket of bolts in front of the net right like he was always falling down he was losing his stick he but what thomas holmstrom did was when there

was a loose puck he retrieved it he held the battle you know like kept the puck in the battle till he could get support then they would start moving the puck around and they would just wear those penalty killers out and that i think that is as much as the guys think they're open, they're just not until you get the puck clean. I was guilty of it too. I'd be like, hey, look, do you not see me there? And the guy would have his face pressed up against the glass. And he's like, no, I don't.

I need help to get the puck. It's really a fine line. I got a knee in my back, Ray. Do you want to help out a little bit? Yeah, but I'm open. Can you not get it to me? Can you not see? Ray, tell us a little bit

about the Chicago Blackhawks and the changes they made in the offseason. Well, they took a look at last year's team, which were basically a bunch of 20-year-olds, and they saw how they got

their lunch handed to them night after night after night. And they said, we got to get older. And so they went out and spent a lot of money. In some cases, I think they overspent, but nonetheless, they had the cap room. They got older, they got stronger, they got more predictable. They won't get pushed out of games as easily as they did last year. And it gives their younger guys a chance to be a little bit better protected,

a little bit better insulated. So I think they're a better, harder team to play against. I mean, I think they had 59 points last year or something. It's not like they're going to get 90. But I think basically what they're doing is they're buying time for their younger players to grow. It is the big night for the NHL. All 32 teams in action, 16 games.

You're doing Caps Flyers tonight, correct? Yeah. So I did get a text from our producer, you know, here's the schedule. And I just found out the game's at six o'clock. I thought it was at seven. I would have been late. You've got to go to the rink like now.

Yeah, they're like, yes, Ray, really, it's 6 o'clock. Like, I miss these things. These details escape me. But, you know, it's kind of neat. Tonight we'll be here in Philly. Matt Vamichkov's playing his sixth game in his career, and he is talking about what an honor and a thrill it'll be to play against Ovechkin.

He's playing in his 1100th game or something or other, and it's pretty cool when you... We think of it as we know it. A young Canadian kid gets to meet Sidney Crosby like Conor Bedard played his first shift last year against Crosby. How cool was that? Well, it's the same for Meech Goff tonight.

So it'll be kind of fun to watch. Very cool. Ray, thanks for doing this as always. Enjoy the game tonight. Have a good call. We'll do this again next week. Yeah. You betcha, you guys.

Take care. Thanks for the song. Can't wait for next week. See you, Ray. Ray Ferraro here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. The phone lines we go. Brendan Batchelor joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Morning, Batch. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you guys? We are good. Just looking forward to tonight's game and the 15 other games in the National Hockey League tonight. You looking forward to seeing Conor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks this evening? Yeah, absolutely. They're going to be an interesting team this year, I think,

just because they've added a little bit more veteran talent. So I don't know if they'll be as much of a walkover as they were for a lot of last season. And, you know, from a Canucks perspective, this is a game that they should be winning. And if they can, then you come home with three straight wins off the back end of a road trip. last season and you know from a Canucks perspective this is a game that they should be winning and if they can then you come home with three straight wins off the back end of a road trip and start feeling pretty good about your game I would imagine heading into the homestand are you expecting JT

Miller to play tonight yeah that's the big question is it I guess we'll have to wait and see I would imagine that it'll probably be an optional morning skate for them this morning after the full practice yesterday. But, you know, I don't have any insider information on that. So we'll have to stay tuned and see if that injury that ultimately he was able to battle through the rest of the game, even though he wasn't taking draws, ends up affecting him enough that he sits out tonight. Batch, we've been talking a lot about the power play and how it kind of looks the same as late last season

and into the playoffs. Is that unfair to the Canucks? Has it looked better than we're giving it credit for? Maybe a little bit, but only in fits and starts, I think. They had some good sequences earlier in the year, I thought, in the first couple of games. And even though they weren't necessarily rewarded for some of those looks, they were creating them.

And it kind of feels like they've fallen back into some of the issues they had last year, particularly with zone entries and getting set up in the zone. And then, you know, obviously Rick Talkett has continued to bang the drum. And this is not like a new thing for him this year either i know we've you know spent so much time uh you know talking about how he wanted them to attack more off the rush and in transition and at five on five that was a huge focus in training camp but he's been talking about this group needing more of an attack mentality on the power play since like midway through last season and um you

know they they continue to struggle to generate the kinds of looks that he's talking about so uh it doesn't surprise me that they're looking at tweaks to the power play units i guess uh you know how big those tweaks are is going to be dependent on whether miller plays tonight or not but um you know i'm not against shaking it up because it does look like they're falling back into some of the same ruts that gave them issues down the stretch and into the playoffs last year. What's missing from the power play? Yeah, that's a really good question because it's hard to really pinpoint, right? They've got skilled players that can make plays. It's just not happening for whatever reason.

I think early in the year, they scored some really nice goals in the first couple of games, if I'm not mistaken. I don't have the numbers in front of me. I remember they got at least one power play goal in the season opener, and I thought they looked a lot more fluid when they were set up in the zone. If you remember, there was a goal where Besser and DeBrusque switched spots. So DeBrusque ended up down by the net and Besser ended up in the slot. And they did a high to low play where DeBrusque fed to Besser.

And it's those sorts of rotations and movement that create looks. And if you think about some of the best power plays in the league and the Oilers power play is what comes to mind because, you know, we just saw so much of it in the playoffs in the spring. Like those guys are always moving, rotating always in different spots and you know the canucks power play when it's struggling is too static and is a lot of guys standing still in their spots and if you think about it from the perspective of a penalty kill trying to defend against that if you know exactly where the guy is going to be and you know exactly the look that they're trying to create then that's pretty easy to defend against and conversely um you know from a Canucks perspective if you're not fluid if you're not creating different angles and different passing lanes and different shooting lanes with your movement then

you know you're you're making it really easy for the penalty kill to defend you so that's kind of the issue that I think we've seen for a while with this power play. So it'll be interesting to see if Garland is indeed elevated to that top unit tonight, whether he, much like Rick Tockett, uses him as a spark plug to try and get certain lines going at times, whether he can be that kind of spark plug on the power play too. What have you seen from Jake DeBrusque in the first five games?

It's been a little quiet, but I don't know if that's entirely unexpected just because you join a new team, you know, you're still trying to figure things out. He's been on three different lines now, I think, through five games. He started with Pedersen, then he was with Bluger, then he was with Miller. And, you know, if Miller doesn't play tonight, then, you know, that line's going to look different again. So, you know, not entirely unexpected, but at the same time, I would have liked to have seen a bit more in terms of offensive generation, in terms of, you know, a little bit more bottom line production. But I think the book on DeBrusque to a certain extent

is that he's kind of a streaky player. So, you know, as I said, not like I'm super worried about it or anything, but he has certainly room to improve and room to be better and room to produce a bit more than he has to this point. We're speaking to Brandon Batchelor, play-by-play voice of Vancouver Canucks

here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You know, the shifting around of, like, yesterday at practice, the Brough's going from PP1 to PP2 and the changes there, it kind of plays into a larger, you know, narrative or whatever that I've noticed this year with Rick talking in that there seems to be a lack of patience with anything that isn't working this year. Like, we're not going to give it an extended runway to see if it'll work out.

I think it's a two-parter. One, they don't want to let any bad habits or ineffective play creep in and extend itself. And two, they do have a lot of new pieces and new parts, and they want to see what everything looks like because, as we pointed out on the show, they didn't really do that in the preseason. So it's almost like they're figuring everything out

as they go along. Have you noticed that as well, that Rick Tockett is pretty quick to change things up this year and doesn't exactly have a ton of patience when it comes to combos lines units and all that other stuff yeah i i think that's fair um and and i think i agree that part of it is because of the number of new players they have like on opening, there was at least one new addition on every forward line. So there are a lot of moving parts here and you're trying to find chemistry.

And to his credit, I think some of this tweaking of lines and moving things around has, you know, yielded positive results in the sense that look at that Heinen-Bluger-Sherwood line and how good they were the other night.

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