Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 10/28/24

Episode Date: October 28, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, they talk a big Saturday night home win over the Penguins with Canucks Talk host Satiar Shah, plus the boys tell us what they learned.  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. Whoa, wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose the f***ing Canucks? You're listening to Halford & Brough.

You know, Sadeen's kind of talking before the game, so maybe he thinks tonight's the night. Now here's Daniel Sprong with a burst of speed. Left wing to the fang with a live shot. Remember, they scored! Arshtee Beans! Here comes the Hail Mary with the game on the line. And the ball is caught! Caught! It's a miracle!

Yeah, I've been in the darkness. You gotta go in there, make peace with it Good morning Vancouver, 6.01 on a Monday Happy Monday everybody, this is Alfred and his bro, up at his Sportsnet 650 We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver Jason, good morning Good morning Hey dawg, good morning to you Good morning Laddy, good morning to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dog. Good morning to you. Good morning.

Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brougham 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 one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler. While they pay the highest prices on scrap metal, North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.

So, Rafit, what are you waiting for? Kintec. We've got a lot to get into on the show today. Got a lot of sports to cover from the weekend. We've got a lot of guests to talk to. Guest list begins today at 7 o'clock. Yes, that means the first hour of this program. An hour.

60 minutes of uninterrupted Halbro excellence. Guest list. 7 o'clock. Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the 2 Deep Zone sub stack. A lot went on yesterday. I might do everyone a favor and not mention the Seattle Seahawks game with Mike Tanier

or quite frankly to anybody on this station. Might just gloss over it entirely. 7.30, Mike Russo is going to join the program from the Athletic. Normally, we talk to Mike about the Minnesota Wild, but Mike was part of the Athletic crew that polled all of the NHL executives and front offices about NHL executives and front offices.

Who's the best? Who's the worst? We will find out with Mike Russo coming up at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Satyar Shah is going to join the program. There's a get. Satyar Shah at 8. We'll talk a little Canucks with Sat. We'll look back to the game against Pittsburgh on Saturday. We will look ahead to tonight's game

against the red hot Carolina Hurricanes. Speaking of tonight's game, Jason, we are giving away a pair of tickets to see the Canucks and the Canes tonight from Rogers Arena. We are still working on how we're going to do it. How are we going to do it? What's the plan here? How are we going to give away these tickets to our beautiful? We don working on how we're going to do it. How are we going to do it? What's the plan here?

How are we going to give away these tickets to our beautiful? We don't know how we're going to do it. I think at some point we're going to give a time. Okay. Like, for example, maybe 8.15. Something like that. Hypothetically, 8.15. Okay.

And we're going to tell everyone, because people on the stream are like, wait a minute, we're two minutes behind. So when you announce this stuff, it's unfair to us. Good point, Jason. At some point, we're going to say, you know, 8.15 work for you, A-Dog? 8.15. Sounds good. Is that going to interfere with nap time or is that going to be good?

8.15. I'll be up for it. People start calling in 604-280-0650. Don't call at 8.14. Don't call in early. Don't call in early. We're not going to answer the phones. Okay?

Then it doesn't make a sound. It just, there's a little light that comes up. So you're not going to annoy us. And then we're going to take the 10th caller. 815, 10th caller, 604-280-0650. Don't start calling now. Yeah. Don't get confused.

Okay? Call at 815. be the 10th caller. You can get a pair of tickets. I'm sure this is going to be a complete disaster. There's no way you're remembering any of that. Someone's emailing right now. They're like, did I win the tickets? No. The switchboard is lit up. You have to call. Is it? I bet it is. Oh, okay. That would be funny, though.

I respect the humor of the listeners. Guest list, once again, 8 o'clock Satyar Shah, 7.30 Mike Russo, 7 o'clock Mike Tanier. That's what's happening on the program today. 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 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 B.C. Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training.

Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Your Vancouver Canucks scored one, two, three, four straight goals on Saturday night in the second period, including three in a minute and five second span, holding off the Pittsburgh Penguins for a 4-3 win on Saturday night at Rogers Arena, the Canucks' fourth win in a row. Big congratulations to a pair of guys. Petey for scoring his first goal of the season, and Arsh Baines for scoring his first goal in the NHL. The Canucks were not sharp to start this game,

but after Pittsburgh made it 2-0 early in the NHL. The Canucks were not sharp to start this game, but after Pittsburgh made a 2-0 early in the second, the game totally flipped. By the end of the second, the Canucks were outshooting the Penguins 28-12 and leading 4-2. The strength of this team so far this season has been its forward depth. Yep. If you look at the stats, no one player on the Canucks is lighting it up.

Miller, Besser, and Garland each have seven points in seven games, which is good, but by no means spectacular. The key is that seven Canucks forwards have at least two goals and a bunch more have one goal. They've only had one goal from a defenseman. Just one. Quinn Hughes had one goal from a defenseman. Just one. Quinn Hughes had it. Of course he did.

And they haven't had any from their big offseason acquisition, Jake DeBrusque. Talk it unprompted. Said that he thought Daniel Sprong had a really good game on Saturday. Sprong is a member of the fourth line. And don't forget that the Canucks still have Dakota Joshua waiting to rejoin the lineup. I actually wonder, given that they've got all

this forward depth right now and things are going pretty well, why not send him to Abbotsford for a conditioning stint to get him up to speed? Tuckett actually mentioned that, which is why I mentioned it. Certainly there's no huge rush to get him back in and I think he might need a little bit of time to just find his legs,

find his fitness. So sending him down to Abbotsford for a little conditioning stint makes sense at this point. I wanted to go over the four goals in the second period. Sure. That all occurred really close together, especially the first three. Um, and I think it's worth noting that on these four goals, you've got Petey's line, Bluger's line, Miller's line,

and finally the fourth line, which is a speedy line, fourth line of Sprong, Baines, and Suter. I really like the makeup of all four lines. Can I just say that? As they're constructed right now, I said every single line at least once when I was watching. I was like, wow, this is a really good line. So you're going to keep Dakota Joshua out? Yeah. Sorry,

Dave. Sorry, buddy. Things are rolling. On Petey's goal, really nice aggressive keep in at the point by Myers who got in front of a really weak clearance by the Penguins and was able to feed Garland down low. And how often we heard that, Garland down

low makes things happen. Garland skates behind the net and quickly finds a wide open Pedersen, who I would say confidently ripped a shot posting in. The Penguins got badly caught trying to blow the zone. I think Ricard Raquel was at the Canucks blue line at that point. But Pedersen will take, Pedersen's going to take the soft coverage. He found it.

And it was great to see him bury that with authority. What did you think when Petey finally banged one home? Thank God. Thank God. Thank God. Finished minus one on the night, but we're not criticizing. There was a four. It's funny because I'm going through the audio this morning, and there was a clip, and it was like Petey talking about his goal.

Not interested in talking about it whatsoever. He was like, yeah, it was good to get a good one. Yeah, that was the entirety of the clip. That'll shut Brough up. Yeah, right? And I'm like, okay, it's good. If we're doing the baby steps thing, which we seem to, Yeah, that was the entirety of the clip. That'll shut Brough up. Yeah, right? And I'm like, okay, it's good that he, I mean, if we're doing the baby steps thing,

which we seem to be kicking and screaming into doing the slow and steady wins the race, the progression is coming and there's a plan and he's getting closer and closer towards the Pettersson we know, then getting that goal and getting, you know, the monkey off the back and snapping the slump, it's an important thing. I will say this, I think you're very astute and right the slump, it's an important thing. I will say this.

I think you're very astute and right in pointing out that it looked confident when he shot the puck. It was a nice shot. He leaned into it, right? He wasn't thinking twice about it or, you know, am I going to... Didn't double clutch it? Yeah. Just ripped it.

Just ripped it. While they were announcing Petey's goal, Sherwood scored a few seconds later. Terrific play of the Canucks blue line to break up the Penguins entry. Another Penguins turnover. That was the theme of all this. Create a two-on-one with Bluger who ended up

feeding back to Sherwood for the one-timer. When did Bluger turn into like this great playmaking center? It's incredible. Also credit Danton Heinen for the back pressure that helped cause that Pittsburgh turnover. So we've been through Petey's line's goal and there's Bluger's line. A few seconds after that, another Pittsburgh breakdown as JT Miller was allowed to sneak

behind all the Penguins and take a long pass from Brock Besser. Miller did not score on his initial shot, but he follows the puck to the net. He shoved Eric Carlson, who had a tough night, and it somehow bounced past Nedeljkovic. And then all of a sudden, it's 3-2 Canucks within the span of, what was it, a minute? Something like that? The Canucks took a few minutes off scoring after those three quick goals. But they were back at it soon enough when Daniel Sprong took the puck and absolutely blew past Eric Carlson. I mean, again, it was a tough night for Eric Carlson. Sprong didn't score himself, but he shot,

and Baines was there for the rebound for his first NHL goal. So, again, that's Petey's line, Bluger's line, Miller's line, and finally that speedy fourth line of Sprong, Baines, and Suter. Gino Malkin made it interesting in the third period. Really nice move. Thought he got hurt there too.

Yeah, well, I mean, he's an old man and he had a fall. But the Canucks held on for their fourth straight win. 4-3 over the Penguins. Fun night at Rogers Arena, I imagine. I wasn't there. A-Dog, you were there.

What was it like? I mean, it must have been wild when those three goals were going. Oh, it was ridiculous. It was just like bang, bang, bang. It was so fast. And, man, when Baines scored, Rogers Arena was rocking. It was a really, really loud crowd. They were super happy for the kid, and it was awesome to see.

Okay, so I have procured some audio from the head coach, Rick Talkett, who was probably the most effusive he's been in his praise of this hockey team this season following Saturday night's game. And it's a little bit interesting because it wasn't a perfect game, as you mentioned. It was not the greatest start. You spotted a visiting team, a 2-0 lead. But I want to start with what he said about Archdeep Baines, the speed that that line brings.

And then as Brough mentioned, unprompted praise for Daniel Sprong smack in the middle of all this. It's like Rick talking had so much praise to go around that he wanted to make sure that he got some sprung love in there and just sprung it on. It just sprung to mind. Sprung right all over the media. So here it is. Rick talking on that fourth line featuring Archie Baines and Daniel Sprung and what they brought to the table in fourth three win over Pittsburgh on Saturday. I think the speed factor.

I think the speed, whether he plays high in the lineup sometimes, I could bump him up or he plays as a fourth line guy. I think right now, and I thought Daniel Sprung was excellent tonight, by the way. I thought the fourth line was good. But when you have speed on the fourth line, that can check is the key, and I think that's what Bainsey does. You know, he's got some speed,

but he's starting to have an identity like he can check also too. He's finding the positions where to be defensively. You know, he's starting to, his game's growing. You know, he's working at his game. Now that wasn't it for Rick Tockett. When speaking about the aforementioned window that A-Dog was saying where it just felt like goals were coming fast and furious and bang, bang, bang, one after another,

Tockett said that that 8 to 10 minutes in the second period where they were just creating off the rush and using their speed and that transition play that he was stressing in the preseason and in training camp said it might have been the best that he's seen since he arrived in Vancouver. Here's Rick Talkett on the rush chances in the second following the win over Pittsburgh on Saturday. Since I've been here, I think that eight, ten-minute stretch

of the rush chances is the best I've seen this team do that for me. Like in the year and a half I've been here, I think that eight, 10 minute stretch of the rush chances is the best I've seen this team do that for me. Like in the year and a half I've been here, that was excellent. So you can tell the stuff that

we're practicing, the stuff that they're applying, it's working and the conversion, obviously, you know, that two home was big

with Teddy and Sherwood, but I thought we played really fast. Our neutral and regroups got us off the rush. So it's, yeah, that's the stuff we're looking for. You know, it can change a game.

You know, you're down 2-0, have an average first period. All of a sudden, if you can become a good rush team, look at Edmonton. You know, there's been periods where, you know, they don't do anything for a period. All of a sudden, they get three rush chances, and all of a sudden, you know, they're one of the best rush teams in the league. So, I think we're trying to learn from that, being able to, you know,

there's a spurt there that you can do where you can get back in the game. So we went over all four goals in fairly intricate detail. Three of the goals were on the rush. You know, you, you got the, the Sherwood breakup of the blue line, which was thanks in part to Danton Heinen's back pressure that forced a bad pass.

And then it was just quickly back the other way quickly. And that's what Talkett was saying in the beginning of the season when he was looking back, looking back at some of the games in the playoffs where the Canucks would break up maybe a rush coming at them, but then would be a little conservative with how quickly they went back the other way. Well, that's why they wanted to add some speed to the lineup. Sure would bring speed, and he was able to get the play going back the other way really quickly. JT Miller's goal was a really quick up from Brock Besser,

and then you had the fourth goal, which was Daniel Sprung. Again, speed added to the lineup he goes around Eric Carlson like he's standing still I think he actually might have been and then you know goes to that shoots and then Baines who also has speed was able to beat all

the Penguins defense back to get that rebound that's what Taka is talking about and that's why he was so pleased with that game, because that's what they worked on in training camp. And there were spurts of it this season, for sure, but I think when you demonstrate that all within one period, all within like 10 minutes, it's going to make the coach happy.

A text unsigned, so it must be from Gary. An early What We Learned. By the way, a reminder, get your What We Learns in. They are presented by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Hashtag WWOLWeLearned from Gary. This year's Penguins might be the slowest team the NHL has seen in 30 years. Yes, that absolutely played a role in what happened on Saturday. Like, I don't want to take away from what the Canucks did

because I think getting the amount of rush chances that they did is more of a mindset. Like, part of it is being aggressive and getting after it. Also, you have to finish, right? because I think getting the amount of rush chances that they did is more of a mindset. Part of it is being aggressive and getting after it. Also, you have to finish, right? There's been issues with this team at times finishing their chances. So full credit to the Canucks. That being said, we can carve out a minute here because we wanted to talk about this anyway,

and it was the most recent opponent. That Pittsburgh team's in deep trouble. Now that I've seen it firsthand, and I watched the game on Friday night where they went into Edmonton, and if not for Yoel Blomqvist, probably would have lost 8-0. They only lost 4-0,

but they were outshot somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-29. Their trip to Western Canada did not go well. They go into Winnipeg. They lose 6-3. They go into Calgary. They get a point, but they lose in the shootout. Edmonton was a complete mismatch. You mentioned their goalie, Blomquist,

who I think was one of the bad guys from James Bond. Yes. And that could have been 10-0 Edmonton. And then the Canucks game, I think they probably started out there like, all right, guys, come on, let's show some pride. And they started out okay. But if you look at them defensively, and again, not to take anything away from the Canucks, but the first goal,

Petey's goal, just an absolutely weak clearance, and I think a miscommunication between the Penguins, that Tyler Myers is able to just like, hey, I'll give this puck actually. And Ricard Raquel is like way up the ice. Petey, wide open in front of the net. And you're like, credit to Garland for finding him, but any of you listening right now that can skate

would be able to get that puck to Pettersson. He was wide open and for a while. Like they never ended up covering him, really. And, you know, like Miller, so after the Canucks tied it at two, how do you let Miller get behind you like that? Like, how does that, how does that happen? You know, you turn the puck over again and then Miller's like, pass me the puck. And it was like a, it was a good pass from Brock Besser and heads up and it was quick, but it wasn't difficult. I mean, it was like a wide-open bomb, you know?

Like, I don't know. I'm watching that game, and I'm thinking, like, is Sullivan going to get fired when he gets back to Pittsburgh? I kind of wondered it. It was crazy, man. It was a disastrous performance. And, you know, I'm the biggest Sidney Crosby fan ever. I think he's had a real slow start to the season, though.

For him. Yeah, well, the goals aren't there, right? And it's funny because Gino, at one point, leading the NHL in scoring, which we all marveled at last week, did come on the strengths of some really big performances, including that 6-5 win. I want to say it was over Buffalo, where he got his 500th goal, Sid got his 1,600th point.

And the love-in, as we had Sean Gentile on the show on Friday, he mentioned the one-night love-in for the Penguins. They got a lot of their offense in that one game, which is crazy to say, but it's true. The opponents get a lot tougher for the Vancouver Canucks, starting tonight, 7 o'clock, Rogers Arena. It is the red-hot Carolina Hurricanes. I say this because for as badly as the Western swing went

for the Pittsburgh Penguins, it has gone swimmingly for the Carolina Hurricanes, who got an overtime win in Edmonton on Tuesday, followed that up with a 4-2 win in Calgary on Thursday, dipped down to Seattle on Saturday night and got a 4-1 win there. So they've taken 3-3 in their western part of their road trip. It started out with games in Pittsburgh and St. Louis.

Very different type of team coming to town than the Pittsburgh Penguins. And then, of course, Wednesday, the Canucks are going to get Hughes-Apalooza, which is Jack, Quinn, and the other one, Luke, all together on the ice when the New Jersey Devils come to town. The other one, Frank, I think. And their brother, Doug. But just to circle back to the Canucks for a sec, a couple other things here.

You talked about the depth at forward, very correctly identifying that it's the strength of this team. I gain a newfound appreciation for Kiefer Sherwood every single time I watch the guy play. He now has a career best point streak of four games, two goals, three assists. I did wonder when they signed him if he was going to be one of those guys that had another facet to his game offensively that maybe he just hadn't developed in his previous NHL stops. There was no foundation for that.

They had no reason to think it. I was like, hey, maybe he'll get a shot. Because there were some opportunities on this team to play with pretty good centers and pretty good line mates. Where does Dakota Joshua go when he gets back? He's got to go somewhere. I don't know if you're going to break up. That's the new, the third line.

I know. I know. Bluger, Sherwood, and Heinen. Yeah. Right? Like they've found something there. They can actually just like create these amazing third lines now, just like they've always done, right?

Just like they've always done. Tale as old as time, really. And then the fourth line, maybe you throw them on there to start. Send Baines back down i guess i mean it's unfortunate for him or do you uh reunite him with garland and have a line of um dakota joshua pd and garland that would seem almost unfair to Hoaglander. But, I mean, you know, like hopefully there aren't any injuries that allow Dakota Joshua to just like find his spot. But like it is – it's crazy right now that Dakota Joshua,

who was one of the more important forwards for the Canucks last season, you're thinking about like, you know, where does he go when he comes back in? And there isn't like a super obvious place to put him because you can say, well, just put him on the fourth line. But, like, I don't know if you want Dakota Joshua on the fourth line. You want him more up the lineup. Most, I mean, he was. If you find a scene with Sherwood, though, that would be hilarious.

That would be just a wrecking ball of a line. He was an 18-goal scorer last year, but it was in 63 games. So let's just call him a 20-goal scorer. Heinen's important for that line, though. Heinen's important. Heinen, so, you know how the whole offseason, not the whole offseason, but a lot of the offseason was about upgrading the speed of the Canucks,

and thank God they did it because I think they really needed to. You see what they've got in their bottom six now, and it's not this bruising bottom six that plays this heavy style of hockey. It's fast. Yeah.

Heinen can move. Sherwood can move. Sprong, if he's in there, he can move. And Baines can skate, you know? So maybe, and if you put Holglinder down there, if he has to go down there, he can skate as well. I'd be real curious to see what a line of dakota joshua

pd and garland would look like that could be really good be really real curious to see that yeah i mean i the funny thing is is that none of these uh line trios are the ones that we expected when july 1 obviously came around and then when training camp even opened we i mean i would have never have thought that at one point this season that you would have a fourth line with the offensive prowess of Archie Baines and Daniel Sprong together you know who's you know who's feeling pretty good that the Canucks are scoring goals or the forwards are scoring goals I know Jake DeBrusque I'm glad you said Because honestly, we don't even talk about the guy much. He was a big off-season acquisition.

They've given a lot of money. He was the biggest off-season acquisition. They gave a lot of money in term to this guy, and he hasn't scored, and I don't really think he's made much of an impact in games either. Which was always the knock in Boston. Yeah. It was that the numbers at the end of the year were always very,

they came in peaks and valleys and the good ones came in the peaks and then the long stretches of ineffectiveness were the valleys. He was not a consistent guy. He'll go on tears

so that at the end of the year, when you say, you know, he's a guy that can score 25 to 30 goals, it's like, yeah, but they come in bunches, right? And it's frustrating maybe as a fan

or as someone that wants to see it with more consistency, but some guys are built like that. Some guys are streaky scorers, and they're like that their entire lives. The thing with DeBrusque is there's no pressure right now because he's playing on a team. I mean, I would venture to say right now that the Vancouver Canucks have one of the deepest forward groups in the NHL. Absolutely. It's very funny, and I know we're up against it for time.

Before we go, could I just quickly give some love to Eric Brandstrom? Oh, yeah. I've been really impressed with him, and I'm just going to steal this Harmon Dial tweet. This is when they were up 2-0 at that point, so I don't know what the final stats were at, but as of 2-0 for the Canucks on Saturday, shots were 11-4 with Brandstrom on the ice. Scoring chances

were 9-2, and they were up 2-0. So Brandstrom was like a factor all night in that game, even though he's not necessarily getting points, but he's been very, very good for them so far. He had Puck moving to the bottom four. Yeah, I mean, he's been excellent. I really hope they don't send him down.

I hope he's a fixture in that top six because I really like him. It's just a question of if you want to look forward to the playoffs, will they want to go to the four heavy guys? Yeah, will he be able to handle the physicality? Who knows? I'm going to go one step further. Rick Tockett, in this post-game of praise, where he was praising everybody on the team,

had some very kind words for Eric Bronstrom. Here's what he had to say after the 4-3 win over Pittsburgh on Saturday. Yeah, I mean, he probably can give him a few more minutes. Even tonight, he's a feisty guy. I think what people worry about, he's a small guy, he's going to get pushed around in the corners, and I haven't seen that, to be honest with you. I've seen him really good box outs.

Obviously, he wheels the net really well. He's like Huggy, you know, like Hughes. He can do that. But I find his feistiness is there so really pleasantly surprised how he's playing you know we grab a guy like that off the waivers and he's all of a sudden you know this guy's game's coming so there's a lot to like about him so he compared Eric Brandstrom to Quinn Hughes and then he also compared Quinn Hughes to Sidney Crosby. So if you guys want to do the math.

Eric Brandstrom. It's Crosby. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Real quick before we get to Sat. Some call him Batch. I call him Sat. The Carolina Hurricanes, tonight's opponent,

have recalled Spencer Martin martin from their american league affiliate you'll all remember spencer martin of course he one time tended goal for the vancouver canucks we are trying to figure out exactly what's going on with the health of the carolina hurricanes goalies and why they would recall a third goalie for the end of their western road trip freddie anderson has been hurt before yes he's got a bit of an injury well they just had to bus from seattle too i wonder if that has something to do with it. Yeah, that's out there now? I think their plane broke down or something.

Yeah, their plane got grounded. Cheap Tom Dundon didn't pay for the nice plane, so they had to take the bus. He's frugal. He's frugal. He's frugal. Okay, to the phone lines we go. Satyar Shah here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

What up, Sat? What's going on? I do have more hair than Batch. You do? I have that. He may have the intro. I have the hair. That's good.

Okay. We do have to come up with a Sat intro now, by the way. First hour of the program, we spent a lot of time singing the praises of the Vancouver Canucks following their 4-3 win over Pittsburgh on the weekend. The one thing that really stood out to us is the depth of this forward group and how impressive it's been.

This is with Dakota Joshua on the verge of returning. And we even joked, we're like, I'm not sure where he fits in when they get back. And maybe he goes for a conditioning stint and they delay that for a bit. But overall, big picture to start here.

Forward depth of that, very good. Probably one of the deepest forward groups in the NHL, I'd have to say. Yeah, I mean, I would agree with that. And part of the reasonucks. Very good. Probably one of the deepest forward groups in the NHL, I'd have to say. Yeah, I mean, I would agree with that. I mean, and part of the reason is, and we've talked about this

before, but if you look at there's 32 teams in a league now, you can't look at forward groups and compare them to, like, say, a decade ago where a lot of these teams had three really strong lines and a fourth line that was,

you know, really of a higher caliber. But that's kind of what the Canucks have been able to build so far. And a lot of it comes down to being able to find value right like you know when you are able to find guys like Sherwood making 1.5 and you bring in Strong who helped out the other night and when you have these guys coming in at such a cheap rate that's what makes a difference because I mean just look at for instance the Pittsburgh Penguins the other night they got guys like Cody Glass making two and a half million they have Nola Chari making $2 million. They're paying $2.35 for guys like Lars Eller. And they're

not a very good hockey team. And that was very kind of bending-esque. That team, all these loaded bottom six players making a lot of money, not contributing. And the key is finding those players not making a lot of money. Now, I don't know if this Canucks management group is on a heater or if they're elite at finding this kind of cheaper talent to play big roles for them. But that's really the reason why this forward group has had so much success so far. They find guys at cheap rates to play a big role.

They found fast guys too. How important has that been, adding the speed that they added? And you look at the speed that Kiefer Sherwood brings and even Danieliel sprong although you know he might be like a 10 or 11 minute night a guy or you know guy but you look at how he just blew around eric carlson to create the baines's first nhl goal that's what they've got now in their in their bottom six it's it's not necessarily big and heavy and i mean it is tough but it's the the the kind of common denominator is that they can move well and you that was one of the big reasons why they were able to come back in the game against

um the penguins i mean that that one minute stretch and and talk referred to at that eight minute stretch in the second as their their best as far as creating rush chances i don't think that's a coincidence it is because you have more speed you have players that are built more in the vision of what the head coach wants i mean he wants a straight ahead team that's really good at forechecking that pushes the pace now you finally have those players executing that system i mean the canucks when you start looking at some of the rates they're actually very similar to last year as far as how many shots they're getting how many shots they're attempting and even some of the scoring chances but you see the pace in which they're actually very similar to last year as far as how many shots they're getting how many shots are attempting and even some of the scoring chances but you see the pace in which they're creating the same looks and that's i think making the big difference and it just shows you that

when you finally find players to truly fit the team system you get that next level now okay we're only seven games in we'll see how much this scoring keeps up but they are a far quicker team in transition and a lot of a lot of other squads are having trouble handling them. And we saw this last year where how many times do we watch a guy like Pew Suter, who was fantastic with JT and Besser, but how many times did you notice him not getting to a puck? Did you notice that he wasn't quick enough

as an F1 at times? And now every single line has a really fast player on it. There aren't many puck races this team is losing out on, whereas last year we could totally tell that pace wasn't quite there, especially in the postseason. Garland has really helped out Petey, huh? I mean, who hasn't Garland helped out, right?

I mean, we can make this into the other side of it, which is do you need Garland to get Petey going, the guy who's making more than twice as much money as Garland is? But that's what Garland's been, and it goes back to last year. And you know what? We've spoken about this before too, right, Jason? I haven't always been the biggest fan of Garland's game, but he's so much more direct and he's so much more effective

with everything he's doing this year. How many times do you see him do a spin along the wall that leads to nothing? Everything has purpose. Everything is direct. Everything leads to another connection with a player or the puck goes into a space where somebody can go and get it like everything has so much purpose when he's out there and i think you know as much as pedersen in the past maybe wasn't meshing with garland i think when garland plays this way i don't think there's anybody he doesn't mesh with i think

that's a huge testament to how good garland's been and you're seeing the guy playing almost 19 minutes a game like he's finally getting that bigger role he's always wanted. For all this talk about who's going to be the winger for Pedersen, what do they do when Dakota Joshua comes back, do you really afford not to play Connor Garland 18 minutes a game right now? The answer to me, and I didn't think I would say this, is no. I think you have to play this guy at least 18 minutes a game. I guess Jake DeBrusque is lucky that everyone else is scoring because we might be focusing on him then. Oh, absolutely.

And I think that's a good thing for him. And I think he's one of those guys you can tell. And he spoke about this too when he was in Boston, that sometimes things would get to him. When things don't go right, you can see it's heavy on him. You can see that it weighs on him. And that's still something he's going to have to overcome. I mean, Boston's a hockey market, but it's not as crazy as Vancouver is.

Everybody's watching every single move. And you're right. If Pedersen had scored a couple of goals already, the entire conversation would be around Jake DeBrusque, who's this guy that's paid $38 million to and hasn't yet found a goal, hasn't really found a proper role. But the one thing I would say is,

I think I'd be careful in blaming him too much for some of his struggles early on. And not to say, you know, it's all Pedersen's fault, but I do think if Pedersen was playing with more confidence and if Pedersen was on top of his game, then DeBrusque would have a softer landing when he came in the first few games. And I'm not sure the fact that DeBrusque is playing with JT investors is an indictment on DeBrusque. I think it's more about they couldn't get a mix going with Pedersen. So I do think it's unfair to

just throw everything at him and say it's not working out for him. But I do think he's a good enough player that is going to get on right track. The only question is, and I think this is something we won't know for the entire season or perhaps even two seasons, is he going to be the player they signed to take a step? We all know he can score

20 goals. And here's the thing with 20 goal scorers, guys. There's always 60 games a year they don't score. So is it strange to see a guy not score for seven, eight games? I don't think that is. Somebody who scores 20 goals will go through those types of slumps. The question is, can he become a 30 goal guy? And if he can't, I think that search for another top six winner at some point continues. Because it's nice to have a 20 goal guy.

They really need somebody else in the wing to score a lot of goals and that's still to be determined and I'm not sure we can give an answer to that after seven games. Can Eric Brandstrom keep this up? I hope so I hope so because we did this exercise last week on the show who ran through every single team and looked at defensemen that you might be able to target or guys may become available and the list is very finite outside of some of the rentals and there aren't that many ran through every single team and looked at defensemen that you might be able to target or guys who may become available. And the list is very finite. Outside of some of the rentals, and there aren't that many of them, all these guys have term. You even saw Jake McCabe today get a five-year deal for like $4.5 million or whatever it

was. And he's, what, a number four, right? Like maybe four or five type of guy. And then you look at guys like Damon Severson, who hasn't worked out in Columbus, but he's making, what, 6.25 for seven more years? Are you willing to take something like that on if a team's looking to dump a contract? I don't know if there's a good solution in the

trade market, as much as I have faith that they can find somebody. So if Branson turns out to be a real help for this team, I think that's the perfect solution. They're a far cheaper option than anything they can find. But I'm still skeptical as far as he's been playing 14 minutes a game

and it's fantastic what he's done, but it's so different when you put a guy into a role where he's playing against the other top position a lot. You're getting more defensive zone starts. You get him to your own zone at times. You're playing, you know,

18 minutes instead of playing 14 minutes. So I just be very careful to not get ahead of ourselves on Eric Brandstrom. But I think what he's done so far has exceeded expectations. And the most important thing, guys, he seems to have the trust of the head coach at right. When he goes out of his way to praise him and likes how he boxes guys out and gets the puck out of the zone, you know that's not lip service.

Okay, I'm really glad you said that because I made a point of playing the talk at audio on Brandstrom this morning when we were running through, I mean, talk was very effusive in his praise of the team after Saturday's game. There was a lot of it to go around, but there was a, about 30 seconds carved out there for Brandstrom and all the things that he

likes. My question for you. And I don't know if you've got an answer to this. If you did the digging around it is what the hell happened in Colorado that they signed him. And then after watching him play like a handful of preseason games, they decided that he was the guy they wanted to trade. Cause it's not like they got a wealth of defensemen in Colorado.

The third pair right now is like Calvin DeHaan and Sam Malinsky. It seems very odd to me. Again, it could be the Browns was playing over his head right now. And this isn't the real player over the course of 70 or 80 games, but based on the small sample size, like you said, playing over his head right now and this isn't the real player over the course of 70 or 80 games but based on the small sample size like you said he looks like a capable nhl defenseman it just feels like a really weird move in colorado yeah i think part of it was uh and i actually went back to

watch a little bit um of some of the preseason games one of the preseason games he played in i know preseason can be a bit chaotic so i wonder if some of those performances uh you know had them sour on him a bit, even if it's not necessarily his fault. But I think the biggest thing that got in his way was Colorado signing Oliver Shillington towards the end of the offseason. And I think they brought in

another lefty defense that they felt like can be a real top four player. And the other part of it was they got into a cap conundrum because of their LTIR. So when they made the trade for Tucker Pullman, they have to get to, you know, the cap dollar as closest to the cap as possible to maximize the LTIR. So that's part of the reason why they made the sacrifice, so to speak. And I think they felt that he might get claimed on waiver. So they weren't worried about trading him.

But in hindsight, and it's only seven games in, right, and he's only played, you know, less than a handful of games. It seems like for a team that needs a defensive depth, why would you let that guy go? But I think the Oliver Shillington addition was the main reason why he ended up, you know, on the outside looking in. Because when he signed with that team, he felt like he was going to be the third pair of lefty defensemen. Is Teddy Bluger one of the best bargains in the NHL?

I mean, honestly, I'm so glad you brought him up. I think he's the guy who's not being talked about enough. He's been absolutely terrific. And, you know, for all the talk last year about him riding the coattails of Dakota Joshua and Connor Garland, now he's playing with two different wingers, and they're playing almost as well as those guys were last year, playing on the third line. Maybe not quite as much, but, you know, they're doing a really good job. And not only has he done a great job defensively, he's winning face-offs,

but his offensive skill has been decent. Like, he's scored a couple goals. He had a hard time scoring last year. But, you know, he played under 70 games last year, I think it was, and he still had 28 points. That's not bad production. I know it kind of got lost in the connection adding Elias Lindholm, but when the team signed him

last year, I remember talking to Teddy and he talked about how he felt he had so much more offensive ability. He thought he could be the type of third-line center who could score

double digits in goals and get close to 40 points and really take off. It felt like he never got that chance or never was healthy for a full year to do that. And sometimes players

say that, you're like, hey, good, I'm glad you have that confidence, but maybe he's proven he can be that guy. And if he can actually, you're like, hey, good, I'm glad you have that confidence. But maybe he's proven he can be that guy. And if he can actually, you know, lock this down and continue playing like this all year,

then one of the questions we had, and we saw this last year when they went out and got Elias Lindholm, would they need to acquire another center at all? Because if you don't need to add another center by the time the playoffs begin, well, now you have so many more resources to go out and perhaps add a defenseman or even shore up a forward spot up top if you really needed to so i think if bluger can keep this up for an organization that loves center depth i think would solve a big big issue for them so i'm looking the abbotsford canucks schedule right now and they've got games in abbey uh tomorrow and wednesday do you think it's possible dakota joshua could play in one of those

i think it is possible i think it's possibly he might could play in one of those? I think it is possible. I think it's possible he might play one of them. I think part of it is for conditioning assignments, a player has to sign off on it. You can't just send a player down on it. So I think it's somewhat up to Dakota. I can't imagine he'd have much of a problem with it, but I think he's going on

the road trip. I think the hope is that he plays on the road trip, but can he play a game on the road trip without getting something in first? So maybe on Wednesday he might play with the Abbotsford Canucks for a game. I'd imagine one game with Abbotsford would make a lot of sense. I don't think soccer would

throw that out unless they really considered it. I think it ultimately comes down to what Dakota wants to do, but I can't imagine he'd be against getting yourself ready to play a real NHL game after going through everything he's gone through yeah I imagine they can bring him along pretty slowly at the NHL level like you know yeah put him on the fourth line I imagine Baines might get taken out uh and then you can play him and kind of play him up the lineup um but I guess it's a good problem to have that Dakota Joshua joshua is coming back and there isn't

really an obvious candidate to come out i mean it's a terrific problem to have it's something that you know a lot it's such a departure from we saw last year when we were sitting in the postseason and wondering should they play lecra mackie with pedersen for a game or two in the top six because they don't have anybody that can score right now and it looks like you know they don't have a lot of pace. It was a legitimate consideration playing a rookie who just came over from Sweden with one game in the AHL playoffs or whatever it was to come and play

in the NHL postseason. They considered it because they had no option. Now, you have a lot of these options that the head coach I think sometimes can get in his own way. We have too many options as far as the combinations you try, but I think it puts the pressure off from Dakota Joshua coming back

but I'm really intrigued to see what this forward group looks like when you add Dakota Joshua's heaviness, his size, his forechecking. The Canucks are already a pretty heavy team guys like when you look at how many hits they throw, how physical they are and perhaps their size is overall average and I think some of that

average size is brought down by the fact that I have a few players who are, you know, a bit smaller, like Quinn Hughes and Connor Garland and Niels Hoaglander.

But the median height is probably above average based on compared to the rest of the league. But they're fast and they're physical. You add Dakota Joshua to it. I don't know when

the last time we described a Canucks forward group as being heavy is, but I think that's what we're seeing here, especially when Dakota Joshua comes back. I don't even know if heavy is the right word for it. It's like aggressive definitely is one of them.

Relentless. Garland, to me, you definitely wouldn't describe his game as heavy, but he's got to be one of the most annoying players to play. Not only is's probably talking at you the whole time but he just never gives up in a puck battle and if you think you're skating away with the puck you might have won the one the first battle but then he's right back on you and and i feel like that is throughout the lineup now i think keifer sherwood brings an element of that as well.

Well, I mean, Garland especially. You guys know what it's like when you play against a smaller hockey player who's like a fire hydrant who always puts himself in between yourself and the wall and another player. And it's impossible to get through a player like that. They're so annoying to play against. And for Hoaglander too. I mean, Hoaglander, he's small, but the kid is pretty thick, man.

When I saw him in Tickton, I was really surprised at how much stronger he looked. Like, for a guy who was, like, what, 5'9", I mean, he looked like he was pushing, like, 200 bills. So when you have a guy, you know, that's playing like that and has that type of build, too, they're really hard players to move off the wall, really hard players to play through. And that's kind of built in the identity of this coaching staff too, especially the head coach.

I mean, we heard him talk so much about chipping a body. You see it throughout the lineup now. There isn't a player that, you know, goes through the neutral zone that doesn't get chipped by one of these forwards for the most part. And that goes to the mentality.

You don't have to be the biggest player, but if you play fast, you play physical, you get in people's faces, you're really hard to play against. And this Canucks team, whether you want to call them heavy or whatever it is, they are're really hard to play against. And this Canucks team, whether you want to call them heavy or whatever it is, they are a hard team to play against now.

Arter Seelovs. Is it possible he could be sent down to Abbotsford for a game? I just wonder what they're going to do with the goaltending this week. They play Carolina tonight. They play New Jersey on Wednesday. Both very good teams

and Lankanen continues to play well but they probably don't love that sea loves is just sitting on the bench and not getting any game action especially at his age yeah and they do have a bit of um a log jam to an adversary they have sarah the tilopilo as well um They have some of these other guys vying for spots. There are a lot of players that need minutes, but Shilov, I would imagine, has priority over those players. I don't know who's starting tonight.

I'd imagine it's going to be Lankanen again. If Lankanen has another great performance, how do you start Shilov on Wednesday? I don't think you can. If you win five in a row, you mess up the win streak when you have no back-to-backs because you want to get a guy in. I think you have to right i think you kind of have to you win five in a row you mess up the win street when you have no back-to-backs because you want to get a guy in i think you have to take advantage of having abbas for close by and getting him a game down there but i do i do know that they don't

view this as lincoln's job yet and that you know she loves it's just going to play second fiddle i think what's happening now is lincoln's just been so good in their winning games and they kind of have to ride the hot hand. But I think it's a good idea that getting him a game in the atmosphere would make a lot of sense. He's going to go on almost two weeks between starts if he doesn't play today and then Wednesday, right? So he's getting really close to needing to get some short

of time. But it shows you that as much as you're happy to have a bit of a looser schedule early in the season and not having many back-to-backs, if you win a few games, you have a hard time getting a goalie in. And, hey, that's a good problem to have. But I think Arthur Shulam, getting him a game in Abbotsford, I think also takes the pressure away from him feeling like he has to have a really good start his next time around.

And I think that would be a good thing for the team as opposed to having a goalie who might be struggling if he feels like he has to prove himself every start. Can you imagine if the Canucks management hadn't won that game of chicken with Lankanen? And Lankanen just said, like, I'm not signing here for that. I'm holding out for $2 million. Can you imagine if they didn't have him this season? I mean, we'd be sitting here talking about Yuri Patera and for him having a starter too.

And honestly, we'd be wondering, should they go out and trade for a goaltender? And I think the other discussion we'd be having a lot they go out and trade for a goaltender? And I think the, the, the other discussion we'd be having a lot more seriously is what is going on with Demco? We all know, but Demco that, you know,

it's, it's wait and see, but I think there would be a lot more existential crisis over what is going to happen with this goaltending position, especially if Demco's uncertainty. Now, even if it's a small sample early on, it kind of fools you into a safe sense of security

because if Lankan has played so well, we'll see if that continues. But if Lankan has two bad starts in a row and Shulov struggles a little bit, we're going to be back to square one wondering about that or Demko's status. The best thing Lankan has done is make us not focus on Demko so much. So you're right, not having Lankan right now, I don't know what the next record would be. I don't think they would be when they would be on the verge of perhaps a five-game winning streak.

And it just shows you that if you don't have goaltending early in a season, it can really sink you. Look at last year, guys. For all the talk about the Canucks having this great start last year, we talked about the first four games, they were 500. They had four points in four games. They had games that were outplayed, and the goaltenders saved their butts,

and they found their identity to find their game. And by the time the players found their games, the Goldaltenders saved their butts and they found their identity to find their game. By the time the players found their game, the Goldies leveled off, but at that point they had already established themselves as a strong hockey team. Imagine where this team would be scuffling-wise after those first three losses if their goaltending was questionable. I think it's absolutely safe to start through the season.

I know why I confused Sat and Batch at the beginning of the hit. It's because Sat's Chelsea next weekend are away at Batch's Man United. Eric ten Hogless. It'll be the first match in charge for Ruud van Nistelrooy. So that was where I got confused. By the way, good match yesterday.

That was fun. Cole Palmer. That was a lot of fun. That Cole Palmer kid, man, I'm telling you. I don't know why he's so good. I can't imagine. I can't understand why he's as good as he is but he's incredible he is the least athletic human I've ever seen perform at a high level of athletics it's crazy there's nothing

about him there's nothing about him that looks athletic at all they're like when he takes his shirt off like it looks like a bag of milk and he's got that look in his face like everything is a surprise to him but here we are he's like best striker in the premier league he's got that look in his face like everything is a surprise to him but here we are he's like he's like he's like you know he has like flip that's gone viral he goes whoa and i will that's all he says well all the time but i mean it's nuts because he will he goes from playing with man city was it two years ago right yeah playing a handful of matches how do you go from being like a big player or squad player you know academy star or a guy that has potential to being like the best attacker outside of Erling Haaland perhaps at

EPL in one year. Like guys don't just come to the scene like this. It's pretty unbelievable. City don't bottle it very often, but they did big time with that one because it's, I don't know how you let him

go, but they did. Anyway, Sat, we're up against it for time, bud. Thanks for doing this today. We appreciate it. Enjoy the game tonight. All right. Hey, you got it.

Anytime, boys. Thanks, Sat. Satir Shah here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Some crazy finishes in England over the weekend. Yeah, it was a fun one. Well, Italy, too. I don't know if you saw Inter and Juve, one of the classic

Italian derbies. Four-four. I didn't, but I watched El Classico. Not a good second half for Real Madrid. Not a good match for Real Madrid. Does Mbappe know the offside rule? Just checking. He was just whistled for offside again. He was offside eight times.

Yeah, it was terrible. Someone was like, they're playing what's called a high line. And he didn't figure it out. Just couldn't figure it out. A lot of footy talk in there in a little bit. Oh, one was on the screen too. Shout out to Canadian defender Alistair Johnson. Just couldn't figure it out. A lot of footy talk in there in a little bit. Oh, one was on the screen too. Shout out to Canadian defender Alistair Johnson.

Not only is he having a banner year for Celtic and Scotland. On the weekend, they anointed him the highest honor of the team. He got to wear the captain's armband. First time, I believe, a Canadian has ever captained one of the two big clubs in Scotland. And then he went and scored. Against Motherwell. Yeah. I mean, you know. It can't all be exciting in Scotland.

It's every opponent not named Rangers if you're Celtic is kind of inferior. But shout out to Alistair Johnson as well. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.