Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 10/29/25

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, including a big Blue Jays game four World Series win to even up the series at two apiece, as well as a disappointing Canucks home shutout loss to JT Miller's New York Rangers, they speak with Victory+ NHL insider Frank Seravalli about what's next for the 'Nucks trade-wise, plus they talk the latest Canucks news ahead of tomorrow's matchup in St. Louis with analyst Randip Janda. 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. Head well to deep left center. And this one will go. Head up. He's not over yet. We are a team of uncommon men. I think a normal team would have folded today, and we're not normal.

We're just normal men. Just innocent men. J.T. Miller and his teammates are victorious in his return to Rogers Arena. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brow. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Hey, Don, good morning to you. Good morning. And Lottie, welcome back. Good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com.

We are an hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street. Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech studio, Kintech, footwear and orthotics, working

together with you in step. Big show ahead on a Wednesday, three guests on the Halford-in-buff show on Sportsnet 650. The first is at 630, David Amber is going to join the program. Hockey Night Canada SportsNet NHL host. We will look back on a wild Tuesday night in the National Hockey League, 16 games, including that scintillating 2-0 loss for the Vancouver Canucks to J.T. Miller and the New York Rangers. there's just one game in the NHL tonight, classic

NHL. It is Wednesday hockey on SportsNet, Leafs of Blue Jackets. We can get into all that with David at 6.30 this morning. 7 o'clock, Frank Sarah Valley. Our NHL insider from Victory Plus is going to join the program. Frank did a bit this week, so we will ask him more

about the Canucks plans at the center ice position moving forward. Ooh. He's also got an update on what Calgary has in store for Nazim Codry. Maybe those two things Things are related. We'll talk to Frank at 7 o'clock about all things, NHL. 8 o'clock.

Randy Janda is going to join the program. Connucks color analyst for Sportsnet 650. As mentioned, as you saw or you heard, the Canucks lost to, nothing to the Rangers at Rogers Arena last night. First time, the Canucks have been shut out this season, and they saved it and managed to do it on one of the biggest nights on the calendar.

Canucks fly today in advance of Thursday's game in St. Louis against a struggling blues team. We'll talk to Randip about all that. at 8 o'clock two more giveaways today 730 we're giving away a 250 dollar gift card to golf town i will pass along all the information for that during the show and then at 8 o'clock it is our final foo fighters food fighters final giveaway for foo fighters tickets that concert isn't until 2026 way in the future but we're giving away a final pair of tickets today at 8 a.m again i will give away the information for the call in later on in the show

Working in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock, Randy Pjanda. 7 o'clock Frank Sarah Valley, 630. David Amber, that's what's happening on the program today. Greg, to tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies a best. and tools, resources, and safety training,

visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. We had an internal debate here at the Halford & Brough Show last night. We asked to each other, who are we going to start the show with? Is it going to be the Vancouver Canucks as I look at the SportsNet 650 wall and see the sign that says

SportsNet 650, your home of the Canucks? Do we start with them, or do we start with those plucky, resilient, never say die Blue Jays? I think the Blue Jays deserve it You did it We acknowledge winners On this program

Except the guy's hosting it Otherwise we We encourage And we promote winners Right here And it was Vladimir Guerrero Jr., two-run Homer Off Shohei Otani

Shane Beber Another terrific outing for him And the Blue Jays Shook off Remember that 18 inning loss The other night? Shook it off Don't worry about it

They're fine They're like a wet dog Don't even worry about Get that water off your back 6-2 victory over the Dodgers last night to force this series back to Toronto and move this past the game where I thought a lot

I think a lot of people thought this series would be over a lot of people were calling for a sweep it's now a best of three and the series will definitely go back to Toronto Well I think at the very least a lot of people were calling for this to be over in five I'm sure that was a popular prediction you know you give the Js 1

and then the Dodgers managed to clinch at home well the Dodgers you know this series won't be clinched it up in Los Angeles, it'll be clinched by someone in Toronto. And if you want to think about it another way, it's a best of three, and the Jays have home field advantage. The World Series trophy will be won at Rogers Center. We just don't know who's going to win it yet.

And what a performance from the Jays last night. We played that Ernie Clement clip in the intro talking about uncommon men, not ordinary men. And I will say this. I had no idea what to expect in yesterday's game after that 18 inning epic the night prior. It's very hard to try and predict what's going to happen coming off a game

which set World Series records. It's just it's unprecedented. You don't really know. But the Js have this remarkable ability to just go out and as Buck likes to put it, play Blue Jay baseball. And yesterday, one of the big things that they were able to do,

they couldn't do in that 18 inning game, was neutralized the effect of Shohei Otani. It was an ordinary Otani yesterday. And that was one of the major reasons why the Js were able to do what they did. They managed to tag him for six hits and four runs. They chased them in the

seventh. Yeah, he managed to get his strikeouts but they were able to put up runs on Otani and if you look at them now they have been able to get after the Dodgers starting pitching minus Yamamoto pretty effectively in this series. And then at the plate, I thought that might have been

the biggest, if there's such thing as in-game momentum or making a statement, going after Oton's not issuing walks like crazy, Bieber's ability to get him out. I know he walked him in the first app bat, but strike him out in consecutive at-bats and leave him in the on-deck circle in the ninth inning.

I think it really spoke to this Jay's team just being like, okay, yesterday was yesterday. Yeah. He killed us yesterday. We acknowledge that, but today is a new day. We're going to go out and attack him and get after him. Also, Otoni gave up his first home run of the postseason, and it came courtesy, the big bad of Vladimir Guerrero.

Fourth home run of the year, total. Pretty impressive performance from the Jays yesterday Okay, so I know that originally we had said All right Jays, you just got to find a way to get it back to Toronto Just get it back to Toronto then anything can happen Now I'm starting to get a little bit greedy Because the prospect of Yamamoto Pitching what would he pitch

Would he pitch game six for the Dodgers, right? So tonight you got Yassavage versus Snell The Jays have already beaten and Snell once in this series the odds of them doing it twice are pretty low but the odds of them winning this World Series are low let's face it, right? They've got to do something that is unusual

or that the odds are against and you savage you know he was a starter in game one, he didn't get the win but they won that game you know this one to me now I'm getting a little bit like okay you know what I know you

did get it back to Toronto but let's not waste this opportunity to because because Yamamoto, it wasn't just a one-time performance. He's the best pitcher of baseball right now. Yeah, yeah. It wasn't like the time that the Jay saw him, yes, he was great. But it wasn't like, wow, he'll never do that again. Like, he might because he's done it a few times in the postseason already.

So it'll be a savage's first postseason start on the road, correct? He's never, I mean, obviously they were trying to shelter him a little bit. I think he's only had two road starts period in his very, brief MLB pitching career. So it's going to be hostile, it's going to be tough. He wasn't great in his first start against the Dodgers, but he was okay. I think you're right. The answer is going to be, what are they going to do against Snell?

I think the other thing here, though, is that the Jay's Penn yesterday and what they were able to do behind Bassett, or sorry, behind Beaver was really impressive. And I spoke early because I mentioned Chris Bassett. What a story, Bullpen Bassett, going from an 11-year MLB career where he's exclusively been a starter, suddenly comes in as a middle and relief guy, pitches in back-to-back games for the first time in his career, and goes out last night, puts up another impressive performance after Beaver. I mean, the amount of incredible performances this team has gotten from non-stars all season

long is what's made them, for me, at least, so likable. You know, like they, you know, the other night, Eric Lauer comes in and pitches amazing, right? and the Jays didn't get the win but it was a terrific performance and it just seems I think we all wondered is this going to continue into the postseason or is it going to be like that

that magic will run out and then it'll just be up to the stars to get it done now the Blue Jays biggest star Vladimir Guerrero has got it done but what's made this so fun and I think what's given the Dodgers

more than a lot of people expected the Jays would give them, are they unexpected. You know, these, they are, they really are a true team. And it is,

you know, the people were going to get behind the Jays, however they did it, right? I mean, they're the Jays, but, you know,

I, for me, like, this team is very, very likable. And I, and I, you know,

do you know what I mean? Like, there, there are teams that are just good. Mm-hmm. Like the Dodgers. Like the Dodgers. Very good team.

Yeah, like the Dodgers. But, you know, I wonder, I mean, the rest of the baseball world must be cheering for the Jays in this. I'll Mariners fans, I can tell you that. Okay, whatever. Hey, I heard it from them a few times. I've got Mariners fans buddies that are cheering for the Jays. Really? Yeah.

So it's not, it's not all of them. Okay. But I would imagine that, you know, like if you want to talk about like spiteful, like, I'm pretty sure Padres fans are cheering pretty hard for the Blue Jays because not that the Dodgers are like super unlikable or anything like that. Otani's not unlikable. You're making that, you're making that. Like, who's unlikable?

I can make a case. Yeah, okay. Well, who's unlikable to anyone but you on, on the, like there might be. On the Dodgers? Yeah, who's unlikable? Dave Robbers. Traynon? Training.

I don't like him. Trinen is such a goof. Okay. But you know what I mean, right? Like, I think the Jays are a true underdog here. Yes, part of the reason why the Dodgers have this sort of, not Yankees-esque evil empire, but the evil of these two is because Dave Roberts, prior to the World Series, had those remarks,

which I think in retrospect, he'd probably walk back where he said, well, if we're going to ruin baseball, let's win four more and really ruin it. I'm paraphrasing what he said. But the idea is that the Dodgers are ruining baseball because they spend more than everyone. And any time a big free agent comes aboard, they add them to the pile, and they're spending egregious sums of money. It's not like other MLB teams aren't, but they've also won the World Series last year, and they're going for their back-to-back ones.

So they are very much positioned as the Goliath in all of this. And the J's are very much positioned as the David, which is hilarious, because the Js spent a ton of money as well, and one of their players makes half a billion dollars. And they're owned by a multi-billion dollar corporation. Just those nickel and dime Jays getting by, the mom-and-pop operation. Like, it's funny that it's positioned this way, but that's how it's, been positioned. Roberts had a lot to do with that. Now, the Jays have given the Dodgers, as you put, more fits than I think anyone thought. The Dodgers have played 14 games this postseason.

The Dodgers have lost three games this postseason and two of them have been to the same team. Like they ran through the National League, which quite honestly, I think a lot of people saw as their coronation because a lot of people said, well, the NL is the real, more tougher the two leagues, right? Milwaukee had the best team in baseball, at least record-wise, during the regular season. Everyone thought this might have been Phillies year. And then there were the defending World Series champions in the Dodgers. It's a fraud league, clearly. Fraudulent.

Fraudulent. Well, they might have also thought like if any team's going to beat it maybe it's going to be the Yankees. Yeah. In the World Series. Yeah. But it's proven to be this Jay's team that as you mentioned, has different guys stepping up all the time. And it's really impressive. And it's crazy to think that this thing

is going to go back to Toronto. It's going to be decided at Rogers Center. And the Jays now have home field advantage in a best of three. And it could very easily have been 3-1Js going back. I threw it out. I wanted to throw it out there on Twitter for some real rage bait. I said all they were were Yamamoto and Freddie Freeman heroics away from this being a sweep.

And it's already over, right? That's a bit of a stretch. That's a stretch. Yamamoto's not having a dud game. That's just not happening. If they were able to get to him just a little bit and if Freddie Freeman didn't have the most heroic home run of his career, I digress. Let's go to the Vancouver Canucks now. One of our listeners from Euclid is foaming at the.

mouth, frothing, if you will, that we haven't had talked about the Canucks or given a Quinn Hughes update yet. The listeners are in a bit of an ornery mood this morning. I don't know if it's us starting off with baseball or whatever. There's some, I mean, Dawn and North Van, I want to read this, but like this isn't that bad because he's dead right. Looks like your predictions of something happening at the Canucks game last night was way off. If anything, it was a yawn fest at best. everyone involved in it seems to have moved on. I think that is pretty accurate and it surprised me a little bit

the lack of emotion I apologize for hyping that game up because it didn't deliver even in the least it wasn't very fun it wasn't very exciting there didn't appear to be much emotion on the ice the building kind of fell asleep the Canucks didn't score a goal

and they lost Connor Garland to an injury I guess it was kind of exciting late in the third kind of the Canucks had a few chances to tie it but the news that Garland wasn't returning to the game loomed over any excitement the Canucks were already without one of the best defensemen in the game and the one they couldn't afford to be missing in Quinn Hughes

and now for a little while at least they're going to be missing Garland who's almost certainly been their best forward this season I barely noticed J.T. Miller outside of the video tribute. You know, I think he played a solid game. He was out there.

He played a solid game, but, you know, I think the Rangers of his team played a solid game. I thought Pedersen played well and was trying to lead out there. No goals is no goals, though. And it was a little bit hard

to watch the empty netter when he thought it would be icing and it went straight in the net. So it wasn't, wasn't a super night for Elias Pedersen although he did play well and if you're looking for any other positives

I thought Lucas Reichel had another good game four shots on goal looked dangerous at times and Tom Velander made his NHL debut and did quite well he even got some power play time which I didn't expect to see but you know I didn't expect to see

Quinn Hughes hurt and Connor Garland hurt and well maybe I expected he'll be hurt but not so early you know the caducs are now five and six and you can say that well injuries are the reason they're five and six and it's surely a contributing factor but five and six and it's not going to get any easier because they are right back on the road to play three games starting tomorrow in st louis they don't even get like this schedule i know everyone's playing it but it is very very difficult especially for a team that's running into injuries for very key players. Eight injuries now that Canucks are up to you. So on the note of the injuries, and because people are texting into the Dunbar number text line at 650, 650,

asking the update on Quinn Hughes, per the head coach, Adam Foote, is that Hughes is going to be evaluated today before the team travels to St. Louis. It is a lower body injury. He is listed as day to day. Foot was asked if this injury was related to any, the myriad of injuries that Quinn Hughes suffered last year, Foote said no. There's your Quinn Hughes update. Your Connor Garland update is there is no update. Foote said that he was still being evaluated after the game. He exited prior to the start of the

third period and did not return for that aforementioned third period. Garland, it was confirmed, suffered the injury on the hit from Sam Carrick. That was maybe the most emotional part of the game was the big hit that Carrick laid on Garland. And then in response, and good on him for doing it, Marcus Patterson dropping the gloves in defense of his injured teammate. Outside of that, though, the game was bereft of, as

you put it, emotion, excitement, juice. There was no boost. It was boostless. So why did that game suck so much? Well, I think the eight injuries have something to do with it. But I'll also say this. You know, this show

we like, do we like to have a good time? It's fun. This team is not fun and by that I mean they don't play in a way that makes it fun they don't approach the games in a way that makes it fun they don't seem to have any of the investments that you need to make it

a good time to watch last night do you think they just wanted this game to be over with like both sides like JT Miller was happy to get the tribute but it also seemed like I don't know if you saw Elias Pedersen interviewed in the morning they were like you know what are your thoughts on playing JT and he was like

I played him last year do you think Do you think that's why Adam Foote bag skated them prior to the game was to get it all out of their system? Like, you know when you take a dog? I have no idea why he bagscated them. You know when you take a dog to the park and then the dog comes home and it's still a little restless? And you're like, back to the park with you. We got to get you calm down.

I don't think that's why. I think he probably skated them just because they'd played two games, Saturday, Sunday. Monday, maybe, you know, Monday you get the day off and then maybe you tighten up a little bit. and maybe he just wanted to get the juices flowing a little bit. I don't know if it had an impact on the game, but I know the people watching the morning skate were like, well, this is unusual. You don't see that very often very, you know,

and morning skates, especially for a team that's playing his third game in four nights. Yeah. I don't, was Adam Foote asked about that? I don't know. I don't know if he was. I was kind of focused on the Jay's stuff, to be honest. That was fun.

Yeah. And look, we are in a very competitive sports. landscape right now in terms of drawing attention. There's no shortage of things going on right now. There were 16 NHL games last night. The Canucks and Rangers had the opportunity to be one of the major talking points on a night where the NHL dominated a lot of conversations because every single team, all 32 of them, were playing last night, but the game was a dud.

And again, I don't think it was through any fault of the players who made a push in the third period and did all the sort of usual rote exercises that teams do when they're trailing one nothing. the Canucks were kind of an average to above average team coming into the season and now a third of their lineup is out with injuries and they're just trying to get by and they're just trying to do the things you can do to survive what is eight injuries to some very important players as well so further to the why did that game suck I mean you have to credit the Rangers too right

I mean they came in and played that road game yeah they came in and made it a dour affair. I think that they played their part. Do you want to talk a couple minutes about Evander Cain because no goals now in 11 games and and you know I think there's a lot of people that dislike Evander Cain for numerous reasons. I think most of you will remember my reaction when they traded for him. It was not positive. Did you say something? But you know, I try to watch him on the ice and just, you know, assess him on the ice. And I, I, I think he's done some good things out there. I really do.

He's made some nice passes out there. He's drawn penalties, but he's also taking a bunch of penalties. And in a tight game, like last night, it was hard to ignore the fact that on the one non-empty-netter goal that was scored in that game, he was gliding on the back check, wasn't moving his feet. And Zabana Jed was able to get position and scored the goal. Like that is, I know he's a winger. It's not a defenseman. but Zabandajad was right there for him to check.

Sure. And he was gliding. So, I mean, that's, that's not good. And if he had five goals already, you'd be like, all right, well, he's got five goals. But, you know, he has a lot of shots. I think he's third on the team in shots or something like that. He's got almost 30 shots on the season. But, you know, he's supposed to be a goal score.

And I remember when he was signed, people were like, he's coming home. He'll love it. It's a contract year. He loves money. and then you know it's like like he's going to be great with petersine he's going to score 30 goals maybe 40 goals well he's got none yeah in 11 games and I'm no math genius but uh none in 11 games is not on pace for 30 and 82 let me check he's on pace for zero zero goals yeah yeah that's tough I remember when the deal was initially struck to acquire van der kane saying at 13

34 years old, and having missed the entire 2024, 2025 regular season campaign, it's going to be a bit of a long shot to think that he can reclaim the form that saw him score like 30 in San Jose or 20 multiple times earlier in his career. It's just not easy. And I know that last year he came back and played 21 games in the playoffs and scored six goals. But a lot of that, a lot of the energy that he brought, a lot of the goal scoring that he brought, happened in the early stages. that playoff run. As that playoff run went along, you started to see a guy that missed an entire entire season, did not play an entire regular season. And now you're looking at it. And I think that at 34 and given the amount of time that he missed and given the wear and tear on his

body, you're seeing diminished returns on a guy that is not the same player that he was. He still has it in flashes. But I don't think he can still hit hard and he can still shoot the puck. But I think it was probably unrealistic to expect him to be an 80. game contributor when he was a zero regular season game contributor last year. Again, I understand that he came back in the playoffs. And yeah, it was he made a nice impact for the

Oilers to get to the Stanley Cup. But if you look back on his splits between the first two rounds and then what he did in the Western Conference final and the Stanley Cup final, there was a pretty big difference. Right? And it's because he's older. The games start to drag on. You know,

fatigue starts to pile up. And it's scary to say this stuff 11 games into the season because you know you do the math there and there's like there's still a lot more to be played this season he probably in a compressed schedule yeah like i it could be one of those years where he's playing some version of catch up the entire time well i remember adam foot sing in training camp he's like he's like yeah you know vander's like out there in practice and just you know he kind of said like he's starting these practices slow but i don't have a problem with that he's got to find his legs and he's a veteran and all that sort of thing and I was like

it's interesting that he said that though because he can obviously see in these practices that Kane isn't you know doesn't have the level that maybe others have yeah in terms of now it's just like that's a good point though you know getting getting up to speed and he does I mean he's he's old for the NHL but it's a good point to bring up because if he is in that mode where I'm going to you know kind of work my way back into being where I think I could hit my top form halfway through the season, that's fine. But with the amount of injuries the Canucks have right now, like he's a frontline guy and they need him to perform right now.

Like, fair or not, unrealistic expectations or not, they need Kane to deliver more than zero goals in 11 games because they have eight injuries and so many significant injuries at the forward position, including now Connor Garland. I'm actually terrified to see what they look like without Garland and Hughes in the lineup. Yeah, I know. I mean, those are their two main play drivers. Those are the guys that get the puck from one end of the ice to the other,

and they often just do it by themselves. They're like, how about I just do this? Now they can't. They're both hurt. I mean, what does your top six look like without Connor Garland? You've got Pedersen, Bessor de Brusk maybe back together? Well, I don't know. Pedersen, yeah, and then what, a second line of Evander Cain, Lucas Reichel and Kiefer

Sherwood? Yeah. Yeah, that's it. By the way, I like Reichel, and I know he had a ton of chances last time. But every time I watch him play, I can't help but think, like, this was a guy that could knock it in the lineup for a Chicago team that's getting better, but it's probably still in the bottom third of the league. And then he comes to Vancouver, and he's a 16, 17 minute and a second line center.

And they're like, buddy, I know you're just got here, but you're playing in five minutes. Yeah, a lot. Desperately need you. Put down that hot dog from Portillo's. You have to play a lot. He's like, okay, I'll do it. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

Our next guest is our NHL insider from Victory Plus. He is also a presentation of Angry Otter Licker. Frank Sarvalley joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Frank. How are you doing? How are you guys doing? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

We're excited to ask the same question we ask you every single week that you come on this program. What's the latest with the Kodak's search? for center help as we move on and on and on during this regular season. What's the latest? There is no latest. It's October 29th. We are, you know, in week four of the season. And teams generally, by and large, don't make trades. And so not only that, but there's a third of the league, half the league, that is chasing the same exact thing that the Vancouver Canucks are.

So they can get in line. They've got a willingness, an aggression, a hunger to make something happen, but you can't make anything materialize on a market that doesn't exist. So that's the holdup an issue. Yeah, we've asked a few of our guests this week about a team like the Boston Bruins because there's Pavel Zaka talk in Vancouver. And I understand the need from Vancouver side. It's obvious.

But what I don't understand quite at all, really, is like, where are the Bruins right now? Why would they even be considering trading Pavelzaka? They're not. Yeah, and you would have to assume that if the Canucks are in this, that it's going to be futures coming the other way. So, like, how does that make sense? It doesn't, is what you're telling me.

Well, it could make sense later. It doesn't make sense right at this exact moment in time. I mean, the Bruins are still trying to figure out what they are. Are they a team that can rebound? There's been some ugly returns. They've also had a few decent nights. They're five and seven. They've got 10 points.

And the truth is they're two points out of a playoff spot. You think they're going to, you know, in a year where they had higher expectations to bounce back with Jeremy Swayman and Ned a healthier decor and, you know, maybe David Pasternak driving the bus with some increased bottom six help. You don't think that they're hoping they can squeeze back into the race. and make something out of this season. Of course, that's what their goal is. They're not trying to trade Pavlzaka.

In fact, they're open to extending him. They haven't gotten to that point in time yet. So there's no, like, impetus to move him. If the, you know, if the Bruins fall out of the race, and it's January or February, and they say, okay, we're open to considering doing things a little bit differently. We're 20 points back of a playoff spot, and we've got no hope.

hope and we need to begin to turn over our roster and take a look at what the future is retooling this group. Sure. Could they move him then? Yes. But right now, it's not on their agenda. It just isn't. What are you hearing on Nazim Kadri? Not necessarily related to the Canucks, but, you know, I know the flames had a good win over the Rangers the other day, but they got to be thinking about cashing in some of their assets. Well, they are thinking. about it. But again, to a lesser degree, I would say with less hope than the Bruins, because they're a team that really will struggle to score. And at five points

gained through 11 games played, it's not anywhere close to enough in a jam-packed Western Conference that they might be one of those teams that's packing it in early. The difference between the Bruins and Flames is that in Calgary, they're concerned about opening up or feeding their young players to the wolves. If you don't have a couple veteran support pieces around you, then you're in for a tough night every night. And they want to avoid overloading or overwhelming their younger players. And that's part of the reason why this, you know, this Calgary team features a handful of vets

in their lineup from Cadre to Coleman to Euberdo to Uyger, Anderson. Like, those guys are not just, you know, pieces to try and help this team inch closer to the playoffs. They're trying to provide proper support. I'm going to list four teams that are currently in a playoff position that a lot of people didn't expect to be in a playoff position. You tell me which one is for real, if any of them are for real. Pittsburgh, Philly, Seattle,

and Chicago. None. Is that blunt enough for you? It's fair. You know, I'm looking at, I mean, I'm happy for Connor Bedard that he looks like he's taking his game up a step,

but I don't know if those guys have the staying power. Which one, which one do you think is like the most surprising just over the first 10 or 11 games, though? Definitely Pittsburgh. look obviously at the top of their lineup with Crosby and Malkin and even if you want to include Carlson on the back end although he was dreadful last night you know there's there's obvious talent and skill and you're talking about two of you know for the better part of two decades the best players in the world

so to think that this seven two and two shot out of the gate was expected I think is is so far off the map or mark. Even the penguins themselves, like as 31 other teams were trying to improve this summer, the penguins were sitting back saying, you know, this probably isn't our year. We've missed the playoffs a few years in a row. We haven't won around since 2018. We've got a new rookie head coach, guys that are entering the final years of their deal like Malkin. This is the changing of the guard, or at least the beginning of the changing of the guard, ahead of what's a really special draft class. And now what's that old saying?

You know, you make plans, God laughs or whatever it is. That's kind of what it feels like right now. It's like this team that was not planning on being in the mix is now squarely in the mix to start. And you know, I think

the worst case scenario, and this is just my black and white view on how the, you know, the NHL world works. The very worst thing that could happen to the Pittsburgh Penguins is to be an 85 or 90 point team and draw themselves closer to the middle of the

pack, still miss the playoffs, and not get their hands on what is a very special franchise changing player in the top five of this draft. It's Randip Jand, a Canucks color analyst here on SportsNet 650 on the Halford & Brough show. Good morning Randip. How are you? Good morning

guys. I'm doing well, probably not as well as Greg Ballack there in his Blue Jays. Congrats on the win. He's very excited about the Blue Jays. I'm not sure. Thank you, thank you. Yes, his mic is working. We've had some technical difficulties this morning, Randeep.

So we're working through it. I've worked at the radio station a long time. I understand. He gets it. He gets it. I get it. Speaking of difficulties, let's talk about the Vancouver Canucks. Have we been able to see what this Canucks team is supposed to be about?

Like we were talking about identity earlier in the show. show and we're like, what is the Canucks identity and a bunch of people texted in almost correctly? They were like, I think their identity right now is injuries because Conner Garland got added to the list and, you know, that list already includes Quinn Hughes and Philip Heedal. You know, they're running out of players and it's hard to tell what they are or what they're trying to do without these key players in the lineup. Yeah, I think the want or the the desire is to be a team that plays fast and can hit you off, you know, basically in transition, right?

Like, that's a team that Adam Foote has practiced in preseason when the team was relatively healthy. That was the idea of, okay, you're going to forecheck hard and you're going to attack off the rush. And we've seen that in, you know, moments, right, the Calgary game, where they were able to score at will and it hasn't been something that they've been able to do consistently. We saw that in stretches. against Dallas and Washington.

But, yeah, unfortunately, they haven't been able to lean on that because look at the players that they're missing. One of the guys that was supposed to be key in transition this year was Philippeal, and we know what's going on with him. In order to get Elias Pedersen a little bit more free and away from defensive responsibility, like Teddy Blugher has a role in that, and he's been injured. So you don't have him to help out on the defensive side or the PK, which means you're probably overusing an Elias Pedersen.

and at some point, you know, that grinds you down. And now Connor Garland and adding him to that mix, guys, when we talk about playing an aggressive approach where you're hanging onto the puck and you're attacking off the rush, you know, that certainly chips away your identity because I would argue that Connor Garland represents the identity that the team wants more than, you know, some of the star players.

And I think Garland has been their best forward this season. his style and his mental makeup is what they want to guide this team in a lot of ways. So when you're missing those types of players and Quinn Hughes, obviously, your best player, your most important player, etching that identity, especially early on in the season, is very difficult. If this injury spell had happened in game 25 to 30, obviously it hurts, but you might have already settled into identity. Maybe your depth guys are playing a certain style. Maybe you've already kind of, you know, settled into it. I just, it's really early in the season.

That makes it tougher to develop identity because you don't have those, you know, 15, 20 games of experience. I'm a little worried because they're 5, 6, and O, so already not the start they want. They play Thursday tomorrow. Just, you know, every game is just like, and there's another one. And it's tomorrow in St. Louis. So they've got to travel and go play a blues team. that kind of dominated them earlier in the season, although the blues have fallen off since then.

But then I just counted it up. They have 14 games in November. We talk a lot about this condensed schedule, and I know that every other team is having to deal with it, but other teams might have injuries, but do they have them like the Canucks have them right now? No, they don't. And I think, you know, prior to the season beginning or right at the beginning,

Seattle Cracken had a bunch of injuries, other teams have dealt with it. But at this point in the season, you're dealing with your most important forward to start off the season, Connor Garland, your best defenseman and best player all around missing. And, you know, we were doing this kind of exercise yesterday. You talked about November, but they played 7 and 11. They played 11 and 19. And that is not unique to the Vancouver Canucks. but what is unique is the number of injuries to quality players.

So it is going to be tough. It is going to be difficult. And it's going to require, if Connor Garland is not ready to go in the next game or the next couple of games, it's going to require another player to play up the lineup. Now, is that a key for sure would being a top six player rather than a top nine player? Probably, right? You're going to need somebody who brings that spark plug mentality,

maybe an aggressive forecheck, the ability to score some goals from a third line role. And here's the thing. with Kiefer Sherwood, I think his offense has been a fantastic story. It's something that you're saying, all right, in the third line role, maybe in a second line role, depending on how you deploy him, he's done an excellent

job. It's a nice to have. And now moving forward, if you're playing in the top six, there's going to be offense expected from you. So, you know, as this goes on, as you play more games in this really tight window, Jason, you're going to have to ask even more for some of these players to provide offense. And

listen, I'm not saying they can't do it. obviously, you know, some of these guys that are overachieving already and they've done a great job of really putting together efforts, but it's going to require that much more from players that, you know, some of them should be in the HL, some of them have been playing NHL minutes, but they're going to eat more minutes now, which is, you know, some guys will be ready for that, and for others, it's going to be a grind.

What have you thought of Lucas Reichel so far? Yeah, I've liked this flash. I think, you know, his ability to create something off of, you know, picking up speed in the neutral zone what four shots on goal yesterday one missed net probably should have had a goal uh amongst them even the first chance of the game was his you know a glove safe forced a glove save on jonathan quick but like his uh his speed also you know just his ability to come in from the neutral zone with speed there's that fantastic moment on power play two where he created an opportunity and it was just refreshing to see a power play two chance off the rush it

It wasn't like a stop-start power play, a set play. It's like, all right, you can keep the defenseman on the heels a little bit. And I know the biggest question with him long-term is, A, can he play center, which to me is very much a question. I don't know if his future is going to be at the center position, but at least at the short-term he's doing a good job. Yeah, it is right now, right? The short-term it is.

Long-term, he's going to be a winger. I'm pretty confident saying that. But, you know, defensively, he's actually making some plays that. he's getting back to danger areas in the offensive zone, but he's also just taking the body, a little subtle place in the defensive zone, which I understand that's not going to be his role, most likely. But the fact that he is fully engaged in trying to make an impact

as much as he can on both ends of the ice, I think it's a great starting point for him. So I think with Lucas Reichel always been a fan of his offensive skill, even when he was in Chicago, anytime we do a Chicago game, something would always stand out about this guy, about, all right, he's electric in the neutral zone. We're seeing a little bit in the offensive zone.

I just wish he'd get that goal because I think then, you know, he's doing a lot of good things. He just hasn't been able to pick up that goal in the first couple here. Is Evander Kane unlucky to have not scored a goal yet? I would say a lot of shots, but how many of them have been super high quality, right? That's the question I have And I think with Evander There's a couple of

You know, we know he's not the quickest In certain moments he can be on the forecheck You know, when he's you've got a path to the foretrucker And he can close pretty quickly Yeah, when he gets going, he can get going When he gets going And it's not going to happen, you know, all 82 games We understand where he is in his career

But he still has that moment where he's going to be able to make those plays I think he did against Dallas Early on the season against Calgary he showed a couple of spurts as well. But from an offensive perspective, I just don't see him getting, and there's two problems here. You don't see him in and around the blue paint as often,

as he probably should be. And I think there's some efforts to deflect pucks to cleanups or rebounds. There was one against Johnson Quick yesterday, but it was few and far between. The other problem, Jason, is the Canucks aren't getting pucks through. Like yesterday was a classic example, and I know this team is depleted in. injury-wise, but you're just not able to see the pucks go through and him battling for space.

So even if he's got body position or if he's able to get there for Vancouver, you know, averaging less than 25 shots per game, averaging a low shot attempt. They're, you know, bottom five, bottom seven in the league on that front. Evander's not going to be most likely scoring off the rush like he did five or six years ago. You're going to have to need some zone time. You're going to have to get pucks through. He's going to have to battle for those greasy ones. and sure he scored a number of ways in his career, different ways.

But I think at this point in his career, you're going to have to ensure that, you know, the puck kind of gets to him as well. So part of this is a vendor and part of this is I think Vancouver just not being able to get pucks through. And yesterday was a classic example of that where you had a lot of zone time and credit the New York Rangers for, you know, kind of killing plays in the neutral zone or when they did offer up in the defensive zone for New York, they kind of kept Vancouver to the outside, didn't let pucks through. but I think this is both Avander

and what the Canucks are struggling with right now with all these injuries is they're just not getting pucks through. I have to admit, I chuckled a bit last night when I looked up and I was like, is Tom Velander on the power play? Like, what is we're Game 11 and Tom Velanders not only in the lineup

but he's on the power play and I think that just speaks to all the injuries that the Canucks have dealt with? what did you think of Vlander's NHL debut last night yeah some 13 minutes but I thought it was for the most part

of composed 13 minutes right like you talk about you know him playing on the power play that's the world and Quinn Hughes is not out there you know eating up usually pretty close to 90 seconds

if not the two minutes of power play time sometimes you know Philip Pirona will barely see the ice on power play too when Quinn's healthy but when you know VLander I thought

him, you know, the way he played on a couple of things, his skating is fantastic, right? We saw that one-on-one, basically icing play where he beats Brodzinski back to the zone, and that gave you a sense of, all right, this kid has wheels. Like, we know he can skate. There's other couple plays that I really liked that,

you know, he's got, he's feeling the pressure from the fourth check, and it wasn't something fancy. It was just a simple place to avoid pressure and make a play, get it to his teammates. And there were one or two moments, I felt in the third period where, yeah, sure, he's not seeing the most ice time, but there was some of that, you know, composed play that we'd heard of at the Swedish level. We've heard of at, you know, BU as well.

So taking that step, it's going to be some good games, some bad games. We'll see what happens next against St. Louis. But for me, I thought that was for an NHL debut, when you're going to have nerves, when you're going to get caught on the four check, when, you know, this is a Rangers team that was angry. and, yeah, there was some, you know, aggressive forechecking by them, especially in the second period. I think for the most part, Tom Glander played, you know, a solid debut, and we started to see some of those characteristics that were talked about in his draft year,

like that's skating, that composure. Is there going to be offense there? Probably not. Like, he's not an offensive defenseman. Seeing him on the power play was certainly a surprise. But I thought there's the composure that you'd expect to see from a player that was highly touted coming out of his draft year. How much more do the Canucks need out of Jake Debrusk right now?

yeah they need a fair bit right like this i think anybody in the top six other than you know alias peterson has improved drastically obviously uh this is a player that is showing us what he can do um connor garland when he's healthy he's been their best skater uh forward excuse me with jake i think with jake he kind of gets lost in game sometimes and um maybe seems a bit of a step behind and he's relying on i think you know his playmakers right like so So he just seems like when this team, there's one moment yesterday, I think that he looked really sharp and it was probably his best skating stride where Alias Pedersen hit them with a path and it was a great play by Pedersen. Just to slow down the game and then hit DeBruscu's coming down the left-hand side. But outside of that guys, you know, the top six-four, you didn't really notice Jake all that much and, you know, he played just under 20 minutes as well.

So for a guy that has the offensive, capabilities that Jake DeBrus does, you know, two shots on goal. Like, when he's good, we see him everywhere and he's very, very keen on getting the puck off his stick. There was that game, a few games ago where he got 10 shots on goal. But he is reliant on the players around him, right?

Like, he doesn't necessarily create his own shots. So, you know, if he's not getting that pass or if they're having a little bit of trouble getting the puck out of the zone, I think with Jake, they're going to, you know, they kind of do suffer in that regard. One area that I would like to see, you know, Jake, and this was a thing under Rick Tocket as well was that

just he's got, you know, he's not the biggest of guys, but he's got broad shoulders and he can be a handful in the corners. We've seen him do very well, and other times we've seen him maybe not engage in those battles the same way that you want them to. I'd like to see, like yesterday was a classic game

where I'm looking at some of those defensemen in the Rangers and I'm saying, hey, some of them are very nasty, like Will Borgon. A couple of these guys are going to make it difficult for you to get inside, but, you know, you also had matchups like Vecanin and those lower defensemen that I would have liked to see not only Jake DeBrasse, but Evander Cain, just kind of bully some of those guys.

Yeah. And we just didn't see enough of that. And I think Jake needs to add a little bit more to the game where he's fully engaged in those battles down low. So I'd like to see a little bit more for him, no doubt. Why do you think that game sucked last night? It was a classic title fight gets hyped, and then all of a sudden, you know, you pay for the pay-per-view.

And it was like, oh, this is not what the, you know, the pre-fight promotion was, felt like it. I think a lot of that had to do with the Rangers because the Rangers and J.T. Miller did a good job of managing their emotions, right? Like if J.T, and we know what kind of guy JT is, I go back to that season in 2022, I believe it was October 27th. I looked this up before yesterday's game. When the Canucks started started off both five and two, they played Seattle. and J.T. was going around hitting everybody. He fought Carson Susey that night. Like he wanted an emotional response

from the Vancouver Canucks that night and they ended up winning their first game of the season. If J.T. wanted to do that, he could have done that yesterday. But he decided that, hey, you know, I don't want the emotional approach to this. We need to focus on our details. And I think it was an all-business approach from the Rangers and J.T. Miller.

So if they had wanted to go, you know, into the gutters, so to speak, and muck it up. and that's the way you get the energy from it. They could have. I think it was entirely on J.T. And he decided, hey, we need the two points. We need to play solid defense.

And I think that's why we saw that kind of work out the way. Evander Cain was on the ice for the first shift of the game. He was playing with Elias Pedersen for about the first three or four shifts. Like if JT wanted to engage and send a message, it was there for him. He just turned the other way. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Thank you.