Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 10/30/24

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports including a crazy incident at the World Series, they talk the latest Canucks trade rumours with Frank Seravalli, plus they preview tonight's Canucks home matchup versus the Devils with Sportsnet's Iain MacIntyre. 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 & Brough. You're listening to Halford & Brough. Swing and a ball drilled, left field. Fernandez. Bang! Goal! Grand slam Anthony Bumfey! He loves being a Yankee. Just as importantly, though, he loves the guys

he gets to go do it with every day. Ovechkin gets a return. Wrist shot. Score! Alex Ovechkin! Goal number 856! Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. This is Halford and his bruv, it is Sportsnet 650.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Ferryview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and bruv for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda,

Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soar feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec, got a big show ahead on a Wednesday. Guest list begins at 6.30. David Amber, Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet NHL host. We can go through all the games last night.

Two Canadian teams in games involving eight goals, but on very different ends of the spectrum for the Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Canadians. We'll talk to David about that at 6.30. 7 o'clock, Frank, Sarah Valley. Big hockey show today. Lots to get into across the league and with your Vancouver Canucks

as well. 7.30, here's an interesting one. NHL Giants skills Canucks as well. 7.30, here's an interesting one. NHL Giants skills coach Caden Jarvis, brother of Carolina Hurricanes up-and-coming star Seth Jarvis. So I don't know Caden very well, Laddie, but you're around the rink at the Giants. You spoke highly of him. What can we expect from Vancouver Giants skills coach Caden Jarvis today?

He's a very intelligent guy. I know the Giants organization is proud to have him. I've done interviews with him at the rink because they like to get him out there, and I think it should be a good interview. He's an interesting hockey guy to pick his brain. His brother's quite the character. Yeah, and he is as well, so it'll be an interesting interview

when we get him on. Cool. 8 o'clock, Ian McIntyre, Sportsnet's very own. We'll talk to him about the Vancouver Canucks ahead of tonight's game. Note the start time, 7.30, Canucks, Devils, Huesapalooza. It's the battle of all three brothers to see who gets to sit in the front seat of the car on the ride home from the game at Rogers Arena, Canucks, Devils tonight. Is it a doubleheader on Sportsnet? Is it the Jets and the Red Wings

to kick off in Detroit at 7.30 Eastern time and then the Canucks and the Devils at 10.30 Eastern time. Everyone will be tuned into that first game to see how Detroit's life is like without Ole Matta. Because they traded him

yesterday. That's the big story there. The Ole Matta-less Detroit Red Wings. How will they survive without Ole Matta? Anyway, we've got a big show ahead. We've got a lot to get into. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happ that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Briefly, very briefly at the top of the show, we are going to start with the baseball

because the New York Yankees staved off elimination. Last little bit of staving from the New York Yankees thanks to Anthony Volpe's third inning grand slam. Overcoming more heroics from Freddie Freeman who went yard again, a record-setting home run. Poor Freddie Freeman. He's like, okay, I guess I'm

going to have to homer in game five now. It was looking so good for me. A four-game game sweep i have a home run in each poetry but no the yankees freddie's like bring on game six i'll homer in that one as well so going back to his previous world series appearances he's now homered in six straight world series again crazy crazy crazy stuff amazingly that story takes a backseat to one, the Yankees winning and, you know, forcing game five tonight. And then two, this situation with Mookie Betts and a Yankees fan in the outfield by the name

of Austin. Tim Robinson. Oh, no. He did look like Tim Robinson. He was a chinless Tim Robinson. So, um, I'm. What's his name? Anthony Copa Bianco. What? Anthony Capobianco. Sorry, I pronounced anthony copa bianco what anthony capo bianco sorry i pronounce it

wrong capo bianco capybara and it's also austin so i got both his first name and surname but i feel like that's appropriate you got both parts yeah but i feel like it's somehow appropriate for the fact that this guy is a walking chud so the 38 year old cap Capo Bianco was tossed early in the game on Tuesday night when a fly ball into right field was caught by Mookie Betts and then quickly wrestled out of the glove of Mookie Betts by this guy. Quickly? Pretty quickly. Pretty quickly by Capo Bianco.

Now, the play on the field wasn't really altered by what happened because the umpire immediately ruled the batter out bets really didn't make a big deal of it and he didn't make a big deal of a post game either and uh capo bianco was tossed from the game yeah bets didn't make a big deal of it because he didn't want to like he's like game five is here too isn't it yeah like and he was very smart about it right he's like he actually said post-game, he's like, I moved on, he moved on, we're cool. We're just trying to focus on the next game. Smart by Mookie Betts, stupid by his fan. The crazy part is that the story didn't really end there.

Because ESPN went out of their way to find the guy and then interview him at a local bar nearby. Oh, God. Is this guy going to become a celebrity now? A little minor celebrity? He told me. He's going to be on a podcast with a Hawk bar nearby. Oh, God. Is this guy going to become a celebrity now? A little minor celebrity? He's going to be on a podcast with a Hawk 2 girl. He told ESPN that the Yankees told him that he's going to be allowed back in for Game 5 because he's a season ticket holder. That's wild.

That is absolutely wild that he's allowed back in. The Yankees, as per ESPN, have not issued a statement yet. Crazy. You can't. That just can't be allowed. You know why it can't be allowed? wild that he's allowed back in the yankees as per espn have not issued a statement yet crazy you can't you that just can't be allowed you know why it can't be allowed yeah because this guy i'm sorry you're not allowed to do that is that against but here's the thing is that illegal this guy in america in this guy in the espn article was defiant in his actions he acknowledged that he screwed up in that moment. And he said, quote, I was like, boys, I'm out of here.

Meaning he knew he was going to get tossed. Then there's this quote, but I patrol that wall. And they know that. He's a season ticket holder that sits along that wall. What does that mean, he patrols that wall? That means if there's a foul ball hit, this insane asylum feels as though he has as much right to the ball as the players like he protects that wall like the players do on the field right which is a amazing thing to say when you think about like he's helping out the team like he's basically like if you come into my

territory you're gonna have to fight for a foul ball with me this isn't helping yankee fan reputation i gotta say here's his other quote. We always joke about the ball in our area. We're not gonna go out of our way to attack. I dispute that. But if it's in our area,

we're gonna D up. Someone defends. Someone knocks the ball. We talk about it. We're willing to do this. I don't know if this guy has zero self-awareness or if he's daring the Yankees to not let him back in.

I mean, we've talked at length about... I guess, is there a difference between being a fan in the foul line, like in the foul territory, as opposed to the home run territory? Is there a difference there? I would say... From a rules perspective. If you just, I mean... Like as a fan in the foul territory,

would you be encouraged to do that? Or is there still the same rules, like the Empire can say he would have caught that, so it's fan interference? Well, that's what I mean, yeah. I mean, it would have been fan interference in foul territory or home run territory, right? Yeah.

And as far as the rules. What is his thinking there? His thinking is that I guess he's going to make life maybe harder. Like maybe you could interfere. You could have your hands in front of the ball and then snatch them away at the last second. His thinking is, I'm part of the team. Yeah, that's the sad thinking. Very sad.

I'm excited to see him at game five, though. That should be good. Anyway, there's your World Series recap. We do have to get in to the vancouver canucks stuff here the canucks returned to practice yesterday uh now it was interesting because following the loss to carolina on monday night uh i think you and i both expected some big big changes to the power play because rick talk it said there's going to be changes coming to our power play. So we were like, hmm, he's not a liar usually. However, in this instance, there were some minor adjustments

to the way guys were aligned on the power play, but the personnel remained the same. As for the lines and the deep airings, Arshdeep Baines got a bump up to the top line with Pettersson and Garland. That slid Hoaglander down to the fourth line with Suter and Sprong. And as you astutely pointed out, you thought Desjardins might be dropped for tonight's game. Wasn't that astutely.

I'm just trying to give you praise. Wasn't astute at all. Yeah, but Jason was right at practice yesterday. Bronstrom, Juleson. The Bruleson, as I like to call it, pairing is now a thing. Forbort and Desjardins were the extras. Yeah, I think they're going to wait for Forbort to get in the game. Maybe he'll get in there down on the California trip.

Or, you know, frankly, maybe he's going to have to wait if Eric Branstrom keeps playing well. I guess they could try moving Branstrom over to the right side. But we'll see how Julson does as well. I thought Jululesen had a rough game earlier in the season. So that right side remains a bit of an issue. And the left side is more, I guess it's more interesting because you've got Forbort, who I didn't think played that badly and hasn't played that many games and unfortunately just lost his father and now is

returning to the team and you've got brandstrom who a lot of people are pretty impressed with but i think people are also kind of like let's see how long he can do this do you remember and this is maybe a little unfair to eric brandstrom but do you remember when derrick was traded to the canucks from Pittsburgh? Sure do. He had a few good games to start. He had a very nice little start to his career as a Vancouver Canuck. And then it kind of fell apart.

And he became Derek Pouliot again. Now, in Pouliot's defense, he was playing too much. The Canucks defense was, I remember we had that joke. It was like, why is Pouliot playing so much? Oh, right. He's a top four defenseman on this team, so he kind of has joke. It was like, why is Pouliot playing so much? Oh, right. He's a top four defenseman on this team, so he kind of has to. It's by design.

Yeah. But I think he eventually just lost his confidence and lost the trust of the coaching staff, et cetera. So you do have to be patient with a guy like Eric Branstrom because you have to wait until he makes a big mistake and see how he reacts to that because no but no we don't pounce don't pounce on him just see how he reacts to it because the way he plays there are going to be mistakes and that's fine but you can't complicate those mistakes or you can't

let it um you know compound in your mind yeah so power play. I've got some audio here from Rick Talk. We can get into the way that they were lined up in the formation, but Talk had an interesting quote when he was sort of going on and on about why he didn't change the personnel, but it was almost more of a mindset and approach with regards to the power play. And I've got some Kiefer Sherwood audio, because I think these two things might be aligned. Not necessarily Sherwood going to the power play. And I've got some key for Sherwood audio because I think these two things might be aligned. Not necessarily Sherwood going to the power play,

but the way that Talkett wants the team to approach the game and the man advantage. Here's some interesting remarks from Rick Talkett on the power play following yesterday's practice. Take it away, Laddie. Yeah. You know, I got Yogi to do it. His presentation, his stuff has been outstanding. So if you can't, I got Yogi to do it. His presentation, his stuff has been outstanding.

So if you can't, I mean, it's got nothing to do with coaching. He's done an unreal job. He's given him some really good structure. I really believe now it's the intensity, the awareness, things like that. So that's the boxes that the guys are going to have to check right now. Is it basic? Sometimes when you're talented, you think you can just skill your way,

and that doesn't work. So, we just gotta, it's not horrible, I think we're 20%, but it's not a good taste. We don't have a good taste in our mouth with it. But they don't either, trust me. So I think it's more of beating your man to your check, coming up with those loose pucks. I think somebody told me, Alex, I think we're one of the worst teams

at picking off rims. Those are possession plays that we need to do. We have the guys that can do it. We just got to make sure that we're more intense when we do it. You're too fancy. Everything is too fancy right now. Yeah, you've got to win battles on the power play. You've got to maintain possession and when you're pressured sometimes there's going to

a free puck is going to develop and you've got to get that puck and you have to respect the possession of the puck and sometimes that even means taking a hit to make a play. If someone's pressuring you you draw them in take a take a hit but also make sure you get rid of the puck and there are too many times where the Canucks because they're trying to make some fancy plays out there they it doesn't look it looks like I don't know it looks like they're not respecting possession of the puck enough. Like you have to be hungry to get the puck and then you have to create chances.

And then if the chances fail and there's a loose puck, you got to be hungry to go get it back. I know exactly what Tuckett's speaking of here. It's like when you have the amount of talent that the Hawks have on that first unit power play, there is that inherent probably desire to go tic-tac-toe, ping, ping, ping, ping, and have one of these great highlight reel goals

where all five guys get a touch before someone taps it in at the side of the net because the passing was so elite. And then he, but he, I mean, Tuckett said this numerous times and he uses either pretty or fancy, but he's got a point like oftentimes the way that you score on a power play is fired on net and then there's a bounce or there's a

deflection it's not a pretty goal it's not going to show up on highlight reels it's a broken play that you've got to take advantage of but on a broken play there's usually a loose puck that you got to get to first because you have a numerical advantage on the ice you have five guys the other team they only have four yeah and it's inexcusable. You have five guys in the other team. They only have four. Yeah, and it's inexcusable to get outnumbered in the corner, for example. Like you have to, there's some recognition too. So Taka mentioned that, hey, we're 20% on the power play,

which isn't terrible. But if you look at the underlying numbers of the Canucks power play, for example, you could look at goals per 60 expected. It is very, very low. They're basically not creating many chances. Right. I also wanted to play some audio yesterday.

He was asked about Kiefer Sherwood being on pace for approximately 12,000 hits this season. And, you know, Talkett alluded to, there's two things Talkett likes doing when he's got the highest appraises. One is you reference Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins. That's pretty high.

The other one is referencing his time in Philadelphia when he played with the Flyers because he liked those teams a lot. Well, they were good teams. They were good teams and they were physical and they were mean and they were nasty. So in talking about Kiefer Sherwood, there's a Rick Talkett Philadelphia reference here.

Here's the Canucks head coach on one of his new forwards who is right up there among the NHL leaders in hits. Yeah, I just remember when I played back in Philly those Philly days, we had a team that hit a lot. And it's contagious, right? And he's just, he's a guy that, he's an old school guy. You know, he goes through people. And it's not, it's not that you have to kill a guy that reminds he's an old school guy you know he he goes through people and it's not it's not that you have to kill a guy i i think that um he goes through people or he's on his check and it makes it difficult you know nobody wants to play against the guy when he's on the ice it's

like they're looking around and he's hard to play against and i think we we we got to get more of that from some of our guys um and you know we'll work on it i mean it's so obvious what he wants right now is he just sees too probably sees too much summer hockey or river hockey or whatever he calls it too many guys on the perimeter and a team that's too fancy and too pretty and not dirty and greasy and grimy enough he wants more of it on the man advantage when they're even straight i'm sure i mean the penalty kill has been good but i'm sure he more of it on the man advantage when they're even straight. I mean, the penalty kill's been good, but I'm sure he'd like

it on the penalty kill as well. He just wants him to be harder to play against physically. I think that there's a huge difference between finishing a

check and embracing contact. That's a good way of putting it. Do you know what I mean? If there's a loose puck and the

opponent sees it and you see it, are you going to embrace contact in that situation because you know finishing your check is actually not like if the other the other person's in a defensive position right they're not they're not unless they pull like a reverse hit on you which is rare they're going to brace themselves to get hit and then you hit them and then you move on. Yep. Right.

Yep. It's a little bit different when you've got two players each going for the puck and you know, so are you going to be, are you going to go in there and you might get a stick in the nose or something like that? You never know what's going to happen when you go for a puck, might get an elbow, something might happen, but are you going to go in there and you might get a stick in the nose or something like that you never know what's going to happen when you go for a puck might get an elbow something might happen but are you going to go in there and embrace the contact and be willing to sacrifice your body

and importantly do it repetitively like it can't just be a one-off and that's what talking means when he says play through people you're not going to be on the outside of a battle poking at it you're not going to be just waiting for something to happen you're not going to be on the outside of a battle poking at it. You're not going to be just waiting for something to happen. You're not going to be waiting for your teammate to go get the puck. You're going to go in there and you're going to help too. And you're going to go through guys. And that means like chipping them, trying to get them off balance. You don't have to knock them down, but you got to spin them around a little bit, get them off balance, and then you get the puck. See, it's interesting because the notion of the big explosive blow-up hit

has kind of been eradicated from the game for a variety of reasons. One is the health of the players. These gigantic open ice hits and hits to the head and everything, you want to take them away. But two, and you see it in the NFL, is they're trying to teach players that you can still be physical and still be hitting and be contact without the one big decisive blow like i was funny because i was watching uh i can't remember which nfl game it was over the weekend but they were talking about the way that they were approaching hitting

an opposing quarterback and it was like you need to put him on the ground you don't need to have that one gigantic hit where you're leading with the crown of your helmet you're trying to ko him with one hit right but unless it's russell wilson in which case it's great but the cumulative effect is keep knocking him to the ground like do it within the rules and make it a legal hit but if you've got the motor to get up and do it again and again and again you're going to start to make the quarterback feel it and in so if you tie it back into hockey parlance a guy starts thinking about it like it was funny when they had to delay a game penalty who was it was a goss despair that flipped it over the glass uh in the carolina game and sherwood started chirping him because i think

he'd just been tired of getting cats tired of getting hit all the time right that's the cumulative effect there is that there is that yes for sure But what I'm talking about more is just getting a body on a guy so he loses his balance a little bit. Yeah. You know, like a lot of the times they'll teach you, well, don't hit him right in the middle because that's easier to actually maintain your balance. Get him off balance by hitting him in the right hip

or something like that. Spin him around a little bit. So I think that's what Talkett is talking about overall. Just embrace, not the hardness. Say it. Embrace the contact because it's part of the game and play through guys and don't be on the outside of the battle. Okay, finally from practice yesterday,

we got a Thatcher-Dumko update from the head coach. Rick Talkett on the latest on the Canucks' number one goalie brackets on the shelf. Here is Rick Talkett on the latest on Thatcher Demko. I think he's had like four really good days. I can tell you that. So, you know,

which is good. I think when you have a guy out, when he starts to feel good, he stacks some consecutive days together. That's a really good thing. So that's positive. So we've heard this before.

Yes. That Dr. Demko has had a bunch of good days in a row. And it is now October 30th. And I know the Canucks haven't given us a timeline. In fact, they've been very specifically saying like, listen, we're not going to provide a timeline on this. But,'ve been very specifically saying, like, listen, we're not going to provide a timeline on this. But, you know, at the beginning of the season, we're kind of like,

all right, we'll get through October and see what's going on in November. Well, November is just around the corner, right? A couple days away. And so with each passing month, you're kind of like, hey, what is going on with Demko anyway? Mm-hmm. Right? Because he doesn't seem, let me put it this way.

It doesn't seem close. Like he's not out there practicing. You know, with Dakota Joshua, he's part of the group. You know, we've seen the progress. He's like, oh, he's not wearing a non-contact jersey. That's good. Oh, they're talking about, well, maybe he'll go down to Abbotsford and get a conditioning stint, although I'm not sure that's going to happen.

Taka was talking yesterday about, well, maybe I'll just put him into the NHL lineup and gradually ramp up his minutes. And I think with Dakota Joshua, we're talking a matter of games. He's a few games away. I don't know when he's going to play again, but he's out there with his teammates. He took some line rushes with Pedersen and Garland, so he subbed in for Baines on that, and that just seems like an obvious position for him to play.

Maybe he's going to play with Garland and Pedersen. I don't know if that's where he starts. Who knows? But if Baines is there right now, Baines is, unfortunately for him, a guy that you can send down to the AHL without waivers. So maybe that's the move. So we can see it. We can see it coming.

We're like, okay, that's coming soon, right? Demko, the only time we really see him is like, hey, there's Demko standing next to Tyler Myers in a suit. In a very weird way, though. though that's kind of i actually expect he's with the team but he's not participating with the only thing i expect now is that we don't have any clarity if that makes sense like you expect the uh the vagueness of it all i don't know if you could expect vagueness but i do because everyone that we've talked to that has any inkling of what's going on, the messaging does remain the same. It's an incredibly unique injury.

And perhaps more concerning than the actual injury is that there's no blueprint for recovery. Like you can identify what's hurt and you can be like, wow, that's rare. But at least I know what the injury is. The comeback from it is the tricky part yeah because it certainly seems as though there's a pain management pain threshold part of it that you have to get used to and who knows how long that takes right you have to adjust your movements to maybe limit or alter the pain i it's all very again vague and that's all that i've really come to expect from this.

We can ask Frank later in the show. Are we assuming that Lankanen starts tonight? I was. Yeah. I mean, the schedule's been great for the Canucks. And by the way, the Canucks got an unfortunate piece of business here with Demko. Like, there's nothing they can do. He got hurt.

It's a rare injury. They're trying to figure it out. The lifeline that Kevin Lankanen has thrown them, not only from an on-ice product, which is he's getting wins and playing great, but also has completely alleviated a lot of the consternation about, when's Demko going to get back?

And do we need to rush him back? He's been a godsend. And the third part of all this is, the schedule has been amazing, as far as just running him out there. I don't know why you wouldn't at this point. I know you want Silas to play. I still wonder if you're going to have a bit of a fatigue factor if you

just keep playing him in these games, even though they haven't been on back-to-back nights. He's still playing a lot and he hasn't been an NHL starter. I want to play him. Do you know what I mean? But I don't want the Canucks to burn him out. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.

You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. To the phone lines we go. Frank Cervalli from Daily Faceoff joins us now on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Frank. How are you? Pretty good. How are you guys? We are well.

Let's start with our Vancouver Canucks in action tonight. 7.30. Note the start time, everybody, at home against the... 7.40 puck drop. 7.40 puck. God, it's going to be so... We're going to the game tonight. We're going to get no sleep. It's going to be so late. Tomorrow's show. A-Dog, book like 10 guests. Book Frank again for tomorrow.

Can you give us some more intel or insight on the defenseman market? Yes, we're already going shopping ahead of the trade deadline, which is five months away. But as it pertains to maybe the Vancouver Canucks, what they're shopping, what they're looking for. Defenseman Frank, give us some news here. What do you got? I mean, news is scarce, I would say.

Speculation is always in style. Let's do it. Look, no secret. The Canucks are on the prowl. They're always looking. To me, it's at least what I've heard is they want to find a way to move the puck better. And that's their, they believe that's a key inefficiency right now. And however they can go about attacking that, that's one of the key tenets of Rick Tockett's game plan and style

is have to move the puck quickly out of your own end and have to get it into the hands of the forwards as soon as you can. The first pair is obviously really good at it, and I think there's a significant drop-off. So if there's a way to improve in the here and now, that's what they'd be looking for. We hear so much in our text inbox about Rasmus Andersen and wanting to go get him, and my reaction is always like,

well, first of all, Calgary's off to a decent start to the season, and also this is going to be very expensive for whoever wants to pry Rasmus Andersen out of Calgary. What do you know about the situation with Andersen in Calgary? That he's not going anywhere. So as much as everyone gets excited about the Canucks and Flames hooking up again after the couple trades that were made last year, the Flames don't have any intention of making a move.

For one, it's also the start that you mentioned, but the other part of it is with with anderson is they will they have a collection they finally believe of players that want to be in calgary and they've purposely and mindfully tried to quiet the noise there and they believe that's a key contributor to to their success to start the season even though they've come back down to earth a little bit with three losses in a row they still um they don't we don't want to make any moves and beyond that i think the big question that the calgary flames ask themselves and and probably rightfully so is if we trade rasmus anderson at some point and to be honest if you get closer to the deadline if he continues to play as well as he has this year they might not have a choice come march i'm just giving you the here and now

they might not have a choice if he plays that well but if you're moving anderson what do you have left mckenzie wieger i'm saying that's it like would they trade him too who else are you putting in your lineup on a night nightly basis yeah uh what about timothy lildregren in toronto um the leafs seem to be having trouble moving him i don't think they're having trouble i don't think time is of the essence yet um they're gonna continue to wait to see i believe the best deal that they can get they're also hanging on to him in case they have an issue where they run into injury and have to you know you have to use them essentially right now now, with Phil Myers playing ahead of him,

he's more or less become the eighth guy. And that certainly is an untenable situation. I have $3 million a year for a team that has roster considerations to make, cap considerations to make once Yanni Hockenpah, or I guess I should say if Yanni Hockenpah gets healthy enough to return to the lineup. So there's not a burning, raging fire there in order to move him. And look at some of the teams around the league that have already run into injuries.

You see Utah makes the choice last night to go after Ole Mata in exchange for a third-round pick, an extra third-round pick that they had. Given that Liljegren is a right-shot D and is five years younger than Mata, even though he has the one extra year on his deal at the same cap hit, I don't think the Leafs are going to get much in value, but I don't think they're struggling to move him. I think there's been a few teams that have shown interest.

It's just, there's no real reason to pull the trigger at this exact moment in time. We're speaking to Frank Cervalli from Daily Faceoff here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Frank, what are you hearing about how long Connor McDavid will be out for the Edmonton Oilers? He'll definitely miss their game Thursday in Nashville, but how

long after that? It remains to be seen. The information is scarce. They're keeping this timeline close to their vest, whatever it is. Everything that I understand to this point more or less has the Oilers breathing a sigh of relief. My belief is that he'll be something, I don't know exactly what they're going to call it,

maybe week to week, but I don't anticipate at this moment in time, based on what I've heard, that it's going to be much longer than two to three weeks. To the phone lines we go. Sportsnet's very own Ian McIntyre here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, iMac. How are you?

Nice to be on with you. Nice to have you on as well. Thanks for taking the time to do this. I was perusing your latest piece on Sportsnet.ca during the break. And very nice symmetry there tying in Quinn Hughes' family reunion, which is going to happen tonight. 740. Note the start time now.

It gets later and later as the show goes on. So it's the Hughes-Apalooza tonight. And then you had an interesting alignment there where you were talking about, you know, Quinn Hughes being the oldest son in the family and the connectivity there. And then the connectivity he has on his team as a captain and a leader for the Vancouver Canucks.

Yeah, yeah. And the reason we're talking about that particular C word again is because of the power play and things that Rick Talkett had alluded to at the end of last season and the start of this season about these guys needing to be connected. If we want, we can try and delve into that. I'm still not sure exactly what Talkett means by it, but it just struck me, you know, Quinn Hughes as captain and seeing how he's evolved and matured

and the person that he's kind of turned into before our eyes here because he arrived in Vancouver as a kid. I had a feeling that he would be kind of taking this personally, that this would be wearing on him, this idea that the group has to get together. And so I asked him about that, and he said, yeah, he feels responsible at times for making sure that everyone's happy and comfortable being here. And I know a lot of people instantly read into that while he's talking about Elias Pettersson because everything these days we instantly read into, well, it's got something to do with Elias Pettersson. I don't think it's that.

I think it's just this sense that the group has to be close. It has to be on the same page on the ice. And, you know, right piece it's as much about philosophy as it is about tactics and you know you could one could be about how you're connected off the ice as a band of brothers and teammates and everything and then there's an actual physical connection on the ice and they both have to do with one another it's very complex but it does kind of fall at the feet of the captain because at the end of the day he's the leader yeah well it's all this big swirling mess of human dynamics right and and and you know who's close and who's not i think in it you know and rick talk it was the one who who because i've been trying to get him to clarify a couple of times including yesterday sure he says he says it's not tactical right and and then uh there's a description from him about basically being unselfish and how good

a teammate are you and when things aren't going your way what what are you doing and i think specifically getting back to the power play what he sees is the problem i think we most of us see it but when when their plays don't work then what happens and we know that their plays haven't been working petterson has two shots so far this season on the power play and and brock has four quinn six. So it's not like anybody is generating a whole lot. But when those plays aren't working, then what are you willing to do? Are you going to get out of your silo, get off your island, your spot on the ice, and generate something else? Go to support somebody?

Do something to create space for someone else? Or are you going to stand and wait and hope that the play works, that you're going to get that cross ice pass, or you're going to get that low to high slot one-timer? And right now there's just not enough adaptation and improvisation. And to me, maybe most damning at the moment and and you know rick talk at saying that the guys aren't working hard enough because you know i said to quinn shouldn't that be the baseline like at the at a minimum shouldn't that be what you go out and do every power play is out

out work or at least try to outwork the penalty killers. And he said, yeah, you can feel like you are working, but maybe you win three battles and it's the fourth one that you don't win that costs you. You know, you do have an extra skater out there. There isn't really any reason to get outworked around the puck. You should always have more puck support as a power play than the penalty killers do. And if the penalty killers are so overloaded on the puck, you should be able to exploit that as well on the weak side of the ice.

So it's interesting to watch. I think it's important to remember that we're only eight games in. But the problems that carry over always feel bigger. Like, this isn't a new thing. This has been going on basically, well, middle of November was when it started to cool last year. So this is almost a calendar year, and we know that it cost them significantly in the playoffs.

And, you know, it's supposed to be different this year. And everybody, that's one thing everybody agrees on, is that this should be an elite power play. And so far it hasn't been. How many, I mean, you've been in a lot of talk at scrums. How many times has he said Pedersen needs to move his feet? A lot. A lot. I think it's probably with with a lot of players i know

he said that about he said that about jt miller uh he said that about brock besser you know it's kind of a common thing but i think it's a obviously a recurring one with with uh elias and you know is there it feels like it felt like after last game, after that Carolina game when Rick Tockett stopped himself, he gave Hoaglander a blast and then he mentioned Pettersson and then he said, well, he's not going to stop and single out that line even though he already had. It felt like he's, you know, on the cusp of frustration, frustration is something coaches never want to admit to feeling because it implies that maybe you're out of ideas or that you're angry at a player and that's not necessarily a healthy thing when you're trying to help someone.

But I think the leash is getting short. I was really surprised yesterday, actually, especially after Tarkin had said that there were going to be changes on the power play, that we didn't see any changes on the power play. It was the same guys run out on the first unit. So we'll see how much longer he's willing to go. If the power play doesn't start going, and especially, you know, it doesn't have to score,

but man, it's got to be more dangerous than it's been in some of these games, and especially last game. It was absolutely inert. The best scoring chances on the Canucks power play were for Carolina. And I'm not, you know, I'm not trying to be funny. That's the reality.

They had a breakaway out of a box. They had another two-on-one where Langton made one of his best saves of the season, in which he's already made a lot of good saves. The power play has to start being a factor for this team. And if it's not, soon, I think we're going to see some significant changes. And whether that's Pedersen, whether Garland comes off,

whether somebody else goes, they try somebody else in the bumper, whether they put, you know, Kiefer Sherwood in front of the net. I don't think this coaching staff is just going to let this go much longer. Do you expect Lankanen again in goal? I sure hope so.

And I would say yes, because I really don't see a reason to go back to Shelob, especially, you know, when Lankanen has been so, so he's not just playing well, but he's been necessary. It's been necessary for the Canucks to play well, for him to play well. They're not scoring six goals and winning by four, so you can say, well, we'll give Shilov a chance, and if he's not right on his game,

at least the offense is humming along. They need Lankanen. The schedule has been very friendly to them, both in terms of its spacing and the opponents, although obviously they're getting a couple of really good opponents, including one tonight in the New Jersey Devils. I don't see a reason at this stage to go away from him. If it was Thatcher Demko as the starter and healthy,

and wouldn't that be nice, by the way? Yeah, I was going to ask you about him next. Not that there's anything wrong with Lankanen, but this is the story that's kind of submerged right now, but it'll rear up again at some point. But if this was Demko doing what Lankanen's doing, you would just say, yeah, keep going with him. It's early in the year.

He's fresh. He's playing great. Just stay with him. So that's what I would do. But they never ask me. They still, in all these years, no coach has ever asked me who would I start in goal. What did you make of the update on Thatcher Demko? It sounded positive, but it also sounded, you know, like nebulous.

Was that a good word? Yeah. I say it sounds repetitive. And I don't mean to be cynical about it because, you know, I'm not a cynical person. But we have heard this update in that form a few times. In fact, have we heard any update that's different than essentially what he said, that Thatcher's having good days and that's all they want, if he can stat good days. I know it's great that it was four days in a row, apparently,

but I'm trying to do the math in my head now. Since Thatcher Demko spoke to us on day one of training camp it's more than five weeks since then and we we're still not seeing him on the ice with his team so it's it's uh it's a big concern anytime one of your core players has a serious injury and I don't think anybody thought that this was going to be serious. I don't think the Canucks thought. Even through the summer, had they thought, this is just my take, had they thought that there's a chance that Shurdemko might miss two months of the season, whatever,

however long he's going to be out. He's obviously going to miss a lot more than two weeks, which I think was the initial hope coming into training camp. But had they known that he could miss months, I don't think they would have waited until training camp to go out and get another goalie. And maybe they were hoping that Yuri Patera would just look fantastic at camp, and he didn't. And

maybe that swayed them a bit, but the fact that they waited until the training camp was underway before they circled back and got, got Lankanen, um, tells me that they didn't know that it would be this serious. This is, you know, it's a problem. The thing I keep thinking about too is even when he's back, like I expect him to come back at some point, but even when he's back, are we all going to be holding our breath, watching him and, you know, praying that he stays healthy and praying that he knows how to manage this issue that he's got? Yeah. to manage this issue that he's got? Yeah, well, I mean, that was going,

even had Thatcher been healthy for the start of the season, we'd have been asking those questions, right? Because this is part of it as a starter. If you're going to be the guy that plays 50 to 60 games, and hopefully he's not, again, asked in his career to play 60, at least not here. But if you're going to be that guy, and we see now how the goalie market,

the wage market is just going to explode here, right? Like with a couple of the recent contracts and a couple more that are to come. If you're thinking about that kind of investment for Demko and his contracts up in two years, well, you have to have a degree of confidence that he can play a full season. And I think he knows that as well.

So I think we'd have been asking these questions even had his rehab gone fine, you know having having missed the playoffs injured in game one injured late in the season then came back and i think he played twice uh before the playoffs even had the the rehab and summer gone great and he felt fine coming into training camp we just still had these questions and now that now that this injury is has turned out to be as serious and indefinite as it as it is proved it it only uh you know highlights that question it makes it even an even greater concern an even bigger uh x factor uh, to Demco and the Canucks is, it's, can he stay healthy?

But I will say this and, you know, if it's not obvious to everyone already, I'm, you know, I'm pretty good at making obvious statements, but whenever Thatcher is ready to play, Kevin Lankanen isn't going anywhere.

Yep. So whether they carry three goalies at times, whether it means that she loves, uh, who is still waiverver free goes back to the american hockey league as popular as he is and as great a story as he was for the canucks in the playoffs last year kevin lankanen isn't going anywhere they're going to hold on to this guy as as a potential life raft obvious or otherwise we love your analysis on the show ian thank you very

much for doing this today we appreciate it enjoy the game tonight we'll do this again soon i will i'd enjoy it a lot more if it was starting at 705 or 710 i know we gotta go we gotta go and we gotta we got a morning show the tomorrow show is going to be a disaster yeah well you don't have to write a thousand words oh that's true post games so. So think of that. Okay. All right. Enjoy, Ian. Bye. Ian McIntyre from Sportsnet here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Let's get him on at 6.05 a.m. tomorrow. We're so hard done by having to watch hockey. I like how you put it that we got to go. We got to go. Oh, it's going to be so hard. How is Jason, by the way? I'm excited. I'm an old man.

I'm an old grouchy man. I love doing stuff. Here's what we learned for you, by the way. I'm excited. I'm an old man. I'm an old grouchy man. I love doing stuff. Here's what we learned for you, by the way, courtesy Elliot Friedman on Twitter. Good news is thankfully the worst case scenario is averted with Connor McDavid looking like at least a couple of

weeks, but exact timeline to be determined. I don't know what they were talking about with worst case scenario. Like what? Like a broken leg or something like that? Yeah, well, I think he might have broken a bone. Oh, okay. High ankle sprain was also a- High ankle sprain is a tough one to come back from.

That's weeks. Yeah. Okay. Well, that might be it though, right? Versus a broken leg. Yeah. It might be the high ankle sprain. It is better than a broken leg, yes.

Yeah, yeah. Because Elliot's saying it's looking like at least a couple of weeks that he's going to miss. You know, I've been told that sometimes a really bad high ankle sprain, you're almost better to just have a break because it can go clean and then you can get it back. High ankle sprains do tend to linger.

You got to spend a lot of time in a walking boot, the Chris Tannett Memorial Walking Boot. But it affects you for a long, long period of time. Okay, I want to very briefly discuss tonight's opponent because we haven't done it yet. And I feel like sometimes you can gloss over the opponent because it's like, who cares? It's San Jose.

Then you get really important matchups like Huesa Palooza and Quinn and Luke and Jack all on the ice together. And as I said off the top, the winner gets to ride in the front seat home with mom on the way from the game. The Devils are a very interesting opponent almost regardless of what they had two of the Hughes brothers or not uh they are six four and two so they're tops in their division tops in the metro division this is with going through a four game losing streak in which they were bleeding goals like crazy.

They went 6-5 OT loss to Washington. Six goals is a lot, right? They followed that up by allowing eight in an 8-5 loss to Tampa Bay. So after two games, you're like, let's tighten it up next game. They lose 5-3 to Detroit. Then they tighten it up, and they only lose 4-3 to the Islanders. But at that point, you're looking at it and you're saying, man, this team doesn't really seem to have any more defensive structure

than they did last year, which was kind of a tire fire of a year. They won on Sunday against Anaheim. They won 6-2, so they snapped the four-game losing streak. But if you look at this team and you look at their current form, I think it's fair to say that we might be in for some high octane offense tonight at rogers arena they have guys that can score i think everyone knows like jesper brought is very good score he's got 12 points in 12 games nico he sure who's he's on fire right now he's tied with cole caulfield for the nhl lead in goals

with nine he's got 12 points in 12 games timoimo Meier, Jack Hughes, they are 11 and 10 points each. Stefan Nason has 11 points in 12 games, which is wild, but he's also scoring with regularity. If you look, they're involved in a lot of high-scoring games. They have a lot of high scorers. That's the good statistics.

The bad statistics are the numbers on Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen are real bad they have two goalies both are sub 900 save percentage some of it has to do with environment for sure at the same time was it woodley they came on the show they said like he there's some metrics that show that marky actually might thrive in a more chaotic environment where he's facing a lot of shots. Right? Now, I don't know. Thrives in chaos. You're listening to the best

of Halford and Brough.