Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 10/3/24

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

Mike and Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they look ahead to tomorrow's final Canucks pre-season game at home to the Oilers with radio commentator Randip Janda, plus the boys tell us what they learned. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. You're listening to Halford & Brough. It's popped up, it's playable, careful. Both go out, it's caught by Higashioka, the game's over. And the Padres win it. And it's well struck by Cale Taylor. And the ball looking right here. To underperform so resoundingly is extremely tough to accept and to swallow. I got a job to do, and my job is to come inside of this stadium. Good morning, Vancouver.

6-0-1 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Alfred Ruff, Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you.

Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alfred and Ruff of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program.

Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. Before I do my read, I need to ask you a question. Okay. Were you able to move any of those Whitecaps tickets you had yesterday?

Yep, some. You had how many of them? Lots. Lots? Yep. How many did you end up giving away? A few. Second question, do you feel shame about making people witness

what you forced them to witness? Oh, they're nice tickets I had once. No, there was not a lot of people there last night. There were some people, some people in the media and among the fan base that were upset that you would schedule a Cascadia derby match, one of the great rivalries in sports.

Yeah, that's like Man City, Manchester United, basically. On a Wednesday. Liverpool, Everton. In 730. Arsenal, Tottenham. And then you got Vancouver, Seattle. 730? On a Wednesday?

Yeah. In this economy? Kids are back in school? We got to stop making excuses for poor crowds. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. And poor crowds. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. And poor performances. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.

Sorfute, what are you waiting for? Kintec. We got a lot to get into on the program today. A very, very diverse sports day and night ahead. Got some preseason hockey tonight. We got some footy during the day. We got a very decisive and the only game three

of the MLB wildcard round between the Mets and the Brewers we got Thursday night football as well but we have a very diverse guest list as well all the sports we're going to cover 7 o'clock at Nanverk MLB Network we'll get into everything that's happened through the wildcard three series are over

three sweeps. As I mentioned, Mets Brewers goes tonight. 4 o'clock our time. A decisive, a pivotal game three. You don't hear that very often. We'll talk to Adnan about all that at 7 o'clock. 7.30, Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the two deep zone sub stack, is going to join us.

Thursday night football tonight, classic NFC South battle between the Falcons and the Buccaneers. Baker Mayfield. The under fire Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So we'll talk to Mike Tanier about that. He's like, I'm not going to any more podcasts. I'm not talking about Tom Brady ever again.

Mike Tanier is going to... Sensitive. Seven Super Bowl rings. You'd think he wouldn't be so sensitive. Why is he punching down? Please stop, Tom Brady. 7.30, Mike Tanner is going to join us for some NFL talk. We'll look ahead to the weekend as well. 8 o'clock, Randy Janda is going to join us,

color analyst for the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks are doing nothing today. No practice, no game, no media availability, nothing. It's a day off for the team. They're just going to sit back and maybe have a pedicure. They're going to chill. Just going to chill. Maybe they'll watch some Netflix and chill. I don't know.

But whatever they're going to do, it's not hockey. But there was lots that happened yesterday, and we're going to look ahead to the final, thank God, final preseason game for the Vancouver Canucks, which goes tomorrow. That is Friday against the Edmonton Oilers. So we'll look back on what happened yesterday with Randeep and look ahead to tomorrow as well.

That's coming up at eight o'clock. So working in reverse on that old guest list, eight o'clock, Randeep, Jan to 730, Mike Tannier, seven o'clock, Adnan Virk. What that means is the entire first hour of this program is pure, uninterrupted Halford and Brough. So if you want to weigh in on anything, if you want us to weigh in on anything, Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650.

Get them in now. You can also start getting your What We Learns in. Hashtag them WWL. Tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. We're going to do those at 830. But hey, if you want to be on the radio, maybe you'll get in in this first hour of uninterrupted Halford and Brough. That's what's happening on the program today.

Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I moved. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you

by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. We begin with the Vancouver Canucks and who was lost and who wasn't lost on waivers yesterday. On Wednesday, we'll start with the departures. Yuri Patera, we hardly knew you, bud. You are now a member of the Boston Bruins.

The Bruins claim. I heard he's the new starting goalie there. He might be. It's a Patera-Mikey DiPietro combo. So, Yuri Patera goes to Boston. Now, all of you are probably aware that Boston has got a bit of an issue in net right now in that Jeremy Swayman, their number one goalie, is currently embroiled in a contract stalemate. That means that it's Eunice Corposalo, who in that presser,

Cam Neely said that Swayman had the 64 million reasons to be here. The head coach, Jim Montgomery, also stood up and said, and Younes Corposalo is our opening night starter, to which everyone was like, yeah, no kidding. You didn't need to announce it. And then they asked Corposalo after practice, and he said, I am? Yeah. Me?

He said, seriously? Corpy? I shouldn't be. You should have seen me last year in Ottawa. I was not good. They call me the Corpito, ironically. They call me the corpse, not ironically. Anyway, the Bruins needed a goalie, I guess,

to throw into the mix as potentially a backup. So they take Patera. Patera, we didn't really get to see a whole heck of a lot of them signed on July 1 to a two way contract with the Vancouver Canucks he was supposed to be the number three guy but that was because Thatcher Demko was supposed to be healthy and Ardor Seelov was supposed to be the number two

well that's all been thrown into a bit of a chaotic mess Demko's out for an undetermined length of time. Kevin Lankanen's in. It looks as though him and Silas will be battling back and forth for starts, and now the Canucks kind of don't really have the number

three that they envisioned. It's Nikita Tolopilo in name. Nothing was as envisioned as nothing is going as planned for the Canucks in goal. The Canucks probably weren't thrilled with the news that Patera got plucked by the Bruins, but obviously the addition of Lankanen means

it's far from a crisis for the big team, and that's the most important team. For now, this is more of an issue for the Abbotsford Canucks who have Tolopilo in the starters role there, which is fine. He needs to be developed anyway. But they may not want Ty Young in the AHL right away. I know there's been talk about Ty Young maybe playing in the ECHL. I honestly don't know all the options for Ty Young, but he's an inexperienced

goalie and you don't want to throw a goalie into a situation he's not ready for. So maybe they themselves will be looking. The problem with looking at the waiver wire is you don't want to throw a goalie into a situation he's not ready for so maybe they themselves will be looking the problem with the problem with looking at the waiver wire is you can't then just wave the player right right like there has to be an nhl spot so maybe they look for a trade or maybe they just give ty young the opportunity knowing that this isn't the end of the Canucks' great goalie shuffle of 2024 because at some point Demko is going to be back. Rick Tockett was asked for an update on Rick Tockett. How are you, Rick?

I'm doing fine. Rick is doing well. Rick Tockett was asked for an update on Demko the other day, and he didn't really have one. He was just like, things are getting better, but Demko has not been practicing in front of the media. You know, remember when they, it was like the first day of training camp, I think. And they had him out there.

And there was almost a show of, look, he's working on stuff. Like, he's out there. He's not hobbled. He took shots from Marco Terranis. And then they're like, all right, get him out of here. Right? You know? So how this shakes out remains to be seen.

It is a concern. It is a worry. Even starting the season with Lankanen and Seelovs, you know, it's not an ideal situation even though I'm confident those guys can hold the fort down

for a bit. But, you know, we all want Thatcher Demko and a healthy Thatcher Demko back for the Vancouver Canucks. On Phil DiGiuseppe clearing waivers, congratulations to Andrew and Victoria. The parade in Victoria

will be on Sunday because Andrew and Victoria was actually right about something. And Talkett said he was selfishly happy about PDG clearing. And this isn't because he's like, good, he'll languish in the minors. Never liked that guy. He was happy because this provides more depth and the long NHL season.

And sometimes you need depth. And, you know, the Canucks might give some opportunities for some young guys, and those young guys, even though they played well in training camp and the preseason, it's a long NHL season. So PDG is still with the organization. As for the waiver wire as a whole, this may not be the Canucks' last dance with the waiver wire

because Nils Zeman is a possibility to go down waiver wire as a whole, this may not be the Canucks' last dance with the waiver wire. No. Because Nils Amon is a possibility to go down when the Canucks make their final decisions. And if they do cut Nils Amon, he will have to be exposed to waivers. Okay, let's start with Rick Talk. It's selfishly, selfishly being happy about DiGiuseppe clearing waivers and being able to go down to Abbotsford.

Also throwing in a little wrinkle that PDG isn't out of the mix just quite yet. Rick Tockett on the veteran forward clearing waivers. I mean, I'll talk to Paxton and Jim the next couple of days. We're going to have some decisions you've got to make. Who's staying? I'm not sure with the waiver thing. That's something that we've got to discuss. Like I said, it's a tough day because Deege is a, you know, he cleared, which selfishly I'm happy about.

And he's still in the mix, you know. So, you know, that's something that we'll talk about. But going forward, that's a good thing that we have these tough decisions. That means we got depth. Deege is sticking around, you guys. Deege. So, you know, this is kind of the rough part of the preseason, especially this particular preseason,

because the Canucks top players, how should I put this, haven't participated in it very much. So there hasn't been an awful lot to parse through in terms of news. We can go back and recalibrate the same lines and roles and goals that these guys want to hit, but it's the same conversations that we've had really from July 1 onward, especially with regards to the new guys.

The battles right now on this team are at the depth forward positions, which is why we're parsing through audio about Phil DiGiuseppe and Arshdeep Baines and Nils Oman, because those are the guys that have jobs at stake. And I'll throw Atu Ratu Rats, as they call them, in the mix as well. Rats, rats, rats. There's a larger conversation here to be had about the fact that the preseason is too long

and this is being dragged out too far. And these battles are being dragged out too far. If you want to get into the weeds about waivers and when you make guys available and when you waive guys and the timing of it they might have been able to find something with d josepe there if you want to talk about the for example on waivers right now if we want to go back to the earlier goaltending position spencer martin's on waivers right now so at first blush you're like there's a guy the canucks could pluck off of waivers he's familiar with the organization he knows where all the bathrooms are he plays in net

but the canucks are left with the same problem that Carolina was. They have to try and pass him through to get him to the American League. Right? And all you end up doing there is potentially picking up a guy, having him fly out here, if he does even, and then losing him again. So it's all this. There's a lot of papering. Carolina might pick him up.

Right? They'll just be like, we'll try this again. Let's see what happens. Right? So you end up in this sort of endless loop of papering guys uh the same conversation is about a handful of guys but on this particular team if there's a big picture conversation to have here it's that this is a good thing the fact that one of the talking points of the last half of the preseason is the battle for the 13th forward spot and fourth line roles is because this team has built itself to a spot where it's reasonably healthy, especially a forward.

There's competition among the group to the point where Baines, Ratu and Oman are leading shows in the morning. Yeah, I don't even know if they're reasonably healthy because they are missing some guys and, you know, Dakota Joshua is going to miss some time. Sorry, asterisk. Reasonably healthy by the standard of the day where they're not missing star players. Sure. We'll see if Bluger's ready to go in time for the season opener. We'll see if he's going to play on Friday

actually against the Edmonton Oilers. But one more name to add to the injured list and that would be Puce Suter who's been deemed day-to-day with an upper body injury. Tockett had previously said that Suter was being evaluated for an injury after he had an altercation with that rat, Corey Perry. Stupid Corey Perry. game in Edmonton. In the third period, Suter got tangled up with McDavid and Perry and took exception to the scuffle and tried to initiate a fight with the

28-year-old Kanaka. I don't even remember that play. I don't even know if I was watching the game, but the good news is there's still time. Well, I mean, that was the Seahawks Monday Nighter as well, so it's going back and forth. It's funny that you're so dismissive. I didn't even watch the game. Yeah, I mean, that was the Seahawks Monday nighter as well. So it's going back and forth. It's funny that you're so dismissive. I didn't even watch the game.

Yeah, I don't know. The good news is there's still time for Suter to get healthy and be in the lineup on Wednesday, next Wednesday, for the season opener. I think the question with a lot of these injuries and the health factors and the cuts and who should make the team is how it all affects the Canucks cap situation. Maybe we can get into this with Rand Deep later so we don't have to do all the math. Maybe he actually likes this sort of math stuff.

But, you know, long story short, will the Canucks have to go into LTIR to start the season? It's not the biggest deal in the world, but it's something to discuss. Now, the Canucks did practice yesterday. They have the day off today, as Halford already mentioned. So it was their last full practice before Friday's final preseason game against the Edmonton Oilers.

And it really does look like we're going to see what Daniel Sprong can do with Petey and DeBrusque. And that is the thing I'm most interested in watching on Friday. Likewise. Those three skated together again at practice. Hoaglander, Ratu, and Garland

were together again and they've been arguably the Canucks best trio this preseason. Will we see Teddy Bluger tomorrow? He was centering Nils Amon and Kiefer Sherwood, and Batch said Baines was the extra, but I think Baines was taking fairly regular,

you know, like, hey, it's my turn now, with Teddy Bluger. If Bluger isn't quite ready to go for tomorrow, I suppose the Canucks could put Ratu between Hoaglander and Garland, and then they could have Amon between Sherwood and Baines, and Amon and Baines could be like, I'm not passing the puck to you. How can I have a good game but also sabotage your game at the same time? Do we have the talk at audio on Nils Amon?

We absolutely do. Because I think there are some interesting things that he said about Nils. Well, interesting, relatively speaking, for a preseason. Way to tease that clip. Here now is Rick Talkett on the excitement factory that is Nils Amon. Well, you know, I think he's a really good penalty killer. I've actually thought he played really well in Edmonton. But Oman's the same as everybody.

You know, you've got to string some games together. You know, you can't have a good game and then kind of fall off. And that's the hard part of the NHL, being a regular, is being the sustainability. It's hard to do. But he's, I thought, I thought like the same thing with, with Baines. You know, I liked his game last game. So, you know, so he's fighting for positions.

You know, we know, we know what he is and, you know, he wants to improve. I noticed people are dismissive of Nils Amon. He's not the flashiest player. And I bet if we did a poll question, if you had a choice between the two, who would you like to see make the Canucks, Atu Ratu or Nils Amon? Atu Ratu's winning that poll.

Because he's new. Because he's new. Newer. And he's got a higher upside for sure. Higher ceiling. We might have seen the best of Nils Amon. But that being said, when your coach calls you a really good penalty killer, you know your coach doesn't want to lose you to waivers.

Right. Having centers, good defensive centers, guys that can go kill penalties for cheap, you always want those in your organization and you don't want to lose them. So we'll see how it all pans out in terms of all the balls in the air with the Canucks as they try and make their decisions. I do want to mention that tomorrow, for the first time in the preseason,

hopefully, we will see JT Miller, and he will be on a line between Heinen and Besser. Now, normally, I don't cheer for a lot of power plays in a game. I don't really like it. I don't. You know, it takes the flow away. It's just annoying. It's like, there's another power play.

Oh, terrific. I hope the Canucks get a few opportunities on Friday, especially if Miller does play, because I'm really curious to see how the top unit looks after all the thinking and planning and video work behind the scenes. I'm curious to see how DeBrusque fits with the four of Miller, Besser, Petey, and Hughes on the first unit. It's funny, at the beginning of training camp and even before training camp,

Rick Tockett was saying, I want to do a lot of power play work. You don't usually do a lot of power play work at training camp, but I want to do a lot. They didn't really end up doing a ton of power play work. Rick Tockett was asked about that. He was like, yeah, but we've been doing a lot behind the scenes, a lot of video stuff. I want to see it in action. i want to see it in action that the power play we all remember

um how it looked in the latter half of the the season and into the playoffs and yes you do have to credit for example the edmonton oilers for the terrific penalty killing that they had against the oilers and that pking carried on essentially throughout the postseason was one of the big reasons they nearly won the Stanley Cup. But if the Canucks are going to be another 100-point team, their power play has to be good. It's just you look at that talent there. You look at Miller, one of the great sidewall, half-wall playmakers in the NHL. You look at Quinn Hughes, one of this creative guy that can walk the line like not many other players in the

NHL. Petey with his abilities and Besser with his abilities. And then we'll see what Dabrusk is like if he is indeed the fit that we're all hoping he can be. You know, this power play should be really good. And I want to see it in action. Yeah, so it was interesting. I went back and looked at DeBrusque in Boston. And in the early stages of his career, he was a pretty regular feature and was adept on the power play. I think he had like 15 power play goals over the second and third years of his

career in Boston. And then you kind of saw the production drop off. Like he wasn't scoring with as much regularity. He's actually doing a lot of his scoring at evens. And part of that had to do with the way that the coaches, especially Montgomery sort of recalibrated the way that they were putting their units out. After a while, and especially last year,

because what ended up happening was that DeBrusque ended up going off in the playoffs last year on the power play. He got back on. They kind of switched around their units. They separated. Like, they didn't do top heavy like the Canucks did. They actually split. The big three for them on the power play were McAvoy, Marchand, and Pasternak, obviously.

And they had them together on a unit, and I think that kind of kept DeBrusque from eating as frequently as he wanted to on the power play were McAvoy, Marchand, and Pasternak, obviously. And they had them together on a unit, and I think that kind of kept DeBrusque from eating as frequently as he wanted to on the power play. But then when they split the two units and balanced them out, DeBrusque kind of reinvigorated himself as a net front presence, right? That's what he said. He said, I like going to the front of the net, and that's where he was doing a lot of his damage. So I'm with you. I kind of want to see what it looks like, more out of a curiosity factor. Like, I'm sure that they've worked on the things they want to see what it looks like more out of a curiosity factor. Like, I'm sure that they've worked on the things they want to work on. We just haven't seen the practice pay off in, like, a game situation, right?

Because largely because Miller hasn't played at all, and the other guys have kind of been on the sidelines. But I'm optimistic on it. I think between the fact that Tuckett made it a point of emphasis, and he strikes me as the kind of coach that if he makes something as a point of emphasis it's not words like he genuinely understands that this needs to be addressed if you heard him throughout the offseason he knew that the way that they approached the game offensively needed to change i think that was both at evens and with the man

advantage i wonder how talk it's going to go about with his lineup decisions because he does have two extras. That's counting Suter, though. So maybe for him, the easiest thing is for Suter, if he's banged up, just don't play. But then he would have to take one more guy out of the lineup. So who would that be? Because he wants to take a look at,

I'm sure he wants to give Baines another try. He wants to give Ratu a shot. He wants to give Nils Zeman an opportunity to have another game because the whole thing is consistency, and he said, well, you played well in the last game. And it's like, coach, I would like to show that I can be a consistent player. Like, who would come out?

Miller. Yeah, but no, but then it doesn't make sense. It does. It's the preseason. Yeah, but how are you going to shuffle then? Put anyone there. It doesn't matter. The game doesn't matter.

Well, it does because you want to put these guys in the places where you want to see them. I would not be overwhelmingly shocked if he last minute doesn't play. I don't think it's going to be Miller. I think Miller is going to be. I mean, I understand where you're coming from. Yeah. I understand where you're coming from, but I think he wants to see.

Maybe, you know who it could be? It could just be like, Bluger, you don't have to play too. Yeah, sure. You know? I understand. And there's a lot of people clamoring for this. If you read enough Canucks content,

and there's a lot out there, and you listen to people, especially those in the... I don't think it's going to be Miller, though. I know, but I'm just saying, there's a lot of people who want to see this thing in action. And a lot of it is,

we're impatient. It's been a long time. And the preseason, like, Penticton feels like a year ago. It was only a couple weeks, but it's been a long time since they, you know, left Penticton and like a year ago. It was only a couple weeks, but it's been a long time since they left Penticton and broke camp. There's a sense of impatience that everyone just wants to see

what the lineup's going to look like and get to the games that matter. At the same time, there has to be just the tiniest little inkling of fear about anybody getting hurt going into the regular season. No, I understand that, but I also think it is important that Miller plays on Friday. Yeah. I really do. I think if I were to bet on the two guys who won't play

among the forward groups, it would be Suter and Bluger just because... They're a little banged up. They're a little, well, we don't know what Bluger's status. He was a little banged up. Yeah, well, he had surgery and all with the minor procedure. This doctor banged me up. Yeah, I don't know.

I know we've got to go to break, but that is my one thing right now is following the legion of pointless scorers night after night in the National Hockey League. The scores almost become secondary, and then it just becomes like, who got hurt last night? You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. It's brand deep.

Brand deep gender time. It's brand deep gender. It is brand deep. Brand deep gender. It is Randy. Randy Janda. It is Randy. Talking hockey now. Oh. I forgot you guys threw in the oh at the end there.

That's what makes it. Nice touch. Oh. I just wanted, I won't name names, and I won't put you guys, like, your feet to the fire here, as, like, you have to produce, but we are getting requests from various regular guests for their own jingle.

That's where this is going. Well, name names. Who do you get? Nope, I won't do it. I will not do it. I don't want to put the pressure on them or on the dogs. Do you expect us to come up with a new song for an unnamed guest that we have to figure out? Literally just said the opposite of that. Everything you just put out there, I said the opposite of.

No pressure. No names. Just saying that it exists in our atmosphere, in our ecosystem. We have to address it. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for,

sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 3 of the program. Hour 3 is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. 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, you're working on Randeep still. Randeep Jand is going to join us shortly here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Got to convince him to come on. He's going to want to do it. After his song? Really? I'm to do it. After his song? Really?

I'm busy watching highlights from last night's Kraken-Edmonton game and getting worried about my Shane Wright take. I'm loading offers onto my Save-On card. This is what we do during the show. Shane Wright had a good game. Two goals. And actually, it was his second goal. I think that was even more impressive than his first one

everyone was like oh the spinner i'm in front of the net his second goal he absolutely ripped a shot home from the high slot i'm impressed that you're still invested in this because a lot of grown men would say you know what i'm gonna back down from my original stance that i want to see a prospect's career fail miserably yeah but i'm saying that he's doing well right now. I'm hurting myself here. But what do you ultimately want to see happen here? I want to see him crash and burn. Yes.

So I want one of the extremes. I want him to either score 40 goals this year and be an unbelievable player or for him to be a disaster. Yeah, the extreme. It's like, hey, he had 17 goals and was fine. That doesn't really do much for me. He took a very positive step.

I don't want to see a step in his development. I want to see either we're really worried about this guy or, whoa, this guy is for sure a superstar. When we talk about the bedrocks of this guy, or whoa, this guy is for sure a superstar. When we talk about the bedrocks of this show, pettiness is one of them. Without question. Okay. I don't know how much I hate Jack Eichel. Let's go to the phone lines

now. Randy Bjanda, color analyst of the Vancouver Canucks right here on Sportsnet 650 joins us on the Halford and Brough show. Good morning, Randy. How are you? Morning, boys. What did I join? The haters ball from the Dave of the breath show good morning randy how are you morning boys what did i join the the haters ball from the dave chappelle show early this morning silky johnson over here better known as jason bro hate hate hate hate hate yeah no it's uh you know what let's just

move past the shane wright thing we'll just focus on the vancouver canucks um it'll be very interesting on friday interesting in quotations because most of the jobs on this team are set. Most of the positions and where guys are going to play are set. But there are still some battles for that 13th forward spot, bottom six rotation, where you're going to go in. And I think bigger picture, the conversation here really should be not necessarily about those individual battles, but that there are battles being waged. Rick tockett said it a couple times maybe when he came on board a couple years ago the connect didn't have these kind of problems and now they do and overall collectively that's a good thing for sure it is and there's young players that have taken steps in you know over

the the offseason guys and that's really the key that you want here where sure you know, over the offseason, guys. And that's really the key that you want here, where you're, you know, a few suitors dealing with an injury right now. It gives you an opportunity to take a look at a player like a Natu Ratu in a spot centering a third line. R. Steve Bannis has played quite solid in his role in the last game, scoring a goal, of course, and just looking a little bit faster, quick, you know, stride and being physical and a little bit speedy. But that's the conversation that Canucks have right now

where they actually have a couple of players that have taken a step up and they've given you options. And, you know, going back a couple of years, and this is no disrespect to Phil DiGiuseppe because he's going to feature on this team at some point in time, but there was kind of that option of, all right, he's the guy that is there. He's the wall guy. He's the guy that can get inside and there's really nobody else.

Now, at least you have a couple of players that are showing some signals of trending towards that. Are they there yet? No, I don't think Achir Ratu is there personally. I don't think Archie Vance is there at that level just yet, but they are showing that there are signs that, in addition to having increased depth on the wings with the players that they acquired from other teams through free agency,

there are a couple of guys that are now at least showing signals that they can potentially hit that level as well. How much of a risk would it be to expose Nils Amon to waivers? Based on players now hitting waivers, there's a lot of players on that, right? But I think there is a risk just because anytime you throw a center, a big body 24-year-old player, you're going to have potentially some interest there.

So a player that I know he's featuring on the wing right now at the latest practice anyways, there is always going to be a little more interest in this center. So when we compare the risk to relative to a PDG, and we had that,

you know, there was that conversation yesterday with Columbus go after him, or were there other teams that might pick him up? In the end, nobody picks him up, which is good news for the Vancouver Canucks. But with Neil Zolman, I feel like the interest would be a little bit higher just based on the fact that that positional play and

the age. So I would say maybe a little bit more just based on the center aspect. Do you think we'll see Teddy Bluger tomorrow against the edmonton oilers because there is the thought that if they do want to get all of nilsamon atu ratu and our steve baines into the lineup they could sit suitor who's already hurt and probably won't play against the oilers and they could also sit bluger and then because because correct me if I'm wrong, they've got 14 forwards right now?

Correct. And I think the issue with that one is with Teddy Bluger, if he's ready to go, you also want him to get games, right? You want him to kind of build up some of the, you know, just have that endurance ready to go. You don't want him to maybe just jump into that. So while you're watching the battle, Jason,

for sure, you want to, you know, I think based on some of the conversation we've heard from Rick Talkett, he's impressed by Atu Ratu. I think he's been impressed by Archie Benz as well. And with, you know, but they're not the perfect player either. They're still trending towards something.

So I guess the question here is from an assessment perspective, have you seen enough of what you want to see was one more game going to help you whereas with teddy bluger um getting those reps and kind of getting a rhythm of the game you want guys to get in there and you know throw the body just a little bit or take some hits before it gets real um So I think with Bluger, if he's ready to go, and if we've seen that he's bounced back from whatever he's dealing with, I think you want him to get that game in.

So if he's ready to go, I would expect that Teddy Bluger is going to be centering that fourth line with maybe Niels Oman and Kiefer Sherwood. We were saying earlier in the show, normally we don't like games with a ton of power plays, but we wouldn't mind one tomorrow against the Oilers just so we can see this first unit power play in action. And of course, the second unit as well. But the first unit power play,

I thought was going to be a huge focus in training camp in the preseason. And it really hasn't been at least publicly behind the scenes who knows how much video work they're they're doing etc etc but with JT Miller not playing in any preseason games yet we haven't seen the entire first unit together at all yeah that was a bit of a shock as well I think with uh training camp and Tim Tickton there was a thought that maybe we'd see it there we didn't really see it there until the final day prior to the scrimmage. So this is a power play looking back at last year.

Struggled, right? The second half of the season was tough and then you got into the playoffs and it was even tougher. But when you start looking at the personnel, and I've said this dating back to last year, based on the personnel you have, Brock Besser, Elias Patterson, Quinn Hughes, JT Miller, this should be a top five power play, right? said this dating back to last year based on the personnel you have brock besser elise peterson queen hughes jt miller this should be a top five power play right you've got shooting threats on

both sides you've got a player that is so good from you know passing on that left half wall and jt miller um you've got shooting threats everywhere now you add a jake debrus playing that bumper spot um i think is he going to be as good as Bo Horvat? We'll have to see. Bo was pretty good in that spot as a left-handed shot, but in terms of giving it attention during preseason, from a practice perspective,

yeah, I'm surprised we haven't seen it too much. Part of that has to do with JT and his not playing games. In practice, though, and this is something that JT and his, you know, not playing games. In practice, though, and this is what something that JT and Rick Talkett did say was, hey, we've done a lot of video work. We've been sitting in the rooms, and the guys have been able to kind of analyze it.

And even one of the, you know, I know the last practice they worked on it, but the practice before that, they kind of did it at the end of practice. It was more self-directed where JT Miller was kind of directing traffic and you could see that was more the guys wanted to work on it so it feels like this is a lot more video work of understanding maybe where they've gone wrong and how they want to you know assess things but yeah I'm looking forward to that Edmonton game for that reason because as we saw last year it was very mechanical it was very telegraphed and what you need is you just need more instinct and adding a DeBrus there for that bumper shot I think is going to create a little bit more chaos for the

opposition's power penalty kill excuse me because you need somebody in that shooting threat and the way that JT passes he can do the cross-ice speed down low, which has been fantastic. He can look for Petey, you know, cross-ice as well. But having that third, fourth option of that bumper, that shot, especially a lefty, is so important to, you know, the weaponry of this power play.

And hopefully we can see that tomorrow night. How curious are you to see daniel sprong with pd and debresque yeah i want to see what that fit looks like because i think with daniel sprong he's been bouncing around a little bit he's been in a lot of ways with these undermanned games and these undermanned rosters he's kind of been for the most part the star on online whether that was with a young player or whether that was maybe with a bottom six forward. And to be fair, Daniel Sprung might be a bottom six forward himself, right?

In his career, he's essentially been that when it comes to ice time. But here, he's going to have an opportunity to play with a Jake DeBrusque and a Elias Pettersson. What does that fit look like, right? You've got Pettersson, who's a pass first center. He's an individual that, even though he's got a heck of a shot, we know his first thought is playmaker. So you've got DeBrusque there and Sprong, two things.

There's a couple of guys that shoot the puck on that line already with Pettersson and DeBrusque, but Sprong arguably has the best shot of the three, or he's up there with Petey when they let it rip. So, you know, are they going to be facilitating? How much does he facilitate too? arguably has the best shot of the three or he's up there with PD when when they let it rip so you know are they going to be facilitating how much does he facilitate too because when you are playing with more skilled players do you defer a little bit more and guys the elephant in the room is the defensive player right you get an opportunity in the top six are you making the right read

are you you know being aggressive um or you kind of stand staying back we've uh even heard rick talk it say about daniel sprung sometimes when you have to make that decision you got to be third man high uh there's been moments even in training camp where he was a little too aggressive and it led to uh an odd man rush the other way so it's those things you got to watch out for where you want a player to be himself. You want him to be a scorer because that's what he is. But at the same time, if you're going to be playing top six minutes with an Elias Pettersson, Jake DeBrusque,

you got to make sure you do those little things right. And the one area that I think I'm going to focus on with him is also how much is he handling the puck? We know he's a big body. He can pick up the puck in the neutral zone and wind up with Elias Pedersen. Pedersen likes to handle the puck too. He likes having those zone entries, guys.

So, you know, what's that balance when you're playing with Petey? We're speaking to Randy Janda, Canucks radio analyst here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Randy, I was listening to the postgame show following the game against Edmonton earlier in the week and good on

Bic for asking the question, you know, who's your opening night starter? Is it Kevin Lankanen or is it Archer Seeloff? If only because we had gone like a week without a goalie controversy, so it was nice of him to fire that back up. Still in the pot. Yeah. Two-part question for you. One, what did you think

of Lankanincoln's play against the oilers and two how did you answer bick's question about the opening night starter yeah first of all kevin lincoln and i thought he played fantastic that was especially in the first five or six minutes uh in the game with edmonton there's some there's some hairy moments right the team was maybe not the smoothest of moving the puck out of the zone. The entire first period, even though they took the lead and they got better, Lankanen made some big saves there, a couple of double saves. So he looks poised. He looks like a goalie that likes to play big too,

which is something that even though you're sometimes a bigger goalie, you don't always play big. Sometimes goalies sink into their net. Sometimes they drop down a little bit lower. I think with Lankanen, he's certainly got the tall, narrow approach, which is something that Eden Clark's disciples and Marco Terrenius is

one of them, they like their goaltenders to play. Now, I guess the question that Dick asked me was, you know, is there, would you go with, which goalie would you go with? I'm still going with Shelogs based on the fact that Arthur Shelawes, this was preseason, guys.

We haven't seen this team play to their structure outside of the last game against Edmonton. That second period and beyond was Canucks hockey. They played very well. They were, you know, keeping the middle pretty locked down. They didn't give up too much. And when they did, it was because Connor McDavid was doing Connor McDavid things.

I thought, Arthur Shelob, was he rusty in some of the games? For sure. And one area that he's going to have to clean up is

those point shots, right? Fighting through traffic. He's going to have to work on that. But we've also seen how good this kid can be. And I think, you know, it's not a one, you know, starter and the other person

is a backup. I've always seen this as a 1A, 1B. I'm still rolling with Artur Shilov because I think he's a, you have to, he is a part of the long game.

Both of these goalies are going to, they're not, you know, they're not Thatcher Demko. So until Demko's ready to go, you go with a hot hand. But I think Artur Shilov is the person you start with

based on the fact that he did show you something last year in the playoffs. He's a special goaltender. He knows the system with Lankanen. Remember, he's still new, right? This is going to take some time. One preseason game where he looks pretty good is not going to give us all the information or him the information of how it's to play with these defensemen, you know,

communicating with them of picking up the puck in their own zone, taking half of the net. Like those are things that are going to come with time still are going to look very different from game to game. So Archer Shelov is the guy, but for how long, of course, you know, that's a valid question because I do see this as a 1A, 1B situation. Hey, Randeep, how's your salary cap expertise? It's about the same as everybody else at 650. We just text that.

Right. Yeah. So what is that saying about whether or not the Canucks are going to have to go into LTI? That's, well, that's the question, right? The two-seater situation is really going to dictate that. So, um, where I think we, when we started looking at the situation, it's like you have options, right? If they wanted to go with 12 forwards and keep it at a bare minimum, they might be able to do that, but there is a limit. If you have Hirose that is injured, um, and even though he might not feature in the NHL plans because he got injured

at the NHL level, you've got to keep him up until he's healthy. Puce Suter is another example of a player that, if it's not a long-term thing, that's a player you have to keep on the roster as well.

So the LTIR, it's going to be tight. Let's put it that way. This is a situation where you have a couple of additional injured players now over the last four or five days. How do you deal with that? So I still think they can do it, but the benefit that they do have, Jason, is that they've got a couple of games kicking off the season right here in Vancouver. But that road trip, yeah, that will dictate.

So can they do it? As of right now, yeah, it seems like they might be able to squeeze through, but they have one more game to go, right? You don't know what happens in that game. And that's really the one thing to watch. But I think clearly the Puse Suter situation, him being injured and dealing with an upper body injury, obviously puts that whole

conversation in a little bit more, I think, uncertainty based on the fact that you're going to have to dip into another potential player keeping them up. And obviously, that's going to be something that counts against the cap. Well, Alfred is just on the edge of his seat with this LTI race. and he texts me all hours of the day you know do you think the connects are going to be able to accrue cap space or they can have to go into lti and i have to sometimes reply to him like man it's three in the morning like you need to go to sleep we've got a show tomorrow you can't be thinking about this stuff all the time i love ltir yeah it's my favorite thing. As a matter of fact,

I have a What We Learned coming up about LTIR. I'm not even joking. You know what I'd love? I'd love like an LTIR accrued tracker. Like just every second how much there's an athenae cracking.

Like a piggy bank. Yeah. Is it like five cents every 30 minutes? Yeah, I want 30 minute alerts on my phone every time it goes up or down. I want like the stock market.

Is that how it works? I don't know. I think Halford's ready for some hockey. Randy, thanks for doing this today, bud. We appreciate it. Enjoy the game tomorrow night. Have a good call. All right.

Take care, guys. Thanks. That's Randy Janda here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I'm not lying. I do have a LTIR-related what we learned. Okay, I want to hear it then. Okay. What we learned courtesy of Frank Cerevelli,

who's going to be on our show tomorrow, right? Now here's the thing. Return of the Frank. Frank. Frank Fridays unfortunately is. Frank Fridays? Frank Fridays. Frankly Fridays. Frank Fridays? Frankly Fridays? Frankly Fridays, I like that. It's only a one

shot deal. Yeah. Because then it's going to be like Frank Wednesdays. Yeah. Oh, okay. Doesn't have the same ring to it. Yes to Frank Friday. Shockingly, we're getting off topic. He's going to wear a party hat tomorrow. Further off topic.

Frank Cerevalli, courtesy the Twitter. Sources of Frank say that a resolution has been reached between Robin Lehner and the Vegas Golden Knights. You remember this story, of course. A couple weeks ago, we got news between Robin Lehner and the Vegas Golden Knights. You remember this story, of course. A couple weeks ago, we got news that Robin Lehner didn't show up for his mandatory preseason physical, which I think they had to cross the T's and dot the lowercase J's. Yep, you're hurt.

Yeah, you're hurt. You got to do it, though. You got to show up to the doctor. He didn't do that part. So there was a bit of a kerfuffle, if you will, between the Golden Knights and Robin Lehner. According to Frank's sources, it has been rectified. And thank God for this. Robin Lehner will not be on Vegas's salary cap this season.

It's believed that he's going to be paid. But how? Everything's hunky-dory. Everything's just fine. He'll get paid. He won't be on the cap. Everything's good. Dondory. You'll get paid. You won't be on the cap. Everything's good. Don't ask any more questions.

Frank goes on to add that this is a big win for the Golden Knights, who will likely not have to operate in LTIR to start the season. Yes, team noted for struggling with cap issues. Thank God that Vegas is finally getting a break. You know, I was worried that a team that always played by the rules and never did anything nefarious with the salary cap was going to be treated unfairly because of Robin Lehner's issues. Is Lehner like their $6 million car park attendant or something there?

How are they making this happen? I don't know. I want details. Well, I got some other details, which aren't as funny, unfortunately. I just saw this this morning. This story came out five days ago in the vegas review journal the rj as they call it locally um robin laner is in some pretty serious financial issues legal issues yeah so a federal bankruptcy judge has actually frozen his assets after lawyers from one of laner's major creditors in an ongoing bankruptcy case

alleged that laner has engaged in quote-unquote frivolous spending and made improper fund transfers while having declared bankruptcy it goes on to add that the filing says that the laners, both Mr. And Mrs. Have spent 1.5 million on gambling vacations and luxury purchases after they filed for bankruptcy in December of 2022. So that's probably an issue where like your creditor is like, hey, Mr. Mrs. Laner, when are you going to start? I can't talk right now. I'm at

the casino right in dubai i'll have your money in five minutes the casino we shouldn't laugh but we're doing it all the same yeah yeah because it's not actually in dubai it's in here on a yacht near dubai anyway this is all not gonna go over well on social media because Frank's tweet basically suggests, not even a suggestion, it just says like the Golden Knights, get what they want, those scamps. It's like that Donald Trump meme. It's like, surely this won't trip up Donald Trump. Well, nevertheless. Yes.

He managed to wriggle himself loose quite easily. So the Vegas Golden Knights, all I know is that according to Frank's reporting, will not open the season on LTIR because they're not going to have Robin Lehner's contract on the books. But he's still going to get paid. He's still going to get paid. Everyone walks away with it. Makes sense.

I want this to turn out somehow funny in that he's got a job washing cars or something. Can you imagine? And it's like he's getting paid six million dollars to do that. He's the new hype man. You would have to do something, right? Around there.

You're in Vegas. You could be like the food and beverage guy. He's the mascot. No, it would have to be like more of a job job. That's a job. Mascots aren't really a job. And then everyone in Vancouver

are like, why couldn't Louis Erickson wash cars? Yeah, do something around here. Just something. Anyway, MuCow all that. Maybe he's like the Vegas greeter. Remember when the homework goes to the casino? Or when it goes into the casino.

Hi, welcome to Mr. Burns' casino. He was George Cooney, wasn't he? Yeah. If you have any questions, please. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.