Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 10/8/24

Episode Date: October 8, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they go around the NHL with analyst Ray Ferraro, plus the boys chat with Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet ahead of tomorrow's season opener. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. The ghost pitches swung on a high fly ball to right field. This one is going to fly! Optimistic and feeling good about themselves before the first game. And it's going to be tough. It's going to get really hard. The Saints big man got it on the ricochet of the goal line

on a pass intended for Smith-Huster. That was a thick pick! That was a thick pick. That was a thick pick. It was a thick pick. Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It's Halford and his brother at Sportsnet 650.

We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Ada, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello.

Halford and Brougham in the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. While they'll give you the highest prices on scrap metal,

North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Thousands of them. Thousands out there. Sore feet?

What are you waiting for? Kintec. Folks, are you excited? Now, here's the thing. It's not quite the actual start of the NHL season. That already happened. But it is the start of the NHL's North American season. But it's not the start of the Canucks season.

And then they thought, what better way to kick off part two of three than with a matinee in Seattle? Here I come! Yeah. And then you say, well, that's okay, a matinee in Seattle. That's one of the more exciting markets in the NHL, right? Well, it's okay. Then you thought, well, no worries. At least it's a rivalry game.

And then you're like, oh, they're playing St. Louis. And then you're like, don't worry about it, though, because they're really good teams. Neither of them made the playoffs last year. But no mind. No mind. NHL Part 2 of the opener gets underway today. And then, of course, all the Canadian teams,

including your Vancouver Canucks, are in action tomorrow. So we got a lot to get into regardless, because hockey season is finally here. No more of this preseason dress rehearsal type stuff. Guest list today begins at 630. Greg Wyshynski is going to join us. ESPN NHL Insider. 7 o'clock.

What a get. What a perfect booking for today. Ray Ferraro. Ray Ferraro is about to embark on a broadcasting journey. An odyssey. He's going to call that aforementioned matinee game in Seattle. Then he's going to hop on a jet. What?

He's going to call. He's going to do a game? In Seattle. Yeah. Then he's going to hop on a jet. And go to Vegas or what? Go to Utah. He's going to do another game?

Are you serious? Yes, I'm playing along here, you idiot. I couldn't tell. Somebody didn't read the notes. That's how good of an actor he is. That's how good an actor. I was like, oh my God, this is like working Liam Neeson. This is unbelievable.

Anyway, Ray's going to, let's do it again. Ray's going to hop on a jet. Yeah. And then he's going to go to Utah and do two games. Maybe one day. Maybe he'll act down a little bit. I've never. Oh, is he really?

That's crazy. Wow. I didn't know that. Did you also believe that? Wow, really? Is he actually doing this? Are you acting? No, I'm just messing with you.

I've never been so enamored with someone's acting before in my life. That was really good. Yeah. You captured the essence of stunned radio host. Good liar. He's doing. He's a good liar. Yeah, he's doing two games today.

And the Bruins and the Panthers are going to play in the meantime. While he's traveling. Ray can't make it to that one. So we've got Kraken Blues, we've got Bruins, Panthers, and then the nightcap, we've got Hockey Club. That's going to be a tough one

to get out there, but Hockey Club, Blackhawks, and Ray's going to join us at 7. 7.30, TJ Lee, linebacker for your BC Lions. Lions are back in action this weekend, Thanksgiving weekend, where they will take on the Rough Riders. 8 o'clock, Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice here, Vancouver Canucks.

He is going to walk us through everything that happened yesterday with roster cut-down day, and then, of course, looking to tomorrow's game against Calgary. Brendan Batchelor is going to join us. Am I pushing him now? He's going a little too far. Really? Yeah.

Wow. Method acting, method acting went a little too far there. Okay. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey,

did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened?

What Happened is brought to you by the BCConstruction Safety Alliance. Wow, really? It was good acting. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. It was his eyes. He should be completely dumbfounded with every read that you do as well. Like, really?

They sponsor us? It wasn't just the voice and the reaction. It was the eyes. When you look deep into his eyes, there was a sense of emptiness. Yeah, shark eyes. Swindled you. I saw a lot of psychopaths have them. You don't have any pupils.

Is everything okay, bud? Very disassociated. Anyway, the Vancouver Canucks. Empathy. The Vancouver Canucks solidified their final roster

yesterday. We're going to bang through some of the major decisions. Atu Ratu and Nils Amon, welcome to the team. You made it. Hard line for R. Steve Baines.

He did not. Thatcher Demko and Dakota Joshua are going to be opening the season on injured non-roster. That's not long-term injured reserve. Those are different things. The Canucks, thanks in large part to shipping off Tucker Pullman's contract,

will not have to start the season on LTIR. And that's a good thing. Two guys that are dealing with nicks and bumps and bruises, Connor Garland and Pugh Suter, are listed as healthy roster players. So it's one extra forward, two extra D-men, 13 forwards, eight defensemen, and two goalies. There's your Vancouver Canucks roster for opening night. Brackets

for now, because things can always change. Yeah, and the fact that they were able to have one extra forward and two extra D-men on the roster that was submitted to the NHL was made possible by the Pullman trade. There was possible by the Pullman trade. There was talk before the Pullman trade that they would have had to have Pullman on the roster if they don't want to go into LTIR. And I think a lot of people were speculating that they might have started

the season with like one extra body. Alveen allowed yesterday that things could still happen before Wednesday's opener against the Flames. And we have to keep in mind the health of Connor Garland, although he is on the roster and they do have extras. But they were impressed with Baines, who was kind of the unlucky one yesterday.

And they said as the preseason progressed, he got better and better and that it was a tough call to send him down but I'm sure they were able to explain it to him like hey like this isn't this isn't a bad thing this is just a numbers thing I wonder if these players these players must understand that this isn't 20 years ago and the fact that there is a hard cap now and you have to be you know everyone is so um calculated is the perfect word because there's so much math involved with the numbers that they've got going into the season that there aren't there aren't just like a

ton of spots for someone to come and be like wow he was so good that he just made the team. Like, it is difficult to do. And, you know, I said all along, I was like, I don't think they're going to put Nils Amon on waivers. Yeah. You know, even if Baines technically outplays them, people are like, Nils Amon, what does he do? I was like, well, he's a center. That's important.

You've got to have depth. You know, the Canucks have already had injuries this preseason. Injuries have been a big part of everything with Thatcher Demko, and you know, if you start losing centers, you can get into trouble, and Nils Amon is a center that can kill penalties, and that might not be

the super, you know, might not be the flashiest player, but they are important to keep those guys around, especially young centers, so they're not going to risk losing him on waivers. I think it will be worth keeping an eye on, well, Les Pugh's suitor, because I think he practiced the other day in a regular jersey, not a non-contact jersey. So I think we can all expect him to be ready for day one. But I do wonder if Connor Garland's going to be ready for Wednesday. Tuckett said that Garland told him that it'd be okay for Wednesday. But until the Canucks practice, I guess today, they're going to practice today.

So we'll take a look and see if Connor Garland's among the regular line rushes. Yeah. So just on the subject of the final cut. And obviously, it's not like back in the day. Remember our favorite movie, Major League, when they would do their cuts after spring training? Yeah, they put the red card in the locker, and then you'd have to go see Lou Brown,

and then someone pulled the wool over Charlie Sheen's eyes, and he went mental. Anyway, I'm going down the road here. It's not like that anymore. As you mentioned, these cuts are more about numbers, cap space, LTIR, all that other stuff. But it still doesn't mean that the conversation is easy. Here's Patrick Alveen speaking yesterday about the difficult decision

to send Arshdeep Baines down to their American Hockey League team in Abbotsford. Absolutely. It was tough. Rick and I met him this morning. We still have a couple of days before opening night. Things could change. But again, very pleased with his season last year, the way he prepared himself for the summer. And I thought he, from Penticton to yesterday,

I thought he just got better and better. And especially the last two games against full lineup of Edmonton there, I thought he carried himself really well. So we're definitely excited. It's still in the mix. Talk hasn't made up his mind for the lineup of Wednesday yet. So we'll see her with the next day of practice and we'll go from there.

So Alvin also had a lot to say about some of the upper echelon players on the Vancouver Canucks. And the keyword for him for a few guys was consistency. And this was in his press conference yesterday. And he said, I hope we can still push players to have career years and finding that consistency. And then he name checked some guys. He said, that's the next level I think Rick's talking about. Guys like Brock Besser, Nils Hoaglander, Elias Pettersson, those guys have to find the consistent level. I think that's the next level of being a good team and good individuals. I added pieces here to give us more competition.

I can already see that in practice this year too, that guys are growing and pushing each other. So far, I've been very pleased with what I've seen. Overall, Patrick Alvin, very happy with what's been going on. And I think Canucks fans very happy with the work that Patrick Alvin has uh has done but you'll recall that Alvin told IMAC at training camp that he felt Brock Besser one of the heroes of last year who scored 40 goals and some big goals in the playoffs too yep let his foot off the gas when he scored 30 and when I first first read this quote, I was kind of like,

is he joking a little bit? Like, he's like, because the original quote was like, I thought he could have got to 50. Right. And Patrick Oveen is a noted prankster. Right. But maybe he's got that dry sense of humor. But he was being, the full quote was, you know,

I told him he could have scored 50 goals, but I felt he took his foot off the gas when he scored 30 and we want to see him pushing through. So the three guys, Besser, Hoaglander and Pedersen, we all know about Petey's issues down the stretch and into the playoffs. They were well documented, not on this show,

of course. No. As were Hoaglander's struggles in the playoffs. So I just think that's, that was an interesting kind of add-on from yesterday's press conference with Alvin because remember that last season was awesome. It was great.

It was an incredible turnaround season. I don't think many people saw it coming. I didn't see it coming. They nearly got to the third round, but nearly. And I think, you know, all things considered, I realized Demko was hurt, but I think after that series, most of us could honestly say, yeah, the Oilers were the better team there. I thought it was interesting, too, about...

But sorry, my whole point is that this season, if last season was about raising the bar, this season, bar goes higher. Yeah, yeah. And you have to, like, your best players have to give it every game. Yeah, no, and I get that. And I get why when you're name-checking particularly,

as you'd bring up Elias Pettersson, I think we can all, except maybe one or two very defiant people, can universally agree that he struggled in the second half of the season and needs to be better, needs to find that consistency. He also name check knows Hoaglander. I'm like, yep,

I could see that as well. Hoaglander had a real tough time in the playoffs and he was a healthy scratch to bet. The Besser thing just really, it's, it's interesting that it's him because of what he did last year. And if there was a dip after he scored 30 goals in the regular season, he certainly came out of the dip and performed tremendously well in the playoffs.

We've got the audio from Alvin on Besser. We can let it speak for itself. Here's the general manager at the very end name-checking Besser, but talking about that consistency that Bruff was speaking about. Patrick Alvin, yesterday on the Vancouver Canucks and consistency. Yeah, I think that at some point it will happen. But I think that the focus here is the next day, the next game. And I think that's where, you know, continue to build and find that consistency to be a good player.

I think that's the next level here for Brock. So he was talking about a resolution to the contract issue. Yep. With Brock Besser, and Brock Besser, as we all know, is a pending UFA. So they got to make a decision on this guy. And it is a very big and important decision on Brock Besser. And there's a lot of factors involved. You know, is he going to keep scoring like he did last season?

Are the Canucks going to have the cap space to keep him? And it's not just can they find the cap space to keep him, it's could that cap space be deployed? Is that the best way to deploy that cap space? Yep. Using it on Brock Besser. The Canucks have a lot of wingers now. Yeah.

And there's more on the way with a guy like Jonathan Leckar-Omakie. So you could see in a league where every dollar has to be accounted for, them thinking long and hard about whether or not they want to commit long-term to a guy who's going to demand and deserve a big contract it's going to be an interesting decision I think there's just something that's worth monitoring as the season goes on and I think for Brock Besser getting off to a good start is going to obviously really help him if he does want to stay with the Vancouver Canucks speaking of things that are going to be monitored, the health of Thatcher Demko will continue to be monitored until he's back in the lineup.

But there was no real update on Demko as the Canucks submitted their roster for the start of the NHL season. Alvin said that nothing has really changed in terms of his timeline. This is just purely like my gut, which is really only full of coffee and coffee creamer at this stage of the morning but just based on gut feel does not sound as though anybody is expecting thatcher demko to be back reasonably soon like i'm talking like i would not be surprised if we get through the entire month of october without seeing thatcher demko i'd be surprised if we do see him yeah yeah yeah Yeah. That's what I mean.

They were saying yesterday was November. Yeah. I don't have a key date in mind. No, that's kind of where I was going with this. I don't have one in mind. I'm not even going to freak out if, oh my God, it's November 1st and we're still not hearing reports. I think they're going to be very-

I think we should expect that. I think they're going to be very careful with Thatcher Demko. Now, if we start the season and Seelives and Lankanen are a little bit shaky, then maybe we get a little antsy. Get a little antsy. Just buy them a new brace. It's easy for us to say right now, we're not worried about it because we're all feeling pretty good, I think, about Seelovs

and the addition of Lankanen. And it just goes to show the difference a year makes right i mean can you imagine a year ago saying like i trust in the canucks defensively that they'll be fine and they'll be able to manage you know even if these guys aren't quite to the level of thatcher demko they're still good goalies and the canucks know how to play defense. It is crazy the difference a year makes, but the difference has been made. And I think the big picture right now with Dr. Demko is making sure that he's ready for the meat of the regular season, down the stretch, and into the playoffs, and he's able to manage the injury. This is another thing.

He needs to understand the injury and understand his body now, and that might take a little bit of time. And even when he's back, I don't think they're going to play the wheels off of him because that would be really foolish. So I mentioned that the Canucks are going to practice today ahead of Wednesday's season opener against the Calgary Flames. We will be keeping an eye out for Garland. Suter, less so. He was no longer wearing the non-contact jersey at Sunday's practice, so pretty sure that Suter will be in the lineup. up. Vancouver, if you haven't checked the schedule, plays its first two games of the season at home before heading out on the road for four games, including a trip through Florida.

I think they start in Tampa Bay and then they play the Florida Panthers. Tough times in Florida right now. Yeah, with the hurricane? Yeah. We don't even know if the game's going to be played today, right? Miami is not really near the eye of the storm. It's supposed to hit more of central Florida.

So they said that they're going to push through with the game tonight against the Bruins, but they've muted all the pregame celebrations. Yeah, they don't want to have a big celebration while other people are in their state. They also don't want to use any resources that are going to be needed to deal with it. So they don't want to have like a police cavalcade or extra security or anything like that. Of course, yeah. So they're going to push through with it.

But the understanding is that everything in Florida right now is sort of like a wait and see approach. Everyone's on pins and needles to see what happens. So the Canucks host Calgary on Wednesday and Philadelphia on Friday, and then they get a few days off to go off on their trip. The Canucks should be favored to win each of these games, first against Calgary and then Philly. I think Philly would be interesting with Mitchkoff coming. But there's still –

Jet Luchenko, who I had to learn about. Right. He's super young, isn't he? 18 years old. 18 years old. I know nothing about him. He's got's super young, isn't he? 18 years old. 18 years old. I know nothing about him. He's got a cool name. He's good in the OHL.

Yeah, and his name is Jet. But let's not overlook the Flames. No, let's not look past them. But these are two teams that not many people are predicting are going to make the playoffs. So let's hope the Canucks don't get too cocky reading all the preseason predictions about them, that they're practically a lock to make the playoffs.

Have you read any predictions that have them missing the playoffs? Not a one. Like I've read some where people say they might regress a little bit, but not regress to the point where they fall out of the playoffs. I haven't seen a lot of them that has them dropping out of top three in the division. Like I've seen a couple that have them as a wildcard team, but it's more the anomaly. And I haven't read a lot of them that has them dropping out of top three in the division. Like I've seen a couple that have them as a wildcard team, but it's more the anomaly. And I haven't read a single preseason prediction that has them on the outside looking in.

That is even with everyone cognizant of the fact that Thatcher Demko, a Vezna finalist, might not play. Like the question I had for Demko actually was, and it's don't feel like you'll have to rush and throw a number on this. Because I know I'm throwing everyone in the room on the spot. If you're listening, feel free. You can think about it. How many games do you think Thatcher Demko plays for the Vancouver Canucks before the calendar turns from 2024 to 2025? That's the first three months of the season.

You're basically writing off the first month entirely. No one's expecting him to play in October. We think maybe he'll be back at some point in November, but no one's prepared to put a date on it. So at that point you're saying, well, it's December. And then at that stage of the game, you're saying he's not going to be dropped back in as a full-time starter. They're going to work him in slowly.

So I'd be very, I don't know what the number is. That's the very. I don't think that I don't think we should have a number in our. No, but that's kind of. It just has to be a, you have to deal with it on a day-by-day basis. That's kind of my whole point, is we don't have a number on anything with Demko in terms of a potential return date,

in terms of how many weeks he's going to be out, in terms of how many games he's going to play. It is a true essential wild card in that you can't predict any of it, but it doesn't seem to have affected preseason predictions all that much. So Van City's V in Toronto says, in all honesty, do you see Demko back before the new year?

And I would say yes. And I would worry if he wasn't. I would worry big time if he wasn't. Right. He's not back by the new year. Like it's kind of like you have to maintain your composure, but then if he's out for a certain amount of time, then you have to consider reality.

Although that freak out might be largely dictated by how Silov's and Lankanen do in his... Yeah, but Mike, if he misses the first three months of the season... What happens if their plan lights out? Well, I'm still going to be worried about Factor Demko if he hasn't played for three months of the season. What happens if their plan lights out? Well, I'm still going to be worried about Factor Demko if he hasn't played for three months. We got two new goalies. We can't have anyone freak out out there, okay?

We got teamwork and closure. None of this has happened. This is so silly. We're having an argument about something that hasn't happened yet. All I'm saying is that I'm going to stay patient up to a certain point where I go, well, wait a minute. Is he going to be back at all? Okay, well, let's talk about the goalies

that's currently constructed on the roster. You've got Demko not playing. You've got Silovs, you've got Lankanen. I assume that Silovs is going to play the Calgary game. Then I assume that Lankanen is going to play the Philly game. Yeah, and then they've got a few days off to prepare for the Tampa game. Yeah, and then it's BattleBots. You just let them fight it out for whoever's going to get more.

And that's a great scenario to be in, because neither of them probably feel like they're the guy. I think Selah's probably would more than Lankan, because he's been here before. But it's not like he's got this huge track record of regular season success. As a matter of fact, in terms of regular season wins, Lankan is the far more established guy.

So I think that dynamic, just like i use battle bots you can use whatever base blades you just let them bang and crash and fight one another and then whoever emerges the victor i don't i don't i don't think that's how goalie yeah competition you got pads yeah you put their helmets on you get their glove and blocker and you just let them just let them go last one standing it's to start That's how I used to design. That's it. Yeah. Okay. My brain turned out fine. Dang. Okay.

We're up against it. We're up against it for time. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Ray Ferraro. He joins us now. What do you think the atmosphere is going to be like in Utah? So I think it'll be great.

And the reason I think this is Bob was shoes and who I'll be doing the game with has done a bunch of NBA games in there. And he's, he said the, the roof there is kind of like a, this isn't exactly what it is, but it's kind of like a, a tin,

a metal. And so the sound, like the old shark tank just bounces all over the place. He said it's deafening. When the Jazz were playing, he said it was deafening. And so I don't expect that tonight. It's the first game. You know how that goes.

Nobody knows the players. You don't even know your own players yet. But they're excited to have it. I think they'll, like any team, they've got a chance to be really great because they've got money behind it. The one thing we've seen in modern sports is if owners don't have the resources, and hell, that's why the team's in Utah, is because the owner had no resources. So you don't have a chance then. And I think in pretty short order, this will be a pretty well-run franchise.

I've said this to a few guests already, but isn't it kind of ironic that when the Coyotes left Winnipeg to go to Phoenix, they played in an arena that was made for basketball. So there were some issues with the arena you know they had to pull back some seats and there were some obstructed views i'm sure you played in america west yeah i did yeah and and now you know after everything they went through in phoenix they kind of moved the team to utah although they won't say it that way but the team did get moved to utah and now they're in a basketball specific arena with some obstructed views I I've heard that the arena can be renovated unlike old America West but

I don't know it is kind of funny well it it is ironic for sure um not it can be it will be uh that's part of the that's part of the deal that's part of the deal. This is part of the, um, this whole, uh, scenario was all part of the, the 2032 Olympics as well. Um, and the owner who owns the jazz, um, they have a, I think they've got two summers or maybe it's three to, uh, no, like I'm not a construction guy, but they're going to get the front end of that building off and turn it into a multi-purpose arena, which is all those seats you're talking about

that are obstructed view. They're going to go and they're going to change the pitch of those seats, which seems like a big deal to me. But anyway, they're going to redo that. And within, I think it's two summers or three, I'm not so sure on that, they'll have an arena that fits both basketball and hockey,

like many do. The problem with the old arena in America West was, I don't know if it couldn't be done or wouldn't be done. It was one of the two. I'm assuming this is a pretty costly endeavor to take off the front corner of a building and um so there there's work to do there but look they they tried to thread the needle in arizona for years um they didn't have the money it wasn't going to get done i'm telling you i told this story before uh the first time we went out to the glendale arena

next door was this farmer's field which has become the football stadium and we're driving out there and it's like forever and we're like where the hell are we going and there was a rusted old farm equipment in the corner of this field and that's where you turned left. So when you got to the rusty farm equipment, you knew you were at the rink. And none of us thought this could work. We're like, who's coming here? And that really became the story of the coyotes, was that whether they were going to be good or bad or whatever,

like who's coming there? And eventually they finally got it out of there. Let's talk a bit about the Vancouver Canucks and your expectations for the team this year. What are some of the, I guess, story arcs and narratives that you're going to be following with this team? The obvious one is Thatcher Demko and his health. Are there any other big ones when it comes to the Canucks? Yeah, for sure.

I mean, Demko, of course, is going to be the headliner until he gets back, until he can play at the level that we're all accustomed to seeing him play. And as much as anybody can talk about Arthur Shelovs and Kevin Lankin, and I think they'll do an adequate job. I really do. I think they'll be fine. But Thatcher Demko is in the top half dozen goalies in the league.

You don't just find another goalie like that. He's in rarefied air when he's at the peak of his game so that's that's a that's something we'll all look at almost day by day although we shouldn't look at it day by day because they already told us it's three to four weeks um it's kind of their initial timeline here um petterson's return uh to form think, is critical to any success they'll have. For two reasons. One, he's too important to player production-wise. And two, he's got an $11 million cap hit.

And so the production has to be there. And there's no skirting that. He's just a critically important piece to the team. I'm really curious to see. I think Jake DeBrusque is a 30-goal guy. He's never been there before. I think he'll be a little more free here. As what happens with players when they're in a place for a long time,

that organization will see more what they're in a place for a long time, that organization will see more what they're not as opposed to what they are. You come to a new place, they see what you are and not what you aren't. And so he's got a chance here playing with Pedersen to really have some runway. And he's going to be on a power

play in a prominent spot. There's a chance for opportunity there that he wouldn't have gotten. And, you know, I mean, in Boston, you know, for the first five years of his career, six years of his career, Patrice Bergeron was in the bumper. Like you weren't going there. Yeah.

You weren't going to play on the wing. He played it quite well. Yeah. And there was Brad Marchand. There was nowhere to go. Here he's going to get a chance. Now let's up to him. So I'm really curious about that.

And the other thing is, I don't think you can underestimate the fact that Patrick Alveen was able to make the deal for Tucker Pullman to get 80% of his money out of here, and that keeps him out of LTI. And that, I think we saw last year, their aggressiveness to improve the team during the season, that will be enhanced with not being an LTI and that I think we saw last year their aggressiveness to improve the team during the season that will be enhanced with not being an LTI so I they had a terrific offseason and

tomorrow night when it hits the ice then we'll we'll see how it all translates. How big a decision do they have to make with Brock Besser. For some people, it might be just obvious, like, yeah, you've got to re-sign this guy. But they do all of a sudden have a bunch of wingers signed past two or three years or even four years. Hoaglander is locked up for four years now. They've got guys like Jonathan Leckermacki coming. And I have found it interesting, as has Halford, that Patrick Alveen has been talking about Brock's consistency

level and how he wants to see more consistency and he actually said last year after he uh Alveen thought that after Brock hit 30 goals he let his foot off the gas and when we first heard that we're kind of like is he is he joking is this like dry humor or something like that he ended with 40 goals it seems pretty consistent to me. But just wondering about your thoughts about Brock Besser heading into this season. Well, like everybody, I guess, was just really impressed with his season last year. He was clearly attempting to be a different player, a more complete player. And I think the results were quite obvious that he was in the way that

Toc used him in spots that you wouldn't have thought he would be out there in the past. One thing about Patrick that I know is he's relentless, that his relentless of and pursuit of success, his foot does not come off the gas. And so if there's a way to get 5% more, they're going to chase it. And if that means that's what they're hoping for from Besser,

then they're going to chase that. As far as re-signing him, the days are gone that as you get older, you just keep making more money. Like that was ending a little bit maybe 10 or 12 years ago it's certainly ending now and you now get paid when you're younger you get paid when you're in your the peak of your career and as you get older you start to get kind of cornered a little bit and And the two things that always come to play

with an older player are obviously AAV and then term. And so if Brock and his agent think that there's a six-year deal somewhere, then he might have to chase that. If he's looking for something less in term, then maybe there's something to be done. But you don't just take a 40-goal score or a 30-goal score for sure, a 30-plus goal score, let me say it that way.

You don't just take that and pitch it to the curb and say, oh, we'll just get another one of those. Because it doesn't happen. Like, Lechomacki might be a tremendous young prospect, and he might light up the american league this year and then he's going to get to the america to the nhl and he's going to have to start all over again and it's to expect that somebody like that would come in and just replace what besser does is is unrealistic and so the there is a there is a balancing act to all of this that I think you can be really good at it from a management standpoint.

And that gives you the best chance to be lucky to hit the timing right. Because it's really hard. Is Brock in the peak years of his career or was that a one-off? I mean, I don't know. But you're committing millions of dollars and years to that theory. And so your coaches and your scouts and your management team, there'll be a lot of discussions about players of that prominence. We're speaking to Ray Ferraro here on the Halford & Brough Show

on Sportsnet 650. Ray, what about the task facing Rick Tockett this year as the head coach, the reigning Jack Adams winner? If you go back and you look at the history of Jack Adams winners, oftentimes the guy that wins it is the one that has the biggest single season turnaround from year to year in terms of points. And then after that, the job almost inherently gets more difficult because, one, you're at the top of the coaching mountain.

You're the best coach in the NHL. But, two, you have to go and do it again, right? They don't want to see regression. In a lot of these cases, that's what ends up happening. Now, I think everyone can agree that Rick Tockett's done a really good job as a really good head coach. We had Mike Keenan on the show yesterday. He was full of praise for his former players, now a head coach. But none of that takes away from the fact that it is difficult when you get to the heights that you do in the coaching world and winning coach of the year.

It gets more difficult after that, and that's what Rick Tockett's faced with going into this season. It does, inevitably, for everybody. I mean, when you're just starting and you're with a team that's in the middle or the lower third, nobody really puts much focus or much heat on a coach in that predicament, right? You just coach and you make the changes you want, you change the systems that you want, you try to get new players in, and you're just kind of plodding along. And then if you hit a season like the Canucks had last year, you're 100% right. The scrutiny comes from all sides.

I happen to think one of the best coaches in the league is Jared Bednar. And in Jared Bednar's first year, that's when Patrick Waugh walked out right before camp. They said, oh, yeah, Jared, guess what? You're the coach. And they had 59 points. Like they got their lunch handed to them and he he coached with uh with a long leash because nobody really expected that much well then you could see that he knew what he was doing and they were putting

together a team then they win the stanley cup Now, since then, they've had injury, they've had suspension, they're at the top of the heap. Everybody looks at Colorado and says, oh, they're coming in here or we're going there, we better bring our A game. They're trying to make adjustments, they're trying to move personnel in. Once you get to the top where Bednar has been and where Toc would like to get to, of course it gets harder because you're standing to the top where Bednar has been and, you know, where Toc would like to get to, of course it gets harder because you're standing on the point and everybody's trying to, A, knock you off that point.

You have to replicate all the good things that happened in the year that you just had. And the Canucks were really healthy. They had guys have career years. The same thing I'll tack on is Chris Knoblock and edmonton i think edmonton's defense missed four games last year like that that's not happening again right and so he's gonna have there's gonna be a different set of pressures on on knoblock and a different set of pressures on talk and they're gonna the the coaching business, I always thought I would get into it.

Man, I'm so glad I didn't because there is just no relief. You ever talk to a coach after a game and you're like, hey, coach, great job. You won 4-1. Yeah, you see our power play. We rolled for four. Like they never can take a breath. And that's – it's a hard way, uh,

to go through, but that's, that's the job. So I'm totally with you. There is a lot of pressure to, I don't know if they can replicate the point total, but to, to be as, uh, a team that is in the top of their top of their division, the top of their conference, uh, in those two or three or four teams that are right at the very top and and give yourself a legitimate chance um there's a lot of pressure in there i know we shouldn't read into anything that happens into the preseason but i'm going to go out and read a little bit the oilers looked pretty loose in the preseason defensively

um do you think that blue line, and I know they made some changes to their roster, do you think that blue line is going to hold up or do you think that's going to have to be addressed midseason? Do you think there might be a bit of a, they didn't win the Stanley Cup, but they made it to the final. Do you think there might be a bit of a hangover there? What do you think about the Edmonton Oilers as it stands right now?

I think there's zero chance that blue line will look the same in March as it does now. None. Zero. They can't win a Stanley Cup with that collection. And I think they know that. But people aren't available that you might be interested in or that might be helpful to you in October that they might be in January or February. CAP, of course, plays an incredible part of it. I also think there is a view that we are good enough that we can mask over some of our deficiencies until we get later in the year

the preseason i i don't i can't even imagine what it was like for those guys to play the game seven and lose right and lose yeah get nothing and then turn around a few short months later and play a preseason game with half the guys in your own lineup you don't know. So I'm not concerned with it. I mean, it was not a sharp performance in the preseason, but I don't really think that particularly matters. I do think they didn't get a good preseason out of Jeff Skinner. I think that's a little bit of a concern for them because they were hoping that he and Ardvidsson

could flank Dreisaitl. And it looks like they're going to start with Skinner with Henrik on a third line. That's not really what their plan was. And then on the blue line, you know, whether it's, you know, Ty Emberson and Travis Dermott and Josh Brown was on waivers and Troy Stetcher and, you know, like, they're trying to plug some holes there and try to, like, just trying to hold the ship steady a little bit,

I think, until they get deeper in the air. Ray Ferraro, head coach here of Vancouver Canucks. Rick Talkett here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Rick. How are you? How are you, gentlemen? How are you guys doing? We are well. We are excited, as I imagine you must be. Preseason's done. Training camp is a distant memory. The regular season gets underway tomorrow against Calgary.

How excited are you for the start of the regular season? How are you feeling about your team going into the 2024-2025 campaign? Yeah, well, you know, I don't care who you are over the summer. When you get back, you're just excited to start, right? Excited with the guys. I think Patrick and Jim have put a nice roster together, a really deep roster. And we've been some competition in camp.

We've tried a few new things. I think the guys came in in really good shape. And I think their mindset right now is good. So I think you've got to train yourself for the long haul, though. I know opening night's a big thing for everybody, but we have to train our mind for the long haul, and that's really what our message as a player is. What's the status on those new things that you were trying?

Are you happy with the progress that you made? It doesn't all have to happen in training camp and preseason, the regular season you continue to learn, but do you feel like you got off to a good start? Yeah, I think for the most part i think you know we're just trying to make guys understand uh when we get a team that's a weakness and we have whether it's a three on two uh or a four on three there's a moment there where if you're not training your mind fast or or or have that mindset we got to burn them, the other team will catch up.

And I find sometimes we're – I don't know if it's playing safe. I just think, you know, it's a matter of just training your mind. Hey, we're going to get the puck here. There's going to be separation. We've got to go. And I think sometimes we wait a second because maybe it is a safe mentality. So, you know, that's why I said to you guys, I think, in the press last year, you know, is it a little bit me where I wanted to make sure guys without the puck

and we really wanted to get the structure? Is it, you know, certain guys' mentality? I think we've all meet in the middle and say, hey, I think it's a little bit both. Let's go here. But we still got to be responsible for the puck. I don't want to change our identity. We're not going to get in a river hockey game. That's just not who we are.

And we won't be successful that way. But saying that, there is more from some guys on the offensive, especially off the rush. I think there's more. Is it almost reteaching them their instincts, or is it telling them certain places to go on the ice? A little bit of both. I think we're big with these landmarks.

Landmark can be a pretty good area. It's not just one small spot. But we'd like you to be in this kind of area, landmark, and then use your instincts from there. We got some younger guys, like a Hogliner, for instance, where, you know, you've got to use him. Like, he could be really good off a rush and use his instincts, but he's got to go know when's the time.

If it's a 50-50 puck, you know, Hoggy, you can't take off. If we're going to get it and, you know, you have your hockey brain, like, hey, we're going to get this puck and if that puck's going to go to a garland or whoever he's playing with, if I take off, I'm going to beat this guy instead of overshooting it or

waiting too long. I think you've got to find that sweet spot. We've spent a lot of time with that and so I guess to answer your question a couple minutes ago, I think we've made some strides, but it's a long haul. We've still got a long way to go. Do you feel better about your team speed? Well, I think getting Sherwood and Jake DeBrusque and Sprung can skate,

I think that alone makes you a faster team. And then the mindset of playing fast. The guys that we had last year, we know that they can play faster mentally. You know, listen, you are who you are. You can improve your skating a little bit and your speed a little bit, but you can improve your mindset a lot when you think faster. You kind of touched on this,

but is this maybe the natural progression of this team like when you came in you knew okay I gotta I gotta clean us up defensively I gotta clean us up in our own and structure wise I mean I've never even heard the word structure so much as I heard it heading into last season and and and and and to your credit and the reason you won coach of the year your structure was impeccably improved it was an incredible turnaround but now you have to maybe add on to that without throwing the baby out with the bath water you have to add on to that more of an attacking mindset so you can not only be a good structure team but be one of these teams that's dangerous both ways they play you're correct exactly i i think you hit the nail on the head where you know last year and even when we got here you know we

just you got to give a team confidence by where to be when you don't have the puck you know so instead of giving teams great you know 16 grade a chances you know uh five uh you know tic-tac-toe plays uh you cut that down now we're only given maybe seven or eight or nine a game very rarely that happens don't get me wrong but very rarely you know we give the weak side that's a tap and go you know um right away the confidence of the level of the players rises because now hey we're in the game now so now that in the next progression is like if you want to be one of the big boys and you want to be a playoff team every year

and you want to compete every year, there's going to be some times where you just got to convert and there's going to be times where you're playing Edmonton and they have three guys on the four check and they send three guys at our guy and we beat it, but we don't get anything out of it. I think that's the next level for us you know i think i was telling you guys are the press last year after the playoffs

we had ample opportunities where you know and i got video show like hey we had a three on two here for a second and we never took advantage of it hey we had a four on three we didn't take advantage of it those are really missed opportunities. Those are ones you've got to convert. If you have five of them, you've got to at least get one goal off that, whatever the analytics says what you're supposed to get the top teams. That's why we really had a mindset and practiced a lot in training camp, that mindset.

So I want to run through just a few individual players here. Quinn Hughes had an incredible season last year, wins the Norris Trophy. What do you think he learned last season, and I would say especially in the playoffs, that he can bring into this season? Well, first of all, he's played unreal. I'm lucky to have the guy.

I mean, I took the job a year and a half ago. The guy's played great hockey for me. He's a Norris Trophy winner. So what he's done for me to help my career, I owe him a lot. Saying that, I think he knows going into this season, you know, obviously the playoffs is the goal. And I think he learned a lot from the playoffs. Because not just Quinn, all of us, like when things don't go your way, you've got to stay with the team system.

You know, don't go individual. And I'm not saying he went individual. I'm just saying a lot of times in the playoffs when people get frustrated, they try to do things themselves. And I felt at times our team did that a little bit, especially against the Edmonton series. And I think you just always fall back on the team stuff. It always evens out you

always use your talent and stuff when you're in these different positions but I think you know you gotta live for another shift you know that that's really what I think our team learned is that you know you got to make sure that you yeah you want to be individual sometimes you want to use your talent but when things aren't going well, and the other team's playing great. Sometimes the other team's playing great and you just got to make sure that you hold water. You're fine.

You don't have to make everything, you don't have to hit a home run and shift. And I think we learned a little bit about that, but I give him a lot of credit because he did a hell of a job as a captain of his team. That's a tough position to put a kid in. He's 24. He's the captain.

The pressure, you know, can the Vancouver Cubs make the playoffs? And he took that pressure and ran with it. So very lucky to have him as my captain. Same question for Petey. Yeah, I think Petey is a guy that learned last year, especially this. And listen, if you go into anybody's career, there's going to be some down moments. And you've got to look back after you have a down time or whatever. You've got a tough second half or whatever you want to say.

How do you learn from it? What can I do that that doesn't happen again? Well, I've got to make sure I come in good shape. I've got to make sure my practice habits get better. I have to be able to come in good shape. I got to make sure my practice habits get better. You know, I have to be able to, you know, dig in at certain situations. I got to, you know, get me mentally strong. These are all things that athletes or players have to go through. And I think that's something that he goes, you know,

that he's learning from last year. You know, I got to be better at practice. I got to have better practice habits. I got to, instead of 20 shots at one time because I'm taking after practice, I'm going to do 100. Like, these are the obsessions that I want him to have. You know, I coach Crosby.

I've played with, I've seen some of these high-end athletes play with Maryland. They're obsessive about their game. And I think P's getting to that level. He wants to be obsessive of the game. Now you've got to work on your game, which he does. He came into camp. He's trying to do the things we want.

I think he's a guy that's a key to our team, let's face it. He's going to get some matchups where for me, I can expose the other team. He's got to take advantage of it for us. Daniel Sprung, a guy you're familiar with. I noticed a few times this offseason

when you were talking about Sprung, you'd bring up that he's had seven coaches, seven different teams. And it was funny because I was watching Monday Night Football last night and they had the Derek Carr graphic up and quarterback, four years, four different offensive coordinators.

I'm like, I wonder if it's the same thing. The Alex Smith story. Yeah, where it's like you're just constantly trying to learn a new system or trying to you know not necessarily impressing your coach but learn what he wants as opposed to trying to either find or play your game is that kind of what's happened with sprung in the past and what are you expecting now that he's with you guys in vancouver yeah the first i look at his game last game and this is where where I really saw a difference. Like, listen, he, I'm not saying he was all world,

but I like his, he was skating, he was back checking, he was doing all the things that probably in the past people had a problem with. So right away he knows I've got to get my work ethic up, I've got to move my feet. The shot and the ability to make a play, he can be a very elite guy. So I want him to move my feet. The shot and the ability to make a play, he can be a very elite guy. So I want him to continue working that.

You know, obviously play without the puck is something, you know, I'm sure each coach will say is that he gets lost out there. So he has to apply himself in that. I felt this camp, and I know him a little bit as an 18-year-old, 19-year-old in Pittsburgh, so I don't know him really, really well, but I felt that he has really tried, and not just for a game or not for a practice, like every day. Now, you've got to remind him, and we're working with him,

whether it's me or one of the coaches are going to grab him almost every day. And he's craving it. He knows that he's been bounced around. He doesn't want to bounce around again. Or, you know, he wants to stay in the league. So I think he's really, his antennas are up. He knows that this team plays a lot of structure. But he's also a wild card.

I mean, I got to let you know, he's a little bit of a wild horse, too. I can't, you know, maybe the fence is a little bit, you know, I'm going to have the fence a little bit longer for him to run. You know, he doesn't have to be, you know, I don't want him to dump and chase type of guy because he's just that guy that you give him one shot, it's a 2-2 game with six minutes left, and he'll hit that corner.

He has that ability. So how do we make him a roundout player? I think he's started already. You know, we've got a long way to go, and we'll see how it works. I'm going to play him with Petey and Jake, and, you know and it's not a warning, but those guys

got to understand that they're going to get some good matchups out there and they got to take advantage of it, but they got to also play a responsible game too. They're all three shooters. They can't be playing the outside and they can't have three guys below the goal line and the other teams have three on twos against them.

That's not going to work. Unless their conversion rate is unbelievable, then I can close my eyes, but that's not going to happen. So Rick, I know you're a busy guy. We got to let you go, but I do want to ask you one final question and that is just how you deal with higher expectations and how you deal with success because mike and i were almost laughing at the the difference between um the start of this season where you know you look around the league and see all the predictions and people are like oh the canucks will make the playoffs last year we were like please don't lose the first five games of the season and bury yourself right away right i mean it's it is remarkable the turnaround, and you're responsible for that.

But I guess now you're also responsible for the higher expectations. So how do you manage that for yourself and for your team? Well, it's a great question, and, you know, I wish I had a half hour we could talk about that. But for the short answer, for me personally, coming into this season, I'd be a jackass to think that I'm coming in here, I won an award and I'm just going to sell it. I've got to

reinvent myself and I think it's the same and have a different expectation for myself and I think the players have the same thing. If we do the same thing like last year and we do you're probably going to get the same results or somewhat the same results. So we have to stretch the bar here, and that is preparation.

That's every day. Like we did a really good job last year blocking out noise, and, you know, there's a lot of noise, right, when you're an NHL player, an NHL team. I think we did a nice job. When we came in these walls of the Rogers Arena, I felt the guys were safe and they trusted each other. We had to build that here.

It's the same thing this year. There's going to be some noise. Somebody's going to have a bad game, and we're going to have a stretch where we're not playing well. A star player's not going to be playing well. How do we deal with all this stuff? Well, we deal with it every day in here uh so that we're ready for it so you know i don't that you know it's a it's a long it's more of a like a longer answer and a back and forth type

of thing but i think one thing with the relationship of the players is the is the most important for me and understand i think the players understand each other more than ever uh it's a close it's a really close group uh it really is. The new guys have stated, they actually actually called their buddies on other teams saying, Hey, this is a really close team, which makes me proud because I'm not in that room all the time. You know, I don't, I don't like to go in there very often. I let those guys do it. But when you hear that,

that probably makes me the most proud of this team, how close the team has become. And, and, and when a Miller or Hughes and Pedersen, all these guys, the Myers and our veteran guys, it's like they're just thinking about winning the cup. They're not worried about their individual stats. Who cares if this guy scores 50? That's a byproduct, you know,

the byproduct of how to get something out of a good year. But the first thing they should be talking about is we want to win a Stanley Cup. And how do you do that? So that's kind of, I'm probably trying to give you the short answer. It's tough. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's good.

We love to hear it too. Rick, thanks a lot for taking the time to do this today. We appreciate it. Good luck tomorrow night. Good luck with the rest of the regular season as well. Okay, guys. See you down the road. Appreciate it.

See you. Thanks. Rick Talkett, head coach of your Vancouver Canucks, reigning Jack Adams winner as the coach of the year here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.