Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 10/9/24

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they go around the NHL with Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli including the Utah Hockey Club's first regular season game and what Brock Boeser's next contract might look like, plus they preview tonight's Canucks season opener with commentator John Shorthouse. 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. He's going to throw it to Jarrett. Shot. Score! Dylan Gunther lights the lamp. Utah on the board first. Their first ever goal by number 11.

On an 0-2 pitch, a missile. Fernando Tatis Jr. electric. Hopefully tonight's a big thing for everybody. It's going to get really hard. Let's do that hockey. Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Wednesday. big thing for everybody. It's going to get really hard. Let's do that hockey! Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. This is Alfred and his bruv.

It is 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 as well. Laddie, good morning to you. Good morning as well. Laddie, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello. Halford and Prep 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 Northstar Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler, pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sorfy, what are you waiting for? That wasn't a good start by me on the first day of the Canucks season. It's okay.

It's not a good omen. We're going to power through. We're going to force our way to success. Pressure meets pressure. We're going to embrace the hard. Hard is apparently turning on your microphone. That wasn't your fault though, right? That wasn't my fault though. You know whose fault it was? Tibor's. Who's to say, really? It was Greg's. Okay, we got a lot

to get into. I'm kidding. Don't give me the look. Laddie gives me that hound dog expression every time. Don't give me that look. I didn't even know what you said. Don't look at me, Greg. Don't look at me. I'm just giving you a look.

Such a Greg move. Okay, we got a lot to get into on the program today. Big guest list on, yes, of course, the opening day for your Vancouver Canucks. I'm going to start, actually, with the rundown for today. For those of you out there that complain that Sportsnet 650 doesn't have enough local programming, consider that the pregame show tonight basically begins three hours before puck drop with Canucks Central. That goes from four to six. From six to seven, it's the Canucks pregame show.

From 7 till whenever, it's the actual Canucks broadcast, Batch and Randy bringing you the Canucks in flames at 7 o'clock. Then, after that, until 11.30, it's the Canucks postgame show. So we are your home for all things

Vancouver Canucks, and all of your live local coverage begins this morning, of course, with us on the Halford & Brough Show. Our guest list today, 6.30, David Ambers. 7 o'clock, Frank Saravalli. 7.30, Eric Francis. 8 o'clock, Randy Janda. 8.30, John Shorthouse.

What a lineup. John, Shorty's doing our show? Shorty's going to make an appearance on the radio. Fine, what's the latest I can come? And the answer is 8.30. So he will be joining us at 830. It's a lot of Canucks talk, a lot of look ahead at the Flames as well. We're going to do that with Eric Francis.

We're going to go around the National Hockey League. Frank's going to be joining us. We might have to turn the comments off for that one. And then, of course, it's 630 David Ambers. We look forward to tonight. There's five games across the National Hockey League tonight, six Canadian teams in action, three Canadian games, so there's a lot

to get into. There's a lot to get into on the show today, so without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that?

What happened? What Happ that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. We shall begin with your Vancouver Canucks who returned to practice yesterday, made a minor but significant roster move by waving. Mark, don't call me Elliott Friedman

for the purposes of sending him to Abbotsford. And then the Canucks got to the business of practicing. Garland was back on the third line with Suter and Nils Hoaglander. The bump down effect means that Atu Ratu will likely be a healthy scratch tonight when the Canucks take on the Flames in their season opener at Rogers Arena. Yeah, what are you going to be most curious about tonight

against the Calgary Flames? Probably Sprong now. After talking to Talk It yesterday and trying to shoehorn in my I Watch Monday Night Football and I saw that Derek Carr had four different offensive coordinators in four years and Daniel Sprongs had seven coaches in seven seasons. What's kind of held him back and what's going to elevate him? Tuckett was pretty impressed with it. It seemed like he was pretty impressed with how high the ceiling could go.

I think everyone knows how low the floor can go. Did you notice how much pressure he was putting on them, though, to take advantage of the situations they're going to be in? Because the thing I'm going to be most curious about, especially since tonight is a home game and Rick Tockett's going to have last change, is that he's going to be able to get the matchups he wants. And it sounds like he's going to try and get some good matchups for that.

You can call it the Sprong line if you want. I'm going to call it the PD line. PD, Sprong, and DeBrus'm playing i'm out here playing 4d chess because i'm just going to talk about sprung and de brusque so i'm not talking about petterson while i'm actually talking about petterson right i've kept it ahead of the game here you know sprung is like a proxy for pd for you and then i'm like who's the set guy is second most for sure talks about sprung a lot who's the second most interesting player i'm like jake de br a lot. Who's the second most interesting player? I'm like Jake DeBrusque. So that's what you do, right?

I mean, but that's the line for me. It's funny how we didn't immediately say the goaltending, though. No, I'm not. Until it, if it craters, not until it craters. That's a bad way of phrasing that. If it craters, obviously it's going to jump to the forefront of all discussions. But, you know, it's funny. Like, you go around the league and

you look at all the other pundits from all the other uh broadcast networks they're doing their predictions and everything they all kind of say the same thing it's like we're not worried about the canucks goaltending because the canucks don't seem overly concerned oh you didn't hear you didn't hear you didn't hear kipper yesterday no did kipper kipper push back against this narrative he didn't push back against he just had his had his own narrative, and he was just like, the Canucks got to be really worried about this guy. Really worried about Demko? Yeah.

Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah, see, there's two fronts on this. One is Demko, and the other is what's going to happen when Demko's out of the lineup. Now, if Demko's out for a month, or Demko's out for multiple months, that's a different conversation. Yes, I think most people are of the opinion that Lankanen and Seelovs, or even if just one of them can play well and you can ride that guy,

should be able to, the phrase I hear a lot is hold the fork down until Demko is back. But the questions then start, first of all, when is he going to be back? And second of all, is he going to be able to stay healthy? Is he going to be at the same level as he was before? Is he going to have to deal with some discomfort? Is that going to affect his play?

But that's questions for another time. Kippers is thinking the long-term worst-case scenario, which the Canucks are like, la-la-la, we don't want to hear about this. Let's kick that can down the road, because the Canucks have the Calgary Flames tonight. I am also curious, and this is kind of big picture, because we went into last season and the Canucks played the Edmonton Oilers in their first game.

And you'll remember, they hadn't looked that good in the preseason. I don't think there were a lot of signals in the preseason. I'm not just talking about the 10-0 loss to Calgary because that was just, I mean, whatever. They played scrubs in that game. But overall, I didn't think they looked that good in the preseason. I don't think there was a lot of things pointing

to us to like this incredible start that they were going to have and incredible season that they were going to have. And you remember they started it out by blowing out the Edmonton Oilers. It wasn't just like, oh, they beat the Oilers. They smoked the Oilers. I think we were consciously last year looking for what's going to go wrong because we were trained that way. Yeah, but there wasn't much going right.

There really wasn't. That's what I'm saying. And then it ended up being, it was a. Yeah, but there wasn't much going right. I don't. There really wasn't. That's what I'm saying. And then it ended up being, well, it didn't matter that much wasn't going right in the preseason. Because they very quickly figured it out as soon as the puck dropped for the regular season. So, I'm curious if they're going to be able to just raise the bar again. And if this is going to be a season of. Do you remember what we used to call the Canucks?

First 2011 reference. They knew how, they just knew how to win. They're like clinical winners. a season of... Do you remember what we used to call the Canucks? First 2011 reference. They just knew how to win. They were clinical winners. They knew how to win games, even if they didn't play well. Sure. They found ways to win games.

Can the Canucks graduate to that level this year? Well, it starts tonight. I don't know if they graduated to that level, or at least we didn't give them credit for graduating to that level. We were just happy they were winning games. We don't need to clinically win games.

Put it away like no problem. No problem. We know how to do this. We got a blueprint for this. That's what I'm hoping the Canucks get to this season. But until then every game is going to be kind of like okay okay, well,

let's see what they got. So if you're into the betting side of things, the Calgary Flames, there's 10 teams in action tonight. There's five games across the NHL. Calgary's the biggest underdog

on the board across the 10 teams. So if you want to talk about games that, and I know it's the first game of the season, and I know we shouldn't be getting into

expected win games, but the Canucks, this is the kind of game, the kind of game, even though it's the first game of the season and i know we shouldn't be getting into like expected win games but the canucks this is the kind of game the kind of game even though it's the first game of the season even though it's the home opener and all that stuff it's a game that the canucks like should win just hypothetically speaking like the seahawks were big favorites over the the giants and then you know they took care of business right clinically all joking all joking aside business we might have learned more about who the Seahawks really are from that loss against the Giants and that loss against the Lions. For me, anyway.

Because they weren't expected to win that game against the Lions. And they went in and put a good fight up. And then it's like, well, what are you going to do now? And then they went and laid an egg and looked really bad against a sort of mediocre opponent. There are some take care of business. Hockey seasons are very different, obviously, because there's 82 games. And even Rick Taka was talking about it yesterday.

He was saying, listen, like people put too much into the first game. And naturally we do because it's the first game. We've been waiting forever to do that. And he was kind of joking. People will say if they win 5-0, they're going to win the Stanley Cup. If they lose 5-0, oh God, what's going to happen? There is less pressure on the Canucks this season to have a good start to the year. But overall, if you take a step back,

the expectations are much higher. Yeah, I was just kind of conceptually playing off what you were saying, where it's like on an 82- game schedule throughout the course of it, there's going to be nights where a good team plays a not good team and the good team to prove it is a good team. We'll take care of business that night. It might not be flashy. It might not be,

you know, it can be fully related half the time, but you get the win. Good teams know how to win. It's a cliche for sure, but it also rings true in situations. So yeah, is this game maybe not

the perfect example probably but overall calgary's not expected to be a good team this year they probably won't be a good team this year they're not very talented i think overall the expectations that should be the connects control this game right you know i know calgary's got a potentially good power play so that'll be a test for some of the new penalty killers for the Canucks. But at five on five, I think if you look at the talent of the Canucks, the depth of their forward lines, their first pair certainly, and then you look at the Calgary Flames and what

they've got, the Canucks should control this game at five on five. They should have more chances to score. And if they do that, we'll see how it all shakes out. The NHL had three games yesterday. And it really was confusing with Seattle starting at 1.30 in the afternoon. Love a Tuesday matinee.

Way to go, NHL. I'm like, I'm not watching this. I'm running my errands in the middle of the day. Why did they do that again? I was very confused by it. They wanted a triple header. They wanted a triple header that didn't overlap. But your season opener in the afternoon?

I know. They wanted a triple header, but I don triple header that didn't overlap. But your season opener in the afternoon? I know. They wanted a triple header, but I don't understand why they didn't go with, you know, I don't know, like 430 back east or something like that. Yeah, they had one game. No, at any rate, it doesn't really matter. The Kraken blew a 2-0 lead. The St. Louis Blues exploded for three quick goals

in the second period. I think they were all in like two minutes. A minute and 55 seconds, three goals. Pretty stinky goal that Grubauer allowed to Broberg. Blues fans love this guy. Yeah. Huge, huge, great move. Great move by the management to give him to Edmonton

to tie the game. And then 20 seconds later, a sloppy crack and turnover led to a Jordan Cairo breakaway for his second goal of the game. And ultimately the game winner, the first game period had no goals. Third period, no goals. Second period, all the goals. I just wanted to point out that Shane Wright did not have a point. Zero points for Shane Wright.

Zero points for Shane Wright. So it looks like I was right about that one. Did you see that the Seattle Kraken named their second ever captain yesterday? Right before that game? Yeah, Ebbs. Jordan Everly. Second ever captain. And they celebrated his anointment of being the captain by blowing a two goalie and losing 3-2 in their opener,

which was a Tuesday matinee affair in Seattle. So the second game was Boston at the Stanley Cup champ, Florida. Yeah, watch this one. And how did Corpus Allo look? He look good? Look solid? Okay, we were talking about this prior to you coming in. They got smoked. And it was, Corpus Allo wasn't great,

but I don't know how much of a difference Swayman would have made in the first period because the Bruins were awful. Like, they were flat. It was the kind, you know, Ryan Callahan and John Butugras were on the call for ESPN. And they were, you know, Callahan kept saying, probably one of the tougher openers if you're on the road is going somewhere where it's the banner raising. And they actually didn't have the super long pregame ceremony because of the hurricane they had a muted one but there was still enough energy in the building and like the

emotional tribute video to the stanley cup champs that florida came out and they were on fire like they just physically dominated boston i think the shots at one point were like 15-1 16-1 like boston had nothing going in the first period and and that game was over real quick. It may have been a bit of a rally the Bruins did late, but it was a final 6-4 for the Panthers over the Bruins, and you mentioned Corpus Allo. Jeremy Swayman obviously didn't play. They were talking about it.

They're like, are they going to put Swayman in? Because Corpus Allo got singed for four goals in the first period. Are they going to put him in now? But no, they didn't. They stuck with him, and then the Bruins made a late rally, but it was Florida's game pretty much throughout. And the Panthers celebrated by announcing that they have agreed to an eight-year, $56 million contract extension for Carter Verhage, who scored some pretty big goals for them in the playoffs last year.

He's a good player. He's a good player. He's a good player. He's a good story. The chronology real quick is he got drafted by the Leafs. He got traded to the Islanders. He got cut from the Islanders. He went to the ECHL. Then he managed to

crack Tampa Bay's roster. Then he just kind of bounced around and he ended up in Florida. Now he's turned himself into a $56 million player. He did a lot of that before he was 30. Yeah. I mean, he's only 29 years old.

Yep. So is that contract, is that a comp for Besser? Statistically, it's got to be, right? They're pretty similar in terms of statistical profile. 34 goals in 76 games last season. How old's Besser? Besser, what, is he Ver old's Besser? Besser what? Is he Verhage's 29?

Besser's 27. 27. He just turned 27 in February. Okay, so he's a year maybe. 28 next February. That's how birthdays work. Right. So he's maybe like in terms of the contract.

A little bit younger. A little bit younger? Yep. How would everyone feel about that contract for Brock Besser? I mean, Carter, 29-year-old Carter Verhage. younger yep how would everyone feel about that contract for brock besser i mean carter carter 29 years 29 year old carter verhage for eight years feels like a lot like you know when you just get your gut reaction to something and immediately now you are talking to the guy that doesn't think any contract should be over four years i don't know if i could myself for

eight years right let alone another person and And how old are you? 33. Right. No one for anything, right? Yeah, I don't even know about hockey. I don't think marriages should be that long. Katie's listening. She's like, no eight-year deal for Greg. Just five-year deals, and then if you want to extend, you extend. Yeah, like four, maybe.

Eight is a lot. And again, he's been a very good player for them. He was a big contributor. It seemed like every time that I watched a playoff game last year during their run to the Stanley Cup final, Cardiff or Hagee scored a big goal. It seemed like constantly. So I get it.

It also does feel like a contract that's paying him retroactively. It just does. It feels like Florida a little bit is paying him like, thank you for this great run. And thank you for giving us a lot of value on a cheap contract prior to this and that's it those are always bad deals they never turn out well now we have seen other guys but they're they're also in their window right now sure you don't worry about that's really important yeah that's i mean they're clearly stanley cup

caliber because uh they won the Stanley Cup. They sure did. So you want to keep that group together as long as you can and try and win a few more. Well, my understanding was they did feel the sting of losing so many guys this past offseason that were key contributors. Yeah, Montour. Yeah, and eventually you're going to have to, I mean, Oliver Ekman-Larsen, like, how are you going to compensate for that loss? You have to keep guys around. And I think with Verhege, there was a sense of like, and this is where the Besser comp might get interesting.

He came to Florida and then just sort of continually proved his worth. And when they elevated him and asked him to do more in a bigger role, Verhege stepped up and did it. And what's the other thing that Verhege did last year that Besser also did? They scored in the playoffs. I mean, there's a direct comp right there. I wonder if the Canucks

would go eight years with Besser, though. That's the thing. I don't know. Who knows? Same logic could apply, though, right? If you're in your window and you're in your window,

you worry about the now and you worry about the later. Later, you kick the can down the road. There was a hockey game in Utah last night and Utah won it. Now, you kick the can down the road. There was a hockey game in Utah last night, and Utah won it. Now, they only beat the Chicago

Blackhawks, and the Blackhawks made a bit of a push in the end, although it ended up being 5-2 because Utah had a couple of empty netters that overbetters loved, by the way. How about that crowd, though? I gotta say, that caught me by surprise. I wasn't sure what to expect.

They're excited. They were rocking. They are very excited. It was very, very loud. Are we giving them a standing ovation for being loud in the first ever game?

It's nice to see. Did you think they'd be... Did it not warm your cold, dead heart to see hockey fans enjoy hockey in Utah? This is the narrative. No, I've never

dreamt of hockey fans in Utah. It was a nice moment. You know, if I could have one wish. Yeah. It'd be that the good people of Salt Lake City have a hockey team to cheer for. It was a very nice moment. I'm going to interrupt here because the narrative that A-Dog is pushing

is the one that I brought up yesterday that I kind of am skeptical about too. That people are pushing that the move to Utah is going to be the magic elixir that's going to push this organization over the top. I don't know about that. That's exactly what they were like. But the season opener was impressive.

Goal? What was impressive about it? The crowd was loud. That was it. It was loud. Did you see the crowd in the Canucks games in the playoffs last year? They were loud too. This is Utah.

Yeah, but what did you expect? I didn't expect that. I wasn't sure. What expansion team has been like, meh? To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was not sure what the crowd would be like in Utah. Well, did you think that they might not sell it out or something? No, I figured they'd sell it out, but I wasn't sure how loud it would be.

It was really, really loud. It's a loud building, too. The fans are really into it. No, that's good. That's good. I'm not trying. Whether that continues after the first game, we'll see. But as far as that game goes, it was really cool. But if you go and you look up stories on Utah Hockey Club right No, that's good. That's good. I'm not trying. Whether that continues after the first game, we'll see. But as far as that game goes,

it was really cool. But if you go and you look up stories on Utah Hockey Club right now, go Google them. Everyone is talking about the magical atmosphere and how,

and I'm like, that's great. Like, it's good that they got out of Mullet Arena and it's good that they're in a sort of semi-real NHL rank

and they've got passionate, engaging fans and they got a real owner. Right? Even though he kind of gives me startup CEO vibes every time I see him the fact that the home crowd is cheering for the home team that's a big part of it too

I'm not ready to make the leap to I'm not I'm not making the leap oh they're cheering let's give them a red star well a red star a red one what are they what's going on right now? Gold Star.

Statement about Utah. I'm trying to find, hold on, hold on. I'm trying to find the happy medium between your lovable naivete and Brough's constant negativity. Somewhere in the middle. Okay, can I just admit something? I was only flipping there once in a while anyway, because I was like, I'm not watching Utah-Chicago

when the Padres-Dodgers game is on. The real crowd. Apologies. Apologies. Because that Padres-Dodgers game was awesome. It was a very interesting game because it started out. Some great pitching battles down the stretch. It started out with a lot of runs, but down the stretch, there were none.

Yeah. And the Padres held on for a 6-5 win. And man, you know what? Like, it's just great to see the excitement of the fans in San Diego. I just love to see fans excited.

I don't know what I'm expecting, but it was loud. They finally got a baseball team. Yeah. They finally got a baseball team. I mean, that is an intense crowd. Yes. What that was last night,

the final out, the final strike, was incredible. So maybe I'm disrespecting Utah a little bit. Maybe a little. And because I'm like, I only flipped over there a couple times. I'm like, oh, Dylan Gunther scored. Good for him. Who cares? Flipped back to the baseball game, which actually has gravity. Yeah.

Yeah. Dylan Gunther scored twice, as a matter of fact. Something Dan Riccio pointed out on Twitter. I'll add. What levels of upset would it be if the Padres pulled it off? Not as big as when they beat the Dodgers. When they beat the Dodgers in 2022,

the Dodgers were a 111 win team. They were dominant, dominant. This Padres team is loaded. And we were talking about our new favorite closer, Robert Suarez, prior to the show. And I love his pitch selection because it's like fastball, fastball, fastball. Change up.

Yeah. Fastball, fastball. And he was like clocking 101. And it's funny now because the closers, I was talking to my buddy who's the big Padres fan, and he's like, ooh, I don't know. They're asking Suarez to get four outs. I'm like, come on, man. Well, there's been a lot of blown saves in these

playoffs and good closers too. It's one of the things that I don't like about modern baseball. It's like us complaining about working for three hours. Hope his arm doesn't fall off. Yeah, it's four outs, man. Come on. He throws 101 miles an hour. He can do it. It was a good game last night. Also,

the Grimace-led New York Mets got a win as well. So they now push the Phillies. So the Phillies and the Dodgers, who have been sitting in wait for the wild card to be over and the DS are just sitting there waiting, they're on the verge of being eliminated in the best of fives. The Mets, who are on quite the roll, Pete Alonzo, another home run. So they beat the Phillies 7-2. So they're up to one of their

best of five. The Padres are up to one of their best of five. So those could be over real quick. There's going to be a lot of channel flipping tonight. It's pretty crazy right now. Sportsnet, a very fine company and a fantastic broadcasting outfit, had so much stuff on yesterday, right?

Had the baseball and then you had, I'm flipping back, I'm watching Utah get their first ever NHL game. This crowd is electric. Dana White's Survivor Series is on there, or Contender Series or whatever they call it. All the stuff was on Sportsnet last night. Your home of sports. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.

You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. Frank Cervalli, Daily Faceoff, joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Frank. How are you? Pretty good, boys. How you doing? We are well. A lot of news, a lot of news.

Guys getting signed to contracts early in the season. Let's start with the most recent one. Lena Solmark ups or re-ups, I guess, because he is technically a member of the Ottawa Senators before playing his first game in the regular season. He signs a four-year pact. It's the exact same cap hit as Jeremy Swayman. Did you see the headline that Ottawa came up with?

I did not. All in. I get it. They're all in on Linus Allmark. Frank, what did you think of the deal? I can kind of envision those two guys doing one of those signature post-game hugs right now, virtually, getting the same AAV.

It fits. It makes sense. I mean, he has a Vezina. The big question for me is he had a ton of support. They both did in Boston with their structure and their defense. I think this year is going to be one of the ultimate litmus tests we've seen when we take what we know is a good goalie and put them in a different system.

I mean, we've had some other notions of the test, watching Cam Talbot go from Ottawa to L.A. and et cetera. There's other ones, but it's an interesting data point that we're going to be able to really kind of key in on this year in terms of I think that's one thing NHL analytics really struggles with is isolating goalie from structure I'm glad you brought this up because we saw the other half of it last night with the Boston Bruins who had Eunice Corpus Seller and I'm in no way blaming him for that loss, but it wasn't Allmark or Swayman in that.

Four goals in the first period. I don't care who you are. That ain't it. It was not good. It was. I mean, the Bruins got outplayed. I think the shots at one point were like 14 or 15 to one. Like the ice was tilted.

But Corpus Sala, like you said, it wasn't Swayman and it wasn't Allmark. And I think it's really fascinating that we're going to get to see both guys in totally new environments because, yeah, they're not going to have the bromance and the hugs and everything. But Swayman's never started more than 43 games in a season. And Allmark's 31 and going to a team that, as you mentioned, isn't exactly the most airtight defensively. So do you think we could see both guys have some real early struggles

and adjustments as they get used to life apart? And then obviously in their own respective situations, things being different. I see certainly less of an adjustment for Swayman. I mean, that top four that you've got in Boston is as good as anyone in the league. McAvoy, Carlo, the door off is now your four, Hampus Lindholm. I mean, it's good. So he's going to have lots of help. Plus the way

that Boston defends as a total team effort, I think is, is totally different than 27 other teams in the league. So I don't see a huge adjustment period for Swayman. I was wondering if he's sitting on the bench last night watching that, kicking himself, saying, man, four-goal first period. Had I waited just another week, I might have gotten another $2 million because the Bruins would have been desperate. But nonetheless, I think it worked out pretty well for him in the end. $66 million seems beyond fair, given what you just just mentioned that there's still a slight bit of this prove it factor for him that exists okay we got to get to utah because you're live

boots on the ground reporting on the scene in salt lake we were already talking about the crowd last night and then andy said that he was impressed by it rough was like whatever whatever i was watching the padres and then i'm like you know? We'll wait for Frank because you were there. Take, and you were there the night before too. So like set the scene for all of our listeners. What was it like in the lead up in the anticipation of the game? And then the game,

Utah wins its first ever regular season game five, two over the Blackhawks. Well, it was loud for sure. And the excitement and certainly the nervous energy was there i also think there's a bit of this awkwardness that comes with having something so totally new and what i mean by that is and maybe you guys will appreciate this when i say it watching last night's game really through the prism of so many thousands of people that have've never seen an NHL game before, it was kind of like sitting in a restaurant and watching two people on a blind date.

Nice. I love watching that, too. Is it going well? Yeah, well, that's the thing. Like, there's nerves, there's excitement, there is anticipation. There's two entities that don't know each other at all. And you've got this fan base that wants to cheer but doesn't actually even know what to cheer for. They have no emotional connection to any of these players.

They're trying to learn, they score a goal and they're putting the lyrics up on the screen because they're trying to get you to sing along. And like there's this whole sort of feeling out process. But maybe the coolest part about all of that is we know there's going to be at least 40 more dates here. And there's obviously going to be hundreds beyond that. But watching this sort of love affair blossom, like it's as cool as it gets. So you think the first eight went well? I mean, yeah, they scored a win. I'll say that. The other thing with Utah, and I've been noticing this the last few days,

is there's a lot of pundits who are picking them to make the playoffs. And I think the linear— I'm one of them. Yeah, right. You're in there as well. The linear narrative is... I keep using the phrase magic elixir, that moving to Utah is going to fix all the things that ailed this team.

And the majority of the things that ailed this team were off-ice problems. Like on the ice, they're good enough to get there. It was playing in Mullet Arena and getting changed in the college bathroom and all that stuff and now it's like you've got you know like a competent owner and you've got an arena and you've got all this stuff and now it's go time i i'm not a hundred percent sold on it but a lot of people are you're in that camp correct i am i think this team is really well positioned for the present and the future. First off, just looking at their surroundings, I think there's a ton of the Western Conference that has a soft, mushy middle. You've got your super elite teams and cup contenders at the top.

And then I don't think there's a ton that really differentiates anyone from anyone else. So there's an opening, there's a window to do it, is one. Two, I can give you a stone-cold, mortal-lock guarantee that that line that Utah has of Gunther, Cooley, and McBain, it might be low-key one of the best lines in the league. Like, they are really good. And Gunther was flying last night. That's like, you've got foundational pieces. Then you were able to add Sergeyev.

You add Ian Cole, who's riding a personal nine year playoff streak that obviously last year included van and then you've got all those distractions that you talked about taking away like these guys couldn't get protein shakes after game like the lowest bar possible was not being met for an nhl team why couldn't they get protein shakes? So Ryan Smith, when he bought this team, they flew them here last year, basically told everyone, hey, you've been traded to Utah.

We have to make a thousand decisions between now and puck drop. That was in May. They said, can you just tell us what's important to you? Because we don't want to have to guess. And they just said, yeah, like, could we just get nutrition? Could we get a team chef? Could we get better hotels on the road? Could we get a better plane? Like they were just sort of normal. That's what every other team in the NHL does. We would just like to have that, that it's kind of like,

they've been freed up now to just play. So their team mantra, their team motto this year is no excuses, which I love to hear because they've got some really nice pieces, but now there's no distraction of like, hey, are we going to be playing here? Hey, why is it that we take the ice in our 4,000-seat arena that half of them or more are fans of the other team? All that stuff is gone, and now you're also going to get the emotional bump of what we just talked about of playing for a place that really wants to have you.

Frank, Carter Verhage signed an eight-year deal with the Florida Panthers. What was the total money there? $56 million? Yeah, eight times seven. Is that a comp for Brock Besser? And whether it is or it isn't, are you hearing anything about Brock Besser? Are there any talks going on or anything that you're hearing at all? I'm not.

I haven't asked, to be totally honest. He's on the list of players that I have entering the final year of their deal that certainly need to be followed up on here. So I haven't asked, to be totally candid. Getting through season preview week, as you guys know, is something. But when it comes to that being a comp i i don't see it i i know like metrics wise it makes sense um but to me this is really florida playing on and using their no state tax advantage

mm-hmm brock is already pretty close to that number at 6'6", 5", if I'm not mistaken. And yes, Verhage is a couple years older, although he has less NHL wear on his tires because it took him a little longer to break in. So you could look at it and say, yeah, 42 goal sc scorer 40 goal scorer like does this make sense does this compute but i think if you put it in terms of brock being younger plus not having that no state tax advantage like it just i think that comp totally skews that was way under what market

value should have been yeah i i just wonder how interesting this situation is going to get because Patrick Galvin has said that he's going to wait a little while to see how Brock starts the season because he wants to see the, I think the key word was consistency, that he can repeat what he did last season. And he even made some remarks that he said he thought Brock Besser let his foot off the gas a little bit after he got to 30 goals, which we kind of thought, is he joking?

Like, cause he ended up with 40. So it was a pretty good season overall. So let us know when you check back in on that and how the negotiations are going, because, you know, it's, it's going to be a big number for brock besser and not that brock doesn't deserve it but i it's a matter of how to deploy the cap space the best way and i just wonder how like what do you what would you say is the the percentage chance of him staying with the Canucks?

I'd say from his perspective, it's probably pretty high. The interest would be there, given what he said a year ago, that I think really helped change the entire tenor of his season. Hey, I don't want to get traded. I want to be here. I want to be part of the solution. But from a Canucks standpoint, I'd be waiting as long as I could to see whether or not he comes out capable of duplicating it what happens if you know you were to push and push

this summer and you get a deal done and you pay a premium based off the 40 goal season and he comes out and has 23 again. Not that that's bad. It's just that, you know, players always want to be paid for their absolute best. And I think the Canucks made it really clear, especially to Bo Horvat, that they weren't going to be paying it, you know, for one moment in time. And I think that, you know, especially that start that he got off to that year, that's what really kind of drove a lot of people crazy. And I just, I'm not saying I'm not a believer. It's just that I'd want to see it again. I'd want to at least see the start of it again before really engaging and going down that path. We're speaking to Frank Cervalli from Daily Faceoff here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Speaking of contract negotiations, Frank, where are things between

Igor Shosturkin and the New York Rangers? Well, I think there was a lot of consternation in the New York market yesterday. Hey, where'd this come from? Who's leaking this? Where's it like? I don't know that it really matters. But the fact of the matter is the kevin weeks report is 100 accurate the new york rangers put eight times 11 on the table for 88 million and it was rejected that means like we've known that shisterkin has has been asking for something that starts with a 12 for a while now the rangers have limits like they intend on putting a championship team around chester and if not what what's the sense of paying your goalie that much and they i don't i truly don't believe they're stretching into the 12s um they may move a bit but i don't see a drastic

shift toward the player and i don't, the fact that they've already acknowledged that they're willing to pay him that much, making him the highest paid goalie of all time, surpassing carry prices 10-5, to me, I don't know what more Shosturkin can gain. Like, just look at it from a pure math perspective, okay? Sure, sure. Because the Rangers have the ability to offer the eighth year exclusively,

to get $88 million over seven, the cap it needs to climb to 12.57 on the open market. Like, there might be a team, and it only takes one that'd be willing to do it, but that's also just to match. Yeah. Unless there's a no state income tax team, and I think you're running out of them pretty fast. When you look at Vasilevsky in Tampa, they're just coming off of Bobrovsky's deal at some point in Florida. Soros already re-upped

in Nashville and they've got Ottinger in Dallas, like Vegas maybe, but like beyond that, how do you, how do you, how do you get to that number on the market? Well, the, the goalie market's been fast and here in Vancouver, it's doubly fascinating because of everything that's going on with Demko, right? Like in addition to the health concerns, it's like, Oh yeah, he's also going to be heading into the last year of his deal next year. He's eligible to sign an extension at the end of this year. And if we were, I remember looking at the shisterkin situation in july thinking like this is really going to set the bar for what's coming forth and now you see this great i don't know if it's a

reset of the goalie market but goalies are definitely getting paid like that's two in a row now that are making eight plus shisterkin making even more than that so it's it's all a very interesting dynamic leading in to what's going to happen with Demko on top of the health situation. But these are also happening at a moment in time where for the most part, half the league or more is trending towards paying their goalies less. It's, it's look at how many contending teams this year are paying half to their

total tandem of what the Bruins are paying. Justice Wayman. Oh yeah. I mean, well, look at Colorado tonight, right?

Colorado, Vegas, like go through the list. Washington playoff team last year. I think they're spending 2 million total. That's Frank Cervalli from daily face off here on the Halford and Brough show on sports net six 50. John Shorthouse joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

What up, Shorty? How are you? Oh, you can try to make it a what we learned, but it's pretty clear how stupid you people think I am. Why? I'm a regular listener of the podcast, as you know. I do. Usually for sleep deprivation reasons um and i heard andy

last week or the week before danging about the idea of having a heel week you know or a heel day we'll have on messier and keenan and gazdik and speck and Cervelli. So now I start listening this way. Who was on on Monday? Mike Keenan. Right. Yeah.

He was on at 7 o'clock today. Frank Cervelli. Now Shorty at 8.30. You think I don't see through this? Yeah. But we already had our heel of the day. Who's on tomorrow, guys? Is it Fiona from Spence Diamond?

Actually, yes. How'd you know? It was hard to track down. The hump day of Fiona. You know what? You actually have every reason to surmise that I am stupid. Because who else? On the eve of the season opener, and Mike was correct, I haven't called one of these since 2016.

I don't know if you guys ever heard of Team 1040? Yeah. I'm familiar with what they do. I did that one over there. But who would be stupid enough the night before the

or the day before the season opener to schedule a root canal. So last night was a really good sleep. I'm going to tell you that. So you had a root canal yesterday? Yep. I did. How'd it go?

You think Ray's going to be tired today? You think Ray's going to be, I loved all this stuff yesterday. They had all these shots of Ray and he's in his fancy limousine, you know, eating like a Grey Poupon in the back and having shrimp cocktails. And they take him to his private jet and flies from Seattle to Salt Lake. I was texting the group last night. I said, we should, we should go land ourselves an AMC pacer and throw a sports net logo on the side and film them driving in from the North shore.

Crammed into the back seat. Where's the seatbelt? Oh, he'd have to drive. There's no seatbelts. Well, yeah, okay, so there's a lot to unpack here. One, I hope you're feeling better, by the way. Well, here's the other thing, though. I'm feeling okay, but now I'm nervous

because I learned something this morning. You know, I basically live alone. The kids are grown up now, and they're off at school. I learned something this morning. You know, I basically live alone. The kids are grown up now and they're off at school. And so naturally, I still shop at Costco. But so I opened a new tube of toothpaste this morning. Do you know that toothpaste has an expiry date? I did know that. Yeah, like what the hell?

Am I going to be okay? Because the toothpaste I used this morning expired in July of of 2023 apparently okay i know this i know this hold on how many how many toothpastes did you buy at the time you need to go i know i've checked this out you're you're gonna be fine it just yeah it loses its effectiveness that's all that happens it's like um it's like a expired tylenol they don't go bad they just become less effective oh okay yeah you just take 10 right so just you have to brush your teeth six times i'm kidding yeah okay uh i think we ran the gamut there of personal anecdotes should we talk about the hockey team or no i don't really want to i don't to talk more about Shorty's life.

One more anecdote, which Ruff will appreciate. Okay. One more anecdote, Ruff will appreciate. Okay. Because I was just looking, because I am a constant professional, I thought that I would take a gander back to what the heck was going on on opening night in 2016, the last time I called a season opener for the

canucks and it you know it's going to lead to a trivia question because everybody famously remembers the steve smith goal back in the battle of alberta back in the was it the 80s i guess 86 86 when he banked one in behind his own goalie, Grant Fury. And the trivia question has always been, who got credit for the goal, Ralph? I don't know. I don't know the answer to that one. I think it was Perry Beresant. Okay.

Anyway, I'm looking back at the Canucks season opener in 2016, which was also against Calgary. And the Canucks won that game 2-1 in a shootout, but that's the one that infamously began with Louis Erickson scoring his first goal as a Canuck, but putting it into his own net, and the trivia question being, who got credit for the goal? Who did get credit for that?

And it was, with a Vancouver connection, Troy Brower. Wow. I don't remember that at all. I remember the own goal. You don't remember Louis scoring on his own net? I remember Louis scoring, but I would have had no clue who would have got credit for it. Troy Brower got

credit, and then it went to a shootout, and the Canucks won on a fourth round. The only guy to score on the shootout was Brandon Sutter, so there you go. Oh, good for them for winning that game, though, too. Looking back, that took some gumption to win that game. They must have had a great season.

Well, they started 4-0-1. If the playoffs had started on October 26th. Out of all my advantage. First overall seed. By the way, the Steve Smith goal, I'm remembering this now

and I just looked it up too. Perry Bereson did get credit for the goal. He was on the bench when he got credit for the goal too. That's how long time it elapsed since he had last touched a puck. Well, we had that one in the preseason

when Lekker Mackey put one off one of the Calgary defensemen and went up into the air and landed behind him. It was a Vladarin goal. This was like literally 10 days ago, and I can't remember. And it went in. And Mason Raymond did the same thing a number of years ago where he flipped one in from center and i think basically headed right to the bench and it wound up going over the head of kipersaw from center ironson into the net uh speaking of

dan vladar uh frank saravalli one of the founding members of heel week here on the haliford and brough show uh he has reported that uh dan vladar will be getting the start in that tonight for Calgary. So you can update your notes accordingly. Yeah. I don't know what to, I was kind of thinking they might go just because he's the goalie of the future. And maybe obviously I think the guy with more of an upside, I'm glad he would know more about that. I thought they might go with Dustin Ulf, but, but I mean, it's probably always a safe choice to go with somebody with a little more

experience and maybe won't be as nervous or have the potential to get as rattled on an opening night in front of or behind a team that many expect to have a long year, but everybody starts zero and zero. So we'll see where this one goes. So I don't know when we're allowed to start asking actual, like, serious hockey questions, but I'm going to try and start right now. Okay, let's talk about Pedersen.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Unless you want to. Unless you want to. I'm always up for a conversation. Well, I want to delve into your obsession because I actually have a theory on it. Okay. What's your theory? And in court, this would be called circumstantial evidence.

I would also like to subject to the word obsession, but I will allow it for the sake of the question. Well, no, but I'm going to back it up with my circumstantial evidence. I would also like to subject to the word obsession, but I will allow it for the sake of the question. I'm going to back it up with my circumstantial evidence. Okay. As a regular listener to the show, he's the only guy you call by his nickname. You never say Millsy or Bess or Demmer or Huggy or Mizey. It's always Petey.

Always Petey. Yeah. So what's your theory here? You're obsessed. Oh, okay. Have you seen Brough's Petey collage at home? We don't talk about it. There's lipstick all over it.

You always say good evening to him whenever you come home. Do you not find him fascinating though? Are we not? Totally. Yeah? I do. Totally. I think I do. Totally.

I think he's one of the more, I like him a lot. But I think he's probably one of the more complex players that I've experienced or come across through the years. He's, in some ways, almost like a tortured artist. I find, I don't know him that well, but the interactions we have, I really liked it. Um, but I think he's very, very hard on himself and, um, and I hope he gets off. I hope he gets off to a good start because I think that that would feed itself

for sure. Cause I can feed itself both ways. And I think we've seen it both ways with Elias through the years. What else are you curious about tonight? I'm curious about whether we're still friends. Hey, you know what? I call you by your nickname. Oh, wow. Yeah.

I hadn't thought of that. That just got real, didn't it? Just see my collage of you. Well, I mean, I think that obviously I'm curious about, you know, how the goaltenders are going to play. I think that's a fair curiosity. I think that they need to be adequate or above for the Canucks to have, you know, success. I don't think they have to be all world.

I don't think they have to be in the Vezina conversation. But they do have that guy waiting in the wings, hopefully, to take over in the not-too-distant future. And, I mean, I will bring it back to the petterson line i think that um i think that elias and jake de bros are going to have a little bit of a longer leash um given the fact that i think that in a lot of ways jake was brought in specifically to to be a piece of the puzzle in that specific spot. Now, how Daniel Strong fits and how long his niche is, that remains to be seen. He's going to have to be a workhorse.

He's going to have to retrieve pucks. He's going to have to have a defensive conscience and hopefully do what he's done in his previous stops, which is score at a pretty prodigious rate, even his ice time. So I'm interested to see that. And beyond that, I just, I am very quietly optimistic. I try not to forecast how seasons are going to go because I find it's a

completely lost cause when it comes to me. You know, if you'd asked me and I probably came on, I probably made, and by the way, I came on twice last year because I came on from Nashville. Yeah, that's right. That was a twofer. But I think last year when I came on the show and was asked, you know, how are they going to do, I think I probably said something along the lines

of I think that they'll be in the mix to fight for, you know, one of the last two playoff spots in the conference. And, you know, lo and behold, 50 wins, 109 points, a division win, and, you know, game seven of the second round. So I honestly, to ask me now, you can if you want, but I'll probably be wrong. But I'm optimistic. I think they've got a good group. I think they're deeper.

Somehow they got a little bit bigger on the back end, it feels, even losing Zdorov and Cole. And we'll see how it all works out. What they can't probably count on, and this is all due respect to Patrick Demko, because he is obviously a core player on this team and a huge part of what kind of success they're going to have probably at the end of the day. We all talk about how they really didn't lose a key player to injury

or a frontline player to injury all of last season. Of course, that's why I say all due respect to Patrick D'Amico because he was gone at some pretty critical moments of the year. But if they can, they probably can't count on it, but if they could come anywhere near duplicating, you know, in regards to Miller and Hughes and Besser and Patterson and some other core names that you might want to throw out there. If they can somehow duplicate that level of health,

they should be in pretty good shape. You know, one thing you mentioned there about the cautious optimism, we touched on at the end of yesterday's show, talking about how it's a bit of a unique feeling going into a season for the first time in a long time. Because if you go back to, if you springboard off a playoff appearance, well, the bubble appearance,

I've kind of written off all of the COVID stuff, period. Because after the bubble run, they went into the North Division, the All-Canadian Division, and that was a disaster. It wasn't a road up. It was just, it was a total mess. If you go to the playoff appearance prior to that, it was that sort of now infamous loss to the uh playoff appearance prior to that it was that sort

of now infamous loss to calgary in the first round of the 2015 playoffs where people were more like all that their last gasp yeah no one was really like we're gonna build on this playoff appearance everyone's like that didn't end well i don't know if it's gonna be very calgary looks much younger and promising more promising than you so i mean you i think this might be the first time since the sort of 2011 sadeen era luongo all that crew where there was a real sense of optimism going into a season on the heels of the strength of the previous one and that was a long time ago shorty that was a long time yeah no i think you're right i think you guys nailed that with the timeline and sort of the difference in opinion um and one thing I don't sense, and I asked for talking about this about 10 days ago,

just not because I sensed it or I was worried about it. I was just curious. Because I remember one of those years during the seven or eight year that A.V. Alaminio was the coach, that I remember him approaching me at training camp one year and expressing concern about the group because, you know, they kept kind of knocking on the door but couldn't bust through. You know, I remember the second round losses and all that.

And, you know, his comment was, I'm a little concerned because all i hear from the players is well we can't really prove anything until the playoffs and his point was you know we got to remember it's a process to make the playoffs yeah you know this isn't just going to be handed to us and if we're not careful you know we might not be playing in the playoffs and lo and behold um they got off to a rough start that years they did quite often in that era to be honest and then they always you know go gangbusters around the middle of november to the end of the year um i don't sense that with this group in

fact i sense the opposite it's like we have unfinished business um you know and and i think business. And I think the leadership group, particularly Quinn Hughes and JT Miller are a big reason for that. And you hear Rick talk about not going in the room very much and trying to leave that to the players. That's something that Vino did

as time went on in Vancouver, too. He relied on the leadership group a lot, and I think that's important. And I think we're seeing that here and, and hopefully it's, it's the timing for that is right. And these guys are kind of ready to take over and set the tone and set the standards and, and see if they can. I think if you're going to be realistic, like to say,

are they going to duplicate what they did points wise last year? That might be, I mean, that was, what, the third best regular season in the 50-plus year history of the franchise? Ever. They can fall short of that and still have a great year. If they eclipse it, match it, awesome. If they don't, it doesn't mean it's not going to be a good year. You're the best, Shorty.

Thank you. See you. Bye. See you. Bye. John Shorthouse everybody bye bye

man that hit just went all over the place can I play hockey is so back right now you're listening to the best of Halford and Brough