Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 1/10/25

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

Brough and guest host Jamie Dodd look back at the previous day in sports, plus they set up tonight's Canucks road matchup at Carolina with Canucks Talk host and The Athletic Vancouver's Thomas Drance. 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. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun Why do they have bunting after it? Punches it back door! Crosby scores! Nice play by Carrick. Rangers break out Riley Smith. Two on one. Carrick. Scores! Damn Carrick! We did it overtime! Core meltdown in 10 seconds.

Nine, eight. Meltdown averted. Good boy. Ladies and gentlemen. The weekend. seconds, nine, eight, meltdown averted, good boy. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. What? Good morning, it is Halford and Bruff here, Sportsnet 650, but no Halford today, I'm Jamie Dodd filling in for Mike Halford for today.

Happy Friday everybody, yes, it is the weekend. Bruff, how's it going, man? Good morning. How are you doing, buddy? I'm doing pretty well. Excited to be here, as always, I guess. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts about this team right now, because yesterday

I was talking about how I actually don't think they're playing all that badly. Yeah. All things considered, would love to get your thoughts on that later on the show. Good morning dogs. Hey dog. Good morning. Good morning.

And we got Arash in here. Good morning Arash. How are you buddy? Morning. Uh, okay. What's coming up on the show? Uh, got a big show coming up on a Friday as always. Uh, guest list begins 6 30 Brady Henderson from ESPN will join the show.

Talk a bit, a little bit about the, uh, uh, the Seahawks off season. Of course they make the decision to fire their offensive coordinator. So we'll look ahead to some of the choices they have to make coming up. AJ from AJ's pizza joins us at seven. Find out what's going on at the restaurant over the weekend from AJ seven Oh five. Corey LaVolette covers the Carolina hurricanes. That's tonight's opponent for the Vancouver Canucks So we'll check in on the Carolina hurricanes with Corey

730 the Moj of course always love chatting with the Moj and then eight o'clock it is My usual co-host Thomas Trance. I love you guys switch around. You must be so happy. Yeah on the show Yeah, well, you're usually it's Dolly on Friday. But because of Drantz's schedule, you guys switched it. Perfect for me. I don't miss Drantz. Did he do the show with you yesterday? Just for half an hour.

Oh, OK. And then what? He just left? No, it was the last half hour. Oh, OK. All right. But he's traveling, so he couldn't make it. And it was whatever.

But honestly, sometimes it's easier to do the show without him. So it's not that bad. Don't mind it sometimes. Halvin and Brough brought- You get a word in. Yeah, exactly. I get a lot of words in.

It's great. Halvin and Brough, first hour brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle, you get paid. 1170 Powell Street.

Also brought to you by the DeLari family of Honda dealers. Experience the DeLari difference today. Visit your nearest DeLari Honda dealer today. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Kintec 650 650 is the Dumbar lumber text line.

Did I do it right? Yeah, that was perfect. Yeah, it was good. Thank you. That's the validation. Adog. Very refreshing. Adog looks so tired this morning. Do I? I'm just looking over at you and you're just like you're out of it, man. Yeah, well, it's the end of the week. So it's been a long week. You're going to check out? No, I'm with you guys. Okay. All right. Good. I'm glad to hear it. Barely. In my mind is do do do do do do to do you got what we learned for later?

Yeah Well, you got two and a half hours. So yeah, I believe in you a dog You can find something before we get to it. All right So as mentioned it is Drancid eight Moj at 730 Corey lavalette at 705 AJ at 7 Brady Henderson at 630 That's a lot to get to before we do any of that Let's do what happened? Rush how's it going buddy? Are you having a good one this morning? I'm not I'm so sorry this is it the board you just blame it Blame it on the gear blame it on the gear. I got it here. Yeah

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

What happened? What happened 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 bccsa.ca and what happened involving the Vancouver Canucks? Well not much they had the day off but they are playing the Carolina Hurricanes tonight and the Hurricanes they were in action actually against the Canucks next opponent the Toronto Maple Leaf so if you were looking for some hockey to watch it was a pretty good opportunity to

scout the next two Canucks opponents coming up today and tomorrow here. So the Hurricanes beat the Leafs six to three. I want to talk to you about, we can talk to Corey about the Hurricanes later in the show. The Leafs, we're going to see them on Saturday. Uh, and I asked you before the show, do you think this could be the year for the Leafs considering you're looking at the Eastern Conference? And I don't know if there's any one team that

particularly stands out right now. Obviously Florida is the defending Stanley cup champs. So they kind of get a leg up and yeah, I think they can do it. But could this be the year that the Leafs get to the Stanley Cup final? No, I don't think so. And I guess the conference is that was a very quick no. I don't believe in them that much to be perfectly honest.

I think all of this, there was a lot of hype early in the season from the Toronto Maple Leafs and the media and the fans and it was like, Oh, Tanav and all, oh yeah, man, this is incredible. They made all these great moves. Look at this defense they got and Craig Barube and all this. But look, I love Tanav. Oh yeah. He's a player too. I don't have any particular feelings for, but I just don't think this team is still that good. I think they were getting propped up by some incredible goaltending from Stolarz for a while there. And you know, Stolarz, he's a decent goalie, but I don't think he's going to be Vezna caliber

consistently even when he's healthy and in the lineup. So if you look at some of the underlying numbers for them, they're not that impressive. They're a team that was getting really, really good goaltending. Obviously they have some very capable forwards and the big question for them is going to be the health and the availability and the effectiveness of Austin Matthews. Yeah, that's a big wild card too. Like could Stollars get hot in the playoffs and steal them some series and, Hey, the Eastern conference isn't that strong.

Yeah, sure. But I don't think there's any reason to look at them and say, oh, they're a true Stanley Cup contender. So they've had better chances in the past. I think so. I think they've had better teams in the past than this one. The core is the same though. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Are some of those guys past their best before dates? Like do you think, I mean, Matthews is so injured right now that he's probably not at the top of his game. Yeah, that's a huge concern for them, right? Like that's like having Quinn Hughes not at the top of his game for the Canucks, right? Whereas he is so important to what they do.

If there's even, if he's just playing at, hey, a really nice level and not, you know, top five guy in the league level. That's a big, big issue for them. And that, if you, again, if you're trying to build the optimistic case for the Leafs, you might say like, well, hey, maybe he gets healthy towards the end of the season, starts being more effective. That could totally change how things look for them. But until that happens, I don't know, I'm not buying it.

I think there's some real questions about their depth scoring. I think there's still questions on the blue line. We'll see how the goaltending holds up. I look playoff team. Yes, obviously win around. Sure. But when the Stanley cup, I don't see it this year. Okay. And what was the, what was the game last night that, that stood out for you? If there was one. Well, Pittsburgh taking care of Edmonton in a big way. That was impressive. And Pittsburgh has kind of flown under the radar a little bit here after that

disastrous start where they were like the worst team in the league and was just absolutely miserable. And all the news stories coming out of Pittsburgh were horrible. Now all of a sudden they're in the race. They're right there. They're about 500 points percentage. And in the Eastern Conference, there's a ton of teams battling for those wild card spots, but none of them are all that impressive. You know?

Crosby, ninth most points in ancient history. He passed Josachik last night. There you go. 1,642 points for Crosby. It's pretty good. It's not bad. It's pretty good. You know what?

I think he's gonna get into the Hall of Fame. I think so. Maybe not like right away. Not for his ballot. You might have to wait a little bit. This wild card race in the East is wild because Tampa beat Boston last night and Boston is not in a good way.

No, that team cannot score. And so Boston is now in a wild card spot. Tampa is into third in the Atlantic. And I have a feeling those are going to be the top three teams now going forward. Yes. I could be wrong. Tampa kind of, they didn't have that very good

trip to California, but I just think they're a very good team. So you got Toronto, Florida, and Tampa is the top three teams in the Atlantic. Boston drops to the wild card spot with Columbus. And then Pittsburgh is also tied in points with Columbus, but they played one more game. Ottawa, they lost last night.

They got smoked at home by the Sabres four to nothing. Is Ottawa going to choke? Like, or is this even a choke? Are they just not very good? Because the opportunity that was presented in the choke? Like, or is this even a choke? I don't think it's. Are they just not very good because the, the opportunity that was presented in the Eastern Conference with the Rangers falling apart. Yeah.

Has to, like, there's got, there's a bunch of teams now. All these teams are fighting for a wild card spot. Boston, if we're putting them in there, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Montreal, Detroit, the Rangers, even the Islanders who got a good win last night in Vegas. If you want to keep Philly in there, they got 39 points. They're not all that far back.

And even the last place team in the conference, Buffalo, with 37 points isn't completely out of it. The opportunity, because most people assumed, oh yeah, the Rangers are going to be in there. They're going to take a spot. But now that they're just in the race and I don't even know if they're in the race right now, cause they're not playing well against they've won. I think everyone's in the race. Really everyone is in the race. And that's why I wouldn't call it a choke if Ottawa doesn't make the playoffs,

not to be nice to the Ottawa senators, but because like they, what are they? They peaked as like the second wild card team. You know what I mean? It's not like they ever had a big cushion or it's like, Oh, they've got an eight point lead on the, on the next closest team. And they printed it away. Like they peaked as in the mix. It's not a choke, but it's just yet another opportunity. If they don't get in for all of those teams for Ottawa, Detroit, Buffalo, I mean, Buffalo maybe has already blown it and spent their opportunity. It's a huge missed opportunity if they don't get in. Well for all of those teams for Ottawa, Detroit, Buffalo, I mean Buffalo maybe has already blown it and spent their opportunity but for Detroit as well

I know they can game losing streak might end up costing like Detroit's won five in a row But they had to do that just to get back to 500 10 HL 500 and so who knows how long the new coach bump Will last there but for all of these teams with Rangers falling apart, the Bruins finally coming back to earth, it looks like if it's, you know, ancient decrepit Pittsburgh and Columbus that take the wild card spots ahead of those teams, that's disastrous. Like choke or not, whatever it is, that's just a

disastrous result for those teams. So Columbus beat the Kraken six to two last night. And I continue to be annoyed by the Seattle Kraken. There's nothing about them that's interesting to me. I hate their uniforms. I actually, they've got that color that, you know, it's almost like the dental hygienist color. Like it's just, I-

Like scrubs. There is nothing interesting about this team to me Do you know and it just drives me it drives me crazy like I don't get me wrong. I don't want them to be super good But I want them to be interesting. Yeah, you know like they've come into the league and I've been waiting, you know, I Go back years of my life. I was like, I wonder if Seattle ever get a team. That would be crazy. What a rivalry that would be with the Canucks. And they're just nothing, nothing. What's the most interesting thing about the Kraken?

The fact that they're mid. The most interesting thing is how much they have failed to live up to the standards set by Vegas. Well, they have one of the best players, Shane Ryan. Exactly. How much they have squandered best players, Shane Wright. Yeah, exactly. How much they have squandered the opportunity. That is the most interesting thing about them, which is obviously incredibly damning to say about a sports team.

I will say you're ripping on the jerseys. Even the name, I was in the minority when they chose the name. I was like, this is a stupid gimmick and it's going to look stupid in a few years. I don't know. I don't think people have caught up to me, but I still think that I think it's a stupid gimmick. Give me about it. I just think it's like, it was, it was, it was like, people have compared it to the Raptor. Yeah. Like the Raptors took that name after Jurassic park before Jurassic park.

No one even knew what a Raptor was. Yeah. Right. Like I didn't, I didn't, I, the dinosaurs I knew were the Brontosaurus, the T rex, The dinosaurs I knew were the Brontosaurus, the T-Rex. Back in my day. No, no, this is true. The Stegosaurus. The Triceratops, that was definitely one. And then what was the bird one? The Pterodactyl.

Pterodactyl, right? And the Stegosaurus. Yeah, those are the big five. Those are the big five. The dinosaur big five. And then they bring in the raptor. I'm like, I don't know. But the raptor was the star of the Jurassic Park, right?

And all the kids would be like, yeah, I knew about Raptors. I was like, no, you didn't. There was the big five. But a Kraken is a cool mythical sea creature. Yeah, but wasn't- They've been around forever. Yeah, well, that's what I'm asking Jamie. What was the movie? What was it, the Liam Neeson movie where he says

release the Kraken? Release the Kraken. And then there was the Kraken rum. It became a thing relatively recently. And then everyone was like, oh, they have to name it the Kraken. And they're like, why? Why? Just because it's a funny joke on the internet? oh they have to name it the crack and there's like why Why cuz it's like a funny joke on the internet has to do with this the has to do with the ocean

I guess I don't know. I just think it was a dumb gimmick I think Utah is gonna match that dumb gimmick when they choose the Yeti. I think that's stupid, too Really like I like game. You're such a hater. I like Yeti The yeti's cool though like they make good name your thing after a brand after a cup brand. Yeah, Like they make good cups. You don't name your thing after a brand, after a cup brand. Yeah, but they're good cups. They really keep your drinks cold. I have like three of them on the golf course.

Maybe that's what the logo will be. The logo will be a Yeti cup. Maybe they should make the Utah Stanley, like the Stanley cups. There you go. They're very popular, very popular with people these days. Let's get to some Canucks talk here. I got a few questions for you

because I want to catch up with you. And I heard you a bit yesterday. Are you more concerned with the Canucks' defensive play? And that might include blowing leads, you know? I don't know if you've noticed, that's been a bit of a theme for the Canucks. Against the Kraken was their worst one. Or are you worried about their ability to score goals?

It's their ability to score goals. And it's not especially close for me. Like they struggle so much to have the puck for long stretches, get it in the offensive zone, get shots, get dangerous shots, like all of it, every step of the way looks like a major struggle for them. And I know the blown leads thing has cropped up here recently. Part of that, I think is, and obviously, you know,

the one against Seattle where they're up three goals, like that's just a disaster, obviously. But a lot of these have been, they're low scoring, close games. And I was going through it yesterday, even the games they're winning right now, you go back a month or so and you factor in empty netters. There's been like one or two games that haven't been one goal games. Everything else, win or lose, is one goal, whether it goes to overtime or not.

And I think a big part of the reason is they're good. They're still a solid defensive team, so they can keep teams in check, but they really struggle to pull away from teams and make it, you know, go take it from a one or two goal lead to a three or four goal lead. Like that's why the Florida Panthers win stands out so much because they didn't just get up and then hold on, right? They actually added to the lead, they padded it and they kind of remove the opportunity to float for Florida to come back. I think you need to have that. In the league today where scoring is up so much. And especially if you're going to try to do something in the playoffs, isn't like,

isn't that exactly what we saw in last year's playoffs? Yeah. A good defensive team that couldn't score. They're kind of that again this year. So yeah, they need to figure out a way to score more. It was funny when I was watching the world juniors and Canada struggle so much to score. I'm like, am I watching the Canucks here? Like it's just, uh, when you, when they get into the offensive zone, I feel like I've been going on about this a little too much, but there's some people that talk about the rush chances and they can't get the puck going. And absolutely that's a factor for sure. Like if you want to create rush

chances, you know, your defense are such a huge part of it, either getting the puck going or jumping up in the rush and joining the play and helping out with the rush chances. But my biggest issue is how they play in zone when they get the puck and it's constantly filtered back to the point.

And that seems to be the only thing. Do they ever are they ever able to just work it down low and go low high but not super high? Into the slot where goals are scored man like get the puck to the net. Yeah low high but it's when they're doing it it's on the perimeter right it's not a dangerous pass through the center of the ice to the high slot, even, or to a forward who's, you know, coming downhill of speed through the high slot and then can attack the net. It's just to a stationary guy who has a little bit of space and then sometimes it on that. It feels like they never even try it, you know,

because they're so used to, let's say a winger gets the puck on the half wall. They're so used to going back to the point that they don't just sometimes like, Hey, I'm going to reverse it, throw it behind the net. Is someone going to be there? Yeah. Or I'm just, I'm going to take the puck to the sedines. Don't recognize this game at all. Imagine if the sedines fired back to the point all the time, right? Like they worked it down low in the corner and then eventually they would come out and you know, like did they not have any of that in their game? Is it an ability thing or is it just the game plan

that they go back to the point all the time? I think it's a combination. I do think the the fact that other than Quinn Hughes and Filipronik I guess but obviously especially Hughes, the guys on the blue line can't really jump in and contribute. I don't mean off the rush or anything like that. We always talk about the puck moving, but even in the offensive zone, like you watch Jacob Chickren for Washington, right? He's activating. He's getting down low. He's either below the goal line or close to the goal line making plays, supporting the offense in the offensive zone. They don't have guys that can do that. Well, Myers tries sometimes and then everyone

just yells at him. Just like, get back to the point. What are you doing? So I think that's part of it, but then I'll also see instances where, you know, the winger has the puck on the boards and it looks at least, you know, from, from TV, from my perspective, like maybe there's a lane just to take it to the

center of the ice and try to create. And they don't do that So I do think last year certainly it was a point of emphasis, right? Tips and screens get it to the point crash the net and they had a lot of success, especially early in the year doing that I think once you have that success, it can be hard to switch it up Especially when you've spent a long time playing that system, but I do think there's a personnel issue, especially on the blue line as well. I just wonder if other teams know that that's what they're going to do too. If they're doing their pre-scout properly.

I mean, what happened to the Canucks in the playoffs against Nashville? And I think Edmonton took part of that game plan was I don't think I can recall ever watching a Canucks team in the playoffs have that much trouble just getting a puck on net. And the other day, you know, it's a storyline that the Canucks reached 30 shots for the first time in what 15 games or something. And I think there's something to that. Like I was talking about this the other day and you know, people that are, that are super

down on the Canucks and they're saying like, this is like what it was four or five years ago. I was like, no, it's not. No, it's not. There were games, multiple games during the Travis Green era, or you go back to the end of the Willie Desjardins era where the Canucks would not even get

into the offensive zone. We couldn't even have this conversation about like, they're always playing it back to the point because they would never be, you know, some of the teams they would come up against, they were so overmatched. I don't feel that way about this team. Like I don't feel that they go into these

games and then they're now, maybe that's partly to do with their schedule, their strengths of schedule, but they went into Washington, apparently a good team, maybe not as good as the records suggest, but still a good team and territorially, territorially, it wasn't a problem. Like they, they weren't trapped in their own end. And do you remember that, a few years ago, I mean, when they were one of the worst teams in the league, they couldn't get out of their own zone and the other

team would just spend so much time in there cycling the puck around and you know, doing whatever they wanted and half the time the, the shot clock would be, you know, two to one in favor of the other team. It's not the same with this team right now. No, but it is interesting because sometimes you see teams where, you know, like St. Louis has had this for a while, where their shot totals aren't necessarily always super high,

but part of it is they're waiting for the really good shot, right? And there's a lot of, we saw it even when St. Louis came through, there are a lot of like east-west passing in the offensive zone. They're looking for those high good shot, right? And there's a lot of, we saw it even when St. Louis came through, there are a lot of like East West passing in the offensive zone. They're looking for those high danger shots rather than just, you know,

like the Carolina Hurricanes throwing it on net. The funny thing with the Canucks is they're patient and selective, but not for the high danger shots. Right. You know what I mean? It's like, no, no, no, no, no. We only want to get the point shot off. It's like, well, but I have no problem if you want to. That's their power play.

That's their power play is Like throw it around the perimeter. And then Quinn Hughes gets frustrated. Yeah. Hughes dances at the point and just throws one on. Yeah. And I can understand being a little bit more selective. Like the shot clock isn't the only thing that matters. The shot counter is not the only thing that matters. I get that shot quality is a thing, but then why aren't you playing for those really high quality shots more? Why aren't you trying to set those up? Look, I get it.

Rick Taukett has a system. It worked and had a ton of success for them last year. There's personnel limitations he's working with. I understand all of that. I'm not saying throw it all out and try to become, you know, an all star team out there or like the, uh, the red army team or anything, the way you're passing it around, but can you turn the dial just a little bit? That's always the question for me. Is there just a little bit of an adjustment you can make?

Good text into the Dunbar Lumber text line, 650 650. It's from Luke. And he says, I think talk it as against the East West pass in the offensive zone. Cause if you don't make them, it's going the other way. Back to the point is a safer play. I can't stand, stand watching it incessantly, but it's a safe play that maintains possession. That could very well be part of it. And I know that Drantz has talked about it with us.

Maintaining possession is a way of defending. And then it's another thing that was a huge part of their success last year, right? And when you think, go back to when Tauke came in, they had so much to work on defensively. And I think for Tauke, that was part of it. It's like, okay, yes, we have to work on how we're defending in zone,

but we also gotta put ourselves in better situations. And part of that is not turning the puck over with cross-size passes in the offensive zone. You know, it's not like he's doing this just because it's like ineffective, right? He's like, oh yeah, this will be stupid, let's try it. There's reasons they're trying to do it. I just wonder if they have to make some adjustments.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. We just have to call Thomas Drans Erotica Corsi Thomas Grange Erotica Expected goals Thomas Grange Erotica Todd the model Thomas Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. The song is hilarious, but just the fact that Shorty said those words on air always cracks me up. It's incredible, isn't it? The song manipulated, it's not AI,

he said those words on the broadcast. Imagine him in some people listening, it's like, who the hell is Thomas Drantz? Seriously? Why is he erotic? Why is he so erotic? Why does he find whatever's happening erotic? And then do you think they Googled Drantz?

And it was like, that's not very erotic at all. Now I'm even more confused. What is the exact opposite of erotic? What's Shorty talking about? It's Hal Finham-Brough here, Sportsnet 650. I'm filling in for Mike Halford today. Hal Finham-Brough brought to you by Campbell & Pound real estate appraisers.

Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit Campbell-Pound.com today. Also brought to you by the DeLari family of Honda dealers. Experience the DeLari difference today. Visit your nearest DeLari Honda dealer today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step.

Kintec. All right, as you heard in the intro, it is now time to chat with Thomas Drance. He's a presentation of Freeway Mazda covers the team for the athletic, my regular cohost on Canucks talk. What's going on Drance? You know, the thing that always strikes me when I hear the theme song is just how creepy it is

when Brough says PDO. Oh, it's like, it's unbelievable. It's not remarkable. It's, I don't think it's creepy. I think it's sexy. That is what turns Brough on that kind of thing. That takes some real radio talent. Yeah.

You know what? You're not wrong. Like it is striking without question. Boys, how are you doing? We're, we're doing well. Jansser are you in Carolina? I'm not, no, I went directly to Toronto. Okay.

I'll catch the game tomorrow. Okay. Um, but you know, I'm, I'm interested to, obviously to catch the game tomorrow. Okay But you know, I'm interested obviously to watch the game tonight It was a quite convenient to be able to watch the maple leafs and the Hurricanes play one another Right like it was just a perfect way to have a good sense of what's coming. I thought the Leafs looked real slow In that game. I thought the Hurricanes basically got whatever they wanted, especially off the rush. They could have had 10, 11 goals, honestly. Just like they were so open for cross crease passes, even when the Leafs had numbers back, it was shocking. I found that shocking.

Now we know that Carolina is going to be tired. Five and seven is brutal. Like this has got to be one of the most obvious rest advantage spots that the Canucks will face all year. And then I think to car to Dustin to Karski is starting. Yup. It seems so yikes. I mean, um, I know that the Canucks are like mild underdogs on the money line, but this is a good spot for the Canucks to get right going into hockey night in Canada and sort of flip the story around them, right? Points in all three games on this road trip, even though it's been a difficult schedule.

You know, get a win tonight and the conversation changes pretty significantly. The Canucks should have a good opportunity to do so. Although, man, a lot of what the Leafs do, the Canucks do similarly, right? Like they're pretty similar teams in terms of not being able to generate a ton off the rush and being vulnerable against faster teams. So, definitely will want to be mindful of not falling into the same traps that the Leafs did when they got just absolutely ventilated,

punctured repeatedly by the hurricane speed. Do you think the Leafs, how would you handicap their chances of winning the cup this year? We were talking about this earlier and Jamie isn't that bullish on the Leafs, which kind of makes me worried because every time people are bullish on the Leafs, they choke in the playoffs. And maybe this is the year that they sneak in when

nobody's expecting it. Are you saying I'm like a reverse jinx? No, I'm a- If Jamie thinks they're bad, they must be great. I'm a jinx. I know all about that. What do you think, Trancer? Well, the Leaps used to have ceiling, but lacked the onions, as it were, to get it done

in the playoffs. But they'd have these teams that were good enough quality to win the Cup from a ceiling perspective, but they just didn't have the stuff required, especially to beat teams like Boston and Tampa Bay and on and on. Although I guess they did beat Tampa Bay once. Now, this year's team, I mean, I just don't think they have ceiling. Like, I don't think they have a ceiling case. You know, it's not dissimilar, honestly, from the way I talk about the Canucks a lot,

where it's like, I just don't, from the way I talk about the Canucks a lot, where it's like, I just don't, I don't know that they have enough juice. And now, does it look different if Matthews is fully healthy and fully operational? Maybe. If Matthews can get healthy over the balance of the season, if they go into the playoffs, and we're talking about Matthews having scored 17 goals in his last 20, and you can see the swagger and the dominance. And then they combine that with, you know, you've got to get Stoll his last 20 and you can see the swagger and the dominance. And then they combine that with, you know, you got to get Stolaris back and you have

a really sturdy goaltending and you know, they have some defensive pieces. I mean, it's hard for me to imagine that this team doesn't have, or this team, this Leafs team is going to fall into the same, like we're watching them and we're like, they have the Ips, they don't have it. When you've got Chris Tanev on the team, right? Like we were, I'm not going to say that they're going to lack that side of the sort of knowledge of how to win when they've got guys like him. I think a guy like Matthew Nyes could help them in the playoffs. He was pretty good last season.

Oh, Matthew Nyes is a monster. Yeah. Matthew Nyes is such a sick player. So no, I mean, they've got talent, um, but they look slow. They look slow. I don't, I just don't think they have championship ceiling to be totally honest with you. Especially in an Eastern conference where, you know, you like, you watch that capitals team, you watch the hurricanes, you watch the devils.

And like those teams can hit a gear that I just don't think, not just the least, but like, I don't think any team in their division other than the Panthers can. And I think those four teams in the East are materially in a different tier than everyone else and I would be pretty surprised if the Eastern Conference champion isn't one of those four clubs. So, Dranser, when you've been around the team what's the talk about Elias Pettersson and how close he is to returning to the lineup? Well, I do expect him to play tonight. Rick Tauke is saying that really it's the players decision.

I didn't expect him to go against the Capitals on Wednesday. Just because the way that he looked at skate and the way that skate was set up, it felt like he was on sort of 45% chance to play, like slightly less than likely to play given how they'd sort of lined it up. Although, you know, they sort of lined it up similarly for Derek Forbert, who I was pretty worried when we saw that hit in the Habs game that he had at least hyper extended his knee, seems to have avoided the worst of it and was able to play through it.

So, you know, my logic was I'd be kind of surprised if either of those guys go, but Forbert made it back in, Pedersen didn't. And you know, you're seeing some commentary from people about, well, look at what Quinn Hughes is playing through and JT Miller played the second and third periods, even though his arm appeared to go dead sort of late in the first period and caused him a shift. And, you know, that is a sharp contrast at this point and something that given the temperature around this team is obviously going to be talked about both in the market and without. I would expect that he plays today.

We never expected Hughes to make it back into the lineup before him, given the original week to a week timeline for Hughes and the one week timeline for Pedersen. So I would get these back tonight and they're going to need them. Like they're obviously they're going to need Pedersen. Although, you know, one thing I'd say is we've seen like Hughes was amazing against the Capitals, but he was only okay. I think like for hit by his standards. I thought that Montreal Canadian game was one of the least impactful games that he's played all season, whether

that's just rust from missing four games or because he is limited, you know, by that pretty gnarly brace. But he's wearing. He's fanned on the puck a couple of times, pretty noticeably like, and I'm sure that's part of it. Yeah. But I mean, and he still finds a way to take the shot that the one rebound that Logan Thompson can handle, right?

Was still shot by him, right? Like it's, I mean, you know, as much as the sort of incredible majesty of watching Quinn Hughes skate, right, is like what we look for and we're still seeing, you know, the fact that he's having this sort of impact given the clear severity of what he's dealing with is, you know, just another sort of notch on the holy cow, Quinn Hughes, wow, sort of our balance sheet here. And then JT Miller, you know, I don't, like JT Miller's in the lineup, I don't know that he's close to 100%. And so, you know, if Pedersen comes back and doesn't look healthy, you know, it's like,

it's one thing to be like, well, they have Miller back, they have Pedersen back, they have Hughes back. But, you know, if they're all at 80, 75% of their usual sort of operational capacity, it's not necessarily the engine that it is on paper that we think of it as being. And so that's something that, you know, we'll need to watch for and keep in mind, I think, as we watch this team play here. Pete Slauson Here, Dranser, you've written a book on the history of the Canucks. Here's a question for you. Has anyone ever played at a higher level

for the Canucks during the regular season than Quinn Hughes has in the last year? Ooh. Um, I mean, relative to the league, right? Cause I think that's where you've got to get into it. I think there's a couple of candidates that are close, but I wouldn't put them clearly ahead of them and one of them is probably surprising. Uh, but Marcus Nazlin three years, three year peak, three year run from 2000 through to about 2003. Yeah. He won the player MVP, didn't he?

What's that word for him? He won the player MVP during that run. But when you go look at it, like he led the entire league in scoring across a three year run. Um, and, and by a lot, right? Like it was the dead puck era. Yeah. It was by a lot.

The second place guy was Jerome McGinley who's a Hall of Famer, right? Hall of Fame level player. The third guy was Nazlund's line mate was Don Bertuzzi, right? Not that Bertuzzi was a passenger on that line by any means. I mean, he was an incredible playmaker, opened up a ton of space for Nazlund,

but very much Nazlund had a run there where his impact, especially when you adjust it sort of relative to where the rest of the league was and think about it that way, it was like very much like Kucherov's run, you know, 2018 through 2021, right? Like that sort of level. Like there was a level that Nazlan hit where every time this team needed a goal and you do it often in the third period, tons of game tying goals. I mean, I thought, I think Nazlund hit one of the highest peaks relative to the rest of the league that anyone ever has in tonight's history.

And the other one that I put up there would be that Hendrickson sort of streak in 2010, 11, but I think you can take what Hughes is doing and put it, you know, very much up with those guys. I'd add to like that West coast express team. I mean, there she was goaltending. They didn't have, they had a ton of depth. Like they had like dangerous fork lines and a pretty good defense core and on and on. Um, you know, that 2020, uh, 2009, 10, 2010, 11 team was loaded for the Canucks. Uh, you know, the twins obviously warped time and space, but I mean, we saw it like the

Canucks could lose Daniel Sadeed and they weren't like yet in the water in the same way that the Canucks feel without Quinn Hughes, right? I mean, with Quinn Hughes on the ice this season, the Canucks are a Devils Carolina Hurricanes caliber team and isolated to just those minutes. And in the other minutes, they are like a less offensively dangerous version of the Detroit Red Wings. I mean, that's as big a gap as you're going to get. I've never in my lifetime anyway, seen one individual Canucks player make that type of impact on their team. So no, I mean, I think I'd probably pick Quinn first and

Really the only other candidates that I'd look at in terms of like, hey This guy might be the most dominant individual skater in the league in terms of their impact. The only other guys that I'd even consider in that conversation would be Henrikh Sadeen 2009 through 2011 and Marcus Nazlin 2001 through 2003 nine through 2011 and Marcus Nazlin 2001 through 2003. So assuming Pettersen does get back into the lineup tonight and you know certainly you would think so Tauke had a lineup decision to make and I'm looking at Niels Hoeglander here of course he takes that penalty against Montreal and then next game against Washington he plays the fewest five on five minutes on the team Is he in your eyes a potential candidate to come out or the most likely candidate to come out for Patterson tonight?

But if he's playing Max Sassen more than Neils Hoaglander in the previous game, I'm not saying it's a lock I'm just curious. No, I mean, I mean you look, you look, you might be right in terms, from the perspective of what they will do, right? That the, what they will do versus what they should do parallel path here. Um, but I mean, I just don't see how you can take out one of, you know, honestly on maybe it's both guys, maybe it's PDG, but even then, you know, you're going to be at a speed disadvantage against a surrogate team and whatever speed you can get into the lineup and keep in the lineup, you should try and keep in the lineup. That's kind of how I think about it.

And I guess with Hoaglander, Sasson, you're talking about two speedy guys. I just think Hoaglander is way more likely to get you a goal. And, you know, given that, I mean, I think you need, first of all, you need, you need to, you need them tonight, but also the, the apex case, like the ceiling case, like the things go right for the Canucks down the stretch case here. I mean, is there a world in which this team gets close to hitting, you know, their ceiling that gets close to reeling off two or three months of like 750 point percentage play and, you know, getting to the point where they're challenging and Edmonton for home ice advantage in the first round, for example, like is there any world where they get

there without Niels Hovlander finding his game and becoming, you know, a regular like depth goal guy and sort of rate scoring ace the way he was last season. Like, I don't think so. No, not with how they're built. So, um, you know, I'd be pretty disappointed if they don't sort of renew his leash a little bit, even if things went poorly or sideways or pear shaped for him in that Montreal game late. Hey, Dranser with this four nations cup coming up, it's not all that far away. Now, do you think there are going to be some teams and maybe even the Four Nations Cup coming up. It's not all that far away now.

Do you think there are going to be some teams and maybe even the Vancouver Canucks that aren't exactly thrilled that some of their players are going to this? Like I think about Quinn Hughes and the fact that he's playing through what seems to be a pretty gnarly hand injury. You know, Pedersen, you might want him to go and

find something there. But then I also think about Toronto. Like, do you think Austin Matthews is going to play for the Americans? Yeah, I mean, it's going to be fascinating. The thing is, it's been so long since there's been best on best. Right.

And the players are so excited about it. Just like generally, both the players that are getting a chance to play, but even those that aren't frankly, right there. So I find it very difficult to think that players will view it differently than getting a chance to play, you know, really meaningful games for their team, you know, even into the playoffs, right? Like I think, I think it's going to be at that level in terms of guys willing to Wolverine it up and, and play through things. So yeah, I Like I think, I think it's going to be at that level in terms of guys willing to Wolverine it up and play through things. So yeah, I look, does that put teams

at a disadvantage for sure? But you know, these games, these games, these opportunities to play in that spotlight and to play against that level of competition, you know, that's, that's what athletes do it for. That's what all these guys do it for. So there, I would expect it's going to take a lot for, um, for guys to miss. Like I think it's going to take a lot for a guy to decide, Hey, you know, maybe not. Maybe I got to look after my body for a couple of weeks. Uh, I would be shocked if there were a significant amount of withdrawals. And if there are withdrawals, I think they're going to be super severe, which isn't too different from what we've seen in previous Olympic years.

And then I would add, yeah, like teams generally don't love this stuff, right? Like teams never have. And for good reason. I mean, we've seen it, was it Tavares in Sochi who had a season ending injury? Right. Like the, almost every Olympic tournament that I can remember, you have at least a guy, uh, now there's more hockey being played, there's a tournament round and sort of a larger playoff pool in those tournaments, but there's obviously risk whenever hockey players step out onto

the ice. And typically speaking, we've seen at these international tournaments that usually there's at least a team that ends up drawing the short end of the stick and having their season pretty significantly impacted by a top guy getting hurt. So yeah, I mean, I think you're right to bring it up and think about it, but I'd be pretty shocked if guys like Matthews and Hughes and on and on don't do absolutely everything in their power to be available for those games. Francer, this is something that we've talked about before, but I'm just wondering in your time around the team, if you've had a chance to chat with Rick Tocket or any of the coaching staff about maybe tweaking some of

the things that they're doing in the offensive zone in order to get more direct chances from the slot as opposed to constantly going back to the point for the point shot, crashing the net. And, you know, we've seen it a lot and I've known it for a long time. And I think that's something that we've been slot as opposed to constantly going back to the point for the point shot, crashing the net. And you know, we've seen it a lot and I've noticed it. And sometimes I wonder, is there something else that you can be doing in zone?

I'm not talking about the rush chances, which was kind of the story of training camp. I'm talking about doing things differently once you get possession in the offensive. Yeah. You know, it's a good question and I will ask it. Well during this trip, like I'll take some time to ask it, but I haven't had an in-depth conversation about it. You know, what I would observe generally is I do think through JT Miller's personally, this team was actually generating, you know, not a lot.

They weren't like great, but they took a pretty significant improvement. Right. Like this team was 26 or thereabouts in terms of what they were generating, uh, quality of looks, shot rate, five on five, uh, last season. And in the first 16 games of the year, they were closer to above average, something like 14, 15th in the league. Um, that represented progress and actually had me pretty excited through the first 16 games of the year that, hey, maybe this team's unlocked something. Now, unfortunately, it did come at the expense of their defensive play. Now, I don't think they were necessarily connected. I think it was more that this team wasn't consistent from a battle level perspective night to night

in the early part of the season and frankly through much of this year until about Christmas. But, you know, I do think that they weren't like necessarily connected. So I was looking at it like, Hey, if this team can retrieve their, their defensive identity and graft onto it, this sort of new ability to attack somewhat more dynamically than they did last season, we might be cooking like there might be something here. And then the injuries piled up and now the team's generating less than anybody and less than anybody by a fair margin, right? Like it's every 31 NHL teams and then the Canucks in terms of what they've

generated since about mid November. Yeah, that's why you're seeing this Canucks team play so many overtime games and why you're seeing them, you know, lose so many one goal games and on and on is the lack of juice, that lack of juice has become one of the defining things, defining experiences about watching this team play. And so I sort of struggle to know, and I should ask, I struggle to know

how much was the dial kind of turned back toward a more conservative brand of hockey once this team went pretty explicitly into hold the fort mode versus where they were earlier on in the year where they were trying to carve out an identity that might make them a little bit more of a durable offensive threat in the playoffs. Because we've seen them even within the context of this season be somewhat more vibrant, somewhat more dangerous, have somewhat more vibrant, somewhat more dangerous, have somewhat more venom as an offensive team. But it was a short stretch of games and you

know, not a big enough sample for us to say like, that's the real Canucks. Certainly. I just constantly look at the heat maps natural stat trick after the game. And I'm like, are there any slot shots here? Like it's just, I mean, you got to get to the, you got to get the puck to the front of the net. I mean, that's, that's, that's hockey 101. Their heat maps sometimes look like, you know, the, the face of like a 15 year old dealing with acne, right? Like someone who eats too many chocolate bars, like it's just like speckled about the zone as opposed to what most teams generate where it's like this, you know, big sort of concentration of chances and tight. Um, was that a throwback to the old commercial there, by the way, some

people say too many chocolate bars, chocolate bars. Yeah. That was pretty good. That was pretty good. That wasn't bad. All right, Jaren, so we got to go buddy. Enjoy, uh, Toronto, enjoy, uh, Leaveson and Canucks. I'm sure you're watching football this weekend and, uh, we'll

see you when you get back. Watching football last night and tonight too. It was great. I had the green screens going, had the college game, had the Raptors game, had the Leafs-Carolina game at an old Toronto Honda mine. It's fantastic. Love it. You're a huge sports nerd. Drance is in heaven. We love it. Thanks Drance. See you pal. Cheers boys. Bye. That is Thomas Drance on Sportsnet 650. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.