Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 11/11/24

Episode Date: November 11, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk Saturday's loss to the Oilers that followed a Daniel Sprong trade to the Kraken with Canucks Central Host Satiar Shah, plus the boys tell us what they learned. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Did we just lose to the f***ing Canucks? No, no, no, no. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Kulak waits, shoots, scores! Greg Kulak along the ice. I think that went between the legs of Kevin Lankan and the Oilers are running it up now.

We lost, you know, juice. McDavid started, he started to go in the third and we just couldn't match it. Daniel Sprong. Placement is down. Let's just kick, it's blocked! It's blocked! It's blocked!

The Chiefs blocked the kick. They're going to stay undefeated. Good morning, Vancouver. 7 o'clock on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Bradford. It's Sportsnet 650.

And we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Bradford, the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda,

Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Well, they pay the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling.

They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. Okay, I'm going to read this in my sexy, sick voice. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soar feed.

What are you waiting for? Kintec. You're going to do the entire show. Don't read like that again That's how he talks I'm not feeling it I'm sick That's how he talks now

And it's damn sexy I wanna be sick forever Okay we got a big show ahead Two hour program today On Remembrance Day Monday So it's our usual Professional day approach here If you are going to work Or you're out there slogging away in the rain,

listening to the Halford and Brough show, we're here, you're here. Text us. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. Drop a line just to let us know that you're in it with us today. I'll do some shout outs and hellos in the back half of this show. We're lonely too. Yeah, we're here, but we're here together guys. We're all here together.

All four of us back in the studio. Greg's feeling better. Jason not so much. A-Dog, he's still A-Dog. We've got a lot to get to on the show today. What's happening? Guest list, just two guests today. Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the two deep zone sub stack is going to join

us. We'll talk to him about everything that happened in the National Football League yesterday. What a crazy Sunday of results. There were some awesome games. It was actually a great day to be sick. Somehow. Great day to be sick on the couch. Somehow the Kansas City Chiefs are still undefeated. Somehow the Detroit Lions won a football game despite their quarterback throwing five interceptions.

There was a lot of crazy stuff that happened yesterday, so we'll get into all that with Mike Tanier at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Satyar Shah is going to join the program. Very appropriate time to get sat on the program because as you will see in the first half hour of this show, there was a ton that happened for the Vancouver Canucks over the last 72 hours. Friday was busy. Saturday was busy. Sunday was busy as well. So the first half hour of this show, it's going to be Vancouver Canucks over the last 72 hours. Friday was busy. Saturday was busy.

Sunday was busy as well. So the first half hour of this show, it's going to be all Canucks. And then from eight to eight 30 with Satyar Shah, it's going to be all Canucks as well. We will try and get at everything else that happened over the weekend. A reminder, text in your,

what we learned, get them in now. Dumb bar number text line is six 50, six 50 hashtag it WWL and tell us what you learned over the last 72 hours of sports. We will try to get to it in a very action-packed two hours of Halford and Brough. That's what's happening on the program

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

What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. It was an extremely busy weekend for the Vancouver Canucks. And the news started not long after we got off the air on Friday. On Friday, Canucks General Manager Patrick Elvian announced that the club traded Daniel Sprong to the Seattle Kraken for nothing.

Future considerations. There you go. Which could end up being nothing, but Daniel Sprong on Friday traded to the Seattle Kraken. How many games did he last? Nine. Nine games. Nine games. Nine games.

Okay, well, before we talk about this, let's go immediately to Patrick Alveen's explanation on why Daniel Sprung was traded, because I think a lot of people were taken aback a little at how quickly the Canucks cut ties with Daniel Sprung. You know what? I think I give Daniel Sprung? You know what? I think I give Daniel Sprung a lot of credit. He came in here with a great, great attitude, worked hard, played hard for us.

And we said all along that we want to create internal competitions. And the coaching staff felt that we had players that fit the style of how Rick wanted to play more in-house and I believe Daniel deserved a chance higher up in the lineup and it didn't work out. So when this came up I felt it was a good opportunity for Daniel to move on and we were thankful and wish him all the best. So I've got a couple of thoughts on this. First of all, I think we need to remember how this was all framed when Daniel Sprung was signed by the Canucks. And we all said, this is a low risk move that probably wasn't going to work out. There was a little bit of excitement around Daniel Sprung because the guy, as you saw, honestly, in terms of hockey tools, he has them all.

He has a great shot. He's a good skater. He's a big dude. But again, we said earlier on, the reality is that Sprung has bounced around for a reason. This probably won't work out, but it's worth a shot. Well, the Canucks took a shot and realized very quickly that it wasn't going to work out.

I think trust was lost almost immediately. It was in that Philly game, I think, when Sprong lost his man. Was it the Philly game? I think it was the Philly game at home when he lost his man and lost it badly. You know, like he was kind of wandering over to the sideboards and the Flyers point man was open

and the Flyers point man ends up getting the puck and scoring and that tied the game. So in a way that costs the Canucks a point. So they tried it and it didn't work out and they cut their bait. If a coach does not trust a player to play the system, that player isn't going to be much use because that player won't play. The other thought that I had was I thought it was pretty interesting that this trade

happened right after Brock Besser got hurt and it was Nils Hoaglander, not Daniel Sprong, that took Besser's spot on that line in the game. Do you remember? It was Hoaglander that bumped up. And then Patrick Alveen said, I think he deserves a shot in the top six somewhere. But it wasn't going to happen under Rick To tockett yeah and i think what you said about low risk low reward is probably pretty accurate the other thing that i think is interesting here

is that it follows in a pattern albeit a speedier pattern this time around where this management group is not afraid to like hand up it's not working and cut ties and like you know just cut their losses that you know it happened with kuzmenko it happened with mckev it got a little more extrapolated in those cases probably because there was a larger financial investment in both guys but in this case um it does show that this group uh is not afraid to cut ties when it's not going right and i think more importantly, has the ultimate, like they back Talkit 100%. Like Talkit is their guy.

And if Talkit tells them this isn't working, I don't think there's going to be a ton of disagreement or pushback. They're going to say, you're our leader, you're our guy. We trust you implicitly. If you don't want him here, he's not going to be here.

So it is crazy though, by the way, that the guy that scored the first goal of the season for the Vancouver Canucks is now a member of the Seattle Kraken. And if the Canucks ever have a time where they're struggling to score, people will bring up, maybe you shouldn't have given away Daniel Sprung. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. The other factor, of course, is Jonathan Lekromackie in the Daniel Sprong trade. Let's be honest. We'll get into that in just a bit though, because we have, we're doing this

chronologically. So Friday, Daniel Sprong gets traded. Saturday, I have to admit, even before the Canucks game against the Oilers, I'm checking social media. I'm texting some people about what's going on with the Canucks and it all felt a bit chaotic heading into this one. First, there was all the hype around the game, a Saturday night rematch of the playoff series against Connor McDavid and the Oilers team that had eliminated the Canucks. I think a

lot of Canucks fans were pretty excited about it. Those going to the game, those planning to watch with friends. Then there was the uncertainty around the lineup that added to the chaos. Sprong was gone, so he couldn't play. Besser, it turned out in the morning skate, was still hurt. So maybe people were thinking that meant Lekker-Mackie would play. Alas, it turned out that Lekker-Mackie had tweaked something, or at least that's what

Patrick Alvine said Saturday morning. So he wasn't an option. Then the Canucks started the game and for whatever reason felt the need to dress seven defensemen, scratching beans in the process. Again, it all just felt a little chaotic. Yeah, and then it proceeded to be pretty chaotic on the ice. The Vancouver Canucks got absolutely torched by the Edmonton Oilers.

Connor McDavid a goal and two assists. Matthias Janmark, you can only hope to contain him, had three assists. A 7-3 victory for the Oilers. More appropriately for our audience, a 7-3 loss for the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night at Rogers Arena. Yeah, and once again, the Canucks surrendered the first goal of the game. It was the seventh straight time that's happened,

and it happened early on, seconds after a first-minute penalty to Quinn Hughes had expired. I thought the penalty was a little tough luck on Quinn Hughes because he kind of got put in a position where the ref was eventually going to call something. And then Leon Dreisaitl puts one home. Nice hands by Leon Dreisaitl. I've heard he's pretty good. He's good. Then the Canucks allowed the second goal and then the third.

And it looked like it would be another long night for the home team, which remember had lost 6-0 to New Jersey the last time they played at Rogers arena. So there was like a nine, nothing, you know, nine unanswered goals for the opposition at Rogers arena in the last, like what? One and a half games. Not great. So I suppose you can credit the Canucks if you want to, they did show some life in the second, getting goals from PD and Heronic to make it a one goal game. But the third was all Edmonton. And it started out with another quick Canucks penalty in an Oilers power play that saw Petey and JT Miller get caught out on the ice for a long time.

And JT Miller looked absolutely gassed. And we'll get into that in a little bit. Four unanswered goals from the Oilers leading to Lankanen's departure Suter made it 7-3 with a meaningless one but most of us had turned the TV off by then yeah four very quick goals in the third period um and just sort of the crumbling of Lankanen who I at that point I assumed like many of his teammates as uh Rick Taka alluded to afteren, who I, at that point, I assumed, like many of his teammates as Rick Taka alluded to after the game, was just exhausted at that point. Because he had pulled out a variety of highlight

reel saves in the first and second periods. His focus was gone. The Kulak one through the five hole, that was a tough one. That was a very tough one. You managed to isolate that one on Twitter, I noticed. Yeah, well how else can you sum up the game, right? Like, it was just one of those cast it aside, move on. Taka was very quick to jump to

the defense of Lankanen afterwards, which is the only thing you can do in that instance, because in no way are you hanging it on him. But in the third period, he ran out again. And yeah, the Kulak goal stunk. It wasn't any good. But no one's putting anything on Lankanen, who is, that was his first regulation loss of the season.

He's still 7-1-2 on the air. He's too much praise. People were, I saw too many memes where stats were all over it, where he was undefeated. You flew too close to the sun, Canucks fans. So between the sort of pregame chaoticness and then the actual game itself and then the postgame where Tuckett

wasn't hypercritical of his team, just said, Dreisaitl and McDavid were playing desperate, we're playing on a higher level, we looked tired, and we got the doors blown off and we at home and we got to get to our game earlier right because you know seventh straight time surrendering the first goal it was all well and good when they were coming back and winning those games but people start bringing it up when you don't um the home record too yeah the home record is definitely a problem we can get into that a little bit later in the show

when we talk to Sat as well. But as we fire along chronologically here, so now Saturday almost becomes the midpoint of two big days of transactions and noteworthy movement on this team. You want to talk about roster flux right now. You've got Besser knocked out of the lineup. You've got Sprong traded.

You go play Edmonton. And then on Sunday, all kinds of news as there's five players either going up or down, a five-player transaction day for the Vancouver Canucks. And we start, as we work through these individually, with the biggest one. Everyone anticipated it. The club made it official on Sunday.

Swedish prospect Jonathan Lekaromacki recalled from Abbotsford to the American League and promptly put into practice on Sunday, skating on a line with JT Miller and Pugh Suter. So Lekaromacki up, presumably ready to make his NHL debut on Tuesday when the Canucks take on Calgary at Rogers Arena. And Dakota Joshua. Well, we're waiting on Dakota Joshua.

It sounds and looks as though he could also be making his season debut because a couple other roster transactions also went down. Vancouver Canucks sent Archdeep Baines back to Abbotsford and also sent Nils Oman back down to Abbotsford. They are making the bounce back and forth with regularity now. In another interesting move, as we continue to add on to everything that happened over the weekend, the Canucks also sent down Arthur Seelov's over the weekend he got the win last night for Abbotsford good for him because he needs to play games he did get four saves in relief of Kevin

Lankanen in that seven to three loss he's up over 800 save percentage now arty party is back baby the arty party is back your joke is dead bruv bruv. You can't make that joke anymore. That he's sub-800. So, the reason that the Seelov's demotion was interesting is because the Canucks had to call up another goalie. They called up Ty Young, who actually hasn't even played in the American League this year. He's played in the East Coast Hockey League for Kalamazoo. Okay? So everyone's saying, well, why would you do that?

Well, the rules state that you have to have two goalies that are healthy on your active roster. You can't have Lankanen and Demko because Demko is still technically on IR. But there's no chance that Young is going to play any minutes of significance. In fact, I don't even think he's going to. He might dress on Tuesday or they might just recall an injury. However, all of this goalie rotation coincided with the fact that in addition to everything else on Tuesday, or they might just recall. That's an injury. However, all of this goalie rotation coincided with the fact that, in addition to everything else on Sunday,

Thatcher Demko took part in a full practice for the first time this season. So if you want to look at what the recap of Sunday is, Besser out, Lekaromaki in, Baines and Oman out, Joshua in, and it looks as though Thatcher Demko's return is inching closer and closer and closer to being a reality. A very busy weekend for the Vancouver Canucks.

How much concern do we have about Brock Besser's injury right now? Because that line did not look the same, obviously, without Brock Besser. I know a lot of people call it the Miller line, but Brock Besser is a big part of that line. And I do want to talk a bit about the Oilers game right now. Okay.

Because I thought it was one of the worst games of the season for JT Miller. But at the same time, I thought it was the best game of the season for Elias Pettersson. Petey's best game, I don't think anyone's going to argue that. Scored a goal, hit a crossbar, got an assist, made some great defensive plays.

And you could sense just watching him, and a lot of this is eye test, at least it is for me, that he was playing with something more. And Kevin Bieksa noted that right after the first period, and that's what he focused on in the intermission. And he was right to do that. And hopefully that is the reason we'll remember this game.

The point in the season where PD really started to take off as an opposed, as opposed to an embarrassing loss to a division rival. Yeah. I thought it was interesting that DeBrusque was back on a line with PD as well. I think the organization would really like to make that duo work.

I agree. Um, you know, people, I know people were wondering like, why, like what, why take Garland off that line? What's going on here? But I think they want to make that, that, that combo work. And if PD is playing up to his level, I think

that combination can work. It was just the way PDey was, and I, you know, I hate to steal Tocant's line here. He was moving his feet out there and, you know, people will be like, well, what do you mean moving his feet? It's just like actively trying to get by guys as opposed to dishing off the puck every time.

And I thought that was encouraging. And, you know, Petey said afterwards, he felt pretty good out there, but he also recognized that he's got a long way to go to get back to where he wants, which is a recognition that he is nowhere near close to where he wants to be. Um, but you know, I, I thought the Miller line really struggled and I know they had a

tough assignment out there, but Miller on the PK early in the third period, um, him and Petey got caught out there, but it was Miller that looked like he was really struggling out there. Yep. He was like, I've got like a six foot, uh, circumference here where I'm going to move. Like, and, and that's it.

He was, he was just absolutely out of gas and I think that led to the Canucks really failing to get much going in the third period and the Oilers took over that was that early penalty against them that really hurt even though the Oilers didn't score on it uh it was a really tough evening for JT Miller on Saturday against Edmonton uh dash three because I'm a big plus minus guy. Zero shots on net. It's actually, you know, people have said, if you guys are going to be as critical of Pedersen as you are, make sure that you're as equally critical whenever anyone else isn't performing

or living up to stuff. Miller's been, it's been a struggle. So the game against Carolina, where he was strong in that comeback where they managed to force OT and then lose 4-3 on the 28th of October. He had two assists in that game. I thought he was strong. Since then, it's been a struggle.

And you look at the sheet especially. He's had, I think, three of the five games since then. He's been pointless. He's been a minus in a couple of the games. The Edmonton game was tough. I don't know if he's still playing through something or if it's just maybe fatigue at this time of the year, but it's been a struggle for him the last few games.

And look, with where the bar is for this team and where they want to go, if someone is having a tough go of it, it's going to be exacerbated because mediocrity is not going to be sort of accepted anymore with this team. Like right now, I would say my level of concern about the home ice performances this year is starting to rise. At first, I just kind of brushed it aside.

It was all tied to Seelov's, especially the two games where they allowed six goals against Calgary and New Jersey. Well, Lankanen was in on Saturday, and despite how bad the third period went, made a couple of five alarm saves in the first and second period, and they still allowed seven. I went back and looked at it last year. Through 41 games at home last year, the Vancouver Canucks allowed six goals on home ice once. Once.

And they've already done it three times this year through six games. I thought the Oilers did a really good job against Quinn Hughes, and they've got a lot of practice against Quinn Hughes. And, you know, we all know how good Hughes was against the LA Kings, and we came in here on Friday, I guess, and we're just, you know, blown away with how he was skating against the Kings and how he was walking the line and, and how he was using his edge work to, you know, open up shooting lanes and passing

lanes or skating lanes, whatever, you know, the Oilers watch some video on that. Yep. Because they went straight to Hughes at the point and they put a lot of pressure on him and he was less effective. And, you know, look, he, he got the day off at practice, and I think there's a reason for that.

But Hughes is not a concern. The bottom four is, and especially the bottom pair. Well, I'll tell you what, though. I don't know when they're going to solve this, but they're going to have to solve this at some point because if we're going to go down to, this, but they're going to have to solve this at some point. Because if we're going to go down to like the biggest issue with this team, it's the defensive depth. It's the one thing that Adog constantly brings up and he's right to do it.

And a lot of people bring it up. Beyond that first pair, it's problematic. At this point, I don't trust De'Arne. I don't trust Juleson. I think Soucy is starting to bounce back a little bit. He's had some strong games recently, but I'm not entirely comfortable with the Soucy-Myers pair playing as much as they have to with a third pair

that doesn't get as much time. I'm with you. I think in an ideal world, Soucy and Myers are your third pair and Brandstrom's your seventh defenseman. Right now, Soucy are your three, four, and Myers. Sorry, Soucy and Myers are your three and four and Brandstrom's your five. So it's almost like they've got two or three guys

that are two spots elevated in the lineup. If you can follow my math on that one. It's always the problem. And it seems like you're stating the obvious here, but I think sometimes people forget this. And we saw this for years in Vancouver in the last decade. When you ask someone to play in an elevated role, they can do it for a little bit, but then eventually it catches up.

Yep. And that's what they're asking a bunch of defensemen to do right now, and it's becoming a problem. Well, and the thing I was going to jump in with earlier when you were talking about Quinn Hughes is that the double-edged sword, when you talk about we need to elevate Quinn Hughes and promote him and accentuate the fact that he shouldn't just be a Norris Trophy candidate, he should be a Hart Trophy candidate.

The problem with all of that is that sometimes the extra attention can work negatively in that every other team is now acutely aware of. Not only do we know this guy is really good, but he might be the heartbeat of the team. And if you know you can use whatever analogy or adage that you want, you know, you cut the head off of the snake or you go after the number one guy. I'd be telling my guys 100 we gotta contain this guy the entire attack of this team starts and ends with 43 so go make his life a lot more difficult at the expense of maybe you could you know shy off another guy on the team maybe you don't need to focus on miller and peterson so much maybe you can leave an assignment there to go chase a hit and put an extra body on Hughes.

Those are the kind of conversations that are going around the NHL right now. It's because he's so talented and because he's so good, but this is also a league where everyone's paying attention to what everyone's doing, and when there's an opportunity to try and neutralize someone, you're going to take advantage of it. You know, Muskoka Mike texts in, how much time do we have for a Brandstrom Susie second pairing? No, like it's just, that's asking too much of Brandstrom. You know, let's, let's, you know, the, the thing

is that this is a problem for management to solve. Yep. I just don't know when they're going to be able to solve it because they have to accrue enough cap space to actually make a move. And then they've got to decide whether or not they actually want to pull the trigger. Because if you're asking them to go out and get a number three or even a number four defenseman, like a legit top four guy. Yeah.

Then you're asking them to give up a lot of assets in the process. And I think for me, you know, hopefully, I've said there are two major concerns for, well, three actually with Demko. Two major concerns for me. Pedersen, the defensive depth. Hopefully that game against the Oilers represents a bit of a starting point for Pedersen because I saw something that I didn't see all season from him. And I think he was feeling good about his game so hopefully that game isn't just a blowout loss to the Oilers hopefully it represents something more and something positive for Elias Pettersson you're listening to the best of

Halford and Brough you're listening to the best of Halford and Brough 801 on a Monday. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for sales, financing, service

or parts We are in hour three of the program. Hour two. Now, technically, it's hour two. Don't confuse the people. But it's hour three. Hour two has become

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of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Orfite, what are you waiting for? Kintec, Satyar Shah joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show

on Sportsnet 650. What up, Sat? What's going on, boys? Yeah, people actually do real work while we just talk for a living. You guys got two hours today. That's good. You guys got to sleep in a little bit. Yeah, we're the toughest workers in the business.

Two hours on a Monday and we got to sleep in an extra hour. Oh, my back. Hey, Sad, of all the things that happened to the Canucks this weekend, because there were stories on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, where do you want to start?

Man, I've been thinking about this too. Like, you know, how do we power rank the stories? And I think we all kind of got tired of, you know, Pedersen being the main story. So I think we can take, you know, that stress after one decent game, I suppose, to put it all on JT Miller and wonder like where his game is at. But I kind of wanted to start with Lekromacki because like he's kind of a fun story, right? And as bad as

that game was, I think we're all really eager to see what this kid can do, especially with Brock Besser being out for however long this is going to be. They're not really giving us much of an update on it, right? But I'm excited to see this kid. The organization isn't just giving lip service. The stuff that Toc was

saying yesterday about the work he's put in and how ready they feel they are, at least for this test. I'm not guaranteeing he's going to stay, but they think he can make a real impact, and I'm really curious to see how he's going to play his first game. Yeah, me too. I guess it was his draft plus one year for Lekaromaki did not go well, and I was wondering if the Canucks made the right decision.

But since that draft plus one year, tell us a little bit about how Lekker Amaki's game has come along because it's grown in leaps and bounds. One thing I think was kind of, I don't know, misunderstood about his game, but one thing that wasn't really considered a strength of his game was how he thinks the game outside of having the puck and can he play the game the right way and you know does he have the the courage to go to the tough areas and win in those areas and can he understand the North American game and one thing that you know really stood out to people watching him last year especially was how mature his game was and how advanced it was and perhaps some of those things weren't being flashed as much when he was younger or the year prior, even.

Even the year he was struggling in his draft plus one year. But even his draft, you know, his draft plus one year, obviously he had a lot of illness. He had a couple injuries. A lot of things kind of went against him. But the maturity in which he plays. And when you watch him play, watch him away from the puck, he's usually in the right spot.

He's really good with mimicking the proper line changes. And he's really good at supporting the puck he's usually in the right spot he's really good with mimicking the proper line changes and he's really good at supporting the puck and understanding rotations and those are things for young players sometimes can be a bit of a struggle and i'm not expecting him to come and be a two-way ace at the nhl level right away but he really thinks the game like an nhl player and i think that's really impressive for a guy who's barely played a north american ice do you think he gets power play time? PP1 even? Ooh, that, I mean, we saw Suter on power play one, and that was that,

you know, because they really think he's the best option, or just because of the fit that they have. I kind of was hoping to see, you know, DeBrus get back on the first unit power play, play the next run spot, but if that's not what you're doing, you have Suter kind of in that bumper spot, I don't mind seeing Lekromack. Yeah, I'd be surprised if we see him on the first unit,

especially with his first game. But I would like to see him try to get that shot off because he's a player that obviously the opposition doesn't have a deep scouting report on. And those players usually find some open space initially. And for a power play, really trying to get going, I don't mind putting Lekromacki there and taking advantage of his shot.

And the league is going to adjust at some point, but why not try to take advantage of a kid that has a lethal shot before people know what to do with him on the power play? So let's continue on with the good stuff. Lekarimaki and the excitement around him. We might see the return of Dakota Joshua as well against the Calgary Flames. Do you think the Canucks, and the fact that he's skated on a fourth line with Ratu and Hoaglander, do you think that shows that they're not going to give him the big ice time right away and that they're going to bring him along

a little bit slowly? That would be my guess. And especially with, you know, the minutes and the role that you're asking guys to play in the top six, it just seems like a lot to throw at Joshua right away. And I guess he could play on Tuesday. They have kind of, I wouldn't say bait and switch, It just seems like a lot to throw at Joshua right away. And I guess he could play on Tuesday.

They have kind of, I wouldn't say bait and switch his return, but they kind of made it seem like he's kind of close a couple times. And the other day, Taka said he wants to get him three or four good practices. And perhaps even yesterday I mentioned him going down to Abbotsford for a game again. And we'll see if that ultimately happens. And I'm not sold on him playing on Tuesday necessarily, but we'll see if it does happen. But I would agree that he is going to start most likely on the fourth line.

And as much as, you know, obviously he's good health-wise and he's ready to go, there seems to be a mental block that needs to get through as well. And they're being very patient with him to get through, you know, this physically and feel good about things on the ice. And it seems like a lot to ask of a guy coming back from you know everything he's gone through to all of a sudden be asked to play up the lineup and right now yeah Sharpeedy's played one good game when we can't say he's you know he's back so to speak he's had a few good games but that was the best game we saw but with the way JT is going anyways and the way Pedersen's out at 100% is that a right spot to throw a guy in in his first game?

I'm not sure it is. Let's talk about Pedersen's game on Saturday because it was funny. I mean, I know a lot of people were disappointed, and rightly so, with a 7-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers. That third period was pretty ugly. But I came away with that game with a better feeling, I think, than most because I finally saw glimpses of the Pedersen that I've been waiting for. You know, I think we had lowered the bar so much for Pedersen in this

market that we were kind of looking for things that he did well. And, you know, like, well, look at him stand in front of the net and screen. And it's like, yeah, okay, that's where you're supposed to go. And there was no resistance there. And look at him battling in the corners. Like, yep, he's a hockey player. He should be battling in the corners. But on Saturday against the Oilers, I just saw like he had, his motor was revving,

I would say is the best way to put it. And his legs looked like they had some juice in them. He was attacking space again, right? Yes. You saw him kind of be passive before. He kind of just kind of hanging around the outskirts waiting for somebody to do something for him to get open and support the puck a little bit.

But he was really attacking space. He was really assertive. And I thought his, you know, the two shifts I liked the best were probably his two first shifts in the game too. Like, it seemed like he was really taking charge of handling the puck and making plays. And I don't know if it was a coincidence

because he wasn't playing alongside Garland and Garland's been the guy that's really been the focal point on every line he's on. You know, being very puck dominant on top of things,

really pushing the pace. And we saw Patterson do some similar things and I think that really got him going, got his feet moving. We saw the velocity on a shot, you know,

BB bought better was at over 93 miles per hour, which is closer to what we seen from him in the past. We know he can shoot the puck even harder still. And I'd say everything we saw was a vintage Pedersen being back, but those were real signs of a player that can make an impact. And the two points are great,

but it's everything about just how assertive he was. And when we saw him a few years ago play at his best, we would marvel at how he'd be able to find open space and how good he was at manipulating defenders and drawing guys towards him in addition to talking off to somebody, just understanding

where to be and what to do. That was a lot closer the other night. It is unfortunate that the game fell apart the way it did, but at the same time, maybe having a quite understated game where it gets lost for him, it's not a bad thing instead of it being this big focus

of is Pedersen back, is he back or not? I think it was good for him to just kind of quietly have a game, even though obviously for the team, it was a really rough outing in the third period. But that's as close as we've seen so far.

And I think you're right. I think we try to talk ourselves into like, oh, maybe this was a good moment. And even though he scored that goal, I wasn't sure his game was great on the road. I thought he had a couple of good moments. But yeah, the other night on home ice, and especially in front of the crowd,

I think that that did matter, scoring the goal. The crowd really got behind him as well. It really seemed like it meant something to him getting that goal on home ice to make a 3-1. Disappointing game for JT Miller. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think it's been a bit of a disappointing few days for JT, few games for JT Miller.

He got off to this great start being productive, and we all know he's dealing with something right now, whether it's the upper body injury or whatever, but he just wasn't moving as well. That was my most disappointing thing about the game against the Edmonton Oilers. He kind of had the cement skates back again, and when he gets like that, he has a hard time making a real impact. And I really thought playing against McDavid would get him moving a lot better that game.

So I wonder if something's going on with JT because he doesn't seem like 100%. And I wouldn't say he was lazy, but he made a lot of those plays that people would call lazy plays. He's not moving his feet, getting off the ice on a line change. He'll throw pucks into the middle. And I think the throw pucks to the middle stuff, that's just JT. On a good day, he'll do that. On a bad day, he'll do that.

It's that audacity and that ability to make plays out of nowhere and to take those risks that make him the player that he is. You have to live with it at times, but it just doesn't look as good when he can't get back either, when he's not skating as quickly. I think he'll be fine. I think what JT's shown the past few years is that he can look like this

for a spell, and he ends up getting going. And Lachner was actually the outlier where he got off to this great start, usually the notorious slow starter, and starts skating a lot better as the season goes on. But I did expect, considering how well he tested at training camp, that he would look a bit more fleet, especially after the first few games of the season, which makes you wonder if he's dealing with anything minor or whatever it is.

But that wasn't the JT we saw last year and even earlier this season. That was one of the more poor games we've seen from him. How much are you worried about Brock Besser? I heard a few things that the Canucks might be preparing for him to be out for a little while. Yeah, I mean, when it comes to head injuries, they've been very careful with how they're describing it. They're not even saying it's a concussion. They're not even saying he's in protocol.

But I don't know how great he's feeling. I mentioned this a few days ago on Friday's show that when you ask about Brock, you don't get the, oh, he's doing okay, he'll be fine. It's like nobody wants to really tell you what's going on. And if they tell you, it's't get the, oh, he's doing okay, he'll be fine. It's like nobody wants to really tell you what's going on. And if they tell you, it's kind of like, oh, he was okay, but he wasn't feeling great today. And, you know, he kind of has the ups and downs a little bit. Even talking alluded to, he looks okay.

He looks worse than he actually feels. But that's never a good sign when you've had a head injury. You don't look like you're good because you kind of wonder you know do you have like did do you have that um um kind of like not only foggy brain but do you start getting nauseous when you're not you know when you're not right i'm not trying to predict what's going on with it but we have that feeling and kaitai kind of doesn't look well you know he's still on a road to recovery um i i'm with you guys i don't know exactly what's going to happen, but I wouldn't be surprised if this extends beyond the week at the very least. Let's talk about the defense. You know, I think the Oilers did a really good job on Quinn Hughes in that game,

and they probably watched some tape from the L.A. game and said, well, we can't play Quinn Hughes like the Kings played Quinn Hughes, and that was to back off and not really play Quinn Hughes. You've got to play him. You've got to be aggressive. You got to get in his space and, um, and,

and, and, you know, not let him do his crazy edge work on you. Um, but you know, I, it's kind of the least of their problems.

Quinn Hughes right now, it seems to me like the Susie Myers pair is not able to play the minutes that they're given. And a lot of that is because the third pair is not capable of playing 17, 18 minutes a night. And so you've got two problematic pairs there. Yeah, I think that's a good description of how much pressure is being put on the second pair. And I think we all have liked a lot of what we've seen from Brandstrom, but he's a player that has some flaws. It's really hard putting him next to somebody who is even more chaotic at times

or a player that can't handle pressure as well as times. And I know they refer to, you know, DeJarne as a guy, and even he himself when we spoke to him in training camp as a guy that they feel they can work on and get better as the season goes on. He feels like it would be better by the end of the season. But he's really struggled. He's had a couple moments he's looked good, but he has a really hard time making a clean play when he's under pressure.

And when things get chaotic around him, you can see he gets a little bit, I wouldn't say scared, but he gets a little bit of running around with a chicken with his head cut off a little bit. Deer in the headlights sometimes too. Exactly. I kind of get that look to him sometimes. And maybe those are things that can get better as time goes on. But it's really hard, I think, to have a guy like that next to Brantstrom who needs a calming presence next to him.

So you're right. You can't really play those guys more than 14, 15 minutes unless it's a blowout game and you can throw them out there a bit more. And we saw the Susie Myers pair, I thought, you you know had their best game especially suzy against the kings but when it goes up a notch and you get these guys out there especially those long shifts against dry saddle mcdavid and i thought it was a horse again i know for all the talk about you know people wondering about where mcdavid's at and that guy's an absolute animal and he was the best player on the ice for the orders easily on saturday and when he gets those long shifts going they start cycling you it really makes life difficult for guys like Soucy and Myers and you're right we don't have somebody else to kind of take some minutes off

their plate I think it makes it more difficult for them but I'm just not sure there's there's any help on the way anytime soon because I think you know as much as we sit here and talk about trades they don't even have money to keep to pick up a guy like Dante Fabro without eating up all their cap space so as much as we see these concerns and it's a bigger concern against the better teams especially against Edmonton that third pair I'm just not sure help is arriving anytime soon. Why do you think they dressed seven defensemen did Tuckett kind of give that away in his post-game scrum? Well I think he kind of stopped himself.

He was about to say, well, one of the guys was battling something, dealing with something. I think that's pretty accurate based on the reason why. He seems so reluctant to go to 7-D anyways. He even said yesterday that that's not something he wants to do again. He's not a real 11-7 guy. He's a 12-6 guy. Yeah, most guys are 12-6 guys, but of course, every once in a while you might have to go with an 11-7. He says he's-6 guy but yeah most guys are 12-6 guys but of course you know every

once in a while you might have to go with an 11-7 and he says he's not a big fan of running the seven defensemen so that tells me there was a real reason why he did it and and i don't buy the pk stuff because you know we're talking about having an extra guy out there to play an extra you know shift or two perhaps like i don't think that's the reason i think somebody was feeling something whether it was an injury or or maybe feeling somewhat under the't think that's the reason. I think somebody was feeling something, whether it was an injury or maybe feeling somewhat under the weather, and that's why they dressed seven times. Do you think management will eventually be able to solve this problem?

And I think we should not forget that Derek Forbort, who is perfectly capable of a third-pair role, will return to the team eventually. Do you think management, though, is going to be able to get a number three or even a legit number four guy into the lineup before the trade deadline?

Honestly, it's going to be the biggest coup they pull off of any trade they've made the last few years outside of getting Hronik, if they can get a legitimate number three defenseman in this market. Because, I mean, we've gone through a list of players and players who are available. Not many guys fit that mold, right? Not many do. Even the guys that are

going to the UFA, it's like, I haven't programmed at the top of the list. Is he really a 3-4 or is he a 4-5? You know, and you look at a guy like Jacob Chikrin who could be a number three, but Capitals aren't moving him as long as they're off to the start that they are. So you go through the UFA, it's not many. And then you start looking at guys with term and it gets very complicated especially

you know even rassus anderson first of all he's not even available yet and if he is it might be too expensive for vancouver to pull off i'm just not sure they're going to be able to find a number three four defenseman and they have to find a number four five at the end of the day and and listen this is why you know these guys you know And listen, this is why, you know, these guys, you know, get these positions. This is why this is the most active front office in the league. They find answers to these things. But when you talk to people around the league, not just kind of going through our own, you know, research and looking at every team's roster and wondering who's available.

We start asking for people around the league about, are there quality players that could be available? The answer is no that's why we heard the Byram thing take off a little bit last week when his name was kind of mentioned that team's asking about him and even he's not yet available and if he is then it becomes a bit of an issue of is it the right fit with Vancouver trade why do you offer what Buffalo wants and that becomes the other part of it as well it's do teams want futures do they want players to help you now? So it gets even more complicated for guys that could be available,

like say a Byram that's on the higher end of the scale and the way the Buffalo Sabres review his overall value. I think they're going to add a defenseman. I'm not sure they're going to be able to find a number three. Like I don't know if they can find another Philip Roenick type defenseman in this year's trade market. If they do, then they might deserve to get GM of the year again or executive of the year again.

Sat, thanks so much for waking up on this holiday Monday and chatting with us. It was a very busy weekend for the Canucks and excitement to come this week against the Calgary Flames. Might see Lekker Mackey, might see Dakota Joshua. It's going to be interesting to watch, buddy. Yeah, anytime, guys.

Always a lot of fun chatting with you, and I'm glad you guys had a shorter day. You can't work too hard on a Monday. No, thanks. Thanks, Sat. See you, buddy. See you, buddy. Satyar Shah from Canucks Central and everything else here on Sportsnet 650. Everything else. He does a lot. He works a lot. Pre-game, post-game.

I don't know what he does during the game. Morning show. Morning show. Yeah, right. We woke him up early. Actually, it's not that early. Okay. What we learned is I'm going to kick it off. Reminder, get yours in. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. This exercise, it's the same as always, folks.

You've been listening to this show for a while. You tell us what you learned over the last 72 hours in sports. We read it on the air. It's your chance to be on the radio. So I'm going to start because there's a lot in an abbreviated show that you don't get to. So kind of burying the lead here to a certain degree. But I learned that the Vancouver Whitecaps season came to an end over the weekend. Friday night in Los Angeles, the Whitecaps lost the third and final of their best of three against LAFC 1-0.

And thereby ending their abbreviated MLS playoff run. So how did they play down in LA? There's a quote from Ranko Veselinovic that I will read now, and I think it pretty much sums up exactly what happened down in Los Angeles. Ranko, center back, said, quote, We really felt before the game and during this game and in the first half, we had this game under control. But LAFC showed today why in the last five or ten years or whatever they're always top of the mls they're gonna

punish you for every small mistake there was a 15 minute window right at the start of the second half where lafc made a couple of tactical adjustments, including bringing Olivier Giroud in off the bench, and they just put the Whitecaps under pressure for 15 minutes aggressively and almost just kind of waited for something that was bending to break. And it did. Whitecaps had a series of pressure moments that they didn't deal with, and it kept building up and building up. There was a rushed pass back to Takaokaoka he didn't have time to scan the field he's kind of booted it up the

field and brian white couldn't get to the long ball he got beat by the lafc defender and then andres cubas tried to clear the ball and his header instead of going clear went right into the path of an onrushing lafc striker one touch passed, one touch in the back of the net. That's it. That's all it was. I hate fine lines and fine margins because I think it's cliche and it's used way too much. But on that particular day, the Whitecaps just didn't have that high-end clinical ability

to not make a mistake and take advantage of the few chances that they had. Because Brian White in both games in LA, in the first and third games, had clear cut, you got to score opportunities. He had it in the first match and he hit the post. He had one in the third match in the first half and he just couldn't finish. There was going to be very few chances in the match. So when they came, the better team was going to take them and the less superior team wasn't.

The Whitecaps didn't take them. LAFC did. LAFC's on to the second round. By the way, Messi and Miami are out now. They're out too. Yeah, they lost to Atlanta. Yeah. So the Whitecaps went down to Portland and they

beat Portland 5-0 and that was very enjoyable to watch. Yeah. And they hosted a home playoff game against LAFC, one of the best teams in MLS, maybe the best teams in MLS and they beat them three nil. And that was very enjoyable for everyone that got to attend the game.

But I still can't help but feel that the Whitecaps should never have been playing in that Portland game and they should have never matched up against LAFC in the first round. They finished the season so badly that they plummeted down the standings into a spot that made them play a play-in game and gave them LAFC in the first round. Is that fair? Here's what I'll say.

For all of the unfortunate slash negative things that happened this year with the Vancouver Whitecaps and there was a bunch of them going all the way back to the messy no-show by the way Carmen and messy you don't go to BC place you don't get out of the second round first round of the playoffs I don't feel that even this abbreviated but successful little mini playoff run had enough good vibes to push aside the bad ones, if that makes sense. Yeah. You know, there was a lot that happened this year. It was a very tumultuous year for the team.

The messy no-show, losing the home game against Portland to the Motocross, the constant complaints about teams, the games being yanked off traditional cable and put in the MLS package with Apple TV. the motocross the constant complaints about teams that games being yanked off traditional cable and put in the mls package with apple tv there's a frustrated fan base more importantly there's an apathetic one now people are just like i don't care and you unfortunately for the guys on the pitch because i think they play great and ryan gold is fantastic in the playoffs and he's a star

i love watching him play to the casual observer there's a star. I love watching him play. To the casual observer, there's probably not enough in what happened over those matches between Portland and LAFC to outdo the I still feel jilted part of it. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.