Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 11/19/24

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they talk some Canucks with NHL analyst Ray Ferraro.  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Ovechkin loads and scores! Alex Ovechkin, and scores! Alex Ovechkin pinpoint to the top shelf. Yeah, I can't imagine what it would feel like to wear pants after not having worn them for some length of time. And they're still close enough, Johnny, to where they're smelling each other's breath right about now.

Yeah, exactly. We've got to break that up. Yeah, we had to be firmer inside. Yeah, we had to be firmer inside for sure. Good morning, Macon. 6-0-mer inside for sure. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. This is Halford and his bruv.

It is Sportsnet 650, and we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios of beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello.

Halford and bruv for 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.

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It's a Canucks game day here on Sportsnet 650. A reminder, pregame, postgame, and the actual game, it's all right here on Sportsnet 650. A reminder, pregame, postgame, and the actual game, it's all right here on Sportsnet 650. Our guest list begins today at 6.30. Greg Wyshynski from ESPN is going to join us. It's a very hockey-heavy show today. A lot of NHL talk. We're going to go around some of the bigger news there, obviously.

Talk about the Vancouver Canucks. Talk about tonight's opponent, the New York Rangers. Wish will be joining us at 6.30 to talk about what happened to Alexander Ovechkin last night, what happened to the Boston Bruins last night. We can look at the Rangers with him as well. The Chicago Blackhawks, not good times for the Chicago Blackhawks, so Wish will join us at

6.30 for that. 7 o'clock, Ray Ferraro can confirm tonight's Canucks game and the broadcast is indeed a Ray game. That's what we call them on the streets. We call them Ray games. So Ray will be between the benches tonight between the Canucks and the Rangers.

Final game for that homestand for the Vancouver Canucks before they head out on the road. They play in Ottawa on Saturday, so they got a few days off. So your last chance to catch some Canucks action this week. 8 o'clock, Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks. He'll be on the call tonight for the game.

So it's a big show. We got a lot of guests. We got a lot of hockey to talk about. Without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What 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.

In a rare bit of absence and void here, there was no Canucks practice last night. No Canucks talking points that we could really dive into. I lose my headset. I'm so excited. So we thought, let's go around the National Hockey League, look at some of these other stories and teams that were in action last night. We got to start in Boston.

We absolutely have to start in Boston. I'm reading a headline right now in The Athletic by Fluto Shinzawa. Friend of the program. And this is the headline. Not that Fluto wrote this, but it's up on The Athletic. Firing coach Jim Montgomery is the Bruins' only logical move. That is a headline.

The Boston Bruins lost. That just spells it out. The Boston Bruins last night lost 5-1 at home, TD Garden, to the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night. That dropped their record on the year to 8-9-3. And this was a Blue Jackets team that didn't exactly come in on a heater. I believe they had one win in their previous eight. So they were struggling just as bad as the Boston Bruins.

Two shorthanded goals on the night for the bruins yeah i actually watched this game um i submitted a point to sit down and watch and it got more interesting as the night went on because this game was in boston and the bruins could not get much of anything going. And you mentioned the shorthanded goals against the crowd at TD garden was incensed more and more incensed as the night went on and, uh, grab some audio from the end of the game. And this is how it sounded as the Bruins finished a 5-1 defeat at home.

Fosterly, back of the net with five. Lorai cranked it up the left side and all the way down and that will do it. So that was nice. That's nice. That was nice. That was nice. It felt good to listen to that. Want me to play it again? It gives me strength.

It feels so good. It feels so good. So if they fire Montgomery, that means they've won two of the last five Jack Adams Awards. Yeah. And they're both gone now. They'd both be gone. Wait, who won the Jack Adams last year?

Yeah, talk better be worried. Well, it's funny. We were talking yesterday about how Rick Talkett is getting more and more criticism in the Dunbar-Lumber text line.

It seemed like last season he could do no wrong. This season, Canucks get off to a, I don't know.

It's not a Bruin-esque start. I'd say a bit of a ragged start, even though the record isn't

terrible. And more and more criticism comes in. I wonder if this all traces back in some way or another in some of its retirement of Patrice Bergeron, certainly. That was a thing.

But how much of it goes back to choking in the first round against the Florida Panthers? Two years ago? After having that incredible season. What they have 135 points granted they were still a decent team last season in fact you could probably call them quite good but when you have that type of regular season and then you lose in the first round to Florida and then the following season even though you get past the leaps in the first round, you lose again to Florida?

That must have an impact. Maybe it's just a lineup thing. I don't know. I think there's a lot that's gone into it. I'm trying to point to one particular thing. It's kind of what we do here on Sports Talk Radio. Find out one thing and boil in on it, but there's so many different issues that are plaguing this team. One of them, 100%, is

the gradual whittling away of the guys, not just good players, but the guys that had the identity and carried the culture of the team, right? Like, you can keep replacing Patrice Bergeron, but you're never going to replicate what he brought. And then one guy that is getting raked over the coals right now is former Vancouver Canuckuck Elias Lindholm. And he went on 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston and admitted that his game was nowhere close to being good enough right now.

He said, quote, I think overall for myself, I just haven't been good enough. Wouldn't put the blame on something else other than myself. I just got to be better. And he was a no-show again last night in a 5-1 loss to the Blue Jackets. So there's that part of it. I think the other part of it, obviously, is the Jeremy Swayman thing. And for those that haven't been following, it has not gone very well for Jeremy Swayman after –

Don't miss training camp. Don't miss training camp. Don't miss training camp, especially if you're a goalie. Yeah, don't piss off Cam Neely. Don't make Cam Neely call you to the carpet in negotiations publicly. Just take the money and play. Because what's happening right now is not only did he miss training camp and got off to a slow start, but he also did it.

And the timing is crazy to me because you'd think in the first year without his best friend and hug buddy, Linus Allmark, this would be the year that you would really like hone in on. I'm really going to make sure that I'm ready to go and I'm fit and I'm in a good head space because my security blanket is no longer here. Well, that a whole situation played out probably the exact opposite of the Swayman and the Bruins wanted it to play out.

Now you're probably wondering, why are we waxing on about this so much? You've got to understand one, nobody here likes Boston. So it's fun and it's easy and it's red meat for our listeners two you might be witnessing not just uh the closing of the window in boston but also the beginning of some seriously painful times because they just went out and made not one, but two high-end veteran free agent acquisitions in Zdorov and Lindholm that if this team is going in the wrong direction, will be seen as massive anchor contracts. Finally, I want to add, Nesson tried this thing this year.

They're doing their version of the Manning cast. Nesson is the New England sports network, and they carry a bunch of the Bruins games. So they're doing their version of the manning cast nesson is the new england sports network and they carry a bunch of the bruins games so they're doing their version of a manning cast which is you bring in a bunch of ex-players it's an alternate broadcast it's a simulcast where a bunch of ex-players sit around and talk during the game if you've never watched one it's kind of annoying i don't like it but a lot of people do. Last night for Nesson, they had Andrew Raycroft, Tuca Rask, and Patrice Bergeron doing the alternate broadcast. And it was too hard.

Wow, that's a tough night to do that one with Bergeron. It was too hard to grab audio because part of the problem is it's just guys talking over each other the entire time, and it doesn't sound great. It sounds like our show. Not the scripted brilliance of Halford and Brough. You've come to know and love every morning. But what was the takeaway from it?

All I know is at the end of the game, when the fifth one went in, they had stopped talking about the game entirely. I think they had Danielle Goyette. Boston Fleet. Boston Fleet, yeah. And she was talking about their game. And she was talking about shorthanded goals because they have the jailbreak, right? If you score a shorthanded goal, penalty gets wiped out,

you're back to even strength. As she's talking about this, the Blue Jackets scored their second shorthanded goal and Raycroft goes, oh God, did they just score another shorthanded goal? And then the broadcast ended like a minute later. Rask went reeled back in his seat. Rask reeled back in his chair.

And they were just perplexed at what they were seeing. But you could tell there was a sense of kind of low-key embarrassment because they collected all these guys to talk about this Bruins team that is a perennial playoff contender. And remember, part of that great season they had a couple years ago, they didn't lose at home. They were almost perfect at TD Garden. And now they're getting skunked 5-1 by the Columbus Blue Jackets.

So you mentioned the guys that they have signed and Elias Lindholm and obviously they brought in Nikita Zdorov as well. Who the fans don't love right now. From the Vancouver Canucks. Brad Marchand, their

captain, is a pending UFA. Is there any way he would go Brad Marchand, their captain, is a pending UFA. Is there any way he would go, you know what? I'm not Sidney Crosby. And I'm going to go somewhere else. Because this is not looking good for the Bruins right now. And we all know that Sid was like,

I don't need a lot of money. Just give me this under-market deal. Maybe Marshawn doesn't feel the same way, and maybe he doesn't want to do... Remember the deals that Patrice Bergeron gave the Bruins at the end? And a lot of the reason was because they were contenders. And he's like, I want to win another cup. And a lot of the reason was because they were contenders. Yep. And he's like, I want to win another cup. Because even though the Bruins, I don't know if anyone remembers,

they did win the Stanley Cup in 2011. A lot of people consider them overall or had considered them overall as underachievers, considering all the great regular seasons that they had, only one Stanley Cup for this team. So they really wanted another one. I do wonder if a guy like Marshawn might be like, you know what? I'm going to go somewhere else. I don't have to play every game with the Boston Bruins.

On that note, just because we like to stir it up, and it's Boston, so we're really going to try and stir it up. The Canucks should sign him. Right, there's one. Canucks should swoop in. Freed earlier this season did report, both on Saturday Night Headlines and 32 Thoughts, that the Bruins and Marchand were getting closer to agreeing on a three-year contract extension.

After that came out, Brad Marchand emphatically, emphatically shot it down. Said the report is false. He said there's no truth to it. And I thought it was interesting that he shot it down. Said the report is false. He said there's no truth to it. And I thought it was interesting that he shot it down. Because I was like, why would you so emphatically deny something that everyone assumes is going to happen? Brad Marchand in Boston, everyone just assumed that that was going to get done because of what you said.

So maybe, maybe there's something there. Also, as we put a bow on the box. Probably not, but maybe. I'm just throwing it something there. Also, as we put a bow on the box. Probably not, but maybe. I'm just throwing it out there. Also, David Pasternak, zero shots on goal last night. A 5-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets at home. So, Marchand to Vancouver? Is that what you're saying? I think so. I think so.

Let's put that out. Andy, clip that video. I think he does fancy himself like a Crosby type, though. They do train together. They're from the same area. So, I don't think that's going to happen. I'm just throwing it out there because things are not looking good for the Bruins right now.

And Sid, since they do train together, might go to Brad and say, don't do it, man. Don't just do it for loyalty. Like, I'm screwed here in Pittsburgh. Have you seen us? Don't do this to yourself. You've got a chance. Sobbing uncontrollably.

I have so many regrets. The other big story last night came in Utah, where Alexander Ovechkin scored another two goals to take the NHL lead at the age of 39, which is remarkable what he's doing. And then the night took a really bad turn because with five minutes and 30 seconds left in the third period,

Ovechkin went, I can't classify it as knee on knee. It was more like shin on shin with Utah forward Jack McBain. Went to the ice writhing in pain. Had to be helped off the ice late. The Capitals, none too pleased, immediately fought McBain right after that. They did? Yeah. It was a total accident.

You watched the clip. No. You know what, Greg? They did not take it as such. That's OK. Hey, we can get back to clean or dirty hits. Do you just respond either way? And why we're even looking at each other on this one.

The Vancouver Canucks didn't do it for Brock Besser and Quinn Hughes in recent games. And maybe that says something. I don't know. But this is about the Washington Capitals right now. OK, we're talking about the Capitals. After the game, a tight-lipped Spencer Carvery did not have much of an update other than to say that Alexander Ovechkin was being evaluated at that very moment postgame.

So we will wait with bated breath and see what's going on there because if anything was going to interrupt what was happening this year, unfortunately, it was going to interrupt what was happening this year. Unfortunately, it was going to be injury because Ovi sort of redefined this chase over the first six weeks of the season. We were kind of speculating when he would do it next season.

Now, assuming he's healthy and is able to get back in, this season is absolutely on the table. I mean, he's just scoring. For sure. This is the fastest goals per game clip that he has had over the course of his NHL career. He's gotten to 15 faster than he has in any other year. It's remarkable what he's doing.

It's remarkable what the Capitals are doing. Was it you, Laddie, that was pointing out, someone tweeted it out last night, that if the stars and moons and cosmic alignment happens, that it could be Ovechkin is in Vancouver with the Washington capitals. Adam Kirstenblatt had a tweet. Potentially around the time where he could be setting the record. Again,

no one has any idea what clip he's going to score at, but let's hope for everybody's sake that he is not significantly injured. And that what happened in Utah last night won't keep him out of the lineup for long. Where do you want to go next? You want to go? I want to go to the Oilers because the Oilers had a in Utah last night won't keep them out of the lineup for long. Where do you want to go next? I want to go to the Oilers because the Oilers had a stinker last night, and this team, with all its offensive firepower,

I mean, I'm shocked that Pod Colson doesn't have a goal yet. I watched him for years in Vancouver, and he just had so much upside offensively. Sam Montefiore. Sorry, I'm being mean, but they just had so much upside offensively. Sam Montembeau. Sorry, I'm being mean, but they just got shut out by the Montreal Canadiens, 3-0, not good. Sam Montembeau, 30 saves for a second shutout of the season.

Habs defeat the Oilers, 3-0. Should be mentioned that Connor McDavid, no points, obviously, because it was a shutout, and should mention Darnell Nurse did not play in this game. He's expected to be out five to ten days after being injured on Saturday by that illegal check to the head from Ryan Reeves so it was and that was an Amazon Prime game by the way on that note our good buddy and weekly guest on this show Adnan Virk had a sit-down one-on-one interview with Connor McDavid because

he was doing the broadcast for Amazon yesterday so we'll talk to Adnan about that later in the week when we have him on the show. So they haven't won in regulation, the Edmonton Oilers, since they smoked the Vancouver Canucks in Vancouver. They took the Islanders to overtime and won. They took the Preds to overtime and won. But they lost in overtime in Toronto. And last night they lost to the Montreal Canadiens 3-0.

I think most of us seem to think that the Oilers will just at some point figure it out and go on a crazy run like they did last season. Um, I still kind of think that, but you know, the one thing that I wanted to say,

and this is kind of apropos of, of nothing, but go for it, buddy. I want nothing to do with Evan Bouchard on Team Canada. Yeah, he's having a terrible season. Like, this is maybe kind of like a hot take, and maybe I'm going with my heart a little bit more than my head, but if you think about how the defense are going to line up

on that Team Canada, on that right side, we all agree that Cale McCarr is going to be the number one guy, right? We'll probably get most of the power play time. Do you really want Bouchard out there? Here's a better way to put it. No. Here's a better way to put it, which would be kind of entertaining, especially since it's Vancouver here.

Who would you drather have? We haven't had a drather for a while. Not a long time. Who would you drather have on Team Canada? Evan Bouchard or Chris Tanev? Tanev. Didn't even have to think about it. I understand.

I don't trust Bouchard, man. He just like, he just. You can't trust him because he routinely turns the puck over. And he just goes like, defensively, he just, he has some give up in his game. He reminds me a little bit of the Eric Carlson we've seen this season where he just, through the neutral zone, people fly by him.

They just go way past him. I don't even know if it's chalking up, like, yeah, the turnovers are one thing, but for me, it's that give up in his game that he's got. He's purely an offensive defenseman, purely. I don't think that the Four Nations team would need that much punch from the blue line, from the guys that they would already be able to line up,

that they would need to put in a guy that, quite frankly, to me, I know I'll get some pushback on this, but he's a borderline offensive specialist because his defense is so bad. And he was, someone texted in, Bouchard took the Canucks to school in the playoffs. He was excellent against the Canucks. He did, offensively. Excellent against the Canucks.

I just thought, I think overall, you don't even need to say offensively. I think overall, he was excellent against the Canucks. And I know that some people took issue with, I can't remember who it was that said that Bouchard outplayed Hughes in that series. He did. He did. He was more effective than Quinn Hughes in that series.

And if you don't like that, well, go watch the series again. He was more effective than Quinn Hughes in that series. But on a Team Canada that's going to have Kale McCarr on it, how much redundancy is there on that? No, you need – when you're doing roster construction, you can do two things. And, you know, Hockey Canada has gone back and forth about this. You can get guys that are fit- oriented that maybe necessarily wouldn't be for example a top 12 forward in the

nhl but fit the profile of a guy that you need the chris kunitz one always comes to mind right that or you can go fast they've done that to their own detriment sometimes absolutely or you can go fantasy hockey style like what the national predatorsators and Barry Trotz did this offseason, where you just get all really good players and then throw them together and say, hey, make it work. And then guess what? Sometimes it doesn't, which is what we've seen through the National Predators

through the first six weeks. With a blue line, like I can understand the value of having, even Tanev is like a seventh defenseman. Like, you know, if you break glass in case of emergency. You got to have guys to kill penalties, and you got to have guys to shut down the other top lines. Look at the American team that they're going to put together. It's why I have time.

It's why I have time. And I know people don't like it, but it's why I have time for the conversation about Tom Wilson being on Team Canada. I'm not saying he should be there. I'm not saying that he should be a lock. I understand the pushback, but I also understand why you have that type of conversation is because you need guys

to do different things. You can't have guys all doing the same thing. It becomes difficult for a coach, right? For moments of momentum in a game. I actually wonder if Bouchard's going to be like one of the controversial players

that we'll discuss heading up to this Four Nations, but more importantly, ahead of the Olympics. What kind of team, how they build the roster, those are always the fun conversations that you do have. Because, listen, Bouchard is a good player. Let's not drag this guy down as a bad player.

It's just more that he has some moments that, you know, in one-game knockouts, like the Olympics, do you want to have him out there in those situations, especially when you have a guy like Makar on the roster? If there was no Makar, then I would have time for it. But there is, and he's one of the most brilliant offensive defensemen that we've ever seen in the NHL. How much of that redundancy is there? It's why I always thought it was silly that Burns and that Brent Burns and Eric Carlson, people thought, oh, that was a great idea in San Jose. Well, it wasn't because there's some redundancy there.

You have to build a roster. It's why he hasn't worked in Pittsburgh, having Letang and Eric Carlson together. Usually, they're just one of those guys, right? And the rest of the guys, everyone has to play a role. And when Canada puts together teams, yeah, they often take these really good, it's all good players, and some of them would be the first line center on some teams but those players are willing to accept a lesser role that is always the key is a fine i'm the one

c on my team but on this team i'm the grinding fourth line center that can go out there and kill penalties uh create energy on the four check i'm willing to do that for the team. And also, I'm able to do that for the team. Well, I also think you can play your way out of contention. If you're off to a slow start to the season and you're not playing well, I don't think that past reputations should automatically grant you a spot on any team, especially as you pointed out in a short tournament. Do you want a guy going into a four or five game tournament that's have a crisis of confidence or looks like the puck is a live grenade on his stick at the moment?

Like, yeah, he might be a great player. And yeah, he might be a point per game defenseman over the course of 82 games. But over the course of four or five, his gaffes or where his game is at might sink you. So you just don't take the risk, especially when you've got a lot of other good options on the table. At any rate, I think, I hope we've made this interesting,

this decision, because I have a feeling that Bouchard will be on the team. I have a feeling he won't be. Oh, really? Yeah. Now I'm just like, I'm setting it up. I'm setting up the narrative. Told you. Look at that mistake.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Ray Ferraro joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Ray. How are you? I'm good. Little early start this morning. Had dropped Reese off at basketball. Remember the

old high school basketball practices before school? Oh, yeah. Just the worst. Yeah, just the running. Just a lot of running. And then, you know, you can really easily get a 14 year old out of bed at at 6 40 he can't he can't wait to get out yeah come on wake up it's time to do wall sits everyone loves those what are your tricks to get them what are your tricks to get them out of bed my dad used to use a wet face cloth like a, wet face cloth that he would come in and just like,

just like throw it at me and I would, I would not be very happy. Do you have a good trick? No, a couple of, no, a couple of, hey, Reese, it's 615. Hey, Reese, it's 625.

And then if I got to go past that, it's the light. Oh, yeah. Awesome. Light's a final win. Do you have a lot to show Reese on the basketball court? Yeah, we like to, you know, I really, I got a good six-foot jumper. Like, that's about my range.

You know, so if nobody's around, they like to really talk to me about my vertical, how I can really, really climb in the air. Oh, yeah. It's really something to see. Yeah vertical, how I can really climb in the air. It's really something to see. No, I've seen you before. You're basically flying through the air. Yeah, thanks. Ray, so I told the listeners that I'd be asking you about Marcus Pedersen.

Yes. What do you know about the guy? I know you watch every player in the league and you know them pretty well. What i bet you i've done 20 penguins games maybe more so i've seen him a lot he's always always paired uh with letang and now he's a little bit with carlson he's kind of the uh i guess the stay home to the to the guy that might be more frequently up the ice big rangy left shot left shot, pretty good skater, covers a lot of ice. Like, he's just the term that, of course, we hear all the time is he uses his length to defend. I mean, he's not super physical.

He's just long, and he gets in the way a lot. He makes a good first pass. He doesn't, he's not going to rush the puck. He's not going to rush the puck. He's certainly not going to make a tight turn in the D zone and zip with his legs out of the zone. He's a go back, get it, quickly up to the forwards and out of the zone. But he can skate. He'll join the rush once in a while, but he's not an offensive guy.

So would he be a fit in van van coover well as i you know when i texted yesterday when you asked i said like here's what i do with with the canucks defense if you're adding somebody you want to add a right handed d problem is 500 teams in a 30 team league are looking for a right-handed d yeah like they're just you can say in each market hey they should add this and they should add this and it's really um really easy to pinpoint in a lot of places what they should add if you if you add if you were to make a deal for petersen, it's pretty certain the Penguins aren't looking for something for today. They're looking for something for tomorrow. But that would leave you with Forbert when he's back, Pedersen, Soucy, Brandstrom, Hughes.

You've got five left-handed Ds. So when I think of a fit, it would not, in my little game I'm playing in my head, it's not a Pedersen in and that's it. There would have to be a corresponding move because you can't make people disappear. You can't, you know, they're on your cap. You can't make somebody just all of a sudden swing over to the right side. That's not easy to do. And so I would like him as a player.

I just don't necessarily like the fit given the makeup of the D at the time. And you'd end up with a whole bunch of guys that shoot and play pretty similarly do you think Carson Soucy is going to figure it out I do yeah um I might be the only guy that saw this the other day which means I might be making it up but I don't think I am um the first two periods against nashville like they were dreadful right like they ian myers couldn't get the puck out of their zone they were back in their zone again they would get up to the blue line they would turn it over i don't know what the hell happened between the

second and third period but that was the best period he's played all all season i i don't really know if he just said screw it it, and I'm going to play. But he was up the ice, not like recklessly, but he was up the ice. He moved the puck well. He moved it decisively, which has been a problem, I think. Not I think, I know this. The more that you struggle, the more that you think, the more that you think you don't react, and then every pass is like you're trying to thread a needle,

when really it isn't. When you're confident, you just see the guy and you pass it. Now he sees the guy, he measures it up, he tries to make a perfect play, and in the meantime, somebody sticks a stick in the way. So I do think, I don't know why that period, maybe because I'm kind of hoping that he does, but that period really looked

completely different to me. And so we'll see what tonight goes. We're speaking to Ray Ferraro on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Ray will be on the call tonight, 7 o'clock, Rogers Arena. Canucks, Rangers, presumably between the benches again, Ray.

In a previous game, you were between the benches, and I believe you were the first to notice that JT Miller was not taking regular shifts in the third period. You mentioned it on the broadcast, and then it sort of became a thing in the aftermath when Rick Taka was asked about it and confirmed that it wasn't injury-related. It was that he was trying to find guys that were going to give his team the best chance to win against Nashville.

What were you seeing, or I guess more specifically not seeing, from JT Miller in that game against the Predators on Sunday night? Well, first off, I noticed when he wasn't sitting in the couple of seats right beside me. Right. He usually doesn't get too far down the bench. So I took a peek behind me and he's sitting down there next to the d i've been in that seat that's not a good seat when you're down that

far that means you've gone by the coach and he didn't care and so now you're you're out of his eyesight and that's a bad place to be um i thought jt has been just not with the same energy and vigor that he normally plays the game with like just you don't have to go back very far and i and i do think there's been some injury um holdbacks for him this year like he did he wasn't on the ice much at camp at all. I forget what game it was. He took that one opening face-off of the game and he buckled on the draw

and then didn't take face-offs for 10 days. So I do think those things have been part of the kind of just average start by his standards. But last year when the team needed something, he kind of led the way with it you know with either a physical play or a really bold play you know something that would kind of grab the team by the bootstraps and pull them in and that's not been there the the penalty kill goal the other day um it's easy for me to criticize lousy penalty killing because i never killed penalty so nobody has nobody has tape on me on a lousy penalty kill because there is none i never was

on it he was stuck in it like planted yeah kind of pivoting around nobody no movement to the feet no no stick position to deny a lane it's like it a lane. It was a sluggish afternoon, and I assumed it was injury-related, so I was quite surprised after the game to hear that no, it wasn't. But I would suspect, and you've got to remember this, there's not too much subtle about Rick talking. He said he benched the guy. Then he told the guy he benched him when he told everybody in the press. I can assume they either had a talk that night or the next day.

There's no wondering at this point. Now you've got the Rangers coming in. It's one of his ex-teams. I would expect there's a rather inspired guy that's waiting to play tonight. What are your general thoughts on the Canucks' season to date? I said yesterday that I'm a little bit worried about them. I'm not panicking. I'm just a little bit worried just because there seem to be small fires burning everywhere you know whether it's it's injuries or trying to

get the new guys into the system you know also you know they wanted to evolve the system into being a little more aggressive more of an attacking team you just you know it doesn't seem they can't seem to have a game where both Petey and JT Miller are firing on all cylinders. So that was kind of like how I saw it. I wasn't, again, I wasn't panicking, just a little bit worried about it. What about you? I'd say similar.

I mean, if you were living in Pittsburghiladelphia and you looked at the standings you go oh they're doing all right but when you're watching the games right it doesn't look the same like would you know if you didn't know or didn't watch hockey would you think looking at the bruins at eight nine and three that they're a total train wreck right now you'd go nah they haven't quite got it going yet they're a mess like yeah whatever i watched them last night and i would say train wreck yeah like you know you said a little a few brush fires around here they're whatever the next stage from the brush fire is there might be the one past that. Like, they're a mess. And they've got to get things figured out pretty quickly,

yet they're in the second wild card right now. Like, it's, you know, like, but they're not, how could you be content with that? I'd say, and the reason I talk about the Bruins is, how could you be content with the way the Canuck have played? There's been too many, too many craters in the road so far. you're like look they're going to get demko back you know hopefully better sooner rather than later um you don't you don't get to determine injuries right everybody's got a everybody's going to get them if they don't have them yet they're going to get them sooner and later and you got to fight your way through that

the new guys in my mind you're 20 games roughly in. They're not new guys anymore. They've been here a few months, and they've had a time to get assimilated in the community where they're living, where they want to eat, all that off-ice stuff that really is a stress, like when you do come to a new team. Then you've got the game. Well, they've had camp and this first quarter of the season it's it's kind of time right like and you can say the new guys but i don't know

sherwood looks like he's assimilated fine so yeah it's not it's time for the new guys right right just go play um there's the inconsistencies i guess they they bother me the most as a watcher because I know the next gear isn't that far removed from where they are, but you have to get there. You can't say, oh, it's going to come along. No, you have to play your way there. The system change, that's on talk and the coaches, they've got to determine how long can you go with this system change?

Is it fitting or do I got to tweak it back a little bit? So all that stuff that we just talked about, it's sitting in a big pot of soup and it's not right yet. And so all you can do is keep adjusting, keep tweaking, poking and prodding, because there is no hockey player store. Like, you can't go to the store and get the answer. Everybody, like, I watched Detroit last night. Like, how could they be looking at their team and going, oh, yeah, we feel great about ourselves. Like, these are, you know, Ottawa's had their ups and downs.

These are all teams that are on the cusp of the playoffs. And so the angst we feel here is in a lot of different places. And so I do think it is time, though, that we've got to make some decisions as to, is the system the right one? If it is, like if you feel it is, then we've really got to knuckle down on it. We've really got to tighten it down on it we've really got

to tighten it up if the defense pairs need to be changed you probably got to get to that it can you fit the lines and like can lecker mackie stay with miller or do you got to flip garland there because maybe it's too much for him at this moment. Like you're playing a really good team that gives up no goals tonight. The Rangers don't give up anything. And so this is a challenging game for them. It's a game that requires attention and detail. And maybe it's the type of game that gets everybody's attention and you play the game that's needed.

Have you ever been on a team or had you ever been on a team where the coach went to the players uh the system isn't working we should have never gone down this road we're going back to the old system or we're trying a whole new system no you would never hear that uh or certainly i never heard that but what you would hear is, okay, we've wanted to do this, and we're going to change a couple of the details of the system. And honestly, you're not going from system A to system C. You're tweaking a couple of things in the current system. That happens quite frequently. Because if you think about it, how many times do you hear, well, they've got to make an adjustment?

That's what an adjustment is. An adjustment is what we're doing now at this time isn't quite clicking away here. So we've got to adjust something. Otherwise, you can keep doing the same thing and getting the same result. Isn't that what that saying about insanity? Yeah. And you expect a different result. So you get to a point for the coaches. I mean that wouldn't that saying about insanity yeah yeah and you expect a different result so you get to a point for the coaches i mean don't forget we watch the game we turn the

game off and we go do something else they watch the game they get something to eat and then they watch the game again and then the next day they break down all the clips and they watch it again like they're seeing that stuff in their sleep and so they know way better than any of us whether the system is inching its way along or if it's something that's just not quite working. Do you think they will at some point consider switching up the top two pairs? Because I know they've done it in-game a little bit,

but every time they go back to practice or every time they start another game, it's Hughes, Hronik, Suse, Myers. Well, if the one pair can't get out of their zone, which has really been a problem,

then you get to a point where you're like, okay, we've got to try something. And so, I know there's a clamoring to put maybe Branstrom deserves some more minutes. Maybe Branstrom's in the right spot right now. That's what I think. There's a lot of times you take a winger,

oh, he's doing great on the third line, and let's put him on the first line, and he can't play there. There's a reason players get flotted where they are but maybe you could do it for a little bit of time me like i think brandstrom's playing really really well but against chicago we got beat out wide by felino on the first goal that's what happens to a five foot ten defenseman once in a while and you got manhandled by felino i mean felino's a big guy but he got beat pretty bad yeah but he'll right he won't do that to a six foot four guy and so that's why teams like size in their top pairs that's why

they can hide a smaller guy in a third pair you You can, like, if you look at the teams that win, just go back over the last few years, the teams that get deep in the playoffs, their defense, generally speaking, are monsters. There's nowhere to go. Last year, Florida had Montour. He's not a big guy, but he's a fabulous skater. That was it.

The year before, Vegas had six linebackers. They had one small guy on the roster. It was Jonathan Marshall, so he won the Conn Smythe. So teams like size for a reason. Branstrom has played himself into a great spot. And I think he's exceeded any expectation you could have had. And so the danger becomes if you elevate him, do you take him into a spot where he's less likely to succeed? Ray, have you done a Rangers game this year? Is this going to be your first? Second. I did one in Washingtonhington um uh early in the

year they won uh i think they won three two uh it's just it's just a really good really deep team yet they had about a 10-day stretch there where it went wobbly and sideways a little bit they get saved by their goaltending when they get like that like Like, Shisterkin, he's just fantastic. And I don't know if anybody had Jonathan Quick at 4-0 in a 97 saves percentage. That's crazy. He's got back-to-back shutouts. And their special teams are so good. They win a lot of games by neutralizing the five-on-five game and

beating a team on special teams like they're they're really really good their power play is you know a lot of nights that power play is like a dance it's just perfectly timed whether Panarin's got it or um you know they got trochek buzzing around the bumper but they got fox on the point um they're just crider sits right in front of the net he's one of the best at it it's a it's a really really good power play what do you i haven't even got the advantage ad yet like he stands over there and zips along at one time or there that's a good power play he's having a tough season though isn't he overall is a bandage yet yeah his his pace his um uh pace the game has has slowed um like he likes to hold the puck you'll see him get it as he's going up the ice he gets his feet wide

and he's kind of searching for the opening he doesn't he doesn't't drive the play deep in the zone as much as he used to. Sometimes it's okay, but sometimes it really doesn't work. What did you see from Alexis Lafreniere in the one game that you did? Oh, that kid's come of age. He had 28 goals last year, all of them at regular strength. Not one power play. The game slowed down for him. In the past couple of years, not last year,

because last year through injury when Philip Hedl got hurt, and unfortunately he's hurt again, and just hope he's okay. He's had all kinds of concussion issues. They moved Vinny Trocek between Lafreniere and Panarin. It just kind of got thrown together, and they had an amazing year. But prior to that, he's running around trying to hit people all over the place. He's a big guy. And in the midst of trying to run around and hit everybody,

he forgot to play the puck. And then all of a sudden the game slowed down. He's got good hands. He's a powerful guy. He's a good player. There was a lot of noise around him and Kako about whether they should keep him, move him,

elevate them, demote them. It was like every day in the notes about the Rangers there was always something about one or both of them, and they still have them both, and Lafreniere is the one that's taken the real jump. Ray, this was great, bud. Thanks for doing this today.

We really appreciate it. Have a good call tonight. We'll do this again next Tuesday. You betcha. You guys have a good week. See ya. Thanks. That's Ray Ferraro here on the Halford & Brough Show

on Sportsnet 650. I know that this is a sports show, and the focus should be on sports, but I can't help but admit and acknowledge that I have been distracted by storm tracking and weather tracking. Me too. Yeah.

I started following a bunch of independent storm trackers. Have you seen them on Twitter? There's a whole thing. I didn't know. There's a whole, like, sub... Amateur meteorologist. There's a whole industry based around this't know. There's a whole like amateur meteorologist based around this. Didn't you see the original Twister?

So that's funny because I didn't see the first one, but we went and saw the second one in theater. You didn't see the first one? Nope. Really? Everyone saw that. Okay. Let's move along. I saw the second one in theater. How was it? I did not realize that that was the premise of the movie.

Was that they were chasing the storms. I thought they were trying to run away from them. Yeah. I was like, go the other direction. Just go that way. The poster has a picture of their vehicle with the storm tracking gear on it. They're trying to learn about tornadoes. Dude, that'd be a pretty short movie if they were running away

from that, because all of you are like, alright, there's a tornado. Let's go. Bye. I don't know. Based on what I saw. That's pretty easy, actually. Yeah. Based on what I saw, it's tough to get away from. This movie's four minutes long. Well, it's not like a shark. It's not like Jaws.

That was the premise I was under. It's like the tornado had teeth. Things that got personal. So Sharknado is what you're thinking. Like Jaws actually got, I remember in some of the later ones, it got personal. Like Jaws. Yeah. Jaws was like, that got personal. Like Jaws. Yeah. Jaws 2 was like, that was my brother.

Jaws 2, you blew up. Jaws 2 smoking a cigarette in a bar. He was drunk. Your next Michael Caine. Jaws 2, he's back and he's pissed. Anyway, I digress. Just when you thought you got him. So we're getting a bomb cyclone.

Yep. Which the name implies that the cyclone will be like hip and cool. It's the bomb. Or it'll explode. Or it's a bad thing. It'll explode. Especially bad if you live on the west side of the island. Correct.

So you're expecting over 100 kilometer winds from this cyclone. Yeah. The only thing I thought of, I'm going to have to do a lot of raking. Because I think any leaves that are still hanging on the trees might be gone over the next two days. It might be branches coming down. Three hours raking. Ah, perfect. Big win.

Come on. So use this as your public service announcement to charge your devices. Get those battery packs plugged in tonight or right now if you can. Because it's coming this afternoon. Bomb Cyclone is a little bit aggressive. I love it. I like that we have embraced all the weather

terminology. Atmospheric river. Yeah, it's great. It's good. We should be more cognizant. I used to know that as heavy rain. This is the big time boomer take. I see this all over Twitter. In my day we called it rain. What is atmospheric river? I just said, boy, it was hot out.

I did. Bomb cyclone was known as a bit of a breeze. Yeah. Windy day. Bring a jacket. It's a bomb cyclone. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.