Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 11/20/24

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

Mike and Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk the top hockey stories of the day with Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli, plus they discuss the latest Canucks news with analyst Randip Janda. 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. We're going to work in reverse chronological order here in terms of things that happened in the time that they happened. So we are going to start with the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 loss to the Rangers last night at Rogers Arena. We will then get into the news that preceded that game about JT Miller taking a leave of absence from the Vancouver Canucks due to personal reasons.

But we will start with the game. It was a Chris Kreider goal in the third period that proved to be the difference as the Rangers beat the Canucks 4-3 to end what was a very disappointing homestand for the Vancouver Canucks as they now set out on the road. Yeah, the Canucks and the Rangers, at the very least, they play some pretty entertaining games, don't they? Remember the Rangers-Canucks game last season at Rogers Arena

when the refs screwed the Canucks? A lot has happened since then. Now, considering what happened earlier in the day, it was a dream start to the game for the Canucks when Quinn Hughes scored 34 seconds into the game, won a nice backhand shot. Assist to Hronik, who made a strong play in his own end to start it all off, and to Elias Petterssonson who had a pair of assists in the first period alone. His second assist came on a nice passing play with Kiefer Sherwood after the Rangers had fifth goal of the season as he continues to show that

he can contribute not only physically with a bunch of hits but offensively in this league. The Rangers made a three to two on yet another tough luck moment for Carson Soucy. Man well it got worse later in the game but the Canucks did answer back before it got worse. They answered back when Connor Garland, who we didn't even know was going to be able to play yesterday, he did play and then rushed off to the hospital where his wife was expecting a baby. He scored off the rush, taking a sweet pass from Dakota Joshua before firing a pass to Sterkin.

The Rangers, though, they took the lead again, and they took it for good in the third when Pedersen had his stick lifted at the Canucks' blue line. Myers then chases a bandage at all the way to the corner for some reason, and because Pedersen, he said after the game, he was caught a little flat-footed,

and he couldn't recover quickly enough. It left a two-on-one for Soucy to handle. Riley Smith held off Soucy and passed it to Chris Kreider, who was wide open, who beat Seelovs cleanly. And I got to say, I'm not a goaltending expert, but I say that a lot about Seelovs. Gets beat clean? He beat Seelovs cleanly.

For the seventh time in 11 home games the Canucks had allowed at least four goals the Canucks did have a few chances to tie it but unfortunately Sesterkin is a pretty good goalie and that's the way it ended a 4-3 win for the Canucks overall and you could tell by the comments afterwards by the Canucks and their coach that it was a decent effort by the team,

given the opposition and, more importantly, the news of the day, given the depleted lineup. But the homestand will end with two wins and four regulation losses. And frankly, maybe it's good that they're going out on the road for a bet. So the postgame remarks were unique because when everyone was talking about the game and the struggles and the adversity, a homestand where you only collect four points out of 12, they were talking about the on ice, but they also were talking about what happened off ice yesterday as well. And that was, of course, the news that happened not long after we were off the air at nine o'clock yesterday morning that JT Miller was going to be taking a leave of absence, an indefinite leave of absence due to personal reasons.

It caught everyone by surprise in the moment of announcement. And the rest of the day was spent trying to appreciate the sensitivity of the situation. I think for the most of us, trying not to speculate as to the reasons behind the personal, and then trying to understand that this is a sensitive situation. It's an important absence for the team in the negative because JT Miller is a very good hockey player and at times the emotional heartbeat of this team. And then trying to contextualize how you discuss it.

Like this is a personal issue and you worry about the player and you worry about that. And you also want to still talk about the hockey team because the hockey team went out and played a game last night against one of the best teams in the NHL, valiantly and fell short for three it's a very complex day and there was a lot to get into I know you've got some thoughts on JT yeah well I know we often joke that the Canucks are a cursed franchise and part of being a Canucks fan is participating in the gallows humor but the last few months have kind of really been pushing it and it's like,

all right, enough. Even for longtime fans of the team, this is getting a little bit ridiculous. Consider in the last half a year or so, maybe seven months back, their star goalie suffered a knee injury so rare that nobody could think of another hockey player who'd suffered it, as we all got familiar with the word popliteus. A fan favorite and a great story from last season in Dakota Joshua learned he had testicular cancer. Their star winger Brock Besser got cheap-shotted and remains out of the lineup with a suspected concussion.

Until recently, their superstar center, who is entering the first year of a massive contract extension Elias Pettersson had been mired in a month-long slump months months not month I wish it was just a month months long slump that had everyone completely baffled. And now this with JT Miller, whatever this is, that's a lot of challenging stuff in the matter of a few months. I know the Canucks were saying all the right things yesterday, like, you know, life happens and you deal with it. But the juxtaposition with last season is pretty remarkable when pretty much everything went right until the end when Thatcher Demko got hurt. Yep.

To their credit, the Canucks have managed to stay, I guess, I don't know, I haven't checked the standings this morning, but above the playoff bar, kept their heads above water. I think they're 500, but they're above NHL 500. 15th in the NHL, sandwiched between Tampa Bay and Colorado. They played 18 games. They've won nine of them. They've lost five of them, but some of them they've got a point for.

We are not going to speculate beyond what's been reported so far and beyond the statement that the Canucks released yesterday. The only thing that's really been reported is that Miller needs a reset. We all know he's an emotional guy. Most of the time, that's a good thing. He is the emotional leader of the Canucks. You hear that time and time again, but sometimes his emotions get the best of him. And I'm sure that's mentally taxing when that happens. Now, look, you said it earlier. I've said it. Everyone said it. I know it's been said that we shouldn't overreact to this and we shouldn't jump to any conclusions. We shouldn't speculate, et cetera, et cetera. Got it.

But let's face it, we don't see this sort of thing happen every day in the NHL. It's not unprecedented in sports, and we've seen some pretty famous figures step away for, I don't know if you want to call them resets, be it Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka, or in hockey, I do think like it has happened. I think of a Jonathan Duran, but when it does happen, it's a story and it's going to get talked about because players go through ups and downs all the time in sports. And Hey, you know, maybe players should take mental breaks more often, resets, whatever. But I think it's okay to be curious about what's going on here.

And it's okay to talk about it. It's not okay to recklessly speculate or throw all sorts of circumstantial evidence at the wall just to see what sticks. But I think we all wonder, let's be honest here, when we talk about this a lot on the show, we all wonder what it's like to deal with the pressures of being a professional athlete or just a public figure in general. At the end of the day, it is really hard to be a public figure. It's a cliche, but fame is not all it's cracked up to be.

You know, I remember reading something that Kevin Love wrote about the notion that everyone is going through something that we can't see. In his case, it was panic attacks and other people have dealt with other things. For the record, we're not saying Miller is going through something similar. We're not saying he's going through what Kevin Love is going through. But he's clearly going through something.

And it's just the idea that everyone has stuff going on in their lives, even the rich and famous. Yeah. And I'll throw it now to, I think, two of the individuals people wanted to hear most from yesterday, and that was the captain of the team, Quinn Hughes and the head coach, Rick Talkett.

And they understand to what you were speaking of right off the top about the cumulative adversity that this team has gone through through the first 18 games of the season. I think you could say that they've gone through more adversity prior to the 20 game mark than maybe collectively all of last year. We're not trying to scorecard adversity here, but it has been a series of challenges, many of which are out of the club's control.

We'll hear first from Rick Talkett and he was trying to use it as most coaches do in the positive that the old, whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger and how they can use this. If you will, here's Rick Talkett on the adversity facing his club right now and how it might forge them moving forward well it's it's things that you got to overcome adversity and um it's the stuff we went through last year too you know it uh you know i love this because you know we're gonna get some bodies back i thought there was a step i thought guys played harder tonight certain guys i thought played harder which is a good thing that we need from them. And then you just, you know, you use fuel. People that doubt you or the noise, it's, to me,

it's stuff that I love. That's what galvanizes a group. So take that energy that we have in the room. You know, we're going to have some bodies coming back. I don't know whether it's a week, two weeks, some all-star people. That's going to help. But in the meantime, some guys are getting some playing time and they're getting used to these kind of pressure games. 3-3 game, 3-4 minutes, where am I supposed to be in certain spots? I think that that's valuable stuff.

So the Canucks practice today at UBC and they're preparing for a long six-game road trip, which kicks off Saturday in Ottawa against Travis Crean, their old coach, and the Ottawa Senators. Then they go to Boston on Tuesday, where the Bruins just fired their coach. So, you know, there's a possibility they're going to get the new coach bump there in Boston for a bit. You know, I really am curious to see a practice,

well, lots of things. You know, if Besser's a regular participant. He did skate yesterday, too, by the way. I don't know if Demko's going to ramp up his participation with the team. And, you know, look, Susie Myers, they got to break these guys up.

They just have to. I don't know how they're going to do it, but these guys continue to be out there for a lot of goals. Yeah. And it's getting hard to watch. I mean, Susie had some bad luck yesterday, but it's just one of these situations where it's like, man, anything is better than what's going on right now.

If you've got to switch some guys around, then just do it. So as we pivot back to the on-ice stuff, I thought some messaging that was very interesting yesterday from Rick Talkett, and it had to do with the questions that were asked from the collective media, was that I don't want to call it a silver lining or opportunity from someone else's, you know, unfortunate circumstances. But the reality is players are going to need to step up with Demko, Besser, Miller all gone from the lineup, there are, one, minutes to be had, but two, important leadership roles that guys are going to have to fill and try and keep

up on an daily basis. Because right now, and I heard Sat and Bick arguing incessantly about this yesterday, and Sat was trying to make the point, going into that game against the Rangers yesterday with the lineup that the Canucks had, the Canucks were the inferior opponent. Yes. You know, and that's a team that was 100-plus points last year.

And they were an inferior team in the game. Right. If we're being honest, I know Kiefer Sherwood said, you know, they deserved that one, but at best it was a toss-up. So there's a couple guys here. I want to play the Talk It audio. Talk It really spoke glowingly of what Conor Garland did last night. I think it was probably reflective of what Conor Garland's done this entire season as well.

But yesterday, Garland and Tocantin will break down his day. But it was one of those days where those that have had children know you're not controlling anything. You're at everybody else's whims and you're just trying to keep your head above water. And that's what Connor Garland did yesterday. Here's Rick Tocantin on Connor Garland

and his day after a 4-3 loss to the Rangers on Tuesday night. He's going to probably have a baby here soon. What was up at 3 in the morning was up at 7. No sleep. He's our best player. What can you say? You love the kid.

That's important. It's important in those moments, regardless of whatever Garland was going through in terms of like, I'm exhausted, I'm running on pure fumes. A guy that knows that he needs to be a bigger presence and play more in that moment because the team needs him. Things happen to a team during a season.

Some of it predictable, some of it not. Things happen to a team. And the other guy that I wanted to focus on because both Hughes and talk, it spoke him up big time is Kiefer Sherwood, who is emerging as one of the best free agent signings in this class of the summer of 2024, whatever is driving this guy,

be it, um, you know, previous snubs or Nashville, letting them walk or the energy that comes with getting this opportunity in Vancouver, whatever it is, bottle it and keep it going because he has been

right up there among the Canucks' best forwards this season. It was on display again last night. Here is Rick Talkett on Kiefer Sherwood from last night after the 4-3 loss to the Rangers. He's just a passionate guy.

We need guys like that. You know, he comes to the rink every day to practice. He plays like it's a privilege to play in the NHL, and he's got an opportunity here that maybe he didn't have much as a natural like whatever to show. Like he told me this summer, I mean, I remember talking about it Sunday Sunday morning he was going to shoot pucks in a garage you know and

because he knows there's offense to him game and you know he's I don't know how many points he had last year but has he got more this year like it's 18 he's close but I'm saying he can play so good for him we need a lot of guys like that. Contagious. So how are the Canucks going to deal with Miller's indefinite absence? He's not going to go on this six-game road trip. Could always join on the road trip, but it's indefinite. They don't know how many games he's going to miss. I think it starts with Petey, obviously. Obviously.

He's got to be their best forward. He's got to drive play. Fortunately for the Canucks, he's starting to do it. He needs to do it even more, though. And I would say ditto for DeBrus. DeBrus, if he's going to play with Petey, needs to score some big goals. And I know he was upset last night that he wasn't able to bury a chance late in the game. They're going to need more from all these guys.

I think it's pretty straightforward when it's like, if one of your. I like the potential of that line with Sherwood on it though. Sure. You know, if one of your best players is out and you need to replace what he brought in terms of minutes, production,

and then also what Miller brought is the, like we said, the heartbeat of the team. It's just the inevitability of needing guys to step, not wanting, but needing. You can't have DeBrusque do passenger stuff. You can't have Heinen, who's been good, but these guys are all of a sudden elevated to,

hey, we're counting on you big time now. Did you hear Taka talking a lot about making key plays and how the Rangers last night, they made the key play. It was a really nice goal that they scored that was the game winner. I know we were focused on, you know, Petey having his stick lifted and Petey says he's got to do better there. And we were focused on Tyler Myers chasing a guy into the corner for some reason and it leaves Carson Soucy all alone basically to deal with two players and you know it didn't go well and or left it left Silov's

yeah with a you know a chance to make a big save and and he couldn't do it but the Rangers did you know the Rangers made that key play and um you know I thought of course Zibanejad had a strong game last night after we talked about him. Evan Bouchard also scored a highlight reel goal after we had trashed him in the morning, and that's – The Halbro bump, baby. That's just the Halford and Brough bump for other teams. It doesn't work for the Canucks.

But I think, you know, when you talk about Petey, it extends to the other guys down the middle especially, like Pugh Suter who was between Garland and Joshua last night on what became essentially the second line. He was good. Hopefully, they will get Besser back soon because, number one, he's a very good player. And number two, if we're being honest,

Lekermackie probably needs a bit more AHL time. Now that he's got his feet wet in the NHL, Lekermackie was with Bluger and Heinen on the third line. And, you know, because Sherwood was up on the top line, those three, you know, that's a mix. You know, that's not a good mix. I'm not sure that's the best fit for Lekker Mackey. But the Canucks didn't have a lot of options yesterday.

They were like, oh, my God, look at all the stuff that's happening. And, you know, there was a chance at one point that Garland wasn't have a lot of options yesterday. They were like, oh my God, look at all the stuff that's happening. There was a chance at one point that Garland wasn't going to be able to play. And speaking of wingers, I'm not alone here. Everyone has been talking about it, but you really got to wonder how much time Talkett has left for Hoaglander. Just a really dumb penalty in the second period. Marcus Pedersen wouldn't have taken that penalty.

When Hoaglander got called for interference in the offensive zone, not the kind of play you can make when you're not producing. And he's had some chances to score, and the puck's not going in for him. There's a reason Hoaglander's name has come up in trade speculation. And, you know, I know we talked with Ray yesterday about a guy like Marcus Pedersen and how, you know, the fit might be a little bit tough in Vancouver just because they need right side guys.

And if you had another left side guy but you know I don't know if you can afford to get too fussy on the trade market and you know when Susie got hurt last season they made the Zdorov trade yep and I really do wonder because they were worried and they were worried all season that things would eventually collapse, right? Remember last season was different. We were like, oh God, when are they going to collapse? They never really did. But, you know, we were all, it was all in our

back, in the back of our minds. We talk about how Soucy and Myers, well, it's kind of like, well, what are you going to do? Right? Like, you don't want to break up Hughes and Hronik. You don't know if you want to give Branstrom that much more time because then he's playing in a role that maybe he gets.

Maybe it's too much for him. Obviously, no one's calling for Juleson to be elevated up the lineup or Day or Nay. Well, you add a guy like Marcus Pedersen, if they want to pull the trigger on a deal like that, at least it gives you a little more options. It gives you a few more options. You can drop Soucy down to the third pair if you want, right? And throw Branstrom over to the right side on the third pair if you want to

do that. And then you put Pedersen with Myers and it's just something different. Now, would that be a panic trade? Maybe. I don't know. But all I know is that if they keep going out there with Susie and Myers, I don't know at this point if they're going to find their games because it's not going very well for those two. And they are not by themselves. There's other things that are happening. But they are a pretty big liability on this team

right now. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Frank Cesaravalli joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Frank. How are you? Pretty good. How are you guys? We are well. We will start

with the JT Miller news from yesterday that he is taking an indefinite leave of absence from the team due to personal reasons. With the pretense and pretext out there that we don't want to speculate and we don't want to try and, for lack of a better phrase, guess as to what's going on, we do have to ask you, is there any information or do you know anything about anything as it pertains to this situation with JT Miller yeah and certainly with a ton of respect for JT Miller

and his privacy and um and also hoping that he's back soon and everything's all right the response I got yesterday was he needed a break physically and mentally I think we can agree that going back to the swing out east and the game that he left against the Flyers, I don't think anyone would argue that he's been 100% right physically. Seems to me and many others to be a shoulder injury that he was nursing and that has kind of lingered on for a bit but there's definitely I believe a mental component to this as well to just get a reset I don't think Sunday's game had anything to do with it and and the benching but look he's been the heartbeat of this team for a while now. He's their motor, their engine. And with that comes an intensity and a fire that rages,

a competitive fire that rages really kind of like few others in the entire league. And I think sometimes, you know, and not to speculate, there's a heavy burden that comes with that too, that you feel like you wear a lot. And, you know, I think for a lot of those reasons, I think they felt collectively that getting a break mentally and physically was the best choice of action here. Can you recall anything like this happening in the nhl like i know players have taken leaves of absence but not framed like this correct yeah not and and certainly not exactly like that no um and not someone who has you know with all those things just mentioned um not something that you see for a player that, relatively speaking, still had a

pretty good start to the season. So I was definitely surprised yesterday, and I think whenever you see something like that pop up, the first thing you think of is, man, I hope this guy's all right. On the Canucks front keeping that but moving to a different story there sure seems to be a lot of smoke around Marcus Pedersen in Pittsburgh and for a variety of reasons one his name's been out there two Alvin and Rutherford's connections to Pittsburgh and three the Canucks seeming need to figure out something on defense what do you know on this front and the trade market in general because things have been quiet for the first few weeks of the regular season. Man, you're forgetting number four, which is the Canucks would absolutely have to corner the market on Pedersen.

True. No, look, I think part of that connection has been overblown. I think a couple of years ago, the Canucks front office certainly had some interest. I wouldn't say that it's totally dead, but I think when you listen to the mission and mandate that starts with Rick Tockett and moving the puck more efficiently out of their own end, I just, you know, watch Marcus Pederson on a night-to-night basis he defends well enough um he's perfectly competent as a number four defenseman but the one thing he really struggles with the one hole in his game is making a quality pass short long chip whatever it might be

it feels like when he gets the puck on his stick it's an adventure so um not saying it won't happen i'm just saying i don't think it's a match and i i you know at some point this season marcus petterson is very likely to be moved um have a new trade targets board coming out today he's very high on the the list, but I have to really squint to see him as a Canuck. Is there anyone on your list that might be a better fit in Vancouver? It's a tough one, right? It's a tough one. Now you're making me think a little bit.

You know, it's hard because when you think puck mover the next part that comes of that is guy that's going to contribute on the power play and like the Canucks don't really need that so to speak so I look at someone like, like personally, if I were to go through the 15 names on my board, I'd say the best fit might be Mike Matheson. Now, I don't know if the Canucks see it that way. This is pure speculation and matching on my part. I think he's...

I don't know that enough people recognize how good he's been the last 100 games in the NHL. He was 9th in the league last year in defense scoring 62 points. If you readjust and properly set expectations

for him to defend first, I think he's actually way better than he gets credit for so um look i don't think the canadians are hankering to move him in fact they're so thin on their blue line and so young already i can tell you that they really don't want to move him but at some point this year someone's going to come calling and his value is going to be probably higher than it ever will be with one more year left on his deal i could see him making sense for a lot of teams um i do want to ask about boston and get into i have a lot of questions about that but one more thing on the trade front is something going to shake loose out of St. Louis because they've been bad. They're 26 in the NHL.

They have eight wins in 20 games. They have a minus 20 goal differential. I know Robert Thomas missed a bunch of time and he came back, but if you look at their blue line, there's a lot of guys that are making over $4 million. It's been a disappointing underachieving year. I mean, Pareko has been out there for a long time and they've got some other guys as well.

Torrey Cruz, obviously on the shelf, but what's going on in St. Louis? What sense are you getting out of, out of the blues? Well, I think they were waiting to get Thomas back to see if that helps things improve because he is one of the drivers of that team. That said,

I don't think that Doug Armstrong is under any disillusion that this blue team is, is a playoff team this year, or frankly, even if they were to get in, is a team that could make some noise. I think he's open to a lot of different things, but I don't think that they've really gone far down the path in determining what that looks like quite yet. We are speaking to Frank Cervalli from Daily Faceoff here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Okay, to Boston we go. Jim Montgomery out after a very tumultuous start to the season. I have many questions here. The first one is, this is having read some stuff in the aftermath and everyone do the look in the rear view. Was he maybe on thinner ice going into this season than personally I thought, in part because of, I know he won Coach of the Year. everyone do the look in the rear view was he maybe on thinner ice going into this season than personally like i thought and in part because of i know he won coach of the year now they had a

great regular season record but the two playoff failures i think you can call them that and not having an extension was maybe this a little bit more likely than we thought regardless of how the bruins started the season look anytime you have a coach that's accomplished what he has, I mean, he's essentially averaged 120 points over each of his first two seasons behind the bench. When you go into a third year and you don't have a contract extension, like, yeah, antennas are raised. Right. raised right eyebrows are up at that for sure um what i didn't see happening was i guess some and look this is this is not to blame him at all

like when you have 140 84 games coached and you only lose 41 times in regulation, you're like something that you're doing is working. So like, let's park that full stop. However, where things really started to kind of move in a different direction this year, beyond just kind of the criticism that he had for David Pasternak in the playoffs, all of a sudden you saw the back and forth

with Brad Marchand on the bench. And yeah, Marchand defended him. But then you see the comments about Jeremy Swayman and the lack of training camp. And you kind of see him, it's not fair to say needling, but you see him going after the star pieces, the core pieces of that team. That's another flag raised, right?

Like that's another attention grabbing element to this. And then you look at the effort and compete and intensity and you have a game like the loss to Columbus the other night, I messaged some guys on the blue jackets after the game. I said, did you guys just get Jim Montgomery fired? And the thing is that's exactly what a game like that felt like. We've all been around long enough to, to see it. And everyone was on high alert after that. Sometimes you,

you take a bunch of those different things and you mash them all together and you say, yes, you know, maybe something isn't working here. So the New York jets fired Robert Sala. And then a few weeks later they fired the general manager, Joe Douglas. So I've got to ask, now that Montgomery's gone, how much heat is there on Don Sweeney? Because right now Lindholm contract does not look good. Zdorov contract does not look good.

And the way that the Swayman thing played out definitely does not look good on Sweeney and Neely in this front office. Well, the caveat or pushback I would give you on that is it's Cam Neely who was speaking some of those words at the press conference that really ignited the Jeremy Swayman thing. And so I think Cam Neely and Don Sweeney have been in lockstep on this, really, you know, from the beginning. So it would seem to me, at least behind the scenes, that Sweeney has the support of his president. And I would also say that a fair bit of this belongs on the players.

Zdorov has really struggled. So has Lindholm. And Lindholm, to be fair, you guys heard his comments in Vancouver after his tough start. But he rebounded and got comfortable and settled in. Do I think this Bruins team is as bad as they've shown? Absolutely not.

Is Jeremy Swayman going to continue to be in the mid-880s in save percentage? I think that's probably unlikely. Are the Bruins, by that nature, also then going to remain 26th or 27th in the league in goals against? Probably not. Will their top players be outscored by their fourth line at even strength. Unlikely. So yeah, it's been ugly. They've got two players that are double-digit points scorers compared to like 11, half the Winnipeg Jets roster. It's been a grind. I just think this is a team that's drastically underachieved

and one that has been propped up in some ways by the strength of their goaltending the last couple years that now for the first time when they didn't get it, Jim Montgomery is definitely not the first coach to be fired after a poor save percentage run by his net minors. Okay, one more on Boston. How interim is Joe Sacco? I'd say he's, quote, pretty interim.

I don't think they have any intention right now of opening a coaching search would that change if I don't know pick a guy Mike Sullivan we're gonna get fired in Pittsburgh yeah I could see that changing but Joe Sacco is someone that has head coaching experience spent four years behind the bench with the colorado avalanche as head coach uh since then he's pretty much since then he's been in boston we're talking a decade now plus and was elevated from assistant to associate before this year started got that bump in title and probably pay and and he's a Boston guy. So I think they're going to try and give him every bit of runway that he can

to show that he can coach this team because they seem to be believers in him. Randy Bjanda joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Randy. How are you? Morning, boys. I'm doing well. How are you? We're good. We're all right. There was a lot to process from yesterday. It was a very eventful day in Canuckland, starting with the JT Miller news,

finishing with a 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers afterwards. You know, it was interesting. We played a lot of the audio from the post yesterday, and I listened to the post-game show as well, and it almost seemed like everyone was talking about the game, but not really just talking about the game if that makes sense that when they were talking about the adversity about the on ice results they were also talking about what's going on with this team not just with JT Miller but all the adversity and

maybe maybe it's not such a bad thing that they're getting out on the road and can get away from some of it for a little while yeah it's been a heavy moment for this team, and it really dates back to the preseason with the Dr. Demko news, with Dakota Joshua. And, guys, the reality is that, you know, you're having to deal with some of your best players at this given time. And any time you have Dakota Joshua missing the start of the year, Dr. Demko not playing, Brock Besser dealing with an injury, Elias Pettersson starting off the season in a serious slump,

and now with JT Miller having to leave the team, that is tough. That is very tough. And for a team, it's a heavy moment where you're dealing with, you know, a flurry of punches. It feels like you're kind of getting hit with something new every week. So, you know, this is a team that found everything went right for them last year during the regular season, and it's kind of the opposite to start off this year.

So they're going to have to roll with the punches. The key to managing the situation is you have to have other players elevate their game. We've seen it when Dakota was away. We've seen it in the goaltending department. Now you're going to have to see other players do that, whether that's on the high end, like Elias Pettersson, or, you know, having an entire line really gel together a lot quicker,

whether it's Suter, Garland, Joshua. But no doubt, this is a heavy emotional start for this team just to kick off the season. What are the Canucks going to do about their second pair of Tyler Myers and Carson Soucy? Yeah, that's, you know, we've talked about it every week, I think, for the last month or so, every time I've done a hit with you guys.

And they're still together. They're still together. They're still together. And here's the challenge, guys. You know, another two goals against 5-on-5 yesterday with them on the ice. They were on the ice for one goal four, but you notice the two goals against because they're always in the minuses uh it feels like

every single game and i'm i understand you know the guys are talking about this on the post game uh as well and you bring it up here the first step is dropping ice time and carson souci we saw yesterday 14 49 he's usually in that 18 minuteminute range. So the fact that his minutes dropped four minutes in one game, that's telling you something where they didn't see he was going yesterday. So that is usually the first step. Now the question is changes. What kind of changes could be coming? Here's the problem.

You need these guys because they still provide you, in theory, not in practice right now, in theory, the most physical pairing, the one that is supposed to be good defensively, the one that's supposed to box out, the one that is supposed to be good at zone denials. The problem is, if you start tinkering with this pairing, who's capable of playing more minutes? Who's capable of filling that void if you do

tinker with that brandstrom and listen i like the kid i think he's shown that he can play a little bit more now the question is can he play those tougher matchups i'm not sure noah julson he struggled yesterday in that first period there was a number of especially one shift early in that game where three opportunities to clear the zone and he got caught by the forecheck uh that one is not a clear line to me uh either to play in the second pair and vinnie day harney is not in the lineup right now uh let alone on a second pair so you're right you know this is a an area that has not been good for the canucks but guys i don't see that direct line of all all right,

who's jumping up then? Just because it hasn't happened. The other option is you break up Quinn Hughes and Philip Roenick, but as one of the best pairs in the NHL when they're going, we've seen this coaching staff not wanting to do that either. This is why my hot take is that the Canucks are going to make a trade at some point in the next couple of weeks, maybe during this road trip or I don't know, maybe today.

Because it just seems like there are no good solutions within the organization. So they have to go outside the organization. And I do want to get your thoughts on a possible trade chip that the Canucks could play, and that is Nils Hoeglander. Yeah, with Nils, okay, so last year when he was in the bottom six, he was an impact piece. He was a player that, of course, when he got his looks with Pedersen,

it was 24 even strength goals. We saw him play, even though there are peaks and valleys in the top six, there were still results. And in the bottom six, Rick Tockett mentioned it numerous times, when he plays in the bottom six, he's an impact piece. That's why he was getting rewarded. That's why he was getting promoted to the top six to play alongside Pedersen. And let's be honest, there was also less depth at that time.

This season right now, I think a couple of things work for Niels Hoaglander when it comes to being that trade ship to your point. And one of them is he's still young. This is a guy that has shown he can be an impact piece. He did it last year. The other thing is guys cost certainty, right? When you've got a player locked in for a dollar amount that he's on currently

and the future as well with the cap going up, $3 million looks pretty nice to teams. You're right. Now, the tricky thing is he hasn't been playing his best hockey. He's been in that fourth line role. He's playing around 10 minutes. While I think

there is value for the Canucks on that contract as well, as a trade ship, I see it. You have depth on the wings a lot more than last year, but you also need to do something right now. Nils Hoaglander's had a pretty quiet last couple of weeks. I thought his camp was good. I thought him coming out of camp was good,

but he has no doubt dropped off a little bit in terms of production, hovering in that 10- 11-minute range. But overall, if you're a team looking at a young pizza on the Vancouver Canucks, yeah, Nils Hoaglander does provide that feeling. You'd say he can give a little bit more, and that costs certainty, Jason. I know the Canucks aren't going to rush Thatcher Demko in this situation, even though they're going through it right now.

But boy, it would sure be nice for Thatcher Demko in this situation even they're they're going through it right now but boy it would sure be nice for Thatcher Demko to get back what are your expectations like do you think it could happen on this road trip yeah that's a tricky one where you know based on some of the reports we heard yesterday and I know um you know it seemed like it was maybe sooner rather than later and the fact that he's traveling the fact that she loves got that start and she loves played well against chicago so i can understand why you're trying to reward him um you're trying to give lincoln in a bit of rest but at the same time uh with thatcher demko yeah you know everything that we hear is everything's moving in the positive direction rick tockets's comment about we could see a star,

a couple of stars potentially back in the next week or two weeks certainly gets you thinking. Now, here's the issue. The Thatcher Demko that we know, we don't know if we're going to get that same guy. And I mean that in the sense that playing with pain, playing with something, a different sensation, it's not a

direct line, right? So practice time, how he feels is going to be something important. You know, even if he does come back right away in the next couple of weeks or next week, we don't, you know, let's just assume that happens. What does he feel like? What does he look like? There's so much that's uncertain about the situation with him and this injury, even though he comes back. I think, you know, the question is, how does that feel? What's the feedback that he would give the medical staff and Marco Tereni? So I, yeah, I think with, you know, Lankanen we're clearly starting to see some fatigue.

This is a guy that's never played this, you know, this workload of hockey before. Archer archer she loves we've talked at length how he needs more reps and probably at the ahl level to get more comfortable and get some of that coaching going uh even yesterday a couple of goals that you're probably watching and some over activity not necessarily putting the blame on him but you know this is a guy that's still a young goaltender uh so you understand that there's a need for thatcher demko but i just really wonder you know what's that feedback going to be like when he hits the ice for the first time or he really gets going in you know practice reps and they hit the road and eventually sees a start so yeah you know everything is optimistic around the reporting

right now which is great to hear on a personal level but the reality is we have no idea what this guy is going through and what that feedback is going to be uh you kind of started to go down the road to answer the question i was going to ask so let's just go with an anyway what did you think of silavs last night yeah there's listen there was some saves that he made i thought he was you know he did a good job and you know when you're playing the rangers team that really shoots to kill um you know 29 saves excuse me uh yeah 29 saves last night you know that's that that was i thought there was a confidence building performance there but there are still some moments where it's lincoln or thatcher denko probably gives you

that one more save and i know the deflection goal by the binajad he's probably a little too far to the right there where he's being like overly aggressive maybe even bordering on the other side of the post a little bit uh so the positioning you can maybe critique uh i think a little bit earlier on or later on in the game as well there's maybe uh a shot that beats him cleanly which is something that we've seen a little too much in his game but guys you know for those moments there's also a number of moments where uh the rangers got a couple of breakaways right there and we saw late in that game um him making a save on lefreniere i i think we all understand this is a work in progress with arthur shilov uh he wasn't the reason that they lost but there is something in his game especially early on in

that game just hyper aggressive a lot of movement in the blue paint which it didn't burn him yesterday but you do wonder and say hey okay he's been really active he's biting on a lot and the rangers didn't take advantage but on another night maybe they do or maybe another team does that it doesn't look um you know it it doesn't look super comfortable in that moment so while the results i think were there in the sense that he was able to make a number of the saves and he played one of the best teams in the NHL, you know, the eye test shows you that there's a lot more, I think a lot more movement and a lot more aggressive play

and not, you know, charging up the blue paint and being aggressive. I mean, just biting on a lot in that blue paint that's still in his game and it's not the most efficient movement. Do the Canucks have a bit of a conundrum on their hands with Jonathan Leckermackie right now in that? I think the consensus seems to be that he's not quite ready for the NHL, but at the same time, the Canucks kind of need players right now. They need guys that can maybe score goals.

And, you know, I don't know if there's an obvious call-up down in the AHL if you send Lekker Mackey down because Besser's still not back and JT Miller's gone for an indefinite amount of time. Yeah, I think the conundrum here with Lekermack is that you have him in the lineup because he's got the offensive skill, he's got the offensive chops. You need him in a position to score and succeed in that regard. With JT Miller, it made a lot of sense, right?

Hey, he's going to do a lot of the heavy lifting, and you have to obviously play a two-way game too, but this is one of the best playmakers in the NHL. JT had the fourth most primary assist in the NHL last year at 44. He's going to get you the puck. He's going to set you up. Well, if he's not in the lineup, where does Lekker Mackey play? Playing next to Teddy Blue or Anton Heinen doesn't have that same effect.

I understand why you go Suter, Garland, Joshua. You're trying to have more of a second line that can take tough matchups and hopefully give you offense, but that does put Leckermack in a conundrum because you're not in an offensive role anymore, and the reason you have him in the NHL is to get

that shot off, to show off his one-shot scoring ability. I think that is going to be one thing to watch here, where with Bluger and Heinen, that's not necessarily the role that he's in. So you're focusing on his two-way game. So yeah, like, you know,

this is where you start to wonder about other players. And, you know, Max Sasson, who scored yesterday for Abbotsford, you know, are there other roles, other players that you could maybe fit in that third-line role? But he still plays power play one with JT not there. So here's the problem.

You need the offense. You need the offense on the power play because we saw the power play not being good yesterday. But on the five-on-five game, I just don't see that fit in the bottom six because he's not going to get a situation where he's going to be probably in a scoring area playing with Bluger and Heimann so yeah this is this is the question for Lekker Mackey because you do need him on the power play they don't really have that many options right now uh they do they do because we're just going to keep elevating Kiefer Sherwood to everything he's going to be on the top line and now he's going to be on the top power play unit

if Lecker or Mackey is sent down. I also don't mind him on the second pair defense. I'll be honest with you. I think there's a role for him there. He can play more minutes. He's got a lot of energy. Just watch him play. He is one of the good stories from the Canucks this season.

Yeah, he's a great story. Five goals really added something to this team in transition i know they had two transition goals yesterday but it feels like every goal sherwood's involved with is there's an element of the the transition game to it or the majority of goals have been um you know the ones that he scored there's he's playing with speed and seven shots on goal guys nine shot attempts 12 hits uh another multi you know 10 plus hit game uh from excuse me 10 hits last night not 12 i'm overdoing it uh but this is a guy that is just bringing the energy he's bringing the speed he's bringing that pest-like

mentality but the goal scoring is something that he's already up to five goals he had 10 all of last year and that was his high watermark in his career so he's showing that he's already up to five goals. He had 10 all of last year, and that was a high watermark in his career. So he's showing that he's capable of more. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.