Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 11/26/24

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

Mike and Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they set up tonight's Canucks road tilt in Boston, plus they talk the latest hockey stories 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. Justice Hill, sweeping left side, crosses midfield. He's to the 40, charging 30, leg race 20, Justice Hill, sweeping left side, crosses midfield. He's to the 40, Charger 30, leg race 20, Justice Hill 10. He's in! Touchdown, Ravens! I'd lay down my life for my brother, but I would not let him win a football game. Will Smith feeds it back, Ekman now Settler-Ready, score! Smith to Ekman, to Settler-Ready, and it's in the net.

I don't know, and between me and you, I don't care. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. This is Alfred and his bruv. It is Sportsnet 650, and we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you. Hello, hello. And intern Spencer, good morning to you as well. Good morning, guys. Pretty sharp this morning, boys.

Halford and Brougham of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Well, they pay

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We've got a lot to get into on the program today. Guest list begins at 6.30. Greg Wyshynski will join us from ESPN. We'll go around a busy night in the National Hockey League last night. 11 games on the slate. 7 o'clock, Ray Ferraro. It's a Ferraro Tuesday here on the Halford & Brough Show. We'll talk to Ray about the Vancouver Canucks

and an assortment of other teams. The Canucks are an assortment of other teams. The Canucks are in action tonight in Boston against the Bruins, taking on a couple of familiar faces in Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zdorov. We'll talk to Ray about that at 7, and then Landon Ferraro about that at 8 o'clock. And a reminder, the game tonight, 4 o'clock. Note the start time, 4.30 for the next game in Pittsburgh, which of course is tomorrow night. They go back-to-back. Canucks-Bru tonight, 4 o'clock. Note the start time, 4.30 for the next game in Pittsburgh,

which, of course, is tomorrow night. They go back-to-back. Canucks Bruins, 4 o'clock. Pre-game, post-game, actual game, all right here on Sportsnet 650. So working in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock, it's Landon Ferraro. 7 o'clock, Ray Ferraro. 6.30 at Greg Wyshynski. That's what's happening on the program today.

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

You missed that? You missed that? What happened? 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. Yesterday, the Vancouver Canucks practiced at Boston University,

the home of Dave Tomlinson, the sniper himself. Big news out of practice yesterday, Brock Besser practiced fully with the team, and it is a possibility that he could make his return to the lineup tonight when the Canucks take on the Bruins in Boston. Yeah, Besser also spoke with the team, and it is a possibility that he could make his return to the lineup tonight when the Canucks take on the Bruins in Boston. Yeah, Besser also spoke to the media,

and he was talking about his recovery from the hit from Tanner Jeannot, and he was saying, look, it was pretty tough, especially the first week. He said, I tried to bike a few times, and I wasn't reacting super well to that. My head started to hurt. I was getting a little nauseous. So they did take some time off to try and just let me rest and heal up. He said he kept getting treatment on his neck. And when he came back and went through the NHL's

concussion protocol, he started to feel better the second time around so he did miss seven games or he is going to miss seven games assuming he plays tonight in Boston and that is significant um the Canucks did okay without him um there were other big stories that developed while he was out including JT Miller taking an indefinite leave of absence, which he is still on. A lot of people wondered, okay, well, how is he going to go back into the lineup given JT Miller's absence, his usual linemate, and the fact that you've got two lines

that are going pretty well right now, especially Pedersen, DeBrusque, and Kiefer Sherwood. Can't break that up. Some people might say, okay, well, Sherwood goes back down to the bottom two lines. That's not how it went. Besser was skating with Bluger and Heinen, which is a combination I never thought I'd see this season.

But at this point, you're not going to break up Petey's line, and I don't know if you want to break up Joshua and Garland. It seems like they're finding their game together again, and Suter is their center. So I guess that's what it's going to be for Besser for a little while. It'll be interesting to see what role he has on the power play. I think they might take Sherwood off the power play. No.

Can you imagine if Sherwood stays on the power play and Besser's like, you can go in the second unit, pal. I mean, we laugh, but it is funny. Like, okay, under any other circumstances, if a regular NHL team had lost a guy that was their co-leading goal scorer, which Besser was, he had six goals through 12 games,

and he was 11 points in 12 games, if you take your co-leading goal score and a point a game forward out of the lineup, that should theoretically knock you back, but the Canucks have the versatility and depth at forward to withstand again, as you mentioned, not just the loss of Besser, but also Miller at the same

time. For Besser to come back, I think it'll be a big boost. I'll be very curious to see the BBH line, guys. The BBH line. Besser, Bluger, and Heinen. Well, we'll see how much he even plays tonight. He was talking about how it's always hard to mimic game shape, but they said they backskated him a few times

and pushed him really hard, according to Besser. And so it might take a few games for him to find his skating legs anyway. I'll be curious. I'm really curious, I have to say, about what the future holds for Nils Hoeglander because he's likely to get bumped down right back down to the fourth line because I think it was Hoaglander who was with Bluger and Heinen so Besser is essentially replacing Hoaglander's spot the lines have been

all over the place obviously in the last few games so Hoaglander down to the fourth line and you really wonder when he's going to score again because he is playing in a fourth-line role, which isn't always about scoring. And he doesn't get any special teams time. I don't think anybody's surprised that he's not necessarily out on the PK, but there's no power play time for him. And part of his great story last season, of course, was scoring all those goals even strength.

It was the fact that he scored 24 goals despite not getting power play time. But he was playing with more offensive players, and he was playing in a more offensive role. And I'm just curious to see where it goes for him because there is clearly a trust thing going on between him and Rick Tocantin. Well, here's a question for you. Do you see it possibly going towards him being a healthy scratch tonight when the Canucks take on the Bruins in Boston?

That has been floated. Don't shoot the messenger. But it has been put out there that Talkett could make a statement by keeping that fourth line that he had last game together of Baines, Ratu, and Sasson, which we've been incorrectly pronouncing, by the way.aines, Ratu, and Sasson. Which we've been incorrectly pronouncing, by the way. Just Sasson, not Sasson. Well, no one's been saying Sasson

as a joke. Oh, that was a joke? We weren't trying to be serious. Who was actually calling it Sasson? Sasson. I don't know. It's got a fun last name. Vidal Sasson. He should consider going with Sasson. No, it's just Sasson. But anyway, to the original point, Baines, Ratu, and Sasson was the fourth line in a win, I will add as well, right?

And I know, theoretically, you're not supposed to change a lineup after a win, but you do want to get Besser back in. I mean, I think it would be more of a statement towards Hoaglander than to the rest of the team if he was to get dropped from the lineup. But look, his minutes are so low and his role is so diminished it wouldn't be that big of a deal in terms of deployment I think it would it would be a really big message to keep especially Sasson in the lineup over Hoaglander but it has ended like this for Hoaglander before it's not like it would be the first time he's been a healthy scratch I mean let's make it abundantly clear right now he is not one of Rick Talkckett's favorites. And I think it's probably a frustration level

that Tockett maybe can't find the right way to coax a consistent performance out of the player. And I do think that it's almost like you don't really blame Hoaglander because the plays

that he's trying to make, you can see what he's trying to do, but it almost seems like every time he errs on the side of trying to do too much and making it too complicated and not making it simple enough. He's taking too many penalties, too.

I know his penalty in the last game wasn't necessarily a bad one, but the ones in the offensive zone, he's taking just a couple careless ones, and you can tell in some ways he's just trying to do stuff. He's trying to play with an edge. He is trying to do stuff. He's trying to play with an edge. He's trying to do stuff.

He's trying to make an impact on the game. But, you know, when you're in a fourth line role, don't take offensive zone penalties. Just don't do that. Tonight's opponent from Boston, man, there's a lot of storylines for the boston bruins especially with the vancouver canucks coming to town and i'm not even talking about 2011 that's like way down the list now that whole thing that's over that's what happened back then yeah no neither do i i pushed out of my mind the uh the bruins just made a coaching change. Joe Sacco is their new head coach now after firing Monty.

And let me tell you, man, I was listening to some clips. We're going to play it later. Tease it up. Tease it up for the listeners. I was playing some clips from Boston Sports Radio, and I don't think any hockey city smears people that have left town quite like Boston. Maybe us. Maybe us.

I was in awe of the way that they did it. But the Boston sports crowd, when someone leaves that town, man, they really don't give them a hug on the way out. And they don't go, well well good luck to you right like Vanni Sartini who we will get to in a moment as well there wasn't as many good vibes coming out of Boston when Jim Montgomery left but Montgomery's the thing of the past in Boston because Joe Sacco is the guy in charge now and since he's come aboard apparently the plan is to play the most boring hockey games on the planet they have won both to, to his credit, but it's a 1-0 win over Utah, and that was his first game in charge.

Younus Korpisalo in net for that shutout, and then a 2-1 win over Detroit in his second game in charge. So if you're doing the math at home, they have scored a grand total of three goals in two games under Joe Sacco, but that's fine. Both wins.

Because they've only allowed one goal in two games. Do you know they've got the worst offense in the NHL? Not just bottom five or bottom ten. The worst in terms of goals per game. Just 2.32 goals per game for the Boston Bruins. That's lower than Chicago. It's lower than the Predators who made, you know, made all these moves and

lost again last night. You know, it's the Bruins still to your point though, I guess when they have to, they know how to lock it down. And that's why they've actually got an overall, well, they're above NHL 500. They're 10, 9, and 3. Do you think that Zdorov is going to make his presence felt tonight?

Yes. Is he going to do something loud? It could be a fight. It could be a big hit. It could be, and this wouldn't be his plan, I hope, it could be a very loud mistake. Because he's trying to make an impact. He's trying to do something against his old team.

Through 22 games, a team leading 46 penalty minutes already for Zdorov, who's done it with an equal mix of being the guy that stands up for his teammates and getting involved in the rough stuff, but also taking a lot of penalties. And the story from the early parts of the season was they never, it took a long time to get their defensive pairing sorted out. They tried a lot of different things because they've got good defensemen. If you look at their roster on paper, it's just figuring out how to play them together that's been a problem.

And McAvoy's been a disappointment this year. But with Zdorov, getting to him I do expect him look all the all the pieces are there for him to make some sort of noise tonight right like they got to the lows of being so bad that they had to fire their head coach they've come back and had two wins but the wins have sort of been we're gonna just buckle it down and be real low event hockey. When you talk about the first big game of the Sacco era, that's granted only three games long. I mean, this is it. You've got both Lindholm and Zdorov going up against their former team.

There is still the backdrop of the Canucks and Bruins that hangs around, even though none of the original people, save from Brad Marchand, are still in the lineup. And Boston's going to want to come back. This is the second game at home that they're going to have under Sacco now. They're going to want to try and put together, I would think, a little bit more of a comprehensive performance as opposed to we can squeak out these wins over Utah and Detroit.

Well, Canucks fans will be talking about Zdorov and Lindholm, but Bruins fans are going to be talking about DeBrusque and even Heinen because we already said the Bruins don't score goals. You've got to worry about pasta you got to worry about Brad Marchand who scored the winning goal in their last win over Detroit who after that seriously who who who after that you got to worry? Justin Brazzo? I'm not trying to run down the Bruins, but they are last in goals per game. And, you know, Pasternak isn't scoring at the level he was certainly two years ago.

And Marchand, there's been quite a bit of criticism, Marchand's game, and people saying, well, he's getting a little bit old. He's not quite the same Brad Marchand, there's been quite a bit of criticism of Marchand's game and people saying, well, he's getting a little bit old. He's not quite the same Brad Marchand as he was. Part of the problem for the Bruins is that they haven't really added scores. It's not like Lindholm's going to go out and get 100 points. I think he's got three goals. He's our third-leading scorer.

Yeah, like Halford was joking about Justin Brazot, but he is a guy that the Bruins are looking to for offense. And I don't know how many people in Vancouver have actually heard of Justin Brazow. I'm sure there's a few listeners that get triggered just by that name. They're like, what did you say? No, Brazow. Yeah, it's a totally...

Justin Brazow. I know what you're thinking. I just heard his name for the first time right now, and I've never heard of him before. So their top three scorers in Boston are Pasternak, Marchand, and Lindholm. We all know them. We've all heard of them. They're all good hockey players.

The next three leading scorers, four, five, and six on the list, are Justin Brazow, Cole Koepke, and Mason Loris. So that gives you an idea of where things are at for the Bruins going into tonight's game. Let me try it again. Justin Brazow, fourth on the team in points with nine. Cole Koepke, fifth on the team with eight points. And then Mason Lorre, a defenseman,

who is actually their leading defenseman scorer, more points than Charlie McAvoy. And that guy makes a lot of defensive mistakes. He makes a lot of mistakes. I've watched him. Those are all real people. Yes. Now, listen, we did this with the Islanders.

And then the Islanders came into Rogers Arena and dominated the Canucks. So we're recognizing it now. They're better than the Islanders. I'm not ready to even go there. The Islanders are truly mid. I think Boston was underperforming. And we'll get to the Montgomery story in a minute. So DeBrusque obviously gets a big, warm homecoming tonight, right? But I think they missed

DeBrusque. I know, but I'm saying... They missed DeBrusque. I mean, that was a guy that they just took out of the lineup, and I know they replaced him with Lindholm, but they miss a guy like that on the wings, and they probably miss Heinen, too. Well, when you're talking about a loud game, like you talked about Zdorov, and I agree with you, I think the potential is there for that.

I also think the potential is there for DeBrusque, because what do we know about him? Very streaky scorer. What did he do last game in Ottawa? He started up another one of his streaks. He scored you guys' first multi-goal game as a Vancouver Canuck. He's going to be feeling it tonight. I got a feeling that you might see

a big performance again from DeBrusque, especially since that line played so well. And there's still that new line smell to those three playing together, Sherwood, Pedersen, and DeBrusque, because it's only been together for a short time. So I don't know. If you're into individual player prop betting or something like that,

take a look at Jake DeBrusque anytime goal scorer. Just throwing it out there. Okay. We want to hit on one game from last night that will dovetail into a bunch of other conversations that we want to have. I've got a question for you before you even introduce this game ask me your question which team was it a bigger story for so we're talking about the new york rangers and the st louis blues last night right rangers take to the

ice with all of these trade rumors swirling after elliot friedman's report the blues are coming aboard with their new head coach jim rongan i going to say the Blues, but only by a smidge because they did have a new head coach. For me, it was the Rangers, though. For me, it was the Rangers. I actually tuned in to watch the Rangers because after the reports from Elliott Freeman came out and said, you know, Jacob Truba is available

and we were kind of like, okay. And Chris Kreider is available and we went, what? And then K. Andre Miller's name started making the rounds later in the afternoon. What's going on? Rangers fans were not happy to hear Chris Kreider's name out there. I can imagine. Almost universally not happy. But then I started listening and reading.

And I heard that the Rangers have really been kept in games and kept in the season, given their which is pretty good by goaltending and not a huge surprise with Shusterkin but Jonathan Quick also had crazy numbers earlier in the year although the Edmonton Oilers I think put a pretty good dent in those and then I so I turned on the game and I watched the third period and watch the whole thing but I watched the third period because I saw that the Blues were winning it and then I looked at the shots and the Blues were badly out shooting the Rangers and I was like okay maybe there's a new coach bump in there for the Blues and then I started watching the Rangers gave up breakaways and two on ones and I know they were trying to

get back into the game at that point but they looked very loosey-goosey defensively and I'm watching this game and I'm like this could be 10 to 2 for the Blues so let's play the audio from Peter Laviolette first this is Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette after he lost 5-2 to the Blues Jim Montgomery's first game and first win as St. Louis Blues head coach and Laviolette made no bones about it after the game. His team's not playing well, and they got to stop giving up 40 to 50 shots a game. Peter Laviolette after a 5-2 loss to the Blues. Yeah, we're good.

We're giving up too much. There's no question. We're not going to win games giving up 40, 50 shots. It's got to be much tighter with what we're doing. We need more. There's parts of the game I thought were good. There's parts of the game we weren't very good at all. And we gave up a goal to start the third period.

And then I don't like the response after that. That's a time to dig in and go get the next one and bring it back to even. And we weren't able to do that. So there's the Rangers side of the story. And it was a big deal because that game had two very interesting narratives going into it. The other one was Jim Montgomery in his first game as head coach of the St.

Louis Blues. Now this next audio we're going to tell you has nothing to do with his new life in St. Louis. It has to do with his bitter divorce from Boston. 98.5, the sports hub in Boston, Felger and Maz.

They just put it out there did Jim Montgomery intentionally get fired by the Boston Bruins was he Costanza now the reason I bring this up this Costanza-esque dynamic is because everybody knows that the Blues love Jim Montgomery and the Blues made no bones about it that the moment Montgomery became available they were ready to hire him. Felger and Mavs took it a step further by saying this doesn't just happen this season. This goes way

back. Listen to the audio. It's about 90 seconds in length. I am thoroughly impressed by both the conspiracy theory and the passion in which it's delivered. 98.5 the Sports Hub, Felger and Maz. Did Monty get himself fired from Boston? St. Louis was waiting for the end of that Maple Leafs series last year.

That if the Bruins lost to the Leafs, Montgomery was going to get fired and St. Louis was going to pick them right up. And St. Louis was rooting for the Leafs. It gets a coin to Ty Anderson. And that St. Louis was ready to pounce on Montgomery after last year. And they've been waiting this year. And as soon as he gets fired, boom, five-year deal in St. Louis, which is more than they were going to give him here.

So now I look at this and I go, Montgomery wasn't here groveling for his job. Montgomery was here saying, go ahead and fire me, you clowns. I got a job in my back pocket that's better than this one. So go ahead, Cam. He had leverage. Montgomery wasn't desperate to save his job. It might have been just the opposite.

He wanted to get fired, which kind of like i look at differently now like yeah go ahead and give the captain a shove on the bench what do you got to lose you got a job waiting for you and go ahead call out your captain bench your best player keep your goalie in on a seven goal game whatever he did i'm going to i'm going to go down swinging because i got i got something it does make you look at all these things differently though it did to me again benching posturnuk leaving swayman out to dry these other games where he's giving up five six goals let him rot ty also reported that the bruins went to him and gave him three different contract extensions they probably weren't all that much money but he was like nah because he

probably knew the whole time once i'm gone from here i got a five-year deal waiting for me in st louis so i'm gonna show up half-ass it wear offensive t-shirts put onions in the drop ceiling you guys you know when you hear how they put it i would like i don't know if that's true but just once in my life i would like to experience that i would love that's true, but just once in my life, I would like to experience that. I would love to try and get fired just because I had a better offer on the other side. How much fun would that be? You couldn't do anything that would jeopardize your actual job offer. You don't want to get intentionally fired.

And then, you know, your next job, you're like, boy, what you did at your last job, we cannot hire you anymore. Okay, but that's the thing. All these things, like the things that should make you toxic, like calling out your stars and benching your captain and laying your goalie rot for seven goals in net, you think that would cause some red flags for the Blues, but they're like, ah. No, the Blues are like, good, he got the job done.

He got to us. He got to us. So that's what makes you think, man. Do tampering rules not apply to coaches? If none of this bothered the Blues at all. Find me a paper trail. Find me the paper trail. Anyway, this is a fun but awkward way to transition to the big news locally from the day yesterday.

It does involve a coaching change, right? Vanni Sartini yesterday out as manager of the Vancouver Whitecaps. The Whitecaps made the news public a couple hours after we were off the air, and that was before Tom Bogert, formerly of The Athletic, sort of leaked the story out there. Vanny might have actually, not predicted, but picked up on what the team was lacking, and part of it might have had to do with him.

I don't know if he did it intentionally or not, but in the season-ending quotes, and good on J.J. Adams from the province for putting this in his article, Vanny said the next step for this team is, quote, to be good when it's not able for us to be very good. I think that's the next step. When you can't shoot for the moon,

you have to at least try to do the basics and go for the sky instead of falling down. So he diagnosed. What does that mean? It means that when Vanny had like a week between matches to prep and put everything together and carefully, you know, form his starting 11 and have everyone healthy. The Whitecaps were great, but there was way too many instances in the season

where there was a lot of matches in a short period. Oh, I see. And they were maybe under. It's like Drantz saying Petey needs a B game. When things aren't going well, he needs to find a B game. Because what happened to the Canucks, or to the Whitecaps, is they went in this extended funk where they couldn't get points. And it cost them. Because they should not have been playing in Portland, even though that should have been a BC place. They shouldn't have been in the eighth place game. They shouldn't have had to play LAFC in the first round.

And it happened, unfortunately, because Vanny, at times this season, couldn't figure out a way to just manufacture some results. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Ferraro, Ferraro. Let's chat with Ray Ferraro. It'sough. Ferraro, Ferraro Let's chat with Ray Ferraro It's time for Ferraro Let's talk to Ray Ferraro

Ferraro winds up with a shot Score! Ray Ferraro Breakaways onside Scores! Three-bound score! Ray Ferraro Ferraro, Ferraro It's time! Ray Ferraro! Ferraro, Ferraro

It's time for Ray Ferraro Let's chat with Ferraro It's time for Ray Ferraro 7.02 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough for the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda, North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour two of the program. Ray Ferraro, as the music suggests, is going to join us in a minute here to kick off hour two. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominuck at Jason.Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. I am joking.

Let him do exactly that. Visit him on the internet at jason.mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, what are you waiting for? Kintec. To the phone lines we go.

Ray Ferraro joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Ray. How are you? I'm doing good. How are you waiting for? Kintec. To the phone lines we go. Ray Ferraro joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Ray. How are you? Doing good. How are you guys today? We are well as well. We're looking forward to this game tonight. Canucks-Bruins, 4 o'clock from TD Garden. You can hear the call right here on Sportsnet 650. Let's start with the Bruins side

of things. Obviously, the coaching change has happened. Two games under Joe Sacco. The good part wins, both of them. The not-so-good part, the offense hasn't improved much. Just three goals over the two games. Is it fair to suggest that the Bruins' biggest problem this year is their inability to find

the back of the net? Yeah, I think so. I mean, it certainly didn't help that Jeremy Swayman got off to a really poor start. But they were, they quickly devolved into a little bit of a panic-stricken team. And I find that happens most when you don't score. If you give up a few goals and you score a few goals,

it maybe doesn't make sense, but there's more confidence with the team. Not to the three guys that are stay-at-home defenders. They probably hate it. But everybody else is like, you know what, at least I'm producing something. We'll get back on track defensively. When you don't score, everybody thinks they suck. And it's amazing. Guys that generally don't squeeze their stick or don't miss chances are doing just that.

Like David Pasternak's had a really pedestrian start, and he's one of the best players in the league, and it's hard to believe that he could go through that, but of course, he's like everybody else, you do. When I look at the Bruins, though, two years ago they lost david crecci and patrice bergeron so surefire hall of famer a guy that's not a hall of famer but is a really great player and you've got that out of the middle of your lineup and you should not be as good

i thought they would draw up 30 points last year. Like they had 132 points two years ago. I thought they'd be in the 95 to 102 or three point range and, you know, really struggle. And they didn't. Maybe they're paying the piper now for, even though they're a young team, they lost the, you know, the veteran core, the kind of the engine of their team in the middle of the ice, certainly the conscience of their team. And we know what Lindholm is, right? He's a 50- to 60-point guy. They already had one of those in Charlie Coyle. And so now they're asking two guys that are 50- to 60-point guys to play in spots in the lineup you'd like 70- to 90-points.

And so there's, I mean, it's pretty obvious to me where like where the the problem lies who misses their former players more do the Canucks miss Zdorov and Lindholm or do the Bruins miss DeBrusque and Heinen oh I don't I don't know it depends which which part of the year you're talking about right like like the Bruins don't miss October, DeBrusque, but they probably miss March, DeBrusque. Vancouver doesn't miss October, November, December, Zdorov, right? They miss the end of the year one. They don't miss the Lindholm that, you know, before the playoffs.

They miss the Lindholm that, you know, before the playoffs, they missed the Lindholm in the playoffs. I don't know. I would say probably Vancouver misses the Moore because, well, no, I don't know. Heinen got 17 goals last year. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I'm looking at, so if you're looking at the Bruins lineup right now, you know, despite the pedestrian start that Pasternak's off to, you're still worried about him when you're, you know,

pre-scouting the Bruins. You're like, yeah, watch that guy. And Marchand too, even though Marchand maybe has lost a step and maybe, but you're still, I mean, he scored the winning goal against Detroit the other day. He's still a very good player.

After that though, who are you really worried about scoring goals? Like Justin Brazow? I mean, he's having a good season, but you know, it's such a step down from how stacked the roster looked a few years ago right and that you know and then you look at the depth of the way they got goals last year like i think the brusque had like close to 20 goals finance had 17 uh geeky had a really good year last year. They moved him all over the lineup, and he was terrific. They brought up Brazzo kind of around January,

and he actually became like this really great story for them. He's big. He's got good hands. And they found like a little more scoring. You know, so they had a little bit from a lot, and then Pasternak scored at that elite level. And then, you know, you start had a little bit from a lot, and then Pasternak scored at that elite level. And then, you know, you start deleting a few guys, you know, with DeBrusque and Heinen.

You add Lindholm, who's not had a very good first quarter. You know, Marchand slowed, as you mentioned. Geeky is not playing at the same level he did last year. They're just, they're not as dangerous. One thing that will change or is changing is when Bruce Cassidy was fired, he's a volume shooting type of coach. He likes his guys to get the puck to the net, to get to the net, to shoot it once, shoot it twice, break the team down like that.

Montgomery played and wanted a more controlled puck possession game. So they didn't necessarily have a boatload of shots, but they worked for control and then grade A shots. Joe Sacco wants to go back to more volume shooting. And so somewhere in there, the Bruins are trying to learn a new habit again. And so that's something for Vancouver to look at tonight. Were you briefly teammates with Joe Sacco? No. No? Miss Joe.

I want to say he was in Anaheim when I was in L.A. Okay. What do you know about him? Like, what's his plan for the Bruins going to be? It seems to be it's going to be locking it down, but that might just be how the Bruins are. Well, I mean, the strength of their team is supposed to be their defense. They're missing Hampus Lindholm.

He's out right now. I do find it noteworthy that even with the injuries, you know, Zdorov's still on a third pair. That, you know, they tried him with McAvoy, and that didn't work, and they moved Mason Lorai, who's a really cool story. I mean, he was a forward until he was 15, and he's a great big guy. He's got good skills, and then he decided he wanted to play more

than forwards play, so he switched to defense, and now he's in the NHL. He was a second-round pick. The defense is the strength of their team. Offense is going to be a struggle. But as I mentioned, with Sacco taking over from Montgomery, he wants volume shooting. So Joe's way is, I think at heart, he think at heart, he's a, he's a,

you know, wants the team to be a tight defender. That's the way he played, but he wants them to shoot and get to the net more and make it more miserable around the front of the net. And I, I think when you don't have, well, it's a style of play anyway, but when you don't have high end skill and outside of posture knock, they don't like that'send skill and outside of Pasternak, they don't. That's the way you have to play. You've got to create your offense with what you have. You can't have a bunch

of 5'7 shooting guards and say you're going to dunk the ball. It doesn't work. Another basketball reference from Ray. Are you really getting into basketball? We get basketball full-time now. Reese is playing basketball at school.

Cammy had to take him early this morning because I had to talk to you, Mitt Witts. Sorry about that. That's okay. Got me at a 6.30 drive. That's okay.

Ray, so at the risk of jinxing the Canucks here because I tend to do that sometimes, but a few years ago, if the Canucks would have had a back-to-back on the road at Boston, at Pittsburgh, you might be a little bit worried.

But now we're talking about a Bruins team that has the worst offense in the NHL, 32nd in terms of goals for. And then I don't know what to say about Pittsburgh other than I think we should have all seen this coming when they kept on signing these older guys to contracts and they didn't have much in the way of youth, but maybe we didn't see it getting this bad

for the Penguins, Sidney Crosby playing at the level he is. What have you got to say about the Penguins? Like, what do you think Sid is thinking these days? You know, that's a hard one because, you know, he wanted to resign there. You know, he took a number, although it's not like Peanuts, but he took a number at 8.7 that, you know, has been team-friendly for a decade.

He clearly could have gone somewhere. He could have pushed to go somewhere. If Sidney Crosby wants to stay in Pittsburgh, he'll stay. If he wants to go, he's going to go. That's going to be up to him. He must be looking at this because you guys have seen his interviews. We've gotten to know him over the last 20 years on TV. I've gotten to chat with him more than a few times.

There's nothing he does that doesn't have like a hint of competition in it. Like he's an ultimate competitor. And so this must be just killing him, looking at the team that's either not engaged or not good enough like some guys aren't engaged like if you watch eric carlson play you're going to get 18 million 18 minutes of brilliance and then who knows what for the next 22 minutes and then some mixed bag in the third period like he's he just plays on his own beat and his own drum, and I thought that was a mistake, bringing him in.

Letang's just, he's just getting old, right? Yeah, he's 37. It's the oldest line in the book that time is undefeated. And, you know, Letang's had some really hard things to go through remember he had a stroke a couple of years ago he's had all kinds of injury as he puts together his you know the final stretch of his career but he's just not the player he once was there they have question marks all over their lineup most nights when they play they're the second fastest team on the ice. And Kyle Dubas knows that,

but what are you going to do? You can't invent players. You can't make people go away. He's made a couple of mistakes maybe that they've got to deal with. I mean, he did make the Carlson trade. I'm assuming he got some pressure from up above on that one to go and acquire Carlson. You know, Tristan Jari, they didn't need to sign him for five years.

And, like, where was he going to go? If you offered him three years, was he going to not take it? And if he did did you would still have league average goaltending you know so it's but i'm with you i i look at them and i still can't believe they're in this state it just seems so odd because for so long a couple of decades they've been they've been in the upper third of the league and i i guess it all it all comes to an end for everybody. I mean, the Red Wings made the playoffs 25 straight years and haven't made it since.

We're speaking to Ray Ferraro here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. One Canucks query for you, Ray. Kiefer Sherwood, I was funny, I was looking it up this morning because he's got 12 points through 19 games, and I was looking across the league to see who he's outproducing this year, just to get a sense. More points than like Jamie Benn, Steve Stamkos, Patrick Kane.

It's remarkable that this guy that came on board for what the price that he came on board for and what he had done previously in his career, how well he's playing. And now we're talking about like last game, first line winger in Ottawa. He had 20 plus minutes, right? He was over 20 minutes' time on ice. First unit power play. Like, what's impressed you most about his game since joining the Canucks?

Oh, I'd say his relentless pursuit. Like, all over the ice, it's like he's got this engine that, you know, he wants to get to the puck. If he doesn't have the puck, he's got to get the puck. If he can't get to the puck, he's got this engine that, you know, he, he wants to get to the puck. If he doesn't have the puck, he's got to get the puck. If he can't get to the puck, he's going to take the body. And then once he takes the body, he's on his horse to come all the way back and track all the way back into the defensive zone. And then he's good on the boards.

And I got a chance to talk to him the other day, actually. And I was really impressed with like his, like some guys are never in a hurry, you know, like when they play or when you talk to them, you know, they're just not in a hurry. He's in a hurry. And, and I like that. Like, that's how, like, I connect with that. I was in a hurry. I always felt, you know, like you got to go, you got to go.

And he wanted to stay in nashville and i know that that they they put a little bit of a ceiling on what his salary could be like they thought they wanted to pay him along the lines of you know their their bottom six guys and he's as he said to me he goes look i'm 29 years old like i can't be like on a play me show me type of thing right like i gotta get going you know and so like i really respect that like the hey i'm a good player i had 10 goals last year i had a really good playoff and i deserve more than nine hundred thousand dollars and i thought that was really like he had to say to them,

like, don't forget, to get to a free agency, you know, it's not like he had this well-formed career at this point. You know, he certainly made headway, and people around the league knew who he was, but he had in his gut what he was worth. So he had to tell Nashville, no, I'm going to go test free agency. And you might have a feeling sometimes that teams are going to be interested, but you don't know until you get there.

And so it took courage for him to step out and get into the market. And the Canucks hit a grand slam with him because even at that price point, if the goals dry up somewhere along the line, which, you know, he's not going to, you know, he's not going to get 37 goals, I wouldn't think. You never know, I guess. But you would think not. But he's going to bring you value at that price.

I don't see how he doesn't outstrip this contract. I do enjoy that Besser's coming back to the lineup, hopefully, today. And JT Miller, of course, is out of the lineup. So they're like, you got to play with Ploeger because we can't take Sherwood off Petey's line. It is a great story for Sherwood. And I think he really does add something to that line with DeBrusque and Pedersen because of what you're saying he's like constantly go go go

and you know Petey's playing better but you know that's not how you would have described his game earlier in the season is go go go there's a lot of wait around wait around wait around and I think he's added something to that line and I'm actually curious to see how long he'll stay on that line well okay so there's a couple things here like um when I as you're talking there I'm thinking about my best um best years were with uh when I was with Hartford I played with John Anderson who a lot of people won't remember but he was a super talented guy with the with the Maple Leafs we got him in Hartford and Paul McDermott his son is curtis the giant uh in in new jersey and dermy just crashed around and four checked and andy

made all these plays and we scored and then when i got to the islanders i had benny hogue who was this blazing fast super talented winger and pat flatley who was like the best board guy in the game. And I guess my point is the balance of a line sometimes is unique. It's not what you would think would fit. Like, wouldn't I, I didn't play well with two skilled wingers. That didn't work for me. I needed somebody to get the puck. I needed somebody to win a battle. And that's what Sherwood's helping Petey with, I think, because now you see Petey is in more battles. He's got his, he's up on his

toes. He's not back on his heels. And another thing was that coaches talk about all this, this all the time. You hear this phrase, Oh, he drags us into the battle. And that's what Sherwood does because he's a pain in the ass and he is constantly in the battle and if there is no battle he makes one and then the puck's there and he wins the puck back or he churns the four check and now the next guy sees oh there's a loose puck I can go he's dragged you into the four check and so it's a really good fit this line and a lot of times out of necessity coaches throw three guys together and it works like obviously the grand plan in September was not this line yet right now it's a really really great line we've only got a few minutes left here, but I wanted to ask you, and Paul in the Okanagan wants to ask you about your thoughts

on Brady Kachuk in Ottawa. Travis Green stuck up for Brady yesterday, and then Brady went out and scored a goal in a win over the Calgary Flames. But there has been a lot of talk about Brady Kachuk, and let's just say his leadership in Ottawa. I was told a long time ago when I first saw Matthew Kachuk, I'm like, wow, he's a lot like, like his dad. And I was told, Oh yeah. Wait till you see the next one. And if you remember back, would you remember back to Keith Kachuk? This is Brady.

They're the same person. They're like, like well I played with Walt at the end of my career in St. Louis and there was always something about or around them in the game there was always chaos there was always and it's like the way they play now sure Brady should take less penalties and I think he's he's at a point right now where he's trying to lead, score, fight, drive the bus, you know, do everything. As the team settles in a little bit, and I do think they will. Like, I do think Ottawa will settle in a bit. I think his game will flatten out.

Like, the edges, the unruly edges will settle down a little bit but they won't all go away that's that like that they always wanted keith to kind of settle down a little bit he scored 550 goals like you you you want to tame or round off the edge, but you don't want to take the uniqueness of what he is away. Like, how many times do we all search for a power winger? And, well, there he is. He's sitting right there. So, you know, it's like everybody looks for a 200-foot player.

That's full of crap. There's like 12 of those in the league. Get a bunch of guys that play 150 feet. You can't be perfect all over the ice. You're going to be deficient somewhere. You're going to be in the Hall of Fame. Brady Kachuk has got this edge to him, this short fuse. And yeah, you'd like to round that off.

And I think it will. But man, I'd take him on my team all the time okay one more one more real quick i just want to ask about the rangers because uh that that news happened yesterday while we're on the air with frege saying that they're not happy with the way things are going and truba was already on the market but now crider might be and then later in the day it was like andre miller might be. And I, we were joking. It's like, I went to the good old fashioned standings page. And I was like, the Rangers are 12, seven and one. Like this doesn't seem like a team that's prime for a shakeup,

but I know you've done at least one of their games. Did you see some of these warning signs that I guess everyone else is seeing out of the Rangers? Well, the true, the thing was, you know, was from before the season, right? The Rangers have 13 players on expiring contracts this year. So this team next year will look very different than it does now, whatever happens this year. Their record, before they have been clunked here like they have lately,

I think they've given up six in Edmonton. They gave up five last night against St. Louis. They should have given up 10 last night, the way they were playing. They were bad, man. They were bad. So what I was going to say is their record does not make a fair portrayal of how they have played. They've had amazing goaltending most of the time.

Quick got lit up in Edmonton, but they could have played both guys in that at the same time, and they would have lost there. Like, that was not good. And so I think there's a little, well, not I think. I mean, it's obvious. There's some uncertainty there, right, about what are we trying to do here? We can say we're a cup contender, but are we

now, Chris Crider's got nine goals and one assist. He's, you know, I see the Rangers play a lot when, when he's, when he's going, he's still a really good power forward, but he's really, um, his game has changed into a special teams heavy game. He's good on the penalty kill, he's dangerous, and he's one of the best net front guys. And five on five, him and Zibanejad have been together for quite some time, and they just don't fear teams like they did. Can he get it back?

He's got two years at six million left. Right? That's a lot. Trouba he speed is not is not his friend like when the when the team is really quick it's hard for him yeah and you got two years at eight million there like who they can say they're on the market but like who's making that deal and how much money are they taking back and And what do they expect back? And if they don't take back, then you've kind of shaved off what your expectations are for the year.

And that would be a, I don't think that's the case because that would be an abrupt turnaround from what they were saying in training camp. Ray, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it. As always, we appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week.

We'll do this again next Tuesday. Enjoy the NBA action tonight, Ray. Yep. Oh, yeah. It'll be NBA action. All right. Thanks, Ray. See you, buddy.

See you, guys. See you later. Ray Ferraro here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.