Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 1/13/26

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk yesterday's Canucks road loss to the Montreal Canadiens, plus they preview tonight's 'Nucks matchup at Ottawa with radio commentator Brendan Batchelor.  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. Alexander Carrier. We're right there. Into the Vancouver Zone, stand it out front. They score again. We're right there. OEL, breaking.

He's got Nylander on the wing of shot. Good morning, Vancouver, 6-1 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford and his broth. It is sports at 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. Adaw, good morning to you. Good morning. Gladdy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program.

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It's the Duke Morning Drive brought to you by the Duke Auto Group. It begins at 630. Greg Wischinski is going to join the program at 630. Our NHL insider from ESPN. Busy night in the NHL last night with nine games. an even busier night tonight with 10. Greg was playing close attention to the huesa-palooza. Remember when that used to be a big deal here?

Quinn, Jack and Luke, all playing together. Well, it happened in Minnesota last night. Big one for the Devils, too, I might add. Greg Wyshinsky's going to join us to talk all things, NHL at 630. 7 o'clock, Brandon Bachelor, the play-by-play voice of Vancouver Canucks here on Sportsnet 650. Canucks lost for the seventh straight time last night, 6-3 to the Habs in Montreal, and they're right back at it tonight. 4 o'clock puck drop against Travis Green and the Ottawa Senators.

You can hear it all right here on SportsNet 650. Bachel joined us at 7 to talk about all that. Speaking of the Ottawa Senators at 8 a.m. We're going to talk to Alex Adams, Ottawa Senators' writer for Sportsnet. Been a rough couple of weeks for the Ottawa Senators. They've lost four straight and seven of their last nine. There were also those online rumors about Linus Olmark

that the club addressed last week. Alex is going to join us to talk about it all. and preview tonight's game at 8 a.m. Working in reverse real quick, Alex Adams at 8, Brandon Bachelor at 7, Greg Wischinski at 6.30. That's the Durek morning drive. Without further ado, 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? Missed it? You missed that?

What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca. Dot, CA. Last night in Montreal, as you heard in the intro, Alexander Carrier scored twice. Habs beat the Canucks.

Six-three Canucks lose their seventh consecutive game in a row. But as Adam Foote said, they were right there for most of it. That was a fun game, at least. I really like watching the Habs. They absolutely buzz around out there. They're buz-y. They're buzzing. They're buzzing.

Busin. Good skaters. They move the puck quickly. Very creative and encouraged to play that way by Martin Saint-Louis, their head coach. That Demadov Kid is one of the most entertaining players in the league. It's fun to watch that one. I'm not sure if their style or their goal-tending is going to be successful in the playoffs, but they made the Canucks in the regular season look pretty silly at times last night. I don't know what the Canucks were doing defensively.

they knew what they were up against because Adam Foote said so before the game there was like this is a very creative team that got more off the rush and then he said after the game he's like we went into the game knowing we couldn't turn the puck over at their blue line and then we turned it over four times that's a tough one then they settled down and then then they were right there but and then they were not right there um uh you know the early on it's the reason it was entertaining is the Canucks seemed pretty happy to just trade chance with the habs, maybe not trade, but the habs would get two, they'd get one,

the habs would get two, they'd get one. There was an exchange, it wasn't equal. Yeah, yeah, right. I felt bad for Nikita Tolopilo, who'd been forced into action with another injury to Thatcher Demko, who we'll talk about in a bit. Tolo Pilo, I think he started four games,

and then in two of them, he's faced over 40 shots. Yeah. Right? Like, that's pretty tough for a rookie. Adam Foote was critical of Nikita Tola Pilo last night, his post-game media availability. I actually said he thought Tolo wanted a couple of those back. He also said that the pace was probably not what he's used to.

And I think Adam Foote was quite upset with the way the third period started. The Canucks went into that period tied and then very quickly. They were down two goals and then three goals. There was on the fourth goal, if you listen to Adam Foote's scrum, I know he doesn't normally criticize his players and he didn't call Jake DeBrusk out by name, but... He may as well have. You don't hear this phrase often,

but he said that Jake DeBrusk over-back-checked, which is... It's not like he was working too hard on the back check. It's just that he went too far back down into his own end, and he actually followed a Habs player all the way down to essentially the Canucks goal line. He went too far. And then the puck went back to the point,

and Carlson, the other winger, on Pedersen's line had to cover for Jake DeBresk at the point, and then the point man, he passed it to the other point, man, and that guy was wide open, and Petey kind of had to fly out there and cover for Carlson, and then they scored. Foot mentioned that overback check at least eight times in his post-game media available. And he's just like, you can't do that.

You've got to stop. You've got to stop. And so, you know, Jake DeBresk was a healthy scratch not too long ago. And, you know, I think he's played with certainly a lot more energy after that. But I don't, you know what, I don't think he's a favorite of Adam Foot. The underlying stats did not reflect well on the Canucks, who did manage, again, to keep the score tied through two periods. But the Habs, like the Canucks score-wise, yeah, they were right there at the beginning of the third.

But the habs were the better and the more dangerous team the entire game. You can tell there's something special. Forming in Montreal, the fans of the Bell Center were loving their young, exciting team last night. Now, I made a prediction about last night, and that is that Brock Besser would finally score. I was wrong. Had his chances. He had a few good chances during a garbage time power play, but remains scoreless since late November.

Is it, what is it, 19, 20? What game, how many, 18, 19, 20 games. I thought yesterday was number 20. Oh, okay. Well, whatever. I know people are wondering if Adam Foote is going to healthy scratch. Brock Besser soon, I've wondered about that myself. Last night, the only healthy forward that didn't play was Baines.

I kind of find it hard to believe Foote would scratch Besser for Baines, but who knows at this point? Speaking of scratches, Buhiam was a healthy scratch last night as the young defenseman. You know, D.P.D. Had his struggles in the Toronto game, and he was sent back to Abbotsford. Bouillon had his struggles in the Abbotsford or in the Toronto game. And he was put in the press box. Is the time going to come for Tom Fielander, who I think made a mistake on the...

That was the other mistake. Montreal's fifth goal. Like, is that going to happen soon? By the way, when I say that the only healthy forward was Baines, that's because, because Sherwood is hurt now. Yeah. Sherwood's out and it's going to be between one to three weeks. It was kind of an odd update yesterday from the head coach, Adam Foote.

Shortly after the morning skating Montreal, Foot did provide an update. First, he said that Sherwood was injured. Considered day to day, but could miss up to one week, potentially three weeks. And I think maybe, just maybe, that wide, wide lens. terms of how long Sherwood could be out has to do with the fact that, let's be real.

He shouldn't play another game as the Vancouver Canuck until he's traded? No. Can we all just throw that out there? Like his season is so shot. There's zero point to bringing him back. He's already proved what he can do. I don't think there's anything left for him to do

other than get more hurt. Should Demko play another game this season? Well, that also came up yesterday as well. So the Canucks did indeed send Demko back to Vancouver prior to the Montreal game so that the medical staff can evaluate his, latest injury. Now I say injury singular there because

it might not just be one. I'll get to that in a sec. Foot said that Demko would be out a week or two after leaving that game against Toronto on Saturday. The Canucks did this sort of cursory thing by placing him on injured reserve. As you mentioned, total appeal

was called up on emergency circumstances. The quote from Foot was on Demco. He's got a couple of things going on. missed a couple of times. So it's one of those things. He's been dealing with this all year, a couple of things.

Foot was then asked about a timeline. And again, it was sort of a wide breadth in terms of how much time Demko could miss. He was then asked if Demko could be shut down for the year. And he did say it might be possible. So I have no idea what's going on with Demko other than it's a multitude of injuries that he's dealing with. it feels like a guy that's dealing with a body that's breaking down. That's the only way to look at it. It's terrible.

It's incredibly unfortunate for a real competitor who you can tell wants nothing more than to get back on the ice, but also not carry the label of a Band-Aid. You can tell every time Demko gets asked about his health, he does not want to be that guy. The problem is, with every passing day and week and month in the Canucks season, he's that guy. He becomes that guy.

Yeah. He's just not. healthy. And his body, by way probably of the position that he plays and how aggressively he trained at it is just breaking down right now. That contract looks pretty onerous for the Vancouver Cadux right now because if he can't stay healthy, it's a two-part problem. One, he can't contribute to your team on the ice, although anything good that he does in net now prevents them from falling all the way further into the basement. But the other thing is you can't move them. Yeah. There's no trade on the horizon if Demco's not healthy. And I don't think he wants to retire.

I've seen a few people say that, right? And I'm like, he's only 30 years old. He doesn't strike me as a guy that wants to retire. So all these people who are wondering, you know, can the Can the Knucks just, you know, stash them on LTIR? It's not that easy. I really wonder how mentally taxing this has been. Again, you don't get much from Demko when asked about it.

And I kind of get it. When you start talking about your health constantly, that does sort of become your personality. We've seen it with NHL players in the past. They've dealt with health and they've been open and vulnerable about it. Well, that becomes your identity. And Demko clearly doesn't want to be that. At the same time, the number one question that you ask about Dr. Demko now is can you stay healthy?

That's it. Okay, we got a few texts about this, and I noticed this was a talking point after the game. Unsigned text here, at what point does the market start talking about how Adam Foote has already lost the room? Lots of noise out there that the players are tuning them out. I get not wanting to tank the tank, but how does the... the front office keep him there. Yeah, it's, you know, I, I tweeted a couple of times about Adam Foote last night because it, it honest, that game, it was entertaining like some of the Bruce Boudreux games.

Yeah. You know, it didn't seem, it seemed like the Canucks were playing pond hockey, shini. And that made for an entertaining night and it played right into the Montreal Canadiens. Like they're such a creative team. They move the puck so quickly. Their passing is so good that if you run and gun with those guys, you know, what happened last night is what's going to happen. And when, you know, there is a lot of, there is more noise about Adam foot and whether or not the players have tuned them out. And I don't know about that stuff.

Rumors like that happen, you know, as the Ottawa senators. Maybe the connection. release a statement that the Canucks have not tuned to Adam Foot. It's all the trolls that are doing it. But like you watch them play and you're kind of like, well, what are you guys trying to do? When you watch the play, it's comical to think that going into the year, the goal was to make the playoffs and keep Quinn Hughes happy

because it's so, so far off it. Speaking of Bruce Boudreau, connects are now mired in a seven-game losing streak. This is the organization and franchise's first seven-game losing streak. the opening seven games of the 2020-23 season, which Bruce Boudreau, of course, famously got off to that awful start, which was punctuated by Jim Rutherford going on Hockey Night in Canada

and saying that we had a lousy training camp. Not long after Bruce Boudreau was dismissed as the head coach of the Vancouver County. There's some similarities there for sure. Is there any sense in firing him? Because you do have young players in the lineup. Okay. I realize you want, or a lot of fans, they're fine with the losses.

But, you know, if they talk about they want to have a good environment for the young players to develop. That has to be a consideration. If indeed, and if I was management, I'd be trying to find out about this. Like, are the guys listening to Adam Foote or is Adam Foote? effectively communicating his message. Okay, so Sat and Bick were talking about this on the postgame show yesterday. And it was in response to a handful of texts that said, don't overanalyze any of this.

This is what a rebuild looks like. This is what a tank looks like. This is what losing is. And sat astutely pointed back and said, the analysis isn't going to stop just because they're losing and they acknowledge that they're in a rebuild. You don't just throw up a white flag. like as a fan base in media and be like, well, they're losers now.

We'll check back in on a close. We'll check back in closer with a microscope when they're winning again. There's still a process that has to be followed. Right. And in this particular instance, Adam Foote is responsible, if not for wins and losses, for creating an environment in which young players learn and grow and hopefully thrive, but also it's got to be a system of accountability. Now, I think he went there with the healthy scratch of Jake DeBusk a few games ago.

I thought that was an important part of the process. It was like, hey, if we're bringing young guys into the mix here, there's got to be accountability for them, that they're learning the way, how we want to play and what's right and what's wrong at the NHL level. But there's also got to be accountability for our veterans, that there's a certain standard that, they're held up to. And those standards are based on how much they're getting paid,

what they're expected to do, all those things. For example, best or not scoring in 20 consecutive games to me is unacceptable. And at a certain point, if you're going to set the bar among your group about where the standard is and where the bar is, a guy making the kind of money that he makes and having the kind of opportunities that he has can't go 20 games without scoring a goal and be minus 25 on the year. It just means you're not doing a good. good enough job. Is that all his fault? No. But oftentimes accountability isn't all about blaming one particular player. What if he thinks the effort has always been there and maybe he felt otherwise

about Jake DeBrasse. Like Jake wasn't bringing his all every night. Then I hope that messaging is clear to the players. Yeah. And I don't know if foot's going to be willing to go there to explain it publicly. I don't know. Because he's been very loathe to do any sort of individual criticisms throughout his time as a Kinnock's head coach. And when he calls somebody out, he doesn't do it by name, he does it by action, right?

Yeah. So, I mean, and there is a decided difference there. Like last night, it was very clearly calling out Jake DeBrasse. Yeah. Approximately eight times in his post-game media. She just kept coming back to it.

It's like, did you guys see that overback check? Did you see it? Because it really cost us. And I get his rationale in terms of I'm going to pinpoint the moments in the game where we were there and then weren't and it was the mistake on the 4-3 goal, the mistake on the 5-3 goal.

But collectively, it's very tough, very tough for anyone to buy the coach's messaging that that game was decided by one or two mistakes. And that's my biggest criticism of it. Like, I think... Yeah, that game was not decided by one or two mistakes. who was decided by one team being significantly better than the other. I get what you're saying.

Like, well, it was 3-3-3, and then we made a mistake on this 4-3-goal and that 5-3-go. So you're breaking it down to its sort of basic component parts. But it could have been any other handful of bad reads or mistakes or, quite frankly, just a lack of talent that you have on the ice that prevented you from winning that game. I don't know. It's a difficult task for a coach. I think Adam Foote is acutely aware that they're not going to win a lot of hockey games over the second half. half of this season and he's got to

kind of do the same thing that he's doing, which is trot out the same lines and say the same thing. So you're going to hear a lot more of, we were right there. He's a big fan of, well, you guys saw it. He dropped one of those last night. And then he's a big, we got to move on guy. Right? He's like,

we just move on to the next one. We move on to the next one. And then we move on to the next one. Although we're kind of feeling like that way, too. Like, just move on. And that that is where complacency can creep in to a group, right? There's a lot of young guys right now,

and I know Booiam wasn't in the lineup last night, and I'm not really sure how I feel about that. I'm going to need some time to sit and think with that one. But there's a lot of young guys that are, this is their learning on the job. Like, this is it. This is basic training. And a lot of these lessons and things that they learn,

they're going to carry with them for a while moving forward. So it's that part of the quote unquote over analysis, like hyper-analysing it, that the post game show does, that's what you're going to be doing over the next few years. In a rebuild, you're going to be hyper-analizing what that rebuild looks like and if it's trending in the right direction. I think we're all very sensitive in Vancouver to what's going on in the room. So we hope that the players are still listening to their coach,

and we hope that the veterans are sending a good example for the young players that you do have to listen to the coach. He might not be perfect, but you can't undermine him. And that's always a concern when the team is going through a losing stretch like this. Like you can imagine scenarios, right? You know, again, I haven't heard this, but you can imagine scenarios like the old guy's going to the younger guys, like, don't worry what he says. Right. Right?

Like, I mean, everyone's been in a work environment like that. Right. Right where you're like, don't worry about what he or she says. Like, I don't know what they're talking about. Sure. Just do your job. Just do your best. Yeah.

Do your best. Doesn't matter. That guy won't be here for long. Like hyper-analizing the DeBrusk situation for last night, part of what DeBrusk did, the over-back check, is probably a result of trying to do too much because he knows that, to steal some English football parlance, he's under the cost right now.

Like he's under a lot of pressure. He's been called out. He's a veteran guy. I think he genuinely believes when he gets in front of a microphone. It's like, I need to be better. I need to step up. I need to provide more. I think he genuinely believes it.

I don't just have to back check. I have to over back check. Yeah. By the way, that is something I have never been accused of. Over back checking. No, only a handful have. Right? You've tried too hard on the back check.

And lo and behold, trying to do something right, extra effort, determination, dogged pursuit on the back check. What does it do? It costs you a goal and gets you called out multiple times by your head coach in the postgame media. Okay, very quickly, the biggest stories from last night in the NHL. Well, I guess we got to start with what's going on in New York. And the New York Rangers right now are, I would say, as big of a mess as the Vancouver Canucks.

Last night at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers were up to nothing, lost 4-2 to the Seattle Cracken. That is now their seventh loss in their last eight games. there were very audible fire drury chance at Madison Square Garden last night. Do we have the very short J.T. Miller clip at the ready here? J.T. Miller, and the audio is kind of muffled, but I just want to play it because it's the brevity

and the sadness in Miller's voice. He has no idea what's ailing this team right now, how they were able to come out with such jump and then completely flatline at home at a place where they have been just miserable this year at Madison Square Garden in front of the blue shirt, faithful. Here's J.T. Miller, very short audio clip being asked

why they lacked the juice they started with yesterday after a 4-2 loss of the Seattle Cracken. First period, you said, that's the juice. Did you feel like anything you did from that point forward? And the second, I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I don't know. I'm sorry. He's just completely out of answers. That wasn't the only part of the scrum. He didn't start it that way. But he did say a few things before. but they asked for an answer on why he didn't have any energy

and he said, I don't know, I'm sorry, I don't know. Yeah. Like that's, and he's the captain of the team. And like it or not, like you need to have some semblance of an answer and if you don't, there's real issues. He apologized at least. Yeah, he did apologize.

Sorry. That's another loss for them and they are in a real rough shape right now. The Leafs aren't? Leaves played great last night. We played the audio of Joe Bowen's goal call in overtime as the Leafs went into the toughest building

in the National Hockey League to get a win. Colorado ball arena and emerged four three victors in overtime. I know no one wants to hear Leif's praise and love right now, especially given how the local hockey squadron is doing, but it bears paying attention to what the Leafs have done over the last couple weeks. Some big wins, specifically against Florida a couple games ago. They got the big win over the Canucks, obviously, on the weekend. They go into Colorado and beat the Aves 4-3 in overtime.

Joseph Wall is playing fantastic hockey right now in net for them. There's another guy that needs to stay healthy because when he's in netting on his game, they are a very, very difficult team to beat. And they move into the second and final wildcard spot in the east with that thing. I don't like that Austin Matthews is heating up ahead of the Olympics. Yeah, he's playing very well right now. I was hoping that he'd be not feeling very confident heading over to Italy. And now you hear things like Barube, his head coach, saying like, yeah, he's demanding the puck now.

He scored a very nice goal last night on a tow drag and then went over to the glass and did the sort of of like Gladiator, are you in the town? And then some guy in an abs jersey gave him the biggest double middle fingers ever. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Bachelor, Bachelor, Bachelor. Life from Rogers Arena, Collinca, Knox games.

It's his friend in Bachelor, Bachelor, Bachelor. 703 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet, 650. Halford Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Score a debt freedom hat trick. One, no more interest. Two much lower payments than three.

Financial peace of mind. Visit them online at Sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour two of the program. Brandon Batchelor, Play-by-Play voice of the Vancouver Canucks is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour two. Hour two is brats by Jason hominock at Jason. If you love giving the banks more your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you.

Visit them online at Jason. Dom mortgage. We are coming to live from the kinsombo, Tech Studio, make 2026 your year to move better and step stronger with Kintech custom orthotics. To the phone lines we go. Brendan Batchler, play-by-play voice to the Vancouver Canucks. joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. What up, Batch?

Good morning. How's it going, guys? We're well. Thanks for taking the time to do this. As always, we appreciate it. The results are all starting to seem a little too familiar right now. It's a seventh consecutive loss for the Vancouver Canucks last night. 6-3 in Montreal.

I guess if we can say one thing, it was a better process, and at the very least, not as embarrassing is that 5-0 loss to Toronto on Saturday. Yeah, you know, they hung around in that game and found a way to, you know, be in a tied hockey game through 40 minutes. And then I think, you know, Montreal sort of separated themselves right away to start the third period. And, you know, that has been one of the biggest issues with the Canucks this year is they'll have good stretches in games. but, you know, searching for a 60-minute effort is a continued challenge.

And, you know, on Randeep and I on our podcast in the booth, we were asked by a listener this week what we thought the best 60-minute performance of the season was. And, you know, it was hard to go back through the schedule and find too many of them. I think I picked the Islanders game just before Christmas where Sherwood had a hat-trick. And, you know, that was probably their best stretch of the year. those games right after the Queen Hughes trade when they went on that winning run. But, you know, with a team that is flawed, you're going to have issues in games if you can't string together 60-minute efforts. And I think that's what we saw is, you know, they found a way

to hang around for two periods in spite of maybe being outplayed and then it caught up to them in the first five minutes or so of the third period. And that was that. The habs are pretty fun to watch, eh? Yeah, they really are. Especially with some. of the young talent they have. You know, Demi Dov is a tremendous player, and you just love what Nick Suzuki brings and Cole Coffield. You know, his goal scoring ability,

although he didn't score last night, is great. And then, you know, their young defenseman too, Lane Hudson and Noah Dobson. So they've done a really good job of building a very exciting group there. And you can tell just by, you know, the way the building reacted when they would score those quick goals in the game yesterday, like when Carrier scored his two goals in 20 seconds or when they put those three goals together early in the third period. You know, Bell Center is one of the best places to watch

hockey in the league, if not the best anyway. But when they've got a young, exciting team that's winning games, it's on another level. And so I'm sure hockey fans in Montreal are really enjoying themselves right now. I don't know if you watch the Adam Foot scrum after the game, but man, And he was sure upset about the fourth goal, the winning goal, it turned out to be at the right of the beginning of the third period, where Jake DeBrusk apparently over-back-checked. What do you think about the way the Canucks are playing just as a unit? Because to me, last night's game kind of reminded me of Bruce Boudreau hockey where it was fun to watch, but I wasn't exactly sure what the Canucks were doing

tactically and defensively. Yeah, and the word that comes to mind is playing connected. And you'll hear coaches talk about, you know, we need to be more connected as a five-man unit. And I can't remember which game it was. It might have been the Boston game

where I interviewed assistant coach Kevin Dean before the game and he talked about how connected they were with their team game. And then you watch them play and you're like, oh, right, absolutely they are. Like the way they break out through the neutral zone, the way guys are in the spots they're supposed to be all the time consistently. You know, it allows you to be better than the sum of your parts potentially if you have a team that really buys in to the way you need to play and can do everything that needs to be done at both ends of the ice consistently. Well, that hasn't happened much for the Canucks this season. and I'm sure we could get into the reasons why or speculate on what it might be, whether it's the personnel aren't perfect.

And I think with the injuries, we haven't really got a chance to see what a fully healthy Knoch's group would have looked like for any sort of extended stretch. So there's a factor there. Obviously, as you allude to, Adam Foote is a first-year head coach. So I'm sure he's had to figure some things out on the fly as well. But ultimately, when you think of a connected hockey team, the Vancouver Canucks do not look like a connected hockey team right now, and it limits their ability to have success in games.

You know, even, I think the game against the Maple Leafs is a perfect example. And, you know, the goal that jumps to mind for me is the Max Domi goal, where, yeah, the Canucks maybe don't manage the puck as well as they would have liked in the neutral zone, but then there's a quick pass. Troy Stetcher pounces on a loose puck. He knows where to snap it to. He knows where his teammates going to be. And there's Max Domi, with a clean chance in on net as a result.

So, you know, teams that are playing well that have confidence, that understand what they're trying to execute and are all on the same page can look like that, and it hasn't looked like that for vast swathes of the season for the Canucks this year. What do you think about the evolution of the young defenseman on the Canucks? Boeum was a healthy scratch last night. DPD has been sent back to the

HL for a little time. And Vielander, you know, he's still, I guess, I mean, I'll let you answer the question, but I think he's still pretty raw. Yeah, what I think is important to remember is that development isn't always linear. So you get these young guys in

and you're going to let them play in the lineup. And in Z. Bouillon's case, you're playing him for the most part 20 minutes a night. and there is the temptation to go, man, this guy is the next number one defenseman on this team. And because of who he was traded for, there's a temptation to go, hmm, I wonder if he could be as impactful as Quinn Hughes. But he's still 20 years old. And in Booiam's case in particular, he's coming out of college. So this is his first year understanding the rigors of the NHL schedule and all the travel.

And, you know, especially with the, you know, the compressed schedule this season because of the Olympics, the back to the back. facts and the three and fours and all of these things that, you know, professionals that have been in the league for a long time understand how to handle, but maybe you're still learning how to do that as a young defenseman. Then you add in the fact that, you know, you're traded from the organization that you thought you were going to play for and you have to move across the continent and figure out your life off the ice and all of those things. And then you've still got to try and play at a high level as someone who's 20 years old. So, you know, using Booiam is the example there. You know, I think his game probably has trended away from how good he looked when he first arrived in the last little bit here.

But for a young defenseman to have a reset, I think is probably not a bad thing. And if he got a chance to watch from the press box and see things up high last night and then potentially goes back into the lineup tonight, you know, it would be interesting to see whether he can, you know, implement some things in his game that I'm sure they're talking to him about or whether that reset helps refresh him and he can get back to being a more impactful player for this team. But I think with all these young defensemen, patience is going to be key. And I know that's sometimes hard, especially in Vancouver, where we love our young players and we want to see them get more opportunity and more minutes and on the power play and all of these sorts of things. But for some of these guys, it's going to take time to get to where they want to go. And that's okay.

That's part of the process when you're a team that's at the bottom of the standing. Well, I don't think many fans have an issue with the mistakes from the young players. You know, all three of the young defensemen, I think, made a mistake in the Leafs game. And, you know, that's fine. And so is correcting their mistakes, whether that's having them take a seat in the press box for a game or sending them back to the HL to work on some things. That's fine. The frustration I'm feeling from the fans,

and myself is with some of the veteran players and the ones that they've got signed to some big contracts. Let's start with Brock Besser. I thought he was, I thought he was going to get one in garbage time last night, but he didn't, and it's now been a long time without a goal, and an even longer time, which is one goal. What are you seeing from him, and what are the Kinnock's going to do with him? Yeah, well, I think he's been around it a little bit more of as you allude to, I thought he had a couple of good looks to score last night. So, you know, I'm getting back to a point with Besser where I say, if he's getting the chances, one is going to go in eventually.

Now, for a long time, he wasn't getting the chances, and that was concerning. And I think maybe the concerning thing for me is he looks a step off the pace to me right now. And I don't know if that's necessarily skating ability, although he's never been a burner. but too often a puck will be played to where you would like him to be, and he's just not quite there yet. And so whether that's, you know, anticipation or not playing on his toes, or not playing with confidence, or maybe not being the most fleet of foot,

or all of those things combined, you know, if you're not in the right spot as a goal score, when you need to be there, then it's going to be hard to score goals. And I think that's what we've seen now 20 straight games for Besser without a goal. so essentially a quarter of a season now that he has gone without scoring. It's by far the longest goal drought of his career,

and he's clearly going through it. And, you know, in terms of where things go from here, you know, I know it's popular in Vancouver to say, you know, take all these veterans and trade them and get them out of here and move on, but you also need to have value for the guys that you're going to move. And, you know, for the veteran players that are underperforming, unfortunately for the Vancouver fan base, all the GMs in the league

will be watching them underperform too. It's not like, you know, we're hidden out here in Vancouver and, you know, everywhere else in the league doesn't have access to see these games or understand how the team is performing. So, you know, to a certain extent,

I understand the organization if they don't want to move off of some of these veterans right now if they feel like the value might not be there for them. Now, you know, maybe you're going to have to do that at some point anyway, and ultimately we'll see what happens before the trade deadline.

But for Besser, I think they kind of need to help him through it, and he needs to fight through it here because we know that given the right circumstances and put in the right situation, this guy is pretty much a guaranteed 25 goal score, and we've seen his ceiling top out at 40. So, you know, obviously he doesn't have J.T. Miller to play with anymore, and I know you guys have talked a lot about, like, how much can you be expected to generate with David Camp or Max Sassone? down the middle on your line.

At the same time, you're compensated very well to produce goals, and Besser hasn't done enough of that this year. But I don't magically see another team flying in and giving you a really good offer for a guy that's really going through it right now with his confidence. So, you know, for Besser individually, I'd say he's got to battle through it and try to find his game back and try to get back to being a player that could be impactful for this team and produce offense. And for the Canucks, I think they need to help him get through that battle.

because he's in the first year of a long-term deal. And I don't see an immediate solution coming for that in the immediate term anyway. Same question for Thatcher Demko. What are the Canucks going to do with Thatcher Demko? Yeah, well, it all depends on his health, right? And that sort of has been the conversation from Thatcher Demko for a while now,

and you really feel for him that he is unable to stay healthy. so you'll hope that they can, now that there aren't the expectations of winning in the second half of the season, like don't rush him back, don't force him into the lineup, make sure, and, you know, Adam Foote even alluded to the potential possibility of him being shut down. You know, I think if there's any doubt at all, err on the side of caution, get this guy healthy, get him an offseason healthy again, and really hope this time that he can come back. and have an impact for you. But, you know, much like I said with Besser, like I don't see some team riding in

and providing a tremendous offer for him, although, you know, with goaltending, you never know. There are teams out there that will be desperate enough for goaltending that they might be willing to take a chance on a guy like Thatcher Demko in spite of his injuries, hoping that he can get healthy. And we know, and we've seen, you know,

even this year, right at the start of the year, when he's healthy, he can be one of the best goaltenders in the NHL, but his health has been so inconsistent that you know you feel for him and you feel for the Knox because having him in the lineup on a nightly basis would make a big difference for this team.

Unfortunately, that hasn't happened for a while now. And, you know, luckily right now, because of where they're at, you're not in the heat of a playoff race or you're not desperate for wins down the stretch. So I think that does provide them the luxury of making sure that he's 100% before you even consider putting him back in the crease.

We're speaking of Brendan Bachelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I know you kind of touched on this already in part and maybe even answered it a bit, but I did want to circle back. We just kind of mentioned the William Healthy Scratch as an aside earlier in the show. But I'm curious to get your thoughts about the decision to sit him down. I know that they've made these decisions with some of the other young defensemen as well,

but he is of a different caliber and class, quite frankly, given how he was acquired and everything. What did you think when you heard the news that Booiam was going to be a healthy scratch? Yeah, I don't know. I wasn't entirely surprised based on how he'd been playing lately. And, you know, if you look at the way things have trended, you know, he was on the top power play unit early and then had since been moved off it in favor of Veyloner.

And, you know, in fact, I think Veyloner, who, you know, as Brof said, is pretty raw. but I think he's looked better on that top power play unit than Buiam did. So, you know, there was an area where he wasn't playing in the same spot that he had been before. And, you know, for a guy that came in so highly touted and had such a great start to his Caducs career, I think it had been a little quiet around him more of late. He made a bad mistake in the Leafs game. He made a terrible clear up the wall that ended up in a goal.

Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, as you said, all the young defensemen have been making mistakes that, you know, have led to goals too, which, you know, as much as winning may not be the priority the rest of the way is still going to be frustrating for the head coach and for a team that is trying to scratch and claw and end an extended losing streak. Not that that should really matter. But, you know, as I said, because development's not linear, I think it's okay to sit these guys down in the press box every so often for a break and a break. chance to reset and to watch the game. And, you know, the other thing is after morning skate, they'll be out there longer with the assistant coaches working on extra things, trying to hone in areas of their game. So it can actually be a benefit. And I know I saw a lot of this on Twitter

yesterday when I tweeted out the lines that, you know, oh, boo him scratch, what are they doing? You know, foot doesn't know what he's doing. I'm not going to watch the game tonight because the one guy that, you know, they acquire the young guy that we want to be watching isn't in the lineup. And I agree with that sentiment if he sits out for an extended stretch. But, you know, for all these young defensemen, they're going to go through ups and down to their development. And, you know, I think it's important to preserve their confidence at times too. And, you know, maybe getting a chance to reset and sit with the coaches and look at the things

you're doing well and look at the things that you need to improve upon can be a good thing for these guys. So I would be a little surprised if Booiam isn't back in tonight. And, you know, as I said, if he sits out for an extended stretch, then I might have more of an issue with it. But, you know, in a season where you're not expected to win games anyway, and frankly, you probably don't want to win too many games, to, you know, be careful with your young players' development

and mindful about how you want to manage them. I think it's totally fine. And sometimes that means sitting out of the lineup, and that's okay as long as it's not for weeks on. that. As I continue desperately to search for things that intrigue me about this hockey team, I will be very curious to

see if the accountability factor continues to play a role for Adam Foote because, I mean, he showed it with some of the young guys and the organization has showed in a variety of ways, sitting as a healthy scratch, being sent down to Abbotsford. Jake DeBrusk sat a game when he wasn't doing the things that the

coach wanted him to do. In terms of building an environment and a culture right now in what's been lost season. I will be curious to see if the accountability factor continues to play a major role and maybe some other veteran players take a seat every now and again. Yeah, and you know, I think we've seen that to a certain extent. You know, Evander Kane's been moved down the lineup of late. He was playing with Ratu and Hoaglander last night. So that's another veteran that maybe hasn't been healthy scratched like Jake DeBrusk was, but, you know, has seen his role

change. You know, we already talked about Besser. I think it'll be interesting. to see if with him specifically anything changes in terms of deployment or, you know, whether he sits out a game at some point if he can't find his scoring touch. But, yeah, you know, these are all interesting things to watch for. You're right. In a season that hasn't gone the way that we would hope you're looking for the young players to grow and develop and, you know, make mistakes and learn from them. And hopefully, you know, some of the young defensemen that we've been seeing make mistakes of late

start to round into form after the Olympic break or later in the season and they can get them some more ice time and have strong individual finishes to the year. And then for the veterans, if some of these guys are going to be around, you've got to get them, you know, back on side and back playing to a level that you need them to play at to, you know, just be a more consistent role model at the NHL level. And, you know, I'm not entirely surprised at the dip in play from, you know, some of the veteran players, you know, you just imagine you're someone like Marcus Pedersen who not even a calendar year ago was acquired in a high profile trade and given a big

extension to be a part of a team that at the time was planning to be a playoff team and planning to try and make some noise. Yeah. And not even a calendar year later. Now you're in a full rebuild and you're skating with a bunch of 20-year-olds out there. You know, I'm not, you know, individually looking at Marcus Pedersen and questioning, you know, effort or his ability to show up on a nightly basis, but it has to be disappointing for a lot of these guys who thought they'd be in a very different spot than they are right now. And, you know,

I don't think that they would be human if that didn't impact their play to some degree. But that said, you're being compensated very well. You're playing in the NHL. You've got to perform at a higher level than you have. And, you know, hopefully those guys can round into form here and and at least put forth a better showing as leaders for some of these young guys down the stretch going forward. I am glad you brought that out. Like, never mind, Pedersen. Demko and Garland and Besser, they only signed their extension six months ago.

It's an entirely different planet they're living on compared to where they were six months ago. Like, so much has changed. So much has changed. Go ahead. Imagine that you, like, I don't know, imagine like as a working professional, You're headhunted to join some company that has a really exciting project that you want to work on. And so you join this company and you're excited about this project and maybe you're well compensated too. And then six months after you sign that contract, they go, well, actually our star employee that was critical to this project has left to go work somewhere else.

And we're changing our priorities as a company. So now we're going to be shoveling excrement and you're going to be doing it with a bunch of 20-year-olds. but go out there and shovel excrement as best as you can and be a really good leader to these young kids we brought into the organization. Like that wouldn't be easy to do, but these guys have to find a way to do it nonetheless. Excellent analogy, Batch, excellent hit as well.

Enjoy the game tonight. A reminder if you want to hear Batcht tonight, four o'clock puck drop Canucks senators from Ottawa. Thanks for doing this, bud. We appreciate it. Sounds good. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks, thanks. You too, thanks. Brendan Batchelor, Play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Connects here on the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650.

Would that be a job though? Like shoveling excrement? Yes, it's a job. In what capacity in like a barn or something? Yeah, a zoo. A zoo, yeah. Yeah. We were just talking about the worst jobs we've ever had at the break with Greg and he was remembering his days at the hot dog factory.

Sounds like a joke, but what? It was legit. What was the issue that you had? What would happen sometimes? The conveyor belt would... Well, it's a big line, right? So they go through the smoker and they get all the seasoning and they're on these big lines. And sometimes the packaging lines down below would freeze up or slow down or if something would happen, they'd have to stop the line.

And the line would continue. So one person's job was to get the weaners off the line and you got to carry them over your head and then dump them on a table while you wait for them to start the line again. You got to put them on the wiener hangers. We've got to put them on the peeler. Right. Got to peel them. Greg was the head wean remover. What is your relationship with hot dogs now?

Yeah, that's a good question. I isolate them, honestly. I'll eat Canadian hot dogs because I've seen how they're made and I've seen the levels of standards in the facilities that we use. Sure. Some American hot dogs, maybe I'd probably steer clear from. I trust your analysis of hot dogs more than perhaps anybody on the planet. It's not healthy for you, but it's no different than eating like a chicken nugget.

Right. Sure. But it hasn't turned you off of a good dog. No. Did it at all? Was there, were there a few years where you're like, I, no. He was a hot dog taste. tester for a while. No, you get tired of it, right? You work at a candy factory. I'm sure you get tired.

One for you? One for me. I don't think A-Dog would. I think of A-Dogg. I think of A-Doh. Yeah, I would think about it. Probably not. Yeah, I wouldn't last three long in a hot duck factory. Hey, dog, you're the closest I know to an oompa-lupa. You're kind of orange, too. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.