Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 11/4/24

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, they talk the end of the Lions season & the Whitecaps winning a playoff thriller to force a third game, they chat a big Canucks win over the Sharks on Saturday with NHL.com & In Goal Magazine's Kevin Woodley, plus the boys tell us what they learned. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Whoa, wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose the f***ing Canucks? You're listening to Halford & Brough.

I think Blackwood got a piece of it set up. Fred Sooner scores. He fires. He's going deep. DeMarcus brought it in with one hand in the end zone for a walk-off touchdown. I just want to really start out by apologizing to my teammates, really, and to the city. And he wraps him up and drops him at the six-yard line. Danny Longlegs gets all over Jalen Waddell. Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It's Halford at his breath at his Sportsnet 650. 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. Laddy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. And intern Ethan here all week on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning to you.

Good morning. Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. 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.

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What are you waiting for? Kintec. A lot to get into on the show today. Guest list begins at 7 o'clock. Yes, that means an entire hour of uninterrupted Halford and Brough right off the hop. 7 o'clock, Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the 2 Deep Zone. We're going to look at the contenders

that won their games on the weekend. Buffalo looked good. Close one, but they looked good. Baltimore looked good. I also want to focus on the dud teams because there were a lot of duds that laid big eggs on the weekend, including the Dallas Cowboys.

Ha! Take that, Dallas. We'll talk to Mike Tan here about all that at 7. 7.30, J.C. Abbott is going to join us from Three Down Nation. We will be doing the old toe-tagging of the B.C. Lions season, which came to an end over the weekend in Regina. We'll talk to J.C. about that and what the offseason has in store for the B.C. Lions.

8 o'clock, Kevin Woodley, NHL.com, Ingole Magazine. We will talk to him about the Vancouver Canucks and their 3-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks in San Jose on Saturday. Look ahead to the week as well. Finally, another giveaway on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Every day this week, we are giving away a $100 gift card to Mucho Burrito. Mucho Burrito. They have Mucho Burritos.

Caller number 8, that's number number eight is going to get the gift card and we're not going to say when and apparently we're doing this thing for non-live listeners maybe podcast listeners or streaming listeners we will give a time so that they can plan to call in correct that's what we're going to do and then caller number ocho is going to get the 100 gift card to mucho burrito so that's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

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

So, we have a lot to get into here. Because all of our local teams, and I do include the Seattle Seahawks in that, all played very pivotal games on the weekend. Two teams in particular had their season on the line. So, let's start with the one that kept their season alive. Yes, kudos to you, Vancouver Whitecaps. Not only did you get a 3-0 win over LAFC, you also got to lead off the Halford & Brough show on a Monday.

Terrific effort last night from Ryan Gould and the Whitecaps last night, forcing a third and decisive game against LAFC on Friday in LA. Yeah, it sounds like the Whitecaps, I mean, I didn't watch it because it wasn't on regular TV. Friday's game three will be. You were there. It sounds like the Whitecaps were all over LAFC to start and didn't really get much of a scare at all.

Nope, 3-0, and they were up two within the first 20 minutes, and who else, really? But the feisty little Scotsman Ryan Gould. Kind of running out of superlatives to throw at the guy but let's put it this way. In three playoff matches now, the Whitecaps have scored nine goals, which is a lot. They've been very good.

Ryan Gould has either scored or contributed to eight of them. It's really, really impressive what he's doing right now. Okay, so I have some questions. Let's go. Skeptical Jason. Let's go.

Did LAFC dress their entire star-studded lineup? Yes, including the goalie, Hugo Lloris, and their big three up front of Olivier Giroud, the former French international, Denis Boenga, and Matthias Boguch. They were all there and playing. Did they try? They tried.

Okay. I think they got punched in the mouth early. And then at around the 60th minute, when it was pretty apparent that they weren't going to come back, Steve Trundle, the manager, started making substitutions. He Trundle-o'd some guys off the field? He said, get out of here. You're being Trundle-o'd.

And he took them off. And I think that they were ready to pack up and fly back to L.A. for that third and decisive game on Friday. What was the atmosphere like at BC Place? It was good. Just over 20,000 in attendance. If the circumstances were different, meaning they didn't have that situation against Portland,

which did angry up the blood of a lot of fans, and people weren't as skeptical about getting anything out of LAFC because they've been pretty dominant. I think there would have been more people there. Still, good crowd and good standing ovations for Gauld at the end of the match because he didn't get subbed off. Fafa Pico got a standing O. Stuart Armstrong, who's been very good in the playoffs

after really not playing at all during the regular season. So it was a good night at BC Place. Final question about the Whitecaps. We've got a lot to get to, and we can talk about the Whitecaps later in the week ahead of Friday's game. Friday's game, they got a chance here? Yeah, they do.

I mean, I'm laughing here because it's a very tall order. I will say this. There have been a lot of upsets in the opening round of the MLS playoffs. The defending champs, Columbus, they're out. They lost to New York Red Bulls. Messi and Miami got forced into a game three as well because they lost a stunner over the weekend to Atlanta.

So it's not out of the realm of possibility. However, it's an entirely different animal playing in L.A., which is a very difficult place to play. And you got the home cooking, obviously. But go Caps. Get a win on friday well the bc lions season is over after a 28 to 19 loss in regina to the saskatchewan rough riders forget playing in the gray cup which is being hosted at bc place this season the lions didn't even play once at home

in the playoffs they finished third in the division they had to go to saskatchewan they didn't beat the rough riders but if they had they would have had to go to Saskatchewan. They didn't beat the Rough Riders, but if they had, they would have had to go to Winnipeg and beaten the Blue Bombers to get to the Grey Cup. Just a wildly disappointing way to end a season that started with so much promise, not to mention an actual good record to start. They were 5-1

to start the season, which means the Lions went 4-9 in their final 13 games. They that bad? They brought back Nathan Rourke. It didn't work, and they had to go to Vernon Adams eventually. Matthew Betts, they brought him back. I don't know how effective he was.

I don't know if he was effective enough, given the hype around his return. I really don't see Vernon Adams being back next season. He threw three interceptions against Saskatchewan. You know, for me, there are just so many parallels between Vernon Adams and Gino Smith, who we'll talk about in a bit. They just, they just like, you know, they have the ability to do some good stuff and you've seen them play really good games. You don't trust them, though. Yeah, trust with a quarterback is so important.

And, look, you can make excuses for both the guys. Neither offensive line was very good. Vernon Adams was in a position where he was trying to make some plays down the stretch, but the second interception he threw was just badly underthrown. Geno Smith, we'll get to him in a bit, and he has a horrible offensive line too. So you can have that argument, but I just think Nathan Rourke is going to be the starting quarterback next season.

He's too talented, and maybe this is the big one, too marketable to move on from. Adams will play somewhere in the league, and he might have a lot of success, but I think even he knows it won't be in BC. I also have to wonder about the head coach and co-general manager, Rick Campbell. The team did not look right, obviously, this year, and even Rick Campbell himself said that the team did not handle adversity well, and that can sometimes reflect poorly on the leader, the head coach.

Amar Doman, the owner, does not strike me as a super reactive owner. Like, he's not like, fire everyone after a bad game or anything. But if I were him, I'd be pretty upset. He invested a lot of money into this season. And the Lions really were not close to good enough. We'll chat more about what's to come with the BC Lions with JC Abbott at 7.30. On all these topics that we're talking about, text into the Dunbar Lumber text line 650-650. The Bridge Street, Dunbar Lumber, and Ladner has moved to progress way in Tilbury's industrial park, more room, more

product, more awesome details at Dunbar lumber.com. Um, we've got an open segment on the other side of this segment to really delve into the Dunbar lumber text line and read your text. Very busy weekend in sports. And it included a Vancouver Canucks win. They squeaked out a win in San Jose.

Pugh Suter, of all players, played the hero, scoring twice on the night, including the winner with just 26 seconds left after a great offensive zone shift by Suter, Garland, and Elias Pettersson. I don't know how many great passes Connor Garland has made from down low this season, but it's been a lot. Good for Jake DeBruys too. He scored his first of the season when he ripped one home with less than five minutes left to give the Canucks a 2-1 lead.

Besser had hit the post just a few seconds earlier, but the Canucks regrouped quickly and Quinn Hughes, always making great plays out there, gained the zone, made a great pass to DeBrusque in the slot, and he fired it home. But we know the Canucks have not been the same team with the lead this season as they were last season, and the Sharks tied it a couple minutes later with six tackers when Michael Granlin was pretty much given all the time in the world to creep in from the side boards and fire it past Lankanen.

It was a really nice shot from Granlund. He picked a spot, he hit it, but also some, I would say, tentative defending by the Vancouver Canucks at the very least, if they're just going to stand their ground and stare at Michael Granlund, they have to shut down the shooting lane and they didn't do that. At any rate, they got the win, and Talkett seemed pleased with the response

after Wednesday's embarrassing home loss to New Jersey. Laddie, let's play some Rick Talkett audio here. This was mostly he was happy with the win. Quite a back-and-forth game tonight. How does it feel to pull the win out in this one? Yeah, I thought we played well. I thought the Sharks played really well, too. It was a good up-and-down hockey game.

Obviously, Puse with a big game for us, and Garland with some nice plays. So, yeah, it was nice. We didn't crack after they tied the game, so I've got to give the guys a lot of credit. How does it feel to just see Jake DeBrus grab that first goal, kind of just get that monkey off his back? Yeah, a hell of a shot. I mean, that was dialed. I mean, that's probably the only place he could have scored,

and that's a goal scorer's goal, so good for him. Something you guys wanted to see is a full 60 minutes from your team. Did you feel pretty close to that tonight? Yeah, I did. I think it was a really good effort, and, you know, it's a good one to win that game. Thought it was some good effort from some guys. And, you know, got a couple days for the next game. Ray Ferraro loving that full 60 question.

Full 60. Full 60. Taka wasn't pleased with everything. He noted there are still too many odd man rushes against. And he put the blame on the third forward on the forecheck. They call him F3. Got to be better him F3. Got to be better, F3.

F3, the one who's supposed to stay high and play the safety, essentially. Too much diving in, says Tockett. My old elementary school basketball coach used to call it selling the farm. Ah, sold the farm. So they'll probably watch some more video on that. Maybe they can bring in Mr. McEwen as a guest coach for that. He was a good basketball coach. I guess we should mention, and you'd probably want to mention,

another solid outing for Lankanen, who improved to 5-0-2 with a 9-19 save percentage. The Canucks have only lost twice in regulation. Who was in net for those? Seelovs was in net for both of them. Seelovs also lost in overtime in the Canucks' first game against Calgary when they blew, well, he blew, a 4-1 lead. We should also mention that the Power Play failed to score again. 0-2 on the night. That's now four straight games

without a Power Play goal for the Canucks. Just two Power Play goals in their last seven games, both of them coming against Chicago. So in their last seven games, six games, they've failed to score with the Power Play. So we said last seven games, six games, they failed to score with the power play. So we said it on Friday.

Sometimes the schedule gives you a gift. And in this case, it might be two because the Canucks now will go play another not very good team in the Anaheim Ducks. And the combination of a good effort, not a perfect game. Someone in the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket just pointed out might have resembled more of a finger painting than an oil painting. But the NHL schedule will give you gifts from time to time. I don't know if you watch the Sharks side of the postgame remarks or not, but their head coach, Ryan Worsofsky, visibly pissed at his team. Not happy with their performance at all.

I thought they played hard for the Sharks. That's what I thought. But he said, quote, we cannot have the brain lapses that we have, the line changes that we have, the puck play that we have and think we're going to win hockey games in this league. I mean, when you think about the two goals that went in in the third period, they were just clean looks. One from Nebraska

and one from Suter. So he's not going to be thrilled with that, I suppose. But I think the bar is so low for the Sharks. For me, it was like, wow, they're giving the Canucks a game. Good for them. They had won a few in a row as well. I was like, hey, they're doing good things down in San Jose. But the schedule on occasion does give you some gifts. And actually, if you look at the Canucks schedule over the course of November,

it's not exactly a murderer's row of opponents. So coming up, they've got two more. Hasn't been that tough to begin with. No. I mean, you want to count who are the good teams that they've played against so far. New Jersey, Carolina. Tampa. Tampa. And then you you want to count who are the good teams that they've played against so far. New Jersey, Carolina. Tampa. Tampa.

And then you count Florida. Lost all those three. The husk of the Florida Panthers. Yeah, without Barkov and Kachuk. So you look now, you've got Anaheim on Tuesday in Anaheim. LA on Thursday.

That's a good team there in LA. So you finish up that road swing with a tough game. Then you come home for a bunch of games. You get the Oilers without Connor McDavid. You get Calgary

who's kind of hit the skids. The Islanders weren't good. The Blackhawks weren't good. Nashville has been poor. You look ahead, the first half of November, you're going to play two, I would say, tough games against LA and the New York Rangers. And one of those is at home.

So you also want to look at that too. You're still not getting any back-to-backs for a long time, which you mentioned with Lankanen coming in. There's absolutely no reason to not play him other than the fear of burning him out. But it's early in the season, and he's probably still got some energy and some juice. He's making like 800K.

Who cares? Just ride him. Just ride him till he... Get all the money you can out of that guy. Honestly, you're at a point now where you're obviously figuring something. Don't you have to be mindful that Factor Demko still hasn't come back, and we don't 100% know that he's going to be able to? I think that if they're going to do that,

they may have to look at doing a flip and bringing up Patera and just seeing what's there as opposed to going to Seelov's. I would agree with that. Because right now, I've got to imagine, imagine I do feel bad for Seelovs because we've I mean me especially been dumping on him routinely throughout the first few games of the season he needs to go back down to the AHL and find his game I would imagine his confidence is shot right now because not only is he struggling in the games that he's in, but when his counterpart goes in, it's just wins. Or at the very least, not losing in regulation

and not allowing five or six goals a game. I just prefer not to worry about it. In the wise words of Bruce Boudreaux, we are going to be fine. The Canucks also sent Nils Amon down to Abbotsford. Amon had to clear waivers, and fortunately he did. Now this is interesting. It leaves the Canucks with just four centers on the roster,

which means it'll be difficult on Tuesday against the Ducks, unless they recall Nils Amon. I think he played last night for Abbotsford. It'll be hard to reunite Suter with Pedersen and Garland because there are, again, four centers on the team. Suter's one of them, Pedersen, Miller, and Bluger. So that line was, or that combination was really good to finish the game. And I know a lot of fans do not like Baines with Petey and Garland. And, you know, it's hard to disagree with their frustration especially with

what Suter showed with Garland and Petey but here's the thing I don't think we'll see Baines much longer anyway because Dakota Joshua is close to returning to the lineup and he's probably going to slot in for Baines you know who I wonder if Joshua could be ready to go for Tuesday you know who does like Baines I think is talking yeah Taka. Yeah, that's it. Clearly. I don't mind his game. I think he's been elevated in the lineup a little prematurely at times. He does have good speed and there has been, I think he's looked,

and I don't think it's reinventing the wheel with this analysis. I think he's looked more competent better this year than he did in that cameo last year. I think Taka just trusts him defensively too. I think that's a part of it. I was a little bit surprised just with the machinations with exposing someone to waivers that they decided to make that choice because you could have easily done the inverse and sent Baines down. You would have been fine.

But Oman didn't get plucked, so it's kind of a non-issue there. Okay, let's finish off this first segment. And again, we're going to revisit all of this in the second segment with some text from you into the Dunbar-Limmer text line at 650-650. The Seahawks lost their fourth straight home game, and I have to say some of these losses have been horrific losses. And I know they made it to overtime yesterday, and good for them to get it to overtime but I would count that as a horrific loss to a division rival uh this one was just as disastrous

of any of the others they lost to the Giants a bad team they lost to the 49ers for like I don't know the 100th straight time they lost to, what was the other? Buffalo. That was awful too. It's honestly crazy that the Hawks still had a great chance to win this one given all the dumb mistakes they made on the day, but they lost and they deserve to lose. Seahawks fans now have two weeks to worry about the future

as the team goes out on its bye week with a four and five record last in the NFC West. This is a team that started three and oh, they are now four and five. It's getting harder and harder to picture the Seahawks sticking with Gino Smith beyond this season. He might, but it's getting harder and harder to picture it He's been a good story overall I think we can all admit that And there are lots of times when you think Okay, that was a really good throw by Geno Smith there Wow

And in fairness to Geno You also have to concede that the offensive line is horrible There are many times where he just does not have enough time He got sacked, what, 40 times yesterday? It seemed like that. But the terrible mistakes are getting hard to accept. Three interceptions. I know on the second one, you know, he got the – someone got an arm on him.

He said he was trying to throw it out of bounds. I guess I'll choose to believe him, although it looked like he was going for someone in the back of the end zone. To me, it feels like Seahawks fans are ready to turn the page to whatever's next at the quarterback position. Again, I realize it's not on Geno Smith. It's not all on Geno Smith, but some of it is. Some of it is. I am. I'll jump in here before we play Gino's apology. Because I've got some major, major red flags with Mike McDonald right now. Major red flags with the rookie head coach. Okay?

The last two games, there have been a number of mental and just sheer physical mistakes across the board that are indicative of a poorly coached football team. Not being able to figure out the center to quarterback exchange two weeks in a row is a huge red flag. That's coaching and that's a personnel thing where if a guy can't do it, you find someone that can. Because snapping the football is a real basic level, entry-level thing that you do. Two weeks in a row, they've had massive problems trying to get the ball into Geno Smith's hands. Yesterday, 12 penalties for 95 yards. The week prior, against the Bills, all they talked about was the unnecessary, undisciplined penalties. And they came back with 12 for 95.

The interceptions, yeah. Geno's got to own some of that. He also threw for three touchdowns and 363 yards, so it's not like he had a clunker of a day. He had a clunker of a day, man. He threw for three touchdowns and 363 yards. Three interceptions were a problem. Three interceptions were a huge problem.

Yeah. But this team has... Gave him clunker status on the day. This team has huge problems. Like, they make mistakes everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah, I agree with you on that. I just, I don't know.

It's very difficult to pin it on one guy. And the reason that we do it is because he's the quarterback and the leader, and he owned it. Well, you know who pinned it on him? Geno Smith himself. First of all, I just want to really start out by apologizing to my teammates, really, and to the city, to the organization. They put a lot of trust in me with my decision-making,

and when they put the ball in my hands, when my teammates play the way they played today and give us a shot to win the game, I've got to make And, you know, the things I did today, mistakes that I made, you know, they affected us negatively and, you know, really cost this game today. You know, me knowing myself, I know how much, you know, this is going to hurt. I'm going to step it up though. You know, that's how I feel about it. I'm going to step it up. So the Vancouver Whitecaps had a big win over LAFC at BC Place Stadium. That's good. But the BC Lions season is over.

That's bad. The Vancouver Canucks got a win against the San Jose Sharks. That's pretty good. But the Seahawks lost their fourth straight at home to the Los Angeles Rams and they're now last place in the NFC West. That's not good. That's bad. That's bad.

Yeah. So what's the takeaway of that weekend? Are you positive? Are you negative? That's good. Neutral. But it's also bad. I don't know.

Football bad. Everything else good. Football bad. Non-football bad. But football, European football, good. Because Man City lost. Yeah. I'm very confused.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. 802 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts.

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Kevin Woodley is in the process of joining us. I don't think he picked up on the first try here. Okay. I want to ask Laddie something. Okay. How good is Cameron Schmidt for the Vancouver Giants? He now has 17 goals in 15 games. Yep. He's not a big guy.

Listed at 5'7", 156 pounds, but just 17 years old from Prince George. Cameron Schmidt is ripping up the WHL again as a 17-year-old. Another hat trick. His first of the year, but he's had multi-goal games all over the place. His third goal was actually kind of funny. He was like a two-on-one developing, and he was waiting for the guy to catch up but he was just so fast that he was like i'm just gonna shoot it and he ripped it glove side for the hat trick and then the best play of the game you mentioned his size he's 5'7 but he absolutely bowled over

one of the defensemen the six foot two defenseman voitek port just laid him out in the corner five foot seven guy doing this i think he's playing with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder, guys. This is a draft year, right? Yes. Okay. So what are people, is he going to be one of these like guys that people debate all season long about where he should go? And you get some people that say he's a top five pick and others are like, take him in the third round. He has top 10 skill, but because he's five'7 he's in that conversation for mid first round so some basement dwelling team is going to pass on him because of size concerns

and he's going to make them pay five six years down the road when they see how good he is because yes he's 5'7 but he is amazing he's got the shot he's got the speed he's the whole package and he what he does and he's got the intensity apparently he's hitting guys what he does without the puck is is amazing as well so he's he's going to be, apparently, if he's hitting guys. What he does without the puck is amazing as well. So he's going to be a player, despite the size concerns. And yeah, some poor sad sack team is going to pass on him, and their fans are going to be very upset. And they'll be like, here's Cameron Schmidt for the Dallas Stars.

Got another one. Unbelievable. Okay, our next guest, I got this note that just came through. He went a perfect 3-0 for team sports net at this weekend's Canucks autism network pro-am. He's also a presentation of white rock Hyundai. It is Kevin Woodley here on the Halford and breath show on sports net six 50. What up Kev?

Not much. I was going to chirp broth for not being a part of this event this weekend, but then I remembered the last time he played for Team Sportsnet, we were 0-3. Yeah, I'm bad in the room. And on the ice. Yeah, not particularly good on the ice either. So that's awesome.

Kev, who was your NHL pro? It was Megan Augusta, actually. We went with winners, gold medals. We wanted that winning attitude in the room. So we got that. She was amazing, both on the ice and in the room. And then we topped it off with a W in the All-Star game as well. So a perfect 4-0, which doesn't happen to me ever.

And the best part, the best part, and I will for sure let him know this, is that Eddie Lack, who told me all weekend he was going to light me up in the All-Star game, did not light me up. He was out there as a skater. Yeah. And, you know, telling us to check his live barn highlights from beer league and all this kind of stuff. So it was, it was, it was a fun weekend. Uh, we did play one game against Kessler to start the second period. Somehow negotiations were made. I was unaware of where everybody just basically stopped on the initial draw and he skated in on a breakaway. And I'm still not sure if my glove has moved as he,

as he put it top shelf. So that was a little humbling, but a great cause, great people that do great work and a great weekend put on by them. And a lot of money raised well over a million dollars. Don't have the final total, but for Canucks autism network so good on everyone and uh good to see guys like that hadn't been back in a long time like matt cook um got a chance to chat with him and he was

he just received a massive warm welcome for a guy that hadn't been back in the market for a long time and i think probably good for some of those guys to remember just how much uh and how warm this market embraces them as well uh congr to you for not only your performance, but raising money for a good cause. Let's talk about the Vancouver Canucks here. I guess we'll start with, I want to start with Demko. It's November 4th now. Some of us were hoping that November would be when Thatcher Demko returned to the lineup. Do you think it will be, or are you still just in guessing mode? I think everybody's in guessing mode, although, you know, like Rick Dollywell has been pretty spot on on a lot of his reporting. So if he's saying he's here in two to three weeks, that's good. I think the challenge here is in

terms of the uncertainty is that sort of thought maybe late october um based on well things appear to be going in training camp and because we haven't sort of we don't get to see him right like they do a really good job of keeping him away from our eyes especially when they're at home they can't on the road which is why the video emerged over the weekend but if there was a setback where he stopped skating at any point we have no idea so um i think that's the biggest thing i don't care frankly whether it's november or december as long as it's back and back for good and that they're confident in that or as confident as they can be with this injury versus i mean let, let's be honest, this whole thing happened because they rushed him

back. Like this injury does not occur to a healthy joint, especially on a move innocuous as that. So rushing him back for the playoffs is ultimately what led to this possibility. And so don't do it again. And yeah. It's a unique injury.

Yes. So do they have, do they feel like they have the expertise to make that call on when he should go back in there? Because maybe it's, this is just going to be the way it is, but I don't particularly want to watch every Canucks game with Demko in there and just be sitting on pins and needles waiting for something bad to happen. Yeah. You know, and here's the thing, like, even though, um, we know which, which part of the knee it is, we don't know that the extent, right? Like, is this, you know, is this a muscle tear? Is this a muscle torn off the bone? In which case I would think you would have surgery,

but we keep hearing about, I just has to learn to play with it. At the end of the day, we don't know. They haven't told us. And so without that knowledge, I don't think like that's just the way it's going to be. Right. Like we're just going to be guessing a little bit here. And so, yeah. Yeah.

Sorry, I cut you off again. Kevin Lankanen, how much can they play this guy? Can they play the wheels off of him, or do you have to be concerned about fatigue for him just because the Demko situation still has that ring of uncertainty around it? I think you do have to be a little bit careful, and it's not specific to Kevin Lankanen. The reality is, not to add uncertainty to uncertainty but we don't know because he hasn't played a lot at any other point in his career

he hasn't been asked to um so you'd have to go back to probably american league days to sort of you know see the last time he racked up a lot of games played and even when he's overseas like they don't play an nhL style schedule or anything that rigorous. So there's uncertainty there as well. And I think that's one that comes down to the relationship between the goalie and the goalie coach and the medical department and keeping an eye on where all his levels are at and how he feels physically. But I would be, you know, in an era where nobody plays a ton, I would be a little bit wary of, you know, getting this guy into 60 games when, you know, the quick check of his hockey DB,

I think even the most he's ever played in a single season is 42 in Finland. And, you know, there's just even that year in Chicago, it was 37. So if you're going to start to get into the 60s at a time when almost nobody gets into the 60s, I don't know if that's necessarily a great recipe. So what do they do with CLOPS? It's a good question. I think for starters, you know, maybe put them behind an environment that isn't the fourth hardest in the NHL. I know the numbers aren't good, but his expected save percentage is 854 right now. That's the fourth lowest in the National Hockey League.

So that's weighting the quality of shots he's faced relative to what you would expect an average goalie to stop relative to the rest of the NHL. Only three goalies have had a harder environment. That said, you can outplay a hard environment, and he has underperformed it by a significant margin he's 67th in the nhl and adjusted say percentage you know anytime you're down there with alexander georgiev and fedotov and billy huso at this point in a season it's not good but it's also such a tiny sample and it's the 854 he does not require waivers and we had this discussion in the past

like that as long as you've got that and you've got your farm team down the road if you're no you're not starting him on the weekend and he can go play a couple of games i you know get him some minutes like i i see that as potentially an option i don't know why it wouldn't be unless you're worried about shattering confidence by sending him down. The one challenge here a little bit is he may be best served working with Marco Terranes who knows

his game, knows the system that he's come up with. Don't forget, Archer Sealoves is an Ian Clark guy in terms of drafting, development, and the belief that Ian has in him. I know there are other times earlier in Ar in our career where other people in the organization because they said it to me from a scouting side we're like they don't see it but ian did so they stuck with it so i think even as a goalie when

you know the guy that has all the confidence in the world with you in you the guy who said start him ahead of casey to smith in the playoffs last year isn't around I wonder how much you know how much harder that is and honestly if he was in a development role he could go down and meet him in the American Hockey League for those games even if he's not on the ice because of the injuries to be there to supervise the challenge right now is I've heard all kinds of great things about Justin Pogge as a goalie coach but he hasn't had an opportunity to learn the system that Artur has come up playing. And so Marco has. And so

that's where that challenge gets a little more complicated. If you're sending him down there just to play games, that's fine. But if you're sending him down there to work on your game, you're sending him down there with a goalie coach who may not understand his game quite to the level that Marco does.

And so that might create a little bit of trepidation. Like I said, with Ian just being a scout, he's not going to Abbotsford to meet them to have eyes on that. So it's kind of one of the downsides I thought of not keeping him as a director. But we'll see how this goes and see what decision they make. At the very least, you can get him some games down there on a weekend when he's not going to start anyways. Other teams have done it in the past, and we've talked about it in past years.

It's a good way to operate. Kev, can you tell us a bit more about the defensive environment that the Canucks are putting their goalies in? Because Rick Tuckett himself said that, you know, as much as he was pleased with the effort and the win against San Jose on Saturday, he noted that they still got to do a better job cutting down the odd man rushes. Yeah, they've slipped defensively on odd man rushes.

And the thing is, it hasn't been like they're not getting them. They're not creating off the rush at the expense of giving up off the rush. I think the Devils game skews things quite a bit because they got killed off the rush there. Even Carolina, the way Carolina just sort of picked passes off in the neutral zone and they just came at them in waves with speed. There's a lot of quality there.

And so right now, at five on five, high danger chances, which are the ones that matter, off the rush, they're 27th in the National Hockey League right now. Overall, high danger, five on five against, 19th in in the nhl in zone defending has gotten a little tighter the mistakes in their own end that were had them near the bottom of the league you know uh coming off that road trip they're up to eighth that's gotten better pks pk is actually really good the underlying numbers on the pk are actually first in the nhl right now um But those five-on-five numbers, those are the ones that matter in the playoffs.

You heard me talk a lot about it last year going to the playoffs, why I was confident they had a chance to be a good playoff team was not giving up high danger, especially off the run. Those are the freebies, high-danger chances off the rush. Those are where you just give away goals, like they did against the New Jersey Devils on the two-game homestand. And there's been way too much of that this season. And so you hope that it's just a learning, like that balance, because they were a team that just wouldn't take chances offensively.

They were content to sort of grind it out and defend by having the puck in the offensive zone. They're taking more chances. They're trying to create more. And in-zone offense, actually, that's the interesting thing. They haven't created off the rush, but they're third in the league in in zone five on five high danger four so they're they're creating more dangerous offense when they're settled in zone play this year than they did last year but you can make mistakes dangerous plays

risky plays in zone that lead to rush the other way as well and so i think we've seen a little bit of that and that's where you know i think you have to give them the benefit of the doubt and time to sort of settle into it they've opened things up like they sort of shut it down last year and you just weren't allowed to take those chances no almost nobody did um you know low high passes that had a risk of being picked off cross seam passes from low to high that could lead to odd-man numbers the other way. They're trying more of that, and finding that balance on when and what to try is probably just going to take some time. But hopefully, by the end of the year, that high danger against has come way down.

I heard you guys earlier say you're not panicking some concern, and I would agree. by the end of the year that high danger against has come way down because i don't care like i'm i heard you guys earlier say you're not panicking some concern and i would agree we can sort of know that the dna of rick talkett as a coach and of this group based on last year will be to tighten those things up and so you don't worry that they're this loose this early but if they don't tighten up and there are nights where it looks like it's just work ethic because quite often that's what defensive stuff is if it doesn't tighten up then i wouldn't be nearly as bullish on them in the playoffs as i was last year because those metrics really don't lie they have been a very strong indicator of playoff success in years past so tons of time to do it um but it's something that needs to start happening for this group because I don't care if they create more offense.

If it's at the expense of the defensive identity that they had last year, then I don't like their chances once we get to the part of the season that, let's face it, for this group now really matters. I'm wondering if the Canucks might get lucky tomorrow in Anaheim and see James Reimer instead of Lucas Dostal. Dostal was in the net for I think the last three Ducks games. Yesterday allowed four goals and a loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. Regardless of who they see,

tell us a bit about Lucas Dostal because I guess he's one of the best young goalies in the NHL. I want one of the best goalies in the NHL to start this season. He's top 10 in adjusted save percentage. I don't have the numbers after last night. I didn't pull him up this morning. But he was up there in the top five heading into the weekend. So he's had a hell of a season.

And finally getting an opportunity with Gibson out. And this is the thing. The Ducks are bad again. And it's a thing like, like the ducks are bad again. And it's interesting because Gibson's done this a couple of times and inevitably the wheels come off a little bit and people start looking at the goaltending. The reality is the goaltending tends to bail them out quite often. They just,

they just seem to be the same team. We talk about defensively and bad environments like that. That's the ducks. And it hasn't really changed under the, under the new coaching staff. It hasn't changed to start this season. They're leaning so heavily on the stall that, and he's been so good.

He can only like, if you give up this many chances, eventually the damn burst. And so he gives up for the other day. You're right. It'll be. You can give her another start. I know he keeps in skating. And so he can't be that far away.

And then Reimer, quite frankly, could end up on waivers and a team can pick him. I don't know. I'm assuming if everything's good with Demko, then the Canucks wouldn't. But you want to talk about more of a reliable veteran tandem, you could add

him to the mix of Lankan and let Seelovs go down and work out his game for long-term. I kind of doubt they're considering that, given the positive feedback we've had on Demko of Lankan. I'd be really worried if they did do that. I'd be worried if they did do that.

That would not send a good signal. No, it wouldn't, but it wouldn't send a good signal to Archer Seelovs either. But I'm just saying, that time is coming for Reimer with Gibson coming close to coming back. signal no it wouldn't but uh wouldn't send a good signal to archer silov's either but you know just saying like that that time is coming for reimer with gibson coming close coming back and i know his numbers aren't necessarily pretty don't have them in front of me but i know like his first start was really good against vegas he lost the game but was the only reason they were in it his second one

the numbers weren't great but i heard good things about how he's playing so don't count on it is a break compared to how dustostal has been going, but if they get Reimer, it doesn't mean it's an easy night. He's actually had two really good starts for them. Kev, this was great. As always, thank you very much for taking the time to do this. Enjoy the rest of the day, and congrats again on the weekend. Thanks, guys.

Kevin Woodley on Sportsnet 650 is a presentation of White Rock Hyundai. Visit the showroom on King George in White Rock or whiterockhyundai.com. The style. So hot right now. You're a big fan. Yeah. He might be the best and, quite frankly,

only thing the Ducks have going for them. Well, it's been goalies, right? Gibson was the only reason to go for a little while now. Isn't this always the way it happens with Anaheim? I don't know. I never pay attention to them. Their goalies stand on their heads for the first, like,

third or half of the season, and then the goalies just get exhausted. Just wear out. They just, it's like, I can't do this anymore. That's when Zegers is going to start picking it up,

right? That's when he comes in. Has anyone's stock fallen further than Trevor Zegers? Wasn't he on the cover of some, one of those video games?

One of them, Vigigames. Vigigames. NHL Vigigames. He was on the cover of Pitfall, wasn't he? Yes. He had the newest, the remake. That's this year. He's on the cover of one of those video games? One of them vidya games. NHL vidya games. He was on the cover of Pitfall, wasn't he? Yes. Yeah, the newest, the remake. That's this year.

He's on the cover. Oregon Trail. Okay. If anyone can name me the top five leading scorers on the Anaheim Ducks without looking it up, I will buy you a coffee for our very next show. I'll buy you a coffee every day for the rest of the week. Is Troy Terry one of them? Troy Terry is one of them. That's all

I got. Okay. Radko Gudis. Not Radko Gudis. Damn. Here's a fun fact. Is Cam Fowler still on the Ducks? Yes. Okay. He is also not one of them. Here's a fun fact. Two assists. One of their leading scorers. Ryan Getsliff. Please stop. One of their leading scorers this year

does not have a single goal, yet he's fifth on the team in points. That's sad. Scott Indermeyer. Nope. Chris Pronger. No. This is close.

Well, Leo Carlson's going to be one of them. Troy Terry is number one. Leo Carlson is number two. Mason McTavish is number three. Ryan Strom is number four. Their fifth leading scorer with zero goals and four points. Again, their fifth leading scorer, Cutter Gauthier. Oh, yeah, him.

He's my next guess. Yeah. So the Canucks, look, they'll be favored again, as they were heading into San Jose. I do wonder if they'll get James Reimer, if the Ducks will look at Lucas Dostal and say, well, this guy's pretty young. Let's not totally run him out of gas early on.

I'd just like to see a confident Canucks blowout win. Is that too much to ask? No. Can I just see one of those, please? It'd be nice to have a blowout win. Just see him just destroy him. I agree. I will say this.

It'd be nice to see. I will say this. There's been enough blowouts in the National Hockey League through the first five weeks of the season that the Canucks are more than capable of hanging one on somebody because we've seen countless other teams do it. I mean, just that one night alone last week, Seattle went in and put eight on Montreal.

That same night it was, who else did it? Was it Columbus? Columbus put one on Toronto. Yeah. Columbus has blown out a few teams this year. Yeah. So there have been a lot of lopsided scores. You know, Friedgen, what's his face?

Kyle, we're talking about that on 32 Thoughts the other day. What's his face? They were telling us. It was a gas and iron show a few times. You know, I'm just, I'm trying to work with what I got here. I couldn't remember his name off the top of my head. They were saying that they've really noticed, and I don't know if it has to do with the fact that there wasn't a lot of pushback

from the teams getting their butts kicked or whatever. But a lot of these teams weren't letting their foot off the gas when the scores were getting out of hand. And I automatically jumped to Wednesday night because it was 4-0. And that game was comfortably 4-0. The Canucks had nothing going. But New Jersey kept going and made it 5. I didn't have any problem with that. The Canucks were so bad, I was like, good. I don't have any problem with that. The Canucks were so bad, I was like, good.

I don't have a problem with it. I just noticed it. Loaded up devils. Yeah. Just keep rolling. They deserve it. Get eight. Let's do a little quick what we learned before we get into the Dunbar-Lember text line in the final segment.

Real quick what we learned, and I'm sure Halford was very, very emotional over the weekend when they officially retired Vince Carter's number in Toronto. And Masai Ujiri went up there and said, he taught us how to fly. And then quit on your team. It's been so interesting to see that entire week, how it's played out. He taught us how to fly. I quote. Did everyone's eyes roll right out of their heads?

Pretty close. He got emotional. I know he got emotional. He was crying on the podium. I know he did. Probably because he didn't expect to be celebrated by the franchise he once openly sabotaged man the raptors really flew with him with that one playoff series victory taught them how to right can we talk about the talk them how

to fly i'm trying to ignore this story and actually focus on the other Raptors story from the weekend. We all know. Everyone know what happened? Everyone aware of this? So, DeMar DeRozan, now a member of the Sacramento Kings, was in town for that game, obviously playing, and not for the Vince Jersey retirement night. But DeMar was back, another franchise legend.

And Drake was also there. Now, Drake and DeMar have beef stemming from Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us. Right? What does DeMar have to do with this? He's from Compton. Him and Kendrick are friends. Okay. So he was part of the video, part of the very, very. Oh, he was part of the video yeah oh i don't know part of the very

very specific drake diss track he was involved i'm still at the uh the source awards right in my knowledge no no no this is beefs you know let's get caught up so in 2013 as we did drake was named a global ambassador for the raptors now now synonymous with the Raptors. So it's funny because Drake has a certain cachet with the organization. Obviously. So too does DeMar because of his legacy there. Of course. But Drake doesn't like that.

He actually said during the broadcast that if you ever put a DeRozan banner up, I'll go down there. DeMar, in tonight's broadcast, Drake said, if you ever put a DeRozan banner up, I'll go down there. In tonight's broadcast, Drake said, if you ever put a DeRozan banner up, I'll go up there and put it down myself. What's your action to that? Well, you're going to have a long way to climb to take it down, so I tell him good luck. Thanks, everyone.

Isn't Drake, doesn't he get a little embarrassed talking smack with professional athletes like Like he is one of them. You'd think so, but he doesn't seem like, I know he's famous. I know he's more famous than these athletes. I get it. I understand it,

but like he kind of talks to them. Like he's on the team. He's not. Have you seen him on the sidelines? He definitely thinks he's part of the team. I know, but he's not, he's not on the team. Like I haven sidelines? He definitely thinks he's part of the team. I know, but he's not, he's not on the team.

Like I haven't seen him make one bucket for the team. His defensive play is, you know, not great. Trip one guy on the sidelines. There's definitely like a Spike Lee at Nick's element to it. It's just, it's different.

It just seems different. Yeah, it is different. Cause Drake is lame. Yeah. Might have something to do with it. Kind of. I mean, his public persona has taken a beating over the last little bit,

and this isn't helping, right? Let's put it lightly, I think, yeah. Yeah, like if you have a personal beef with DeMar, that's one thing. But for what he is as a Raptor, that's a totally different thing. And when you start to blur those lines as a global ambassador, which is all he is global ambassador and guy that sits on the sidelines anyway that was the more interesting story for the raps for me i um i kind of glossed over the whole let's retire a noted traders jersey

mook how all that you're listening to the best of halford and brough