Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 1/14/25

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk the latest NHL news with analyst Ray Ferraro, plus the boys set up tonight's Canucks road matchup in Winnipeg 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. The Vancouver Canucks, a sight for sore eyes at practice yesterday in Winnipeg. Defenseman Philip Hronik rejoined the team, went through his paces at practice and is a game time decision, Jason, for tonight's game. Five o'clock puck drop in Winnipeg. I guess I'm I was wrong yesterday. I said, you know, there's reports of him coming back, but you know, I, this was obviously before he'd practice, but I thought he would take a few more practices

before he'd be back in the lineup right away. But I guess he was practicing, I didn't know this, he was practicing with a no contact jersey in Abbotsford on the conditioning loan. And I guess his return is in line with the six to eight weeks he was supposed to miss from early December. Um, obviously they felt he was close enough since he flew all the way to Winnipeg for the

final practice of the road trip. So it's good as long as he's not being rushed back into the lineup and he's ready to roll. Let's see what he's got because the Canucks have dearly missed Philip Hronik. I think they've done valiantly to hang on and not completely collapse, especially with all the other injuries that have cropped up along the way. Presumably Guillaume Brizbaugh will come out of the lineup to make way for Hronik. We'll see if Hughes and him are reunited. I assume they will be, although I do think

Hughes did okay without Hronik. We're still talking about MVP Hughes and marveling at how well he was playing without his regular D partner. So maybe at some point it's worth looking at some other pairings. I'm not sure if I'm mentally ready to see Myers and Suzy again tonight, but that could be a possibility. And I guess the other news is that Brandstrom cleared waivers. So he's still with us guys. He's still with us. Just us being, you know, adjacent, us adjacent, because he's going to be joining the Abbotsford Canucks in short order here. So are you surprised by how quickly the Horonic Return happened? Or did I just misread

things? Because, you know, it went down to Abbotsford on a conditioning loan. I just thought maybe it would take longer to ramp up because we've seen so many Canucks and it's kind of like, are they ready yet? I don't know if they're ready yet. So when he got, when the conditioning loan was announced, Tocket spoke to the media and said that, you know, Hironic had been skating pretty hard in the aforementioned

non-contact jersey and that it it sounded as though the conditioning stint was really just to get him a couple extra practices with, because he wasn't gonna be able to practice with the Canucks, just get him through his paces. So it doesn't really surprise me because it is within that six day window, the week window. The other thing that, you know, I kind of looked at the schedule

and this is a big game for the Canucks tonight. This is the class of the Western Conference right now. This is a Winnipeg Jets team and we'll talk about them a fair bit on today's show with Jim Toth and we can get into it as well. They are tied for first overall in the NHL on 61 points. They've got top three in goals for top three and goals against. I think they've got the best power play in the NHL. Like this is a very loaded and stack team. I don't think that you would rush Philip Horonik back for like a quote unquote

measuring stick game, but I will say this, the Cucks are going to throw as close to their most loaded uppercut this season as they have if Philip Horonik returns to the lineup tonight, because outside of Dakota Joshua, this is your team. This is what the Canucks ideally wanted to ice from game one of the regular season. If not for all these injuries and all these hiccups and all

these little fires that have been burning throughout the season. This is as close to the locked and loaded. This is what our ideal lineup would look like. And I don't think it's- Pre-trade deadline, pre-trade deadline. Yeah, but I'm saying- You havetrade deadline, pre-trade deadline. Yeah, but I was saying-

You have to acknowledge that, pre-trade deadline. I would go all the way back to when they signed DeBrusk and Heinen and Kiefer-Sherwood on July 1, everyone was kind of penciling this to be what the lineup would look like. A healthy Demko back in the mix, all your forwards rolling. And now finally, your defense as close to, as constructed on July 1 with the guys that are going to

be in, this is it. Again, I'm not saying that they're loading up for a January 14th matchup against the Winnipeg Jets. Well, they're out of the playoffs now. They're currently out of a playoff position because Calgary used its game in hand to beat the Chicago Blackhawks, which isn't particularly different, difficult, but, uh, the flames beat the Blackhawks five to two. So Calgary in Vancouver have each played 42 games, 40 games left for each of those teams.

Calgary has 49 points. The Canucks have 48. Um, is it going to be a two horse race between Calgary and Vancouver for the second wild card spot? What other scenarios could we envision? Because I'd be surprised if the Canucks catch the top four teams in the central division. That would be Winnipeg, who we're going to see

tonight, Minnesota, Dallas, Dallas is on fire right now. Dallas plays Toronto tonight. And then you've got Colorado currently in the first wild card spot and they're five points up on the Canucks. Now Colorado has been a little bit inconsistent this year, but they're seven, two and one in their last 10.

They're probably going to be okay. And then I think the Canucks would be hard pressed to pass Vegas, Edmonton, or LA in the Pacific division. LA is in the third place right now. They're only five points up on the Canucks, so maybe the Canucks could catch them, but they're playing pretty well right now. And if you look at the goal differential of all those teams, up on the Canucks. So maybe the Canucks could catch them, but they're playing pretty well right now. And if you look at the goal differential of all those teams, they're pretty superior to the Canucks.

Now granted, you know, Drantz does have that sleeping giant theory, so maybe the Canucks could get red hot at some point in the second half. But right now to me, it looks like it's going to be between Calgary and Vancouver for that second wild card spot. And none of the teams below them look particularly worrying. Now there's always a chance that a team like St. Louis or Utah gets hot, but Anaheim,

Seattle, Nashville, San Jose, Chicago, those are the only other teams to me. He does really hit the skids lately They yeah, they have two wins in their last. Yeah, maybe St. Louis So the connects are gonna see st. Louis and I was looking at the flame schedule They have two games in st. Louis in a row. Hmm. I wonder if that's weird. Is that Does anyone know what's going on with with that? I don't know the inner. That's not like rescheduling thing. Is that, does anyone know what's going on with that? I don't know the inner workings of the cup. That's no like rescheduling thing, is it? No, because, well, if I'm not mistaken, they made up the Kings game, right?

That was what Sunday's game was, the postponed one from the week due to the wildfires, so I'm not mistaken. Well, I don't, but I'm not 100% certain why they're playing two games in a row in St. Louis. I do know this, to get back to your original question, right now, I would say that the West is not shaping up to be anywhere close to the meat grinder

that the Eastern Conference Playoff Chase is gonna be. And I would have to talk myself into St. Louis and Utah being in that mix. If it came down to Calgary and Vancouver for that last wild card spot. And again, we're not ruling out the fact that anyone could get on a heater and drastically turn this thing around.

Five, Connexor five points out of third spot in the division. Granted, the Kings have a game in hand. So there's still some wiggle room there. But the thing with those three teams in the Pacific right now and why it's gonna be tough to displace them is they haven't really shown any signs of wobble all year.

If you go look at their goal differential, they're all plus 20. Like they've all come by. It's come by merit that they're in that mix. And if you look, no extended losing streaks. If you look at their form over the last 10, they're all on six or seven wins over the last 10 games. Vegas is a very good team. I think that goes without saying. I watched Edmonton in L.A. last night in a barn burner, a one, nothing

affair from Edmonton and it was almost, it had a, a playoff vibe to it because of how low scoring tight checking it was. And it was funny because in the aftermath, they were asking Leon Dreisaitl about the Kings and he said, he's like, look, they're just a really good team, they're really hard to play against. They're really structured They play to their style. He didn't say it, but I will they've got way better goaltending this year Darcy Kemper's played above and beyond I think what a lot of people expected

So I'm ready to put those three teams in the mix and probably if I was to handicap it to the end of the season I'd go Vegas Edmonton and LA 1 2 3 in the division which means the Canucks would then be playing For the wild card. If it comes down to Vancouver and Calgary, I think it'll be a lot of fun down the stretch. I'm not exactly sure if you can expect Calgary to hang around.

I'm not prepared to lose that race. No. That would be devastating. Calgary's right. To Calgary. Calgary right now is being propped up by Dustin Wolf, a wildly overachieving Jonathan Huberto. I know he's getting paid and I know that the

production is now commensurate with the $10 million he's making a year. Not even. But it still feels like he's overproducing from where he's at in his career. But they are, I mean, they're really just sort of, if you go through their lineup, like the bottom six forward group is real thin and the defensive

group outside of Uygur and Anderson's pretty thin, but they're managing to get the job done. They're, they're punching above their weight. If the Canucks cannot beat out Calgary for that final wild card spot. Well. That would be bad.

I think they will. I think they will. I'm very interested to see how the Canucks move on from this juncture, because two things have happened at the end of this road trip. One, they got that win in Toronto and it was a pretty comprehensive victory on the heels of a not great performance in Carolina.

I think more importantly is that they're getting all their guys back and I listened to Rick Talkett and to Quinn Hughes speak to the media yesterday and they both went out of their way to talk about how sound and how good the team has played defensively especially over the last three games of this trip they've only given up four goals or the last three games on this trip and three of them came in regulation time the one

other one was the Dubois winner against Washington so if you want to look at going out on the road playing against three pretty good opponents playing against some high-sc scoring teams as well, especially in the case of Washington and Toronto, they've done a remarkable job of like batting down the hatches and keeping things tight and not allowing goals. And Hughes mentioned the four goals against and Tauke mentioned it in their media availability.

Now you get the added boost of Herona coming back and go look at the games on the horizon. We talked about this yesterday. When the Canucks come home from this road trip. It's not like they got a couple of layup games on the horizon. Thursday night, it's going to be the Los Angeles Kings, the team they're chasing in the division. Then there's that big game on Saturday against Connor McDavid, Leon Drysidle and the Edmonton Oilers.

So they have got a couple of really big tests, tests that are going to see and test, pardon the double use of test there, the consistency of this team. Can they put forth the kind of effort and the kind of performance and the results that they got in Toronto on Saturday against another good opponent in Winnipeg, then another good opponent in the Los Angeles Kings, then another good opponent in the Edmonton Oilers. If they can do that, I really do wonder if the tide and the vibes of the season might turn around because they do need to find some consistency

and they need better performances against good opponents. It would be really nice if they could just rip off a winning streak and give themselves a little bit of cushion in the playoff race. They did have some playoff race cushion early on, but they used up all that with some of the injuries and inconsistent play. Jay texts in with an interesting question here.

Has the Myers Hughes pairing worked well enough in Hronik's absence that Alveen should look to acquire a higher end left hand defender to play with Hronik's absence that Alveen should look to acquire a higher end left-hand defender to play with Hronik on a second pair. That would cost less than a right shot defender and should allow the team to keep Lekker, Mackie and Willander. I still think if you're asking for a second pair left shot defender it's still gonna be expensive but forget the price if it's still going to be expensive, but forget the price. If it's cheaper, that might be the route to go anyway, because of Carson's Susie struggles.

You know, for me, it might be more important to get Susie off the second pair than Meyers off the second pair. So like, I like what you're thinking here, Jay. It's a good question. But I do think the Canucks will probably, if I'm going to bet on this, have Hughes and Hronik together. So now they might change it in which case that would be a good thought to find someone to play with

Hronik on a second pair and you have Hughes and Myers together. And then the third pair could be, it could be Juleson on the right side and Derek Forebort on the left, assuming those guys can stay healthy, especially Forebort. Then you would have Juleson in your top six though, when you're sixth defenseman.

I don't know how they feel about that. I don't know how they feel about that. I don't know how you feel about that, but for me, if Hronik is back now, the guy I'm watching the closest, assuming Hronik is playing up to the level. Right. First Hronik then. Is Carson Soucy. Yeah. Because he has just been, he's, he's struggling so much with the puck and frankly, at

times without the puck, he's really having a tough time. On a blue line that's had its fair share of problems this year, I think it's fair to say, and feel free to counter Dunbar Lumbert's X-line at 650, 650. I feel confident in saying that Carson Sussie has been the most problematic blue liner from game one to where we're at now, game 42 or 43 of the season. And a lot of it has to do with the fact that he's really, really struggled under pressure. And then it feels like those struggles have translated over 20s, not under pressure to where you almost wonder if he has the yips. Also, he would have been a guy that you would have hoped could have stepped up in the absences

the Canucks have had at times on the blue line this year. If you look at that team and it's like, we're gonna need more out of certain guys, Susie would have been one of them. And he kind of did the inverse. He almost struggled when higher expectations, bigger TOI and more workload came upon him. It felt like he really kind of created a little bit.

They heard any more. I don't think, it was funny. I was watching the Hughes media availability yesterday and to the very end, they asked him like, oh, what was it like having Hronik back? And he got a big grin on his face and he's like, Hronik looked great. And then he sighed.

He's like, he always looks great. So obviously he's going right back in playing with Hughes. I love him. Yeah, Hughes has been waiting for this for six weeks. So that'll be that pairing. I understand what our Texler was saying about having Myers out there with Hughes and maybe trying to keep it together, but you got to remember Hughes is the captain and he's your best player. He probably has some clout, probably has some say about who he wants to play with. And I got a feeling it'll be heroic. Sam Darnold, poor guy.

He's lost a lot of money in the last little while. Although I was looking at something on social media that was estimating his next contract and it was still like $160 million over four years. So I think he's still gonna make some money, but man, did he turn into a pumpkin against the Rams last night? Yeah, that was a tough scene for the Minnesota Vikings, although a great scene for the Los Angeles Rams in a very trying week for the city of Los Angeles. Dominant, dominant defensive performance

from the Rams on Monday night. They sacked Sam Darnold, an NFL record tying playoff bracket, nine times in a 27 to nine victory over the Minnesota Vikings in a game that, as we mentioned, was moved from Southern California to Arizona. It was a awful night for Sam Darnold. I know that the story should probably be about what the Rams did and how they moved on,

but everybody, everybody was talking about a 14 win Minnesota Vikings team that got exposed over the last week of the regular season, losing in Detroit and then further exposed last night. And the number one exposee, I think that's a word exposee, exposerd, exposed Sam Darnold, the quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. Just an awful performance for him.

JJ McCarthy was trending during the game. Not surprisingly, he's the young quarterback. They drafted and then McCarthy got hurt, foisting the job upon Sam Darnold and Sam Darnold took the job and ran with it really, and played very well right up until the last week of the season. And then that last week didn't go very well. And then the playoff game didn't go very well.

The Vikings have actually been, a lot of people have asked me, are the Vikings in the sad club? And I, and I've originally did not have them in the sad club because in 1969, they won the NFL championship, but here's where things get a little bit weird They also lost the Super Bowl that year Well, because there was four years the first four Super Bowls They still had like an NFL championship and then 1970 was the AFL NFL Merger got it. There was like a they signed a merger agreement I think four years before it actually happened. Okay, so I always said if you had an NFL championship

You couldn't be in the sad club, right? Right. Yes, but that was that should have been So what happened was the AFL when it was going was still considered like the lesser league the inferior the inferior league it was like you know most people and the first two Super Bowls the NFL team the teams that were in the NFL as boasted AFL they dominated the Super Bowls right and then what happened in Super Bowl three the Jets right the Jets yeah yeah Joe Namath and the Jets went in as huge underdogs. Shocked the world. And they shocked the world, and they

beat the Baltimore Colts. And all of a sudden, people were like, maybe this AFL isn't so bad after all. But still, in the fourth Super Bowl, I did some research last night. Yeah, good job. The Minnesota Vikings, they won the NFL championship and then they got the Kansas

city chiefs in the Super Bowl. People still thought the NFL was so much better than the AFL. And so the Vikings were the heavy favorites in that Super Bowl. They lost to the chiefs. They got smoked. Yeah.

As a matter of fact, that was Hank Stram. Yeah. And matriculate the ball down the field. And then the, and then the, the two leagues merged and we just went into the Superbowl era. Um, so that was the year that kept the Vikings out of the sad club, right? So I've actually made the decision after going

back and looking at things and thinking about the Vikings, thinking about the four times they've lost in the Superbowl, thinking about that 1998 NFC title game where Gary Anderson, who never missed a kick, missed a kick and they lose to the Atlanta Falcons in overtime when the other Anderson had a field goal, thought about last night. And I think this is history here. I've never done this, and especially on air. I am changing an earlier decision. Now-

And the Minnesota Vikings are in the sad club now. This is a pretty big deal. They're a pretty big deal for the Haliford and Bruff show. Yeah. The rules of the sad club were unflinchinching and very regimented and you're like, is this a sort of a, in a vacuum isolated decision? Like you're not, you're not changing the parameters. You're not setting a precedent. Well, I mean, I think that-

But you are opening Pandora's box here, pal. I think a lot of things could end up in court now. Yeah. So, you know, this is maybe a controversial decision, but I think justice would be served because if there are any Vikings fans out there, maybe long suffering Vikings fans, do you guys feel like you have ever won a championship?

Like the Leafs fans will say, yeah, we've won a Stanley Cup, which keeps them out of the sad club. It does. Right? But the Vikings fans, do they feel like 1969 was their championship? Or because they lost that Super Bowl,

do they feel like they still haven't won a title? An immediate unsigned text from a Vikings fan into the Dunbar Lumbertex message in basket. I've watched all four Super Bowl losses. The Vikings definitely belong in the sad club. Early returns, but positive returns for this historic day in the sad club on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. You're listening to the best of Halford and Bruff.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Bruff. OK, to the phone lines we go. Ray Ferraro joins us now on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Is there an obvious Stanley Cup favorite? I don't know what obvious, I think there's probably, it's probably about a four or five teams that I, when I think of, you know, the best teams who, who they would be, I think the West is deeper, um, with the top end contenders than, than the East. And it's funny how they kind of like, then over the, over like a three or four period, year period, that will switch back and forth.

Right. But when I look in the, in the East, I know Toronto's got the, you know, got the most points in the Atlantic, but, but I think everything in that division goes through Florida. I did their game the other day, they lost to Boston. They outshot them. I want to say it was like 45 to 20, something like that. They shot attempts for like a million. It was like, it was crazy how somehow Florida did not win.

I think they're, I think they're the class of, of the Eastern conference and B they've got Kaepernick, they need a defenseman and I think they'll go do it. But right now they don't seem to be too worried, but they're not quite where I think they're going to be. Um, I do think Jersey's dangerous. I think they're, I think they're a good team. Um, Carolina, I always think is going to be better than they are. Like, you know, we watched game against Canucks the other day.

You're like, how does anybody ever get a shot against them? Yet they seem to be missing something in, in the playoffs. Like they can't quite get to that next spot. I think Florida is the best in the, in the East. Oh West, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vegas to me are, are like kind of the, the class of it. And yet Dallas just won seven in a row. Like Dallas is really good. So now that's four teams. Did you, did you guys watch the game last night? Um, the Edmonton LA game? Like I didn't see that.

Yeah, no. Oh my God. It was an unreal game. It very, very, very rarely is a one nothing game. Any good. Uh, this was awesome. Like it was playoff. The goalies were outstanding.

It should have been four-three, something like that. And so can you take LA out of the mix? And so I would say those are the, you know, those are the Winnipeg, Vegas, Edmonton at the very top. Dallas a smidge below right now, LA right there too. So I think there's more teams in the west than these. So much focus on Winnipeg is on Connor Hellebuck and rightly so.

He's a very good goalie, arguably the best goalie in the world. But I was looking at the power play numbers the other day and I think Winnipeg's in the 30% range. What has happened to the Jets this season that you've seen that have made them this juggernaut through the first half of the NHL season? Okay.

So I thought coming into the year, like it's a really good team, right? Like you could see from the last couple of years, although the playoffs have not gone very well for them that, hey, this is a, it's a good team. I thought it was really like an incredible shot in the arm that they got both Shifely and Halabuck signed to deals, right? Like that, I think it just changes the whole narrative in Winnipeg about what they could be. But when I look at their team, I always think depth and, you know, like, you know, they have a four line game, they have a good defense and I think Halibuck

is one of the best. But what's changed for them is like, like Gabe Velardi is finally healthy. And this, and it goes back to depth again. So Velardi is healthy. He's got like 18 or 19 goals. Ehlers has missed about 10 games and he's a really, really dangerous player at the top end of the lineup. Conor is one of the most underrated players at the star level in the league. And if, you know, in Winnipeg, maybe that's what you get. You get a, you know, a step below what people notice first, but that guy is that he's a hell of a player.

There's not, there's not a part of the game that he's not dangerous at. Shifey probably should be on team Canada. I haven't had a fantastic year. Um, they're just, they're just good. Like when you look around, they're big. They skate well. They have a depth to their team that's hard to match. Like that third, I guess they call it their third line, but Lowry's line is really, really something. So like they can match them up against the big line. They can match them up against the skilled line. They're kind of rolling at the peak. And the trick for them, of course, and they can't fix it until April, is nobody really cares.

Because when you have the regular season success that they've had, the only thing that matters is how you do it in the playoffs. What happens there. Same for Hellebock and all these guys. They're like, yeah, okay, great. I'm sure they think it too. Let me know, you just stay in the moment as much as you can, but you look to April and go, man, that's really the only time that matters.

Ray, when you broke into the NHL in the mid 80s, the Islanders dynasty had just turned into the Edmonton Oilers dynasty had just turned into the Edmonton Oilers dynasty. Um, there isn't really dynasties like that in the NHL anymore. Um, we kind of talk ourselves into dynasties, but they're not like winning four in a row or the Oilers did four or five and probably should have

won five in a row. Um, which way do you prefer? Do you prefer there to be a dominant team that needs to be knocked off or do you prefer it like it is now where there's maybe, I don't know, almost 10 teams that you could talk yourself into having a chance at winning the cup? I hate saying that I think this is better

because like I remember when, you know, just prior to the, um, you know, the Oilers in the, uh, in the Islander is just the Canadians won, I think five in a row. Like the re I think it was 14 years, three teams won the cup. Right. Like how. Canada was well represented back then. And my dad loved the Canadians and I loved the

Bruins and so every year he would just kind of get to get up really quietly when they presented the cup to the Canadians and not have to say much again. Right. Um, but how, when you think of it, how can that be best for a 32 team league? It just can't be. Like you have too many teams that would not have a

chance that like in the in the dynasty system. Like I don't love the cap. I really don't. I think that it artificially decreases salaries. And of course I'm a players. I'm looking at it from a players thing because you've got the cap, which is the rookie cap, which is inside the cap, which then limits to what free agency can do and all these things that really kind of push down salary. But the fact of the matter is you can't have three teams with a chance to win. Nobody would watch. There's enough teams when you look at their standings, there's enough teams that are, they can pretend that they're sort of in a playoff race, but they're not.

But if you did this in the old way, you'd have 15 teams that would be given tickets away now. Like it just doesn't work. And that's what the cap I think does. It takes the bottom and makes it better. And it takes the top and says, sorry, you can only be this good. Yeah.

So what Tampa, so what Tampa did three years in a row to the finals is amazing. Like two years, three years ago, Florida won the president's trophy that I think 122 points. And then the next year they went to the finals and remember their team was decimated. They got slapped in the finals and then they win the cup.

I mean, like these are as close to, it's not a dynasty. It's the, the top and opening of a window that, that has been taken advantage of. And that's what those teams have done because I think, I think that's really about like how long can it be five years maybe like maybe before you're the guy that give you all that depth they go wait a minute I'm a free agent now and I can make a lot of money and I need to look after me and that's what that's where teams get broken up. We're speaking to Ray Ferraro here on the Haliford and Bref show on

Sportsnet 650. You mentioned the Florida Panthers there Ray. I know you worked their game on the weekend against the Boston Bruins. Did you see any evidence of the rift between Brad Marshawn and David Postronka that's ripping the Bruins limb from limb? Yeah, I heard it's awful. I heard it's awful in there. They can barely go to work.

Yeah. It's terrible. I don't know what to say about that. It's really like. How do they look? I, the Bruins? Yeah. Terrible. Yeah.

Like they, they look slow and underskilled. Um, okay. So this is actually on the, on the heels of talking about dynasties or whatever for, for pretty much a decade, the Bruins have been. Like they've been one of the best, very best teams in the league. And yeah, you have some years that don't go

quite as good as others, but you start pulling players out of the lineup. Retirement, of course, was Bergeron and Crachy and Chara. Like, how are you going to replace those guys? And then you have some cap issues where players get a chance to leave. And in the midst of trying to be one of the best teams in the league, you trade away all your draft picks. You trade away, um, you know, your young prospects because, you know, they,

two years ago when they had 132 points, I thought they had a great trade deadline and none of it worked. Like I remember that deadline. I was like, wow, they, they did a really good job here. They brought in the pieces that they needed. They got to, they got, they were in the enviable position that they got to go out and target shop. You know, we need this.

They went and got it. They did it three or four times and then it all fell flat. Or in the meantime, now you've got no young players. They have no prospects that they're super excited about. And the problem with that is the ones that you do have maybe are middle of lineup guys, they still take two years or three years once you get to pro in most cases to be a legitimate, uh, player that can, that can help your team, like they can be a contributor.

And so they are, they're in a so they're in a tough spot here. I mean, they're gonna win games because they got enough good players left. I know it's not had a great year, but Swainman's really good. I mean, they won the game the other day because Swainman was just brilliant, but they just don't have enough.

And look, they're getting a, I don't know what they thought they were getting with Elias Lindholm. Um, but remember when he came and that first 20 games or whatever, he had the bad wrist, but he scored the two games. He had two power play goals and then nothing. And, and that's kind of the player they get, like he, he works hard. I think he tries hard. I think he tries hard.

I think he's a smart player. I think he's at best the two, probably like a two minus centerman and, and I would want him on my team all day. However, when you have them at the top of your lineup, you just don't have the creativity to help a 36 year old Brad Marsh and, or David Posternak's a one man band. He's got to create the chance and finishing and like, it doesn't go very well. Who's having a tougher time this season, Lindholm or Zdorov?

Oh Lindholm. Zdorov, he's, I'd say the last month, he's played like, you know, the, there's a door off that fans really liked here. Okay. You know, he's been, he's rumbling around the ice a little more. He's a little bit more physical, but in control. I'm totally entertained by that guy, by the way. Like- He's great.

He's hilarious. He, every so often like I'll be so often, he comes over and he says, hi, I don't really know him. I played golf with him one time, which to see a guy holding a standard golf club at that size, it's like he's got a children's toy. But he'll stand up on the bench and kind of turn his shoulders. If the's standing, if the D is right beside me, he'll stand there. I can't see. And he does it.

So like I reach around the glass and I'm kind of like swatting them to try and get them to move. Cause I know he's doing it on purpose, right? Get the hell out of the way, you big monster. It's like, it's like trying to turn left and someone's in your passenger seat and they're leaning forward and you're like, we're going to get smoked soon. Oh, isn't that nice to help from the passenger seat? Yeah.

It's always one of the, the car is not my strongest suit, by the way, it's not my, it's not a place I excel. Ray, I want to talk a little bit of Canucks here. Um, what will the return of Hronach mean for the Canucks, assuming that he plays tonight in Winnipeg? Well, I won't say it changes everything, but whatever's next door to everything, that's

what it changes, right? You got to remember he's been out, what, has he been out two months? Six weeks? Yeah, early December. I think, I think it'll end up being around six weeks. You know, it's so like like it's like everything, uh, from,

so from the simple thought of that's 20 minutes a game that somebody else had to play. Right. There's nobody on this team with the skillset that he has. And it's not necessarily the points in the offense, but I'm sure that's going to be a welcome addition. Um, it's going to be when he gets the puck on his stick and he moves it with

one pass out of the zone, not a flip off the glass, but one pass that hits the centerman right on the tape or hits the far winger on the tape and the winger is in stride. I don't think the correlation from defense to offense is understood enough. We all focus on, you know, do they get enough shots, do they get enough traffic, could they drive into the middle of the ice? Like all the things that are apparent, right? But it all starts with the first pass that hits the pop hits the forward in

stride, there is nothing that can sap your offense more than a path that clanks off the forward's feet. And everybody's got to stop. Even if you get control of a puck, now you're stopped. And then your only play at this point is to chip it into their zone. Because if you don't, you turn it over and now you're doubly screwed. So I think, I think, Heronics ability to play those 20 minutes, to move the puck as efficiently

as he does is like, it's a gift. It's a gift to get him back. And you got to remember too, he's been out this time and so there's, he'll probably be clanking a few pocks here tonight too, that if he does play that, you know, that he wouldn't normally, that's, that's just the way, that's just the way the layoffs usually go. You know, with the importance of moving the puck and hitting the other team's blue line with speed, there is a balance though, because if that was the only thing that was important, then Eric

Brandstrom probably would have stayed in the lineup. Yesterday he cleared waivers. What was it about Brandstrom's game that you think that this coaching staff just didn't like, didn't feel that they could put him into the lineup, despite some of his abilities that some of the other Canucks defensemen did not have. Okay.

If you're a, if you're a player that has a, an obvious con to their game, not a pro, but a con, and Brandstrom it's his size, then you have to have such a heavy pro to overcome that. And if you can't, the con will always be bigger. Does that make sense? Yes. Like the way that I said that, that will always be bigger. Does that make sense? Yes. Like the way that I said that, like that will always be bigger. I felt fatal flaw. Yeah.

It's like every time I lost a puck battle, I would be so pissed off going back up the ice because I knew the coaching staff is like, see, you lost the battle cause he's small. No, sometimes you lose a battle cause you're, you lose a battle. But for me all the time, it was because I was small. So like I quite sense where the problem is with Branstrom is that when he gets beat on a one-on-one, it's different than a six foot three guy getting beat on a one-on-one. I mean a puck battle in the corner.

If he doesn't box out in front of the net, it's different than a six-foot three guy. So how do you overcome that? You have enough positivity to your offensive game. You generate enough chances. You generate that pass out of the zone. There was not a big enough difference between the low and the high. He makes questionable plays with the puck and some of that might be that you're infrequently in and out of the lineup, right? But it almost, the margin for a player like Eric Brandstrom, and it's not just with talk and this staff, is in this lead is very slight. The margin is very slight because you have to be, I mean, I'm just going to make up a number here. You've got to be four good plays to one bad play.

It might even be bigger than that because your one bad play stands out like when you hit your thumb with a hammer. It's like, everybody hears and screams. Everybody hears it. And so 31 other teams feel the same way as on Eric Branstrom today. Now maybe in six weeks had this happened or six weeks ago, maybe that wouldn't have happened, you know, because teams would have been in different spots. But for like I said, I quite understand this look. Like I did it I quite understand this look.

Like I did it four brands from my, cause I felt it. I, you know, I was able to overcome it cause I did, you know, I had enough of the other bucket, you know, that I scored that, that maybe settled that down in the coach's eyes, but I knew it. I could feel it when I lost the battle or I got knocked down where other guys wouldn't. And I'm like, I know they're saying that's because I'm small and they can barely get by that. Right. This was great. And as always, thanks for taking the time to do it. We really appreciate it. At least you haven't internalized any of that throughout the rest of your life, right?

Yeah. Hey, look, look, you just, this is what I want your job to be for next week. I want you to listen to the professional approach of your partner. And I want you to bring a little bit of that. Okay. Just a little bit. I'll try and be more like Halford. Always on the ball, the show has been canceled.

Yeah. Isn't that your life goal? Totally. Yeah. Set a low bar and you can accomplish anything. You can do anything. You achieve all your hopes and dreams. All right, Ray. See you, buddy.

Have a great week, hey guys. You too, pal. You too, thanks. That's Ray Farrar here on the Haliford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Our next guest is a presentation of the hockey shop in Langley. He joins us now, Brendan Batchelor here on the Haliford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Brendan Batchelor, how are you? I'm well, how are you guys? We're good. We're eagerly anticipating tonight's game. We just spent about 20 minutes talking to

Jim Toth at a Winnipeg previewing the opponent for tonight. We're also excited not just because the Canucks are taking on a very good team in the Winnipeg Jets, but Philip Horonic may make his return to the lineup tonight. Are you anticipating that he'll be back in for this evening's match? Yeah, I guess I guess we'll have to wait and see officially, but things look to be trending in that direction. So you certainly hope for such a big game as this against the top team in the NHL or one of the top teams in the NHL anyway, that you could have your number two defenseman back in the lineup, just because we know the impact that he can make

not only coming back in and the way he plays and moves the puck and help support Queen Hughes assuming that they would play together, but also I think more importantly, that it slots some of the guys that have been playing way too much further down the lineup into roles that are more appropriate for them. Whether it's tonight or whether it's in the next few games, it will be exciting to see Philip Hronik back in the lineup whenever it might be. The fact that we still marveled at Quinn Hughes without Philip Hronik and the fact that Hughes' time on the ice was still positive for the Canucks.

Does it lend itself to the argument that maybe the Canucks should try pairing Philip Peronik with someone else besides Quinn Hughes? Yeah, I mean, I think it certainly does because we know that Quinn Hughes, basically whoever you throw on his right side, it doesn't matter. He's gonna help you control play and be very effective in that regard. And whether you play them together or apart all the time,

you're gonna use them together situationally anyway. So they're gonna see the ice together a fair bit. So I do wonder if, especially with some of the struggles that Carson Susie has had this year, if it might make sense to play Heronic with Susie and to keep Myers up with Hughes just because, you know, they've still been able to have success together in the absence of Philip Heronic. But that said, there have been stretches where when Hughes and Heronic play together, they're the best defensive pairing in the NHL, the underlying numbers

show that they have that ceiling and have that ability. So you know, if you're going to play them both 2324 25 minutes a night, you know, I can also see why the coaching staff would be tempted to play them together to allow them to have that that big impact. So I could see it going either way, I'll be interested to see the thinking behind how they deploy him not just in terms of who he plays with, but how much he plays coming back into the lineup after not playing since late November. But I'm sure that'll

be a conversation going forward as it has been really for a year and a half or more in Vancouver about the best way to deploy those two guys to have the most success for the group. And I think ultimately what will decide that is whether this management group can improve the blue line before the trade deadline and bring in another piece to help with some of their depth on

the bottom two pair. You mentioned the struggles of Carson Sousi. He's kind of become an under the radar, very important player for the Canucks in that if he continues to struggle, it just adds to the problems on the blue line. But if he doesn't, then if you are able to add a defenseman and it's a capable defenseman and Carson

Suzy finds his game and Philip Peronik is able to stay healthy and you've got guys playing in the slots where they should play, then all of a sudden you're looking at the blue line and going, it's not bad. Yeah, exactly. It doesn't take a lot, right? It might take adding one guy or Susie sort of playing some more appropriate minutes for where you had him slaughtered in the lineup and having some success in that regard to kind of turn things around for this blue line. And, you know, I thought they were really good

defensively as a group against the Maple Leafs on Saturday. So can that kind of be a turning point in the season or a game that they can build off of as a group. It'll be interesting to see, but you know, the most important part there I think is the minutes for Sousi and the minutes for guys that have had to be elevated up the lineup with the injury both to Hironik and while Hughes was out of the lineup.

Like I heard Ray talking about this with you guys last hour, those minutes had to go somewhere. Susie was playing 18 and a half minutes prior to Hironic's injury. He's been playing north of 20 minutes, almost two more minutes per game since Hironic went out. No, Juleson's been playing like three more minutes per game since Hironic went out as he's been elevated on that right side. So in some ways, when you look at it that way, it's kind of, or it is kind of predictable or was kind of predictable to see that the Canucks might have some defensive issues with one or both of their top guys out of the lineup. And so you hope that for those guys who have, you know, had some struggles in their

game at times, slotting them back into the roles they're used to, into the minutes they're used to, into the matchups they're used to, will allow them to gain some confidence in their individual games, and that can only be better for the collective as a whole. We're speaking of Brendan Batchelor,

Connects Play-by-Play man here on the Halford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Okay, I wanted to ask you this, given that you're calling these games and you're watching me as closely as anybody. How big a difference is there between, for example, the type of game that the Canucks played in two nothing loss to Carolina on Friday night

compared to the three nothing win they had on Toronto in Saturday night? And the obvious answer is Halford, you idiot, they did not score against Carolina. Yeah, you idiot. Whereas they scored three times against Toronto. One was a loss and one was a win. The point shots worked against Toronto.

See, this is what I'm saying. Like how honestly, Batch, like I think you know what I'm getting at here. How dramatically different was the Carolina game to the Toronto game? Honestly, not that dramatically different. And so because of the Canucks travel issues and getting into Toronto, I normally

do a pre-game interview with Rick Tauket. But I got to chat with Adam Foote before the game on Saturday because I think Tauket had to go on with Kyle Pocoskas on Hockey Night in Canada and had to do a big media scrum with the Toronto media. So I chatted with Adam Foote and I asked him the question about what do you guys need to do to generate a little bit more here as a group

coming off the game against Carolina. And he said going into the game against Toronto that actually from their analytics people and some of the underlying numbers that they did okay in Carolina. And he he said if we play that way again tonight It's likely to be a better outcome for us and that kind of for me was Sort of looking into the crystal ball because that's what happened. They get the early goal They're able to batten down the hatches

Defensively really limit the Maple Leafs top players and then when they build on that lead and they continue to play that way consistently defensively that's where they can have success. I think you know some of the trouble they've gotten into this year is first of all when they're chasing games so in Carolina you give up the early goal you get behind by a couple you're trying to battle back into that game and it doesn't go for you. You don't get the bounces or you know Carolina did I think a better job of suppressing some of their opportunities. And Rick Tauke at after that game talked a lot about guys passing up shooting opportunities or missing the net when they had their chances. Well they you know got more pucks and bodies to the net. They made Dennis Hildeby work a little bit more

on Saturday than they had done with Dustin Tukarski on Friday. And that was sort of the fine margin that it required for them to have success. Now, you know, I think it's going to be interesting going forward because there was so much talk coming into the season about them wanting to open things up a little bit more in terms of trying to generate off the rush. And obviously that hasn't really transpired to this point, you know, in part, I'm sure because of some of the injuries and the coaching staff having to play a little bit more conservatively or choosing to play a little bit more conservatively. So will they continue to play this style where they want to try and rely on,

on, you know, their strong defensive play, which to be fair, carried them through the second half of the season last year when they were one of the better defensive teams in the league and continue to generate offense the way that they have to this point and hope that they have a little bit more success in that regard. I think there is a pathway to getting results and finding your game by doing that. But at the same time, for the most part, I think some of their offensive struggles can be tied to their top players not producing enough.

So if Alias Patterson and JT Miller can get going, then that would certainly help this team as well. But that's a long-winded way of saying that I didn't see a whole lot of difference in those two performances. It's just the puck went in for them on Saturday and it didn't on Friday. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.