Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 11/5/24

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they go around the NHL with analyst Ray Ferraro, plus they set up tonight's Canucks road matchup in Anaheim 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 practiced yesterday at the Honda Center, the location of tonight's game against the Ducks, also at the Honda Center. And it was a Pew Suter love-in yesterday at practice. Everyone loves the diminutive, not fast, we'll get to that in a moment, Swiss Forward, who has three of the last four Canucks goals dating all the way back to the Carolina game. Well, we talked yesterday about whether or not

the Canucks would be able to keep that Suter, Pedersen, Garland line together because after they sent Nils Amon down and he cleared waivers and he went to Abbotsford, they only had four centers on the roster, but lo and behold, Suter, Garland, and Pedersen were together at practice and they had Baines as the center on the fourth line. And Tuckett was asked afterwards, do you see Baines as a center? And he said, no, no, no, I don't. And then he said, I'm going to talk to Patrick, being Patrick Galvin, the general manager, about a possible call-up. Now, fortunately, the Abbotsford Canucks are down in California as well. So it would be an easy call-up. And Atu Ratu's name came up.

Rick Talk had brought it up, and he said, you know, I heard Ratu's playing well down there, but I got to talk to Patrick. So we'll see if there is an Atu Ratu call-up today, and then Ratu would be in the lineup as the fourth-line center, allowing Suter, who everyone was talking about

is a really smart player, not the fastest guy everyone seemed to mention. Like, everyone was like, he's not the fastest guy. Talk it. Maybe not the fastest guy. Garland was talking about him.

You know, he's not the fastest guy. Talk it. Maybe not the fastest guy. Garland was talking about him. You know, he's not the fastest guy and even he'll admit that. And Suter's probably sitting there going like, guys, I'm not that slow. I'm right here behind you. Why is everyone pointing that part at me? Next time they ask Suter about what he brings to the team, he should be like, my speed.

Yeah. Anyway, we've got some audio that Halford and Laddie clipped. So why don't you guys run us through the Suter passive-aggressive loving. Well, aside from diminishing his foot speed and ability to skate, Talkit was complimentary of the player. And there's a good back and forth here with IMAC because IMAC astutely points out,

hey, you guys went out and loaded up on wingers in the offseason and that was presumably so that Suter could play the center position which Tuckett has said on a number of occasions they see him as a center so what exactly is going on here and you can hear the answer now Rick Tuckett after practice yesterday ahead of tonight's game

Canucks Ducks 7 o'clock from the Honda Center yeah I would say hockey IQ I think that's one thing that he's really good at. Like he, you know, what he makes up for whatever. He knows that he's not the fastest player out there, but when you have

a brain like that, you can make up for that. And I think that's where he's really good at. It seemed like the idea when the organization signed all these wingers is that Puce would go back to playing center because you'd have upgrades on the wing. Has he trumped those upgrades? Is he sort of proving hard to replace up there? Well, that's a good question.

I think it's still early in the season, so I think we've got to get some guys going, some wingers going, obviously. But I just think he's, especially the last week or so, 10 days, I think he deserves more ice time. Putting him on that line, obviously, he comes up big for us. It's something I'm going to have to do more often. Probably going to keep him on that line. I think he deserves it.

But he's still a valuable guy as a centerman, too, for us. So when Talkett says... You can hear it at the end there. It's just here at the end there. He's like, but he's still probably more valuable to us as a centerman. Yeah, yeah. He knows this isn't the ideal situation. Well, when Talkett says we got to get some wingers going here,

who do you think he's talking about? Because the first name that come to mind for me was Hoagland. Hey, me too. I think you could maybe throw Sprong in the mix as well. DeBrus got his goal, but I think if you were to ask, talk it collectively over the first 10 games, you'd say we probably need a little bit more out of Jake DeBrus than one goal in the 10 games.

Again, you could either look at this glass half full or glass half empty, right? You could say the glass half full is that Pew Suter, reminder on a very affordable contract is playing so well and has the kind of chemistry that you just can't take him out of that top top six forward role it's a good thing the negative is that you need pew suitor to be in a top six forward role because you've tried other guys and you've tried all these other wingers that you brought in and it's not clicking as effectively as a guy that has 75 of your goals over the last four or last three games so i know it's pretty early to bring this

up but never too early sometimes i wonder how much longer hogue linder has with the organization i'll be honest with you that's that's okay yeah that's fine bringing that up because um they sign them to the extension and that provides cost certainty yes and they're gonna have to give to get something if they're gonna go get a defenseman um and frankly um you know it doesn't seem like it doesn't seem like talk it is a massive Hoaglander fan. He only played, Hoaglander only played 10 minutes against the San Jose Sharks. He really likes Baines. And I know, listen, this isn't me. Don't yell at me. But you can tell that Talkett really has a soft spot for Baines. Every time he talks about him, he has good things to say as if he expects

there's going to be more from the player. Now, I know a lot of people have texted into the show and said that Yogi has worked with Baines throughout,

I don't know, his career or something like that. I don't know. I don't know the story there, but so there's maybe a relationship there, but I don't think that's Talkit just, you know, like, oh, Yogi likes there, but I don't think that's Talkett just like,

oh, Yogi likes him, so I like him. Talkett has his own opinions, and he really likes Baines. And then you also have to consider that there are some guys down on the farm that might get the call, one of them being Lekker Mackey, and then where does that leave Hoaglander when dakota joshua is also back too like the numbers game does not look good for hoaglander and if you're talking about making a trade i think there would be teams very much interested in hoaglander as opposed to like well why don't they trade sprung well because sprung doesn't have

the value the modern whipping boy doesn't really exist anymore it's not a whipping boy just listen to me the modern whipping boy doesn't really exist it's not like back in the day where you had some guy that you could take out all your frustrations on or have perennially in the dog house if there's anything remotely close to it on this team, with this dynamic, with this head coach and this player, it's Hoaglander for sure. Hoaglander is the only one that gets the verbal call-outs. That Talkit will check himself when it comes to criticizing other guys. He'll come out and say,

I didn't like Hoagie's game at all. And Petey. Well, I'm not going to pick on the whole lot. Then he'll check himself. Right? You got to remember who was deemed healthy, scratch-worthy in the playoffs last year. Up front, it was Hoaglander. Yeah.

So you're saying if the Canucks trade for defenseman, it's Hoaglander going the other way. Is it really what you're getting at? Well, you know what, Andy? I don't even mind that one. That's not so bad. I mean, realistically, if there was one guy that they would move... I thought you would have it in a package including Elias Pettersson, but I like what you did there.

I just wonder so much because, again, it's more a numbers game than anything in a way. Joshua isn't going to be back. And I realize there will be other injuries, but what Lekker Amaki is doing in the AHL to start the season is pretty impressive.

Not just his goal totals, but his, I think his shot totals as well. Um, you know, I, I've just been wondering about it. That's all. So I'd love to hear your thoughts into the Dunbar Lumber text line, 650, 650,50. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome details at DunbarLumber.com. This was supposed to be a Pew suitor loving,

and I guess my stupid comment has probably caused people to wonder about Nils Hoeglander. But when Hoeglander, he can't seem to take advantage of that spot, which I think a lot of people said, oh, that would be perfect for him. He can play with DeBrusque and Petey at the beginning of the season. That's a great spot for him, and he hasn't really been able to latch onto it. But you do also have to look back to last year we scored a lot of goals all of them even strength so that's pretty impressive but right now would that more be the selling point in a trade for a team that needs goal scoring what do you what are you worried about bringing this up i'm

confused because it doesn't seem that logic illogical a leap i'm just i'm just tired no i'm just a super nice person. That's true. And I don't want anyone to think that I'm picking on Hoaglander. Okay. Let's put it this way then. Because I actually quite like Hoaglander.

I'm a little disappointed that he hasn't been able to take advantage of the opportunities that were presented to him this year, because I think when he's on his game, he adds a lot of energy. I think he can even play with an edge, but I don't think we've seen enough. And when I heard Talkett say, we got to get some wingers going,

I obviously thought of, you know, well, Jake DeBrus got his first goal, so that's good. And he would have been the first guy to leap to mind, frankly, if he hadn't scored against San Jose. But I also thought about Nils Hoeglander. Then I looked at his ice time in the San Jose game, and I saw he only played 10 minutes. I'm like, ooh, you know, Joshua's coming back.

Lekker Mackey's pushing. The Canucks are going to have to give up something if they want to add a defenseman. Maybe that's the obvious piece. I think you can look at this situation and say, I really like the player. I think he's a very good player, and I think for what he is, which is a diminutive forward, and for what he what he is, which is a diminutive forward,

and for what he's paid, which is not a ton of money, he produces fairly well. 24 goals and 36 points last year. He's got 5 points through 10 games this year. For what he's making and the role that he's playing, you'd say the production is fine. A point every second game guy, not a problem.

In that context of, I like the player, i think it's also very fair to point out that he's probably not rick talk it's favorite player i also felt i don't think that's a bad thing i also felt and i didn't necessarily say it on the radio because i didn't want to be a jerk but when the canucks signed hoaglander to that contract extension at the beginning of the year remember everyone was everyone was like, where'd that come from? And maybe it was because Hoaglander showed up in really good shape in training camp, and that's why they rewarded him. But I also felt like, oh, that might make it easier to trade him

because you've got cost certainty. Yeah. It's not an outlandish contract or anything. No, because a lot of teams, you know, in Hoaglander's situation where he would have been RFA are kind of like, oh, well, those things can get complicated sometimes. It's not complicated anymore.

No. I mean, that was part of the reason it was maybe easier to move Kuzmenko's contract. Now, I know apples to oranges, apples to bowling balls with Kuzmenko and Hoaglander, but I do think there's some similarities there. I mean, balls with Kuzmenko and Hoaglander. But I do think there's some similarities there. I mean, they signed Kuzmenko to that extension four days after Rick Tockett came aboard. And then it became quickly apparent that that wasn't going to be a marriage that was designed to last much past that season.

And he was gone shortly thereafter. But Kuzmenko had positive attributes. You knew what he was going to bring. But you also knew that he wasn't going to be able to consistently play the style that Tuckett wanted from him. I think that's a big thing. You can admire someone's game. I don't know if it's a style thing so much as details.

Whatever the case. Whatever the case is. Tuckett has very clear ideas about what he wants individual players to do. Sometimes I think it might even border on unfair because I keep looking at what he wants out of Hoaglander. I'm like, okay, but are you really putting realistic expectations on the player? I want to read a quote from Conor Garland on Pew Suter.

And it's not him saying, well, he does say he's not the fastest guy, but he says, he's exceptionally smart. I want to attack all the time, roll out of the corner and make quick plays. And he's usually there for me. He's always in the right spot for you. He's an easy, easy player to play with. Ask anyone.

Predictability doesn't sound like it's a good thing, but you know, it sounds like, well, that's easy to stop. You're predictable. But the way, you know, Rick Tockett is coaching the Canucks, you hear a lot of things like landmarks, like places where you're going to be on the ice. Sometimes I wonder if Hoaglander is not necessarily hitting those landmarks the way that Tockett wants them to.

It's too unpredictable. Yeah. And that makes sense. I mean, there's a reason that Suter started that game against San Jose as a fourth line center and then was eventually elevated to play with Petey and Garland. Yeah. I mean, that was Baines.

I mean, Baines was on that line. But talking about Suter in the positive way. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Like, Suter got to go there because he needed a spark, and I think Tocantin understands that he's a plug-and-play guy that you can put with a variety of different line mates, although right now it sounds like it's going to be Petey and Garland in the short term,

and he's going to be in the spots that are going to make his teammates better. That's predictability, right? Some other questions ahead of tonight's game against the Ducks. Will we see Kevin Lankanen in net again tonight? That's predictability. Some other questions ahead of tonight's game against the Ducks. Will we see Kevin Lankanen in net again tonight? The answer, I hope, will be yes. If you look at the schedule, and we have stressed this time and time again, looking at the month of November,

it's very, very fortuitous for the Canucks in terms of no back-to-backs, and once this road trip ends in California, you get a lot of breaks between games over a, what is it, six-game stretch at home. You could ride out Lankanen for the majority of it. And I don't know which one you would cherry pick to get Seelovs in net if you need to get him in net, but there's no shortage of candidates. There are a couple teams that don't score

an awful lot of goals, including tonight's opponent, the Anaheim Ducks, who are the lowest scoring team in the National Hockey League, both in terms of collective goals scored and goals per game. So, part of me thinks tonight, I mean, I don't think, I think Lincoln will get the start tonight, but part of me would, looking

at the schedule, be like, this might not be a terrible game if you want to try and get Seelov's season back on track because the Ducks just don't score a lot of goals and don't have a very potent offense. Yeah, I think the narrative with the Ducks is that their head coach, Greg Cronin, is trying to make the play responsibly. Yes.

And they might have lost some offensive pop. Because think about how excited people were about some of the Ducks' prospects a year or two ago or three years ago, you know, guys like Troy Terry and Trevor Zegers. Trevor Zegers, I know we talked about this a bit yesterday, but has anyone's stock fallen faster than his?

And I think the, he just gets labeled with maybe the not a player you win with type of player, not a serious player. I don't know. I'm picking on a lot of guys today. He's a YouTube player. Yeah, yeah. He's about skills and tricks.

But they have six guys under the age of 23 that people were at one point either still hyped about or really hyped about, like Zgris, McTavish, Cutter-Gote. I'm still excited about Mason McTavish. i think he's gonna be a good player uh minchikov zellweger and leo carlson who is the number two overall pick they've got guys carlson will be a player yeah they've got good young players but you brought up a good point you can't just let them loose and say go play hockey you have to be super diligent and responsible if you don't want to get blown out on a nightly basis. Now, they don't.

Or if you just want to teach them the right way to play in the NHL. The problem with that is you become the lowest scoring team in the National Hockey League. They've scored 24 goals. And I went back and looked. Eight of the 24 goals. So a third of their goals came in two consecutive games in mid-October. They basically, if they score

two, they're on par. If they score three, that's a big offensive night for this team. And the only reason that they're not even further down in the standings than they are, as we talked about this yesterday, and we talked about it with Kevin Woodley as well, is because of the goalie, Lucas Tostal, who's been phenomenal. One,

with a ton of work, he's faced more shots and made more saves than any goalie in the NHL and despite that he's still got a save percentage that's like 936 now it's not sustainable I don't think you can be the busiest goalie in the National Hockey League and be pitching a 940 save percentage eventually that'll cave. So I think it's a bit of a flawed team. I'm interested to see it tonight because at least on paper, the Ducks are young. They've got a lot of guys that you're curious about because of their draft pedigree. But then you look at the numbers play out and you're like,

they don't really do much of anything offensively. Okay. We're going to have a lot of hockey talk on the show. So there's a few things we can get into with the likes of Batch and Wish and Ray Ferraro and Jonathan Davis, who's going to talk to us about the Ducks and the Kings. I do want to spend just three minutes on Buccaneers coach and coward Todd Bowles, who had an opportunity to make a call to go for two last night and beat

the Kansas City Chiefs, you know, with 30 seconds left in Kansas City. And he decided to kick the extra point and gamble on overtime. And the most predictable thing happened. Kansas City won the toss. Never touched the ball again. And Kansas City went down and scored a touchdown. And the headline on ESPN was, Todd Bowles defends not going for two in loss. And here's the quote. We wanted to get into overtime with the wet conditions on the field. We thought we had to go into overtime instead of going for two.

We had our shots. We lost the game. We took our shots. We had our chances all game. We just lost the game. It didn't come down to that. Yes, it did. It did come down to it.

It 1,000% came down to that. And I was just thinking watching that game, man, you got a chance to make one play, and you'll win. Now, yeah, there were 30 seconds left. Which was his own fault, by the way. Yeah, for calling a timeout. There were 30 seconds left, and it would have given Mahomes the opportunity to drive the team 30, 40 yards and try and kick a field

goal. But they had that anyway. They had that anyway and they failed and they couldn't do it. The decision to not go for two, I was just like, man, like your team must've been so disappointed after that game. You had the opportunity to call a play that would beat the Chiefs. I don't even care about percentages. I don't even care about probabilities. You're in that spot. Take the shot to try and do it. You just had a great drive.

The Chiefs were on their heels. Were you thinking that too? I was thinking that your best player on the night was Baker Mayfield mayfield who by the way love baker mayfield now i've totally changed my tune my favorite quarterback in the nfl now love baker mayfield right okay to that one bucks guy um no chris godwin no mike evans throwing the ball to his third and fourth receivers and a bunch of tight ends and running backs out of the backfield still manages to march a team down the field in Kansas City

as a 10-point underdog, and they get a score with 27 seconds left. Why would you want to extend the game? You got a chance for a smash and grab. You had no business being in that game. You should have lost. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.

Ferraro, Ferraro, let's chat with Ray Ferraro. It's time for Ferraro, let's talk to Ray Ferraro. Ferraro winds up to the shot, score! Ray Ferraro, breakaways onside, scores! Three-bound score! Ray Ferraro! Ferraro, Ferraro, it's time for Ray Ferraro. Let's chat with Ferraro, it's time for Ray Ferraro.

631 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program.

Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go, as the music suggests. It's time now for Ray Ferraro here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Ray. How are you?

I'm doing great. How are you guys? We are well. Ray, I think the next game that you're doing for ESPN Is Washington-Pittsburgh on Friday, is that correct? Yeah, that's right Are the Capitals for real? Because they look pretty good I can't really believe that they are

This will be the second time I've done them live I've seen them a couple other times, you know, because I'm paying attention with the game that I have coming up. And like last year, they scored 216 goals and somehow made the playoffs. They were the most curious team that made it. Like every game, you're like, oh, they can't stay in the game. And then somehow they won and they had cut to 91 points and made the playoffs they had a really good offseason and um like really good they they added some offense they

you know they took a big swing with Pierre-Luc Dubois who's actually played quite well for them you know I mean that's always a question mark if what percentage of Dubois do you really get? And he seems like he's in a place where he's really comfortable and really, like, he gives them a top-line center. McMichael is, he's really a player. I mean, he's come along here the last couple of years, but I think he had 16 goals last year, but he looks like a guy that's going to score. He's fast and, you know he he's he's

played on on teams where he's i i think been asked to do too much and now they just like but he's a guy you wouldn't really think about except he's got i think eight goals uh alexi protis he's another guy um it's had a they've got these young guys that have kind of quietly taken steps. So my answer is I think they're going to be right in the mix for a playoff spot. I don't think they're this good. I wonder about their goaltending a little bit with Thompson and Lindgren. But here's the other thing. They don't give up any shots. They give up like 24 shots a game.

So if you're average goaltending, then you're probably okay at 24. 36 shots, you're probably not. What's it like being around the energy of the Gretzky chase with Ovechkin? Because, I mean, if you go to NHL.com every time the Caps play, there are all these other contributors you mentioned, but the number one primary focus,

quite obviously, is Ovechkin. Well, I left him because I figured we'd get there. So last year, the energy was like running uphill with 30 pounds on your back. There was none. Right. And quite frankly, he looked like he was out of shape in the first half of the year.

He had nine goals. And then he had a really good second half. I was down there. They were playing the Rangers. And he scored it like in the first five minutes and not only did the building completely like i guess energize is the word but like it lit up like it everybody was so excited but the bench did too and ovi played great like he's he skated really well.

He skated more than I remember him skating last year. So what they do with him, he plays five on five and two minutes on the power play. He doesn't play any four on four. He doesn't, you know, on the power play, I mean, he skates eight strides in two minutes, right? He's just in that one circle. So he stays the whole time. But I'd say that it's like, you know,

like they're just shoving him out there, but it's not, it doesn't look like that yet. Like I would last year at the beginning of the year, I'm like, you know what? He's going to have to play four years. Like that's what, that's what it looked like. Like he's not going to score enough. Now you're starting to look and go, he's not going to score at a 55-goal pace,

but could he get within a handful of them in the last month? Wouldn't that be something if he does? Just think of how the entire hockey world would be focused on something that was thought to be uncatchable. Well, yeah, you bring up one more thing on the cast before we move to the Canucks here, but you bring up something that I wanted to kind of dive into that we've never

really had a team at its, you know, progression or as it goes along in this stage where he's chasing a record that's never been chased before. It's fueling the team. So it's not even necessarily that they're a cup contender, but they've got the juice from this chase of an individual entity

that is fueling the entire team. And it kind of seems to be working. And I tried to go back and look, has there ever been an example in the NHL like this before? And I mean, really, it's obvious to say that, there hasn't really been but um i'm fascinated to see how it'll play out because right now a small sample size to start the season it looks really cool and it

looks really intriguing seeing everyone pulling the rope in the same direction for one guy and then seeing that team success also comes from that you know that pretty pretty interesting look actually as you're talking i'm thinking about last year it felt like they really have to keep playing him they have to play him more they have to keep him on the power play and he never scored i mean i think of the nine goals i think three of them were empty netters in the first half of the year like he just he couldn't play and you're like well what are they going to do for two years here? I'll tell you guys, I don't know if you've spent any time or listened, listened to Spencer Carberry, but I am a huge fan.

He is smart and articulate and honest and also very straightforward. Like, like he, he had meetings with Ovechkin and said, oh, if you don't, you know, I can't keep playing you 20 minutes a night. I can't do it. And so last year, there were games he was 12 and a half minutes. And just think how hard that would be. It's your first crack at coaching an NHL team, and you've got to step on this guy's toes.

Yet, Ovi speaks very very very highly of him I watch them interact on the bench I watch him you know the energy that he's playing with and and it's easier now for everybody to be on board mainly because I think the way Carberry dealt with Ovechkin but the way that Ovi is is playing and engaged. It's not like you're not dragging around a 50-pound anchor here. He's actually the guy you think of when you think of the Cavs. Ray, bringing it back to the Canucks, Rick Tockett said yesterday that there are a few wingers that we've got to get going here,

and it was all around Pugh Suter bumping up to play with Garland and Pedersen and it's not Baines and it's not DeBrusque and it's not Hoaglander. And one of the guys we got started talking about was Nils Hoaglander. What have you seen from Hoaglander this year? Because he only played 10 minutes in his last game against the San Jose Sharks. Well, he certainly fights the length of the rope that he gets. He'll go from 15, 16 minutes and he'll drop to 10 minutes. In a game with a bunch of power plays, his minutes are going to go down because he doesn't get much power play time. When he's at his best, and I think he's been like a lot of the team

for most of the year, it's been fine, and the record's fine, and yet I think we can all see that there's at least another couple of years here for the team. I would say the same for him. He's at his best when he's like playing with the highest of energy, when he's relentless to check, when he gets in on a four check and it reverses to the other side, and then he reverses to the other side and he's contains with his legs and he creates with his legs. And I, for me, he hasn't done enough of it yet, but there's lots of factors to it.

And, you know, like, if you get stuck on that, you know, the up and down escalator, it's hard to get off. It's hard to get off. Like, you can't play one game and then everybody says, oh, yeah, there he is, the consistency's back,

and that's what we need from him. Because consistency means two, three, four, five games. And the wingers have to go, but the centers have to go too. I mean, if he was playing, I don't know how many games he played with Pettersson, but pretty clear he's not had a very good start to the season. And so you're tied to him. And if Pettersson has a bad game, his rope is longer than it would be for Hoaglander. That's just the way it is. Do you think he's looking at the roster right now and thinking, okay, Dakota Joshua's going to be back soon? Maybe he takes a peek down to Abbotsford and sees that Jonathan Lekarimaki is off to a pretty good start

with four goals in six games. And what did you say he had, like, 31 shots or something like that? Just firing the puck like crazy. In six games down there. And do you think he goes, like, ooh, am I going to have a spot here soon? Well, he better not.

What he should look at is he's got a three-year extension, and he scored 24 goals last year, and they were all at five on five. And when I think of a player like Hoaglander, I see a little bit of myself, right? Undersized a bit, and you've got to fight your way for everything. And what served me well was to put an FU chip on my shoulder and I fought everybody for 18 years. They didn't know they were in the fight, but I fought everybody. And honestly, it took me a long time after I retired to realize that's the only way to do it.

You can't look around. I wish I would have known it earlier. You can't look around. You can't worry about everybody else. You can't think, oh, there is Lekomaki, and oh, boy, and Joshua's coming back here. We're all aware of that stuff, but you can't. You just can't. And so I found it really interesting when, you know, as I looked back at my career,

I could see moments where I did that. And it's a mental fight, but it's not helpful, and it will never help you if you're worried about other people's presence. Like, you have to put that block on your shoulder and say, like I said, you got to say, F you, man, and this is my job and my spot, and I love it more than anybody else, and I'm going to fight for my minutes because clearly he can play. I mean, you don't just by accident score 24 goals.

Like, you got to do it, and he's done it once, and I don't see any reason why he can't do it again. So, Ray, we were texting last night, and I sent you a link to an Athletic article which had some projections for the Four Nations rosters, and I feel like we're going to do a lot of this over the next month. 100 days, man. Yeah, it's fun. I love doing this.

It's been a long time since we've been able to do this. And at the Athletic, I did notice that Connor Bedard was not on Canada's roster. Now, this is Chris Johnston doing this. This is not Hockey Canada doing this. Do you think Bedard will make the team? Do you think he should? I think he's going to be in really tough this time around.

And the spot I kind of see him in is like near the bottom of the lineup or the 13th forward, like somewhere there. There's no power play time with that. So the things that he would excel at, he's probably not going to find his way onto the ice, I don't think. Now, he might in this, you know, when they pick the team, between now and then, he might, if he gets on a heater, then maybe you go, oh, you know what,

I'm going to flip him over top of a couple other guys. But you're looking at guys like, you know, like is he, in that role, would he be better than Cardiff or Hagee? It's his friend and bachelor, bachelor, bachelor. Life from Rogers Arena, calling Canucks games. It's his friend and bachelor,

bachelor, bachelor. 8.02 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 3 of the program.

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He's on the call tonight, 7 o'clock, Honda Center. Brendan Batchelor joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Batch. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you guys? We are well as well. A lot of takeaways from practice yesterday. A lot of praise for Pugh Suter and his cerebral game.

We also mentioned that two guys pointed out that he's not a fast skater, but I digress. Your thoughts on what you've seen from Suter. Again, early days, but he got the bump up to the Pedersen-Garland line. And I believe he scored three of the last four Canucks goals. So good times for the Swiss skater. Yeah, you know, he's showing exactly what elevated him

into the top six last year, which is an ability to complement some of those top players. I think we saw how well he played on the Miller line down the stretch last season and an ability to put the puck in the net. And if there's one thing that you could say about Hugh Suter during his time in the NHL is he's been consistent. I believe he's hit the floor of 14 goals in every single season in the NHL, and he hasn't scored many more than that so he's somewhat predictable in terms of his offensive output um but you know has the the two-way responsibility and the understanding of how to play at both ends of the ice so um you know I

I guess we'll have to wait and see if he ends up on that Pedersen line if they end up making a recall to get a a centerman up to play on the fourth line or not. But I think it's a deserved reward for a guy like Suter, who is a pretty consistent player, can put the puck in the back of the net, and based on the way he played the other night in San Jose, deserves more opportunity at the moment. What is it about Arsh Bain's game that Rick Tockett clearly seems to like? I think it has a lot to do with his wall work, especially in the defensive zone, like how good he is at protecting the puck,

using his body to control it, and then to get clears or to make plays with it. And he's not the most offensively creative player at this point in his career. Obviously, he hasn't generated a ton for them, but he's reliable. When you're playing in a fourth-line role, being reliable in the D-zone, being a guy that commits to what you have to do to be successful, as I said, can use his body position and his ability to win

battles to help you spend less time in your own end that really as a fourth line player is all that you can ask for in terms of um role and expectation and yeah if there's some offensive upside that comes with that eventually that would be great um but you know the the fact that he is a dependable consistent player in that regard on the defensive side of the puck, I think is what has seen his stock rise to the point that they were willing to place Nils Oman on waivers and risk losing him to send him down to Abbotsford. What do you think Taka thinks of Nils Hoaglander's game? Yeah, I think he's hot and cold with Hoaglander. And part of the reason for that is that Hoaglander's game? Yeah, I think he's hot and cold with Hoaglander. And part of the reason

for that is that Hoaglander's game itself can be hot and cold. And, you know, he's talked at times in the past about how he thinks, you know, Hoaglander can do well in the top six and well up the lineup as long as he doesn't change his game. And, you know, there are multiple times now during Tocant's time in Vancouver where he's moved Hoaglander down the lineup when he thinks he's getting away from the style of play that allows him to be successful with, you know, getting in on the forecheck and winning battles and creating that way and being a thorn in the side of the opposition, which we know Hoaglander can be. And, you know, at one point last season,

Tockett said he actually thought that Hoaglander played some of his best hockey when he was on the fourth line. So, you know, at the moment, obviously, they're rolling through guys in the top six and trying to find something that sticks in terms of wingers, especially on Pedersen's wing with Garland. And I'll be really interested to see if dakota joshua gets that spot when he comes back into the lineup but um you know usually when

when you're giving guys chances in the top six and and it's not the same guy or it's not consistent that's somewhat of an indictment of the guys that have had chances there and been moved down the lineup and i think hoaglander had a really good training camp, as he always does, had a strong preseason, had a really good start to the regular season too. And I think we've seen his game tail off in the last four or five games. And as a result, Rick Talkett has moved him down the lineup. Four straight games for the Canucks without a power play goal, 12, 0 for 12 in their last four games. Are you seeing any signs of progress

with the man advantage? I thought they had some good looks the other night, but they've been saying that for a while, that we're getting our looks, we're going to break through here at some point. Eventually you have to break through. You can't just get looks, you've got to score on them.

I know Rick Talkett probably wants to see more of an attack mentality. I think they've done better over the last couple of games at zone entries, which is something that I think was really causing them an issue towards the end of the homestand, where if you can't get set up in the zone, then it doesn't matter if you don't have that attack mentality. But I thought they did a better job, especially against San Jose, of gaining the zone and getting set up. But, you know, at the end of the day, they've got to get more pucks to the net.

They've got to shoot the puck more. And, you know, they need to be willing, as Rick talked and always talks about, to create some of those ugly power play goals rather than always looking for the perfect play. And when you're low on confidence, when things haven't been going well for you, you probably squeeze your stick a little bit. And I would imagine there's an element of that to the man advantage too. So, you know, they've got to continue to plug away here. And, you know, hopefully they can pop one tonight.

And maybe that takes a bit of the weight off their shoulders and they can play a little bit more freely and a little bit more confidently, but you know, talk, it talks a lot about how it's, it's been a mental thing, more than a, an execution thing. And these guys need to find a way to get some confidence back. And I would agree with that. They don't look very confident right now and they probably just need a couple of pucks to go in

to start feeling better about what they can generate on the man advantage. We're speaking to Brandon Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. A reminder, puck drop is 7 o'clock tonight from the Honda Center against the Ducks, but Canucks Central goes from 4 to 6. The pregame show goes from 6 to 7.

Batch picks up the call at 7 o'clock, and then after that, Canucks postgame from 4 to 6. The pregame show goes from 6 to 7. Batch picks up the call at 7 o'clock, and then after that, Canucks postgame show goes from 10 until around 11.30. Batch, when the Canucks take to the ice tonight, do you expect Kevin Lankanen to be making the start in goal again? Yeah, I would. You know, I guess there's a chance they want to get Shelovs back in there after a game against New Jersey where he didn't play great, but you can't hang that on him either because, as Tyler Myers said

after the game, they hung him out to dry. And Talkett mentioned specifically after that game how tough it might be for a guy like Shelovs to have to sit and wait a long time to get back into the net. So I would lean Lankanen just because of how well he's been playing lately and the fact that, you know, this team needs to generate a bit of momentum in terms of results and in terms of their overall team game. But, you know, I would say there's a non-zero chance that they look at Shelovs and say, let's try and get him back in

here and build his confidence up a bit because we might need him again later in the month. I guess, depending on if and when Thatcher Demko returns to practice and what that timeline is looking like at this point. I mean, if you want to look at strength of schedule and who the opponents are, Anaheim doesn't score a lot. Like they did a,

what's the opposite of a prolific offense. That's what they have in Anaheim right now. They just don't score goals. So my mind is saying well if you've got to play them at some point tonight kind of looks like the night because then you've got la edmonton maybe you do calgary or new york but then you're talking about a really long time off between games no not calgary not didn't go well actually you know what scratch hat i forgot so new york on the 14th looks like an option, but that's two weeks away from now.

I'm kind of with you. All my logical mind says is it's got to be Lankan, and that could be the answer for a lot of games. But if there is an opportunity to slide Shelov's in against an opponent that doesn't score a lot, maybe, maybe tonight's the night. Yeah, it might be, But at the same time, you might have said the same thing about San Jose.

And they needed Kevin Lankanen to win that game. So, you know, I guess it depends on the mindset of the head coach. Like last week, I was convinced that he was going to start Shelovs against San Jose, and he did it against New Jersey instead. So, you know, maybe expect the unexpected tonight maybe I'm not sure I guess we'll have to find out when they take to the ice for morning skate later this morning what else are you going to be watching for tonight batch yeah I think it's mostly about

the odd man rushes against right now for me like you know this is a group that we're seeing them activate defensemen in the rush we're seeing them try to create more off the rush. But it has often been at the expense of rush chances against, and it feels a little bit loose and a little bit open at the moment. So, you know, are they able to marry this new, more aggressive, offensive style that they want to play with some manner of play that makes it not attract me because i think they gave up too many chances off the rush in san jose the other night and that was in part uh you know the the reason that it was such a close game so um you know they're not

gonna just sort of throw their plans in in the trash heap and go back to trying to play exactly the way they did last year because they've invested too much in trying to be a more potent offensive team. And let's be honest, they need to be a more potent offensive team, but they have to find a way to manage that and make sure it's not at the expense of giving up three-on-ones or three-on-twos or two-on-ones the other way because there's been a little bit too much of that lately. Well, I think the entire New Jersey game was that that was yeah that was crazy um

i don't think talk it's been that impressed with the canucks for check he was saying the other day how they'd watch some video on that and that had improved a little bit but he was talking about the odd man rushes and he didn't necessarily put it on the defenseman though they've certainly played a role in that he was talking about the f3 which is the third forward in on the four check and if if that guy gets sucked in or as talk it would put it if he dives in that can create maybe not a two-on-one the other way but it can create a three-on-two the other way yeah absolutely and you know i i think they were much better at the start of the year on the four check even though they had a couple of those results go against them like

uh i would i would argue that that line with heinan and luger and sherwood has been a little bit quieter over the last couple of games that those guys were doing a really good job getting in establishing the four check forcing turnovers creating, and it's why they had a good stretch of producing offense. And, you know, again, it comes back to Dakota Joshua. Getting him back in the lineup could help a lot with that. But that's the thing about this sort of style. Yeah, they want to get guys up in the rush. They want to create more offensively.

But with that, you have to sort of marry that that killer instinct with discipline on the defensive side of the puck so that you don't have your f3 diving in so that you don't have defensemen pinching uh at inopportune times to try and make plays because if everybody's not on the page and they're not all you know committing to that system and the way they need to play and the landmarks they need to hit on the ice to, you know, steal another phrase from Rick Talkett, then that's where some of these cracks show and where some of these opportunities are there for other teams. So, you know, that may take with this um more aggressive style to be successful there needs to be discipline on the defensive side of the puck too otherwise every canuck game

may turn into a track meet which is going to be great for fans and media and guys like me who've got to call the game because it's entertaining and there'll be chances both ways but it's not a sustainable way to win in the modern NHL. I think we'll see Dakota Joshua. I thought when they made him available to the media that that was a sign that it was pretty close. Yeah, I think it is pretty close. I was kind of expecting it to be tonight, to be honest,

and I was a little bit surprised when he wasn't on a regular line at practice yesterday. So understandably, they may just be an extra bit cautious here before they get him back in the lineup. But, you know, you're right. The fact that he met with the media and then the fact that they waved home on, I thought, oh, okay, this could be imminent here. But unless something changes at the morning skate,

it doesn't look like it'll be tonight. And, you know, the fact that he's on the road trip, the fact that he's skating, the fact that there, um you know isn't a non-contact jersey anymore these are all encouraging signs that lead you to believe it will be sooner rather than later but in terms of trying to put an exact game or date on it i'm not sure at this point do you think they'd ever consider splitting up myers and susie yeah i think i think we've already seen them put Branstrom on that pairing at times situationally and specifically late in the game where they need a bit of offense. And Carson Soucy is obviously fighting it to start this year.

He hasn't played to the level that we saw from him last year. So if Branstrom continues to play play well if he continues to be a good puck moving option for them it wouldn't surprise me at all if if they elevate him up the lineup and give him more opportunity and talk it has even talked about the fact that he wants to try and find brandstrom more minutes because he's playing well enough um you know maybe it doesn't happen immediately but it wouldn't surprise me if we see Branstrom's minutes start to creep up a bit and Soucy's minutes start to creep down especially if Soucy and Myers can't find that level as a pairing that they played to last season it is pretty remarkable and pretty crazy how different the Canucks look when Quinn Hughes is on the ice versus when he's not I mean some of that speaks

to Quinn Hughes a lot of that speaks to Quinn Hughes and how good he is, how elite he is. You know, I hope, you know, people give him heart trophy consideration if this keeps on, let alone, you know, Norris trophy consideration. But it also speaks to a problem that the Canucks have or a concern that the Canucks have and that their bottom two pairs are questionable. Yeah. And, you know, I was just going to say the same thing about, you know, Hart Trophy consideration. If your team is that much better when you're on the ice than when you're not, you know, that says a lot about how important you are to the team. And, you know, you kind of shudder to think about what would happen in a situation where Quinn Hughes has to miss any sort of time in terms of this team's ability to control play. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.