Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 1/16/25

Episode Date: January 16, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss if the Canucks need to shake up the locker room by trading one of their core players, plus they preview tonight's 'Nucks matchup versus the Kings with The Hockey News' Adam Kierszenblat. 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. Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na First hat trick of his career. They spent most of the third period in their zone. On home ice, they're going to walk away with a 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Who guarded you? Nobody. I was unguardable. You know, I was thinking during the match, I was like, hmm, I'm out here, I might as well just take that big fat paycheck and Coco and I love, we love a good five star vacation so part of that check is gonna go towards that. So thank you guys, thanks for coming out here and supporting us tonight. Good morning, Baker is 6-0-1 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody.

It is Halpern, it is rough, it is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. A new producer today, Elon, good morning to you. Hey, good morning guys.

That's the hat trick of producers this week. What was that clip? Elon? It was Danielle Collins at the Australian Open. Warming up to the Australian. She's an American and she was going up against an Australian woman. Oh, that she beat. And the crowd was very against her. I see, okay. And then she doubled down by telling everyone what she was gonna do with her prize winnings. Kind of funny, actually. Halferty Brub 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 one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver we are coming to you live from the

Kintec studio Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step we have a big show ahead you're looking at me you wanted me to do it didn't you know I knew you're I knew you're gonna say we have a big show you you knew you wanted me to do we really have a big show today you wanted me to do it no no I wasn't I wasn't looking at you for that. I was Justin and East Van Put together a video compilation yesterday when I saw it. I was like, hmm, he might be on to something He suggests that we do the kicker of the kintec read in step Together you want to try it in step, right? You want to try it? Okay

That wasn't what I was doing though I was just gonna look at you and see if you're gonna say big show again Everything's a big show is it though we are coming to you live from the kintex studio kintex footwear and orthotics working together with you And in step no don't know no no so cute We have a show today It's a show wait a sell it. It's a medium-sized show. Nick Shook's gonna join us at 630 from NFL.com. We will look ahead to the weekend that is the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.

Saturday afternoon, it's the Texans and Chiefs to kick off the round. That will be followed by the Saturday Nighter, which is commanders at Lions. Sunday, it's the Rams and the Eagles at noon our time. And then of course it all sets us up for the biggest and most hyped game of the weekend to close out the round and the weekend. Bill's Ravens from Buffalo on Sunday night. Very much looking forward to the weekend. We'll talk to Nick shook about all that at six 30, seven 30 Jonathan Davis, not the lead

singer of corn, but rather the host of ice cap on serious XM NHL radio. Uh, he also doubles as a California hockey insider. I'd call him. He knows the Kings very well. He knows the ducks pretty well. He knows the shark plus well than those two, but the Cox are playing the Kings tonight, seven o'clock Rogers arena. So we will preview the game from the LA Kings side of things with Jonathan Davis at 7 30 this morning, eight o'clock Adam Kierzenblatt is going to join the program. Two time guests now, Adam Kierzenblatt from the hockey news covers the Vancouver Canucks for that fine outlet. Drancer's on vacation?

Drancer's on vacation. He's on vacation. Yes. Drancs can't take vacation during the Canucks season. Well, he's taking. With the team going through this. I mean. We're going to have to call him back if someone's traded.

It's that mid January vacation. I don't know where he is. I don't know what he's doing, but he's not here. Adam Kierzenblatt is going to be here at 8 AM. Uh, as I mentioned, Canucks and Kings tonight, seven o'clock from Rogers Arena. The Sportsnet 650 programming is as follows, four to six Canucks Central with Satyarshah and

Dan Riccio, six to seven, that's the Canucks pregame show with the aforementioned hosts, Sat and Dan. Then you get the call of the game tonight with Batch and Randeeb. Jamie Dodds working the intermissions with Sat. And then of course the postgame show goes all the way through till 11 o'clock. So seven uninterrupted hours of Canucks programming. And of course we will be talking a lot of Canucks, including at 8am this morning with Adam Kears and Blatt. Finally, we are once again giving away a pair of tickets and a $50 gift card to join us, well not Brough and I, but everybody else, Sportsnet 650 for

the big football game at the Clayton Public House on Sunday, February the 9th. Once again, these are not Super Bowl tickets. We should stress that. I had a couple people yesterday say, you're giving away those Super Bowl tickets? Yeah. No, they're not, no, we're not taking you are not Super Bowl tickets yesterday so you give it away those Super Bowl tickets no they're not no we're not taking you to the Super Bowl let me tell you listeners if we were giving away Super Bowl tickets we would be doing it with much more enthusiasm much more enthusiasm and quite frankly we probably would have taken them for ourselves and not giving them away we are giving away tickets and a $50 gift card to the Clayton Public

House for the big football game on Sunday, February the ninth caller number three at eight 15 this morning will win the tickets. The number here, six oh four two eight oh zero six 50, six oh four two eight oh zero six 50. I have noticed that with the increase in callers that we've taken, we've also had an increase in a phone mishaps and dropped calls. So who knows how it'll turn out? You'll have to pay attention at 8.15 to find out. Clayton Public House, good food, good people, good times. That is what's happening on the program today. It is truly a big show ahead. Without further ado,

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

What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca The Canucks yesterday? they took a day off. After what happened in Winnipeg in the previous game, they thought, you know what, let's recalibrate. Let's stay away from the rink. Let's not get out there. Let's have a full day off. No practice, no media, no nothing in advance of tonight's game against their divisional opponents, the Los Angeles Kings. Just everyone had to go back to their families after the long road trips.

This is exactly what you want to do after a disappointing game in Winnipeg. They got back there for 10 minutes and they're like, is there a practice today? Rick, can we have like an impromptu practice? Some sort of informal skate? They will play the Los Angeles Kings tonight. As you pointed out very astutely in your note is a big deal for two reasons. What are those two reasons, Jason? Oh, well, they'll need to bounce back after getting embarrassed in Winnipeg.

And that's obvious. And number two, the last time they played the Kings, Brock Besser took a headshot from Tanner Janow and they swore revenge, kinda, sorta. I think it was J-Pat that quoted D'Arnais saying the league did what they had to do when they suspended Geno. Next time we play them, next time we play them. But right now we don't have to focus on that. It's behind us and we hope Bess will be back as soon as possible.

Bess actually missed quite a few games with a concussion. He missed more games than Tanner Joe. And now it is, as Darren put it, the next time we play them. I've got a question for the listeners. I know it's early for homework, okay? But if you're listening right now and you've got the ability to text in,

i.e. you are not on the highway. Don't text and drive. What do you want to see from the Canucks tonight? What is the most important thing you want to see from the Canucks tonight? I'm not limiting your options, but some of the options might be, you know, a win. Some of the options might be revenge for Brock

Besser, some sort of pushback, some sort of attempt to make Tanner Got's life difficult. Now we always do have a complicated relationship with revenge in the city with what happened with Todd Bertuzzi and Steve Moore, but I'm sure the league will be keeping a close eye on tonight's affair, given the history of Genot and Besser. Back in the day, this would almost assuredly be a busy

night for the referees, but it's not the day anymore. We're not back in the day. We're in some other day. Is there even an obvious candidate to take care of business for the Canucks on behalf of Brock Besser. Vincent Day RNA has been a healthy scratch. Dakota Joshua is hurt. Typically you'd like, if you're going to say, if

it's just going to be the traditional, okay, I'm going to make Tanner Geno fight. You'd like it to be a forward so you don't complicate the minutes for your defense appearance. Sure. Makes sense. Right. Yeah.

That's typically what it is. Um, who's going to fight among the Canucks forwards? JT Miller? Dan Heinen, you're up. JT Miller. I don't think you want fighting, although he hasn't been playing much lately. He's a 50 minute and a night guy now.

Seems like a decent candidate. But you don't, I mean, he's listen, I, I, I don't think he's a 15 minute, a night guy now. Seems like a decent candidate. But you don't, I mean, he's, listen, I don't think he's a hundred percent. And I don't think, uh, you really want him fighting, you want him out there finding his game on the ice. Who else? You know what?

I'm going to tweak this conversation just a slightly different direction. Maybe it's not necessarily the fight that you need to see tonight, but the fighting spirit is what maybe I think I want to see the most tonight. I have noticed, and I've made mention of it on a number of occasions on this very fine radio program, that I have at times been a little surprised at the lack of pushback that the Canucks have had in all different certain situations that you'd think would require pushback and by that if you're wondering about examples, I mean when one of their best players gets subjected to a big body check or

when they're getting the doors blown off them by an opponent and the frustration level is building or When they're mired in a funk and have lost multiple games in a row and they just want to snap out of it. All those examples that I just gave were different times where someone, anyone could have stepped up, fought back, pushed back.

And it just seems as though for the most part, the Canucks don't do that and are content to play the, well, tonight's not our night. We'll pack it up. We'll get back to figuring out what went wrong and we'll try again the next game. And it's not a horrible approach. I understand that you need to keep an even keel, but at the same time, everyone that's played a sport at any level, any level, played a sport at any level, any level, knows that sometimes you just got to show that you're in it for more than wins and losses and in these guys case, a paycheck. That there needs to be some show of, hey, we're in this fight and we need to be taken seriously.

And tonight would be an awfully good time to do this because right now there are a lot of questions about this team's identity and sadly the only one that we've come up with is that their identity is consistently inconsistent, which isn't a great thing. Like you're not hanging your hat on that as an organization. Like what do you guys do best? And it's like, well, not show up all the time. Well, we got real leaders of that. The listeners have showed up. Okay. We got like 30 texts. Wow. In 10 seconds. Joe from Seashell answering what I see, want to see from the Canucks.

Don't chase hits just to prove a point rather hit hard when the opportunity arises and win the damn game. Here's another one. I want to see passion. Kiefer Sherwood's splattering him on the boards would be a great start. Calm Bobby. He's always calm. Good morning guys. Let's deal with Janot in the first five minutes, then play hockey and try to get a much needed win tonight. Not sure who will step up, but somebody's got to. That's not very calm at all, Bobby. A lot of people suggesting that Kiefer Sherwood could be the guy to step up.

Um, I think this is kind of what you were getting at. Unsigned. I'd like to see a team that looks like they actually care about competing. I'd like to see them. Here's another one. Unsigned. I'd like to see them come out of the gate strong.

None of this laying back four shots in a period stuff. Phoenix sure would 10 hits tonight. Absolute wrecking ball. Set the tone early, have a fight if we need it. If JT Miller is really pissed off, maybe he'll do something too. I have a feeling that JT Miller is going to be the man under the radar tonight for the Canucks. Under the microscope?

Yeah, sorry. Under the microscope. Um. Hopefully not under the microscope. Under the radar would be worse. Be slightly worse. Uh. Under the microscope.

So for, the thing that I'm kind of talking about is, you know, over the weekend when the Canucks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs three, nothing in Toronto, and a lot was made from the Toronto media about the response of that game from two particular guys. One was Chris Tanev and one was Mitch Marner and Tanev came out afterwards and was like, you know, our effort was unacceptable.

Our execution was terrible. We didn't play well. And then Tanev was so upset that he hurt John Tavarra at practice yesterday. He wanted to make up for it. Probably not the best way to do it, Chris. Mitch Marner on the other hand was like, I liked our effort, right? Even if you believe that as a person, you don't say it out loud.

You can't ever really come off the ice with three nothing loss. On home ice, on Saturday night in Hawken, I can't even be like, yeah, I like some of the things we did tonight. Three nothing loss is three nothing loss. You should not be happy with it. Process, over results, none of that stuff. Now in the

Canucks case it's a lot different because they can't even hang their hat on a good effort in Winnipeg the night prior. And all I'm really trying to get at here, and someone said settle down, Don King, I'm not advocating for a brawl. I could care less how it manifests itself. Just has to, just got to show passion. Last year, there were a number of occasions and granted some of them had to do with Nikita Zdorov being in the lineup, but there are a number of occasions where the Canucks played with a certain level, part of it was swagger for sure,

like there was a confidence involved, but there was also a sense of like hunger and attitude and there was a real burning desire and I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that they hadn't tasted success in a while but there was almost a burning desire for this group to want to show that they were in the fight and whatever way that resulted be it in like we're scoring a lot of goals or we're locking it down defensively there was a real hunger and a real I mean passion is probably a good way to remember do you remember the narrative of last season like why how are the Canucks turned it around and a real, I mean, passion's probably a good way to say it. Do you remember the narrative of last season?

How are the Canucks turned it around? And a lot of times the answer would be, I think these guys were just sick of losing. They were just tired of losing. It was a group that had been together for a while. The Corps had been together for a few years and they were just tired of losing. So they did something about it. And then what did Patrick Alveen say coming into training camp? There wasn't enough humility. Yeah. It is, I mean, and it's hard not to be somewhat resting on your laurels after the season they had last year. It wasn't just a good season. It was regular season wise, one of the best in the 50 plus years history of the Vancouver Canucks

in terms of wins and points. They won a playoff round, got to within one game of the Western Conference final. I think inherently, and I don't know, I'd say I was guilty of this as well. I think there was a natural assumption that the next step in the evolution was just gonna happen because that's what good teams do, right?

They always get better. But then the adversity hit a lot of things that were supposed to go this club's way having on their way this year, they weren't super healthy like they were a year ago. They didn't have really good performances, specifically from J.T. Miller to a lesser degree from Elias Pettersson, because Pettersson kind of no showed the last half of the last year. But everything wasn't aligned. And there's one of two ways it was going to go, is either they were going to dig in and use the adversity as a rallying point, like so many NHL coaches love. Love it when you get adversity.

Gives a chance for the guys to figure out how to get through the tough times, and they come out better on the other side. Other teams deal with adversity in sort of less favorable ways. Either they start to feel sorry for themselves or they think that everything's stacked against them, and they just wait for the adversity to pass. As opposed to trying to fight through it. So what you're saying is we need just like a measly little line brawl to start the game tonight to get the Canucks blood pumping. The Canucks aren't built for that.

It won't go well, but nevertheless. No team in the NHL is built for that. To show the effort at least. The one guy that texted in and said Besser should fight his own battles. That's a tough one. That's a real team guy there. Or Bess can just take it on himself.

He's like, alright, it's go time. Tanner Joe, I know this is a tough pill for me to swallow, but I'm going to try it anyway. Brock Besser is out with another concussion. Yeah, like, I mean, if any, if there's one guy that gets a pass in this instance, I think it's Besser. He already took the licking for the team. Missed some time and get back at him.

These are the end look. Here's the other thing. If you want to look at this under a totally different lens, this is an opportunity for this team to show some sack or whatever. Yeah. This is a chance to sort of be like, Hey, Wolfpack moment. Let's rally the troops and get behind them because they've got a very obvious

and specific reason to come out pissed off too. Yeah. I got two very motivating reasons. You would hope. We got our asses handed to us the game prior and a guy on the other side Knocked one of our buddies and best players out of the lineups for like seven games with a with a legit dirty hit It wasn't just a good clean hard hit it was it was there was a lot of malice and with that hit it was a Suspendable hit and you know was suspended and I realized that you know Apologized to Brock Besser, but that's not going to help you get motivated.

You're not going to be like, well, he apologized, right? You got to find something. They got to find, they got to find something to galvanize this group. You know, last season it was, well, we're, we're sick of losing, you know, that's a galvanizing moment right now, maybe the galvanizing moment,

aren't you sick of the noise? Aren't you sick of every second game? You know, your fan base freaking out and there's more noise. Don't you want this whole thing with Pedersen and Miller and all the noise about training? Don't you, don't those guys want that to end? If they don't, you know, that's also a sign and maybe assigned to management.

If they're not going to fight through this and fight for their, essentially their place on the team, then that might tell you something about the situation. Yeah. I mean, I look, I've been loathed to do this through the first half of the season is to put extra emphasis on every single game because at a certain point you know they one you start to get fatigue with that that act after a while but two some games mean something and some games don't I mean let's just be honest with the NHL schedule but this is two in a row now for me I mean I remember coming in prior to the Jets game talking about

it on Monday and Tuesday saying hey a big game this means a lot there is close to as healthy as they've been all season long. It's a litmus test game. I know you're at the end of a road trip. I know you're tired, but you also just came off one of your best wins of the season in Toronto. And for a team that's struggled with consistency all season long, it felt like that was a real big opportunity to be consistent. And what did they do? They were averted right back to their old form where they follow up a good game with a bad game I'm not talking about like an above average performance with an a below average performance I'm talking about high bar to low water mark like it was

brutal in Winnipeg there's no positives from that game Keith the water guy has everyone completely forgotten that JT's arm looked like it fell off the other game. Do not expect a strong game from him tonight. He's probably playing with a separated shoulder or torn rotor rotator cuff. Just look at his two one-timers in the third period last game. He looked so awkward. Um, this is always a tough one, but I think if you're in the lineup, you

should play to a certain standard. And that involves, I noticed Keith, the water guy that none of your texts involved his legs. And that's what a lot of people have an issue with that. JT Miller has a few bursts during the game, but his motor doesn't seem to be running the entire game. And if he's really that injured, he shouldn't be playing. And then don't play like if I've seen a lot of these a lot of yesterday as well.

Like he's got a bunch of different injuries like then why is he in the lineup? It's a tough one. It's a tough one. He shouldn't be in the lineup because we did this for PD to. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's like if you can't contribute, if you're injured, rest. Yeah. But the flip side of it is is like 60% of JT Miller better than a hundred percent of another player. It's also Complicated yeah, it's way more complicated than we're making out to be right. This is and this is coming for me I love boiling everything down to the meat and potatoes and the black and white issues But it's when it comes to injuries. It's like if someone's playing through something that they shouldn't be playing through

It's very hard to criticize them because that's a heart and soul kind of thing. If you're an emotional leader of a team, when you talk about leading by example, sometimes it's showing the guys on the team what it looks like to play through pain. Okay, but if you're not back checking and you're actively hurting the team in the process,

you shouldn't be playing. Fair point. Right, like, it's not like he's not. It's not like he's not fighting through it. I mean, OK, he had that one good game the other day. But if he's not able to- Hey, four points in one game. It's better than a good game. It was a great game.

But if he's not able to fight through it, and if he's hurting his team, and he's not back checking, and he's not giving the 100% effort that he can give, then why be in the lineup? OK, a couple quick notes on the Vancouver Canucks front. In case you missed it, there was a paper transaction yesterday. Breezeball, Leckromachy and Max Sassen all got sent down to the American League. This is purely, it seems, for cap related reasons.

None of them dressed last night when Abbotsford took on Ontario in AHL action in Abbotsford. So I would assume that the three of them will be recalled at some point today, maybe not necessarily all three, but as it stands right now, the Canucks have just 11 healthy forwards on the roster because Dakota Joshua is still on injury reserve with a leg injury and he is yet to be activated from I.R. So you could probably expect some sort of transaction coming up today. The Canucks are going to have a game day skate. They are going to speak with the media later today.

So we'll find out a little bit more, including who's going to start a net tonight. Hopefully we'll find out who's going to start a net tonight when they take on the LA Kings at Rogers Arena. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Speaking of the glory days of the National Hockey League and things that, you know, you could do in yesteryear that you can't do anymore. Do you want to dive into this Patrick Johnson article from the weekend that you so diligently worked through? Cause it was a good one.

I didn't even see it this weekend. It's just an article in the province. It's not like the toughest reading. I, yeah. Most of it's phonetically sounded out for you in case you have problems with the big words. I think Patrick wrote an article about Pat Quinn in uh, in the early nineties, he'd just taken over the Canucks and he had to turn them

around and he looked at the team and he didn't like what he saw. He didn't like the vibe of the room. He thought he needed to make some changes and it was a lot easier to make changes back then. You could just pick up the phone and make a trade if you wanted. There was no hard salary cap.

There was not nothing like that. And he started out by acquiring Gerald Diddick from the Montreal Canadians. And he writes that Diddick had become a spare part in Montreal after three seasons with the New York Islanders. And so we got Gerald Diddick. So he had some toughness on the blue line.

And then he made a couple other trades to add some toughness. He brought in Dana Merzen from the Calgary Flames, but the big trade was with St. Louis. And these are the types of deals that I really, really, really miss. They're the multiplayer blockbuster deals and Pat Quinn traded Garth Butcher, who was a real fan favorite here in Vancouver. He's a big tough dude. His name sounded tough, Garth Butcher. That's the toughest name ever. And a guy named Dan Quinn to St. Louis, and Dan

Quinn could put up some points. Traded them to the blues for Jeff Courtney, Cliff Ronning, Sergio Mameso, and another hard nose defenseman in Robert Dirk. And all four of those guys played regularly Sergio Mameso and another hard nosed defenseman in Robert Dirk. And all four of those guys played regularly for the Canucks. Um, again, obviously it's a lot harder to make trades in today's NHL, but I think

the point of the article, at least how I read it is that sometimes you really do have to shake things up. The spirit of the article. And it's not really shaking things up unless you take some risks. Like you have to, in order to really shake it up, you're probably going to draw some criticism, right? It's not shaking it up to add someone in free agency.

It's not shaking it up to, you know, exchange minor league defensemen. Garth Butcher was a fan favorite in Vancouver. Ronning bounced around and played, even played a year in Europe because everyone thought he was too small. Courtenell was onto his fourth NHL team in St. Louis. He put up good numbers, but he was bouncing around the league.

And both those guys really played well for them, became part of the core. And the Canucks in a few years went to the Stanley cup final against the New York Rangers. Now they also had Trevor Linden, they had Palvo Burry, they had Kirk McClain. So a lot of things came together. And again, it was easier to trade players back then. But I do think there is something to be said that Pat Quinn looked at the room and he said, we're missing something here.

Right? And maybe it was the style of player too, and that he acquired some big, strong guys. And the connects, you know, forget for a second what Pat Quinn did because it is a bit of an apples and oranges thing, but it does introduce this well. The connects need to be honest with themselves about what they have. We are not in the room. The fans aren't in the they have. We are not in the room.

The fans aren't in the room. The media is not in the room. We don't have a day to day working relationship with any of these guys. When people ask us, what's up with JT? What's up with Elias Pedersen? Our honest answer is like, I have some theories, but I don't know. I don't know how much injuries have been a factor in their play. I don't know how hard they work on a day to day basis.

I don't know whether or not they're good team guys. Some days they look like good team guys. Other other other days, they really don't. The Canucks should know this stuff for sure. Like they're right there. They're working with these guys on a day to day basis. They should be able to diagnose the problems if there are serious problems. And if it's not going to work in Vancouver for either of those guys, you got to move them.

You can't just hope it's going to work out. You got to make the call at some point fairly soon though because you can't keep operating like this. I think they wanted to operate like this for a bit. I think they wanted to hold their feet to the fire. Well fine you've done that now. So what are the results? What are you seeing? Is this the response you were looking for? How long before you have your answer? Because as I said yesterday, the clock is ticking on both those guys for different reasons. JT for his age and Elias Pedersen for his no move clause, which kicks in July 1st. Yeah. The issue, and I'm not disagreeing with anything you're saying about the almost

need to be bold and to make that big bold stroke or decision. I'm with you on that 100%. The frustrating part is that with the current financial landscape and hard, hard cap system, it feels like the risk is never worth the reward because it's so risky. Because these deals, if you make and you lose, not only is it punitive, but it gets thrown back in your face. We saw an example of it yesterday in Pittsburgh, oddly enough, when Tristan Jari got put on waivers. There was about 15 think pieces about the worst deals that Kyle Dubas has made and how a bad contract with Jari and a bad trade with Carlson has doomed the penguins with Kyle Dubas. And it's unfortunate because if this was those glory days of the 80s, you'd say, yeah, I

screwed up the Carlson deal. Yeah, I screwed up the Jari deal. I'll just make a couple more deals to fix it. Yeah. It's such an impossible landscape to do. To be dead honest, with what you're talking about. But that's a job, right? Like that's a job. It is the job.

It's tough. It's tough. And sometimes you just have to admit your mistakes and move on. And in this instance, I think that making it even more frustrating for guys like you and I and a bunch of listeners right now is that That want and that need to shake things up is probably

Nowhere more prevalent than in that connects front office because they've got The oldest of the old-school movers and shakers in Jim Rutherford You remember as to I went back when we were going through all this stuff and looked at his time in Pittsburgh, there was a run there where old Jimbo was making a move every four weeks with regularity. There was a move every month and it was on, like you said, is the room got the good vibe of the when you do a vibe check and you don't like the vibe trade. So we got a text in here.

If you want to ensure Quinn Hughes is gone in two years simply trade Pettersson I get what you're saying and I don't want to be a jerk and I don't want to fight but how the hell do you know how the hell do you know what Quinn Hughes is really thinking what the hell do you know Quinn might be tired of all this. He might be ready to turn the page on some of this. He's out there like working his butt off. He's playing through injuries. He's playing at a very, very, very high level. And he's got two guys in his leadership group that are constantly under the microscope and not reaching their potential.

Now he's the captain of the team and he should have a little bit of input on it. And I don't know if all GMs would have a conversation with their captain. Some GMs and president of hockey ops are like, I'm in charge of the players, you play. I don't care if you're the captain. But if you were to go to Quinn and you were to say, we're thinking of making this move, what do you think? And he would say, don't do that.

Don't, don't. I have a hundred percent faith in Alias Pedersen. You would take that into consideration. Sure, but yeah, but we don't know. We don't know what those conversations are. Quinn Hughes might be the most frustrated of everyone. He's putting together an unbelievable season. He's supposed to be the leader of the team and he's got all this nonsense going on, on his watch. This whole notion too of you're always gonna lose the trade when you trade away the best player. Yeah it's been true most of the time sure.

But sometimes you still have to make the deal just to move forward, just to move forward with things. Again, what happens if you trade JT, okay? And then Elias, all right, let's go. Okay, no more excuses. Traded away JT, got you some wingers. We already got you those wingers. You seem to be really doing all that much with them, but here you go. We're stuck with you now,

because you control. You got the no move clause. You probably word it better than that. We're stuck with you and you're stuck with us. Go for it. Trade it away, JT Miller. Trade away the problem. Yeah.

Good luck. And the Canucks need to answer this question, and this is the hard one. How will Pedersen respond to that? Sure. And again, I don't know. I think in the back of my mind, I'm like, man, if he can just get a great off season of working

hard, put some strength on, find his confidence again, maybe he can come back and be the Pedersen that we've seen in the past. Yeah. I think everyone has to be cognizant of the fact that like. But I don't know. Do we, I don't have the information to

break that bet. Everyone has to be cognizant of the fact that doing one doesn't equate the other. Like just because you trade and in this instance, like it is a very dangerous thing to say you trade Miller and you solve the Pettersson problem. To say that that's the, like the end result or how the equation is going to work out is dangerous

because you don't know. I'll say this though, if you want to take the risk and you want to get crazy and you want to change it up, there are some deals in recent history where fortune has favored the bold, right? One of them very recently was when the Florida Panthers went out and acquired Matthew Kachuk and they paid a pretty penny for it. They gave up a lot. They gave up their best forward at the time. I mean, you could argue that it was Barkov, but Hubert Oh was playing fantastic hockey for them. A hundred plus point guy. And they had to trade away a very good defenseman in Uyghur. Some people thought it might got the team's depth, but fortune favored the bold.

They got Matthew Kichuck. That deal worked out. You go back a year prior Vegas gave up a ton, a ton to get Jack Eichel in the door. And there were a lot of concerns that Eichel was never going to be the player and never going to reach a ceiling after the very complex neck and back surgery that he had and that there was a stain on him from his time in Buffalo that maybe he was a petulant whiner that wasn't going to be a guy that you could win with. It worked for Vegas

and it worked for the Panthers because they made big bold moves to a team that was in a pseudo window or in a full-f window, whatever the case, they weren't afraid to go out and make a bold move because I think they knew that whatever the mix that they had either necessarily wasn't going to get it done or that it could get better. And that, I mean, and look, if you look at the connects right now, there's room to get better. Look at the standings. Yeah. You know, and sometimes it can be best for both teams. Not all the time.

Sometimes it can be best for both teams. If you trade away a guy that just isn't thriving on your team, in your market for whatever reason. And you know, that guy gets a fresh start and you open up just avenues, just different roads. Yeah. And sometimes I look at the Canucks and the thought of bringing back Besser, not trading JT, not trading Elias.

I just, I don't picture in my head and I hope I'm wrong here. I don't picture in my head and I hope I'm wrong here. I don't picture in my head that group raising the cup. Yeah, that's I mean, especially right now. That's probably a very I don't think I've ever. It's probably a very realistic. It's probably very well. I mean, I don't look at it like that.

I don't. How do you look at it? I look at it is that you build, is it everyone's trying to build a core, right? And well they've built theirs. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And that there's not one particular core where I'm like, that's the one. Maybe Edmonton, but Edmonton got to the dance last year and didn't get it done. They haven't got it done and Mcdavis, 28 years old now. Outside of that, you're building a core. You're saying, can this team one get in and then two, can we do some damage when we get there? Your core guys. And right now I would say the biggest of the core guys is that you've got the best defenseman in the NHL in that core. And that's something that 31 other NHL teams can't say. So to me, that's a big plus in your core group

with the other two guys It comes down to is this gonna be the rocky point of the journey? Where they say, you know, they went through some tough times. They went through a lot of adversity It wasn't always rosy in Vancouver. Or is this the fracture in the journey where you gotta go on an entirely different path? So I do wanna read some texts here because I think they're good texts.

TJ from Surrey texts in, terrible trade comparables. Both Florida and Vegas got the younger superstars. All you prove is Vancouver is likely to lose any Pedersen trade. That is fair. superstars, all you prove is Vancouver is likely to lose any Pederson trade. That is fair. I'm not suggesting that the Conuxtia's willy nilly trade Alias Pederson.

What I'm saying is be honest with yourself and then at some point, end all this nonsense. You either commit to these guys and I mean, how many years are we going to have JT Miller in trade talks? It's not, I realize that sometimes management groups want to throw this stuff out there just to give a shot to the players, wake them up and see how they respond. I'm not even all that against that. But we can't, you can't, you can't keep operating like this. At some point you have to make a decision. And what I'm saying is like, I know this is kind of the famous Jim

Benning quote here, but I don't have all the information. I don't know. I don't have the information to make the bet on whether or not Elias Pedersen can return to form. I don't know what's going on with JT Miller in his life. I don't know how injured he is, but the Canucks do know all this information. And what I'm saying is that one way or the other, this nonsense has to end. Yeah. It's not a good way to run a hockey team and the fan base is getting frustrated. You're either committed to these guys or you're not.

And if you're not committed to those guys, you got to move them because you can't keep running like this. Well, I think what you said, Jason, sort of sums it up perfectly. Like if you if you can encapsulate it into one sentence, and this is probably I would hope what management is thinking as well. Can they win a Stanley Cup with this core group of players? Like it's that simple. Was last season in Outwire is last season?

Can they be that good again? Can they continue to grow? Or is this core just not what it is? Do they have to make a change? Can they win to grow or is this core just not what it is? Do they have to make a change? Can they win a Stanley Cup with this core group of players? Like in theory, in theory, you would think you got Pedersen and Miller as your top two centers, Besser on the wing, could score 40 goals last season. Right?

You brought in some other good wingers, some depth guys, Jake DeBras, Connor Garland, Dakota Joshua. You've got some good depth, Kiefer Sherwood. Then on the back end, you've got the, you know, the Norris trophy winner in Quinn Hughes. You had another good defenseman in Philip Peronik, you add a defenseman at the deadline, hopefully that's a top four guy.

You're going to have a cap space because you're accruing it. And then you got pretty good goaltending in Thatcher Demko and Kevin Lankinen on paper, in theory, sounds like a good team. Doesn't look like it though. Right. And I know there's been injuries and I know last season they did okay, but last season they still were a long way away from winning the Stanley Cup. They really were. They had to improve. They had to get better.

They had to make strides. It was a good first step. And they haven't done it. And they haven't done it. And in fact, they've regressed. And you also have to remember last year, everything went right for them. Right?

No injuries, P, Ogleberg. And this season, I don't know, I, like, I'll throw this question out to the listeners, maybe. What's your reaction if the Canucks resign Besser and keep the core together? Are you happy or not? Cause some people, everyone's going to be different on that. Yeah. Some people really do think this court can win a cup.

Do you believe in the core? But does management? Do you believe that? That is this question? That is the big question here. Do you believe in the core of the Canucks? Joining us now on the program he covers the Western Hockey League and the Vancouver Canucks for the hockey news Adam Kirzenblatt here on the Halford and Brev show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Adam. How are you?

Hey guys, thanks for having me and you know, I heard your conversation before coming on about McDavid and all of his coaches. Question, which coach do you think taught him how to do the cheeky little elbow while skating past players like we saw last night? Oh, the chicken wing. Yeah, I saw that on Marcus Johansson. I've watched that approximately a hundred times.

And aren't you like, how did he definitely give him a little poke there? As far as cheap shots go, it was pretty impressive the way that approximately a hundred times. And aren't you like, he definitely gave him a little poke there. As far as cheap shots go, it was pretty impressive the way that he pulled it off. He's so smooth. He's so smooth at everything. Very, very good. I wonder, do you think the NHL would look at that and find him? Yes, I do.

John Hines was livid. Yeah. Livid after the game. And not just about the call. Did you see this as well? I mean, not just the call, but I guess the explanation that he got from the officials. Yeah, he, well, just looking at some of the quotes and hearing some of the quotes, he, it looked like he just wanted to not get fined and he was holding his tongue a little bit.

But I mean that Marcus Johansson, the player who has concussion history. So, uh, any hit to the head is really going to be pretty dangerous for him. But yeah, Heinz was not happy post game, that's for sure. Do you think the NHL would have the guts to suspend Connor McDavid for hockey day in Canada on Saturday when they take on the Vancouver Canucks? No. Seven o'clock? No.

No. No. Okay. No. Before we get to that game- I hope so, but no. God, I hope so. So looking ahead, not too far down the road, Saturday's game. Before that we got a game tonight, seven o'clock Rogers arena, Los Angeles, Kings, Vancouver, Canucks based on what you saw from the five game road swing that ended very badly in

Winnipeg. What are you anticipating? What are you looking for tonight when the Canucks take on the Kings? Well, this team, this Canucks team is looking for the identity. They're looking for some consistency and you know, they're looking for some consistency and, you know, they're looking for some goal scoring. And then they faced the LA Kings who are, you know, one of the better defensive teams in the NHL, one of these teams that doesn't give up a ton of chances.

You know, this is a Canucks team that if you remove the game against Toronto, three of their last four games, they've scored one goal total. So, or sorry, two goals total. It's gonna be really challenging for Vancouver. I'm interested to see if Tuckett does adjust his lines a little bit after what we saw in Winnipeg and what we saw in Carolina, just because they need a spark. Like, we we know that the top guys aren't going outside of

Quinhues at the moment. The bottom six production has dried up. So they need to find a way to, you know, it's very simple, but they need to find a way to score goals. If they're going to beat the LA Kings, they need to score at least three goals tonight. That's kind of where we're looking. Cause as mentioned, the Kings are one of the most suffocating teams in the NHL they're happy with 2-1 results

and the Canucks you know they can't put on a 2-1 they can't play a 2-1 game against the LA Kings especially at home with their recent struggles. With regards to finding a spark and finding some offense do you think it's as simple as moving things around on let's say the top three lines on the team and shifting around the top nine forward groupers? Does it speak more to the style of play and the philosophical approach offensively that Rick Tocket is currently employing with his team? I think it's a little bit of both.

I think that Tocket, you know that you have some really good pairs on the team and you know that you have these players who are capable of scoring like players like the brusque and best sir peterson miller like these are really talented players who have had success in the nhl even a guy like connor garland but they just there's something about the mix that's going on right now we all know the struggles on the defense to be able to push the puck up and generate offense. So I think it's kind of column A and column B where, you know, you need to try to find the right partner for each player that would give them that spark. But at the same time, you can't have this off the glass out or dump and chase Teppaki,

especially against the Kings, because it's basically just going to and chase, tape hockey, especially against the Kings. Cause it's basically just going to be a, you know, under 20 shots per team, uh, back and forth game where there's no offense generated and might be first one to score wins. Um, the big question we tossed around in the last segment is, do you believe in this Canucks core? So I will throw that to you. do you believe in this Canucks core? So I will throw that to you.

Do you believe in this Canucks core? And if you do believe in this core, you believe that they can one day hoist a Stanley Cup. I think that there needs to be a change within the core at this point. Like, you know, the players will deny that there's stuff going on behind the scenes. We all know at this point that there's stuff going on and that it really can't continue this way. I think that the Canucks have talented players that can get you

to that Stanley Cup level, but at the moment they can't do it with this mix. So there has to be some sort of change in that group. I heard one of your textures mentioned, you know, you have to get rid of the rot to kind of help the garden grow. That's kind of a situation that the Canucks are in right now. Sometimes even the smallest change, even if it's just one player out and one player in can spark that team, but they need to get more, you know, stronger on the back end. Yes, Tom Willander is coming in the future, but we don't know what he's going to look like at the moment. You know, if he jumps into lineup at the end of the season, there's, he has no NHL experience. So do you really want to put a player like that in a playoff scenario this year?

They have a decent bottom six, but they need more production from their top and guys. And I mean, any team that has Quinn Hughes, you, you would give them a chance at least if you can build a strong team around them, but the Canucks aren't there yet, but they have the potential if they do make a couple moves and maybe change up a couple players within the core to take that next step. Based on what you've seen, how NHL ready is Tom Wallander? Tom Wallander, he was one of the best players at the World Juniors.

I know Axel Sandin-Pelicco will get all of the headlines because he was a goal scoring machine and he put up a lot of points, but Tom Wallander was the guy that Sweden really relied on in that tournament. He has great numbers in the NCAA. You can see that he's progressing so far. He's becoming more of a two-way player at the NCAA level.

But I mean, the jump from NCAA to the NHL is massive. There's not many players that can really step into that role and become a top four defenseman right out of the NCAA during a playoff run. So I think that if some experience at the pro level and then if he comes in the training camp next season, he should be able to take a spot in that top four depending on what the Canucks do over the next couple of months. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.