Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 1/20/26

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they get into the Canucks historic 11-game loss streak & Adam Foote's comments to media with Landon Ferraro. 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 HALFORN You're listening to Halford and Brough. Lee cuts out front, got a shot away, stopped by Lankin, and rebound they score. DeAngelo left circle, jams it into the back of the Vancouver net. Tony DiAngelo makes it 4 to 2. You know, we get off our game, we get frustrated and we overcomplicated and, you know, slamming the gate and things like that. We can't have anyone freak out out there, okay?

We've got to keep our composure. It's got too far. There's two bucks to lose. It's not just keep our composure. Good morning, Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford and his Browford.

It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Regular Zach. Good morning to you. Good morning.

And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brub for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Got paid a loan down. Sanza's and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com today. We are an 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 live from the Kintech Studio, make 2026 your year to move better and step stronger with Kintech custom orthotics. It is time now for the morning drive brought to you by the Duwik Auto Group. That's our morning guest list rundown. Now, originally we were going to start the show and our guest at 630 with Chris Parker at at a WGR Buffalo to talk about the bills.

But we had to bump them. This is how profound it was that Adam Foote said something interesting in his post-game media availability. We had to reserve an entire hour of the show to talk about it. Our apologies to Chris Parker, who no doubt is listening. to WGR and Buffalo. We'll try and get to him later this week, but we are clearing the entire first hour of this program to talk about the Vancouver Canucks. And then at 7 o'clock,

Shang Pang from San Jose Hockey Now and NBC Sports California is going to join us. San Jose, of course, the new home of now X Canucks Forward, Kiefer Sherwood, who was traded yesterday. Shang also got to see the first goalie fight in the National Hockey League in six years last night as Sharks Netminder Alex Nadelkvich I knew you'd be excited, Greg.

Scrapped with Sergei Bavarovsky in Florida last night. Scheng was there. Boots on the ground to see if the fight will also talk to him about Kiefer Sherwood going to the sharks. That's going to happen at 7 o'clock. 7.30, we're going to Spain. White Caps sporting director Axel Schuster is going to join the program. He'll join us live, as mentioned, from Spain, where the Caps are currently conducting their training camp.

It was a very eventful few days leading up to that camp with all the drama surrounding Tristan Blackman. Axel joins for our first Whitecaps segment. in a while. That'll happen at 7.30 this morning. 8.10. Landon Ferraro is going to join the program. Canucks analyst on Sportsnet. He was on the panel during last night's TV broadcast. Canucks lost their 11th game in a row last night, 4'3 to the Islanders at Rogers Arena. The biggest story, though, from last night was what Foot had to say post-game and all the ramifications from it. Landon is going to join us at 8-10 this morning for some Canucks

talk. So working in reverse on the guest list, 8-10, Landon-Feraro, 7th,000. 30 Axel Schuster 7 o'clock shang peng. That is the Duick morning drive. That is the rundown. Laddie, without further ado, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools,

resources and safety training. For more, visit the city. them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. On the ice yesterday, it was more of the same from your Vancouver Canucks. Anthony Duclair scored twice for the New York Islanders, and the Canucks were on the wrong end yet again for the 11th time in a row, 11th straight loss for the Canucks, a four three defeat at Rogers Arena to the aisles on Monday night. The most interesting part of the evening, though, had nothing to do with the fact that

the Canucks lost their 11th game in a row. It had to do what Vancouver Canucks head coach Adam Foote set in the aftermath. I think we're going to go right to the audio here. That's a good idea. We're going to go right to the tapes. It's actually more of a digital file, but I digress. Here now is Adam Foote finally. Game 49.

Game 49. It only took 49 games to get there. Laying into ripping into his veteran players for their lack of accountability, their lack of composure, and what they were doing in a short but important seven-minute span in what ended up being a fourth-three loss of the Islanders. Here is Vancouver.

Kanox head coach Adam Foot from the podium yesterday. Our veterans are the ones that feel defeated first. It's been going on here for a few years. You know, we get off our game, we get frustrated and we overcomplicate it and, you know, slamming the gate and things like that. It's something we got to get out of our culture. Our culture is not going to be that anymore. And it just gets us off our game slightly, off our game plan.

and for just a little bit too long, and it allows other teams get a little bit of energy and come back in the game. And it's something we've got to stop. Like tonight, the good thing is it would last about seven minutes. We readjusted, came out with a great third period. Had to kill, you know, that call, I get it. You know, it was an intense call.

It can happen. It might not happen, but it does happen in hockey. But we, I've been watching this for too long to say, like, we got to stop, burn ourselves. by getting frustrated. We've got to stay within the plan. The plan's working. And, you know, it's our vets.

And they got to hang in there. So I was at the game yesterday sitting right across from the Canucks bench. And I didn't notice any door slamming. I didn't notice any yelling. I didn't notice, you know, anything going on to the bench. But it's not something that you look at when you're out of game. You know, there's lots of sounds going on out of Vancouver Canucks game. but I imagine it did happen in the second period

because the Canucks finished the first period leading two to one. And then in the second period, they had a moment really at the kind of mid to end of the third period where they allowed two pretty quick goals for the Islanders to take the lead, three, two. And then as Adam Foote said, then they came out and had a decent third period. So I imagine it was in the second period, second period. A bit of a problem for the Canucks the last two games because the one against the Menton Oilers didn't go so well either. First and third have been great either.

I digress. This goes back to, well, let's name him, J.T. Miller. And his style, I don't know if you want to call it a leadership style. I don't know if this is his legacy that he left with the Canucks. A legacy of broken hinges. And I know a lot of people say, like, they confuse playing with emotion with losing your composure and slamming gates and showing that you're frustrated. going home, going, going back to the bench and slamming the gate and yelling and freaking out or slamming your stick against, like, it is showing emotion.

It's just useless. And what Adam Foote is saying and what Rick Tocket had said beforehand was like, it's a distraction because you're on the bench with a teammate who's, you know, making loud noises and you're like, what's going on down there? that distracts you from your job. And it creates sometimes a little bit of panic. If the vets are acting like that, if you want to play with emotion,

encourage your teammates and go out and show it on the ice. That's all they're saying, because people get it confused, right? People think, like, what, foot's saying he doesn't want any emotion? He's like, no, he's not saying that. He wants emotion and this is what. But all coaches will say, good coaches will say, like, no, I want your emotion harnessed in a positive way, not a distracting way.

Now, the important thing here is that Adam Foote is not the first delivery man for this message. As a matter of fact, when I came in this morning, I'm like, I had a couple people tell me last night, just so we're clear, this is nothing new with this group, with this core, with this room. go back and listen to some of Rick Talkett's comments before he decided he wanted out of Vancouver. So we did. Here now is a clip from January of last year, 2025, in which Rick Talkett,

almost word for word, talks about the exact same things that this particular group of veteran presences would do during games when things got frustrating. Here now, and it's crazy that it's almost a year to the day, Rick Talkett from mid-January, 2025, talking about how the Canucks group responds to frustrations. Obviously, last game was not, you know, being up two to one, and, you know, I don't know, the shots were 18, 11,

I thought we were coming all of a sudden, like 18 minutes later, it flipped. And why is that? Because we got stopped skating. Guys started doing fancy plays. Body language came back for whatever reason. you just can't do that. Winners don't do that.

You don't slam gates. You know, we're up two to one. Somebody misses an empty net. Okay, who cares? Why slam a gate? This is stuff I've been preached. I've been here. And every once in a while it creeps it.

The frustration. I don't know if it's because of the noise or not. I don't know. But we have to stop that stuff. Not surprisingly, several months later, Rick Tocke left, said, you know what? Maybe I'm not going to be able to change the culture of this team. Maybe I'm not going to be able to change how this team reacts,

the body language, the slamming of the gates, It's the attitude and personality of, I'd say, a good chunk of the guys that he depended on on a nightly basis. Not the young guys, but the veteran guys that are around. And I don't know whether it was the lasting legacy of J.T. Miller. I don't know whether it was that these guys embraced it. Or maybe it's just how this group is constructed. That there's a lot of guys that have the kind of personalities that when the going gets tough, they get frustrated. Sometimes, and I will make a bit of an excuse,

sometimes guys do it to show that they care. Okay. They do. I know you have no time for this right now, but I think the Canucks probably feel helpless in this situation right now. You mean losing 11 games in a row? I mean, it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing.

It's embarrassing for that to happen. And they, I don't know, maybe you want to show the fans. because it was another home loss last night that they too are frustrated. I always felt sometimes like that's what J.T. was doing. Like he was, it was a weird way

for him to hold himself accountable to yell at himself. And for him to let his teammates know that he was frustrated with him, himself and he expected better from himself. But it was not the right way to do it. I think the problem though is like, You know, the origin story, the Joker story of where it came from, quite frankly, it doesn't mean it.

It didn't matter. Like, no one cares. No one gives a crap why you're getting to that end game. One coach already told you that we're building a culture here that doesn't have that. And then he left. And then the next coach came in and is now saying the exact same things. So at what point, and I'm not saying you're excusing it away, but what point do you keep excusing it away? me like, well, you know, guys are mired in an 11-game losing streak so you can understand when the guys in charge have made it clear as day, clear as day, that it's not acceptable behavior.

It might be acceptable in other places. There might be other NHL teams, and I'm not even saying this facetiously, who are like, yeah, be outwardly demonstrative. And, you know, do the things and get it off your chest. We don't mind. But when your boss tells you don't do it, and then the second boss says also, please don't do that. And you continue to do it, that's a culture problem. And culture problems, I think a lot of people assume it looks one way all the time. Like there's maybe veteran leaders who are too hard on the younger players.

Maybe there's some hazing going on. And then maybe there's veteran players that don't set the right examples. Maybe there's veteran players that don't care enough. And maybe these guys are saying, well, we're trying to show that we care. We're showing them that this is not acceptable. the issue is, is no one in this organization, at least the guys that matter, I would say, the decision makers, want to see what the veterans are doing right now.

And I think it goes beyond just slamming gates, by the way. I think there's a pouty element with certain players when things aren't going their way that they don't like. I think body language plays into it a lot. I think hanging heads plays into it a lot. I think feeling sorry for yourself plays into it a lot. I think there's a lot of guys on this team that, admittedly have gone through some rough times over the last couple years.

It's a lot of the guys from their leadership group, right? Like J.T. had his issues. And certainly at the end of his tenure, Quinn's body language was awful. You know, a lot of people are texting in right now and going like, who's he talking about? Who is slamming gates? I have no idea. No idea who he was talking about. But, you know, look, Petterson's body language has been awful at times.

You know, you talk about that kind of pouty. Yeah, and so is Bessers, right? Like Besser looks, doesn't look. And these are the guys, by the way, we'll talk a lot about a lot of the rumors, you know, that continue to swirl, especially around Elias Pedersen. And, you know, this is one of the reasons why you could argue for a Pedersen trade. it's a culture thing, right? Like, yeah, I know he hasn't been horrible this season,

but you do need your best players to be your leaders. I'm sorry, that's just how it works. Or at least you need your best players to be good role models. Even if they're not up there talking to everyone and sitting down and going, like, hey, how's it going? Or making big speeches or whatever, you need them to be role models because the Canucks are going to have a lot of kids in the lineup over the next little while.

They already have a lot of kids in the lineup. You need your leaders to lead. And that's what I think maybe the most maddening part right now about the dynamic where people are saying, age old conversation now, even though it's only been around for a few weeks in Vancouver, you guys wanted a rebuild. This is what a rebuild looks like. No.

A rebuild should not have any of these guys around. End of story, period. I know that you need to get decent assets back in return for shipping some of these players out. But at this point, I think there's enough evidence between two different head coaches, a fan base who has witnessed it, media who's covered it,

that there's damage being done by having some of these veteran presences around, and they're not giving you anything in the positive. They're not helping you win game. I guess they're helping you lose games, but here's the thing. You can find lots of guys, lots of guys on the unemployment line that can help you lose hockey games. And you can find lots of guys that want to be in the NHL that will put in a shift and do the things you want them to do. I mean, at this stage of the game, you're just talking about guys following orders.

Yeah. You're not talking about it. That's going to be like, okay, we're going to sign you to this contract. I have one question for you. Are you a gate slamer? Standard player contract. The following things are non-negotiables. Slamming gates, hanging heads, chucking water bottles.

Like all this stuff. It's crazy that it's crazy. There's a low pouts per 60. Seriously. We're going to have to start keeping track of that. You know, how many times did you hang your head in the second period? It's nuts. And the crazy, crazy, crazy part is that it wasn't too long ago that Rutherford was

lauding all of these veteran presences that they had in the room that they thought would be good mentors for the next generation. Well, we'll play some Patrick Alvin'i commentary in the next segment of, We got a full hour to start the Halford & Brough show today. And we'd obviously love to hear from you into the Dunbar Lumber text line, 650, 650. Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and renter warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve. You are online at Dunbarlumber.com. A lot of text coming in right now.

So I was at the game last night. You're a Joe fan. GenPop. I was in Genpop. and there's a few things that I wanted to mention. And it kind of relates to Vancouver can't handle a rebuild. I'm reading right now about the New York Knicks getting booed off the court yesterday in New York because that is a team that has expectations on it.

It won the NBA Cup and they're in a bit of a slide right now. And they had a game against Dallas yesterday. And they had a really rough first half and they got booed off the court. The lowly Dallas Mavericks. So again, this was my first game in person this season. I can't remember the last time it took me until January to go to a game. But I don't know. There's been something keeping me away.

I could not believe how positive and encouraging and upbeat the crucial. the crowd was last night. I think it was for me, the most remarkable thing about being in attendance there. That was like going to a large kids game. Like it was everyone was just so encouraging right until the very end. You know, a few people left after they went down four to,

but a lot of people stayed. And they were like, come on, guys, tie it up. And there was very limited grumbling when the Islanders scored. And they had two very quick goals in the second period that erased a Kinnock's 2-1 deficit. And then they had kind of the backbreaker goal in the third period when Tony DiAngelo scored to make it 4 to 2 for the Islanders. I just thought it was I just thought it was noteworthy And I was

I was I was Because I'm like I'm like I wonder what the atmosphere is going to be like Because you know The Canucks might break their franchise record For most losses in a row And they might lose Yet again

On home ice And the islanders They're not world beaters man They got pretty good goalie and Sorokin But they were missing Horvatt last night and yeah they got a couple of good players but they're not they're guaranteed to make the playoffs or anything

and they had their rookie party on Saturday night that shouldn't I don't think it's I think that's reportedly that's not a team that you're like well you know the Islanders they're pretty good team but it was just everyone was pretty happy to be there

everyone had a good time the game was fairly entertaining and there was no ritual. It was just a hockey game. Not a single jersey thrown on the ice. Despite the fact, it was the 11th consecutive loss. Now, it was an entertaining game,

and that five-on-three PK that they had, when Marcus Pedersen broke his stick, was, and I'm not kidding here, one of the highlights of the season. Yeah. It's good. It's a good kill. It was... I was watching it.

It was gutsy. It was gutsy. So, Hironic and Elias Pedersen, were the ones with the sticks. And both those guys played that kill so well. Pedersen, positionally, is the best player on the team. He really is. He is always in the right spot defensively and offensively. There's a reason he, you know, so many times the puck like just finds its way to him.

Now, there are issues like his skating, the guy cannot create separation anymore. There's never a great skater, but he goes on these rushes sometimes up the ice, and there's just, you're like he's not beating a guy. He's not beaten a guy wide. He's not creating separation. But, you know, that PK showed what he has in terms of the good qualities remaining. And, you know, I do think the connection move on from him. But I also think that he could be a valuable piece for another team, and there should be a market for him. If Evander Cain, another point, plays like he did last night in the offensive end,

then there should be a market for him too, because that was one of his most impressive and energetic performances of the net. He had a goal. He went to the net. He had a breakaway right before that goal. He had a couple big hits. Matthew Schaefer, who I also want to talk about, you know, was always looking for Evander Cain out there.

And if you're a team that thinks it's going into the playoffs and you want a guy out there that is going to make it hard on the other team's defenseman to get the puck out and to move the puck, and if Evander Cain is engaged, there should be a market for him as well. You know, I wonder if the fact that Kiefer Scher, got traded, and then Evander Kane has an energetic game, has something to do with it. The freedom light at the end of the time.

Well, if you're Kane, like, you have to get traded. Because you have to, you have no story to write in terms of selling your services for next season. If this is the way you go out on a Canucks team that's going nowhere and dead last in the and you're not typically bringing the energy like he did last night. Like he's, you know, this is his time to show other teams that he can still help them in the playoffs. And I think he did it last night. Was he perfect? No, like he took an offensive zone penalty.

And defensively, sometimes he's still not moving his feet enough. But I think last night, I think he was named third star in the building. So that was, you know, that was good. I hope there were scouts in the building watching him last night. And finally, man. you know, I said that if there's one player that Canada could regret leaving off the roster, it's the 18-year-old Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer, he is an unbelievable player.

He is so good. And there were so many times where he was the one that kind of calmed it down for the islanders in his own end. And he plays with such composure. It's crazy how young he is. But that was the guy I showed up to watch. And I watched him a lot. And man, I'm just glad he's Canadian. Even if he's not on this Olympic team,

that is like this next group of Canadian stars led by Celebrini and Badard and Matthew Schaefer. Man, it's good. So we're going to be talking about Macklin Celebrini's team, the San Jose Sharks. That's coming up at 7 o'clock this morning when we talked to Shangpang. The San Jose Sharks, of course, now. the new employer of former Canucks forward

Kiefer Sherwood. We'll talk about the fallout from the Sherwood trade coming up. We've got an entire half hour of the program coming up entirely open. We can go any direction you want. Adam Foote's remarks after the game yesterday. Takeaways from the Canucks 11th consecutive loss. The Kiefer

Sherwood trade. And we will definitely get into all of the rumblings yesterday including many from Frank Sarah Valley from Victory Plus about a potential Elias Pedersen trade, maybe even a VanderKain trade talk as well. There's so much to get into. Lots of Canucks news on the horizon.

Next half hours coming up, you're listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. On a Tuesday, happy Tuesday, Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halpernbrenb of the morning is bratsby Sands and Associates. Do you have payday loan debt?

If you do, Sands and Associates can cut your debt. By up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visiting today at Sands-Trustee.com. We are now in hour three of the program. Landon Farraro is going to join us in about eight minutes time here. Kickoff Hour 3. Hours, Bratched by Campbell and Pound. state appraisers.

Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-Dash pound.com today. We're coming to live from the Kintech Studio. Make 2026 your year to move better and steps stronger with Kintech custom orthotics. We need to do the one to watch tonight, brought to you by Limitless AV. Last night's didn't really pan out. I said keep an eye on Teddy Blugher. Did not play.

Tonight. Dodds was much better. What was Dodds? Schaefer. Yeah, it was better. Really easy to keep your eye on Blugger. Hey. Sitting there in the chair, up on the boot.

He said he had a chance to coming back last night. By the way, that was one of the things Alvin said yesterday that Bluger and Heidel are expected to play this week. Keep an eye on that. Anyway, tonight, I mean, you can watch, I got two. Quinn Hughes and the Minnesota Wilde

who were beating the brakes off the Toronto Maple Leafs yesterday until the least minute relatively close late. They are back in action tonight in a very tantalizing affair against the Montreal Canadian in Montreal. You can also watch Macklin Celebrini and those fighting San Jose sharks there in Tampa Bay tonight

to take on the line. So two to watch tonight. You understand the whole thing about this thing is it's one to watch. But I'm making it two to watch. I'm making it my own. Put it my own Halford spin on it. The two to watch.

But the Halford spin being like wrong. That's not wrong. Well, it's the one to watch. It's the two to watch. Brought you by Limitless AV. Vancouver's most trusted audio visual integration experts, specializing in seamless video conference,

solutions in hybrid work spaces. Book your personalized tour of their experience center today at limitless a.v. Dot CA. You didn't prep it, did you? Not at all. But I got two to watch for the price of one. You can get that. They don't do that limit as A.B.

Don't ask for that deal. Anyway, we got some programming notes to pass along. Tomorrow, in addition to our usual guests, we're working on getting Sarah Nurse from Vancouver goldenized on the show. Thursday, and I didn't realize this, but they don't do media on Thursday. We're going to try and do a preview on Wednesday. The second of their back-to-back against her old team, Toronto, she returned from injury to play them the other night in a 2-1 loss,

although she scored the first goal in that game. And there's a lot going on in the PWHL right now that we haven't kept tabs on. Vancouver was involved in the biggest trade in franchise history, a six-player trade on Sunday night. And then shortly thereafter... That was a shake-up trade for sure. The old 3-4-3.

Yeah. And then... After that, because shake this team up, the league. We were supposed to win this thing. The league for near last. Yeah, that's what you do.

You do a three-for-three trade. A bunch of Olympians changing hands in there. Although I made the mistake of saying there was an Russian Olympian involved in the trade. But no Russians at the Olympics. Anyway, also, the day after that, the PWHL set another record. The longest suspension and harshest suspension in the three-year history of the league.

New York Silence, New York Sirens forward, Taylor-Jarard got a four-gamer for leaving the bench to join in an altercation. She is now my favorite player. Yeah, so there you go. So we're going to try and get Sarah Nurse on the program tomorrow in addition to everything else ahead of Thursday's game.

I want to talk to her about the Olympics because that Canadian... That's the other big story here. That Canadian team struggled in the warm-up series against the Americans. Well, in there was the U-18s that the Americans also beat the Canadians in. So we've got some issues here. Is it time for a summit? I don't know. Usually one loss triggers a summit, but two losses at two different levels.

I don't know. But yeah, that's going to be the... Well, they'll play the Americans at least once in Italy because remember how they have the groups in the women's tournament? It's not the same as the men's. There's like an A group and a B group, which does show you the lack of competitive balance in women's international hockey. They don't want Canada or the Americans to play Italy. Right. It's pretty clear.

Because it would be a lot to nothing. And just for scheduling purposes on that front, they are now eight days away from their Olympic break in the PWHL. So the Golden Knights have a bunch of games coming up, including that Thursday game against Toronto. Then they go earlier than the NHLers, but they go to break. So that would have been, yeah, eight days time before we get to see men's and women's taking off for the Olympics.

So there you go. Okay. We got a couple minutes here before we get Landon Ferraro on the program. lots to get into from last night's game, both the game itself, which you were in attendance for, sitting in Jen Pop. How are your seats, by the way? They were good.

I mean, I'm not sitting in upper deck, Jen Pop. Come on. Let's be honest. I thought in the... I hope someone was watching. The dismissiveness in which he said it. You've got to sell it is the thing. Anyway, go on.

I actually, honestly, prefer to sit up high. But not what those people. The Canucks have now lost eight in a row in regulation. Actually, we should talk more about that. Not getting a loser point, it's pretty impressive.

They have not won a game in the calendar year, 2006. They did take Seattle to a shootout, though. So they even got through overtime against the Seattle crack and then lost in the shootout. They didn't make it through overtime

against the Boston Bruins the following night. And then they went out on the road and lost all six games and they scored on that road trip in six games. They scored nine goals. And then they came home,

they lost six nothing to Edmonton and lost four three to the New York Islanders. They have six games left on this home stand and it starts Wednesday against the Washington Capitals. New Jersey is here on Friday, and there were some news about Luke Hughes, wasn't there?

Luke Hughes is believed to have suffered a Crap, I had it. Dislocated shoulder, thank you. Yeah, I don't think it's been confirmed by the Devils yet, although I haven't checked, but Frank Sarvelli had the report last night that Hughes will be out. That was one of the stories that came across last night

that Hughes will be out with the dislocated shoulder. What's been a very underlined, very difficult season, for Luke Hughes and the New Jersey Devils. If you were to come up with a big three of dysfunctional teams, would it be the Canucks, Rangers, and Devils? Yeah, Devils are in there. The Senators would maybe be on the outside looking in. I think the Senz would be on the outside.

I think New Jersey has been more dysfunctional. I got in trouble doing a Mount Rushmore yesterday. That's true, actually. I'm asking you for a big three. The big three of dysfunctional teams in the NHL, I think you would definitely have to put the Rangers. Ding. You would have to put the Canucks.

ding and then it's always the final decisions it's hard to be odd it's got to be odd I think it's New Jersey the their fan base the Linus Allmark situation I think puts them one notch above

and the statement and everything and the goaltending in general with Jake Sanderson actually calling out his own goalie yeah that was crazy by the way that was crazy we played it yesterday I'd never heard it before I don't know if we'll ever hear it again Jake Sanderson said you need to make more than 10 saves.

You know what I thought was the craziest part of it? And then who's the, what's the kid's name? Levi Marlian. Yeah, he was like, I did make more than 10 saves. 13. You know what I'm most shocked by? Sanderson hasn't been forced to issue a half-hearted apology yet. Yeah.

I just assumed that. They're going to make a statement and get alone to the statement. Seriously. They're looking at their PR department. They're like, you know what to do. You know what we're going to have to do here? No, like did everyone not assume. that Sanderson was going to be forced to apologize.

Like a Zane Perak kind of apology, where he doesn't really mean it, but some of the guys in the room told him to, so he's going to do it anyway. He'll apologize when the safe percentage reaches 870. You're a senator's fan, Zach. I meant to ask you about this yesterday. How is this received by the Sends fans? Are they like way to go, Jake? Thanks for calling him out, or they're like, I can't believe you did that.

Well, I think that the comment wasn't necessarily received well, but it does largely express the frustration of the fan base. I mean, this is a season where the team has. largely been playing pretty well, and you're getting seward by the third worst save percentage ever by a team, only beating out the Ottawa senators and the Ottawa senators in history. I saw those, the early 90 senators were the only teams.

Notably really good hockey teams. That's wild. I don't know. But don't you think it's unfair to make it to Marilinen, who is the third string goalie. He's 23 years old. I know he's a professional hockey player. But imagine if one of the Canucks had said that about Tolopilo.

I know. That's what I'm saying. And it wouldn't have been that far a stretch. Yeah. You know? He was a victim of playing really well last year. So everyone was like, oh, there's 22-year-olds, NHL ready. And then it's like, no, he's not. It's just, I've never heard.

What fan base falls for? Small sample size. Like a small sample size when it comes to goaltending. Not us. Who's your favorite small sample size goalie? Mine was Spencer Martin. he played last night they lost

Troy Gamble Louis de Ming Louis de Ming Troy Gamble if I'm going in the way back machine but did he can you remember like did he have a great

small sample size where he was like this guy's gonna be unbelievable yeah and then he ran into injury issues concussion issues if I'm not mistaken yeah how do you remember that is that from the book

probably writing the book yeah I have a lot of useless information in my head well I know you do sometimes it becomes useful okay in moments like these if you go back and look at the numbers

though not gonna lie they're not gonna be that impressive because it was the 80s Right. He was awesome. He was rolling. He had like an 875. He cracked 900 once and it was great. Okay. Let's go to the phone lines now. Connect's analyst Landon Ferraro joins us here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Landon. How are you?

I'm doing pretty good. Are you guys doing? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this as always. We appreciate it. I want to jump right beyond the game yesterday. And to the post-game remarks that Adam Foote made game 49 of the season, it guess it was time, to call some of the vets to the carpet for their lack of composure on the bench, slamming gates, slamming sticks, bad body language, hang in their heads. When you heard the remarks, or maybe you haven't heard them yet, if you're hearing them for the first time when I'm explaining him to you, what did you think of what Adam Foote had to say, the fact that he said it and what the rest of the road is going to look like now that it's kind of out there in the ether? Yeah, I just saw pieces of it quickly. a bit of a mess last night

getting out of there so I'll catch the rest of it but what I did see and just I mean from what we've all been seeing too like it needed to happen and you know like last night especially early in the game

like I mean that first this own goal was beautiful like the young guys were working the young guys were trying to make plays and doing that and, you know, like, well, I mean, that's, that's great to see. That's what you, like, you have to see.

But you also need, like, you need your vets to be leading the way. You know, Evander Kane was skating last night and he gets his goal. But, you know, like, for this long stretch of losses now especially, but, like, the intensity hasn't really been there from the veterans. And, you know, with the slamming doors and, like, stuff like that, It's just what that does is it just shows the young guys that that's how you show that you're not happy with the situation. And that's not the right way to go about it at all. And, you know, it's just not a good look at all.

And, you know, like I was a guy that was like I'd get really mad and I'd slam doors. And it's funny. Like, I'd do it. And it's, you know, I know I didn't want to do it anymore, but I'd slam a door again. And then it's, it's like when you have that late. eat snack and as soon as you're done eating and you're like, why did I do that again? Right? Like you can't, you just, it brings the team down and you can't have that stuff.

And, you know, that's why, you know, I was when I was on with, with Jamie and Dranslet yesterday was like, to me, I wanted to hear Alvin come out and say, we're going to strip this down. Like a lot of these, well, not a lot of them, like all of these veterans were brought in and signed and, or on this team under very different circumstances. Some of them are going to be okay with the rebuild and just keep working their way through it. Some are not going to be okay with it

and don't have the makeup to be able to put up with losses night after night and be a good example. And I don't think that's anything against that player either. It's just like not everyone's meant to be the leader of the team. Not everyone's meant to be able to handle losses like that, especially when they're later in their career and they're thinking about, you know,

I only have a handful of years left. Like, am I really going to spend three of them in this? Yeah. So, like, to me, that's why it's so important to, like, sit the vets down one by one and, like, have that conversation of, like, can we have until the Olympic break to really know, like, are you in or are you out?

Because if you're out, we've got to figure this out now. and move on so that you're in a situation you want to be in and we have guys in this room that are working in the right direction that we need them to be. So interesting, you talked about, you know, your habit of slamming doors. And I think, and I think like you kind of nailed it, why some guys do it.

It's almost like a message you're trying to send. And it's the wrong message, but it probably comes from a good place. to show your teammates that you care and you're frustrated. And maybe if you miss a play, you want your teammates to know that you're really upset about missing that play. But all it really does is take the focus away from the game and make it about you and not the team.

When do you think you finally came to that realization? When I fully realized that it wasn't just a once in a while thing Because if you blow up once in a while, like yeah, you're a competitor, things happen It happens. But when I, you know, especially for me, I mean, I knew I was fiery from a very young age. I mean, you guys know my dad. Yeah, I played golf with your dad, so I know. Oh, and that's almost worse than playing hockey.

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, like I knew it growing up. up, but by the time I was probably 25 or 6, you know, I knew it was something I had to keep an eye on. Like I just, I couldn't help it and yelling at refs and, and especially as I got older. Like honestly, like I said, it was, it was kind of embarrassing when you'd get done with it. You're like, it was almost like I'm watching my two-year-old have a temper tantrum. Yes. And it's not all right.

And you're right. A lot of it comes from, you want to show that, you know, I tried to make that play or, you know, you turn to puck over and they go and score and you're showing that you're bad. That's not the right way to go about it. And it's, you know, it's so easy to say, but the, like, the reasoning for it is if you, if you're a guy that is all in on for the team and, you know, blocking shots, producing, doing what his job is supposed to be, you don't need to let the guys know that you're mad that you had that term.

They know you are because they see it every day that you're dialed in, you're committed to the team, and you want to win. They know that you didn't mean to make a mistake. Now, to me, as I got older, because I, oh, to answer your question, it was almost watching other guys doing it and me looking at it like, well, that's how I look. Like I did the same thing, right? And a lot of it, you're just sitting there like, you're now just acting because I know you didn't try and get in the lane. Right? Like it's just such a different thing. And then before you know, like guys start to get frustrated at it because we're all angry. Stop slamming doors. Stop throwing little temper tantrums here and there because it doesn't solve anything. Just think about the mistake and figure out why it happened. Did you not protect the puck well enough? Did you not shoulder check before? And once you figure that out, do it the next time and make the play. I do want to talk about Evander Cain's performance last night

because there were still a couple of mistakes here and there, but for the most part, I thought he brought a lot more energy than he had. Where do you think that came from? You know, I definitely agree with you. That was the best skating game I've seen out of him for a while. I mean, the couple hits that he had early,

but then what was it, the big one, and at the end of the second was it? Like that one looked like it hurt. But, you know, I think that seeing Sherwood go and seeing Hughes go. And again, like, he's a guy that doesn't have a contract for next year. He's, you know, a handful of games away from a thousand. Like, he's, to me, I'm assuming that he's starting to think of, okay, where's my year finishing? And I need to make sure I'm playing good.

that whether I'm staying here, that I don't get pushed to the side by young guys, because as more guys start going out, and not that you need to see a signal of a rebuild, like they've given their signals, it's happening. But you want to make sure that you don't get pushed out. They're going to give more opportunities to young guys as the year goes along, and they make more trades. It's really easy for that veteran that you're not committed to past this year, to end up on the fourth line, not on power play.

Like, I've seen it happen. So to me, it's someone kind of getting a reminder of the writing on the wall, and where do you, like, how do you want this year to go? How do you want it to finish out from here? And, you know, it showed that he had a bit of back in his step. You think there was any coincidence that Kiefer Sherwood got traded? And I'm sure of Vander Kaine. well, let's put it this way.

I'm sure his agent would like him to go to another team because you want to have a story to tell for next season and something to sell for next season. He needs the playoffs. Yeah, and that's what I was getting at, right? Like whether it was him not getting moved and staying here, he needs to be playing well so he doesn't get pushed to the side by young guys. But also he is very,

getting that pep in his step because he needs, like the ideal situation for him is going to a playoff team and showing that, okay, yeah, there might be tough parts during the year, but when it gets to the heavy time of the year, I play well good, right? Like, so that's what I'm saying. Like, he saw sure would go. It was the next piece and like all of a sudden he's got some step in his game again. Um, okay. So I know you've already been through this because the connects have been, it's now 11 straight games for a loss. So we're trying to find like new ways to look at the next game. But how do you stay motivated in a season like this? Does it just at some point gum down to personal pride and we can't keep losing this much? Yeah, personal pride,

a bit of ego, a bit of selfishness, but in a good way. Right? Like you need guys that, you know, want to work to the, you know, obviously to the common goal of the team and keep trying to improve and improve together. But, you know, as you're going through this, like there is, when you're going through a rebuild, like there is a little bit of selfishness in that. Like, you want to make sure that because there's a ton of opportunity going around that you're taking advantage of it. And there's all that internal. competition going on of, you know, like all these young guys, like, okay, that guy, you know, Sassone had a nice goal last night and he was really skating. Like, I need to make sure I'm going so that as we get through this rebuild, like when there are decisions, I've done enough to show that I can be here and be an answer to getting out of the rebuild and all that. you know, it's, you know, just trying to give yourself little goals to get through it. You can't worry about, like, you know, again, I know you enter every game trying to go win it.

But you have to, in a sense, like you have to take away the end result. Like, it sucks. They didn't get a point out of last night. They played pretty good. And, but it didn't happen. But there was still a lot of really. good pieces to pull out of that game. Are there pieces that they definitely need to continue to look at and continue to work on,

especially with the young guys and then kind of dealing with some of the older things as well? Of course, but you can't, you know, like when you have this much losing, you can't just have it be so outcome-oriented, especially for the young guys, because like it is really draining to lose this many games in a row. It really is. And it's depressing at points. You feel like you're never going to get out of it. But just giving like those little goals.

I know it sounds so dumb, but like it's you have to do it because you have to keep, especially the young guys, really focused on different things to keep them dialed in and giving them little checkpoints. So it's not just, hey, we want you to work on your defensive game. And then after six games, he's like, okay, like, I think I've, I think I've been pretty good, but like, I don't know.

I got scored on four times, but none of them were really my fault, right? Like, it's a hard thing to gauge. So, like, that's why I keep saying it, but I truly believe it is, like, you have to give all those guys, like, little goals all the way through. Some of them give it for every two games or so. Like at Carlson, you can give them something for three or four games. a buoy him, I'm giving them something for every period and then having Dean check in with them like one or two things.

Just keep giving them and keep a tally on it. Like let them have like another, like a little side game almost. Like create, you have to create some fun in all of this mess. Well, I thought D.P.D. last night, you know, he didn't play all that much. And you can tell when you're watching him, he doesn't always know exactly where he, he should be on the ice and it's the little details that he's going to have to learn but I thought he had some good moments I mean that was a bomb of a shot that came tipped in that was a great shot and there were a few moments where he was having some really good battles with guys

in front of the net and into the corner and maybe that's something else that that you look for you know they're not going to play a perfect game but do you have some confidence inspiring moments in these games Exactly, right? Like, for what you're saying, I think that's exactly why I want, like, or think it's a good idea to have all those little meetings individually with those guys. Because you can't sit down William, Volander, and D. PD and give them a couple goals for the game. They play three completely different games, right? Like, for PD, it would be, you know, something as simple as closing fast in D-Zone, and being decisive in your decision. Like, make your decision and stick to it.

Don't second guess. Yeah, don't hold on to a puck too long. If you see a pass, make it. Exactly. But again, but don't, you can't give five things at once. Like, start with one or two. And then when he does those a couple periods in a row, like, hey, awesome, you nailed it.

Now let's work on, like, focus on this. Like, keep giving them something to re-engage on. But while you're doing that, not only is it making him, stay in the game and really focus on something, but it's also giving them an opportunity while they lose a game that he has some little wins in it. So when he goes home that night, he's not happy they lost,

but he can still in the back of his mind feel a little good. Like, hey, like, yeah, you know, I might have messed up here, but, you know, I did this, this, this, and this good. Like, that's a decent step, right? So you have to create some, and it's not false wins, but you have to fabricate some and let them feel good about themselves because it's so easy for especially a young kid to only look at,

we lost 4-3 and we lost 6-0 the night before. Landim, this was great, ma'am. Thanks for checking the time to do it. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week in the games this week. Yeah, you too. Thanks. Have a good one.

Landon Ferraro here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 615. We got to go to break. When we come back, it's what we learn. Time. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650.