Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 12/03/25

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk the latest hockey rumours with Victory+ NHL insider Frank Seravalli, plus the boys get a Canucks update from analyst Randip Janda, following last night's loss to the Avs. 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. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Clear it across the Vancouver line. Myers knocks it down. It comes to Landiscagg of the right circle. He was poke-checked by Marcus Pedersen. Got it up for McKinnon. Who scores? He's going to get bigger and strutely.

longer, like he's going to get thicker as time goes by. And as he gets, you know, more girth, I think he'll do some good stuff. Shed, whipping it to. The eye along the baseline near side, free under the tin for a two-hand jam. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brough.

It is SportsNet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios, a beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dog. Good morning to you. Good morning. Good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to 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 Kintech Studio. now's the time to maximize the benefits of custom orthotics before the year runs out. Visit kintech.net. It is time now for the Duick Morning Drive. Our guest list brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 6.30 this morning.

David Amber Hockey Night in Canada, SportsNet, NHL host is going to join us. Wednesday night's Scotia Bank hockey tonight on SportsNet. Two struggling Canadian teams meet in Montreal as the Habs host the Jets. And then in the nightcap, Alex Ovechkin and the caps take on Max. Sellebrini and the Sharks in the late game in San Jose. That's at 6.30. David Amber is going to run through all that. 7 o'clock Frank Sarah Valley, our NHL Insider from Victory Plus. Lots has happened in the National Hockey League since we last spoke with Frank.

Last Wednesday, we'll get into all that. It's 7 o'clock with Frank Sarah Valley. 7.30, Carl Valentine, it's going to join the program, Jason. Vancouver White Caps legend. Now a club ambassador. The white caps are off to the MLS Cup final this weekend. We're going to go take a trip down memory lane with Carl all the way back to the year of my birth, 1979.

Also the year they won the soccer bowl. Carl was a mere wide-eyed rookie back then for the Caps. So you are a big white Caps fan and you follow them very closely. How much do you know about the 79 run? Only the stuff that I've read and been told, obviously. I don't remember the run being zero. Yeah.

It was tough. My memories have faded. over the last 46 years. No, no, no, but have you put the effort in to learn about it? Yeah, of course. Okay. No, I don't know. Some people haven't.

Yeah, I mean, totally different time. You've talked about the impact that team has had in terms of, like, the growth of the city, for example, which is a very interesting tale. The number of players and a lot of, like, a lot of Englishmen on the team, obviously, Carl being one of them. And, of course, I got to know that. Alan Ball. Alan Ball. And, of course, Ball Arena is named after him. the great English soccer player.

Not many people know that. I thought they didn't even after Rick Ball. Not many people know that either, yeah. And I actually got to know the manager of that team, Tony Waiters, later on in life when he was a club coach at Cliff Avenue, the club I used to coach at. So yeah, I've got a couple connections to that team.

Very cool to speak with Carl Valentine this morning at 7.30. 8 o'clock Randy Janda is going to join the program. Canucks color analyst right here on SportsNet 650. Canucks lost yet again last night, 3-1 to the avalanche in Colorado. at Ball Arena. That's now nine losses in their last 11.

That's very bad. Randeep's going to join us at 8 to talk about all of this. That's the guessless part of things. We're also doing our giveaways today. 7.30. We're giving away a $50 gift card to White Spot. Caller number 5 at 7.30. We're doing that every day this week.

604-280-650. At 8 a.m., we are doing the latest iteration of Halford & Brough's 12 days of Christmas. It's now day three. yesterday we gave away a $200 gift card to Kintech. Today, this is the beauty of the contest. You don't know what you win until you call. Could be a life-sized African elephant. Could be.

Could be a boat. It's not a boat. Caller number 5 at 8 a.m. 604, 280650. I will remind you throughout the show of our contests today, including the Halbro 12 days of Christmas. It's a big guest list. That is your Duick morning drive. It is over.

So without further ado, Laddy, 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? What happened is Brat's you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance? Making safety simpler by giving construction companies to vesting tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.C.C.A. Last night at Ball Arena, Nathan McKinnon scored twice for the Colorado Avalanche. Lynch, they extended their point streak to

I think every game this season, and they beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 in Denver. Nathan McKinnon is an absolute machine. Of all the players in the NHL, I think, is this a hot take? I think I'd pay the most to watch him in person. I would

take watching him this is a hot take. Yep. Over McDavid, but all right, it's too early for that horn. Stop. with the hot takes. I would pay more money to see him than Lucas Reichel. I just think McKinnon is the perfect hockey player. He's got talent, power. He plays the game with

rage. Like he's got the rage on McDavid. He's got the rage factor. He's a rageaholic. He is always in attack mode. Imagine being a young guy on the abs of rookie player. McKinnon would be a terrifying teammate. You'd be like, Mr. McKinnon. You would have to call him Mr. McKinnon. Where should I sit? I like the, Murf did an interview with Gabe Landisog,

which they played on the post-game show as well. And the guys were talking afterwards about the importance of having Landisogg back on that team because he provides a bit of not McKinnon. Right. For the team, you know, like. It's like good cop, bad cop.

Yeah, yeah. Now don't let dad yell at your kids. Yeah, he's terrifying. He even scares me sometimes, young man. But yeah, he is a terrific player, and I'm glad he's Canadian, and we'll get you cheer for him at the Olympics soon. As for the game, you know, you can look back on that game and, I guess, analyze it like a typical game,

and you say you pick on guys like P.O. Joseph on the first goal or Max Sasson on the second, but it's kind of like, yeah, That's what the avalanche do to teams like the Canucks. They were first to almost every puck last night. They play with such frenetic energy. They are clearly a team on a mission right now. That second period last night was domination by the Aves. The Canucks actually played pretty well in the first,

and I know Adam Foote had his common phrase, we were right there. But look, you're watching that game and it never seemed like the Canucks had a real chance. It was only a matter of time before the Aves started to click after their so-so first period and then the third period,

they protected the league. It's not, it wasn't an embarrassing performance by any memes by the Canucks. They've had far worse performances this season, but I do think it shows how far they've got to go. Yep. Although I think most people knew that already.

you know, it was good to see Linus Carlson score again. He's one of the guys that's really taking advantage of or he did take advantage of having the Siddines down in Abbotsford and, you know, he used their services and they were happy to provide them to him

and now we're starting to see him become a, you know, a full-time NHL player. He's up to five goals on the season. It's the same as a Vander Cain. One fewer than, you know, Connor Garland, I think. Glass half full over.

here in the Alford and Brough show. Quine Hughes broke Sam Malinsky's ankles at the point but unfortunately he missed the net after he did. That's okay. That's okay. His one shit there was another Quinn Hughes shift though where he

decided to just kind of watch the play. He's probably just tired. Yeah and he was just like wow the outs have a scoring chance here. I'm just going to get a good look here and then for some reason he became a left winger on the breakout. You know, the body language.

It is odd. I don't know how many people listening right now actually saw that. I know Bick threw it out on social media. And it was pretty jarring to watch, to be perfectly honest with you. And, you know, Max Sasson stopped skating on the winning goal. But Quinn Hughes didn't play that well either. And it was kind of reminiscent of the winning goal a few weeks ago. when the Canucks played Dallas at Rogers Arena.

And there was an aggressive pinch by Quinn Hughes' partner. And, you know, Quinn went too far to the outside of the ice and got burned inside. Now, on that goal, there was no Max Sasson who just decided to stop skating for whatever reason. But I don't know. The team is, we all know this Canucks team is, is, they're kind of dead in the water this season.

And it's just, I don't know. I was happy to watch McKinna. At the 27 game mark, it's crazy. Crazy that we're here, but it's also not because we've watched it evolve over the course of 27 games. Last night shouldn't have really come as a huge surprise to anybody the way the game played out. The Canucks did some nice things for some small stretches. They made too many big mistakes against a team that, By the way, 27 games into the season is now 21 points clear of the Vancouver Canucks.

It is hard. It is hard to have that big of a gap between two teams and the standings this early in the season. But I think it's indicative of not just the gulf in points and in standings, but in the gulf between the two teams. And if you want to be that person that says, well, that's what the best team in the NHL looks like. You can't possibly be expected to be on that level. Fine.

Have it, you know, yell it from the mountaintops that there's one team. and you can't be that team because that's where the standard is with this organization right now is you're not shooting for the stars. Well, that's impossible. You can't do that right now because you have too many injuries.

You're shooting for somewhere in the middle. And I'll remind you if you want to be a mid-team in the NHL right now, let's say you want to be the 15th place team in the NHL right now. That's the Detroit Red Wings on 30 points. And the Canucks are still seven points back of that mark as well.

It's time for another death mark. We were doing, so I listened to Sat and Vic on the post game show yesterday. And by the way, if you want your usual AM fill of angst and anger and frustration and negativity, I highly recommend you download the post game show because they are in it right now. I feel for those two guys because they are 27 games into an 82 game regular season knowing that they've got to do this several other times this year. And there's, they're already at the stage where breaking down the constituent parts of the games

like sassin, not thinking. You're like, yeah. It doesn't matter. I will say that this is where the money calls come in. Like, they start pouring in at this point and it can get pretty entertaining. Well, Durantz and Dodd were excellent yesterday, too. I was listening to them and, um, by the way, yeah,

Bick and said, we're excellent. Yeah, yeah. They were very astute and their anger was well placed and their frustrations were well earned. But, yeah, sorry, not to cut you off. I just didn't want to sound like they were doing a crappy job. or anything. No, I don't think you did. I mean, I thought the station was on point yesterday, except for our show, which is never on point. But, yeah, Drans and Dodd, if you want to download

their podcast, and they just, you know, I know, Drans for the athletic, went back and just looked at the Jim Rutherford error and all the decisions that Canucks have made under his watch and some good, some bad. And I think he kind of nailed it when, um, uh, You know, this is hard to say, but I think there's a character issue on this team. There's a character issue. I think there's a lot of issues, though. You can't have your captain playing like that. Like, I don't know what's going on with Hughes.

I don't know if it's an injury or what, but man. Like, he still made some nice plays. I did. You know, he still made some nice plays. But you can't even do that once. But you can have, you can. As an NHL player, let alone as your captain. I disagree.

I'm pushing back on this. I'm going to go down with the ship. Our beautiful boy, he can do whatever he wants. They've done wrong. They've done wrong by them. It just looks so bad though. It looks terrible for them. The team stinks. You can't stop skating. You can't stop skating. Yeah, he can.

But he did. Okay. Well, then you're, I mean, whatever. We're not going to agree on this. But like, I think this thing, you know, I think there's been a real issue in identifying character players on this team. And it extends, I mean, it started with Benning, picking for Tannen. you could even throw in Ulevy not that Ulevy was like a bad person but he wasn't a worker and you know

when you have when you have two of your best players have a big fight and one of them has to be traded I think that's probably a character issue right now and you know I know it's difficult I know it's really really difficult

and if I were on this team I might have character issues right there might be like that guy is not a team player either. You know, like, I get, I understand it. But, um, I think the Canucks have been, here's our favorite word again, juxtaposed in a really bad way, um, on a few different instances in the last little while. One is against the white caps. And then one was last night when Nathan McKinnon played like overall, he was like, he was fine for them. Like, yeah, he took

advantage of his scoring chances, but, like, he wasn't unbelievable last night. I've seen him play better. And I think the abs for, you know, like, it was the Canucks coming into town. They're not going to be like, we've got to be ready for this one, right? They're kind of sleepwalking through the first. They were a little sloppy, and then they found their game in the second. They played a good 20 minutes last night and still managed to win the game, but McKinnon was still the difference. And then you look at the Canucks top players, Pedersen had a few chances, but couldn't convert. only ended up with one shot on goal. And I feel like, you know,

there are some people out there that are almost treating Pedersen like he's Manning Mulhulture or something now. It's like, as long as he's good defensively, it doesn't matter if he does anything offensively. It's like, well, it doesn't work like that. I will say that on the list of problems for this year, he's probably on the lower end of concern. That's how bad the year's been.

There's far more concerning things with this team. But long term, I think he's still right at the top. Yeah. I will say this. Well, I mean, yes or no. Long term, he's still right at the top. Depends on who's here long term, I suppose. Because I'm ready to kind of move on from all of it.

I don't know if the organization is, but I also didn't want to. Here's what I kind of wanted the one thing that they were talking about on the post game show last night that I thought was important to bring up. When we talk about Hughes and the concerning body language and, you know, why are you thinking I'm a pass on this stuff? There's like, because he's the best player that they, they've had in the last, 20 years and the team that is around him stinks and he can't lift it out and he's frustrated. So I'm going to say, yes, best defenseman the team has ever had and an amazing player

throughout the course of his time in Vancouver over a 27 game sample size, he was pissed off and it showed frustration on the eyes. I just won't bury him on it. I won't. That's that's it. I mean, I don't think I'm bearing him. I don't think I'm bearing him. I'm just pointing it out as like a, it's like a, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, that's, that's,

It's jarring to watch. Well, you know what else is jarring to watch? Half the team. Two-thirds of the team. The coaching decisions, the management decisions, the injuries that have befell the team, where they are in the standings, right? They were bringing up on the show last night.

Again, I was very enamored by the post-game show last night because when we watched the game, you and I were both like, hey, not bad. Not a lot of whistles. Yeah, it was over in two and a half hours. You can be split. Do whatever. I did not realize that there were guys

that there that had to talk about that game for almost the same amount of time that the game was playing. Nathan McKinnett said the opposite in the post game. Did you hear what he said? He said there were lots of whistles. He said it was a boring game.

I have the clip. You want to hear it? Correct me if I'm wrong. Was the game not over in like two and a half hours? The game was very fast. He called it a muck. Didn't you need to, like you were looking for a whistle? You were looking for a commercial break to do something

and you're like, I can't get one here. Yeah, I wanted to wait for the next commercial and it was like nine minutes of the whistle. Here's Nate. It was just kind of a boring game. A little whistles on iceings. guys getting kicked through to draw It's just one of those nights

Just a muck So it happens though You know They're trying to place Indy obviously Obviously trying to check hard So you know we did what we had to do That's the most dismissive That's so dismissive

Just a muck He's like they're trying to check hard It's like no they're not They've given up 100 goals They're trying to check hard But so one of the things That Sat and Bick brought up Which was interesting was

Is there any one particular thing that the Canucks have done well on the ice this is sort of an Adam foot critique this season like is there one particular facet of their game that you would say and I'm talking about it being like a consistent

sustainable thing. There has not been one thing they do well the power play statistically is mid but the Canucks only got one power play last night I thought it looked fine didn't score but

No, there's not one thing they can hang their hat on. Right. Not one. Damn. Wow. Yeah, there's not one thing they do well. I can't think of it.

A lot of girth. No, it's eventual girth. At least, you're looking forward to the girth. I was out of foot talking about Jonathan Lacker-Macky. Yeah, looking forward to the girth. You got to wait for the pills to kick in. Eventual girth. Terrible bad name.

No, like, eventual girth is not a bad name. That's all right. That's all right. Anyway, so I was thinking about this. I'm like, they really don't do any one particular thing well. And of all of the condemnations of the coaching this year, that's got to be right at the top of the list. If you can't hang your hat on one particular characteristic or attribute that you do at least above average, you have to turn to the coach and it's like, hey, what do you do around here?

Like if this team, which lacks talent, can't really compete with the elite. teams in the league, you would think that anyone would say, well, let's give them a puncher's chance on a nightly basis and do whatever it takes, structurally, strategically, deployment of minutes to try

and give us a fighting chance. Like, as Bick was pointing out, the goal that they gave up at the end of the first period, the Canucks, which in a tight game, you could consider that goal a bit of a deflater or a bit of a backbreaker because it happened with like a minute left in the first period and everything. And he pointed out like P.O. Joseph got caught

out there against the McKinnon line. And he's kind of pointing to behind the bench being like, it might not matter in the grand scheme because you're the 30th place team in the NHL and you're probably going to lose this game anyway. But if the games mattered and things were tighter, that's a move where you could probably take

point to the coach and be like, that shouldn't happen. Yeah. In the final minute. Well, McKinnon's two goals were not against the Pedersen line. Right. Yeah. And those are minor. It is harder on the road to get your matchups. But good coaches find a way. Bad coaches don't.

Or they find a way to get it wrong. And so now you go back to my larger point. They were right there. They were right there. Right there. I'm not even going to play the foot audio that we're talking about. So several people have pointed out. He needs to stop saying that.

Several people have pointed out that they're almost the last place team in the NHL. Over the current run that they're on, in which they have two wins in their last 11 games, I would wager that at least 80. percent of the 11 post-game media availability, Adam Foote has said that the Canucks are right there. By that, he means, like, the game was a coin toss. It could have gone either way.

They had a chance to win it, but they didn't. And... Did you ever think, like, the Canucks were going to win that game? Like, even when they were up one-nothing, I was like, this Aves team is first to every puck, and the Canucks just feel like they're trying to hang on in this game.

The odds were a little sloppy. They had a couple turnovers that could have cost them, but the quality of that team, the energy that they play with, the attacking mode that when they want to turn it on, you know, the connect can't even come close to that. They can't.

No, I thought they had a decent chance to win the first period yesterday when they went into like minute 18 up on nothing. And that was optimism. And they didn't win it. They tied it. So there was that.

And that's not the game. And that's just the first period. The first part. But I go back to the large skill. what does this team do well? Not having really good coaching in a year where everything else has gone wrong is just something else on the pile.

Here's a question I had and I was wondering about with going back to the Hughes and the frustration level. I wonder if he regrets or is having buyer's remorse on being so flowery in his description

and so pleased with Adam Foote being elevated from the guy that coaches the defense to being the head coach because you remember that was a big part of it. Brotherford and Alvin, we're like, you're the one who chose him. Now you're not even playing for him.

Like, that's kind of the thing that I wonder about with all of this. I really, really disagree with you on the Hughes thing because, you know, I don't think that you can have your captain giving up on plays for many more games. So if he was playing hard, consistently hard, then I'd be like, well, You know, wait until the trade deadline to deal with this, but this is, it's not good.

It's not good for anyone. It's not good for the Canucks. It's not good for Queen Hughes to have these shifts where he's, you can't give up. You can't give up in hockey. And that shift last night. He's just conserving energy for the 30 plus minutes he has to be every night. Guys, go find it if you haven't seen it and go to,

I retweeted it as well. I saw it. I saw it. Well, I'm just, talking to you. I know. I mean, he's, the puck turns over. Quinn is in the neutral zone and the aves come back on the attack. I think poor Tyler Myers was back there trying to defend an odd man rush. And Quinn, he like never actually plays defense. He comes back. It's 3-1, 12 minutes left. Like the game isn't over. And then he button hooks. The play is, the puck is still

loose. The puck is still loose around his net. Reminder, he is a defenseman, and he button hooks turns away from the puck, which you don't do in hockey, turns away from the puck, and button hooks up the left side like he's the left winger trying to get a breakout pass, but the Canucks don't have the puck. If you watch this play, he turns away from the puck twice, once in the neutral zone, and once, when the puck is loose around the net, he skates away from the puck. his net when the puck is loose. He is a defenseman. He is the captain of the team. He had no desire to battle at all. And I understand you giving him a pass. I understand it. But what I'm watching here is, I don't want to say, look, it's unacceptable, but it is jarring. It is stark to watch

this. And I think if most people looked at this, you know, NHL head coaches around the league, be like, damn, we can get them for cheaper now. That's what they're all thinking. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. He's our NHL insider from Victory Plus. Frank Sarvelli here on the Halford & Brough show on Sports Night 650. Morning, Frank. How are you?

Pretty good. How are you guys doing? Not too bad. How's your week going, Frank? That's been great. You know, we weren't thinking that Connucks were going to win the Stanley Cup this year, but we thought the noise might be behind us a little bit. I'm not saying like you're part of the noise or anything, but you're part of the whole thing. Do you know what I mean?

Like you're part of the whole thing. Like you're part of the bizarre nature of this. Like I don't know. You know, now in Vancouver we've almost moved past arguing about Pedersen and now the new one is actually Quinn Hughes and it's not just about whether or not the Canucks should trade. him or whether or not they have a chance to keep him, he's taking some criticism for his play on the ice. And I don't know if you've seen some of his shifts, but there have been a few shifts

where it looks like he's kind of given up on plays. And, you know, half of us are, you know, well, I mean, I'm like, half my brain is like, would you blame him? And the other is like, yeah, but you still can't do that when you're the captain of the team. Are you hearing anything about, you know, Quinn Hughes and where is he, where is he at? Like, not the whole will they trade him or won't they trade him or when will they trade him. Just like, what's going on with

Quinn Hughes right now on a personal level? I don't, I haven't followed up since our last conversation last week when, look, from everyone that I've talked to, the feeling has been that Quinn Hughes is a really loyal guy that he's been

focused on this team and trying to play well and he wants this team to compete and that the message that he's delivered to some of his close friends and people in his circle is he's committed to the Canucks and

I think the fact that this you know has become such a big storyline around the league yeah part of it's because his brother's playing New Jersey but this has been a conversation like going back months now, like for a guy with two full calendar years on his contract at the

time. And look, the days slide by on the calendar quickly and some of these decisions come quicker than, you know, some of us even envision or realize. But I don't know how many other markets where this conversation would be on fire seven days a week. And part of that is a testament to how passionate Canucks fans are, but part of it is bananas, like enjoy what you have in front of you. Like you may not, you

likely won't get a player of this caliber again on your blue line. The Canucks have never had one like him in 50 years. There's not much to enjoy watching the Canucks these days, Frank. I get that part of it. But now the next thing is

okay, like to use your words, like all right, so now is half the fan base attacking him now? Like how does this work? Well, attacking him is probably not the right way to put it. I think wondering what's up with him because he never did this before. You know, like last season, this guy was an absolute warrior. He was clearly playing hurt at times, kept him out of the Four Nations,

but he just, he worked and worked and worked and never gave up on plays. And now we're seeing him give up on some plays, and I think it's only natural to wonder, I wonder what he's thinking right now. Mm-hmm. I mean, that also presupposes that something's changed or that his character is different, and I feel like that's a bit of a leap.

I don't think it's attacking his character. It's attacking, it's being honest about this situation right now. The Canucks are not going to make the play. playoffs. And Quinn Hughes said, like, it was really important for us to, it's going to be important for us to get off to a good start. I'd like to be, you know, eight and two or seven and three. And now they're, you know, near the basement of the NHL standings. So I think it's only natural, like, as a human being to wonder what he's thinking right now about his, his, his future in Vancouver. And, you know, it's all well. Maybe it's not so much about that as it is

he hears or sees or feels what and I'm just guessing here is look at the message that the team has essentially put out as of last week I think that's a very good point to make that's a very good point to make and between the lines of all of this and I don't think that it's unrelated to the Bubla thing

is essentially with sending a memo to 31 other teams last Monday signaling that you're open to trading your pending unrestricted free agents and your vets to get younger, 25 and younger, is more or less an admission that you're throwing in the towel on the season.

Let's explore that for a moment here because the memo is... I mean, is it not? Am I taking out a bridge too far? Like, you're acknowledging your lot in this season, right? Yeah, I'm with you. I think that there might be something to that. Yeah, well, I wanted to go back to the memo being sent out

because at first blush, we all assumed that this was going to be the kickstart to this frenzy of trades that, you know, the notoriously impatient Jim Rutherford was going to make. And now that the dust is settled a little bit, it's either they're taking their time, a little bit more time than a lot of people thought, or maybe there was a motivational tactic or technique.

I guess I'll ask you first, now that the memo has been out there for a while and NHL teams have received it and parsed over it, what's the reaction been league-wide how much of things heated up with regards to that connects potentially trading away some of these ufas well i mean there's definitely been calls that have been made um you know teams that have inquired about whether it's keifer sherwood or van der kane or understanding the market and what it looks like but in the end some of that excitement may have been tempered by oh wait you're not moving

queen hughes okay you're not moving leas peterson what are we like If it's just about a small handful of players, then how, you know, is it really moving the needle? Is it the big question? And so, yeah, there's definitely interest in some of those guys that we've talked about. And look, where that goes and how quickly that develops, like, the other part you have to remember, and I've stressed this over the last number of weeks, is there's a whole chunk of teams that in this league right now that don't know what they are. They don't know if they're for real in the standings.

They don't know how aggressive they want to be. They don't know what they'd like to move off of their own organization, death chart, or roster to make something like that happen. And so to try and make a deal or thread this needle in a pretty, you know, limited market for the most part, it's not an easy thing to do. And so I viewed and inspired. Speaking to managers around the league that have made calls and understand the situation, they viewed that as the Canucks testing the waters and trying to understand the market value of their players

so that they can properly evaluate what to do next. We are coming to you live from the Kintech studio. Now's the time to maximize the benefits of custom orthotics. Before the year runs out, visit kintech.net. Yeah, you've got to look at your benefits. The year is running out. Alford, have you had all your massages? Not yet.

I haven't went today. Nice. I've got like three booked for the month. They're like, sir, this is wildly unhealthy. You should not have this many massages in this short a period of time. We highly recommend 24 hours between them. I'm going to line them up. I'm going to go three to four, four to five, five to six.

Your muscles are like jelly. Yeah. Could you just do like one really long one and that counts as like three, four? It's a good question. Book the room for like four hours? What's the longest massage you can get? It's like a three hour massage? Yeah.

Just barely walk out of there You just slither out of there What's the sludge moving across the ground There's no bone mass whatsoever Oh man Anyway I don't recommend any of that We're not doctors here on the Halford and Brough show We just love massages

To the phone lines we go Our next guest is a presentation of bells and whistles In the Fraser Hood It's Randip Janda here on the Halford and Bruff show On Sports 9650 What up, Brandeep? What's going on boys? I'm not

doing floor massages at once, but I'm very late on this stuff usually, so I've got one book for New Year's Eve, so I'm legit. Oh, nice. That is awesome. Good for you, Randy. We're getting it, getting it in right before it's the deadline. It's 11 p.m.

Sorry. Come on, go, go. Celebrating New Year's at the massage place. That's great. Can we bill before it hits midnight week? Oh, man. We're just, we're just kind of stalling, aren't we? A little bit, yeah.

What did you think of the game last night? Like the first 18 to 19 minutes of it, guys. I thought, you know, there was a strong first period, like the way they played. But, you know, you can't really go shot for shot with this Colorado team too much. And it's a game of mistakes. And here's the thing about Colorado. You make a couple of games over. And that's exactly what happened, right?

So good start. Linus Carlson, good buildup play with Atu, Ratu, Archiebentz, and Linus Carlson. but we saw what happened there. You give this Colorado team even a little bit of a pathway to get back in the game in the final two minutes of that period, and that's all they need. So in the big scheme of things, you know, a loss is a loss, right? You have one win in the last seven games,

two wins in the last 11 games, and unfortunately, I think moral victory season is out the window at this point for the Vancouver Canucks. Is it fair to wonder about Quinn Hughes's headspace when you see some of the shifts he's had? in recent games? Yeah, so, you know, really interesting in regards to Quinn because I think some of the body language conversation is a valid conversation,

I think, in any market, but especially in one that watches hockey so closely. Now, when I watch him play, I see a guy that is trying to make a difference in win. At times, it feels like he might be trying to do too much. That 2-1 goal where he basically, you know, attacks the puck carrier, leaves essentially the back door open and Sasson can't get there either because he's not skating. Like there's been multiple plays where when he has the puck, he's trying to do too much. On those other moments and when you talk about that shift, you know, just watching again, I see a player that hates losing so much that I think he's having moments of like wavering confidence

and motivation, right? When you're 27 games in guys and you know kind of where the season unfortunately is heading unless you turn it around drastically. It is a tough mental space to be in, and it doesn't look great. As the captain, you're supposed to be held to a different standard because he has to set the tone for the rest. But I think a couple of things come into mind here.

What I mentioned there about trying to do too much, and then when you feel like a game is getting away from you, or you make a mistake, are you in that same mental space? And the other thing is also, and Adam Foote talked about this as well, at some point, these minutes are going to catch up to you, too. And I'm not saying this is fatigue. I think there's, you know, that shift in particular is where, you know, he kind of peels off and it doesn't look good.

But I think there's a couple of things that play here is one, maybe the mental space. The other one could be, he's playing a lot of minutes, right? He was near 30 minutes again. At some point, are you trying to conserve that energy so you can give more for your team? That's not the queen we know. We've seen him, you know, dart back in the plays defensively and use his, speed as defense. So certainly not the Quinn Hughes were used to, but I feel like this is a guy that right now wants to win so much

and when you're not doing that, no doubt it has a, you know, impact on you mentally. Can we all just take a moment to acknowledge how much this sucks? Like we're, we've gotten to the point now where there's fair criticism to be had, I suppose, of arguably the best Canuck player ever but we're also to be fairing it

like to be fair you know he's plays a lot of minutes and there aren't winning and he's probably got one he or maybe he got one foot out the door and he's waiting for the next shooter drop when it comes to

the Canucks move so like I don't know there's not even a question here it's just it just stinks and and you got to you got to think if you're if you're the ownership or if you're your management you're going to be like this this is not we can't keep doing this something something major has to change yeah it's not a good situation to be in because you know with quinn hughes and i find like i understand i see the plays i see that

playing question i've seen the body language the last couple of games but you know this has been a very one-dimensional team for the last couple years in the sense that queen hues has been the team, right? Offensively, we see the on-ice versus off-ice stats. He is the straw that makes, you know, stirs the drink, right? And this is a player that right now, just kind of seeing maybe

he's not in that, in that space that you've expected or you've seen and he's held such a high standard, yeah, it is jarring because he is the opposite of this, right? Even though he might make a mistake guys, you know, maybe he might push into the play a little bit. You know, he's usually the first guy that's

sprinting back and breaking up that play. So I think overall, Jason, yeah, it's when that player that has been the gold standard, not on your team, but in the league, you're starting to see some cracks in his game, not because he's a bad player, just because the situation is something that is not ideal. I think it is something that you have to open your eyes to and say, okay, wait a second, we understand the injuries have been an issue with this team. We understand other star players stepping up consistently over the last two seasons has, you know, been an issue. But, I think with Quinn, you can kind of see that.

I feel like it's a player that, you know, he wants to win so much where you just, at some point now, the fact that you're not winning, the fact that you don't have success on the ice, is rearing at the head here. And unfortunately, like, you know, in the short term, I'm not sure what you can do. Well, I'll be honest with you because, you know,

one or two victories is not going to change that, right? Like, this is a, I think this is a more longer term approach you have to look at. So, and let's be honest, you know, since Rutherford made those comments as well, there's been another conversation in the city about taking more of a long-term approach. And I know he's talked to Ian McIntyre on the road about, you know, he talks to Jim Rutherford daily and they talk a lot. But, you know, this cannot be easy for a player that wants to win. You know, he missed out in the Four Nations last year. He's one of the best defensive in the league.

going through another one of these scenarios is less than ideal. So, yeah, it's a weird conversation to be at yet again. But I think from the captain of this team who is driven by one thing and one thing only, which is picking up Ws and ideally taking this team to the playoffs, this is far from an ideal scenario. How do you think they can find some sort of positive spark? Because they're going to need it to just get through these games. they can't all be such

dour seeming a fair not that the connects were bad yesterday but just the vibe continued to be somewhat dour yeah looking at that result in isolation it wasn't to your point

like it wasn't bad you're playing the best team in the NHL that has been absolutely running rush shot over everybody now you know with this team because you're at a 426 points percentage because you're 30th in the NHL you need to have those victories you need to string together Canucks Hockey

and whatever that definition of Canucks Hockey is, right? I heard you guys talking about it. I think we've been talking about it for a week of what can you consistently do well? And can you lean in on that? I think in terms of the big scheme of things, like I'm not talking about long term. I'm not talking about two or three years down the road.

I'm talking about is there something that you can say, can you defend well, right? With Rick Talkett's system, offensively, it had issues, you know, people are frustrated by the low to high and then getting deflections. But for the most part, defensively was structured.

For this team right now, you know, adaptability is one of the things the coach talked about at the beginning of the year, but you're also letting the opposition dictate terms of the game of what that's going to look like.

So for me, you know, one way it can get positive guys is can you identify consistently what Canucks hockey is? Is that, you know, establishing a forecheck and, you know, owning the neutrals?

Is that, you know, hitting teams aggressively, like they did on that Atu-Ratoo, you know, holding up play, hitting a Tar Street, Vance, and Linus Carlson sort. Like, what can you do consistently well? If you're, like, what are your edges? So I think if you're able to, in the short term, establish what that is, with this four-game homestine, hopefully you get a little bit more practice time out of it, and, you know, are you able to do that in the short term? That might at least give you a path to victory, because right now, it feels like game-to-game, you're looking for a different path. And guys, we know this league. We've covered it. You guys have covered it longer than I have.

You got to have something that you can settle in and say, hey, this is our game. If we're playing a bad game, don't worry, we can settle into our structure, settle into our style of play, and we can win this game because that's what we do. This is our style of play. I feel like Vancouver is very much searching for that. They have certain traits, but do they have an identity? No, you develop an identity when you do something consistently over and over and over again.

and right now that's lacking. Yeah, I mean, it really would be great for them to, what I call it is have something to hang your hat on. You know, this is what we do. This is what we're about. Unfortunately, I honestly think that they came into this season and said, you know, we hang our hat on. We have great goalies.

And then Thatcher Dumco got hurt and Kevin Lankinen has been up and down at times. And so you can't hang your hat on that. And now you're searching. what do you think of the I know they only had one opportunity last night and I thought the power play looked fine

they didn't score but I'm wondering about your thoughts from that San Jose game where they had was it six or seven opportunities didn't score and that was a difference in the game they easily could have won that game

the power play from a numbers perspective has not been terrible but I'm kind of like I keep watching this and I'm like Like, what are they trying to do here? What is, what is, if we're looking, you know, a bread and butter play, what is that for the Canucks? Yeah, if you go back in, you know, even recent Canucks history, we saw J.T. Miller study come up the left side. He would, you know, set up a bumper shot with Bo Horvatt back in the day or at times he would go, you know, cross-ice to Elias Pedersen, or he would go for the shot himself.

Like there was always a, J.T. was the bread and butter guy, and he's going to get that. you know, he's going to make a player there. And more often than not, he did. There were struggles there, too, at times. But, you know, that was one of the things. You look at other markets, whether it's Leon Dreissel, the vintage Tampa Bay, you know, dual threats on Kutrov. You had the point shot with Hedman.

Like, they had a couple of bread and butter plays, but essentially it started with Kutrov. With Vancouver right now, that's still very much a question up in the air. And I think that has turned into Quinn Hughes attacking the middle of the ice looking for deflections. You know, you need more variety, though, right? And the bread and butter play, you know, ideally, I think if, with the shot that Elias Pedersen has, you'd want a little bit more of that.

You'd want, you know, some more, you know, Brock Besser, maybe in the high slot. But as of right now, it feels like it is the Quinn Hughes tip. And listen, this is a power play that's 13th in the NHL. And, you know, when you're top half of the league, it's not, you know, the greatest achievers. but, you know, a lot of other good teams are in that range. But here's the problem, guys. For Vancouver, their power play is, they need to rely on that power play, right? Because the five-on-five game we've seen is a struggle.

So you have to essentially be, at the very least, it feels like a top eight power play in this league. You have to get more productivity from it because you're so reliant on, you mentioned it, good goal-tending, and you, you know, I would add power play in that too. It feels like if Vancouver is going to have edges this season, it's going to have to be power-priced. play and goal-tending. And, you know, if you don't get a strong effort in either one of those situations, it feels like you're chasing the game. And I go back to that San Jose game where the first two power plays looked actually quite

strong. You know, the power play won on that first one. They got a couple of looks. They couldn't score. Power play two was on the ice for nearly, I want to say, one minute and 50 seconds. Like, they had full-on possession the whole time. They just couldn't score. And then it felt like they were searching for answers the rest of the game.

They lost confidence. and it was fleeting in that game. So to me, Jason, when I look at that power play, yes, it doesn't have a calling card right now other than that point shot looking for deflections, but this team does need that power play to succeed because the five-on-five game is not quite there. We talked about it.

You don't have an identity, so your identity has to be goal-tending and it has to be power play. And with the rate that this P.K. has been clicking at, you need the power play that much more because you need to get the goals back if you're allowing them. Maybe the identity can be embellishing for penalties. That's a good one.

Is that a good one? It can be like it would take after soccer. I mean, we're a soccer city now, right? Yeah, get in the mood of the World Cup. It's coming soon, right? We're speaking to Randy, Janet, Janet's analyst here on the Alfred and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Is it fair to suggest, Randy,

that after sending out the memo announcing that, you know, the pending UFAs were available for trade, is it fair to suggest that that's had a negative impact on Kiefer Sherwood's game? Yeah, yesterday, perhaps, right? like this is an element of hockey that I think sometimes us in the media or fans forget about where hey we see a player being shipped off to another city and it's you know hey it's player transactions the league needs more of this but there is a player side of things where it is a stress right it is a level of i'm settled in the city or i thought i was going to be able to maybe walk into

free agency if this didn't work out or maybe i thought i'd have some time but when it's publicly put out there, not by name, but all signals are pointing to you, it couldn't add an element of just imbalance internally. And with Kiefer, I think you started looking at his ice time yesterday. You look at his usage later in that game. You look at him on that second Nathan McKinnon goal where he feels like he's trying to do a little too much. He was chasing hits in that game. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.