Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 12/08/25

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk the Whitecaps falling short at the MLS Cup final, plus they discuss the Quinn Hughes trade chatter and preview tonight's matchup versus the Red Wings with NHL.com & In Goal Magazine's Kevin Woodley. 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. Whoa, wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose a fucking Canucks? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

You're listening to Halford and Brough. Here's a two-on-one chance for the Canucks. Atu-Ratu, left-wing, shoots, he scores. I do believe there was a conversation at least one between the Devils and the Canucks about Quinn Hughes. This is my nightmare. Shaheed from the goal line, near right-side numbers, up the field, 10, 20, looking for a gap, he's got one.

He's off to the races, look out. This could be hit, 50, 40, 30. They're not going to touch him. 10, 5, he looks back. Touchdown! Seahawks! Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody.

It is Halford. It is Brough at SportsNet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adah, good morning to you. Good morning. And Lydie, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Score a debt freedom hat trick. One, no more interest, two much lower payments in three. Financial peace of mind. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

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That means the first hour is all uninterrupted Halbro. Mike Tanier is going to join us at 7, our NFL Insider. From the two deep zone, we'll go over everything that happened in a busy Sunday in the National Football League, including another big win for the Seahawks against the Falcons in Atlanta. Mike joins us to talk NFL at 7.7.30, Aisa Raymond is going to join the program, the radio play-by-play voice of your Vancouver Whitecaps. He and I traveled to Miami this past weekend for the MLS Cup final. while the match ended in disappointment for the caps.

There's still a huge reason for optimism for the future, potentially on the stadium front, Jason. We'll talk to Ace about all that at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Kevin Woodley, NHL.com, and Ingoal magazine. It's going to join the program. Canucks are back in action. Tonight, 7 o'clock Rogers Arena against the Detroit Red Wings. We'll look back on both games this weekend,

and we will discuss the Quinn Hughes trade rumors from this weekend. Kevin's going to join us at 8. Speaking it of 8 o'clock, that's what we're going to be doing today's giveaway for Halford and Brough's 12 days of Christmas. Listen every day until December 16th for your chance to win a prize. Caller number 5 at 8 a.m. 604-280-0-650. That number again, 604-280-650. We won't announce the prize winner or the prize until after it has been awarded.

So call in at 8 o'clock this morning to be the latest winner for Halford & Brough's 12 days of Christmas. We got a big show. We got a million things to get into. So without further ado, Lattie, 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 brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance.

Making safety simpler by giving construction companies best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.com. You can see you warming up over there. a little stretching. I'm just doing a little stretching. I'm just doing a little stretching because I got a bunch of things to get through in the next. I don't know how long this is going to take.

But this is one of those shows where it will be impossible to give every big story it's due. There was way too much that happened this weekend. So I thought I'd list everything I could think of.

Oh, I just remembered the Kansas City Chief. are a disaster. Add that in there. Just to let the listeners know that we're aware of all these things, even if we won't be able to get to all of them today.

Okay. Go off, young king. Don't call me that ever, ever again. It's already off to a bad start, but I'm going to need a little bit of your help here. The Whitecaps played an MLS Cup on Saturday and lost in painful fashion to Lino Messies, Inter Miami.

Halford, you were there to experience the heartbreak in person. I was. How was it? It was great. We don't have time to hear about it. Good to hear that it was great. We have to move on. We will revisit this later.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber kept hammering away at the white caps untenable. It's untenable, Halford, stadium situation. And right after he did, Hastings Racecourse announced that horse racing was shutting down on the site where the white caps might build a new stadium. Seems relevant. Sure does. Sticking with soccer, the World Cup draw took place Friday at the Kennedy Center in D.C. Canada will be in a group with Switzerland, Qatar, and maybe Italy.

FIFA made up a peace prize to give to Trump, and he seemed to enjoy the medal he got to wear around his neck. Wayne Gretzky represented Canada the draw and mispronounced a bunch of country names, including the very easy country name of Jordan. A tough one. As in Michael Jordan. Not Jordan. It's just Jordan. And to conclude the festivities, the village people showed up to perform YMCA because why the hell not?

Still with soccer, we learned the World Cup schedule on Saturday. The United States got all the cool games because, of course, they did. I've got my eye on England, Croatia, down in Dallas, which could have been played in Toronto. before FIFA did the math and went, let's go to Dallas. The first game at BC Place will be June 13th, and it's the one everyone's been waiting for, Australia versus either Slovakia, Turkey, Romania, or Kosovo. At least the Aussies travel well and will be fun to party with.

Canada will play at least twice in Vancouver versus Qatar and Switzerland. And if they win their group, they'll play at least once more at BC Place, maybe twice more. That's a lot of soccer, Jason. The Canucks played twice this weekend. They lost to Utah on Friday, and they beat Minnesota on Saturday. The latter without Elias Pedersen. Atiratu had three points against the wild.

The new one C, Nikita Tolapila Woods' brilliance in net. The new starting goalie, Tom Velanders scored his first goal in the NHL. It was a really nice shot. And Drew O'Connor played center. Because why the hell not? Before the game on Saturday, Elliot Friedman reported that the Canucks and Devils have had a discussion about Quing Hughes. Nothing is imminent.

Repeat, nothing is imminent. But Hughes got asked about the report after the win over Minnesota, and he referred to Tom Fitzgerald, the general manager of the Devils, as Fittsy. Seems ominous. I read an entire blog post about Hughes calling him Fitsy.

Okay, maybe not the whole post, but I glanced at it. It's possible it was written by AI. Anyway, a bunch of people got mad at drance for even asking Hughes about the report. Considering the Canucks had just pulled out of dead last in the league and there should have been a parade instead of a very fair and relevant question

according to those fans. Sticking with the NHL, the Winnipeg Jets got blown out Saturday in Edmonton where the Oilers might be interested inquiring Tristan Jari from Pittsburgh. The Jets have lost seven of their last nine while the Oilers have won four of their last six with all four of their wins by at least three goals. Are the Oilers heating up? Hopefully not. Speaking of blowout wins, the Vancouver Golden Eyes blew out New York,

4-0 on Saturday in front of almost 10,000 in the Pacific Coliseum. Vancouver sure needed that win after dropping three straight on the road, Halford, I know you've been monitoring that. Close. Was it weird that the Golden Eyes went ahead with the noon start time, given the white caps were playing at the same time? I thought it was weird. I also thought it was weird.

Let's move to the NFL where the Seahawks blew out another bad team. This time, it was a third. 37-9 win over the Falcons in Atlanta. The Hawks improved to 10 and 3 on the season, but the Rams won two, so there was no lead change atop the NFC West. The Seahawks host Indianapolis next. And guess what?

What? There was big news about the Colts because Daniel Jones tore his Achilles and he's done for the season. Former Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard was thrust into action for the cults. And guess what? What?

There was big news about Notre Dame because the Irish got snubbed and won't be part of the college football playoff. You know who will be part of it, though? The James Madison Dukes. What Dukes. Who will face the Oregon Ducks. A Ducks.

Dukes. The matchup nobody wanted. The Ducks are favored by three touchdowns, which is so dumb, it could only be the college football playoff. Tulane made it, too. Tulane. The Green Wave? They'll play Ole Miss, which actually beat them by 35 in September.

Why the hell is there a rematch between Ole Miss and Tulane? because it's the college football playoff, that's why. Halford, I'm not sure we're going to have much time to discuss your lads from Leeds. But they fought back to draw Liverpool on Saturday. Liverpool have just won win in over a month.

But that's a topic for another day. Let's talk about the White Caps game now. Hot down! That was impressive. Dunbar, Lumber, text message, gym basket piling in with support. Bring that energy all day. I'm going to be hard match to bring that energy. especially since on the subject of the white caps they did lose. It was disappointing.

The game itself, though, what an experience, what a time. So first, I do have to shout out the White Caps organization for what they were able to pull off. They sent down several different charters ahead of the game, including one that had myself, the single charter. I had a PJ. They sent down alumni from the 79 soccer bowl team. They sent down families.

They sent down media. They really wanted to make this an event, spectacle. And then when I was able to embark on the unforgettable and iconic Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, I realized like we were in the midst of something. There were the big television trucks outside because this was nationally broadcast in the U.S. There was a tailgate going on. There was countless cameras and streeters and people walking up and celebrities there. Beckham was there. Steve Nash was there. So as you got closer and closer to, and I'll get to the stadium in a sec so you got closer and closer to the actual stadium and then you saw the white cap support so it was

about between 1500 and 2,000 estimated white cap supporters that traveled down they were all congregated in the south end of the section south end of the stadium i sat in gem pop with the rest of them they were loud they were boisterous they were excited they were extremely well-oiled so you got the sense that you were at something significant you were a real genuine cup final yeah and then for the match itself, it's always the belief that kills you. It's always the belief because despite the fact that the white caps lost that match 3-1, as Thomas Mueller said in the aftermath, it really did feel like they gave it away, that it wasn't necessarily what Miami did. It was the mistakes that the white caps made. And quite honestly, their inability to finish the chances that they had in a

final where you saw a Miami team that wasn't gifted a ton of opportunities, but took advantage of almost every single one that they had. Then you had a Vancouver team, and in large case, you're pointing to one guy. Not to blame, but he was the one, Emmanuel Sabu, who had a great chance in the first half and another great one in the second, he just couldn't get across the line.

And the White Caps' magical season fell short. Three one. I mean, when you said not to blame, I was thinking, Kubas. Like, not to blame. I mean, I'm blaming him. Yeah. I'm blaming him.

Like, that's a bad play around anyone. That's a bad play around anyone. I feel awful. I feel awful for saying it. You got to acknowledge it. Yeah, I mean, he played, he played a, he was a, for 90, for 89 in the 90 minutes, he was brilliant. He was everywhere. He was winning tackles.

He was dominating the midfield. He was relentless. Everyone was saying Kubas is having the best game out of any white keep. And then, unfortunately, much like what happened in the blowout loss to Cruz Azul, he had the big, loud mistake. Well, there was a cost him in a major way. I mean, that was a blowout loss to Cruz Azul. This was a tie game. and the whitecaps had the momentum.

And I think, I don't know what the feeling was in the stadium, but the feeling when I was watching it was, we're going to win. We're going to win this game. We are the better team right now on this pitch. Yeah, Miami got the early goal, but the white caps turned themselves around nicely. They tied the game on an alley Ahmed goal. And then Ahmed got subbed out.

And I was like, Is that the right move? Didn't love that move. Kind of felt like they were forcing Ryan Gald in there, but whatever. I mean, the mistake, the mistake was Kubas, just losing control and being careless with the ball around arguably the greatest soccer player that's ever lived. And people were like, well, that's what Messi does. He takes advantage of it like, it wasn't a hard play.

That one, no. It wasn't a hard play. It was on a platter for him. Yes, it was a nice through ball, I suppose. I mean, he showed his class there. there's a lot of soccer players that could have showed some class in that situation I'm still like I put this out on social media

just one second can I pivot off it you know when you talked about like what the feeling was in the crowd for me personally I didn't think that the match was lost there because I thought and I'm not making this up in the aftermath

and this isn't revisionist history when Sabby went double post and out and in the third hit the post. Everyone else was like, this is great. We're pushing. We're pushing it. To myself, I said, that's it right there.

Did you say, like, triple post usually aren't a very good sign in these playoffs? I turned, okay, so I brought my kid with me. So I turned to my kid and I looked at him. And I was like, do you remember L.A.F. And you just stared at me because he didn't want it. And I'm like, sometimes the luck goes for you and sometimes the luck goes against you. Yeah. A couple different people, including a former Halford and Brough producer,

Mike Martinago texted me this thing. And I hate comparing everything to the Vancouver Canucks and making everything Canucks-centric, but it was very apropos. Two different people, including Martinago, texted me, there is your Nathan Lafayette in 94 moment when Sabi double post and then the triple post after he failed to turn in the rebound.

And I was like ready to like turn off my phone because I didn't want to acknowledge it. Because I had that vibe that they were dominating proceedings. and they were the better team, especially coming out of the second half. There was a 15-minute window where they were all over Miami. Miami looked old, Miami looked slow,

Miami looked tired. We were yelling as loud as we could, like, do not let up right now. Keep going at them. Ahmed had finally found his legs in the second half, get the ball wide and go. But as soon as Sabi missed, I was wondering if that was going to be it

and that was going to be the decider. Were you surprised, though, that when Miami went up to 1, that Vancouver was able to generate so little. I'm sure Miami's, well, did their tactics change at all after they went up a goal? Probably, probably, but...

You know what it felt like? You know what? When we talk about the gut punch, the 2-1 goal felt like a gut punch because it was such an unforced error. And it was like, when everything's going your way and you feel like you've got the game in your grasp and then all of a sudden, it's done?

I just don't think mentally they were able to recover after that. Okay, we will maybe talk about this game more often, or sorry, not more often, but more in the show. But I think there's a lot of people that are wondering about the future, both on the pitch and off, so let's start with on. Will the caps be able to bring this same team back next season? What do they need to address who might not be back? Okay, so the most obvious and glaring one is in goal, where Takayoka is out of contract, and there's sort of been 50-50 as to whether they'll bring them back or not. That's just the biggest sort of cosmetic change, because everyone, he played like every game this year. Everyone, he's very

recognizable. He's been there starting netminder for the last two or three years. The three big ones for me, though, outside of Takayoka, who was an important part of what they did this year, though? Ali Ahmed, Sebastian Bearhalter, and I'm going to throw it out there, Yesper Sorensen is there are going to be clubs, maybe big European clubs, maybe some really intriguing landing spots across the Atlantic that are going to be calling for those three, I think. And sometimes, especially if you're a manager of Yesper Sorensen's history, you've got to strike when the ironers hot, right? He's, he's been in Denmark. His whole career, he comes over to MLS for one season and delivers in a major, major way. And you know what? A lot of, uh,

clubs will look at is that he went in somewhere where he had no knowledge of the or minimal knowledge of the league very little experience didn't even understand the machinations and solve the puzzle right away yeah and so they're saying like well is there some concern about bringing in a guy that maybe doesn't know our domestic league and this would answer all those questions that this is in no way no way saying that he's ready to go but it would be naive to think that clubs would not be lined up. There was an MLS manager that just got hired to manage Celtic in Scotland. Like, it's not that far afield to think that the guy who really should have won

manager there. And in my mind, managed the best club. I know Inter-Miammy one at the end of the day, but I thought the white caps were the best club at MLS this year. Barhalter and Ahmed, both young, both talented. They have options on their contract so the clubs can pick up the option. But there is a January transfer window. Barhalter's career has just, you know, shot off.

like a cannon over the last 10 to 12 months. So too is Ahmed's. You saw it stages in that game on the weekend where their primary focus of attack was get the ball to Ali Ahmed out wide and let him cook, let him put guys on skates. Is Ryan Gould going to be back? Yep. Ryan Gould's under contract. He talked after the match.

Does he need to get a little, like does he need to have an, I don't know, I know the offseason in MLS is about three days, but it never seemed like he got back to a He said it after the match. In the mix zone in the media, he said, I need to get match fit. I need to get 100%. He was never 100% this year. Okay. Give us some gossip about the stadium situation. That untenable stadium situation, the White Caps, by the way, they actually do not have a lease for next season. No, they don't. For next year. It's December 8th. It's December 8th today. They got 22 days left on their lease. Axel did come on our show and guaranteed that they'll be in place next. Yeah, yeah.

But I get what you're saying. But I'm just saying, what were they saying down in Miami and did it raise any eyebrows that Vancouver mayor Ken Sim was down there and enjoying himself? Kenny Good Times. Kenny Good vibes was having a good time.

So the one thing about Chase Stadium is there's a lot of parking lots where you can do like proper American tailgating, which they did before this match and the White Caps found their section. So Kenny Good Times was in the White Capp's supporters section in the tailgate and enjoying a few adult beverages.

Anyway, the gossip and the rumblings. That narrative and that storyline was prominent and prevalent right up until kickoff. Right before kickoff at MLS Cup final, Farhand Lodgey from TSN, had a stand up with Don Garber where one of the questions was about

the White Caps future, the stadium situation, etc. Garber, for maybe the first time all week, kind of understood that this was not the time to address this. he did bypass the question and kind of did like artful dodging around it, but he still acknowledged what he's been saying the whole time that the current situation is untenable. That messaging is not changed.

What was interesting about this is that when you get to these finals where you get a lot of international media popping in, there was a lot of international media for this match. We'll talk to Asa about it. He said the broadcast row and press was just jam packed, like the Guardian had a piece on the story and everything. There was a lot of people paying attention because it was Mueller and Messy. I yeah it was it Mueller or was it messy and

Beckham like that that was not to me it seemed like everyone was there for the crowning of Miami yeah for sure and anyway that's valid that's valid that's that's another topic is there was a lot of people there yes and a lot of media there right when they heard the white cap story

you could tell a lot of them we're hearing it for the first time because if you're if you're talking about you know grabby headline stealing narratives the idea that this team goes on this magic run. It doesn't have a place to play in the future. Yeah, that's a good one. That's manna from heaven for editors and for news copy people, right?

So that was a big deal. It was a big talking point, right? And there was a certain element of like, check out this plucky team from Vancouver who defied the odds and had this magical year. Did you get any gossip on on whether like this thing is going to happen because Patrick Johnston

at the province had a big report on the situation and Patrick has been covering what's been going on at the race course for a while now. And I'm just going to read something from his report. He said the city and the Vancouver white caps are close to a deal that will give the soccer team an exclusive window to assemble a project that included a new stadium at the site of the Hastings race course.

So he's all over this story. And, you know, there's much more in this report. but it seems quite obvious that I mean I tweeted this out before this report came out I said it seems quite obvious that the white caps have their eyes on a big project at the P&E and then this is going to take obviously private investment there's going to have to be investment on the white cap side hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment but there's also going to have to be um political will yep at both the civic level maybe the provincial level um and there's going to be you know planning about transportation if they want to do something out there um the

first nations i'm sure are going to be involved so this is a massive undertaking and you know a lot of Things have changed in Vancouver since they built BC Place. There used to be a lot of land. And it used to be, I don't know, it seemed easier to get things done. Maybe there was just more political will, more civic-mindedness among some of the private business people. I don't know. Maybe there was. But like, this is something that's going to be very complicated to do.

But there is a window right now. There is. So the general scuttlebut, the vibe, the gossip that was going on in and around Miami when it came to the White Caps stadium situation was that the timing of all this sure didn't seem coincidental. The announcement, so we were on the plane on Friday and when we all landed, we all got service back on our phones. So the first news that came up was obviously the results of the World Cup drawn. Then right after a lot of people like, did you see this news about Hastings race course and that horse racing was effectively done? And that it came as a shock to the, I guess, the state. stakeholders in the horse racing community who were unaware that this was going to happen.

They've not been reading their phones, apparently. Right. So as everyone started to piece this together, you got the rumblings of like, I wonder how close this is. I wonder when an announcement will possibly maybe. I mean, one of the things that Garber said and leading up to MLS Cup was we haven't had a lot of traction on this. We haven't had a lot of developments.

And we need those developments to start taking place so that this last year, and they hope it would be the last year in BC place or maybe two years is we can say okay a league that is known for temporary homes including the one that they played in on the weekend yeah yeah bc plays would then be a temporary home with the confirmation that there's a new home coming in vancouver that stadium looked like like do you remember uh what did they call it where the Ottawa rough riders used to play it lands downfield yes so on the ride from the airport my uber driver i'm like what's Chase Stadium like? And he's like, oh, you know, it's like a Texas high school football stadium.

And then he paused. And he's like, but not one of the big high schools. And my kid and I started killing ourselves laughing. And then he drove by it. And he was right. It was a mid-sized Texas high school football stadium. The fact of a cup final was played there was kind of hilarious in retrospect. Oh, I had my rundown a bunch.

I knew this. I actually intentionally did this. I left out F1 because I knew there's going to be people, people, there's a new driver's champion. I was like, okay. Is it Lando Norris? I think so, yeah. Okay, we got a long word to guess.

I think so. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. 8.01 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Brough, SportsNet 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Gore a Def Freedom Hatrick. One, no more interest, two, much lower payments in three, financial peace of mind. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are now in our three of the program. Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and Ingole magazine is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour three.

Our 3 is brought to by Campbell & Pound, real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-Dashpound.com today. We're coming to live from the Kintech studio. Now's the time to maximize the benefits of custom orthotics before the year runs out. Visit kintech.com. Our next guest is the presentation of Wright Rock Hyundai. It is Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and Ingoal magazine here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Morning, Kev, how are you? We're good. We're good over here. How are you guys? I can't complain. We both have very busy weekends. We both went to tropical locations. I went to Miami. I went to Camloops. Yeah, it was balmy up there. Ooh, that's a tough choice, eh? The humidity kills you in Camelux.

Waking up at 5 in the morning to watch kids hockey is how I chose to spend my weekend. So they... Love of the game, my friend. Love of the game. Puck drop on an actual game for kids that age of 6 a.m. It is if you finish fourth in your division. That's amazing. That is amazing. We couldn't get it done against Prince George, and we paid the price. They don't call it the winners bracket at 6 a.m.

I was going to say that sounds like a coaching issue, but I'm not sure if you're... I wasn't coaching, buddy. I was in coaching. I was judging the coaching. It was not a coaching issue. It was fun. It was great. We had a great weekend. Kevin, we're going to see Demco this week? I don't know. They indicated Thursday, but there's a sensitivity, obviously, to, you know, Adam seems to think we're going to be mad if he gives us a target

and the players don't meet it from an injury perspective. And I'm joking, which he seems to be too, but he's mentioned it a few times. Listen, I've watched a couple of morning skates. They didn't morning skate on Sunday with the back-to-back, but obviously, or sorry, Saturday, but obviously I had to be there for Minnesota. and so got there from Minnesota and he was on the ice going hard with Marco Terranius there. Everything I've seen, like Friday in particular,

there were, you know, like breakaway drills. Like that's sort of your last step to being ready is when the, you know, the coaches can basically open the car doors and there's no limitations on the types of shots you're facing. There's no, you know, there's no controlled environment. And we've seen that. He looks good.

He looks like that. or Demko, I would, you know, I would be shocked. It's shocked. No, again, I don't want to create undue expectations, but I'd be surprised if he didn't see him by the end of this week. And Buffalo seems safe. There's still four days to go. I don't know.

Yeah. You know, if there's discomfort or anything that's keeping him from that final step, but everything on the ice looks like it's go. So a few of the questions I got from the hockey dads actually on the weekend. Like, most of them are just like, so what's up with Dempco? Is he just, is this the way it is with him right now? and I couldn't really answer it and they're like is this related to his his knee injury I was like I don't know like it just for me it just seems there's there's there are so many injuries and there's such a long history now that it's it's really hard I would think it's hard if you're that connects to trust that he can be healthy for you yeah and listen like that's kind of why I was surprised at the extension, just the amount.

I didn't think that they would go that high. Like, I got that one wrong. I didn't see that one coming. I didn't think it would happen at all because I didn't think they'd go to eight and a half, and I didn't see him settling for a lot less. But this could still be, this could still just be a one-month groin injury.

Right. And look around the league right now. Like Toronto, with both their guys out, there's injuries all over the league, between the schedule, what it's doing to practice and preparation, what it's doing to ice conditions in some places. Like, there's goalies hurt all over the league.

And if he comes back from this and gets through to the end of the season, we may look back at this as, hey, just one of many goalies that sustained an injury this year. But you could also, you know, look on the other hand and say, yeah, like Anthony Stollers is a guy who's put up numbers that are Demco-like for the last three, four years. And he got the contract he did because, this was part of his history, an inability to stay healthy.

So, you know, at the end of the day, since he's become a number one, he's yet to make it through a season without an injury. And that's a little concerning. And it's hard to ignore, and it becomes a part of the storyline and narrative around this injury. And I can't argue with it. But it's also possible that he comes back from this place the rest of the season. And like I said, he becomes one of many goleys who have had an injury blip this year.

and the reality is I can't tell you my guess is they can't tell us the same thing and that's you know that's where you can you can quibble over whether whether the signing was a wise one or not it'll ultimately be up to him or his body and how often he can play because it's it's not like that's the challenge they appeared to do everything right started two out of every three off road trips, Lankin would be in the net for the first game back. Like they appeared to be doing everything right from a load management standpoint and it still happened. So

then again, at that time and they've gotten better of late but at that time they were dead last in the National Hockey League by a large margin in east-west chances. So if you've cut a goalie with a history of lower body injuries and I can't tell you whether this is related to the knee or not they say it's not. I'll take them at their

word. The reality is that that chain from ankles to knees to hips is all connected, groints for goalies. and if, you know, if it's kind of, we'll just have to, I guess we'll have to wait and see, right? Like if this, you know, if this becomes like last year where it's three different injuries, or is this just a blit? What did you think of Tola Pilo on Saturday? It looked pretty good to me, but I'm not the expert. Dude, he's, um, listen, it's funny, I was overly critical of one element of this game and, and I'll emphasize overly. for some reason it irked me because it made no sense around his net play and it cost them the San Jose game two goals in the San Jose game and ultimately cost them the game but overall like I need to take a step back especially after that Minnesota game he's been really good throughout I mean he was under siege in the Anaheim game it's a tiny sample but his numbers adjusted say percentage right now great out top 10 in the national hockey league again tiny sample but better than Demko to this point.

in the season, significantly better than Kevin Lankinen, I'm kind of curious to see who's first off today against Detroit. Like, he's been good enough that I wonder if they go back to him in a non-back-to-back situation. This isn't just, you know, Lankanen hasn't gotten to the level we saw last year. This is Nikita Tolapilo has been really good.

And he's obviously, um, physically, like he just takes up so much net. The way he's moving in the crease, like there's a lot to like there. Minnesota felt like they got goalied in that game. They felt like they created a whole bunch of great chances early on, couldn't beat Tolapilo and allowed the Canucks to get back into the game after that.

So that's a positive. That's a real positive because I wasn't sure at this level. I thought pace might be a problem. Tendency I'd seen in the American Hockey League to sort of open up on East Western laterals and have pucks go through him. We haven't seen that. um so as overly critical as i was of that sort of technical tactical application around around the nets um you know they've done a really nice job of sort

of tightening up some of that movement and the skill is there the length is there uh the battle is there what i like to see him at times spend you know not get outside of his post what i like to see him maybe track down into shots and shift rather than slide um on on shots from the point and sometimes take himself out of the net. Yeah, a little bit. Like, I think there's still steps that can be taken. But there's a lot to love. And we forget that this is a guy that just welcomed his first child into the world last week

and has been up and down and all over the place. So you sort of start checking off those boxes. And again, tiny sample, but really impressive. I have one more goalie question before we get into some of the other stuff surrounding the Canucks. What do you make of the rumors about? the Oilers being interested in Trist Janjari? Well, I mean, this season, and I'm privy to some of the things that he's done over the past couple of summers to sort of try and get back to the promise that he showed that led to the

contract he signed in Pittsburgh, it seems to be working. And again, the asterisk you have to put beside it because there seems to be nothing more volatile in the sport right now than goal tending is can he keep it up because this isn't where he was historically over the past couple of years but this year alone you know i talk about where nikita tolapilo is in the league tristan jari's ahead of that like he right now is eighth in the national hockey league in adjusted save percentage he's missed some time with injury but even with that missed time and goals so accumulate i use adjusted save percentage because it's it's less cumulative it's sort of a per shot metric

cumulatively, like he's fifth the national hockey league and goals saved above expected right now. Tristan Chari has been really good for the Pittsburgh Penguins this year in a not so friendly environment. His expected say percentage is well below league average. So there's

a lot to like in how he's playing now and if you're basing it on that, then it's hard for me to say anything other than, like it makes a lot more sense than a lot of the other rumblings. You know, I know the talk about Jordan Biddington. And I know what Jordan Biddington did at the Four Nations,

and I know who he's been over the past, you know, since they won a cop, frankly. In a bad defensive environment, he's been a rock for them. But this year, out of 80 goalies in the league, Jordan Binnigson's number ranks 74th. And it's not the environment. Like, the environment's favorable. So if you're placing that bet on a guy who knows the market

who played for the Evanton Oil Kings, the only irony to me of that bet on Christian Jari is the goalie coach that, Everyone in the Edmonton market wanted run out of town and got their way and fired this past summer is works with Tristan Jari in the summers and was part of that reclamation project process over the past couple of years skating with him. It knows him really well. But of all the bets for them to place from a pedigree standpoint, like amongst the higher end guys as opposed to, you know, the Connor Ingrams and the waiver claims of the world. And hey, like Carolina's got Brandon Boosie rolling right now as a way. waiver claim. So I'm not discounting those

as options, but in terms of established guys, based on this year, I have no problem with Tristan Jari as a choice. We're speaking to Kevin Woodley here on SportsNet 650, a presentation of White Rock. Hyundai, I believe I said, I dropped a White Walk earlier, I think. I saw you look at me

when I said it. I was kind of laughing. I powered through. And then I rehashed it. Bruck was in Camloops. He thought he saw White Walker. Visit the showroom on. Visit the showroom on King George in White Rock or White Rockhunday.com. It is a tough one.

It is a tough one. Where do you want to go on the Quinn Hughes story? It was a choose your own adventure book. There was a lot more that we've already unpacked on the show. We replayed Friege's audio from Saturday. How dare Thomas Drans asked that question after such a big win over the Minnesota while to pull the Canucks into 31st overall in the league? That's a fair question.

How dare Drans has that? How dare he be a journalist? Yeah, right. Yeah. Honestly, we've gotten to the point, and hey, I'm a part of it too, but I work for NXL.com, so the reality is, like, honestly, if that question didn't get asked after that report, like, think of this significance of that report in this market, given everything's going, if that question didn't get asked, like, I think the fair question would be is anybody doing their jobs. Yeah. I don't want to turn this into a navel-gazing thing about the media, but I know the

fan base is... No, no, no, the fan base is. Upset about the question? No, it's just torn about the situation, I think. There are some people that are like, they kind of see the writing on the wall with Quinn Hughes. And then there are other people that, the way I see it at least,

maybe I'm wrong about this, but I think there's a lot of opium going around. So whenever a report comes out about Quinn Hughes, the immediate reaction is, how can I convince myself that this isn't a big deal? feel. But from being around these situations, you know, career-wise, it just feels like there's some momentum building for this Quinn Hughes situation to be resolved. And maybe this season, maybe. Yeah, and I don't know, right? Like, I'm not going to, I'm not an insider. Get to Alley

Wall on for what's actually going on behind the scenes. But at the end of the day, I see both sides. The one that makes me, and I get it, it's the we don't want to be hurt. So we're going to like try and convince ourselves this is actually a good thing. You know, the people that'll be like, oh, he hasn't got a point in five games or, you know, he's pushing too hard or like actually trying to convince themselves that this might be a good hockey move, which is just like, let's be honest,

as absurd a thing as you could ever consider. Like, this guy is a generational talent. I'm, as someone who counts himself blessed to have gotten to watch the Siddines do their thing for their entire career, was kind of hoping to, like, it's fun to watch Quinn Hughes play hockey. I love watching Quinn Hughes play hockey. want to watch and play hockey in this market for a long time. So I'm not going to dig into or become one of those guys.

It's like, oh, like he's struggling right now. Maybe this wouldn't be a bad thing. I don't know where this is headed. The question I'm, the question I have and maybe the surprise of that report, although conversations happen all the time, you know, is this group going to get to make this trade? Yeah. That's where I was at earlier.

That's the bigger. To me, that's the bigger question at this point. Is there any possibility that that's like after the memo goes out with all the interest reported and keeper Sherwood and maybe no one, maybe the ask is just really high and maybe this was a shake up the room thing. Certainly, you know, not the kind of thing that we haven't seen, you know, a guy like Jim Rutherford pull before, but nothing's happened since. And, you know, I wonder where that is behind the scenes in terms of what this looks like moving forward. Because whether you want to use words like retool or rebuild or whatever or not at all, the direction, I think, is what fans most want, like a plan. And to me, again, easy, easy not having, you know, to go Jim Benning on you and not having all the information.

If there's any chance, if you are a hopium or you know that he hasn't, you know, and you believe it when they say he hasn't outright said, he's not coming back. If there is any chance, as much as people want solution to this, if the solution is possible for him to stay, if there's any chance of that, you do whatever is possible to make that an option. And including, like if somebody else has a vision they think they can sell,

they would probably consider that. And so I'm kind of curious to see where this goes well above the pay grades of us and well above the pay grades of the players in terms of who's making this decision and what is that. that vision moving forward. What is that plan? I'd love to see this organization get back to being a leader in that regard. You know,

an organization that, you look at what Florida has done, an organization that, you know, is sort of cutting edge in a lot of the, the way they go about things. I want to just flash back to like the Mike Gillis era, but a team that others look at,

not for drama, but for new ways of doing things and getting ahead of stuff and just, I guess maybe I'm, I'm longing for that era, that time. But when we talk about direction, that's part of what seems to be missing and has been missing, you know, pretty much since Gillis left. And that's what I'd like to see return. And frankly, probably before this decision gets made, because this management group has made a lot of good deals, but some of the ones that have them where they're here

right now, it's kind of hard to it. ignore. Kev, this was great, buddy, as always. Thank you very much for taking the time to do it. We appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week in the game tonight. We'll do this again soon. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. Kevin Woodley, NHL.com, and Inglew magazine here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Okay, get your what we learns into the Dunbar-Lumber text line at 650-6-50. We'll read a bunch of them on the other side. And that's a promise to the listeners. We won't have Laddie or Adog or Halford or me going on and on about our what we

We'll read some from you because it was a crazy weekend in the world of sports. Let's get it going with a funny one because we have talked about the sound of the doink in NFL being maybe the funniest sound in sports. Yeah, everyone knows it. When a guy goes to kick a field goal and it hits the upright, doink. Sometimes a double doink. We had a classic yesterday. a classic and this is the chief's attempt

what's his name Harrison Harrison Butker Butker which is a funny name right here's Harrison Butker He's got some opinions too And his attempt Things did not go well for the chiefs

Yesterday against the Texans Play the audio No good and that is Kansas City 2025. What hell is that? I wasn't even prepared for that. It sounds like a bunch of silverware

getting thrown down the stairs. Can we play it one more time? Because this is this is a Hall of Fame. Doink. No good. Doin, that's, doink is not the right word for that. That was a rattle.

The doink sound is too skinny for what that was. That was more like a clang. Oh, it resonated. It was a big sound. You know why. That was orchestral. Yeah. You know why?

Because he was only from 43 yards out. He just hammered it. I think he hammered it. He just hammered it. Because the doink implies like he almost nicked it or glanced it or something, right? And also goes, doink. Yeah. It just ran out of gas and then went.

I think Butker, like, hit that ball hard, and they just, it met the goalpost. Right? That's a ball meeting the post with force. You know what? That is actually the sound of the Chief's season. Pretty much. That was, it was funny. I texted you partway through the game, and this was before it ended on, you know,

the Chiefs failing to do anything on offense. I actually texted you. I was like, the Chiefs are a tough watch right now. They look terrible. They look terrible. Absolutely terrible. If you put up 10 points. in prime time

at home you're getting booed out of the joint I know you've made the playoffs 10 years in a row I know you have multiple Super Bowls but man that was awful last night now Houston's got a really good defense

and a really good pass rush and the chiefs were missing like half their offensive line and then another offensive line we got hurt right at the start the game so there are reasons but that team looks old and tired and stale

do you think Kelsey was like I should have retired you know he wanted to if they won the Super Bowl last year he was proposing right after the game and then retiring right but the script didn't work out the way they got a second script which is like we're going to give it to Philadelphia so he had to come back this year

he's been done for I'd say two and a half years and this is Taylor Swift adjacent like I know that that's sort of preoccupied a lot of his tummy he he's a hall of fame tight end. He's had an amazing career. Incredible. But he's at a large fork protruding from his back for like at least two and a half years.

Like he's just not, he's not there anymore, right? Physically he's not there. I don't think the fork in him. And he's still already in there. He's still, he's still, he's still, he's still leading the chiefs. I know that's the sad part. Right? That's, that's the problem with the chiefs. Okay. Um, you know, I almost feel like we should, instead of moo cowing it, that should, we should use the sound of, of the doink to

kind of like, and, to that segment. Let's try it. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.