Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 1/21/25

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they set up tonight's Canucks home tilt versus the Buffalo Sabres with NHL analyst Ray Ferraro. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na It's been an interesting year, a lot of injuries, some distractions and stuff. Say that again. McDavid sat there and was being dry-humped on the ice. It's an absolute joke. The winners should run the crap out of Vancouver on Thursday. Connor McDavid should immediately withdraw from the Four Nations Tournament. I'm not joking. Why are you so pissy?

Good morning Vancouver, Vancouver 601 on a Tuesday happy Tuesday everybody it is Alfred it is brough it is sportsnet 650 and we are coming you live from the Kintec studios a beautiful fairview slopes in Vancouver Jason good morning good morning Adog good morning to you good morning glad good morning to you as well hello hello Alfred and brough of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking

for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler, pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit the middle of 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. You know what we got today? A really big show. Canucks game day, Canucks and Sabres, seven o'clock tonight. Prior to all that though, we have a bunch of guests to talk to. 6.30, Greg Waszynski is going to join the program.

Nine games in the NHL last night and yesterday, we can get into all those with Greg. He also recently wrote about the Washington Capitals who are going to be in town this weekend to play the Vancouver Canucks. He wrote about the Caps, Ovi, and the stunning retool in Washington. We'll also talk to him about the suspensions to Connor McDavid and Tyler Myers and- Yeah, can we leave that to Wish so we don't have to do this? You know what, friend? I think that's a good idea. No, we'll have to do it.

We'll do it a little bit. We'll do it a little bit. Wish also handed out the Wyshinski Mid-Season Awards last week, so we can talk to him about that. So Wish at 6.30 from ESPN. Seven o'clock Ray Ferraro is going to join the program. I believe it's a Ray game tonight. That's what the kids are calling it on the streets a ray game tonight I'm a ray day seven o'clock Canucks Sabres from Rogers Arena lots to get into with ray get the JT Miller situation His ice level view of cross-check a Palooza On Saturday, we'll talk to Ray about all that and then of course the suspensions We can talk to Ray and wish about those suspensions

so Ray is at seven o'clock and then at course the suspensions. We can talk to Ray and Wish about those suspensions. So Ray is at seven o'clock and then at eight o'clock the second half of Ferraro Tuesdays. Landon Ferraro is gonna join the program. Friendly reminder, Canucks Sabres, you can hear it all right here on Sportsnet 657 hours of Canucks coverage. Today you got Canucks Talk with Drance and Dodd, you got Canucks Central with Sat and Dan.

Pre-game shows at 6 Puck drops at 7 then the postgame show goes all the way through till 11 o'clock tonight So we'll talk to Landon Ferraro at 8 a.m Ray Ferraro at 7 a.m And Greg Wyshinski at 6 30 big hockey show ahead on the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650 That's what's happening today laddie. Let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

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

Resources and safety training visit them online at bccsa.ca Yet again we lead off with the Vancouver Canucks and we have a number of stories to get to From the day prior the first one the big one Connor McDavid and Tyler Myers Both suspended three games apiece for their antics during Saturday night's game, at the very end of Saturday night's game, a 3-2 win for the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena. It is the longest suspension in Connor McDavid's 10-year NHL career.

Well, some people don't get suspended at all. And if you're listening to the crying out of Edmonton, you would think that he was never gonna return to hockey, that it was a lifetime ban of sorts, but it is not. It is just a mere three games. So too with Tyler Myers. Like I know this is a big deal to a lot of people, especially if you live in Edmonton, apparently.

Uh, I don't really want to sound like I'm above the fray here cause I'm not. I love to get down in the gutter. Uh, but arguing about the length of suspensions is one of my least favorite activities when it comes to this job, which is unfortunate because a lot of people seem to enjoy it. Three games, here's the way I look at it.

Three games for McDavid and three for Myers. Sounds fair to me. I thought it would be two and two. I thought they would just match the Austin Matthews cross check of Rasmus Dallin. Sure. But it's three and three, I guess. McDavid has a bit of a history. Each cross check guy's in the head.

Yep. Like they each, you know, McDavid cross check Garland in the head. He did. And Myers cross checked Evan Bouchard in the head. He did. It's hockey. Sometimes players lose their tempers and they cross the line in retaliation. Three and three.

Seems fair to me. Now that being said, I suppose there is something worth discussing if McDavid feels like he has to take matters into his own hands because other teams are taking liberties with him and the referees are ignoring it. I suppose there's something to be said there. Corey Perry, teammate of Conor McDavid was

quoted by Mark Spector, big long article on sportsnet.ca and Perry says, why aren't we protecting the superstars? Why aren't we? Every other league does it. They protect their superstars. Do other leagues have problems with Connor Garland sized players?

Yeah. Like, this is Connor Garland. How do we silence this five foot eight, 175 pound dynamo? He's a menace. As a menace. And here's the thing, like, the protecting the superstars,

the problem with that line of thinking is that fans generally hate when superstars get preferential treatment. I don't know if anyone watched the Kansas City Chiefs game over the weekend, but it wasn't like the entire league and its fan base was, well thank God they're protecting Patrick Mahomes. Good Lord, the guy calling the game, Troy Aikman, we played the audio, he was disturbed and disappointed at the level of calls. Personally, Connor McDavid, I admire the superstars

who just play through it. And yeah, once in a while you may have to show your teeth or even take someone else's teeth out to send a message that you won't be bullied. It's still hockey, right? Like, I realize I'm a bit of a dinosaur now. Yeah. Hey, come on, you're on my side realize I'm a bit of a dinosaur now. Yeah. Hey, come on, you're on my side on this.

Don't make fun of me. I realize I'm a bit of a dinosaur here. And obviously we don't want the game to go back to hooking and holding and interference all over the ice. But it's still hockey. And guys are gonna try and get you off your game if you're a superstar. Remember Quinn Hughes in the playoffs last year?

Everyone was hitting him, taking an extra shot. They weren't all in the rule book. Take it as a compliment, Connor. You're really, really good at hockey. The same thing has happened to literally every other superstar in hockey history. Some of them complained about it. Mario Lemieux complained about it, but that's fine.

He still played through it. And Connor, when you finally win a cup, if that ever happens, it'll feel like that much more of an accomplishment that you battled through it. That's right. You earned it. You got it done. You know what you did?

You dug in. You didn't rely on Chris Lee and Wes Macaulay to bail you out. No, okay. Now look, at the end of the day, the referee should have just called Garland for a holding penalty. This is also true. Just make the call and maybe none of this happens. Don't overthink it, referees. We were texting back and forth, you're like, don't galaxy brain this, referees. Garland

was holding McDavid, so call him for holding. Don't be like, well, if, if her arms go up, then, you know, maybe, maybe the place stops and that's an advantage for, just call it, just call it. Garland's holding him, just call it. So that's, it's funny. I understand why this argument takes such life and it has real vigor online. Like people are like frothing at the virtual mouth

to argue back and forth because there's so many points and counterpoints that you can make. So your point that was made is totally viable, play through it and everything else. The counterpoint to that would be like, the referees do need to call the rules as they are written. They can't just make it up as they go along. For example, not calling a penalty on Garland

at the end of that game was them, yet again, trying to manage the situation when the most obvious answer to this problem at hand is if Connor McDavid is penalized, you should call a penalty. I think it's really cut and dry. Now the issue that people are gonna run into is that if you called every penalty that was taken on Connor McDavid

during an 82 game regular season, there would be approximately 932 million power plays for the Oilers because he gets taken down and interfered with and obstructed more than other players. Because he's better than all the other players. I think he's, you know what, though? I think it's because he's too fast. Maybe he's too. That's his fault. I got in your way You know what though? I think it's cause he's too fast. That's his fault.

I got in your way. There's another counterpoint. I got in your way, sorry. You're just too fast. I didn't even see you. And there's another counterpoint. I think it's. Could you be too fast?

Is it not kind of silly that we're having this discussion though about protecting the superstars? Was it a particularly egregious game when it came to taking liberties on McDavid? I don't think it was. It was a mad scramble with 10 seconds left. And it was a smart play by Garland. It was.

It was brilliant. Like you're almost taught that. Yeah. It's not like you're taught that at the Peewee level or anything, but like your coach would probably be like, Hey, there's 10 seconds left in the game. It's kind of like one of those times where you're

like, it doesn't matter if you like tie them up. Take them out of the play. Whatever you have to do. And I suppose that's the why the referees think the way they do. But like you're down. That's one of the disadvantages of being down a goal with 10 seconds to go.

Was this happening all game long? Like I don't think it was. Well it was happening throughout the week, right? A lot of Oilers fans were arguing like, well, if they would have just called on the penalty on Garland, and McDavid wouldn't have crossed him to begin with. Well, yeah, that's what I'm saying.

They should have done that. And there is some evidence out there, um, that, that McDavid is not getting the calls this year as much as he has in previous years. Yeah, his penalties done are way low. For sure. Yeah. Like, listen, I understand the frustration out

of Edmonton because the narrative is clear, right? Here's the narrative. Um, Connor McDavid isn't drawing as many penalties as he used to. So now he has to take matters into his own hands. And now he's suspended three games. Right? Yeah.

Does that, does that make sense? But who was saying that he should hold out of the four nations? Oh, that was Bob Stauffer. Friend of the show. Noted friend of the show, Bob Stauffer. He was like, on the mighty chud, 880, 860, I don't know. Is that like his peaceful protest or something like that? Yes, Bob's argument was that.

The Gandhi process, he's gonna actually go to Montreal and Boston and sit cross-legged in front of the arena as a way of protest. Never going to eat again. You're looking a little thin, bud. Bob's argument was that the NHL, who are making record revenues off the back of superstar players like Connor McDavid, should be doing a better job to protect superstar players like Connor McDavid. And then this latest exhibition, where all of the NHL stars are going to be on display on an NHL platform. He should say that, I think it's pretty crazy.

I don't really want to, do you want to go belabor this much more? Cause there's a bunch of other stuff we can get into. I want to get into the real news. Okay. So yesterday, and we'll put that aside, don't expect to see Connor McDavid and or Tyler Myers when the Canucks and Oilers meet again on Thursday. Patrick Alveen, yesterday, in what could be classified as an impromptu mid-season media availability, met with the media on Monday afternoon to cover a variety of topics,

none of them very thoroughly or in depth, as a matter of fact, it was back to old Johnny Tightlips, as far as I could tell, for Patrick Alveen, didn't have a lot to say, but on a couple of occasions, it could be argued that it was more about what he didn't say than what he did say. Yeah. I was listening to Drance and Dodd after Alveen's

availability and I think, like you said, they nailed it when they said that what he didn't say was more interesting than what he did say. For example, Alveen easily could have said that the Miller rumors weren't true, but he didn't say that because here's the thing, he'd be lying if he said that. He'd be a liar.

Can't do that. So instead of denying the rumors, he just kind of danced around them by saying he's always looking to improve the team. Do you want to play some Patrick Alveen audio now? Let's do it. Let's do it. This is Alveen on how he's not gonna get into any

specific trade rumblings or chatters or rumors but a reminder he's always looking to make his team better. I ain't saying nothing. I'm not going to go into any specifics and comments on any talks around the league, but since I got here, I'm always trying to explore to make our team better in discussions and see if it makes sense or not. The toughest part has been to evaluate the group we have with all the injuries. But again, you see the signs of a good team and coming together and playing the right way, as we did here against Edmonton, as we did in Toronto a couple of days ago. So we'll continue to see if that makes sense. Obviously the

parody of the league, it's hard to make deals at this time of the year and it's going to be interesting here over the next couple of weeks. Okay, I'm going to throw this out here. This is almost a house of positivity thing. Is there a possibility that the Canucks trade JT Miller, they lose the trade in terms of talent that comes back to the Canucks, but end up in a better place all the same? Because listening to some of the comments from some of the players and watching

the Canucks play, I think you do have to wonder if the Canucks inconsistency issues, and that was the word that Patrick Alveen used yesterday. If those issues are partly a matter of losing focus amidst all the noise, because it's one thing, put yourself in the, in the shoes of the players. It's one thing to have to deal with trade rumors and media BS and social media BS,

but it's quite another, I think, if it's not a unified workplace. Players can stick together in the face of the media saying that they're not playing very well or whatever. But I think it's quite another thing. Um, again, if the players aren't sticking together or players are fighting with each other or players

are fighting with coaches and players are taking leaves of that absence. You know, the things that have been happening to the Canucks this season, let's face it. I don't think we have to be inside the room to call this a dysfunctional situation. There's really no other way to describe it. So what if that dysfunction went away? How much could that potentially help?

Yeah, it's the old addition by subtraction equation, right? Is that you get better despite the fact that you've lost, and let's be real, like Miller's been a fantastic player for the Vancouver Canucks over the last few years. And you're probably not going to get. I'm not saying this is going to happen,

but I'm just wondering. But you're probably not going to get the best player in return on the deal because you've been forced into this because you've been painted into a corner, shoehorned into this very uncomfortable situation where everyone knows that you have the impetus to make a move. That very rarely turns out well for a management

group when everyone else in the league knows you're under the cost to try and make a deal. Because everyone's just salivating. Like, and it's the old adage, when an NHL executive is drowning, all the other executives are there ready to throw them an anchor. No one's ready to throw them a life jacket.

Someone's trying to take advantage of this situation. So you're probably gonna get the inferior package in return. However, sometimes you do reach that point where you say, screw it, even if we don't necessarily win the trade in a vacuum, we need to do this for the bigger picture. And that's the room, the cohesion, the chemistry. I do have a bit of a problem with a group that got this thrown off kilter by whatever's happened?

Because I told you I've been trying to parse through the New England Patriots documentary, the eight part series on Apple TV. And I'm at the part now at the end of the Belichick-Brady relationship. And they're going through how uncomfortable the room was in that year when they went to the Super Bowl against the Philadelphia Eagles and they said You could cut the tension with a knife all the cliches you could feel it every time you walked in the room There was this uncomfortable Very awkward very unpleasant tension and rift between coach and leader

So you really had to take sides or you a a Belichick guy or are you a Brady guy? Of course, they also won like 14 games and went to the Super Bowl. Like they managed to find a way through it. Yeah. You know, like worst things have happened to people than a locker room rift. So my, I mean, and I know it doesn't exactly answer

what you're talking about, but I think to, for it to have gotten to this point, yeah, it was probably bad and ugly and messy in the room, but it does leave me wondering about all of the individuals in it, not just maybe the central figures and the protagonists and the main characters, not being able to figure it out.

That will always, whenever we figure out what happened here, and who knows when we'll figure that out, it'll always remain one of the great mysteries is how they couldn't just figure it out themselves and it had to end like this. I want to read a tweet I got from a guy named James yesterday and he, he just, it was his tweet right to me.

It wasn't a reply to anything. He said, I'm so confused about the Miller situation, what happened and why are we seemingly about to trade one of our best players? It can't just be that two guys don't get along. Something must've crossed a line and if so, wouldn't his teammates be against him too? That kind of, uh, struck me

because I feel the same way, right? There's some confusion here, like what exactly happened? I don't think this is just about Miller and Pedersen. I, I, I don't think it is. I think there might be, I think that's maybe part of it, but there's no way that just because two guys don't

see eye to eye, they would trade. Like something has escalated. You would think. In this situation. Something has escalated in this situation. And I think Farhan has hinted at something that might have happened between Miller and Tauke that, um, that maybe led to the 10 game

leave of absence. But I think there's more to it than just Miller and Petey not getting along. You want to add another layer to this JT Miller Vancouver Canucks drama? Not really, but I guess we will. Okay. So Pardip, Pardip listener, long time listener of the program, texted it a couple of times this morning at 5.35 this morning. Pardeep was on it and he texted in, oh boy, Spit and Chicklets has added another layer to this JT drama. If you haven't listened to it, Biz talked to Aquiline. He didn't say this came from the owner, but mentioned that JT did ask for a trade in private. Looking forward to Bruff and Halford this morning.

First off, it's Halford and Bruff. Secondly, this obviously caught my interest. I'm like, hey, you know what? Spit and Chicklets, whatever you think of the platform and the information within, they are without a doubt one of the more dialed in and player friendly podcasts, maybe the most dialed in and player friendly podcasts in the entire National Hockey League.

So I thought, well, we're gonna have to get to the bottom of this. We're gonna have to figure out exactly what was said because this got released this morning. So Laddie diligently went and downloaded the podcast and found the audio. I think what we should do is just let the audio speak for itself.

The Canucks apparently have a new special assistant to the GM. Okay, good tease, Laddie. Yeah, this is pretty wild. Okay, we're gonna play it as is. Here's Paul Bissonnette, Biz Nasty on the Spit and Chicklets podcast from this morning. I said the exact same thing to Akalini

as I did at the dinner table. Regardless of how bad things are with JT Miller right now and the drama surrounding it, you don't give away this asset for nothing. If it's so toxic, and I put my hands in the air, which I don't think it's that bad, but if it's that toxic, given maybe the fact he's a little bit banged up, I don't think he's playing his best hockey right now, maybe a little bit of frustration with the distraction of all the media stuff.

He has played a lot of hard hockey over the course of the last 18 months and you know, talk it was, I don't want to say overly critical, but just honest about his assessment of his game. Don't move off of this asset for nothing. Healthy scratch him for five, six games if you have to. You might upset him, but my understanding he is asked for a trade now publicly He's denying asking for this trade. I didn't get into the weeds about this with a kalini I just simply said don't trade him for a first-rounder and hedle That's not the move because even if you don't make playoffs this year And he's not very good and things fizzle out to the point where maybe he's not even with the team anymore.

I don't think it'll get there. But how desperate are 10 to 15 teams in the league gonna be this summer at trying to get a first two line center? You might not think he's a first line center, but on a Stanley Cup winning team, that's a second line center. We talked about the possible upside of

removing the dysfunction or at least I guess, part of it, if you trade Miller and maybe things calm down. Hopefully things calm down. I think from the Connex perspective, hopefully things calm down. And the team can just focus. Yeah.

Because you know, we hear a lot about the energy that's been spent on all other issues for Rick Tocket, for example. You only have so much energy. When you're spending it on that sort of stuff, it's less time to fix the power play or work on systems or just get the guys together and focused on a game plan.

I really do wonder if all this noise around the team has affected their preparation. So many times the Canucks start out games and you're like, are these guys ready to go? The Canucks? Yeah. Are you serious? Yeah.

Really? Now, all that being said, there's no guarantee that trading Miller eliminates all the dysfunction. I think more and more people are starting to realize how much additional pressure will be heaped upon the shoulders of Elias Pedersen if Miller is indeed traded away. Not even because Pedersen could be blamed for

the situation, but because the Canucks will lose a very, very talented player and are unlikely in any trade to receive an impact player of the same level in return. This is a team that already has struggle, has trouble producing offense, generating chances. You trade away JT Miller, one of your top player drivers when he's on his game.

And you go, okay, Petey, guess what, buddy? It's all on you now. Let's go. Do you, do you and Pugh suitor? Let's go. Come on, you and Phillip Heidel and see if that first round pick can play. Right? You know, like it's, it's, it's the pressure.

The pressure is only going to amp up. But I know we talked to, I think it was Drance yesterday and he said, well, there's already pressure on PDM. Like you ain't seen nothing yet, brother. Yeah. If he doesn't, if he doesn't, if he, if he, if he doesn't pick up the slack in a major,

major, major way, then it's going to get real ugly. Yeah. The outside, outside noise would grow even more. And there's a lot of outside noise as it is right now. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. So I just want to share, I'm not going to read any of this, but I just want to let the listeners know

all the vitriol that's coming in for Pedersen right now into the Dunbar Lumbertex line. I'm not going to read the text, but I'm not trying to make this a thing. I don't want this to be a thing, but it is going to be a thing. The pressure on Pedersen of Miller is traded is only going to amp up. And a lot of people love JT Miller. They are, you heard the chants in the arena. JT Miller is a big time fan favorite and he plays when he's on top of his game with the emotion and passion that you want to see out of leaders on your team.

you want to see out of leaders on your team. If they trade him and Pedersen doesn't perform, this thing ain't over. No. Oh, if, if Pedersen doesn't, uh, give the, I mean, there's a couple of things. One will be the output of an $11.6 million dollar a year player. And the other will be responding to this

level of adversity and the solution yet again, given by management. Cause remember we've gone through great detail in all the different ways that management has either tried to appease or solve Pedersen. We've got, and it goes all the way back. Well look at the way the coach handles it. Tauke treats Pedersen differently than it goes all the way back. Well, look at the way the coach handles it. Tuckett treats Pedersen differently than Miller.

See, I think- Tuckett is way more critical of Miller and way more like publicly bench Miller. He'll call him out. He doesn't treat Pedersen like that because Pedersen is so sensitive and we all know that. Yeah, but I also think- So is he made for this market? But I also think Tauke does that as a

self preservation act as well. What would it say by the way, now that I'm on a roll here. He's rolling. If Pedersen does start playing better now that if JT Miller is traded again, like is that great? That he was able to like, I don't know, you know, like someone's mean to him in the dressing

room so he doesn't play well? I mean, I don't, if that's a, we're getting down the, that's like three hypotheticals stacked on top of our numbers so I can't, like my mind, I'm just trying to- My mind grapes are exploding. I'm just trying to prepare myself for a Miller trade and what the reaction is gonna be in this city.

Right. They sell it's gonna be pretty man. But they still to trade Miller. They're going to come on. But when? How much longer can you honestly let this thing just hang around? I do wonder.

Because I thought that the breaking point would have been on Saturday when you know, they were ready to drop them out of the lineup. And then they threw them back in and then Miller played really well. And then he went in front of all the reporters who were all asking questions. If that was his last game as a Vancouver Canuck. And then he went to practice yesterday and he put down and I'm assuming he's going to participate again tonight. And I know that on a very basic level,

that's all you can do. Like you're either working or you're not working. You either show up for your shift or you call in sick. Your manager tells you to come into work or your manager tells you to stay home. Like there's really only two options. I get that part of it. But I mean, we exist in a covering a national hockey league where guys are routinely sat out

to protect the asset when a trade is coming. How long did Jacob Chicken sit out? He sat out for like a month, didn't he? He's just like, I'm not playing hockey anymore until you trade me. Just I'll sit on the sidelines. This is, it's, it's unique. And I mean, God bless it. It's entertaining as hell. I know sometimes, and I've had friends and associates and colleagues come up to me and be like, you guys talk about this a lot. And I was like, yes,

we do. We absolutely do because, uh, it's been a long time, a long time since there's been this much of a soap opera and never ending drama in a Canucks season. Cause again, I think I said we're in December 21st earlier, that's wrong. It's a new year and a new month. It was January 21st.

The season started in September. I looked that up, but I confirm you're correct. Yeah. It's January right now. It is January. Thank you, Andy. Took me a bit. So yeah, it's been four and a half months of a

very, very drawn out and lengthy soap opera where people have really had to dig in to figure out exactly what's going on other than what you presented at the surface. Right? Not a lot of seasons where one of your star player, players, sorry, takes a 10 game leave of absence for personal reasons, comes back, has a few good games,

has a few bad games, and then is the subject of rampant trade speculation. That playbook doesn't really exist in a lot of NHL markets. And if it does, it draws a lot of people's attention. It really is operatic in the soap sense of how it's gone. So yeah, it's the never-ending coverage of it. And every day that goes by, you're kinda left to continue the narrative because what else are you gonna talk about

with Miller right now? It wasn't that long ago that he signed this massive contract. Remember how emotionally invested he was at the time, talking about how this was a big deal for him because one, it was like putting down roots for his family, but also, like you said, he didn't come from great means growing up and he got this massive sum of money and now we're at this stage of it where it's going to be moved along. There's a lot to unpack.

Sir Ed from Langley. I think with Pedersen, it's one of those situations where you don't like going to work because somebody is on your ass every day. Now it might seem sensitive, but if you go to work and you have to worry about that, you would not be efficient either at your job.

Fair enough. And then you have to ask questions about how did the organization let it get to this point? I deal with that every day with you guys. The dogs are nodding aggressively in the background. Mm-hmm. Yep. You guys perform. Sounds familiar. You guys perform.

You do? Is that how you're calling it? Occasionally. Yeah. I don't know. Intermittently. I will say I do, I don't know if you guys feel this way, but I do find it hard this season to get as invested in the games, game by game, knowing this stuff is in the background.

So I always feel like- Yeah, the connects have a game tonight. I always feel like in the fact- Oh yeah! I always feel like in the back of my mind, I'm just like, I just want this to get figured out and dealt with, move one of them, figure it out, move past it, and then just go on with the season.

And until that actually happens, until one of the two of them is gone, as much as I would hate to see it, I always just like, it's hard for me to really get into the games as much as maybe last year. That's kind of the, that, that, sorry. Cause there's like this looming shadow, you know? That little rant I just went on where we're talking about like, this has really dragged itself out.

It's been four months of a soap opera. So some people just want to see, let's just win some games and have some fights and score some goals. I want to read a counterpoint to that other text about, you know, coming to work and someone's on your ass. Someone texts in, holy, it's professional hockey. And I tend to take that perspective. You got to know how to stick up for yourself. Yeah. You know, like this is professional hockey. tend to take that perspective, you gotta know

how to stick up for yourself. Yeah. You know, like this is professional hockey. This is not our job. This is not going into an office and, you know, you know, it's not elementary school. It's not high school. It's professional hockey.

These guys are ultra competitive and they will do, I'm talking about your opponents here, anything to get you off your game. Like you have to be able to stick up for yourself. But that's the opponent, right? A teammate shouldn't. You should be able to stick up for yourself in your own room.

But you're talking about an opponent, it's professional hockey and opponent's going to try and knock you off your game. Like you would never say that a teammate should be like trying to knock you off your game. No, no. I mean, look again, like if, if it turns out that the reason Pedersen, okay, to really simplify

it, the reason Pedersen wasn't playing well is because JT was being mean to him. There's a lot of questions about Miller. There's a lot of questions about Miller. There's a lot of questions about how the organization let it get to that point as opposed to being like, Hey, stop that. You know, like just leave him alone. But it's also, I think there's a question

about, Bederson like. But I would also, I would also be very. Tell them to FO. I would be very, I would also be very cautious in drawing that line that thing A caused thing B, because you just brought it up. What happens if you remove the Miller aspect and nothing changes?

Then you're like, well, now we've completely ruined the entire thing. Do you understand what I'm saying here? We are way too far down the road of trying to figure out exactly what this is and making a black and white conversation. I think there's a lot more gray. I think there's probably eight or 10 different elements

and aspects to this. To say simply that if you remove one part of the equation that's gonna solve the equation. I think you're running into super dangerous ground. And unfortunately, because we don't have a lot of intel and inside information, that's kind of where it's headed. That's where I feel that it's headed. And it's going to be, it could be ugly.

I'll leave it at that. It could be very ugly. Ray Ferraro joins us now on the Haliford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Ray. How are you? I'm good. I cheer for whoever Bruff cheers for. I cheer for the other team just so he can seep in his misery.

Doesn't that seem fun? I mean, that's, that's, that's what happens all the time. I actually should apologize to Bill's fans for cheering for the Bills because my teams don't win. Ray, do you know that, uh, the only team that's won a championship, like in the last, okay, so I was a Blue Jays fan so you're going to go back to 93, but then after that the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, but I was not able to watch the game because I was on my way to Sochi for the Olympics. So my whole thing is that my teams

cannot win unless I'm on the other side of the world, not watching. This is great news for Bill's fans. Seriously, they're going to send me to the other side of the world and not be able to watch the NFL. Yeah. I will say though, it is pretty unbelievable watching playoff football sometimes. It's just, I don't know, there's just something,

I guess it's like every playoff, but you look at the way like this, you can, everybody can break down to one or two or three plays and you're like, oh my God, that was a whole game. It was so, so, it's so good to watch. I really, really enjoy it. It's the stakes of it all. And it's the storylines of the teams.

I mean, I think about, uh, Mark Andrews dropping that ball for the Ravens and like, that's, that play is going to live on forever in Ravens history. What if he was able to catch the ball and you know, 990 times out of a thousand that's, that ball is caught. What, like when I was a kid, I was a

Cowboys fan and, um, uh and there was the one Super Bowl and they played the missed or the drop ever since Andrews has dropped that on the weekend, that Jackie Smith in the end zone. And like he was so open and apparently the guy was an all-star and all this stuff and he just dropped it. And you're like, whatever else he did in his career, like the only time you'd ever heard of him was when he dropped the ball and you're like, then

it becomes, it becomes for forever thing. Yeah. Um, let's turn our attention to the Canucks and one of the things I wanted to talk to you about today was, um, I've got a theory that I'm working on. Oh boy. The Canucks inconsistency issues could be partly

related to all the noise around the team and all the energy they've had to spend on other stuff as opposed to just being focused on the game and the game plan and the pre-scout, et cetera, et cetera. And maybe if they're able to make a trade and slow down the noise a little bit, even if they lose that trade on paper, maybe they come out

on the better side of it. Is that being too optimistic? Uh, well, it depends what the trade becomes, right? Like if you, first of all, like most of the stuff that we read, oh, it could be this guy or it could be that guy or it might be this team. You got to remember most of it is just, it's noise. Because very few people, like very few people, have any idea about what are the actual particulars. And you can talk to and look at the, you know, the people that do it full time and do

it all the time and they're like, it could be this or it could be that. It might be here, it might be there. Like nobody, so to get a sense of what the Canucks might be after a deal that seems inevitable, I mean, I guess it might not be, but it seems inevitable. What that team looks like after that is a crapshoot. But since the very beginning of August, I think was the time when we first heard about Demko and his knee, and then we heard about Dakota Joshua. It seemed like one thing after another. Oh, and then it got to training camp. And Miller wasn't full go. It can't there hasn't

been a quiet time at all, where it's just the team and the win and the loss and how you're playing. So I don't think it's I don't think it's at all a pie in the sky to think that if things could ever settle down that they might be a better team. But how do you make it settle down because if the deal is made, it's it's a big deal. And you would think there'd be some uncertainty around things right away. Right? Like it's not like, it doesn't seem likely that all of a sudden they just go off and win 10 out of 12. But, but I mean, like in a, in a year that's so wildly inconsistent, maybe, maybe something like that happens. I mean, like even just because we're not talking about to any great deal, you know, besters in the last year of his deal, and, you know, talk it's in the last year of his deal, and Patrick Elvin addressed that stuff yesterday a bit. But like, there's internal

stuff that guys deal with it, we might not think of on like, like those are big stories yet given all the turmoil this year, they're like footnotes. And that's crazy to me. Like, like some years it just, some years there's nothing, some years it never stops. And pretty obvious which year this is. Have you ever been in a room, uh, you don't have to name the team, although it would be fun if you did,

where there was something soap opera-ish going on that served as a significant distraction? The only year I can think of is we went to the conference finals in 93 with the Islanders. Rangers win the cup the next year, which is 94. And then when we come back, then there's a lockout. We come back from the lockout. And for some reason, we had the same team except the string got pulled and started in the summer. They couldn't get Glenn Healy signed. And so Glenn was our goalie. So they made this trade and they made this trade with Colorado and with, well, it was Quebec at the time, but we traded Huey Croupp. we lost Healy, they signed Ron Hexdahl, they flipped first round picks like it was this big complicated deal and it didn't work. And then part of the deal became, then they thought they couldn't sign Pierre Tourgeon

so they traded him to Montreal for Kirk Muller and Matthew Schneider, who neither of them wanted to be there. And like, you know, they were just stunned. They went from Montreal to the Islanders. And like, it was one thing after another and guys were like, what are you hearing? Like everybody was talking about, what are you hearing? Are we making a deal?

Like, how do we do this? Like we, you know, if you know what I mean, it became unsettled the entire time and guys are then pretty soon everybody's just like, can we just play? And the answer was no. And that's like, it was a 48 game. Yeah. That the short one, like it was guys, it was a write off.

It was, it was a total mess. And, um, and it just, it, it started in the preseason and it just never ever ended. It was brutal. It was a, it felt like, like, like I said, the game, the year was 48 games. It felt like it was 97. It was like it never ended.

It was brutal. Was that also the, the, the first year that Al Arbor wasn't the coach? Yes. Lor, they promoted Lauren Henning and Lauren was in a, Lauren's an awesome guy, like one of the best and it was like a no win spot for him. He finally gets a head coaching job, gets the

opportunity to do it. We have a training camp that was about four days. Like the deal was announced like January, I don't know, second or third if I recall. And like the season started a week later. So we all had to get to your home city, wherever the hell that was. The guys live in Sweden and Russia and you know, like all over the place. And we got there and we had half a new team and part of the guys didn't want to be there. And like, it was just a mess. But that, yeah, that was Al's first year that,

that was a good decision for Al. Not to coach that year. So did that, but that, you know, all the noise that was going on, did it affect the preparation for games? Yes. Yeah. Because nobody, nobody knows, nobody feels

comfortable in what's going on. So you go to work, like, honestly, you'd go to the rink and go like, did they, did they make another trade today? Like is ownership solid enough to, cause we had an ownership thing too, like is ownership solid enough to keep the players we have or we're going to be moving somebody else and you know each day was a different lineup for many different

reasons. Like I'm not exaggerating, like it never stopped. Like when I think of that, that you know whatever month season that we had, it was, it was painful. I had a, like personally, I had a great year. I think I had 22 goals or something, but it was like, it was brutal. The year was brutal. Nobody, nobody had any enthusiasm for anything. You just, you come and you think you do, but you

just, you don't have the fight in you. Like you, you know, you get worn down quick. And in a, like in a game, I'm not talking over months and months and months, but in a game, you get worn down and then you go to a next game, you get worn down. Pretty soon you've lost seven out of 10 and you only got 38 games left.

And you're like, Jesus sucks. Like this really sucks. Yeah. Young Travis Green couldn't pull you guys out of that. No, no, Greeny was, uh, Greeny was just one of, one of the guys in the mud that year. We were all slugging around there. Was that, was that prime mullet years then for Greener?

Oh yeah. He was, he was using a lot of product then too. So like you know he had it he had the the flow that he was I think that was high on the priority list at that time. Are you on the game tonight in Vancouver Ray? Yes I am and then not Thursday and but I'll be be on Saturday as well. Okay. Well, thanks for joining us and enjoy the call tonight and always enjoy hearing your stories and analysis and even if I'm a sports jinx. Yes, you will.

I mean, it's funny, you know, I know you like to bring the negativity to yourself a little bit, but sometimes it's just fact. Sometimes, yeah, it is. Sometimes it's just, it is. And there's Bills fans running away from you. Like, like they can't get away, like they're, like they're Usain Bolt.

They can't get away faster. My teams don't win. I will retire eventually though. That is the good news for everyone. Ray, enjoy the game tonight. See you buddy. Thanks guys. Sorry for being late.

We'll talk later. No problem. All good. Ray Frarro here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.