Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 12/17/24

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus  they talk a big Canucks win over the Avalanche 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. Whoa, wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose the f***ing Canucks? You're listening to Halford & Brough.

Kiefer Sherwood broke it up. He's got a breakaway. Sherwood, it alone scores! Some of you dream of as a kid, you know, like those are the kind of moments that you work for. He's obviously an aggressive guy and a guy that you need on the ice who gives us juice. This market loves young guys. Young boys, young boys, young boys.

Always about the young boys. Ah! Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. This is Alfred and his bruv. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good Good morning. Ada, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alfred and Brev 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 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell

Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec, got a lot to get into on the show today. Big guest list ahead. It begins at 6.30.

Greg Wyshynski, our ESPN NHL insider, is going to join us. It's a busy night in the National Hockey League. Tonight, 10 games. We got a bunch of train wrecks we got to keep an eye on. The one that went north to Montreal from Buffalo. Got to keep an eye on that one. They just had a chat with Terry Pagula, and apparently he wasn't even mad at them.

He was just like, come on guys, this is a fresh slate here. He said, stay the course. I believe in you. Anyway, I gotta go. I got the bills. Try and win a couple games while I'm gone. So we'll also keep it. Nashville and New York, the Rangers meet in a clash as well

of floundering teams. Wish will join us at 6.30 to talk about all that and more. 7 o'clock, Ray Ferraro is going to join the program for his weekly hit. I have no idea where in the world Ray Ferraro is right now. I think he's still here. I don't believe he's got an ESPN game this week. I checked on ESPN's press room. I did some research ahead of the show.

It's like a mystery. We'll find out where Ray is at 7 o'clock. 8 o'clock, first-time Hal Bro guest from the Hockey News. Adam Kurzenblatt is going to join the program. Kurzenblatt is going to join the program. We'll talk to him about a big win for the Vancouver Canucks last night, 3-1 over the Colorado Avalanche. I will also let you know that today and every other day this week,

we are giving away a pair of tickets to the PWHL Takeover Tour on January the 8th at Rogers Arena. Rogers is a proud partner and fan of the PWHL. Pair of tickets every day this week is going to go to caller number 5 at 8.15 a.m. Our phone number here, 604-280-0650. That number again, 604-280-0650 that number again 604-280-0650 no excuses if you're a live listener if you're a podcast listener if you're recording it on cassette and listening to it later

you all now know that we're giving away a pair of tickets to the pwhl takeover january 8th at rogers arena caller number five at 815 this morning. That's the program. 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. It was the Kiefer Sherwood show at Rogers Arena on Monday night. Sherwood scored his first ever NHL hat trick, a natural hat trick no less. Vancouver Canucks win 3-1 against the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night. Yeah, I don't know. Who knows with this team? I don't know. The Canucks decided to have their legs last night.

They had their legs right off the opening faceoff with JT Miller driving the net and almost scoring in the first 10 seconds. You could see right away as well that Elias Pettersson was a lot more engaged, wanting the puck on his stick, more willing to shoot and less willing to defer to others. But forget those guys. It took until 16-14 of the first period for the Canucks to open the scoring and it was the third line of Sherwood, Heinen and Suter that got it done with some great forechecking, a couple of nice passes, and you go to the net, kids. You go to the net.

And eventually, a hard-working, greasy goal by Kiefer Sherwood. Remember that name, because Sherwood scored his second of the night in the second period with the Canucks shorthanded after his linemate, Danton Heinen, took a penalty 200 feet away from his own net. This was not a greasy goal by Sherwood.

It was a beauty. The goal was unassisted unless you want to give it to McKinnon. You want to give him an assist on that? It was a careless entry pass by the great Nate. Didn't see that last night. That Sherwood picked off at the Canucks blue line, which led to a clear-cut breakaway. He beat Mackenzie Blackwood cleanly,

and then came the Kiefer-Sherwood chants at Rogers Arena. Yeah. Wasn't a JT Miller chant. Wasn't a Connor Garland chant. It was a Kiefer-Sherwood chant. It would not be the last Sherwood chants of the night. Now, the Avs did press a bit in the third, but the Canucks, with a lot of help from Thatcher Demko,

did not break. And with two and a half minutes left, Sherwood completed the natural hat trick with a long shot into the empty net. It was 3-0 Canucks. Sherwood now has 11 goals on the season, a new career high after scoring 10 in 68 games for the Preds last year.

He scored, what is it, 29 or 30 games this year? I think it's 30 games. 30 games. You know, the only disappointment of the night was that Thatcher Demko lost his shutout bid with less than a minute to go when Nachushkin scored. But if that was the only disappointment on the night, that's a minor concern.

Demko was awesome, and you do have to love what the Canucks have in goal right now. Now that Thatcher Demko is back, and apparently he's shaken the rust off. Yep. We got an early text into the show, and it's from Project Manager Patty into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 6.50, 6.50.

He said, I can't get a read on this team. One day I'm telling myself this is the team to do it. Other days five guys need to be traded. What do you make of it? Yeah, I thought pretty much everyone played well last night maybe Branstrom not so much had the early puck over the glass uh penalty and then didn't play much after that but whatever you know okay one guy had a bit of a rough night one guy had bad moment um I did think JT Miller played well, very physical. He had the matchup role against the

McKinnon and Rantanen line and did very well with that. It was a scoreless draw between those two. I thought Pedersen, again, I thought he played well. He didn't get any points, but if he plays like that every night, if he's that engaged every night, if he wants the puck on his stick and he's attacking, the points will come. He hit the post. He had a pass out to DeBrusque that DeBrusque could have scored on. DeBrusque kind of mishandled it. Those two played well. But what's hilarious to me is that in the two games that they played well,

and it was the lesser lights that really got it done on the score sheets, like in the Florida game game and everyone was like, that was a great game. It was Max Sasson that got them off to that great start. And then last night it was Kiefer Sherwood. Maybe those guys are the leaders. Maybe that's the core.

Sasson and Sherwood. The quote from Rick Talkett at Sunday's practice, this is the day before they go out and beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 last night at Rogers Arena was, we don't have the team to have three or four or five passengers. We just don't have it. Edmonton, they can have four or five guys sleeping, and they've got guys that can win the game for them.

We are a team that needs everybody to play. That was the kind of the most disheartening thing yesterday, the Boston game, is, you know, we had some guys that weren't ready. You saw it last night when almost everyone or everyone is going and cooking and paying attention to details and doing the things that the coaching staff wants. They're great. I tweeted it out last night.

This is a team that in three of their last games have put comprehensive victories together against two of the last three defending Stanley Cup champions. This is also the same team that on that same home ice has lost 6-0, 7-3, and 5-1. That probably drives the head coach nuts more than if they were just consistently bad because at least they'd know what to expect

on a night-to-night basis. Do you think it was the Buffalo trade rumors? Yeah, they should just do that every game. Threaten to trade them to a new city every game. And Buffalo should say, if we make the playoffs, one of you lucky guys can leave. I'm all excited. Maybe it'll be me!

I noticed Patterson had zero points since Miller's return. Patterson played great last night. Zero points since Miller's return. Don't played great last night. Zero points since Miller's return. Don't do this. He's almost on vacation. Just let him go. He played well last night. It's his final day before vacation.

He played well last night. He did. And you know what? Everyone noticed. Yeah, he was skating. Everyone noticed. People were like, wow, he looks engaged out there. Which means that in the other games,

remember how we weren't going to do this part? You know what? I want to keep it... He's on vacation in a few hours. Let him have it. For at least five more minutes, I want to keep it on a positive vibe, because I want to talk about the second star of last night, Thatcher Demko, talking about the first star of

last night, Kiefer Sherwood. It's actually a good bit of audio from Demko, who opens up a little bit and reveals what just makes Kiefer Sherwood such a valuable part of this team, both on the ice and off the ice. Here is Thatcher Demko talking about the game's first star last night, the hat-trick hero, Kiefer Sherwood. Yeah, he's a good dude. We love having him around.

He's got his positive attitude every day. You know, chatting guys up in the morning. Maybe you're a little groggy before practice or whatever, but he's bringing everyone's energy up. He wears his heart into sleep. He plays hard for us. He was definitely really annoying to play against. It's always nice when you meet a guy on the other side of it and you can cross him off your do not have a friendship with list. He's a good dude.

We love having him around. I mean, everyone's just pumped for him tonight. He played so well, and getting a hat trick is really special for him. So when Patrick Alveen in the offseason. Hold on a sec. Uh-oh. Hold on a sec. Uh-oh.

Can you have a do not have a friendship list? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You can have that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've You can have that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've had one in sports before. Do you write them down?

Yeah, it's in a note on my phone. Oh, it's on your phone. It's on your notes. Mine's all up here. Why is my name written three times? Mine's all up here. Do not have a friend. Like, I don't like people, but I've never had a do not have a friendship list.

That is legally binding. Mine is a very that is legally binding it's a mine is a very very awesome very specific list it's people that you only know through one facet of life mostly for me it was sports right so you're playing against the guy multiple times you'd be like that guy's a dick i don't like that guy but then you'd meet him and you're like oh this guy's all right isn't it always those guys though not always not always not always go on sometimes you just like they confirm your pre-existing biases like no i was right that guy's a colossal dick but sometimes sometimes they turn out like sure now i could understand what they were saying about sure because they

saw him in the playoffs last year right front and center and he was running around and if you watch him play for five minutes you're like he must be wildly agitating to play against because he talks a lot too okay i cut you off because i wanted to talk about the sure don't have a friendship list patrick alveen last summer or the summer that just passed uh when the contract negotiations were going on with dakota joshua and they got that one finalized there was the line this sort of famous line is that we need to find the next Dakota Joshua. And they've absolutely done that with Kiefer Sherwood. This has been such a home run signing for them and has been such tremendous value. And again, I love looking at the previous regime and shaking my head

because it really does underscore so many things that that management group just never got right that this management group has got right i got a lot of time for this management group i understand that they've had their misses and i understand that they're not perfect but the two things that i've loved are they're pro scouting you know 90 percent of the time they're able to find these guys especially a forward defense is a little bit of a different issue but also that they cut bait with guys when they realize that they've made a mistake. Now, Sherwood is on pace to score 20-plus goals this year. He's doing it for less than $2 million a year.

And it is a guy that you kind of want to cheer for. Because if you read the story and look at his previous stops in the National Hockey League, he was often slotted into particular roles. And I think it had a lot to do with the fact of the style of game that he played, which is a lot of energy and a lot of forechecking. And, oh, you're a bottom six forward by trade. And a lot of people also thought that he was a tweener. He was a guy that was going to bounce between the American League and the NHL.

When he was in the American League, he scored a lot. Rick Tockett's spoken on a number of occasions about how when he talked to Sherwood in the summer, Sherwood said, I've got offensive capabilities. I can go and score. But look at the first goal he scored. That was a bottom six goal. Yep. It was awesome. There was some

skill there, don't get me wrong. Suter, who was a center last night, played on a line with Heinen. Those, you know, he has some offensive ability. We all know about the versatility of Suter, but that was Sherwood doing a lot of hard work on the end boards in the attacking zone in Colorado's end.

And then you'd appreciate this as a soccer guy. They had the diamond going. It was Sherwood down low, Suter. Love a good diamond. And then Heinen was kind of around the net. The puck, it wasn't necessarily a pass to Suter, but Sherwood was working hard, and the puck pops up to Suter, who was above the play,

and then he gets it to Heinen in front of the net. And then notice this, kids. Notice this, kids. If you're listening, you're not. It's 6 in the morning. I hope you're sleeping. As soon as Heinen got the puck in front of the net, that's where Sherwood went. Like, it was like a beeline there.

And then Suter tried to score. The puck was loose. And Sherwood was – or, sorry, Heinen tried to score. And then Sherwood was there to sorry, Heinen tried to score. And then Sherwood was there to bang in the rebound. Yep. You know, go to the net. That's where the goals are scored.

So there was that goal there. So that was a hard-working goal. Yep. There was a shorthanded goal and there was an empty net goal. So think about the opportunities that Kiefer Sherwood was presented last night. They probably had a lot of other NHL stops. He wasn't. And he's making good on them. Now, why am I bringing this up?

I think right now there's something like we saw with Max Sasson, right? He's a guy that kind of pulled himself up by the bootstraps. 24-year-old, undrafted rookie. Gets in the lab. Last night he's playing top six minutes in a top six role for the Vancouver Canucks. This team right now is getting the boost. What a freaking boost. is getting the boost. What a freaking boost.

What a freaking boost. From these particular guys. And if you're trying to be the glass half full optimist type, you should be looking at this and saying, maybe this is the catalyst. Maybe this will get things going because I can't keep going with these colossal up and downs. The peaks and valleys are too much with this team. I don't have a firm read on this team at all

on a night-to-night basis. I have no idea what to expect. They seem to be befuddling Vegas on a near nightly basis, right? Every time they're favored, they go out and lay an egg. Every time they're a dog, they go out and have a good performance.

I'm grasping at anything right now, and I am hoping that some of these less heralded sort of underdog guys can be the catalyst for a little bit more consistency or maybe drag some guys up to their level to where Talkit doesn't have to say we have three or four or five passengers every night.

I did hear some criticism of the Canucks of having too many UFAs this offseason and that it kind of threw the team into a weird spot. But we just got a text in, and it's from Mark at the office. It said, 30 games in, the Canucks' leading goal scorers

are DeBrusque and Sherwood and Suter. Nicely done, Patrick Alveen. Now, Suter has been here for more than a year, but DeBrusque and Sherwood are new. De, Suter has been here for more than a year, but DeBrusque and Sherwood are new. DeBrusque has 14 goals. Sherwood has 11 goals, and Suter has 11 goals. Like, it's not all the new guys that are struggling. When I hear, well, there are too many new players,

I'm kind of like, yeah, on the defense, like, Darren A was obviously not a great signing. He was good last night. But was that him who nearly ripped a puck into the Canucks bench? Or he did rip a puck into the Canucks bench? Was that him? I wasn't 100% sure.

Just a warning shot from De'Arne. It was some tall guy, so it was him or Myers. Yeah, I think it was De'Arne. And it was just like, oh, my God. That's a bit of panic in your game. But to me, it hasn't been the fact that there are new players there. It's that there have been some inconsistencies

from some of the core players and the defense as a whole. But to be fair, Derek Forbort hasn't played that much. No. And I think if he can get up and running, and this was the problem in Boston, he was injured a lot. And maybe that's because of the style he plays. If he can get up and running,

then I think you've got a journeyman type of defenseman there. Not exactly the same type of player as Ian Cole, who we're going to see on Wednesday, by the way, but similar. Yeah. Like capable, not flashy. Yeah. Now the other thing, because I'm trying to look forward here, what is the future going to have in store?

What are the next 30 games going to look like for this hockey team? So that was one of my hopes there in terms of consistency and the lack of passengers. The other thing, and this might be the biggest takeaway from last night, is that that was a sort of old school classic Demko game. And if you are able to roll out Demko and Lankanen and they can maintain, Demko can maintain the kind

of performance he had last night and Lankanen can maintain the performance that he's had through the first two months of the season, you put it in the notes, you're going to be in unbelievably good shape. Is that the best goalie tandem in the NHL? Demko's still got to prove, and I think someone texted in earlier. I mean, assuming Demko gets consistently back

to his Fesna caliber form. Yeah, Gurp from Surrey texted in earlier. It's one of them. It has in earlier. It's one of them. It has to be. It's one of them if it goes to plan. Gurp's text is the sort of caveat with Demko. He writes, is it just me or do you guys hold your breath to when Demko makes desperate saves?

I thought he got hurt in the third period last night when he fell down and he made a save after he had fallen and he didn't get up. I'm like, oh my God, he fell and he didn't get up. Where's his medical alert bracelet? It was not, and he took a while to get up. And I know that he was fine because he came back in and almost got the shutout.

Quinn Hughes was not great at the end of the game, by the way. But I remember- I heard there's a rift between Hughes and Demko. He's like, why are you throwing the puck up? Like four feet in the air. Good job by Ivan. Ivan to knock it down, knock it down.

But GERP, you bring up a good point because what we're going to see now with this goaltending tandem is what Andy was talking about, is that it has the potential to be the NHL's best or among the NHL's elite. But I'm still, that was the first time I had that real sort of like lump in throat moment when it came to Demko.

Like we said it was going to happen. You know, he misses over 200 days with the knee injury. We've heard about the type of knee injury that it is. You're always worried that it's going to get re-aggravated. So if he can prove over the course of, I don't know, let's say the next two or three weeks, that he can play with regularity and he doesn't have to take nights off or go on short-term IR,

then they're in great shape. I don't think there's any way they're going to overplay Demko. I don't think there's any way because this message is coming straight from the top. Yeah. Do not overplay Demko. Honestly, even if Lankanen struggles a bit in the new backup role. Just platoon

him still. Yeah, you can't risk it. I know that the playoff situation in the standings is a bit precarious. They'd obviously like to be higher in the standings right now, but you can't have a repeat of last year where I firmly believe that there was a lot of games between DeSmith

struggling and the Canucks in prove-it mode that they probably threw Demko out there on nights that he could have used the rest. So this is a question that I'll throw out to the listeners here. I know the Canucks are coming off a win, but I haven't checked the standings this morning. I assume they're still in a wild-card spot. And their next game is, yes, they are.

They're still in a wild-cut spot. They leapfrogged the Avs last night. The lowly Colorado Avalanche. They're now the number one wild card in the West. Those guys suck. I don't regret saying that. They're pretty good. If the Canucks are going to be worried about any team

below the playoff bar, is there one that really sticks out to you? The Calgary Flames are still there and they've got a pretty good young goalie in Dustin Wolf that might keep them in the game, might keep them in the race. And then after that, there's a couple of teams that I think might be compelling candidates to

make a charge and that is Utah. And again, the Canucks are going to play down in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, so we'll get our first look at them. I mean, the hockey club. They're the Coyotes, but they're in Utah now. The St. Louis Blues are playing better hockey. They're 6-2-2 in their last 10 under new coach Jim Montgomery. And then do we throw in the Seattle Kraken as well? Because anything below the Kraken, it's like the Sharks, the Ducks,

the Blackhawks, and the Preds, and those guys are done. It's that group of four, Calgary, Utah, St. Louis, Seattle. I can't say there's a team down there that I'm like, oh, once they get going, look out. There's no team that, you know, like the Oilers last year got off to that dreadful start. And they were sitting below the playoff bar for a long time. And I think most of us wondered, okay,

they're probably going to put it together, right? I mean, right now it's funny because the playoff picture in the West sort of looks pretty paint by numbers. It's like Nashville out, Minnesota in, right? And then everything else stays the same from last year. It's like Nashville out, Minnesota in, right? And then everything else stays the same from last year. There's not really that big of a change. I think that of the four that are hanging around,

St. Louis probably makes the most sense because I think they're going to have a bump under Montgomery, but I am more intrigued by Utah. Utah's got some good young players, Dylan Gunther, Logan Cooley, and then they've got the guys that are good players that have been around just on bad teams. Clayton Keller's a good player. And they also added...

Sergeyev? Sergeyev from the Lightning, and he's playing like 25 minutes a night for them. So I don't know if he's a true number one, but he's being deployed like a number one defense. He's a good player. You know what's been the real big story in Utah the last few weeks?

Our boy, Karel Vemelka. Yeah. Vemelka. Hey, who's this other goalie that they brought up? And I think his first game with them, he got a shutout. What is his name? Jackson Stauber.

Jackson Stauber. Oh, Stauber, yeah. Yeah. Is that Rob Stauber's kid? It is Rob Stauber's kid. He was with the Blackhawks organization. Right. Really high on him, and they just let him walk.

Blackhawks had a bunch of other goalie prospects they wanted to look at, let him go to Utah, and he's got a couple of shutouts in the NFL, if I'm not mistaken. He's pretty good. Utah started the year with Connor Ingram as their number one. He was one of the worst goalies in the league this year. Yeah, it was going okay, and then it wasn't. He was in the mix for the Canada job.

They let it play itself out for a while, actually, before turning it over to veg Melka. And I know it's not pronounced veg Melka. And then, well, they chant veggie. Yeah,

right. And then veg Melka has got a nine 15 save percentage. And they've turned one of the best goalies in the league. Yeah. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Ferraro, Ferraro, let's chat with Ray Ferraro. It's time for Ferraro, let's talk to Ray Ferraro.

Ferraro winds up with a shot, score! Ray Ferraro, breakaways onside, scores! Three-bound score! Ray Ferraro! Ferraro, Ferraro, it's time for Ray Ferraro. Let's chat with Ferraro, it's time for Ray Ferraro. Seven o'clock on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody.

Halford and Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford 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 2 of the program. Ray Ferraro is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 2. Hour 2 is brought to you by Jason Hominuck at Jason.Mortgage.

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Kintec. To the phone lines we go. Ray Ferraro joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Ray. How are you? I'm doing good. How are you guys today? We are well.

Spirits are high after last night's game. Impressive result for the Vancouver Canucks. 3-1 over the Colorado Avalanche. It comes after the game on Saturday, which you were in the building and working for. A bit of a clunker, put it mildly against the Bruins. My question is this, and we asked it of Greg Wyshynski talking about the New Jersey Devils who have a similar problem.

How does a team have so many non-competitive clunkers? Wow. Wouldn't that be nice to know? Like it's it. And'm not i mean i wish i had a a real reason why that would be like when when gambling first started coming you know like into every game that we watch in the ads i I was telling somebody when I was playing, if you, if you would have called me, you know, everybody's looking for like the edge. How do I get a, you know, how do I get an inside? How do I know what's going to happen?

If you would have called me like after warmup and said, Hey, is your team ready to go on a random night? I'd say, yeah, the goalie was great and we were really sharp and yeah tonight's the night and then you'd go lose six one right right like like it's just sometimes like like it's so obvious the night is lousy and yet i don't really have an explanation other than the nights where they you know they're almost like a scheduled loss you're like okay this team's played nine games in 16 days on the road like they're you know one of these lousy games is coming but the crazy part about the you know like um vancouver this week

is they were awesome against florida they stunk against boston and they were awesome against Florida. They stunk against Boston and they were awesome against Colorado. Like how, why does that middle one happen? And, and the answer is, I, I don't know a couple. I think you have enough players that aren't, aren't playing at a level of consistency that takes away those clunkers like uh talk was talking about uh after the boston game like when guys don't have their a game where you know we have four or five guys that you know are not on a given night don't have their a game they don't even have their b game and they don't have heck they don't have a C plus game. So it goes like from where everybody like last night, could you pick a guy that didn't

play well last night? And then in Boston, could you have picked somebody that did? I know. Like, so there was no, there's no mid range. It's either really good or really bad. And that's where I think if we just look back to last year, there were a lot of nights where, you know, there was a portion of the game where they muddled through and they got some

good goal tending and then, and then they got it going in the second half of the game or they started great and kind of muddled in the end with the lead this year. It's like when it starts bad, it is bad. And I guess that lends itself to a wild inconsistency. I was laughing a bit during the game. I remember when the Canucks had the power play and it wasn't going really well for them.

And you were between the benches going, you guys got to start playing for this guy. And you were talking about Thatcher Dempka. You just start playing for them. I thought you were going about Thatcher Dempka. You just start playing for them. I thought you were going to actually jump onto the Canucks bench and start coaching them. But I know you're maintaining your neutrality there. That was frustration for sure watching the game.

Because, you know, here's a guy back in his second game and he had four breakaways the first game. And on that power play, the best chances were boston's like like at some point you know like it's got to jolt you back to attention and you know we'll see what the next week brings but you know um jim rutherford's uh you know hey we need a couple of players to be really competitive. You know, people hear that, right? Like the guys hear that.

They might not hear everything, but they hear that. They hear Rick Talkett saying publicly, we've got four or five players that aren't emotionally invested. And you know that that message has already been delivered privately. Or if it hadn't been privately delivered, it was the next day. And so like the, the response was critical for them last night. Like that was, I know it's mid December, but that was like a, that really kind of felt like an important game last night. So going forward as Canucks fans who are listening to this show um can we have expectations on a game-to-game basis or do we just go like well I wonder

what's going to happen tonight well I think you can have expectation but you know what comes out of the out of the tunnel seems to be different most nights i the one thing is they're going on the road for a couple and they've you know they've played and performed really really solidly on the road and so i i expect that they will play well um you know i i expect that you know, that it felt like, it said last night felt like an important game. It felt like, you know, sometimes you get a little tap from the coach, hey, we got to be better.

This felt like more. Yeah. And so, like, you know, like that's why I say it felt more important to me last night. Like this was pretty directly delivered the message from upper management to the coach to the players and i i just thought that was one of their one of their most complete games last night like they were you're going to give up chances and i know mckinnon hit the crossbar in the in the third period and you know demko made a couple of really good saves

those are going to happen every night but if you were to dial up and say i'd like that to be as close to a 60 minute game as we can i mean they had a grade a scoring chance eight seconds into the game and and it you know when it finished completely under control that was uh that was a really good game last night. It is kind of funny that in the Florida game, it was Max Sasson leading the charge offensively, and in the Colorado game, it was Kiefer Sherwood with the natural hat trick. I'm with you. I think everyone played well last night against Colorado, but it just goes to show you how important it is to get those

unexpected performances. Well, so let's go back to the, you know, to take a wider view of Kiefer Sherwood, because it's been an amazing first 30 plus games for him here. Like just amazing. He's got 11 goals, as we all know, but his energy of 185 hits or whatever he's got now, the consistency of effort from game to game. And then you go back to the summer, and on July 1st, when everybody said Nashville won the July 1st day, one player they didn't sign was Kiefer Sherwood because they were funneling their money towards the big signings

that they had, Stamco,, Marcheseau, and Shea. And for a million five, Vancouver hits it out of the park here. Like Vancouver had a firsthand knowledge of what a rock in your shoe Sherwood is in that playoff series. Like what a pain in the ass, right? Like just never goes away. And then he comes here and he plays the same way i've had a couple of chances to talk to him i'm really really quite impressed and he's in a hurry right like he's like

yeah i'm 29 years old i don't have time anymore to develop and to wait and he was like my time is now and so i i'm really impressed with like that the energy and the effort and the enthusiasm and the dedication he plays the game with like if you're looking for a player to play in your bottom six at 1.5 million dollars look around the league and tell me where are you finding something better than this he's been He's been a phenomenal signing for them. He's been outstanding. My follow-up question would be, how did so many teams either pass or straight up miss on the guy? Because you watch him play,

and he brings so many elements to the table that you like, and he has shown it in previous instances. Granted, the offensive stuff was mostly in the american league but was he just typecast as a certain kind of player in a certain kind of role and now he's got a different opportunity in vancouver well i think two things one that for sure that you know he the view might have been uh of him okay so he's he's a fourth-line player, maybe a third-line player. So, you know, you're looking at forwards 10 to 12, or at best they're thinking maybe he's forwards 9, 8 to 12, right?

Like not your seventh forward, not the guy that can go up and down in your lineup, but the guy that's in your bottom six for sure. And so that typecasts you a little bit the the next part is that teams have priorities on july 1st um some are the big fish right and some are a little different some some teams have different needs and so while vancouver was looking at jake de brosk they knew that they had to address that bottom part of their lineup as well and so maybe to to to sherwood and to the canucks this was more of a priority than he was getting elsewhere right like so you all of a

sudden you're like oh wait a minute. They really want me. They've communicated what my role might be to me. I'm comfortable putting my eggs in that basket. Because teams will reach out and then say, look, we're going to circle back to you tomorrow. Well, you're not a priority, so everybody can feel that. The second part is somebody makes you a priority in that 24 hours. You're gone. Like you're not waiting around here.

Like you're, you're, you're a player like Sherwood. You're not waiting until and pitching teams against each other for three or four days. Pretty soon all the chairs are filled and you got nowhere to go. Now you get this opportunity, you get faith from the coach and a role that opened up for you, and you just run through this door because this might be your best chance ever. Hey, it just struck me that Ray Ferraro is a very chantable name.

Like Kiefer Sherwood, Ray Ferraro. Did it ever happen, Ray? that would have been nice did it that doesn't even happen in my own house that would sound great maybe maybe we'll we'll you know we we have the power sometimes to get the fans chanting things so maybe you'll be between the benches that would be amazing wouldn't it be amazing though sitting on the bench and having the arena chant your name? Wouldn't that be awesome? It would go to my head real quick. They had the camera

on Sherwood for what felt like an hour yesterday when it was going on. You could tell that he was loving it, but he also didn't want he knew the camera was on him, so he was trying to keep it together and keep it cool, but he kept doing the side glance and you could tell the guys on the bench were like, hey, can you hear that? Of course, they were giving you hear that? Of course.

That was awesome. Of course they were giving it to him. Of course they were. Yeah. They should. It's so cool. That's amazing. The Utah Hockey Club.

The Canucks are going to be playing them on Wednesday. Have you worked any of their games this season? You worked the opener. I worked the very first one. Oh, that's right. Your crazy travel schedule? Was that the one? Yeah, that was it. With your crazy travel schedule? Was that the one? Okay.

Yeah, that was it. You know, what was amazing walking into that building was that, you know, so of course, Utah is the old Phoenix Coyotes. Before they were Arizona, they were Phoenix. And they played in a basketball building at America West Arena. And as soon as I walked into the building in Utah, I go, it's the same place. Yeah. And so now I don't know much about construction, but it seems like a lot that they're going to carve out the end of each of the arena this summer and change the bowl in one end.

And then next summer, they're going to do it at the other end. That seems like a big project to me, but that's what they're going to do it at the other end. That seems like a big project to me. But that's what they're going to do there. It's a very steep building. People hang right over top because of the shape of the bowl. Everything feels close. Like for the goalies, it'll take a little bit of like that morning skate that they're going to get.

That's going to be important because everything seems really close. It's not. The size of the rink's the same, but it feels like it's boxed in. That game that you worked, I believe if I'm not mistaken, Dylan Gunther scored a pair of goals that game. He hasn't really slowed down since. He's got 29 points through 30 games this year, 13 goals, 16 assists. What did you see from him?

I know everyone talks about the shot, right? It's the shot, the shot. He's got an ability. It's a great shot. Yeah, but he's got to have a lot more in his arsenal than that because he's a point-of-game guy through 30 games already. He is, you know, in the time that I've seen him, he's more sure with his, to carry the puck.

He's more sure or bold in his game. You know, he's not on the perimeter or the fringe. Like a lot of us started and you're never really sure where to be. So you're, if this makes any sense, you're kind of nowhere. You know, you're like a stride away here or, oh, I could have had a chance if I was a little quicker there. Right now he gets the puck and Utah skates. Like they're defensive suspect.

I mean, that's where you get to them. You forecheck them them you try and push them back uh and kill their exits because if they exit with speed they're dangerous and gunther is is one of those guys keller's another schmaltz is another like they get out and um uh cooley oh my gosh like that kid can fly yeah So if you don't forecheck, we're talking specific to Gunther, but it's more of them, they can really hurt you on the rush.

Has Barrett Hayton come along at all? He has. It's funny, when you get drafted there, there's an expectation that you're going to be this big point producer. And I don't know that that's going to be his game um i think he's more he's going to be like a a two or like more so a three for me like that's what i see now he could evolve into that number two center but i don't see him as a top of the lineup guy. His game doesn't seem to look like that yet.

But I guess if I were a young centerman, I'd keep looking at Dylan Strom and I'd go, yeah, guess what? That guy got waived by Chicago. He was scratched in Chicago. And now he's having an amazing year he's ov centerman um you know he's put together a couple of really good years sometimes and strom and hayton were drafted strom was drafted three hayton was drafted five i believe and so the expectation was immediate for those guys and it it took Strom a while. So maybe Hayton can get there.

Problem is, how long can you wait and money and term and all that stuff come into play, and it's really, it becomes a balancing act for those teams waiting for him. So for no reason at all this week, I did a little research on Dylan Cousins. No reason, I was just really curious in the player. What, and maybe this is just a question about what's going on with the Buffalo Sabres. You see all these Sabres that, you know, like Reinhardt is a great example, who wasn't a bad player

for Buffalo, but he's certainly taken his game to a new level in Florida. What is going on in Buffalo where you've got guys like Dylan Cousins and Owen Power who are not reaching their potential? They've showed signs in the NHL of being good players, but for whatever reason, they seem to be plateauing or even regressing. Well, look, I've never been a general manager before so maybe i'm talking out of my ear here but giving a bunch of 21 year old seven and eight year contracts seems absolutely crazy to me how do you know what they are like how would you possibly know don't tell me dylan cousins is a 31 goal scorer

because he scored at once he's not like that i just i'm baffled by what what happens in the in this league and what people think that watch like i scored 40 goals twice i'm not a 40 or i'm not anything anymore i was not a 40 goal score but i scored 40 goals twice like these are lightning bolt years where everything happens the right way every rebound falls on your stick every shot good or lousy goes into the net but that's not the norm i was a 27 goal score. So if teams thought that, like by average, I was 27. If teams thought they were getting a 40 goal score, they would be really disappointed.

Like they gave Owen Power a seven year extension. I don't think he'd even played a year and a half yet. They gave Samuelson a seven-year extension like seven years bill and cousins the same thing like did they think cousins was going to go from 31 to 38 goals i think bill and cousins is closer to a 22 goal scorer in my in my, he's like Trevor Linden, light. Like, Linden was a really good player. Remember him when he was young? Not older Trevor, but younger and rambunctious

and energy and check and matchup. I think that's what Cousins could be, and that's what he is. But to think he's a 30 goal scorer every year i i just i don't i think it's unfair to him and if you expect it you're going to be disappointed because i don't i think the game of cousins is good but i don't think it's a i don't think it's, A, I don't think it's mature yet. He looks frustrated. And when you lose all the time, and this is 14 years for the Sabres, like it just, it wears away at people. Like they don't have, when I look at the Sabres, I'm like, they're so young.

Who is going to lead them? Another young guy, right? Like it's really, really difficult for young teens to build up scar tissue without getting run over because now they're 07 and 03. Like it must feel like Groundhog Day to them. It has to. And I got news for you. When the owner shows up and comes in the locker room, that's not good.

That's not good for anybody there. So I guess just for the sake of argument, the counter argument to your point of why would you give these guys these big contracts out of their entry level is that if you bridge them for a couple of years and they keep playing well, it's going to be a lot more expensive to give them their long-term contract. So, you know, I don't think anyone in Vancouver is complaining that Quinn Hughes got a long-term contract out of his entry level contract. Now you've got this terrific player signed to a really,

really team friendly contract. Okay, but hang on, let me stop you right now i i'm going yes do it because i'm mostly on board with you by the way and by the way this is one of halford's pet peeves is paying these young players big long contracts out of their elcs i think it's not but if if you couldn't evaluate quinn h Quinn Hughes by the time his contract came up in a confident fashion that what he was going to be, and maybe he's taken it even past that, right? But I would have had no problem. There's no, each player is different.

To blanket extend players across your team, to me is madness because they're not all going to hit. And now you're stuck with seven years. What if one of those five guys that you bridge hits and it's going to be really costly? Well, the other four, you're saving all kinds of money on it it's a really hard league to be a star in and what i think has happened is teams have gotten to the point where they're like we're going to lock these guys up and worry about it later yep

i i think it's nuts i i just i think it's a flawed view you know who doesn't do this very much and I think of the teams that you can say okay which players fit their system is Carolina Carolina just doesn't do it they just don't and so they just extended Seth Jarvis

I think he signed for seven years They just don't. And so they just extended Seth Jarvis. I think he signed for seven years. I don't have any real question that Seth Jarvis is a really good player. I just don't. I've watched him enough. And I watch Buffalo a lot because my brother-in-law was coaching there. And so when they kept signing these guys, I'm like, what a gift to these players.

Like, are you kidding me? You're 22 years old and somebody says, I want to sign you to your 30 and give you $50 million. I could do that. Like, you box yourself in with those contracts. And one thing that I've, I've come to all these years of doing this is anytime you box yourselves in from a management perspective, you're really,

you have to eventually make a deal. You don't like you're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.