Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 12/2/24

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, plus they talk a pair of impressive OT road wins for the Canucks with NHL.com & In Goal Magazine's Kevin Woodley. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Whoa, wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose the f***ing Canucks? You're listening to Halford & Brough. Halford & Brough. He scores! Jake DeBrusque wins it with the hat-trick goal! This is f***ing nuts.

Leo Williams coming to your side! He's running like a racehorse! Holy smokes, are you kidding? Leo Williams is going to take it in for a touchdown! Seahawks! Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Alfred and his bro, Fitties Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes, Vancouver. 6.01 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It 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.

Adon, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alfred and bruv 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, more parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. While they pay 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. We've got a big show ahead on a Monday. We've got a lot to get into and we have three guests for your listening pleasure. It begins at 6.30 this morning. Adnan Virk from Amazon's NHL coverage. Amazon has one game tonight, but it is the premier game on the slate. It is Conor Bedard

and the Chicago Blackhawks in Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs. Talk to Adnan about that. Do a little baseball talk with Adnan as well. Juan Soto, will it be decided this week? Also, the Jays might be on Oscar Hernandez as well. We'll talk to Adnan about that at 6.30. 7 o'clock, Mike Tanier, our NFL insider

from the Two Deep Zones sub stack. Mike is going to join us. We will talk about the Seattle Seahawks wild, wild victory in New York over Aaron Rodgers and the Jets. Mike, a very savvy wagerer. He threw down on the Seahawks when

it was 21-13 Jets yesterday. He got him at a nice price on the money line. He should have thrown down when it was 21-7 and Aaron Rodgers had them at the nine-yard line of Seattle. That would have been a smart bet then. So Mike Tannier is going to join us at 7 o'clock to talk all things NFL. 8 o'clock, Kevin Woodley, NHL.com, and Goal Magazine is going to join us

as we look back on a terrific weekend for the Vancouver Canucks on the road. As Laddie had in the intro, not one but two overtime victories for your Vancouver Canucks on Friday and Sunday. So working in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock, Woodley, 7 o'clock, Tanier, 6.30, Virk. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I'm moving. 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 is not very often that Bruff and I get to come in here on a Monday and discuss a pair of Canucks victories. It is even less often that we get to come in here and discuss a pair of Canucks overtime wins, but that's exactly what we get to do. Thanks to some heroics from Connor Garland and Jake DeBrusque over the weekend, the Canucks improved to a remarkable 10-2-0

on the road this season. 4-3 win in Buffalo on Friday, 5-4 win in Detroit on Sunday. I almost want to listen to the goals again. Can we play the goals again, guys? Can we do it? Can we play both OT winners? Let's start with Connor Garland.

I don't even know how to describe what he did. It was kind of a... It was an air guitar goal. He choked up on the bat. He choked up. It looked like he was playing air guitar. He looked like Angus Young of ACDC. What an interesting reference, Jason.

Overtime. Yeah. We'll have something about ACDC coming up in a little bit. That's a tease. It's a big week for the Halford & Brough show if you're an ACDC fan. Here's Connor Garland doing his best impression of Angus Young against the Buffalo Sabres. Cutting down the right wing. T trying to make a move to the slot,

tied up by Quinn. Hughes keeps the puck, left wing to the goal, low shot back to Garland, scores! Connor Garland with his second of the game, wins it for the Canucks! 359 into overtime, and Vancouver wins 4-3 in Buffalo. Not to be outdone, the Canucks get back in action early Sunday morning.

Everyone made mention of the early Sunday morning start. The broadcast, the players, Jake Dabrowski was all confused in his interview with Murph between periods. And then there was Jake Dabrowski in overtime completing the hat trick. 5-4 win over the Wings on Sunday morning. Here's what it sounded like. Hughes, left wing to center for Patterson. One-on-one with Sider to the Red Wings line.

Makes a move, high slot. Drops left circle. DeBrusque shoots. He scores! Jake DeBrusque wins it with the hat trick goal! A wrister from the top of the left circle beats Philly Husso. And the Canucks win their fourth of the road trip. It's Jake DeBrus' second career hat trick, and it's 5-4 Vancouver.

So look, I know Buffalo and Detroit are not among the NHL's elite, but those were two gutsy wins by the Canucks regardless. This is a team that's been through a lot in the last few weeks. They're missing some really key players, and they're still finding ways to win. You know, I liked what Tockett said afterwards. We don't necessarily have to play the audio, but he said, look, we're a scrappy team.

Scrappy. And that's what they showed, and it's funny. You know, we were saying with all the issues that they've been forced to deal with and the latest big blow being Philip Hronik hurt for a while, they were just going to have to scrap and claw their way and maybe find a few ways to get games to overtime and then see what happens. And that's exactly what they did against Buffalo and Detroit. And the fact they were able to win those games in overtime was kind of a nice bonus.

There are so many players that we could go through and talk about in a positive way. And I think it probably starts, I mean, it's hard to say who it starts with, but let's start with the captain. It's a good place to start, Jason. Quinn Hughes, because he is now the Canucks record holder, franchise record holder for assists by a defenseman. And more importantly, because we all knew he was going to break that mark.

I mean, the fact he did it so fast was incredible. But more importantly, this is what great players do. This is what captains do. When the team is going through a lot, they step up. They play even better. You can rely on them. You can lean on them. And when you ask them about their accomplishments you know what they do

credit their teammates and that's what Quinn Hughes does and yeah it's easy and anyone can do it right first question you get asked about yourself don't talk about yourself talk about the great teammates that that you play with and that's what Quinn Hughes does and he did after the game on uh he's a really he's a really humble leader he's the perfect type of leader frankly because he is very talented he is driven he shows up when you need him but he's also humble enough to not get a big head. He prides himself on being even keel. He says it all the time. I try not to let the highs get too high, which I think is important because there's a lot of highs for this particular

player. And he tries not to let the lows get too low. So when you see them come off the ice after one of the many blowouts that they've suffered this year, and they have suffered them this year, it's great to have a captain and a spokesman and a leader that you can go to that's not going to show frustration or show that he's down or any of that stuff.

So here's Quinn Hughes, Laddie, talking about how he's proud of the team for fighting through everything that it's been through. We get a lot of fight and a lot of resilience and really proud of the group with not just the injuries we've had but everything that's gone on this year and how we're finding ways to win games and our compete level and our will to win is just really high right now. One of the guys that's helping is a new addition that got off to a bit of a slow start with the team and people were wondering god is this is this

the right move bringing in this guy? And we'd heard the scouting report, so this guy's a streaky scorer. He'll go weeks without scoring, and then as soon as he does start scoring, they just go in. I don't think I've ever heard a more accurate scouting report than the one we got for Jake DeBrus because he went goalless in his first nine games with the Canucks after signing a big contract with them in July. Now five games, IMAC points this out in his article on DeBrusque, five games into the Canucks six game road trip. DeBrusque has scored seven times.

His 10 goals have come in the Canucks' last eight road games. And I love the way he scored his three goals. It was a hat trick in Detroit. The first two came on the power play early in the second period. The Canucks had started the game quite slowly and they finished it

down 1-0 to Detroit. But Detroit had given them a 5-on-3 advantage to start the second period. They scored not once, but twice, and both times it was Jake DeBrus just going to the net and parking himself in front of

the net. The first one, he tipped home a Pedersen pass. Nice play by the Canucks. Nice goal. The second one, he just found a loose puck. He's such a big body body and he's got good hands that he was easily able to find the loose puck and put it into the back of the net. And the overtime goal,

a different goal, still nice though. He takes a puck and it wasn't... I mean, five on five, you're like, that's a good shooting position. Three on three, it was kind of like, yeah, well, I hope this one goes in. And then you heard the clank of the post as he went posting in.

You're like, oh, my God, the Canucks have done it again. Take that, Billy Husserl. They scored another goal in overtime. And then I kind of realized, I was like, wow, this team has been through so much. And they've still got a ways to go before they're out of the woods in terms of what they're dealing with but the news that they were going to lose philip i was like man this is going to be tough this is going to be real tough and then they went in detroit and it's like they're four on one on this road trip. Their only loss was the one in Pittsburgh,

which was not a pretty loss, but they beat Ottawa. They found a way to win in Boston. They beat Buffalo and say what you will about the Sabres, but the Sabres have been playing better hockey. And then they went into Detroit, weird start time, not the prettiest game. They didn't get off to a great start themselves. But again, you find ways to win, and they did.

Yeah, you find ways to win. And with this team, it's the strength of their forward group. I keep coming back to it. They didn't play tremendous hockey in Buffalo or Detroit. There was a lot of warts on it. Rick Takis said he really didn't like the first period in Detroit on Sunday. They conceded a lot of goals in those two games. There were seven goals against in the two games.

It wasn't a defensive lockdown. But what's the strength of this team? They can rely on a bunch of different guys to score goals. And in the case of DeBrusque, we're getting the full DeBrusque experience right now, by the way. I remember in the offseason when they signed him, I talked to a couple different people in Boston. They're like, you will love him for eight to ten game stretches,

and then you will absolutely wonder what the hell is going on with him for eight to ten game stretches. Yeah, and he went through some rough times with not only the coaching staff in Boston, but I think the fans were kind of like, what's going on with this guy? He's so streaky. Some goal scorers are streaky, but, you know, I don't know. He's consistently inconsistent.

Yeah, consistently inconsistent. So he went the first nine games without scoring a goal. You're like, ah, this is a problem. And then the California trip, remember that one? He goal in each game, three goals in three games. So there's your little mini streak. Then he goes cold again, goes six games in a row without a goal. Then what happens happens he gets absolutely

on fire especially on the road and he's got seven in his last whatever it is five games like this is the full Nebraska experience it's hilarious I'm scrolling through social media yesterday and a lot of these accounts these sort of like content aggregator accounts that don't really pay attention to the game to game or the minute to minute like we do they're like what a great signing for the Vancouver Canucks. He's the team leader in goals a quarter of the way through the season. And I'm like, that's true, but it's not the narrative. It's not the whole story.

Yeah, so you're getting the full Dabrowski experience, though, for sure. I guess we should turn our attention now to that goalie, Kevin Blankinen, Kevin Lankinen. Kevin, they should be thanking him. We got a text in already saying it was on us in a bad way. Negative. Boo to the Halford and Brough show for not starting

and not leading with Lankanen and leading with Hughes. And to that person I say feedback is great. Kevin Lankanen now 10-0-0 on the road this season. The now all-time NHL record holder for road victory streak to start the

season surpassing Glenn Hall and the guy he played against briefly on Sunday and that for the Detroit Red Wings Cam Talbot his road numbers are amazing he's got a 931 save percentage of course the 10-0 and 0 record um I think you know again you look at the two games in Buffalo and Detroit, and you're saying, probably not great on the old goals against. His save percentage wasn't through the roof or anything, but he made saves. He found a way to win. And then more importantly, the guys in front of him found the offense

so that that goaltending performance was good enough. And it should be because the guy has been, you want to talk about just great either unsung heroes or guys playing on value contracts or guys stepping up when they need to. Lankanen is right at the top of that list of guys that are stepping up in a major way and keeping this team in the position that they are in the standings. He is the first goalie in NHL history to start a season 10-0-0 on the road.

I don't think he's the Canucks' unsung hero because we've been talking a lot about him, and everyone around the league knows that this guy has been a great signing for the Canucks and you know we have a lot of conversations about Kevin Lankan and one because he's done such an incredible job and we think god where would the Canucks be if they had not signed this guy they could be in serious trouble if they had not signed this guy. They could be in serious trouble if they had not signed this guy. And we also talk about him because he's a pending UFA. We're like, oh God, are the Canucks going to be able to keep him?

Yep. And it won't be cheap. But we might be talking about him more this week because I fully expect him to be named to Finland's Four Nations team. Yes. On Wednesday. And he might even be the guy that gets the games for them.

I mean, I know it's going to be tough to beat out the likes of Ukepeka Lukonen and I guess UC Saros is going to be the guy. But has Lankanen been better than Saros this year? Statistically, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a pretty clear cut. That's a conversation that the Finnish team is going to have to have.

I said earlier, like, I don't think he's the unsung hero. You know who is, though? And look, we talk about all the Canucks, so it's sometimes hard to come up with an unsung hero. But for me, the lock for unsung hero is Pew Suter. That's a good one. Because we talk about him, but not a ton. He has nine goals.

Nine goals for Pew Suter. One of the best bargains in the NHL, not only that, when JT Miller went out of the lineup, when he left on a personal leave, Suter became their 2C. Pedersen, the 1C. Suter's the 2C. And he's done a terrific job. I think this guy's versatility doesn't get appreciated enough, he can play anywhere in the lineup among the forwards. Yep.

Anywhere. And he has. He's been a center in the top six. He's been a center in the bottom six. He's been a winger in the top six. Remember, he played well with Besser and Miller last year at times. You can just plug him anywhere because he's so smart. And that's the thing.

It's hockey IQ for him because do you remember that time when we were talking about Suter and the players had all the quotes? The players were like, he's not the fastest guy. And then Taka was like, oh, he's not the fastest guy. So yeah, he's not the fastest guy, but this guy is really smart. And when he gets opportunities, he can rip it. He can finish. He does have good-

Very good hockey player. And he's going to be another guy that will be sitting there going, well, are the Canucks going to be able to keep this guy? Another guy that's performing on a very, very affordable contract right now. Yeah, and he is not going to be cheap to resign. So I guess, in other words, appreciate him while you got him. He's a pretty good player. A couple other guys that I wanted to shout out after the weekend,

Elias Pettersson, I don't know if he's back fully, 100%, but the guy is producing and he's finding ways to contribute whether it's assists or goals and I know everyone including myself is still, you know, like when the Canucks are on the power play it's like, come on, shoot.

At least look, pretend like you're going to shoot at least. Fake it. You know, fake it. You still don't have to but, you know, it would be nice if you did. But he's producing, and Sat noted on social media, he's like,

his three-point game against Detroit gives him 16 points in his last 11 games. 16 points in 11 games. 12 points in his last eight games. And I think there's still more to give from Pedersen. I think it's pretty clear now that Petey didn't come into camp in the type of shape that the Canucks wanted him to.

Now, was his off-season training affected by the tendinitis that he had in his knee? Maybe, maybe not. Who cares? He just needs to play himself back into shape, get stronger out there, and next offseason, hopefully the tendonitis isn't an issue,

and hopefully he really leans into getting in shape because I think it's pretty clear that his burst hasn't been there this season. There was times, way too many times, that he would get pushed off the puck or pushed down. And he's probably not going to be a guy that's always going to stay on his feet anyway. But I think he's gradually, he looks to be gradually getting stronger out there. And he's winning more battles.

He's more engaged. And the points are starting to come as a result of that. You know what else is gradually coming along is his chemistry with Jake DeBrusque. That's the one thing that I think has to be really, really like galvanizing for the team is that it didn't get off to a great start. Remember, there was the start where DeBrusque and Petey were lined up like everyone thought they were going to be.

And then the line blunder came out, the juggling began, and some of it was out of necessity because of other parts of the lineup missing. But right now, and Besser was up on that line on Sunday, that is maybe the most optimistic sign that DeBrusque has gotten going, so too is Petey, and you

could make the argument that it's because of the chemistry that they've kind of developed and the ability for them to click, because that is going to be huge for this team. Well, scoring on the power play, too. The Canucks need to be a good special teams team. And we've all looked at the talent that they've gotten on the power play.

And even with a guy like JT Miller out, there's enough talent out there to be a good power play. And man, that was, I know it wasn't the game because there were still goals to come. But when the Canucks scored those two goals at the beginning of the second period, I mean, that was, that was a, that was terrific just because Detroit had

really quite badly outplayed the Canucks in the first period. It was a sleepy start for the Canucks and, and a good one for Detroit. And then within a matter of minutes, the whole game switched because the Canucks were able to take advantage of it. And Jake DeBrusque was a big reason why, scoring both those goals.

But Pedersen as well made the nice pass on DeBrusque first. So a few other guys I wanted to shout out before we get to one house of negativity. Eric Brandstrom scored a big goal. Yep. That was massive assist to Pedersen. Great play by Pedersen. Sends the game into overtime, and you find a way to get at least one point. Big goal. Huge. Noah Juleson, he's taken a lot of heat. All the Canucks defensemen except for Quinn Hughes have taken a lot of heat and he had a big block. I think it was in the second period. Yeah, that probably saved a goal.

And, you know, he's not the perfect defenseman. He's going to make mistakes, but he's courageous and he's willing to sacrifice his body. And sometimes that's all you can ask of these guys. So when talk is like we're a scrappy team and we're on Friday talking about, well, Heronics out, what's the response going is like we're a scrappy team and we're on Friday talking about, well, her onyx out.

What's the response going to be? Sometimes it has to be like, I'm going to lay it on the line for a early season game that starts at nine 30 in the morning in Detroit. Like that, you know what I mean? Like those are the type of moments that your team sort of develops an identity.

Like it's, it's great when everyone's healthy and you're rolling and everything looks fantastic it's a lot different when you are relying on Noah Juleson who by all accounts should be your eighth or ninth defenseman in the depth chart and you're counting on him not just to be in the lineup but to make big pivotal plays in a game where you got to fight tooth and nail with a team that hasn't been in the playoffs for whatever it is, seven or eight years, right? Like those kind of moments matter because at times, like all the cliches are true. It's not going to be pretty. You got to grind out a victory. You got to find a way to win. But it's also because of everything that's

happened to this team in terms of guys out of the lineup. There are other NHL teams that would have been sunk if their Vezna Caliber goalie was out, that one of their best offensive forwards was out, and one of their best defensemen was out. They would be dead in the water. They would not be able to survive it, and they'd be losing games with regularity. Because the Canucks have been able to have these moments,

like is Jewelson a perfect defenseman? Far from it. Was he huge on Sunday? Yeah. And they're going to give him a pat on the back and they're going to say, you helped us get through this really tough time. Now, do the host negativity.

Well, we're not going to have time because we got to get to Adnan, but we will pick up this conversation after we speak for maybe 10 minutes with Adnan Virk on the other side because I do want to talk about Nils Hoeglander because the trade talk is heating up. You know,

you hear Pittsburgh or you hear Minnesota for Nils Hoeglander. I think Freedj on, I don't know if the 32 thoughts is the podcast is, is published yet, but I think Freedj is going to talk about the possibility of Nils Hoeglander to the Pittsburgh Penguins. And he had a rough, rough game in Detroit. And, you know, if the Canucks don't actually

have any extra forwards on this trip, they've got Mark Friedman on the trip, and I suppose he could play for it, but that wouldn't be ideal. But I was watching that game, and when Hoeglander took another penalty, offensive zone penalty, and then there was a Detroit goal where his back check was, what's a

nice way to put it, less than enthusiastic. That's a good way of putting it. I wondered if, I actually wondered, or like, am I watching Hoaglander play his last game for the Canucks? That's how bad it got, and that's how much the trade chatter has picked up around Nils Hoaglander.

So we'll talk about that, and we'll read some of your text into the Dunbar-Lumber text line at 650-650. We'll look at the week ahead for the Canucks because it's a pretty big one, and hopefully the Canucks will get some big players back to the lineup, possibly on Friday when they return home. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. 804 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody.

Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in 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 an hour three of the program. Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and Ingle Magazine is going to join us in just a moment here. For those asking, this is the Kevin Woodley song.

He does not yet have a jingle, but he does in fact have a song. It's titled Woody Woo. There you go. I had to go with it. We are in hour three of the program. Woodley's going to join us in just a second here. He won't have a jingle. Okay. He has too many syllables in his last name. And frankly, we just don't like him. No jingle. We good?

Can I do the thing? You guys good? Yes. Okay. Hour three of this program is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. 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, Orfi, what are you waiting for?

Kintec. I only bring it up is because I was at the store on Saturday and a longtime listener came up and introduced himself and he said i love the show thanks for all that you guys do love the content and everything and i was like well thanks man i really appreciate that then there was a pause and he said andy interrupts a lot excuse me excuse me not wrong he's not wrong. Tell A-Dog to shut up. It's just a lot. And I was like, I know.

I hear it. Anyway, to the phone line. You should try working with him. Look at him. He wants to say something so bad. Oh, he's so hurt. He's pouting. I'm being a professional right now.

I'm not saying anything. You did. You just interrupted again. God. That listener was right. Poor A-Dog. He's doing everything in his power. I'm just kidding.

You don't interrupt too much. Just enough. Just enough. The awkward pauses, the dramatic pauses. Come back to us, buddy. Come back to us. Say something funny, Andy. You'll be all right.

I'm good. I'm good. Hey, quiet down. We've got to get to Whip. His eyes are all watery. Everything's going to be fine. Okay, let's go to the phone lines. Who's the listener?

I knew it was coming, and it was still funny. He set it up from a mile away, and he still nailed it. To the phone lines we go. Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and Ingle Magazine here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet. 650, what up, Woods? Not much. I'm just glad we're making Andy sad because I was a bit hurt at Greg's comment.

So I'm glad we've transferred the pain over to Andy now. Well, you have too many syllables, Woods. I don't know what to tell you, man. It's just hard to write a jingle around Woodley. I mean, you guys are creative people. I keep hearing about how talented you guys are. It's four syllables. I just need one syllable less and I can do it. I did one for

Dollywall. That's true. Yeah, I believe that's more syllables. What an excuse. I just tell you, Andy, that my nickname's Woody, but I'm scared by where that will go. Well, yeah, that's the thing. I have a couple ideas, but they're not appropriate. They're percolating right now. Okay, Kev, let's get down to the business at

hand. Tell me a little bit about Archer's Sea Loves. We were discussing what we wanted to get down to the business at hand. Tell me a little bit about Archer's Seelovs. We were discussing what we wanted to discuss prior to the show, and you said you can get into Seelov's specific struggles, and what's next for him? Go. Well, I mean, what's next for him is the American Hockey

League, right? I think that writing's been on the wall for a while. I do think that, and we saw it again yesterday in Detroit, as full value as they were for the win, given how depleted they are with the injuries and the absences, the starts have been a problem. And giving up 10 high-danger chances

and more than four expected goals to the Detroit Red Wings is not good. Giving up half those high danger chances in the first period and early in the first period is even more problematic. And I think those starts sort of exacerbate one of the problems that Artur's has had. And it's problems maybe even a bit critical, but it's just part of the adjustment, especially when you're going through a season where it's not going how you wanted and you're not playing that often, and that's the beginning of games. And their poor starts as a team, especially defensively,

because that part of their identity they haven't fully gotten to, even with the injuries, you'd expect them to dig down on that. They have it in some games, and then you get one like yesterday. He tends to be overactive early in games. And we've seen it even in the two games he had that were relatively strong, the Rangers game and then the win that he followed that up with, a little overactive in the first period. And that's why I found Tokic's criticism, well, not wrong overall,

based on Silov's performance um a little off the mark in terms of when he talked about him playing deep in the net because the problem even in that game on three of the five goals was over aggression and we see that early in games that little bit of jitters nerves whatever it is it manifests itself in our turd game with a little overactivity a little extra depth pushing himself out of the net on a shot that's going wide and therefore not giving himself a chance when that puck caroms off the end boards to the other side and there's an unchecked forward so you know i think that's i mean it's mental it's understandable and it's probably something that only gets better

with a chance to play through it and sort of get comfortable again because clearly he's not as comfortable this season as he was at the end of last. You used the word exacerbated there. How much of Seeloff's struggles have been exacerbated by the fact that Lankanen has played so well when Seeloff's isn't in net? Well, I mean, also his expected save percentage, Seeloffs,

is considerably lower than Lankanen's. It's, you know, like 13 points lower. So he's had a tougher environment. They haven't played as well in front of him. Frankly, they haven't played as great in front of him. Frankly, they haven't played as great in front of either goalie on the whole. It's not terrible. It's just not to the level it was last year. They're still top 10 in five-on-five high-danger expected goals against, which is a critical metric, but they were third last year. That was why I was so bullish on them in the

playoffs. There's still a step to come there, especially cleaning up things around the front of their net, something we've talked about where they're quite a bit further down the rankings. So yeah, perception for sure. But I think also, along with that perception, has been the team's reluctance for long stretches to go to him, especially early in the year. He gets two of the first three and then sits. And that probably didn't help the problem I just talked about. Probably didn't help the confidence. And interestingly enough, it also hurt Kevin Lankanen's numbers because as the starts piled up for him after an incredible start to the season, they've dipped since.

So we can see what he's doing for this team. We can see the confidence they have in him. We can see how Kevin Lankanen, especially early. Like last night's the perfect example, or yesterday morning is the perfect example bailing them out early allowing them to sort of get their feet under them before the game's blown open whereas our tours can't do that in his last start and they're down 4-1 early so um as much as we see that value in lincoln and the reality is the numbers of dip like his adjusted save percentage after being near the top of the league before they went on that run of playing him what was 11 of 12 um he was around the top of the league by the end of that run he's down around 28

so again like not to take away from what he's doing it's still remarkable but as they've over played him and lost our tours a little bit um his numbers have dipped as well. And that's, I mean, understandable because you're not worried about playing them 60 games. Thatcher's coming back and that workload will level off and you're trying to get as many wins as you can while the team's not playing well, missing key players. And so I understand all that. But that's also the reality of what it does for Seelovs or to Seelovs

and what it's done to Lankanen's numbers as well by sort of allowing that mix to go swing's done to Lankanen's numbers as well by sort of allowing that mix to swing so wide in Lankanen's favor. Speaking of Lankanen, are you expecting him to be named to Finland's Four Nations face-off team when the rosters get announced later this week? I'm assuming that it's going to go

Saros, Lankanen, and Ukko Pekkalukkanen in no particular order. I guess that means a guy like Yunus Korpisalo is on the outside looking in. Follow-up question. Do you think Lankanen might actually get some minutes at this tournament? The follow-up's a good one.

I think you just wanted to say Ukopekalukkonen. I did. I think he'd probably be number two on that depth chart, and Saros and Lankanen, former teammates, would be one and three. So I'm not sure if Lankanen gets any starts based on that. I'm going to be perfectly honest with you. I haven't even looked at the format in terms of how many round-robin games

they played and how much they'll matter, and in terms of the schedule. My expectation is that every game that matters, UC Saros is in net. And that's based on just how good he has been historically, but also how good UC Soros has been this season. Like he's six in the NHL and adjusted, say percentage right now. And I know it might be hard to see that because the raw numbers aren't where we're used to seeing them,

but the national predators defending isn't either. UC Soros has been really, really good. And so any game that matters, it'll be him in net. Yeah. There's, there's no back-to-backs. So the round robin. I kind of assume that.

Yeah, yeah. So Finland, for example, plays on February 13th, the 15th, and the 17th. So I imagine that. You don't have any, like there's no minnows, right? Like he's not, with all due respect, like they're not playing Latvia or, you you know I mean like it's every game is going to be a big game so I think the starters are probably going to get the majority of them unless you have questions about a starter's performance right there's

probably no need to mix in another guy so in terms of Canucks Quinn Hughes has already been named to the U.S. roster we expect Pedersen to be named to Sweden and we expect Lankanen to be named to Finland the American roster though still has some decisions to make in terms of the Canucks like I don't think and maybe we can talk about Demko and you know what it's going to be like for him when he returns which could be Friday I don't maybe he'll get picked and then I would say maybe also for Besser and Miller because Besser might just be on the bubble like not good enough to make the team and Miller we just don't know what his story is going to be we don't know when he's going to be back for the Canucks he's on on an indefinite leave. So how do you think that's going to play out?

Well, I mean, I'm with you on not knowing about Miller and Besser. Like, I would say that as much talent as the U.S. has up front, trying to think of who their net front presence is going to be and is there a specific role that Besser might be able to fill. And as I say that, the irony is, after being one of the top five net presence power play guys in the entire league last year, just based on the amount of pucks that went in strictly because of the screens he set,

Besser isn't even being used in that capacity by the Canucks right now on the power play. So maybe that's not enough to get him on that team. As for Demko, I don't know. But I would. I would absolutely name him. You saw the clips, heard him talk at UBC. There's a real positivity. And I know that it's hard to ignore how long he's been out, but Hellebuck's on the team. Jake Ottinger's having a really good season after a really down

season statistically last year. I'm assuming he's on the team. Jeremy Swayman hasn't found his footing. And if you're the Americans, we know how good he can be and has been throughout his NHL career. And maybe they're worried that Thatcher Demko has a similarly slow start after missing even more time. But the one thing about picking Demko is you probably buy yourself the opportunity to choose later.

No, because he's injured because there'll be questions about like he could, like, I just think when he's at the peak of his powers and given that you've got two other great options, like to me, Demko's high highest, his ceiling is as high as anyone on that list.

Just as I thought he was about to push Hellebuck for the Vezina last year before the initial knee injury. I think he's one of the few guys that are capable of challenging at that level for the Americans. And so why wouldn't you pick that guy knowing that maybe if things don't go well when he comes back, or if he just doesn't feel like he wants to add hockey, more hockey at the four nations cup, especially if he just doesn't feel like he wants to add hockey,

more hockey at the Four Nations Cup, especially if he's not necessarily going to be starting. I just think it leaves a door open for alternatives. And his ceiling is just so, so high that I would pick him if I was the Americans. But I can't speak to which way they're going to go on this. The Canucks are playing in Minnesota tomorrow. Tell us about the season that Philip Gustafson is having for them. It's the season he had two years ago, where he was one of the best goaltenders in the NHL. He's right back up there.

Plus two and a half expected save percentage, which is fourth in the NHL, third among starters, just behind Anthony Stolerson, ahead of some guy named Igor Shesterikin. Like, he is having a year. Third in goals saved above expected at 12, just behind Saros and Shesterikin. And

it's early, but the flip-flop kind of reminds me, like, to go from this incredible year to a really poor season last year, and then bounce back like this, and it's not like... Like, the Wild wild are clearly a good team right now. They're playing better than a lot of people probably expected them to this year. His expected say percentage, the environment is like 10 points higher,

but it wasn't terrible last year. And he just cratered the only comparison I have. And it'll be really interesting to see which way he goes next season. Maybe this is just part of the growth or like Craig Anderson used to do this with the Ottawa senators. He would literally flip flop from Vesna candidate to below league average from one season to the next. It was the hardest thing to figure out and explain. And Gustafson has more of a technical foundation,

whereas Anderson was, I mean, Andy was one of the elite play readers in the game and relied on that. So inevitably there's going to be more elements of timing and feel, but this bounce back or to go back and forth in three straight seasons from unbelievable to yikes to unbelievable again, I don't have an explanation for it. It's one of those ones that has everyone saying goalies are voodoo. And I can't argue in this case. At the end of the day, though, he's been fantastic

this year for them. And I'm fascinated to see where it goes next year. I have been told that Gustafson may have a reputation of being, how do I put this? Not exactly a gym rat. Can you confirm or deny? It may have maybe related to me watching him throw up after a morning skate here in Vancouver one time on the bench. Whatever do you mean? On the bench. And then he may have been ill, but I was just disappointed because I was really looking forward to a conversation about his path to here. And obviously he wasn't looking forward to talking to me after losing his breakfast after a tough morning skate.

He wasn't playing that night, obviously. So they put him through the ringer pretty good. But yeah, certainly that is something that's been talked about. Maybe this is part of the maturity and process. I know he put a lot of focus into it last year. Maybe he put too much focus into fitness last year after the first great season because that was one of the talking points. And it negatively affected his game.

Like, that's part of the, I don't believe in the goalies are a video thing, but that's part of the conversations about why there's so much volatility in this position. What works for one guy just doesn't necessarily work for the next. And so I don't have the answer on why, but certainly it was a question I raised after that first season and after the down season last year, because we had seen signs that, you know, maybe it wasn't a strength.

And there are a lot of, like, this guy's going to be on Sweden's roster. Yeah. With Jacob Markstrom and Linus Hallmark, I fully expect that. And he's obviously a really good talent. I know in Ottawa, the coach and the goalie coach disagreed. The coach wanted him gone. The goalie coach kept him around. Then the coach got the goalie coach fired,

and they got rid of Philip Gustafson. I'd say three years later, the goalie coach was right. So I know he believed, Pierre Grou, believed very much in the talent of this guy, and he's being proven correct right now. Let's finish with Canada and what they're going to do in net for the Four Nations. Do we have to? We have to. It seems pretty clear that it's going to be Jordan Binnington and Aiden Hill

is the one-two, depending on however they want to flip that, which means the three spot is up for grabs. I believe Elliott shot down the notion that another former Senators goalie, Joey Dacor, could play for Canada. He doesn't have a passport. He doesn't have a Canadian passport. Right, so that's a problem.

So what are you hearing on number three for Canada? Well, I mean, all I can sort of confirm is that I'm hearing the same on the first one and two. As a matter of fact, I think I might have been on our airwaves here in Vancouver, one of the first to sort of stay clearly that my information, not my analysis, but my information was that it would be Bennington and Hill as one and two. After a slow start, Bennington has come around since the coaching change and Aiden Hill has been really good for

a while. You know, we talked about how good Kevin Lankin has been. Aiden Hill has actually passed him on an adjusted save percentage perspective over the past couple of weeks. So he's on a heater and showing why they have him in consideration. Bennington's having a down year, although, like I said, he's bounced back lately. But but the reality is going back when I look back at the numbers back to 2001-2022 seasons or 21-22 season he's top 10 since then in adjusted save percentage so they're looking at a larger sample there rather than just a bit of a down season this year beyond that I know Logan Thompson's name keeps coming up but I'm not expecting him to get picked just based on the fact there's two former Vegas coaches there that, you know, by some accounts,

maybe didn't have, you know, a great experience, but they didn't go to him when they had opportunities to go to him, even when he was playing well for long stretches in Vegas. So that makes me a little hesitant there. Cam Talbot leaves the game yesterday. He was having numbers that you could have made an argument for. There's a lot of other guys in that mix. Jake Allen's having a really good season, brings a veteran presence. And what you know about him is he's not going to give a bad goal if that's all you need. Consistent, steady veteran who won't hurt you. I know the idea of Marc-Andre Fleury was kicked around by the goaltending group and put forth as a good idea by some, but I don't believe that went anywhere, maybe again because of the Vegas connections.

The guy I would look at personally, and it's hard to see his numbers behind a bad team in San Jose, but I think there's upside there. He's a guy that still has that potential and upside even as he's gotten older and not had many chances to realize it behind bad teams but mckenzie blackwood has all the skill all the size all the tools in the world um to be a guy that you know you get him some experience this time put him around some of those other guys and in that environment because you might need him come olympics a season from now uh real quick sorry um sweden who get who would you give the nod to i know we talked about gufson because you might need him come Olympics a season from now. Real quick, sorry.

Sweden, who would you give the nod to? I know we talked about Gustafsson at length, but Mark is having a year as well. Who would be the starter, I guess, going into that? Probably between those two. I mean, all Mark's got is Veznan. We know what he's capable of, but it hasn't been a great start now in Ottawa, obviously.

Although I expect the Swedes to play with a little more structure. And you know what? To be honest, this kind of goes to the conversation that I think Canada should be having, and I honestly don't know if they are, that whoever they pick, there is a horses for courses element to this. And certain guys have strengths and weaknesses that will

fit or not fit certain types of defending like what are we taking away and what are we giving up if you're the americans with all that skill and speed you have uh from an attacking perspective are you at all interested in trying to open up the game and trade chances. Right. And if so, this goes back to the Demko conversation. Do you have any second thoughts about Connor Hellebuck, who is one of the best goalies in the world, if not the best, has two Vezina trophies in his pocket, and yet come playoff time, when teams really go east-west on him, has struggled relatively to that regular season success.

So Aiden Hill, as good as he was for Vegas, they gave up a ton of high-danger chances all in tight where his size was a strength. If Canada picks him, they can't give up the middle of the ice higher in the zone and lateral plays across the top. And so I think those decisions for teams that have multiple options, like Sweden with Markstrom and Gustafsson and Allmark, I think you have to look at strengths and weaknesses of the goaltender specific to how you want to play

and how you think you're going to be able to play. And to be honest, I'm not sure what this tournament's going to be like. I suspect that everybody is going to go all out and defend hard and get in lanes and block shots. And yet it's not the Olympics. It's not even a world championship. It's best on best, but without some of the best countries. It's at a time of year when we're normally playing an all-star game, where the skills required to survive as a goaltender are very different from playoff-style hockey.

So I think how the teams intend to play and what kind of expectations they have for how the guys are going to defend in front of their goalies, even when you have choices among several great goalies, knowing how they fare against certain types of plays and chances, you know, is it the difference maker in a decision? If one guy's clearly better than the other, maybe not. If a guy's on a heater and another guy maybe slows down heading in, maybe not. But I think it's got to be a factor,

and I think the smart teams will make it part of the discussion. Kev, great stuff, bud. As always, thanks for taking the time to do this. Enjoy the rest of the week and all the games this week. We'll do this again not Monday, but the Monday following. Perfect. Thanks, guys. Thank you, Kev. Kevin Woodley on Sportsnet 650.

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