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

Episode Date: December 24, 2024

Josh Elliott-Wolfe and Thomas Drance are joined by Frank Seravalli to talk Canucks. The season to date, Quinn Hughes historic season, and Pettersson regaining his swagger are what the guys discuss with Frank before some Christmas questions. Then it's an Ask Us Anything where they ponder life's greatest mysteries, such as gift wrapping, celebratory traditions, and Gretzky's cream. 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.

Welcome Frank Cerebelli Frank Daily Face Off Frank Welcome back to Halford and Brough Josh Elliott Wolf Thomas Jantz filling in for That is a dog's

worst word Yeah I'm not gonna I didn't want to I didn't want to be the one to say it I will This felt like a

phone in for me How dare you disparage the It felt like I've seen better from Andy Cole and it's it's disparaging Frank. I've never seen worse.

Yeah, exactly. The listeners love the Frank song. 650-650, Dunbar Lumber text line. Keep the Ask Us Anythings coming in on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas Eve. Halford and Brough brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. uh halford and brough brought to you by the delari family of honda dealers experience the delari difference today visit your nearest delari honda dealer today and this hour of halford and

brough brought to you by north star metal recycling vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal north star metal recycling they recycle you get paid 1170 powell street we go to the phone lines. It is Frank Cervalli. He is a presentation of Angry Otter Liquor. Appreciate you taking the time, Frank. Merry Christmas. How are you? Yeah, Merry Christmas, guys.

Great to be with you. You know, you can dog Andy Cole if you want. I would say I think it's some of his better work. Wow. I don't know, man. Are you biased in this tape? Well, I mean, obviously, but I've had a few people on Twitter send me videos of their kids singing it and like singing it for days.

It gets stuck in my head. Okay, fair enough. I think that's the true mark of greatness. Have you heard mine, though? Like, I have like a 70s porno track. It's unbelievable. Yeah, that was the last thing I wanted to think about. Merry Christmas.

I'm just saying. You deserve a better one than me, my dude. I want that for you for Christmas. You deserve something equally as sexy as mine. Frank, first of all, happy holidays to you and the family. Second of all, Canucks beat San Jose. Pedersen gets two goals. He sort of laughs off this time the big story in a question with the Amazon Prime broadcast.

And the Canucks get to go into the Christmas break feeling hopefully a little bit better about themselves and spared of the noise for at least the next three days just a temperature check where are you at with this Vancouver Canucks team heading into the holiday I don't really know what to make of this team yet yeah I think I'm still trying to sort that out and I think if we're all being honest, that's probably how the Canucks management and coaching staff feels too. We've yet to see a completely healthy team. We've seen this story become the most Vancouver story of all time. And we've seen on the ice, just really inconsistent play. The home and road splits have been bananas.

They've had some moments this season where they look like they're rounding into form, and then the wheels fall off. What are those moments, though, Frank? I don't know that I've seen moments like that. I've seen individual games, but there hasn't been a run that I really thought, hey, that's the team I expected. What about that first extended road trip of the season? Oh, man.

I mean, they got their house in order from a puck-moving perspective against the Panthers after losing decisively, and then they beat a tired Philly team, and they whomped Chicago. I don't know that I was huge. No, there was another one after that. Then they came home and beat Pittsburgh too. Are you talking about the one where they beat the who's who, the Ottawa Senators?

They played well against the Senators, then they sort of played badly against the Bruins, won, got torched by the Penguins. That was Artur Shilov's in net, and then won a couple coin flips against Buffalo and Detroit before losing in Minnesota. Is that the one? Did they come back like 4-1-0? Yeah, 4-1-1. 4-1-1, but they were playing badly.

They were really fortunate on that streak of games. That was the that was the road trip without miller i i was concerned after that trip i kept doing this whole bit where i'd be like they're playing commendably but they're not playing well that was kind of my bit coming out of that road trip i feel like they were just getting away with it and then as the month went on they sort of stopped getting away with it. Right. Well, you are a man of many bits. I mean, it's true. You're not wrong.

Yeah. Yeah. There's always an angle, which is good. I think you need that. But, like, I've – it's also never been like truly awful this season for an extended period of time. Do you think it has? Not results wise, but I think process wise,

they're currently in a stretch where the hockey they're playing is like, it's so, it's tough because it's punctuated by absolute howitzer A++ performances, like the ones that they put in against the panthers and the avalanche but i think on the whole their last 20 games have been pretty close to awful like quinn hughes leads the nhl in scoring all players the last um across the last 15 game stretch and they've needed every bit of that problem no no no well they've needed every bit of that. No, no, no. Well, they've needed every bit of guy playing like one of the three best skaters in the league to go like a couple points over 500 point percentage. That to me is the issue, right? Like at some point, if you need that much from Quinn Hughes to tread water and like bleed ground slowly to Utah in the Western Conference playoff picture,

that's not a good sign. That's not something that I look at at this stage of the season and take a lot of heart in or put a lot of stock in. You're right. And I would say, okay, in that last 20-game stretch, how many games did JT Miller play? Seven. And how many did JT Miller play? Seven. And how many did Philip Aronik play?

I'd have to check, but off the top of my head, I think it's four or five. Yeah, I mean, look, I'm not making excuses. No, no, you're right. It's crucial. So you have a team that really struggles to move the puck efficiently. Yeah. Taking out Phil Aronik is like cutting off your right arm yeah it's a glass jaw no it's a glass jaw you're right you're down to you're down to like

one and a half to two capable defensemen on that front and then you take out miller who is the heartbeat of the team and the engine and then what i just it's not an excuse i just think the inconsistency can be pointed to that part in part not in full in part except you know it's not like miller coming back sort of fixed the issue like san jose looked like they had a higher gear five on five for much of that game last night like the Canucks get three regrettable goals on Askarov, and they need every one of the goaltenders' mistakes to beat a San Jose team that I think we all agree is improved, right? But, like, improvement for them means, hey, they might get to 76 points.

Right. Well, I think you're, I mean, not I think, I know you're to something with the process because that's what rick tocket has been all over since game one it's results are fine process has been just okay and that i i think the other part that i come back to is if we're taking the 30 000 foot view and the holistic look at this season I said it in the preseason and I was a hater but this team isn't as good as last year's team and I don't even think it's really close yeah I I think it's hard to argue with especially

based on like we it feels like we keep waiting for them to have that signature run where it's like, okay, they're back, and they're like an elite team that can maybe not challenge for a cup, but be in that conversation heading to the playoffs, and we just haven't seen it. How important is this next month for the Canucks when it comes to informing what they do at the deadline? I mean, you take all the information you can get if you're the management group,

but I think they've really known what their holes are and what they need to add for a while. We're not talking like two weeks or three weeks we're talking since training camp started they were like oh this maybe isn't what we thought this blue line might be and we you know that that need for more efficient puck moving is is really what stands out so i think they've been really clear in terms of the need. And I think if they're going to go out and fill it, it's probably not going to be for someone that it just comes in for one playoff run. It's not going to be we're trading for Elias Lindholm and we're trading for Nikita

Zdorov and hey, whatever they do to help us this year, that great and we'll shake your hand at the end and you'll walk i i view it as a multi-pronged multi-part multi-year solution do do teams view the canucks as a team that's like desperate to try to make a move like that and not not necessarily like imminently but they see what's going on with the Canucks missing Heronic, further showing their holes on defense. And are the Canucks a desperate team, I guess, or are they waiting still for prices to match what they want to pay? I don't even know if it's so much prices. I think it's more correct fit.

That's really what stands out to me. In the market that they're in, the price is always going to be expensive. So it's about finding something that you can live with, but more importantly, the player and the piece itself actually really excites you. I've sort of begun to as you say one of my bits now has become the um the appropriation of the mendoza line as a concept into a discussion of like the tyler myers line right and it's like if you're getting a defenseman for the canucks if the canucks are trading for a

defenseman significant assets they need to make sure he's above the Myers line in that you know when you land him Rick Talkett will actually play him ahead of Tyler Myers and as much as Myers takes a lot of guff sometimes in this market that line I think is a lot higher than people realize like I don't know that I don't know that you know Marcus Pedersen partly because he's a lefty but also partly because you know for well there's a variety of other reasons you know i don't like i don't even know if the like he doesn't move the needle for me no he doesn't move the needle and he he probably i don't think he's moved the needle for the canucks because if he did they would have traded for him like a year ago right so not not only does he not move the needle

but he probably doesn't leap over the tyler myers line Certainly not with the sort of ease that I think would convince this Canucks team to part with assets. So if we call the Mendoza line 200, right? Yeah. Is the Myers line like three and a half or is it three? It's like, so the replacement level line, I mean, the Mendoza line, like the Mendoza line to actually appropriate it would be like the Noah Juleson line.

That's not what we're talking about here. No, we're not. We're talking about something. I think we're talking 400. I think we're doubling it. We're talking about the line to actually be a number three defenseman on this team. So is my line right? Is it three and a half?

Yeah, three and a half, sure. Close enough. right is it three and a half yeah three and a half sure close enough and so so on a really good team you're saying if i'm boiling this all down correctly you're saying tyler myers is a four yeah a four five yeah a four a four of i think i think a three four a three four a generous three four but a three four for sure given this club's emphasis on like size and some of the things that he brings that are such a good fit for what talk it wants and what adam foot want right so yeah if you want a if you want a good laugh on christmas uh the other day i was talking to bill armstrong in utah and we were talking about how their seasons unfolded and he was giving a ton of credit to Ole Mata and that trade for helping settle things down. And he's been asked to do a lot.

He's played like almost four minutes more than his career average with Utah. And, and it was a, a trade that didn't garner any headlines, a third round pick to Detroit to kind of help out in a season in which, you know, they lost their top two of their top four defensemen. And then they bring up their first round pick and Maverick Lamoureux and he gets hurt too. So Utah's swimming upstream without a paddle. And he said, you know, look at Ole Mata. He's come in and he said, he goes, what I call him is an elite five. And I'm like, oh, good.

We've learned some new terms this year. We've got soft tampering and elite five. And I was like, look, elite five. I was like, I know all about what an elite five looks like. Just ask my wife. But, like, that's like, I love that we've gotten to, like, some numbers here. Oh, his wife did not like the joke. I love that we've gotten to some numbers here. His wife did not like the joke.

And we will never be back with Frank Cervalli again. Unfortunate end. He went out saying he was an elite fire. Damn, I was so excited to see where that was going. We'll get him back. You can tell when Frank's gathering steam too, right? He went out saying he was an elite five. Damn, I was so excited to see where that was going. That was... Yeah, we'll get him back. You can tell when Frank's gathering steam, too, right?

I was just like, oh, this is going to be good. Yeah. I do think, for me, speaking of elite fives, I do think Tyler Myers, on a good team, falls into an elite five, where he's probably number four, but maybe a five. We got Frank Cervalli back. You were talking about elite fives, Frank, when we lost you. And I was like, wow, where he's like probably number four but maybe five we got frank sarah valley back you were

talking about elite fives frank when we lost you and i just i was like wow what a like if you're really trying to properly slot players with expectation and and position that's probably a really healthy exercise to go through what actually is the player that we're acquiring which then brings us back to the summer that the Canucks had, right? And so as we were working through it in real time, I'm like, okay, Vinny Desjardins, bit of a project, limited puck skills, and then it was like Derek Forbort, and you're like, okay. But where, like, these guys weren't properly positioned

to be adequate replacements for what they were losing. Yeah, they got a lot of elite sevens. Well, right. And it's like, that's not going to help you. So let's just like, and I'm not saying the Canucks got it wrong or this other team got it right, but look at Carolina and what they did in the summer. They lose Brett Pesci and Brady Shea, and they find replacements that can do very specific things for what it is that they were looking for. Shane Goss' spare, he can come in and run their power play. But that's it.

They're not looking for him to be a defensive stalwart and play major minutes. They understand what the expectation is, and that's that. And it's set with their coaching staff, and they move forward. Look at Sean Walker and the impact that he's had on that defense. So I guess when you have a summer like the Canucks did, and you end up having to go out and fill those minutes and those roles, maybe it was just a case of, hey, the players that we were actually seeking to do that

we weren't willing to spend as much couldn't spend as much the right fits weren't out there they need to address it by the trade market and so when you asked your previous question josh about you know desperation and where they're at i mean i think they're ready willing and able to do it provided that they find the right fit. And it's maybe not so much that that person or player hasn't popped up yet. It's also that that team might not be willing to part with them yet. It did feel like, thinking back to the summer, the one takeaway, and you can tell me if I'm wrong,

but it kind of felt like there was an element of this management group and maybe the coaching staff when it comes to defense getting a little bit high on their own supply when it comes to like hey last year they found all these guys and they it just kind of kind of ended up working everybody fit in well like he brought in nikita zadorov and he ended up being better than he was in calgary and it was like hey maybe you can bring in guys that have size and and you can fix them and make them better um but then they bring in Vinny Desjardins Derek Forbert and while I don't think they're necessarily um bad fits like Forbert especially I I don't mind Forbert it just kind of felt like they they maybe convinced themselves that they could be more on this team than they were on previous teams.

And I think that's also a healthy confidence to have in your arsenal. But part of what makes Jim Rutherford such a successful manager in the NHL, and I'm sure this is rubbing off on Patrick Alveen as well, is when you make a mistake, you've got to own it and I think that is the true hallmark of his career he's willing to try things and when it doesn't work he rips the band-aid off as quickly as possible and he makes adjustments and there's not a lot of GMs or management groups in this league that are willing to do that. They'd rather just swim in it than admit defeat. Yeah, and what was interesting is I do think the Canucks, in sort of empowering and building a blue line that maybe more closely matched their coaching staff's preferences,

I think they understood that there was going to be a run of time to give this and a run of time to change course. And where I'm sort of curious now... They also didn't factor in a heroic injury now, which has exacerbated all of it. Of course, right. And honestly, even this has made a difference. They got really good third pair play for a while,

like for an extended stretch out of Eric Brandstrom, and then he fell off, right? And that's really removed two puck movers from sort of their early season lineup over the last little bit. But I think they always were aware that this was going to be touch and go and might demand midstream adjustment, whether that's tactical adjustment from Talkit or personnel adjustment from them. I think my question is, given the organization's awareness

that this team isn't necessarily playing the right way on a regular basis, how much longer do you expect them to give this in the new year? Because Hironic's probably a month away yet. And if they keep playing like this for another month, Frank, I think we're going to be talking about the Canucks being in a playoff race, like a race for a playoff spot rather than being in a race for, you know, home ice or something more meaningful. I think that's fair,

but I would also say that I think that they were ready to do something yesterday. I think going back to the hours before the trade freeze kicked in last Thursday, they were still making calls into the night to try and get something done. Right. So they're eager. Again, it takes two to tango. It's not just your interest.

It's your interest and another team's willingness to make something happen. And I don't think they've gotten, well, obviously we know they haven't gotten to that point yet. Frank, before we let you go, you called it one of the most Vancouver stories ever. I think that's fair. The he said, she said around the Canucks. Just your general thoughts on this entire frou-frou and how

it sort of interacts with the kind of wider and I think more reasonable conversation, which is, you know, fundamentally about whether or not the Canucks have a core that can win it all together. Yeah, I hadn't really considered that part of it yet, to ask whether they do have the ability with this core to accomplish their goals, which I guess if we're boiling it all down, it's probably the most fundamental conversation to have anyway. And it's interesting to watch a team like the New York Rangers get to the Eastern Conference Final last year, lose to the Panthers, and that was their basic, you know, what they walked away with in the summer was we just, the team we have isn't capable of winning.

So the longer we wait, the more it's just an exercise in futility. And that's what you're starting to see come undone right now. Chris Kreider being a healthy scratch on Monday. My take on this situation is I guess I'm not really quite sure how we got from these two guys don't like each other and don't get along to late last week. It became, well well which one's going that's like that's the most vancouver part of it ever for me and i i just they've played together since 2019 yep i'm fairly certain that signed for eight years each since then yeah i'm fairly and and yeah and both of them went in eyes wide open knowing

particularly petterson the the most recent that miller's not going anywhere or very likely to not be going anywhere so no one signs a deal saying well you know i hate this coach but uh i mean good chance that i probably won't have to deal with them in three years anyway. It's not really how things work. So I think for me, this is, it's not a story about nothing because we know there's something there. This isn't a Seinfeld episode, but it seems overblown. It seems like a healthy dose of maturity is needed for everyone. The message here would be grow up. No matter what walk of life you're in, whether you work together, play together, whatever it might be,

not everyone gets along with everyone. That's life. It's about, as Rick talked it, and I'm paraphrasing, it's not about going out to dinner every night. It's not about playing PlayStation with each other. Can you show up and work and pull on the same rope at the same time to put this team in a position for success? And I think that's possible as evidenced by last year. And in the meantime, if we ever do get to an actual point in time where that becomes the conversation of who stays and who goes,

I can only tell you one thing, and for certain, it's that the Vancouver Canucks will be losers in the end. Yeah. Hey, Frank, really appreciate you taking the time. Happy holidays. Hope you get some time off here and uh talk soon you as well guys have a great one see ya there is frank sarah valley of daily face off frank on sportsnet 650 was brought to you by angry otter liquor your hockey headquarters for your favorite game day beer wine and whiskey more at angry otter liquor dot crs on the other side we'll hit some of your Ask Us Anythings.

Get them in on the 650-650 Dunbar Lumber text line. It is Halpern and Brough, Josh Elliott, Wolf Thomas, Drance on Sportsnet 650. Welcome back to Halford & Brough. It's Big Band Tuesday, but Christmassy. This is a good one. Thank you, thank you. Wow. I had to dig deep to find this one.

Yeah. Josh, Ellie, Wolf, Thomas, Janice here with you. Coming to you live from the Kintec Studio, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet. What are you waiting for? Kintec.

You can text in on the 650-650 Dunbar Lumber text line. Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and reno warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at DunbarLumber.com. Halford & Brough brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. This hour of Halford & Brough is for Jason.mortgage if you love giving the banks more of your money then don't let jason shop around to find the

perfect mortgage for you that's jason.mortgage not.com not.ca.mortgage do not go to jason.com don't get it twisted don't go to jason.com. Jason.mortgage. Anyway, we made it in Ask Us Anything Christmas Eve because A, it's easier, and B, it's the final show of the week for Halpern and Brough. So it's not like they're here on Friday to do their regular Ask Us Anything. So we'll dive into the text box now. Does he say text basket? Is that what he says?

In basket. In basket. Yeah, I'm not going to say that. I'm sorry, guys. We got to keep the Halbro theme going. So the thing that happens every time I do this show. You're also not going to say program?

No, I'm not going to say that. Program. That's just not part of my repertoire. You're not going to randomly talk about Leeds United? No. That's also not part of my repertoire. We're a young boys show now?

Yeah, I've heard. I love young boys. I like to bet against them. Clip in that. That's going right in the trance folder. Every time I see young boys, you know what I do? No, don't say it. What do you do?

I mash any time goal scorer on the opposition in the Champions League. Yeah, they're not doing well, are they? It rocks. It rocks. Swell up my bankroll so I can lose money on football, young boys. Poor young boys. For everyone listening, they're a soccer team.

Yeah, soccer team, not here. They're a soccer team that had it coming. Sorry, this is weird. Every time I do this show, we get texts or tweets being like, when the administrative nonsense is different, people get all riled up. And I'm sorry, but I just got to do my own thing. And that's okay.

This one, unsigned, ask us anything. When is it okay to go with the gift bag rather than wrapping the presents? Is this an age of receiver type thing? So I agree with Laddie's response in the text. Yeah, I wrote back. Which was essentially it depends on the size and kind of the the weirdness shape wise the awkwardness of the shape yes yeah depends on the size and the weirdness of the shape yes yeah yeah that's what she said come on dred i'm sorry well this is that you already had one zinger this segment we don't

need to pg show come on guys yeah i that's why i presented it in a PG way. Fair enough. I'm killing it. Trance is locked in Christmas Eve. I do agree. I do agree. If the present is even remotely hard to wrap, it's going in a bag. I'm sorry. You're getting it in a bag. Well, it needs to be hard to wrap.

But you know what? Wrapping it is important. Okay. We're still going with that. We should take Frank's advice from the last segment. Grow up. You guys, grow up. All right, all right.

Elite five over there. See, when he made the joke, I was about to make the exact same joke, and I was like, ah, nuts. He stole my thunder, but he has probably been prepping this joke for days. Fair enough. nuts he stole my thunder but he has probably been prepping this joke for days fair enough hey i if if if balak's gonna lob me one up like some midwinger playing for young boys i'm gonna i'm gonna volley it that's all i'm gonna say fair enough um so yeah to answer that question depends on the gift i had to wrap like a one of those chairs that toddlers sit on.

So like a soft chair that shaped like a dinosaur. Okay. Very cool. And we didn't have gift bags. So we had to, we had to wrap it. It was tough. And in, in hindsight, I wish I had invested in a very, in a gift sack. You know, you know, those things. I do. had invested in a gift sack. You know those things?

I do. I have many gift sacks. Big sack guy. Big sack guy. No, I love sacks because there's no garbage. Are you trying to give me so much material in this segment? What is going on my gift to you balak is i'm going to make your folder so full full to the brim it's already

full you heard the intro i know unreal the the no i have those christmas sacks that um have the like string on the top you know what i saying? I was trying to find one. Yeah, so then you have no garbage, no work to wrap. And it looks nice. The only problem is kids like to open wrapping paper. Yeah. So I still find that I keep wrapping paper,

usually in my storage unit, so that I can wrap just for my niece and nephew. Yeah. You know, because they want to rip paper off a gift and then be excited when they see it. JD Quickwitlam texted in that Drance is giving off small gift sack energy. Small gift sack energy. Oh, my God.

Okay, okay. Got to answer a Canucks question now. I got to get this back on track. Let's go. Ask us anything. Ivan from Chilliwack. What do you gentlemen see as the top priority in the new year for the Canucks in order to get back to being a consistent elite team in the NHL?

So I don't think it's just like, hey, get a top four defenseman and you're back to being a consistent elite four or sorry, elite top team in the NHL. Well, yeah, I mean mean that's part of it it's a it's a big part of it okay so look last 20 games it's been pretty hit and miss for this canucks team without question so they've now played excuse me here 17 is that right 17 games since JT Miller's yeah since JT Miller took his leave it'd be 10 plus 7 so yes and that's kind of 17 that's 17 yeah so that's kind of how I how I like demarcate the season, as it were. And in that time, across that 17 games,

the Canucks ranked 32nd in the NHL by shot attempt differential, which is a number I hadn't realized was that low. In terms of what they're permitting against, though, you know, it's not great, but it's 19th right it's really what they're generating that's killing them 47 shot attempts per hour and and by the way of course this also you know like shows up in shots only they've been outshot by a wider margin since miller's leave than all teams except detroit and pittsburgh and they've managed to outscore the opposition,

their opposition, but they're among the bottom 10 teams. It's like them and the Islanders. You know, like they've done it because they've had phenomenal finishing and their goaltending is held, right? That's it. So what, I mean, what they need is to get back to attacking off the rush

with some level of consistency. There's just no teeth to this Canucks rush attack. Like that Pedersen goal, the first one yesterday felt remarkable because it came against the grain, like because this team actually was able to attack against the grain. When you think about like what the Ottawa game looked like, what the St. Louis game looked like, what the Boston Bruins game looked like, and I'm deliberately picking mid-sides. Those teams are attacking the Canucks with speed. The Canucks are very rarely attacking their opponents with speed. Now, I think this comes down largely to their ability

to move the puck from the back end out. I think that's a big issue. Even when they are able to frustrate their opponent's attack, which they're able to do pretty well, that first pass out is not clean or it just doesn't quite work. They don't get through the neutral zone with speed. They don't get through the neutral zone with control.

The landmarks, the anchor play that they tried to install, we're seeing none of that. Vegas punished them repeatedly with it when they lost to Vegas last week. So I want to see this Canucks team get back to generating something off the rush beyond one-and-done stuff. That's what they don't have right now. They're just not playing in the offensive end at all.

And this is a streak that's now like this is a lack of form that's sort of permeated and been sustained across a pretty big sample of games now. I mean, we're approaching 20 games since I thought the Canucks were playing remotely well. I know the Heronic absence looms large here. I think Miller's absence loomed large here too. But Miller coming back in the lineup, like Miller hasn't scored on a goalie since October 26. It's going to be two months since Miller beat a goaltender.

So as much as it's about the defense, as much as I think a puck mover would help, they also need their best players to get going. They also need their best forwards to get generating, and they need their best forwards to get generating with some speed, with some level of consistency against these teams.

And, you know, this team's managed to hold the fort for the most part. They're going to be positioned to make a run when they get Hronik back in a month. I think my concern is their form is so poor, is so contingent on, like, Jake DeBrusque finishing efficiently and Kiefer Sherwood unscreened wrist shot goals and ricochet goals off the like their their their sources of offense right

now feel so much flimsier than they did in the club's first 16 or so games of the year and and and they're still a month away from getting heronic back so it's it's really like can they play well enough in that first month back after the holidays, that they're still positioned to streak down the stretch when they get everyone back, right? Because the way the trend line is going, they need luck to win games right now. They need luck to score goals right now, especially when Quinn Hughes is off the ice,

and they are asking too much of Quinn Hughes. Hey, Quinn Hughes, can you play 28 minutes a night, lead the entire league in scoring as a defenseman, and be our only reliable source with which we generate five on five? That's what's being asked of Quinn Hughes, and what's amazing about Quinn Hughes is it's like, no problem, I got you. It's fine, I can do it. Okay, and that can work for 15 games.

That can work for a stretch. It's also good to have that in tandem with someone else being able to help from the back end too. No, but it's also good for that to be like when Dom in, not Dom the producer, but Dom the driver of the Fast and Furious in the Fast and Furious series. Toretto. Yeah, Toretto. Respect on the names. Sorry.

What you want is a guy who, what you want Quinn Hughes to be is that when Dominic Toretto says, I'm doing this for family and turns on the nitrous, Hughes is the one that propels the muscle car to effectively take out an entire army somehow by himself right like he's going into space no that's ludicrous that's luda oh yeah that's luda and tyrese man come on yeah

anyway my point being like what they're at you want quinn hughes to be accelerant right you want to be a good team that quinn hughes makes a great team or you want to be a good team that Quinn Hughes makes a great team or you want to be a great team that Quinn Hughes puts over the top right now you're a bad team that Quinn Hughes is making passable and so you need to raise that baseline because this team's playing badly and they have for a 20 game stretch they are I'm sorry I don't care what the results say I don't care what the record is they're playing badly in terms of controlling play 5-on-5 and generating 5-on-5. And if it continues, they're going to be in trouble.

Yeah, and so we'll see how that... This next month is going to be very, very crucial. Next question. Mike, the urologist from Brockville. Ask us anything Christmas Eve for his three daughters. If a kid wakes up first in the morning, should they be allowed to open a present,

or should they wait for the whole family to wake up? I think the truth is, is that with football on at 10 a.m., don't sleep in on Christmas. Well, okay, but... Get the presents out of the way early. Kids wake up at like 5, though. Perfect. Kids wake up at 5. Kids wake up at 5, throw though. Perfect. Kids wake up at five.

Kids wake up at five, throw some of that good Wayne Gretzky's cream in your coffee. You know what I'm talking about? Balak is shaking his head. He thinks that's another drop, but it's not. I thought he made wine. Yeah, they also make what they call Canadian cream, but it's obviously Irish

cream product. Unbelievable. Go get yourself a bottle for tomorrow, Balak. Go get some Gretzky cream, Balak. Embrace waking up. Doing that. Wake up at 5 a.m., embrace it. Throw some Irish cream in your coffee.

Get some breakfast in you. Open presents at 6. Kids are distracted and playing by 8. Yeah. You've got time to sweat your fantasy lineup. You've got time to place some last-minute player props, some same-game parlays. By 10 a.m., no one's mad at you for watching football.

That, my friends, is a Merry Christmas. So what I will say. That's my plan anyway. I'm going to be the one who's like with the kids. I'm going up to my sisters in Pemberton. Yeah. Because I don't have kids but my niece and nephew will wake up early and I'm going to be on team

Egon and Marie. I'm going to be on team Hey everyone let's wake up. Let's go. Let's go. Come on. Let's go. Let's get them. I don't want to track this Chiefs game, this Chiefs Steelers dust ball contest while we're opening presents. No way. Let's go. So are you also a, hey, you have to eat breakfast before you open presents?

Oh, absolutely not. No? No. You've got to get a drink, though. Okay. Mimosas, coffee, and Irish cream. Empty stomach. Yeah. Got to do do it that's the best

time hey get some gretzky cream in you and you're good i'm not even gonna enjoy my my new patagonia fleece if i'm not two mimosas deep by the time i'm opening presents there's this is peak brunch you know you're not wrong uh my my dad used to always make us like all sit at the table next to the christmas tree and then eat breakfast like he would he would make a an entire breakfast and then we would have to like fully eat breakfast fully have to finish you'd have to wait for every sibling to finish torture i know why would they do it like before you could do it and then he had to be like okay now i gotta go get and he like enjoys this he like do it. And then he had to be like, okay, now I got to go get... And he enjoys this. He takes pleasure in it.

Then he'd be like, I'm going to go get the video camera. I'm going to set it up. It's going to take me a little bit. He's sick. Then one by one... Yeah, I know. And then one by one,

you can open presents. See, you could do stockings before breakfast, but then presents underneath the tree had to be after breakfast. Stockings first. You know what? Yeah, stockings always first. It might have been the same thing. We're like, okay, you get the taste, but then that just makes

you want more. It's crazy. 650-650. This one, Justin and East Van ask us anything. If you were to cater your Christmas dinner, what's the dish they need to cook perfectly before you hire them for the job? Pierogies.

I don't know. It's Christmas dinner, man. Like, I'm not a big fancy Christmas dinner guy. I want pierogies. I want kielbasa. I want some cabbage rolls. I can make all of it myself. I don't need you to make me a Christmas dinner.

We have very similar Christmas dinners. Yeah, there you go. My stepdad makes, like, he's Ukrainian. Right, there you go. So he makes pierogies and cabbage rolls. My family's Polish. Homemade pierogies and cabbage rolls. There you go. My stepdad makes, like, he's Ukrainian. Right. There you go. So he makes pierogies and cabbages. My family's Polish. Homemade pierogies and cabbages. There you go.

So you're going to Josh's house for Christmas. I don't do homemade pierogies, but I'll do homemade cabbages. I just throw store-bought. I'll be honest with you. I think store-bought, like, you know, the less fancy. Every time I try fancy pierogies, I'm mad. Yeah. I'll bring you in some good homemade pierogies. Oh, no. Because they are, like, unreal. Home fancy pierogies, I'm mad. I'll bring you in some good

homemade pierogies. Homemade pierogies are delightful. I'm just saying fancy store-bought versus generic store-bought. Give me the generic store-bought. Give me an entire stick of butter fried onions. So much butter. I need dollops of sour

cream on that. Just crazy amounts of sour cream. Tell me I'm wrong. Although, I don't know. Tell me I'm wrong. Okay, you're wrong. I have replaced sour cream in my life with just Greek yogurt. Are you one of those guys?

The thing is I have Greek yogurt always because I use it for smoothies and for breakfast sometimes and for some salad dressings. I if I have sour cream, I only ever would buy it because I'm making Mexican or making pierogies and increasingly I'm just like, why would I do this?

I have Greek yogurt. It's bring some baked potatoes in your life. They're the same product. Different experiences to me, Greek yogurt and sour cream. And that's why you need sour cream. Like sour cream is just better to me on pierogies and the likes that you put sour cream on. It is modestly better, but I feel like it's a difference of a couple percentage points for an entirely different dairy product in my fridge that's just going to take up space

and that I'm probably not going to use all of because I use it for like three things only. Yeah, but sour cream lasts a while. It lasts like a like three things only. You're not a hardcore sour cream guy like the rest of us. Sour cream lasts a while. It lasts like a month at least. Well, you guys have your sour cream. I have my Gretzky cream, okay? And we'll all have a very merry cream mess. I eat a lot of potatoes.

Don't do that again. Yeah, please never say that again. Merry cream mess. You just said it again. I'm sorry. Anyway. Kits Mike, what are some of the trade values for right defensemen out there other than the usual suspects he's throwing some big names out is kids mike what

would you have to give up for noah dobson or braden schneider if you were if if one or both were for some reason on the trade market What would the price for those guys be? Oh, I mean through the roof But also This is very much like You know Us talking like

Dom Perignon Versus Like an $8 Bottle of Spumante Bambino, right? Like Noah Dobson is a star defenseman and Braden Schneider is... Gretzky cream. No, Gretzky cream's delicious. Bro.

I'm sorry. I like the program. Braden Schneider is good. What do you mean? He's fine. He's no Gretzky cream. He's no Gretzky cream. I don't know that he's good.

I don't know that he's good. I don't know that he's good. I liked the prospect, but at some point you become an NHL player, and it's like, what's the New York Rangers' biggest issue? It's that they have one pair that can actually carry play, and Adam Fox ain't as good as Quinn Hughes. Quinn Hughes can do it all alone. You know who can't? Adam Fox.

Adam Fox needs a little bit more help, which is totally fine. It's just that the Eastern media lied to hockey fans for five years and pretended that Adam Fox was the better player. In contrast, you just have to watch! Anyway. People used to get mad at me for this take. And it's just like, what

were we doing? There was a level of arrogance from the East being like, how dare you say Quinn Hughes is even close to Adam Fox. And Kael McCarr. I took years of bullets for I think Quinn Hughes makes decisions better than Kael McCarr and drives play better than Kael McCarr and that situation isn't awfully responsible. Kael McCarr does some things that Quinn Hughes can't do,

don't get me wrong, but it's at least becoming a debate. It's going to take a lot more, though, for Quinn Hughes to actually seize the belt, given that Kael McCarr has a Stanley Cup ring and a consmith. Yeah. So, by no means...

He essentially has to win a cup before people... Like, unless he does this for... He would have to do it for like seven more... People just keep going back to the conspire. You win back-to-back Norris trophies, and he'd be the first guy to do it. If he can do it, and he's making a pretty strong case right now.

If he can do it, he'd be the first guy to win back-to-back Norris trophies since Nick Lidstrom. Well, we were told last year that he wasn't even the best defenseman in the division, that Evan Bouchard had that title. Who was telling you that? An unnamed reporter from Edmonton. Well, from Edmonton.

To be fair, Edmonton people are pretty high on Evan Bouchard. This was during the heat of the playoffs last year. People should be high on Evan Bouchard. He's good, too. He was on my Norris ballot last year, by the way. Evan Bouchard was, and I had Evan Bouchard and I had Gustav Forsling on my Norris ballot,

and go... Florida bias there? Go check the votes. Go check the votes. Now, that wouldn't even be a hot take, to be like, those guys are among the five best defensemen in the world, but when I filled it out, those were like hipster-ass takes. I don't know if they were, like, last year. Forsling had a big blow- best defensemen in the world. But when I filled it out, those were like hipster ass takes. I don't know if they were like last year.

They weren't. Go check the votes. Forslain had a big blow up. Go check the votes. Before the playoffs and after the playoffs, the conversation around those two gentlemen completely flipped. Evan Bouchard, though, also, he had a pretty bad giveaway yesterday. I don't know if you saw that.

Another one? Yeah, he had a pretty bad giveaway. Oh, no, it was against Ottawa, right? It was the Nick Cousins one on Sunday So that's the one you mean Doesn't matter Evan Bouchard is the classic Makes loud mistakes, so people will be like

And like Nelson Munson Guy is an elite, elite defenseman He is without question One of the five best defensemen in hockey It's just that Quinn Hughes is either one or number two, depending on how much you want to weight team success in your evaluation and how much you just want to be like, hey, this guy's clearly

the most impactful individual defenseman in the league. I agree. I agree. It is Halford and Brough, Josh Elliott-Wolfe, Thomas Drance. On the other side, Nick Shook. We'll talk NFL. Are you ready, Drance? You're ready. I'm born ready. We'll do that. On the other side, Half Shook. We'll talk NFL. Are you ready, Drance? You're ready. I'm born ready. We'll do that on the other side. Halpern and Brough, Josh Elliott, Wolf Thomas, Drance on Sportsnet 650. I love young boys.