Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 12/4/24

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

Mike and Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk last night's OT Canucks loss with analyst Randip Janda, plus the boys tell us what they learned. 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. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Besser hit the goal post! And it bounces back the other way! Two on one for the Wild Marco Rossi has Kaprizov with him Rossi to Kaprizov he scores

it was good it was good it's good to get home though it was a nine points out of twelve it's a tough trip I live between two worlds of the extroverted and an introverted

lover of silence the hell was that? good morning Vancouver 6-0-1 on a Wednesday happy Wednesday everybody it is Alfred and his bruv an introverted lover of silence. The hell was that? Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is Alfred and his bruv. It is Sportsnet 650.

We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddy, 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, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler

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Kintec, big show ahead on a Wednesday, 6.30. The guest list begins. David Amber, Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet NHL host, is going to join us. A four-game night in the National Hockey League. Headlined by the Leafs taking on Steve Stamkos and the National Predators. We'll also look back on all last night's games. Ten games in the NHL, including the Canucks overtime loss to Minnesota.

So we'll talk to David about all that at 630. Seven o'clock, Frank Cerevelli from Daily Faceoff. We'll try and get some updates on everything that's going on with the Vancouver Canucks away from the ice. JT Miller, Philip Roenick, everything else there. Frank's going to join us at 7, our NHL insider from Daily Faceoff. 8 o'clock, Randeep Janda. He was on the call last night for the aforementioned 3-2 overtime loss

for the Canucks, ending a relatively, dare I say, incredibly successful road trip for the Canucks last night. So, working in reverse on the guest list, 8 o road trip for the Canucks last night. So working in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock, it's Rand Deep. 7 o'clock, it's Frank Cervalli. 6.30, it's David Amber. A reminder, for the third day in a row, we are giving away a pair of tickets to see ACDC live April 2025 at BC Place. We're going to do callers again.

It worked well yesterday. Andy loved talking to the listeners. Caller number 10 at 815 this morning, 815. So those of you that listen on delay or listen on podcast, you'll have a chance to call in 815 this morning. Caller number 10, the phone number 604-280-0650 that number again 604-280-0650 if you want to see acdc next april uh call in at 8 50 in this morning and be caller number 10 okay that is what's happening on the program today laddie let's tell everybody what happened hey did you guys see the game last night no what happened i missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that?

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 or resources and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Kirill the Thrill Kaprizov. Scored with 24 seconds left in overtime on Tuesday night. The Wild get their fourth straight win.

3-2 in overtime against your Vancouver Canucks at the Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday night. Yeah, the Canucks didn't win, but getting a point off the Wild at the end of a road trip when you know you're headed home and you've already had a pretty successful road trip, given all they've been through lately, I think that's more than acceptable for the Vancouver Canucks who return home now. That's the hard thing. They've been so good on the road, but now they've got to go home. And it's an opportunity for them to improve their home record and show the fans that

I don't know, they respect the hundreds of dollars that they spent on the hockey tickets because they've just had some dreadful performances at home. Tequila sodas are $14 a pop. Yeah, come on. Come on. So the Canucks will play Columbus

on Friday and then an afternoon affair on Sunday with the Tampa Bay Lightning. But I feel like there might be some more talk before those games, but we'll get into that a little bit later. As for last night's game, my first takeaway was it was an eventful game for Elias Pettersson. I haven't talked much about Pettersson lately. I've kind of missed it a little bit. Let's right that wrong. He was on the ice

for all four goals during regulation time. Two for the Canucks and two for Minnesota. He earned two assists on goals by Quinn Hughes and yet another goal for Jake Dabrusk who also has to do something at home. He's a road warrior too.

He hasn't scored at home yet. But Pedersen, I guess you could say he also teamed up with Hughes to turn the puck over on Minnesota's first goal. It was a costly miscommunication between the two Canucks stars. It ended up with Hughes handing the puck over to the Wild and Petey getting caught flat-footed in the neutral zone, yada, yada, yada. The Wild scored.

The other Minnesota goal came after Pedersen tried to clear a loose puck in front of Lankanen, but it ended up going straight to the point where Jake Middleton was standing, and Jake Middleton, not exactly known for his offense, but he makes a nice move, and Pedersen flew out there, and he tried to block Middleton's shot, but it beat beat pd and then lankanen so yeah a busy night for petterson although i guess he had nothing to do with the ot winner that came after brock besser on a two on o with i think it was suitor hit the post

sending the wild back on a two-on-one on Quinn Hughes. Marco Rossi did a good job to hold off Besser's back check, and Besser did a good job to get back into the play, but Rossi was able to get it over to Kaprizov, who made no mistake. The guy is a good player, and I'll be the jerk to say that Hughes did not play the two-on-one particularly well. In fact, I'll be the jerk to say that Hughes did not play the two-on-one particularly well. In fact, I'll be the jerk to say that Quinn Hughes didn't have a terrific game, although he did score. He was minus three on the night. It's okay, though. We forgive him. We forgive him. He's been through a lot lately. He's got a high bar. He's a high standard for Quinn Hughes. And even Elias Pettersson, after the game, was talking about how he liked the battle from the team,

but he owned a few of the things that went wrong on his line. Yeah, I really liked the battle. I think we ran out a few minutes in the second period. I think they really had pressure on us. Other than that, I think we really liked our effort. I think we did enough to win, but a few mistakes by our line and me in the D zone. We gave up the lead. You say a couple of mistakes by you.

Anything you're just looking maybe more specifically to clean up heading back home? Yeah, I mean, we have a 2-1 lead and then their goal. I missed a block, and then when I missed my block, I screened Lankanen to even see the puck. So just small details, but yeah. But hey, you know what? Petey is piling up points, and his first assist last night wasn't anything spectacular.

It was the Canucks power play, and it was the typical Canucks power play of like, we'll pass it around on the outside for a bit, and then, I don't know, Quinn Hughes is like, how about I just fire it on net? And then Jake DeBraska's like, how about I pick up the garbage? Well, no. I mean, Hughes scored that one straight in. And the second goal, Petey actually made a really nice play

in front of the net. He was battling there in front of the net. It was a loose puck, and then Jake DeBras went and picked up the garbage. So if you're looking at Pettersson's last even just four games, you want to go seven points in his last four games. Production's way up, which is great. He is almost a point-per-game guy now. He's got 23 points in 24 games.

So I think it's funny because I hear everyone say the same thing about Petey. He's still not 100% back, but he's producing. Yeah, the production is fantastic. And that's really important. He's finding a way to contribute offensively. But I think you're watching him and going like why are you so deferential like you're defer you just always want to pass the puck off right and and and you're still not really attacking the net and you're not attacking

the other team but hey you know what like maybe he's not 100 maybe he's just not feeling it quite yet physically so at least he's finding ways to contribute. He's unselfish. He just wants to make his teammates better. I described it on Twitter as he's not exerting his will over his opponents yet. Like he used to do when he was like superstar level. He just controlled the flow of the game. Yeah, but everything's trending in a real good direction.

Oh, yeah, yeah. And the production. But also the big sigh of relief for me is that him and DeBrusque have found chemistry. Because, I mean, that was a very obvious fit that the Canucks wanted to happen.

And I didn't want it to get to the point where they were going to continually force it. Like, you can't make it happen. You can't make the thing happen. It has to happen on its own. And it really is now.

DeBrusque, in the most weird stat line, although it's very befitting of this team, all of his goals on the road, and so many of them coming in these big chunks. We're used to seeing Jake DeBrusque be a streaky

scorer. I don't think anyone's used to someone scoring all their goals on the road. It's a very weird split. The Canucks also should have had a power play in overtime. Garland clearly got tripped. A lot of people didn't like the officiating last night. They're weighing in. A lot of expletives being thrown towards kelly sutherland so you know me i don't complain about the officiating much so when i do one thing you don't it holds sway it's true

and um i thought the canucks got hosed on a bunch of calls on this road trip i thought they got hosed on a couple at the end of the pittsburgh game but you know the pittsburgh game c loves was in there and he didn't play well, and the Canucks didn't play well in front of him. It wasn't the referee's fault that the Canucks were down 4-1 after the first period. But, you know, I did think that, you know, they did try and mount a comeback,

and they nearly did it, and there was a couple calls that didn't go their way in the end of that game. You know, I'm not going to complain about officiating and wins so they beat buffalo and they beat detroit um you know last night there should have been a power play and i bet you if that game was in vancouver that arm would have gone up right yeah i mean that that's a that's a decent thing to throw out there i mean god forbid we suggest that maybe nhL officials are swayed by what rank the games are being played in.

Minnesota's very physical. That third period, there was a lot of big hits landed. There was one on Max Sasson in the corner. I think it might have been Middleton that threw it. Foligno's a big boy. He was throwing his weight around. I actually really admired the way the Canucks

played in the third period. I know that might be a strange takeaway because it wasn't really a great third period. They played well, man. They're at the end of a road trip. You'd expect Minnesota to be the team that was pushing. And they did. Yeah. At the start. But the Canucks held their own.

They didn't get rattled. They didn't get rattled by the early Middleton goal. They didn't get rattled by the physicality. They kept things territorial. And the chances they were generating weren't great A's by any stretch, but they were getting offensive zone time, and it was almost like they understood the more we possess the puck and the more that we're cycling and keeping the puck away,

we can get this thing to overtime. I call it a mature response from a team. Patrick Alvin was talking earlier about what was the quote the lack of humility that lack of humility they went into the season with i think this road trip was a really good response to that because they scratched and clawed and fought and i know this might sound weird but it's almost like they were like they weren't afraid to say hey we got to get in the mud to scratch out two points against the buffaloes and the Detroit's like, we're not better than these teams. We might be better in terms of the standings, but there's no easy games in the NHL. And if we have to go and have kind of a weird

affair in on Sunday morning in Detroit, where it's a, you know, we give up four goals and we're fighting it a little bit because it's early and we're a little off kilter. Yeah, you have to have a score, a late goal to tie it. Jake DeBrusque forgets what the score is. Like all these things, right? We're like, okay, are we going to get out of here with two points at the end of the day? Because here's the thing.

When they say winning is tough in the NHL, they're often pointing to the teams that can't do it with regularity. The Ottawa's and the Detroitwas and the detroits and the buffaloes and we'll get the buffalo in a second they understand how hard it is to win they don't do it very often so when you can go somewhere and scratch out two points or in the case of last night scratch out one i think that's why talk it was so complimentary after the game we don't need to play the audio it's fine but the head coach was very complimentary of his team he knows that they're fighting it right now in terms of the guys that aren't in the lineup and they did really well on that road it's

not gonna get any easier for this team because horonok's gonna miss a couple of months it sounds like and we'll talk about that in just a sec but you know we don't know if demko is going to be back anytime soon um i think we were all hoping that it was going to be Friday against Columbus, and I guess it should still be, or I guess it could still be that, but a couple rumblings that he might need more time. There was talk that they didn't practice enough on the road. They weren't able to practice enough, so Demko wasn't able to get his work in. So, I don't know.

At some point, it's kind of like, yeah, I mean, like, I get the whole don't rush him back, but this is very concerning. You know, like, you just need these ideal situations for him to make his return. And then JT Miller, we don't know when he's going to be back. Nope. So they play a lot of games in December, and they're spread out nicely. It's not like a ton of back-to-backs or anything like that, and there's a bunch of them at home, but it's a lot of games. And typically what you see when a team is shorthanded, the good teams will hang in there, but oftentimes it gets harder and harder.

The longer you go and the more that some of the players who aren't used to playing the roles that they're playing, they wear down a little bit. They're running on whatever, and then suddenly it's just kind of like, this is getting too hard. I think this team is well-equipped to deal with the absence of JT Miller because the forward depth is so good.

I think they're capable of dealing with the Demko delay because Lankanen has been so good. The one that I think what you're talking about, the real test now in a tough month of December, is going to be the blue line. Because yesterday, the Vancouver Canucks did announce that defenseman Phil Peronik is going to be out for approximately eight weeks after undergoing a successful lower body procedure now if you're hearing that and saying lower body

I thought the shoulder was in the upper body you were not alone a lot of people were trying to say wait a minute is that a typo in the release that the Canucks put out yesterday why is he getting a lower body procedure well they did confirm that he has an upper body injury that won't require surgery. But I suppose, and this is just me speculating, that if he was going to be on the shelf for a length of time recuperating from the shoulder injury, they were going to go get something cleaned up in the lower body. That's my guess on what happened. But all we know right now is that he's going to be gone for two months.

And God bless what this blue line was able to do over the last three games of the trip on what happened, but all we know right now is that he's going to be gone for two months. And God bless what this blue line was able to do over the last three games of the trip where Hronik wasn't there, but Hughes' minutes are routinely in the 30s or above. I think he might have been a little lower last night. And Noah Juleson's out there blocking shots with every body part imaginable, and they're trying their best, but if there's one area where they're not really equipped to deal with the loss of a frontline guy, it's on the blue line. Yeah. There were not many details released from the Hronik update.

I think you're right, though. They decided, okay, well, listen, we're not going to do surgery for your shoulder. Let's assume it's a shoulder. They call it an upper body injury. Sure. But your rehab is going to take a long time, eight weeks. So why don't we just go in and, I don't know, give you your vasectomy

or whatever you're going to do with a lower body injury. Just a speculating. Who knows? He's just kind of, I don't know, maybe it's like a sports hernia or something. Do you need to go to Germany? Yeah, something. So they're like, do that, get it out of, I don't know, maybe it's like a sports hernia or something like that. Do you need to go to Germany? Yeah, something. So they're like, do that, get it out of the way. Sure.

And then you're still going to be rehabbing your shoulder. I wonder, and I kind of wondered this on Twitter last night, is Patrick Alvin going to speak to the media soon? Is he going to hold a bit of a press conference? Because, you know, it's all well and good when they're on the road, but now they're back home, and there are some major pressing questions. And I know he's not obligated to talk to the fans.

I mean, part of it, you could say he is because this is a public-facing company, and the ticket-buying customers want to know what's going on with the team, but it's not like a law. But listen, I got a lot of questions right now. Let's start with Hronik. I mean, these are the easy ones.

What are you going to do about it? How confident are you that his shoulder will return to full health without surgery? I'd like to know as a fan, what went into that decision to not do surgery because we don't want this cropping up again. Yeah. Seems like Horonix had some sort of upper body injury pretty much the whole time he's been in Vancouver, whether it's a shoulder or an elbow or

whatever. He wouldn't admit it though. No. Not to J-Pet anyway. What is up with Demko? Where is his, like, like you know where is he right now in terms of his rehab um what is the ideal situation to get him in there do we expect to see him on this homestand um and in the meantime what's the plan with sea loves like can you play him

is there another goalie that you've got down in the HL that you might want to bring up? What is up with Miller? And maybe he'd just give a no comment, but man, that is such a big elephant in the room. That's not in the room. It's just crazy.

Like one of the team's best players and arguably the most popular player for a lot of people, you know, I mean, the JT Miller chants were at wrestling. He just left the team. And there wasn't really an explanation other than, you know, we're glad he's going to get the help, you know, he needs and he's going to be a better team and a better person or whatever. You know, that's pretty random. And meanwhile, there's all this speculation going on. There's all these crazy rumors going around. So can you add anything more to that? Can we expect to see this guy anytime soon?

There's other stuff. How does the team feel about Nils Hoaglander's season to date? I noticed they actually played decent minutes last night. Yeah. And how, you know, there's lots of questions, and I just wonder if, you know, he's going to answer any. They're at a really interesting inflection point as an organization because you could make the argument, well, not make the argument,

but if you wanted to classify it, it's you're without your Vezina caliber goalie, you're without your emotional leader, and you're without your secondna caliber goalie you're without your emotional leader and you're without your second best defenseman that you just signed to a lengthy extension uh we'd like some updates on all of them i i don't know actually i think i do know i don't think that the organization's going to come forward and say anything as a matter of fact because they're just going to see it as well we just got off a road trip where we got nine at 12 points and it's also not their way they're not huge on explaining a lot of things i mean i i think part of the mo is we're just gonna put something out there and we'll let the statement speak for itself and if you want to speculate speculate but we're

not going to offer anything um one of the you know if you want to talk about holding up your end of the bargain that one press conference where jim rutherford was like uh it's been told I might be speaking too much, so I'm not going to speak anymore. Well, good on him because I haven't even heard from him aside from the year end media availability. Like he's been very quiet. And Alvin is not the most outgoing, loquacious guy. I think he really he's from the Kevin Shevelday off school of try and say as much as you can without saying anything at all when you have to talk. So I don't expect anything there, but you're absolutely right to be asking the questions because the team did...

This would almost be the time that you want to get out there and say, hey, I would like to take a minute to commend our guys for battling through all of these things. The guys that are playing right now and the guys suiting up, that is a very good road trip and a very needed one because that homestand that they came off of was brutal. If you want to look back on it, they got 4 of 12 points on the homestand. They got 9 of 12 on the road.

And they played some bad games, man. Yeah. The one question that I would ask is, do you have any explanation, any explanation to the home and road splits this year? Because it's not that they just have failed to get points at home. Some of the worst outings, not just this year, but in recent memory, have happened at home. Six nothing to the Devils on Huesapalooza night was terrible.

It's got to be a preparation thing, right? I mean, I don't know, because they seem to be able to prepare fine on the road. But I mean, well, a preparation thing at home. You prepare differently at home than you do on the road, potentially. Yes. I don't know. I don't know. The distractions or whatever.

I don't know. Is it because your family's not around? I don't know. It's got to be something. There's good stuff on the hotel televisions. I don't know what really got me fired up. They were playing Band of Brothers. I was ready to go.

I don't know. It's nice to have time to watch. Yeah. No one interrupting me. The kids aren't asking i was ready to go i don't know it's nice to have time to watch yeah no one interrupting me the kids aren't asking for the ipads i don't know but i just i it's crazy you know what another like huge downer this season was the saturday night blow out of the hands of edmonton where they lost 7-3 like that was a much ballyhooed game coming in after last year's playoffs and they got skunked out of their own ring so i i don't know. I can't explain it.

I think that maybe we could have a great debate about which Canucks loss at home has been the worst. Take your pick. For me, it was the Islanders one. Well, OK, I thought the opener stunk when they blew a 4-1 lead to Calgary. The Islanders game was terrible, too. The loss to the Predators where the Predators weren't scoring any goals and they came in here and scored five.

I think it might be the Hughes one for me just based on the pomp and circumstance around it. Hughes-a-palooza was bad. Hughes-a-palooza should have been, they should have come out better for that. So I forgot about the Islanders one. That would suck too. I do want to discuss. Plus 5-2 to the Islanders. I do want to discuss a little bit more maybe during

the show and I'd like to hear from the listeners too. You can text in to the Dunbar- Lumber text line 650 650 how do you feel about being kept in the dark about some of the things going on with the Canucks because I'm curious because some people are like I they don't have to say anything I just want them to do whatever they think is best and I will just sit here in the dark and be happy about it. But other people, you know, there's people texting in. It's time for some transparency, right?

And, you know, they need to provide some clarity on the Miller situation. Otherwise, the speculation will run rampant. I'd be just curious. Like, I don't even have an opinion. I'd be curious to know their strategy in all this. You're kind of rolling your eyes a little bit here. Oh, I think I know their strategy.

That's why. We just say as little as possible and just leave it be. Doesn't that just make things worse though? If they're winning, I think it does because it leads to speculation. If you don't tell people what's going on, people will just naturally speculate. But what if the thing that's gone wrong is not good? No, I get the reasoning for it, but I'm just saying they have to understand that by going this route, it'll lead to speculation.

That's just natural. Some of the rumors that have come into the Dunbar-Lumber text line, and people send them with 100% confidence. Feels like 100% confidence. JT Miller is actually a super spy it is james bond it is crazy and i i i'm genuinely curious what the organization thinks about that stuff being out there in a place that i don't know how many crazy rumors have we heard in vancouver over the years so So, nice drop. It's so sad that this is what it comes down to.

When you're winning, it's like, yeah, they do a good job of protecting their players and shielding them. And then when they're losing, it's like, they're messing everything up, and we need more transparency. And I go back. Well, yeah, because they're home now, and they're going to start losing.

Right. You better win some games at home. I'm telling you this right now. Win your home games. Starts on Friday. Maybe a Demko start, although I have no idea if that's going to happen or not yet. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

Besser scores a lot of goals. He didn't score on that one. He came very, very close. But that's the fun of three-on-three. And I remember when three-on-three came in, I was really excited for it, but there were some people who were like, ah, it's too gimmicky. I'm like, no, the shootout is gimmicky.

I do wonder if there's been some sort of subtle push to make sure that games get decided in three-on-three. I don't think so. I think they do what they want. Or maybe there's an underlying metric. Maybe there's some fancy stat out there that says that it's more advantageous to try and get it done in three-on-three. If you're going to the shootouts, it's a coin toss regardless.

That's what I think. Unless you're a team that's like, we love our goalie in the shootout. We love our three shooters. Absolutely love it. Or we've got guys that never miss in the shootout, and we've run the numbers. Our best is about, I don't know how many teams are are out there that like that and also i think you know the players first it's the regular season yeah it's not super super high stakes each team has already got a point like the connects went

into minnesota yesterday when they got that point it was like awesome yeah great job that is the one thing you had to do so you know the players, the players are probably like, hey, you know, like, I play hockey for fun. Also money. Also the money. But, you know, let's go have some fun. Let's go try and score some goals. Yeah. Anyway, you know, we rip on the NHL a lot,

but their decision to bring in three-on-three was one of the best things they've ever done. Yeah. And, you know, I think one of the things is, like, when we talk about the evolution of, like, three-on-three, in the brief time that it's been around compared to everything else we've seen different evolutions of it they've tried new things the the issue with the shootout inherently is that it's so structured there's only a certain amount of things that you can do right like let me put it this way to you how all those

highlight reels you see the top 50 plays of the month how many shootout plays do you see versus how many overtime plays do you see? Versus how many overtime plays do you see on those? Shootout's boring, man. The only interesting shootout ones are the ones that Kuznetsov and Kane do, where they slow down to a crawl. And then people freak out. Yeah, and they do have

incredible puck handling in front of the net. If I'm watching the league as a whole, I'm not watching a Canucks game, and I'm flipping around going to different channels or different games on the Sportsnet app, if it goes to a shootout, I'm flipping off it. I don't care. Yeah.

But three-on-three overtime, I'm watching that, regardless of who plays. Shootout hit. Someone's getting the point. Yeah. Don't care. Well, all right. Good luck, right?

It was fun for maybe the first half of the season, and it's like, hmm. I kind of miss penalty shots when they were special, because that was the only time you ever saw a bad penalty shot. That's what I'm saying. They should do the golden bat for the NHL, and you should be allowed to do a penalty shot once a game with any of your players without anybody stopping you. It's funny, A-Dog.

You were just in my ear saying break, and now you're bringing up the golden bat rule. Well, I'm just saying that would add a lot of excitement to the game, I think, if you can take a penalty shot at any point during the game. But when? Wait. Wait. So you're saying that at any point during the game,

you could just say, I want a penalty shot now. Actually, that would be incredible. With any of your players. Any of your players. Any of your players could do it. That would be so stupid, but also incredible. I'm doing my penalty shot rule. You know how people

always rip on Taka or any coach is like, you gotta call a timeout. Why didn't you call a timeout? You just allowed three goals. You gotta calm things down. That's where you're like, alright, we need a penalty shot. You know you can't take it to the next game, Rick. You gotta use it tonight. Actually, you know what? I didn't realize that.

Ibra Flues wouldn't use it. He'd be like, I'm confident that we're gonna find a game. That's the NHL be like, I'm confident. Save it for next Thanksgiving. The NHL's version of the golden bat. Caducks are down by one going to the third. Wow, they still got their golden penalty shot in their back pocket. So this is how the evolution of your idea went. I thought it was stupid until you explained it. And then you made it more stupider.

And now it's amazing. Just arbitrarily, like if we're down 3-1, we're getting caved in, but we're still in this game. Imagine you're the Oilers. You go down 1-0, McDavid. You're up. Yeah, right? I love it.

The other team's like, oh, come on. Andy, you're on to something. All right. You are on to something. It's brand deep. Brand deep Janda time. It's brand deep Janda. It is Rand Deep Rand Deep Janda

It is Rand Deep Talking hockey now Oh 805 805 On a Wednesday Happy Wednesday everybody You've been terrible today Michael

Dolly Wall would be screaming at you right now You know, it's not my fault. I was trying to get to break. You started bleeding on about the golden penalty shot. We had lots of good listeners yesterday.

And then we were going to go to break and Brough said, one more thing. It's like 8 o'clock. We need to go to break. And one more thing. What do you think

the secondary market is going to be like for Blue Jackets tickets? This is important. Of all the things to bring up when we're way over on time. 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 lot to get into in the final hour of the program. Randeep Jand, as the music suggests, is going to join us in just a second here. Before we get to Randeep, I need to tell you that the Halford & Brough Show 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. Hour three of this program, which we have just begun, 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, to the phone lines we go. Randy, Jen, and now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Randy. How are you? Good morning, guys. I was this close to declining Andy's call after hearing his spiel on the Golden Penalty Show. I'm not going to lie.

That ticked me off a little bit. I'm not a huge fan of that idea at MLB, but here we are. Yeah, oh, yeah. You've got to blame baseball for that, not A-Dog. He's very, you can say anything. Okay, Randy, but one listener suggested, what if you could accrue penalty shots?

You don't take 10 for 10 games, you don't take 80, and then you could take 10 in a game. What about that? Like cap space, basically. Exactly. God, we missed them all? I hope they're right. Another guy was like, the opponent should be able to pick the guy that takes the penalty shot.

That's what makes it fair. Or draw them out of a hat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That would be fun. Juleson, come on. Speeding up the game. I love that idea. And now we go to the benches where Dan Murphy is there with the hat.

What did you think of the Canucks' performance last night and also road trip as a whole? I thought overall, guys, 4-1-1, 9 out of 12 points. They come back on that road trip without Philip Roenick, without Thatcher Demko

and JT Miller playing in those games, second in the Pacific Division. And remember, we were talking about 500 on this trip. So to get nine out of 12 points, to have players really elevate their game over that six game stretch, they have three players that had 10 points, which is tied for the NHL lead. That's DeBrusque, that's Hughes, that's Elias Patterson. So finding confidence, finding a little bit of identity in their defensive game, especially in that Minnesota game where I thought they sent a message. They fought hard.

They matched a really good Minnesota team. And in the third period, I like Vancouver's game better. So they're coming back with confidence. And, of course, road versus home has been a huge gap for this team, but an excellent way to come back. And now they can focus on their home record and playing better here. But I felt, you know, that was almost an ideal situation for Vancouver. Does it concern you at all that the Canucks play so many games before Christmas?

You know, it's December 4th today. They don't play again until December 6th. And then between the 6th and the 23rd, there are 10 games. Yeah, and between that, there's a six-game homestand as well, which normally you'd be happy with. Yeah, that's concerning as well. I was going to say, normally you'd be happy with that, but with a 3-5-3 record, two things, right?

Obviously, they haven't played well at home but you've got a stretch here to turn it around that is a lot of games jammed in there and there's going to be some hungry teams right tampa bay uh they're duking it out in the atlantic right now st louis just fired their coach and hired jim montgomery florida is the cup champion we know what they're all about boston uh they're they fired their coach and are hungry. And Colorado gets embarrassed on a nightly basis. So there's going to be a decent level of competition. One of the areas I think that it's acknowledged is that the schedule at the beginning of the year wasn't the toughest. Now you're going to have an elevated, I think, competitive schedule.

But also at the same time, you're going to have a lot of games jammed in there with some mini road trips. So it is going to be a lot of games. It is going to test the depth of this team, especially on the defensive side of things where, as we know, Filip Hronik out for two months. So can you bring that consistency on the back end? Can you bring, you know, efforts that you look back and say, all right, certain players elevated their game

and they brought that consistently. That's going to be vitally important here as you have so many games jammed in over the next two, three weeks. So Hronik's going to be out approximately two months based on the Canucks estimate. How do they deal with this? I mean, so far it's been fine. They'll be getting results.

Maybe they just keep doing this until they can't anymore. Maybe they survive until he's back. But I can't help but think they wouldn't mind bringing someone in anyway, and this only exacerbates the situation. Yeah, I think that was a conversation, well, let's be honest, heading into the season. The defensive depth concern or question was something we were discussing well honest heading into the season the defensive depth concern or question was something we were discussing well in advance of the season starting but how do they do

this i think there's two answers to that uh one of them is quinn hughes you know this is going to be the reality he's going to have to play uh depending on if the game stays in regulation but we're talking about 24 25 26 minutes a game and he's going to have to bring it consistently. That conversation around the Hart Trophy is about to get a lot stronger, I think, if they can win games without Filip Kronik. So you're going to need him to play at a very, very high level, but it's not solely on him. And I think yesterday's game was a classic example

where Quinn Hughes didn't have the strongest of games. He scored a goal, but I think we can all agree it wasn't his best game on the road trip. You needed other players to step up. I thought Carson Soucy played a strong game. He was good defensively. He had a bit of nastiness in his game. And yes, also helped to create a goal on that Jake DeBrusque,

that goal as well. But even just attacking up ice a little bit, carrying the puck a little bit more, you're going to need efforts like that consistently from other players in the lineup, whether it's on the defensive side or the offensive side. Of course, against Detroit, Brandstrom chipped in with the goal.

Now, in terms of adding, yes, this is a team that is going to require something. Now, the question is, can you hold off making that move until the market sets a little bit better? Right now, the challenge I see, Jason, is there's still teams that feel like they are in it. And the ones that are out of it, they're setting the prices quite high. So you're going to have to pay a lot to get something right now.

So can you buy yourself time? Can you potentially go into the new year and say, all right, now we're willing to act. Now there's a few more teams in the last month or so that have fallen out of the race and they'll be willing to sell. Right now is a difficult time because even it might be a reach, but some teams still feel like they're in it. And a month can settle that pretty quickly here. When do you think we'll see Demko. Yeah, I'm hoping on Friday, but that's based on discussions that we've had here on the show and what makes sense from a treatment and just in terms of a recovery element. So I would say, of course,

all eyes on Friday against Columbus, but if not, of course, Tampa Bay on Sunday. That's another game where you look at and say this is a situation where you're at home. You can control the way he recovers from the game. You're not stuck on a flight. You're not traveling right after the game.

You know, kind of like we talked about last week, getting him up to speed on the traveling and just getting the body ready for games and getting back into the rhythm. The trip was body ready for games and getting back into the rhythm. The trip was probably good for that to say, Hey, this is what you're going to have to deal with when you don't play games, when you are practicing, but now getting them tested at home, I would say, you know,

you got six games to hopefully get him a game where he doesn't have to travel. He doesn't have to go anywhere. And part of this, like, I'm not sure where his game is at or his practice is at right now, but Columbus kind of feels like the ideal because Columbus will play on Thursday night. They're going to be on the second of a back-to-back. They're a team that is punching above their weight right now.

But if Thatcher Demko feels like he could go and if the team feels like he could go, that spot to me makes a lot of sense. But as we know, until we see him on the ice, until we see number 35 in blue on the ice at home ice, it's anybody's guess. We're speaking to

Canucks radio analyst Randy Janda here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I wanted to circle back to the blue line discussion again, Randy, and last night's game. Hopefully I'm not alone on this one. We haven't mentioned it yet, but I thought Susie had a really good game last night. Actually, if you look at the numbers.

Unsung hero, buddy. Unsung hero. Yeah, you look at like. That's what should have passed it to him. Yeah, well, he did have an assist. He was actually doing a good job of being patient with the puck and getting his shots through. He led all blue liners and shots on goal with three,

played over 20 minutes, 30 shifts. So he was a constant, right? And I do wonder, we had this conversation even before the Heronic injury happened, where we were like, maybe the key to this whole thing is just telling Soucy and Myers to play better. And that could be as simple as that. We're going to need more out of you guys

because, as you said, trade market might not not materialize it might need to come from within and if anything maybe that's a positive sign moving forward that susie's games i know there's been some hiccups but over the last little bit i've been impressed i think his play is getting better the word heading into this road trip for both of those guys tyler myers and carson susie was decisive being decisive and he's got that in his game now, particularly Carson Soucy in that Minnesota game. But even in the lead up to that, consistency is going to be the key here. It feels like he's got his confidence back. He was taking maybe a half a second longer to make his decisions.

We could see so many more giveaways in his game. He played a quiet game last year. He played a calm game last year. He played a calm game last year. And to start off the year, it just felt like he was, you know, hesitating just a little bit. And that was usually causing the giveaway. But against Minnesota, to your point,

both defensively, he was decisive. I thought there was a little bit of a nasty mean streak. And, you know, two hits in the game, but between the whistles where he's kind of sending a message or a little cross-check here or getting involved in scrums, that's the whistles where he's kind of sending a message or a little cross-check here or getting involved in scrums,

that's the Carson Soucy you remember from last year. There's other moments where if there's open ice, he's attacking it. He picked off a pass in the defensive zone and led an attack for Vancouver and kind of jumped up into the rush, which is exactly what Rick Tockett wants. He wants defensemen to meet pressure with pressure. He wants them to skate into pressure when they get an opportunity and not just make that simple play of chip it into the neutral zone. And Soucy was playing a decisive game in that regard, too.

So I think it was a very strong game. I think the shot that Jake DeBrus ends up scoring on hangs onto the puck there and yet again makes another decisive play. So we're going to talk a lot about, you know, DeBrus coming back with 11 goals, Pedersen being nearly a point per game player, Quinn Hughes playing at another level and finding just certain elements of that game and against Buffalo and Detroit where he just took over the game.

But I think there's going to be a few other conversations further down the lineup. Carson Soucy would be one of them. I thought Pew Suter on this road trip was fantastic, even in a game yesterday where he doesn't pick up a point. His two-way game, and especially on the forecheck, was strong. So it's good to see players further down the lineup elevate their game, and Carson Soucy, I remember that practice before the team went on the road trip at UBC,

and the topic of conversation was, what's wrong with Carson Soucy? How do you get him right? Six games later, he looks like he's right. I have to apologize. I thought Halford said Souter and not Soucy. I was just going to say how good Souter has been in the wake of JT Miller's absence. I mean, this guy's versatility is, I think he's been the unsung hero so far this season.

And I know we talk about everyone, but, you know, this is a guy that can play literally everywhere in the four group. Like you can put him on the wing, you put him center, you can be top six, bottom six. What a great signing he's been. Yeah. All for $1.6 million over a two-year deal, which this year he's on track to smash his personal best guys and I yesterday to me was a game where you notice Pew Suter for all the right reasons there's three plays where he just had his stick in the passing lane disrupting and I love that

because it felt like he was you know he's not as abrasive and in your face as Connor Garland Connor Garland's kind of like Sonic the Hedgehog. He's skating all over the place. He's kind of, you know, super fast. He's got that kind of stature as well. Whereas Suter, it's just he works efficiently, not necessarily all over the ice, but he just reads the game so well. So offensively, we've seen what he's been able to do. But defensively, I thought yesterday,

especially against a team in Minnesota that likes to, you know, have their defensemen create from the back end. They like to activate as well. They did a good job, and P. Suter did a good job of playing that game, a very smart game, where, sure, offensively, he was there, he was involved, but he was also 60% in the face-off circle. And that's been the biggest knock on P. Suter over the last two years, is that he's not as good as face-offs.

In a game from Minnesota where they've got some decent centermen, especially with Erickson Eck, he was able to bring more than offense. All right, if your offense is not going, are you able to make a difference, and are you able to break up plays and allow your team to set up shop

in the offensive zone? And Suter and Garland did a fantastic job of that in the third period. Randy, before we let you go, the biggest question of them all, are you and Batch as opposite sides of the Arsenal-Man United match today? 12-15 our time. Will you be watching together or separately? So I invited Batch to watch this game together. Apparently he's got plans.

I think he's scared because Arsenal is putting up five goals against everybody these days. I'm a Yankees fan. He's a Red Sox fan. Manchester United for him. Arsenal for me. We're on opposites when it comes to two sports. Luckily, when it comes to hockey, we're on the same side. When we're off where we bicker back and forth based on our other preferences arsenal i'll be watching today arsenal have a tough act to follow because they put up five in the first half last week so if they can do that against united which isn't out of the realm

of possibility you're going to be having a fun day you can gloat over batch anyway thanks for doing this today we really appreciate it enjoy the match today enjoy the rest of the week we'll talk again soon all right guys thanks take care thank you. Thank you. That's Randy Bjanda here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. From the football in England to the football in Canada. I'm going to do my What We Learned now and

we really probably should have mentioned this earlier in the show but alas, we're doing it now. Buck Pierce has been named the new head coach of the BC Lions. New general manager Ryan Rigg made and said in a statement, Buck was a candidate we identified early in this process as someone ready to step in and lead our franchise.

Many of you will remember Buck Pierce as a quarterback of the BC Lions way back in the early 2000s. Him and Dave Dickinson, they were both BC Lions quarterbacks. Both are now head coaches in the CFL. So for the last few years, Pierce has slowly moved up the ranks in Winnipeg and then helping the team reach the Grey Cup as their offensive coordinator. He won two Grey Cups in his time in Winnipeg. I think the most important thing, and you've mentioned this about five or six times,

when it was announced that Pierce was in the running for it, they needed to get a guy that was going to get Nathan Rourke on track. And who better than a guy who's quarterbacked in the CFL, has worked as an offensive coordinator in the CFL and is now getting his first bite at the apple of being a head coach. So Buck Pierce

will be announced as the new Lions head coach at 10 a.m. this morning. So another tick on the old to-do list for the Lions this offseason. They got a new general manager. They got a new head coach. They traded Vernon Adams Jr. They are ready to roll. Buck Pierce, the new head coach of your BC Lions.

And they're going to introduce him this morning at 10 a.m. There's going to be that press conference. So give us a mookow on that. I'm going to keep it going Rourke related, but not Nathan. I learned that Curtis Rourke, Nathan's brother who plays for Indiana, will be part of, most likely, the college football playoff. We just don't know. So there's 12 teams in the college football playoff this year.

That's correct, Jason. We just don't know who he's's 12 teams in the college football playoff this year. That's correct, Jason. We just don't know who he's going to play. Hopefully not Purdue. The top four. I don't think Purdue is going to make it. The top four get a bye, and then there's, I don't know, what would you call it? The first round.

Yeah, the first round. And then you go top four get a bye to the quarterfinals. Yeah, exactly. So there are some weird teams that could get buys, though. Yes. Like SMU and Boise State because they played easier schedules and didn't lose. I think SMU lost once. But college football was wild this year.

Oregon is the only team of the power teams that went undefeated, in case I'm mistaken there. And you had Ohio State that looked good. They lost to Michigan at home the other day. I think Alabama's lost three times, but might still be part of the college football playoff. But back to Curtis Roark, he had a terrific season. And I'll be curious to see how he does in the college football playoff.

And I'll be curious to see if he gets much NFL interest in terms of the draft. I don't know where he's been on any NFL mock drafts, you know, but I think he looks more the part of a quarterback than Nathan does. I think he's taller than Nathan. And this is why he transferred to Indiana, because he knew that he was going to get a chance to play some big teams. And it hasn't all gone perfectly for Curtis Rourke. He's had some injuries, hasn't been good in a few games,

but for the most part, he has been very good. And now he's getting a chance to really play on a big stage against a good team. It could be a team like Georgia or something like that that he goes up against. And we all know how many millions of people watch

these games, so Curtis Work is going to be center stage in the college football playoff. The New York Times, sorry, the New York Times, the Athletic, as I read the new york times sorry the new york times the athletic as i read well it is yeah yeah but it's the athletic yeah said that there's sort of a consensus top five with um quarterbacks right now and then after that it gets murky for the draft and it's like cam ward schitter sanders garrett Nussmeyer, Carson Beck, Jalen Milrow. After that, they're like the sixth spot is kind of up for grabs on draft boards.

And they're like Rourke is slowly gaining more sort of like interest in being that guy. And if that's the case, I mean, he could be, I mean, who knows where he could end up going. He won't be like a, I doubt he'd be a first or second round guy. But they were saying like he could move way higher than previously projected. And you're right, his height does have a lot to do with it. Give us a moo cow on that. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.