Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 12/5/24

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

Guest hosts Jamie Dodd & Israel Fehr look back at the previous day in sports, they talk the latest around the Canucks w/ Canucks Talk Host & The Athletic Vancouver's Thomas Drance, 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. Here's Osternack moving toward the slot. Save made by Bronson. Rebound. Score. Rebound. Score. Martian. I wish you could have seen Biz's face while you were scoring goals.

Pure heart. He doesn't know what that feels like, so I'm sure it was exciting to watch. There will be meetings over the weekend, and it's that point Juan Soto will decide where he's going to go. Good morning. Welcome to the Halford and Brough Show here on Sportsnet 650. But no Halford, no Brough today. I'm Jamie Dodd filling in for the next couple of days here. And joining me is Israel Fair. What's going on,

Izzy? Good to be here, Jamie. Yeah, let's do this. Let's do this. We got three hours. Let's get through it, everyone. We can do it. Hey, dog. Hello. Good morning. Laddie, hello. Hello, hello. Okay. See, that time I didn't ask you what's up and throw you off i'll mess with our routine freeze you please don't say hello so i i noticed you put the uh the air horns in there after the juan soto tease i just want you're getting excited to be heartbroken as a jay's man i just want it to be over because we all know it's not happening right after the maybe after the thing last year we're already it's not happening he's not coming to Toronto, sadly. We're coming to you live from the Kintec studio.

Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet, what are you waiting for? Half and a Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilaw honda dealer today and hour one of the show is brought to you by north star metal recycling vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal north star metal recycling they recycle you get paid 11 70 powell street big show today it was a pretty big day in the hockey world yesterday of course with the four nations rosters the four nations face-off rosters officially announced we had a pretty good

idea if it was going to be on the team i don't know why they told the players so far in advance and let it leak out there but anyways now it's official uh we know who's going to be on the team so lots to get into there on the guest list very good thursday night football game in the nfl tonight between the lions and the packers big nfc north battle uh nick shook from nfl.com will join us at 6 30 let's talk about that a little bit at 7 dan rosen from nhl.com he'll join us to break down all of the surprises the snubs the news coming out of the four nation roster announcements yesterday at seven 30, a little CFL talk with JC Abbott from three down nation. Of course, the lions officially rolling out Buck Pierce as their new head coach yesterday. And he had some interesting comments about working with Nathan Rourke, his vision for the team. So

we can get into that with JC Abbott at 730 and at eight o'clock. I'm not on Canucks talk. So thank goodness we have him on the show and your colleague as well. That's right. We can't get away from this guy. Either of us can get away from him. Or he can't get away from us. Godly hour.

And hey, you know, your reward is more time with Thomas Drance. That's exactly right. So Thomas Drance will join us at eight. And well, it's because like I'm his co-host. You're his editor. Yeah. So it's like you're not his boss, but you have like power over him. I do performance reviews.

So he's got all Mr. Thomas Trance. Wow. That must be a fascinating experience. Trance performance review. So you you he's got to be on his best behavior is what I'm saying. When he comes on the radio with, with his editor is real fair at the athletic. All right. So it's Drance at eight JC Abbott, seven 30 Dan Rosen at seven Nick shook at six 30.

I also want to say we are indeed giving away tickets, a of tickets uh to the acdc power up tour 2025 coming to bc place april 22nd 2025 uh tickets go on sale on friday tomorrow december 6 at 10 a.m at ticketmaster.ca but you can win a pair today here's how we're going to do it and i've been told that this is this method has been arrived at to make it absolutely fair for both live radio listeners and podcast listeners and streamers call in at 8 15 today we're giving you the time in advance call in at 8 15 on the dot not a second earlier and is it caller 10 it is color 10 caller 10 uh will win the number is 604 We've erased the number from the studio here. 280

0650. That's what it is. Yeah. Okay. 604-280-0650. Looks like we have our first caller. And I mean ever because this is not a call-in show. 604-280-0650. That's the number you call at 8.15 today.

10th caller wins a pair of tickets stacy dc uh in april at bc plays very exciting all right we got through all that business uh 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, resources, and safety training. Visit bccsa.ca. And as I mentioned, the big news in the world of hockey yesterday uh the rosters for the four nations face off in february are official from a canucks perspective here the canucks have

four players headed to the tournament quinn hughes of course who we already knew was one of the first six named team usa jt miller will be joining him on team USA we can comment on that quickly here in a second Elias Patterson no surprise especially with the way he's performed recently gets named team Sweden and Kevin Lankanen after a really strong performance for the Canucks in the early going of this season he's going to have a chance to represent team Finland which is a pretty cool nod for him considering I mean he didn't have an NHL team until training camp, basically. Yeah, I mean, we're close to it, so maybe taking it a bit

for granted, but his story this year has been incredible. He's played great, he's kept the Canucks in a bunch of games, and this is a nice nod. I mean, I think for players, it's been a big discussion where this ranks compared to something like the Olympics, but the thing that you've heard from a bunch of players,

and we've been hearing it since they announced all the rosters yesterday, anytime you get the opportunity to put your nation's colors on and call yourself a member of, in our case, Team Canada, that is the ultimate honor in sports. I don't know if this is a hot take or not, but I feel like USA has the best roster. Well, we'll get into it. I think because I think you're onto something. Definitely not a hot take.

I mean, I said this before it was announced. Like Canada obviously has the better game breakers and the McDavid's and the McKinnon's. But overall, if you look at the depth of the lineup, I would say USA is the strongest. Well, and I do find it interesting that right now, Canada is still the betting favorite in the tournament because I agree with you.

I think you look at it. And we'll get to the goaltending and all of that. But the Team USA roster is absolutely stacked. And look, again, we had heard reports that Team USA was looking at JT Miller's status on personal leave and wasn't concerned about it. Right? They wasn't going to stop them from picking him to the team. he deserves to be there on merit we kind of knew he was going to be on the team but still good news i think for canucks fans to see him officially named right that at least in the broader hockey world they're not seeing his leave as something that should

prevent him from playing at a high level as soon as february right there that they're counting on him being available and and being up to speed by then. Yeah, by all accounts, that was, you know, there have been plenty of conversations around the league about all the players considered, but there were certainly going to be more conversations, more questions about JT Miller given his status right now. And everything that's been reported is that there are very,

very few concerns about his availability and not just his availability. Like he'll be there that he will be ready to play. Exactly right. Not just that he'll be ready, you know, a week before that, but he'll have had enough time to get back up to speed. And as you say, be playing at a high level by the time the tournament rolls around in February. So there's a lot to get into. Right. We can dig into Team Canada, some interesting selections there. We can talk about the relative strengths of the teams and where Team USA might have the edge over Team Canada. The first question I want to throw out, and I'm curious to get to hear from the listeners

on this, 650-650 is the Dunbar-Lumber text line. If you've been on the fence about this tournament, or not even on the fence, just not interested, because I know there's a large contingent of people out there who have taken that approach, right? And maybe they still have memories of the kind of gimmicky last world cup in 2016, and they're not ready to get fully on board with this. But even though it is, you know, best on best, I'll be at only with four teams, not a full tournament like the Olympics.

I've seen a fair amount of skepticism about this tournament. So I'm curious if you fell into that camp are you starting to get more excited because it starts to feel a little bit real here now right it's not just hypothetical and we all knew we like oh wow McDavid and McKinnon are going to play together that's really cool so that was already baked in and we had a pretty good idea of what the rosters were going to look like but now I mean these teams have they've started to make some big decisions right they're starting to shape their rosters you can kind of get a sense of the identity they want their teams to play with you can start to imagine like okay how is canada going to match up with what the usa chose to do they had some interesting selections as well that are drawing just drawing some criticism south of the border but um i'm

curious to hear people like does this start to make you a little bit more excited i don't know about you i've already been on board like i'm i know i have full confidence that the intensity level is going to be there the players really want it to be they're going to make it a great event even if the nhl even it's kind of a half baked idea like the players are so hungry for best on best they're going to make it a great event are you are you into it are you buying into it are you still on the fence no i'm i'm into it and i i think that the two major factors for people who have been skeptical is one it it doesn't have the cachet the built-in cachet of the olympics which uh is a lot of hockey you know we immediately go to those big can hockey moments, but there's also just the

Olympic brand, you know, a hundred years of a major competition. This is something that that's been made up. That's obviously something that people will go at. And then I think people feel like there's been just a lot of speculation on something that, again, is not necessarily seen as being the real thing. But now that the rosters are out, I am already starting to see a shift there because it's real now. Some decisions were made. Some players were left off.

They will not be playing for Team Canada. And I've never really had the concern about, like, I don't think this is going to be an all-star game. Everything you've heard from the top guys, and you hear this in other sports too, right? You hear this in basketball, for instance. Whether it is something like the all-star game or whether it's going to the Olympics or going to a World Cup, we see it with Team Canada, we see it with Team USA.

When the top players in the program, the top players available, come out and express how important it is to them, everybody falls in line. So when you've got Connor McDavid and Nathan McKinnon and Sidney Crosby talking about, and Sidney Crosby's played for Canada at the highest level for a very long time. He's got some of the signature moments for Canada.

When they're talking about, McDavid especially being the top guy talking about how vital this is the top guy, talking about how vital this is to him and his career. You're not going to see the guys that just made the team that are on the fourth line going, well, you know, McDavid's a bit of a try-hard. Seth Jarvis isn't going to be loafing it out there yet.

Yeah, I'm just going to mail this one in, right? Like, if the top guys are going to the tournament with the idea that something is at stake here that something matters uh then i think that's gonna be huge and i think look we're not talking a lot of finland we're not talking a lot of sweden i imagine that those players are gonna be pretty pretty on one to prove that hey like don't don't overlook us we can compete with with canada in the u.s at this

tournament yeah absolutely um i just think i i can't imagine a world where the kind of generation and i'll just i'll just limit it to canada in the u.s right but obviously the the emotion is going to be there for sweden and finland especially in that game right because it's such a rivalry but you just think about canada in the u.s and the players are going to be involved in that right and kind of this generation of top elite players who have been you know who are at picked first or second in the draft right you've got McDavid McKinnon Matthews Eichel this whole group of incredible players who have never had the chance to represent to go against each other best on best for their countries on this type of stage, right? It's just never happened. And I have a very hard

time believing that those players are going to be in a Canada versus US game and not going all out, right? And that it won't be an intensive fair like they have been dying waiting for this these are elite players of their generation and now they finally get the chance they're going to make the most of it they are going to buy in and that's always what it comes down to if the players buy in if the players take it seriously that's infectious we're going to get sucked into it so i was already on board i was already excited i love best on best international hockey so i was already hyped now i'm starting to feel even more hyped uh with the roster announcement are you worried about guys getting injured i mean that's my only i mean like quinn hughes you mean

yes or earliest i mean obviously it's not gonna have the physicality level of an initial playoff game i would assume but i'm sure it'll still be physical yeah as you said it's not going to have the physicality level of an NHL playoff game, I would assume, but I'm sure it'll still be physical. As you said, it's not going to be an all-star game. Guys will get thrown around. If you want best on best hockey, that's the risk. Cost of doing business. You know what I mean? The Olympics are mid-season.

You just got to deal with it. I'm not like, yes, a player could get injured and it could seriously hurt a cup contender's chances. That's it. If you can't accept that, then you can't have best on best hockey, like that's just part of the deal there's no way around that i mean what's like what's worse uh quinn hughes getting injured in a canucks regular season game or getting hurt playing for usa it's the same result right he's missing time for vancouver if he gets hurt in the next like couple weeks for the canucks it's still this like you're still gonna feel like crap like

yeah it's it doesn't make it any better that he's hobbling to the bench wearing a Canucks jersey versus a Team USA jersey no absolutely so yeah I mean look you will you be holding your breath a little bit especially if Quinn Hughes is out there and in key situations very excited like this is going to be a lot of fun I'm super stoked yeah there's just no way around that that issue right so yeah for uh for Canucks fans look watching Quinn Hughes and JT Miller and Elias Pettersson and I guess Kevin Lankanen if he gets into games, there'll be some nervous moments. But again, I think that is a small price to pay

for the excitement that best-on-best hockey can bring. So I'll run through some of the interesting selections, let's put it that way, for Team Canada here, some of the kind of off-the- the radar names that ended up making it. So at forward, one of the ones getting a lot of attention is Seth Jarvis from the Carolina hurricanes, Sam Bennett of the Panthers.

And of course he's got that Stanley cup winning a sheen right now brings that grit, those defensive elements, all of that. But I didn't see a lot of people picking him to make the team. Anthony Sorelli, another one, a kind of people picking him to make the team Anthony Sorelli another one kind of defensive center from the Tampa Bay Lightning who I don't think a lot of people had had making it and then on the blue line Travis Sanheim and Colton Pareko a couple of big

physical defensive players make it on the blue line and the kind of instant reaction I've seen to this Canadian roster, and I think it's the correct one from a lot of people, is the forward group is stacked. You really like Cale McCarr on the blue line. The rest of the blue line and obviously goalie is a bit of a question mark. Yes, the old Canadian goalie debate is no longer confined to just the World Juniors. It has come full force here in the

last decade since we saw best on best where this is a real question. Jordan Bennington has had some pretty high highs in the NHL. He's had some pretty low lows as well. Aiden Hill maybe doesn't have quite the same track record or played like in the same number of games, But he also is a guy that if you talk to goalie people, they love him. They think that he's, he's a really, really good player, but there's not that,

there's not that trust of going into an Olympics with Roberto Luongo or Martin Brodeur or Martin Brodeur or Curtis Joseph, right? It's not, it's not the same conversation. No, it absolutely is not. And I think even looking at the whole roster and even the

forward group and look the four group is really good right you know you look at what sam reinhardt has done over the last little bit right mitch marner's having a great season brayden points an incredible player it does feel like a lot is resting on the shoulders of three guys here mcdavid mckinnon and kale mccarr and hey if you had to have three guys here, McDavid, McKinnon, and Kael McCarr. And hey, if you had to have three guys who are going to have huge responsibilities, those are three pretty good ones to choose, right? Like arguably three of the five or six best players in the world are McDavid, McKinnon, and McCarr.

But I don't know about the depth of talent, especially on the blue line. It feels a little thinner than it has in other editions of team canada we think back to 2014 at sochi or 2010 here uh in vancouver it just feels like more than those editions the top players are going to have to really really be great for this team to have a chance at this tournament yeah it does it does feel that way. And, I mean, look, you look at those recent Olympic teams where you've got Pronger and Niedermeyer,

and then you throw in Duncan Keith. Those are three guys that first ballot Hall of Famers. You're looking at the roster right now, Kael McCarr trending that way. Alex Bertangelo has had a great career, but he's not Chris Pronger, he's not Scott Niedermeyer, he's not Duncan Keith. And Travis Sennott.ott edermeyer he's not duncan keith and you know travis especially at this stage of his career at his peak you know a different

conversation but you don't yeah a player that you love to have on the roster but yes you're right he's he's not that guy anymore and then when you go down to someone who is on the come up travis sanheim really good player he's had a nice year the flyers tried to trade him yeah that's before the the draft in 2023 for tory kruk well even colton pareko like and i know it's his it's his contract but very recently he was looked at as like a distressed asset i was like you'd have to pay one of the worst contracts in the league yeah and i think there's a lot to like about the player but it's not the caliber of player that we've typically seen and i do think part of what we're seeing here is well i do wonder how much of it is a

reaction some of these picks to man our goaltending isn't great so we better take some like really physical defensive defensemen to kind of make up for that and maybe leaning a bit into a defensive strategy overall even you look at a pick like Anthony Sorelli on the fourth line, right? Sam Bennett down there as well. Like guys that you feel really confident about in their own end of the rank playing that defensive game, because I just don't,

I don't know what they had, like the complete defenseman to pick, you know, to take like the guys they left off or like, you know, Evan Bouchard, right. Who's a really good player,

but obviously comes with some defensive wards comes with some decision making concerns I think they kind of had to choose more one-dimensional players than they have in the past and that stands out when you're talking about Team Canada which is always an incredibly talented roster would you rather have Seth Jarvis over Conor Bedard well that's interesting yes Conor Bedard has more points, not by many, by much. Actually, I think they might even be tied, but nevertheless, you'd rather have Seth Jarvis than Conor Bedard

at this point? Yes. You trust him more in those big moments? Yeah. And I think he's just, he's a more established NHL player. And yeah, the numbers don't jump out at you when you look at it, but Seth Jarvis, like, I think there's a little bit of, like, a Conor Garland thing going on there with Seth Jarvis, right,

where he's just kind of that, you know, wins a ton of puck battles, plays with a ton of jam, right, is always making plays below the goal line, all of those things. I think he has a more mature game than Conor Bedard does at this point, right? I get the argument for taking Conor Bedard. You're trying to groom him. But, like, this isn't a stepping stone to the Olympics. It's partly that, but they're also trying to win this tournament.

They're taking it seriously, right? They're not just saying, okay, we got to give Conor Bedard some international experience here. They're trying to put together the best roster, and I think Seth Jarvis earns that spot over Conor Bedard. Yeah, he's a fancy stats king, right? He's a guy that people love because of what he does. And he can produce.

And look, if Conor Bedard was on fire for Chicago right now and scoring tons of goals, I think it's a bit of a different conversation. But he's still such a young guy. There's no guarantee. Because of that top-heavy nature of the lineup, it's not a guarantee that he would be a top-six guy. No, not at all.

And so if they're picking players, like Anthony Sorelli was a bit of a surprise because maybe in the years where the Lightning were winning the Stanley Cup, he was a guy that was getting that, oh, he's way better than you realize. He's not Sasha Barkov-level underrated, but he's underrated. And that shine has gone away a little bit as the team has taken a step back.

But clearly, I guess over that time period, and it helps that John Cooper is the coach for Team Canada, they feel like the trust is there that he can be a fourth line guy. Like Conor Bedard's not going to play that role. Seth Jarvis, 16 points in 18 games. Conor Bedard, 19 points in 26 games. Yeah.

So that is a fairly significant gap in points per game there. Yeah. Yeah. But again, it's not about... Also, Conor Bedard plays for the Blackhawks. That's part of it. I mean, yes, he's had an underwhelming season thus far. He would even admit that.

Obviously, he has admitted that. Yeah. He's had an underwhelming year thus far. But he also plays on, like, probably the worst team in the league. They're brutal. Yeah. Yeah. And I just also think, I mean, Seth Jarvis, he's played in the playoffs right for carolina like he has more of that high level

experience against really good players than conor bedard does and i do think it's interesting i mean if you could get conor bedard like in on truth serum on on record how annoyed at the chicago blackhawks is he right because if they put a better team around him and he's having a better season he had a chance to make this team, he had a chance to make this team. He absolutely had a chance to make this team. Now, probably he'll be on the Olympic team when it comes around, and that's a much bigger deal. And, you know, they haven't

killed his chances of making that team yet, but like they cost him this opportunity a little bit. Yeah, he wouldn't have had that problem if he was on the Canucks. That's right. Adog, you said you were more concerned or you were very concerned about the Americans. Do you want to give us just a quick rundown?

What worries you about Team USA? Well, they're just deeper. They have better D, better goaltending. Obviously, they don't have Canada's game breakers as I said, but if you look at across the lineup forward group, I'd say that if they're not quite as good, they're very close.

I just think. I just feel like they're just the deeper team. Their defensive group is nasty, man. Yeah. Like Quinn Hughes and Adam Fox, Charlie McAvoy, Zach Warency. Zach Warency's having an incredible season. Jacob Slavin, like one of the best defensive defensemen in the NHL, and Brock Faber, who's like a fantastic young defenseman.

I mean, that is. It's a great mix. That's an outrageous top six and just like almost a perfect mix of players as you said where you can if you want to go all offense at the top and have Quinn Hughes and Adam Fox and then you have you know McAvoy and Wierenski and Slavin and Faber as your shutdown pairs that's your third pair like that's oh that's incredible so you compare that with you know Hellebuck and Ottinger and Swayman in the crease, and it'll probably be Hellebuck and Ottinger fighting for the starts there. I mean, that's going to be very difficult to score. And that's before you even get to, you know, Matthews and Eichel and all of them up front. So I agree. Team USA looks absolutely stacked. I think this might be the best Team USA we've ever seen assembled at one of these events. So natural they'll finish fourth. Yeah, that's right.

They'll choke. They'll choke. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. And now joining us, my regular co-host on Canucks Talk. Of course, he also covers the team for the Athletic. Izzy's colleague as well at the Athletic. He's a presentation of Freeway Mazda.

He is Thomas Trantz. What's going on, Trantzer? Not just Izzy's colleague, Izzy's direct report. Yes. Radio hit with my boss and my co-host. Performance review time, Trancer. Yeah, we've got a lot, we've got some bones to pick with you, buddy. Alright, so get ready. Perfectly reasonable. Yeah. Alright, so Canucks

back on practice at home, practice ice at home after that six-game road trip. And, you know, I was saying earlier like i think jim jim rutherford's commentary yesterday probably cut off some of the jt miller questions that rick tocket might have received otherwise uh today after practice but even beyond just your chance to you know talk to rick tocket for the first time in a while or the media's chance to talk to him for the first time in a while. I mean, what are your kind of big questions about what we might see at Canucks practice,

what we might learn about the team as they, you know, come back home for a six-game homestand here? Well, I think timelines are still going to be asked for. I don't know if they'll be, you know, I don't know if Rick Tocantin will have a material update, but I think that's the big one. You know, you've got, what, nine of 11 games at home it's the holidays it's a it's a busy time on the social calendar I feel like you know certainly when I was younger I remember like this was the time of year that uh you know your one or two Canucks games a year like if you're a Normie fan

right I feel like this is sort of the time of year where you often go to your first game and um sometimes with your family or sometimes with a work colleague or a key client or what have you so i do feel like that's what fans are most interested in and and i do suspect that talk it'll be asked i don't know if they'll have updates and that's fine right like that's fair but i think that's something that's important for um the media to try and figure out today or at least try and ask so i really think i mean number one thing i'm curious to see is attendance like who's there yeah right that's that's going to be number one and then number two uh what do the canucks have to say about uh the status or just general updates on on sort of of when fans can expect to see Demko and Miller in particular.

Cause we, we know the timeline for chronic, we know that it's eight weeks, right. We know that it's going to be a bit. And then, you know, I'd be curious,

like, I feel like I'd pick at, and I don't know if I'll be at practice today. Cause it's an 1130. Right. So even if I go, it's not like I'd be able to talk to talk given that I'll be on connect stock. So that was a lot of talks in a very, very short period of time.

But the, you know, the, like, I'm curious, I guess I'll get into it on Friday, but you know, my sense of it watching this team on this road trip was you love the effort. You love the results you love sort of the grit focus competitiveness and yet i didn't like the process in terms of this team really struggling to control five on five play often against pretty mid-opposition, and then against the Minnesota Wild, really get flattened at the top of the lineup. You know, Lankanen was phenomenal across his five starts on this road trip.

They got some really opportunistic, like, efficient shooting performances, especially from Jake DeBrusque and Pugh Suter. Yep. And so they were able to sort of get the goaltending to get just enough saves and get that opportunistic finishing so that even though they didn't outscore their opponents a five-on-five and actually were outscored five-on-five on the road trip as a whole, right? You sort of come back with this relatively sterling 4-1-1 record,

nine points in 12 games. Okay, great. You know, that's, again, full credit. But I think there are some seams that are showing in terms of some of these absences catching up to the Canucks in the form of them losing some clicks off their fastball. If the next six games, you know, against Tampa, against even this Columbus team that's way more dangerous

than I think we're used to expecting when Columbus rolls into town against the Panthers, et cetera. Yeah. Look kind of the way that those six games did on the road trip. You know, I think that's going to be a run of six games in which the Canucks don't pick up nine points. And in fact may struggle to pick up six may struggle,

struggle to pick up nine points and in fact may struggle to pick up six may struggle struggle to pick up seven i think they're going to need to play better to keep up the pace that they've maintained you know even in the absence of so many key star players which you know again i'm impressed by that impressed by that sort of quote-unquote resilience aspect uh but not so impressed with sort of where their actual team game is trending and And I'm curious to sort of pick at that. I know that Tocantin, I'm sure, is not going to sort of blast or look a gift horse or gift wins in the mouth, but I do think that's real, and I'm curious to see how it plays out

and what the Canucks coach actually thinks right now. The injuries and absences, as you mentioned, Drance, are obviously a part of this. And it's all part of the calculus of looking at this upcoming homestand, looking at the way that they grinded out those points on the road. But given what you've seen now over a couple of months, where are you at on what's the Canucks' concern? Is it their floor or their ceiling? What's the place for this team where you look at and go, yeah, they were able to grind out points on that road trip. That certainly says something for their floor,

given that they've got a number of key contributors out. But now they've got some good teams coming through town here. Yeah, they don't have some of those guys. No Demko, no Miller at at this point but are we still also talking about some questions about the ceiling for this team well i think so i mean i think that's always been sort of the the question that we had right it was will this team can this team graft a layer of like dynamic offensive attacking heft onto you know the the structural foundation the quality defense that they were able to play last season and and you know i i don't know

that we've seen this team play anywhere close to their ceiling case over the course of the first two months and and i think the the you know there's been months. And I think there's been the struggles at home. There's been inconsistency. There's been a habit of slow starts. There's been an internal feeling that the team has struggled to play the right way on a night-to-night basis. And then you get to this point in the season over the last two weeks where you're down so many men that it's just tough

to even really evaluate, right? Like you're just looking for sort of different things. You're looking for this team to stay afloat or hold the fort, as it were, as opposed to hit that ceiling. And, you know, until Demko, Miller, and realistically, Hronik are back in the lineup or, you know, until you've got that sort of core mix of players, right? Like at the very least, Pettersson, Garland, you know, until you've got that sort of core mix of players, right? Like at the very least, Pedersen, Garland, you know, Miller, just as like the three key

engines up front, Demko, your Vesna nominee, Annette, and then your top pair, which has been this key team's most important engine over the course of the season. Like until you have those six guys in the lineup, I think it's pretty difficult for us to expect or even have a good sense of what this team's ceiling looks like. We just haven't seen it for a single game all season. So, you know, until we get there, I think it's going to be pretty hard for us to know, right? For us to know if this team has the sort of ceiling required that, you know, once they get into the playoffs, once you get into the second round or the third round and are playing in key games you're going to be able to you know reliably

generate shots and scoring chances against the best competition that the league has to offer right like i think i think we kind of have a sense that this team is going to be able to hang in those moments that they're that they've got the talent level uh to be there but but can they generate can they do what they did last season, but also do it in a way where they're actually controlling games as opposed to leaning on circus six-on-five performances and incredible jaw-dropping comebacks and the drama that sort of powered the Canucks to game seven

of the second round against the Oilers, but ultimately left them scoring three goals on like 27 shots in two games with a chance to advance to the Western Conference final, right? Like that, that ceiling question I think remains and I think is going to remain like, it's not something that they can answer on this homestand. It's not something they're going to be able to answer until they've got players back. You know, we're comfortable with the floor. It's a very high floor team. There's no question about that.

I think we look at them as a, you know, credible playoff team, not a fringe playoff team, not a team you have to even wonder about at this point in the year, but a team that, you know, can they win the cup? That sort of parallel lines, that other big question. Is this a team with enough quality to win the cup? And I still don't feel like we have any good sense of it to sort of come down on it one way or the other,

especially just given what we haven't seen, which is this team's six most important players play a single game together yet this year. Max Sasson sent down by the team yesterday back to Abbotsford, and I said on our show yesterday that I kind of guessed it was maybe just them looking to accrue cap space for a day and that he'd be back up. But I know Irfan Ghaffar reported yesterday on social media

that he thinks Lekker Mackey might be coming back up from Abbotsford. Of course, he had the five-game sample in the NHL earlier in the season. If that is indeed the case, what would you kind of read into Sasson going down and Lekermackie coming back up? Yeah, I think a little bit of surprise, to be honest with you. Lekermackie, you know, was called up on the strength of a really dominant run of, you know, two weeks in the American League. But he hasn't really been at that level since he got sent down. Like, this has not been, you you know two weeks where it was like wow seven shots a game what are we talking about here we need to see what this guy can do at the nhl

level uh it's been a little bit slower for him uh in terms of the american league production and american league dominance i think the last couple weeks so a little bit of a surprise but maybe something that suggests that this team feels like they need some offensive punch. Like they need a game breaker, right? Like, like you're getting into these games against Buffalo and Detroit and Minnesota and you know, even that Boston game, right. Where they generate very few shots and it's like, wouldn't it be nice maybe to have a guy you feel like can score on a dime, can, can manufacture, you know,

offense with a half slapper off of the rush, right? Can just sort of give you some of what LeKarimaki is able to give you in terms of a raw offensive toolkit that realistically, if you're talking about that Baines-Sasson tier, you know, I don't think you're expecting quite that level of offensive dynamism from the individual player. So to me, that would suggest that this team feels like, hey, maybe we're going to need some goals here,

especially on home ice. So yeah, very interesting report from Irpon. We'll see if LeKarimaki joins the team to practice today. And if he gets in the lineup on Friday against, you know, a young Columbus team that can absolutely fill the net, because that might also be a matchup thing, right? Like you're talking about this Blue Jackets team with Fantilli and Kent Johnson and Voronkov and Marchenko and, you know, Sean Monahan's been near point per game. He's been incredible. Zach Warensky, right? There's a lot of offensive firepower and they play pretty high octanectane, high-event hockey here.

So maybe the Canucks feel like they need just a little shot in the arm offensively to try and keep up if that Columbus game goes a certain way. That, to me, would make sense and would sort of be what I'd expect is the major reason, right? The reason that I can square the most with sort of where this team's at, where their recent performance has trended, and who's coming to town in the next few days. It feels like the road trip, the effort, the results, has maybe bought the Canucks a little bit of leeway when they get home and start this homestand, but it has pushed back in the memory that the homestand prior to the road trip they had some

some pretty bad periods and some pretty long stretches there where like you're saying drancer like not a lot of offense not a lot of energy uh do they have have they bought themselves a little bit of time to say hey you know we're we went on the road we grinded out some points we're figuring some things out uh i mean when rick Talkett is talking about, you know, fans and how much money they're paying for tickets, that's not a good thing. And it feels like, you know, a bad game against Columbus. Are we going to be right back to the same conversations that we were having before the road trip?

Yeah, and then a nooner against the Lightning on Sunday, right? Yeah. And look, the truth is, is that this Canucks team has played some really good hockey, all of it on the road this season, right. That's just that's just where we're at. Right. The home performances have been lackadaisical far too regularly. And I don't I don't have an answer for why. Like, I suspect it's probably small sample randomness. you know, if you look at this team's road performance this season, they're like, you know, plus their goal differential is in the double digits plus. Well, they're only plus one as a team, right? So that means it's minus that amount on home ice.

They've been widely outscored. There have been too many nights where they come out flat. I don't think they've been able to buy a break. And so, you know, it's just, it's probably nothing, right? where they come out flat. I don't think they've been able to buy a break. And so, you know, it's just, it's probably nothing, right? Like, there's no reason why this team would come home and struggle. And yet, that's happened. So, like, you know, the perfect California road trip, and then it's followed up by that, you know, two-win, six-game trip.

And the losses were miserable. They performed bad. They were bad. And then they go back out on the road, and it's like, wow, 4-1-1 without JT Miller, without Veronik, without Besser for a game. Wow, that's incredible. Yeah, you don't want to come back and be flat again.

I mean, then it would feel like there's something, whether it's, you know, the distraction of the local market or something more environmental. If it persists, like if we get to the 30, 35, 40 game mark here and we're still talking about this team's dramatic home road splits, you know, that's going to necessitate some uncomfortable questions that I think remain premature here. So it would certainly be nice to see this team perform well in front of their paying customers and ward off, you know, any such deep dives. All right. Four Nations roster reveal. Give us your Team Canada takes.

What do you think about the job they did? I mean, it would be nice to see Canada stop some pucks. Hopefully they can get enough saves. I mean, I'm a big Colton Pareko guy, so I don't really have a huge problem with the composition of their defense. I probably prefer Noah Dobson, but only narrowly. I think Pareko's incredible, and I think he'll remind people of that. I like the continuity in the top four, right?

The fact that Theodore and Pietrangelo and Makar and Taves are teammates, I think that's a huge edge in a come together quickly and practice and put a product out on the ice that can beat, you know, four other really, really good teams or three other really, really good teams. You know, up front, I didn't feel like there were too many snubs. I'm a little surprised they didn't go a bit younger uh and sort of use the four nations tournament a little bit more explicitly to blood players like celebrini and bedard who are pretty

clearly going to be crucial and in the mix for the milan olympics in 2026 so you know it felt a little bit um felt a little bit like man it's been so long since we had an international tournament we really need to just like make sure we get some of the vets. This might be some of their last chances. There's guys who've done a lot for Hockey Canada. They need to be on this team. So it felt like a team. So it's a team that's composed in a way that really highlights Vancouver, Canada's issues in net as a nation, right?

It's a team that I think will be able to get off to a pretty good running start given some of the continuity from the players, like players who've played together in the past, Crosby, Marchand, et cetera, et cetera, and the continuity on defense. So, look, they're probably going to be favored to win the tournament, and they should be. And then thirdly, you get to the, you know, it is a team that feels a little bit like stuck in time, like a team for the present as opposed to a team

that's sort of a part of a more like pronounced, thoughtful, holistic view of restarting the best on best program in a way that helps deliver gold in 2026 2026 right this this feels more standalone in terms of terms of its composition and so those are my sort of three main takeaways from how hockey canada built this roster and you know i i guess look if you if you're worried about your goaltending really prioritizing the defensive skill of who you're bringing right does that explain why it's sanheim does that explain why it's pare? Does that explain why it's Sanheim? Does that explain why it's Pareko?

Does that explain why it's Konekny? Some of those more reliable two-way pieces. Does this team worry that they're going to need to play lockdown low-event hockey in order to win this tournament? So that sort of would be my takeaway. Honestly, gentlemen, I look at these four rosters and I really struggle to imagine that Sweden is not the best team. Really?

I think Sweden is the best team on paper. That's spicy. spicy oh yeah i have for me it's the u.s yeah and the u.s has the best blue line and the best goaltending but they did kind of go a little bit boomer up front they could have been more skilled than they are yeah and so i i feel like because i think the u.s left some change on the table, you know, that Swedish blue line is preposterous, man. Like, absolutely ridiculous. And I just sort of look at that roster and just think that might be the most complete group here.

You know, their goaltending is going to be great. You know, I think with Forsling and Hedman headman you know like they're going to be able to throw forsling and headman at you late in games yeah that's tough it's just it's they're just scary that blue line up and down is is incredible uh they've got the elite skill up front they've got the grinders and they've got the goaltending like to me they've they just that's just the i think that's the scariest and most complete roster yeah it's interesting i interesting. I mean, you can't sleep on them, right? Pedersen's the X factor. We're going to be having the Pedersen conversation with Sweden.

You're saying Pedersen's going to lead Team Sweden over Quinn Hughes and JT Miller in the gold medal game. That's what your prediction is? Yeah, let's have fun. That sounds great. Absolutely. Let's do it. All right.

Thanks, buddy. Good luck on the show. Holding down the fort. You're holding down the fort now for the next couple of days on Canucks.co. We'll talk soon, man. All right. Cheers, thanks buddy. Good luck on the show holding down the fort. You're holding down the fort now for the next couple of days on Canucks.co. We'll talk soon, man. Alright, cheers, boys. Be well. Thanks, Drance. That is Thomas Drance on Sportsnet 650 brought to you by Freeway Mazda,

Canada's number one consumer-rated Mazda dealer. Very weird bathroom situation at the new LA Clippers Arena. We got some audio here. I really like the fact that they have so many bathrooms they don't want anybody lingering in the hallways yeah i was told there's no mirrors in the bathroom so you just it's 18 percent more efficient when

there's no mirrors in the bathroom you just get right out so that's the timberwolves broadcast talking about the new la clippers arena theippers Arena, the Intuit Dome. Apparently, the bathrooms don't have mirrors in them, and they do this to get people in and out of there faster. Because I guess you spend too much time looking at yourself in the mirror in the bathroom. I don't know about you. For me, that's awkward. Like, I don't like the idea of going into a bathroom. Not at a sporting event.

Well, just to be able to check yourself out super fast, you know, make sure you're all good to go. There's just a wall that says you're beautiful. Fix your hair quickly, you know, do something to make, you know. I don't like the idea of going into a bathroom without mirrors. With no mirror. That seems strange to me. I don't know, though.

That bothers the hell out of me. I'm trying to imagine, you know, like at a Whitecaps game at BC Place, and you go in, and it's in and out pretty quick. I know, but. I'm not looking, I'm not sticking around looking at the mirror. Don't you look at the mirror for one second? You're not fixing your hair? I mean, I look incidentally because I'm there washing my hands. Just to make sure you don't got a chicken wing in your face or something like that.

Like, you know. I don't know. 18% more efficient, you guys. I don't know. For me, I think that's a little strange. I want to see that study. Where did they get that? Yeah, right? Why 18%? How'd they land on that yeah this is a thing though the the toilet situation at the intuit dome steve balmer the owner of the clippers is apparently it was like personally invested in this at a very deep level there was i can actually

understand this part of it yeah there's a serious like he was like there's 1400 toilets apparently in the intuit dome which is incredible when you think about it like even if everyone per person even if everyone lined up at one so it'd still be like you know 10 people in line like in front of you you know what i mean like it's still an incredible ratio and this was like a direct mandate from steve ballmer that was like we're going to have this many toilets there's a great piece up um The Ringer wrote earlier this year or last year at The Ringer, just exploring his obsession with pushing the bathrooms to the limit at the

Intuit. This is like a George Costanza, the Yankees type thing. It's just so it's very strange. I don't know. They also changed the uniforms to cotton. Yeah, right. Well, it is a natural fiber. I don't know. If I go to a bathroom and there's no mirror in there, I'm immediately weirded out by that.

It's strange to me. Yeah, I mean, I'm just curious what it actually looks like. Like, if it's just like a white room, it feels like an asylum, that would be creepy. Are guys really spending that much time in the mirror that it's causing lineups? I know I do. Like, you look at it for a second and you move on.

You don't have Lush's hair? That's true. We don't all look like Laddie and Leon Dreisaitl with Alec over here. You guys know about the Leon Dreisaitl thing? Oh, that Laddie thinks he looks like Leon Dreisaitl? I don't think I look like him. He's starting this rumor.

Laddie says he's Leon Dreisaitl's doppelganger. Well, it's because somebody said Halford looked like the Rizzler. The Rizzler in the future? Yeah. I can kind of see it, actually. Oh, no, that's tough. I can see it in the cheeks, baby. The Rizzler.

Oh, my gosh. Just on the bathroom thing. Even at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Intuit Dome, Steve Ballmer got up and he's speaking and he's like, the quote is toilets. 1,160 toilets and urinals. We do not want people waiting in line. We want them back in their damn seats.

And he says it's three times the NBA average. So like this is a multi-year, long-standing obsession. Toilets? The toilets. Turn the seats into toilets so you won't have to leave. Isn't that the Homer Simpson's invention? I'm sitting in the right chair. I mean, if you really want to save time, that's the way to do it.

I mean, it might be awkward. Please don't give them any ideas. It might smell odd. I'm not sure how the food situation would work, but I mean, if you really want to save time, just convert the seats into the toilet itself. Stadiums and arenas, do they still have, in the men's room, just the trough? You know what I mean, if you really want to save time, just convert the seats into the toilet itself. Well, stadiums and arenas, do they still have just like in the men's room, just like the trough?

You know what I mean? Where it's not like... I don't think any of the new stadiums do. They should. Wouldn't that be more efficient? Those things are scary, Jamie. Come on. What's wrong with the trough?

I've been to a few festivals recently and they've all gone to the trough. It works beautifully. It works great. Look, I'm saying, if you're just purely concerned about efficiency, the trough is the way to go i'm with jamie wow pro trough in the morning here hey you spent a lot of time at nat bailey you don't know i have i i was scarred by it what's wrong with the trough i'm not yeah nat bailey that's a good point there's nothing wrong get

people in and out fast i've never waited in line to go to the bathroom at Nat Bailey. Absolutely not. Steve Ballmer could take some lessons from Nat Bailey. I wasn't expecting to come out as a big trough guy, a P-trough guy here on Halford and Brough here. All right, give us a moo cow there. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.