Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 1/5/26

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, including Canada falling to Czechia at the World Juniors for the third year in a row, plus  they chat a couple of Canucks overtime losses with NHL.com & In Goal Magazine's Kevin Woodley. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Here's the hole. Here's the boot by Luke. And that kick is... No, God! No right! He missed it. Luke missed it.

Poster knock. With a wrist shot, I like it, and rebound they score. Fraser Minton in the crease, wins it for the Bruins. The Vancouver native scores his second of the night, and Boston takes it three to two. We just don't want the playoffs out of reach. It's still there, you know. We're hanging in there.

Hang in there, baby. You said it, kitty. Good morning, Vancouver, 6-1 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Halpert. It is brough. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios

and beautiful Fairview Slow. in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning and happy New Year, everyone. Happy New Year, A-Dog, happy New Year to you. Happy New Year. And Ladd, happy New Year to you as well. Hello, hello. Halper and Brub in the morning is a brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Hour 1 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, visit the Middle 1170 Pall Street in Vancouver.

We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio. Make 2026 your year to move better and step stronger with Kintech custom orthotics. Ooh, new read day. We got a lot ahead on the Halford & Brough show. First show of 2026. We made it all the way to 2026. Halford and Brough. Somehow.

Got a lot to get into on the program today. Guest list. It is the Duick Morning Drive, brought to you by, of course, the Duick Auto Group. starts at 630. Sam Cossentino is going to join the program. Sportsnet Hockey Analyst. Chequia continued its mastery of Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships last night in Minnesota, eliminating the Canadians with a 6-4 win in the tournament semifinal. What went wrong for Canada?

We'll get the answers from Sam at 630. 7 o'clock, Mike Taney, our NFL insider from the 2Dip zone is going to join the program. Happy trails to a very fun NFL regular season. It ended last night in rather spectacular fashion. Pittsburgh's win over Baltimore. And with that, the playoff field is set. The Seattle Seahawks get the number one seed in the NFC and a buy through the wild card round.

We'll break it all down with Mike Tanier, our NFL Insider, at 7. It's very nice to be pleasantly surprised by your favorite sports teams. Never thought in a million years going into this season. For Seahawks, yeah, the number one seed in the NFC. The odds on favorite to win the Super Bowl right now. I still don't know if my, my, expectations have caught up to the actual reality. It's because you're not used to being pleasantly surprised by anything.

But like I've, you know, when the Seahawks during the Legion of Boom and Russell Wilson era, you go into certain seasons and be like, okay, this could be the year. And they're going to be good. They're going to be good. This can be the year. I still can't quite believe that the Seahawks, according to the odds makers, are the Super Bowl favorites? What? Let's bring you back to Earth.

Because at 8 o'clock this morning, we're going to talk to. Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and Ingole magazine. We're going to talk to both the Vancouver Canucks. Suffered a pair of home losses over the weekend, Friday in a shootout to Seattle. Saturday in overtime to the Bruins. A couple more losses, but they did get points. There was also some news on Kie for sure where there's lots to get into on the Canucks front. We'll discuss all that and more with Kev at 8 a.m.

So it's Woodley at 8. It's Tanier at 7. It's Sam Cousantino at 630. So much to get into on the program. Without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened? Wow, no read for what happened this morning.

So we dive right into what happened. We will begin with the World Junior Hockey Championships. The hockey game that ended most recently. Canada will play for bronze at the World Juniors. That after a 6-4 loss to the checks. In the semifinals, of the tournament last night. Chequia now plays Sweden for gold.

Canada now plays Finland for bronze. And the question that everybody is asking, yet again, what went wrong for Canada after a third consecutive loss to the checks in this tournament? Yeah, the loss to Chequia, that wasn't the case of Canada getting unlucky or getting beaten by a hot goalie. I know the Canadian players weren't that thrilled

with the refereeing, but it wasn't because of them either. Chequia deserved to win that. game. They outshot Canada by a wide margin. They were the better team. And anytime Canada doesn't win gold at the world juniors, it's a disappointing tournament. But this is now three straight years without gold and possibly three straight without a medal if they lose to Finland, which is very possible. Finns love bronze medals games. Yeah, they own bronze medal game. And Canada, you know, sometimes Canada is going to have trouble coming out and, you know,

getting really excited and up for a bronze medal game. At any rate, at least the Americans won't win gold either, but it's still, it's hard to stomach. I know they're only kids, and it's not like we're, Halford and I are going to rip them up and down today, but if last year's failure came down to a lack of goal scoring ability, this year's came down to, I think, a lack of defensive ability.

I actually wonder if last year's failure in the criticism, Hockey Canada received for keeping some good offensive players off the roster, influence the roster decisions, or maybe the overall philosophy of this year's team. And I'll be curious to hear what's said in the aftermath. Again, I'm not going to freak out over this, but it was quite evident that Canada was struggling in its own end. And that was in the first game against Chequia. Yeah.

The second game against Chequette, there was still the same things going on that I was kind of surprised to see like losing one on ones a ton of them all over the ice running around and panicking in their own end not tying up sticks in front of the net

or puck watching just not looking dialed in in their own end a lot of people made reference to all the times Canada was forced to flip the puck out and then you know the other team just gets another crack at coming at them I'm like this is Canada why are we playing on

heels in our own end like this. I personally blame the younger generation and all their fancy trick shots. The youths. The youths, right? Like there's meat and potatoes, hockey. And these kids all they wanted to do is their Mishis and their sellies and their fancy

passes. I blame the youth for being weak. There is something to it. True weakness of this new generation. Look, I'm kidding a little bit, but I think that a little bit. I think Hockey, Hockey Canada is kind of like lost its mojo and it's lost his swagger and it's lost its confidence in in what it does and i do

think that um for guys like halford and i that that grew up watching canada physically dominate the other team and intimidate them that seems to be lost because you know i'm watching this tournament and finland plays Canada i know Canada beat them but finland wasn't intimidated by Canada, and Chequia certainly wasn't intimidated by Canada. They give as good as they get now physically. And, you know, Mike, you and I watched a lot of juniors back in the day where it be, you know, I don't know, Jordan 2-2 or Steve Downey running around, like, just crushing the other team. Yeah. I mean, forget about... You're defenseless Austrian. That's what you wanted to see every Christmas.

There are still teams that are like that. Like, Canada had no problem. problem with Denmark. No problem with Denmark, but physically dominating teams is what they used to, what they used to do. Sometimes they wouldn't even bring like the most talented team. They just bring a big group that would bully the other team. And I know the game has changed. So I'm not saying they should go back to that. Go back to bullying. Because the thing is the other teams now, they can play that way. They got they got big boys. You watch that Canada Finland game and you're like, Finland's just as tough as Canada. And frankly, Chequia played more courageously around the net than Canada did. They were the ones willing to get their noses dirty and go to the net and score goals. I think the interesting thing here is when you talk about identity and what a team. And this is a, I think you importantly pointed this out, this should be a separate criticism of the actual players. You think a lot of this falls on the organization and,

the executive and the governing body because they're the ones in charge of creating a team. I remember it used to be when Canada would go to this tournament, it would always show the opposition something that the opposition hadn't seen before. And more times than not, in fact, almost all the times, it was a physical style

that a lot of these players didn't see in their domestic leagues or wherever they were playing and then they came to this tournament, they're like, wow, this is a different level. And now there's no different level. And part of it is because the playing field is evened out to a certain degree, but With the pedigree that the players have, Canada should still be winning.

And I don't think there's anything wrong with having that bar incredibly high. No, let's not lower the bar. Like, I saw a lot of during this tournament, you know, oh, you got to credit the Latvians. They've up their game. I'm like, okay. Or you, you know, Czechia's program is strong now. Yeah. Is that why that there's like 15 Czechia players drafted in the first round every year in the NHL?

Oh, wait, there's not. See, I think the idea should be like, if the tournament's getting better and the quality of competition is getting better. That should raise your bar to, we still want to dominate this thing. Like, we don't just say, well, everyone's caught up, man, we got to win this thing. And it's, you know, you're watching yesterday, it's like a Dale Hunter team can't defend. What's going on? A Dale Hunter team's got to dress eight defensemen. A Dale Hunter team has given up 40 shots to check yet. And you're, and they're trying to figure it in an elimination game. And they're trying to figure it out on the fly. Like, one of the big takeaways from that tournament, if you read

enough people that were covering it tip to tail was that it never felt like Canada ever figured anything out. McKenna never really figured it out in terms of was he going to be able to break free and not be a perimeter guy? Was he going to find good line mates? The guys that they were Some points against them lesser teams?

The guys that they were really leaning on I think Michael Mesa's one where people are looking at him saying this is the second overall pick in the National Hockey League. How is he not coming in and dominating this tournament? They didn't really have... After being snubbed last year, right? I didn't think he'd come in there with his hair on fire. They didn't really have a defenseman

or a defensive pair that they could lean on and say, you're our guys. Did they bring six offensive defensemen to the tournament? Because that's the way it looks sometimes. And then they dressed and rolled eight. Right? I mean, and it's just one of those things where if you look at the ice time disparities yesterday,

the checks found certain guys that they were going to lean on, be like, you're our guys. We're going to win this game and you're going to play more than the other guys. It almost felt like Canada because they had a lot of players that were good, but none that really identified themselves as the alphas, which I also think is a problem, they're playing for bronze right now, which is a disappointment. Tid Jiginla was good. He was, he was, he was my guy in that

tournament. And we'll talk more about this with Sam Cousantino, but Gavin McKenna, he did get his points in this tournament, but I don't think you can say it was amazing overall performance. I think the things people wondered about pre-tournament are still the things people wonder about. Is he, as you mentioned too much of a perimeter player, is he committed enough without the puck? There are a couple of clips going around of him not being committed without the puck. And then one final thing, I thought the attendance was really disappointing in Minnesota. Well, there's an issue. And that's something that happens when you go outside Canada for this tournament.

You know, it might be a big deal in Canada, but it really isn't in the United States. And that was in a pretty good hockey state in Minnesota. They should make the ticket. They should make the tickets more expensive. I think that'll help moving forward. Were they really expensive? Look, it's junior hockey. I mean, I don't know what to say.

It's the best junior hockey players in the world, but it's still junior hockey and it's still a niche tournament that goes on at the same time. I'll remind you in the U.S. where college football is right in the throes of its playoff and the NFL is lining up for its place. And the NHL is going on. Like you can't, whatever the tickets were at this one,

and I heard some pretty astronomical prices, get in prices for round robin group games. They really need to re-evaluate that because that tournament does not make sense if the barn isn't full, there's not energy in the building. I was really disappointed Canada and the United States didn't play and people will say, well, it's determined by the standings

or whatever. It's like, whatever, just make it happen. Like, they rejig groups all the time just to make sure that two teams play. Look at the FIFA World Cup. The Canucks fell to 4, 12, and 3 at home with back-to-back losses to Seattle and Boston. I'm still trying to figure out my reaction to these results because on the one hand, a 412 and 3 record at home, 412 and 3.

It's pretty bad. It's embarrassing. And it's not like the Canucks have stripped the roster down to the studs. I know they get some new injuries now with Garland and Rossi out, but there's still quite a few veterans out there who are making a hefty salary. And you want to see more from some of those guys. But on the other hand, the losses are good for draft position.

And it's not like the Canucks were horrible against the Cracken or the Bruins. I didn't feel super sorry for the people that went there to watch that game. The Bruins game was pretty entertaining. And there are moments in the Cracking game, too. I thought the Canucks deserved better in both games. Linus Carlson has been a very good story. He got a couple of years of contract extension. and his line with Pedersen and DeBrusk was excellent on Saturday.

Now, you know, they scored once with their dominance. You'd like to see a little bit more of a bottom line, but they played well, and Carlson has been, again, a really good story. Yes. The sorest spot on the roster right now has to be Brock Besser, whose line with Kane and Sasson was not good. against the Bruins. Besser has been kind of screwed,

given the centers he's been deployed with since J.T. Miller was traded. But he also hasn't scored since late November. In fact, in the month of December, he played 13 games, had no goals, just one assist, and was minus 10.

Hasn't gotten any better in January either. I realize Besser's son. his extension less than a year ago and at the time there were some pretty good feelings around that. But I'm starting to wonder if both parties might want to revisit that commitment. I haven't heard anything. This isn't me trying to create a rumor. I'm just looking at the obvious thing going nobody can be happy with this right now. I'm not sure if there would be a big market for Besser, but I do think there should be. He's a good player when he's got a good center to get him the puck and he's shown he can produce in the playoffs.

I think right now he has no confidence. And when you stick him out there with, he doesn't, for whatever reason, and I think it's probably the loss of J.T. Miller from the Lotto line, like he doesn't have chemistry with Pedersen. And right now, obviously, you're not going to split up DeBrusk and Carlson and Pedersen because they're looking good together. So that leaves him with who as his centers.

Like is Max Sasson was the 2C, right? Or he's been with David Komp for, you know, Rossi went for a little bit, and Rossi's trying to find his feet in Vancouver, and now he's hurt. The news over the weekend, if there was any news, involved another winger,

and that would be Kiefer Sherwood. Elliot Freeman went on the broadcast on Hockey Night in Canada and said, that the Canucks and Sherwood had what exactly? Let's play the audio from Friday first, or Saturday, sorry, I should say, because this was the one that caught a lot of people's attention and made a lot of waves on social media.

Here's Elliot Friedman talking about what the Canucks may or may not have offered Kiefer Sherwood, the fallout from that. And then we've got another clip that we'll play later on in the show. But here's Elliot Friedman on the Kiefer Sherwood situation in Vancouver. There's a lot of talk going on. I don't know how much action there's going. going to be, but there's going to be a lot of talk. Last night, the Vancouver Canucks announced

that they had re-signed Linus Carlson to a two-year deal. The big name everybody in Vancouver is kind of talking about right now is key for Sherwood, unrestricted free agent, having a career year. And the Canucks did make a new offer to Sherwood this week. I still think there's a sizable gap here. I don't have a timeline for when anything's going to occur in terms of a trade or anything like that. But they did, both sides did talk this week. I still think that's a lot. I still think, however, there's a gap in where Sherwood would like to be and what the Canucks are willing to do. So let's see where it takes us. So not surprisingly, a lot of the reaction from, you know, listeners of this show, fans of the Canucks, social media, et cetera, was why on earth would they

consider resigning Kiefer Sherwood? This team needs a refresh and a re-rolled of the hybrid variety. Who knows? But the idea is, why would you keep him around? Why would you make an offer? So we've got a clip that we'll play probably later on in the show where Fridge, I wouldn't say doubles back, but tries to add some context and says, don't get caught up in the semantics of the word offer. He kind of said that the kind of, yeah, he, he suggests it. Why don't we play it now? Okay, well, it's a long clip. It's three minutes long, so it'll take us pretty close to the break. But the general idea here is that it wasn't so much a concrete here is our offers. They were kicking around some numbers and some ideas, maybe the Canucks.

Okay. We're trying to get them on the cheap. Before we play this clip, and this might be a perfect example of what the kids call coping. Yes. My immediate reaction to Friege's report on Saturday was not frustration that the Canucks might actually extend Sherwood. I don't think they're going to do that. I don't think that's going to happen.

I thought it was that they leaked this news to jolt the trade market, to let everyone know like, hey, you know, like we're exchanging ideas. here so I know some of you guys might want to wait on this to give us your best offer but like you might lose out on it with that that that so I wonder I don't know if I don't know if that's possible or Fridge addresses this but that was my immediate reaction well with that hanging in the ether let's play the audio now a bit of a longer clip but here's freege breaking down in further detail the Sherwood report all right I got a couple things I want to talk about. I want to talk about this Sherwood thing.

So I got, I'm going to tell you, okay, you know what makes me crazy? People who get, there's a lot of things. But you know what really makes me crazy is people who get hung up on language, okay? Don't get caught up in the language. Don't swim in the semantics. I get a text. I don't wake up early on Sunday. I don't like waking up early in general,

but I really don't like waking up early on Sundays, okay? I woke up, my phone's binging, I got like three texts from people, yeah, you got the story wrong on Saturday night. There was no offer made to Sherwood. You know what? Shut up with that, okay? Like that's, don't get caught in the semantics.

Don't get caught up in the language. They talked to him, they went back and forth, they threw some numbers out there. Like I said, it wasn't in the area where it was, like they didn't insult him. They didn't offer him minimum wage or anything like that, but they made an offer. It was, or they, if you don't like the word offer, they threw out some numbers, okay? They were not where Sherwood's people see the market, but they weren't an insult. I think Vancouver was looking and saying, can we get them for maybe a little less than market value? Didn't work out.

Still, like I said, a sizable gap, unlikely that it's going to happen. I also don't understand the people who are freaking out about, I can't believe they made them an offer. I thought they were rebuilding. Like I said, don't get caught up in language. They were simply trying to see if they could get them at a good deal. I don't even know if they really thought it was going to even happen. But obviously, there's still a gap. I don't know where this is going to go here.

I had a couple of people on Sunday asked me, like, when do you think it's going to get dealt since this didn't work out? Like, what do you think the timeline is? I honestly don't know. I don't have a good feel for it. There was definitely some increased noise around him over the last few days, but now I think, look, everybody is in Minnesota at the world juniors. The GMs are there, scouts are there, people are talking. I think, you know, I think the fact that they were talking to Sherwood had some people saying, okay, if they're not going to sign Sherwood, maybe they'll deal him here while everybody's here.

I don't know that. It's hard to figure out the timeline, but don't get caught up in the language. They talked, they took a shot at it, just didn't, didn't bridge the gap. So we'll see where it goes. The last bit of that clip, I think, might lend credence to what you're suggesting here is that, you know, maybe things slowed down. Maybe things weren't being as expedited as quickly as the Canucks wanted it to on the Sherwood front. So maybe they, you know, they fired it up a little bit, threw a little gasoline on the fire. Or they were just like, I don't know, we don't seem to be getting a great offer for this.

So let's see if we can scare them into signing like a hometown discount. I don't know. But I'm not going to get caught up in the language. That's one thing I'm going to do. Don't swim in the semantics, Jason. Just don't do it. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

I saw that Adam Foote referenced the playoffs. Yeah, he did. After the loss to the Bruins. And his quote was something along the lines of work. We're hanging in there. And hopefully we get Heedelback soon and Bluger. You just don't want the playoffs out of reach. It's still there.

I sometimes wonder if Adam Foote is just trying to trigger the fan base. We're hanging in there. And I'm not saying the Canucks do have a realistic chance at making the playoffs because they don't. But I did want to mention this is as good a time as any that every. Every single team in the Pacific Division, if you look at the standings right now, has a negative goal differential. Worst division in hockey, baby. Every single team. Pretty remarkable.

I mean, especially when you compare it to the top three teams in the Central, led by the Colorado Avalanche. But a plus 72 goal differential. Dallas and Minnesota are pretty good, too. Maybe Adam Foote is just looking at the other teams in the Pacific Division and thinking, we can't be so much worse than these guys, can? I watched the Flyers Oilers game on Saturday and the Oilers were downright bad

and that was three days after the Bruins went into Edmonton and beat them six to two obviously they've still got McDavid and he's been unbelievable lately they got dry sidle too but besides those two

besides those two is there anything else anything else that you like about the Oilers because to me their forward depth stinks. The blue line isn't great and the goaltending

is, I don't know, who knows? You're waiting until Tristan Jari gets healthy to really see? That's the thing. Is it the trade of significance that they made to address the goaltending hasn't been able to because Jari's out until, I think he's out until mid-January. Yeah, he's out for a while longer. So that's still TBD, but you look at it.

There's Tristan Jari, right? I don't think you're going to be like, whoa, who this is the greatest goalie ever, you know? He'll be maybe be an improvement on Skinner. But there are four teams in that division that have given up more than 140 goals. And that's a lot in the NHL right now. Like you're in the bottom third or bottom quarter of the league if you've given up 140 plus.

And it's the Canucks, the Oilers, the sharks, and the ducks. Now, the sharks and the ducks, I'd put in a different category because I still think they're probably exceeding expectations. And they play reckless hockey. They're young. They like to score. but with that, they really haven't figured out the defensive side of things.

So you almost see their defensive record and take it with a grain of salt and say, you know, they're up-and-coming young teams. Edmonton and Vancouver, you look at them and they've got major issues defensively and quite frankly, a net with both teams at times where you don't see any solutions or getting better on the horizon.

Like what do you, the Canucks, I think it's pretty well established. I have no idea what you see on the horizon for Edmonton that suggests it's going to get better. Aside from, over the last few seasons, they've had an ability to flip the switch. But that flipping of the switch has come with a decidedly different roster than what they've got right now. Well, and suddenly Vegas isn't looking very good either. None of the teams of the division are good. Vegas has got a minus two goal differential.

Yeah. They've lost a bunch in a row. They lost to Chicago yesterday. Here's an interesting bit of trivia. Okay. Okay. See if I can get it. The Edmonton Oilers lead the Pacific Division with just 15.

regulation wins who has the second most are you looking at the standings right now? Are you cheating? I'm not down on the Pacific Division I'm looking at the central division who has the second most regulation wins

in the Pacific Division second most ROWs no not ROWS regulation wins okay can't get to overtime The second Anaheim it is the Calgary Flam Algae Flames. How about that?

The Flames have 14 regulation wins in 41 games. Wow. Vegas only has 13. The Canucks have 10. The Canucks are, you know, the Kings have 11. The Sharks have 11. The Oilers lead with 15. That's the most.

The Oilers have played 42 games, and they've only won 15 of them in regulation. Maybe the Canucks are still there. I don't know. Okay. Can the league step in and say none of these teams make the playoffs? Like, we're just, we're changing. Hold on, okay, here's another stat that.

Mid-season switch up. Yeah. Here's a, hold on. Here's an, who has the most road wins in the division right now? In the entire Pacific Division, who has the most road victories? It's the Vancouver Canucks. They can't win at home? The Vancouver Canucks lead the entire, they are the best road team in the Pacific

division, at least in terms of wins. Because they are, they're right there. They're right there. They're right there. The playoffs are with your reach. You know what? I think they can figure out winning at home. This Adam full guy knows what he's talking about.

They got to re-signed Stewartwood and make a run for it, right? I mean, that's obviously the path they have to go down. Let's go all in, guys. Let's do it. This is the year. Should we try it? Should we try it? It is hilarious that the one year where all signs point to the Canucks finally, finally acknowledging that it's not working and rebuilding, also comes in a year where the division stinks.

But maybe. Well, hey, the Canucks are in Buffalo now. Yeah. And they're going to practice today before they kick off a six-game road trip that starts tomorrow against the Buffalo Sabres. The Sabers won 10 in a row. Yeah. And then they lost. So now they're 9 and 1 in their last 10. So we booked Paul Hamilton for tomorrow, WGR 550 Radio and Buffalo. We talked to them not long ago. As a matter of fact, I think it was right before the Sabers went on this 10-game win-stress. So I definitely want to ask him

Like how it felt from Because he was very down on the team When he came on the show And rightfully so Was it right after Adams got fired During Adam on? No, no, no, no, it was right before We were like, right before

We asked them Paul has seen things Yeah I was like, When are they going to fire Kevin Adams Like this is ridiculous And he was like probably soon And then they did it

They have gone From being dead last In the Eastern Conference To a playoff team In the span of weeks I'm not saying I just want to ask Paul like what does it feel like what are some of the warning signs

what do we need to look out for you know those sorts of things because if it's ever going to happen in one year where they'll just back their way into something believable it's not going to happen but it is why would you rule it here's the thing why would you rule it out because they're a bad team okay follow up question are there other bad teams in their division not as bad as them but close

they're the best road team in their division. That's something to hang it. Can they raise a banner for that? There's just one problem with that, though, is that they have two massive homestands coming up in the next couple months. Yeah. So they go out on the road for six and then they're home for eight.

I think they have two eight-game homestands in the new year, which we're in. That should be interesting. Could you imagine that you're coming home and you're like, we did really well on the road? And now this is all where it goes badly. Okay, we've got to go to break. Can you lose 16 games in a row? Let's find out. A reminder that large.

portions of this show are brought to you by the Duick Auto Group and I have a it's not a sad note it's just it's an update they sold the Halbroe car

the Halford and Brough car got sold did they leave the decal on did the person that's why it because of the deckle I asked Justin and he's van

he insisted that the deck will stay on no they paid $400,000 for that car how much are you going to give us for this? Okay So anyway, the Halbro car is no longer, but rest assured I'll be getting another one, hopefully soon.

With a bigger decal? With a bigger decal, possibly on the hood or the roof of the car. We'll have to see. Anyway. It's a roof, by the way. It's a rough. Kevin Woodley here on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. What up, Kev?

How is South 2026 treating us so far? Pretty similar to 2025, I would say. Not a lot different. Canucks are losing games at home. Yeah. Yeah, we're still trying to figure out what's going on with Kiefer Sherwood. Got real 2025 vibes in here, Kev. Kev, what are you looking forward to over the next couple of months

or at least the time before the Olympic break for the Vancouver Canucks? Am I allowed to just say getting to the Olympic break? I am not looking forward to eight straight home games at the end of this month. That's going to be real interesting from a fan interest perspective. I'll be curious to see what it's like. log. Yeah. There's some good,

there's some good, there's some good entertaining teams coming in, so that might carry some interest, but we'll see where the Canucks are after the end of this

six-game road trip. Do you think they're going to start making some moves soon? I don't know. I don't know. I'll leave that to Dolly Wall and the insiders.

I do think there is, you get the sense there might be some guys there whose name is out there that might like for this to have. happened. Like, it feels somewhat, as I'm going to say, it feels like somewhat of a purgatory because everybody knows it's coming. And yet, like, honestly, you know, jokes aside about how

the season is gone and, and genuinely, that eight-game homestand, they're going to be sick of us. Like, it's, I'm not looking forward to it. But Saturday night wasn't bad. Yeah, there was a good game. On the tail end the back-to-backs against the Boston Bruins. Um, they haven't quit. There was a, Like, they didn't, a lot of what they generated was empty calorie, low danger chances, but they worked. And I thought, especially, you know, through the second period, you know, the Bruins don't help themselves, and continue to be the most penalized team in the NHL and leave their stars sitting on the bench

because they don't kill penalties, but it was, you know, they took over that game for stretches. And the fan base got into it. Like, there was an atmosphere there. There was a lot of empty seats there. There was a lot of Bruins fans there. But the Canucks are, on Friday night, it felt like they sort of lost their rink a little bit. I mean, we had go-cracking go-chance that didn't get drowned out on Friday night.

On Saturday, it felt like they got it back. Like, it was, you know, there was an atmosphere and a vibe in there that I don't remember often this season. I know they still lost. I know they only have four wins at home. You know, no, I have not had a New Year's resolution, not. to be negative or to be more positive. Like that just, that game, you know, to their credit, um,

despite how it ultimately ended again, felt better, felt different some way. Um, really it wasn't when you look at the analytics. Again, yes, they got more chances,

not a lot, they still lost the high danger chance battle in that game against Boston. Um, but yeah, so maybe, maybe dismissing them for that eight game homestand is, is premature and negative and all the things. that they accuse us in the media of being.

I just selfishly don't look forward to it because it means going to the rink every second day for 16 days. There's worse places to go, Keff. There is worse places to go. There's worse places to get there than my white rock on day. So, shameless plug there too. There you go.

The Pedersen-Carlson-Dubrusk line in terms of the traditional advanced stats, which I guess is a thing now, they looked very good. and the eye test suggested they were good, although I'd maybe like to see some more really good chances, but could the Canucks have something with that trio? I mean, relative to how everything's been going offensively, yes.

I'm with you on most of it, not enough of it being high danger, but if that mix is the reason we saw Elias Pedersen engaged the way he, was against the Bruins on Saturday, then you keep with it. I just, you know, there haven't been a lot of positives. It's hard to see a lot of, you know, offensive potential amongst the options that they have right now, especially with Garland out right now and obviously no Marco Rossi for the foreseeable future, for at least for, at least it's another week, I guess, before they'll even be re-evaluated, both those guys.

there was a connection there of some sort and Jake DeBresk like Jake DeBresk was he got a couple he was one and two on Friday he could have had a couple more on Saturday could have had the winner on Friday and overtime like going to the net getting those types of chances yes there's something there is this is this a line upon which a turnaround is built or you know long-term future I'm not so sure but Carlson elevated into a top six role after signing his contract extension

didn't look out of place again the caveat is Seattle I was really unimpressed by the Boston Bruins on Saturday night Seattle doesn't give you much so generating anything against them as a plus

but yeah in a tiny sample without trying to make too much of it yeah there's a there for now and let's see if they can continue it on the road where they've been hey like they haven't been a bad road team so Pedersen is playing a little bit better these days with a little more energy

Jake de Brusk has been playing better since he was healthy scratched but that does leave Brock Besser and he was on a line with Kane and Sasson against the Bruins and I don't know what to say about Brock so I'll throw the question to you I suppose

what is there a future for Brock in Vancouver. I know he's signed long term, but it just seems like things are not going well right now. Well, okay, he's never been a play driver, right? Like that's not his thing. Yeah, he needs a center. He needs a center to drive play for it. Yeah, 100%. I 100% agree.

And listen, like he's making the kind of money where he should not be, I mean, just he has the kind of history where we know he needs somebody to drive play and that he finishes. so you can't ignore that and yet in the flip side it's like well he's got this long-term contract so he better you know he better create something

he better generate something he better finish something you know he's had David Camp as his center for large chunks of this season I just say large chunks but chunks he is not a guy that creates his own offense do I think there's more he could do

yeah much like the brusk you can generate you can go to the net you can do different things like that more than you have been is what did they say hit your landmarks if you're jake de brusk the one thing about him that i've never really understood and this may be him as much as the way they use him and deploy him and maybe it's just missing j t miller because j t miller was a big part of this not so much as his center but on the power play he was a top three net front guy the year that they had their second round of the playoffs like the good year and JT would look for him he would look for him for those

tap-ins side door and the and the screens like legit net front not off to the side door like the screens and the inner play and again I remember having a conversation with talking about this before he left so much of that was driven

by JT like even Brock B Being a net front guy, which wasn't necessarily something he wanted to do, was driven in part by J.T. And so without him, it's not just as he missing a center, but I don't think there's anybody pushing him to the net front. And he was so good at it. Like this is, this one has left me scratching my head for a while now. Like he had elite net front numbers, like 17 goals scored because of his screen. Not him, not the tapings, not the rebounds, not the stuff he was. caching just because of his

screens. You don't have J.T. Miller coming downhill off that side on the power play like you used to, but surely anybody that can create at that level or be a part of it at that level should probably still be a part of your net front plan and you should find a way to have somebody else interplay

with him on the shot and moving screens and little flash screens in front of the game. He was just so damn good at it. Just one power play goal for Besser this season, just one. He had 16 a couple years ago. And none of that, all that net front stuff pretty much has disappeared with Miller leaving. And I'm like, there's two parts to that, right?

Like, yes, driven by J.T. and his shot and pushing, I guess the push part for Brock to be that guy and be that netfront guy has disappeared as well. Maybe he doesn't want to be that guy. But he was so damn good at it that it leaves me, hey, listen, the power plays looked a little better. They're moving the puck quicker. they had a couple shifts where they ran it through Elias Patterson off the left sort of sideboards there half wall and it looked good

so you know but that is one over the past couple of years it's left me scratching my head they should run it through PD they should run it through PD that's what he wants it's clearly what he wanted there is a massive disconnect

between him and Hughes because they both wanted the puck and to feel the puck a little bit too. You know, Hughes for reasons because he would want the puck on his stick and he'd do so little dancing at the top and usually end up shooting it. Petey wants it because he wants to be that guy on the half wall that makes the cross seam pass. You know, like, it's clear as day. He doesn't want to be the one-timer guy. Well, if they're going to run it through him, what made it look better on the weekend

was the amount of movement and how quick it was. Didn't always even look like it was, just moved the puck. And they got defenders opened up, they got goaltenders moving around a lot. If it's going to run through him, and that's the philosophy, he needs to hold it less.

And you could see that fine line, I think it was one of the last power plays they had where, you know, wants to hold it, and make that perfect play, but what was making it more effective was just grabbing it, one touching it, finding someone else and getting it moving around. So that's going to be the balance because if they want, you know, Adam Putt talked about a two-second rule. It's like when you drop your food on the floor, can't hold the puck for more than two seconds. If they want that to be a philosophy and it did look effective against the bronze early in that game,

then you can't have the guy you're running it through, holding it, dusting it, looking for the perfect play. all the time. If you're going to run a power play that's all about movement and speed and quick puck movement, then you can't have him stick handling, stick handling, stick handling, looking for a perfect pass all the time. He's got to be more decisive with it for those two. For it to run through him and that philosophy to be maintained, that's going to be something he's going to have to wrestle with a little bit. Tom Vielander is getting a big opportunity at just 20 years old, first season in the NHL. We certainly don't expect him to to be perfect. In fact, we'd be surprised if he was.

What have you thought of his game? Obviously, the offensive numbers are more than I think anyone expected. Your first year in the NHL straight out of the NCAA, there's going to be struggles defensively, and there have been. Like, there's been times where, you know, he's gotten caught by guys, guys driving him wide, you know, just some defensive miscues, maybe lack of experience against certain guys, not knowing what certain guys are capable of.

There's been a lot of positives in the offensive zone. I don't think the, I'm going to call them headaches, but I don't think the issues at times in the defensive zone are not to be expected. Like they're kind of, you expect those. The part that I'm, like the breakouts haven't been as clean as I maybe thought, like I thought there'd be more sort of better decisions coming out of his own end.

It would be another part that has to clean up in terms of how he transports the puck at times. But, hey, he's so young and he's so inexperienced, those things can all come. I wanted to ask you this question, Kev, because I know you're at the rink a lot, and you talk to the players a lot. There aren't as many media members at the rink on a regular basis anymore. Now that Quinn Hughes is gone, who, is the Canucks if you were how to pick one

player spokesman who is it it's a good question I am at the rink a lot although not as much as I used to be from a everyday practice standpoint so that's first point of disclosure second is I don't talk to the players

a lot because the way it's set up now it's like it's quite often especially on a game day and admittedly that's me not being at practices as often it's just somebody at the front of the room in a scrum. There isn't a lot of, as many of those conversations as there used to be, you know, off scrum, so to speak. I mean, heck, I'm old enough to remember when there weren't, you just went to the locker room and talked to guys. There's a lot less of that. It's interesting because

I don't think we have that answer yet. We saw Phil Horonik do media post game the other night, which is all of us unheard of since he's arrived here. Obviously, not going to be a spokesperson doesn't want to be but I thought handle it for the most part okay um they yeah they don't they don't have there isn't one I don't have that answer yet um you know Patterson's done media a little more since the the Quinn trade um but we've got this environment now where it's it's more about who's asked for and and and sort of that scrum situation at the front of the room and so it's been you know O'Connor and Carlson go one-in-one,

so they're requested because they contributed the most of the game. It's been a lot of that. There hasn't been a definitive who's the guy. I think when you want to get the temperature of the team and have a conversation, like it's probably Tyler Myers and even Marcus Patterson sometimes. Is Tyler Myers the leader of the team? Do you know what I mean?

Because all the young defensemen, they always speak glowingly about Tyler Myers, the fact that he has time for them and he wants to have a relationship with them he wants to pass along some of his knowledge and he's by all accounts a great guy does he make some mistakes on the ICA does but by all accounts he is a high character individual and i just think like this isn't a media thing with me i'm not i don't really honestly like i know you have to get your quotes and everything, but, you know, whatever. The media we spent too much time, naval gazing anyway. I'm wondering how this leadership group evolves because the leadership group, what, a year

ago, two years ago was, it was, uh, Quinn Hughes, J.T. Miller and Elias Pedersen. That was supposed to be the trio of leaders. And two of those guys are gone now. I think we've definitely realized over the last couple of years that Elias Pedersen is never going to be the guy that's going to be wanting to speak and it's just not his personality and that's fine but someone's going to need to lead and

Rick Tock had spoke time and time again about the leadership group and then the leadership group dissolved that's a nice way of saying it so what do they do now who is the leadership group going forward

and is that important to you well I would think it's important to them they've talked about a lot about keeping veterans around and I think the important thing is to keep the right veterans around and yeah is Tyler Myers the leader I don't know he's a leader to your point how they interact with us and who does that and who leads the way in that regard is very different from who is a leader you're in the room. And the reality of the locker room is when we're in there, as I've said, it's usually not with very many players. And we don't know what goes on when we're not in there. And so there's kind of two different sides to it, right? There's the spokesperson, and then

there's the actual leadership group. And so I don't know who that is. I mean, you look at the decisions they've made in terms of who they call their leadership group. I mean, they made a point that Elias Pedersen was a part of it. Thatcher Dempco was a part of it. So, you know, I think that's still evolving. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.