Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 2/12/25

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss the latest NHL trade rumours with Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli, plus they preview tonight's 4 Nations Canada Sweden matchup with commentator Chris Cuthbert. 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. Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa a da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da Best on best, drop the puck tonight at Montreal at the Four Nations faceoff. Canada naming Jordan Bennington as the starting goalie. No! God please no! No! No! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo and we're really confident in them. Four nations facing off. Good morning Vancouver, six o'clock on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday everybody.

This Alfred, it is brough, it is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios of beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Four nations facing off. Laddie, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello. Alfred and brough of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one 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 them at 1170 Palastree in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. So Adog, how many nations are participating in this year's tournament? Four nations. And Greg, what are they doing again?

I believe they're facing off. Oh, okay. That's good. they're facing off. Oh, OK. That's good. That's good. Happy Four Nations Face Off Day, everybody. The tournament gets underway tonight, 5 o'clock. You can listen to it, hear it, watch it all here on Sportsnet, the television version, of course.

Canada, Sweden at 5. We will be doing a whole lot of stuff leading up to the game today. Our guest list begins today at 6.30. David Amber is going to join us. Roger Sportsnet, Hockey Night Canada, NHL host. Coverage begins on TV at 4 30. David will be walking you through it. He'll be hosting the intermission panels as well.

We'll talk to him, not just about tonight's game, but looking at the tournament as an entire entity. Seven o'clock, Frank Saravalli is going to join the program. Friendly reminder, there is no roster freeze during the break for the foreign nations face-off. That means that teams have to remain cap compliant and players, and here's the kicker, are subject to trades and waivers. So I'll ask Frank about all these teams that may need to be making moves ahead of the March trade deadline. Montreal, St. Louis, Seattle.

What's Carolina going to do with Rantan? What's Colorado going to do? It's 2C position. Maybe Buffalo. They stink. What are they going to do? We'll talk to Frank about all that. That's seven o'clock.

730, the man on the call tonight for Canada, Sweden. Chris Cuthbert's going to join the program. We will get our first look at Canada tonight and maybe for Canucks fans as importantly, what Elias Pedersen looks like for team Sweden. We should also talk to Chris about the importance and significance of international best on best hockey.

Cause he of course is the voice of one of the most iconic goals in Canadian hockey history and the golden goal from Sidney Crosby in 2010. So we'll talk to Chris about that. What was, what was that goal about? The 2010 goal, the golden goal from Sidney Crosby in 2010. So we'll talk to Chris about that. What was, what was that goal about? The 2010 goal, the golden goal. Was it, was it a big goal? It was fairly noteworthy.

Oh, okay. It had, it had its time. What happened? You know, what happened? Did you, did we, did we win? We did win. Okay. Spoiler, spoiler alert.

I was going to save it for the interview, but spoiler alert. That's awesome. We won. Go Canada. Good for Canada. There were more than four nations facing off. Do you think Crosby knew at the time when he scored that goal that he would eventually be

Saying four nations facing off all right over and over We're gonna need to let people in on this. Four nations facing off. Four faces nationing off. So ahead of these tournaments the broadcaster cuts a bunch of promos with the players involved and one of them was Cindy Crosby and You know I was joking the other day when we were at NBC, we had to do one of these for rivalry night. And you get the guy to look into the camera and usually try and, you know, deliver a line with impact.

Well, Sidney Crosby, I don't know why it's so funny, but it's Sidney Crosby explaining the entirety of the tournament in four words. Four nations facing off. I mean, he nailed it, right? That's exactly what it is. Aren't there a couple versions of it? Yeah.

He does it like four or five times. And you can see kind of like in his eyes that he's had enough of saying these four words for 300th take. It's up and at him. It was, you know, the Russell Wilson when he joined the Denver Broncos and it was Broncos nation Let's ride and he you know over and over and over again. So someone on Twitter put together I'm not joking 60 minutes worth of Sidney Crosby saying for nations facing off. He did it for an hour 60 minutes consecutively on a loop you think at the end of his career, when he looks back on it,

he'll think of that moment more than anything else? Golden goal, 1B, and then Four Nations facing off 1A. Yeah, definitely. Okay, so Chris Cuthbert's gonna join us at 7.30, by the way. Eight o'clock, Adam Kiersenblatt's gonna join us. The Hockey News, Vancouver Canucks reporter. We'll talk to him about the two guys from the Canucks at the Four Nations face off, uh,

Elias Pettersson and his reset as he goes into play for team Sweden. Kevin Lanken again, again, anytime for Finland at the tournament. We can talk about Quinn Hughes, the vibe in the Canucks room. What has it been like since the two big trades? And Adam wants to discuss, I'm just going to read

this verbatim from his notes. Why the city of Vancouver should announce a Louis Ericsson day. So we'll leave that one hanging out a Louis Erikson day. So we'll leave that one hanging out. Louis Erikson day. Do we all get money? Free money. I don't know.

We're doing nothing. The city of Vancouver takes $36 million and has a bonfire. You've got to make a shot from your own end into your own net though. That's the challenge. That's the tease. We're going to find out why at 8 o'clock with Adam Kears and Blatt. Good on the PK. So working in reverse on the guest list. Maybe you can ask him why Elias Pedersen is skating so much faster

at the Sweden practice. Did you see that clip? Jumping his steps so quick. How could I not see that clip? Wow, he's going fast. Wow, he's moving out there. Yeah. The tendonitis must free itself.

Now speedonitis. For the four nations facing off. That's right. Tendonitis. For the four nations facing off. That's right. Tendonitis loosening up. Yeah. Eight o'clock, Adam Kears and Blatt, 7.30, Chris Cuthbert, seven o'clock, Frank Ceravalli, 6.30, David Amber.

Also a reminder, we are once again giving away a pair of tickets to the HSBC Rugby Sevens, which will go later this month at BC Place. If you wanna go to the sevens, be caller number seven at 815 this morning. The phone number here, 604-280-0650. That number again, 604-280-0650. Rugby sevens tickets, be caller number seven at 815.

Your chance to win a pair. If you don't win today, don't worry. We are giving them away every day this week. Okay, that's what's happening on the program today laddie let's tell everybody what happened hey did you guys see the game last night no 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? what happened is brought to you by the BC construction safety Alliance making safety simpler by giving construction companies the

best in tools, resources and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. The big news yesterday coming from Canada's practice and as you briefly heard in our intro, Jordan Binnington will be Canada's starting goaltender when the four nations face off beginning tonight at five o'clock against Sweden. Yeah, I don't think it's a stretch to suggest

that if Canada does not win this tournament, goaltending could easily be the reason why, not just the potential for Bennington to play poorly, but the potential to get goalied by one of the other teams. Now, that being said, it's really, it's been such a main talking point, the fact that Canadian goaltending isn't what the Americans have or the Swedes have. And I know in the Athletic today, there's going to be an article on what has happened to Canadian

goaltending. So some of you guys might be reading that. Um, again, all that being said, I feel like only the Americans should be feeling really good about their goaltending situation and Ladi agree with me or not here. Um, like are the, are the Finns feeling great about their goaltending with the way that, um, like who's it going to be?

UC Saros? It will be UC Saros. So he's, he's got like an 899 save percentage this season for Nashville. Now. That's a pretty good track record though. I think they're, they're feeling okay. Lankenen can, uh, go in there and I wonder if

you will see any action. And then in Sweden, you've got Jacob Markström's injured, so he's not able to play. Who's going to, who's the starter there then? I asked Ladi before the show. Who's the obvious starter there? So they've got two choices right now, right? It's either going to be Linus Ahlmark or it's

going to be Philip Gustafsson. And if you were Sam Halam, oh Sam Halam, who would you pick to start against Canada tonight? I know Gustafsson is the hotter goal tender in terms of right now. I think I would go with the recent Vezina winner though, in Ulmark. If you have one at your disposal, you might

as well just throw him in there. Right. How confident would you be though? Like do you see. Pretty confident. Do you get what I'm saying though? Like in that, like how has Ulmark been in all, he had a pretty slow start.

He had a slow start, then he went on an insane run. Okay. And then he's been sort of. Then he got hurt. Yeah, then he got hurt and he's been sort of average just coming back. So it's been up and down, but he has obviously a high ceiling and in a small tournament, why

not go with the guy with the highest ceiling? So I feel like only the Americans should be feeling really good about their goal tending. And even then, if you want to get nitpicky, Hellebuck's performances in the last two playoffs have people wondering if he's a pressure performer or not. I think those are such small sample sizes that

you're, that you throw them out. And I, I would, I'm worried about Hellebuck uh, beating Canada in this tournament, but you know, it's such a short tournament that any of these guys are capable of having a good game and any of them are having, capable of having a bad game. Like it is very short and it kind of gets me to

the next point that I wanted to talk about. Um, Canada has typically come out a little slow in these best on best tourneys. We talked about it, uh, I think earlier in the week when we were going through the, um, the a little slow in these best on best tourneys. We talked about it, I think earlier in the week, when we were going through the, the history of best on best international hockey from a Canadian perspective and you know, that 2002 Olympics in

Salt Lake, they were, they were pretty dreadful for the first three games and Wayne Gretzky got all upset and then they eventually won the gold. Um, it's been the same in a few other tournaments, but they can't afford to in this one, if they lose to Sweden tonight, they'll be in tough to make the finals. Like all of a sudden they're like, Oh my God, like if you lose your first game, you're, you're, you're not done, but you have to win the next two. You absolutely have to.

And even then I suppose there's the potential for three teams to finish two on one, one team to finish oh and three. And then you're looking at tiebreakers, whatever they are. So Canada better find their chemistry and get going quickly. And John Cooper, the head coach of Canada was

even saying that yesterday. He said, you know, it's not like the world championship where there's a whole bunch of preliminary games and you can put guys in and out for everybody that includes forwards, defensemen, everybody. This is it. You lose your first game.

Now what? And that's why we hope that John Cooper has put the lines together in the right way. Now with all of Canada's talent upfront, I don't know if there's a wrong way to put the lines, but my whole point is if you're just like, yeah, I'll get into this tournament later, start watching tonight because if Canada loses. Well, there's no later. There's no, yeah, there's no, there's, there's,

there's very, very slim margin for error here. Yeah. So a few things to unpack there. One, the reason that Canada's had issues at tournaments past in terms of slow starts is people have the expectations that when you throw such elite level talent together, that instantly it's going to look like a video game

and it's going to click and they're going to be racking up tons of points. And it hasn't always worked that way. Finding the chemistry on the lines has proven to be a more difficult thing. And I do wonder if we got a nod to that even from the first day of practice to the second day of practice because Canada did make shifts to their

alignment. For example, Sidney Crosby opened the first day of practice because Canada did make shifts to their alignment. For example, Sydney Crosby opened the first day of practice as a center. He was centering Mark Stone and Nathan McKinnon. When they returned for their second day of practice, Crosby had been bounced out to the wing and Nathan McKinnon, who by the way, a lot of people were kind of wondering if this was going to be the move,

got shifted back to center because he's such a puck dominant guy. And the thought was maybe Crosby in terms of style and chemistry and continuity would be more amenable to having the puck on his stick less because, I don't know, maybe he's a more cerebral player or maybe at this stage of his career, he understands that he can be on the perimeter more and allow a guy like McKinnon to do the things that he wants to do. But in a short tournament, you don't have a lot of time

to figure these things out. Like when Crosby was speaking about making the move to the wing yesterday, he said two things. He's like, you need to figure it out quick. He's like, this sucks. This is where the bad players go. I don't want to be out here. What am I doing out here?

I'm Sidney Crosby. He also said that, you know, you have to approach it with the mindset that all you can do is just continually get better. Like if we don't have a great first game, it's like, whatever, we have to get better in a hurry because our tournament's now on the line. If the results don't go Canada's way tonight,

then all of a sudden Saturday's game, which was a huge game to begin with, because it was the US, five o'clock Saturday night, the entire country watching, the stakes would be even higher because of that. Now, speaking of high stakes when it comes to Bennington, I was listening to Frankie Corrado and Anthony Stewart, both of whom know, apparently they were talking about, know Bennington really well.

They liked the choice of him over Hill as the starter. And he might be the only two people that like it because the visceral reaction to having Bennington, one on the team and then two in net has been pretty overwhelming. Like, you know, it was funny when we were doing the. From who? Just listeners and fans. Fans, listeners, social media, whatever, take your pick.

Laddie in the intro, I mean, you want to talk about when we talked yesterday about unlikable players and guys on Team Canada that you're going to have to kind of force yourself to cheer for. We focused on Marshawn. I think we missed the conversation about Bennington because you want to talk about a guy that's got a lot at stake going into this tournament. He's not having an especially good time with the St. Louis Blues and to be dead honest, there have been more downs than ups since they won the Stanley Cup in 2019. His numbers this year are not great.

I cannot remember the last time that Canada went into a tournament of this importance with this much on the line, with a goalie who had a losing record and a sub-900 save percentage for a non-playoff team. Is Don Sweeney the GM? Yes. Okay. So how much of the decision around this has to do with the fact that it was his team

that Bennington went in and beat in 2000? I mean, that was a while ago now. Yes, it was six years ago. If that's the decision-making process, I'd like to discuss the decision-making process. No, no, no, but he did mention it. I know. He did mention it. I've seen it. Because... And I didn't like it when he mentioned it. Again, in 2019, it was a bit of an odd time in Canada

because the Stanley Cup final kind of got backburnered because the Raptors were in the final. So there was a lot of focus on the Raptors were in the final. So there was a lot of focus on the NBA. Except for this guy. Wow. I mean, it was a terrific series. Yeah, it was good. And Jordan Bennington went into Boston in game

seven and played one of the better games you'll ever see from a goalie in a game, in a game seven, the Stanley Cup. And it was on the road, right? And the Blues had blown their chance to win the Stanley Cup at home in game six, and a lot of people thought, okay, well, Boston's gonna go win it at home. The Blues had their chance, now it's over.

And it was the Bruins who blew it, really, because they couldn't beat Bennington early on, and then the Blues, in case, I don't know, it was a long time ago, but they couldn't beat Bennington early on. And then the blues, in case I'm, I don't know, it was a long time ago, but you know, they took over the game and they won the game and people in Boston were shocked. And, and I think that has the ability, like it was just one game and I know it was six years ago, but it leaves such an impression, right? Yeah. I don't know if that's a good thing though. Here's, I'm going to put on. No, I, I, I agree. Like it's been tough since then. I'm going to put on my international football cap

here for a moment and talk about, cause obviously, in soccer, international football, when the international windows happen, they happen one with much greater regularity and frequency than what we're getting here. The 11 year span between having to choose best on best, but there's always the conversation between what you've done for your country or what you've and one with much greater regularity and frequency than what we're getting here, the 11 year span between having to choose best on best. But there's always the conversation between

what you've done for your country or what you've done in terms of your reputation and then what your current form is. And every international manager is tasked with balancing, well, do I go with the guy that I know and I trust and has done it before? Or do I acknowledge that in a domestic league, this particular player is tearing it up

and is in the better form and quite frankly is playing. Like that's a big part of it. Is like, do I take a guy that's been hurt for the last couple of months and take him to go play Lichtenstein away in March? Or do I take a guy that maybe I don't know as well, but is lighting up, I don't know, the Portuguese league or something like that.

Take your pick, right? So in- But there are always those debates even in soccer, right? Like, like, like, you know, with England, for example, there was that loyalty to Harry Maguire, even if he wouldn't be even playing for Manchester United, you know, and that, and that was what a

lot of fans had issues with frankly. Uh, Harry Kane at the most recent Euro where a lot of people were saying he's there just because, frankly. Harry Kane at the most recent Euro, where a lot of people were saying, he's there just because his name is Harry Kane, you've got a young striker, specifically Cole Palmer, why not give him a look? Because he's the more informed striker. With the goaltending, it feels like they went exclusively

with either guys that they knew or guys that they trusted, because the three most informed goalies right now are all in Cabo. Well, I like your theory, Jason, about the Don Sweeney theory but I think when you're alluding to a Thompson being on the board and not taken. Thompson, Kemper. It has more to do with Bruce Cassidy and Peter DeBoer

from the information that we've received recently that they don't like Logan Thompson. They're not huge fans of Logan Thompson. But that only speaks more to this dynamic. Yeah. That you're basing your decisions and a very key position on what have you done before as opposed to what are you doing right now? And I do wonder with a position like goaltending where it's so much about your current state, your mental state and being informed if you

don't just ride the hot hand. And again, all three hot hands right now are probably like gripped around a margarita poolside. That's not the best thing to have. It's crazy to me that the three goalies for Canada don't have a 900 save percentage between them. That would leave me to believe that this is not the most informed group. Now, oh, just one more thing on Binnington. I'll get back to it. So the guys were talking about Binnington and they said, if you

want to talk about, put the numbers aside and you want to talk about attitude and swagger and all that stuff, they said the one thing Bennington has and probably sometimes to his detriment is unwavering confidence, borderline cockiness. Like he's, there's probably hasn't been a goal that he ever thought was his fault, right? Like he's just not.

And that's a psychological thing. Some sports psychologists teach that. And it's probably why he got the start over Aiden Hill. You know, as great as that is, but I think I'd rather have Logan Thompson's 921. Well, that's what I'm saying. At the end of the day. If you're basing this decision on it, well, we got to get, it's pretty cocky back there. Like that's great, but it's a big test tonight for him.

For sure. What is Logan Thompson's, how many big games has he played? None. Yeah. Does that factor into it at all? Yes, it's almost exclusively by the goal of winning. To you. I don't, personally, personally, if I had to make the decision between

did a guy win a Stanley Cup six years ago or is the guy playing really well right now in a short tournament where you have three games, I would say just go with the informed guy. Right? Because here's the thing, I don't know how overwhelming the pressure is gonna be in any of these games.

Like it's not an Olympic gold medal game. It's not a Stanley Cup final. I think when you look at- It's a Wednesday night against Team Sweden in a, let's, I mean, Wyszynski kept calling it a made up tournament. I didn't care for that term and love it, but you know, I think that you go with the informed guy.

I think there's going to be pressure on Saturday night when you're looking at that American lineup and going, oh my God, the whole hockey world is watching. By the way- And this team could really light me up. What I wanted to get into, I'll allow your by the way first. You can't say that the Americans have the best goal-tending in the tournament because Mike

Sullivan yesterday would not commit to who his starter is going to be when they take on Finland. Okay. Why would you do? Why? Okay. Why Mike Sullivan? Why? Why? Why? Were you going to make it a secret? And then when Hellebuck comes out of the tunnel, they're like, I did not see that coming. Whoa. Hellebuck's starting. Just say it they're like, oh, I did not see that coming. Whoa. Whoa. Hellebuck starting.

Just say it. Just say it. Anyway, go on. So we're talking about in form. Don't you think, when we talk so much about like Finland, it gets ignored and we talk about the Canadians and the Americans, but the Swedes are going to be fascinating to watch from a Canucks perspective because Elias Pettersson went into this tournament with that one good game

against Toronto and we're like, is he back? Is he back? He made that really confident pass to her own neck. Right. And, uh, you know, I, I guess that clip of him at practice was making its way around social media. I saw it retweeted into my timeline, like 20 times. And everyone was like, wow, he's moving

pretty good out there. And you know, everything that's coming out of the tournament is that Pedersen is feeling good. He's feeling confident. He's really excited for this tournament, but I think you can say the same sort of thing applies to Zabanićed. Like those are their top two centers and you'll be hard pressed to find two guys who

have been criticized more for their play this season. And not so much, well, criticized, yes, but also people going like, what is going on with these guys? Zabanićed has been bounced to the wing in New York. Like that was one of the things upon JT Miller's return, right? Yeah, like early on in the season, people were like, I can't believe what's happened to Zabana

Jed and how bad he's been. And of course, we've been saying the same sort of thing about Elise Pedersen. Like we've been totally flummoxed by the performance. So, you know, on paper, you look at Sweden's team and you're like, man, this team, you know, if they're all in form, this team could easily beat anyone in the tournament, but the top two

centers are going to be fascinating to watch in this tournament. So, Pedersen centering Forsberg and Kempe, Zabinajad's centering Raquel and William Nylander, which I thought was interesting because they didn't go with the load up the first line strategy. If you did, you would, I mean, safely assume that it would be Forsberg, Pedersen, Nylander

across the top. And then you'd drop Kempe down to play with Raquel, Sabinejad, that would be the mix. So they balanced out their top six. Their blue line is the strength of the team, without question. Their first pairing is Victor Hman and Jonas Brodean. Like that's about as good as he gets for

international hockey. Second pair is Forsling and Rasmus Dahlian. And then the third pair is Atcom and Carlson. So to give you an idea, like Rasmus Anderson, who's having an unreal year for Calgary, you probably won't play tonight. Like he's the seventh defenseman right now. So you're looking at a team that's got a

really good blue line. If Allmar can play at the Vezna caliber that Laddie mentioned or get back to it like it's a tough opponent for sure All the teams are gonna be a real tough out because it's one game Not quite winner takes all to start But you don't have a lot of time to find your footing and you got to remember Like Finland goes into these international tournaments it always finds a way and you want to talk about a Sweden team that outside of maybe the depth that forward they can line up with Canada the US pretty equally. So it's gonna be a lot of fun to watch. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Frank Ceravalli from Daily Face Off

joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Frank, how are you? Morning boys, I'm good. Very cold today in Montreal, but happy to be here. Frank, first of all, congratulations on the Eagles. I heard yesterday on the station that you were able to attend the game with your son. What an incredible memory that must've been. Yeah, epic weekend. Incredibly fortunate to be able to do something

like that and just walking out and hearing him say, I'll remember that for the rest of my life. That's what it's all about. Yeah, I had lots of memories with the Canucks, with my dad and, you know, dad, I'll always remember the time we went to see the Canucks lose nine to three to the Edmonton Oilers in February and they missed the playoffs. That was my life growing up. Frank, let's talk some business of hockey here. I heard you a bit on the station yesterday and you were talking about how you actually expect some trades to go down and how the NHL probably would not push back on trades going down because

as much as they want people focused on the four nations, they also want the business of the game to carry through the days where there aren't games or there aren't enough games. What's one team that comes to mind that you think could be busy during this break? There's a lot. I mean, I would look at the Philadelphia fliers and

Scott Lawton and Rasmus Ristelainen. I'd look at the Seattle Kraken with the four players that they have that are on my trade targets board. Um, you know, I think that's what's really interesting about this deadline is there's been a lot of activity to this point and we've seen some major names moved, but we really haven't seen any of the traditional rental deals or I should say many of them.

So there's a lot still left out there. Like I wouldn't expect a team like the New York Islanders to be active during this period, cause they're still believing or trying to figure out that they're in the, if they're in the race, stuff like that will probably wait till closer to the deadline. And there's a few teams that are looking at some cap situations. Like I know the oilers are still working out the exact situation with a Vander Kane, but there's plenty of teams that would like to get

something done during this 12-day break and we'll see if they can pull it off. What is the outlook for the Flyers because I know Danny Brier has been pretty vocal about what he wants to try and accomplish and it sounds like he's got big plans to move the organization forward. I know he already got it kick-started with moving Frost and Farabee to Calgary, but what else does Bre'er have in store for the Flyers? Well, the big difference between this year and last year is the Flyers are pretty well out of the mix.

And if you remember last year, until early March, and it's kind of after the trade deadline. If we're looking back at the calendar, the Flyers were in third place in the Metro almost the whole season from start until then, and then the wheels absolutely fell off and they plunged in the standings. This year they're out of it much earlier. Um, I don't think there's any disillusions about what this team is and isn't.

And there's still probably some more pain to come in terms of. Prying some pieces off of this roster that, you know, could potentially as mentioned, include Lawton and Rista line in and, and some other players that, uh, don't necessarily fit the flyers age scheme. And part of that is not necessarily to try and ensure that they bottom out this year and get a good draft pick, although I would argue that's what they need the most. But it's in an effort to eventually try and find a difference maker. Can you take what you get from those players and

package it to get something else? Um, and the cap space is going to be important. It's no coincidence that. Farabee, Lawton and Rista-Linan are all signed to deals for next season and beyond. And they want to have enough cap space to ensure that whatever they'd like to accomplish this summer, whether it's signing a top end marquee free agent, if they could go after one trading for a player that might have some term on his contract. I would include the flyers among the list of teams that would be interested in Pederson and maybe even be a team that, that gets in the offer sheet game.

So look, I think that's the other part of this summer that people really haven't started to wrap their brains around yet is there are teams that have made it their mission, their sole mission this summer to go out and land an RFA via offer sheet. Well, you mentioned Pedersen there. So let's say that Pedersen doesn't have a good end of the season and the connects to side. All right. We're going to move on from this guy. What do you think the market would be for him? How many teams, and there's going to be a lot of teams with cap space and cap space

looking forward to, because the cap's going to go up apparently 25 million over the next three years. Do you think there would be a healthy market for Pedersen? Yeah, I would expect that half the league or maybe even two thirds of the league would be interested in having that conversation. I think the tougher part for the Canucks would be trying to sift through the teams that are sound trade partners from the perspective of, the Canucks can't go through a rebuild process. I mean, you're gonna have to rejig and retool this,

but ideally what you would get back is another NHL difference maker plus an eye toward the future. So that's why when you're coming up with a list of teams that not only are interested but that fit with the Canucks, like I'm not entirely sure that the Flyers are a good trade partner. I don't know what you could take from this Flyers team that you would say, okay,

this helps make the Canucks better right now. And this is what we can give you for the future. The future part's easy. The Flyers have that down. They can deal in that world all day. But it's the same thing, you know, in terms of, you know, it'd be a different conversation if you're having a one with the Buffalo Sabres. Maybe there's a piece or two that you look at from that team and you say,

Hey, let's different positions here. I'm just totally spit balling hypothetical here, but let's say Pedersen's involved and the Canucks ask about Owen Power or pick another, you know, top end defenseman. Maybe that's a different starting point and you can start to envision from a Canucks fan or from a Canucks front office perspective how that might make sense to keep this team in a competitive cycle with a chance to win. So that's going to be the name of the game. It's not necessarily teams interested because that's going to be easy. It's going to be teams that can

make a deal that makes sense for you. We have seen though that this Canucks management group can make a trade with one team and then use the assets that they got in that trade and make a trade with one team and then use the assets that they got in that trade and make a trade with another team. That's how they ended up with Philip Horonek and Marcus Pedersen. So I totally understand the point you're making because if they trade Pedersen, they need to find

a center, right? They've already got, I mean, they traded away JT Miller, they did get Philip Heidel back and maybe he can be a 2C, but I don't think anyone sees him as a 1C. They've also got Pugh Suter as a pending unrestricted free agent. So the center position is kind of the wild card area with the Canucks right now. Um. And they're so incredibly hard to get your hands on.

I mean, so many teams are on the league are looking for a center and there's so incredibly hard to get their hands on. Yes. So many teams are on the league are looking for a center and that's why the flyers big quest would probably include someone like Pedersen on their list is because they don't have one. They've got Michkov who's a winger, but if you're checking the positional boxes to help try and make your team win, they've got a scoring impact winger, no center, no top end defenseman and no goalie. That's a lot of work still left to do. And for the Caducks, to be in a spot where you go from Miller and Pedersen to

neither of them, it would be really difficult. But how are you going to get a center back in return in that deal that makes sense without them being a much lower end version like we saw in the Miller for Hedal trade? We're speaking to Frank Cerfali from Daily Face Off here on the Haliford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Frank, you caught my curiosity and attention there when you were talking about teams loading up

for offer sheets to RFAs this coming summer. Who are some of the guys right now that you're keeping an eye on RFA wise that might be the target of offer sheets? You know what? I haven't begun to even look at the list yet to be honest, but I had heard that in conversation. One GM specifically mentioned that last week that in conversation with his owner that's their their one sole mission like yeah we're gonna do other stuff but my owner really wants me to go out and get an RFA from Offer Sheet. The phone lines we go our next guest needs no introduction it's Chris Cuthbert here on the Haliford &

Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning Chris how are how are you? Good morning, I thought that was the Swedish orchestra you were playing the next half hour into it with, but good to be with you. It's great to have you on the show. We've been very excited all morning about not just this tournament, but the return of best on best international hockey. It's been a while, Chris, and you got a long

and rich history with international play. How excited are you while Chris and I know you got a long and rich history with international play. How excited are you for this tournament to get underway? Yeah I'm pretty fired up and you know for best on best I I haven't done anything since Vancouver 2010 so I I feel like just about everybody else it's it's been way overdue and just the thought of McDavid, McKinnon, Crosby, McCar on the same team is I mean that's exactly what we want to see. You know we actually mentioned earlier in the show about you know being the voice of one of the most famous iconic goals in International hockey history and obviously Canadian hockey history.

How different was going, if you can remember all that way back, it was 15 years ago now, but going into the Olympics in 2010 as opposed to going into this tournament now, because we've spoken about this a few times, 2010 was four years after the massive disappointment at the 06 Olympics. This tournament, it's been such a long time since anything's gone on, it's almost like the freshness and newness of international competition is the major driving storyline. What was it like back in 2010? Well, it was special because it was Vancouver.

It was home ice. And I remember a few weeks before the tournament, Scott Dieterbeier talking about once in a lifetime. And I'm thinking Scott Dieterbeier's won everything. And he's talking about a once in a lifetime. And I'm thinking Scott Niedemeyer's won everything. And he's talking about a once in a lifetime experience. And it was for everybody. I've never been in a rink like that Sunday afternoon with Canada and the US.

And I can't wait for Saturday because I think we'll have some of that. And a lot of it probably, but it will be tough to live up to one of the greatest moments in Canadian hockey history. But at least we are on the right track back because not only have we been waiting a long time for this but kind of a, you know, it's our order before the Olympics next year and you know everybody can play coach and GM and figure out what the right combinations will be for this and going forward for the one next year that will mean even more. On paper, where

do you rank this Canadian roster against ones we've seen you know in the last I don't know 10 to 20 years? I think it's as good as any, except obviously the big question marks and goal. And that just isn't the same, but it's, you know, it's funny that over the years, Team Canada's greatest goaltenders have often struggled. I mean, right back to, I'll play the old-timer card here, even in 72, Ken Dryden and Tony Esposito. It was

a struggle for them and Artie Baudur and Curtis Joseph even in 2010 and Roberto Alongo comes in to save the day. So, go know, I mentioned the three great forwards, but I'm just as excited to see Kale McCarr. What about the Americans? There's been talk out there that this is the best US roster ever put together. And I kind of have time for that. I guess you'd want to compare it to what?

The 96 World Cup that they won. That would be the other one. roster ever put together. And I kind of have time for that. I guess you'd want to compare it to what the 96 World Cup that they won. That would be the other one that you compare it to. Yeah. I, you know, you had me thinking right away that I haven't done a deep dive in comparing, you know, the goals and the stats, but that, that team was loaded that in 96 it had

Hit it had a lot of veteran guys at least maybe that's just my memory now thinking all those guys were or you know Grizzled vets, but yeah, they're veterans now Yeah Maybe they were all young bucks back then too, but this clearly is a good team With a lot of firepower. I still like our chances you know Skater wise and again, Connor Hellebuck could be the big difference But I go back to it go fitting so unpredictable Connor Hellebuck's playoff

Success has not been true terrific so you know, we don't know exactly what we're going to get, but I think Saturday's going to be magic. And, and if, fans in North America get their way, they'll, they'll get a rematch, next week as well. We're speaking to Chris Cuthbert here on the Haliford and Bruff show on sports net sixage. Chris, of course, will be on the call tonight, five o'clock. It is Canada against Sweden in the opener of the four nations face off from

Montreal. Hey, how's the weather in Montreal right now, Chris? I understand it's a 40 centimeters of snow already, or is that still coming? No, it's coming. I think it's going to hit tonight. I just walked over and it's, you know, it's winter cold in Montreal, but the sun's shining right now. But I guess they're really going to get socked in. And Montreal has never led the league in snow removal. It might be an adventure before the week's done here. Yeah, the mafia decides when it gets picked up.

Yeah, that's true. I do want to mention Montreal though, because location plays a huge part in this. You mentioned how special it was for 2010 in Vancouver. How great is it to have this tournament in Montreal? Yeah, it is, you know, so much history here from the first game of seven. You know what, I was thinking, and I don't mean to be Debbie Downer here, but two of the worst moments in Team Canada history were here, the Game 1 of the 72 Summit Series and the 81 Canada Cup, which when we got blown out that everybody has conveniently forgotten that game in Canada. But yeah, obviously, I mean, I'm sitting here watching Sweden skate, then you look in the rafters and that's the only reminder you need.

This is a special place. I think there is some disappointment here that only Sam Montembo is representing Montreal and even for Team USA, I think people are finding it hard to believe that Cole Caulfield's not on this team but nevertheless these are great fans and I imagine it will be as electric as it always is here tonight. From a Sweden perspective, what's the big, what's the main headline storyline for you when it comes to this team? Just one Pedersen to worry about. You know what, this is, these guys,

Finland's got the reputation of being the perennial spoiler or the underdog that embraces it. I think Sweden's got that opportunity here because Finland's just really rostered thin. But this Swedish team's got some firepower up front, but they've got an oppressive blue line that's got a nice veteran mix and they've got some offense from the back end too like Edmund and Carlson and Forsling and Dahlien. You know they've got probably as good a blue line as anybody in the tournament whether or not they can get enough up front. And so you know Elias Pettersson is going

to be an important guy here. He's going to play with Adrian Kempé and Philip Forsberg and funny enough here's the stat for you. William Carl, or sorry, William Nylander has the most goals in this tournament among Canadian board players and among Swedish players. He's got it covered both ways. Who do you think gets the matchups for Sweden against the McDavid line and the McKinnon line?

Well, I've seen first-hand twice. Pedersen this year played tremendous in a shut-down role, so is it going to be him? It could be. Erik Zedekto is a guy that has that traditional role, but he's played on the line with lucas rey but it yes for brought to leeds sweetened point so uh... you know i maybe these coaches are i don't think john cooper's afraid of going to straight to get straight to get anybody in the tournament will

will find out i we don't know much about them how how old was the uh... swedish coach will be interested to see uh... uh... how he handles it, but Mika Zabantajed is listed as their number one centre and he's the number three centre with the New York Rangers. So, you know, I don't know what his options are. Well, we were saying earlier in the show that,

you know, it's funny that Sweden's got, their top two centres have been maybe the most criticized players in the NHL this year and Mika Zvanagid and Elias Pedersen and you know, you talk about Eric Carlson, you know, the reviews haven't been terrific for him in Pittsburgh. So I guess, I guess this team has a lot to prove out there. Yeah, that's not a bad position to be in because it's like a giant reset for a lot of guys. And I know Craig Simpson always talks about that first game of the playoffs where a guy who's had a bad season has a chance to change everything and a guy that's lit it up and has a great season, well he's got to do it again or if

he doesn't, he's going to hear about it. So it is a, and, and, and the Swedish coach did talk about this yesterday. It is, it is a chance to reset and, and change the narrative for some guys. And, and they may just embrace that. What do you think the bread and butter play for Canada's power play is going to be? Because there's so much talent out there, but only one guy can have the puck. I, I talked to Kale McCarr about this yesterday. I said, you know, what's the danger of everybody deferring to each other and, and he acknowledged

that that's it. But he said, I think I'm going to just be shooting. And, uh, I think everybody's going to have to have that mentality. It's, it's, you know, you don't have to play nice in the sandbox here. Everybody can, everybody can score. It's, it's a you don't have to play nice in the sandbox here. Everybody can score. It's a pretty impressive group.

And, you know, watching all the skates, there has been more time put into powerplay and penalty kill than anything else. It's almost been exclusively a focus of at least the skates yesterday for all the teams. And a hot powerplay can win the tournament for sure. And no reason why our guys shouldn't be the ones that have the hottest power play. Chris, before we let you go, has Sweden given any indication,

I know you're out there for the skate this morning in the practice, who might be their starting goalie tonight when they take on Canada? Yeah, that's a good question. I kind of watching and I don't know if they designate home net here. Uh, I, I think it's probably going to be Gustafson. Uh, but I will say if it's a Lena Zolomar,

he may have the best set of pads at the start of it. So, uh, they're, they're pretty good looking Trey Croter pad. So, uh, uh, but yeah, I think Gustafson will see, uh, uh, and we probably will know in about a half hour from now. I was going to say, we'll find out soon enough because the tournament gets underway for real We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see.

We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see.

We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. Enjoy, should be great. Thank you. That's Chris Cuthbert, the play by play voice of Sportsnet and the

four nations face off here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet. 6.50. Starting to get excited. Starting to get excited. Just a few hours away from puck drop. Be honest. Are you starting to get excited or is there a tiny bit of you trying to talk yourself into it?

No, I don't do that. I'm all sincerity, a hundred percent of the time. You're not. I'm the most sincere person on radio, I think. I actually just replied to someone, Halford and sincerity have never been in the same room before. I saw it. It hurt my feelings. Why do you think I'm projecting now?

No, we have been accused, accused, jacques, of trying to pump this tournament up. Why are you bringing Jack Hughes into this? Good one. I don't, we don't do that. If you listen to this show enough, you know that, you know, we're not, we're not super earnest about a lot of things. We, I always say it, like we're very cynical.

We've always got a Snyder mark. The Halepin and Brough show, always got something sarcastic to say. Maybe slightly dead inside. Okay. Yeah. However, that should lend credence to when we're excited about something, it's genuine. We're not going to put it on just because we think we need to promote a product for our company. I think Saturday is going to be awesome. Rogers, a very good company.

No, look. They're all about family. We. Making money. Off your family. Off your family. Off your family. Um, there you go. We're the side remarks.

Bruv and I, I think kind of uniquely have been around long enough to have worked international competitions before. And with the ability of, you know, the fond retrospect realized how important they were in the context of what we do. I remember 2010, not just because it was the great ending, but I remember thinking and good on me as I pat myself on the back. Good on me for remembering for noticing this in the moment like I'm like

this is rare. We don't do this very often. We don't have an opportunity to collect the best players and play in this really cool tournament. And then lo and behold, I didn't realize that it would go away entirely for the better part of a decade. And maybe it's because, and I alluded to this earlier, the international windows for soccer,

like international football, it's a special time. Guys really take it seriously when they get called up to represent their national team. And because it happens with a little bit more regularity, um, it doesn't necessarily lose its uniqueness, but you kind of understand how the whole thing works. And you know, you're like, you understand how squad selection works. You understand what it means to get your cap for your country and go midweek as I joked earlier to go play Lichtenstein. Because it's been so long that we haven't had best on best international competition.

I do think a lot of people are just sort of unfamiliar with it. And that's why. They're out of rhythm. They're out of rhythm. Like it's just sort of like, what is this? Is this a replacement for the all star game? Is this just a break so the non good

players can go to Cabo? Is it like, what is it? It's just a money making machine for the NHL and NHLPA and I'm trying to come at it from a perspective of no, it's international best on best competition, which is cool and awesome. And this is a way to get back. You're listening to the best of Halford and