Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 2/21/25

Episode Date: February 21, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they discuss a big Canada win over the USA at the 4 Nations final with Sportsnet NHL insider Elliotte Friedman.  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. Whoa! Wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose a f***ing- Canadians? You're listening to Halford and Brough. For Iraq nipples, I just hope Canada's proud. This was a heck of a lot more than just a little tournament. This sucks. I thought this team deserved more.

Sometimes when you shoot your mouth off in the media and you know it fights you. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Woo! Good morning Vancouver, 6.01 on a Friday. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Alfred, it is Brough, it is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech studios and beautiful fairview slopes in

Vancouver Jason good morning good morning. Hey dog. Good morning to you morning and laddie. Good morning to you as well Hello, hello, how far to brough in 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 Powell Street in Vancouver.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. If my voice sounds a little raspy this morning, it is worth it. It was worth it. What a night, what an event, what a tournament, what a win. We got a lot to get into on the show today.

It begins at 6.30. Our buddy AJ is gonna join us from AJ's Pete's on East Broadway. Even though AJ was at the Hollywood theater to watch Canada beat US in overtime of the Four Nations Finale yesterday. He'll be joining us today live from Florida. We'll talk to him about all the stuff we normally talk about.

7 o'clock, Freage is gonna join the program. Elliott Friedman, Sportsnet's very own, joining us live from Boston. Probably working on very little sleep. Not only was he working the game last night, they recorded a 32 Thoughts pod overnight. So much to get into with Freege as well. 7.30 it's Moge as per usual.

Eight o'clock it's Dolly Wall as per usual. A reminder, we are giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza Ony's Broadway today. That's gonna go to the best Ask Us Anything or What We Learned. Get him in now. Dunbar number text line is 650650, hashtag him WWL or AUA,

and put a pizza emoji into your text. You'll be entered into the grand prize contest to win a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. And finally, as I mentioned, it is Ask Us Anything Friday. Start getting them in, we'll be doing them all show long. We got a lot to get into. The first hour of this program is almost 100%. Hal-Bro, we're gonna react to everything that happened

last night from Boston in one of the great games of our generation, of our time. One of the great hockey games that I've ever watched. Tip to tail, it was fantastic. We got an hour of analysis and recap and everything else. So guest list, working in reverse. Eight o'clock, Rick Dollywall, seven thirty, it's Moj. Seven o'clock, it's Freage, six 630 it's AJ. That's a Friday show.

Laddie, 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 messy 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. In case you didn't know, now you know.

Connor McDavid scored 818 into overtime. And Canada won yet again in international best on best competition. 3-2 against the Americans in the final of the four nations faceoff. Before we do anything, I want to throw it back to the game winning goal yesterday, right from the start, off the draw and Economic David shot on net and then what transpired. Let's hear now Cuthbert on the call, Sportsnet the audio, the winner, Canada 3-2 over the US last night. Goal! Goal! The Canaanese champion! The champion of the four nations tournament! That was the ESPN Deportes call.

I forgot I sent that along last night. No, that was Cuthbert. That was a controversial call up here. It was a choice he made. And we support him. Campeones es cuatro naces! It was very good. We do actually have the real call though.

Okay, you know what? For the sake of Chris Cuthbert and everyone that was listening to the game on Sportsnet last night let's hear what it sounded like. Connor McDavid in overtime. Canada beats the US 3-2. Off the drop, McDavid went overtime. Canada beats the U.S. 3-2. So I got to ask the listeners right off the hop. How did you celebrate? I have to admit that, okay, first of all, Halford, thank you for hosting down at the Hollywood theater.

You're welcome. I had to watch that game by myself. That was one of those games where I'm like, I realized that there's going to be a lot of people at the Hollywood theater all there for the watch party and Adog, you were there and Halford, you were there and I had to watch that game by myself. It was that. Laddie was there.

Laddie was there. My chop liver? Well, I didn't think you were there. I didn't know you were there. And also, yes. Two part answer. I have to admit that when McDavid scored, I was running around the house.

The dog was like, dude, you need to calm down. Like we've been through this for a few days now. You need to calm down. I opened a sliding door and I said some happy swears to the neighborhood. Like it was like, it was my, my, that was a top five nervous game of my life. I was actually wondering during the break between the third period and overtime, how many

times I've felt that way. And we were talking about this yesterday on the show, like where the games, you aren't, you aren't sitting there going like, wow, this is so fun. You're saying, I feel like I'm going to parf. Um, you know, you're either going to the thing I'm talking about over time specifically here. Okay.

You know, you're either going to feel such incredible joy and maybe yesterday more so relief or it's just going to be that punch in the gut, that utter disappointment where you just like, I like, close my eyes and I'm like, no, that did not just happen. And it could happen at any time. There's nothing in sports like overtime in hockey.

And I can probably count the number of times in my life that I felt that way, like truly that way. I've seen a lot of overtime games. Sure. Even playoff overtime games. Uh, but there's, uh, an upper echelon of that feeling and I felt it last night and I'm looking back on my life watching hockey, both the Canucks and

Team Canada. And the first time probably I ever felt that was not probably, definitely was 1989 game seven, Canucks and Flames at overtime. And the Flames of course won that one, the Canucks losing. And that taught me something. That taught me how badly sudden death can hurt.

And in some ways I talk a lot about this with my various therapists. I've been battling that mentally, that mental feeling, I have been mentally recovering from that moment for my entire life. It's true. He has. But I felt the joy too.

Pavel Bury in 1994, getting the revenge on Calgary, Sid in 2010, Alex Burroughs really quickly after that in 2011. And now I get to add Connor McDavid to that list. And how awesome was it that it was Connor McDavid that did it after yesterday we're talking about like, are we going to see a signature moment for Connor McDavid? Because for all the great things that Connor McDavid

has done as a hockey player, he does not have a, he did not, now he does, but he did not have a signature goal that really meant something to his team or the country. I'm talking famous goals. Yeah. Famous goals that everyone, everyone will remember the play and everyone will wonder, how the hell did he get so wide open? You should pay attention to 97 American defenders. He's standing there alone.

Someone did an illustrative outline of the square of space, the empty white space that was around Connor McDavid when he scored that goal. And we can get into the minutia of the goal itself and everything, but let's hear now from Connor McDavid because I don't know if you're aware there, Sonant, but verbally, not the most outspoken guy, not the most emotional guy, tends to keep him in check, but you could tell he was feeling it.

Last night he did a walk-off interview with Kalaboukoskas on the ice, and then in their dressing room later talking about the biggest goal of his career. Here's Canada's hero from last night, Conor McDavid, following a 3-2 overtime win against the States. Well, it means everything. I think you saw everybody lay it all on the line. I think the Kachak bros were grinding through things, Sid grinding through something. Everybody hardly stepping in again. Everybody laid it all out there. And it just means, you know, it means the world to us to find a way to get it done. That's what we do.

And what's your sense of what it means for Canada that's winning this championship? That's a big, broad question. I don't really know. I know that we have 23 guys that are really excited about it. That's all that really matters. So it was a signature moment for McDavid. By the way, I just want to say this, that you can't script sport. I know some people like to joke that the NFL has won

starting at week one, all the way through to the Super Bowl. You can't script it, but you'd be hard pressed to have scripted that tournament any better than the way that it went, any better. It was phenomenal. The final was as hotly contested, tightly contested and dramatic as you can get. You wanna talk about the razor thin margin

between the two teams, go look at every metric from last night's game, right? Just the basic stats, the goals and the shots through two periods that were dead identical. Once Bennett scored to make it 2-2, I must've said it to about five different people in Hollywood last time, like it's clearly next school wins right now.

Like this is designed to be a 3-2 game because the margins are so thin on this one. And then when it went to overtime, it was like, yep, this is exactly how it should go. This is exactly how it needed to go. And the drama was off the charts. You could not have written a better script for the way that that game

and that tournament went last night. Finished with amazing, the passing of the torch. Who's the next great Canadian hockey player? Who's the next great icon? It's Connor McDavid. Did he have his moment yet? No. Is he going to get it? Yes, absolutely. Playing on the same team as Sidney Crosby, the guy that did it in 2010 at Sochi. It's crazy. Did he look good during the game? Absolutely not. Very shaky. Very, very shaky. It was not a great game from Connor McDavid. I may have said it afterwards. He was like, I was not good. May have said it a couple of times during a great game from Connor McDavid. I may have said it.

He admitted it afterwards. He was like, I was not good. May have said it a couple of times during the game. Where's McDavid? What's going on? But in the end, it doesn't matter because the script played through. Let's get into some of these individuals.

The guys that went out there and did it. And we started with McDavid. But if you're gonna start with McDavid, you have to follow up immediately with the other hero of the night and a guy that deserves an apology from a lot of people across Canada, and that is the goalie, Jordan Bennington. Adog? Adog?

What? Oh no, he was incredible in overtime. Absolutely sensational. And? He was not great for the first 60 minutes. And? He was pretty sketchy for the first 60 minutes. And? He was. He was pretty sketchy for the first 60 minutes and pretty nerve wracking, but he pulled it

together when it counted. And you are? What? What? You are? A jerk. A nice guy? And you apologize for doubting him.

Oh, I'm sorry for, I didn't, I didn't respect his game. He knew what he was doing in overtime. He was spectacular. Say it, say it, say it. I'm sorry Jordan Biddington. I'm sorry Jordan Biddington sort of. You're like, you're like again, you're like, I'm sorry. Well, no. My fingers crossed.

My bad. And if you could ask anyone at the Hollywood and you could look on social media, the first 60 minutes was typical Biddington. Like he was out of position a lot sort of Floundering kind of sketchy looking about he made a bunch of great saves during the game He wasn't well. He was fine. He didn't let any softies which was the key and I said that yesterday Oh my god, you don't admit it. He played an incredible game in a very very high pressure situation He played very very good in overtime first of all very well and very very He played very, very good in overtime. First of all, very well. And

very, very good. He played very well the whole game. He played very well the whole game. Jordan Binnington. He was excellent. Jordan Binnington. Jordan Binnington made 31 saves on 33 shots, including the last 20 shots in a row that he fixed. I'll say you guys are both a little correct. I didn't trust him throughout that game. Through the first 60 minutes, there were definitely Binnington moments where he fell down on his post randomly like two or three times throughout the game He did a couple the second goal. He got up with the wrong leg But this is why I hate these big games when it comes to goalie analysis because everything is so hyper analyzed And yet a goal goes in there's going to be a mistake. Somebody's gonna screw up along the way

That's why goals go in. Well, Kale McCarr made the big mistake on the first goal. He did. I mean, he was completely asleep there. You could pick anyone apart on any goal, right? I'm not going to, and then, you know, the Canadian defense couldn't handle Brady Kachak barreling in there and it was like a weird goal that, that went past him.

I, listen, Adog, you can have your opinion. My opinion was that Jordan Binnington was absolutely incredible last night. You trusted him the whole game? You heard it. The whole game. You know what? Really?

I wasn't worried. I will be perfectly honest with you. Wow, okay. I was. I was not worried about, you know what I was more worried about was Canada beating Connor Hellebuyck. That's what I was more worried about and Canada creating enough scoring chances.

I've seen enough of Jacob Slaven for a while. Man, that guy is so good defensively. Like he is really incredible, but I do want to run through a few other guys. Nathan McKinnon was the MVP with four goals in the tournament, well-deserved MVP for him. That guy is such a force. And it was, like he, he's now one of those guys, I guess he always has been, but when he picks up the puck and starts rushing with it, like he's,

he's right, he's right in the same area for me as McDavid, where I'm like, he could do this thing all by himself. And they were the only two guys. The Americans didn't have that upfront. And granted, it's hard to have that because there's only a handful of humans on the planet that are blessed with that ability. But that's what Canada had and that's what the US didn't, including a couple of things. I will say that McKinnon and McDavid, we talked a lot about when Gretzky and Lemieux had their 87 Canada Cup moment and they had their defining signature moments together. This wasn't quite the same, but McDavid finishing the tournament with three goals and the game winning goal

and the tournament winning goal in overtime and then McKinnon skating up shortly thereafter for the MVP. You really saw a changing of the guard and a changing of the guard that let's be frank was long overdue because we did not get best on best international competition for 11 years. McDavid and McKinnon,

the first opportunity they got to play together on Canada in a tournament of this magnitude, they showed up big time. Yeah, Sid was like, thank God there's a change in the card. I'm exhausted. I'm an old man now. 37, like let someone else. Someone else guard this game. Uh, Mitch Marner, two incredible assists and what

really impressed me about Mitch Marner, I hope it doesn't apply to the playoffs this year, but he had the guts to keep his composure and make plays in big moments. And Rick Tocket was on the bench and how many times has Rick Tocket said, I want our guys to hold onto pucks and make big plays. Let things develop a little bit. Don't get rid of the puck, hold onto the puck. And people will say, no, you're telling them to dump it in. I'm not, I want our guys to make plays. And let's be honest, I mean, we can talk about the Americans in a few minutes,

but the pass that he made to Austin Matthews, or Austin Matthews, Austin Matthews was watching Mitch Marner and now Connor McDavid. The pass he made to McDavid was not a difficult pass, a guy of his skill that he can make that pass in his sleep. The pass that was the most impressive one was the one he gave Sam Bennett because there was some,

um, like first of all, holding the puck in that area of the ice. There'd be a lot of people that would be like, okay, well, I'm just going to chip this in or something like that, or getting nervous about getting hit by a defenceman or something like that. He held on it just long enough for Sam Bennett to fill in on the left side. An overlap we call it in soccer.

Yeah. I mean, it was, it was such a beautiful play to watch and then Bennett perfect shot over Hellebuck's shoulder. So Mitch Marner, you know, you scored the big overtime goal against Sweden. Um, he has received some criticism in this tournament.

He's at times looked maybe a little bit slow, but he made two enormous plays last night. Drew Doughty, a late addition to this team. And there was a lot of people that wondered if he was the right guy, you know, maybe it should be McKenzie Weager. Um, he's getting older. Um, he is coming off an injury.

He's barely played this season. And you know, in the Sweden game, he was saying, well, that's the fastest game I've ever been a part of. And people were kind of like, yeah, it was fast, but have you ever thought of the fact that maybe you're just getting a little bit slower? Yeah. Um.

Had to wear number 89 in this turn. Yeah, that was weird. That was weird. Well, Kevin Biazza did a great job of breaking down all his strong plays during the intermission. Um, I thought Doughty was awesome. Like that, that was a warrior performance. Not only some of the strong plays he made with

the puck, again, having the composure in these big moments to hold onto the puck just a little bit long, longer than, than, than you would if you were just going to go glassing out, but not too long. Like he always ended up making the right play, but also his willingness to take big hits, to make a play, going back to get the puck and going,

I'm going to get smoked here, but that's part of my job. I'm going to make a cool, calm play, find a teammate and there's the big hit. Right? Like that's just what you have to do as a defenseman, especially against that American team. Brady Kichuck got him at least twice early.

And I was like, that's going to hurt tomorrow for the oldest defenseman on the team. But you were right about Doughty holding onto the puck, almost like a savvy veteran QB who's willing to stand in the pocket and take a hit to make the right pass. Like Doughty slowed it down really nice yesterday. And I think it gave the guys a sense of calm that we're gonna be okay.

Like even though the Americans, the Americans were gonna try and assert their physicality without question. But it was like, as long as we keep our composure. And this is the thing with best on best is when you're a defenseman especially, you've got guys that are the cream of the crop and they're not going to get rattled. That's the whole point of having best on best is you don't have a sixth defenseman who's a tweener between the American league and the NHL. You know what the difference is? It's really tough

to make plays under pressure in the NHL. The elite of the elite are like, I can do this. No problem, because I've been doing it for decades. Well, let's talk a bit about another elite defenseman, Kale McCarr did not play in Montreal against the Americans. The Americans won that game. Kale McCarr plays in Boston in the final and the Canadians won the game.

He played a ton with his regular D-Partner and De'Von Taves and picked up a secondary assist on the OT winner. And you know, his, like, it wasn't, uh, it looked like it was a bit of a set play on that OT winner because Mitch Marner went directly to that left corner and McCarr, you know, the puck came to him at the point, it was off a bit of a weird, broken

kind of faceoff play. Um, and he just like immediately skated to it. He didn't wait for the puck to get to him. He got his feet going, got to the puck and then was able to rim it around the wall to Marner. And Marner did a nice job of picking it off the wall with his skates. Um, but again, like that, like, McTavish was so

wide open, it really wasn't a hard play for him, him to make Marner, but McCarr, again, like, like McTavish was so wide open, it really wasn't a hard play for him, him to make Marner. But McCarr, again, I thought he did fall asleep a bit on the Americans first goal when Austin Matthews kind of like jumped the route. Yep. Um, between him and Tavish, but overall the guy played a ton and he played well, good defensively,

good puck moving. He made a huge difference out there for Canada. Can we just, since we're on the subject of defensemen right now, we got to go up against it for a break. There is a guy I want to shout out that didn't get a ton of love post game, but um, have we all sort of had our eyes open to Thomas Harley and how damn good he is? And considering the circumstances in which the 23 year old Dallas defenseman came into this tournament as an emergency pickup mid-tournament to fill in for Macar

when Canada was dropped to five defensemen because of the injury there and then the injury to Shay Theodore. And then last night, to be honest, because I was traveling, I was driving to the Hollywood and then I got in there and was talking to people and everything, I missed the sort of late Josh Morrissey scratch where all of a sudden Harley's thrown back in.

You think, okay, well, whatever. You can put him in as your sixth defenseman. He plays 22 minutes last night. He's third among Demon in ice time, picks up an assist, he's plus one, like unbelievable tournament for him. And really probably opened a ton of eyes because I know for a fact on a couple of group chats,

the sentence, who the hell is Thomas Harley was sent. Was sent. And these are people that follow the league and know it. Okay. People, that was out there for sure. Oh, for sure it was. I had never heard of him before this tournament. And we'll talk about Thomas Harley and the,

um, actually I want to have a conversation at some point during the show, maybe even in the next segment about the Olympics because it's now less than a year away. Let's call it a year away. And I'm wondering, I'm looking at the Canadian roster and going, you know, like, I think McDavid will probably make the team for the Olympics. And I'm even like very confident, even though Sid will be, I guess, 38, pretty

sure he'll be there unless there's an injury. But there are a few guys that I'm wondering about and I think we can now start having the conversation, like I guarantee you're going to see some Canada rosters, some mock rosters coming out in the next little while because- Will Bedard and Celebrini be there? It's a good question. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Did you see that? Game saver of Brady Kachak. My nipples are erect thinking about it. Oh no. 701 on a Friday. Happy Friday everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It's a celebratory Friday. It's a Fiesta Friday. You're listening to the Halford and Bradford show.

It's a great day. It's a great day. It's a great day. It's a Friday. Happy Friday everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It's a celebratory Friday. It's a Fiesta Friday. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Halford 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 two of the program. I believe we are still working on

getting Elliott Friedman on the phone, so he hopefully will be joining us in just a moment here to kick off hour two. Hour two of this program is brought to you by Jason Hominuk from Jason.mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at Jason.mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studio, Kintex Footwear and orthotics, working together with you in step. It's Ask Us Anything Friday on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. If you want to be entered into the contest for best Ask Us Anything, be sure to include the pizza emoji in your text into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650, 650, Colin and Tawason

has an Ask Us Anything. Okay. And he said, I missed watching the end of the game last night live because I had to coach my son's soccer practice. What is the biggest sporting event that you missed watching live because of some other commitment? I know yours.

Well, mine is the famous story about the 1987 Canada Cup that I didn't see live. Famous is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, but yes. Famous. It's a famous story. And I was, I didn't have, I wasn't coaching my son's soccer practice because I was, well, I was 11.

And we had a band meeting at school because too many kids had signed up to play the saxophone, and we had to sort that thing out. Saxamophone. Yeah. 26 kids all wanted to play the saxophone. It was a hot instrument at the time. So we had this meeting at my elementary school and I missed the game. And...

You also though, speaking of famous stories, famous yet again doing heavy lifting, the Seahawks Superbowl Championship, because you were wandering the streets of Russia like an unadopted dog. Trying to find a place to go to watch the game. Have you missed any? Yeah, 94, a beret, overtime from Jeff Brown. What, you missed that? I had to listen to it in the car. No.

Because my parents dragged me along to my brother's baseball game. They said, what? Yep, I would listen to it. How old were you? 94, I was 15, 14, 15. Why didn't you stay home? Parents made me go to the game.

Said, you gotta support your brother. So then I had then I had wow so I didn't miss it miss it I got to listen to it on the radio should have been yelling a brother. You're a monster. He was Yeah, you know so I mine comes with an asterisk because I still got to hear the dulcet tunes I remember who was on the radio call at that point. It was so long ago, but yeah, that's the one that I missed Okay, we got for each now Let's go to the phone lines now. Very excited to talk to our next guest after one of the great nights in hockey history.

I'm gonna say it. One of the great nights in hockey history last night. Elliot Friedman here now on the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650. What up, Freage, how are you? I'm good, how are you guys doing? Early morning, late night, great night. Pretty awesome, eh?

How much sleep are you working on right now? About an hour. And I slept on the plane. So the flight was probably about an hour and a half, so two and a half hours. Yeah. So Elliot, just to describe your experience at this tournament. I mean, Montreal, the game between the Canadians and the Americans. I don't know if I've ever seen on TV an atmosphere like that, you got to experience it.

And then last night in Boston, I don't know if the atmosphere matched Montreal, but the game certainly did. Well, I mean, I mean, I've been now to four big Canada, USA games in the last 23 years, right? So I was at the gold medal final in 2002. I was not at the round robin game in 2010, but I was at the gold medal final in 2010. You know what? I was at the one nothing semi final in in 2014 and I was at the two this week. You know the 2016 one it wasn't it doesn't register as much for me but so I don't really remember it

well but I would say that these were probably the two most supercharged ones like I don't know if you can ever say that these two were bigger than the gold medal games, but I think the atmospheres in the arena were a bit wilder than the gold medal games. Um, you know, I, I remember the 2002 game. It was, it was intense, but I don't think it was like Montreal. The 2010 game was certainly intense and nervous, but there was something about that Montreal game that was, uh, that was really something.

And then last night, you know, I, like, I, I don't think, I honestly don't think for the players, the politics gets into it, even though Trump called them. I think that they want to win for their teammates and they want to win because the Americans hate the Canadians and the Canadians hate the Americans. Right. I think all the stuff for them after is is just extra. All the stuff for them after is just extra. But obviously I think for the Canadian fans in particular, there was a lot on the line for this one. You know, obviously we're a little annoyed at some of the things that have been said. We're annoyed about the 51st state stuff, even though I think it's so stupid that it's

never going to happen. It's completely ridiculous. I think that the, I don't know if in terms of politics and political passion, I don't know if any of the other games was as charged up as this one. And, um, you know, you can feel it on social after the game. Like a lot of the times that it's about pride and just winning as a Canadian, you want to win the gold medal of the championship. I think for a lot of people, this one was I don't know. I don't think so much necessarily the players, but I think the fans certainly were feeling it. You know, I

think what happened was how politically charged it was from the outside. The players were able to funnel it with hatred for one another because both teams played the part like perfectly. I don't think playing it's the right term. Like they were, it was like a full bodied, um, you know, it was genuine. Here's what I'll say.

Like the American, the Americans came in and led by the Kachaks were bold and brash and ready to talk to whomever would put a camera in front of their face and loved every camera that was in front of their face and were ready not to anoint themselves that we're the guys now. They were, they felt like they were the guys now. This is our sport, our time. I think Brady and Matthew embodied that more than anybody else. And then in the aftermath, when Canada won, Canada very quietly sat back and said, you know, we were a little more humble a little more we had a little bit more humility But we heard everything they were saying and Brad Marchand said it in his postgame remarks yesterday

sometimes he talked a little bit too much before a game and it comes back to bite you and I thought it was the perfect representation of America and Canada played out on the ice Yeah, I mean but you know why, like, I can't, it's tough for me to rip the Kinshaw Brothers because we eat that up, right? I don't think we need to, I don't think ripping them is the right term.

Like, I don't think, I don't want anything to change going into the 2026 Olympics. Like I don't think anything will. I think the way that they approach it is great. But if you're gonna talk like that and you're going to be as demonstrative as they are, that's the sort of double edge. Yeah, that's the risk of putting yourself out there.

And frankly, that's why I appreciate everything that the Kajaks bring to the game because they do put themselves out there and we need more players like that. Yeah. And they're great. And they embraced all the media stuff. This was about selling the game, right?

This was about selling hockey. The whole point of this tournament was to sell the sport. And the whole reason they moved it to February was to sell the sport, to get it away from football. And that was accomplished, and they played a huge role in it. I mean, look, you're right. Like you put yourself out there, you know, you're going to take the good with the bad. But and I saw what Marshan said, it's totally fine.

And it's, you know, it's funny. Marshan was the guy who said it because he's one of the biggest talkers too. But like I, like I have no hate for the Kachuk brothers after this. Like they, they made the, they were two of the biggest reasons that this tournament was as good as it was. Um, I know you're only working on an hour's sleep, but we're already talking about the roster

for the Olympics a year away. Who are, who are some names maybe that didn't make the team that you're going to keep an eye on? And if you want to get into who might not be on the team, feel free. Like I already threw out there, like if I were to bet, I don't think Brad Marshawn is going to be on

the Olympic team, but who knows it'll have to depend on some of the younger guys and how much they improve over the next year. But what did you think about this current roster and maybe where it could improve with certain players? Well, the one thing is, I don't worry as much about goal fending anymore. I think Canada should petition to move the

Olympics to Boston because there's something about Bennington in that building. We actually gave Jordan Bennington a, a, a Halford and Brough pardon, like a presidential pardon because he's now broken the hearts of the Boston Bruins and the Americans and we think he deserves it. Well, you know, I, I hope that that sounds like a,

that sounds like monopoly, like free, like go free like avoid jail like get out of jail free I'm sure it has similar power. You know I'll say this actually I wasn't necessarily thinking about that like last night we were kind of talking about who from this team that meet like Thomas Harley, I think is on the Olympic team. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, it was great. Like talk about a guy who arrived on the national stage.

Like I look at this group and I'm trying to think like I mean, Marshaans again, though, like if they're going to like the if the one thing about Marshan that we saw in this tournament, like he was a gamer in every sense of the word, he can be caught now. Like that's the one thing I was like, he had some chances to score and he got caught. That's the only thing I saw about Marshan that made me concerned about him. I think it's, me concerned about him. I think it's, excuse me, I think it's still pretty obvious that he's a really smart player and he can still compete. I'll be curious to see, like, do they think, okay, the foot speed just isn't there? I mean, guys who, I mean, guys who, I mean, Patrangelo is still very much going to be in the mix pending his health.

Um, you know, I think another guy who was the tournament went on reminded us of what he's still capable of doing is Drew Doughty. Oh, he was so good last night. So good. You know, like he, like, you know, he, I think a lot of people were like, I remember when I said, I thought he was obviously the guy,

like I even Kings fan telling me I was nuts and he played fantastic. Like, I don't think there's too many players in that Canadian team that I would look at and say, they played themselves off an Olympic team. I still think the one guy who's kind of interesting is gonna be Wilson from Washington. Like, you know, he's a guy, even though the Olympic games next year are

going to be a very different, it's not going to be the NHL game. There's not going to be fighting but Wilson I think is going to be a guy who's still going to be in the conversation. And you know, to be honest, I think, like I think Celebrini, I don't like, I kind of wondered if they should take Celebrini as the 13th forward. I don't know that he was ready for this. In retrospect, and I thought about this last night, I don't know that Celebrini was ready for this this year, but I still think there's a chance he could be ready

for this next year. Maybe Harley's the answer to this already, but I'm going to ask anybody, who's stock rose the most this tournament? I would say Harley would be up there. I'll tell you this, I got a text from a player last night in the league who said that the best player in the tournament was Slavin.

Yeah, that's fair. He's unreal. I think Brock Faber is another one. Yep. Like I think the Faber is another one. Yep Like I think the I think the u.s. Had three defensemen there Slaven Faber and war and ski who had unbelievable tournaments. I thought those guys were phenomenal You know, I think for Canada Harley I think is is a great one

You know, I thought Colton Pareto played very well. I thought Morrissey before he got sick, he played very well. You know, I would say this too. I thought Sam Bennett was really good. Like he didn't play a ton, but every shift you noticed him out there and he scored a huge goal. And I know this really is important to Vancouver listeners, but I know the Leafs are really

hoping this one jump starts Marner. You know, he scored a big goal and he had two assists in the championship game. I have to say this, I think there's a few Americans, I am really curious to see what this does for Kyle Conner. It had to be really hard to miss that game last night and I hope he channels it properly and uses it as the proper motivation. But I thought Larkin was really good, I thought Gensel was really good and even though he made the mistake on the winning goal, I thought for the most part Matthewel was really good and even though you know he made the mistake on the winning goal

I thought for the most part Matthews is really good. I thought Jake Sanderson last night was really good even even without the goal like I like the one thing that I left this impression of is You know what guys is that if you want to be a great player in this league and you want to win You have to be able to defend you want to be a great player in this league and you want to win, you have to be able to defend. You have to be able to check. Like even McDavid, who's the best player in the league, you know, he had the spectacular goal against the United States in the round robin. And of course he had the winning goal last night, but the Americans made it really hard on him. He like, nobody creates a Maroon more than McDavid does. And they had him bottled up

a lot of the time. Like he had to work for every inch he got. And it's only because he's so great that he got some of those opportunities. But, you know, like you look at all the players in this tournament especially on the Canadian and US team everybody checked everybody played defense everybody and you know when the details went sideways which they rarely did we got the game-winning goal last night so like if if I'm looking at that game last night I'm looking at everybody on the NHL team I watch. And I, and I'm saying, are they a hard two way player? Because that's what it takes to win both in the

NHL and internationally, best on best. Yeah. I thought, I thought Matthew's played really well too. I mean, he jumped the route between Taves and McCarr on the first goal behind the net. I thought McCarr looked like he fell asleep a little bit there. Um, like it's those little mistakes.

What I think was remarkable about the winning goal was just how bad a defensive breakdown it was for the Americans because for the whole tournament, they played so well defensively. They're incredible. And that, that is like a glaring puck watching mistake where they're all looking at Marner. I don't think it was even, I don't think it was even puck watching.

I think that what Matthews was thinking was Marner was going to come up the wall and he thought maybe it was his assignment that he was going to beat, uh, I think was it Hanifin who was there, that he was going to beat Hanifin out of that corner and he thought he had to help. Yeah. I don't think he was puck watching.

I think he was in our, I think he was thinking, okay, in our system of Marner gets there, I have to do this. And that's what I think he was doing. You think in the back of his mind, he was like, there's something else I need to do too. All right, McTaven and the game is over. Yeah. Um.

Yeah, it's pretty amazing. I mean, the game is so quick. That's that, that even the, even the best players, right? Like, uh, you have to make a decision sometimes and sometimes the decision is wrong. And often it happens when you're trying to help out, like you say.

Um, so, um, let's talk a little bit of Canucks. There's three players that I want to talk about. First of all is Quinn Hughes. Now we've all heard the stories about what happened. It looked like he was going to go and then he didn't ultimately go. The only question I have for you, is there any reason, I just want to put it out there, is there any reason to believe that there could

be hard feelings between Quinn Hughes and the Vancouver Canucks? Is there any narrative out there that the, the Canucks blocked Quinn Hughes from doing something that he, he wanted to do? I don't know. Like the, the one thing is I, I really, I, I am, I am careful about these kinds of questions, Jason, because I haven't spoken

to Hughes directly. And I think that you have a real danger, especially in a market as, as I respectfully say, as far as Vancouver's. I don't want to put words in Quinn Hughes' mouth. I think what I think is that he wanted to be there whether he was going to play or not, right? And I was told that if he couldn't play, the Canucks just didn't want him to travel. They thought it was a lot to ask a guy who wasn't cleared to play to go Vancouver. Like one of the unfortunate thing about the timing here was

that you know the day before they needed him he was still in the East Coast somewhere. Like I think I'm not sure where it was, if it was New York or New Jersey. That's probably a lot easier. But you know, one of the things, and I was talking about this with someone last night, you know, Jack had had a tough tournament. And I think that, although I thought he played much better last night,

I think that, you know, Quinn would have wanted to at least go there to support Jack, even if he wasn't playing. So I think if there's, um, you know, I, so I, if the whole process, they're going to have to fix this and I think they will before the next one of these. So the whole process put everybody in a kind of a bad spot. Um, I think Quinn wanted to go, but I'm not willing to go as far as saying this is going to cause irreparable damage, uh, uh, to the

organization. Like I think it's really irresponsible to say that without speaking to Quinn directly. Okay. Uh, Elias Pettersson, I know you addressed this on the podcast that you just recorded and it's released. I have to admit, I was a little bit confused by what you said because you said, I know

Pettersson is battling something, but there's pushback to that. Did you mean to say that you've heard that Pedersen is battling something or you know that it's out there that Pedersen is battling something, but there's pushback to that or do you think Pedersen is hurt? I think it's the second one you said there. It's out there that he's battling something. I think he said it, has he not? But I don't know. Like again, I don't feel like stepping into anything this morning.

I'm I'm trying to have a quiet day. I'm sorry. It's just, no, it's, it's, it's okay. Like here, if you're doing your job, Jason, I don't have any problem with it. I just, I just have to tell you, like, uh, I don't't know, like, you know, like there's people who say that he's hurt and there's people who say that they don't think it's something that should be preventing them from playing. I don't know.

I just, I don't know. There's just like, you know what? Like the guy needs quiet. Like he just needs to, there just needs to be quiet around him. But even here, like, when he only played 10 minutes in Sweden's last game, they had a flu that was ravaging them. Zabinadjad even showed up at the rink, but he was there two hours before the game and then they sent him back to the hotel. And I said, said, Oh, was, was Patterson bothered by the flu, like a bunch of other guys were?

And people were like, no. And, uh, I don't know. It's just been, it's just overall, it's just been a really weird year. I think that's, that's the best way to say it. I, I can't really grab a handle on what's going on there. Well, I don't really want to talk about it anymore. If you think what you're talking about. The guy just needs to play and play to his level. That's simple.

One final one, Brock Besser. We are getting close to the trade deadline now. He is a pending unrestricted free agent. What is your sense of what's happening with Brock Besser and the Bank of the Canucks? I have to catch up on a lot of this stuff today and tomorrow. A lot of that stuff took a back seat over the past couple of weeks. When I went to this tournament, it didn't appear that they were close. I just have to check and see if that's changed in any way, shape or form. Freage, you're the best buddy. Thanks for doing this. Thanks so much for doing this, Elliot. We really do appreciate it.

All right guys, have yourselves a great day. Yeah, you too. Thanks. That's Elliot Friedman. Hockey Night Canada, Sportsnet, NHL Insider, here on the Halford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. So yeah, I mean Elliot, listen, he was dialed in on this Four Nations tournament. He was working hard at this tournament. I'm sure there was a lot of nights where he didn't get a lot of sleep. So to ask him those questions, I was going to ask them anyway, but it's okay that he said he didn't know.

So Petey's in here then? Is that what we're doing? On a few things. Well, I think it was important to- Why don't we play the audio from 32 Thoughts the listeners have an idea sure we're talking about sure That seems like a reasonable thing to do at this moment here now is Elliott Friedman from last night's late night 32 thoughts podcast on alias peterson and you know, I have to say like this whole peterson thing Yeah, yeah was it was rough for him here really rough for him here

and and I'll say something too, I don't know what to, I know he's battling something, I don't know. There's a lot of pushback on that. I don't even know what to say about it. So I'm just going to stop there. But there's a lot of pushback on that. So I asked him, did he mean there are people out there that are saying he's battling something? Yeah, no. And then he said, yeah, that's what I meant, as opposed to him saying, I know he's battling something because I just don't want it reported

that Elliot said he's hurt. Right? I don't, like, Elliot is not saying that. He's saying there are different opinions out there. And he's actually not coming down on either side. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.