Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 2/24/25

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, plus they talk a couple of disappointing Canucks losses over the weekend with Canucks Talk host & The Athletic Vancouver's Thomas Drance. 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 goal, tip they score! Dylan Gunther! We're struggling to score goals but you gotta move your feet, you gotta change your angles, you gotta hit the net. Comes to Olbatskin, he scores! He did it! He did it! It's a hat trick for Olbatskin!

Good morning Vancouver, 6 o'clock on a Monday. Happy Monday everybody, it's Halford, it is Brough, it is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you.

Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you. Hello, hello. Intern Alessio, good morning to you as well. Good morning. 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 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. You know what? We don't have a big guest list today. It's the inverse of a big guest list. We only have two guests on the program today. I know, granted, both guests are very good. Thomas Drantz at 730, Kevin Woodley at eight. But for the first 90 minutes of this show, it's going to be uninterrupted, Haliford and Brough,

as we take you through everything that happened over the weekend. Two Canucks games back to back on Saturday and Sunday. Spoiler alert, they lost them both. And then at 730, we will talk to Thomas Drance from the Athletic Vancouver, who is on this trip in Vegas, in Utah, covering the games on the weekend. Eight o'clock, we will talk to Kevin Woodley

from nhl.com and Ingold Magazine about everything that's going on in net. Archer Seeloff's made his return to the crease on Sunday. Then of course, Kevin Lanken signed that big multi-year extension on Friday while we were on the air, which was a nice touch. So there's a lot to get into. We're gonna go very Canucks heavy on the program today.

First hour will be almost exclusively Canucks covering the two games that happened over the weekend. Seven o'clock, we'll dive into some of the major stories from around the National Hockey League. There was a lot that happened this past weekend. And then again, at 7.30, it's Thomas Drantz. Eight o'clock, it's Kevin Woodley. 8.30, we're gonna do what we learned.

As a reminder, start getting them in now. Dunbar Lumbertex line is 650-650. Let us know what you learned over the last 72 hours in sports. Get him in. Hashtag him. WWL. It's your chance to be on the radio at 830 this morning. That is what's happening on the program today.

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? You missed that? What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how messy your life can be. What happened? 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. On Sunday in Utah, Dylan Gunther scored the tie- breaking goal with just under six minutes remaining in the third period and the Utah Hockey Club defeated your Vancouver Canucks 2-1 at the Delta Center. It was two losses in two nights for the Vancouver Canucks because on Saturday they lost 3-1 in Vegas.

Yeah, at least they got a bunch of shots against the Vegas Golden Knights. Yeah, last night, what did they end up with? 13, 15 shots, four shots, was it three or four shots for the Vancouver Canucks in a 2-1 loss. Pick a number, any number. To Utah, it was not a high number of shots. And as I tweeted out after the game, my main focus has really shifted to the Canucks top six and what they're going to do about it

because as it stands right now, there is not a single player that's playing, performing, producing at an elite level. And their top six last night, in theory, their best players are Pedersen, Hedl, Besser and Debrusk, Drew O'Connor and Kiefer Sherwood providing physical support. But you know, let's focus on Peterson,

Heidel, Besser and Debrusk. What are the connects got there? We all know the story with Peterson and I know Halfords got something to add onto that later. I'm out on PD talk for a while. The other center is. Not for long. No, you're not going to draw me back in.

By a while, he means five minutes. No, no, no. 10 minutes maybe. The other center is, I've said my piece, the other center is a 25 year old in Phillip Hedl who's got speed and skill. And I think we've all been impressed with his effort level, but has never actually played

or produced consistently in the top six. And it's not like he's piling up points for the Vancouver Canucks right now. Besser and Debrecht are both good wingers, but there's a big decision to make with at least one of them, just one of them. I think Debrecht can be back. What are the odds really that Besser resigns at this point?

Because it sounds like the Canucks are asking him to take a significant hometown discount. And that's if they really want to bring him back at all. Part of me wonders if this management group is just going to turn over the entire core except for Quinn Hughes. I really do wonder that. It's actually crazy if you think back to a year ago, the Canucks had six players in the All-Star game. Yeah. And deservedly so.

Hughes, Pedersen, Besser, Miller, Demko, and of course they had Lindholm because they'd acquired him from Calgary. It is possible that of those six players that went to the All-Star game, only one of them will be on the Canucks next season. And that is Quinn Hughes. Two of them are already gone. This top six, what is it?

What is it besides, honestly, I'm not trying to be mean here, one of the worst top six groups in the league, I think. The way it's currently going. It's pretty impotent. The way it's pretty going. It's the impotent. The way it's pretty going. It's the opposite of potent. It's impotent.

It's Sunday was a tough watch and we are getting countless texts into the Dunbar Lumbertex message in basket, um, echoing that sentiment. The Canucks for the record, as Jason was trying to pick numbers in the intro, uh, they were out shot 32 to 15 in Utah. Now some will say, well, they're on the second of the back to back and they were tired. So too was, well, they're on the second of the back to back and they were tired.

So too was the Utah hockey club, also on the second of a back to back. Yes, they were at home, so there was some energy there, but the Canucks mustered 15 shots on net in a 2-1 game that was up for grabs right up until the end, right? Right up until six minutes left in the third period, that was a 1-1 game, and they were getting pretty roundly out shot.

Kudos by the way to Archer Siloves for making his return to the goal after a lengthy layoff and playing pretty well in that. He deserves credit for that, but back to the top six. It is, it's jarring when you think about the six all-stars in particular and this team at one point, I would say had, and Bruff and I were trying to kick around the right term yesterday. Like what's the term that you want to use for a difference maker, a game breaker, catalyst is probably the right word. You picked it up yesterday. You're like,

I think catalyst is the word we're looking for. I think you're right. And it's someone that- Who's making things happen for that group? Nobody, not a one. Who's the guy that, you know, will beat a guy one on one, open up passing lanes, open up shooting lanes, you know, Quinn Hughes is the perfect example of a catalyst and he's injured. Well, Heedle had some looks last night. I mean, I know he's not elite, but he had a few

looks, at least he's doing stuff out there. Totally. I mean, he might be the most encouraging of the six, but again, he's a 25 year old guy with durability issues and you know, despite him doing stuff out there, is he producing? Like he's not really producing all that much, right?

And, uh, you know, listen, I'm not here to, the last guy I'm going to pile on is the new 25 year old who has actually looked energetic. Sure. I'm just wondering who's going to perform at an elite level out of this top six. No one's doing it right now. And, you know, everyone's ripping on Rick

Tauke, not everyone, but a lot of people are Rick, ripping on Rick Tauke. Like if he asked this team to open it up a little bit more and run and gun, they would get killed. They would get killed. There is no one in this forward group right now that is like, you feel like, oh, they're just being held back. Right. Like if only he take, you know, like he just like, he just needs to let, just let them run. It's like they can't run right now. They're not, they're not capable of running right now.

I know exactly what you're saying. There's not so much offensive upside in a group that prominently features, again, prominently features at times guys like Dakota Joshua, Connor Garland, Philip Hedl, Drew O'Connor in the top six. Those guys are making cameo appearances with enough regularity that they're frequent contributors to it.

And I do want to turn the attention to talking now because I'm still kind of mystified why people put this at the feet of the head coach. I'm gonna play some audio from yesterday where Rick Tauke in about 30 seconds of audio points out very clearly where the shortcomings are within the system that they're playing. We'll play the audio and then we'll come back

on the other side and try and break it down. And also if you have a legitimate criticism or something that you want to point to as to why this is a coaching issue and not a talent issue, please text in Dunbar Lumbertex line at 650-650. And try and actually connect some dots as opposed to being like, well, Pedersen isn't playing well, that's on target.

But before you do any of that, listen to Rick Tocket following a 2-1 loss to Utah last night at the Delta Center. Well, the frustrating part of things like we had 21 block shots, so I think it was 15 missed shots. It's 30 something chances that, you know, you can't, you know, we're struggling to score goals, but you gotta move your feet, you gotta change angles, you gotta hit the net.

That's a big number for a team that's not scoring. So I'd rather guys just take a little bit off it, hit the net and get people in that, because, you know, we're double clutching, and I think that's a lack of confidence. So we got to take a couple of days here and figure this out. So there's a reason that Rick Tocket had those two numbers at the ready immediately following the loss where his team had 15 shots on goal.

Like he didn't just casually have those slip to him. Like he knew right after the game that there was going to be some questions about why they only had 15 on net and he said we had 21 blocked and 15 missed that's another 36 attempts that did not require a save from the opposition goalie then talk it went out of his way to explain what's going on well the guys aren't moving their feet enough and not just moving their feet in a sort of nebulous general sense they need't moving their feet enough, and not just moving their feet in a sort of nebulous general sense.

They need to move their feet to create different shooting angles to get pucks on net. Then he said, once you do that, it's very imperative that we head to net with our shots. Then he went so far as to say that, hey, and if you're having problems after moving your feet and finding a different shooting angle to get the puck on net, you could do a couple things.

You could take something off of your shot. So maybe power becomes the secondary priority and accuracy becomes the first priority. And maybe trying to pick either top corner or wherever you want to go bar down. Maybe the idea is to just put the puck on the net. And how many times have we gone over this? How many mornings have we gone over there and then explain it to the listeners like they've never watched hockey, it's like sometimes you need to move your feet to create passing angles and shooting angles and if you just stand there, if you just stand there, you're not doing very much good.

Is this the cool wet sack conversation? And people will just be like, it's hard to stand there when your knee is riddled with tendinitis. Now, to be fair, there might be an argument to be made that if the coach can't hammer home the cool wet sack argument, that that's on coaching. That they're not responding to his message, they're not doing the things that he's continuing telling them to do. That might be the message is stale or they don't have the personnel to do what Taka wants them to do. How is moving your feet and getting pucks on net a stale message? Maybe they don't have the guys that can move the way that Taka wants them to move. I honestly don't

know. I honestly don't know. I'm laughing so hard. It's the simplest thing that you tell pucks on net kids when you're coaching them. Hold on though. You got to move your feet. You got to move your feet. Does Tauke have to do what he did the first time he got here when he broke down every single play? Was it power plays he was going over? He was just going over defensive positions. Does he have to do that for the four group now?

I think this is more like you need to have it instinctually as a player that if it's not there on the first shot attempt you got to move how do you get to the NHL and Not have that instinctually as a player doesn't that go against the recent trend though isn't the trend now to? Like yes less and take your opportunity when the great a chance is what talking is telling him to do is not he's telling me Yeah, volume shooting team no well no he no, he's not to a certain degree. He's not telling. Well, they just had, well, they just had 15 shots on goal, but they had, so he's not telling them to be a volume

shooting team. He's, he's telling them to get more shots on goal. That's what he's telling them. He's telling them to see, see, yeah. Volume being like shots, 22 shots. How about that? Like they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, see yeah volume being like 15 shots is volume for this team. 22 shots how about that like they he's not telling them to be a volume shooting team that that is that is that's fake news what

he's telling them is 15 shots isn't enough and it's crazy when you watch some of these guys. Like I thought you wanted volume though and that is a lot for us. No more than 15. Oh okay. Yeah so the other thing that he had in that clip was talking about double clutching. Can you cue up the second clip that Tauket had because he went back to this again when talking about their shooting woes both in terms of volume and then finding the back of the net with said shots right. You emerged from a weekend with two goals in two games there's going to be some criticisms. Here now more Rick Tauket following the loss to Utah last night. Yeah, no, I get it. Like I said, you know, when you get shots through to the net,

and when you hit the net or you don't get your shots blocked, you're going to get possession time. So it's not one and done. So our shot selection, we have guys double clutching right now. And we got to, these next two days, we're going to have to figure it out here, a practice, get some confidence on some guys. Do confident players double clutch a lot?

If you see, for example, if you see, let's talk about baseball, a shortstop picks up a grounder, any double clutches or throws. A little double pump? Is that confidence? No, it's probably, dare I say a baseball player that might be struggling with the yips,

doesn't just want to naturally release it and throw to the place it's supposed to be thrown to. I'm scared of making a mistake, no real confidence in the first move, you know? So- Do you ever see a quarterback that's like patting the ball a little bit, like he's in the pocket and he pats the ball

and pats the ball and it doesn't, he doesn't really want to throw it because like he's a little bit, oh, I might throw an interception, oh, and I've been sacked. So, you ever see that? Is that a confident quarterback? There's a reason that we clipped, talk it with the double clutch thing, not once, but twice in the postgame. And he only did about two and a half minutes of postgame. I'm like, well, that seems interesting that he's talking so much about double clutching. Then it got more interesting. Following his media availability yesterday, Rick Tocket spoke off camera with a couple of reporters, including Sportsnet's very own Ian McIntyre.

Now this is something that really caught the attention of the onlines overnight because the article was published late. And of course it is now 6.16 in the morning. So it's pretty early. I'm gonna read what Talkit told Ian McIntyre about Elias Pedersen. This, again, this was after the scrum. This was off camera.

This was iMac talking to Talkit about double clutching and alias Pedersen. Here's the quote. We've talked about he has to move his feet and can't double clutch. I think he's waiting for something. I don't know if it's a lack of confidence in his shot, but as soon as he has room, he's got to take it and he's just got to blast it.

I'd rather him just rip a puck right now. He's not moving his feet. I thought today some shifts he was moving his feet and it looked like we had some glimpses, but six on five there at the end, it's the same thing waiting. If he just takes three or four strides, I don't know if it's a mental block right now all year, but he's got to move his feet. Then IMAAC. And then what happened?

Then IMAAC also off camera went and asked Pedersen about what his coach just said, specifically if confidence is a factor when struggling to score. And Pedersen replied, it's more annoying dealing with the media. Oh Come on and I'm a cat ice cream all over his face I'm a gate ice cream. I was the other so anyway

We're probably not gonna there's a lot to unpack But as Jason said he really say that it's more annoying dealing with the media I mean, it's dude is is lashing out badly, man. His ego is damaged, he's lashing out. It's a drug quote. It's so disappointing. Here's what I'll say. There's going to be some type of breaking point

if it hasn't already happened internally, because now, externally, that's probably the most detailed a critique that Tauke has had of Pedersen, which we have noted on this show has often been something that the head coach has been loath to do, partly because I don't think he likes dealing with the ramifications in the aftermath and the blowback.

And I think the second part of it is, is he knows that taking that particular player to task maybe doesn't necessarily work. So if he's doing it, my first read on the situation would be like, frustration has reached a point that it's just boiling over and he just can't watch it happen anymore. Tommy texts in, bring the Sedines into coach.

What are they doing towards this team? Doesn't everyone know by now that the Sedines and Pedersen don't have a relationship? Is that, is that not widely known? Is that not not widely known? Doesn't it? Never, you guys have never heard that? Like I thought that was known. They don't have a very good relationship and a lot of it is, Peterson's a lone wolf. He just wants to figure stuff out by himself. Yeah. I mean, I don't know

what to say. Well I do. It was one of the red flags that I heard. I wonder what he means in that relationship with the Sidians or great relationship with the Sidians. Like what? What? I know, I do know, it's pretty clear where this is headed. And that's that, you know, Peterson isn't going to be a member of the Vancouver Canucks

for much longer. And if it does last through the end of this season, then it just gives Alveen and Rutherford a shorter window in order to trade him before July 1, which things get really sticky because then the no move kicks in. I mean. Well, how sticky is it getting right now with his play and his attitude?

Very. Is it, I mean, all it takes is one team out there to be like, this is a distressed asset, we're going to get it for cheap and we can build him back up. And they may well be able to do that. But with the amount of money that's left on that contract, I mean, this isn't taking on Patrick Lina for two more years. No.

Like the Habs did. This is a, this taking on a big, big contract and people will say, well, the cap's going up. It's still a big contract. It's still going to be one of the bigger contracts right now. And I keep on pressing at this. Like, I really don't think that everyone fully appreciates how far this guy's game has fallen off. Yeah.

I really don't. Let's pivot off, let's pivot off Pedersen for a second. We don't want to talk about him and focus on the guys that orchestrated this deal. I've been, I've been very complimentary of the work that Alvin and Rutherford have done since they've come aboard in Vancouver.

I can't justify anything that's happened since prior to last All-Star break with the way the negotiations went, the way it felt that there was a strong arming into the deal, signing him to the richest deal in franchise history. And then, I mean, again, this is a retrospect, but naively thinking that that was somehow going to fix the issues, that adding additional pressure

and responsibility and heightened expectations was going to make things better, seems like a catastrophic error in judgment. Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me I'm wrong. He does not seem very open to feedback at all. And he's like, I'm going to work this out. I don't want to talk about it.

You know? And we went through this before. We've been through it before and people are like, well, he's never struggled. Uh, he never struggled any under any other coach, so it must be talking. I'm like, what are you talking about? well, he's never struggled, he never struggled under any other coach, so it must be talking. I'm like, what are you talking about? Yeah, he did.

He went through this exact same thing where it was clear his confidence was bothering him. And other people were like, no, it's his wrist. And then when he came out of it, he was asked, like, was it the wrist? He's like, no, it really wasn't. You know, I am at the crazy pills stage, I mean, I am at the crazy pills stage. Like I'm actually well past the crazy pill stage.

You watch him play and talking is talking about the six on five when PD had it in the deep slot, stayed in the deep slot when he could have attacked space, immediate look to pass it off and actually had to keep the puck because the pass wasn't there. Double clutched on a shot, unloaded a muffin, nothing. You know, like it's just so obvious right now

that this is a confidence issue. And I know some people will push back and say, no, it's obvious that he's injured. Okay, well then we've got a disagreement and I don't think yelling at each other online or yelling at each other on the radio is going to make a difference. You've got your opinion, I've got mine.

I'm pretty confident on mine. You're pretty confident on yours, but the reality is there is a, there is, um, something that needs to be done about this. With the injuries. It cannot continue like this. It just cannot. What always bothers me about that injury talk is

that if he really truly is injured, why don't they just sit him? I mean, it's not like he's producing anyways. He's not helping the team the way he's playing currently. And yeah, obviously they're looking to, they're chasing a playoff spot. They want to make it. I get that. If he was like their best player on the ice every night and he had to play

through an injury, it'd be a different story. If he was Quinn Hughes playing through an injury and they're chasing that final wild card spot, I get it, play him. But as it currently stands, because he's not doing anything on the ice, he's a non-factor. If he is injured, why wouldn't they just sit him for a few weeks? Like what difference does that make? I think there's a big divide between the two camps on how severe the injury is and how much... But even if it's like a minor one, like why don't you just sit him, rest him?

I'm telling you, I think there's a big divide between the two camps on how severe the injury is and how much it's affecting his play. Well, Pedersen isn't saying right now that he's hurt. He's not saying right now that he's hurt. Right. Like I don't think, I don't think we should hold that, that angle against him.

He's not sitting there going, I'm hurt. Yeah. Right. I mean, I don't, I don't think he is either. I'm just saying if he were. Now his agent came on Donnie and Dolly a couple of weeks ago and said that his knee issues were bothering him in the summer and that's something

that Petey had already said and he had to work around it and he had to train around it and that's, you know, I'm sure that he had a bad off season in terms of training. Now, whether that was completely on him or that was the knee issue, he clearly didn't come into camp, into shape to the point where the Canucks were saying, well, we're just going to

work him extra hard here. And even if he's tired for some games, it's just got to be something that we're done. They basically said, well, he had a bad off season. He wasn't strong enough. He's not conditioned enough. So we're going to do that now. And if he's tired, then so be it,

but we got to play him into shape. But whatever happened to that plan, the plan failed. There's a very real case to be made here that he feels, he doesn't feel up to anywhere near a hundred percent and he's trying to play through it and he's frustrated because he doesn't want to use as an excuse and then everyone's dumping

on him, right? But the problem here is that there's no solution. There's no solution. Like it's a problem that doesn't have a solution because his play is not getting any better. How is rest on a solution though? Cause obviously. If he feels the way you just said he feels.

All parties would be like sit out cause they're sitting out. Okay, we're going to go a little late here. Eric texts in, um, Bruough, no, that's not widely known about the Sedines and Peterson. I thought they were involved with the team. The Sedines are very involved with the team. Um, but the relationship with the Sedines is

not a close one. And Eric says that's news to me and I follow the team closely. Well, not that closely, apparently. I had no idea Petey didn't take feedback and didn't have a relationship with the twins. Take the twins thing out of this thing. How many times, how many times have you heard

talk it say something like, I love when players come to me and say, I want to talk about this. I want to talk about it. He would often say that about JT. Okay. And this is not me pitting JT against Petey. I don't think JT was a perfect player. I don't think he was a perfect personality.

This is not about this. When Taukats praises others, he's often saying, I want more out of it from my guys. Okay. He went to the, he was coaching, helped coach team Canada at four nations. What did he say? Man, McKinnon, Crosby went to the, he was coaching, helped coach team Canada at four nations. What did he say? Man, McKinnon, Crosby, McDavid, those guys

all work so hard. How many times you've heard him saying, I want players to come to me. Who do you think he's talking about? Drew O'Connor. It's just, it's just obvious. There is not, and when you hear, um, you know, his Pedersen's talks with the media, he is not open

to talking about things. He is, his ego is badly, badly damaged right now. Noah from the whack just wrote in, Ruff got wrote back into this so fast. It was like, you know, right? I told you. It was not, it's not his fault. It's not his not his fault it's nobody's fault but it's also everybody's fault you're listening to the best of Halford and brough you're listening to

the best of Halford and brough Thomas Drance joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on sportsnet 650 morning Thomas how are you gentlemen I'm doing well yourself good are you still in Utah I'm in Salt Lake City for another couple hours and then I'm flying To California before we get to the Canucks stuff. What was it? I'm assuming this is your first experience at a Utah hockey club game. Yeah, how was it? It was pretty sick. Actually crowd was loud Building is not large, but it was packed You know, I was pretty worried.

They, it was a late arriving crowd. Like when, when warmups began, I was like, Oh no, you know, I wonder, uh, I wonder what the support's going to be like. And then it was absolutely jam packed crowd was into it, had some USA chants going late in the game. And, uh, and you know, like, so the setup is like, you can see the seams that very clearly the coyotes picked up sticks and landed in Utah rather suddenly, right? So, you know, this is not an NHL building.

The press box itself, like I'm sitting next to a water heater that's kind of like the shape of an elephant. You know, that like I'm leaning leaning I was standing for most of the game because you're sort of at the 100 level you're not up in the press box. There was like segments of the ice that I didn't have coverage for. So it was like a difficult view, you know, there's not like a

media room. It's a little bit bare bones from a media coverage experience standpoint. They sort of do their best to make it work. And you know, I'm sure in time it'll have a different feel to it. But, you know, you can sort of feel that NHL hockey is new there, which is fine. Like it's fun to sort of get a different experience. The fact is, is that it felt like an NHL environment from a fan support

perspective, from a noise perspective. And, you know, I'm sharing the bathroom like with the crowd, right? Like there's like lineups at intermission to go to the bathroom is media. Which you're sharing it with the riff raff. Oh my God. No, I'm just not used to, I'm just not used to

waiting in line at a, at a game. You know what I mean? Like I'm used to there being like a bathroom for seven people or whatever. So, um, yeah, no, I know I'm. Although a lot of the old guys take a while to get started in there with the media. Anyway, I, uh, I go in and you could like hear fans sort of chatting about it, right? And there's these like two guys, Midwestern accents or whatever. And, um,

and, uh, you know, these guys are so big, it's like a bunch of tight ends on the ice, right? Like the football frame of reference. Tell that to Mike Martin, he'll pretend I made it up. But but yeah, I mean, you know, I thought the crowd was into it. I thought the environment was great. It felt meaningfully NHL level in a way that, you know, I never went to a game at the, at Arizona State, but, you know, in a way that I thought was elevated even

beyond what I used to experience in Glendale. And great, great for the league. Fun team too, right? I mean, I thought Dylan Gunther, I thought Logan Cooley, I thought Clayton Keller all played really well through Utah there now as a result of that win, far more realistically in the playoff race than they would have been otherwise. And I think that's going to be pretty interesting to watch down the stretches. If they get close, if they stick around in this

race, can they sort of catch fire as it were in the NHL's newest marketplace? Uh, Jrancer, we've been talking a lot about the top six on the Canucks this morning and just wondering who the catalyst is to create opportunities in this group right now. Is there one? I mean, I think it was Peddersen last night. I think it's fair to say. I actually thought he had jump last night, but not the sort of jump where we need to like squint too hard to give him

credit, you know what I mean? Like the truth is is that Pederson at his best doesn't require us to pretend that he's playing well, right? Like it'll hit us over the head when he's at his best, when he's playing the way he has for much of his career, but not the last 12 months. And certainly he wasn't at that level. I mean, I thought it was notable that in that game last night without Hughes on the ice, it felt like the three best skaters played for the Coyotes. Right.

Keller, Kukuli, Guthard. And I thought that made a pretty significant difference in where the game was played, how the game was played and how dangerous both teams looked. Right? Where, where, yeah, sure. It's one, one late when the Connex defense takes another penalty, their seventh consecutive. And obviously Gunther finally sort of breaks through at the net front, but you know, that game could have been over long ago if Utah's rush attack, like if they'd scored on one

of those breakaways or what have you, right? If Shilovs frankly hadn't had an exceptional game. I mean, he had an exceptional performance last night, I thought, really, really strong. And, you know, Canucks couldn't get anything out of it. And I think, you know, their lack of offensive juice relative to Utah's was pronounced. The decisive element in that game.

What's the challenge for the Canucks ahead of the March 7th trade deadline? That's less than two weeks now. Yeah, I mean, I literally seconds before I came on, I ran a piece at the athletic titles, basically, just like four reasons Flick and I should be patient at the NHL trade deadline. And my question basically is, if not now, when? Right? Like, if not now, if this is not the moment for the organization to look ahead, beyond, you know, a probable first round playoff date against Winnipeg, Vegas or Edmonton, which, you know, good luck to you gentlemen, right? You've only been. So I think, I think they played six games,

six games this season against Winnipeg, Vegas and Edmonton. And they've been outscored 27 to 11 in those games and have gone five, one and zero. Right. So it's just like, okay, so this is breaking down for you to have a beast of a first round matchup against three teams that have trounced you in the meetings that you've played so far this year. You've got Quinn Hughes, who's obviously missed now, like he's missed three and a half weeks.

I know it's only six games, which doesn't feel as bad, but three and a half weeks, including games that he would have played hurt through given the stakes and how much he wanted to be at the four nations. Right. Like, so that's not, that's not like there's no maintenance there. That's like missing a playoff game. It means you're really hurt, right? Like it means there's something actually wrong, right? Three and a half week injury for reportedly an oblique core injury plus the brace that he's been wearing on his hand. You've got Thatcher Demko missing time. It's the third extended absence

of this season. He's finished 18 of his last 21 games and in one of those 18 he tore the popliteus. Right? So it's like, I mean, we know that Demko at his best. So first of all, we know that Quinn Hughes at his best can carry this team. We know that at Demko at his best is the caliber of goaltender that can help an eighth seed overachieve in the playoffs. Right? And then you've got the Pedersen thing, which who knows, right? Like who knows what's going on there? Again, I think he's actually played decently in the first two games back off the four nations break, but he's not close to his standard. He's not even on the map relative to what his standard has been prior to the past 12 months. So you've got three players who you think can break games open for you, who don't feel like

they're especially good bets to turn in the sort of nuke playoff performance that you know gives any credence whatsoever to the anything can happen in the postseason camp just get in and anything can happen camp. You know that this sometimes it's just not your year right. Then you've got then you've got the the fact that realistically this team can, if they do sell, still make the playoffs. There's only seven good teams in the West. The mid teams, Vancouver, Calgary, who have a brutal six-game road trip coming up that takes them through Washington, Tampa Bay, Florida, Carolina, Dallas, man, that is a

gauntlet. Their playoff fate will be determined in the next 10 to 12 days. You've got this Utah team that, yeah, looking pretty good, but also there's distance between Vancouver and Utah still, even with last night's regulation win. Vancouver can sell and still make it. So you sort just like look at where their best players are at. Look at how the matchup is, is likely to shape out, uh, shake out, excuse me. Um, look at the fact that they could probably sell and still make it and then consider sort of what they have coming.

The, the, the, the Lander factor, the, what we've seen from Elias Pedersen, you know, uh, Jonathan LaCicarimachi lighting up the American league. And it's like, they've, they've even got players coming, players who might benefit from NHL reps down the stretch here, right? And players who are probably good enough internally to at least keep you competitive. If you were to sort of chart a longer way through, right? To actually grab futures at the deadline,

to behave like a team that recognizes, hey, we're in the midst of one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history, and this is finally a time to exercise a little bit of patience and conduct ourselves for the first time in 15 years like an organization that could take a longer view. I mean, if not not now when gentlemen?

Brock Besser pending UFA And also will throw in Pugh suitor there pending UFA. Are those guys still with the Canucks after the deadline or do you think they'll be traded? Well, look what I was hearing was that the seven games coming out of the All-Star break was going to determine a lot about how the organization weighed these factors, right? How confident they were that they were a playoff team was going to play a role in whether or not they were comfortable keeping vets like those two. You know, I guess you could throw in Derek Forbert.

Most of the other guys have now been extended, um, beyond the deadline. Well, they've come out and they've lost two in a row in regulation against, you know, a divisional opponent and a Utah team that for me is their most credible, uh, threat in the chase pack to, to knock them out of that second wild card spot. And so, uh, look, they've got three games left on this trip. They're easier games after the LA game anyway, on Wednesday.

Um, but you know, they're running out of time to make that case to Canucks management, right? Like the, this team is running out of time to make that case. Um, I mean, they generated nothing this weekend. I thought they played really poorly. Both games end up being one goal losses, but could have easily been worse if Lankenen and Shilovs hadn't stood on their heads. I thought the Canucks got two really strong goaltending performances and still lost in regulation in both games. That to me is always a bad sign because you can't count on your goalies to stop four breakaways,

the way Shelovs did last night or Kevin Lankinen did just put up a force field against all the down low pressure and all the deflection sort of pressure that Vegas was able to put on them. So, you know, we'll see. Like I think this California back to back and then that Seattle game this week and this upcoming weekend, I think you're gonna speak volumes. You know at this point if I were to handicap it, you know, Pugh suitor is a little bit different because I think you can credibly make the case that he has more actual hockey value than he does

exchange value but I mean you're either getting a Besser extension done before March 7th in my mind or be pretty reckless not to monetize a guy who's a reliable goal scorer with a history of scoring big playoff goals for a team that's in the state that the Canucks find themselves in at this point in the year. We're speaking to Thomas Drance from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks talk here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Okay, so for those listening,

and well, cause Drantz is in Utah, traveling with the team, something kind of happened post game and then overnight that's drawn a lot of attention online. And if you want to check out Ian McIntyre's piece, it's up on Sportsnet.ca right now. So after Rick Doket did his media availability following the loss to Utah,

he then had a separate scrum with the cameras off with a variety of reporters in which he spoke specifically about the struggles and some criticisms of Elias Pettersson's game. I can paraphrase it. Tauket said that Pettersson is waiting for something. He doesn't know if it's a lack of confidence, but right now he just needs to rip a puck and move his feet.

Then he alluded to the play at the end of regulation where it was six on five and he said quote, it's just the same thing waiting. If he just takes three or four strides, I don't know if it's a mental block right now all year, but he's got to move his feet. IMAG then asked Pedersen about if his confidence was a factor in struggling to score. And Elias Pedersen replied, it's more annoying dealing with the media. So like on my Twitter, I screen grabbed that

part of the article. I threw it up on Twitter so everyone could see it. Like what we're dealing with here. I was with P.D. there. I look at the media guys and I'm like, yeah, I get that. So Drance, with this lengthy preamble of ours is mostly just so I could set the table for you to address this in any way that you want.

Go ahead. Look, I think it takes a lot for Canucks fans to side with the media in a situation like this and yet if you go check the reaction online you'll see a fair bit of it. Look I just think the idea of Pedersen having had a like rough ride or being unfairly treated by the media is preposterous right I mean he was at the center of one of the biggest national media stories of the year in terms of the whole Patterson Miller thing. He was asked about it once, like in a scrum setting, once, all season. We all know what the cap hit number is, right? And we all know how he's performed

over the course of this year. Given that discrepancy and it's a significant discrepancy, I don't know that he's had to take all that many bullets about it, at least in terms of actually facing cameras and facing the media and answering pointed questions about why he's struggling. Right? I mean, think about it. One of the reasons that the Pettersons story, I think, has legs is that it's mysterious. We don't really have a good explanation for what's happened. Right? Like that's part of what's driven is like a vacuum of information that's kind of been filled in by speculation and sort of online wondering about what exactly is going on. This is a different media environment than what most people have been used to in terms

of commenting on the terrible, mean, overwhelming Vancouver media, right? There were two of us last night at the, two of us who were independent at the game last night. Patterson did a quick interview with the Canucks, which, you know, they posted online, but not on social media. I was actually finishing up my buzzer story, ran a little bit late with it. So partly because I couldn't see.

So I didn't get to the room on time but but my understanding is I'm actually waited for the cameras to move right what you sometimes do to be friendly to the player if you're asking a tougher question right to allow them to elaborate on it in a setting in which they don't have to be mindful of how it appears on camera. Right? And, you know, I mean, I think it's an appalling answer, to be totally honest with you. Right? Given that context, given how significant the struggles have been, you know, given how normal it is to just be like, hey, like, you know, you're, you, you've got what is it four points or two points since the JT Miller trade, you struggled at the four nations, you had pointless there.

You know, you sort of have a good game and yet you missed the net on the breakaway and you're indecisive six on five. And we've seen how good you are, man. Like what's going on here? Well, it's just annoying dealing with the media. It's like, well, it's pretty annoying covering a team with no offensive juice you know a problem that's exacerbated by the fact that their best forward their highest paid forward one of the five highest

paid forwards in the game was no better than the fourth best forward on the ice against a non-playoff team last night right like I I don't know like I Like, I just think there's sort of two things here. One is, I think fans deserve better than that. Like, I think fans deserve to have some understanding when they're supporting a team with their wallets, with their time, with their emotional investment. And that team's best forward has struggled to this extent all year. Like I don't know, I think fans deserve to have at least some sense of why. I don't think it's unreasonable for a player to be asked to provide some explanation for where their game is at. You know, that's just my view.

The second part of this is that while you know I think contemporary hockey players can sometimes struggle to understand this, you know this is a meaningful part of the job right like hockey players view it generally speaking not all of them but most of them as like I'm paid to win games and that's true to an extent right but? But fundamentally, you're paid because you're worth paying to watch play, right? You're worth investing money and time from fans to appreciate your talent, to watch you play. And that bond is deepened by connection, right?

And for what it's worth, the best actual hockey players, right. Guys like Connor McDavid, like it's not just that Connor McDavid has improved as a player over the years, although he has tremendously. He's also improved in terms of how he deals with the media, in terms of how quotable he is, in terms of how seriously he takes it. You watch Matthew Kachak or Sidney Crosby at the at the foreign nations, day after day after day, with much larger media hordes and how they conducted themselves. I mean, it's night and day with what you're seeing from players like Pedersen and frankly most Canucks players on a day-to-day basis in this market. Championship habits include the way you deal with the media in my view.

And when you deal with them like this, what you're really doing is handing a weapon. Like what Pedersen really did was hand Ian McIntyre a weapon, right? Which is the ability to write the piece that he wrote in the way that he wrote it, right? Here's the truth, right? Like, it sucks. It's not a perfect system in that players don't always have great options, but the truth is, is that you either are going to provide us with the ability to tell your story, right? Or if you're going to answer a question the way Pedersen did, you're going to give us an opportunity to say what we think, right? Like that's, that's it. And generally speaking, players are best served by just being as honest and polite as possible.

It's, it's, it's a five minute interview. It's not a huge part of your day. Right. And putting media in a position to tell your story is best they can. And Pedersen refused to do that last night and he's refused to do it on multiple instances this season. And as a result, we don't have any idea what's actually going on in terms of his game.

I just don't get it. I don't get being churlish like that in that circumstance and I just don't think that's the way the champions carry themselves in the media. That's the truth. I don't think that's the way that champions carry themselves in the media. Uh, that's, that's the truth. So, uh, I don't love it. Um, I, I thought it was sharp of IMAQ to actually just publish it, you know, cause I've had interactions like that with that player. I've had interactions like that over the years with lots of Canucks players and, um, tend, tended not to run it.

Tended to, you know, sort of the beer toward managing the relationship and, and not wanting to embarrass a guy. Yeah. Give them a break. You had a bad game. You're in a bad mood. Fine. You know, yeah, exactly.

But you know what? Yeah. It's been a lot of this, right? It's been a lot of this and, and to, uh, you know, I think skate on it too much, like at some point it's enabling, right? Like at some point you're enabling a group of players, um, you know, who, skate on it too much, like at some point it's enabling, right? Like at some point you're enabling a group of players, you know, who I don't think have taken media obligations

very seriously. And frankly, I think you've seen that reflected on the ice, right? Like this is team I don't think has taken this season seriously enough, right? Like it's been overwhelmed by petty squabbles and inconsistent efforts and on and on, you know? And it's like, then you see that same lack of,

you know, I don't wanna say lack of professionalism, but it kind of is in terms of how this organization or how some of the players in this organization interact with the media and represent this franchise publicly. And it's just like, guys, what are we doing here? This can't possibly be acceptable or tolerable to anybody. Drancer, very well said. Thanks for doing this. We really appreciate you taking the time on a Monday.

Travel safe and we'll do this again. I think we're going to try and do this again one more time this week. But travel safe and enjoy the rest of the day. Thanks again. Cheers guys, bye. Right. Thomas Drantzer from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks doc here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.