Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 2/3/26

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they hear from Elliotte Friedman on Rick Tocchet's struggles in Philly, plus the boys discuss yesterday's Canucks loss at the Utah Mammoth with analyst Landon Ferraro. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Chance for a two-on-one. Clayton Keller across to Schmaltz. He scores. And the hats are flying at the Delta Center. Nick Schmaltz completes the hat trick. Just a weak goal on the weak side.

I think of the power play. That kind of bird you. It's been wild, but we are in trouble right now. Good morning, Vancouver, 6-1 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halpert. It is Brough. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios

and beautiful Bearview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Bruff in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Got payday loan debt?

If you do, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront. fees. Visit them today at sands dash trustee.com. 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 Kintech Studio, make 2026, your year to move better and step stronger with Kintech custom orthotics. Lots to get into on the program today. The

Duick Morning Drive, our guest list, brought to you the Duick Auto Group begins at 630. Greg Wischinski, our ESPN, NHL Insider, is going to join the program. Ten games last night in the NHL. Seven more tonight as we keep cramming them in ahead of Thursday's Olympic break starting. We'll go through all the big stories from last night with Greg at 6.30. 7 o'clock, Alex Barth is going to join the program. He is on the Patriots beat for 98.5 of the Sports Hub in Boston.

That's two Boston guests in two days, Jason. Joe Haggerty yesterday. Alex Barth today. Alex is going to join us from Santa Clara the site of Super Bowl 60. Big news this morning as this game continues to make sure we focus on everything. Not the Super Bowl. Patriots owner Robert Kraft will not be getting in to the Hall of Fame this year. Adam Schaefter announced that about 45 minutes ago. So lots to discuss with Alex Barth from 98.5, the Sports Hub in Boston at 7 o'clock this morning.

7.30. Martin Nash is going to join the program. Manager of Vancouver FC and the CPL, of course, Steve Nash's brother. Vancouver FC, biggest game in its history tomorrow in Langley, hosting Concaf Club champs Cruz Azul. Remember them? They're coming to Willoughby. We'll be giving away a pair of tickets right after Marty's interview this morning.

That'll be around 7.30. Don't worry, I'll announce the number and the call and all that stuff. Martin Nash, Vancouver FC at 7.30 this morning. Finally, Landon Ferraro is going to join the program. at 8-10 Canucks analyst right here on Sportsnet. Canucks got thumped pretty good last night, 6-2 in front of Mums and Mormons in Utah last night. That means the Canucks now just have one game left

before the Olympic break Wednesday in Vegas. Lannin's going to join us at 8-10 to discuss. Moms and Mormons, that'd be a good bar name. That's worst bar ever. Okay, we got a lot to get into in the program. Not even going to run it in reverse. Without further ado, Laddy, to tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No, what happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies to best in tools, resources, and safety training.

Visit them online at BCCCSA. Dot CA. Nick Schmaltz got his third career hat trick last night and an assist for good measure. Utah, Thump the Canucks 6-2 at the Delta Center. Monday night. Yeah, I mean, you should have led with that was a terrible defensive performance by the Vancouver Canucks yet again. I prefer to amplify Nick Schmaltz.

It's funny because the Canucks are both running around and looking paralyzed out there defensively, which is hard, you know, like can you run around and look paralyzed out there? You can this season. Usually you can't do both, but the Canucks are incredible multitaskers. I don't know. We're not going to go over all the goals. the Canucks surrendered. If you want to download the postgame show, you can.

But that was just some bad defensive play in front of Lankton who wasn't very good himself. The young guys definitely struggled at times. Vlander and Lekar Mackie had some rough moments. But guess what? The vets, again, we're looking pretty lost too. I'm not sure what's happening with Philippeitel, but it's nothing good because he does not look himself out there. he left the game yesterday after the second period.

He was already minus three. He'd made some mistakes on goals against. And I'm going to be honest with you. I'm a little bit worried about the guy. So yesterday following the game, as we'll just jump straight to this bit of news, Adam Foote was asked about Philip Heel's health, obviously because he didn't play in the third period.

Foot answered the question by saying that Heedle quote unquote tweak something. There was a follow-up question asked, obviously. Is it a head injury? and Adam Foote said, I hope not. And that was it.

Very odd line of responses. You don't tweak a concussion. Not that I'm aware of. Unless we've got new verbiage for how we deal with concussions. I don't know. The concussion spotter is like, I think he tweaked it.

And everyone's like, that's not how you say it. Can you tweak your head? I don't know. I don't know why foot would go there. Maybe he was just talking off the cuff. Maybe he wasn't prepped to answer the question properly.

But at first it was a tweak. someone asked it was a head injury and he said, I hope not. So I don't know. So that was one of those games last night where you're like, yeah, the result, I get what the Canucks are trying to do or hope to do. I don't know about trying to do. Hope to do. They want to pick first overall or at the very least in the top three and have no risk of

any other pick. And that's a pretty safe bet right now the way they're playing. But you also, like you said, there's no waste of time in the NHL. And last night for the Canucks, that was a waste of time. Unless you think making a bunch of mistakes will ultimately make you a better player. And in the case of the young guys, maybe it will. Maybe it will. But watching the defensive performance, it was like against San Jose at home a little while ago.

You're like, what are you guys trying to do? I mean, the lack of details in their game, I mean, one goal will go over, right? Philip Eatle was playing the wing he comes in to take a face off that David Kamp got waved out of it's so confusing by the way all the different wingers taking face off

for the Canucks and everything like you'd think they would have gone over this right? It's like okay so if the winger comes in and has to take the face off because it happens a lot for our team because we don't have good face off guys so like a van der Kaine has taken a bunch of faceoffs this year So if that happens

You know what do we do? What do we do? Like how long before we switch back to Center and Wing? Because what happened on that play was Philippeitel and David Kemp Both went in the same spot I think they both went to the winger spot Right? Because they left the face-off guy

Nick Schmaltz Wide open in front of the net And Schmaltz was just like wide open between five Canucks. They were doing like ring around the Nick Schmaltz, basically. That was their defensive deployment. So maybe Heedles not, I don't know, maybe he's not super clear right now, you know, if you know what I mean?

Like he's not thinking 100% out there because it doesn't look good for him right now. It has been a really, really tough return for him to the lineup. Yeah, well, I mean, even if you want to remove his slow integration back into this, I would say that what you saw last night from him, although probably more egregious, isn't really that far as stretch from what you've seen from a lot of guys, like just not knowing where to be or where to go or what to do in certain moments. Details, like you said.

And this goes back to the head coach. And I, you know, I know Drenz brought this up on our show last week. And we'll go over it again with him this week because his hit will coincide with the start of the Canucks Olympic break. But he said, the Olympic break, if you're looking to make a coaching change where you're going to have time to come in and implement some changes. And not unlike when Rick Tocke came aboard,

use the back half of a forgotten season to try and instill just some basic tenets of how you want to play so that you can hit the next year running. I do wonder if it's something they should consider, especially given that it doesn't seem like any trades or imminent. Maybe that's what they need to do because for as bad as this team is, talent-wise and roster construction-wise, you can make an argument that it's also equally poorly coached.

They just don't seem to understand on a regular basis where they're supposed to go, what they're supposed to do, and what their assignments are. It's like everyone else has an idea of what everybody else's job is, but not their own. I've been meaning to talk about this, and it wasn't the reason the Canucks lost yesterday, although it was part of the reason, I guess. The Canucks have terrible penalty killing.

Their top penalty killers include, in terms of time on ice, Marcus Pedersen, Tyler Myers, Philip Peronick on the back end. Now, Kfer Sherwood was their most used P-King forward before he was traded with Garland, Drew O'Connor, PD, David Kempf, leading the total time on ice after that. we'll get to Bluger. And I get that the P.K. It is kind of boring to talk about.

But we actually talked about it a fair amount on this show because it has killed the Canucks a few times over the last handful of seasons. Like when Travis Green was fired, if you look back at the games after he was fired in Nolan Baumgartner too, the PK was historically bad. Yep.

And it was that. And I think Pedersen was off to a, weird start that season. So it was that and Pee's play that ended up getting Travis Green fired. Now, this year, Bluger got hurt, Forburt got hurt,

and those didn't hurt. Those didn't help, okay? That hurt. But management let Pew Souter walk, and he was one of their best penalty killers, maybe their best penalty killing forward last season, and they just didn't replace him. They outright did not

replace him. Now, Let's face it, the goaltending has been a major issue too. I think last night, Lankanin probably has to come up with that shot by Surgachev, considering there's no, well, there was no Utah player getting in the way of it. That being said, that being said,

I've watched the play multiple times. I'm not sure what Marcus Pedersen was doing in front of Lankan. At times it looked like he was trying to tip it in. I think what happened was, He was like, oh, I'm in Lankan's way a little bit here, so I'll get out of the way. But he got out of the way at like the last second and waived his stick too. So I'm not even sure what he was trying to do. Either block the shot or let your goalie see it.

Whatever, who cares about that goal? Honestly. It's just at the end of the day, the PK stinks. And a lot of that is coaching. But in my opinion, most of that. because I've seen it over the last few years, different management groups, just thinking, yeah, it'll be fine.

We'll find some guys to penalty kill. Or we'll coach him up, right? Well, that's what I mean. Yeah. We'll find some guys to penalty. And meanwhile, like, we've had times during this year where it was like Brock Bessor

has been penalty killing. Yeah. And we all know that Brock Bessor is like, that's not a strength. It's, I mean, the penalty kill, I think, even though it's kind of dull to talk about in a vacuum, I think bigger picture,

you can point to it as yet another thing. And again, I hate hammering away on coaching with a team that's this bereft of talent. But I've seen very limited talent teams in the NHL do a better job of controlling the things that they can control, which is like positioning. At a certain point, hard work and effort, when it's not directed in the right way,

it just becomes wasted. It's running around. That's running around. And that's not really hard work. Like you might come off the ice and you might be out of breath and sweating, but it doesn't necessarily mean you put in a good shift. Like putting in a good shift. shift as being able to execute a particular game plan to a T.

Bad hockey teams can hang around in games, not necessarily win them, but not have tire-fire mistakes routinely if they stick to the script. Now, a big part of that is understanding what the script says, talking to the guy that wrote it and be like, are we on the same wavelength here? Do we understand it? My biggest concern with this is that there's a lot of young players that are going to pick up a lot of bad habits and not really understand. where the standard is in the national hockey league.

I'm not talking about winning games. I'm talking about being a credible NHL team. Because right now, if you look at the standings, the Canucks are so far mired in the basement, which is great, they would have to play, and the post-game show was talking about this, they would have to play around 600 hockey after the Olympic break to challenge to get out of the basement.

I just want to make this abundantly clear to everybody. To make 31st. Just to give the blues of the flame, of the Rangers a scare. Like, we're coming for you. It's going to go down, regular season-wise, is one of the least successful teams in Canucks's franchise history.

I mean, I don't know how many more games they're going to win, but between the tire fire that they've got defensively, the suspect goaltending, and yeah, every now and again, they get a night like Tolapilo had on Saturday where a guy will come up with a bit of a blinder, but there's no consistency to the goaltending

on a regular basis. and they really, really struggle to score goals right now. Yeah, it's a dead last team for a reason. On the positive side, Liam Ogren, I think, has been a nice pickup as part of the Quinn Hughes trade. I'm not sure where his NHL ceiling ends up, but he skates well, has some grit. And, you know, he scored a goal last night. And he seems to have a fun attitude. There was a video clip of him going around having some fun with DPD in a media scrum, acting like,

He was acting like a goalie stick was a microphone, and the microphone just kept on getting closer and closer to DPD's face. And it kind of reminded me of when Zeev Boullum came in, and everyone was like, hey, he's smiling. I think a lot of Canucks fans, they saw that clip or was like, hey, they're having fun out there. You know, they don't look so morbidly depressed. Ogrin is a former teammate of Lekker-Macky's in Sweden.

Good, for instance, they were 16. I was thinking last night, actually, when I was doing a little research on Ogren, and seeing that he would, you know, new lecker-a-mackia, I was like, if they end up drafting Ivers Stenberg, like, let's say they get the second pick, and someone takes McKenna and then they're like, okay, we'll take Stenberg. Does Swedish, does that become the official language of the Canucks? It's all the Swedes. We've talked about this before.

We've talked about leaning into it. Yeah, but like I think we're, you know, they've, They've had nine Swedes suit up for them this season. I don't want to pull a Don Cherry here. Like, you people love your Swedes or whatever. Certainly one type of Don, yeah. Only six Canadians, if you were wondering. 11 Americans.

Okay, Donnie. It's just odd. There's so many Swedes. If you look back, again, as just a thought exercise, neither advocating this or dismissing it, if you look back historically, I don't think there's been a more Swedish forward organization in NHL history than the Kennes.

No, no. There hasn't, right? No. And it has been like that for a while. A long time. Different eras of Swedish. Go all the way back to the 80s, right? It's been a pretty consistent thing.

If that, if you theoretically wanted that to be your identity, I mean, go for it. Having some identity is better than having no identity. We're pretty Swedish. Yeah, right? You know, you could come up with a lot worse things than being aggressively Swedish. Yeah, Swedes are good at hockey.

Yeah, right? Everyone seems to like them and get along with them. They're great, right? Not going to cause too many problems. Everyone's happy. Well. And then, I mean, certain ones. And then I think the interesting thing here

is that you don't necessarily need to go out of your way to find them. Like, you're talking about the draft this year. Like, Stenberg is right there. And it would become a choice. Essentially, let's go hypothetically, you got the number one overall pick, right? Now, I would still say, go with McKenna. But if you...

Don't overthink this, Mike. I just wanted to bring it up because, like... I always thought about this. So many Swedes on this team. I've thought about that a ton. And a lot of their... Can help with your recruitment process. I mean, a lot of their...

Look at a lot of their youngsters. Like, their top prospects. If you go Lecker-Mackie, V-Lander, now Ogrin. Right? And I mean, I don't know if you're counting Linus Carlson as young guy anymore. He's young in terms of NHL experience. Young enough. He's young enough.

But he's been a really good story for them. Because he's, you know, what he's, you know what a lot of he's done is he's worked with a couple of Swedes. Yeah. In Abbotsford, the Siddhians, and they've really helped him out. It's like they've all got a connection. All they need to do now is find the Swedish version of Dan Milstein. Yeah. And then start getting his clients in the door.

They could do like one night. They could ice like an entire Swedish starting lineup. I mean, the possibilities are endless at this point. Now, you mentioned that there aren't going to be any imminent trades, not in the next couple of weeks, probably. The Olympic trade freeze starts tomorrow at noon hour time. The Canucks still have to play Vegas after the trade freeze. Correct.

It doesn't feel like there's any trade coming. So I suppose the team is stuck paying their pending UFAs. through the break. The actual trade deadline is March 6th. Just looking at the schedule, the Canucks have four games after the break before the deadline hits. Is anyone confused right now?

Nope, I think I got it. Okay. So basically, Evander Cain, Teddy Blugher, and David Kompf should only have five games left as members of the Canucks. Maybe fewer games than that, Because I wonder if some or all of them will be gone immediately after the Olympic trade freeze is lifted on February 26th because the Canucks don't return to action until February 25th. Yeah, so there's a bit of a gap there between returning to your team and then actually playing for the Vancouver Canucks.

So there could be deals made there. And I would just want to make all those trades as soon as the trade freeze is lifted. I mean, I want them to make those trades a month ago. Yeah. I guess they're waiting, driving up the price of Evander Cain, who by the way, I put it out there on Twitter yesterday, is Van der Cain going to fight Liam O'Brien? Because the only interesting thing in the third period of that game

was whether or not they were going to go. Because you could tell with Kane running around and kind of doing, it was kind of greasy, a couple of the moves. The hit was fine. I thought, you know, sticking Hayton at the faceoff was whatever. But he was engaged in a, way where you're like this probably ends in a fight. I wasn't alone in thinking that. And sure enough, so too was Liam O'Brien. He was right there. He was like, we're fighting, right? And

Leo, Liam O'Brien's a tad unhinged, I would say. Do you think he's Irish? Can someone look up where he's from, actually? Can you do that? Liam O'Brien. I think his county cork. Yeah, he might be. He was an angry leprechaun yesterday, just flying around ready to fight Kane. So him and Kane tangle in the third period. And like very obviously, Kane is not interested in going. You could tell by his body language in the fight, right? Some Halifax.

Thank you. Yeah, I don't even think he got both gloves off, Kane. Right? No. So I said, but my biggest complaint was that the linesman jumped in. So I had all these chuds on Twitter being,

you watch hockey, like, Kane didn't want to fight. So that's why the refs stipend. I'm like, I don't care. I can care less if he wants to fight or not. It's Evander Kane getting challenged by a guy. Like,

what world are we living in? that he's turning down fights. Yeah, I mean, the fans in the building wanted to see Liam O'Brien beat the wheels off of Vandor Kane, and Kinnock's fans wanted... Look, maybe the same thing? I don't know. It's not like it came out of nowhere.

It's not like it came out of nowhere, okay? That's all I'm saying. It's like, if Liam O'Brien had found Evander Kane in the middle of a classic Evander Kane game where he'd done nothing all night, I would have been like, that seems unfair. But Kane was engaged physically, and he was running around,

he was making things happen. Any NHL or knows at that point, you're probably going to draw the ire of the other team's tough guy, right? And what happened? Linos jump in. We're deprived of the only interesting thing in the third period.

And I thought it was a bummer. Like, I'm fully cognizant of the fact that Kane didn't want to fight. Everyone was, including Liam O'Brien. You can tell he wanted no part of the fight. But where we're at in the season, what last night was offering up entertainment was? Yeah, I would have liked to have seen a scrap.

And we got deprived of that by the zebras. Imagine if they can't trade Cain. Oh, it's very, very possible. Imagine if you're still a member of the Canucks after the actual trade deadline. This is where you need like a mechanism in the CBA, like the NFL. The NFL, they just cut guys after the trade deadline.

Just go sign somewhere else, right? And that- You wouldn't terminate his contract, would he? I don't know. I mean, if someone could, I don't know the- I don't know the mechanics of the CBA if it's even allowed. I guess if you just flat-out terminate a guy's contract, No, it has to be a mutual termination.

Yeah, like he's not, why would he run the risk of, unless he had a guaranteed deal lined up. Something lined up. Why would he run the risk? Where they're paying him less. Yeah. Pro rated. But like why would you run the risk of not getting your paycheck every two weeks?

Because he needs, he needs to find a team where he can do something to show the rest of the NHL that he deserves another contract. That's what he's worried about. That's what Danny Millions, his agent is worried about. Sure. That, that he's just going to like, in his days on the Vancouver Canucks

not doing anything and then free agency crops up next year and they're like well I don't want to sign you yeah I am a tad surprise that it hasn't been done yet because there has been enough talk around game well I'm holding out hope that other teams around the league are just listen we want to do this closer to the trade deadline you pay him his actual salary during the Olympic trade freeze and then we'll do something when the trade freeze is lifted

you're listening to the best of Halford and Brock You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. I want to play a clip from the most recent 32 Thoughts podcast that just published today. And it is about our old friend Rick Tockett in Philadelphia. And this has become a national story. This isn't just us as Kinex fans looking back or looking at our old coach here, a guy that was pretty polarizing here in Vancouver and some of the issues that are happening in Philadelphia right now. specifically between Talkit and Mitchkoff.

We played a bunch of audio, Tuckett talking about Mitchkoff yesterday and how he wasn't in shape. And he's essentially defending his approach with Mitchkoff, and that approach often includes limiting the ice time of the young Russian kid. Well, here's Elliot Freeman, and this is ahead of a Flyers game tonight at home

against the Washington Capitals. and if you look online with Flyers fans, like there might be some chance tonight at the Flyers Capitals game directed at Rick Tocke and not in a supportive way. So here's Elliot Freeman on the situation in Philly. Matveh Mishkov is too important to the Flyers. And I understand, look, if he's showing up out of shape

or he is late for treatment, those are issues the Flyers have to deal with. and Mishkov has to be better at. But in this day and age, it's a two-way street. It's a two-way street. They have to say to Mishkov, okay, this is what we were upset about. We demand you do better, but we're giving you a new slate to prove to us. Anything we didn't like last summer, anything we didn't like right now, to this point,

we're giving you a clean slate. We're putting you out there. but if you go back to what we didn't like, it's on you. But we're ending it right now. He's too important and you have to finish this season on an upswing. I can imagine the Flyers as an organization were de-happy, unhappy with some of the commentary on the weekend. I think generally you like to keep that stuff in-house. that's why I think Breyer is the best position guy

to come out and say, okay, sometimes a relationship has to hit rock bottom before it can get better. Dana tells me that all the time about you and her. So this is rock bottom. This is where the flyers can say this is rock bottom. It's over. We're moving past it.

New slate. And it's on the player and it's on the flyers to finish this up strong. that's what I would do. I would say we're going out, we're doing this. We're ending the noise. Ending it. And we're going to ride Mishkov for the rest of the season.

Fridge, of course, borrowing from the popular phrase, de-happy wife, de-happy life. Talk should just play Mitchcock. Tonight on rock bottom. Talk should just play Mitchkoff 20 minutes a night. He's just be like, go. Why not? And then just you're either the coach that gave him

the leash that he needed, and he thrived, or, you know, look, the flyers aren't going to make the playoffs. They've fallen pretty far behind. Or Mitchcoff really struggles in those 20 minutes, and some of the fans are like, maybe he had a point. You let him hang himself with the leash. Totally. Or do well. And then you're like, I gave him that opportunity. Yeah, this is, we were kind of talking about this yesterday.

I'm surprised. Talkett has let it get to this point again. Because as you said yesterday, you. It was a very succinct summation of Rick Tocke's coaching style. He's a good coach, but he's got blind spots. Yeah. And blind spots are blind spots for a reason.

You don't see him. That's the blind part. I just don't think that he can wrap his head around a player going about his business in the way that falls outside, the very narrow spectrum that Tuckett has for a player. Yeah. You know? Yeah.

And I'm sure part of that is the reason that whatever relationship he had with Pedersen just, devolved. Yeah. Whatever it started as, eventually he got tired of trying to do the, I'm going to fit Patterson into this mold. Well,

it's hard if you're a coach and you, and you come in and you're preaching this, you've got a few messages that you're going to give and they're going to be non-negotiable messages. Yeah. And if one player, one or two players, just doesn't listen. Like just doesn't.

doesn't listen. It's infuriating because you're trying to set a culture of everyone is pulling on the same rope. But life is a balance. And sometimes, you know, like, you have to let certain players be the way they are. We're in the player empowerment era. Yeah. Players drive the bus a lot more than they used to.

There's a reason hardline coaches have a very short shelf life in the NHL. Yeah. And it's eventually the message runs dry or the guys just tune them out. There's a reason that a lot of the coaches that are coming up now are trying to find ways to be co-workers with the players as opposed to a boss employee relationship. But I think that must be especially frustrating if you are trying to have that relationship and the player still isn't doing it because you know what that comes across as then? Disrespect.

Yeah. It comes across as. disrespect to your coach. It comes across as disrespect to your teammates because all these other guys are buying in. So why aren't you? Now, I do think the difference between Pedersen and Mitchcoff is that Mitchcoff is 21 years old. And he just came over from Russia. Yep. And he's probably, talk mentioned, like how he has to learn things like how to eat properly. It's true. Don't use your hands. No, but like, are you getting enough, I don't know, protein or, you know, like things like that? Are you eating the right way? And that can take time. There is some news coming out of

Tampa. We were just talking about Anthony Sorrelli and Braden Point, two members of Team Canada who are playing their first game real soon. It's February 3rd today. February 12th, Canada opens up against Chequia in Italy. And John Cooper said today that Sorrelli and Braden Point won't play again before the Olympic break. So, you know, Coop is the coach. So he's going to know, he's going to know where they are. But, man, you know, I'm sure those guys are dying to go play in the Olympics. But this is where you really have to be honest with yourself, but also your teammates.

You know, Braden Point and Anthony Sorrelli, they've never played in the Olympics. because the NHL hasn't gone to the Olympics since 2014. That's right, Jason. Do you think they'd be on the next Olympic team in four years? That's tough to say. Pretty slim chances, I'd say, especially for a guy like Sorrelli. Yeah, I'm just really curious how this is all going to work out.

Conradard-Badard. And if they can't... Who gets the first call? Who does get the first call? I don't think he's the first call. Yeah. Who would be? Shifley.

Suzuki. Depends who you're replacing, right? Okay, Suzuki maybe. Yeah. I don't know. You got to give Badaard in there, man. You got to do it. I don't think you've ever quite understood that there are roles on hockey teams. No, no roles. Just get out there have some fun. You don't think Baderke could kill a penalty. Of course, some goals. Suzuki's on the team, do it? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think. If I'm being honest.

I don't know why I said Suzuki. I don't know why that popped to mind. Shifley would be the first call. You think? I was thinking Cawfield because I was thinking Montreal. But why can't other players fit other rules? I know Bader is. But he's not like a penalty killer But why couldn't you have a guy like that Play out of his role? Baird?

Yeah. I just don't think he'd be the first call. I think he's deserving of the... Why typecasting guys? I don't understand that. I'm not. I'm not. What do you mean typecasting?

Would you be comfortable with Badard out on the peak in here? I'm just using that as an example. But he wouldn't be putting to that role. But like why? He wouldn't be in that role. Okay. So what role is he on? Is he on the first unit?

Everyone's had too much juice. Everyone's had too much juice this morning. Everyone's had too much juice this morning. Maybe second unit? you guys are talking about a totally different thing. The dogs right now are saying, why would you hold back a player of that caliber if he doesn't necessarily fit a role?

Me in particular, but I think what we're both saying is I'm not really projecting who I, who in my personal opinion should get on because I think Bedard deserves it. I'm trying to get into the mind of the Canada brass and looking at the previous selections, which was very similar to what they did

for the four nations. Like they didn't go that, far afield. But so you think he should be on the team. But hard. But if you're building the team, might you come to a different conclusion? Look, all I'm saying is we just talked about the earlier in the show, the Canucks penalty kill, okay? And how, yeah, they had some injuries to guys like Bluger and Forbord and they lost a guy like Pew Souter. And look at the Peky. It's a disaster. They've got guys out there that shouldn't be killing penalties. And it is one of the big reasons why the Canucks are the worst team in the league.

You have to, listen, I know some teams take it too far. And even Canada in the past has taken it too far. And there's a very good argument to be made that the Americans have taken it too far with some of the guys that they've taken over, you know, goal scores, right? And you also need to score goals to what I can get to. Over their top two goal scores specifically. We're very aware of your position on this, and I don't entirely disagree with it. but you have to put, when you're putting together these teams,

it's not just picking the best players. You're like, okay, who's our first unit power play? Who's our second unit power play? Who are the first four forwards that we're going to use in a big penalty killing situation? Like, who's our matchup line? Like, this is that, you don't just, you don't just, you're preparing for situations that you're going to face

in very tight hockey games. Right, but Bidad's in the mix. He's in the mix. Of course he is. So that's why this conversation is kind of weird because if it's not Shifley, it's probably Bidard. I would also say that they, if Sam Bennett didn't get hurt last night, if it's not serious, I also think they're making a call to Sam Bennett. Because I think Hyman could be a possibility.

Yeah, maybe. I think he'd be below those three. And I don't think you're going to necessarily go wrong with a replacement. placement pick. Vanity, they're all really good players. Like, Shively could play more roles,

but Badard you'd be getting in there specifically just to score goals. Like, you'd have that one rule? What are you going to, are you going to waste him? I don't think so. Because he won't have an opportunity.

What's his opportunity going to be? Second line with a couple of really good players, maybe third line, but I mean, but even their third line will be like full of goals. That's the thing. Like, even Canada's third line

will be full of goal scores. So if Badaar's on the third line, he'll still be getting opportunities with a couple great players. So it's not like he'd be wasted on a third. I'd love to see him on the team, but I haven't gone through the exercise of like, okay, this guy's out in this situation,

this guy's out in this situation. Like all the people, this is the best example. All the people saying that Evan Bouchard should be on this team. The only argument to have Bouchard on the team is if McCar gets hurt, like the insurance. Otherwise, he's not going to play the first unit power play because McCar is going to have those, that opportunity.

And I don't trust him at all defensively. He is an incredible offensive player. And maybe you could make the argument that he should run

the first unit power play and not McCarr. And if you want to have that argument, fine. But then I think you're wasting

a pretty good power play guy in Kail McCar. And I would rather just go with someone else besides Bushar. Now, I think they should have Schaefer

on the team. He's young, but I think he should be on the team because he's an all-around guy. And I think he could help them really break the puck out. Because I think what the Americans are going to do is they're going to say, listen, we can't match the skill that the Canadians have in the forward group. So we are going to forecheck the hell out of these Canadian defensemen.

So those guys like Pareko and Sanheim and even Dowdy, who's no spring chicken anymore. Doubties look terrible. Those guys better be able to move the puck. By the way, in case you're wondering, just for the purposes of making this conversation a little bit more factual and a little less guessing, or quite frankly, incorrect, like with Suzuki, you can make amendments to your 25-player roster

right up until the first game of the tournament. Good, then replace Doughty with Schaefer and do it right now. Which is February 11th. So you still have eight days. February 10th, dinner. Sorry. Like there's changing goalies. Right.

Like there's, back your bags. Okay, I bring this up because there's no set date. Like, you don't have to have it by the opening ceremonies. There's no like roster submission time. It's literally, as soon as the tournament begins, your roster needs to be locked in. So believe it or not,

Canada does have another entire week to make the call. And you could call any guy on February of the 10th to be like, get here for the Olympics. They'd be like, I'm there. I'm on vacation and my wife is pretty insistent on it. Right? And he'll be like, see you, baby, I got to go. Is Dowdy a bigger problem than people are leading on?

He almost went in the entire month of January pointless. He had a point in the final day of January. I'm worried about the blue line. As the kids say, low-key, Dowdy might be the biggest problem. I can't believe Schaefer's not there considering just what he brings. I don't care about his. It doesn't matter, though.

He's already so good. And he provides so much, so many different ways. I think Dowdy's going to get eaten alive. Like, he's going to be playing very limited minutes. It's just, I don't know. I think Shafer, Doughty over Shafer to me is a mistake. Well, let's be forget. I don't think a lot of these, not a lot of these,

but some of these guys aren't going to play. Yeah. But what's the 25 men roster? Why don't you bring guys to play then? Like, why are you bringing a guy that's not going to play? Well, some guys aren't going to play because they're not going to be on the roster. You get that part. Is it 25 man roster?

No, I know. But I'm just saying, like, if some of these guys are just there to eat pizza. Guys might get injured maybe, who knows? Like, you get the insurance in there at the very least, even if he's not going to play a whole lot. Take pictures of the leaning tower, eat some Zah. That's what they're going to be doing in Italy. They're not going to be playing hockey, right?

I mean, it was the same thing with the last two times the NHLs went to the Olympics. There were guys on the team that just didn't touch the ice. Can we just talk quickly about how awesome these next couple of weeks is going to be? The Seahawks are in the Super Bowl. The Seahawks are in the Super Bowl on Sunday, and then like a couple of days later, the Olympics starts. It's going to be great.

It's going to be fantastic. I mean, look, we've suffered a little bit here. during this Canucks season. Yes. How many times have you looked at the schedule and be like, how many games are there in a season and how many are left? I've done it a few times. Last night, I kept watching for two reasons.

One, it's my job. Not always convincing. Second one, I wanted to see what was going to happen if Utah was going to try and attack a Vander Cain, which they did, and then the line's been ruined it by breaking it up. It's the only reason I was watching. obligation and to see some bloodshed. Violence.

And violence, yes. That's who I am. The Canucks did lose 6-2 last night in Utah. It was the first of a mini road trip. It's the mom's trip. It continues Wednesday in Vegas before everyone goes on break for the Olympics, except for the Olympians, of course. We got Landon on the line now.

We will turn our attention now to the ABLE Auctions hotline. Landon Ferraro, Canucks analyst, joins us here on the Halferdin and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Landon. How are you? Pretty solid. How are you guys doing? Good. Can't complain. We are counting down the days until we get to watch

Best on Best at the Olympics. But there's still some business in the National Hockey League to attend to, and that, of course, is one more Canucks game, although we should look back a little bit on last night's Canucks game first. Not a great performance, yet again defensively. A lot of running around, a lot of missed assignments.

A lot of guys that I'm not even sure knew what the assignment was in the first place. What were some of your takeaways from a 6-2 loss in Utah to the mammoth last night? Yeah, well, I mean, off-the-hop, like, just the speed difference. It's pretty evident, right? Like, Utah is fast. Even their big guys, like, they can move, especially below the hash marks, and they caused a lot of trouble for the cadax, you know, really kind of moving around that offensive zone,

especially creating confusion. But, you know, like a handful of the goals are very easy. breeds that were just made the wrong way and it ends up in the back of the net, right? Like, even just the goal off the face off, like, Heidel comes in as Blue, or, uh, yeah, as Blueger gets kicked out of the, uh, or sorry, uh, camp gets kicked out of the bra. Right? Like, that's something you learn in Piwai hockey is you lose the face off, you stay center on center, but they've just moved Heidel to wing and as soon as he took the face off, he's like, I got to go to my point.

So now all of a sudden, he's standing shoulder to shoulder with camp and they one time the puck in, right? Like, there's just very easy mistakes that can be solved with very little effort, and that game all of a sudden should be four to,

with an empty netter to make it four to, right? Like, you're keeping it tight not letting it blow open. Hey, Landon, you mentioned team speed, and we talked recently about Elias Pedersen's skating

and the fact that it doesn't look as good as it did a few years ago and some of the NHL edge data suggests that it's not as good as it was a few years ago. I know Lechromackie's skating has been discussed and it's not terrific. It could certainly get better.

I mean, you were a good skater, you're in the NHL, that was one of your specialties. What makes a great skater? Is it technique? Is it strength? Do you have to have both and maybe some comments

about some of the skating that you see the stride of Pedersen and the stride of Lecharmacki? Well, of course you need technique and you need strength, but honestly, like a lot of it is just natural, right? like I was a very good skater from the time I was little.

It was what I was best at. And you look at guys like, you know, well, McDavid, he's not just that fast because he works really hard in the gym. Like, of course he does, but he's just naturally set up for that. Just like a Brock Besser isn't a great skater, but man, he can release a puck better than a lot of guys when he's on, right? Like, you just have natural spots, But in saying that, just because you're not naturally a great skater,

it doesn't mean that you can't work at it and get better. Like, even like the big, big guys, and we'll use someone that was here that's moved on and has really found his game, but like a guy like Pud Coles in, right? Like, he's not a good skater. Like, he's big, he's heavy, he's, you know, he's kind of slow. Yet he's found a way to find an extra kind of half step out of a standstill, and now he's become a little quicker and he's found ways to use that.

You know, Pedersen was a really good skater. Did he get pushed off pucks a lot? Yes, he did because he's more slender. But he's had speed, he'd break away from guys, but that's just, it's not happening anymore, and it hasn't happened for about a year and a half or two years now. So to me, like, yes, he's got to work at it. he's got to build up his legs and keep doing that, especially when summer hits.

But at a certain point, like, it kind of just is what it is. And, you know, we were talking about it yesterday. Like, to me, like, the focus needs to be on his shot, right? Like, with the speed that he has right now and still the little bit of elusiveness, there's no reason he shouldn't be finding ways to get more shots on that. and when he does, the issue right now is a lot of the time, like when he has an extra second to shoot

and he's going to put everything he has on it, he blows it high and wide. So it doesn't even get to the net. Like, to me, that's the bigger issue right now. You can look at the skating and talk about it because it definitely is a talking point, but the shot is something that I think he can actually fix now instead of having to wait for,

the summer to build up legs and get back with a skating coach and try and he has such a short stride like to me he like that it needs to get lengthened out it needs to have a bit more pop into it you know when you look at how he skated before the the thing that i found would separate him because even when he was skating better it's not like he had this crazy speed burner type level of speed, like he was jerky. Like he was so good at, he'd have it on his backhand, he'd rip it, you know, behind his body to his forehand and that stop up. And then he could take two steps and find that lane to the middle. Like, that's what, to me, is the most important thing he's missing right now is that

explosiveness to hammer on the brakes, take two, or a step and a half to the middle and rip a shot. Like, that's something we have not seen in forever. Why do you think certain players like yourself, have you ever thought about this? Why do you think you were set up to be a good skater? To be honest, I have no idea, right? Like, we all, I mean, we all know who my dad is, and as great of a player as he was, like he got around the ice pretty good, but man, his stride was disgusting. Like for a short, for a short guy, he's bent over at the waist, and it just looks like pure

effort instead of any type of efficiency. But at the end of the day, you scored 400 and one more goals than me, so who am I to talk? But, you know, like, for me, it was, I don't know, like, I watched little VHS videos of me when I was just starting to skate and, like, my legs were bent. I wasn't bent at the waist. Like, it just naturally made sense. I just stepped on and that's kind of how it worked. But in saying that, Like here in Vancouver, you know, I was lucky enough when we first got here. My older brother was coached by a guy named John Calvano that's been part of the skill of community here in Vancouver forever. So from the time I was 10, I was working on skating and strides with him.

Well, everyone else was doing normal summer practices. You know, I was all with Martin Jones and a bunch of guys from around here that went on, Colton Tuber was a first rounder, like a bunch of good good, good players and we were working on stride and all the like you see connor mac david with those power edge pro like the black things on the ice with the stick coming off of it we were doing that stuff 10 years before just with cones because it wasn't invented yet but john was the guy that kind of brought all that so it's being lucky to have the right type of skills guy around you that you know is kind of ahead of the curve a little bit and but it in saying that i know this is long-winded

No, it's better than talking about the Canucks. This is interesting. Keep going. I find this is fascinating. Yeah. But like you also have to, at a young age, be willing to learn that. Like, I wanted, I knew, even as a 10-year-old, my speed was what got me goals. And I love to score more than anything.

So I worked at it. We talked yesterday when I was on with Drans and Dodd of Atu-Ratu and his face-offs. and how, like, he knows what the tendencies of the other forwards are, what the tendencies of the refs are. Like, that's why he's so good at face-offs at a young age. He's become obsessed. And that is a full credit to him. And the reason I bring that up is, like, Pedersen needs not a bit of that.

He needs more of that looking at his own game. And, okay, yeah, you might have some other things you'd love. love to go do in the summer, but you know what, this summer coming up, just like we talked about last year, of it needed to be full focus and dedicated. Like, he needs to really look at himself, at his game, because his effort is there. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.