Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 3/10/26

Episode Date: March 10, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they discuss yesterday's Canucks loss to the Sens with analyst Randip Janda, plus what's next for the club. 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. It comes to an app. James Rimer stops all 16 Vancouver shots. Tonight on Rock Bottom. I think it's in the bag that they're going to be 30 seconds. I mean, what is the deficit right now? No, we were just about that.

It's 11 points. They will be there until March 24th. It's over. Yeah. It's been over for us. a one. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford at his breath. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adaw, good morning to you.

Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have 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 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We're broadcasting live from the Kintech Studio, new year, new opportunity for comfort with orthotics from Kintech. Time now for the Duick Morning Drive. It's our morning guest list brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 630. Greg Wischinski's going to join the program. I'm NHL insider from ESPN.

Going to get into some post-trade deadline fallout with Wish today. He had a very interesting interview with Robert Thomas, the St. Louis Blues, who had some very interesting things to say about how his deadline went and how he wasn't shipped out of St. Louis. We'll get in some of the other big stories as well with Wish at 6.30. 7 o'clock, Luke Fox, NHL writer from Sportsnet, is going to join the program.

A relatively light night in the NHL yesterday, with just five games. That gets remedied tonight, 13 games on the slate in which should be a really fun evening of NHL action. We'll get into all that with Luke at 7 o'clock. 7.30.

Nick Shook, our guy from NFL.com, is going to join the program. Day one of NFL Free Agency kicked off in a major way on Monday. Tons of movement at the quarterback position, several high-profile players switching addresses, and a lot of departures from the defending Super Bowl champion,

Seattle Seahawks, We will get into all that with Nick at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Randeeb Jand is going to join the program. Canucks color analyst from SportsNet 650. Randibe was on the call for last night's game. A 2-0-0-Kinnucks loss to the senators, which kicked off this current eight-game homestand. As you can imagine, just a ton of things to talk about

from a game in which the Canucks were shut out and put a grand total of 16 shots on that. I can't wait to dive into this one. So we're going to dive into it all with Randipe at 8 a.m. this morning. Set your clocks. Finally.

And finally, also at 8 a.m. this morning. We're giving away another $250 gift card to Golf Town. This is part of their trade-in days event. Caller number 5 at 8 a.m. We'll get the gift card.

We're doing this every day this week. Caller number 5 at 8 a.m. 604-280-0-650. That number again, 604-280-650. We got a big show ahead. We got a lot to get into. Not going to run it in reverse.

Without further ado, Laddie, to tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies of us in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.com.ca. It was James Reimer with the 16 save shutout. And the Ottawa Senators kept clinging to their slim playoff chances,

extending their point streak to seven games with a two-nothing win over the Canucks at Rogers Arena on Monday. I'm now going to turn it over to Jason Brough, who's going to talk for the next 19 minutes uninterrupted on everything that he loved about that hockey game. Go, Jason. I was actually not able to watch the game. Oh, my.

What are we going to do for the next 19 minutes? It was, well, it was a hockey game, my friend. I followed it a little bit, and I was like, not many shots in this game. 16. Not many goals. And 23 for Ottawa. Ottawa came in and did exactly what they wanted to do. I mean, that's what Ottawa does.

Yeah. But the connects were more than willing to oblige them. Like, all right, let's make this as low event as possible. No, but I think this is the strength, and this is why it was so frustrating for Ottawa at times earlier in the season when they weren't getting the goaltending, right? I mean, they are a pretty stout defensive team. They're a good team. I know I talk about goal differential all the time, but like they're plus 16. That's better than some of the teams currently in a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

But, you know, they still haven't won enough games. And they're three points back of the Boston Bruins for that second wildcard spot. And each team only has 19 games left. So the Sends, we went into that last. last one, yesterday we were talking like this is an absolute must win for the sentence. They got it done, but not without controversy.

Yeah, so before, a disclaimer on this, the goal that stood, the 1-0-0 and the eventual game winning goal, we're very much aware that it does not matter, that quite frankly a lot of the in-game events for the Vancouver Connects right now do not matter, but

when you're looking for talking points following a game and one presents itself, you talk about it. So the The Ottawa Senator's first goal, and the second one was an empty netter by Brady Kachuk to seal the 2-0 victory, there was some consternation that the Sends' first goal counted because it appeared that Shane Pinto's glove made contact with the puck when Shane Pinto was trying to cover his face from being contacted with the puck. Under the letter of the law, while not an intentional hand pass, the rule is very clear that if a puck deflects off a glove and the attacking team gains any advantage, from a puck touched by glove, it should be whistled dead.

The play should not count. It's hard to argue that the senators did not get a decided advantage because, you know, it led directly to a goal. Yeah, right, which is the idea in hockey. Yeah. And trying to score goals. However, after a challenge on the goal, the goal stood. Let's turn it over right now to Canucks head coach Adam Foot

for the explanation that he got and why he was disappointed and not only the ruling on the ice, but the subsequent challenge that failed to overturn. turn the Senators won nothing goal, which proved to be the game winning goal. Here now is Adam Foote from the podium yesterday. Well, I was told by the referee that if a guy protects his face, it's a goal. I told him it's not a rule book. And 791, it's clearly not stated that.

And the situation room came out so quickly with a statement for me, that 38 one, that is inconclusive. but clearly on the video was seen protecting his face. But the oddest thing is the same play happened in December in Tampa and it was called no goal by the same route. So, you know, for me, for me it bothered me because

if they get that wrong and we get a penalty and you make it to nothing, you can't get that wrong. And we're looking through what, to see what he said to me protecting his face. Well, you know, I think there's been an argument on hockey show is about this rule

and it may be changed in the future but I can't, you know, the way it's stated it should have been overruled. Adam Foote apparently doing his post-game media availability underwater yesterday. He's in a submarine. Yeah, live from submarine. Yeah. This did, I mean, Fett kind of noted this, but this

became a talking point back in December and you can find articles on Sportsnet.com about all the latest controversial calls when it comes to hand passes and I looked at that article and I was like, I ain't reading all that. Like I think they just need to figure. And now for a counterpoint, who cares?

They just need to get some clarification in the offseason on this because these things are piling up and you can add yesterday's Canucks game in that example, into the now long list of example of, and there's just confusion. And, you know, yesterday, the NHL released a statement and said the situation room supported the referees on ice

decision that the puck deflected off Shane Pinto's glove and was therefore not deemed a hand pass prior to Ridley Greg's goal. Okay, so once you get into the off-season you need to have a meeting whenever it is

and just be like, okay, like what is a hand pass? Like is it, you know, just determine it, right? Because if they determined that it was not a hand pass, I think there have been other incidences where you could have deemed that same thing. I mean, the NHL is going against its own rules here. Because the rule clearly states like whether you're blocking your face or not,

or your groin or wherever else. But it doesn't say anything about that. It doesn't. I know, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. But the referee gave it as like a full-throated explanation to Foote. It's like, well, he was protecting his face. And Foote said, that's great.

But it's not the rules. Right. You know, I'm sorry that the puck was going to hit you in the face. But if you put your hand up and the puck deflects off your glove, it's pretty clear that that goal shouldn't have counted. The sad part is that... Yeah, like if you defend your face, if you protect your face with like a bicycle kick.

Right. And it goes in the net, then well, that's a kicking motion. Yeah, also highly illegal. And would be very... Yes, but it's cool, so it should override that. Incredibly impressive. That's part of the stipulation. If it's cool enough, it'll override the rule.

So Sapp brought this up on the post game show yesterday. And there was a time. And it wasn't that long ago that. that a goal of that nature would have been the hottest of hot button talking points in Vancouver. Not only would it have potentially swayed jockeying for a playoff position or if the Canucks,

remember those days when they were well in the playoffs, you know, where they were going to be seated in the NHL standings. Or it would add to the conspiracy that the NHL is out to get to the Canucks, which will, by the way, occur during the draft lottery. Right. Just you have to wait for that part of it. But all these things, under normal circumstances, circumstances would have been great manna from heaven for sports talk radio.

But here we are at 6.11 in the morning the day after a very controversial goal was ruled against the Vancouver Canucks. And it's just met with a collective shrug. And this kind of ties in three putt. Shane texted in. I was protecting my face from watching the game last night. Yeah. Did the puck bounce off your glove? Shane.

Here's what I want to ask the listeners right now. what are you doing with the remainder, not of your life, of the games that are on the regular season slate for the Vancouver Canucks? Are you watching them intently? Are you keeping one eye on them while you make dinner or do laundry or wash the dishes? Are you actively tuning out? No, that's Curtis Douglas Wash. It's the rest of the season.

Okay. Are you trying to find talking points like that? Some of these guys you might be interested in. I'm very curious to hear this because we are in something. think of an unprecedented time. This is a rebuild. This organization, this city, and this market have not gone through those at all. And part of the rebuild is this infancy stage where you tear everything back to the studs

and you have a season like this where after the trade deadline, there is little to no interest with the day to day of the team. And I hate saying that out loud, but it's true. You know how we've been constantly saying the rebuild is a balance. act. Yes. Here's another thing. This topic.

Well, you want the Canucks to play well defensively because you want, especially the three young defenders to learn how to play a solid defensive game, right? That's good. And I think the Canucks, for the most part, yesterday, they were good defensively. I mean, it was 1-0 with an empty netter, and the 1-0-0 goal might,

should maybe not even count it. So that's good. And by all accounts, the Canucks were working hard out there. But if you went to the game, you might be like, this is boring, right? What was more entertaining? Was it more entertaining when they lost 6'4 to Carolina? Probably. Of course.

Of course it was. But that was also some, you know, some questionable defending there. So, yeah, I mean, it's one of these balancing act things where you want the team to learn how to play with structure, but you also want to go to the games, and you're like, if we're going to lose this stuff, let's see some goals out there. Let's open it up a little bit. And let's not get it twisted.

The majority of the guys, majority of the guys that are on the active roster right now aren't going to be here when things matter. Active. Yeah, yeah. I'd say at least two thirds, maybe three quarters if you want to cut that deep. So it's hard to really get too emotionally invested,

and with all due respect to Adog and Curtis Douglas, who the post-game show floated the idea of calling him Kurt Douglas. I'm thinking about it. I was thinking Kurt Doug. Yeah, Kurt Doug. Oh, Kurt Doug. There's a very good chance that he's not a Vancouver Canuck for the remainder of this season. Or even if he does make it through the remainder of the season next year.

He played just under seven minutes last night. Foot needs to play more. I think Adam Foote in one of the talking points on Kurt Douglas said that he liked the length of his shifts. And then he kept them short, which is always a ring. You know what's one story that we're really going to have to pay attention to is season ticket renewals? Because I believe if you have season tickets, text in right now, have you been asked to renew? Have you renewed? When is the deadline date? I've got a buddy with season tickets and he just couldn't get rid of his tickets last night. I think they were well over a hundred

face value. He put them up for 59. No takers. And like it was, I mean it's Tuesday night against, or Monday night against Ottawa. So it's tough. But like that kicked Not a marquee gate in begin with. That kicked off an eight game homestand. I did.

I mean you got Thursday against Nashville. Is their next game? Is that marquee? Saturday against Seattle? No. Tuesday against Florida, in theory a marquee game. But there's a lot of guys that are injured. I don't think Marshawn's going to play for the rest of the season. Barkoff's already out.

Tampa Bay, Thursday, March 19th next week. That's a good team. That team could win the Stanley Cup. But then you got St. Louis, Anaheim, and Los Angeles to finish out this eight-game homestand. And meanwhile, you know that ownership is going to be looking at revenues and how much this rebuild is. going to affect the bottom line, and that could affect how they, whether they're patient or they're not with this rebuild.

Okay, I want to jump into some other stories here. You mentioned Los Angeles there as one of the teams of the Canucks we'll see on this ain't game homestand. They were in action yesterday. It was a makeup game from an earlier postponed game against Connor Garland and the Columbus Blue Jackets, and Garland scored two goals for the Blue Jackets, but it wasn't enough.

Get the audio ready, Greg. Adrian Kempe with the O'SVille. OT winner, a second goal for him in the game as well. And actually a huge game in terms of playoff jockeying in the east and the west. LA gets a vital two points as they chase down the crackin. The Columbus Blue Jackets get won as they keep chasing the Bruins. And here's what it sounded like when Adrian Kempe won in an overtime, 5-4 for the Kings over the blue jackets.

Two and a half left in overtime. And now Dowdy for Panarin. Quickly in for Kempai. Kempi winds up, shoots, and he scores. Kepi. Kings win. Goodbye. good night, game over.

As an aspiring play-by-play man, you should consider doing one of those calls. Very abrupt. But everything in six words, just bang. It's all done. It's all done. It's the job done there. That was a big win for the Kings.

Yeah, huge. And a disappointing one for the Blue Jackets. So if you cover the NHL long enough, you see these teams that go on, these heaters, especially ones that get the new coach bump. And eventually they come back to Earth because it just can't. can't last forever. And I do wonder if that's going to end up being the story of Columbus,

even though they did make, you know, they almost got a second bump. Everyone loves that second bump when they got Connor Garland at the deadline. But they're starting to get a little leaky defensively, which was the problem that they had before Rick Bonas got in. They've given up five goals in each of the last two games. And Bonas actually kind of took them the task after that loss to L.A. saying, we're the kind of team that if we score four goals, that should be two points. We shouldn't be losing games where we're scoring four. So we'll see what happens there. They're still well within striking distance of the Bruins, but it's getting late really early. Time is running out and they need to make, sorry, they need to continue this push

in Columbus if they're going to get to the postseason. So unless Nashville or Winnipeg, I guess Winnipeg's got an outside chance. They're playing pretty well, but it looks like it's going to come down to fourth place in the Pacific Division. That's right. Will be the final playoff spot. And You know, right now in the top of the Pacific, you got Anaheim, Vegas, and Edmonton, and most people are assuming those three teams are going to be fine. Anaheim, it's crazy that they're first in the division because they've got a minus 10 goal differential.

A negative goal differential and winning the division would be insane. I don't think it's going to happen, but it could. And then you've got Seattle, San Jose, and L.A., And all those teams were in a point of each other. San Jose's got games in hand on everybody. That's the team in the West that I'd be pulling for. And almost exclusively because of Celebrini. I'd love to see Celebrini in the playoffs.

I mean, Celebrini, can you imagine if Celebrini's first playoff series is against the Colorado Avalanche? I mean, it might be a sweep, right? Potentially. You know, it might be. But at least he'd get that playoff experience and at least we get to see, you know, I'm sure the San Jose Arena,

would be rocking for that one. There would be a good atmosphere there. And who knows, maybe they put a little bit of a scare in them. Probably not. But Celebrini in the playoffs certainly beats anyone on Seattle or anyone on the Kings being in the playoffs. I kind of want to see the Kings go into the tank. I'd love to see the Kings miss.

I think they're ready to go into the tank. I think, you know, they got Panarin and it's kind of like, oh, that could go badly. That could go real badly, especially. especially if they don't fix their center issues. You know, they're going to lose Kopitar. They don't know what, I don't know, they still don't really know what Byfield is going to be,

but I don't think he's going to develop into that elite center that they assumed he would, given, where was he was, the second or overall or third overall? Like, that was a very high pick that they put on him. And I'm not liking how things are looking for the, well, I am liking how things are looking for the kings, but they shouldn't be liking how things are looking for the kings.

Okay, before we go to, a break. I do want to turn our attention to some of these NFL stories. Now we're going to get into this a lot more with Nick Shook from NFL.com later, but I don't know how much of the Seahawks were going to focus on with him because there was so much stuff that happened throughout the league. I did want to mention what happened to

our team here at the Halford & Brough Show and of course the defending Super Bowl champs because the Seahawks, I'm afraid they took a lot of body blows yesterday in terms of guys coming off the active roster. More importantly, guys in starting positions and none of them bigger than Super Bowl MVP.

Kenneth Walker the third, who agreed to a three-year deal worth up to $45 million with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. A very interesting deal there, given that traditionally, over the last few years, the chiefs have tried to patch up their running back situation with cast-offs and waiver wire grabs and undrafted free agents and just tried to fill the void. And last year it was Hunt and Pacheco. But this year, it's going to be the reigning Super Bowl MVP, Kenneth Walker. And it's a very interesting situation he goes into because Mahomes is coming up. off the torn ACL. Now, so what are the options for the Seahawks? Well, there's a great question, because right now, they don't really have a running back. Zach Charbonnet tore his ACL so late in the season last year that he's probably going to be out until December. He's going to miss a large

chunk of next season. Right now, there are B2 from last season. George Halani is the nominal starter because they don't have anybody else there. I've got to imagine that they're going to address this either one with a veteran guy in free agency, although a few running backs, off the board yesterday, so I'm not sure what's left. They draft someone? Or they draft somebody. Yeah. Right?

And that may be... I'm sure they've got a plan, you know? For sure. They knew that Kenneth Walker wasn't coming back. I think they knew that too. A lot of people posted the audio from John Schneider at the Super Bowl celebration parade where he was like, Kenneth Walker, Super Bowl MVP, he just came up and tried to negotiate a new deal.

That was weird. And then, so everyone kind of knew then that maybe he wasn't coming back to Seattle. And it's going to be, I think it's a super interesting move for Kansas City. I think it's super interesting for Seattle as well because they got a huge void in the back field now. Do you remember when Adog learned that Kenneth Walker might not be back? Yeah. Because the report came out that the Seahawks wouldn't use the franchise tag on him. Right.

And Adog was like, why? He was so good. And then we had to explain how football words to say, Adog. I was choked. I know. So now he's a member of Kansas City Chiefs. How do you let him go? I know.

It's sad, but that's football, baby. Okay, two other moves, departures of significance for the Seahawks yesterday. Boy, Maffei, who was at one point a standout on that defensive line in terms of the pass rush, but had kind of become more of a secondary guy's years went along. He only had two QB Sachs last year, kind of a rotational guy. He's gone. He signed a $20 million a year deal with the Cincinnati Bengals. He actually is going to probably replace Cincinnati Bengals' start a pass rusher.

Trey Hendricks in there who's believed to be joining the Cowboys. So Boy Maffa, who'd been a good player in that interior defense for the Seahawks for the last couple of years, he's gone as well. So too gone, Jason, is Kobe Bryant, who actually was one of the key members of that secondary last year for the Seahawks, that rose to great prominence in the second half of the season. He spent the last four years with the Seattle Seahawks. He's now on his way to the Chicago Bears.

He was an impact starter last year, I thought, moving in. into that role. But again, when you win the Super Bowl and you play as well as the Seahawks did last year, other teams are going to come shopping, especially in the case of Chicago, whose defense was really poor last year, especially defending the pass. And especially in the case of the Bengals who needed another pass rusher and needed a guy that wasn't going to cost as much money as Hendrickson. It's hard to quickly flip from the Canucks to the Seahawks because you're like,

and everyone wants their players. Champagne problems, right? You got all these great players and everyone wants the play. them away from you because you're the champ. Not so much. We just want to take something from your culture. Yeah. And we want to instill it in our team.

No, it wasn't all bad for the Seahawks yesterday. Because they did re-sign, surprisingly, I think, to a lot of people, Rashid, who they picked up at the deadline from the New Orleans. I was really surprised. Yeah. With, you know, you've only got so much money to spend. And he had some big plays for them. Don't get me wrong, both during regular play and during special teams.

Like, don't give me. wrong, but oftentimes those are the kind of guys you're like, oh, maybe we can just replace them with someone else. A three-year, $51 million deal with $34 million and guaranteed money. So what does it mean for the Seahawks? On offense, while the running back situation has some question marks,

they bring back all three of their top receivers, Jackson Smith and Jigba, Cooper Cop and now, Rashid and they've also got Tori Horton, who was good in the earlier parts last year, kind of faded away in the second half of the season. So they've got a nice compliment of receivers for Sam Darnold. And then finally, the Seahawks

did resign quarterback Josh Job, who went from being like a undrafted run-of-the-mill guy throughout the NFL, a pretty important player for the Seahawks last year. It hit Pinto, and they were looking at it to see if it was a high stick, but the angle we just got makes it look like it hit his glove. A puck touched by glove. It should be whistled dead.

Play should not count. Take my hand with your glove of love. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You got a text in. Can you explain that? the key responsibility differences in the GM and president roles. Um, well, it depends on the team.

I mean, they, they, they'll lay out those team, those, those roles. Um, and every, every team is different, you know, uh, a president on one team might have the same responsibilities as a general manager on another team. In Vancouver, the way it was supposed to work was that Jim Rutherford would be overseeing everything, but not. the guy making all the calls on a day-to-day basis. Like the GMs have to do a lot of kind of like dirty work too, right? The grunt work.

The grunt work. And I think the way it was imagined was that Jim Rutherford, who is closer to retirement than not, would not take on the day-to-day grinding responsibilities of a general manager, keeping in touch with other GMs, you know, I'm sure there's a lot of administrative, of stuff that a general manager has to do. But we all know in Vancouver, sometimes we're like, what? We're still, still trying to figure out, okay, what do you do? And what do you do?

And that was made especially, it was a glaring kind of issue when Quinn Hughes was traded and Jim Rutherford said, yeah, I handled that trade. Yep. So, you know, I think there's always, um, there's a, there's a, always questions in this sort of role. And in Toronto, a lot of the time, it's, all right, who's talking to the ownership group and who's the buffer there? Because you need to sometimes, how do I put this without getting fired? You need sometimes to have a buffer so that you can talk to the corporate types. Yeah. You know? And then that person is the buffer between the corporate types

and the guy who's doing the hockey ops who you only want focused on the hockey ops. You don't want that person worried about some of the corporate stuff. Yeah, the business stuff. Also, some general managers, like Patrick Alvin, their plates are very full, right? I mean, if you kind of follow the day to day

of Alvin's work right now, just as an example, he also does a lot of scouting. He's flying everywhere to watch all these players. I mean, as a general manager, yeah, takes up a large charge. chunk of your time. It's almost like there's layers or tranches involved where you want to have

not necessarily in what Luke was talking about there, a direct line from the head guy to your general manager. And that's been the case in Buffalo over the last few years is that Terry Pagula likes having a direct line to his general manager. And it can get confusing because while the GM's doing all these different day to day things, all of a sudden you got to take a call from your boss who at times wants to like talk like it's fantasy hockey. Like who is can we make some trades? And he's like, and I got a lot of things on my plate here.

I'm working. So the corporate structure is very interesting because you want to kind of have a clear chain of command, which is a good thing. The negative of it is there's a lot of cooks in the kitchen at that point. And I will say this. In the case of Vancouver, it does often come back to,

well, who's in charge of what? And who's got the final say? And who's the one that's going to address the big problems? When it comes time for messaging and to talk publicly, who's responsible for it? And it's never really been super defined. The messaging has been very odd. Very. And the, remember post Quinn Hughes where Jim Rutherford, at the same time Patrick Alvin was doing his press conference, where I was asking him about the culture.

Right. Jim Rutherford had his own phone call with three or four other media members. Yeah. Right? It was a very interesting dynamic. That was a interesting way to do it. You had like competing messages going out at the same time. At the exact same time.

And, you know, not everything contradicted. Like, you know, their message was general. Well, we traded Quinn Hughes. Yeah. You know. But sometimes you're like, yeah, but he said this. And you said that. So that becomes another confusion when you have a president and a general manager.

It's Randip Janda here on the Halifred & Brough show on SportsNet 650. What up, Randy? Good morning, boys. How's it going? Good. Okay, so I want to take you back to yesterday's game. You're watching doing the call alongside Batch. You see the Ottawa Senator's first goal go in.

Then you see the replay and the subsequent Canucks challenge. What are you thinking in that moment? So once the play happened live, it was kind of hard to pick up where it hit Shane Pinto. You knew it deflected off him. Was it off its chin? Was it off his upper body? And then when that replay comes up, that one, you know, given the rulebook, defense clearly gained an advantage.

So in that moment, it was a little confusing because that point shot comes in from Artem Zub and you're wondering where the puck came from, where it hit Pinto. But on the look, I have to agree with Adam Foote, you know, based on the rulebook, it shouldn't have counted because the send did get an advantage. Just combing some Ottawa media, they thought the successful or the challenge was preposterous. So that tells you where, you know, obviously each media kind of sits on where the challenges. But by the rule book, I was not only surprised by that because it led to a goal immediately. But it was the quickness of the call also. It didn't take very much time to discuss that.

So, you know, a little perplexing in a moment because you weren't necessarily sure what happened where the puck came off of. But guys, looking at that rule, looking at, you know, just the way it's supposed to happen, for me anyways, the way I read the rule, it was a very quick decision. I thought it certainly, the Kinects had a case. Now, this is the fear that we have. And, you know, I think Dick brought this up in the post-game show is, If that's all happened in the playoffs, you're in, you're, you know, we're talking about it for weeks, right?

Like in this game, maybe not so much just given the situation in Vancouver's in, but you're the NFL. You want to clean this up at some point because the last thing you want is a goal like that in the Stanley Cup final or any point of the playoffs. So a confusing one now certainly would be a lot more confusing in the playoffs. So you think the NHL should come out at some point soon before the postseason and just clarify everything? I doubt they're going to do that just given on. on how they operate. Usually it's, you know, in the off season, when they meet the board of governors and all that.

But, yeah, ideally, because you have that Tampa case earlier on in the season, you have this one, and the last thing you want is having something like this. So I think they should. Do I think they will? Probably not. It'll probably be an off-season conversation. But if Adam Foote is referencing that Tampa decision,

I guarantee you there's other coaches that are going to be looking at these two cases to say, hey, there's some confusion here, guys. There's some GMs that are going to be saying there's some confusion here that we need to clear up. And the timing of this conversation, I think it would be great to have it beforehand, but I doubt that will happen.

I wasn't able to watch the game yesterday, but by all accounts, Zeev Bouillon had a good performance. What do you think of his game right now? And maybe you could recap just how it's gone for him since the trade from the Minnesota Wild? Yeah, obviously a great start for Zeeves in a Kinnux uniform when he picked up a couple of points. But since then, it's kind of been flashes,

but not necessarily consistency when we're talking with a player with handling the puck and playing with confidence and taking players on. But yesterday, Jason, this was, I think, Zeeves probably his best game or his second best game based on his debut. He played with confidence. He was taking players on.

one-on-one. His total possession time led all skaters with 205 of possession time. And, you know, there's two or three players where he was going end-to-end, attacking, and not shying away, understanding that he's got a gear that other players do not. There's another opportunity. One of those end-end rushes should have been a penalty on Tyler Cleven that he got frost-checked in the back, similar to the Elias Pedersen penalty that was called. So, you know, maybe hard done there not to get necessarily.

necessarily a penalty call, but I just liked his aggressiveness. There's another play along the left wall in the offensive zone where he made a dangerous pass through the middle of the ice. And it wasn't a perfect performance. There were three giveaways. There were maybe a couple of plays near the offensive blue line. You have to be careful just in terms of how long you're holding the puck because players can close on you really quickly in this league.

And on one or two of those plays, I remember specifically Brady Kachuck being able to close on him quick, but I'm okay with those mistakes from him. You want him to be aggressive, you want him to create out there, excuse me, and you want him to be okay making those mistakes. That implies, you know, mistakes coming from aggressive play, confidence building plays I'm okay with. It's the mistakes that come out of fear. Those are the ones you have to have a problem with,

especially of a defenseman of his personality. So certainly it's been up and down for Steve. It's not easy to be on the team that's losing, and you're essentially the only initiator from the back end. Philip Rohn has been able to do that as well, but he's got a different, I think obviously a different type of player and he's very, very comfortable to put on his stick. So it hasn't been smooth sailing,

but yesterday was a very, very strong game from him. And I think if you, you know, Adam Foote, if you're the coaching staff and for the fan base, you want to see more of that because that shows me that this kid is, you know, confident and he's willing to make those mistakes, because now is the time to make him as you're learning. Has he had any time with the first unit power play? And if not, should he get some time?

I mean, Philip Hironic, I know he's the number one defenseman, but I don't know if he's the ideal power play quarterback. I think Zeeb Bouillon probably has more upside in that department. I think the long-term play has to be that for me as well. I'd like to see that by the end of the season, where you're seeing a player with offensive, shops the ability to be mobile on that power play too. And his shot may not be there, which is fine.

You know, that's one of the things you have to develop. And not every young defenseman is going to be ready to go. And remember, Quinn Hughes' shot wasn't developed in season one. It took him, you know, three, four, five years to develop the shot that eventually he's still working on and he's still trying to make better. So I think with Zeeves, yes, I'd like to see that. I think his mobility, his ability to dance up the blue line, create a, a, a passing and a shooting lane is there, his ability to take the left-hand side

or even attack on his backhand on the right-hand side is there. With Philip Vronick, there was some success over the last few games on the power play, so I can understand why a coaching staff would say, all right, let's run with what's working, but yesterday it didn't work. There was no shots on goal on the power play. It looked like it had some real trouble getting entries, and that's one area that V-Bwin can help as well.

So I would certainly, based on, how the power play looked yesterday. And remember, they're playing a 30th ranked PK unit in the NFL. It was not like they're playing the Chicago Blackoffs, who are number one in the penalty kill in the NHL. It was a pretty, you know, poor PK unit. So perhaps in the future here, this is something that Buyen can maybe handle. But I'd like to see that, too,

because I think the type of play he has, the type of dynamic defenseman he is, his ability to move around and create those shooting, lanes potentially would benefit and just his ability to move and create those passing lanes to the middle of the ice as well. I'd like to see him on Power Play 1 with some of the, you know, the high impact players like a Jake DeBrus or Elias Pedersen or that type of Brock Besser, of course, as well. We're speaking to Randeeb Jandah Kinnock's analyst here on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. Randiv wanted to get your thoughts on the 12 shifts and six minutes and 52 seconds

of ice time that Curtis Douglas got for the Vancouver Canucks last night. Yeah, the six minutes and 52 seconds that will go down in history, I'm sure, for Conucks fan. There's a lot of hype going into this one. A lot of hype. Listen, it's cool because it's, you know, a new player. He's a certain personality that this team does not have. He's, you know, a guy that you notice out there immediately. I'm sure Matt and Paolo noticed on the Ottawa senators.

He got drilled a couple of times. But, you know, six minutes, he had four hits. And I think with him, part of it is what he does. And part of it is also his impact of just being on the ice and being on the bench. And, you know, I thought the opening 20 minutes are the Vancouver Canucks and the way that they played was a little bit more aggressive. Like they had pop, they had energy. You had players like Niels Hoaglander who has, no, he has a certain personality where he is aggressive and he's physical, but he was certainly playing with some jump.

I thought Drew O'Connor, who was a linemate of Douglas's, was certainly playing with a lot more confidence, and he was a thorn in the side of the Ottawa senators, and they came after him two or three times. I think with Douglas, his play as a, when you're playing sub-seven minutes, of course there's going to be a lot of room for improvement, but for him, it's just, can you build some confidence?

Can you get that ice time to around 10 minutes? In certain matchups, guys, he will have a little bit more of a say, like if the Ottawa senators had dressed Curtis McDermid, we might be talking about him a little bit more, but they didn't. So you don't necessarily have that matchup. You don't necessarily have somebody to counter Curtis Douglas. So I think he's a player that they need down the stretch because his teammates will play bigger,

as Drew O'Connor did, as some of the other players did last night. I thought Linus Carlson was certainly more physical at certain aspects of that game. But we'll see, right? Like this is really will depend on the opposite. and who you're playing against, and is there a foil to Curtis Douglas? But I think he's the first one to admit

he's got to work on his all-around game. He's been brought here to bring a physical presence, but for Douglas, can you add something? Can you show the NHL that maybe you got some hands? Maybe, you know, your OHL scoring. Can you work on the skill side of things while you're with the Vancouver Connoxon, maybe add a little bit of offensive pop in the NHL as well?

That's going to be his long-term goal, but in terms of his debut, kind of what you expected, just not much ice time, some physicality, and certainly having his teammates probably play a little bit more confidently with him in the lineup.

I want to get your thoughts on a couple of players who I'm not sure what their future holds in Vancouver, Nils Hoaglander and Atu Ratu. Why don't we start with Hoaglender? I know he's got the contract. Maybe the Canucks are forced to bring Hoaglinder back next season, But what's going on with his game right now?

Yeah, I think with Neil's last night, I thought he actually played pretty well given, you know, just he's getting top line duty and, you know, you've got to be a certain type of player when you are playing with Elise Pedersen and Jake DeBrus. You have to be the puck retriever. You have to play with aggression. And I thought for the most part he did that.

Now, unfortunately, that line did not have, and the Kunch lineup didn't have any real offensive pop throughout the night, 16 shots on goal. But with Neal's, I think with him, it's a year ago. And this year, I see him kind of similarly to Markle Rossi, where the injuries have just kind of dragged him down a little bit. It feels like the rhythm has not been there in terms of building out your game,

building confidence in your game. Unfortunately, you know, in previous years, we've seen spells with Nealz Hoaglander where, sure, he might not be a top line guy, but he's able to settle in in a bottom six. he really simplifies his game. I think that Neal's Hoaglander is still there. It's just this year, the rhythm has not been there.

He, you know, came into camp in shape, as he always is, and once the best on the team. But, you know, the biggest question with Neal's will be, A, when this, you know, if he's on the team next year, if he's on the top line or anywhere in the lineup is, you know, are you coming in with the confidence, you know, to play on lines like this with Alia's, Patterson, DeBrasse, bring that consistency to

win pucks and be a thorn in the side every single night. And the second thing, guys, and this is a big question with Neal's Hoaglander, forever will be until he shows otherwise is the hockey IQ, right? Like going back to his time in Sweden, making the right reads at the right time. That's what it comes down to. The puck management. And I still think there are moments where he struggles with that at times. So that is going to be the big question for me. So the future, I think based on where

this team is going right now, based on his cap it. There is a path for Neil's Hoaglander to play on this team. No doubt about that. But he's got to have improvements in the off season. Staying in shape is not one of them. He's one of the best conditioned athletes on this team. It's that hockey IQ and just staying healthy for him

that's got to be front and center. So I do want to get to Atu-Ratoo, but just sticking on Niels Hoaglander for a bit, you know, maybe you answered the question when you talked about his hockey IQ, but it seems crazy to me that they haven't really tried him on the penalty kill. And meanwhile, they got, I mean, Brock Besser spent three and a half minutes on the kill yesterday. And, you know, I've watched Brock Besser kill penalties.

And I'm like, I don't know if, I don't know if that's the answer. Not that he's been, I mean, no one's been great at killing penalties for the Canucks. I got the worst PK in the NHL. But, you know, with Hoaglander's energy and his fitness and his compete level, I would think that you might want to try him on the PK at least because I think one of the things with Holander where people look at his ice time

sometimes he's not playing enough it's like yeah but he doesn't play special teams like he's on the second unit power play right now but I don't think he's ever established himself as a power play guy so why not try and get him some PK time yeah I think in theory like the type of player he is

you mentioned it you've got edge he's got energy. It makes sense. But I go back to that hockey IQ question, right, where this is a player that over four coaches, going back to Travis Green, you haven't necessarily seen any of the coaches have confidence in them in terms of ice time consistently and definitely on the PK. This is a different point for Neals Hoaglander. This is a different point for the team where you're able to try things. But I think he's got the energy, but is he able to make the right reads at the right time is the question I would have on the PK. And at this point of the season, Jason, you're right.

Like, you could try things. We talk about experimentation. But, you know, this is, I think, one of the things you got to watch out for where with Neil's Hoaglander, are you, you know, is you stick in the right lane? Are you in the right position protecting the passing lanes? Like, those are the little things that are so important on the PK. Are you in the right side of the puck? Are you, you know, taking away certain lanes?

Like, those are the things that. that Neil's Hoaglander would be judged on the PK. So I think those questions 5-on-5 are still there, so I can understand why a coach hasn't put him on the PK. His energy's there. But, you know, it is experimentation time, so I understand maybe you throw a caution to the wind and you see sometimes you can be surprised.

But from, you know, not only Adam Foote's perspective, but, you know, there's been Rick Tocket, of course, Bruce Boudreau and Travis Green, all had that assessment. He's an older player now. He's more mature in certain aspects. But I think the big question with Neil's Hoaglander, still that of do you make the right reads at the right time and that's that's what the

PK is about it's about being an active player it's being about energetic but it's also about making those intelligent reads which you know that's the big question with Niels yeah there's a lot of subtlety with penalty kills it's not just throwing yourself in in front of the puck it's all about as you say you know aggression yeah too much aggression is a bad thing totally you're taking yourself out of position yeah no uh-tu-ratu we got a lot of text in about Atu Ratu, wondering about the future of Ratu in the Kinex organization and why Adam Foote, even though the Kineks are going to finish

dead last in the NHL, why is he still getting so little ice time? Why not just throw him some minutes and see what he can do? Yeah, so he played, what, 1025 last game last night and this is a player that I like. I think his attitude, you know, even chatting with him multiple times this year, he sees the game the right way. He's always trying to learn. He's got a positive mentality. But there are a couple of things that he does well, and there's a couple of things that he needs to improve on. I think if you look at his point output throughout his career, it's been pretty decent.

We know he's fantastic in the draws. And he, since, you know, trades have been made, he leaves the Vancouver conduction hits. So he's, you know, able to have two or three hits a game. Are they bone-crenching hits? Not necessarily. Are they jarring the puck away, separating man from puck? Not necessarily, but he does add a level of aggression that this team needs right now. But here's the thing, guys.

And I think with Atu, there's two things that he's got to show. One is the defensive awareness, right? Like as a center that's being elevated through the lineup, you have to make sure that you are, once again, making those correct reads and you're in the right position. The other thing is, and I noticed this not maybe not last game, but the game before against Winnipeg, you know, that footspeed is really something that he's struggling with this year.

And I think last year, maybe because the way the Vancouver Canucks played, it was not as noticeable. I think he did work on his skating last year as well. He specifically mentioned that to me, that him and his brother in Finland were, you know, they hired coaches, they were going, you know, they were putting in real work. But this year, that's something that he's still going to need to work on in the offseason.

And there was a couple of plays against Winnipeg where, you know, you're leading the attack out and you're heading on your own zone, and you can't get out of the zone quick enough. You don't make the pass quick enough. And you cough up the puck, and it leads to more pressure in the zone. So it's moments like that where even in that little ice time, a coach will say, are you putting me in the best position,

are you putting the team in the best position to get out of your own zone? And that's been a big issue for Vancouver. So I'm with you. I'd like to see Atsu be around 14, 15 minutes, get a little bit more ice time. maybe you take it away from Teddy Blugher, maybe you take it away from any of the top three centers. But I think there is a level of meritocracy that you have to have as well, where if a player is playing well and they're doing the right things, you reward them,

but you're not seeing as much. You can't just give them 15, 16 minutes. And I know there's going to be people in the text lines saying, hey, the season is not going anywhere, so why wouldn't you? But coaches are coaches. They're going to still look at a healthy group of three centers in front and say, all right, who puts me in a best position? And am I seeing what I need to see in 10 to 11 minutes?

Am I seeing some positive progress? And if you are, then you can up those minutes. But if you are still asking those questions of, okay, is the game a little too fast for them at times? You might not give them that many minutes. I'd like to see them, but I can understand why a coach would say, you need to give me more as well. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.