Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 3/12/25

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports including a home loss to the Canadiens, they chat the latest NHL news including what happened with Boeser at the deadline, as Daily Faceoff insider Frank Seravalli stops by, plus they preview tonight's 'Nucks matchup versus the Flames with analyst Randip Janda. 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 gives it to him, he scores! What a pass from Nick Suzuki and Cole Caulfield was wide open on the right wing. Guys tried, I gotta give them a lot of credit. You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try. Behind the dumpster gives him a good old butt lickin'. Butt licker! Our prices have never been lower! Good morning Vancouver, 6 o'clock on AON's day. Happy Wednesday everybody, this is Alfred at his breath.

It is Sportsnet 650 and we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Aladdin, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. You all know what happened last night, but I'm going to recap it anyway. Your ice, Slavkovsky, a goal into assist as the Habs raced out to a three-nothing lead, held on at the end, a 4-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Tuesday. So the optimist, if there are any left around the Vancouver Canucks is going to say. Me.

That the Canucks showed a lot of heart to battle back from a 3-0 deficit and make it a game. The Optimists might love the fact that Elias Pettersson ripped home another power play goal. That's two in the last little while. Two, my God. The Optimists might even glance at natural stat trick. That's where they keep the advanced stats, Alfred. The fancy stats. And say the Canucks were unlucky to lose. Dakota Joshua, he came so close. Twice, twice came close.

I actually thought he scored, by the way, but we can save that for later. But at this point in the season, all that matters is that the team needed a win and they didn't get it. The Canucks are now 13, 12 and 7 at Rogers Arena. That's right. There have been 32 games in Vancouver this season, if my math is correct, and the Canucks have only won 13 of them. The Chicago Blackhawks have 13 wins at home. Good company. Chicago 13 wins. Vancouver also 13 wins at home. You'd have to say that it's now more likely than not that the Canucks miss the playoffs. I don't know what Dom's model is

saying over the athletic, but I'm watching this team and going They can't score more than two goals. Sometimes they get three they don't get four they Just can't score enough. Yeah two goals last night The last time they scored more than three was January 27th in st. Louis So January 27th, that's the end of January. For A-Hog, I know sometimes you struggle with the month, the month, so it goes January, February.

Oh, dude. No, no, no. Oh, we didn't know it. There was a whole month of February. Right. Oh, yeah. Where they didn't score more than three goals. And now-

By the way, Money Puck has them at 24.3% chance to make the playoffs. Now it's March 12th and they're still looking back on that day and January 27th in St. Louis and going, oh, that was a good time, man. We had like five goals. Remember that? Five goals.

Brock Besser is costing himself millions in free agency wherever he ends up, which is looking less and less like Vancouver. And let's also discuss the goaltending pickle they're in right now. We kind of touched on it. Lankton and started last night. They also have to play their biggest game of the

year tonight in Calgary and their best goalie is Kevin Lankton, who they wasted against Montreal. He didn't play all that well, and wouldn't put that loss on him. Maybe one of those goals you want back. Didn't love the Slykovski. Yeah, there's no margin for error though, right? So who gets the nod tonight? Probably Lankinen. He might be tired or an untrustworthy Arthur Siloff. Who do you want to go with? I'd go with Lankinen because we're in

desperation mode right now. Unless we forget they've got another back to back this weekend as well, so that's fun. They're also probably going to rush Quinn Hughes back into action tonight. He was in a non-contact jersey yesterday morning, but I'm not sure the typical protocol still holds it at this point. They're not going to be like, well, we'd like to see him practice with the team first. Sure. Right? It's like, no, get in there. Right? Like we're, this is, this is desperation. This is the big tonight is the biggest game of the season for the Vancouver Canucks and they're

not going into it looking very good. Um, what, again, what were the positives from last night? Are we going to give them credit for battling back? Like I hope they've tried to battle back. They fall behind three, nothing. They're at home against a team that is probably going to miss the playoffs, but might make the playoffs. And that's a big one for Montreal. It was a big one for Montreal and you got to credit Montreal, but it's, it's like a, it's a home game against Montreal. You can't, you can't, you can't fall behind three, nothing in a desperation game

at home to Montreal. Like that can't happen. No. It can't happen. And it's great that Pedersen seems to be finding his game a little bit and he's got the courage to actually put shots on goal. That's terrific.

Wow, what progress we've made this season where Elias Pedersen is now willing to shoot the puck. That's awesome, right? That's terrific. But you know, like I don't know where Besser is right now. I don't know if the organization screwed him up so badly at the trade deadline that he's like, I don't know what's going on, right? He doesn't have JT Miller anymore. That hurts him. It's just like the team can't score and it's very frustrating to watch them fall behind

three nothing in a game where Montreal's best players came through. And this was a game where Rick Tocket went into this challenging his best players to be better. Sure. Pederson was better, Besser might've been worse and Debrusk, I don't know, for all that chaos he was trying to generate, I didn't see a lot of chaos. It was wildly un-chaotic last night. I want to throw to the Rick Taukett audio talking about Montreal's big

line from last night, Beas Caulfield, Suzuki and Slokowski all had at least a goal in assist, as I mentioned earlier and Slokowski all had at least a goal and assist. So as I mentioned earlier, Slokowski finished with a goal and two assists. All were plus three. But I think the really important thing was that without carrying the game territorially or racking up a ton of chances,

those three Montreal skaters were able to pounce off on the opportunities provided, made plays, showed some creativity, which is something you've hammered home on repeatedly, and found the back of the net with a lot more ease than the Canucks. And that must have drove Rick Tauket nuts. So here's Rick Tauket speaking about the big line

for Montreal last night and how his guys couldn't match. Yeah, we didn't have an answer for their top line there with the three goals. And that's a good line they make play so I would have a tough you know that's a tough we just have an answer you know if we first goal obviously we're give the puck away we're on the wrong spots against those anyways you know we did make a comeback had some goal mouth scrambles we had you know we guys guys tried I gotta give him a lot of credit

Guys tried hang a banner Right guys tried they don't have him. That's awesome. You try all I bet Guys like that's the most important thing, right? Everyone tried their best. Sure They fell behind three nothing in a massive game to Montreal. Mm-hmm, but they tried And you failed miserably. That's a head coach talking, right? And, uh, actually. Oh, that was Horace Simpson. Well, it was funny because the narrative between

periods last night, whether they threw back to David and Sam Cosentino or whether they had Murph with DT and Landon was all about the frustration level is how frustrating is this getting for this team who had a lot of shots on net last night, but you'd, you'd be very generous in saying that they had a lot of great looks at scoring. They had looks at scoring, but with this team's lack of finish and lack of goal scoring ability right now, you need way, way, way more than what they put up in order

to break that elusive two goal threshold. That's killing right now. I mean, if you want to really start to nitpick away the Pedersen goal on the power play, I mean, there's no reason that they should have been on the power play in the first place. That was just a blown call by the officials and blown in the most egregious sense.

It was a terrible call. Although it was, it did make up for the fact that Pedersen got blatantly tripped early and they didn't, I was like, when that happened, I was like, Oh my God, not even Petey falling down is getting a penalty anymore. We're all out of weapons now. And-

Petey falling down was one of their biggest weapons. And if you want to continue to be glass half empty on this whole thing, both goals that went in were seeing eye shots, right? There wasn't this tremendous buildup. There wasn't there's point shots, long shots, right? It would, they were seeing eye shots from distance and it's great that they went in and it's, it is great that they were able to muster that comeback. But you're right. Situationally with everything this team is going through and how important these two games were last night's game and tonight's game, to fall behind three, nothing, it just can't happen.

And it doesn't necessarily matter how you prevent it from happening. It just can't happen. And I go, I go back to that narrative that was there about frustration and you know, um, David Amber, who we'll talk to at six 30 coming up and Sam, they use the word, everything feels heavy right now. The style of play, the weight on the guy's shoulders to try and get something done I mean I can't imagine what Dakota Joshua was feeling after that game because literally nothing is going in for him at this point right his game is taking incremental steps in the right direction but for all of these guys

Joshua included I would just say collectively across the board it's like it's not enough and it's not enough, especially at a time of year where you need more. You don't just need the baseline. You need more out of these guys and they're not getting it. They're getting enough to be remotely competitive, but not enough to put them over the bar. I mean, if you want to look right now, you could make the argument that they're going to need to go 12 and six over the final 18 games.

I think so. I think J-Pad had the math yesterday on that. They're gonna need to win close to two-thirds of their games remaining to get to around 93-95 points and get into the postseason. Does that seem super feasible right now? To anyone listening? Does that seem like something that this team is capable of doing they've lost two straight and six of their last nine I know that they're gonna rush Hughes back in the line They've pretty much reached the point of that math equation where it's like how long can we hold them out before the situation gets to? Dire standing wise and points wise well they reached it

But they love their they're bringing them to Calgary tonight. Yeah, And he went on, I imagine they left last night. I hope they left. Oh my god, we've got to get to Calgary. They're going to fly right in today. Right before the game. And he went on that trip. So you're not bringing them on the trip for moral support, right?

I'd be, put it this way, for him not to play tonight, then you're like, oh wow, he's like really hurt. Yeah. So you want to talk about desperate times. As you're rushing back, you you're like, oh wow, he's like really hurt. Yeah. You know? So you want to talk about desperate times. As you're rushing back, you're clearly injured star defenseman and captain. You're rolling your goalie on a back to back. And we'll probably have to do it again on Saturday and Sunday.

And I'd love to go back through the annals of NHL history and try and figure out, is a goalie ever played two consecutive back to backs? Right? And it's not out of the realm of possibility that he's going to have to do it. If points are at a premium, you just have to roll them out and say that maybe a diminished or tired Kevin Lankin is still going to give you a better shot than whatever sea loves is going to give you right now. It's incredibly,

incredibly tough for this team right now. And all of it, all of it, I will reiterate all of it is exacerbated by the fact that they can't score enough. Adding a couple of extra goals here and there sure would alleviate some of this pressure, but they are so desperate for offense right now that they don't have the margins to sit Queen Hughes out for another game. They don't have the margins to give RDC loves a token start tonight in Calgary. There's no margins for error when you're scoring a max to a night. What do you think's going on with Besser? Is it as simple as

he just misses JT Miller on the ice? I think it's the two biggest factors are Miller on the ice and then probably how he's been treated off of it. And I don't think he's been treated very well. No. I don't think so's been treated very well. No. I don't think so. I think that the remarks that Alveen had in the aftermath of the trade deadline, even if they were unintentional, were still, they're damaging to a player.

Maybe not even necessarily on a personal, like you hurt my feelings level, but like my opportunity to earn going into free agency. When you announced to the rest of the National Hockey League that several other general managers gave sort of piss and offers for you. Yeah. Because they didn't feel. Without really talking up Brock.

Yeah. You know, just without being like, those guys are idiots. Yeah. Brock is a good player. It should have been like the offers were, the offers were insulting for a player of his caliber. There's an easy line.

I just came up with it right now. Now maybe that's the English not being Patrick Alveen's first language, but the messaging on that was not very good. And I think Freage was on Toronto radio the other day saying that, um, you know, the whole Besser thing was not only tough on Besser, but it was tough on the room.

And Besser is a very popular player in that room. And once it's perceived by the room that he's being kind of like dragged through the wringer then you know it's not it's not good it's not good for team morale to see one of your guys treated in in that manner and basically like being fully prepared to get traded and then, oh, he's not traded. You know, I thought it was noteworthy that Patrick Alveen was talking about communicating

with his agent and going like, you know, like unfortunately we weren't able to make anything happen. Well, what does that tell you, right? Like he was expecting something to happen. I'm not willing to say that Brock Besser was hoping to get traded, but I know he wasn't hoping for this, but I think the JT Miller thing

personally, that's the biggest thing. That's the biggest thing. And he had some comments yesterday. He said, when you play with a guy for two years and a guy to that degree of how good he is and how good of a passer he is and how he creates space is definitely adjustment. Again, I go back to the Canucks have no one really,

aside from occasionally Connor Garland that's out there making things happen. You know, Quinn Hughes on the back end, but I'm talking about the forward group. Who is making things happen? Drew know, Quinn Hughes on the back end, but I'm talking about the forward group. Who is making things happen? Drew O'Connor. At five on five too, right? Like good for Petey, two power play goals in the last little while. Honestly, like I'm happy with the progress Petey has made. Sure.

I don't want to sound sarcastic, but- It's been a good last couple games for him you know he's shooting the puck right he was one of the more dangerous Canucks both of his goals on the power play though what's going on at five on five mm-hmm you know you have to create you just you do and individuals when you're when you're being paid like that, you have to create not only for yourself, but for other players. You can blame it all you want on someone else. I'm not saying Petey's doing that, but I'm saying a lot of the fan base is doing that.

You look at this group. Heedle, yeah, he had some juice early on when he came in. And people will like, the people that only blame Token will say, yeah, once you learn Token it's system. Then he fell apart or maybe alternatively, like he ran out of juice, right? He ran out of adrenaline. He got out of New York. He was happy to come to Vancouver where he was getting a bigger opportunity, an opportunity by the way, that he's never had before really consistently in the top six. Have we seen much of Heedle in the last little while? No.

There's a guy that, I mean, look at his career. He said himself he's a one-on-one player. Okay, well that means he's not gonna create that much for his teammates. Look at his stats, he's not an assist machine. Who is an assist machine on this group, in this group, besides Quinn Hughes, and if Pederson isn't

creating a five-on-five. Okay. Nobody, nobody, nobody. With that said, Ladi, can you pull up the audio talking about the players not executing? This is not a repeat folks, this is brand new audio of Rick Tocket issuing the same sentiment yet again after a game in which they failed to hit the three goal plateau. Rick

Tocket on the players not executing all the good looks that they're getting. Yeah I did. The six on five though we had we had two plays that were right there and we're not seeing them. I think I don't know if guys are squeezing the stick. I was just watching it with Yogi and it's the right there right and we're not seeing it and I think we got to it with Yogi and it's the right there, right? And we're not seeing it and I think we got to, like Yogi said, we just got to keep practicing it, maybe do some more walk-throughs. But yeah, there was two plays there.

If we executed, some of you would have had a great chance. And it's unfortunate, because I really thought we were going to score there, but I felt, I don't know, we're a little antsy, kind of rushed rushed the play but the slot was open there in the second play But anyways, we got to keep working on it Here's what I'll say a couple of talking had a couple of anyways because he knew he was going down the road Did you notice that the first one he's like, yeah, you know, we had turned the puck over there And anyways, I want to focus on the negatives. I will say this if Rick talk it Focus on the negatives. I will say this, if Rick Tauke departs ways with Vancouver

and he's interviewing for a new job next season, I think one of the questions that any job, any halfway decent job interview would have to ask is, Rick, if the offense is to dry up, like it has in a couple of your other previous NHL stops, what would you do differently now to adjust or to change or to spark that offense? And he'd probably better have a good answer or one more than, well, I'd tell the guys

to stop gripping their stick so tight. Or I, you know, we would work on bearing down in front of the goal because I think that at the next stop, those, those criticisms and those complaints are valid. That if you're running out the same thing and you're running out the same excuses, and I'm just going to call them excuses for lack of a better term after a game, certain people rightly so can push back and be like, okay, if what's going on, isn't working, do you keep doing the same things?

Or did you try something dramatically different? Cause the messaging has been consistent from the head coach. The messaging from the head coach has absolutely been, they're good enough looks. There's a good enough strategy. The players just aren't executing the final part of it. It's not about, I mean, he said it himself in that clip. He said, we got good looks. I would question that they were, you know,

high end, high danger scoring chances, but he said they were good looks. We just couldn't put the final product together. And at a certain point when you're desperate and you're asking your players to do whatever it takes to get you over the hump, I do think that that logic applies to the coach as well, that doing anything to get your team over the hump means drastic changes sometimes, right?

I thought he kind of did it last night when he just said, all right, Pedersen, Besser, Debrecht, you're together. Yeah. Right? I mean, as you know, sometimes I watch the Canucks with disdain. And I mean, when you're down 3-0 to Montreal, a little bit of disdain creeped in there. I was kind of like, talk should just play those three 30 minutes. And you just be like, ice time.

There you go. Do with it. You guys are the best players. Everyone complained last game that I was playing all the guys down the lineup. So there you go. all the ice time. Let's see what you can do with it. Right? I mean, he's kind of at, I don't know,

credit to talk who's not at the passive aggressive stage of things quite yet. Like it is my opinion, I think you probably share the one that the failings of this season, when you're going down the laundry list of reasons why coaching is not near the top. I think you're pretty much aligned with me on that one, right?

Yes, I'm not willing to completely say it like, yeah. Well, no, I'm not saying that, but just work with me on this one. Yeah. It's not at the top of the list. No, I put it on the players. But that being said, when a team fails, they all fail. And everyone deserves at some level a criticism

or a black mark on their reputation and resume because this is a failing right now. Unless they magically turn this thing around and win 12 of their final 18, which seems less and less likely by the day. They could go 500 over these last 18 games and I could very easily see them doing that. And that'll probably land them about, I don't know, six or eight points short of the playoff bar. That's where the team is at right now. It is a huge game going into Calgary tonight, but the thing with that is, is once that game's done, the next game is equally huge,

and the next game is equally huge. And so far I've just really seen a lack of consistent, high-end efforts and a scoring output to get the results in those games that are of such great importance. I know we got to get to break, but sometimes we overlook the elephant in the room in this season and that was that the Canucks top two centers had a fight, a rift that was going on

for years that eventually required management to trade one of them away. At the end of the day, there's the issue. For about 50 cents on the dollar. There's the issue. Miller has 17 points in 13 games. That's why this season fell apart. You want to put it on anyone, you want to put it on the players, you want to put it on management for committing to those two or not being able to figure out a solution.

Maybe that's on the leadership group, the coaching, whatever. I put it on the players, get along with each other, figure out a way, be better for your teammates. And that's where this season fell apart. And this is, this is the result. This is the result. You're listening to the best of Halford and

Brough, you're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Frank Ceravalli from Daily Face Off here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Frank, how are you? Good morning, doing pretty good. How are you guys? We're well. It's, again, not exactly the most uplifting

first hour of radio here talking a lot about the Canucks and their struggles, but got a lot of things that we need to get into. You know, one thing I did want to ask you is we kind of look back instead of looking ahead here for the Vancouver Canucks and their struggles, but got a lot of things that we need to get into. You know what, one thing I did want to ask you is we kind of look back instead of looking ahead here for the Vancouver Canucks. Now that the dust has settled on the trade deadline and everything has moved forward,

have you got a better sense of exactly what did, or maybe more importantly, what didn't happen with Brock Besser at this year's trade deadline? Yeah, I think I have a pretty good sense. I think, or at least my understanding is that as the day went on on Friday, more teams were kicking in the tires and trying to figure out A, what they had left

in both cap space and assets, B, trying to measure that against what they thought the Canucks had going, and C, whether or not they could make a last ditch effort to try and get him out of Vancouver. And obviously that didn't materialize, but I don't know how close it ended up getting, because I don't think the Canucks ended up

getting a solid offer that they felt like they could move him. And beyond that, I can tell you that at least some of the reporting that's been out there, I don't think is accurate about the Canucks and Canes talking and having a first round pick on the table. According to my sources, I don't think the Canes and Canucks ever talked about Brock Besser at all. So I don't think there was anything actionable from a Vancouver perspective.

I think at some point they were motivated to try and make that happen and got to a point where they said, you know what, what we have on the table, it's much more beneficial for our franchise to keep him and try and make sure that we get in the playoffs. For the Canucks to trade Besser, did they need to add another player to maybe not replace him directly, but add something to the top six?

We've seen this team so many times. Are you talking about a flip possibility? Yeah, a flip possibility just because we've seen that before as opposed to just taking picks and prospects and taking you know a good goal scorer, well he has been in the past, off a team that already has a crazy amount of trouble scoring and still trying to make the playoffs? I think that would have been an ideal situation and something that they would have looked to do, but they didn't have one on the table first off and second. I think at some point it was too late to even try and accomplish that.

Right. We've heard a few reports, Elliot Freeman, talking about how difficult the whole Besser thing was on not only Besser, but the team. Have you heard anything similar to that? Yeah, I think it's certainly added another log to the fire of what's been a really difficult season for a lot of people. Um, I think players, staff included everyone. It was, I think, uh, pretty fair to say a solid misstep in communication, at least from a public perspective. And I understand the position that Patrick Alveen and the Canucks probably thought that they were in at the moment, fans are upset. Hey, why didn't we trade Brock Besser if he doesn't have a contract?

And at the same time, from a Canucks perspective, they can't make offers materialized, they can't make interest materialized. And in the same breath, we're also talking about a player that to be fair to all parties they couldn't trade in year one of the contract because they didn't get good offers so that was with two years left at at cost controlled options at 6.65 and it was difficult to make happen then now as a pending UFA should the situation have been different there was such a long period of time in which many people around the league believed that the Canucks and Besser were going to find a way to work out a deal since he had been pretty public

in his interest to stay. And I think at some point it turned. And I think when you're a player and you get through a really tense period of time in your career, and then you hear the comments that you did that basically they couldn't get anything good for him, and more or less the message to boil down if you're internalizing it as a player is no one wants you, really is kind of what's said out loud, that's really difficult for someone to digest. And so I think it would have been a lot easier for everyone involved had the message publicly from the Canucks been, hey we just we thought that it was more important to keep Brock Besser for our playoff push and say reveal a little more else. I think probably would have made a lot more sense.

But I mean, let's be real. There hasn't been one easy thing about this Knopf season from start to 75 point mark or 75% mark of the season. Why would the last 25% be easy either? We're speaking to Frank Cerrelli from Daily Face Off here on the Haliford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Speaking of public statements, I don't think I've ever heard more public statements

come from Carolina than I have over the last 72 hours. So you had Rod Brindmore discussing the Miko Rantnan situation on a pregame radio show in Raleigh. You had Eric Tulski coming out and speaking as well. You had the agent for Miko Rantnan, Andy Andy Scott on with Mike Futa and Matt Marchese right here on the Sportsnet and Fan 590. So I got a couple questions here, let's work through these. Is Rod Brindemore right now more frustrated with Miko Rantanen for not giving his organization a shot or is Rod Brindemore more frustrated

with his management group for bringing Rantanen in in the first place? I don't think he's frustrated with his management group for bringing Ranton in in the first place. I don't think he's frustrated with his management group at all. I think he's more frustrated with Miko Ranton and saying, at least again, trying to boil through, boil down these statements into the most easily digestible chunk. I think what he's trying to say is, this guy didn't really give us a chance. Got here and decided that he didn't want to be here. After that, it seeped into his production and play to the rest of the team who's trying to figure out, hey, what's happening here?

Then in the end, with giving us a list of teams to go to, it just kind of hammed up the whole process to the point where we couldn't get anything else done on deadline day because we're waiting for the trade with Dallas to go through. We don't have cap space. We don't have the picks that we're acquiring on in our possession yet. All those things. The way I see this is all how this is all worked out, I would say everyone's just a

little bit unhappy except for the Dallas stars The Colorado Avalanche aren't happy because in the end they still traded Miko Rantanen Rantanen not necessarily happy because the same deal he got in Dallas probably could have Maybe worked out in Colorado The Carolina Hurricanes aren't happy because they finally got the game-breaker they've been dying to get their hands on and he slips through their hands like sand and Just the Dallas Stars are and oh, yeah by the way

The abs aren't happy because now they have to face Niko Rantzen in the next nine playoff runs if they all get that far So you didn't think that Brindon Moore's comments comments where he said, you know, should we have known that this guy didn't want to? Not even a little bit. That franchise, that front office and that coaching staff are locked in in a way that I'd argue so few are around the NHL. Rod Bryndamore on trade deadline day has a seat at the war room table. I'm not, I'm honestly not sure how often that happens with many

other head coaches in the NHL. Yeah. Um, I want to get back to the Canucks for a bit. Um, in the coaching thing is a, is a good way to do it. Um, Rick Tocket right now, like, can you handicap whether or not you think you'll be back next season as the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks? I can't.

I don't have a crystal ball, but I would say that it is at least judging by social media, it is peak Vancouver to get to this spot in the season and now seeing the reactions that I'm seeing on social media. Him being called a dinosaur, essentially trying to run him out of town. I've seen tweets asking for him to be fired at this point in time. Does everyone remember or are we forgetting that he was he's the reigning Jack Adams award winner as coach of the year? And I look I get the Jack Adams

curse and all that comes with it. But is it not a little soon to get to this point already with Rick Tocket, especially given all the changes that have happened with this team year over year? Well just so you know, the general narrative is that the media in Vancouver is sticking up for Rick Tocket and you know refuses to criticize him and I'm kind of like yeah he's not first on my list I'm looking at the players and two of their best players had a fight that lasted so long and got so bad that one of them had to be traded. And the one guy that was left has been a shell of his former self.

So yeah, Rick Tocque, and he's not the first guy. And your heart safety finalist has been hurt all year. Yeah. Quickly taking out of the mix because he's missed so much time. And oh, by the way, like if the next, if you're gonna look at the players first, for me at number two,

I'm looking at roster construction. Yep. This team is a shell of itself from last year. They can't create, there's, there's no one out there creating chances or just doing it by himself, except for Quinn Hughes on the backend when he's healthy, the forward group right now. But who do you lay who,, who do you lay that at the feet of? For me, it starts with the players, like they couldn't get along with each other. That's, that's not great. So whoever started the fight or ever continued on, I don't know who to blame,

but you know, it's on at least one of those players. And with Pedersen, you know, I know he scored a couple of goals in the last little while but five on five he's still not creating much anymore and and I just I don't know the the risk of doing this all again next season with Pettersson on the lineup must be I mean is massive, but they're in such a pickle because if they trade Pettersson and he takes off, first of all, they're going to look awful. Second of all, now they're really screwed down the middle. Yes, not a comfortable place to be. But again, from all the

things you said, and from what I said, how does this come back to the coach? Why is it suddenly the coach's fault? Are we just looking for someone else to blame? This is, I think this is pretty much. Yeah, that's pretty much it. A lot of people will blame anyone but the players themselves. Right. I think this is arguably the best coaching staff in the league when you consider the head coach and his assistants.

It's in the top five for me. So if you want to, if you want to criticize the coach and tackle him next, I mean, by all means pile on, just, just don't expect the answer to the first part of your question to be that it's likely that he ends up coming back next year. Because of all the reasons you just outlined why would you want to? Do you think Philly would hire Taukeh? I think they should have from Jump Street to be honest. Yeah I think they would but John Tortorella has another year left on his deal. There's always been rumors that he might get kicked upstairs though.

Yeah I don't I don't know how accurate those are. I've heard them. I think everyone's seen John Tortorella sitting in the press box for some games and has wondered about the possibility of it. I don't know how likely that is. I look here's what I'll say about Rick Tawkins. If he is not coming back. He's going to have five different jobs to choose from. And I know people are looking at the board going, huh? How is that possible? Look at all these coaches that are new. Well, there's still a couple of interims and I would bet that you'd see someone move on from their coach just to be able to get Rick Tocket. Let's talk a little bit about Buffalo because I'm getting sad and I need someone else's sadness to make me feel happy. What did you make of the the rumors or the report I guess from Spitting

Chicklets that Rosmus Dahlene wants out the Sabres pushed back on that pretty hard and so did Dahlene but you know I think when everyone looks at Buffalo, they're like, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, part of that is the general vibe that's been emanating in Buffalo for a while. I think if you're happy in that situation, there's probably a little bit something wrong with your situation that you can't just be about the paycheck. Like you've got to have something in you that makes you want to compete and get to a better place and actually play meaningful hockey games. So the fact that players would be upset and yearning for direction there, I think is, is entirely accurate.

there I think is entirely accurate but of all the players that I've heard rumblings about either behind the scenes or from other teams or teams that are wondering or asking about players Rasmus Dallin's name hasn't come up once hasn't come across my radar once I I've heard Owen Power, I've heard obviously JJ Piterka, I've heard, you know, we went through the Dylan Cousins situation. I have not heard Paige Thompson, like Paige Thompson and Rasmus Dallin are basically the only two players

that I have not heard people ask about or be curious about. I'd say after that, everything's on the table. We are speaking to Frank Zavalli from Daily Faceoff here on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. There wasn't a team more busy at the deadline than the Boston Bruins with all the moves they made punctuated by the Brad Marshand trade to Florida at the very end of it. What did you make of the work that the Bruins did on deadline day? To be honest, I know people are really upset about the Marshand trade and where he ended up and part of it's, you know, there's multi layers to it, right?

Part of it is they're just angry to see him go period. Then they see the reporting about how close they might have been on a contract, at least in fans eyes, and they see that as unforgivable. And then there's the last part which is also just the destination. Right. This is, you know, the new beast of the East or the team that's, you know, obviously having gone to or shooting for a third straight Stanley Cup final in a different category than some others. And the way that they play and the playoff matchups that they've had,

it's been tough for Bruins fans to digest. Having said all that, I give the Boston Bruins a solid B-plus at this deadline because if you're gonna rip the Band-Aid off, go out and do it and be as aggressive as possible. And you trade Carlo, you trade Frederick, you trade Brazzo, you trade Coil, and then Marshand, you got significant returns, and you've been able to stockpile your system with assets that you can now use to go, quote, retool. And this Bruins team has the ability to bounce back

in relatively short order compared to some other teams. They've got a top 10 winger in the game, they've got a top 10 defenseman in the game. They've got a top 10 defenseman in the game and McEvoy and they've got a top 10 goalie in the league and Jeremy Swainman. So when you take all those things and you match them all together, if you're going to make changes, give yourself some flexibility. And that's what Boston did in a big way. Brad Marshawn's new team, the Florida Panthers, they had a busy week and got some pretty wild news this week with Aaron Echblad's 20 game suspension for PED use.

And one of the takeaways was this, from this, was that guys don't get caught all that often in the National Hockey League using performance enhancing drugs. I believe it was what, seven years between Nate Schmidt failing a test and then Aaron Echblad failing a test. So there's that backdrop to all this as well. Is there anything interesting emanating from the Echblad suspension in your mind? I don't think so. The only thing I'd be curious about and I haven't gotten an answer to it yet would be when did the Florida Panthers first learn of the positive test? And usually some of those things take a while. Like you first hear that there was a positive test and then there's a B sample

And there's all these other things that go into the process before it finally becomes public and official that this player has been suspended for PDs that Did they know about that? Suspension before the Seth Jones trade now I could argue that it doesn't really matter because you have five additional years of Seth Jones and I could see them saying, hey, what's the difference? But I'd just be curious if that pushed along the trade. But other than that, not really that interesting. Frank, this was great. As always, thanks for taking the time to do it. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week. We'll do this again next Wednesday. Sounds good. See you guys.

See you later. That's Frank Cerfali from Daily Face Off. Randeeb Janda joins us now on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. What up Randeeb? What's going on boys? Good morning. Good morning to you as well. So last night, four, two loss for the Canucks at home to Montreal.

What was the prevailing sentiment that you felt in the rink? Was it a little bit of optimism that they were able to put together a third period comeback that ultimately fell short, but saw them score twice? Or was it the frustration that emanated from the first two periods where they just couldn't find the back of the net and it felt like it was a struggle to score all night long? Yeah, ultimately, of course, the fans are going to be positive once you get some goals and you feel like you have a chance. I thought the fans did their part, but guys, when you're not able to score, when you're

not able to really create much of anything for about 40 minutes, and you have a couple of chances, of course, but really missing the high end in this line-up and comparing it to what Montreal was able to do with their top line. I think, you know, the lack of offense, scoring about two goals per game over the last month, that's the prevailing mentality here and the mindset of, all right,

how is this team gonna score? And certainly getting started the way that they did, allowing the goal in the first 90 seconds of the game, you could tell it was, it kind of felt like, okay, you're going to have to climb Everest here to get, get back into this game. They nearly did it, but that was the prevailing thought of this is an offensively challenged

team right now. And when you're following a couple of goals behind, it's going to be difficult to get back in the games. Um, Quinn Hughes is playing tonight, right? Uh, it certainly seems like that. He's got a one game road trip guys, and he's making the trip. So, you know, I'm not a, I'm not a genius, but it seems like, uh,

you're taking them for a reason. Um, yeah, I may need them guys. We see that we see, uh, what this team has been unable to do the leading scores after the last, what nine games have been Philip Ronick six points. Good for Philip. I think he's played excellent. Connor Garland, Pugh Souter. But the reality is when it comes to the forward group and it comes to really defense, chances are being created by middle six players now. My hope is obviously Quinn Hughes coming back provides that high in scoring, that high in creation. But yeah, we don't know what kind of condition he'll be in. We don't know what percentage he's at, but it certainly

seems like he's coming back tonight. Pedersen's playing better. I mean, we just had a big conversation about him, but he's playing better, isn't he? He is. And I think that game against Dallas, it was a bit of a MIA there. And outside of that, the other three games out of the four, you start looking at, there are steps in the right direction, right? Obviously, him scoring that goal in the power play. I like the way he was directing traffic.

He didn't like the looks that he was getting on the left-hand side right before that goal. Called over Karnar Garland was a little bit assertive in that. And you need that, right? This is what Elias Pedersen has to do in the ice. He has to have that confidence to call the shot. We talked to him post-game after, I believe it was the Minnesota game,

and he was talking about having more things run through him on the right-hand side. And the team has been working on that. Like, you want to see that assertive nature. Is he taking over games? No. Is he, you know, providing the raw production and the staff? No, not to that level, but you're getting production out of them. And I think we're seeing a little bit more assertive play from him. Now you need him to up it by a lot over the long term, but he certainly has

had steps in the right direction. Brock Besser is playing worse, right? Yeah. I don't know how we can really sugar coat that one. When I watch Brock Besser right now, seems like his confidence is shot. You know, that play early in the game that leads to the Knicks Azuki goal.

Yeah. It's just not. Not a good way to start. No, no. And listen, for a team that needed good puck management and needed to limit defensive chances off the rush. That was probably the worst way to start. And really it comes down to making quick decisions in that spot where,

you know, the defender is looking for you at that, on the left point there. And rather than making the play down low he gets caught and that split second right you get caught you don't have that confidence and boys when it comes to the offense the reality is he is missing JT Miller right JT Miller created space for Brock Besser he allowed him to get to the soft areas he carried the puck up the ice which is huge for you know a player like Brock Besser. You don't have to have the puck on your stick. You can obviously win wall battles and find

soft areas. But most importantly, JT is an elite passer. He was fourth in the NHL in primary assist last year. So when you couple all of those things together, Brock Besser obviously hasn't been the same player since January 31st, since JT Miller got traded. Randeeb, you're good at describing things. When someone says play driver, what does that mean to you and how many play drivers do the Canucks currently have in their forward group? Yeah, I think when you say the word play driver, can you create offense? Can you carry the puck in? Can you move the puck into the offensive zone? That's what we're talking about. Are you in a position to really dictate that offense? That's what I think of when you say play driver. To answer your question, how many of those guys do the Vancouver Canucks have in the

forward group? I think when Elias Pedersen is playing his game, he is most definitely that, but we haven't seen that from Elias. So currently, not quite there. Philip Heidel, I think he has that. He's the guy that can carry the puck and he can be good at it. He can dictate the speed of the game.

He can have those controlled exits and entries. I think with Phillip Heidel right now, releasing the puck and getting it out in time has been a challenge over the last five or six games at the very least. So when you're looking at this roster group guys, I look at Heidel, I look at obviously Pedersen when he's going, you know,

Connor Garland when he's going as well can play that game a little bit as well. He's got, you know, he's definitely been a play driver. The want is there. But outside of that, as of right now, you probably got about three players on that board group that have the potential to do that. The question is how consistently can they do that?

We're speaking to Canucks analyst, Randy Bjanda here on the Halford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650. Randy was on the call last night for the Canucks 4-2 loss to Montreal at Roger's Arena. He'll be on the call tonight when the Canucks take on the Flames from Calgary 6 o'clock puck drop. You can hear it all right here on Sportsnet 650. Let's go down the list of other guys that might be frustrated over the last few days. Dakota Joshua. I imagine the frustration here must stem from the fact that he's playing better and it looks like his game is rounding in the form, but the production just simply not there.

Pointless in his last four, goalless in his last four, and again last night was one of those ones where it seemed one shot on goal officially but he hit the outside of the post on a wrap-around play early against Dallas he had a number of opportunities so you know with him it's not about finding the middle of the ice he's finding it quite often he's working his way there it's just the finish hasn't been there the you know bearing down on your chances hasn't been there and that bearing down on your chances hasn't been there. And that's got to be frustrating because for a player that was of course playing catch up all year, essentially coming back from his cancer treatment and of course the surgery, then having to play catch up with other training camp and you finally feel like you're hitting your stride, you finally feel like you're healthy and nowide. You finally feel like you're healthy. And now you simply just can't get them

puck into the net, which, you know, that trio I thought, or that duo at the very least with Connor Garland has been picking up some speed, but they don't have that production. And with Dakota, you know, you look at all the good spots he's been able to get into, that production, unfortunately, isn't there. And I feel for him because he is one of those guys

that doesn't shy away from contact. He doesn't shy away from the blue paint. But this is essentially the reality with the Canucks right now is that currently without that high end scoring, without that high end creation, you've got players that are middle six players and you're relying on them a little bit more or a lot more for production.

So not only is it frustrating to miss those chances, but it's especially frustrating when your team really, really needs that guys. So, you know, I think his game is improved and that's the positive here. It's just that you need him to pot a couple of goals here, especially since your top six forwards or your top three forwards, you know, scoring wise, haven't been able to get really on the scoreboard often enough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.