Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 3/13/25

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

 Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they talk a big 'Nucks win & great performance from Elias Pettersson with Canucks talk host & The Athletic Vancouver's Thomas Drance. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Whoa. Wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose a f***ing Canucks? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da You're listening to Halford and Brough. Pedersen to the line, man. Senior long wrist shot. Stop! They score! Elias Pedersen to the side of the net! Yeah, I'm taking on Bach! Really happy for him. Took a lot of crap this year. It's a complete crap.

That's my captain. The only team that hasn't come back in the third period, so Took a lot of crap this year. It's a complete crap! That's my captain. The only team that hasn't come back in the third period, so at least we broke that goose egg. Good morning Vancouver, 6.01 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody. It's Halford and it's Bruv. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios, the beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you.

Good morning. Ladi, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alfred and Bruff of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They can help with anything you're looking for,

sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio.

Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. You know, Jason, you don't get a lot of nights in this area. Vancouver sports I'm talking about, like last night, the Vancouver Canucks won an emotional, highly charged affair in Calgary. The Vancouver Whitecaps won an improbable game, technically they drew, but they advanced on the away goals rule in Mexico. The Abbotsford Canucks won last night as well. I don't want to say it's going to be an unforgettable Wednesday in the history of Vancouver sports, but it was a pretty good one. So we do have a lot to get to. We'll take pretty good at this point, right? It was a good one. It was a pretty good one.

It was pretty good. I had a lot of fun last night. I spent a lot of time on the couch last night. So our guest list today begins at 6.30. Felipe Cardenas from The Athletic Soccer Writers is going to join us. So originally when we booked them, we just wanted to talk about, you know, all the consternation about this Apple MLS TV deal. We, they had a big article up at the athletic with a, you know, interviewed some anonymous executives anonymously, and we're talking about the league. And then the white caps went out and got a crazy,

very improbable result last night against Monterey in Mexico to advance in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. So we'll talk to Felipe about all that at 6.30. 7.30 Brandon Astle, play-by-play voice of the Abbotsford Canucks is going to join us. What a great night for the organization. Abbey got their third straight win last night, a 2-1 decision over Bakersfield. We'll talk to Brandon about that. The winners of three of their last four, four of their last five. Who's cooking in Abbey right now? Who's doing the business for the Abbotsford Canucks? How are things shaping up for the postseason? Abbotsford is very much in playoff, good playoff shape going into the Calder Cup playoffs. So we'll talk

to Brandon Astle about that. Huge arcira. Two points already. Yeah. He's had a big impact in a short window for the Abbotsford Canucks. So Brandon Astle joined us at 7.30 to talk about that. At eight o'clock, it's the Drancer, Thomas Drance from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks talk. Big gutsy win in the shootout yesterday for your Vancouver Canucks, 4-3 in Calgary, in the second of a back-to-back, and the first time,

and I can't believe this stat, so I'm saying it early, the first time all I can't believe this stat so I'm saying it early the first time all season 24 opportunities the first time all year the Canucks trailed going into the third period yet managed to win a hockey game it's crazy that when it's March 13th and it's the first time it happened all year but they didn't talk it knew it too he knew it right away yeah yeah he said in the post game he was like it was nice to cross that off the list. So, Drancer at 8, Brandon Astle at 7.30, Felipe Cardenas at 6.30. We are once again doing two giveaways on the show today at 8 a.m. Monster trucks.

Yes, the Monster Jam at Pacific Coliseum Friday, March 21st. Four pack of tickets to see the Monster trucks in late late March. If you wanna win the tickets, be caller number seven at eight a.m. The number here is 604-280-650. That number again, 604-280-650. At 8.15 this morning, four packet tickets to the Vancouver International Auto Show. It's an automotive weekend.

That goes from March 19th to 23rd, so it's the same weekend as the Monster Trucks. Again, a four-packet tickets to give away. Be caller number seven at 815 this morning. 604-280-0650. That number again, 604-280-0650. We get giveaways, we get guests, we got a lot to get into. So without further ado, laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance,

making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. In their biggest game of the year today, the Vancouver Canucks came away with a 4-3 win in the shootout in Calgary on Wednesday night. Elias Pedersen tied the score with under seven minutes remaining.

Scored in the shootout, Connor Garland got the winner in the shootout. Canucks with a huge win in Calgary, and now Vancouver and Calgary tied on 71 points for the final wild card spot in the West. So I know we'll probably get to a few storylines from this game, including the return of Quinn Hughes and whether or not Connor Zeri deserves a one game

suspension for elbowing, but considering it's this show and we talk about Elias Pedersen a lot on this show, I think we should note that he's starting to show some real progress. And I don't know if there is a John Wick reference where John Wick is like, am I making progress? Yeah. Yeah, I'm thinking we're making progress. Yeah. I'm thinking we're making progress. I'm thinking I'm making some progress, right? If we had that line, because the whole is he back thing, it's getting a little much. It's a bit tired. And we honestly keep getting fooled once in a while. So progress is what we want to see. I'm thinking I'm back.

All right. I'm thinking I'm making progress is a hilarious line by the way. I'm thinking I'm making some progress. So. Could you imagine the script writers at John Wick, they're like, could we punch this up a little bit?

No, no, I really like the progress line. Don't change it. All right. So there have been six games in March for Elia's Pedersen. Uh, March 1st was that game down in Seattle where they lost six to three and he had that one chance where he was coming downhill with the shot and he

didn't, and that was, that wasn't good, right? So the next game was against Anaheim was a three, two win. And at the very least he had three shots on goal in that game. The game after that Minnesota, he ripped home that one timer and was like, there it is. That's the one. Next game came against Dallas and he didn't earn his ice time. Right?

That was kind of a step back. The game against Montreal, um, you know, his line along with Bester, I mean, he was a minus two on the night, but he had a goal. Yes. He ripped home that Rister from, from the top, had his feet moving, opening up shooting lanes. That's good. up, had his feet moving, opening up, shooting lanes.

That's good. And then I would say his, his best game of, of the month was last night in Calgary and you know, the game tying goal, I know some of the Petey haters out there will say, will say it was an open net. I could have scored that. What stood out to me was his poise with the puck when he got it in the corner before he got it back to Mancini.

And it was Hubertou that could have made a play, but Hubertou's a forward, so it's kind of like, well, I don't want to get stuck down in the corner with Leas-Peterson. So I'm going to make sure that I cover my man, um, which I guess is the right move, but Pettersson, I don't know if he recognized that, that was Hubert O, but he was like, okay, well,

I'm just going to hold onto the puck then. Yep. And he looked calm and cool and poised with the puck. He eventually did get it back to Mancini and credit to Mancini for getting away a quick shot that went on goal, low, hard shot. Yep. Nothing fancy, but Pedersen after he had passed the puck to Mancini, got those little feet moving and he got to the net.

And you know, when they say that, um, when you're playing well, the puck follows you. A lot of the time it's because you're going to areas like Pedersen went to and again credit to Mancini, good shot. Dustin Wolf with the rebound, right to Petey Stick and you know I think he actually had to make a little bit of a slight adjustment to put that in but he buried it with confidence too right and again we're really putting this guy under the microscope, but if we're going to rip this guy when he doesn't play well, we have to praise him when he's making progress. And I think that's the best way to put it. And I do think there's something to the fact that when was it that Rick Tuckett said, we're starting to see Pedersen put the work in.

Right? Like I know a lot of people will say everything changed when they had that media session and kind of like admitted that, you know, I'm not perfect and kind of made a little bit of an apology to IMAC. He said, I didn't mean what I said there. I was frustrated, etc., etc. That might have been it. That might have been cathartic for him to get some things off his chest. But Tauke also said like, yeah, I've seen him put in the work. I've watching him doing things that he hasn't done all season. And we were talking about this yesterday, we were like, okay, well, where was that for the rest of the season? Well, it doesn't matter at this point, right? We'll get, we'll figure that out in the off season because the Canucks are in a dogfight for a playoff spot and it's just so encouraging him to see him making progress.

So it's interesting that you focused on that part of that talk at Presser and those remarks particularly, because I remember the exact same remarks and I think you've got a point there. The thing that stood out for me though, was in that same media availability when Rick Tocket, and I'm gonna paraphrase here, but Rick Tocket essentially said, hey look, wasn't great over the first 60 games

of the season, but he's got a chance to erase all of it over the final 20 of the season. That was the crux of all of it. And I was like, okay, this is pretty symbolic on a number of levels. One, it's the coach saying that, hey, we're not giving up on you and we can turn this around. And two, it was finding opportunity where there was a patch of darkness. Like the first 60 games of the year, the team underachieved, underperformed. It was a disappointing campaign.

So if you want to talk about the whole is he back or is he not narrative, which quite frankly has become a meme at this point, like as we were pointing out in the intro, look at it like this. If Pedersen can meaningfully contribute to getting this team into the postseason, then you've got an entirely different conversation going to the off season. But you talk it later in front of them. Meaningful contributions in March. It's gotta be a point of game player, I would say. If you wanna get it down, boil it down to whatever.

And if you wanna look at it even deeper, and this will pivot off into the next point I wanna make, it's gonna be almost exclusively reliant on two guys, Quinn Hughes and Elias Pedersen. You saw the difference that Hughes made last night, what a Quinn Hughes-Less team looks like against Montreal the night prior, and what a team featuring Quinn Hughes looks like.

Hughes almost played 30 minutes last night, was again, an absolute driver throughout. But his most meaningful contribution on the night, as crazy as this sounds, might've been in the post game. He did a walk-off interview with Sportsnet Calgary's Ryan Leslie, and I got about four texts in the aftermath being like, did you hear what Hughes said? Did you catch that interview?

Did you hear what he said to Ryan Leslie? And I cut the tail end of it, so I went back and rewound it. And this was a captain sticking up and laying it out for his guy. Not just any guy, but his guy. I'm gonna play it now. This is Quinn Hughes on Elias Pettersson,

following a very dramatic and very emotional and very important four, three shootout win over Calgary last night in Calgary. Really happy for him. Took a lot of crap this year and, you know, we obviously need him at this point in time with 17 games left. And showed up today, brought his A game,

and we're going to continue to need him to do that. But I'm obviously proud of him. And he's a competitive guy, too. You don't get to the level that he's gone to without having that inner jam and desire. So it's been a hard little run for him, but he's a great player. he's gonna be just fine. And you saw it tonight.

When we talk about giving Pedersen another crack and not giving up on him and saying, you got a chance to turn this around. You got a chance to prove this. There's several stakeholders involved with that. Tauke is one of them for sure. And I think Taukit probably his future, and by his future, I mean like him deciding his future

is whether he thinks this group can get it done or not. So they've got a proving ground over these 20 games. Pedersen has a lot to prove over the 20 game segment that we're talking about to management and to everybody else. And then there's another really important stakeholder in all this, and it's the captain, Quinn Hughes, who obviously this organization needs him and should do whatever it can to appease him moving forward.

I would even issue an addendum to my earlier remarks where I was like, I think that if this is gonna work long-term, they're gonna have to part ways with Pedersen. My addendum is now brackets, asterisk, unless Quinn Hughes wants to keep him. In which case you have to, I'm not even joking on how stupid that sounds. No, I don't think it sounds stupid at all. You have to consider it. You have to consider it. And here's the thing.

If they are able, and I'm just boiling it down for simplicity sake, but those two in particular, to take this very flawed and very, very un-perfect team into the post season, if they can do it, there is a building block they are moving forward. But they gotta do it, because they're not even in a playoff spot this morning. Like, Calgary's still got them on the tiebreaker because they got a game in hand.

So we're not saying that this is a done deal or it's a layup, but last night was very profound. I think you saw it on all those guys' faces after Garland scored. That meant something to them last night. You know, when you were little and your parents would say, don't worry, everything's going to be okay. And it felt, it felt good. It felt reassuring even if they're lying to you. Which they were most of the time.

Most of the time. Yeah. When, when Hughes said he's going to be just fine, I bet a lot of people felt reassured. I believe him. It's going to be just fine, I bet a lot of people felt reassured. I believe him. He's going to be just fine. Well, that's what I was saying yesterday. I'm like everything that Canucks do move wise going forward should be with Quinn Hughes' blessing.

Like they should be like, Quinn, what do you want us to do? Yeah. Every single move. Be like, Quinn, what would you like? He's such a good leader. Not only is he a hard worker and a courageous player. I mean, we all know he's an amazing player, right? Mm-hmm. But for him to be playing through what he's playing through right now, not everyone would do that.

And, you know, when Hughes plays, there's a big difference between, and you know, like if, not everyone when they're playing injured knows that they're gonna be targeted all night anyway, you know? And Hughes knows that he's gonna go out there, and the Canucks went down to five defensemen, so he had to play more than he probably would've otherwise. He played what, 30 minutes last night? 29, 31, 30 minutes.

He played, yeah, he played a lot last night. What? In his first game back. What always stands out to me when Hughes speaks, more often than not, he kind of deflects from the talk about himself and talks about someone else. And when given the opportunity, he talks

someone up and that's what leaders do, right? Like, you know, When you talk about guys making players better on the ice, that's what great players do. Whether it's Hughes and the defense partner he plays with or think about some of the great forwards in the league, especially good centers, they make the players around them better. Yep. Um, that's what a captain has to do.

And Queen was obviously one of the guys behind the scenes who tried to mend the rift between JT and Elias. Sure. And he said, when it was all done, he was like, I feel a little bit guilty as the captain of the team that it got to this point. I'm sure he tried his best and we heard lots of things about like there were meetings arranged and I'm sure Quinn was involved in what happened with JT Miller and, uh, JT Miller's not here anymore. And I think Quinn is probably like, we got to, we got to lift PD up here, you know?

Yep. Instead of probably some of the things that JT was saying to, to, to Elias Pedersen. Yeah. Okay. So I want to whip through some of the other talking points from last night's game, cause there was a lot of them. Again, I want to say and I want to reiterate just how crazy this is. This is the first game that we're at game 63. It's the first game that they won all year when trailing after two periods. They had 24 opportunities prior and look some of this had to do with Calgary last night. They threw to the panel with Bourne and Gazzdick and everyone else afterwards and Bourne astutely pointed out he's like hey that was a

great win for the Canucks and good on them for, you know, finally getting that comeback. But Calgary stopped playing hockey in the third period. They just stopped trying to do anything that made them successful in the first and second. Ryan Huska, the head coach, alluded to it earlier. But you know what the thing is,

is if I was the Calgary Flames last night, I also would have tried to just salt the game away because the Vancouver Canucks had hit their two goal total. The thought of them scoring a third, and let's be honest, for about two thirds of the third period, it didn't look great. Yeah, they were piling a lot of shots on goal, but it felt like the same thing. This team was going to keep pushing and pushing and pushing, but not being able to get it across the line, only this time they were able to.

And that was a big thing from the Canucks. Getting the win, obviously was huge, but mounting a comeback in the third period on the second of a back-to-back was big. The Conor Zeri hit, and I'm calling it a hit because I don't have another apt descriptor at the ready. It was a cheap shot for sure. In case you were wondering why the Canucks were down to five defensemen last night, Elias Pedersen, the defenseman, put a pretty big hit on Nazm Kadri early in the game. Zary, and I feel bad because I'm the one that's always advocating for this stuff,

like he jumped in right away, no questions asked, and went after the guy that hit his teammate. What are you gonna say? You're just ready to, oh, Greg, I thought you were gonna. I thought you were gonna. Well. Me and Andy are're talking we got some really good PD audio we'd like you to hear really quickly okay if you have some moment you know what let's try it people keep asking if I'm back and I haven't really had an answer but now yeah I'm thinking I'm making progress you guys cook that up in the lab pretty quick.

We gotta play that for Drantz, because Drantz tweeted out last night that he was back. Yeah. He could say he's back making progress, because he's made progress before, anyway. I think the other, the other Petterson, I do wanna focus on him. Connor's area, I'm just gonna throw out,

Connor's area needs to be suspended. He's gotta be suspended for that. Oh, so dirty, man, I can't believe it. Yeah, I know what you're saying. Like we want the Canucks to stick up for each other. I'm having internal turmoil about this. There were some moments last night where I think if the Canucks hadn't won that game last night, there'd be a lot of people texting in

how why wouldn't you stick up for, like Quinn Hughes is out there getting bullied a little bit. Right. And it's like, I had a text from my buddy, you know, like, why doesn't this team stick up for each other? They stay, okay, here's the thing though, just to play the devil's advocate,

cause I know what's supposed to come in. They did the appropriate response to the Lombard roughing up and then cross check is they went out and scored on the power play and then I loved Hughes, jying it Rasmus Anderson afterwards. Like it's great. That's what you wanna do. I'm just saying I have long advocated for if someone knocks your guy,

you don't think about what you're gonna do. You go ahead and do it. And Zary did that. Now the negative side of that is that he knocked DPD out of the game. DPD came back for one more shift, took a spin, wasn't able to go, and then they ruled him out for the rest of the night. So, I mean, the one thing I'm advocating for, like the immediate response,

severely hamstrung the Canucks because they were down to five defensemen for the rest of the night. So I was a bit- That's why I think he needs to be suspended. I know he got a penalty. I'm with you on that. And I think the refs called it interference or something like that. I don't know if they saw the extent of what he did, but I hope the Department of Player

Safety takes a look at that today and gives him a one-game suspension. I don't want to see a final one-game suspension because Elias Pedersen did nothing wrong on the play. It was a completely clean hit on Nazem Qadri. And I think Qadri was preparing to just get up and be just be like, yeah, I went over the middle of the ice and the young kid got me with a good hit. I'm okay. Let's play on.

And Zary's out there throwing elbows. Um, so the standings right now, the Canucks are still not in a playoff spot. Um, they're tied in points with Calgary. Each team has 71, but Calgary has a game in hand. They also have one more regulation win than the Vancouver Canucks have. So there's a lot of work to be done.

And we also should mention that Kevin Lankton went back to back. Yep. And, um, you know, like I, it's funny. done and we also should mention that Kevin Lankanen went back to back. Yep. And, um. He was good. You know, like I, it's funny. I, I was watching a bit of the, uh, the intermission panel as well and they're like,

they're kind of getting at something that I've been thinking, like we need to stop being so hysterical about a goalie playing back to backs. Like it can be done, right? I, I realize it's not ideal for both performance reasons. I think there's a lot of information out there that the second game of a back to back for a goalie is not as good. Sure.

And I realize you run the risk of injury when you overplay your goalies. Like that's obvious, but this is desperation time for the Vancouver Canucks. And by the way, they have another back to back coming up. They play at home Saturday against Chicago and they play Sunday against Utah. So it is a very similar situation where they played Montreal, which is not a team that they're in a playoff race. And then the second part was a very important game against Calgary. This is the same Chicago's in their conference, but they're not in a playoff

race. And then the second game is against Utah, which is one of the teams they're in a playoff race with. So I'm not counting on Thatcher Demko being available to them. No, I don't even know if he's going to be available to them the rest of the season. This is not me reporting, but I, you even know if he's going to be available to them the rest of the season. This is not me reporting. But if he's back, great. Give him a shot. But right now, I almost assume that this is just like all

lankanen. I'm with you on that. You know what I mean? I don't know how that's going to end, but Rick Tauke and the coaching staff and the, and the, and the goal-tending staff have some decisions to make because in theory you could say, all right, if we want to play C-lobs or, or maybe if Demko returns to practice this week and

he'd be ready to go, you'd give him the, the game against Chicago. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. And save Lankton in for Utah. That would give him some rest. He's going to have some rest anyway. Today's probably going to be a day off for the Canucks. I haven't checked the PR.

They'll probably practice tomorrow. And then they've got the games on the weekend. But it's like, I hope the Canucks don't feel too satisfied about what happened in Calgary, because this coming weekend, like it all come tumbling down if they don't perform well. I'm just trying to be the best player I can be every game.

I'm thinking on making progress. 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. What we just have to call Thomas Drance erotica. Thomas Drance erotica. Course. Thomas Drance erotica Corsi Thomas Trance erotica

Expected goals Thomas Trance erotica Dove model Thomas Trance erotica Regression Thomas

Trance erotica P.D.O. The Russian. Tall as a bitch, and a bitch, and a Veronica. Pee-dee-oh. Tall as a bitch, and a bitch, and a Veronica. People keep asking if I'm back, and I haven't really had an answer. But now, yeah, I'm thinking on making progress.

Ha ha ha ha ha. Perfect. 802 on. It worked well with the music too. It did, actually. Progress Perfect Well with the music did it actually it's very well done. Hey, don't you wanna make it progress? That was from John wick the porno. Yeah, John dick What I was out there a dog yeah, it was out there if he hadn't said it someone else was going to It was out there. If he hadn't said it, someone else was going to. It was out there. It's now 8.03. Lots of people have that last name, okay?

I have an update from the Department of Player Safety. Calgary's Connor Zeri will have a hearing today for elbowing slash roughing against Vancouver's Elias Pettersson. Give him the chair. Or a two-game suspension. Yeah. Or the chair. Or two game suspension. Yeah, or the chair. He gets to choose.

Like hit him with a chair? No, no, electricity. Oh, oh, oh. I think that should be the thing is the player, whatever he does to injure another guy, he should get injured in the exact same way by somebody of their choice. The level of retribution.

Yeah, eye for an eye. He gets elbowed in the face by somebody. To the phone lines we go, Thomas Drance joins us now in the Haliford and Rough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Drance-er? Gentlemen, good morning, and A-dog, way to dip your wick. Yeah, there was a lot to unpack there. There was a lot to unpack there.

So we've got, working in reverse, Connor Zary's gonna have a hearing for his elbow on DPD. Andy decided to yell out the name of a would-be porno and then I don't know if you caught it at the end of your intro, they've rejigged the John Wick line, yeah I'm thinking I'm back, to yeah I'm thinking I'm making progress. I'm thinking I'm making progress. That's our contribution to the PD is back meme So there's a lot to unpack there Drancer feel free to go in any direction you want

Yeah, I mean, well, it's our was there. You know, not a lot of not a lot of suspense there I don't think in terms of him having a hearing I Also, you know didn't really understand and and I think that was true on the broadcast. I think that was true on Twitter. Uh, exactly what had happened, um, in terms of how dirty the response hit was from Connor's area. But once you saw it in the intermission, once, uh, Justin Boren really sort of isolated on it, it was pretty clear like elbow to the head, that's going to be a call from DOPS and that's come to pass.

the head, that's going to be a call from DOPS and that's come to pass. You hope that Elias Pettersson is okay. And you'd expect Conor's area who doesn't have a history of this, but nonetheless, you'd expect him to get at least a couple of games and maybe more honestly, given the severity of, of how obvious it is that we can't have that in response to a dirty hit or sorry, a clean hit, a completely clean hit from Elias Pettersson on Nazan Kadri. That can't be the response. So yeah, I mean, good spotting by Bourne and I think we're all going to expect a relatively, is it a telephone hearing by the way,

Brough, or an in-person? It's just telephone, right? I didn't say. I think if it's not classified, it's a telephone hearing. I think if it's specifically- Telephonic? Yeah, telephonic, yeah. Yeah, okay. I think if they specifically say it's in-person.

It's a fax hearing. Right. Yeah. Zoom. Anyway, so yeah, telephone hearing, so less than five games. So that's what you'd expect and then with Alias Patterson

He looks pretty nice last night guys, yeah, I agree, you know, you know here's the truth the Canucks I Mean there was like a 12 minute stretch of the second period where the connects were stuck on 12 shots, right? They'd obviously given up a power play goal which none of us saw go in. And they gave up a two on O shorthanded, which is brutal. And the script felt familiar. And you go into that third period and you think, man,

second get leg of a back to back, three and four, flames haven't played since Saturday. At some point the Canucks aren't going to have legs here, right? Like that's what's going to happen. And instead, the Canucks were able to remind the Calgary Flames that we employ Quinn Hughes and you don't. And we employ Elias Pettersson and you don't and we employ Elias Patterson and you don't. And that should be the logic of this Connects team, right? Like that, that in past years, that has been the logic of this Connects team. And especially against a team of Calgary's quality, right?

Where like Calgary's outworked Vancouver all season. They've out-efforted Vancouver all season. They've been far more consistent, far higherworked Vancouver all season. They've out-efforted Vancouver all season. They've been far more consistent, far higher floor than Vancouver all season. You know what you're gonna get every night when you watch Calgary play. That hasn't been the case with this Vancouver Canucks team.

And that's allowed them to be level with them with a game in hand in the Stanix. But the truth is, is that Calgary doesn't have players like Quinn Hughes or Elias Pettersson. Like they don't. And yet as often as Quinn Hughes has made that difference, we just haven't been able to say that very often about Elias Pettersson coming out of games this year.

If ever, frankly. And last night and in that third period in particular, it was evident, right? Like it was evident. And that to me, like it wasn't about the skating speed. It wasn't, there was just a level of juice. There was a level of like willful assertiveness. You knew that it felt like Pedersen was the best player on the ice every time he was on the ice. And I don't know that I've seen that in a year in 13 months. So look, am I going to overreact to it and truly declare that he's back? I don't know. But I do think that it was the sort of thing where it was like, if you had to go

to natural stat trick to point out Pedersen's Corsi after the Montreal Canadians game, like that's not being back, right? But what we saw in that third period, that feeling of, you know, honestly even watching him for check where it was like, oh man, like he could absolutely get this puck. Like that player is absolutely in more trouble than that. Honestly, Drancis is as simple as you could tell he wanted the puck. You tell he wanted the puck, you could tell that he was going to break the game open.

Like there was an element of willfulness that hasn't been there. And that's what it's like watching Vintage Julius Pedersen play. And that was what it was like watching him play last night. And so, yeah, I mean, I'm willing to think that that's something.

I'm not taking it to the continental, right? And with my retro Roman dollars and sort of laying it down and being like, he's back yet. But that was the first time I'd felt that way watching Pedersen playing a long time. And I think that's ultimately what we're all looking for again, is that feeling. More than some rubric that he has to hit for us to declare that he's back. So the Canucks just played a back to back and now they're going to play another back

to back. And not only do they have this back to back this weekend, Saturday against Chicago, Sunday against Utah. They also play Tuesday against Winnipeg and then start on Thursday, a six game road trip back East. I think it starts in St. Louis. Yeah. So, goaltending, what are they going to do?

Yeah. I mean, talked to it earlier this week, suggesting he'd like to see Demko practice two, three, four times before returning. So, um, that's, you know, a little tricky. Now the Blackhawks, are you willing to play Arthur Shilovs against the Blackhawks? Because you, you gotta think about it.

Now the Blackhawks. Because you, you gotta think about it. Now the Blackhawks have Spencer Knight now who's been on a bit of a tear since he got there, they've, you know, at the end of the day, the Blackhawks are still miserable, but at least they have some real defensive talent and now they have a goaltender that can genuinely steal a game or two here and there, especially if he's the guy you see as opposed to Soderblom. So there is a level of danger there that maybe didn't exist in Blackhawks games

earlier in the year. And that's a level of danger that the connects do have to manage because you cannot drop points to Chicago at this point in the year, like cannot, that is not acceptable. And so are you willing to go Lankton for a second set of back to back games the same week that you already did it? It paid off last night. He was great, right?

That save on Kadri on the power play in the third period, like potential season saving safe, right? He was on his game when it mattered most last night. Like, period. And so the fact that they went to him back to back worked once. But, you know, it's clear that the organization approached the decision with due gravity. Right? And they should have. Like, this isn't, it's not ideal. It's not where you want to be. yet. We all know the record one, three, one, six and one in eight starts for Archer, she lost. Um, I think if assuming that Demco is not going to be an option for the

Chicago game on Saturday, I think. That you've just got to bite the bullet. Like I think this second one, especially against, you know, a team that's, you know, one of the worst in the league in terms of their record, even if they do provide a level of danger, that's the game you have to be willing to start Shilovs. If not, then what are we doing here? This guy has a one-way contract. This guy was supposed to be your goalie of the future. He started game one of the regular season. Now, I know performance over the year has to dictate it, but at some point,

it's like, if you, if you can't trust Shilovs to start that Chicago game. Well, I don't know if they can. Well, then they've got to find a third goalie this summer, right? Like. Oh yeah.

I mean, that's. So I'm just saying like, this is for me, uh, this is for me, like a decision you make in, in part based off of your playoff life and in part based on your assessment of Shilov's spot in your goaltending pecking order going forward. Is this, can this be your guy or not? If you can't start him on Saturday, then you're going to need to do some work in net this summer. For me anyway, like for me, there's that's kind of almost a red line, like a super telling red line. I think you got to be willing to

start she loves again, Chicago, and then you save blank and in for a really dangerous Utah team. You know, that, I mean, I think is better than the Canucks are like, I think Utah is better. That's not to say that they're going to finish ahead of them necessarily, although I think they might. It's just to say the way Utah carries play five on five, the way Utah defends with speed, the way that they're scoring, especially lately. I mean, Dylan Gunther has 30 shot attempts, his last three games, scored a beauty game winner last night. Like that Utah team is scary, man. Okay, I'm gonna pit one take, one drance take against another sorta here.

Is Utah better than the Canucks if Pedersen is back? Well, no. If Pedersen is back, well, sorry. If Pedersen is back, back, back, back, I'm talking driving play, right? I'm talking Bruce, there it is Ron Canucks. Okay, that might be asking a bit much. That player. Huh? That might be asking a bit much. Okay, well, but if Pedersen is that player, then I'm definitely not saying Utah is definitively

better. Okay. But if Pedersen is the player we've seen all year with a little bit of extra confidence, then yes. I mean, Utah's yes. Then yes, unreservedly yes, easy yes. Why hasn't Utah been able to get hot then? Well, they've lost 17 one goal games and they're a young team that makes dumb mistakes late in

games, like their gear is super high, but they've been wildly unfortunate. You know, they have the exact profile of a team that's going to break out either down the stretch here or next year. Just watch them play materially. Like they are able to play like a high-end team at even strength and I just think they made a high end team at, at even strength. And I just think they made a few, too many dumb mistakes and critical moments, not critical moments, but like in December and January, where they were just losing the streak of one goal games, you know, leading one, nothing

against the Rangers going into the third, lose two, one, um, just they've given away a few, too many points from, I think, inexperienced more than anything. Um, but yeah, I mean, they are, they are absolutely dynamic, super fun to watch juice off the rush, uh, completely suffocating in terms of how they use their speed to defend as well. And they've got two guys, especially in Cooley, I mean, Keller too, but Cooley and Gunther have the juice to be the best player in the league, uh, best player on the ice any given night. So, you know, like that's not a team where it's like, well, and they didn't have those guys. It's

like you go into that game. Yeah, you expect Quinn Hughes for sure to be the best player on the ice, but there is absolutely a chance that it could be Gunther or Cooley. That's a level of high-end skill that a team like Calgary doesn't have. And frankly, that a team like Vancouver hasn't had, as I was saying earlier, often enough this season. But yeah, one goal games, they lost three defensemen, like crucial defensemen, Marino, Dursey, guys like that, for most of the year, like for like 40 plus games. And then, you know, they also dealt with mid season injuries to Gunther and Cooley that kept them

out for like six, eight weeks. So I think that's the combination of things that have led to them underachieving there. They're all healthy now and they are playing phenomenal hockey. We are speaking to Thomas Drance from the athletic and Canuck stock here on the health and rough show on sports net six 50 Drancer. What'd you think about my, my boy Vic Mancini last night? Mancini. Yeah, no, you know what? Until last night, I was thinking about it and I was thinking what I like about Victor Mancini is

the speed. I see him do like four or five good things every time he plays. And then I look at it after the game and the Canucks got throttled on the scoreboard or on the shot clock or in terms of shot attempts in all of those games. And so I was trying to figure out like why, given the speed with which this guy plays at, given the intelligence with which he seems to move the puck, given his physical assertivenesses are the Canucks not controlling play? Like I need to figure this out and I need to see more of this to understand

because you do sometimes get, especially for defenders playing toward the bottom of the lineup, you'll sometimes get these guys who you, your eyes like, but the fact is, is that they're not controlling play. And oftentimes that's signal that's worth paying attention to. Like it was with the Kido Hirose. Remember the keto heros a hype in this market Oh, yeah dog does a dogs got his jersey. I think But there was like the calm, you know, every touch of the puck was like crisp It was like yeah, okay And then at the end of the game you'd look and it was like well the other team out attempted the connects

35 to 12 or whatever right and it's like well, that's not gonna work long term and and you know now with her Rose we saw it for a long enough time that I was like yeah I'm pretty worried with Mancini this is what his third Canucks game fourth Canucks game something like that like I hadn't seen it enough to know that it was a thing but it was something that I was curious curious about because I'd really liked him when he debuted in Utah and I really liked his game, not against Montreal, against, was it Dallas that he played? Anyway, I liked his game that he got into last week. Last night though, especially as those injuries mounted,

he was great. He was the defender shooting from the point who Dustin Wolf seemed to have trouble controlling the rebounds on. Obviously that mattered in a huge moment, the biggest moment of the Connect season to this point on the Pedersen goal and the Connects also control play. So like to see that. That's why we need to see more of this guy.

And I think the Connects need to get him into the lineup. Honestly, like I think there's a size speed combination there that is super helpful. And then obviously there's the mobility side of it too. I mean, he's a really good skater, a really powerful skater. So, um, uh, it looks like, uh, it looks like a player to me.

Speaking of deployment and, you know, minute allotment from Rick Tocket, I was mentioning this earlier. I want to run it by you. I watched Nils Hoeglander last night, very impressed, looked at the box score, and I believe he had 1328 time on ice. My theory here is that whatever preconceived notions or thoughts that Rick Tauket might have about the player,

and he has been harsh on, he's been harsh on, on Hoaglander at times that for a team that's so bereft of offense and is struggling to score and struggling to generate that you might have to get outside your comfort zone if you're Rick Tauke and find a way to get a guy like Hoaglander in that situation or situations moving forward, more minutes, more shifts and more time on ice

because it's such a struggle right now to generate offense. Man, so I thought Hoglender was the best Canuck through the first 40 minutes for sure. Okay. But then in the third period, he takes the Coronado tripping penalty and the cadre save that Lankanen makes, right? Yeah.

That I described as a season saving save is on that power play opportunity. And then no one brings that up in discussing like, why didn't he keep playing in the third? You know what, why, why was Tauke it thereafter reluctant to play the guy? And it's like, well, you know, at some point you have to understand, right? Like if you're a manager and that's what a coach effectively is, if you're a manager and you're like, man, you know, I, I, the work that

Bruff does on radio is amazing. Like he is the most likely to make our audience laugh, way more likely to make our audience laugh than Halford. Okay. But. He's going to make our audience laugh than Halford. But- He's gonna get us cancelled. At least once a shift, he is late coming back from break by like five minutes.

Right. Oh, that doesn't matter on this station. Let him cook. I see where he's going with this. Canberra is gonna be like, well, I've got a limited shift. Like, I don't know what else to say. Okay, no, but I'm going to jump in. I'm going to jump in. This is the perfect way to go about this conversation because this is exactly what Bruff and I were talking about. It's that there's- Does Canberra think he's bigger than me or something like that? That wasn't where I was going to go with this, but there's an inherent, very predictable problem with Hoeglander. Yeah. Is that you can't trust them defensively. The entire crux of the argument is,

do you accept that and allow for that because you are so bereft of offense? Or do you say, no, we can't afford to allow that even though he might give us- You are making the beggars can't be choosers argument. Yeah. And it's a legitimate one when you talk about, well, does the coach have the flexibility to allow that or is he too rigid in his beliefs to not allow that? And I mean, I don't know which way you go with it because you're right, two of the biggest moments

in the third period that might have actually harmed the Canucks came at the expense of like, Hogan-Lander mistakes. At the sameucks came at the expense of like, Hoglender mistakes. At the same time, you look at his production, nobody had more shots on goal, six with less ice time, 13.28 than Hoglender did last night. It's a great sort of compare and contrast, it's a good debate to have,

he just happens to be at the middle of it. The thing though is, is like, I don't think, based on his work rate, right? Based on who he is as a player, based on his off-ice habits. Like, I don't think Hoaglander needs to be the player that a coach puts on the ice and thinks, there's a real chance that this guy Fs me.

Cat? I don't think he has guy Fs me. Okay. I don't think he has to be that guy. Sure. But. But he just kind of is right now in the moment. He has been. He has been. Yeah. And I think my point is,

and I think the right way to do it, honestly, is to not throw your hands up and be like, Hoeglander is a guy who comes with some back. I think dropping the challenge to him of play the right way and you'll get your ice time. Right? Stop doing this stuff and you'll get your ice time. I think to retreat from that standard to allow those mistakes is the wrong play for him long-term.

Right. Because I don't think Hoaglander is a guy who's like doing this because he's lazy. I don't think he's doing it because he lacks hockey IQ. I just think for whatever reason, it's kept cropping up. But he's been, you know, probably Vancouver's best forward in the new Year from a dynamic, offensive standpoint. They need him. He dominated through the neutral zone. He legit drove play

last night. I really like him with Pedersen too. Yeah. Oh, he needs to play with Pedersen. Pedersen needs that speed. There's a friendship there. There's a support there. Pedersen wants to play with Hoaglander. Hoaglander needs to stop making mistakes. He needs to stop doing this brain dead stuff if he wants to stay there. And I think making sure that he does is okay. Like you can't out of the same, out of one side of your mouth, be like, the Connucks are sold at the deadline because they're not a Stanley Cup team this year. And then out of the other side say, but they

need to ignore Hoaglanders. Obvious mistake. Right. Right. Because they need offense now. Like, no, they need to focus on the big picture. This is a guy signed for four more years beyond this year.

He's still a young player. The mistakes that he makes have to be fixable. Like keep playing his game, even when he's put with skill players and stop taking dumb penalties and stop making dumb turnovers the moment you entered the zone. And the Canucks have themselves a guy who I think can be a top six forward. Like, I don't even think just like a middle six compliment. Like I think this guy can be a top six forward and can be a game breaker for this team. But he does need to cut it out like he does

do some stuff that is harmful and yeah I don't think relaxing on that standard for the benefit of offense like isn't that the same thing that's the same sort of short-term thinking that you know this market most often criticizes the organization for I don't want to see that you're listening to the best of Halford and Brough