Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 3/13/26

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they talk last night's big come-from-behind Canucks OT win over the Predators with Donnie & Dhali's Rick Dhaliwal. 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 fucking Canucks? Dun, dun-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

You're listening to Halford and Brough. Left in the third, but they wouldn't quit. It was great. Everyone was super excited, and we had a fun win song, and everyone was having fun, so that was a big one for a real. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody, sweet, sweet Friday.

It is Halford and his broth. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning for you. Good morning.

Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have CRA debt? If you do, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com.

We are an hour one of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Pall Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintech

Studio, Step Strong, Halford. Okay. with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. I can do that. I'm going to step right into the Duick Morning Drive. It's our morning guest list brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. Big show ahead on a Friday. It begins at 6.30 this morning.

Yesterday's proposed 630 guest, Adam Crafton, writer for the athletic FC, is going to join us in a makeup hit today. Adam has been covering the buildup to this year's World Cup from a number of different perspectives, including the financial one. And now this morning, we can also talk to him about the future of Iran's participation in the tournament.

We'll talk to Adam Crafton from the athletic FC at 630 this morning. 7 o'clock, it's AJ from AJ's pizza, a $100 gift card to AJ's for the best ask us anything today. Start getting those in now. Hashtag him, AUA. Put a pizza emoji into your text. Dunbar Limer text line is 650, 650. The best one will win 100 bucks to AJ's. After AJ this morning at 7.05, Mike Benton is going to join the program.

radio host for the Seattle Cracken Audio Network. That sound you hear in the background right now? No, it's not static. That's the Crackin choking their playoff chances away. Blowout loss last night at home to the abs. And now the Cracken are coming into Vancouver this weekend to take on the red hot Vancouver Canucks. They have the one game winning streak.

Mike Benton's going to join us at 705 this morning. 7.30, Yesper Sorensen's going to join the program. White Caps manager hours after a bad and quite, frankly shocking loss. Three nil at home to Seattle in the Conca Calf Champions Cup. One of the worst defeats, home defeats of the Yesper Sorens and Aaron Vancouver. But now much time to sit and stew on it. Caps are back in action on Sunday.

Yesper's going to join us at 7.30. 8 o'clock, it's Rick Dollywall. I don't need to throw to Jason here. We're going to talk about Canucks culture with Dollywall, Nils Hoaglanders Future, NCAA free agents, what the Canucks are going to do on July 1, and some background info on courtesy. Douglas, the 6'5-9

nice skater for the Vancouver Canucks and how he got here. Dollywall's going to join us at 8. We've also got a Golf Town giveaway, our final giveaway this week. That's going to be at 8 a.m. as well right when we get Dollywall on the show. That's a $250 gift card to Golf Town. I'll remind everyone later on in the show

about the giveaway and the call. Got a lot to get into, not going to run the guest list in reverse. Without further ado, Laddy, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because our

We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? Whoa! What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies of investing tools, resources, and safety training.

Visit them online at BCCSA.com. Philip Hironix scored the tying goal with just over a minute remaining in regulation. And the Canucks won four three in the shootout against the National Predators at Rogers Arena on Thursday. A bit of a roller coaster game. The Kinecks got off to a great start. They dominated the first period. It was one of their best starts all season,

and it included a goal by Brock Besser and a couple of breakaways that were stopped by UC Soros, but the Kinecks couldn't take that one-nothing lead into the intermission. The Preds scored late in the period on just their third shot of the night, and the game was tied. Not the best defending from Vancouver on that goal, but you know what they say? You can only hope to contain the dynamic. duo of Justin Barrow, Justin Barron. Barron and Tyson Jost.

Still, it was promising stuff from the Canucks, especially by the line of Rossi between Besser and Ogren. More about those guys later. Jost scored again, five minutes into the second, and the Canucks were back in their natural habitat, and that is their natural habitat is trailing at Rogers Arena. They love trailing. They're so comfortable there.

It got a little chippy and scrambly after that. The Canucks had a couple of decent chances that they couldn't convert, and that allowed the Preds to make it 3-1, when Nanaimo's Matt Wood, I call him Woody over Nunimo, I don't know, bounced one in off of Liam Ogren. Wood had a bunch of family friends at the game, so that was nice for them. Now, the Preds would take their 3-1 lead into the third,

where it looked for most of the period, like they were going to easily put the Canucks. away. But not so fast, Nashville. The Marco Rossi line struck again with around four minutes left when Rossi himself banged in a rebound off a Liam Ogren shot. That made it three to two. Are you keeping up, Alford? I'm there. The Canucks would pull the goalie with two minutes left. And after some extended zone time, future captain, Philip Hironik, ripped one past Soros to tie the game. It was Bedlam in Rogers Arena. It was loud. Well, maybe not Bedlam, but the

Fans were pretty excited. Anyway, the overtime was pretty terrible until the closing moments when Elias Pedersen had two golden opportunities to win it. One, he ripped just way wide. And the other, he failed to convert a deke on Soros. Ah, Pedy. So off to the shootout, we went.

O'Gron missed. O'Reilly missed. DeBrus, scored. Forsberg missed. And with a chance to win it for the Canucks, well, Pedy missed. But Stamco's also missed, so the Canucks won anyway.

With the win, the Canucks improved to 720 and 5 at Rogers Arena, while the Preds blew a valuable point in their quest for a playoff spot. Yeah, those nights, and I know a large portion of the postgame show and the listeners were bemoaning the fact that the Canucks got two points. And at slightly... Yeah, it doesn't matter. Those nights that they had last night, even though the game was... choppy and scrambling and everything else.

Probably a lot better than some of these other nights that we've seen at Rogers Arena, which is evident of the fact that they are 7, 20, and 5 at home this season. There's still 11 points back of Calgary for 31st place. There's a...

Okay. I didn't want to go... You're allowed to win a few games here and there. I don't know if any of you guys are watching what St. Louis is doing. They're like on fire right now. I didn't want to be this guy because I don't want to dump on anybody's content. But there is an extraordinary amount of effort and energy being paid and spent towards tracking

the Canucks chances of finishing dead last in the National Hockey League. Folks, they got it. They got it. It's locked up, right? Put a bow on it, put a stamp on it, and send it. They're fine. We don't need to go through this.

Now they're going on a 10-game win streak, you realize, right? You just jinxed it. Whatever if they do, that would be hilarious. They could go on a 20-game win-stress. Oh, don't say it. They could win out. Don't even put that out there. They could win out.

Halford, they will do it despite you. Okay. This is also coming, though. Adag, you got to admit, this is also coming from someone, and you said it countless times that even if they do finish dead last, they're still going to somehow not get the lottery luck anyway. Yeah, I know, but still, don't just, it's, it's, that's, try our very best to help them here.

Stop being so weak-minded. They're terrible. They're a bad team. Yeah. They needed to pull the goalie to get that last goal and get it to a shootout. and then, you know, they won the shootout against not a very good team. If they go on a Winstreet guys, I tell you. Okay.

Well, it would be interesting if they do, wouldn't it? It would be interesting. Then we can be like, oh, some of these young guys are playing. Yeah, but you know what? It was a fun night at Rogers Arena. I was listening to Brock Bessor's post-game remarks, and he was also talking about the bedlam, as you somewhat tongue-in-cheek put it earlier in the notes,

that the crowd, I will say this about the crowd at Rogers Arena this year. they have been enthusiastic. At times it's been a bit tongue-in-cheek themselves, but for the most part, they have shown up and cheered on a good effort when a good effort has been put forth. I think the fans in this... And even an entertaining loss.

Yeah. They've been... I enjoy the we want the cup chance. See, that's funny. One of my favorite parts. That's a bit of self-awareness, understanding what you're cheering for. I'm sure the players hate it, but whatever.

It's their fault. Some of them might be like, that's pretty good. I'll tell you how you change it, you go win that big shiny mug. But until then, I'll say this, and this is a tangent I didn't expect to go on this morning, but I actually have been pretty impressed with how the fan base has handled this season. Because... Me too. You know, and we'll talk about Toronto in a minute and the absolute hatred and loathing that they have for that group of players.

And I know part of this season has to do with shipping a lot of guys out, but the paying customers that have showed up at Rogers Arena and the fans that have still dutifully checked in night after night after night and tracked this team and hoped for the best and wanted to see these young guys make some growth in a lost season. It has been impressive. And I know that the fan base gets a rough ride here and I know that a lot of the enthusiasts are considered crazy.

But it's been overall a pretty decent performance from the fan base in a year where the guys on the ice, Didn't give that fan base a lot to cheer for. Yeah, let's just call what it is. Look at their record at home. Right? Even if they were missing the playoffs with a good home record and an awful road record, that's a different dynamic than going out and posting seven home wins.

Like we were joking about the fan blogger from Detroit that we play in the intro, that did we just lose to the F and Canucks? Between them winning on like a random Friday and then losing on a Saturday where we don't get to play them on a Monday, I think we've played them four times this year. Maybe. Also forgetting a couple times. And we've forgotten a few times because we were like, what? Yeah, they won.

We do that. I heard it. I was like, what the hell is that? Okay, let's run through some of these other stories in the National Hockey League last night. There was some good Shadenfreude for some of the other Canadian teams who had very rough nights on the ice. Where do you want to start? Do you want to go to Edmonton first because it was a bad night for Edmonton and Dallas? Or do you want to go to Toronto?

Because it was a bad night for Toronto in Toronto. Well, Toronto's game was first. So let's go to Toronto first. And, you know, you also just mentioned. that that fan base hates that team. The media hates that team. Craig Barubi, their head coach, hates that team.

Maybe explain the latest reason why. Maple Leafs Captain Austin Matthews crumpled to the ice early in the second period of their game against Anaheim last night after a vicious knee-on-knee hit from Anaheim Ducks Captain Radco Gutus. Goudis got five in a game, as you would expect. But the anger wasn't directed

just at Radco, Goudis. The Maple Leafs, who actually came back to win that game and snap a pretty lengthy slump. They weren't upset just with Goudis. They were upset with themselves. Nobody stepped in to do anything in the immediate aftermath of Goudis going knee-on-kne-on-kneed with Matthews, with their captain crumpled on the ice, writhing in pain, and Goudis actually looking around, assuming that someone was going to challenge him to some kind of fight. Yeah, he's like, man, I I just need the hell out of Austin Matthews. I'm going to have to pay for this. And he was looking around.

Anyone? Anyone? I guess, am I still in this game? No? All right. Barube was asked about the incident after the game, and he said it's a dirty play. The league is going to look at it. Then he was asked if he had an explanation as to why his players did not immediately react in the situation,

to which Baroube replied, no. Obviously, we should have four guys in there doing something. about it, but it didn't happen. So what is Barubei's purpose? He was there, you brought in, they're not winning, and they're not playing with any extra snarl, why is

he there? There is no coach that is more guaranteed to be gone than Craig Burubi. None. He is a hundred times more guaranteed to be gone at the end of the season than Adam Foot in Vancouver. I thought, and I still am wondering

because it's early in the morning back east still, thought he might resign just right there. Be like, you're going to fire me anyway. Yeah. This is a good time to walk away from this sad group players. I want to play the audio. So J.D. Bunkis and Sam McKee, we've had both on the show before. They do our version of the Canucks Post game show, Leafs talk after every Leafs game.

And to hear them, two very passionate Leafs fans in the aftermath of that display was Chef's Kiss Good, if you're a big fan of Shaddenford. I want to play. It's about 30 seconds of J.D. Bunkus talking about how of all the lows that this group has had over the last nine, 10 seasons, this might have been the lowest watching their captain get taken out by Radcood Goudas and doing nothing about it. Here's J.D. Bunkus from last night's Toronto Maple Leaf Post game show. This is insanity that these guys did not just fly in there for their captain as he receives an unbelievable dirty hit and is just laying there on the ice and nobody's doing anything. Yeah.

It's one of the lowest moments for me of this entire course tenure. That's how bad I feel about this moment. Like it is putrid what those guys did allowing their captain to just lay there and watch Radko Goode to skate off the ice completely unscathed, completely untouched. No sideshow, no circus. Now, some of the Leafs in the Post did try and take responsibility for what didn't happen, including Morgan Riley, who while not the captain is always sort of. been a leader, a guy that's looked upon because he's a veteran, because he's been there for a

long time, and because he was on the ice, and he tried to own it. I'll let you guys listen to the audio now. It feels like a guy who knows that saying something in the aftermath isn't going to make up for it, but you got to say something anyway. Here's Morgan Riley after a 6-4 win for the Leafs last night against the Ducks, but a loss in a bigger way with the loss of Captain Austin Matthews. Yeah, I didn't have a good view of it just because the puck was going the other way, but it's It's on me for not responding earlier to Goudas being there. Obviously, it's a dirty hit. I didn't understand how bad he got him in the moment,

but I take full responsibility for not being the first one in there or being in there quicker to respond. That being said, I thought our group played well on the third and was able to respond. But ultimately, when your captain goes down like that on a dirty play, you have to respond as a group. but I also take responsibility for not being the first one in there after the hit. Okay, so that's the Leafs. Let's move on to the Oilers now because we've got a few things to get into.

I also want to mention the Cracken because we've got a Cracking guest today. And the Connects play the Cracken on Saturday. There was a lot of, you know, I tweeted out that I was enjoying the view from my glass house yesterday. Just chucking rocks at everyone else. But knowing full well that, you know, I don't. have much of a leg to stand on, but still, it was funny. I mean, that was embarrassing for the Leafs. And man, I watched a lot of that Dallas Edmonton game,

and that was embarrassing for the Oilers. So we made that our one to watch, brought to you by Limitless A.V. Yesterday, this Oilers Stars game in Dallas, a rematch of previous Western Conference finals. Oilers come into this game off two great wins. They beat Dallas. They beat Colorado in Colorado.

And then it all fell apart last night. Jason Robertson, two goals and two assists for the stars, who raced out. to a five-goal lead before cruising to a 7-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers in Dallas. This one had a lot. I've been working on this guy's name all morning. Justin Ritzkovian. He's the guy, it's spelled H-R-Y-C-K-O-W-I-A-N.

He's number 49 for the stars. The only reason I'm mentoring Ritzkovian is because he was under the skin of the Oilers all night to the point where he actually drew Connor McDavid and lured him into the rare fight. And this is while the Oilers were surrendering those five goals. And what was an onslaught for the Oilers, their blue line, and specifically Tristan Jari. Greg and I were watching highlights of the game

when we came in this morning. And Greg said, it feels like every shot that's going towards Tristan Jari is going in. It's like they're just whipping it on net and they're being rewarded every time. Yeah, the Oilers, but they were also... They were also terrible defensively.

Disaster defensively. And they don't take care of the puck in their own end. But someone texted in earlier and said, do you think the Oilers would rather have Skinner than Tristanjari? I'm kind of like, they might, yeah. I bet they have some regret over that trade. Look at this last few. Like he played 20 minutes against Colorado and was like fine.

But full games, seven goals last night in Dallas. That's tough. that five goals against Carolina five goals against Anaheim four against Calgary that was a good start I was good five goals against Minnesota you know you go back into January now you got six goals against Pittsburgh like he his numbers are cratering yeah and the Oilers you know I I don't think I don't think you can start I don't think you can start Jari if the playoffs started today there's there's no way he'd be your starter but then who does that leave you with well Connor

Ingram who's now hurt but like that's crazy that's that's that's that's no disrespect to Connor Ingram but it would be crazy if the Oilers started the playoffs and you're like is there a guy stay Connor Ingram well they're gonna if the playoffs started today and both goalies were healthy Connor Ingram's your starter going into the postseason I don't even think it's a question to be honest you can't play Jari at this point because he has not proven over a lengthy period of time that he can put together more than one or two decent starts. And you rattled off those numbers. He's not putting together any decent starts at this point. It's a minimum of four

goals allowed per game and you just can't win in the playoffs. And the oilers are a mess in front of them. Just because I don't know if it's because they don't trust them or they're just not very good defensively, but man, this this team better pull its socks up if it wants to make another run at the Stanley Cup. The Seattle Cracken

are now out of the playoffs. Congratulations to the San Jose, Sharks who are in. Yeah, the Sharks got a good win in Boston yesterday, and listen, the Cracken had a tough opponent in Colorado, but they weren't

even close in this one. They ended up losing at home 5-1. And this is a team that, you know, they wanted to do something big or they still want to do something big. All they ended up doing really at the trade downland was they got Bobby McMahon out of Toronto, which was fine as a nice pickup. But, you know, they went into this season knowing that they,

okay, we got no star power. We don't have much offensive punch. So let's play really well defensively. And they did for the most part. and now they have lost four in a row. And if this team misses the playoffs, it's not like Seattle's going to be like, you know, falling apart as a sports city.

Seattle's still talking about the Seahawks Super Bowl win, right? And Seattle's into other stuff. But if the Cracken missed the playoffs, there will be even more pressure on this management group to do something big this offseason because the city will forget about the Cracken. I guarantee it. It's not a hockey city.

It's just not. They have to make it into a hockey city. And so far, they've had, they had the one playoff series win against Colorado, and that was the peak. That's been the peak of the Kraken. That and people seem to like their uniforms. Love the unis.

That's it. And, you know, I don't know if they've got any superstars coming. Do you remember how everyone was like, these guys are so set up. Boy, they got Baneers down the middle, Shane Wright down the middle. And now they're like, oh, Shane Wright is talking about getting, you know, people who were talking about him being traded. And Beneers is fine.

Beneers is fine. But he's not an elite number one center. There's nothing elite on this team. And I think they're really, really going to be under pressure to do something big. If they can do it, though, right? They wanted to get Pinaran. And then Pinar was like, I'll go to L.A. actually. who else are they going to get?

We, of course, talked about Pedersen to the Cracken. I mean, maybe, but... Big showcase game this weekend for Petey when he takes on the Cracken at home. That's a pretty big risk if you want to take that on. You know, the Cracken, if they missed the playoffs this year, like that's another, like, okay, another opportunity that the fans don't get to be excited about the team. Well, we're going to talk to Mike Benton,

who's a radio host for the Seattle Cracken Audio Network. work. He's going to join us in the 7 o'clock hour. But what's happening right now is that the Cracken went into the Olympic break playing very good hockey. As a matter of fact, the playoffs looked like it was pretty comfortable at that point. They went in with a 4-2-1 over Dallas to put them at 27, 20, and 9 coming out of the break, they've won two games post-Olympic. And the worst part about this for the Cracken is that their last four losses have all come at home. When they had an opportunity to do something at the deadline and take care of business at home, they did neither. They've got a four-game losing streak in regulation at home. They haven't

even able to pick up a loser points. St. Louis, Ottawa, Nashville, and Colorado. So you might excuse them for the Colorado game, but they lost seven to four to Ottawa, lose to Nashville, lose to St. Louis. Yeah, three non-playoff teams at home where you're supposed to pick up points. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Kevin on the road, I have a loud co-worker who we call Mr. Loud, who just moved into the desk beside me. He's so loud that all the people whom he used to sit by are now visibly happier. What do I do?

Even his keyboard is loud. Kevin, I have a very loud coworker who just moved into the desk beside me. And he never left. and you never left. Yeah, loud people are... I've been accused of being loud a lot. Who are you? You have a loud voice.

You have a loud voice. Loud voice. I type loud. Yeah, I'm loud. They call me loudie. They don't call me that. But I know I know louder people than you. Oh. And yeah.

That's a challenge. It's, it's, did they know they're loud? You know what bugs me is when a loud person like takes pride in being loud? I'm unaware. I'm unaware of my loudness sometimes. Okay, but there are some people who are like, well, that's just me. It's a personality thing. I'm a loud person.

I'm boisterous. You're like, you should shut up then because that's not great. Boisterous. It's part of my personality. I'm just boisterous. I'm just boisterous. I can't call people fat. We've got to call them big bone.

That's like you can't say somebody's loud. I'm just boisterous. It's just boisterous. Anyway, we got to go to break. I don't know what to say, Kev. You're screwed. Oh, to answer the question, he can't do anything about it. Hey, Ken.

Fire ants. Fire ants. Litter him all over the desk. Ralph and I... He'll be loud for a brief moment and I'll never talk again. You might consider just being like

have a big freak out and just like, shut up. You're so loud. Just shut up. You might consider handling was very poorly. Just stop being so loud. Just stop it. Like everyone in the office

thinks you're loud. Look at these people. They used to sit by you and now they don't and they're happy because you're so loud. And if he starts to cry, then you say... Now Mr. Loud is loudly sobbing. Oh, God.

Even his crying is loud. All right, we got to go to break. Coming up, Rick Dollywall, speaking of loud people. He's going to join his next. Oh, no, we can stop. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Rick Dollywall joins us now on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. What up, Ricky D?

Gentlemen, how's it going? Good. How are you, buddy? Oh, lovely. Couldn't be better. A lot of culture talk this week, and I'm sure it'll continue into the offseason, especially with July 1st and the Canucks looking to add a few veteran leaders. What have you thought about all this culture talk? I think you guys had Chris Pronger on Monday, and Pronger sent that tweet out, I think,

on Saturday or Sunday. Got a lot of people thinking in Vancouver. I heard you guys talking about culture all week. As the Canucks enter a rebuild and tons of young kids are coming into this lineup over the next few years, I think it's a very important subject. Why has the Canucks dressing room being a disaster for almost two years? Well, coaches create a lot of the environment for winning. The right leadership group helps.

Are the daily habits of a team conducive to winning? Is there structure on and off the ice? I will tell you this. Three guys have shown me in the last two or three weeks that they are leading. leaders who the Conucks should keep. Philip Peronik could have easily said before the deadline, get me out of here. You know, get me out of here. I want to go to a winner.

Canucks could have got a massive haul for him. He didn't say that. Brock Bester said this week, I didn't sign your long term to bail on the guys. He's not going to ask for a trade. And Teddy Bluger's a UFA, right? He's the easiest guy to bolt, right? This mess. He could just walk away because he's a UFA.

He could sign anywhere. he wants. But he's saying that I might resign. I want to take, one of the best interviews this week was Utah GM Bill Armstrong said about the Nick Smaltz signing this week and really hit home about Vancouver

to me. He said he couldn't sleep a night thinking about Schmaltz possibly leaving. He said that when times were tough in Arizona, Smaltz never asked for a trade. He never said, get me out of here. I'm tired of the losing. It sucks here. He had no problems.

around in the dark times and look how he was rewarded. They remembered that. You know, Armstrong remembered when they were losing all those years in Arizona, Smallt said, no, I'm going to stick around. That's exactly what erroneous Becer and Bluger are doing. They're showing good character, the kind of good character that you need for all these young kids in Vancouver. And there's tough times ahead.

Like, do you want veterans who want to be here? you know, thanks to his public statements, you can tell that Jake DeBrusk, he's got one foot out the door. Those are the guys you should move. I mean, he said it himself, I don't want to be here for a rebuild. It was him. You know, nobody put those words in his mouth. Yeah, he tried to go back on it a little bit, but yeah, it came out. Yeah, and I told you why, because agents don't like their players to ask for trade because their public enemy number one right away, puts the agent behind the eight ball.

just like that junior hockey team that's looking for good 19, 20-year-olds, on and off the ice to nurture those 16, 17-year-olds, same thing here, right? You've got to pick the right vets. Canucks need to make sure they pick the right vets because they have already seen what a bad mixture of veterans can do to a dressing room. The Canucks have been the poster boys for bad dressing rooms in the NHL now for two years. They need to change that, ASAP. back to Bluger.

The one thing that I do worry, I wonder about him. He's 31 years old, right? I wonder if he'll get more term in Vancouver than he would on July 1st. Take less money, more term. Apparently, he likes the city, the family. That's going to be something to keep an eye on for me. Can Bluger get more term in Vancouver as opposed to July 1st? You know, he is 31.

on getting up there and everything. But I wonder about if he can hang around and get more term out of Vancouver as opposed to somewhere else. Nils Hoaglander did not get into the lineup yesterday. And people were mad online about that because they look at a Vander Kaine still getting, you know, top line minutes or opportunities. And, you know, he's not going to be a future part of this team. what is the Canucks thinking on this? First of all, if I was Hoaglander, I'd be thinking about my future in Vancouver. He is 25 years old, getting scratched on the worst team in hockey in a meaningless game in March.

This guy screams, I need to change the scenery. Four coaches have healthy scratched him in Vancouver. Eight goals last year. One goal this year. Salary went up to $3 million. That's not going to help them. the Canucks, move them if they do with the draft, and, you know, if he ends up with two or three or four goals, he can't get a coach in this city that has ever believed in him.

He can't find one. Nine goals in his last 97 games in Vancouver for Holglander, I wonder about that kid's future. This one could end up like Pod Colson for me. Pod Colson had four goals in his last 58 games in Vancouver. Very similar cases. neither player really had a coach in Vancouver who believed in them. I see everybody ripping the Canucks because Pod Colson's got 15 goals in

Evanton. Good for him. He's a guy you cheer for. One thing about his time in Vancouver for Pod Colson, Jason, I will tell you, very well liked by management, very well liked by the players, not only in Vancouver but in Abbey as well. Very likable kid, easy to cheer for. But don't rip the Canucks for trading them. Imagine the uproar. they would have put Pod Colson on waivers and he got claimed the Canucks got nothing in return. Well, it was more of the other moves that they made that forced him out. I suppose in hindsight that you would look at.

You know, I looked the other day and look, I don't want to take anything away from Podkulzen because I think, you know, he's a likable kid. He works hard. Yeah. He's been good for the Oilers. Ten of his 15 goals have come with dry sidle on the ice. Like he gets to play with drysidal. And you've got to hang there.

Hold on a second. You've got to hang with it, too. I don't want to take anything away from him, but he wasn't getting that opportunity in Vancouver because the Canucks never had a guy like Drysidal. That is true. But how many times was he put in the top six and then a week later in the bottom six and then back to Abby? To play with Drysiddle, you've got to have the hockey sands and you've got to hang with him. Millions of guys could be put with him and then a week later put on line four.

So give him credit for that. If you want to rip the Canucks for taking Pod Colson, You shouldn't rip them for trading them to Edmonton. You should rip them for taking Pod Colson in the draft over Cole Cawfield and Matthew Bouldy. That's where the real argument with Pott Coulson is. Can you imagine if Cole Cawfield or Matthew Bouldy was in Vancouver? Yeah, Matthew Bouldy is a absolutely terrific player.

And I mean, so is Cole Cawfield. I think I'd rather have Matt Bouldy, though. And I remember those conversations taking place, too, by the way. People were like, you've got to take Boldie. take boldie. Well, and the guy they really liked was Zegris. The Canucks first interviewed Ziegress at the draft combine, but the draft was in Vancouver. And when Zegris touched, it touched into Vancouver that week for the draft,

the Canucks had a second interview with him. That was a guy that were really hot and heavy after, was Zegris. But if you want to rip the Canucks, don't rip them for trade and pot calls and rip them for taking Coffield or not taking Coffield and Boldie. And that was a different regime. It was a totally different regime. I saw that the Flames got an NCAA free agent, Tyson Gross, 23 years old, with St. Cloud State. Do the Canucks have anything lined up on the NCAA?

Let me talk about Gross for a second. The Canucks were in on that. But that one was a real tough one. Not only is he a Calgary native, Jason, his dad works for the flames. and he is 6-3-195, he's a center. What's the one thing the Canucks don't have? Zero big, heavy-set centers. Not in Vancouver, not NAB, no prospect is massive at center.

They need to address that. They don't have size at center. Another NCAA top free agent right now is T.J. Hughes out of Michigan. A lot of people ask me, are the Canucks in on T.J. Hughes out of Michigan? I was told they are not. there's a lot of teams after Hughes. Right now, the Canucks are not one of the teams after T.J. Hughes. I think after, I think him and Grouse, they have a ton of teams after the.

Connox is still poking around on NCAA free agents. Lots of these free agents still haven't decided if they're going to turn pro or return to college. What can the Canucks and the Flames offer that most teams can't offer in the National Hockey League to these guys' opportunity? agents also like the Vancouver Abbasford setup. The Siddine twins helping with the defensemen. That's what helped sign Max Sasson. According to your buddy Danny Millions, it was like Max Sons had 20 plus teams after me,

he picked Vancouver. And Milstein said one of the reasons why was the setup in Abbisperd, and you get to work with the Sadiens, which is a really, really big plus for the Canucks when they go out and try and acquire kids out of the NCAA. So the Canucks can offer a lot of these guys opportunity

because when you're 32nd in the NHL, Jason, there's lots of opportunity. July 1st, I know it's a ways away, but, you know, Nick Schmaltz goes off the board. There really isn't all that much out there. I don't think the Canucks are going to be in the running. No. sign a guy like Alex Tuck, he even leaves,

Buffalo. What's going to be the plan for the Canucks? I feel like you're going to say leadership, leadership, leadership. Well, first of all, this free agent market, like, go look, have you looked, have you Googled, who's available? Like, it's pretty weak. The one thing I've noticed in the last year and a half is teams are not allowing their UFA centers to hit July 1st. Remember last year, Matt Duchyne, the Canucks, really high on the Canucks. list. What did Dallas do, guys, resign them. Utah resigned Nick Schmaltz. Flyers re-signed Raddick-Divorak. With no top centers left in free agency, maybe teams, Jason circled back on guys like Elis Pedersen at the draft. You know, maybe they go after him.

Smaltz would have been the number one center on July 1st. I asked an agent who's got some clients on Utah, I said, what is it about the mammoth? Why are so many people resigning there? I'm going to read to the text. Utah is a class act. Other owners better start taking notice. The practice facility, the way they treat their players, it's amazing. So that's where the Canucks have to get someday. Is exactly what I read to you.

Agents and players someday have to talk about the Connucks organization like that, like they're talking about Utah right now. But the Canucks are miles and miles and miles away from that. Did you see the Utah owner yesterday on Twitter? giving away free if we're giving away free tickets to a suite to just average rolls, DMing them

on how to get into the rank and sit in the suite, that's how you build goodwill as an owner. Have you ever seen that goodwill around here? Like that's an owner with a Twitter account offering free tickets to his suite to the public and DMing these guys and this is how you get the building and everything.

It is a honeymoon phase there though. To be fair, there's a bit of a honeymoon phase going on in Utah. I'm not disagreeing with you. Let's not get any yelling fight, but we'll see how that goes. We've seen plenty of owners takeover teams and everything is great, and then things aren't great. Terry Pagula and Buffalo comes to mind. All right. If the Canucks don't resign Teddy Blugher for whatever reason, and if Philippeal is 100% or decides to retire this summer,

like Jason, the Canucks may have to enter the center market. I did hear this week that Heidel is feeling better for whatever that's worth. I did hear that. You brought up Alex Tuck, and I get a kick out of, you know, all these people saying, get Alex Tuck to Vancouver. Okay, first of all, he's going to demand between 10 to 12 million a year. He's a winger, not a center. Second of all, he's not made the playoffs in five years.

So third of all, you're telling me that a 29-year-old UFA that was born near Buffalo, who's never won a Stanley Cup, wants to win a cup, and is a free agent for the first time in his life, is going to sign in Vancouver. Like that, Alex Tuck is going to have a ton of teams after him. I would be shocked if he ended up in Vancouver. Now, you mentioned leadership. I do believe the Canucks, if you can grab one or two, like right now, Besser and Horonick and Bluger is showing good leadership,

but if you can get one or two more on July 1st, go ahead and do it. Their signing of Ian Cole in 2023 was a very smart move. The Canucks wanted Cole back at 50% pay cut. There was no way he was going to do that. He's still playing in the NHL last time I checked. You know, there's guys out there, Luke Shen, Colton Cisd, Vancouver Kid, there's guys out there you can get on one or two-year deals,

good vets to help. Why did Chen and Nick Folino and Tanner Pearson, why did they get moved to the deadline? They're good leaders, good pros off and on the ice. You can't get enough of those type of guys. And I think when I look at some of the free agents available and some good leaders out there, I think there's some good deals there to be had for Vancouver.

Let's hope so, Rick. Thanks again for your weekly hit. I'm sure, you know, we're kind of in a dead period for the Canucks right now. And I'm sure things will ramp up as the season mercifully draws to a close. But enjoy your weekend, pal. Have a good one. All right, guys, take care. See you, buddy.

That's Rick Dollywell. From Donnie Dolly on Check TV, our Intrepid Canucks reporter here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into the. the practice facility, Britannia with Rick. But alas, I was going to make that my smart decision brought to you by Crow because, you know, when this thing eventually gets done, and there doesn't seem to be a lot beyond the initial report right now in terms of details. There's rumors of artistic renderings that have been done, but no one's seen them. You know what I want to know? What do you want to know?

Is it going to be more than one sheet of ice? That's a very good question. Like not just for the Canucks, but for the community. Right. You know, we need more rinks. And if it's going to be one sheet of ice, that's better than no sheets of ice. But, you know, we've also heard, you know, NHL coaches say that it's great to have two sheets of ice because you can just use one. And when it gets a little choppy, then you hop on to the other.

Talk, it loves it. Yeah. And you can have, you know, two groups skating at the same time on different sheets of ice. I'm just, I'm curious. Don't, don't allow you. They announced a practice facility. You're already nitpicking. I'm like, yeah, that you want to get it right.

You want to get this thing right, not only for the Canucks, but for the community that is hopefully going to be able to use it. So I'm going to say it, building it for Tanya, assuming it all gets done and we get a little bit more than beyond the initial report. Is the smart decision brought to you by Crow, your trusted accounting and tax advisors for over 55 years? Crow smart decisions lasting value Learn more at chroma Chi Dot CA We've got a few minutes before we go to break here Reminder it is Friday

That means it's ask us anything Friday Get yours in Hashtag it AUA and put a pizza emoji in Still haven't awarded it yet We need some good ones You could still win So if you put a pizza emoji in You hashtag it at AUA

And it's a good AUA You could win a $100 gift card to AJ's pizza on East Broadway This is kind of a funny one one from Reed in Vancouver, ask us anything. The camp doesn't want to make Heronic captain also wants to trade him. Do they not realize that the most expedient way to trade him is to make him our captain first? Yeah, yeah. A couple of captains have been traded in the last little while in Vancouver.

So maybe that. We'll make you a captain. Is that a threat? Yeah. Now what? I mean, you know, I know that I'm wasting breath to a certain degree by continually mentioning this. Yeah, I'm glad you didn't argue with Dolly Wall about that. I'm glad you sat that out because it would just get chaotic.

Yeah, I just, to me, and I, again, one man's opinion, although that's most of sports talk radio, occasionally two guys' opinions, but one man's opinion. You cannot call it a fully embraced rebuild when you keep a guy like, that around. And a guy like that, I mean, a guy that has immense value to other NHL clubs who would be willing to give you a return. And isn't a superstar. Let's be honest, he's a very good defenseman. He's not a superstar. But here's the thing. If he was a superstar, I'd say that's even more of an impetus to potentially move him. This is all about asset accumulation right now. This team is going to stink. Stink. The stink lines and everything for years.

They need more first round picks. Years. They need more picks. They've only got one extra first round pick. And I know it's been like Nick Suzuki week, because we've mentioned Nick Suzuki a lot on the show, the various times of day and everything. But as we allude to the Montreal rebuild, and you've brought this point up numerous times that they inherited someone like a Suzuki, which really, really accelerates things and makes a rebuild because you've got a good foundation that much better. The Canucks don't have that. they're not flush with first round picks.

They don't have a huge price of court. They've got to start taking some bad contracts for picks, man. Whatever they got to do, man. But you know what? That's not the, that's not as feasible as it was during the flat cap era. Yeah, it's unfortunate they missed out on that era where you could. They still do it, though. They have cap space and I'm sure there are teams that want to get rid of,

I mean, I'm not talking about like six or eight years of the players. Teams aren't as desperate anymore. It's unfortunate they missed out on that window. Although, you know what, I'm going to be really curious to see. let's say the oilers have an unsuccessful postseason and it's certainly trending that way, they're going to have to move darnel nurse. They're going to have to get rid of that contract.

And that's a team that you would look at and be like they have cap issues, right? Even though Connor McDavid took a very friendly deal, the darnel nurse contract is a serious impediment for them. Yep. So there will be certain situations, where maybe the Canucks can get involved. Oz hasn't asked us anything.

And it was originally for when Dolly Wall was on and he'd love to dive into 1980s movies, Oz writes. What is the best original song made for a movie? Power of Love for Back to the Future. My Heart Will Go On for Titanic. Any of the Bond themes for some examples. Yeah, the James Bond one. I mean, view to a kill, Duran Duran.

Yeah. It's a good one. James Bond usually has, like Skyfall. That was... Does it let die? Yep. Eminem's Lose Yourself, which was made for 8 Mile. That was a good one.

That's a good one. Yeah. How about, uh, now I've had the time of my life. You know? Dirty dancing. Yeah. Well, Footless. I got the...

If we're going, I'm just, I had to Google it because I was curious. A dog's like Ghostbusters. Ray Parker Jr. It's on the list. It's out there with power of love, probably. But if you're talking like the most iconic and famous, over the rainbow was written for the Wizard of Oz and Moon River was written for Breakfast at Tiffany's.

I didn't think he was going to play Moon River. Second encore. Do you guys count Purple Rain? Because that was a movie, but it was more like an extended... Did he write the song before the movie? It was more like an... I don't know. It was more like an extended music video.

I actually watched a bit of purple rain the other day. It came on the TV. I'm like, this is terrible. It doesn't hold up very well. It was never very good to begin with. It was just like... It was era dependent. Everything I do by Brian Adams was written for Robin Hood.

That was a good one. Culeo's Gangsters Paradise was written for... I think I'd probably give it the power of love. Just because of how iconic that song became even after the movie. I love the way it was in the movie. I think it matters how it's in the movie. It's just like... It kicked off the movie with...

with unbelievable energy. Here's the thing that, you know what, I'll push back. Ghostbusters might, I know there's no right answer, but it might be the right answer because think about it. Yeah. Could Ghostbusters the song exist in any other universe or orbit than Ghostbusters? Yeah, it's true. You couldn't put it in like.

No, no. And it's funny that he ripped off a Huey Lewis song. It doesn't stand on its own. It doesn't stand on its own. Yeah, imagine if he came out with a song called Ghostbuster. People are like, what the hell are you doing? It's the power of ghosts. Why is he's calling them?

in a second. You're playing in the middle of Top Gun. Yeah, I think my 1A, 1B would be Power of Love or Ghostbusters. It's one of those two probably. You're listening to the best

of Halford and Brough.