Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 3/17/26

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they preview tonight's Canucks home matchup versus the Florida Panthers, as analyst Landon Ferraro joins the show. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. You know, sass is really coming as well. Look out, itchy! He's Irish! Nadry shoots! Love save Sheila! You've done grand, laddie. Now you know what you have to do?

Burn the house stone. Burn them all. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody. This Halford and his breath. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Literally just clued in. Yeah, I figured. What the day is? I'm like, what? Kind of a shot at the Irish out of it. Now we're in the intro. Good morning.

Adon, good morning to you. Good morning. And Lattie, good morning to you as well. Just random Irish clips of the intro. Yes. Hello, hello. We're the Irish theme today. Very strange.

We'll lay off the Irish one, what you. Yeah, geez, what they do. Alfred and Brum of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have CRA debt? If you do, Sands and Associates can 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 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 Piles Street. Vancouver. We're coming to you live from the Kintech Studio. Step Strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. Rough during the Christmas show.

Really, Santa Claus theme today. A little Santa vibes for the intro today. We do have a big show ahead today. We will begin with our guest list. It's a Duick Morning Drive, brought to by the Duick Auto Group. Begins at 630. Greg Wasinski is going to join the

program, our NHL Insider from ESPN. Big 2028 World Cup of hockey news yesterday. How about the province of Alberta? Calgary and Edmonton being named as the North American hosts. We'll talk to Wish about that. Wish also has a lot to say about the current state of the NHL's Department of Player Safety, which is making big news down at the NHL GM's meetings in Florida.

Wish is going to join us at 6.30. 7 o'clock. Speaking of Florida, George Richards is going to join the program. Panthers beat writer for Florida hockey now. Panthers are in town to take on the Canucks. Tonight, 7 o'clock puck. from Rogers Arena. The season is all but over for the Panthers,

and it has been a lost season of sorts for them. George is going to join us at 7 o'clock to talk about it all. 7.30, Zach Worden's going to join the program. Sportsnet, Blue Jays, and MLB writer, as you heard in the intro, Venezuela punched its ticket to tonight's world baseball classic finale against the U.S. Meanwhile, the Jays are heading into the final week of spring training. Get this, Jason. Blue Jays baseball starts in just.

10 days. Wow. J's open on March 27th against the A's. Zach Worden joins us at 7.30 for some baseball talk. 8.10 this morning, Landon Ferraro is going to join the program. Sportsnet Canucks Analyst, as mentioned, Canucks Panthers, 7 o'clock tonight. Rogers Arena. Reminder, you can hear the pregame, the post game, and the actual game all right here on SportsNet 650. Landon is going to join us at 8.10 this morning for some Canucks talk. Finally, also at 8 a.m., Landed and Monster Jam,

together at last. We're giving away a four pack of tickets to see the Monster Jam at the Pacific Coliseum Saturday, March 28th, 7 p.m. All your favorites are going to be there including El Toro Loco.

I haven't confirmed. Grave digger? I haven't confirmed actually either of their appearances so I may be false advertising. This is how the white caps got hit with that messy lawsuit. I shouldn't promote this. El Toro Loco may be there.

Anyway, call her number 5 at 8 a.m. 604, 280650. be giving away four Monster Jam tickets at 8 o'clock this morning. Got a lot to get into on the program. Not going to run it in reverse without further ado. Greg to tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

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

training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. We will begin with the Vancouver Canucks, who yesterday returned to full practice ahead of tonight's game against the Florida Panthers. Yeah, it looks like Nils Hoglender will get back in the lineup tonight against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champs who are probably not going to make the playoffs. Hoaglander skated on a line with Evander Kane and Atu Ratu, while Jake DeBrus got bumped up to play with Elias Pedersen and Drew O'Connor, the bro line. of Besser, Rossi, and Ogren remained intact.

And it's been nice to see some chemistry. What a freaking boost. It's been nice to see some chemistry forming with that trio, otherwise known as the Broline. I like that. Besser, Rossi, and Ogren. Could have gone with Orb line too. So, listen, I don't want to tell you

what to do and how to do your job, but one to watch tonight could be, I suppose, Nils Hoaglander to see how he plays. He's been a healthy scratch for two straight games. And here's Adam Foote on Nils Hoaglander and what they've been working on with him. We talked to how he worked with him.

We're trying to change just a couple things he does when he forces it, right? Like, you know, the blue line worker getting doubled up quick because he just wants it so bad that if he can change that, it'll be more predictable, have more offensive zone time. And, you know, you know, just we want them to make those decisions. And we don't want him also to go into a game and feel like if he makes one mistake, he's going to be pulled.

So we want him to have a little bit more, you know, he'd play the right way. But he knows, and we have a great conversation with him. And, you know, our coachman working with him, he's got, you know, with that injury, he got caught behind. And then, you know, goal scorer wants goals. And we just want to correct a couple of things. And we'll hope to see him have a really good game tomorrow. So, I don't know, just dump it in, Nils.

I like, my favorite word. The blue line work normally means like he's turning it over the blue line, so I don't know, just, just dump it. Yeah, what do we want him to work on? Stop screwing around at the blue line. Just get the puck in. By the way, the best part of that clip was how

Fults said they wanted to get him in a mindset where he wasn't going to be worried about getting, you know, pulled off the ice every time he made a mistake. This is, of course, coming off two consecutive healthy scratches for Nils Hoaglander. For making mistakes. Yeah. And we're like, we're not going to pull you off.

We're going to pull you out of the lineup entirely. You're not going to play at all. Don't worry about missing a shift. You can't do that when you're in the press box. Listen, Nils, you can make a mistake out there. You cannot make two. Yeah, that's a problem. You get one mistake.

Kevin Lankan will be back in goal. He's actually been pretty good in his last couple of starts. Tolopilo got back-to-back starts because Adam Foote felt that he deserved one after he played so well against the Nashville Predators only to not play well. He was bad against Seattle. The Seattle Cracken. That was interesting what Kev was saying yesterday on our show about the differences of what they're teaching goalies in Abbotsford versus Vancouver.

That feels counterproductive. I was like, wait, Kev, are you telling me that they're teaching different things in the NHL and the HL? He's like, that's what it seems to me. That's what I've heard. Really? That shouldn't be the thing. Well, the glass half full person, the big brains, they're just trying to teach everybody everything. Right.

So, you know, when you go out into the workplace, you've got all these skills and like in your disposal. So that's how you think about it. It's not that you need transferable skills. That's good point. When you get to the next level. You want all the skills. So they're actually doing a terrific job. It's called being multifaceted, Jason.

There. Yeah. IMac actually wrote on Kevin and Lankan, Kevin Lankan, Kevin Nen, Lankan yesterday. And I guess Lankan is the latest Kinnuck to come out and say like, I want to be part of the of the of the of the of setting the culture i think i think you do an interview with iMac if you're if you want to set the culture because first it was brock baser and uh and now it's kevin lankenen and he said 100 percent i'm fully committed i want to be part of the change i want to be part of the leadership group here and start a new culture um we're building something bigger we're building a

culture and setting a standard for us and for the next generation of players to come By all accounts, Kevin Lankin is a great guy and a great teammate. So, you know, why not? You're going to need a goalie. I signed them. I know some people are wondering if the Kinnock should trade Kevin Lankin or at least try to trade Kevin Lankin this offseason. I still think if they were to get an offer, for sure, consider it.

But I assume he's got a full no move clause. I mean, I don't even have to look right now, but I assume he's got it. Only for two years, though. Oh, but he does. But he does have. Year three, he has a modified where it's only 15 teams that he can say notice. That's nice. That's in 2027, 2028, too.

So we got, we got, are the vibes still high? We got Brock Besser committing to setting a culture and being a leader. We've got Kevin Lankinen, who's 100% fully committed. And, you know, PD's showing up to practice 20 minutes early, apparently. He's riding the bike. He's riding the bike. So your slander continues because he was 25 minutes early for practice. 25 minutes early for practice?

We have the audio here. We missed this from the other day. This was for Monday show. We never got a chance to run it. Here's Adam Foote. Okay, I don't think we have the question there. So I said, you know, context is important. It matters, right?

Brough's lying about, you know, those extra five minutes of work, which you're going to make all the difference one day. So context matters. J-Pat asked Adam Foote about the 20-game goalless drought that Elias Pedersen found him. in and it got back to a very familiar refrain when it comes to speaking about PD and that's that he's putting in the work and here is what the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks Adam Foote had to say when asked about the goal scoring drought and how leas peterson is trying to

work his way out of it he was out there today 1105 for 1130 practice working he was out there after working he's been on the bike after games uh riding so he's he's doing the work you know one goes down he's had the breakaway twice in the OT you know I was never a goal score so I don't know how it feels to be go through that I'm sure at times he feels like it weighs on him but when he's moving his feet he's having success on the ice and he knows that and he's trying to keep remind himself of that and you know even practice that he saw him when he practices shot and then the first couple drills he was moving and he ripped a couple off the bar and And so what I like is, I mean, obviously, we want to score.

But I like the attitude of the work he's putting in. So that's, you can just work until he gets through it. Ride or die. You see him riding. He's on that bike. Riding. I don't. Like he was on that bike just sitting.

Yeah. Yeah. It's like Smithers on. Yeah. It's like smithers on the back of the tandem bike. Completely stationary. Isn't he? Those are the feathers on the front?

Yeah, then he gets stung by the bee. Yeah. Anyway. Maybe Pedy got stung by a B, so he had to stop for a second. Anyway. In all seriousness. What's he doing on there? Riding.

I want to ask the listener. Riding. I want to ask the list. It's such a weird thing to say. Like, obviously he's riding the bike. Oh, you know, he's not moving at all. It's really strange. He's sitting there on his phone.

He won't even move his legs on the bike. Yeah. Flete. It's like, Pidi, you got to move your feet on the bike, too. Oh. Okay. One more time. One more time.

play it one more time for me. I really, really liked it. Riding. Yeah, that's good. Okay. So I want to put this out there to listeners because I think sometimes we come across is, I don't know, jaded when it comes to number 40. No, no.

Do you find it or how do you find it when the organization talks about how hard Pedersen is working in the face of very meager results on the ice? It's always in relation to, well, he's trying to work his way out of it, right? And I know that the work that Pedersen has put in has been a talking point for the better part of two years. I'm looking at you for confirmation on this one. Two years. Right? Yeah.

Do you think that it's put on for effect? Do you think that it's just genuine? Like the coach is impressed with the fact that he's in there working away and grinding? Are you concerned? Ryden you mean? Riden. Are you concerned that the organization feels the need to constantly mention how hard the player is working? because sometimes they don't do that with other people, right?

By all accounts, for example, the guy that I'm at great about, Kevin Lankinen, by all accounts, works hard all the time to the point where it doesn't stand out because that's just his work ethic. Like, that's just what he does. It's part of his approach and it's part of his routine. You will get guys anecdotally mentioning from time to time. Yeah, Lankan's a consummate professional, always keeps himself in tip-top shape in the best form, even when he's not playing or even when it's not going his way,

his work habits don't change. So I mean, I don't know how the listeners actually react to all of this. Because I think, again, like I said, sometimes you and I, we take everything with a somewhat jaded, caustic approach. And we're sarcastic at times, right? Well, I think we should be jaded with Pedersen. Fair. I mean, I think it's insane that, you know, pointing out that he was showed up for practice

once a little bit early or he's riding the bike out. after the games, like that's just standard operating procedure for a lot of NHL players. Right. You know? Is that the coach's fault for pointing those things out? Maybe, like, you know, unintended consequences and everything else, but. I think they're trying to be more positive with him than they were in the past, and they're trying to be encouraging with him.

But, I mean, I don't know. Maybe they're trying to make sure that other teams are still interested in it, if they want to move them this off season. I don't know what's going on there. Like it's, but, you know, I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to talk about it in the off season. It might be nice if he scored a goal though soon, because, like, it's, you know, you watch him play and you're like,

he's not terrible. He's making the odd play, and he's getting some chances to score. But, you know, his confidence is just so low, right? Now, there are times when he has space to attack and he just won't do it. Right. Like, he's just, you know, he's, it's, it's, it's, it's, we've said it all before, but I do think it's interesting that that sort of, you know, showing up for practice 20 minutes early or 25 minutes early, sorry, or riding the bike after the game, you're pointing that out. So here's a couple of good texts that have come in on this.

You're pointing that out? Yeah, that's insane. Yeah. Well, because he doesn't really do it maybe. So here's a couple. It's unusual for him, so they're letting us know. Ah, but is it unusual? So Mike writes in, I'm mostly taken aback at all the talk of how hard he has to work

when it seemed like he was a very hard worker when he first came into the league. That one stuck out to me as well. I remember, you know, our good friend Jason Bottsford, at the beginning of the Aaliyos Pedersen tenure in Vancouver, wrote about how he was fastidious, I like using that word, about working on the nuances and intricacies of his game. Remember Botchwood talked about how he broke down his shot into like 16 component parts would work on every single different part of that

obsessively. Wouldn't this all fit the narrative? And you can say this is a fake narrative by fake news, but the narrative that he kind of fell out of love with hockey? Possibly? Very much so. I think it's definitely in the realm of possibility that this is one led to the other.

They're running alongside of one another's thought trains. I mean, I've certainly been told a number of times from people let's just say very close to the team that they wonder if he's loves the game. And I mean, wouldn't that all make sense? Yep.

There's another text that came in here too, unsigned. I think it's, oh, it's Sid and Maple Ridge. What up, Sid. I think it's fair when they publicly question PD's work ethic to publicly praise it when it improves. I think that goes back to what Bruf was saying about them trying to be overly optimistic and supportive, knowing that, you know, cracking down on Pedersen

or being critical or having one of your teammates do it absolutely did not work. That doesn't work. So we'll cross that off the list. We know exactly what doesn't work. We'll try and find some things that do work. Okay, let's run into some of these other stories here because a lot happened last night.

We'll skip over the Panthers stuff and we'll do that with George Richards coming up at 7 o'clock. Big news from the NHL General Manager's meeting in Florida yesterday is that the World Cup of hockey in 2028 is going to be going to Alberta and the Czech capital city of Prague. Calgary and Edmonton will be the North American host cities with Prague serving as the European host for what will be an eight-team international

best-on-best tournament. The signature venue from Alberta is, of course, going to be Scotia Place, which is the Calgary Flames New Arena, which is going to open in 2027, 28. The semifinals and the finals will be played at Rogers Place in Edmonton, and there's a lot of questions going in right now

about the format of this tournament now that the host cities have been chosen. And I guess the big one is, Are the eight teams going to include Russia going into the 2028 world gun? We can talk to Wish more about this coming up in about 10 minutes because he wrote on this for ESPN. And Betman said what I think is just a fair answer. Time will tell whether Russia is going to be in this. You know, there are other teams that, you know, especially a team like or a country like Finland,

that doesn't want to play in a tournament. if Russia is there and what's going on in Ukraine is still going on. So this is a geopolitical thing. And the double IHF, which isn't a part of this tournament, has said, well, it's going to take its lead from the IOC. And the NHL, I don't know where they're going to take their lead from. But we'll talk to it. Talk about it with Wish coming up.

I mean, I think it's kind of cool for people in BC at least, that Alberta is going to host the World Cup of hockey. because if you want to do a road trip there, it's not that hard to go to Alberta. It was never going to be in Vancouver. Edmonton's got a fairly new arena, and also Edmonton stepped up and provided, you know, the arena and the facilities when the NHL needed a bubble

for during the pandemic a few years ago. And Calgary's building a new arena, and it's going to be about six months old, they say, when the World Cup of hockey is on. So, you know, that sounds like a nice partnership. Yeah, the provincial government kicked in 15 million. So there's that, too, which is nice. For the World Cup of hockey.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, like, they see it as a good investment. Why not? Right? Yeah. I believe it was yesterday during the presser where they said, Alberta, we just get bleep done. And then it was like, okay, you've got the World Cup hockey.

It is pretty great. And they're going to separate soon, right, aren't they? That's what there's on, but getting bleep done. A, NHL, guess what happens next? No, I... We're going to need that federal money back. Okay, can I... And I know we're going to talk to Wish about that.

Not the separatist movement, but the World Cup of Hockey. I just want to say, I'm at... And this might sound like sacrilege, but I am actually more excited for the North American base tournaments than the Olympics because of the start times. That makes a big difference to me. I know that this year's tournament was fantastic and we got like an iconic all-time goal battle game. But I'm not going to lie. The vibes around it were, it was different.

It was a lot more. It was too early. It was too early for one. It was also really difficult to get into the flow of the tournament because the reporting was coming in at odd hours. And you didn't really have the typical coverage. You didn't have as many boots on the ground. I like the NHL rules too.

That's a big one. I'm old enough that I don't need the Olympics for it to be special because I remember tournaments before the Olympics, before NHL players went to the Olympics. And they were great. Yeah. All you need is the buy-in from the players. If you get the buy-in from the players and there's no ridiculousness,

like Team North America or Team, I don't know, what was it? Pan Europe. Young guys or whatever. What was it? That was Team North America. Team North America and Team Europe. And yeah. So it was like, I mean, that World Cup did nothing for me because there were no stakes.

And as long as there's stakes and I think Four Nations, there were stakes. And I think at this World Cup of hockey, even though it's not the Olympics, there will be stakes to it. And with the NHL rules, I think it might even be nastier than we saw at the Olympics. Okay, some scores from Monday of note to pass along. Artemi Panarin made his return to Madison Square Garden yesterday. Now as a member of the Los Angeles Kings,

huge win for the Kings. They win four-one over the Rangers. With the win, the Kings move into a tie with the Seattle Cracken for the second and final wildcard spot in the Western Conference. So that race is heating up. Speaking of wild card races in the east, Patrick Kane scored twice. Alex the Brinket three assists.

Detroit gets a big win over Calgary. So that means Detroit jumps ahead of Boston for the first wild card in the east. The Columbus Blue Jackets, who have two games in hand, I believe, on both wildcard teams, are three points back. But that race is heating up as well. I want to see Columbus get in. I do want to see Columbus get in. And I want to see Detroit miss, because that would be hilarious. That was a big win for them.

They had lost five of six going into last night. Calgary's awful, so I'm not going to read too much into that game. Like, they really got weak into the deadline. Of course, they moved out Rasmus Anderson, McKenzie Weeger, and then Nazim Kadri. Columbus has two games in hand on Detroit, and they're three points back. So, I mean, it's pretty close between those teams heading down the stretch. And finally, before we go to break, I guess congratulations to your newest favorite baseball team, the Venezuelan national team, who punched its ticket to the World Bowl.

baseball classic yesterday with a 4-2 win over Italy in another excellent, excellent baseball game full of drama. Venezuela in the seventh really knocked this thing open and it was their ability at the plate is so impressive. So against Japan, they showed the ability to use the long ball to pile up a bunch of runs and the upset victory over Japan. Yesterday, they were just knocking singles left and rate and driving in runs sort of like the old school manufactured way. Italy's bats really failed them at the most important time of the tournament. This was a team that I think put up eight runs in every single game going into yesterday, only put up two runs yesterday,

and the top four hitters in that lineup were awful. I think they combined for one hit. Italy's bats turn into a wet noodle at the worst possible moment. Oh, Greg. You're so funny. So anyway, Italy, which was a great story, this tournament bows out. Venezuela, USA. No backstory there, of course, between the USA and Venezuela.

Nothing political that will overshadow that game whatsoever. But look, you can't be, I'm not saying you're being disingenuous, but a lot of people will look like, this is a grudge match. Like, I bet a lot of the Venezuelans that will be in attendance at this game were fully supportive of what happened. Oh, no, no, no. I'm not saying that, I'm just saying there's a political backdrop. There's a, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's not like a grudge match with a lot of those people, I don't think. There will be a grudge match because the two teams want to beat each other's brains out.

Like, Venezuela is very emotionally invested in this tournament. It's obviously it had been a tumultuous time for the country. And this team has been sort of like a beacon of shining light because they've been so good in this tournament. I have never thought of Venezuela so much. Never. It's a big year for them. Yeah. And I mean, they're missing some star players.

Jose El Tuve sitting behind the bench. Yeah. Yeah. I know it's insurance purposes. So dumb. Yeah, I know. Yeah, he's watching that. He's like, I should have just paid for the insurance myself.

This seems like a lot of fun. I should be a part of this. Anyway, it is going to be a Venezuela USA tonight in the finale. of the World Baseball Classic. He was out there today, 1105 for 1130 practice, working. He was out there after working. He's been on the bike after games. Riding.

Riding. Riding. Riding. Riding. Riding. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You know what?

The greatest St. Patrick's Day moment in film, music, television, whatever, the getaway scene from the fugitive. Oh yeah, when he's in the parade. When Dr. Kimball joins the parade. Yeah, and he put on the hat and he's like, we lost him. The slickest getaway of all time. He just finds the discarded hat,

pops it on. Blends in. I'm going to watch that today. I watched it recently. It was on TV. Follow-up question. I was like, this is pretty good movie. I know where you're going with it.

Is the fugitive the best movie ever made? It's not right. I thought you were going to this. I watch Fugitive every year. There's this one of my yearly rewatches. There's this great review from Lindy West on Letterboxed. I want to read it because it is the perfect encapsulation of the fugitive. Objectively, there is only one good movie and it's the fugitive.

The Fugitive is the best movie because it has the best lines and is never scary. Only interesting and exciting. We didn't need any more movies after the Fugitive. We didn't need any more movies before it either. We should erase those. The fugitive is the only good movie. I don't care! John Mullaney's bet where he recaps the fugitive.

It's amazing. Yeah, for Provasic? Yeah, it's amazing. Did you know Harrison Ford tore a ligament in his knee during one of the... Is it where he gets his foot stuck in the... He's always getting hurt on the same. No, it was the chase scene through the forest. Oh, okay.

after the train derailment. Yeah. And he was just like, so his limp in that, that's a real limp. That's not acting. He broke his leg and blade runner too. Did he? Yeah. I'm sure he's hurt himself during Indiana Jones.

Maybe we shouldn't have you doing the stunts anymore. They had to shut down Temple of Doom's filming for like two months or something so he could go get back surgery. Really? Yeah. It's just a disaster. Or not two months, two weeks. So not quite a long time. Just two weeks for back surgery?

Yeah. Or back treatment or something. He was the Thatcher Demko of movies. Yeah. Hey man, he commits. That's why he's one of the best. I hope Thatcher's not listening. Yeah.

Sorry, buddy. Thatcher's like, I wish I was here from Ford. We've got, Landon Farrarro joining us in about five minutes time. We do need to attend to some business before we move along here. Halford and Brough in the morning. We are now in Hour 3 of the program. Hour 3 is brought to by Sands and Associates.

Are you getting collection calls? If you are, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% and stop those calls. Visit them today at sands dash trustee.com. Our three of the program is brought to by the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody beats a Duick deal why nobody has since 1926.

Visit Duke GM on Marine Drive. Visit them downtown. Visit them in Richmond and visit them online at the duik Auto Group.com. We're coming to live from the Kintech studio. Step strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. Guests on SportsNet 650. Call in on the ABLE Auctions.

Hotline email sales at abelhe auctions.ca. to get your business assets sold and your building cleared. So tonight, this is going to be the Nils-Hoglender game? The Nils-Hoglender show. Yeah. He will draw back into the lineup after missing the last two games on a line with Atu-Ratu, who Adam Fitt keeps calling Rattie and Evander Kane. And we played the audio earlier in the show.

You know what? We may as well play it again for consistency's sake, because we're going to talk to this about Land. And Adam Foote spoke about Nils Hoaglander and the sort of, he didn't use the words reprogramming. I used them. But the reprogramming of Nils Hoaglander and what he needs to do now that he's back in the lineup and hopefully gets back to being some level of a contributing member of the hockey team or the very least society. Here now is Adam Foote on Nils Hoaglander from yesterday's practice. We talked to Hockey work with him.

We're trying to change just a couple of things he does when he forces it, right? like, you know, the blue line worker getting doubled up quick because he just wants it so bad that if he can change that, it'll be more predictable, have more offensive zone time. And, you know, you know, just we want him to make those decisions. And we don't want him also to go into a game and feel like if he makes one mistake, he's going to be pulled. So we want him to have a little bit more, you know,

he'd play the right way. But he knows, and we have a great conversation with him. And, you know, our coachman working with him, he's got, you know, with that injury, he got caught behind. And then, you know, goal score wants goals. And we just want to correct a couple of things. And we'll hope to see him have a really good game tomorrow. So earlier in the show, Halford made a fairly impassioned plea for, you know,

Niels Hoaglander to get a change of scenery. Move him along. And Shane texted in to the Dunbar Lumber Text line. And he said, there is zero cost to keeping Hoaglander and to try to build some value in his last year of his deal, which is next season. Currently, his value is zero. Remove DeBrus, Kane, give him another shot. Zero risk in keeping him now.

There will be roster spots next year. Trade him during the year next year. The rebuild is a marathon. You must maximize assets whenever possible. He is low risk. To which Halford replied, okay, sure, why not? Yeah, fine. Keep it.

I don't care. That's fine. Whatever. Do whatever you want. I can care less. No. I'm going to be adamant. I'm not going to get an argument about Noz hoglender today.

Yeah, yeah. It's like, Shane, you can't trick me. Oh, you've tricked me. I disagree. I do disagree. I do think it matters and I think it matters from... But you wouldn't give up a sweetener to move them along, would you? God, no.

No, no. No. If it came down to that, you'd just keep... You just keep them. You're going to play this thing out of me. However, I would continue to implore this organization to make changes, fundamental changes from what we've seen over the last two years. And you know what, Jason?

that would extend beyond the playing roster. Take a look at your executive suite all the way up to the president of hockey ops and all the way down to the general manager and everyone in between and everyone's serving underneath them. Look at everything. And really decide moving forward

if you want to retain some of the pieces from the previous build. You can use the... The build. Well, it's the build and the implosion. It's the homeowner's analysis. right? It's do you want to keep the frame and tear it back to the studs but still keep the bones of the existing structure or do you just want to build a new one altogether? How many people are like, I don't want to do you want to keep the construction crew that put it together? Yeah, I don't want to, I don't want to inherit anything from the previous owner. I want to start fresh. I want to build from the ground up and I want to build every single spec of this thing to, you know, the way that I want it. I don't want anything from the previous owner. I don't. I do find it very. odd that

Jim Rutherford is going to start the rebuild but clearly he's not going to finish it unless he does I think he's going to last five years at least Here's the thing about it's going to be around for five years I just do not see that possibility I don't think he even expected to have the job as long as he does counterpoint I think the one way that Rutherford stays

for the length of it is someone tells him that either he won't or he can't. Yeah. There is a certain. There's a stubbornness. Is that the word? I was trying to gussy it up a little bit. But there's a certain stubbornness with the individual.

And I think. I'm sure he doesn't want his management career, his Hall of Fame management career to end this way. Again, now we're really projecting as to what an individual might want. But I would say if I was in that position, I had this decorated Hall of Fame career, I would be. He intrigued by the notion of ending it with a successful rebuild.

Because, I mean, if you look at the tenure that Rutherford has had, this kind of fundamental, tear it down and build it back up has never been part of his resume before. He's never done something like this. So it's a curious dynamic. I don't know how it plays out in terms of timing because you do have to really be patient. And, you know, Rutherford's a doer. He's a mover and shaker by nature. And I'm not sure that that philosophy aligns itself with. He's the definition of that Simpson's.

And now we play the waiting game. The waiting game sucks. I've been doing it for two minutes. Let's trade someone. Let's go to the Able Auctions hotline right now. Our next guest, Canucks analyst for SportsNet. Landon Ferraro joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Landon.

How are you? Doing pretty solid. Are you guys doing? We're well. Thanks for taking the time to do this as always. Let's circle back to the Nils Hoaglander situation. Draws back into the lineup tonight after sitting a couple of games. No doubt we'll have.

have some level of motivation having been parked for a pair. What are you expecting to see out of Hoaglander? Maybe not even just tonight, but for the remainder of what's the lost season. And guys are playing for certain things, pride being one of them. What are you expecting to see from Hoaglander moving forward? Oh, I mean, I expect to see what I feel like we always see out of him, which is like maximum effort every time he's on the ice. Like, that's the one thing you can never fault Hoglander for is his

effort, right? And I think that's, you know, to a certain extent, part of his issue of trying to be, you know, taking that step from a few years ago and he had that really good year. He's had a couple injuries, obviously, that's pulled him out. But at the same time, you know, it's almost the same cycle every time he's in. You know, he starts in kind of middle of the lineup and then he starts playing better and he kind of moves himself up when there's an opportunity. But then it's, the same, like on the forechecks, like so much energy, so much desire to go get the puck that he ends up taking a tripping penalty below the goal line or the hooking penalty. Like, there's always that one part that just kind of takes away all the good.

And to me, it almost feels as simple as if he could find a way to keep that energy and not take the penalties, his coaches would have no issue with having them being out there and having them in the lineup. Like for his skill and his engine that he has and the way that he plays, he shouldn't ever be an issue of being in and out of the lineup. When you're only playing 10 or 11 minutes a night, is it maybe obvious that you might try to force things when you do get your ice time?

Yeah, definitely that happens. But, you know, that's part of, being a mature player and knowing the situation of like the first game you get bumped down to the lower minutes yeah you're trying to instantly get yourself back up so what happens where you try a little too much and you get your stick in a spot

it gets you into trouble or something like that but when it's something that you know this happens quite often to him where he's out of the lineup and he comes back in and again you can tell how much he cares that it's almost about settling down and trying to slow the game down for himself, right?

Like with so many other players that we talk about, it's about getting their feet moving on first puck touch and getting their engine moving a little bit more. Like that's not the issue for Hoaglander. For Hoaglander, to me, it's about slowing down and being able to think the game a little better because he's not moving a million miles an hour. And I think if that, if he's able to do that and really kind of not dumb his game down,

because he can't, like for him to be good, he has to skate. He has to get it on the forecheck. But just really focusing on his stick position and realizing that he's a fast enough skater that if he loses his check going behind the net in the offensive zone, he can get himself back into position. He doesn't need to make the play before the bottom of the hash marks, right? Yeah. Is it harder to stay in the lineup when you're not part of the special teams? For sure, because, you know, like, even just going back to me, like,

Neil's Hoaglander's a way better player than I was. But like by year in Boston, I stayed in the lineup because I killed every penalty, right? So you can find ways to stay in if you aren't on the power player, you aren't on the PK, you become really dispensable really quick because especially in this situation, you're now rebuilding, you have more younger players, it's really easy to say, well, we want to try Sassone on the penalty kill, we're going to put him in the lineup,

or whatever it may be, but you very quickly become the guy that, okay, well, we can just switch him in and out. And that's a tough place to be that, you know, like you've got to work yourself out of that. You've got to find a way. There's no reason that Hoglander can't kill penalties, right? Like, for how fast he is, his work ethic,

is willing to block shots, like all of it's there. But it's, you know, they've worked with them in the past on it, but it's also him saying, like, after practice, I see I'm not in the lineup. I need to find a way in. I want to work on TK. I don't care if it takes me the rest of this season, but game one of next year,

I want to be one of the first four guys over the bench. Like, make the coaches and staff know that that's your goal. Like, I want to find a way in. I don't care what it is. Okay, let's talk about special teams. The power play, you know, they had a really rough time against the Ottawa senators a couple of games ago, and they haven't scored on it since. What are you seeing from the power play?

I mean, to me, I feel like a lot. I mean, there's different things that are causing it not to be the level that you'd like it to be at. But I think the easiest and main one for me is just speed. and that is from the breakout to getting through the neutral zone to get like the play in in the offensive end like the amount of times that they come up the ice and there's really only like one or two guys moving everything's so stationary so that if anything goes wrong or there is that that chip in it's really one guy chasing it down there's no support and then once you get into the zone it's it's gotten back to the bit more stagnant, everyone kind of in their spots and moving it from there, and it's a bit more plug-in-play in a sense. But there have been times, you know, especially coming out of the break, the first couple power plays, I feel like, you know, like they came up the ice with speed, well, all of a sudden they got in with possession a bit

more. I remember the, it was either the first or the first two power plays. Like, they ripped it around the end zone. Like, tape-to-ta-ta-ta-paces, one touches, guys were moving around, it looked like a completely different thing. But speed brings intensity. It makes the penalty kill have to make decisions faster, which they're eventually going to make the wrong one, and that's where you can try and expose them through a seam or something like that. But when you don't have any type of speed with the puck, especially in zone,

it's impossible to get a good look out of anything. Penalty kills are too good. when you give them ample time to think. Brock Besser's been getting more good looks lately. Is it, it's probably not a coincidence that Marco Rossi has returned to the lineup and has been playing pretty well lately. That line of Besser Rossi and Ogrin has some chemistry. Yeah, it's been really fun to watch.

And you're definitely right. Like, Rossi has a big part of that. Before I get to that, though, like, you've got to give Besser, like, a good amount of credit, too, Like, you know, he had talked about dealing with something before the Olympic break, but he clearly got that taken care of and put in some work over the break because, I don't know about you guys, but like from the very first game out of break, like his first two steps looked so much faster than what we've seen all year. And it's amazing how, again, with him, he's not a speed burner.

He's not a puck carrier. But his first two steps with the puck, but especially, without it to get open or really good in his hockey IQ and sense on the ice of where that open space is going to be is elite. That's what makes him the goal score that he is, but a lot of this season, either he hasn't been able to move to get to those spots or he gets there and he hasn't had a centerman that's able to get him that puck. And now bringing in Rossi into this, you know, he's really kind of started to find his game. And it, it, works in a sense as well because he's not the fastest guy, but he's really strong in his

edges. He uses his hockey IQ to find that space and work and manipulate defenders to, you know, open up some lanes and he's able to get it to Besser when he gets open. So those two have played off each other really well, but then you put in the work of Ogrind. You know, he was talking about it yesterday. Like, he understands the simplicity of his job right now. like skate, go get the puck back, work hard to get it into their hands. But, you know, even within a few games here, like he had the one pop play. It was in the first, no, third period, I believe last game. And him and Besser were kind of working within like a six-foot radius of each other.

But you could see that O'Grath the Pocky was going to do a cutback. And Besser got himself like another foot and a half to the middle of the ice. a lot of guys aren't going to see that he got himself open, but Ogrin made that nice little backhand pass behind him, and Besser got a nice shot out of it. It was such a quick play that led to an easy save, but the fact that Ogrin out there playing on a second line, playing with a guy that's been in a league for a long time,

and then Ross, he was younger, but has played a lot more than he has, and he's out there making plays, he's getting more confident. The line's been great to watch. And, you know, for a team where you're just looking for energy and some chances, like, make it exciting. They've done a great job of really kind of controlling a lot of play while they've been out there. You're a good skater. What's the key to your first few steps?

Well, first off, genetics. Yeah. Like, I won't lie and say that I've worked with a ton of power skaters. Like, skating to me, it came very nice. naturally. And it was the rest of the game I had to work at. But with the first two steps, it's, it's your edges, but it's all your explosiveness, right? Like, I was really fast twitch. Like, the big, big guys don't have as many fast twitch muscles in there, but they have all the strength. So you can only get to a certain level, but in saying that, there's no, there's no reason that

you can't, you know, get it a little bit better just so that, okay, maybe with your first two steps, you make a tight turn and you clear seven feet instead of before, you know, before the break Besser was clearing four and a half feet and that doesn't get you any space. Every defender is going to be able to stop up, readjust and get their stick back in the lane. But if you can trust your edges more, so now you're falling forward and it's about getting your feet under you, it's just natural at that point because you've put the work in, but you have to be able to clear space for yourself. You don't have to be the fastest, but you

have to be quick. You know, there's a lot of guys around the league that you can look at that are bigger body guys that, you know, yeah, they don't move the pocket or carry the puck a ton, but when they get in the offensive zone, like, they look explosive. Rossi is like

that, right? Like, he can open up his hips, press hard off his left side, and make the play as he's moving because he's got great edges. He's got a good face underneath of them. How much a skating is leaning the right way? Because I remember

Atu Raatu reading an article on him and he had worked on his skating and I assume still needs to work on his skating, but he said he had a couple of aha moments working with a skating instructor and talking about how much of it is leaning the right way. And I mean, like you said with your first two steps, get leaning in the right direction and they get your feet underneath you. I sometimes think of it like, do you ever see the

motorcycle racing and how crazy the motorcycles lean and it looks insane. Hockey players are a bit like that too. For sure. And honestly, like, that's a, that's a pretty good example because at the end of the day, like, yes, you need to have the technical skill to be able to do it and all of that. But a lot of it is trust in the work that you've put in. Like those motor GP guys, like, they're not going into that corner thinking that they're like, oh, I hope I'm going to be okay out of it.

There is no fear and total trust in their skill in their machine. It's really no different with, I mean, it is different because you're not going 200 kilometers an hour or whatever. Well, McDavid does. Yeah, but I don't see McDavid going over the high side, like those motor GP guys. That is crazy to watch. But, you know, like, it's, in a sense, like, that's why power skaters, like, coaches, like, whether it's with young kids or, you know, it's me coaching college and junior guys in the summer.

And you'll see a couple of the guys doing this before or after the skate of, you know, we got their hands up on the boards, their legs are, you know, like, at a 45 degree angle. So, like, they're heavily leaning. If they let their hands drop, they're going to fall over. But they're working on, you know, like kind of like a runner, a sprinter would work on his kind of jab steps. Right. Like really throwing it in. but they're getting themselves used to being in that position

and trusting themselves that their feet are going to be fast enough to keep up with what they want, right? And so a lot of it is trust in yourself, but it's about putting in the work, knowing where, you know, you say it's about, you know, like knowing your balance and all of that. Like, it's not like you're going into things thinking, I've got to do all this. Like, it's all second nature,

but it's about the training of, okay, if you're at this angle, can you get yourself five more degrees? Maybe that gets you out of the blocks a half a second quicker. Right? Like every little bit counts. Like if you talk to the best players in the game, they're not working in the summer because they're like, I want to go from a 50% face off guy to a 60. Like they're like, I want 2%. I want a percent. I want a percent and a half. Whatever. Just these tiny margins

can make a difference between in and out of the lineup and a full-time guy or a 10-gold guy and a 15-gold guy. It really does make that big of a difference. Landon, this was fun. Great insight on skating. And, you know, we'll see how Hoglender does tonight. Hopefully, hopefully it has a good game. Enjoy the game tonight.

Yeah, for sure. Honestly, I don't think I root for a guy more than him. Yeah. Like, again, his effort is through the roof every night, and you can see how easily he can help any team, but especially this one. You just hope that he can just get on a roll. So have a good one, guys.

Thanks for having me. Thanks, Landon. I appreciate it. Landon Ferraro here on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.