Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 3/18/25

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

Jason Brough & guest host Jamie Dodd look back at the previous day in sports, they set up tonight's Canucks home matchup vs. the Jets with head coach Rick Tocchet, plus the boys tell us what they learned. 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. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da I hate to agree with Thomas Drance. Got a big Winnipeg team coming in and it's game to game from here on in. We got to bring energy. Good morning. Welcome to Halford and Bruff here on Sportsnet 650. Still no Halford. He continues to, I guess, take time off the mental health reset after his nasty run-in with Laddie to close out last week.

So I'm Jamie Dodd filling in for Halford for the week here. Bruv, good morning. Good morning, how are you? I'm doing great. I am very excited for the show today. Good morning. We've got a lot of guests, we barely have to talk today. I know, it's fantastic. Really, the dream. A-Dog, good morning. Good morning. And Laddy is back. After my one-day suspension I am back. Serving his one-day suspension for belittling a teammate I know you really when he called the Halford basic how I went to head office and complained Yeah, I know you guys you guys probably made some excuse that I was sick, but I want to clear the air that yes

I was a one day to camber his office and trashed it. I was pretty upset We're coming to you live from the kintex studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. I was going to say, I think Laddy is going to be a better, a better teammate for this, for having gone through this after having taken some time away now. Half of the broth is brought to you by the Delari family of Honda dealers experience the Delari difference today. Visit your nearest Delari Honda dealer today.

This hour of Alfred and broth 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 1170 Powell Street and you alluded to it just a second ago, Brough. We got a big big show today and I know you know whether it's my show or when I'm filling in here, I say that a lot.

A lot of times I'm stretching the truth. I'm fudging the matter. A lot of the time you're lying. I'm lying to the audience. Today, no lie whatsoever. This is a massive, massive show coming up. I'll run through the guest list. 6.30, Greg Waszynski from ESPN.

We'll talk all things NHL, the interesting playoff races for the final playoff spot in both conferences. Some big games on the schedule yesterday, some big games tonight. We'll get into that with Wish at 630. At 7, Eric Engels from Sportsnet is on the ground covering the latest NHL-GM meeting, so we'll talk to Eric about what's on the agenda. Are there any interesting changes that are being discussed that could come out of these meetings? At 7.30, Kelly Moore from C-Job in Winnipeg joins us to talk about the Jets. Of course, they are in town to play the Canucks tonight. So we'll get the

lowdown on really the NHL's top team from Kelly Moore at eight o'clock. This is the big one. Rick Tocket, Vancouver Canucks head coach joins the show and he'll talk a little bit about the Canucks for Kids Fund telethon the 35th annual edition of the telethon that's going tonight for the Canucks and Winnipeg Jets game but of course we'll also have a chance to get

into some of the many interesting issues surrounding the Canucks right now with Rick Tauke. And then at 8.30, Brendan Batchelor closes things out for us. Of course, voice of the Canucks here on Sportsnet 650. So Batch, Tauke, Kelly Moore, Eric Engels, Greg Waszynski. I guess we'll find time to do some What We Learns after we speak with Tauke at 8 o'clock before we speak to Batch.

So make sure you still send in your What We Learn 650-650 to the Dumbar Lumber text line. But as I said, we got so much to get to, let's go right to What Happened? Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was.

We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit bccsa.ca. Now the rest of the show is jam-packed, but what happened?

Well the Canucks didn't do anything yesterday. They had the day off coming off the back-to-back set over the weekend. No practice. They'll get back to it with a morning skate leading into the Jets game tonight. But there was scoreboard watching to do, and most notably for the Canucks, Calgary suffered a pretty nasty defeat to the Leafs in Toronto. Yeah, this was a big story, I guess in three Canadian cities because Calgary obviously taken

a big loss six to the Leafs, hurt their playoff chances. They've still got a game in hand on the Vancouver Canucks and they're two points back of the Canucks. So they're not done, certainly. They're still in this, along with St. Louis and Utah and the Canucks all fighting for that final spot.

But it was also a big story in Vancouver because of the standings and Toronto, the team that actually won the game because the Leafs, I don't know how many people have been paying attention to this Leafs team out here. I know we've had our own issues out here and the Leafs maybe aren't considered quite as interesting as they have been in the past, but

there was a lot of criticism for the Leafs, especially after they lost to the senators and they had a big breakout period with two goals from Austin Matthews that actually ended up chasing Dustin Wolf. So Dustin Wolf only played two periods for the Flames last night in Toronto. The Flames have another game tonight against the

Rangers in New York. And I, and I do wonder if they'll just go right back to. To Wolf. Yeah, because, you know, he only played two periods. He's young. Last night. He can handle it. He can do it.

It sure sounded like in the post game, that's what they were thinking. Yeah, they were basically saying like, well yeah, we pulled them because we want to keep them all rested up for, they got a bunch of games, so I don't know. I have no idea who's going to start tonight, but I think it is interesting to know that all four of

the teams that are in the race in the Western Conference for that final playoff spot are in action. The Canucks host the Jets, the teams that are in the race in the Western Conference for that final playoff spot are in action. The Canucks host the Jets, the Flames are in New York to play the Rangers. The Blues are at Nashville. Blues are the team that I like don't think about as much.

Yeah. They're probably going to be the one. They've got this, they've got a pretty comfy schedule, especially at the end of it. They play a lot of Chicago, a lot of Nashville. And then Utah is at the Edmonton Oilers, so that's going to be a tough one for Utah, but also, you know, a tough one for Edmonton.

Yep. Considering the way they're playing. Um, how would you, how would you kind of power rank the four teams that are in the race for the final playoff spot? Based on chances to get it? Yeah. Is it crazy that I might still have the Canucks first?

Is that crazy? Yes. I mean, as much as I want to disagree anytime I comes to Drantz, I think Utah is in the driver's seat based on the way they're playing. Yeah. Uh, and then I don't know, Vancouver and St. Louis together and then Calgary is last.

Yeah, Calgary is last and the result last night, I wonder if we're starting to see the bottom kind of fall out for Calgary and so many people have been wondering all year, when does the collapse come, right? Like, Hey, nice story. You're, you guys are overachieving. Dustin Wolf's been great, but can it last all season?

I want to hear why you have the Canucks. Number one. I encourage them to try and, try and sway me. Well, just simply, I mean, they're, they're the team in the playoff spot right now. Now it's very, very narrow, right? And that could, that could be totally different after tonight, even.

I just don't think any of these teams are very good. And so I kind of look at it and it's like, well, they have Quinn Hughes. He's the best player on any of these teams. They're all deeply flawed teams. Yeah. I can at least make the argument. I, it's not like a what's you don't committed hot take here, but I'm like, no, they're clearly better.

No, these teams are all like, they're all mid for a reason. But if you're looking for edges, that's a pretty significant one. What's Utah's biggest weakness? From a hockey's perspective, they just like, they look, their talent looks like they should be better than they are and their record is, you know what I mean? They've, they've only won 22 games in regulation out of 67. So they've found a lot of ways to lose games. And I wonder if their biggest weakness is just a lack of maturity,

a lack of experience that causes them to come up short in big games. Now, I think you could point to, like they have some nice players on the blue line, but it's not like they don't have a stud back there. It's not a star studded blue line by any stretch. So you could point to that as a weakness, depth, all those things. But I think that's their biggest weakness more than anything is just they're a young team who hasn't been in this position before.

Okay. In the East, we can talk to Wish about this a little bit, but the Rangers still hold that wild card spot. So it's a big game for them tonight too. Where they play play Calgary. So confusing trying to keep all the teams together. Uh, Montreal, Detroit and Columbus, all chasing. Columbus, man, I really jinx these guys.

I, I apologize to the Columbus blue jackets and their fan base for getting on their bandwagon. I got on their bandwagon right after they hosted the stadium series game against Detroit. And they didn't even really play that well in that stadium series game. I think Detroit badly outshot them, but they got the win and I'm like, this is such a good story.

I'm going to have to ruin it. I'm going to have to ruin it. They lost a 2-1 to the Devils last night. And the other score that might be of interest to people, the Minnesota Wild beat the LA Kings three to one. I don't know what to make of Minnesota and I don't care.

Tonight's opponent from Winnipeg. So the last time these teams met back in January, it was in Winnipeg. And I think most of you will remember, but maybe want to forget that the Jets absolutely dominated the Canucks. That was the game where Kyle Connor had a natural hat trick in the first period and it got worse

for the Canucks. They were down six nothing early in the third. I think Hoaglander ruined Hellebuck's shutout bit late in the game. I think Hoaglander ruined Hellebuck's shutout bit late in the game. So they lost six to one. The Canucks next game. Remember we were talking about the Canucks

and they were like, you know what? They'd have some bad games, but they always respond well. They laid another huge egg. They came home and lost five to one to the LA Kings in a game I thought might be JT Miller's last in a Canucks uniform, I watched it and that was the game where he looked completely checked out.

Uh, there was that goal that came from the point where he lost a battle along the wall and then barely tried to get out to the point. Um, he ended up playing another six games for the Canucks, but those two games, the game in Winnipeg and then home to return against the Kings were a very low point for the Canucks. So we all hope that the Canucks come out with a big effort tonight. We expect them to. They are coming off a tough loss to Utah.

They know they're in a playoff race. They know Winnipeg's a good team, so they better be ready to roll. Otherwise it's not going to look too good. The Jets have won five of their last six, including Sunday's OT win at Seattle. That comry started for Winnipeg, so I guess we'll expect Hellebuck tonight. The thing about Winnipeg is they can pretty

much coast to the top seed in the west. There's no one that's going to coast to the top seed in the West. There's no one that's going to challenge them for top seed, but if they are motivated by winning the president's trophy, and that's something that Winnipeg has never done, either the current version of the jets or the old version of the jets that moved to Phoenix, um, they are

in a race with Washington. They're the only really teams left in the president's trophy race. And again, the jets have never won it before. So perhaps that's a motivating factor down the stretch for them. It could be. I wonder if they're looking for an edge to avoid

the complacency that we see creep in for teams in this position sometimes, right? And, you know, I always think back to classic examples, that record setting Tampa team that ended up getting swept by Columbus because they were just like, they didn't have a single meaningful game for four months leading into that. And they're like, oh, wow, these guys are trying really hard. And I, you know, Winnipeg is not quite in that position in terms of their record.

But as you said, they're going to coast to the top seed in the West. That's one of the, one of the things I want to ask Kelly Moore when we chat with him about the Jets team is How much concern is there about that complacency and what are they doing to try to avoid it? It's not showing up in their regular season results. Certainly. I mean they are just such a complete team It feels like they've got their style of play and how they're going to win games just completely locked in. And then they have Connor Hellebuck. And you know, I know they won with Comrie and Nat the other night anyway,

so it's not like they can't do it with Comrie, but it's the, it's the kind of thing. And this always struck me about Tampa too, with Vasilevsky is the team is so well constructed in front of the goalie. And then even if you take advantage of their mistakes, they've got the best goalie in the world back there to clean everything up. It's so difficult, I think psychologically for the opponent.

Winnipeg better go on a deep run this post season, otherwise talk about a wasted opportunity. Yeah. It's so wide open. And I go back to, um, what was the year? They had a really good year. It was like five or six years. It was the year that Vegas, the first, first year

that Vegas. Yeah, they went to the conference finals. They went to the conference final and they lost to Vegas and I remember thinking like, oh, that's tough, man. You get all the way there and you lose to an expansion team. And I know Vegas wasn't your typical expansion

team, but the Washington capitals found a way to beat them in the Stanley cup finals and the caps escaped the sad club with that win. Good for them. That was a long time ago, but I remember saying like, oh, you never know when you're going to get back in that spot.

Yep. In the conference finals and, and people push back on it and they were like, look at this team. Like they're so, they're, they're set. That team was stacked. They're set. And I was like, yeah, but. It doesn't work like that.

You never know. And then, and And I was like, yeah, but. It doesn't work like that. But you never know. And then eventually like, you know, a lot of those guys from that team are gone now. Look at Bufflin, Truba. I mean, the entirety of the right side of that, of that defense, that included Tyler Myers. Yeah. You mentioned Wheeler. The coach is obviously different now.

So to get back and take advantage of what's going on, um, like just league wide, there's not, you know, I, I do think either Dallas or Colorado is going to be really tough in the playoffs. Um, you know, Vegas is still out there, but you know, Winnipeg, I saw stat the other day too, despite the fact that they've had this amazing season, they've only had nine sellouts in Winnipeg all season long, which goes to show that there are probably some

economic headwinds facing this team as well. Um, I'm not exactly sure all the specifics of what's going on with Winnipeg and the reason why they can't sell out their games, despite having a really good team. I know things are tough economically. I know things, I know it's a small market, but it's also a small arena.

Um, and it's a really good team. Now I remember back in the day, like people sometimes ask, well, why did Winnipeg move to Phoenix? And part of it was the Canadian dollar, which was low. I mean, Quebec city moved as well. But the other thing was like, they weren't stacking that arena. No, like they weren't selling it out every time.

So I think there's always that feeling of like, oh, business better be good in Winnipeg. And so they need that for that reason. But also they've got a couple of key pending UFAs and Marcus from Cloverdale texts in, he says, thoughts on Canucks replacing Besser with Ehlers in free agency this off season, eight season, 20 goal score, and in the 94th percentile

for skating speed. We kind of talked a little bit about Ehlers yesterday saying, man, this guy is going to get paid because Rantanen isn't going to go to market. There's Marner, there's Sam Bennett, and then there's Nick Ehlers. And I would say those are the big three among the forwards.

Also Neil Pionk is a pending UFA for Winnipeg, so they could lose some key guys next season. The other dynamic, and we can touch on Ehlers in a second here, but the other interesting dynamic for Winnipeg so they could lose some key guys next season. The other dynamic, and we can touch on Ehlers in a second here, but the other interesting dynamic for Winnipeg is how much is a rapidly rising salary cap going to hurt them, right? Playing in the smallest market in the NHL, dealing with economic challenges, we always just kind of assume, oh yeah, Canadian teams, they'll spend to the cap, right? Especially if they're good, they'll have the ability to spend to the cap.

I don't know if that's going to be true for Winnipeg in the coming seasons when the cap really spikes. So you add that in to just how good their team is this year, the potential of losing some key guys. And yeah, there's, I think there's a lot of pressure to make this year count. I'm kind of surprised they didn't do more at the

deadline, especially you look at it like, now I think they were in on Brock Nelson and it just didn't work, but the, you know, they have Vlad Nemesnikov as their second line center. The 2C has always been an issue. Yeah. You probably like to upgrade that. On Elers, I think Elers would be a great fit. I mean, if you're, we're sitting here talking, they desperately need more

speed, they need guys who can, you know, carry the puck through the neutral zone, dynamic catalysts, offensive catalysts. Nick Ehlers is that guy on the market, especially once you get past Mitch Marner, but there's going to be so many other teams that are thinking that. And then the other thing is what's the other attribute that we were talking about yesterday that the Canucks desperately needed in their top six. It's, it's toughness It's toughness, it's grit, it's a mentality, right? Also creativity. That's not Ehlers. You also need more creativity.

No, I know, but so you can solve one of those issues with Nick Ehlers or at least start to solve it, help solve it, but it doesn't address the other one and now you've just spent a ton of money on Nick Ehlers. So that would be my number one target, but it's not as if it's like, it's still fraught with issues and potential complications, even if you get them. What would you think of a top six that includes, um, Ehlers, Pedersen and Leckermacchi? You know, like that's talent wise, that's good. Is that too light? It depends who the other guys are around, right?

Like I think you can, I think you can win. What about Garland? Yeah, that's the thing. Bring Garland up there. Right. You bring Garland, like is Garland going to be a part of it? Does Niels Hoeglander push for more? You know what I mean?

Like they've already got a bunch of guys there. So I think you could insulate those players and, and have the size and the toughness around them. It's just, it's tough to do from the Canucks position. Speaking of guys that can carry the puck up the ice through the neutral zone and gain some entries, are we, are we basically not expecting Heedle to play for a while?

I mean, they didn't have a practice yesterday and usually like to see a player have a practice. Now, sometimes the protocols change when things get dire or desperate. Let's use desperate instead of dire for the Canucks. But like tonight, I'm not expecting to see Phillip Udall out there. It would be a surprise.

Now there, I think there is still a possibility we get a good news update from Rick Taukett after morning skate today. They'll do a full team morning skate because they had the day off yesterday. Whether that's good news he's in tonight or just good news he's gonna come on the trip with us, we'll see, but it would be pretty surprising

considering missing the last game, not having practiced since, his injury history, all of that, if they have Philip Heidel in the lineup, which means it's going to be likely another game where it's Pedersen, Suter, Bluger, Amon down the middle and you got to find a way to control play and generate offense against the best team in the NHL, if that is your center group. Did they need to get Besser up with Pedersen or Suter or anyone who's not Bluger?

I don't know. They've tried that. Yeah. He's started on lines with Pedersen. He's been moved there during the games. He's started on lines with Souter. Hasn't done much. Debrusk, Pedersen. It's also like, okay, put this Pedersen.

Debrusk, Pedersen and Besser should, in theory, be something, but it's- That should be like, let's load it up. And then you put them together and nothing happens. The thing is, you can't say, oh, get Besser, put Besser with Pedersen to get him going going. Like who is the Pedersen's not getting anyone going right now. That's not going to work. I guess Hogan landers playing pretty well. So you, maybe that gives Bessar a little bit of spark, but there's no center that you

can point to and say, Hey, we've got a guy struggling. We need to get, go get them going. Let's put them with this center. They just don't have that player right now. Yeah. Man. So you can try putting them with Pettersson, but I don't think you should expect all of a sudden this massive turnaround from Brock Besser as a result. Their first power play is going to be something to watch. Oh yeah. Are you going to ask, talk about that?

Are you going to ask him about his comment? Why, why were Myers and Hronik out there together? No, probably not. No, no more his comment about, you know, there were plays to be made there. Why weren't they made? Well, to tease, preview one of the questions that I want to ask Tauke, and not specifically about, okay, in that moment, why weren't guys making plays? But that commentary that, Hey, we've talked to

them about this and we're actually a little frustrated that that message isn't getting through that, you know, we're telling them, but it's not being translated onto the ice. We've heard that a few times. That's not the first time we've heard that. And it stands out so much to me because last year it was so notable.

It felt like everything Tocket was emphasizing got almost immediately translated onto the ice. You could hear him talk about it and then you could see how the players were executing it and how it was making them successful. That was buy in, we were talking about it, oh, there's buy in, there's alignment. It was buy in, there was understanding, there was

all of it, whatever buzzword you want to choose. And this year it's just been so different. And so, yeah, I want to ask Tauke, I mean, why does he think it's been so different? Why has it been so much more difficult to get the message through, to get the players on board and executing what he's selling? Yeah.

Do you think he's going to be- I'm also going to ask him about the days of the week. Do you think he's going to be in a tight, yeah, right. Do you think he's going to be in a talkative mood today? We'll see. I mean, he's coming on, you know- How can we soften them up a little bit?

Well, we're going to ask him about the telethon. All right. Right. So, you know, the kids, it's all about the kids here at the Alfred and Bruff show. So hopefully that softens it up a little bit. But as I said, you know, we'll get into the hockey stuff as well. And look, credit to talk it in his time here in Vancouver, he's been pretty like he doesn't, I know there's been moments this year where he's been frustrated with Pedersen questions or whatever, but generally he doesn't shy away from questions. He's happy to get into stuff. It's also kind of like a good natured frustration, if that makes sense. He knows he doesn't, he probably might want to fly off the handle sometimes, but he always

has this frustration and then he's like, I know you guys got to ask this question. I know you guys got a job to do. And he'll kind of joke about it. But like, dude, dude, dude, dude, like, it's like the PD, PD, PD all the time. I know you guys got a job to do. Like, he's kind of apologetic and being frustrated. Yeah. Yeah. Except the one, what was the one recently?

Oh, the taking the A off Bessar thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Although he was kind of, he still joked around because the guys that he was targeting weren't there Yeah, and he was like frustrated. He was like dang it. Where are those guys cowards? Why aren't they here? I wanted to look him in the eye. You're listening to the best of Halford and brough. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough here on Sportsnet 650. Jamie Dodd filling in for Mike Halford. Halford and Bruff is brought to you by the DeLari family

of Honda dealers. Experience the DeLari difference today. Visit your nearest DeLari Honda dealer today. This hour of Halford and Bruff is brought to you by Campbell and Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit Campbell-Pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and

orthotics working together with you in step. So Rick Tauket is going to join us momentarily here. The Canucks take on the Winnipeg Jets tonight at Rogers Arena. Big game in the standings, one of the best teams in the NHL in town. Also big game off the ice. It is the 35th annual Canucks for Kids Fund Telethon presented by TD and of course, this raises funds for children's health and wellness education, grassroots hockey as well across BC.

It supports organizations like the Canucks Autism Network, Canuck Place, BC Children's Hospital Foundation. Last year, the telethon raised over $800,000. That set a record for the Canucks for Kids Fund and its beneficiaries. The Telephone's now live. You can visit Canucks.com slash Telephone to donate. And here's, how about this?

There's some thank you gifts that you get if you donate a certain amount. For $100, you get a photo of Coach Rick Tauket and Canucks pup Eddie. For $150, you get, I know, right? And the puppy's cute too. The puppy's cute too, yeah. And for $150, you get a special Canucks portrait. To talk a little bit more about the Telethon and also his hockey team joining us now. He is Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tauke. Rick thanks very much for doing this today. How are you? Really good thank you. I appreciate for having us on you know talking about our team and the and the Cherries. Since I've

been here I'm so impressed with the way that Canucks do with the Cherries and our players so it means a lot to me. Yeah, and I wanted to start there. I was just talking about it is, you know, the 35th annual Canucks for Kids Fund Telethon, and you mentioned generally what the Canucks do in the community and they do so much, and this is really kind of the highlight of the year. Why is this night so important for the organization, but also for you and the players? Well, I think obviously giving back to the community. You know, a lot of people pay a lot of money to come watch us play.

And I think it's important that an organization has been doing this for me for years. I think Brian Burke was one of the guys that spearheaded the, all this stuff over the years and the Aquilead family. Yeah, just our players really step up. I know behind the scenes, you know, we always talk about hockey, which we should, but they visit Caduck's Place Children's Hospital. They do public visits after games.

And you know, you see the post meet and greets and you know, after, and I give the players a lot of credit. I know what I used to play after a loss. I mean, you take it really personal and you're upset, but they're out there smiling and greeting these kids. So that's what it's about. It makes you feel better too. You know, it makes you feel better as a player

that you can give back, you know, help raise funds, send videos, things like that. So I give the players a lot of credit, obviously the organization. So it's a good thing. Does it help keep things in perspective? You know, it's a pressure situation for everyone. The season's been pretty crazy, but just a reminder that actually things are okay in

life and it could be worse. Yeah, yes. You always talk to your team about this. You know, you got to separate this sort of stuff. And it kicks me in the ass sometimes too, like there's, you know, there's other things and what people are going through. But saying that, you know, hey, listen, we're in a job that you want to thrive with the pressure, you know, we don't want to hide from it.

We want to attack it. You know, we, you know, our mantra last year was me pressure with pressure. I mean, this is the stuff that, you know, we just can't hide from. And who wants to play anything for nothing? Like, that sucks. I mean, if you're a team that's, you know, just playing the games out and you got nothing, you know, you're not gonna make the playoffs or whatever.

I mean, that just sucks. I've been, unfortunately, not a lot of times in that position, but when it hits you, it's bad. So I think this year, this run, we're trying to get the playoffs. I think this is valuable for a lot of guys, especially the young guys. Some of the guys that are trying to establish themselves in the NHL, on our team, I think this is huge. We'll see how we react to all this pressure.

Just on the telethon, Rick, I was just mentioning before we got you on the phone, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but the gift, if you donate $100 to the telethon Rick, I was just mentioning before we got you on the phone I'm not sure if you're aware of this But the gift if you donate a hundred dollars to the telethon tonight is a special photo of you and the Canucks dog Canucks pop Eddie that's a pretty special prize on the line Rick Yeah, that's a lot Yeah, I'm a huge dog lover. I loved I'm a huge dog lover. So yeah, that's great Hopefully hopefully I could some people buy some of that those photos So again, it is the 35th annual Canucks for kids fun telethon. It's live right now You can go to Canucks.com slash telethon to donate turn into hockey a little bit here Rick

You know you mentioned after the game on Sunday against Utah talking specifically about that four-minute power play and you said the coaching staff Maybe a little bit frustrated that there were some plays to be made there and the players weren't able to execute. And, you know, it stood out to me because I don't think that's the first time this year that we've heard a similar sentiment about a message maybe not being, not getting through or not being executed on the ice. And I think back to last season and what stood out to me so much and so many people was it felt like the players had so much buy-in and that the message you were telling them last season was getting almost instantly

translated on the ice. Why do you think it's been different this year and maybe that it has been more difficult to to get that buy-in and get your message across this season? Yeah you know sometimes I'm too honest to a fault. It wasn't a slander of the team that it's not a buy in. To answer your question from last year, this year, a lot of new guys this year, I mean, I wanna make excuses. I mean, we've had a lot of issues that we've had to deal with this team as a group.

And I'm gonna take the approach, it's pretty positive that we're still in the fight for a playoff spot, we can make the playoffs. So I give the players a lot of credit, a lot of new people, but as for the game, I probably should choose my words. I just, you know, we knew that Utah comes out hard, especially with Hughes on the ice, and we set up some low plays and we didn't. And you know, it was one of those things that you're like wow the plays there if it goes low we probably have a three on two or three on one at the net and somehow

we just didn't find those reads. Listen is it practice and that you know I could use excuse it with not enough reps practice time things like that but I really believe in the pressure you got to really take that information and apply it so I think after a tough loss like that, you know, I think we were watching the game, the coaches, some highlights after the game, we just said, man, that plays there. It's there. You know, why can't we see it? And sometimes, you know, is it fatigue? You know, I don't know. Certain times in a game, some people don't see things. And we just got to keep teaching it. and that's our job to keep practicing.

And that's on us as coaches to make sure these guys get the right message in every game. So I'm going to pick on some of your other honesty. A few weeks ago, you made a comment that people want all these fancy offensive systems. So it's pretty clear you're aware that there have been some criticisms of the style of play, low event hockey, that type of thing. I'm wondering if you could expand just a little bit more on why you think your system is the right system for the team and push back on anything that you think has been unfair that you've heard.

No, it's not unfair. It's crucial in the pudding. When you're not a high scoring team, you're gonna get criticism or people diving into it. That's the job and I get it. So, I have the twins here. I have Sergei Ganchar, very smart hop offensive guys that know, you know,

and we dive in this constantly. And I think sometimes you look at certain things and how are we gonna win games? You know, what's your personnel, things like that. You know, we're a team that I think, especially since Christmas, we don't give up a lot of shots. So we're in most games where I'm not sure

we're a team that can open it up. Like I don't think we can go up and down the ice with that. But saying that can we stay in games and win games? Yeah, I really believe that. It's on us to win hockey as coaches. You know, we do offensive meetings all the time. You know, we look at Utah, for instance, you know, we hardly have any chances. Why is that? A lot of deferring,

a lot of going low to high without attacking the interior when there's plays to be made inside. It's our job to get guys to play inside. To score goals, you got to be inside. And for whatever reason, we like to defer to the outside stuff. And that's, like I said, that's my job to get this team to play inside and we're going to keep pounding on it. Um, but I will say without the puck, we're a good hockey team. We just gotta be a better team with the puck. Um, I guess one of the encouraging things lately has been Elias

Pedersen's willingness to shoot and he's got some goals. He had some really nice goals over the last little while. Um, a couple of weeks ago, he said over the last 48 hours or 72 hours, he's doing stuff that you were like, wow, that's the stuff we need from you. I'm curious, what was the stuff he was doing that you liked? And I got to ask this. Why do you think it wasn't being done before? Yeah, you know, this is a question at the end of the year that we really got to dive into.

Right now, you know, he's a great kid. I think there's a lot of expectations on him. I think he knows that was he ready for it over the summer this season. I think he's been a little surprised out what he had to do to maintain a level that we expect of him from himself. So is there a little bit of catch-up? Yeah I can be totally honest with you. You know for him and I know people joke about it, I say it all the time, and it's just not for him, it's the team. If you want to score goals or if you want to be a dominant player, you've got to move your feet. You've got to get to those areas. You've got to be

deceptive. You've got to play North hockey. Regroup hockey, taking the puck back, it won't win in any shell. I spent two weeks with some of the great coaches of Cassie and DeBoer and John Cooper. They're great coaches. They promote the same thing. And I think sometimes P likes to regroup it, slow the game down. I'm not sure how many years ago of doing that might have worked, but now you have to play it more North style. And we're just trying to reprogram his brain when it comes to that. And he's buying into that. That's why I think he's getting better at that but there's another level for us and our team. So Rick I know obviously the focus for your team right now and your coaching staff is on the playoff push

here and trying to secure your spot in the playoffs but you know I know there's also a lot of conversation here in the market about your future beyond this season and general manager Patrick Alveen just gave an interview with there's also a lot of conversation here in the market about your future beyond this season. And general manager Patrick Alveen just gave an interview with Pierre Le Brun and he says about you, I sure hope that he's going to be a part of this organization moving forward. That's a conversation that I hope will get to the finish line here sooner rather than later. Can you tell us anything about where things stand with you and the team beyond this season?

And as Alveen says, they're hoping to do it sooner rather than later. Is the timing right for that conversation in your eyes? Yeah, first of all, Francesco and the Aquilead family and Patrick and Jim, unreal relationship with myself. So they've been unbelievable upfront with me. So that part's unreal. For me, I'm an all-in guy. I'm so, you know, it's not a chicken, you know what I'm saying, answer is I'm all in on trying to get this team in, trying to, you know, the energy level. I just, I think this is better to wait for

me so we can really sit down and talk is I have no time to talk about my contract in the sense that you know what I want to do and stuff because I'm all in with this team right now it'll get when the appropriate time that's really what it is I can't really concentrate on that stuff like I just you know every day we come in we're really concentrated on a lot of different things and I'm'm very comfortable and I think they will too that when it's appropriate time we can spend some time and really dive in where we're going, what we're gonna do and things like that.

I think that's really the best answer I can give you guys. Rick, we really appreciate the time as you were just saying there. We know how busy you are these days. Big game against the Jets tonight. So thank you so much for doing this and best of luck the rest of the way. I appreciate it guys. Talk to you guys down the road. Thanks again.

That is Canucks head coach Rick Tocket joining us on the show here. And as mentioned, it is the Canucks for kids telethon today, the 35th annual edition and it's live right now. You can go to Canucks.com slash telethon. And if you donate before midnight tonight, you'll be entered to win a 2025 Toyota Corolla hatchback. That's in addition to getting the photo of Rick

Tocket and Canucks pup, Eddie, if you donate $100. So make sure, make sure you go and be a part of it. Again, last year they raised over $800,000. So a great opportunity to be a part of a good cause tonight. He sounded energized. Yeah. On the interview. Don't you think?

Like he was like ready to go. Remember throwing his words back in his face and he had no problem. I hate these guys. A lot of diving in. He referenced having to dive in on, well, he doesn't have time to dive in on his contract situation. Yeah.

So busy that he doesn't really want to focus on that. I hope management doesn't threaten to trade him to Carolina because of that, but I guess they'll figure that out in the off season. You know, when I asked him about Pedersen, he said that's something that we're going to have to dive into in the off season and kind of

reiterated the message that's been sent, um, and said, you know, maybe not as starkly as it's, I don't know if it's ever been boldly said, like by anyone, like Petey was not ready to go at the beginning of the season. He did not have a good off season. And then people will say knee tendonitis and then it all goes around in circles and circles again.

Um, I also thought it was very interesting that Tuckett just basically conceded. I don't think we're a team that can open this up. I think this is the style we have to play because we're not a run and gun team. And you know, we have enough problems trying to get guys to just take the puck to the interior of the ice. So, he said, once again, we got to move our feet.

And I don't think he's wrong about that, by the way. If you go look at that format of power play that they had against Utah, I've referenced the time at the, basically the, the top of the offensive zone when it was Besser passing it to Pedersen and passing it back to Queen Hughes, like no one, even Hughes, no one was moving their feet. And if you're going to work the puck down low and you want to have passing lanes down low, you got to move your feet.

You got to create those passing lanes. You got to create those shooting lanes. It's pretty hard to move the puck down low. If you're just standing there and the other, then the defensemen or the penalty killers are like, cool, I'll just stand here too then, you know? You can pass it around the perimeter all you want. He wants the players to work it inside more.

And the question is, do they have the players that are willing to do that? I don't know if they do. And the other thing that stood out to me about his answer was him saying, we're a really good team without the puck and now we need to turn it into being a good team with the puck as well. But from a coach's perspective, if you have a kind of bedrock thing that you think you do really

well, and in this case, it's the play without the puck, the way they can defend, it's very, very difficult to risk losing that. Losing the thing that is keeping you competitive, that is keeping you in games a lot of nights. And especially if you're not certain about the upside, because again, just look at the personnel they're dealing with right now. It's not as if they've got this bounty of really

high skilled dynamic attacking players that, oh man, if you just took the reins off and let them go, all of a sudden they'd be this high flying teams. Like that's not the personnel they have. And if you do that, you risk sabotaging the thing that's made you a competitive team and kept you in the race, which is your defense. So I completely understand where Tauke is coming

from making that calculation. He's trying to win games. He's trying to get them into the playoffs here and their defense has been their calling card. It's been their bread and butter. So recap, if you can, for the listeners, what Patrick Alveen said in an interview with Pierre Lebrun for the athletic.

And then what did you think of Rick Taukett's answer about his future with the team? So I felt a little, and I thought I was ambushing him with Alveen's words necessarily. And ultimately it's positive, but I mean, this was published. We started was ambushing him with Alveon's words necessarily. And ultimately it's positive. But I mean, this was published. We started out ambushing with you, with your words and now it's your GM.

This was, I saw that this was published like as we had Tauket on the air and I pulled it up and it happens to have a quote. I mean, naturally, if you're interviewing Alveon, just like we asked Tauket about it, you're going to ask Alveon about it. Here's the quote, the full quote from Patrick Alveon on Rick Tauket.

Well, I think Rick Tauket has done an impressive job under the circumstances here this season. He's well liked by the players, he's a great communicator and also has the ability to hold guys accountable. We have a club option but I sure hope that he's going to be part of this organization moving forward. That's a conversation that I hope will get to the finish line here sooner rather than later. So the thing that struck me most about Tauke's answer, especially in light of what

Alveen says at the end there, where it's, it's not just, wow, we love Tauke and we're excited to talk to him about an extension of the off season. It's we want to finish this. We want to do this sooner rather than later. We want to get certainty on Rick Tauke. This sounds like the Pedersen situation.

It's why I joked, like you're going to trade with Carolina. And Taukett's answer is completely understandable. Yeah. Well, if you haven't noticed, we've got what? 16 games, 15 games left and we're trying to make the playoffs, so I don't really want to be hashing out a contract right now. Fair enough, but it's still a different, it's a very

different point of view than the GM has and that's notable. Yeah. That's very notable. That's why it was notable when it happened with Pedersen. Pedersen kept saying, I want to wait until the off season. And, uh, and people would always push back on us

because they were like, Petey said he doesn't want to talk about this until the off season. Why are you guys still talking about this? Well, the reason we're still talking about this is because the team, the management group, wants to get a contract done now. They want that certainty. It feels like a very similar situation.

Yep. And obviously coach and player, different situation. Pedersen was an RFA, but there was some worry and some consternation within this market and maybe within the Canucks organization that Pedersen was going to pull a kachak and say, well, I'll take my one-year deal qualifying offer and then I'll be an unrestricted free agent. So you're going to have to trade me. Talk, it's kind of in the same situation. Like the Canucks keep saying, yeah, we got this team option, but I'm pretty sure if they don't get something agreed on Force him to be

Yes, like we're either doing a long-term contract here or you're finding a new coach, yeah, they're not gonna like whole yeah Well, sorry, you're you gotta do this. Yeah. He's gonna be like no I'm leaving, you know, right So they have to figure out a solution here at some point. Should we try it? We gotta do what we learned at some point. Should we try to squeeze it in here? I'll read one from the inbox before we get to take a break and get to batch, so let's go write.

We'll print them out right now. You wanna go print out the submissions? That's right. Sort of what nonsense you were getting at there. We'll print them out right now. You wanna go put out the submissions? That's right. We gotta take care of business. We gotta take care of business. That's what we're doing here. Where's the read? There we go.

Halford, you're back. What we learned is brought to you by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Our favorite, AJ's Sauce Pie, an upside down version of the bar pie with fresh mozzarella and basil only at AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Our favorite AJ's Sauce Pie, an upside down version of the bar pie with fresh mozzarella and basil only at AJ's Pizza online at ajs.pizza. Into the inbox we go, Maury the mill manager texts in.

Oh God, we're doing this again. What we learned, four year olds know what the first day of the week is. I was listening to the end of your show yesterday with my four year old and she said, why is that guy wrong about the first day of the week? She was genuinely confused about it. She then said, hey, let's ask Google.

So we did, I invite Jamie to do the same. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to ask Tauket, whether Sunday or Monday is the first day of the week. Here's the, okay, I was thinking about this, obviously I was stewing on this after the show yesterday. And everyone's like, Jamie, it's called the weekend and Sunday is part of the week. Here's the, okay, I was thinking about this. Obviously I was stewing on this after the show yesterday and everyone's like, Jamie, it's called the weekend and Sunday is part of the weekend. It can't be the first day of the week. When does a new day start?

When does it, when does a new day start? Midnight. I was like, but that's the middle of the night. We call it midnight. We don't call it first day or new day. How can it possibly be the start of a new day? That's what you guys sound like denying that Sunday is the first day of the week. You, it would be like arguing that a day actually starts at 9 AM because that's

when business is open. It's like, well, the week really starts on Monday. Sure. That's the cultural convention, but the actual technical definition is it's Sunday. You've been spending too much time with drance because everything's a technicality. You're being a bit pedantic to be honest with you. The worry. When do you personally, when did, this is, this is,

this is not, this is not going to the rule book. Okay. Forget this. This is not, you know, this isn't the, the weekly CBA, okay. I'm talking about in your life, are you waking up Sunday morning and going, well, another week. It's time to start another week.

No, but I still know that's when the week starts. Just like I'm not waking up at midnight saying, oh, time to start another day. But I know that's when a new day starts. That's a good point. It's a great point. It's a good connection there. It's a great point. It's a great point. It's a good connection there. It's a great point.

By the way, the worrying thing for me in this is that Drance thinks it's Monday. So I'm actually being the overly pedantic technical one in an argument with Drance. Okay. Which is very concerning. You're becoming Drance. For me personally. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.