Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 3/2/26

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, they discuss Saturday's Canucks loss to the Seattle Kraken, plus they set up tonight's matchup versus the Stars with NHL.com & In Goal Magazine's Kevin Woodley. 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. Their first two games, they're still in the thick of her conucks tonight by a final score of 5 to 1 on Hallibis. They've got to play with more zip, you know, more pace to his game. Just had a little more zing and a little more pep. Zing and pep. See, those are the kind of words we're looking for.

Yes. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Halpert and his brough. It is sports at 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios, the beautiful Fairbyslopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. Edda, good morning to you. Is Adam foot Michael Scott? Can you imagine? I mean, there's like, I kind of see it. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halpert and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Do you have CRA debt? If you do, Sands and Associates. Associates could cut that debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal recycling, they recycle you get paid.

Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech studio with a cold, new year, new opportunity for comfort with orthotics from Kintech. Got a big show ahead on a Monday. It's a four-guester, but the entire. first hour, uninterrupted Halbro. That's right. Guest list today begins at 7 a.m. It is the Duick Morning Drive

brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. Kevin Woodley, NHL.com, and In-Gole magazine is going to join the program at 7. Knox says you heard on the call lost on Saturday in Seattle. They're back in action tonight at home against Dallas. 7 p.m. puck drop from Rogers Arena. Kevin is going to join us at 7 a.m.

To talk about the Canucks, maybe some goalie stuff heading into the trade deadline. 7.30. Dennis Bernstein is going to join the program. He from the fourth period in Sirius XM-NHL radio, Dennis covers the LA Kings, and the Kings fired their head coach, Jim Hiller over the weekend. Extremely

tough times in L.A. right now. Injuries piling up, there's a coaching change, and the team is outside a playoff position all ahead of Friday's trade deadline. Dennis Bernstein's going to join us to talk some Kings at 7.30. 8 o'clock Ryan Hanna is going to join the program. Host of the Winged Wheel podcast

out of Detroit. Red Wings have hit the skids recently a little bit. They are really having problems scoring goals. And they're rumored to be interested in Canucks Center, Elias Pedersen. Could it work? Will it happen? We will ask Ryan Hanna from the Winged Wheel podcast at 8 o'clock this morning.

Then at 8.30, usually what we learn time on the program, but not today. It's because Braden Coots is joining the program, Jason. Vancouver Canucks first round pick, currently playing for Prince Albert in the dub. We will talk to him about the upcoming WHL playoffs, getting to work with Daniel and Hendricks Sedin, on a regular basis.

And, you know what, let's ask him where he thinks he might play next season. Yeah. I think that could be interesting. He's like, hopefully not Vancouver. Right. Anyway. Wait a minute. I want to be in the NHL.

Wait, I do. Seriously. It's a double-edged sword. Please, I beg you, don't clip that. Braden Coots is going to join us at 8.30 this morning. All that said, we will try and work in some of our what we learns and some of your what we learns in the entire 8 o'clock hour. So don't hesitate to send them in.

Dunbar Lmer text line is 650, 650, 650. Hashtag him, W. We'll try and do your what we learned in the final hour of the program. We got a lot to get into today. I'm not going to run through the guest list in reverse. Without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

No. What happened? I missed all the action because I'm losing. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You miss that? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance.

Making safety simpler by giving construction companies of vesting tools, resources and safety training. Visit them online at B. Well, with less than a week to go before the trade deadline, as rumors continued to swirl around potential changes to the roster of the NHL's worst team, the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday, lost 5-1 to the Cracken in Seattle, and Elias Pedersen, the highest paid player on the team, was stapled to the bench for much of the final period. Yeah, it's been that kind of season. and I know Drancer had some quotes from after the game that he put onto social media, and Adam Foote said of Pedersen, he's got to be better, and he knows that. And Pedersen said, coach is coaching to win, whatever he decides, I respect, I've got to be better, my number wasn't called.

Now, I asked Drancer for some more details on that interaction because he was one of the few media guys down in Seattle to watch that game in person. And he told me privately, he's like, that was a stilted back and forth with Elias Pedersen. And here are some follow-up questions to Pedersen. These are going to appear in Dranser's article in The Athletic. That actually has, this article actually has kind of like a positive angle to it because Drancer also went down to Everett to watch Landon DuPont,

and he's basically saying like, you know, the Cracken won that game, but the Canucks are the ones in the position to add elite talent to their team because the Cracken are kind of mid. But the Pedersen situation is still with the Canucks. He, Dranser, asked Pedersen if there was any communication from Adam Foote explaining the decision. and he said that Pedersen was

characteristically reluctant to provide a straight answer at the risk of creating a headline out of a situation that was sure to generate headlines. Regardless, and Pedersen actually said, no, there wasn't communication, but I don't need to get into details. Then that's a headline. That's a headline.

So no comment on it, my number wasn't called. Drancer then said he pointed out to Pedersen that he's a player that's had a hundred point season in his NHL career while hitting nearly 40 goals. Was the benching a wake-up call? No, I've got to be better. Pedersen said, there's nothing to it.

I've got to be better. So, you know, it was... We're back at this stage of the proceedings. We're back at this stage. It was another listless performance by the Canucks. It didn't look that bad by way of the analytics. Like if you didn't watch the game and you went to natural stat trick and you're like, well, the score wasn't great, but...

I didn't do either of those things. Right. Don't get this wrong. It was bad. The Canucks were down 2-0 after the first. period. Liam O'Grane made it 2-1 in the second, but that was as close as it got.

Adam Foote actually pulled the goalie down 4-1 late. I'm not sure. Honestly, I'm not sure why. You're crazy, Foot. The Canucks were never going to make that game interesting. I don't think they created one opportunity with the extra attacker and Jordan Everly scored into the

empty net to make it 5'1. The big story was Pedersen, though. Yep. The Connox started the third period with a foot, with a full two-minute power play. And this is when people realized, oh, hmm, this might be interesting. And, you know, Shorty was on the call,

and he was like, no, Elias Pedersen on any unit. The second unit actually got the first crack. And then the first unit came out for the rest of it, but Pedersen wasn't on it. All told, the team's highest paid player only got three shifts in the third period with none in the final 10 minutes. He finished the night with no shots on goal, was minus two with just over 14 minutes of ice time.

There was one hit, and he did have three wins and 10 face-off opportunities. Oh, so he lost the face-up battle, too. Do we have Adam Foote on Elias Pedersen? Here's the head coach. With Elias Patterson, third period, he's not on the power play. I don't remember if he might have touched some ice during the six-on-five, but I don't think he did. What sort of was behind that decision? Well, he didn't have his whatever it was.

He's got even better, and he knows that. He's aware of that. We need more from him, and he's got to find it. And I, you know, that's what we, you know, I'm sure he talked to him. He knows he's got to be, you know, better for us. And I'm sure we'll see that next game. And is there any specific area where you're looking for him to be better there?

Is it just a general? Like, you know, he's got to play more, more, more, you know, more zip, like put more pace to his game, more engaged, and good things will happen when he gets his motor gone. And, you know, he's aware of it, so I'm sure we'll see the next game. I know people were kind of making fun of that comment about, you know, he needs more zip. But, like, it's true. That's exactly what he needs.

He needs to play with more zip. More zing, more pep. More, yeah, yeah, good. Those are good words. Good words. Does anyone have any other zing, pep. I think he should play with even more zip. Zest.

Some zest, a little more zest. Now, I know after the game that the Hockey Night and Canada crew were like, wasn't an injury? It wasn't an injury. And I know some people have been speculating that this decision to bench Pedersen was somehow related to the trade deadline, perhaps as a pressure tactic to make him wave his no-move clause or consider more areas. I mean, that's where we are as a fan base right now.

We've gone insane. I think it's probably just a coach that's at the end of, his rope with the player. It really does amaze me that there are still fans that that maintain that Peterson isn't playing that badly and that it's all someone else's fault but I think those people are very much in the minority now and I hope they are enjoying the time in their cult.

Meanwhile it's trade deadline week and depending on who you ask there's either significant interest around Pedersen or it's quiet. Bruce Garriock, the journalist out of Ottawa, reported we're told the Detroit Red Wings have been aggressive in their pursuit of the 27-year-old Ilius Pedersen. But here's Elliot Freeman on headlines on Saturday on Hockey Night Canada, suggesting that things are actually kind of quiet around Pedersen. Okay, Vancouver.

It was reported this week, Tyler Myers. He's considering a trade offer with Detroit. Myers has a no-move, no trade clause. I'm very sympathetic to Myers and his family situation. As we speak tonight, I believe that offer is still on the table. I think everybody was hoping there would be a decision by Monday. I just don't know where it stands right now. I also don't believe, as we do this, that Vancouver has a firm other offer for Myers.

So I think they're considering, I think they're talking to teams, but I don't get the sense. is anything else firm at this point in time. So we'll see by Monday. Patterson, I've looked around. I think it's quiet around him right now, Ron. But the one thing I have heard about Patterson is that the Canucks are not interested in retaining on him.

I think they've been asked, and I've heard that that is not what they're willing to do. I've heard it's pretty quiet around him as of tonight, famous last words. Here, I've got a question that I'm going to throw out to the listeners here. Or any of you guys, too. Okay. You get two options.

that's it. Okay. Two options. Two options. Okay? One is you trade Pedersen, you get rid of the entire salary, but you get nothing back. Okay? That's one option.

The second option is that you commit to keeping Pedersen on the Canucks for the rest of his contract, regardless. So you can't, you can't, well, you can buy them out if you want. But like the contract, the, I mean, the buyout's ridiculous, right? the contract remains with the Canucks until it ends one way or the other. So you're trading them for nothing, but you're getting rid of the entire contract. So they're kind of the opposite, the complete opposite. What would you choose? The first, the first option, which is just trading them and getting nothing in return.

And that sounds terrible. And I know what I'm saying is that you've still got a living, breathing asset that you're willing to just, like, go away for nothing. But I think this is about as bad as it can get. at with where the team is at, with where the, I would say potentially in limbo coach is at with the player. And the players seemingly shrug of the shoulders approach. Like I don't even saying I have to be better. And my number wasn't called. It just sound, those sound like platitudes that he just like, because they are. It could be a list of 18 different things that he would say with the same amount of zest and zeal. Like, there's nothing to it. I mean, the cost is sunk

at this point. God, I hate it when he says it'll just make a headline. Right. Number one, as Dranth pointed out, this is going to make a headline regardless. Number two, who cares? Yeah.

You're a professional athlete. But he's, I think mentally, I don't think, mentally he's been checked out for a while. And I don't know if it's to the degree of checked out on the team, his teammates, where is careers going? but he's obviously not performing at a level and quite frankly, maybe not capable of performing at a level

in this current scenario where management has to look at it and say, for the betterment of everybody involved, the guys that will remain, the executives that are going to be left to put this thing back together, the fan base, the owner, and Pedersen. Can you imagine being his teammate? It'd be really difficult. Yeah.

Be really difficult to watch this. I think it would be, I think the most, The most damage it will be inflicted is to younger players or guys trying to still forge their way into the National Hockey League and thinking that this is at all how it should happen. And guys that have already been traded. They're the guy making $11.6 million a year. A handful of guys in the National Hockey League that make that kind of money, right, that have extended into that 10 million plus cap hit. Can't get a shift at the end of a 5-1 loss to Seattle on a random Saturday night in the fun. third of a lost season.

Like, you know, and don't tell me that it's not because the coach isn't trying to win. The coach pulled the goalie, right? If you're trying to make a statement. I think the coach had the over, by the way, because it was at five and a half. Potentially? Yeah. Potentially. I was not talking of coaching.

You know, when you have that scenario, as a coach, you're sending a message. You're absolutely sending a message. Yeah. You're sending a match. Because you could have just kept it even, you just could have played out the string. But going to the power play and then going up with another man advantage,

forced obviously, because he goes six on five, and still deciding not to put your highest paid player out there. That is about as big a message you can send without saying the words as a head coach. Everyone that's texted in, there's been a bunch. If they've chosen the option,

it's the first option that you chose. you know, nothing back, trade him for nothing. Except for Brandon in Vancouver, who did not understand the point of the exercise, he said, can we keep him for like two to three years, then dump him? Brandon, pay attention. Brandon, this is, it's just, no, there's two options. The options are stark and opposite for a reason. This is why public schools are failing, because you're not understanding.

Okay, what about one year, but then you have an opportunity to do it at the deadline? Can we still retain? Yeah. There's two options. There's two choices. Was there a third more depressing option that the Canucks are just trying to avoid, which is trading for nothing and also retaining? Is that just the nightmare scenario?

Yeah, they would never do that. They would never do that. They would never do that. Just to get most of him off the books? I feel like the bridge too far is, the bridge too far is retaining. The bridge too far is retaining. The Connucks still haven't made a trade since moving Kiefer Sherwood to the sharks in January. Now, it has been reported that the Canucks have an offer on the table from the Detroit Red Wings for Tyler Myers,

but it's believed Myers would prefer to go elsewhere if he's traded, perhaps staying west. I know people have mentioned Dallas, but I also wonder about the Oilers, who are among many teams looking for a right-shot defenseman. We talk about the Oilers in the next segment because they are a bit of a mess right now, certainly relative to expectations. The pending UFAs, Bluger, Kane, and David Kemp should be traded this week. but the way the trade deadlines have gone in the past for the Canucks, nothing's guaranteed there.

I know there's been a suggestion that the Canucks should actually keep Bluger, and if the market doesn't develop for him, I wonder if they will, although I know that is not what fans want to hear. And then there are the veterans with Term, the VWTs, as we call them, including Pedersen. Connor Garland doesn't have trade protection until this summer, so he can be moved if the Canucks get an offer they like. Debrusk and Bessor,

have also been subject to trade speculation, although they control the process with their no moves like Pedersen does. Let's face it, this is a dire time for the franchise. They are going to get a very good player in the draft this year, which was the point of Drance's article, which is going to publish, I think, at around 7 a.m. our time. But they're going to need so much more to get back to respectability, let alone Stanley Cup contender status. It is one of the lowest points in franchise history, and aren't you glad you're listening to Halford & Brough at this time? As we know in the salary cap era,

there are no quick fixes or shortcuts when a team has sunk this low. None that work, at least. The Canucks have tried a few quick fixes and shortcuts, and, well, here they are. Consider, the Canucks are dead last by 10 points. They're dead last in the NHL by 10 points. It's impressive. They're the worst defensive team in the league and the third worst offensive team.

They do have some young players in the lineup, but there's no budding superstar in the organization, unless you want to be very generous when discussing Zeev Bouyam or Braden Kutz, who will chat with later in the show. There is uncertainty with the future of management. There is uncertainty with the future of the coaching staff. They don't have a captain and, oh yeah, they still don't have a practice facility. other than that though things are pretty stable they're pretty stable for the Canucks

they're happy with how things are going outside of those things which is why honestly this week is so big for the Canucks they need a win not on the ice but off the ice they need the week to go smoothly and efficiently they don't necessarily need to pull off a blockbuster but they have to avoid the face

plants they have to come away with at least I don't know a few more draft picks at the least by the way they host Dallas tonight, Carolina Wednesday, tickets on the secondary market are affordable. I swear if the trade deadline passes and they don't make a single trade, I am going to become the joker. Well, you might want to prep your face paint because it's a very...

I'm going to lose it. There's a very real chance that they don't get a lot of stuff done by Friday. The undercurrent of this year's trade deadline has very much been... It's tough to make moves right now. You already see a lot of general managers lining up their... excuses ahead of Friday. I've heard a lot of talk about how the playoff salary cap is screwed things up for everybody, right? Heard a lot of talk about how there hasn't been as much movement as previous years because things have changed under the CBA. There hasn't been a ton of

movement already. And we've seen some of the bigger, more obvious names go off the board, Rasmus Anderson and Artemis Panarin. The Connect's already made one deal with Sherwood. And all these other deals that they're trying to make right now, the ones of significance, involve guys that have no trade clauses, which by the way are running rampant throughout the National Hockey League. Vancouver is not the only market that's openly moaning about having way too many guys

with full no movement clauses. And you've got a bunch of teams that are in the mushy middle where they're not sure exactly what they want to do going into the deadline. You have a handful of teams that are starting to emerge as, okay, we're ready to buy.

Edmonton is fully in that conversation. It sounds like Detroit's fully in that conversation as well. be curious to see what happens in Los Angeles now because of how much they've invested into this season. But there's still some themes that are hanging around the fringes of whether they want to buy, whether they want to sell, or maybe they'll just stand pat and wait for the summer. And that's probably the most depressing part of all of this, is that historically in the NHL, we have built up our expectations for days like the trade deadline, only to walk away disappointed because someone is willing to kick the can down the road to the next significant date.

Disappointed and a little embarrassed with how it's gone sometimes? I mean, Jim Benning had some nightmare. trade deadlines where he had to go up after the deadline was over and explained how he couldn't get anything done. Just right out of time. And you know the Canucks last year, they didn't trade Suter, they didn't trade Besser. They lost

Suter for nothing. I remember the comments about Besser, which we all thought, well, that's the last straw. Besser isn't coming back to Vancouver because he wasn't very happy with them. Even though I think Patrick Alvian, to be fair, I think he just kind of inelegantly

said why they couldn't trade Besser and maybe he didn't think about how that might affect Besser because he essentially said like if you had seen some of the offers that we got for Brock Besser meaning there weren't many good ones and then the Canucks re-signed Brock Besser and now we're in this position. So it's going to be an interesting week.

I don't know if it's going to be a good week or a bad week but it's going to be a week. Halford and I are going to do a special four-hour trade deadline show. working in an extra hour for you, the listener. I mean, that's accountability. You know, that's, we are. We're also told to do it. We were told to do it, but we were also very gritty.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Our next guest is a presentation of White Rock Hyundai. It is Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and Ingole magazine here on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Kev. That's the only read that matter. It's true. It is true. How are you, my friend?

I'm good. How are you guys? We're well. It's been a very eventful start to the show. We had a lot to get into from the Vancouver Canucks side of things. A lot to get into from stories around the National Hockey League. But we do want to start with you with the Canucks. And obviously the big takeaway from the 5-1 loss in Seattle over the weekend was the deployment or non-deployment of Elias Pedersen in the third period. And then what both Adam Foote and Elias Pedersen had to say about it afterwards,

your thoughts, your takeaways from what happened over the week. can, Kev. Well, I guess it's kind of been coming, no? Like, I think there's probably a few guys that, that, I don't know. Like, it's, it's kind of hard to know what to do at this point. It feels like you've got another coach who's maybe running out of ideas. He's talked about their conversations, about trying to get him to play with more pace, about him understanding that he needs to play with more pace,

and yet here we are again, right? This is Rick Tockett's move your feet, right? Like at the end of the day, it's kind of a different variation and it took longer to get to of the same conversation around a player that continues to play well defensively, but you're paying them to do a whole lot more than that.

And, I mean, the timing of it around the trade deadline and questions about his future long term here, whether you even could move that contract without agreeing to eat a percentage. Like, we're kind of right back to where we started, aren't we? And for a team that's got a lot of big decisions to make, you know, this might be one of the biggest ones. If there is even a decision to be made,

because to make a decision, you have to have options, right? And they've tried to sort of get back to, the guy that we remember from two years ago, but man, like, it's, it's two years ago. And the pressure, as we said at the time, when that contract was signed, certainly wasn't going to get any less. And I remember Patrick Alvin being asked about that.

Like, do you worry about that extra pressure? And he said, no. Like, and yet here we are. And I don't know if it's the pressure or this is just what the player is now, but it's not untenable, but it certainly feels like it's approaching untenable, no. What does a good trade deadline week look like for the Canucks?

I mean, all the UFAs, pending UFAs have to be gone, no. I mean, if you, there's been too many years where the obvious moves didn't get made, and I don't, not just this regime, but there's been too many times where the obvious moments, moves didn't get made where they were left holding a bag or players that they were going to lose anyways. Like, I think that's the minimum. And then finding a way to get assets out of, I mean, and maybe judging them too harshly if they

don't find a way to get assets out of some of the guys with a little term, because those moves can still happen in the summertime as well. And if the offers aren't there, I guess the one thing I would say, even when it comes to the Tyler Meyer situation, I want to. And when it comes to Myers, like, this is his choice to make. And I don't think anybody should begrudge him if the decision is to stay. Like, that's his right. Or just not go to Detroit.

Right. Right. Like, stay or, like, find me somewhere else that I'm willing to go to. Yeah, I totally agree with you. Like, Tyler Myers does not owe the organization anything at this point. No, and the second part of that that I was sort of just, is we've heard that this was the Detroit Red Wings approaching them, right? And if that's true, like in Myers case, it's somewhat unique because, like I said, there's circumstances here that matter for the person.

And how you treat people, like I've been pretty harsh on one of the problems in this organization when it comes to culture is how you treat people. And how you treat people matters. And this is an example of maybe them wanting to do it the right way by not shopping him. But when you hear that they're listening to offers on a lot of the guys that have termed as opposed to maybe proactively trying to find ways to turn them into future assets, that's the part that, you know, makes you scratch your head a little bit. And again, I don't know how true it is, like, like how hard they're working, how active it is they are versus teams approaching them. But I would think at this point that you would want to be pretty active in terms of, you know, progressively trying to make these changes as opposed to waiting for, and at the end of the day, it takes two to tango when it comes to making a trade,

but you can go into it actively trying to be a partner or somebody who's just listening to offers. And I think we're well past this being a team that should just be listening to offers. Hey, Kev, what did you think of Jim Rutherford's comments on the 100% hockey podcast where he said that they think they found the root of all Thatcher Demko's problems and it's going to be solved with the hip surgery. I hope he's right. I hope for Thatcher's sake that he's right because we've talked about how,

I can't even pretend to understand how challenging this has been. So for the athletes and for the team's perspective, you really hope he's right. the caution I would throw to it is they thought that you know it was Jim that said last year at the end of the year you know whatever the postseason

media sessions that they thought and he went on about how a new trainer and made the comparison to Gary Roberts last season would be the thing that solves that after Demco's injuries problems So at the end of the day, I hope they're right. But we're not far enough, you know, we're not really far enough removed from the surgery.

And I would imagine the rehab process. And for him, again, a second hip surgery, something, I've still yet to find an example of elsewhere to really know if that's going to be the case. What do goalies say about rehab from hip surgery? What's it like? how challenging is it, but also maybe some of the positives of finally getting a hip surgery. Well, a lot of the, I mean,

listen, at the end of the day, a lot of the guys, including Thatcher, when he had the first one, like, it just frees up your range of movement so significantly. Like, it's a boutique surgery for goalies at a younger age. Like, found examples of kids in their teams

having it to sort of free up and open up their butterfly, widen their butterfly. remove some of the restrictions in there. So on some level, I've had a lot of goalies over the years talk about it being like a quote unquote loop job for your hips. Obviously, this is more significant as you get older and as you've had the procedure more than once.

And so I don't know the specifics of exactly what they've found in there because when you have it the first time, like you're, you know, typically you're, you fix the joint. Like if there's imperfections on the top of the femur head, the nature of the butterfly and the internal rotation it creates within the hips, which is not natural for the human body, can have a tendency to

grind away at the cartilage in there and obviously lead to labrum tears, but also grind away at the cartilage. When you fix it the first time, one of the things they do is they shave and round the head of the femur and they make it perfectly round so that

that socket no longer has those restrictions, no longer has edges that can grind into the cartilage. So I don't know what exactly within there they're fixing. But we've seen a wide range of outcomes from guys that, you know, guys that come back and it's like, I'm me again. I can move properly again. And all the other associated, we talked about growing poles being a common, you know,

side product of having a hip issue. Like all those things get fixed for a lot of guys. But then we've, you know, you've had other guys later in their career, like Tukaresk, tried but never really made it back. So you hope for the first outcome. Sounds like they're optimistic. That's what they'll have. But it's not as automatic as you get, you know,

later in years and up there in your career. And like I said, the nature, the unique nature of it being a second time on the same hip, you know, I think there's got a, I don't just didn't say it to go, but I would imagine there's a little more uncertainty. So because, Do these guys essentially get tight hips?

And because of that, they're more at risk of pulling their groin, for example, because you're trying to get into the butterfly in a different position or a different way? I think that just the range of movement is restricted. And if you think of getting into a butterfly... My hips hurt just thinking about doing that. Well, it's not like you ease your way into it, right? Like you're not, like it's a pretty violent motion. Yes.

You know, as a matter of fact, I think it, I can remember where was Bauer or CCM has a study where they equate the force created by a butterfly drop is the equivalent of an Olympic clean and jerk. Like it's, there's so much force every time you drop. It's two times your body weight, basically force being applied to your knees and your hips. And so if you've got something that's sort of limiting your full range of movement, it's not like that thing stops and two inches. It's not like you can stop the butterfly two inches before you get to the ice. You're on your way down. It's like, oh, it's not going to internally rotate anymore.

So I better just hover here. Right. You keep going and you push through that end rate of motion. And once there's no much, once that motion is sort of cut off and restricted through the hip joint and then internal rotation, it starts to pull on other parts of the, chain, right? Because it's essentially a chain from the ice, from the skate blade, through the ankle, knees, and hips

and so once one part is restricted, you start tugging on the other parts. Kev, what do you think's going on in Edmonton right now? Tristan Jari hasn't seemed to solve their goaltending issues. No, and you know, it's funny because you mentioned you talked about the Rutherford conversation.

You know, there's a part in there about wishing the goaltending was a little closer to what it was before. And that one stood out to me a little bit because the environment isn't anywhere near close to what it was before and so to expect the goal of tennis to perform similarly

behind defensive play that is nowhere near the same both in terms of the analytics but also in terms of the reeds and the breakdowns of the unpredictability of the environment is borderline absurd I think the same thing is happening at

Evanston like man like they don't give a rat Petitia pro defense right now. They keep paying lip service to it and a lot of times it starts with their top guys and those guys have played a lot of hockey

and I can understand and they're incredible offensively and so it would be nice not to have to play defense because it's a lot of work but as the table setters as the example setters is the guys that are out there most often It seems to start and stop quite often with them.

And so if they're blowing the zone and they're not coming back, they're a tire fire defensively right now in Edmonton. And yeah, the goaltending hasn't been good enough. But when the goaltending was good enough, and that includes Stuart Skinner right before they traded them, it's because they were back to resembling the team that went to the Stanley Cup finally to the past two years. And that team was a defense first team.

As much as all we saw was the offense from Drysidal and McDavid and the incredible power play that they ran out there. I mean, it was almost automatic. Their underlying numbers defensively, the first year they went to a cup final were top five in the league and the metrics that matter most to me, which is high danger chances against, especially five-on-five.

Last year they sagged, but then leading into the playoffs, it's like, you know, at the risk of triggering Kinnock's fans from, well, I guess it's been more than a decade, so maybe not. They flipped the switch. Like they flipped the switch defensively. They just turned it on and ended up in another cup final.

But man, we're 60 plus games into this, and it feels like that switch is going to be really hard to flip for them. They've made some changes on personnel. Jake Woolman does a lot of great things. Be predictable in his own end defensively. It's not one of them. So it's like, listen, like I'm not taking the, in both cases, Vancouver too. Like, the goaltending can be better, for sure.

Same with Edmonton. But, I mean, we just saw this at the Olympics. We have the ultimate examples of how important, maybe more important than ever, maybe this is a criticism of goaltending. Maybe goaltending is so coupled to defensive play. The amount of guys that can actually outperform horrendous environments is tiny. But we just saw Connor Hellebuck be the best goalie in the world and then give up, what, a five spot when he comes back?

Because when he played for the USA, there were two backdoor plays. and one of them he got a stick blade on Devon Taves and the other one Nathan McKinnon missed. Well, to expect him to be the same guy in Winnipeg when you're giving up six, seven, eight of those, not the same. And Jordan Biddington got the overtime of the gold medal game.

Pose was like a what, a 9-17, made several spectacular saves. It's got an 864 in the National Hockey League. Environment Matters. And right now in Edmonton, the environment defensively, much like the Cox here in Vancouver compared to last year, looks nothing like the team that was having success. It's a totally different environment.

And especially for Jari, he's trying to figure it out behind that. He's trying to make reeds behind it. Like, okay, I know this guy's supposed to be here. This is what the system says. So I better just square up on the shooter. But, man, like, he hasn't been there the last six times. Or when he is, the puck still gets through. So maybe I need to shallow out my left side.

Maybe I need to flatten out, not square up on that shooter so that when I make that push across, I can be on angle. and oh crap, I just flattened out and the guy sees it and he picked the corner because I'm not square to them. Like, those are, that's tough for a goalie to figure out who to trust in a system where quite often it doesn't look like in Edmonton you can trust

anyone. Hey, Keb, before we let you go, and I ask this because I've seen a bunch of stuff online, I actually heard it this morning driving in guys talking about it. What is the future for Sergei Bavrovsky in Florida? Funny because we've talked

about this, like I've talked about this on the station, you know, surrounding the Bennington talk heading into the Olympics. Like there was, it would have been interesting to see if Russia was playing which way they went because you got Bob coming off two straight Stanley Cup championships. But for the third straight regular season, like he's been below expected. And that's not just this year. The difference is this year is much like Bennington, it's fallen off a cliff. And so, again, the environment's not as good as it used to be.

They've obviously dealt with a ton of injuries. Much like Boston losing Bergeron to retirement, losing Barkoff for a season sort of changes the entire identity of your team defensively. But much like Bennington, there's still a baseline. We still can measure how bad they are defensively, and he's badly outperforming it. He's actually outperforming it at Bennington levels, like near the bottom of the league.

My expectation, and I've heard this around the league from a lot of people, including some close to it, I think the expectation going into this season was Bob just stays there and signs a contract closer to $4,5 million a year. Like gives them a break on the deal. But I wonder as this regular season has gone on, Teresov has, you know, he's dipped here a little lately, but for large stretches of the season, and so did Anthony Stollers and so did Alex Lyon. Like the backup outperforming in the regular season. but it's a big difference between relying on that guy for, you know, a start every 10 days and turning him into the guy.

And I think Teresaw is also a UFA at the end of the year. So I don't know what they're going to do. I think the expectation around the league was Bob just stays at a much smaller price tag. Like, I think five was the number that I had that I'd heard going into the season and that that was kind of, I don't want to say baked in like done, but that was almost the indication. you were getting out of there. So I still wouldn't be surprised if that's the case

because regular season Bob and playoff Bob have actually been a thing for each of the past two cup winning years for them. But when it gets to the extreme like Bennington this year, when it gets to this level, you do start to wonder a little bit if this is the beginning of a drop-off that, you know, might make them think twice about that type of arrangement. I doubt it.

I still think he just signed at like half of what he, making now. But I guess we'll have to wait and see because it quietly has been a really, really bad year for Sergey Bobrowski. Kev, thanks for this, bud. Enjoy the game tonight. Thanks, guys. Kevin Woodley on Sportsnet 650, a presentation of White Rock Hyundai. Visit the showroom on King George in White Rock or White Rockhunday.com. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.