Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 3/26/25

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they set up tonight's Canucks road matchup at the Isles, plus they discuss the latest NHL new & notes with Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli.  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 Throw on his weak side, Ovechkin! He scores! Alex Ovechkin scores from the left darts! Centering pass comes into the slot, Nylander shoots, scores! 4.9 for Willie! Wee Willie Nylander! Lawson Calvary, game on Mulvaney! Cabry Scors! Good morning Vancouver 601. Happy Wednesday everybody. It is Halford and his brough at eSportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios

in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Ladi, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for,

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

Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Big show ahead of a Canucks game day. Canucks Isles, 430 puck drop from New York. Guest list today begins at 630. Appropriately enough, David Amber is going to join the program. He'll be working tonight's game. 430 puck drop from New York. Guest list today begins at 630, appropriately enough. David Amber is gonna join the program. He'll be working tonight's game. Double header on Sportsnet,

Scotiabank Wednesday night hockey. You got the Canucks and Isles at 430, followed by the Stars and Oilers after that. So we'll talk to David about the two games on tap tonight. Light night in the NHL, just four games, two of them right here on Sportsnet. Seven o'clock, Frank Saravalli is going to join the show. I want to ask him about what the heck is going on in Philadelphia, his hometown. The Flyers were blasted last night,

7-2. You heard one of the goals in the intro by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Torz has some very curious, very weird remarks after the game yesterday, so we'll talk to Frank about the future of the coaching position in Philadelphia. Maybe what it means for Rick Tauket, who knows? Who's to say? We'll talk to Frank at seven o'clock about that. 730, Manny Viveros, the head coach of your Vancouver Giants. The Giants open their WHL playoffs on Friday against Spokane.

A reminder, we're giving away tickets for that game at 815 this morning be caller number five It's caller number five at six oh four two eight. Oh zero six fifty that number again six oh four two eight Oh zero six fifty we will preview that game with Manny at six thirty. We're not done with the guests. Oh, no We're just getting started 740 Chris King is gonna join us. He's the Isles radio play-by-play man. We'll get a preview of tonight's game from the Islanders side of things.

They're 3-0 and three in their last six. They're racking up points. They're fighting for their playoff lives too. They've got a better chance of making the playoffs than the Canucks do. They absolutely do. As a matter of fact, they get a win tonight. They're gonna leapfrog past Montreal

into that second and final wild card spot. So we'll talk to Chris King about the Islanders at 740. And then finally at eight o'clock, Randeeb Janda, a color analyst for the Canucks right here on Sportsnet 650. Speaking of playoff chances, the Canucks did not get much help in that department last night. We'll get into that in what happened. The Canucks are going to skate at 8.15 our time this morning. So that'll be during Randeeb's hit.

It'll be while we're giving away the Giants tickets. So we'll get a better idea of who's gonna start in net tonight. Yeah, I imagine it's gonna be a full team skate since they didn't practice yesterday. So yeah, we're betting on, we said we're betting on Demko. I would imagine. Yeah. Yeah.

So Randeeb Janda at eight, Chris King at 740, Manny Vivarose at 730, Frank Cerfali at seven, David Amber at 630. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What happened? What happened? Missed it? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources and safety training.

Visit them online at bccsa.ca. We're going to do a lot of out of town scoreboard reflecting this morning. Because the out of town scoreboard was not kind to your Vancouver Canucks last night It was a lousy night for Vancouver starting with the st Louis Blues the team everybody in the West is chasing right now, although maybe not for long I'll get to that in a minute the Blues beat up on the Montreal Canadians 6-1 on Tuesday night The Blues now have an NHL best active winning streak of seven games. You know, when we were looking at these four teams, Vancouver, St. Louis, Calgary, and Utah,

a lot of people said if one of them gets hot, they'll take it because it's not like, and that wasn't rocket science, it was just a question's it's not like and that wasn't wasn't rocket science It was just a question of whether or not Any of these teams could actually get hot were they were they good enough? Essentially to do what st. Louis has done which is win seven in a row and I guess the answer is yes I mean like I don't think anyone thought Yes, I mean, like I don't think anyone thought multiple teams would get hot and you know, everyone, you know, they would be a two horse race. Like St. Louis, like all these teams, has the ability to win seven a row.

The Canucks have the ability to win seven a row, maybe at full strength, maybe not, maybe not as they're currently constructed, but credit the blues. Look at this schedule. It's not particularly hard. They had Minnesota, which isn't playing great hockey right now, Anaheim, Nashville, Vancouver, Chicago, Nashville, Montreal. They took care of business in a major way and if they get in the playoffs, they'll deserve it because they took advantage of of of a soft

schedule when they had to the connects had a soft schedule at the beginning of the season didn't take advantage of it. They didn't bank enough points early. No, which is why they had a really soft schedule. They lost a buffalo at home. Things like that. They lost to the Islanders at home. Uh they blew leads to Seattle and if you look back on the season, that's where it was lost. Go all the way back to the opener the Blue Islanders at home. Uh seems that the Canucks are actively chasing for a playoff spot. I do want to have a moment of appreciation

for what Doug Armstrong did this off season because those two offer sheets to Holloway and Broberg might be the best moves that any general manager did this off season. Just hear me out when you consider what it did for the immediacy of the franchise's trajectory, like that might have saved this blues season.

Cause I don't think that the blues are in this playoff position without what Holloway and Broberg have done for them. Holloway has 60 points in 73 games. That's it. For the blues. That's crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy.

Broberg. He was considered like the, oh yeah, they also got Holloway, right? Cause Broberg was the one they really took a, it was the big, bigger money. In 115 games with the Oilers, Holloway had 25 points. So this is, I mean, this is more than found money for the blues. He has been unbelievable for them. He's basically been a point to get over a point of game guy during that stretch. I mentioned since the four nations break Broberg last night, four point game.

He's got close to 30 points on the year. Importantly, they've been able to rely on him and up his ice time because Colton Praco went out of the lineup for them. Like they, they had a big, a big loss on their blue line and Broberg's been a huge, huge acquisition for them. So what you're saying is, Connex fans, you may be upset that St. Louis is playing really well and maybe they're ending the Connex's chances at making the playoffs, but at least it's also bad news for the Edmonton Oilers.

Yes. There is a silver lining here because every time that Broberg and Holloway do something, one, at least one intrepid reporter turns around and asks Stan Bowman about it, which is nice. You always want to be reminded about your failings and that's good.

Um, also I'm more and more curious about the prospect of, uh, offer sheeting Luke Hughes. Okay. The offer sheets, I digress. We got to talk about the Flames as well though, because those plucky Calgary Flames, they won't go away either. They won their fourth in a row last night. An OT thriller over the Seattle Kraken.

We've got audio of the game winning goal in overtime. Nazem Kadri back to back overtime game winners. Here's what it sounded like, courtesy of our good buddy, John Abbott on the call, flames win, fourth in a row this time against the Kraken. Emily works it in, got it! Get off the ground, points out the back of it,

Nazem Kadri, damn on the line, Kadri, Skullbangers! Skullbangers! Skullbangers! Those glass bangers. Sure. They're getting hired. Was Abbott's mic on? Yeah, he got drowned out.

It was so loud. Was he just yelling at the arena? He was one of the glass bangers. It was really loud there. I know the pop was probably overshadowing Abs, but it was very loud. Caddrew's super fired up. I don't know if it's that I'm just like the lucky draw of the algorithm that I'm getting all this stuff

onto my feed, but there's a lot of the behind the scenes flame stuff that's been popping up more and more. There was the one, I don't know if you guys saw this one where Rooney and Lombard were talking about, there was this thing that happened where I guess Ryan Huska goes in before every game and when he's about to read the lineup, he says this thing where he's like, who wants to go tonight?

And then no one really answers because he has the lineup card. He's about to tell you. Right. But at one time Rooney jumped up and he's like, I'll do it coach. And he's like, we're starting Cadry. So that was like, it was a, so that ended up becoming this joke that they had going throughout the year. But the point of this anecdote is like, they have really good vibes around that team.

Yeah. Like low expectations, man. And what we talked about the other day where the Canucks beat the devils, despite being under man, punching above their weight and overachieving. The flames have been doing it all year and they've all really leaned into it. So I, you know, I think they'll ultimately fall short. This next week, they'll really, I think in the next 10 days, seven to 10 days,

they'll be decided because they've got three really difficult games coming up. They got Dallas, Edmonton, and then Colorado, but good on them for hanging around. Yeah, sorry. I'm at Money Puck. They have playoff predictions, and St. Louis is at 61.6%.

Yeah, they're in. Calgary's at, hold on, Calgary's at 33%. Calgary could still catch the blues. That doesn't leave much for Vancouver or Utah. Vancouver's got 15.1% chance and Utah's all the way down at 3%. Sorry about that, Drantz. Okay, you want my hot take? No, I'm going to give this, I'm going to give it to Brendan,

not Marcus, also from Gibson's because he texts into the Dunbar Lumber text line and he said, if the Canucks can keep winning games, it might become more likely the final wild card spot to catch is the Kaprizov and Erickson-Ecklis wild April 12th could be a huge night at Roger's Arena. Yeah, maybe. Mm-hmm. This was my hot take. It's now just muy caliente. Look, and I'm dropping a look earlier this morning, 612. That's a 500 hockey team, the Minnesota Wild. The story of their

season for those that are unaware and you're like how did the Minnesota Wild get into this thing, they started the year 18-4-4. They were the number one team in the NHL through the first two months of the season. Remember everyone was saying Kaprizov for the heart trophy and what a great job Billy Garan did despite the fact that he's still got those crazy buyouts for Suter and Parise. Then the injuries hit and they are 22, 23 and one since that 18, four and four start. So for the better part of three months,

they've been a 500 hockey team. They're not playing well lately. They lost last night to the Vegas Golden Knights 5-1. Laddie, your boy Jack Eichel got a hat trick last night, by the way. I noticed he left that out of the intro. I had the clip. I didn't put it in the intro.

I'm looking at this Minnesota team. And I mean, look, I did some very, very, very fortuitous math yesterday in favor of the Vancouver Canucks. Here's what's gonna happen. The Wild are going to need to crater big time over their five, they've got 10 games left in the year. They're gonna need to go somewhere in the neighborhood

of like, I think three and seven. If they even go four and six, you're talking about a chance. Anything other than that, I think. Yeah, but what would the Canucks need to do? Have you forgotten that? No, no, no, the Canucks. The Puse Shooters, their number one center and Teddy Blugers, their two seed.

This entire thing. And as well as they played in New Jersey You know like you shut your mouth Okay Tire thing is contingent on what we said earlier that the Canucks needed eight wins prior to the New Jersey game They won that one so they need seven so I'm going on the pretense that the Canucks need will get seven wins We'll get 14 points down the stretch now Here's the thing you're banking on a wild team that's found a way to play 500 hockey,

to not just wobble but crater a little bit, but of the two teams, if you wanna keep any level of optimism out there, I would say, keep a much closer eye on Minnesota, then I think St. Louis, I don't see them somehow just falling off the face of the earth in the midst of a seven game winning streak, right? Here's what you need to know about this wild team. They don't score.

They have one goal or fewer in their last 14 games. They don't have an easy schedule to close out the year. As it was that Brendan the text in, as he astutely pointed out, they do have a head to head game. So you get a good old-fashioned four-pointer against them if you're the Vancouver Canucks. Again, chances are super slim, according to Money Puck, and I know this as well,

but if you're gonna keep any level of optimism alive, I think it's gonna have to be, keep an eye on the Minnesota Wild and hope that they continue to fall off. Now, it does sound like they're gonna get Kaprizov and Ericsson Eck back within the next like seven to 10 days. Mm-hmm.

I don't know how great they're gonna be given they both missed an incredible amount of time this year. I think Kaprizov's only played 37 games total. And we don't really have any guidance on Pedersen or Holglunder here. We just know that they've been sent home to Vancouver. All we know on those two, and we try, I missed this update yesterday, by the way,

is they were sent home from the trip. If you wanna do just the real basic math on it, they're gonna miss three games, including New Jersey So Four, which was the tail end of this road trip that the Canucks are currently on. And if they do play, it won't be until April 2nd when the Canucks return home and host the Seattle Kraken. So if the Canucks can keep these good vibes going

on this road trip, tonight kind of feels like one of those games that you gotta get something from. You know, you've got Winnipeg still on this trip. I don't know what kind of, I don't know what kind of competition Columbus presents. You're spending a lot of energy on this. What are you talking about? We just, we went on the previous game day show

talking about the need to like, playoff hockey is important. And if you're gonna talk about playoff hockey, you gotta- He does really like this though. You have to talk yourself into it. It's like the Charlie conspiracy meme from It's Sunny. Halfords just sat home with this big chalkboard. You may as well talk to him.

You just wanna yell at him like, Pugh suitor is the number one center right now and Teddy Blugers the two seed. Really fine. They worked their butts off in New Jersey and barely won. Mike, the neurologist from Brockville said, my God, are we grasping for optimism here? Yeah, yeah, that's what we're doing

I guess I'll back up how for a little bit low because what if what if he's right? What if they do so what if they may somehow do this and be amazing how far will what if I win the lottery? Reminding us about this for you. You'll never see me again. It's not like it's a point zero zero one percent so many upsides. Yeah Anyway, let's get some of the other stuff from the National Hockey League last night. I wanna play this audio from John Tortorella. Get it out of the way now and discuss it a little bit, cause we're gonna talk to Frank Ceravalli about this at seven o'clock.

So last night, the Philadelphia Flyers, who in a real bad way, their sixth straight loss, 11th loss in their last 12 games. They've absolutely cratered. They're trying to recruit me to play goal now. Their goal-tenning's really bad. That's a big part of this for sure. Goal-tenning issues in Philly?

Can you imagine? That never happens. This, wait, this century? Yes, it's true. During the game last night, they go down five-one, torts calls a timeout, the like, we need to regroup timeout, but doesn't really say or do much,

as Kevin Kurz pointed out in the Athlet the athletic Very sort of calm and collected and composed Then after the game Tortorella had a really weird quote We're gonna play it and then maybe we'll reread it to parse exact through exactly what he was saying But here's torts the normally fiery John Tortorella after a 7-2 loss in Toronto as mentioned it was the Flyers' 6th loss in a row and their 11th loss in their last 12 games. Are you sensing frustration setting in, maybe as a cumulative effect from last week playing

well and not getting results? When you're in this type of situation and you're losing all the time and there's nothing at the end of the tunnel for you, there's certainly gonna be some frustration, but this falls on me. I'm not really interested in learning how to coach this type, this and this type of season where we're at right now, but I have to do a better job. So this falls on me getting the team prepared to play

the proper way until we get to the end. So the actual quote was, I'm not really interested in learning how to coach this type of season. The translation is, I don't care about this anymore. I want to go home. He has no interest. I am not putting a lot of prep into these games. I just want to hang out with my dogs at home. I'm not checking the sketchy. I don't know who we're playing next. I'm not doing any of this. He's not. And he-

Though we've got the Leafs tonight. Sundin's still on that team? playing next, like I'm not doing any of this. He's not. And he. Though we've got the Leafs tonight. Sundin's still on that team? Yeah. He's, he said, he said like, oh, the one thing I maybe have learned is, you know, sometimes you got to know when to push buttons or to fire guys up and he's like, this is not the group to kick when they're down.

And I was like, okay, you know, that's fine. But when you say something like that, and again, it's a big old paraphrase on my part. It's just not the group to kick when they're down. So I'm out of answers. Yeah, that's all I know what to do. I don't know what to do when guys are down. You just kick them.

That's been my history. So obviously there's a couple talking points here. One, how long is John Tortorella for this gig? Because it certainly doesn't feel, I'm putting this as optimistically as possible and as rosy as possible. Doesn't feel like a great fit right now. A veteran, tired coach, coaching a team

that is really bad and is playing out the string. I'm not sure that his honesty, that we love, and everyone loves towards his honesty. Sometimes it's to a fault, but I'm not sure honesty his honesty that we love and everyone loves Torz's honesty. Sometimes it's to a fault, but I'm not sure honesty was the right play here, but maybe it says just how checked out he is mentally on this team. So if Torz isn't the coach next year in Philadelphia, who would be?

And would it be you know who? Yeah. I mean, we could talk to Frank Saravalli about this. Frank has definitely made no secret of his reporting that there are a bunch of teams out there who would gladly hire Rick Taukett as head coach. In fact, he suggested that they'd fire their head coach to get him, fire him into the sun too, which

I thought was unnecessary and frankly expensive. Yeah. But I guess it wouldn't be, you know, cap dollars. It would just be a space program that they'd have to put together. Um, here's a question. How, um, how attractive would that fliers gig be to any head coach?

Like, I know they've got some, they got some young guys. Not very. Well. For me, no. Really? No. Like they're a ways away.

They're a ways away. Even with Mitch Goff and you know. They keep going. Well, they've got Jet Luchenko. They've got that Oliver Bonk. Yep. Defenseman. They have, they do have a Bonk and they do have a Luchenko.

Yeah. A lot of teams have prospects. That's kind of the thing they all do except for the Canucks. Um, and you, I just don't think that any coach that wants to win in the thing, they all do except for the Canucks. Um, and you, I just don't think that any coach that wants to win in the next, I don't know, three years is going to want to take that job. But his talk at that guy who wants to win in three years, like doesn't he just want

like a stable organization that he can grow? Yeah. I don't think that it's a great fit other than he's beloved in Philadelphia and he's kind of iconic there, right? That's the big draw. Like with Philly the only way you can go is up. That is true. I mean you could win another coach of the year real easy in Philly, right?

Yeah. Because that's the turnaround. You could teach these guys some structure. You know, win 30 games next year, you're probably getting coach of the year with that team. Yeah, and you know, like I was talking to Matvei Michkov and it did not go well, his English is awful. Yeah, and that's what you inherit though. with that team. But he was like, I was talking to Matt V. Mitchkoff and it did not go well. His English is awful. Yeah. And that's, that's what you inherit though.

Is you get that. And that's, that is the centerpiece of the team. Right? If you're going there, you're basically saying, I get the chance to coach this guy. I think the goaltending is a huge issue. I think that's probably, that's probably been the biggest issue as to why

they are where they are this year. I know that they traded away Frost and Fairby and Scott Lawton. And by the way, Scott, do you want to have a moment to talk about the Scott Lawton trade? Because we haven't spent a lot of time discussing what Toronto did at the deadline and how it's played out, but that has been just a waste of a move. It almost felt like they brought him there because he was available. And now he's there. Did you think of a first for him? I can't remember what the exact deal was.

Go and ramble and I'll find it. Well, Scott Lawton has played, I think eight games for the Leafs, no points. They scored seven yesterday. He was in on none of those goals. And yeah. Uh, the deal was- The Leafs are still, the Leafs are, the Leafs

have a good chance of winning that division because nobody of those three teams, Tampa Bay, Florida and Tampa can get really hot. Like the Leafs are five and five in their last 10 and they're in first place in the division now. The Leafs sent prospect Nikita Grubankin and a first round pick to Philadelphia in 2027. Grubankin's played I believe. Yeah, everyone, you again, you could play in Philadelphia. And I saw a lot of that far away. London was in the same hotel as the Flyers for the last game.

He hasn't even got a place to stay yet. No one invited him over to hang out. He's got to stay in a hotel. You know, the vibes are kind of off in Toronto. You guys think someone just should have had him in there like JT Miller. Well, I'm sure someone's got a free room. They can let him stay in. He's got to stay at a hotel. We're full up sir. Yeah, sorry Scott Until you get a point, you're not staying with me

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Kintec Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you in step. To the phone lines we go, Frank Ceravalli from Daily Face Off joins us now on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Frank, how are you? Pretty good, how you guys doing? We're well, we wanna start with the development in Philadelphia with Flyers head coach,

John Tortorello from yesterday. I'm going to throw to the audio after the game. This is Torz speaking about his team and having to coach this team after another loss. There's six in the row. This one, a seven to two loss in Toronto. We'll play the audio and get your thoughts on the other side.

Here's John Tortorello for following last night's game against Toronto. When you're in this type of situation and you're losing all the time and get your thoughts on the other side. Here's John Tortorello for following last night's game against Toronto. When you're in this type of situation and you're losing all the time and there's nothing at the end of the tunnel for you, there's certainly going to be some frustration. But this falls on me. I'm not really interested in learning how to coach this type this in this type of season where we're at right now.

But I have to do a better job. So this falls on me getting the team prepared to play the proper way until we get to the end. Your thoughts on what Torz had to say after another dismal outing for the Flyers last night. Well, on the one hand, kind of feels like classic John Tortorella, right? Your team gets slapped seven to two in Toronto and you know that there's gonna be a throng of media waiting for your comments and frankly before the his media availability even started I've seen some people including my colleague at Daily Faceoff Matt Larkin tweet over under on how many seconds long his his media

availability lasts so he's he's got a group of media that are hanging on every word and then you feed them the pound of beef, some flesh, and you get them talking about you and instead of your team and the players playing as poorly as they did. That's on one hand. And on the other hand, I'm noticing or seeing a coach who for the last couple seasons now has given off hints that he'd rather be in the front office than on the bench. He's watched games from the press box preseason and, and otherwise he's taken practices and, and media veils where he hands off the duties to his assistants. And it looks like a guy who's either out of answers or only wants to coach

winners. And I don't know which one's worse. So it's a lot to process and I'd love to know which one is the real answer. Is it that he was just deflecting, or is this a guy who's reached the end with his team? Right, so let's try and piece this together. So he says what he says last night, he's given off some of the visual cues that you're talking about. He's gonna be 67 in June, he's been doing this for an awfully long time,

and this Flyers team doesn't seem like it's gonna get a whole heck of a lot better in the immediate future. What does it say for John Tortorella's future based on all that? I think they're moving on, whether it's his decision or not. He has one year left on his contract after this one, and I think it's in the best interest of the team. And frankly, I've said for years consistently now, great coach, wrong coach for this team. This is a team that should be trying to accumulate as many draft picks as possible, yet last season held down a playoff spot until just about last week, mid-March in the

season, and then crumpled and ended up picking toward the middle of the first round. This year they're in a spot where they're potentially picking top five. But what if you had stacked three of these draft classes together as opposed to just one? And so that part, I think undeniably, he's a good coach that squeezes every last drop out of his players. And as much as the league or John Tortorello or even the Flyers want to talk about quote playing the right way, that's great but there's definitely some other teacher that's available to do that that isn't going to squeeze every last

drop out that's going to leave your franchise in a better spot as it's going through a rebuild. You can't unring the bell but I think they need a change. Okay. I'll just throw the question out there. Do you think the flyer's job would be attractive to Rick Tocket? Why wouldn't it be? He's very close with Keith Jones.

He, I'm sure of course has interacted at some point with Danny Breyer, probably, not probably, I'm sure, of course, has interacted at some point with Danny Breyer. Probably, not probably, I know he loves the market. He's a fan favorite and he's, as mentioned on this program repeatedly, which somehow became a controversial thing on social media, he's assembled one of the top five coaching staffs in the NHL. Fact, not opinion. And top to bottom, that includes assistants that players love to play for. So I think he'd be an attractive fit for the Flyers if they make a change. And I can't imagine that they wouldn't be on the list of teams that he'd consider even if the team is not necessarily heading in the right direction standings wise.

Um, how much leverage does talk at have in this situation? I mean, with the, with the teams that you've reported would be interested in hiring Rick talk at combined with the fact that management in Vancouver has made it very, very clear that they want Rick talk at long. And if Rick leaves, that does not make them look good. I think he's got a ton of leverage. I mean, the tough part for me is, again, asking the question, why wasn't this done last summer? If you're a believer in the coach, if you're a believer in the messaging, if you're a believer in the messaging, if you're a believer in where your team is heading, why not just step up last year heading into the final year

of his deal and get it done? Still doesn't make sense to me, does not compute. And so what it's done is it's hurt the Canucks the longer this has dragged on because he has all the leverage even in this disastrous season in which You know, we've reached it feels like at times our pets heads are falling off stage that You watch a game like the other night and you go that's that's not a team that's quit on the coach

No, that's a coach that has his team well prepared to play with Pugh Suter playing one C. I mean, I can't imagine that there's many coaches in a better position today than Rick Tocket. With regards to that Philadelphia job, when you said, why wouldn't you, what would be the one hesitation? My answer would have probably been between the pipes where it's been

I mean that's been a real problem this year I know the team's got a talent deficiency and torts it's probably not the most inspiring coaching job of the year but the the issues in net are glaring capital G glaring is there any solution on the horizon there? There really isn't and I'll take it a step further. I think the biggest concern that I would have if you're looking long term is the Flyers don't really have any of the key positional boxes checked as part of the rebuild. So they've got something we don't know exactly what it is yet in Matvey Michkov, but he's a winger and he's not fast. You

don't have a goalie, you don't have a franchise defenseman, and you don't have a franchise center. Those are three key areas. May that change in June in the draft? Yes. Let's see how the ping- ping pong balls fall. But right now they've got a lot of work left to do. They've got plenty of wingers. They've got other offensive talent on the way. Alex bump looks really promising as a late round pick at Western Michigan. Like they've got interesting pieces. They've got other defensemen. They just don't have a top defenseman. And is they've got other defensemen, they just don't have a top defenseman. And I just think those going through that process

to check more of those boxes, they need time. So bringing it back to the Canucks and Rick Tocket, besides a boatload of money, what is it do you think that would convince Rick Tocket to stay, to remain as head coach of the Canucks? It's a great question. I would think some promise on the direction of the team. What's your game plan to get this roster back to

the level that it was at this time last year? It's not an easy question to answer because there aren't definite answers, but as you're looking at the competitive landscape, when you consider where the Canucks are at, obviously levels above where the Flyers could be, but just to use as a hypothetical example, there are going to be other teams that are closer to where the Canucks are heading and we haven't really had the discussion yet on Pedersen and the no trade clause kicking in

and is he gonna be part of it or not? So yeah, then the next question is what's the true outlook for Thatcher Demko and his injury? And you start to ask a series of those questions in order and you try and formulate as best you can a view of what the entire landscape looks like and where the Canucks fit in it. And I think that's really the question at the end of the day that matters. We're speaking to Frank Saravalli from Daily Faceoff here on the Haliford and Brush Show

on Sportsnet 650. The Canucks are going to take on the New York Islanders tonight, Frank, an Islanders team that's fighting for its playoff life. And they had a very controversial moment in their previous game against Columbus when it looked like Kyle Palmeri had scored the game winner late, only to have it disallowed for goalie interference. Then no overturn on the video review. And that led Patrick Waugh, the Islanders head coach, to say, if Toronto is afraid to

overturn calls by the referee, we don't need Toronto. I bring this up because this is just a week removed from the NHL GMs meetings in Florida, where it felt like they went over goalie interference quite thoroughly, and I know you wrote about it for daily face-offs. So, work through this with me here.

What sort of came from those meetings first in Florida regarding goal interference and what specifically were they discussing? So they went through 54 of their toughest challenges with video and then they voted on them. Is the way that we've called these sequences, is this to your liking? Is this the way that you think that play should have gone, whether it was goal or no goal? And on 52 out of the 54, the GM has voted that they were in agreement and in lock step with how the NHL situation room ultimately ruled. So that brings us then to the Islander situation, which by the way, Patrick Wall should be fine. I mean, he's basically questioning the competitive integrity of the league.

Yes. And I understand the frustration, but having sat through that presentation myself, along with other media members, it was about an hour long and we went through a lot of the same clips. I was able to put together a guideline and checklist of exactly how the Situation Room does it. And leaving there, obviously having posted the story on Daily Face Off and I tweeted it yesterday if you wanna find it, it's evergreen.

Like honestly, you could bookmark it because anytime a Goalieie interference challenge comes up, you just call it up and ask yourself the series of questions that I posed because it points you in the right direction now. And I think where I come out on it is it doesn't really matter what my opinion is or what Patrick Waugh's opinion is or anyone else. matter what my opinion is or what Patrick Wa's opinion is or anyone else. This is how the Situation Room is doing it and they've just gotten the stamp of approval or another vote of confidence from the GMs who are the guys who direct the Situation Room on how to call it. It's not going anywhere unless there's a drastic rule change coming. So this is the way

they're doing it and one of the criteria on the guideline is was the essentially was the call on the ice no goal. If it's no goal that was number two on the on the list was the contact deliberate. If the referee determines that it was deliberate from standing five feet away, 99 times out of a hundred the situation room is not overturning it because it is so rare that a goal is waved off in real time. In that case, they view it as the referee being that close has so much conviction to call it no goal that clearly there was something significant there and

they're not going to go back on that. And it might have been a different situation had it been ruled a goal and then the situation room has to look at it, but and they're not gonna go back on that. And it might have been a different situation had it been ruled a goal, and then the situation room has to look at it, but that's neither here nor there. Go through the checklist and go through the possibilities. It's not a like it or not, this is what it is. I thought the same thing about Wa's comments and then,

were you surprised, like I was, that there wasn't any fine almost in the immediacy of saying that? Sometimes those take a little bit of time. Okay. Like I remember, was it last week, another coach was fined for, I guess, whatever they call it, inappropriate gestures or abuse of officials, 25,000 bucks, the fine

came five days after a game was played. So I think they review it and they all take a beat to take a deep breath. But I wouldn't be surprised to see one, that's for sure. I think it's deserving. We're speaking to Frank Saravalli from Daily Faceoff here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. So the Isles, as mentioned, if they get a win tonight, they move into the second and final wild card spot in the East.

And it would be at the expense of the Montreal Canadians who have had a great run recently, although they got thumped last night in St. Louis. And I know that you recently spoke with Canadians GM Kent Hughes about this season where the Habs are at. We've kind of been fans of what has happened this year because it's been a long time since playoff hockey has been in Montreal. It might not happen this year,

but the team is certainly on the right trajectory. What were your takeaways from speaking with Hughes and what's the next step in the rebuild for the Habs? Well, they want to be aggressive this summer. There's no doubt, but they're really careful about free agency and it's not that they don't want to spend. They're the Montreal Canadiens. Of course they could spend.

But he said pretty clearly that they want to make quote an intelligent decision. And what that means is it might feel really good to sign a guy to an eight-year deal on July 1 and he can help you in years 2 and 3, 1, 2 and 3 to get going. But then what happens to the latter half of that contract? And their view in building this team with honestly draft picks that are still to come and prospects that they have so many that they won't be able to sign them all, their view is to be a sustainable contender for a 10-year period of time. So if you've got four or five years of

that window that are being chewed up by a guy on an eight-year contract that's hurting you, look, no one has a crystal ball and can understand exactly how quickly that shift happens. But there's a lot of contracts that we all see that are signed as free agents that you go, oh, that one's not gonna age well. And so I think what you're gonna see is them avoiding dipping their toe into that water. I see them being much more aggressive on the trade front. I think they had spent the final 48 hours of trade deadline,

you know, going over a larger hockey trade that might've been a difference maker. That they're always open to conversations like that over a larger hockey trade that might have been a difference maker that they're always open to conversations like that and trying to find players that fit their age scheme as opposed to going out and spending in free agency Frank this was great man as always thanks for taking the time to do it we appreciate it enjoy the rest of the week in the games tonight we'll do this again next week see you guys see you later that's Frank Cerfali from Daily Faceoff

here on the Haliford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Two takeaways there. One, all the stuff on talk it. And then two, what they were trying to build in Montreal calling it like a sustainable, sustainable contender. Not just like year over year, but multiple years in a row. I prefer year to year though, because it's a surprise every time.

You're like, what do we got this year? We're going to make the playoffs? Oh, we're not going to make the playoffs. That's also got to do with- It's an entertainment product. Right, exactly. But that's also got to do with, I think, when Rick Tocket is going to-

A team that makes the playoffs every year, that makes the regular season so boring. Yeah, Rick's like, I want to live the highs and lows. No, I mean, if you're going to sell a coach that has an option to leave on the future direction of the team, I would say that a good selling point would be like, we want to build a contender, a sustainable contender. We're year over year.

We've got a plan in place so that if everything doesn't go a hundred percent right, it doesn't throw our entire season off kilter. That's what sustainable is, right? Like you have a model and a bunch of best practices and contingency plans and depth and organizational depth that if something doesn't go exactly right, you're able to withstand it. So I know there's some disagreement in the marketplace

about the merits of Rick Tauke as a head coach. I think he's a good head coach. You think he's a good head coach. A lot of people do good head coach. You think he's a good head coach. A lot of people do, but a lot of people don't. And even Rick Taukett would admit, hey, when you have a season like this, people are going to dive in and they're going to take issue with some of the things that you've done. And that's fine.

Can we all agree, can we all agree, bring together everyone and agree that if Rick Tocket decides to leave and take another job that is a terrible look for management. Yes. I will agree with it. That will be very, very embarrassing. I think it's hard to get universal agreement because I guarantee there'll be someone, just to be a contrarian, but I think almost universally, if Tocket walks away from the gig, there will be major questions and major scrutiny of the guys that hired him in the first place.

Yes. How could you not convince him to stay? And if you can't convince your head coach to stay, how are you going to convince Quinn Hughes to stay? That's a fair line of questioning and I'm sure they'll be able to spin it in some way, but when you put yourself out there the way that Patrick Alveen has and said, we want Rick Tauke.

Yep. Right. And he doesn't have the leverage that he did with Ilias Pedersen when they leaned on Ilias Pedersen said, we want this guy to sign, we want him to make a decision, and we want it now. Because remember the leverage was, well, if you don't sign here, we're trading you to Carolina. So Pedersen went, okay, fine. I wanted to wait until the off season, but I guess I'll do this. And they gave him a lot of money, right? They gave him a big contract.

And at the time his agents were probably telling him like, sign this contract. I don't know if you've seen how you're playing, but sign this contract. It's a lot of money. You can always convince people with a lot of money and maybe this is what Rick Tuckett wants and if it is, then his strategy is playing out. He's got all the leverage in this situation. But when you think about the potential job openings in Philly, the New York Rangers are probably going to be looking for a new head coach. Chicago Blackhawks might be looking for a new head coach. All the leverage seems to be talk it's right now. And if he says no to the Canucks, won't look

good for this management group. You're listening to the best of Halford and Bruff.