Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 3/31/26

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they chat the latest Canucks management rumours with Sportsnet NHL insider Nick Kypreos, plus the boys discuss yesterday's 'Nucks loss at Vegas with analyst Landon Ferraro.  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. De Bruss to Kane to the backhand. He scores. Avander Kane in his 1,000th game in the NHL. Special moment for a caner and his family. You know, that's a milestone. It's tough to get. Hit hard. I think I got my swag of back. Good morning, Vancouver, 601.

on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brough. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adaw, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have CRA debt? If you do, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands-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 the Middle 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We're coming to you live from the Kintech Studio. Step Strong with Orthotics and Footwear from Kintech. Guests on Sportsnet 650 call in on the ABLE Auctions. Hotline email sales at abelhe auctions.ca to get your business assets sold and your build and cleared. And one more.

If you want to text into the show today, 650, 650, that is the Dunbar Lumber text line trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations, find them at three convenient locations, or visit Dunbar Lumber online today. Oh man, what a sports day. We have ahead on a Tuesday.

And what a show we have ahead on a Tuesday. I'm going to do now the Duick Morning Drive. That's our morning guest list. Brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 630. Kevin Kurz is going to join the program. Flyers Beat Rider from the athletic. Get this, Jason.

A 10 game Tuesday in the National Hockey League on the last day of March. Happy pre-April Fool's Day to everybody. It will feature 20 teams in action tonight. 16 of them are either in a playoff spot or within five points of a playoff spot. And that includes Philadelphia. Huge game for the Flyers tonight as they take on Washington. This is also expected to be the NHL debut for Porter Martone. the Michigan State product, Philly took sixth overall at the 2025 NHL entry draft.

Kevin Kurz is going to join us at 630 for that. 7 o'clock, Joe Siddell, Blue Jays broadcaster for Sportsnet, is going to join the program. The J's first season of the series, it went great. They swept the A's. The J's second season of the series, not off to. Why are you saying the season of the series instead of series of the season? The series of the season. Because I wrote it, series of the season.

Okay. What did I say? the opposite. Season of the series. Dang it. I was off to such a good start as well. It's the season of the series. Yeah, it's the song, isn't it?

Oh, that's what it's from. It's from that song. The Jays were routed by the Colorado Rockies yesterday and newly acquired pitcher Cody Ponce went down with a lower body injury. Joe Siddell's going to join us at 7 to discuss all that and more. 7.30. Nick Kippreos is going to join the program.

Hosts of Real Kipper and Born Sportsnet Fan 590. Kipper was all over the NHL general manager beat yesterday. So first, he reports that Kinnucks' GM Patrick Alvin does not expect to be employed beyond this season. Then Kipper was boots on the ground

in the SportsNet Studios when the Leafs announced that they had fired their GM Bradtree Living. So lots to get into with Kippur at 7.30 this morning. 8-10, Landon Ferraro is going to join the program. Canucks analyst for Sportsnet. Canucks lost again last night, this time in Vegas. And John Tororella's

Golden Knights coaching debut. Not a bad effort by the Canucks though. You heard in the intro. It included Evander Cain's scoring in his 1,000th NHL contest. We'll get into everything with Landon Ferraro at 810 this a.m. So lots to get into on the program. I'm not going to run it in reverse. Without further ado, Laddie, to tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I'm... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that?

What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca. Are we going to begin with the Vancouver Canucks or are we going to go right to Toronto? No, I think we should. Like a couple of proper corporate guys. I think we should start with the Canucks because there is a pretty interesting angle on

the Vegas side of things as well. The Canucks didn't win last night. That's not news. But I think a lot of people thought that this would be a blowout for Vegas. I know I certainly thought so. I know one of the bets you made suggested that you thought it might be a blowout for Vegas. You know, look, John Tortorella's first game behind the bench for an underachieving Golden Knight's squad that just got its coach fired and still has a lot of talent in the lineup. And on the other side, the NHL's worst team by a mile.

There was blowout potential last night. And yet it didn't play out that way, not right away at least. Instead of coming out with their hair on fire and looking to impress torts, I'm going to be so good for torts. Vegas came out looking nervous and sloppy. The Canucks held the lead after 20 minutes with Evander Cain, scoring the opener in his 1,000s game. It was a nice goal, too.

Jake DeBrest started the two-on-one and gave Kane the pass. Kane teaked out Aiton Hill, and it was 1-0 for the underdogs. It was a pretty cool moment for Kane. it was cool that it came in Vegas because the fans in Vegas hate him based on, you know, some older rivalries there. Now, does Vander Kaine have a history in Vegas? Well, okay, look, that's okay. And he also had a rivalry with Ryan Reeves of the Golden Knights back in the day. The Kane's going to celebrate his milestone game Saturday in Vancouver in front of friends and family in his hometown when the Canucks host Utah.

but that was a pretty cool moment for him, and it's a great accomplishment to make it 1,000 games in the NHL. Look, the Golden Knights did eventually find their legs in the second period, and no surprise with the depth they've got up front and really all over the lineup, except for maybe a goal. Vegas can roll three lines featuring Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Mitch Marner, Thomas Hurtle, plus a few others, and some decent defensemen to boot.

there's a reason their coach got got fired. They've got a ton of high-price talent. So they were bound to take over this game eventually, and they finished the period with a couple of late goals to take a three-two lead into the third period. The Kinnock's second goal came off, Brock Besser tip on the power play, assist to Hironick, and Elias Pedersen.

So Besser now has a solo lead in Kinnuck's goals with 18. I'm winning this bet. Losing bets like crazy. As I usually do. And Elias Pedersen now has points in five of his last seven games. He'll almost certainly finish with the most points on the team. How many points is that? That's not important.

I'm trying to be positive. Anyway, the Canucks. How many points is that? I don't know. It's in the 40s, I think. Anyway, the Canucks played a, you know, a half decent third, but they couldn't tie it up. Vig is scored into the empty net. I don't know how many MTCHAC has conceded this year.

I'll tell you how many. Not enough. I needed another one For your bet I took Vegas minus two and a half on the puck line Oh I see so you so you add it up You know normally the puck line's one and a half And you just said like I'm I'm going to go two and a half here

I was going to go three and a half at one point All in all Despite I'm sorry you lost your bet It could have been worse for Vancouver It was a solid effort Certainly compared to some of the games We've seen recently Just a couple other notes

I don't want to pass along if you've got any questions or comments, text in to the Dunbarah, number text line at 650, 650. The Kinextra's four young defensemen. Normally, or not normally, but yeah, normally, I would say. They go three young defensemen and three vats, but they went with the four young ones last night with P.O. Joseph taking a turn in the press box.

It was a tough night on the score sheet for the third pair of DPDia Mancini, each of whom finished minus two. you know, on a better and deeper team, those guys would probably still be in the HL. And hopefully, Veylander might be too. Hopefully getting fast-tracked will end up being a great learning experience

for them. Mistakes are fine and even valuable in the long run, as long as they don't kill any confidence. The Canucks, I also thought, did a good job sticking up for themselves in a game where the knights were trying to oppress their head coach, and we all know what kind of guy Torts is. He's not a guy that likes his players to back down from anything.

So the Canucks were prepared for that. Teddy Bluger dropped the gloves. DPD, although he might have had a tough game positionally at times. He was involved physically. Linus Carlson didn't back down. It's good to see. I don't know if Torts was on vacation prior to taking the Vegas gig or if he just happened to be the lighting in Vegas.

But he looked very tan, very healthy and very ready to go. Very tan, right? Okay, I'm not, this isn't just me making this up. Yeah. So even Gene Princepe was like, that guy looks pretty good. So jealous. 22 empty net goals, by the way,

according to stat news that the Canucks have conceded. That seems like a lot. That feels like a lot. Feels like a stat that you get when you're dead last in the National Hockey League. Anyway, back to Tororella. He got named head coach on Sunday. His first game was Monday. And it felt like everything was new.

In his pregame media availability, I noticed that his Vegas Golden Knights track suit still had the crease lines in it from when they've been taking out of the original packaging. so everything was new. And Torts alluded to this in his post-game remarks. We'll play them now talking about what he saw from his team, how he had to shake off a little bit of the coaching rust, and everything else from his first win as a Golden Knights head coach,

4-2 over the Canucks. Here's John Torterella. Yeah, we were, we looked nervous in the first period. We just, and we were slow. Second period was night and day. I thought we made first period, we were making way too many D-D-D plays looking for a part. and playing sideways. Second period, so much better as far as just playing north and playing up the ice.

Gave us quite a bit of momentum. Jesse. Hi, Jesse Granger with the Athletic. For you, how normal of a game was it? Are you still kind of wading into things? Or were you doing what you normally do behind the bench? Yeah, there was some rust. I think for half the game and the boys let me do it.

I was calling Dowled by a different name. I didn't even realize I was doing it. I'm sure you'll hear about that eventually from these guys. But, yeah, once it wasn't too bad. I got a good feel for the lines, still trying to learn nicknames and stuff like that when you're calling all people to go up. But, yeah, it was good. It was good.

And I've leaned on the coaching staff quite a bit. They've been great for me. Tough night for Nick Dow. Not only did his coach not know his name. He got knocked out of that game by Atu-Ratu Reverse hit. Yeah. That's funny that he, the torts is trying to learn the nicknames in the first. Mark Stone. It's probably stoner. Stoner.

Stoner of the boards. Is it Stony? Dow's like the fact that he didn't know my name hurt more than the injury. That was a big, yeah, it was a big trade deadline pick up, Torz. Come on. Is it true? He's only signed for eight games. Yes.

Well, and the playoffs. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The worst thing for Nick Dowd was after he took that elbow from Ratu, he didn't know his name either. No, he was in bad shape. Yeah, that was. It was super wobbly.

Yeah. I was surprised he came back in the game. Yeah, I wonder if you went and saw the spotter and then they cleared him. They didn't really, there wasn't so much. I don't think the spotter called it. I think it's a training staff was like, I think it's pretty obvious that you have sustained a head injured. Yeah, but you're right. He did come back, which I was, I was also surprised by that.

Okay. Speaking of surprising news, we got some out of Toronto yesterday when the Maple Leafs announced that they had fired their general manager, Brad Tree Living. The team announced the decision in a. statement Monday night, like an hour and a half before a puck drop of what was for a team that wasn't playing for much. Maybe their most important game of the season in the revenge game in Anaheim against Radco Gudis and the Anaheim Ducks. There was no indication on who would replace Tree Living. It caught a lot of people by surprise, the timing of it. I want to throw to some more audio now. This is Elliot Friedman, Nick Kiprios, and Justin Bourne, kind of parsing

through the news in real time because they were working the broadcast because sports I put together a fairly big panel for this very big game in Anaheim. So here now, Fridge, Kippern, Bourne on Brad Tree Living's dismissal in Toronto. I think why now is because I think Brad Tree Living forced the issue. Look, everybody knows it's been reported. Toronto's been conducting conversations around the league looking into what they're going to do. And Nick, my sense of it is was Tree Living just said, look, if you're going to make the change, make the change. Yeah.

And Justin and I and Sammy McKee, we talked about this on our real Kippron show. had heard some rumblings that something could happen today. But then I looked at my clock and I said, we're mere hours away from puck drop. I still find it peculiar that they would still want to make this announcement just about an hour and a half roughly away from puck drop. I don't know if they've noticed, but there's some, you know, things going on tonight in the game. I think he was worried it was going to leak. Even if it leaks, Elliot.

I mean, it sends a shockwave. I've been in dressing rooms before where some news of this magnitude can totally, totally disrupt your thought process going to puck drop. I found it really strange. So it's the timing to you that you're not surprised by the actual event. No, absolutely not. But mere hours before puck drop, I think it could have waited. You know, for me, it's just a lack of decisiveness kind of defined how we got here, right?

This has been a couple of years where, you know, tree living hasn't made a lot of decisions that the least needed to make hard decisions. And I feel like this was going to happen at some point. So if it's going to happen, you know you're going to pull the trigger. here we are. So the Leafs were a mess this year and it was just actually yesterday. We were talking about the Leafs and how I wonder if they've gone through the season like the beginning.

It's like maybe we can salvage this thing and then it gets to the end and they might be thinking, man, we need to do some pretty bold stuff here. Now, who knows? Let's say if Doug Armstrong comes in and replaces Bradshaw living and. that's kind of the rumored guy. He's leaving the St. Louis Blues and maybe he goes to Toronto and takes over there. In what capacity? I don't know.

I don't know if they're going to get a president, whatever. But he might be like, well, I'm not, I didn't take this job to trade Austin Matthews. I didn't take this job to trade William Neelander. We're going to keep trying to be competitive while they've still got those guys. Who knows? But, you know, James Merle had a really well-reported piece in the athletic this morning.

And he wrote that according to a source in the organization, Keith Pelly, who's the new CEO of MLSE, was quote unquote, very present during the Leaf's bungling of the trade deadline earlier this month, which was not the best showcase of the team's decision-making process and one of the final nails in Trillivings coffin. according to Myrtle Pelley spent the intervening week surveying leaf staff and people around the team and league

about where things went wrong and true living's role in that decline you know I think Trill Living is the kind of guy that talks a good game and he gets along with everyone which is important he can talk to the corporate types which is important but let's think about the state of the two teams that he left in the last few years. His resume stinks. The flames he left in need of a rebuild.

And even though a lot of people might not have predicted what would happen to Hubert O's career after coming over from Florida, you know, those two contracts he gave out to Cadry and Hubert O, maybe the flame should have chased futures instead, but they wanted to stay competitive. And in Toronto, you know, I think you went in there maybe just thinking, ah, this team's just got to change its DNA. You know, it's got to change, change its attitude. And they bring in Craig Baroube, and I still think Baroube is a good coach, but maybe it was just a bad fit for this Leafs group. Or maybe that Leafs group, not maybe.

I think in hindsight, what was needed was more bold and decisive action. creativity, you know, make a big move. Well, let's be real here. And it was just functional because, you know, there were still leftovers of the Shanahan, Dubas era, Lamarello, and all the years of playoff failure as well. And, you know, Mitch Marner, they didn't get to turn him into anything except they lost him for nothing to Vegas and aren't restricted free agents.

and the Leafs were just, they were just dreadful this year. I mean, look, let's just not bury the lead here. The biggest issue and the number one reason that Tree Living's very short tenure in Toronto will be remembered infamously is because he couldn't find common ground to figure out what to do with Mitch Marner. That was ultimately his undoing.

They have nothing to show for that deal right now. They had one roster player added, Nicholas Waugh, who was later moved to the Colorado Avalanche. And you cannot, you cannot let, a guy walk in the manner that he did when he was providing as much as he was providing on a nightly basis during the regular season to the Maple Leafs. He was their leading score from the time that he broke into the NHL as a leaf to the time that he left.

And they just were unable to do anything. They were unable to broker a deal, even though he went into that last year of his deal as a UFA. We hear countless times across the NHL about how important it is to get something for your assets and not let them walk. And it almost felt like Tree Living was either above that or it was beyond. him, but whatever the case, it marked his entire tenure in Toronto because the biggest difference for a playoff team last year in Toronto to the non-playoff team this year for me is

that they had Marner and they didn't. And he was unable to recoup the proper assets. He brought him Barube, which I thought was a fine move, but ultimately it didn't make enough of a difference. And he goes down now, as you astutely pointed out, the architect of two Canadian teams, Calgary and Toronto that were left in way worse shape than when he inherited it. Can I read a scathing paragraph from Myrtle? I would love a scathing paragraph from Myrtle. He writes, as bad as the Leafs have been on the ice this season,

cratering to the bottom of the NHL standings the past two months. It's somehow been worse behind the scenes. The richest team in the league has now become its most small-minded and timid, afraid to do anything approaching creativity or boldness. They've become completely paralyzed, not only by their failures on the ice, but also by the dysfunction that's settled in the past three years, which is why they've done absolutely nothing

to address their issues all season. Yeah, I mean, Tree Living kind of rode with whatever he inherited, minus Marner. Yeah. And he tried to change the coach, which other, you know, general managers there have tried, and it ultimately hasn't worked. I think that he had an opportunity to really shake up the core four,

and he just either through, fear or through trepidation, or maybe he just wasn't a savvy enough dealmaker, he just couldn't get it done. And ultimately, again, like, you, that's a bad, bad rep for him. I wonder if he's going to resurface somewhere else. I already heard rumblings that Nashville

could be interested in bringing him aboard as they're trying to manager. But if you're looking at the body of work that he's done in Calgary and Toronto, I don't know why you'd hire him. By the way, we need to talk before we go to break because we run up against him for time. We do need to talk about the other Toronto story. I know very Toronto said.

I was going to give you credit because Max Domi I didn't need credit for it. Everyone knew Max Domi was going to fight yesterday. He fought twice. And he fought twice. And he did well. He just came out throwing bombs. Okay. Let's talk about the Goudas fight. And I want to talk about the elephant in the room and the point that I don't think enough people have brought up.

Okay. I don't know. I know what you're going to say. So sad. Goodest didn't fight back. We're all clear on this, right? No. Radco Gudas didn't fight back.

I accept my pummeling. I don't know if he could get one in because Domi just came out wailing on him. You know how he looked like his old man. It's Radko Goudis. You know what's a good strategy to getting a punch. You know what's a good strategy to getting a punch it is trying to throw one at any point during time. Because Domi was just wailing away on him. They were sizing each other up at the start.

I accept my fate. I think that might have been, yeah, that might have been the most fate accepting fight. Domi's like, this is awesome. Yeah, Goudis knew he had to take... I'm the strongest man in the world. I'm going to fight again in this game. Why is it not going well this time? That would have been awesome if he got beat off the second time.

Gudis just throws one punch, knocks him out. Who did he fight the second time? Minchikov? Yeah, he did. Yeah, don't we fought Minchikov, Nick. He was ready to take on anybody. Wasn't he going to say before they got a bunch of stuff? Like, I want to atone for my mistakes and all this stuff.

So it's pretty clear what his mindset was. That's why everyone was assuming that's why I was working on the way to it. So in the terms of the time, of the code, is that more honorable taking a beating without fighting back or less honorable? More honorable. But you didn't put up a fight. I'm actually surprised he did it, to be honest.

I mean, I'm kind of with breath. It's like, you kind of need to throw a punch at a certain point to make it look like a fight. To make it a fight. Yeah, right? Because he just kind of took a beating. The code is a very fickle thing. It's like a boxer taking a dive. Like, you got to throw

at least one punch. But good on Gutus for doing. Was Goudis the whole time? I was like, I deserve this. A little bit. There was a shame spiral involved for sure. He knew what he had to take. But anyway, I guess if you're a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, and I don't know, but are you happy with the end result there? Because I saw a lot of back patting.

Well, they also won the game. Yeah, they did win the game. They came back and won the game, which I did not care for because I really want Anaheim to win the division. So we get Edmonton, Vegas in the first round. Anaheim did pick up a point. The ducks and the oilers. have each played 74 games.

The ducks are four points up on the oilers, but the Oilers are probably going to have the tiebreaker, and the ducks are five points up on Vegas, and Vegas has played one more games than the ducks than the Oilers. So it's a two-horse race between the ducks and the Oilers, I think, for first place. Maybe Vegas could go on a new coach bump, but frankly, I wasn't that impressed with Vegas last night. I know they took the game over.

in the second period, but of course they're going to take the game over. They look great. They're playing the Canucks. Anaheim's not good. The biggest issue with Anaheim finishing first is I'm not sure they've got the guys to do it. Keter Goce got hurt last night too, but. Yeah. Well, they're not that, they're not that good.

Right. I think that division, despite the standings right now where it looks like Anaheim might be in the quote unquote driver's seat. I think it's wide open. If Anaheim plays Utah in the first round, I think Utah. Utah is the betting favorite. Utah is a betting favorite. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right. Despite the fact they won't have home ice. And like I want to see Edmonton and Vegas in the first round as much as anybody. But it's hard to count on anything because I think Edmonton's the best of the three teams. But it's not by a big margin. And I'm not 100% sure of that statement. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

Nick Kiprios here on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Kipper. How are you? Good guys. Good morning. Thanks for taking the time to do this. You're a busy man. breaking all kinds of news.

Before we get to what... He was up watching the game last night. I know all kinds of stuff. This is very... A lot of work being put forth here. Before we get to the Toronto story, which is big, we're going to start with Vancouver. So yesterday you reported that Connects GM, Patrick Alvin,

maybe doesn't expect to be employed beyond this season. What do you know? Do you have anything further? Tell us about Alvin's future in Vancouver. Well, it's... I think it's just up in the open right now. no different than, you know, we talked just prior to the news in Toronto. The three teams that I kind of focused on my article for Sportsnet.ca is just the feeling amongst

these particular three clubs, and I included Vancouver, and that is the uncertainty of where their management team is and the decisions that ownership ultimately has to make. we did see a firing in Vegas that probably forced a few teams and maybe even the Toronto Maple Leafs guys to sit there and say, okay, if they're holding people accountable for the season, maybe we should too. So I'm not saying that there was a direct link between Vegas and Toronto, but it does force teams to kind of reassess their own situation.

And I don't think that's any different in Vancouver. we do know that it was a major disappointment this season. Nobody knows that more than both Jimmy Rutherford and Patrick Alveen. But there is a sense around these particular teams that they believe that changes are coming, but to what degree we don't know just yet. What are you hearing on Jim Rutherford? Because he has been the big decision maker. in all the all the Canucks main moves

Patrick Alvin has been the general manager but he was kind of a lieutenant of Jim Rutherford's Jim is 77 years old and this rebuild is going to take a few years and I think there's a big question mark around whether Rutherford would be here through all that rebuild and if he's not

should he be the one to start the rebuild I think it's an absolutely fascinating question and one that I think is getting sorted out as we speak if it already hasn't been decided. But guys, let's just go back when Jimmy Rutherford was hired, I think, in December of 2001. And, you know, he came in with the reputation that he's got the magic formula to kind of speed up the process to win now. and certainly that was the feeling coming from the Pittsburgh Penguins that this guy can move the needle quickly and he doesn't like to sit and he likes to get ahead of things. And here we are, you know, almost five years later

and we're talking about a guy that whoever's in that chair moving forward has to sit there and say, I really need to be patient here. So to your point for a 77-year-old man who was brought in because he could fast track a few things. How does that make him feel? How does it make the Aquilini family and Francesco feel leaving now a major rebuild, guys? That's what it is. And let's just face it, you know, since the cap era,

we've seen some teams really struggle on getting themselves back into respectability, you know, let alone a playoff position here. So where is Jimmy on that? And where's the confidence of the Aqualini family to have in Jimmy moving forward? That, you know, nobody knows whether this is going to be two years, four years. Again, take a look at, you know, post-salary cap error in the teams that have struggled over a long haul here to get themselves back. Edmonton, Toronto, Buffalo. Detroit, Columbus.

Where was Jimmy's appetite to hang around and see this thing through? Just looking at how long it's going to take, like it's not going to take two years. It's impossible for it to turn around because free agency isn't really a thing anymore. You look at the list right now. Yeah. And even though the flat cap was really frustrating, what it did do was free up players. because there were teams that were just in a position of like, I can't afford this guy. You know, that's how the Canucks ended up with J.T. Miller, the Lightning had to make a decision.

So they traded J.T. Miller. Well, that doesn't happen anymore. And I think it's one of the things that this management group really misread this offseason because they kind of went into the off season like, well, people are always available. Well, they weren't because teams had the cap space to keep their players. They didn't have to make those tough decisions. Would you say that right now is maybe the toughest time in NHL history to improve your team with anything other than a rebuild? Because this is something that the Leafs are maybe going to have to face as well.

Yeah. The one different skies between the Leafs and Vancouver is they have assets, real assets. And they've got plenty going into the draft here with Minnesota's pick and San Francisco. Jose's picked in the second and, you know, those are the most valuable commodity you can have for any franchise here, even above, you know, thinking that you have one of the top players in the world on your roster. So, you know, they, they, they can come in, Vancouver can come in, as bad as Vancouver fans feel. Like, after the draft with a couple of new fresh faces and maybe one at the very top of a first pick overall.

The change in the vibe can change dramatically or in a short period of time. But that does not mean that this team will contend, like, to your point, in the next two or three years. It just doesn't work that way. So, you know, again, even with a positive feel coming out of the draft this June, that's where, again, ownership has to look at and say, isn't this the perfect time to transition into a new management group and a new vision and make people believe that, you know, we're all going to go through this build together

and when we're ready to compete, it's going to be fantastic. That's the decisions that have to be weighed out. And I think they are, and I do believe we're going to see changes in Vancouver, but we just, again, to what degree, we'll just have to wait and see. Canucks analyst on SportsNet. Landon Ferraro joins us now on the

Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Landon, how are you? Doing pretty good. Are you guys doing? We're well. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Wanted to get your thoughts on a game that going into the weekend, last night's game probably wasn't all that exciting. Got a lot more exciting with the announcement

that Cassidy was out and Tortorella was in as head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights. Your thought on the performance the Canucks put up in Tortorella's first game as Vegas head coach. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting, right? Like, how you look at the games now, there were, you know, there were some pretty glaring mistakes on goals against missing coverage in front and all that,

but, like, they stayed in a game, especially one where, you know, you mentioned that Tortorella takes over, which, by the way, absolutely devastated that that man was wearing a suit behind the bench last night. Right. Like, I love the quarter set. I'm hoping that everyone starts. Yeah, I'm hoping it gets it's cold down there.

But, you know, the Caducs stayed in it. They've found some offense. You know, Vander Cain gets a goal in his thousands of game. So, like, there's okay parts to it. But to me, like, it is frustrating the amount of miscoverage in front of the net and just losing guys. To me, you know, you can be on a bad team, but, like, there are parts that you can hone in on a bit more. and clean up a bit quicker. There was one goal where V-Lander had his man in front of the net,

and there was a, I think the guy might have come in from the point. I'm not sure who was responsible for the player. That was a Vanderkane that should have had that down the backside. Okay. Yeah, because I sometimes wonder how much of it is on the forwards as well, some of these breakdowns. I mean, there's a lot of seam passes there to getting through the canof, and the defensemen, they're responsible for a lot of it,

but they're not responsible for everything. I think it's easy to blame the young defenseman in the Canucks lineup, and quite often it's appropriate to blame them. But how much of it is also just like the structure of the team versus just they've got some young guys that are running around sometimes? Yeah, I mean, like, again, there were on a couple of those goals. like there's just easy coverage that's missed. And yeah, like that is on the younger defensemen.

And that's okay. Like, you know, again, it's so much different because it's not like they have one young defenseman in or two. And it's like those mistakes show up because they're going to, you know, more than half of the defense corps is really young. So you see mistakes all over the place. But you're right. Like there's, there's a lot that can be helped with our by the forward.

you know, like they're like, Kane needs to realize that the puck has been rimmed around. Everything's facing that way. You're as the offside winger, you're in charge of the whole backside, essentially. You know, like not all the way down to the net, but if you realize that there's four of their players in front of you, well, there's one more.

You've got to find where he is. He's behind you. You pick him up and go. The other part of that, like, so yes, the forwards can definitely help. But the other part of it is, as Valander keeps improving, because he has good hockey IQ and he reads the game well, he'll start getting more comfortable with everything.

He'll take a bigger mental image before he engages with the net front player. And with that, he might be able to quickly, as that puck's coming across, already see that that guy's beat. Now he won't get tied up in front and he can kind of play between the two of them. you know, even though that's not fully his job, but he'll read it and he'll see that he can be, or he needs to be the safety net there because there is blown coverage. But that's a lot to ask of a 20-year-old defenseman. One thing that I've noticed is with some of the young defensemen, and I'm not picking on them,

but Zeev Bouillon tying up sticks in front of the net. Have you noticed that that's something to work on as well? the Canucks seem to get a lot of pucks tipped past the goalie. Yeah, and we were talking about this yesterday, and to me, a lot of it has to do with, like, the work done before you get to the front of the net, right?

So, like, Zeeb William is not the biggest guy. He's not going to be able to, like, stand in there and out muscle, you know, most forwards in the NHL. But that doesn't matter. You just have to be smarter, right? like we watched it for years with Quinn Hughes. He's, you know, he's not a big guy,

but he is good at getting body position and knowing how to tie up guys. But again, for me, it's more about meeting the player before they get to the net. If the puck's coming out of the right corner, meeting that player, like so sorry, say it's in the right corner and it goes up to the point. Now everyone's coming to the net.

Yeah. Don't wait until they get to the crease before you engage them. Right. Try and start getting. into it, right? Like, get over to the dot lane and start engaging there so that by the time that you get to the net, because he's going to be able to push through you, because you can't just hold him, it's interference, but hopefully that shot's already been there. Now, Lank and her Tolopilo have a clean look at it. It's about the work before. It's a drill that every

forward hates is you're in the corner, you throw a puck up to the point, and you have to get to the net. And the D is just standing kind of in between you. in the net and you just know you're going to get cross-checked 15 times. But it's such a simple drill that reinforces you have to engage farther from the net. It gives you more time to mess up on the way back. What do you think of Zeb Williams' game overall? Because, I mean, there are already conversations in Vancouver about extending him to a long-term contract. And I love how Zeb Williams skates.

I think he's a terrific skater and he's obviously got a lot of skill and he seems like a high character guy. But I'm curious from your perspective, how much work does he have to do in his own end? He has a decent amount of work to do in his own end. But to be honest, I'm not as concerned with that. And it's not that I'm concerned. I'm more curious on continuing to watch his offense build. You know, he skates with the puck really well. He cuts through lanes.

He's got good edges. Like he has the makings. And he's been, you know, nothing but an offensive defenseman in his past. But at this level, like, he still has a bit to go to show that he's not just going to be a, you know, a really good offensive defenseman.

He's going to be able to be that next step above that, you know, everyone has talked about him being. And, you know, we've seen flashes of. you know, like that to me is where I'd be a little nervous going super, like going the full long term with them. Like I'd almost rather have it be a bit more of a bridge

and have to overpay him a bit later because he's over, like he's proven that he's done it. You know, he's such a competitive player. You know, I'm not worried about him putting in the work to make sure that he maximizes what his potential is. So I'm not worried about giving him long term there, but paying for potential that isn't hasn't quite shown yet is to me in the situation

of the rebuild and all of it, like there's, to me, it just seems like a bridge makes more sense. At what age do you get NHL strong? Like at what age are you 100% NHL strong? I mean, it's totally different for everyone. I know, like, you know, again, I was a lot. the big guy. For me, I didn't feel like I got, you know, my man strength call it till I was about 24. Like, it took me, it took me a while to, to where I just, like, I felt like I could go into a corner and actually stand on my edges and hold, hold myself in there. You also, you also learn how to play with your frame and your ability so that when you get to your smack strength, like, you're able to take advantage of what's there.

So, I mean, I, again, I'm not picking on Booiam here, but I see sometimes where he's trying to break up the cycle and he just almost doesn't look strong enough, like his stick doesn't look strong enough to do it. Are you seeing that as well? And what are some things that you can do? Is it just a strength thing or is it a technique thing as well so that, you know, the Kinnock's don't get pinned as much? in the defensive zone, all the young defensemen for that matter.

Yeah, I mean, for all of them, Booiams, I put Booiam and Valander in a bit more of the same category for this, like, but especially Booiam, for me, it's, it's strength, but it's, I don't even just mean that so that he can go in there and hit a guy and pin him. I mean more lower body strength to get his first couple steps faster, and that's important for the defensive and offensive side. On the offensive side, quickly, he makes those nice cuts, and he cuts back

aggressively on his forehand to give himself space, but his leg strength isn't quite there yet of what it's going to be, and he doesn't clear himself enough space to always get by that forechecker that's coming out at him. So that'll help there, but on the defensive

side, like, he makes good reads. He knows, like, he does have a good stick. just he gets pushed off the puck or when he goes to go stick on puck like one little tap and his sticks blown away to me his skate like strength and skating will get him in and out of places much faster to where he doesn't have to hit and pin a guy and hold him for a long time because he's smart he'll realize where when the puck's going to be exposed now he takes his one hard step in and he'll be able to quickly pull it in and out and he's gone.

That to me is how I see him defending as he gets stronger. We're speaking of Landon-Farro, Kinnucks analyst here on the Halford & Breff Show on Sports Net 650. Okay, so Evander Kane plays in his 1,000th NHL game last night, scores in his sort

of illustrious night, which is great for him on an individual level. Now that we're getting to, what I assume is going to be the one and only season of Avander Kane in Vancouver. I'm curious to get your thoughts of almost putting like a rap or a recap or like an analysis on the era, the tenure of the acquisition, how it went.

I mean, he's played in 70 games. He's got 13 goals and 31 points. I don't think it's been a huge win by any stretch of the imagination, but it definitely hasn't gone as far south as some suggested. What are your thoughts on the Evander Cain tenure in Vancouver? You know, it's interesting. I would put it in the category a bit of we didn't get to see what he could fully do because to me, like, he needs to be on a winning team that it's going to make a playoff run

because that's where really his best game comes out. As this season started to fall away, you know, I would say that he wasn't quite engaged nearly as much through the season that the Canucks and fans would have liked. I know how much more of a power forward he can be and how much more driven and an impact he can have on the game. And I don't think he brought that too often this year. So it was a tough situation that way. I don't know.

It was such a bad year that it makes. it tough to really grade him other than, you know, at the end of the year, like, point wise, it's okay, I just still think that he could have impacted a lot more games in a lot more meaningful way.

He has more to him. Yeah, I think that's actually fairly accurate assessment. It's going to be tough to grade him and, quite frankly, a lot of the veteran guys, maybe even some of the younger guys as well, but it was such a difficult environment for so many guys. I'm actually really curious to see and hear what some of these exit interviews sound

like because there's obviously some guys that won't be back next year. There will be some guys that are going to be back. And, you know, I think I wonder when they're talking to management and the coaching staff and everybody else, how those exit interviews go because it's tough when there's not a lot of positives to draw from. Yeah, it's not a very fun thing to go into. I've been a part of a lot of bad teams and exit meetings there aren't fun, right? Like you go in and depending on how, you know, you're standing with the team and how your year went obviously does change it. But at the end of the day, like, even if you go in, okay, well, my draft year, I'll go back

all the way to there. Like, you know, I had a really good year personally. Yet our team was terrible and we missed the playoffs by a mile. Like, you go in and they kind of start. with like, hey, like, great job. You put yourself in a good spot to get drafted. You should be proud of that. But, like, we have a lot of work to do,

and there's a lot of things that you could have done better that we're going to need you to do next year. And it turns to not them getting mad at you, but to a very serious conversation of, like, things need to improve. We expect this out of you. And then, obviously, as you get older, you know, a junior, I'm more just sitting there listening and taking it in. but as you get older, you know, like you have things to say back as well.

And it's not like you're getting into an argument, but, you know, if you've been in the league for a while, you've seen a lot, you've experienced a lot, you want to put your input in there. Because, you know, at the end of the day, your career is only so long, you only have so much control in what you do. And sitting on the other side of it now, there's nothing worse than looking back and being like, I wish I would have spoken up here. This might have helped. You know, and I guarantee for,

especially some of the veterans that will be back. You know, I guarantee they've already looked back over the year. I'm like, I probably could have done this differently. And it could have helped just this little portion. Or us as an older group could have attacked this a little bit different and help things move along. And all those are really important things to talk about in your exit meeting. Because, right, like just getting people together,

you might say something that the management hasn't really thought of or thought about it in that way. And it sparked something. And for the management and coaches to the players, it's really, it's amazing how guys can guard themselves when the season's bad. Because you're a pro athlete, you have a lot of pride,

you've got a bit of ego in there, and it's not fun and it doesn't feel good being on a bad team. You can talk yourself into things were bad around me, and that was the only reason that I had a tough year. and you need to hear some of the comments from management and coaches to kind of snap you back to, no, you're right. As much as that did affect things, I let it affect me too much.

I could have been better. And you need to look at that. Very well said. Landon, thanks for doing this today, man. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week. Yeah, I have a good one, guys. Yep, you too.

Thanks. That's Landon Farrow here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.