Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 4/1/25

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they preview tomorrow night's Canucks matchup versus the Kraken with radio commentator Brendan Batchelor, plus the boys tell us what they learned. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na Dangles and shoots and hits the post! The game is over! It's a mile high miracle! I'm gonna fool you. You talk better than you fool. I'll fool you up real nice. The one-one ditch. Oh my goodness, that is way out of here! It's a good thing that beer wasn't shaking up anymore,

or I'd have looked quite the fool, an April fool as it were. Good morning Vancouver, 6.01 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. It is Halford and it is Brough, it is Sportsnet 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. And Lydie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They 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. Well, they pay 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.

A three guest show today on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Guest list today begins at 6.30 with David Amber, Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet NHL host. You might be thinking right now, wait a minute, guys, it's Tuesday. David Amber's usual day is Wednesday. Is this some sort of hilarious April Fool's Day joke from the Alfred and Brough show?

No, we had to switch him to today. David Amber's gonna join us at 630, 10 games in the National Hockey League tonight. Huge implications for the Eastern and Western Conference playoff chases. And then we'll talk about tomorrow night's Wednesday night hockey as well. Of course, the Vancouver Canucks

are gonna feature in that one. That's at 6.30. Seven o'clock, Tony Ferrari is gonna join the program. The heir to the Ferrari racing chain. Actually, he's a prospects writer for the hockey news. He's gonna join us. There's a bunch of very impactful college players who have recently signed NHL deals.

Ryan Leonard in Washington, Jimmy Snuggerud, one of my favorite names, going to St. Louis. And of course, eventually and hopefully, Tom Villander going from BU to the Canucks. We'll talk to Tony Ferrari about that. We should have had him on a Ferraro day. We could have had Ferraro, Ferraro, Ferrari. That would have been pretty good.

That would have been great. Alas, he's gonna join us today on April Fool's Day. Brendan Batchelor is going to join the program at 8 o'clock, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks. Canucks return to practice today after a full day off yesterday and will look ahead to tomorrow's game against the Kraken. A reminder, that's a 7.30 puck drop and whatever is left of Vancouver's playoff chances by then. So working in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock it's Brendan Batchelor, 7 o'clock

it's Tony Ferrari, 6.30 it's David Amber. That's what's happening on the program today. Greg, 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? What happened? What happened is Brats you buy happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened? What extra diligent and vigilant when checking their social media accounts today. What's the April Fool's Day joke that's going around Kanox Reddit right now? Is it Shorty has announced his retirement? Yeah, but that might be true.

That's not bad actually. That's kind of clever. Yeah, I can see that. But ultimately, not true. We'll call Shorty to confirm at eight o'clock. But just a friendly reminder, don't trust anything you see on social media. No, let's call him now. Let's call him now. Who is this? Hey dude! I heard you're retired. Alright, the Canucks will practice today as mentioned at noon, or beginning at noon at Roger's Arena after taking the day off yesterday.

They're going to host Seattle tomorrow, Anaheim Saturday, and then Vegas on Sunday in a back-to-back this weekend. We will finally get to figure out a number of things, including the health status of Elias Pettersson and Niels Hoaglander who were sent home midway through their Eastern road swing that just finished up. It's crazy. It's crazy. The state of media right now that we just had this massive road trip for the Canucks, they sent Hoaglander and Pettersen back like quite early in it.

And. Played many games without them. And there's been like, we get, we get a bunch of texts, does anyone have any injury updates on Pettersen and Hoeglund or like, no. We do not. We don't know what happened. They went on an airplane and then they were just gone.

They were just gone. Yeah. And they never came back. Yeah. So. Also we can find out the health of them, possibly Kevin Lankenen who who we didn't really talk about this yesterday, where too was he

dumping all over Elias Pettersson, but we should have probably spent a little bit more time on if Lankinen was playable in the two games that he played. I know what they were between a rock and a hard place and they had to put it in. No, no, no, no, no. They were between a rock and a hard place and

another rock. And they ultimately had to play Lankton in two games in which he let in a whole lot of goals and didn't look great. And a road trip where they couldn't really afford to drop points and they did, not coincidentally, in two of the games that Lankton played on that swing. So we'll hopefully find out about him today as well. I actually wonder about the future of Thatcher Demko

in this market. If the Canucks are going to make moves this off season, could he be a name that is possibly out there? The Canucks have already signed Kevin Lanken into a long-term deal and they've got a decision to make on Thatcher Demko. They could technically sign him to extension this summer, but I mean, I don't see that happening just because of his injury status from the Canucks point of view.

And from Thatcher Demko's point of view, he could be all passive aggressive and be like, Oh, I thought you had your goalie, his name's Kevin Lankinen. So he was, remember we had iMac on shortly after he spoke with Demko and Demko said all the right things in the aftermath, but it is a very interesting dynamic in the immediate future.

Be very curious to see how much they played Demko over the final games of the regular season because you could go back and forth on this one. Like you may as well try and play them as much as you can until your playoff chances are completely snuffed out. Yeah. Or you can err on the side of caution and say, you know what? You've had a hard time with your health this year.

Let's not risk trying to aggravate anything. The flip side of that would be, you would imagine the player would certainly like to use this as a proving ground that not only am I healthy, but any game I can get at the NHL level to rediscover my groove and my swagger, I want it. And then another angle to that is we don't know what's going on with Kevin Lankin and his health. And Archer Silas still remains someone that you don't want to play, even if your playoff percentage chances are.001, if you still got a chance, you still should be icing as competitive a lineup as you can.

Yeah, I mean, I've, I'm still somewhat interested in the remaining games in the regular season, but I think this last road trip and the way things ended and the way other teams around the Canucks in the race keep picking up points and we'll get to that in a bit. I'm kind of 99% of into off season mode right now. I know you are. In terms of my thinking.

And I know you're still holding out hope that Minnesota is going to fall out of this race, but they picked up another point last night. Even though they didn't win, but they did. And they're well up on the Canucks now and so are the Blues. When it comes to Thatcher Demko, like my personal thought is if you really want to get into

the playoffs next year, your best bet is to just keep them. You know, keep them for next year and have him and Kevin Lankinen as a tandem and that might be your best shot of getting in. But you hear rumours here and there about whether or not Temko is really happy in Vancouver and you start to wonder if he might be a name

that's out there this off season. At a combined nine and a half million, um, and assuming that both can stay healthy and play to their capabilities, the Canucks would have at least for one singular year, a great situation in that. Like those two goals at nine and a half. I mean, it's a big, it's a big if that.

Sure. Demco stays healthy. Yeah. Well, there's also a big if that. Sure. Demco stays healthy. Yeah. Well, there's also a big if that both of them play at the heights that we could put it this way. If you get full and proper Demco and you get the Lankton and that we saw in the early stages of the season, and to be fair, I do think some of Lankton

and struggles in the back half of this season had to do with a workload that he's never shouldered. Or right. For sure. I think fatigue played a role and that's fair. You're asking you got to with a workload that he's never shouldered. For sure, Ted. For sure, Ted, yeah. I think fatigue played a role, and that's fair. You're asking a guy to carry a workload that he's never carried at the professional level before. Tabling all that.

If you wanna look at one thing that they can be somewhat optimistic about, again, assuming everything goes right, which is a mantra for this club, by the way, nine and a half million for two goalies that can give you the kind of net mining that we've seen. So at least there's like proof of concept here. It could be a very good thing moving forward.

The problem is, is that it might only be for one year and that's assuming that they go through the summer and retain Thatcher Demko and don't do anything kind of crazy with them. I wonder what his value would be. That's a great question. You know, like because fully healthy, he's super valuable. Look at him right now.

Like look at a team like Philly. Philly needs to find a goalie, badly. Yep. Um. Tocket and Demko to Philly. Maybe they'll take Tocket and Demko to Philly. But I'm just thinking about teams out there that are desperate for an upgrade and goal, and Philly would be one of them.

But if I was a team like Philly and I was looking for goaltending, I'd be like, we've already had a lot of problems with goaltenders. Am I going to get damaged goods here with Thatcher Demko? And that's why, you know, if the Canucks aren't going into a rebuild and we all know they won't because that's not their way of doing things and they've just kind of rebuilt the defense anyway and you know, they're going to try and be better for next season. I imagine that's their plan until they tell us otherwise. You know, I would think that Thatcher Demko is maybe

the number one reason why they could make the playoffs next season. Like seriously, I know they've got Quinn Hughes, but like we're talking, like they had Quinn Hughes for, for this season and it didn't work. Who they didn't have was Thatcher Demko. You know, and, and I, and you know, because Lanken and played very well early on in the season, I think we're in some ways, I don't want to say we forgot about Demko, but he wasn't as much a factor as we

thought he might be. I think the emergence of Lankenen papered over how big of a departure Demko was. Yeah. I think it allowed us to be like, well, but the goal tending has been fine. And it had, and it was fine until it wasn't. But it wasn't, I don't think it was really ever elite.

No. Like it was good. Lankton did really well and it might've been above average, but I don't think it was the type of goaltending you get from a guy like Thatcher Demko when he's really on. Yeah, I mean if you want to. We saw that earlier and we saw that at times in this road trip, you know, where the Canucks came out, had a flat start.

Demko was incredible. First period against New Jersey was a big one. Or sorry, first period against the Islanders. It was a big one. Yeah, it was the Islanders. Like he robbed Horvat a couple of times. Yeah. First period against the Islanders. That was the big one. Yeah, it was the Islanders. Like he robbed Horvat a couple of times. Oh, the Horvat definitely once early on. And that game could have been completely

different without Demko. It allowed the Canucks to stay in the game and allowed the Canucks to actually take over the game. And then at the end of the day, they were deserving winners. But if it was an average goalie in there, I don't think they win that game.

And you know, if you want to start stacking up last year as compared to this year and where things went wrong and by that, I mean, different, uh, that's your Demko started 51 games last year. And this year, that last game that he played in Winnipeg was his 20th start of the year. So you're talking about 30 starts difference that he had from a year ago where he was a Vezna candidate. He won 35 games and the Canucks made the playoffs to this year where the Canucks are

probably not going to make the playoffs. So Jeremy in Abbotsford texting, I'm not going to read his entire text cause there's some swears in it, but he goes, if the Canucks let a potential top five goalie in the league walk for nothing at the end of the year, then swears. Um, and that's the thing with goalies. They aren't, people don't really trust picking

up goalies at the trade deadline. No. And, and, and it's, it's a little bit different than having a pending UFA skater, right? Because most of the times you get to the trade deadline, teams have their goalies. They're all set and the ones that don't have goalies are probably out of the playoffs because they don't have goalies. Now there are certain instances where a team,

like let's say, I don't know, like Edmonton at the trade deadline this year could have been interested in a goalie or I don't know, whoever. Yep. You know, good teams with questionable goalies, but I really think teams are hesitant to add a goalie at that point. You know, and you go all the way back to Ryan Miller going from Buffalo to St. Louis and it just didn't work. And I think there are people that are hesitant to do that just because of

the nature of the position. So do the Canucks have to make a decision on Thatcher Demko this off season? Or do they risk letting him walk for nothing? I mean, I do feel bad for Demko because the timing of all of this has really conspired against him. Where his health kind of started to take a turn,

his respective age, right, he's gonna be 30 this year in December. When his contract is gonna come up, it's not like he's gonna be in a Schuster, anywhere near like a Schusterken type situation where the Rangers were, I mean, they had to pay. He was everything to that team. I mean, Demko's not gonna have that kind of leverage.

He, look, he had really, the contract that he's on right now, it's not like he's not getting paid. He's got $25 million off this deal, but it's definitely been more advantageous for the Canucks in terms of a bargain deal. I think if he can stay healthy for a whole year, a team will pay him. I think a team will pay him,

but I think maybe missing that gargantuan payday, which other goalies of his ilk have gotten, right? Vasilevsky got paid, Shosturkin got paid. The timing of Demko's is just, it's unfortunate. Like he got hurt near the tail end of a deal where he was a bargain. GMs have a very short memory. If you give a year of healthy goaltending, you'll get that deal.

See the thing with him now is, is he gonna have to be a guy that you're gonna have to pair with someone like Lankton because of his health issues? Like we're not gonna be, I mean, how many games can you're going to have to pair with someone like Lankton and because of his health issues like we're not going to be I mean how many games can you realistically count on him to play I know we played 51 last year but remember that was also a year in which his body broke down at the end he wasn't available at the end of the regular season he didn't play in the

playoffs if you need to kind of you know shelter his workload and get him in and around maybe 40 starts max, then you need to pair him with somebody else and someone that can carry like a large percentage of the mail. All right, what else we got? We should go through what happened last night in the National Hockey League. So it didn't quite go according to plan. By that I mean the Halford plan, but the Minnesota Wild did lose last night in New Jersey, the first of their three games through the New York, New Jersey Metro area. It was a 3-2 shootout loss to the Devils.

The glass half full person, or at least from the Minnesota side of things, will say, we got a valuable point. The glass half empty person will say that we lost the second one. So it's not exactly as I drew it up as I said, but it's still a loss for the Wild. I did say yesterday that I think the Wild are going to lose all three of these games, giving us one last faint and false sense of hope that the Canucks can make a run at this thing before ultimately falling short.

They're at MSG on Wednesday, then they play the Isles on Friday. The Minnesota offense has dried up almost entirely in that five game stretch where they've lost four or five. They scored a grand total of seven goals. Like them getting the two goals is an accomplishment right now. And last night, it took them to the final two minutes

of regulation to get that second goal when Matthew Boldy scored a huge one to get them a point. Now here's the thing. I'm not even sure that it's the Vancouver Canucks that are chasing anybody, be it St. Louis or Minnesota for the second and final wild card spot. I believe it is those pesky and dare I say, somewhat endearing Calgary flames.

They're hanging in there, man. I take no joy in saying this because the flames will always be a mortal enemy of the Vancouver Canucks, but that is a team right now that you actually have to kind of like. What they did last night, they have not, I did not realize this, they have not beaten the Colorado Avalanche, they did a 3-2 in a shootout

yesterday, they had not beaten the Colorado Avalanche since 2002, October 13th, 2002 was the last time that they had beaten the Aves. What in Colorado or just? So they've been to them at home. 2022, not 2002. Yeah, it was 2002. That was a misstep, 2022.

So they got their backup goalie in the net. When you said 2002, I was like, I feel like I would have heard about that for sure. That's a long time. 2022, Dan Vlidar is in that, so they're back up goalie in that. They're down to nothing going into the third period. And I watch bits and pieces of it.

They've been largely outplayed. Their third period scoring heroes were Ryan Lomborg and Adam Klapka scored in a 32 second span. So the three stars of the night for Calgary, you can make the argument where Dan Vlidar, Ryan Lomburg, and Adam Klapka in Colorado against the Avalanche, a fully healthy full squad Colorado Avalanche team, and it keeps their flickering playoff hopes alive. They're five points out of a wild card. They've got games in hand on everybody. And

do we have the Vlidar audio there? Can I, again, I don't wanna make this too schmaltzy or whatever like a syrupy like, oh, lovin' for the flames cause I understand, but this is kind of endearing to hear him talk about this team. Okay, this is Dan Vlidar, the backup netminder after a big game yesterday, talking about the heart and the belief that the Calgary Flames have in one another. This is Dan Vlidar after a three,2 shootout win over Colorado last night in Colorado.

I heard you were one of the guys that spoke up in the locker room in the second intermission. What made you believe you guys could come back against this team? I think that's just our mentality. Believe, believe, believe. That's all we got. We might not have the strongest team on the paper, but I think that we got the strongest team in a deep inside in our hearts. So, uh, yeah.

When I, it doesn't matter who, if it's me or a Clipper or whoever, whoever's stepping up either with words or with the place. So you're still doing as a team. So, uh, yeah, huge win. I still hate them. I still hate them. I heard that.

Belief, belief, belief is all we've got. We might not have the strongest team on paper, but I think we have the strongest team deep inside our heart. Oh man. Oh my God. That hits hard. Tamela Dahr is the poet of our generation.

Cheese ball. Yeah, it's cheesy, all right? No way, I have a tear going on my cheek right now. There's a reason that I'm bringing all of this up though. I'm just lashing out. There's a reason that I'm bringing all of this up though. I'm just lashing out. There's a reason that I'm bringing all of this up. Maybe the Stanley Cup playoff race is the friends you made along the way.

That's right, it's the journey. It's not the end game, it's the journey. I am bringing this up for a reason. They have, from game, if you look at the parallels this season, from game one of this season, when of course it was the Vancouver Canucks and the Calgary Flames in a game that, you know, when you look back

and I'm not even trying to force this narrative, I just was thinking about it last night. Think about that first game and the characteristics and the traits that both teams showed and how many times those same characteristic and traits played themselves out throughout the course of this regular season. You remember the Canucks went up 4-1.

They looked like they were all good and ready to go. Everything was gonna be great. It was on the heels of last year's successful season. Everything was gonna be great. Calgary looked terrible in the first period of the first game of the year. Looked like they were gonna have another long season in Calgary.

And then what happened? The Canucks blew a lead. Was that a common theme this year? Did the Canucks blow some leads this year? Did the Canucks show an inability this year to carry over momentum from period to period and show what they showed in the first and the second and the third? And then what did Calgary do in that first game? Never quit. Remember there was that huge hit on Rooney as well. I think it was JT Miller. That sort of accidental hit that knocked out Rooney. And then they were pissed off and they kept fighting and they kept scrapping and they kept I think it was JT Miller, like that sort of accidental hit that knocked out Rooney and then, you know,

they were pissed off and they kept fighting and they kept scrapping and they kept clawing and they came back and won that game. And that kind of set the tone in a very weird way for both of these teams throughout this year. Calgary has just kind of continued to, you know, scratch and claw and fight, and they'll probably fall short. The numbers are against them.

The stats are against them the percentages are against them But I was watching their postgame last night and they did an interview with Adam Klapka the guy who scored the big goal and I won't bother playing the audio because it's more of a visual It's not pretty good. Actually you want me to okay, so halfway through All of a sudden out of nowhere through, all of a sudden out of nowhere, McKenzie Weger runs up during his interview with a bunch of the throngs of media and has the towel full of shaving cream

and like smears it in his face. Oh, they're having fun. That's a sign that a team's having fun. Let's hear what that fun sounds like. They got nothing to lose these guys, these Calgary Flames. They're crazy. Shaving cream, who would have thought? Here's what it sounded like yesterday.

Go ahead. You've had a lot of choices in the last few games, especially tonight, is how good that for you personally is like a little bit. I mean, it's amazing. sounded like yesterday. Go ahead. You've had a lot of chances in the last few games, especially tonight. How good is that for you personally? Yeah, I mean, it's amazing. Yeah! I'm so happy! Nice game, man. It's amazing.

It's given me so much confidence that I can be here, so it's really awesome. Have you ever had that happen to you before? Yeah, when I scored Hat-trick in the HL, so they do it to me, same thing. So yeah, I'm used to it. You know, I thought that was a baseball thing. I know. I thought that was a baseball thing. I've never seen that done in hockey, actually. I love the gutter roll. Yeah, though.

Yeah! OK, and the only reason... Makes a difference, though. It makes a difference, though, as a fan. Yeah, though. Yeah! Okay, and the only reason- Makes a difference though. It makes a difference though as a fan. Yeah, 100%. As a fan, it makes a difference. How many times have we come on the show and just been like, can these guys look like they want to be a team?

And lately, I think we've been happier with their efforts and the fact that they've, you know, just- What was the biggest story of the year, if you had to that they've, you know, just. What was the biggest story of the year, if you had to say? Well, they had a fight. Yeah. They had a fight between two of their top players, forcing one of them out of there. If those two had smeared shaving cream in each other's faces, it wouldn't have been as funny.

Yeah. It wouldn't have been as funny. That actually, that would have actually come up in the bullying report. It would have led to blows probably. And that's what I'm saying is like, it is, it must be nice to feel that way about your team. And feel that way about your teammates. Like they are, they have totally bought in to whatever it is they got going.

And it's, it can be pretty nebulous because it's not great hockey and it's not an oil painting. But if you look at two teams, the Canucks and the Flames, who now at the end of the year are pretty much identical in terms of standings and records and like statistically. Yeah. They're almost the same, but you couldn't come

up with two different narratives and the way that they got there and how happy they are with the way that they got there, then the Canucks and the Calgary Flames. Yeah. And you're right that, that first game against the Flames really set the tone for the season. Now, Sea Loves was in there.

Yes. But that's a factor too, right? I think now, you know, goaltending was a big, big narrative this year for the Canucks. The fact that they had to start with C-Loves and Nat, maybe kind of like set the stage for the season where there was always going to be this constant churn. I mean, they played, I don't want to say with regularity, but there was a time where, you know,

Demko, C-Loves and L with regularity, but there was a time where, you know, Demko, Demko, Silovs and Lankan and all three of them garnered a large amount of conversation in this city because all three were at some point, significant parts of the team. Like you gotta remember in the early stage of the season, Silovs was playing with fairly good regularity because Lankan wasn't ready to go and Demko

wasn't healthy. So I think all of it. And there was more belief in Silovs at that time too, right? And it was like, oh, he'll be fine. I mean, and then it became like, oh, he is, he's not fine, he's unplayable. That was a big part of the first month of the season. That the, and it was an unfortunate storyline

to follow, but the eroding of belief in Sealovs' abilities was a big, big storyline at the beginning of this year. There's just. That's against Chicago. He's, he's, he's pretty clutch against the Blackhawks. He did always, he always had Chicago.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. It's his friend and bachelor,elor, Life from Rogers Arena, calling for Nox Games. It is Brendan Batchelor, Batchelor, Batchelor. Eight o'clock on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody.

Halpern Brub Sportsnet 650. Halpern Brub of 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 now in hour three of the program. As the music suggests, Brendan Batchelor is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour three. Hour three of this program is brought to you by Campbell and Pound, real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound.

Visit them on the internet at Campbell-Pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintex studio. Kintex footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. To the phone lines we go. He is the play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks here on Sportsnet 650. He joins us now. It is Brendan Batchelor here on the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Batch?

Not too much. How are you guys? We're okay. We've spent a good chunk of the show. Yeah, I know. The playoff chances are slim. They're real slim. I was trying to talk into existence, hope into existence, that Minnesota would lose all these games on their three game set through New York and New Jersey. And the Canucks could scratch out a couple wins and then keep the hopes alive but they got to win the games to do that and unfortunately those last two games of

that Eastern road swing those were points that they couldn't afford to drop but they did drop them. How are you feeling about everything going into the final stretch here, Batch? Yeah it's obviously tough for a team that has faced so much adversity this season to try and chase this late in the year and have so many games be must-win games or near must-win games. That's a tough spot to be in, regardless of whether you have your full roster or not. And we've seen in multiple past seasons

over the last decade or so with this team that if you get behind the eight ball, it's awfully hard to make up points. It's awfully hard to make up ground in a league where a lot of games have three points for grabs when they go to overtime or the shootout. And certainly the Canucks are familiar with that because they played more overtime games than any other team in the league this year. But you know, you couple the fact that, you know, they're chasing, you couple the fact that they haven't been healthy really all season long. You know, the road trip started with promise, I thought, but ultimately, you know, a game you had to have in New York, you lose, even though you were the better team. The St. Louis game,

obviously, they needed to have that as well and did well to earn a point in that game and keep themselves in the mix. But you'll look back on this season, I think, and it's not over yet. You're right. There's eight games left. If this team could rattle off a winning streak and really trend in the right direction, they would at least put some pressure on the teams in front of them if nothing else. But ultimately, if or when this season ends with this team missing the playoffs, it will be a year where you look back at missed opportunities in games where they could have won, starting all the way on the opening night of the season when they had that lead against the Flames and ultimately went on to lose in overtime.

And I think that's probably the most frustrating part of following this team is yes, there's been a lot of adversity and they've had to deal with a lot this year and they've done well to stay in the battle for a playoff spot in spite of all of that adversity. But at the end of the day, the points they needed were points that they could have had

and let slip away from them in games throughout the season. Right? This isn't just cherry picking a few games here or there. You know, I've heard you guys talk about like the Mount Rushmore of Canucks losses this year. There's been, you know, maybe two or three Mount Rushmore's worth of games that they could have and maybe should have won and ultimately didn't. And when you let that many points slip away with the number of injuries you've had and a pretty slim margin for error then this is where you end up. I

mean there'll be more time for this when the season is actually over but it's probably worth bringing up the slipping away of points. I know we talked about a million different reasons why they're gonna fall fall short of the playoffs, but. Overtime record, man. Overtime record. What, five and 11? Overtime record is a big one, right? You turn half of those into points and you're

talking about a totally, an extra point. Sorry. Yeah. You're talking about a totally different finish to the season. Um, but their inability to play with leads this year and it reared its ugly head again, twice in Columbus, but you know and

shout out Joey Kenwood sent this along they had 40 games this year where they scored first and their winning percentage in those games is 550 that's the fifth worst mark in the league it's like on par with Buffalo's and when you talk about the differences between last year and this year last year in games where they scored first their win percentage was 717 so they did a way better job of not just getting the leads, but protecting them. And for some reason or another,

and I'm sure there's a multitude of reasons why, they just spent time and time again blowing leads. And weirdly enough, it all started in that first game against Calgary, first game of the season. Story of the season, big lead, blown lead, don't get the two points. Yeah, and the other thing is that they scored the first goal, I'm pretty sure, more than

any other team in the league last season as well. Not only did they have a great winning percentage when they led, but they led most games, which hasn't always been the case this year. But yeah, that part of it is fascinating, because, as you rightly allude to, this was a team that they scored first, and they won seven out of 10 times last year. This year has not been like that. And, you know, we could spend a lot of time trying to analyze why I think probably the biggest reason is the lack of Thatcher Demko for most of this year. And I think elite goaltending always papers over cracks.

And whether you believe that that's the only reason that they won so many games when they were leading last year, certainly it was a big factor. But not to take anything away from Kevin Lankinen, but he wasn't Thatcher Demko the way Thatcher Demko played last season. And even when the Canucks had stretches where they were hemmed in their own zone or they gave up chances against, he was there to bail them out and help them preserve those leads. And then when you have a goaltender that does that for you, it allows you to gain confidence to play the game more proactively. And we hear Rick talk and always talking about skating forward to defend and establishing the forecheck. The Canucks were a much better forechecking team last season,

but you know, because we know all parts of the game are interconnected, you know, you're confident to forecheck and maybe chase in and get out of position to try and make a play because you know that your defense is going to back you up. They had a really good defense in the second half of last season and you've got elite goaltending behind that as well. Some of those things weren't there this season, you know, through injuries and other absences from the lineup. And as a result, this was a team that never really got started in terms of carrying over that positive momentum from last season and it ultimately affected them throughout the year. So, you know, if you want to be a glass half full optimist looking forward to next season and you want to believe that they can find some level of form that was

similar or close to what they were last season when they won the division, you can say, okay, a healthy summer for Thatcher Demko, so he could come back and be the every night starter or the most night starter for this team would really go a long way in terms of helping them build a platform to allow them to have success. And ultimately it felt like they never really

had that platform this season and it cost them. Batch, what do you think about the goaltending position going forward in Vancouver? We were having a conversation earlier about it, just wondering what the future of Thatcher Demko is. Yeah, well, ultimately, none of us have a crystal ball, so we don't know about where Demko will trend

in terms of his health, in terms of his game. I would say that what we've seen from him since returning from injury, albeit a very small sample size leads you to believe that he can get back to that elite level form, but the question marks are always going to be there around his health. You know, next season I would imagine they bring Demko and Lankin and back and, and you know, try to see if they can, you know, have a good they bring Demko and Lankinen back and try to see if they can have a good season of Demko with a good summer while also having a very competent 1B option in Kevin Lankinen that could spell Demko off so you don't overplay him and you give him

the best chance to stay healthy and find his game. But out of one side of my mouth, I can see that being the reality. Out of the other side of my mouth, I can say that this management group should have all options on the table to try and get this team back to where they want it to be. And if one of those options on the table has to be trading Thatcher Demko, I'm sure they'll explore it. Now, does that make the most sense at this point when he's coming off a year where he wasn't able to stay in the crease? I'm not entirely sure, but you know,

that's gonna be the interesting part about this off season is I legitimately think almost everything short of trading Queen Hughes is going to be on the table for this team this summer as they try to turn things around and do it quickly with only a couple of years left on Hughes' contract. We're speaking to Brandon Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks here on Sportsnet 650. Batch, what have you thought of Atu Ratu's play lately?

I really liked it. Yeah, obviously the goals are nice and the face-off percentage is great for a team that really ever since JT Miller left has struggled to win draws consistently. But you know, the thing that encourages me and I talked to Rick talking about this in one of our pregame interviews within the last couple of games, I can't remember exactly which one it was, but I asked him about generating offense and why they've had a little bit more success of late scoring goals. This was prior to the Winnipeg game, I guess, where they only got the one. And he talked about

having the infusion of youth on the roster and those guys being willing to go to the areas where you score goals. And you look at the goals that Atu Ratu has scored, park right in front with a tip or, you know, getting getting good position at tip of Paco and we saw Lena's Carlson score a goal like that as well. So that's encouraging that, you know, not only is this a guy that could win you a draw, but he understands where he has to go in order to create offense. And at this time of the season where, you know,

some of those hard areas on the ice become that much more difficult to go to. He's a guy that has been willing to go there and has been rewarded in a small sample size in recent games as a result. So I like the play of Ratu. I think he's trending in the right direction. I think that's encouraging for this team, you know, especially with questions down the middle going forward. Now, you know, he's not going to answer those questions at the top of your lineup, but if he gives you another depth option at centre ice, then that's certainly something that you could use going forward. So, you know, I've liked the way he's played. Hopefully he gets, you know, more of a look here at the NHL level through the final eight games. And then regardless

of what way the season goes for the Canucks, he can go and play playoff games with the Abbotsford Canucks who are trending incredibly well in the right direction right now. So, you know, that's an encouraging thing for some of these young guys, whether it's Rattu, whether it's Mancini and Leckermacky who were both papered down at the deadline. Even if the Canucks at the NHL level

don't make the playoffs, the Abbotsford Canucks are going to, it looks like, and you know, those guys will have an opportunity to play some, some meaningful games down there too. Batch, the Canucks are going to practice today at Rogers Arena. Uh, just so you know, media entry begins at

noon, you can go in there. Uh, Batch showed me the way to get to the rank out of the parking lot the other day. Yeah, I was completely lost in there. I was like Kramer in there. I was like, how do we get that? I haven't done this for ages. Um, do you think you're going to get an

update on, uh, Elias Pettersson and Nils Hoeglinder from Rick Tauke today? Yeah, I would imagine so. Uh, that I would imagine will be some of the first questions that are asked of him when he meets with the assembled Vancouver media. And it'll be interesting to find out because you know there's a couple ways we can look at this right eight games left in the season they are still

mathematically alive so if you've got some guys that are banged up but you know you want to try and make a push here do you bring them back into the lineup or do you say look the the numbers are against us it's most likely not gonna happen, let's shut these guys down. And ultimately these decisions may be out of their hands anyway, if these are two plus week injuries still for these guys. So, ultimately we'll have to wait and see

what Rick Talkett says, but there's part of me that says, why would you rush either of these guys back for games that probably aren't going to mean a whole lot. The other side of that coin would be though that every game you win makes the next one matter more. And that kind of has to be the mentality that they approach this with in that dressing room at the very least, even if people on the outside are counting them out.

So ultimately we'll find out this morning, but it'll be interesting to see where things trend for both Pedersen and Hogrider and Phillip Heidel as well, who we haven't had an update on in a while. Well, we were talking about Heidel earlier and just saying how unfortunate it was for him that, um, you know, Jason Dickinson puts, hits him from behind and at the end of a blowout game

doesn't even get penalized for it. But the frustration that Heedle showed when he came off the ice after being hit, like kicking the door and it felt to me like, you know, like he knew that he was going to be in it again for a while. And by in it, I just mean like dealing with this concussion things. And it's, you know, he's yet another wild card for the Canucks heading into next season, isn't he? Yeah. That's why I've kind of pivoted my thinking on Pugh Souter, where, you know,

obviously he's played very well in recent games and being elevated to the number one center ice role he's produced and produced a lot and it's part of the reason why the Canucks had a moderately successful road trip in spite of some of the names they've had out of the lineup but you know you look at the center ice position and there are more questions than answers right now and Pugh Souter's been a guy who regardless of what role you ask him to play he he's done well. He's been a great penalty killer for this team. He's been the number one center now at produced. He's been a top line winger. He's been a bottom six center. Like this is a guy that you can, you

know, we call him the Swiss army knife as a joke because he's Swiss, but he really is that kind of player that, you know, it wouldn't surprise me if they needed to put him on the blue line. He'd be able to perform well and, this team in that role. So I know because his production has increased, the number will be increasing for him as well. But when you don't know where things sit with Elias Pedersen in terms of, you know, whether he can find his game again next year or whether he'll be back. When you don't know where things sit with Philip Heidel and his health, Pew Souter feels like a guy that you can count on at a position where you've got a lot of questions.

And so for Heidel, yeah, I'm sure it's immensely frustrating. And as we've seen with other guys in this market, you never really know how big of an impact concussions can have. Look at, you know, Michael Furland and what he went through or Tucker Pullman, just as a couple of examples of kind of worst case scenario for this kind of stuff. So if there's any possibility that that's going to be Philip Heidel, then that puts

that much more value on a guy like Pugh Souter kind of solidifying things down the middle for this team. So that's been my big takeaway from the Heidel injury is they might really need Pugh Souter and I might be willing to pay him a little bit more or give him a little bit longer term if I was in those offices and part of that management group right now, just because he seems like the one thing you can count on down the middle right now.

Well, speaking of that center position, we're kicking around the idea of if the Canucks target an NHL ready center, say is 24 24 or 25 years old and they're going to address it in a meaningful way, like bringing a guy that has top six potential, it's probably going to cost them a fair bit. It might cost them, let's say a first round pick, one of their top prospects and maybe even a player.

Let's take the player component out of it. Of their three top prospects, and I think we can all agree that it's DPT, Tom Willander and Jonathan Leckere-Mackie, who for you would be the one you definitely wouldn't want them to trade? Because all three of them bring something that the Canucks need, but if you had to choose, well, let's not say if you had to choose to trade one of them.

Let's do it the other way. Who would you definitely want to keep? For me, it's Jonathan Leckermackie. And the reason for that is, first of all, this team has struggled to score. Brock Besser might be leaving this summer. So you need a guy that can provide you offense on the wing. And we've seen Lekermacky shot at his ability to produce albeit more so at the AHL level than the NHL level to this point, but he's still training in the right direction, developing as a player and I believe that he can produce meaningful offense at the NHL level. But the biggest reason I choose Lekermacky aside from all of those things is they've got some

added depth on the blue line with multiple young options right now. So you know if they were to trade DPT they've still got Victor Mancini on the right side and they've got Tom Vlander as well that can come in and play that role. Same goes for if they trade Vlander well they've got DPT and they've got Mancini still and you know that kind of feels like where this might trend because the blue line depth and particularly some of the young pieces they have on the backend has turned into a position of strength

for this organization. And if you want to address an area of weakness, the best way to do it is to deal from a position of strength. So if we're projecting that they're going to go out and try and find a number one center or at least a top six center to help bolster things down the middle, and they're going to have to do that by a trade, then I would expect that the major piece that moves out in that deal, if it has to be more than, you know, this year's first

round pick, for example, it's more likely to be Elias Pedersen or Tom V. Lander just because you've got your blue line kind of sorted at the NHL level. You feel better about your defensive depth now that you do about your scoring depth. And ultimately if Besser's going to leave, they're gonna need goals from somewhere within the organization on the wing.

So Lekermacky kind of, you know, not that he's going to be an automatic Brock Besser replacement, but he's a guy that you could see earning a spot on this roster next year, providing them some potential depth scoring or maybe more of his development trends upward more quickly than you might expect. So yeah, that's, that's the way I would look at it is, you know, dealing a defenseman to try and deal with the issue at center ice. And so it wouldn't surprise me if it's one of those guys on

the back end that gets moved to try and help that issue. If indeed that's where things go this off season. Can you get my hesitation at the idea of trading DPT though? This guy just seems to have all the tools and that back check that he had in the last game, I couldn't believe how fast he got back and how, how powerful he looked. And I just think he's got, I mean, we were talking to Manny Mulholland yesterday and he kind of

confirmed like this guy is a confident guy. And to have him behind Quinn Hughes on that left side, can you imagine? You know, I mean, that would be, I don't know. I, Will Ander, we haven't seen him play at the pro level yet. So it's, it's hard to say, but I don't, for some reason, I feel like DPT has this crazy upside that I'd be really scared to trade away.

Yeah, I can absolutely understand that. PD has this crazy upside that I'd be really scared to trade away. Yeah, I can absolutely understand that. And I think Mancini has showed us some good things in certain games too. So, you know, there's a lot to be gained there. And ultimately, you know, a lot of these conversations are going to be dictated by who the other team wants. If you're going out to try to acquire a

legitimate top level centerman. But I wonder if Vlander still has the best value because of his draft pedigree, or whether what Elias Pedersen has shown at the NHL level this year will make him more sought after by teams that are having these sort of conversations with the Canucks. But yeah, Vlander is

a first round pick. Like I wouldn't like to give up on that guy in case he becomes an elite defenseman in the NHL because I would have certainly imagined that's where his ceiling and his upside is. At the same time, you're right. I think, you know, not just the confidence that Elias Pettersson plays with, but you know, some of the snarl to his game, the physicality and the confidence, you know, that's a player that you wouldn't like to give up on, certainly based on what he's shown this year. But ultimately you have to trade something to get something. And I'm sure whoever gets dealt in this scenario where they try to go and bolster the center ice position, there are going to be some people in the fan base that will be unhappy with it because you have to

give up a good player to get a good player. Whether it's DPT or not, they're going to be giving up someone that fans won't want to see go in order to try and fix things upfront. But that's what they need to do at this point after moving JT Miller, that centerized position position, whether it's a number one center or top six center or maybe two top six centers, if they choose to move on from Alias Pedersen, um, you know, that's gotta be the priority for this management team this summer. And you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. Batch. This was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it. As always,

we appreciate it. Enjoy the game tomorrow night night a reminder for everybody listening. It's a 730 puck drop you can hear it all right here on sports net 650 and we will do this again not next week, but the week following Sounds good. Thanks guys. Have a good one YouTube. Thanks. That's Brendan bachelor play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks here on the Halford and Brough show on sports net 650 you're listening to the best of Halford and Brough