Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 6/24/24

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, they wonder if the Edmonton Oilers make history tonight and complete the comeback, they talk some Canucks with analyst Randip Janda, 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. You're listening to Halford and Brough. I wonder if Tyler Toffoli is back on Vancouver's radar. What? Yes, that's another name that popped into my head. Okay. I'm trying to forget all of it and just go in there with win this one game. That's what it comes down to.

You should know these commercial flights are killing us old guys, but I don't feel bad for you. The Germans aren't all smiles and sunshine. Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. This is Halford and his brow fit at Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. I guess the Tyler Toffoli news was the biggest news of the weekend. Number one story. That's what we're going to lead with. The Canucks might be interested in free agent Tyler Toffoli. Bow, bow, bow. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, might be interested in free agent Tyler Toffoli. Bow, bow, bow. Adog, good morning to you.

Good morning. Laddie, a.k.a. Tyler Toffoli enthusiast. Good morning to you as well. I'm sorry to have disappointed you, Bruff, so early in the morning. Halford and Brum of the Morning is Bruff. It's only a historic game seven. Let's lead with the Toffoli. There's a funny little bit with Halford's voice.

Sorry. We're going to talk Toffoli all day, right? Toffoli. My bad. For trying to be funny. Are we already a little bit... A little snippy. A little snippy. Let me do my thing, bruv. Let me do my thing. It's a good start.

Half and Brough in the morning is brought to you by... The Oilers are forced to game seven. We are never going to get through this Vancouver Honda read. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one

of the program. We're off to a flying start. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec

Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sophie, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. Well, it is here. One of, if not the most improbable Game 7s in the history of the National Hockey League is tonight. The Edmonton Oilers, once dead, or at least several feet into the grave, rally from 3-0 down in the Stanley Cup Final. And there will be a Game 7 tonight in Florida.

That's what's happening on the program today, along with an illustrious guest list here. It begins at 6.30. Everything that we're doing today, Game 7. David Amber, Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet, NHL host, to talk about Game 7. 7.30, Bob Stauffer from the mighty Chud in Edmonton joining us at 7.30 to talk about Game 7. Randeep Janda, Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet 650 going to join us to talk about Game 7. Andrew and Victoria will be happy to hear that soccer will barely exist on this show today.

So we had a text thread yesterday. And Jason, he threw down a gauntlet. He's like, guys, soccer does not exist tomorrow. And I didn't even push back. Just to fully talk today. Just to fully. Nothing else. A little bit of Game 7 talk.

I said, you know what, Jason? I'm not even going to push back on this. You're right. I'm not going to mention that at 3 o'clock today, Columbia and Pedaguay are facing in the Copa America. on this you're right i'm not going to mention that it's three o'clock today columbia and pedagogy are facing in the copa america no no no it's this is a very special show because i almost more than anyone here have been talking has been talking incessantly about how much we need this how much i want you see this you willed this into existence history is happening it's not

often it's sports that you get to see something new something that hasn't really happened before don't yell at me without further ado uh laddie dog's yelling at you laddie's yelling at me you're both fired the dogs the dogs are standing up for you have fun pushing all these buttons boys oh pretty easy, actually. Oh, damn it. Damn it. Laddie, without further ado, 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 brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools,

resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. The Edmonton Oilers did it again. They avoided elimination again the third straight time in this Stanley Cup final to force a game seven. They got goals on Friday night from all their lines. Warren Fogle, Adam Henrik, Zach Hyman, and Ryan McLeod. And they defeated the Florida Panthers 5-1 in game six.

Here's what it sounded like. Chris Cuthbert, Sportsnet's very own, counting it down and forcing a game seven. They were 2-9-1. They were 0-3. And they will Monday night play a one-game showdown for the All-Marbles and the Stanley Cup. Yeah, as soon as this one started, I'm not sure there were many moments while I was watching on Friday night that that game was ever in doubt. The Oilers dominated the first and left the period with a 1-0 lead and certainly as soon as Adam Henrik scored early in the second to make it 2-0, it was going back to sunrise. Hyman's goal on a

breakaway to make it 3-0 only added to the celebration at Rogers Place. And here's a fun fact. Florida's first shot on goal by a forward came when the contest was 31 minutes old. That's bad. Wow. It's good for the Oilers. Bad for the Panthers. Friday night in Edmonton must have been absolutely wild. It was absolutely wild. And certainly I was feeling, as the kids say, a little jelly.

I was feeling a little jealous as I was watching Rogers Place. Did the kids say that? Yeah. Yeah. Feeling a little jelly. Children? And I was watching it and I was thinking, oh, young Jason. I'm not talking about like 12-year-old Jason.

I'm talking about in my 20s Jason. University Jason. Would love to be in Edmonton right now. How much fun would going out after that game have been? It would have been just all, it would just been a massive celebration. I realize they haven't won the Stanley Cup yet. And there are a couple of things I saw, like Biz Nasty popping champagne. By the way, does Biz Nasty just cheer for every team?

Yes. Oh, okay. Whatever team is hot at the moment. Yeah, yeah. They're cooking. I'm on that bandwagon. He likes them all. Like, if the Panthers win tonight and he's there, he'll be popping champagne for them, too?

Yes. Okay. So, at any rate, I thought that was kind of, like, bad karma to be actually, like, literally popping champagne after game six. But, you know whatever they're having a good time uh imagine what edmonton will be like if they win tonight so first of all i'm gonna ask you while you were watching the game did you allow yourself to cheer for the oilers yeah because i wanted to get yeah i wanted them to get i still couldn't do it i wanted them to get it done do it when when't do it. I wanted them to get it done.

When the goal got wiped off the board on the offside challenge, I did a fist pump. Really? Yep. A fist pump? You were fist pumping? Quietly. You were fist pumping? I want this. And how will you feel about that fist pump if the Oilers

actually pull it off and win tonight? Terrible. Guilty? Terrible. Absolutely terrible. At least we'll admit it. There'll be guilt. There'll be remorse. I know the dangerous line that I'm walking. Yeah, and yet you keep walking it.

Said the man walking into oncoming traffic. I know these cars are moving fast, but I think I could dodge my way through them. Yeah, that's why Frogger was such a thrilling game to play. I mean, just the thought of being squished by an oncoming vehicle, and in this case, the oncoming vehicle is the Edmonton Oilers, who have absolutely taken charge of this series. This is coming from two radio pundits who have routinely said that momentum does not exist game to game in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

This Stanley Cup final is, look, I don't want to get too overstated and too dramatic and too profound. But this is an all-timer, what's happening right now. Definitely. It's an all-timer in terms of the league, in terms of the sport sport be it like domestic competition or international i'm driving in this morning listen to maggie and perloff cbs radio i have never heard them talk about hockey once on their show they don't they're not a rights holder they're american all they really talk about is the nfl and then they make really weird bets all the time lebron did did they say that all of Canada is behind the Oilers?

No, they didn't go there. They were talking about the greatest collapses in sports. But they were actually talking a lot about this series. They weren't just using it as a complete jumping off point. Everyone is fixated, transfixed about this. Because it just doesn't happen. Not in a final. Not in a final.

I know we got a million talking points to get into. But there's an element, too. It's not just that this is happening. I know. It is that it's happening to break the Canadian drought. It's happening on a team with Connor McDavid. Absolutely. This unbelievable hockey player, arguably the most talented ever, who has never really played in a big game until this series.

And now he's playing in this historic Stanley Cup final. It's all coming together. And whether you like it or not, you have to be able to admit that what is happening is very special. Yeah, because there's certain moments in North American pro sports where you know that that one game is going to be, like the Super Bowl, for example, it's a scheduled event. You know these two teams are going to meet in the final.

They're going to play one game to decide it all. But that doesn't always, you can't write the script in hockey. So that's one thing. Game sevens in the Stanley Cup final are rare. There's only been 18. I mean that that in itself is really cool frege pointed out this is the first game seven in any pro north american sport since covid in a championship final so that's huge you want to know what else today was which is really eerie so bob this would have been

bob cole's 91st birthday today. Right? Like everything out there is just sort of leading to this big monumental moment. And I'm guilty. I'm probably more guilty than a lot of people that talk about sports for a living in hyping things up and being like, you should pay attention to this because, or this is going to be important because. But this is honestly something we have not seen before.

I know. And couldn't you see it going either way? Yeah. Like, couldn't you see it? Very easily. Couldn't you see any scenario playing out tonight? A blowout for the Oilers, a blowout for the Panthers, a tight game that goes into double overtime.

I could see anything happening tonight. I've seen mentally and physically broken teams sort of limp their way into a game seven before like the 2011, you know, Stanley cup of the Vancouver Canucks. I don't get that same sense and vibe from Florida. That being said,

mentally, I do mentally, physically, no, physically, no, that's a big part of it. Right.

They're not out of gas. Well, people can use that, that example in 2011 and say, oh, the Panthers are done. The Canucks were dead men walking in 2011, and the Panthers are the same. Well, what about that Canucks team that won the first three against Chicago,

lost the final three, and then managed to beat Chicago in game seven? Yeah, so I'm looking at it. I really don't have any sort of like i don't even have an inkling on what's going to happen if you go to the sports books it's pretty much dead even play now.com has them equally at 1.90 on the money line both teams if you go to any other sports book florida's like a slight betting favorite on the money line but only really because they're a home okay so uh we don't do poll questions very often on this show because they're not sponsored.

Cosmic Crisp. That could be yours. Oh, you're listening. That could be yours. Here's the poll question for tonight. It's an easy one. Who are you cheering for tonight, Oilers or Panthers? Now, granted, this is coming from my Twitter account,

but it's been retweeted by 650 and A-Dog. Why'd you say it like that? What? And A-Dog. Well, you don't have as many followers. It's got a lot of hatred for the dogs today. I don't like this. Retweeted by 650 and A-Dog.

I've got a high degree of sad, petty followers. Right? They follow me. Imagine how sad that is. Yep. Who are you cheering for tonight? There's already been 200 votes on this. 71% say the Panthers, but all of Canada is

behind the Oilers. Okay. Where do you want to? We had some family over, extended family over last night and- The Canadian? They're Canadian. They're like, oh, it's so great.

All of Canada, the whole nation is behind the Oilers. And I just, like, I didn't really feel like getting into it at the time. So I was kind of like, mm-hmm, yep, that's a pretty crazy story. It's a pretty crazy story. I want no part of Edmonton winning tonight. You'll never hear the end of it. It'll be their sixth Stanley Cup as a franchise. It'll be the final coronation for McDavid

in this career arc and the trajectory that has really just, the last three games, it's been a... I don't know. They didn't do anything in game six. I know. Well, you didn't get a point, but he's going to win the consmith, win or lose.

Yeah. It's been remarkable. It's the second generational all-time player that this particular franchise is going to have. And then he's going to have his cup to ascend to the Gretzky level in Edmonton. It'll also be super painful from a local perspective to know that the Vancouver Canucks had the Edmonton Oilers down 3-2 in that series and hit two chances to eliminate them. All right. I know you sometimes have problems with this, but I'm going to ask you to be a little empathetic. Who are you thinking

about the most ahead of tonight's game? Now, it could be a guy like McDavid, who has had a lot of pressure on him to be the man and to start writing his hockey legacy. And it can't just be, you know, individual,

oh, I won the scoring race again, or even the Hart Trophy. You got to win as a team. There's a lot of pressure on him. People said, well, Gretzky had already won a cup at your age. You know, Gretzky and Lemieux had the 1987 Canada Cup together. Sid won a Stanley Cup and, you know, scored the game-winning goal in the Olympics early on, fairly early on in his career. And you've, you know, you've been good. So there's, I mean, I am definitely thinking about him and what he must be thinking heading into Game 7. Because if he has a no-show or the Oilers have a no-show and the Panthers suddenly win it, the comeback will, it won't be forgotten. And his great goal that to set up or his great assist to set up Corey Perry, that won't be forgotten, but it won't mean

as much. It'll all be in a losing effort. So I'm thinking about him. Who else are you thinking about? Sergey Bobrovsky. That's the first one that popped to mind. Would he be the biggest goat in the old sense? He's the guy to blame. Would he be the guy that would own this the most? Through the first three games of this series, he stopped 82 of 86 shots. had a 133 goals against i think his save percentage was 953 i was talking about being a record it was remarkable to the point

where um the mcdavid and dry subtle were non-factors remember the guys that were scoring it was like ekholm and fogel and yeah and that was it and then it just changed like that and if we're going to look back on it something obviously happened I don't know what I'm not a sports psychologist but something happened in the 8-1 game something happened when they put up eight I don't know what I don't know whether it was incredible confidence gained by the Oilers or the seed of doubt being planted into Bobrovsky, but something changed because since then, he's given up 12 goals on 58 shots.

His save percentage in the last three, it went from 953 to 793. First three games, next three games. And you know why I think of Bobrovsky is because every time that they cut to the Panthers front office in their suite up there, it's usually Bill Zito. I'm always looking for Luongo. I'm like, where's Luongo? I'm thinking of Luongo a lot.

Adog, you must be thinking about Luongo because you were the one that was like, I'm cheering for the Panthers for Luongo. And I kind of pushed back. I was kind of like, he's not on the team. Like, it'd be cool if he won it as an executive, but I guarantee it'll be even a little bit bittersweet. Also, you don't like Luongo. You know the gif or the meme of the PTSD dog

where it slowly zooms in on his face while it's looking at the cupcake and it just looks like it's gone through hell and back? It's pretty much Luongo right now. Every time the camera would be on him, he's like, I can't believe this is happening. Do you think he's gone down and talked to Bobrovsky? No. Do you think he's like, hey.

Actually, maybe. I don't know. There's a handful of guys. Longo goes down. He's like, run. Just run away. Just start running. Baba, it's only going to get worse from here.

I don't know how else to say this. I've got your car started. Just go. Just go disappear into the night. You don't want this. The parallels are pretty eerie. Yeah. Oh, it's almost comical. into the night. You don't want this. The parallels are pretty eerie. Yeah. Oh, it's almost comical.

I cannot believe this is happening to him again. The only real difference is that... So in the... Well, everyone remembers 2011. I think some people forget that after Luongo got absolutely torched in Boston, he came back and posted another shutout. So it was very, like, yo-yo. It was up, then it was down, then it was back up. And Bobrovsky has a chance to do the back-up part of like yo-yo. It was up, then it was down, then it was back up.

And Bobrovsky has a chance to do the back up part of the yo-yo. But right now it was three games amazing. And then three games, eek. It would be kind of funny if after all this blow up and all the pressure and everything that's going into this game seven, all these stories and this historic thing, no one's everything seen anything like this, and the Panthers just absolutely destroy the Oilers.

They shut them out like 6-0 or something. But don't you think that's possible? Yeah. Because everything is on the table. It would be very funny. Everything is on the table. Because the difference in the Canucks game seven, so Bill Simmons has this theory, or at least he did

when he was writing good stuff back in the day when he was the Boston sports guy, he had this levels of losing and one of them was dead men walking. And we all know that Bill Simmons was a big Red Sox fan. And when Bill Simmons started writing, the Red Sox hadn't won the world series. And like the curse was still, I mean, they'd

won a long time ago, but the curse of the Bambino was still out there. So he talked about the 86 Red Sox and Bill Buckner. And some people often think that that was game seven. It wasn't. It was game six. So the Red Sox still had a chance to win the World Series in game seven. But here's the theory of a dead man walking

team applies to any playoff series when your team remains technically alive but they just suffered a loss so catastrophic and so harrowing that there's no possible way they can bounce back especially disheartening because you wave the white flag mentally but there's a tiny part of you still holding out hope for a miraculous momentum change.

So you've given up, but you're still getting hurt. If that makes sense. If the Panthers lose tonight, that will definitely apply. Like that, that'll be in hindsight, dead men walking. And I think in 2011, in hindsight, after going to Boston for game six and Marchand scores early on Luongo, Marchand is, you know, punching Daniel Sedin and there was no response. And also the Canucks were so badly banged up physically, mentally.

The Game 7, in hindsight, in Vancouver at Rogers Arena was kind of a dead man walking. But I remember going into that game thinking, well, it's Game 7 at home. The Canucks should probably win it. Yeah, no, there was more of a, well, coin flip element to it. I didn't really have a lot of faith. I distinctly remember that because they looked and expressed themselves

and just felt like a team that had nothing left in the tank at that point. And that was in part because so many guys had gotten hurt. And the guys were getting pulled into the lineup a lot. You know what I mean? Like attrition. It was a war of attrition. How did this happen in three games when there haven't been any, you know, like it seems, it

seems different to me. So we got to text it into the Dunbar Lumber text line. A lot of texts this morning. Dunbar Lumber with three stores to serve you in Ladner on Bridge Street. Dunbar Lumber Express at Ladner Center or Budus in Vancouver.

Online at DunbarLumber.com. The text line is 650-650. Unsigned text. I'm thinking is six 50, six 50, um, unsigned text. I'm thinking about Paul Maurice, who I don't ever think is a very good coach and is now overseeing one of the great collapses in sports history. I'm thinking of Paul Maurice too. Didn't love Paul Maurice freaking out on the bench when the goal got

overturned on the off side. Didn't love it. Felt like it was between that and zito throwing the water bottle i know that they don't i know those gestures don't mean anything but it keeps feeling like a team it's a loss of composure that knows it had it and no and can feel it slowly slipping away and then everyone's that's supposed to be in charge and it's supposed to be the emotional barometer everyone's looking at them and they're like why are you freaking out why are you throwing stuff why are you freaking out behind the bench that to me is a bad sign well can you blame them i mean this is unprecedented like you

imagine you can't you can't blame them but you but the in-game in-game kind of having a snapshot when the goal like the goal was offside yeah i don't know what like i get that he was frustrated and i get that he thought it was the wrong call but they went but it wasn't the wrong call as soon as i saw that i was like that's offside and he was still going on after the game yeah he's like if i if it was roles were reversed and we were asked to challenge i wouldn't challenge it because that's how close it was i didn't think it was going to get overturned i'm like i don't even know what i thought it was clearly offside and also like these people you know whether they're texting in or i see them on social media they're like you know if it's that close then it shouldn't be reviewed it's

like it's either offside or it isn't yeah you know like if you're gonna do an offside review you can't be like well that one was close so we're we're not gonna make like that's the whole idea to be good is it for the to review the close ones and they brought And they brought in the idea of, well, if you get it wrong, you get a penalty. But here's the thing. When you start talking about things going against you, or the roof is caving in, or the momentum has changed, things like that become so much more profound. It's like, nothing's going our way. We score this big goal.

We cut it to 2-1. We got our mojo going we they answered really quick off that early goal in the second period like it was a big goal for florida it was one of the biggest and in hindsight best uh like challenges of all time it's huge i don't know where that game would have gone if florida had scored there because florida needed something to get back in that game because the first period they didn't do anything. Tyler texts in, so I just found out I am doing something right. I have turned my six-year-old onto the Canucks this year, but what I've actually accomplished was that when Brough asked who we want to win, my son said the Panthers because he doesn't want Edmonton winning.

And you know, at the end of the day, it's all about the kids. It's all about the kids carrying on the sadness and the pettiness and the jealousy. Nothing makes Brough more happy than seeing a kid just be miserable with sports. It just brings a tear to my eye. So beautiful. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. It's brand deep.

Brand deep gender time. It's brand deep gender. It is brand deep. Brand deep gender. It is Randy. Randy Janda. It is Randy. Talking hockey now. Oh. 8.05 on a Monday.

I forgot you threw that little oh in there. You like that? Very Sopranos-esque. That's good. Oh. Hey. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show. in there. Like that? Very Sopranos-esque. That's good. Oh! Hey! You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough of the

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To the phone lines we go. Randy Bjanda joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Randy. How are you? Good. That jingle is kind of like the Sopranos. Every time you listen to it, like the Sopranos, every time you watch it, you discover something new.

I can hear the Richie April in Andy's voice when he does that. Good pull. Thank you, Richie. Unfortunate demise, but I like Richie. Randy, big game seven tonight. Who are you thinking about tonight? It could be McDavid. It could be Paul Maurice.

It could be Barkoff. It could be Roberto Luongo. Who is the first guy that comes to mind and you try to put yourself in his shoes? Yeah, being in Vancouver here obviously the the popular answer would be Roberto Luongo but I'm actually thinking about the guy that works for him Sergei Bobrovsky this is a guy that this is has been the Sergei Bobrovsky experience where in the first three games I have two games and two periods he was a Vezna-winning goaltender. And in that third game, where it looked like it was such a comfortable win for Florida, allowing a couple of goals late, and then what ensued after that,

the Oilers figuring out how to essentially solve Sergei Bobrovsky and going high blocker on him, going high glove, essentially aiming high for the rest of the series. And there's a lot more going on than just Bobrovsky. The way that the Oilers are playing, the way that they're hitting Florida with speed has totally changed the series. But I'm thinking about Sergei Bobrovsky because at the beginning of the

series, he looked like he wasn't going to be beat. He looked like the way that the Panthers were playing defense and he was stepping up in big moments that he was going to be the consummate winner. And now all of a sudden you're wondering game seven, the most important time of the season for both of these teams. This is the game of their careers, which Sergei Bobrovsky, are you going to see the one that gives his team, you know, that faith and that trust and that confidence,

or the guy that is looking lost right now, especially up high. If you're Paul Maurice, what's your message to the Panthers? You have to forget what's happened, really. You have to have a very, very short memory. And we kind of saw that in the practice yesterday where going up to every single skater and having a one-on-one conversation of, this is one game.

You haven't lost that many games in a row this year. If I'm not mistaken, the last time they lost three in a row was in March, so it's been a while. Go back to what you were doing at the beginning of the series. Go back to hitting home with that four check. But I think the X's and O's the players know at this point. It's just about keeping positive and essentially saying, yeah, the other team on the other side has done a bunch of things right,

but remember, we're dominating the series. This is one game. You've played this game thousands and thousands of times in your life, and forget about the past. Forget about the historical ramifications, and that's something that Maurice has been talking about in media as well, guys, to say, yeah, we don't care about that. Internally, every single one of those guys is thinking about that.

But Maurice's message has to be, you've got to play this game that you've played so many times and play your way, play to your style. That's the way you're going to end up beating this Edmonton team. You can't get in a shootout with them. You have to kind of be that blanket over them defensively. And that's the way that they're going to have to play here. I asked this question of David Amber earlier. I wanted to get your take on it as well.

Do you think there's a favorite going into the game tonight? From a sports betting perspective, like at play now, they're dead even on the money line, the two teams. A couple books have Florida as a slight, and I mean slight, like marginal favorite, and I'm sure that's due to Game 7 being on home ice for them. But do you think there's any favorite for tonight's game? The way that the game has been going,

I know we talk about momentum from game to game in the playoffs, and players have mentioned as well that it's not a thing, but in this series, it certainly feels like a thing. With Edmonton and the way that they've been able to simplify their game, especially in their own zone, to get the puck out before the forecheck hits. I feel like there is a favor right now in Edmonton. And let's break down the numbers a little bit, guys. Through six games, five on five, it has been even. This Ozone possession time, you know,

you look at the rush chances, you look at expected goals, you look at actual goals. Five on five, it's right down the middle. And it goes both ways. A little bit favors it goes both ways a little bit you know favors edmonton a little bit favors florida but the game changer in this series has been the special teams the power play for edmonton we know what they can do we know how good they are and you know florida's pk uh alice barkov was talking about how good it's been but you know we know what they're capable of but the pk for edmonton has been unreal.

We've seen what they've been able to do in pressuring the blue line and really making Florida look disjointed. So I look at this series, five on five, you're right. It's a pick-em, but what really turns this series, in my opinion, is the special teams. Historically, we talked about Edmonton and that power play. Right now, that PK is being it's a power kill so to speak with Janmark and Connor Brown doing what they're doing so I

would actually lean in Edmonton's favor which is wild because last you know week this time last week I thought they were done and dusted have you can you ever remember a PK being more impactful during a postseason run than it has been for the Edmonton Oilers? Yeah, thinking back, I don't necessarily remember one that has been as potent as this one. And oddly enough, the Vancouver Canucks were the team with the most success against that PK. And they looked awful. They looked awful for half the games.

And guys, we talked about how future that power what needs to change and i think a little bit of this conversation has to go back to edmonton and say all right it wasn't only the vancouver canucks clearly they had the most success out of you know look at la and what they were able to do look at what dallas was not able to do um so i look at this pk and i don't recall one being so dominant in the playoff to this level and they're all essentially depth guys players that we've criticized in the past whether it's a you know Warren Fogle whether it's Derek Ryan uh Matias Janmark and yeah Connor Brown Connor Brown is the most criticized player on this Edmonton team earlier this year when he couldn't score a goal

so yeah they've had a huge impact on the PK. And I think one of the stats that really is impressive to me in this season, in this round specifically, guys, is zone denial rate. And they've been really, really good. Against Vancouver, they were hitting at about a 38.9%, which was fifth out of eight teams. Here, they're denying the zone 48.8 percent of the time against the florida panthers the highest rate that they've had all uh playoffs long and if you can't

set up that's the problem and guys we were talking about that in the vancouver series of what's wrong with vancouver they can't enter the zone cleanly clearly that was a vancouver issue but it's also a reason to praise the Edmonton Oilers because that's been the key for them all playoff long. How good is this for the NHL as a league? I think it's great. You know, every time, and this is going to hurt hearing in Vancouver because Vancouver was so close to getting it done against this Edmonton team,

but eventually you know what happens. But when you have McDavid, when you have Dreisaitl to the best players on the planet and you have your marquee player, let's be honest, Connor McDavid is the greatest player that a lot of us will ever see live, right?

Maybe we weren't around for the heyday of Gretzky. Maybe you're young enough to not have watched Mario Lemieux play. This is some unreal stuff that Conor's doing at a speed and skill level that very few people – I've never seen this, right? And we can argue that the numbers and the talent level of Wayne Gretzky, he was dominant like nobody else.

The stats back that up. But it's kind of the argument of was he this fast nope uh the skill factor maybe maybe not but the fact is I think anytime you have your best player and widely acknowledge the best player by his peers in a final showcasing this it's great and the other thing is i'm very you know when it comes to um canada's team and all that i'm a i'm a tribal fan i'm like a soccer fan right uh the example i use is there's six teams in london i support one of them if arsenal loses guess what i'm not cheering for chelsea it doesn't work that way that's the way i operate so for anybody that ends up saying hey i cheer for canada's team uh

cool that's that's how you fan but i will say this guys having a canadian team in the final with the best player on the planet is excellent for the league so the league um yeah i would imagine is doing cartwheels and remember this is leading up to the four nations face-off next year or it's going to be best on best for four nations. So I think the league is extremely happy. I realize that the key player for the Florida Panthers is probably going to be Sergei Bobrovsky. I mean, I don't think that's a hot take, but what do you expect out of Barkov tonight?

Because, you know, you don't want to be the Selke Trophy winner, and then in the same year, your team blows a three nothing series lead in the Stanley cup final. Totally. And this is a player that, you know, when I talked to him about two and a half weeks ago, he was saying, Hey, we're ready for this. This is something that we learned from last year. So to be back in this position, I, I know he takes it personally, but looking at his matchup against McDavid,

I think the Oilers have done an excellent job of getting away from him when the games are in Edmonton. They've only, through the games in Edmonton thus far, guys, and there's no more left, obviously, five on five, McDavid's only had to play against Barkoff for about 14 and a half minutes, which in Florida, it goes to 22 minutes. And when they've been on the ice together, Florida's outscored Edmonton 1-0.

Think about that. For all the goals that have been scored in the series by Edmonton, five on five, Barkov versus McDavid is still Barkov's line outscoring Edmonton and Connor McDavid when they're on the ice together. Have more chances in the middle of the ice. And Edmonton has more shots, but it's, you know, by a difference of three. So I think Sasha Barkov, when the games have been in Florida, he's been able to, you know, find that matchup,

and he's been able to really shut down Connor McDavid. The problem is, when those games go back to Edmonton, Chris Knobloch's done an excellent job to get away from that matchup. So one thing is for sure, defensively, you can count on Barkov to, you know, do his job. But I think he needs to do more. And that last game was an example of the one goal that was scored

was an unbelievable goal that Sasha Barkov scored. But where else was the offense? And, you know, Stuart Skinner's played well, but the Edmonton Oilers have done an excellent job of keeping everything to the outside. And you start looking towards, okay,

is going to be tasked defensively, and that's where he's doing a lot of his work. You need other players like Matthew Kachuk, Sam Bennett, that second line, Carter Verhage, who has been, you know, a real no-show in this series. Sam Reinhardt hasn't had a good one either. So I think for Barkov, this game means a lot, not only just, you know know as a selfie winner but

internally as a leader on this team as a player that could be the first finished player to captain the team to a Stanley Cup final or final win sorry but I think it's beyond him too or this is where Matthew Kachuk needs to lean in you got a Edmonton Oilers team that is clicking at such a high level right now that the top two lines at the very least need to be clicking for the Florida Panthers. Otherwise, it could be lights out early in this game. Randy, are you ready to pivot after this game is over?

Arguably one of the biggest games in NHL history. Some people say it's the biggest game in NHL history. And after it's over, everyone's going to be like, oh, what's my team going to do at the draft and free agency now? Well, Vancouver Canucks fans don't have to worry about that until the third round. So at least you have that grace period. But yeah, it's going to be a change of pace.

Like this week is so jam-packed. When you start, you know, looking at this, I was kind of, I'm kind of conflicted here because it feels like the season has gone on way too long right the nba wrapped up last week they had their parade the boston celtics and they're probably in the bahamas right now chilling somewhere on a beach but at the same time this has kind of worked in the favor of the nhl to say they've got everybody looking at them right now prime time is theirs they've got Connor McDavid so the fact that you know North American you know syndicated radio

shows are talking about them whether it's you know the shows on ESPN south of the border there's going to be a lot of talk about Connor McDavid and this 3-0 comeback um I they've kind of owned this space but even beyond this, you've got the draft, you've got free agency. It's going to kind of feel kind of like a soccer kind of transfer deadline kind of period

where everything's jammed in, the season's over, and then all of these things happen, and then it kind of stops. And for a couple of weeks, you probably don't hear much of anything. So I'm excited to see how it goes

because originally I hated the idea of the cup final going well into June like this, but you've got a flurry of action rather than being spread out. I don't mind it in theory. Let's see how it plays out. Randy, this was great,

man. Thanks for taking the time to do it. Enjoy the game tonight. It should be a lot of fun. We'll do this again soon. All right, guys, take care.

You too. Thanks. That's Randy Janda, a hockey night, kind of Punjabi broadcast and sports that six 50s very own right here on the Halford & Brough Show. What do you think the atmosphere is going to be like tonight in Florida? How many Oilers fans do you think are going to be there? That is a very good question. I don't know how much nervousness and trepidation is going to be in the building. There's going to be some, without question. Then there's going to be the Oilers' influence, right? Because that's a thing.

The ticket price, it seems crazy to me. I know it sounds crazy to say this, but when I saw the get-in price of $1,500, I was like, that's not that much. No, not for a game of this match. That's doable. That's doable. If you're a fan of the team,

you got to get on a plane and go. If you're talking about maybe the greatest, most important, biggest game in NHL history, cancel Christmas and just do that. I'm surprised. I am surprised. It's crazy that the biggest, most important, most profound game in perhaps the history of the league

is being played in Florida. That's true. Yeah, right? You figure it would be in a the history of the league is being played in Florida. That's true. Yeah, right? Like you figure it would be in a different market, but alas, here we are. I don't want to act like $1,500 is nothing, right? I'm just, you know, what is Taylor Swift? What's the get-in price for Taylor Swift?

She's a singer. I know, but what is the get-in price at BC Place? Like, what's it going to be? Three, four grand? I have no idea. You guys, you dogs, Andy, your music. It's a lot. It's a lot.

You're a musical dog. Do you know the going rate for Taylor Swift tickets off the top of your head? I do not. I'm not a Swifty, unfortunately. It's in the thousands. It's in the thousands. I don't know how high that would get. I mean, it's the most profitable tour in music history for a very good reason

because the tickets are astronomically priced. But it's almost the ideal if you're going to travel to go see your team in a Game 7. It's the ideal place because, first of all, you get to go to Florida, and maybe it's a little hot now, but it's still fun. It's Fort Lauderdale. You can have some fun there. But also are probably let's be honest there are more season ticket holders in Florida that would be willing to give up the ticket than there would be in a place like I don't know New York okay uh here's what we're gonna do I'm gonna tell you really

quickly about the BC Lions the roar is back for the BC Lions. You can get your tickets now. Visit them online at bclions.com. Coming up on the Halford & Brough Show on Sports Night 650, we're going to dive into the Dunbar Lumber text message in Basket. We're undecided. We're undecided if

we're going to go outside the realm of Game 7 because we said at the beginning of the show, Game 7. This is a Game 7 show. We've talked for if we're going to go outside the realm of game seven, because we said at the beginning of the show, game seven, this is a game seven show. We've talked for. Of Halford and rough programming, talking about the significance of a game seven, should it get there and how exciting it would be and how dramatic it would

be and how unprecedented it would be. So we, I haven't, I haven't talked't talked a single stitch of footy on the show. I haven't done it. I don't know if we'll do it. Well, it depends what the listeners want to text in. If you want to text in what we learned, that's not about Game 7 by all means. But we might not read it.

We might not read it. Here's one from Amro, the actor, to get the juices flowing. And this is interesting because we just finished talking about what LeBron James did in 2016 in the NBA Finals. Down 3-1 to the buzzsaw Golden State Warriors that were 73-9 during the regular season. Amro says, hashtag WWO what we learned. What we learned, McDavid pulling Edmonton through the fire for a comeback will be greater than LeBron with the Cavs against Golden State. Historical context now, this series is in the greats of sports,

like the pantheon of sports greatness. Yeah. It's transcended hockey. It's transcended the NHL. I went back and started looking at the Red Sox 0-4 comeback against the Yankees, And the one thing that sticks out is that there were so many key contributors to the comeback, right? It started with Dave Roberts and the stolen base.

I mean, don't get me wrong. I think if you're going to point to one Boston Red Sox player that embodied the comeback, it was David Ortiz, right? Just won the series MVP,p numerous big hits walk-offs shilling though with the bloody sock i mean even when they they ripped pedro to try and like exercise the demons and it didn't work like they were rough stock sorry no pedro martinez different pedro different pedro yeah yeah both equally talented human pedro but this is a human pedro um but with this you you would make the argument that in a very if it happens if it happens you're gonna say that in a very crazy and bizarre way

but like mcdavid will have something over gretzky in in oiler's lore sure it's like gretzky won cups a lot of them and he's the definitive all-time oiler. Well, 87 was remarkable, but nothing like this. Nothing like this. This is McDavid being held off the sheet for a good chunk of the early part of the series and then exploding when his team needed him the most. The greatest championships are always won. And in hindsight, you look back and go, man, look at all the moments that just happened to go our way. Yeah.

We were out. Sure. And listen, I know no one wants to hear about it, but the Bruins run in 2011 could have been easily over in the first round. They went to overtime in game seven. And then they won that. And then, you know, you think of all the moments that, well, that Canucks had two games to eliminate them. Didn't happen.

And that Red Sox run, four games when they could have been eliminated. And that's what the Oilers are looking at right now. And the Oilers can look back and say, we could have been eliminated against the Canucks as well. This just doesn't happen. Period. Not doesn the Canucks as well this just doesn't happen period, not doesn't happen very often just doesn't happen

championship final series they just don't have 3-0 comebacks, it just doesn't happen I was scrolling through trying to think if anybody's written about like the mentality behind it or why it's become so difficult the NBA the general consensus was teams that race out to a three nothing

leader, usually significantly better. Right. In this one, I don't think that Florida was significantly better over the first year. I think they were the better team, but they got their three nothing lead. It's just that everyone says the same cliches when you go down oh three it's we got to take a one game at a time you know you can't win four in one night you have to do one by one by one but i think the the most players understand that the odds are stacked way against them and there is that you know we talked about the dead man walking theory yeah it applies to

teams that are down oh Oh, three. Sure. They're just zombies going through it. It's why so many end up in sweeps. It's just like, well, you know what? We're done. You know,

we tried to beat these guys. You tried to beat these guys three games in a row and they beat us every time. It's the mentality of having the same opponent beat you night after night or every second night. So it's tough. And Edmonton has been able to do it it's honestly i mean we've been doing that game four in hindsight something happened in game well the

game four i remember shaking that off and i shouldn't have and i remember thinking um well you know the panthers probably thought it was going to be easy and they just had a dud on the road and then the oilers got going and the panthers stopped playing and that's the way it was it was going to be easy and they just had a dud on the road and then the Oilers got going and the Panthers stopped playing and that's the way it was. It was an 8-1 game, whatever. They're probably going to win game five back home.

In hindsight, was that them breaking Bobrowski? Like it's funny how Bobrowski has been both Tim Thomas and Roberto Luongo in this series. Early on he was Tim Thomas. Yeah. And now he's been Luongo. Like I, I, I know there's going to be that one texter who freaks out, but I really do

think the game three in Boston in 2011, uh, in some ways broke Luongo that series. And I realized he had another, he had a great game, the game of his life, but that was back in Vancouver. In Boston, he did not fare well. No. And I think there was something about that. Now, so the comparisons aren't going to be exact.

No, no, no. The comparisons, I'm not trying to say it's exactly the same, but I do wonder if the Oilers just broke Bobrovsky's confidence. And I'm going to be very curious to see how both goalies come out tonight. Because in the back of every Oilers fan's mind is still like, you know, we haven't always had trust in Stuart Skinner. Can he just do it one more time for us? One more time for us.

I think with the A1, because it was such a jarring scoreline to look at. If you were to just look at, okay, go to ESPN.com and go through the, you know, struggle to score, struggle to score, struggle to score, bang, eight in the Stanley Cup final. There wasn't any lead up to it. There wasn't any indication it was coming. I thought that the Oilers had a decent chance of winning game four because I thought that they would be able to successfully stave off elimination.

But I did not think that after not being able to beat Bobrovsky whatsoever, they would chase him from the game. It was such a stark contrast. There was no indication that it was coming. And that's where I wonder if it was just a cold slap to the Panthers and to Bobrovsky. Like, oh, wait a minute. They've got McDavid.

And this is what McDavid is capable of doing. You're going to be kind of silent for two or three games, but then you're just going to take over. And I think if you want one sort of actual bit of real analysis that a couple of people have mentioned right now, the best player in this series is Connor McDavid. There's no question about it. It's clear cut.

Everyone that either knows anything about hockey or doesn't really know a lot about hockey. You can watch the game. You're like, that guy's the best guy. And in a one game winner take all. And I know it's the ultimate team sport and one guy can't make a difference,

you've got to think that right now it's more terrifying for Florida than for Edmonton going into this game because Edmonton knows that they have McDavid and Florida knows that Edmonton has McDavid. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.