Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 6/26/24

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports including an impressive result for Canada Soccer at the Copa America, as well as this year's crop of Hockey Hall of Fame inductees, plus they chat with former Canucks goalie and NHL Network's Cory Schneider ahead of free agency. 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. No! We're Canada! Jonathan David! I have been in the gym a long time. Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on long time. Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody.

It is Halford. It is Ruff. 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. Hey, dawg. Good morning to you.

Good morning. Lassie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. You should have committed to the bit there. I thought about it. You should have committed to the bit. I couldn't do it to you as well. Hello, hello. You should have committed to the bit there. I thought about it. I'm like, I'm not going to do it. You should have committed to the bit. I couldn't do it to you guys.

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that's what you're waiting for. Big show today. We got a lot to get into. Guest list begins at 6.30. Footy Prime host, Sportsnet soccer analyst formerly, James Sharman, is going to join us on the program. We will talk about Canada's historic victory over Peru. 1-0 yesterday at the Copa America.

We'll also talk about everything that happened at Euro yesterday. Andrew and Victoria, that loud goal chant at the beginning of the show. That was a warning shot to you. There will be a lot of football talk on the show today. Sharman's going to join us at 6.30. Oh, my God. You're even calling it football. Football or footy.

It's soccer. It is not. We're in North America. It's soccer. It's soccer talk. Just call it soccer talk. Don't push them even more don't don't be like have you got a dad mug of coffee where did you get that is that yours yeah

i got it from disneyland you can see it on the stream right now all six of you watching the stream can see it on the stream right now. It's a Disneyland Disneyland mug with dad on it. It says dad on the handle. Aww, that's nice. I'm noticing it doesn't say best dad ever. Yeah, it just says one of the dads. It just acknowledges the fact that he is a dad. I am a, you are a dad.

Here's your mug. James Sharman's going to join us at 6.30. 7 o'clock, former Canucks goalie Corey Schneider is going to join us on the program, now working as an analyst for NHL Network. We can talk about the Stanley Cup final. We can talk about the ever-evolving goalie market as we get closer and closer to the start of free agency, trades that have happened already.

Corey Schneider is going to join us at 7 o'clock. At 8 o'clock, Ryan Phillips, assistant head coach of your BC Lions. The BC Lions are in action tomorrow, the rare Thursday night affair. They're going to host the winless Edmonton Elks, 7 o'clock from BC Place. So we'll talk to Ryan Phillips ahead of that. We've got a lot to get into. There's a lot of stuff going on in the world of sports. So without any further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened.

Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how 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 for construction companies, giving you tools, resources, and safety training, visit them online at bccsa.ca. We begin at the 2024 Copa America in Canada. I can't say it was a good match.

I can't say it was an enjoyable match, but my God, was it an amazing result. Jonathan David scored in the 74th minute. Canada knocked off Peru 1-0 on Tuesday night for its first ever victory at the tournament and its first victory over a South American opponent in 24 years. Okay, why do you say it wasn't a good match and it wasn't an enjoyable match? It seemed like a lot of stuff happened. A lot of stuff did happen. But the match itself, the football, the footy was terrible.

How was the soccer? The soccer was great it was not there was uh 33 combined fouls in the match so there was roughly a foul every three minutes there was no flow there was no cohesiveness and tell the listeners first all, why there were so many fouls and why Peru seemed to be playing with a bit of Hard tackling, at times dirty tackling, not allowing the opponent to ever get into a proper match flow. They weren't going to let, be it Chile or Canada now, have phases where they were knocking the ball around freely or trying to build up or discover an identity of how they wanted to attack or even get their attack started.

Every time that Canada got the ball in the midfield, bang, there was a Peruvian defender right on their back, and it was either trying to force a turnover or, if that failed, a foul to stop the play so they could reset and do it all over again. And then there was... But the Peruvian coach was also saying that Canada used excessive force against Argentina.

There was a thin line between strength and violence. And then he said, if we have to use our fists, then we will use our fists. We won't shy away. That was the pre-match sort of like dark arts. But that's why I said they came in with a bee in their bonnet. Yeah. Like I'm an old man. So the bee in your bonnet. You guys are playing like in with a b in their bonnet yeah well they were an old man so the b you guys are playing like you got a b in your bonnet peru collective b and their

collective bonnet it's only soccer so um some call it football or footy um so i they were desperate for a win they had drawn nil nil in the opener with ch. I think that they knew that going into their third and final match against Argentina would be tough to expect a result out of that. They desperately needed a win against Canada yesterday. They set the stage going in, talking about how physically aggressive the Canadians were against Argentina. The general takeaway from the people covering the tournament was that that was going to set the stage so that Peru could come out aggressively as well and say like hey this is how Canada plays all we're doing us simple Peruvians is matching

the physicality of our very physical opponents right uh then they decided to take that a step further and were the clear aggressors in the match so there were a few points of emphasis that we need to get here first uh the heat in Kansas City. There was an extreme heat warning issued throughout the week. Temperatures got close to 100 degrees throughout the day. They kicked off at 5 o'clock local time. The sun was beating down on the pitch, so hot, in fact, that one of the assistant referees actually collapsed.

Not funny at all. Collapsed midway through the first half. Max Crapo ran over to help him out. He was later brought up to his feet, but he did not look good. He was in the sun spot the whole time. Right. So to give you an idea of just how hot it was, I mean, one of the officials couldn't even make it through the first half.

The fouls were coming fast and furious, and then there was a real point of contention midway through the first half where Alistair Johnson was head-butted by a peruvian attacker they got into it there's a little bit of a jawing match back and forth they got into each other's faces and then the proving guy leaned forward got alistair johnson on the cheek head-butted him to johnson's credit he didn't drop to the ground like he was shot and start rolling around yeah yeah he he winced backwards and he went down because he got headbutted,

but he popped back up pretty quickly. The referee didn't call it in the moment. Good Canadian kid. Yeah, the referee didn't call it in the moment. It went to VAR. While this is happening, the TSN play-by-play and color, Luke Weilman and Stephen Caldwell,

are talking about, not even talking about whether or not it's a red card or not, they're talking about what's going about whether or not it's a red card or not they're talking about what's going to happen in the aftermath of the red card right how Peru will be down to 10 men and this is going to dramatically to give you an idea of how obvious this was they were talking about the aftermath of the inevitable red card and then in so who ultimately made the decision there VAR yeah and VAR didn't even call the referee over to look at the monitor to confirm what they were seeing.

Right, that's why I wonder. And I'm going to be honest, I think it had a lot to do with the fact that Alistair Johnson didn't roll around on the ground and pretend like he was shot. Big mistake by him. Big mistake. You've got to embellish. You've got to play the dark arts game.

So that incident happens. Canada's being soundly outplayed by Peru in the first half. They don't get a call there. They go into the break at nil-nil. Second half, Canada comes out. And then another moment of madness from the Peruvians. Awful tackle on Jacob Schaffelberg, who came in as a substitute. The Maritime Messi himself.

No debating this one. High tackle. Quite, you know, very lucky that Sch Shalfberg wasn't seriously injured on the play because it was lunging tackle, slide straight into the leg, above the ball. I mean, I've seen legs get broken on that kind of tackle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even though he got the ball first. It was the follow-through.

Referee goes to the monitor this time, looks at it, red card to Pru, and then the entire match gets flipped on its head. Canada starts attacking and waves. Schaffelberg again, plays hero, setting up Jonathan David. Amazing finish by Jonathan David to come in one-on-one with the keeper,

banking it off the post. Boom. Canada goes up 1-0. Scary moments at the end, for sure. Max Crapo, who's been unbelievable, by the way,

since he's taken over the number one job for canada makes a couple saves late canada gets the win i mean that sounds like an exciting game it was just like all the stuff between the exciting parts that weren't very exciting see my credit to me as a broadcaster for making that sound um engaging and enjoyable because watching it it was actually it was physically painful to watch like i was getting up and sort of pacing around because it was so start stop and i was like ah i can't really like sit down and just become engrossed by it there was no flow no slog there was hydration breaks there was guys feigning injury it was just one thing after another and it's funny because we

can use this people are probably like okay enough soccer No, no, no. Here's the thing. For those people, I had a couple people reach out to me via Twitter, listeners of the show. And one guy said, Mike, I don't know how you can do this. I don't know how you can watch this. And I give the listener credit.

I apologize for not having your tweet right in front of me. But the genesis of the tweet was, I tried. I sat down and watched this and it was painful to watch. It was all the faking and the diving and no flow to the game whatsoever. And we came off a Stanley Cup final game seven where there was only three penalties, and there was long stretches that went without whistles, right?

And I'm like, yeah, I get it. I get it. I can understand that. Thank you for the effort, for trying and supporting your country and watching the national team. And then Nick Shepard, another listener of the show, tweeted, and he's like, Mike, don't you ever get frustrated watching this crap go on? Because in South America and for the Peruvians, that wasn't crap

and that wasn't bad. That was how they went about the match. That's how they play and i'm like yeah you've got a valid point i think i'm not gonna try and spin the way that that was played into saying that it was a good match or an enjoyable match like i that's why i said off the top it wasn't good and it wasn't enjoyable okay so we're gonna be joined by james sharman uh in about 20 minutes. So there's going to be some more soccer talk coming up.

So let's get into the hockey stuff that happened, uh, yesterday. I guess we can start with, uh, the hall of fame where former NHL stars, Pavel Datsouk, Jeremy Roenick,

and Shea Weber are now part of the hockey hall of fame. So Datsouk and Weber get in first ballot guys in their first year of eligibility. Obviously, Roenick was the big story, having waited for 12 years. He was first eligible in 2012, so he goes in. Very emotional on the call from Lanny McDonald. Yeah, because I kind of thought that the window might have passed him by, but that would mean that I would understand how the Hockey Hall of Fame does things. Still no McGill name.

Right, and that's it. I have faith. It ain't going to happen next year because there's like four definite, at least four first ballot Hall of Famers, guys like Carey Price, Duncan Keith, Zidane O'Chara. What did he do to that? What happened? He didn't reach 500 goals.

I don't know. That's his biggest knockoff. He got 1,000 points? Every year we do the same song and dances. We announce the class. We explain how they got in. And then when it comes time to explaining why either first time snubs or repeat snubs got snubbed again, we don't have any answers. Well, let's talk about the guys that did get in.

Sure. Is this the most disagreeable class that you've seen in recent years? How so? Well, just look at the names that are attached to it. We got Colin Campbell getting in, which I don't even need to begin. That's a tough one. That one. That's a tough one.

He was always going to get in, though, for a long time service. Well, he's part of the old boys club. We can have a huge discussion about that if you want. He's Gary Bettman's guy. And Datsuk was a good choice. I think that was one that we can all agree on. Poyle, did he win enough? He was around for a long time.

Winning is jam of all time. Yeah, but playoff winning, I'm talking about. I think he was, I mean. That's a longevity vote, which I don't necessarily mind, right? I don't mind it, but I'm just saying. He was a long-time GM in a new hockey market like Nashville as well. I know it wasn't his only job, but he spent a long time there. Plus, he took a puck in the face from Shea Weber,

and I think that gets you the nod to the eye. Weber getting in on the first ballot is. Now, why? a puck in the face from Shea Weber, and I think that gets you the nod. Weber getting in on the first ballot is... Now, why? That's surprising to me because I think I had no problem with Shea Weber being a first ballot. I loved cheering for Shea Weber when he played for Canada. That was a little surprising. I agree with Lydie. How many Norse's did he have? Zero.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I think he deserves to be in there. I don't know if he's necessarily a first ballot guy, but he's a great defenseman. But I don't know if he's necessarily first ballot. The fact that he's a great defenseman. But I don't know if he's necessarily first ballot. The fact that he has a still active contract. Like Gatsuk is the only. Somebody's joked about that. All these Utah fans go, wow, we got a Hall of Famer on our team.

Gatsuk was the only one where I was like, oh, yeah, for sure. Everyone else was like, okay. I'm glad Ronit got in. I think he deserves to be in. Yeah, waited a long time. And was, you know, it is the Hockey Hall of Fame. And he was one of the most famous players in the game at one point just because he was part of that group of American hockey players

that took American hockey to another level. Right. So if you're going to go on, and you've mentioned this before. So the Kachuk family wins its first Stanley Cup. And then, what, a day, two days later? My brain is so jangled right now that Jeremy Ronak gets into the Hall of Fame. That's a pretty big deal for those American families. Yeah.

Like, here's the thing. You've mentioned this before. If you're going to consider the Hall of Fame a place where you tell the story of the game and that's all aspects of it, right? The men's game, the women's game, the NHL game, the international game, all of it. the men's game the women's game the nhl game the international game all of it's the hockey hall of fame then you do you can make a pretty valid case that jeremy roenick was for a long time the iconic american player right i know his his uh career overlap with mike badano who was also in that conversation but uh Roenick also had like a cultural cachet.

Like, I'm not even joking. Like, Roenick and... Well, he was the best player in the video game. Yeah, right. Yeah. He was the guy people thought, well, is he making cameos in soap operas? Like, he was the guy for a long time.

So there's that conversation we made. But then, if that is the case to be made, I'll loop back to what Adog said about Alex McGillney, and there's an amazing hockey story in addition to an amazing career. McGillney should be in, but I think I've just talked enough about it. He should have been in a long time ago, really. I mean, it's ridiculous that he passed over year after year. And you can't really add anything new to the argument.

No, like it's one of the great goal scorers. Like it's an incredible story, led the way for Russia, defecting into the, like it's like this incredible great goal scorers. He has an incredible story. Led the way for Russia, defecting into the... He's this incredible all-around player. I think, honestly, some guys are just made to wait. Jeremy Roenick was made to wait for 12 years for no other reason than they decided to behind closed doors with the whole cloak and dagger thing. And I'm assuming one day Rod Brindamore will finally get the call, I bet,

at a certain point. And one day, maybe they'll just decide that it's Keith Kachuk's turn and he'll go in as well. Or you know what? They also might not because that's how the Hall of Fame works. And they're forbidden to discuss candidates' eligibility or why they got in publicly. If you want to do that, you lose your spot on the Hall of Fame committee. So you are left with talking about a class, which again, I thought Datsuk, kind of a no-brainer as a first Hall of Famer,

and I was good with Shea Weber getting in as a first-time candidate as well. Okay, let's get to some of these news and notes from yesterday across the National Hockey League. A deal that maybe resonated here because of how Jake Wallman impacted last season for the Vancouver Canucks. Intriguing move leading up to the NHL draft and the opening of free agency. The Detroit Red Wings had to pay to give away Jake Wallman

to the San Jose Sharks yesterday. They sent him to San Jose along with a second-round pick in this year's draft. That's a significant. The second-round pick in this year's draft. That's a significant. The second-round pick, did anything come to them? No. Future considerations. Good old future consids.

So it's just Jake Wallman and a second-round pick. Now, yeah. What's Detroit gearing up to do here? Well. They're clearing the decks to do what? Resign some of their guys or go out and make a big move? So here's the thing. The Red Wings had, prior to this deal, nearly $30 million in cap space available to them.

But that wasn't enough. They needed even more because they need to sign guys like Lucas Raymond and Mo Sider to long-term deals. Those guys are RFAs. Someone was saying that those deals could get to like $17, $18 million combined just in those two alone on AAV if they were to sign long-term deal. What's more, Detroit only had 13 roster spots accounted for, so they need to build out like half a team, basically.

Okay? So there's that. Still, still, it does seem a little peculiar because Jake Wallman, his AAV is 3.4 million. I have two words for you. Yeah? Steven Stamkos. Yeah, maybe.

Maybe. Detroit's blue line is kind of set. That's the reason that they parted with Philip Hronik a short while ago, and it's the reason that they were able to give away Jake Wallman. They got a bunch of defensemen aside from Siders, like Edvinson and Johansson, and he's been stockpiling defense do you think that'd be

the perfect move for them perfect addition if you're gonna go out and spend a bunch of not only is Stamko still good we're talking about a team that wants to take the

next step I mean if you're Steve Iserman and there is pressure now right there's Detroit Red Wings fans that are like Steve we love you you're one of the greatest players in

franchise history but come on we haven't been to the playoffs in, we love you. You're one of the greatest players in franchise history. But come on. We haven't been to the playoffs in basically a decade now. We're tired of losing. We want to take the next step. And I do wonder if a gigantic free agent plunge like that. Jeremy and Langley text in Marner to Detroit. Maybe.

Maybe. It's going to have to be a move of significance. Because there's people in Detroit right now that are saying, well, Wallman wasn't exactly an anchor contract. And at times last year, he was a top pairing guy for us, and we just gave him away for nothing. And what's more, we had to pay a pretty significant price for the luxury of giving him away. Now, I know that Wallman ran into some problems last year when he wasn't gritting his way to success uh and i know he wasn't he wasn't gritty enough he did not do enough gritting to bring more grid you know what he was late in the season was a healthy scratch on occasion so um and then a couple people astutely pointed out

that if this is the price of dumping a contract a second round pick uh it doesn't bode well for ilya mikhayev and the vancouver canucks because the canucks don a contract, a second round pick, it doesn't bode well for Ilya Mikheyev and the Vancouver Canucks because the Canucks don't even have a second round pick. Well, the Canucks should be like, well, that was Steve Eisenman setting the price. This is a different price. Yeah, damn you, Eisenman, for setting the price too, right? Like you could have done something else, something more creative with Wallman. So anyway, that deal happened there.

We should mention a couple of news and notes from the coaching realm. John Cooper has been named Canada's coach for upcoming international play. That means... Cooper! Sometimes we don't even plan this stuff. That's how good this show is. He will be the coach for the upcoming Four Nations face-off and, most importantly, the 2026 Olympics in Milan.

Now, he was going to be the coach of the Olympics in 2022, but obviously the NHL is pulled out due to COVID. So can we just, sorry. So that, that information about Coop is out there. Coop's going to be the coach. Yes.

Can we just go back a little bit on Detroit clearing cap space? Yes. Does it not seem like there are a lot of teams that are locked and loaded to go crazy on July 1st. Yeah, I mean, someone was pointing out, like, LA moving Pierre-Luc Dubois. Now they had to take back the Kemper contract in return, but consider their season, big disappointment.

Moving off Dubois in a single year, and they're still in their competitive window. Like, LA seems like a team that's primed to do something big. You got the Utah Hockey Club. Yep. That's probably going to do something big. Detroit clearly lurking in the weeds with a lot of cap space. I think Buffalo's got to do something.

There's a lot of time. Buffalo has to. And I'm talking about either going hard after free agents or going hard after trades. Because there's more cap space than there has been in a long, long time. And you've got this desperation of certain teams like Detroit and Buffalo, and I'll put Ottawa in there too. They got to, you know,

they got to do something. They got to make a big move. Their fan bases are tired of mediocrity and mediocrity is the high level bar for a lot of those teams and they got to do something. And how does that affect the Vancouver Canucks? Well, it doesn't help. It doesn't help them keep the likes of Zdorov and Dakota Joshua, because those are the types of guys

that you could sign and get your fan base real excited. And also they're useful hockey players. They're good hockey players. And it's, you know, I think most of us just accepted that Lindholm is gone. Yes. Most of us accepted that Lindholm is gone. But I think some of us are holding out hope that the Canucks can acquire a top level star, be it Jake Gensel or someone else, and also maybe manage to hold on to one of Zdorov or Joshua. Yeah, you're more optimistic on Zdorov sticking around than I am.

And I think that's partly to do with I'm just looking at even the two deals that have gone out with guys re-upping with their current teams, Chatfield and DeMello, and look at the money that they got. And then suggesting that Zdorov could be a more impact player than both of them. We're just going to see some crazy contracts, I think. Well, I think it's part of it too.

But I want to see some crazy trades. I want to see some blockbusters. I think part of it too is like, there's a lot of general managers that saw the cap number rise, and were like, finally, we can start doing some more of that good old-fashioned spending.

Overspending, possibly, that we've done in the past. Well and we're like, finally, we can start doing some more of that good old fashioned spending, overspending possibly that we've done in the past. Well, with Florida winning, don't you think there are some owners out there that are like, go make some moves. That Kachuk deal was the type of blockbuster that I'm talking about. Sure. And I know Kachuk was the guy that had to make

that happen in the first place, but that meant a lot to that franchise. And I know that Kachuk didn't even play all that well in the Stanley Cup final, but he's been a very important part of that team and that team's popularity. And he was a very big part of that team winning from a PR perspective when you saw the Kachuk family celebrating, et cetera, et cetera. He's going to be one of their main celebrators, one of their main partiers.

He's going to be the guy that gets the attention because he likes the attention. He wants the attention. He doesn't necessarily want it in Canada where it's cold, but he wants the warm weather attention. Yeah, which is fine. Which is fine, which I don't blame him for.

I just wonder if there's a lot of owners out there that are telling their GMs, like, if you're ever going to get risky, do it now. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. There's so much administrative nonsense on this show. You're listening to the Health and the Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Sometimes I forget what day corresponds with the administrative nonsense. How could you forget about Eurodance Wednesday?

I know. I know. What is wrong with you? Normally one of my favorite days of you forget about Eurodance Wednesday? I know. I know. What is wrong with you? Normally one of my favorite days of the week, Eurodance Wednesdays. Yeah. Turn it up a little bit. Get a little head dance here going to the desk. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider,

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To the phone lines we go. Very excited to have our next guest on the program, former Vancouver Canucks goalie, now an analyst with NHL Network, Corey Schneider joins us here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Corey. How are you? Good morning, guys. How are you doing? I'm good. We are good as well. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Before we get into the craziness of the offseason

and the ever-fluctuating goalie market, I do want to ask you about your former battery mate in goal, Roberto Luongo, who is now a member of the front office with the Florida Panthers. He hoisted the Stanley Cup on Monday night. Do you still keep in touch with Roberto regularly? Have you had a chance to speak with him since he won the Cup? And how happy were you to see Roberto Luongo finally lift the Stanley Cup?

Well, first off, I've never seen him as fired up as he was when he was banging that drum. The drum was big. I played with him, and I have not seen him that excited about anything. So that was fun for me to watch. But, yeah, no, we stay in touch a decent amount. I was out there, obviously, December for his Ring of Honor ceremony and caught up with him and the family quite a bit there.

You know, we do a fantasy football league together, obviously. So, you know, we stay in touch a decent amount. So I shot him a note after they won, knowing he'd be pretty busy. But he got back to me pretty quickly the next day. So it's exciting. I mean, you know, I don't know what it's like for an executive versus a player, but a cup is a cup. So I think he's put a lot of hard work into that organization,

the goalie department specifically. So I think any time you get rewarded for your work with the Stanley Cup, especially, you know, with what he means to that franchise, for them to lift their first one, I'm sure he's buzzing right now. Were you a bit worried for him when it looked like the Panthers were going to blow that thing? I kept pretty quiet. Again, I wasn't going to bug him.

You don't want to, you know, again, he's stressed out enough. He doesn't need me chirping in his ear about what's going on. But, yeah, I'm sure he's pretty relieved that they pulled it out. What did you think of the Stanley Cup final? I thought, I mean, I think the drama was great. You know, it was almost two different series. You know, going up 3-0, I was a little bummed because, you know, I'd rather

have an exciting final. So I was kind of like, man, here we go, a sweep or a gentleman's sweep. So the fact that Edmonton came back and made it a Game 7, I think was huge. A lot of people I know where I live here on the East Coast who aren't huge hockey fans are talking about it, so that's sweep. So the fact Edmonton came back and made it a game seven, I think was huge. A lot of people I know where I live here on the East Coast who aren't huge hockey fans are talking about it. So that's great. I don't know what the numbers are for viewership,

both Canada and the U.S., but I think anytime you have a game seven, it's awesome. And I think the game, for the most part, lived up to the hype. It was, you know, again, a lot of energy early, and then you settle in. But I thought in general it was everything you could have asked for. Game seven of a Stanley Cup final doesn't happen all that often. Did it stir up some old memories and, you know, rekindlings for you?

A little bit, a little bit, yeah. I mean, you know, I think as a competitor and an athlete, you know, you understand what that's like and what those guys are going through. So, you know, I try not to think about it too, too often. Obviously, it didn't end up very good for us. But, you know, you sort of see some of the emotions that you feel where you come out with adrenaline and you're all fired up for game seven. But then I think the reality of you're just exhausted emotionally

and physically from an entire playoff run. And, you know, it's probably 95 degrees in Florida, so the arena is super hot and humid. And I think sometimes your nerves kick in and you become a little tight. So you sort of see the game tighten up a little bit as it went on. And those are all natural reactions and emotions from what I remember, you know, being a part of that game seven. Okay.

Now we're down this road. So I got to ask you, did you guys feel you had a better chance to win game six or game seven? Back in 2011? Yeah. I mean, we were all pretty excited before game six. You know, you're up 3-2. They fly the families out to Boston in case. Yeah. I mean, we were all pretty excited before game six. You know, it's 0-3-2. They fly the families out to Boston in case you win,

so everyone's there. You know, we just came off another shutout in game five, so I think we were feeling pretty good going back into Boston, kind of being like, you know, this can't happen again. We'll be better. But obviously it did. So I think being back home for seven, where we played so well in the finals and all throughout the playoffs,

I think we were feeling pretty good about it. But, you know, they got that kind of weird goal from Bergeron to start the game. And then I think, again, people talk about it more in retrospect, but Tim Thomas was just on another planet for that series. So, you know, even though I thought we actually played pretty well in game seven, but up 40-plus shots, I believe, and just couldn't score. So that was it. It's interesting you mentioned the flying of the families.

I'm not going to try and, like, you know, speak ill of people's families going. Like, you want everyone around you with the possibility of winning the Stanley Cup. But the Panthers mentioned that when they got up 3-0, is that they had a bunch of people come out to Edmonton for Game 4, and then Game 4, quite infamously now, was the 8-1 debacle, where it just, nothing went right. And I'm curious about that dynamic because they want to treat it like a business trip but you also kind of have to plan for the possibility

of winning because you might never win another stanley cup and you want your friends and your family and your parents and the kids and your wife and everybody there um so how distracting is it really can you compartmentalize and say like this is my job and this is the stuff I need to take care of until it's time to get on the plane and go try and win the cup? Yeah, I don't know if distracting is the right word, you know, because they do a good job. Again, the families understand that they're awesome during the playoffs. They sacrifice quite a bit so you can sort of focus and do your thing.

And then the team, you know, they take care of it separately. So you're not, you know, we're not booking flights. It's the team setting them up on a plane. They handle all that stuff so we can just focus on hockey. I think just naturally, when you're a game away from the Stanley Cup, your mind, I don't want to say wanders, but you start thinking about it. Like, hey, what if we win? What would I do with it? What's it going to be like?

I think those are very natural thoughts and emotions for anybody who worked as hard as we did and those guys did in any hockey player gets to the cup finals, it's human nature. So yeah, when you're up 3-2 in the hotel in Boston, you're like, man, we can win the Stanley Cup tomorrow. Like that's pretty awesome. So I think it, I don't think it takes away from your performance. You know, it's obviously there and you have to, you know, face it head on.

But, you know, it's, it's obviously part of the, what gets you to that point is the motivation and that's the end goal and you've got to take that last step which Florida finally did in Game 7 but it's definitely in your mind somewhere. We are speaking to former Canucks goalie and current NHL Network analyst Corey Schneider here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Okay, Corey, let's get to the current goaltending landscape. The market, it's been pretty busy over the last week or so. Let's start with a market that you're pretty familiar with, New Jersey. New Jersey Devils have a new goalie. It is Jacob Markstrom. He comes over from Calgary. Your thoughts on the acquisition from the Devils' side of things. Yeah, the goalie position has just been very fluid the last five, six, seven years.

It kind of goes back and forth between the high paid guy winning the cup and then the nobody winning the cup. You go from Vasilevsky to Aiden Hill to, you know, Bennington coming out of nowhere to, you know, now Bobrovsky winning, making 10 million. So, you know, I think a lot of people still aren't really sure what to make of the position and how it impacts winning in playoffs. But the just i mean i think they they took a huge step two years ago we're knocking on the door and it took a big step back last year so if you're talking about a team that uh is in their prime is ascending and just needed one more piece to be

more relevant i think that was that team and the piece being a goalie who they can count on so i think markstrom gives you that i think for the next two years, he'll be good, if not great, which is exactly what that team needs. And, you know, it'll make them relevant. Being in the playoffs and going on a run. So I think in the short term, it was the right move. And the acquisition cost wasn't crazy. You know, they have a lot of young players that they're going to have to pay soon,

a lot of prospect depth. They've had a lot of picks the last six, seven, eight years. So I think they could afford to move off that first rounder and Kevin Ball. Again, I don't know if this answers the question long-term, and maybe they're not that concerned about that, and that's fine. But again, he's 34 going on 35, so I think you get a little dicey at that age with goaltenders. Corey, I wanted to ask you about the New Jersey Devils

and what exactly happened to them this season because fans of the Vancouver Canucks hoping it doesn't happen to the Canucks next season. Injuries played a role for the New Jersey Devils this year, but also some losses on the blue line. Could you talk about those and maybe any other reasons why you think the New Jersey Devils did take a step back this season? Yeah, I think it was a confluence of events. I think two years ago, I think everything went right. They had guys pop, have career years, really step forward in their games like Jack Hughes and Jesper Brad and Dougie Hamilton was everything they thought they'd be

and their goaltending was better than they thought they would be. So I think that year was sort of an everything went right scenario. And then this past year was more like an everything went wrong scenario as you mentioned injuries uh missing hamilton for most of the year you know jack he was in and out not 100 all season um you know and then the goaltending fell apart but to your point i think they underestimated um the back end you know they they lost graves who wasn't elite uh with with pittsburgh i believe but you know he was good for them and then you know damon severson while again maybe They lost Graves, who wasn't elite, with Pittsburgh, I believe. But he was good for them. And then Damon Severson, while, again, maybe miscast as a top two, top four guy,

was still a serviceable bottom-pairing guy for them. So that's two pretty experienced guys you've lost on the back end. And all of a sudden, you're thrusting Luke Hughes and Simone Nemech and Kevin Ball, and that's half your D-core. And while they're going to be great players, I'm not doubting any of that, it's still early for a 19-, 20-year-old defenseman to handle those minutes at the NHL level. So I think goal prevention obviously is a huge issue, and the goalies are taking the brunt of it,

but I just think their back end was compromised a bit more than they thought going into the season. So I can see it bounce back pretty quickly. Again, if they shore up the back end a little bit, maybe sign another guy. I know Pesci's been rumored to go there uh he'd be a great addition and then you get markstrom i think that'll that'll help a lot of their issues but again when you have a smaller forward group you know injuries maybe a little more uh likely so i think they need to

add a little bit of size up front as well to help you know insulate some of those guys well that was the question i was going to ask you do you think they need to get bigger up front and and obviously you do i how do you think they might do get bigger up front? And obviously you do. How do you think they might do that? I was actually wondering if they might be in the market for a guy like Dakota Joshua in Vancouver. Yeah, for sure. I mean, he definitely would be a good player

for them, a good third, maybe fourth line guy depending on where he slots in. I think they probably need something in the top six, though. A little more size up front. You look at the playoffs this year, you look at the bar cops of the world the dry sidles um you know for higgies even a big guy you know guys like that who i think for me playoff hockey is so much different than regular season hockey the grind um that you need those big physical guys who can skate and have some skill and again if we all could get them we would but that's the problem is that they're

hard to find but you know again as i, they're open for business right now. They're looking to win now and bounce back. So I don't see why that 10th overall pick might not be in play to go big game hunting and get a big forward who, you know, may be in a bad spot or a tough spot currently. So, you know, I think they have the ammunition to pull something off if they really want to upgrade their top six with some more size. Doesn't it feel like half the league is rearing to go for this free agency period it's been all these years of flat cap and like if we can add a third defenseman we can but we don't know if we have the two million

dollars now teams are are ready to roll i i and i don't know it's like going to vegas is like let's go make some bad decisions guys yeah well it's tough because i think the the goal of hockey and the reason for the cap and five or six thinks they have a chance to make the playoffs each year right if i just do this or that i should be able to get in the playoffs and then anything can happen where the reality is you know there's probably a much smaller group of teams that are real contenders i thought this year was probably the most legitimate contenders i've seen in a while going to playoffs you could pick one of eight teams you could say would win the stanley cup and it wouldn't surprise you whereas the past year is itself it's gonna be the. Whereas in past years, it's, oh, it's going to be the Lightning,

or it's going to be the Avalanche, or, you know, they're the team to beat. So I do think that's inspiring a lot of teams to maybe make some big moves now, especially, as you mentioned, with the cap rising. But again, I think demand greatly outweighs supply. You know, personally, I think there's too many teams. There just aren't enough, you know, good players. How many, I think there's 32 number one defensemen in the NHL? Like, probably not.

Or are there, you know, 32 number one centers out there? Like, probably not. So you're going to have guys who are overpaid and miscast, and that's just part of the supply and demand of the league right now. So if you can talk yourself into somebody and you think it's going to work, then you're going to do it in June or July. And then all of a sudden, come December and January, you sort of reevaluate. So I do think it's going to be a little bit crazy coming into the draft

and free agency in terms of teams thinking they're one piece away. Well, if that piece is a goaltender, who would you target right now, knowing that some pieces are already off the board? Yeah, personally, again, a lot of pieces off the board. Mark obviously just moved as well. I like John Gibson. I know he's not an analytic starling, and he's had some down years. I think those Anaheim teams he's played on have been really, really bad

the last five or six years. Not that it's comparable, but I went through some lean years in New Jersey where you don't have much in front of you. You don't have a lot of offense. You don't have a lot of defense. You're just sort of surviving. Eventually, it can wear of you. You don't have a lot of offense. You don't have a lot of defense. And you're just sort of surviving. And eventually it can wear on you. It can beat you down a little bit.

So I think he's 30 years old. I like his skill set. You know, he proved early in his career he can play at a high level, especially in the playoffs. And I think his cap number is manageable when you consider what guys are about to get paid in terms of Saros and Shusterkin and the goalie market. I think it's going to, you know, heat up here a little bit in terms of what guys are getting paid.

So, you know, him at 6-4 for the next couple of years, I could see a buy-low situation of Anaheim. They're not on the same timeline as him. So I think John Gibbs with a change of scenery and a little more structure in front of him could be an elite goalie again pretty quickly. When you were a goalie in the NHL, what was the one thing that when the team

in front of you, your team, did something bad? What was your biggest frustration? Was it not blocking a shot? Was it not picking up an open man? What was the thing that you were constantly maybe not yelling at your teammates for because this isn't soccer, but in your mind, you're like, come on, man, you got to do this. Yeah, you you know i don't know if it was a specific thing like that but i i would say in general as a goalie predictability is huge like when you walk into the rink every night and you don't know what's going to happen in front of you your teammates and what they're going to do it's it's a really tough position to play because every night you're sort of saying what's going to go wrong tonight you know it could be like you said an open man one night or a turnover the next

so i think when you have teams that play a structure and stick to it and you have certain rules and and uh you know things that you you try to do every night and again things are going to happen it's not going to go perfectly but you know more or less you know all right i'm going to walk in the rink tonight i know if i do these things my teammates are going to do those things and as long as i don't you know screw up or don't execute very well like it should be a good game so you know when you get young and experienced guys they make mistakes that older more experienced guys don't make guys are left open that shouldn't be you know plays are made that shouldn't be turnovers are made that shouldn't be so all those things that lead to

unpredictability as a goalie you start trying to do it yourself which in that position it's reactive not proactive you can't go make a play happen you have to wait and react to what's happening in front of you so when you're less certain about what's happening in front of you then it's harder to react to it so i think when you see bad teams that's a lot of it it's just you know that guy shouldn't be wide open but he is and that turnover shouldn't have happened now i gotta go play that and eventually it can wear you down mentally a little bit in terms of uh you know like i said showing up for 50 60 games every year and not having any clue what's about to happen does it affect does it almost affect your work ethic too like there's got to be a level of everyone will say well you got to be a professional and you

and you got to show up to the rank every day and you got to do your job and there's a certain element of that but sometimes i i think about john gib Gibson because there have been seasons where he's gotten off to a great start and he's kept the ducks in it. And then maybe it's physical fatigue, but maybe it's mental fatigue, too. Like, guys, if you like, this is impossible. If you guys aren't going to play in front of me, then maybe some of the things that I would have regularly done, come in early, get the extra work with the goalie coach, whatever. Maybe that starts slipping a little bit. Does that happen? I would have regularly done come in early get the extra work with the goalie coach whatever maybe that starts slipping a little bit does that happen yeah I mean again it's hard I can't speak to each individual but I think again human nature at some points where hey it doesn't matter what I do we're

going to give up 45 shots tonight you know I could spend another 10 minutes working on this part of my game and 20 minutes doing that and 15 minutes in the gym doing this and then all of a sudden you say but I'm still going to see 50 shots and can probably give up four or five goals so you know i'm not saying it happens a lot but you kind of at some points over time you can sort of say well what's the point you know what am i doing and i do believe that again that's why it changes the scenery gets around a lot but all of a sudden you come into a new environment a winning environment an environment where everyone's pushing each other and you sort of say, hey, I feel reinvigorated to kind of get back to what I want to do and have more fun playing the game.

Because when it stops being, again, it is a job, but, you know, it's supposed to be fun. And when you lose the joy or, you know, you don't have that fun and passion of showing up to the rink and putting everything you have into it, it can slip and it can snowball on you quickly. So, again, that's why I do believe that certain guys, especially if they've been around for a while, when they get,

they can get reinvigorated by going to a better situation. You look at a Sam Reinhart, you know, he's kind of toiling away in Buffalo, goes to Florida and now he scored a 60. So, you know, who is he,

that player in Buffalo? Probably, but sometimes he just in the environment and the organization just doesn't quite get it out of you. So I'm not, you know, not condemning Buffalo. It happens all the time,

but just an example of a guy who sort of gets a fire lit under him. And it's true for any athlete or any, you know, goalie specifically. So I do think there is an element of that. I wanted to ask you about what's going on in Boston this off season. You alluded to earlier that Linus Allmark is now gone. He's a member of the Ottawa senators.

Now the Bruins got a goalie back. So technically they will have a tandem, but it won't be the tandem of Allmark and Swayman, which has been great over the last couple of years. And two guys that I think really connected, obviously, like the postgame hugs and everything aside, they seem like they really found a great vibe where the two of them shared the job. But they also enjoyed playing alongside one another until the playoffs came and then it was Swayman's gig and what have you. But so as a guy that's played in a goalie tandem before, and then went off to go kind of go quote unquote, get your own job. What are some of the challenges that are going to be facing Boston and Swayman

in particular this year, because that duo was so successful and now it's no longer together. Yeah. I think anytime I've talked talked about this we said about having a safety net that when you have another guy who's fully capable um you know it can help you go play more freely because you sort of say all right we got another good option here but also like oh if i if i don't deliver the middle if i don't do well they can always go to that guy and we'll be okay right i think when you know you move off of that and you're the guy playing 50-60 and the other guy's a rookie or a minimum backup and he's not as good as you are,

it's a little more pressure on you because it says, I got to be the one to win all these games or I can't count on the other guy if I get hurt or don't play well to come in and do what I can do. So I think there is that added level of pressure to perform because you don't have that second option. But yeah, I mean, I like Swayman's

makeup. I think he is a competitor and I think he wants it. I think he enjoys that. I think we saw it during the playoffs. I'm not too worried about him. I didn't love getting Corposola back in that deal. I've not been a huge fan of his. Again, he's a veteran guy, but he kind of had one really good year in LA

and cashed in on that, which is, hey, more power to you, but it just seemed unnecessary. I thought they were trying to shed salary at the old mark to improve the team around them. And, you know, they had the best goaltending in the NHL the last two years and look where it got them, you know, it got them to the second round this year. So I think if they could have allocated those dollars somewhere else to the blue line or upfront, it would have been better, but you know, who knows,

maybe they're not done with Corpus L maybe they buy them out or swing them in another deal now that he's retained so i don't think they're quite done but um and also you're going to pay swayman eight million eight and a half million dollars a year on his new deal now you have 11 million tied up in that which is more than you were paying last year so you're going to pay more this year for a downgrade in gold than you did last year doesn't quite make sense to me so i wouldn't be surprised another shooter drop there with corpus Allis. Corey, this was awesome. Thank you very much for taking the time to do this.

We really appreciate it. Enjoy the next little bit. It should be a lot of fun with the draft and free agency. Yeah, it will do. Thanks, guys. You too. Thanks, Corey. Corey Schneider, former Canucks goalie,

now an analyst with NHL Network here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. That is one well-spoken guy. He's dialed in. Yeah. Those numbers. Goalies, man. It's goalies. Yeah, I guess thatoken guy. He's dialed in. Yeah. Those numbers. Goalies, man. It's goalies. Yeah, I guess that's it.

They're all very, very smart. They're all just working on a higher cerebral level. Every single one of them. They just got a lot of time to think because half the time the puck's in the other end. That's true.

Is there a problem with being thoughtful? Sitting there doing nothing. I wish you'd do it once in a while. Sometimes you get a night off and you just sit on the bench wearing a hat.

I have a problem on this show. I have no time to think. So there's a bit happening around the National Hockey League right now. We should have mentioned that when the Stanley Cup was handed out on Monday night, it didn't just signify that there was an NHL champion and it was the end of the regular season. It also kicked off the opening 48 hours after that of the end of the bio window, right? We did mention that yesterday and there was a couple of names that we kicked

around. The old ticking clock of the bio window. So the window officially opens, I guess this evening. And it sounds as though that the Buffalo Sabres are going to buy out Jeff Skinner from the remainder of his contract. Skinner, of course course is on a deal that pays nine million annually well that's the cap hit um but the savings this year this is a bit similar to the oliver eckman larson deal when and by deal i mean the the cap uh buyout yep um

there is huge savings this year and then pain a couple of years later. Right. So the cap hit, if the Sabres buy out Jeff Skinner, and it sounds like they're going to do that, would only be $1.4 million this year. So with a $9 million cap hit, that's a $7.5 million cap hit that you're opening up right now for the buffalo sabers so it's one of those things where is jeff skinner still an nhler yes very much so was oliver eckman larson and he went to florida and he played a third pair role and he played well and he won a stanley cup with the florida panthers but it was also the right move for the vancouver canucks because it allowed them to do some things that they needed to do now the cap hit for skinner jumps the following season to 4.4 and the following season after that

to 6.4 and then the finally final three seasons are 2.4 but the sabers will be hoping that the cap and up and no there's no other black swan event that happens that brings it all back to earth. They need to make some big, bold moves this offseason. They need to add real veteran NHL players and finally deliver a playoff team to Buffalo. They have not been in the playoffs since 2010, 11,

and this is one way to do it. It offers up an opportunity for some team to swoop in there and sign Jeff Skinner though. Yep. Who's still a pretty good player. Yeah. 24 goals last year. I think he took it. He definitely,

you started to see the decline just in terms of production, ice time, his role on the team. He's 32 years old. You've got to remember that 40-goal season he had. That was almost four years ago. He's still a good player. He's a little light. I don't know if people say, is that a right fit

for the Vancouver Canucks? No. I think they need to add some more heft into both their bottom six and their top six. He's a guy that you could get on a pretty nice, affordable deal right now. Because he's going to come with no strength attached. He was back over a point per game a couple years ago.

He was 82 points in 79 games, and then he fell off again last year a little bit. But he's also getting the prime opportunities with the Sabres. A lot of times you've got to look at these players and go, okay, he did it for that team. What's his role with your team going to be, though? So at any rate, Jeff Skinner sounds like he's going to get bought out. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.