Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 6/3/24

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the weekend in sports, they talk some Canucks with radio 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. There's a reason why, you know, I do all kinds of fighting in the offseason. Because I'm prepared to f*** somebody up. But because they're so talented and such great teammates, they are attractive to other teams, so they will call. Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. This is Alfred.

It is Bradford. It's Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And basketball fan, good morning to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning.

And Basketball Ben, good morning to you as well. Lots of barks this morning. Good morning. A lot of barking. Good morning. Halford and Brougham in the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. Pacific Honda is North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for.

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Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Rafit, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. You know what else you're waiting for? The start of the Stanley Cup final. Yes, we know who the two combatants will be. The Edmonton Oilers out of the Western Conference. The Florida Panthers out of the Eastern Conference.

The series will not get underway until Saturday. That's right, Saturday. So we've got a full week to preview game one and the rest of the series. Today, though, we will look back on the weekend that was with a guest list. Very full guest list today on the Halford & Brough Show. Begins at 6.30. David Amber, Sportsnet Hockey Night in Canada NHL host is going to join us. He was in Edmonton last night for the Oilers,

punching their ticket to the Stanley Cup final. 7 o'clock, we're going to have Arthur Staple on the show from the Athletic in New York. The Rangers fall short after winning the President's Trophy. They fall to the Florida Panthers in six games they lost on Saturday night. So we'll talk to Arthur. We'll do a post-mortem on the Rangers at 7.30. Jack Michaels, play-by-play voice of the Edmonton Oilers,

is going to join us. 8 o'clock, Randy Bjanda. He is doing the Hockey Night Canada Punjabi. And as well, of course, Canucks play-by-play man, or color, sorry, right here on Sportsnet 650. We're also giving away Snoop tickets, Jason. Snoop Dogg? Snoopaloop.

Nice. June 25th, Rogers Arena. We're giving away a pair of tickets every day this week for the best what we learned. If you want to win, it's quite simple. Tell us what you learned over the last 72 hours in sports. Hashtag it WWL. Put a ticket emoji into your text.

Send it to the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. You'll be entered into the grand prize contest to win a pair of tickets to see Snoop June 25th at Rogers Arena. Working in reverse on the guest list eight o'clock it's randeep janda 7 30 jack michaels seven o'clock arthur staple 6 30 david amber that's what's happening on the program today ben let's tell everybody what happened hey did you guys see the game last night no what happened i missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that?

You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the B.C. Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. As mentioned, the 2024 Stanley Cup final is set. It is Edmonton. It is Florida.

Where would you like to begin, friend? I would like to paint this series as a nightmare scenario for fans of the Calgary Flames. It'll be the Edmonton Oilers, the Alberta Rivals versus Matthew Kachuk and the Florida Panthers. Matthew Kachuk being one of the guys that asked out of Calgary, said, I don't want to be in Calgary anymore. This place stinks. It sucks. And he goes to Florida, and he enjoys his life,

and now the Panthers are headed back to their second straight Stanley Cup final. Okay, let's start with the Edmonton Oilers. Let's begin. I enjoyed this text from Suri Ryan. And if you have any comments or questions, text into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. Dunbar Lumber with three stores to serve you in Ladner on Bridge Street, Dunbar Lumber Express at Ladner Center or Budas in Vancouver.

Online at DunbarLumber.com. Suri Ryan texts in, it feels nice to be united with the rest of the country behind one team since Canada hasn't had a cup in 31 years. And Surrey Ryan concludes with, go Panthers. See what he did there? See what I did? See what I did?

He took you down one road, and you're thinking, He had us in the first half, not going to lie. This is the road we're going down, Boston Pizza ads, et cetera, et cetera. That's right. And then he zagged right at the end. He said, oh, we're on a different road here. And he said, go Florida. I agree.

The Edmonton Oilers deserving of beating the Dallas Stars. They did it easier than they did it against the Vancouver Canucks. I know a lot of people will look at the shot clock from yesterday and say, ah, they got so badly outshot by the Dallas Stars. Well, that's what happens when you get a 2-0 lead and you're able to protect it. Special teams, for me, were the story. Special teams have been the story, really, of the Edmonton Oilers all playoffs. And if you'd said that at the beginning of the playoffs,

you'd have been like, yeah, I get it. Yeah, they got an unbelievable power play. But no one really talked about their PK. Their PK was incredible throughout the playoffs. I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, the Canucks were the only team to score against them on the power play. That is correct, my friend. Because the Kings couldn't do it.

That is correct. And the Stars couldn't do it. That is correct. And the Stars couldn't do it. That is also correct. That is a team, I mean, I hate to say it, and maybe they'll show themselves in the Stanley Cup final against Florida, but it seems like the Edmonton Oilers are growing up. They're big boys now. They can play defense.

They can protect leads, and they did it pretty well in the Dallas Stars series. Stuart Skinner steps in, and the clenching game stops 34-35 shots. And you're right. They were royally outshot in that game. Something you can afford to do, yes, afford to do, when you jump out to a 2-0 lead and you do your business on the power play, which is exactly what they did, including that first goal from McWow himself.

35-10 were the final shots on goal. 74-24 were the final shot attempts in that game. I mean, at times I did feel genuinely bad for Dallas because you could tell that they were leaving everything they possibly had left in the tank on the ice. It's kind of the opposite to what the Canucks did in Game 7 against the Oilers. Completely the opposite.

Yeah. Completely the opposite. But the Oilers winning while being badly outshot reminded to what the Canucks did in Game 7 against the Oilers. Completely the opposite. Yeah. Completely the opposite. But the Oilers winning while being badly outshot reminded me of the Canucks. Like, hey, I saw this earlier. That's true. The Canucks winning those games would be badly outshot. You mentioned Connor McDavid, who scored an unbelievable goal. The first goal on the power play for the Edmonton Oilers.

Terrific individual effort. One of the things we've talked about a lot about Connor McDavid on this show for the past few years is the fact that he's never played in a really, really, really, really, really big game. That changes now. He's played in some kind of big games, you know, big playoff games. You know, last series he played in a game seven in the second round. That's a big game, but nothing like the Stanley Cup final,

nothing like the Olympics. And now he's going to get his Stanley Cup final, nothing like the Olympics. And now he's going to get his Stanley Cup final, and people will say Gretzky, Mary Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, all these guys won Stanley Cups. And even though it's harder than ever to win a Stanley Cup now because there are more teams in the league. It is very important for a player's legacy to win a Stanley Cup. Now, he hasn't won the Stanley Cup yet, but he's got a pretty good chance at it. Right.

And this particular season, given the way that it started, you can already see the redemptive narrative, the storyline, the arc. You know how this is going to go, is that Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers sunk about as low as they had gotten in that era, the 2-9-1 start. So the five points that they had through the first 12 games, that 2-9-1 start, are the fewest in NHL history by a team that went on to play in the Stanley Cup Finals.

So it is literally coming from the depths as low as you can go, getting Jay Woodcroft fired, and then coming all the way back. And of course, McDavid scores a very pivotal goal in game six. And when you look back, and we will talk to Randy Bjanda particularly about do we re-litigate or recalibrate what happened in the second round against Vancouver. But you look at all the things that they had to go through in that second round series against Vancouver.

I do wonder if that was the sort of pivotal one for that group, specifically Stuart Skinner. Yeah, that's where he got his reset. That's where they kind of had to. I mean, they were really tested in that series, almost against themselves. I wonder more about what could have been for the Canucks. Well, that's another part of it. Thatcher Demko gets to play one game in the playoffs. Elias Pettersson did not look himself in these playoffs.

And Brock Besser was hurt for game seven. I mean, those are all very valid things to bring up. That is very frustrating. Plus the Stars didn't play like the Stars. That made it worse for me. Maybe they did play like the Stars. I was expecting them to come out flying. I'm seeing the Stars team.

I'm like, the Canucks are going to beat those guys. The Canucks played pretty well against Dallas during the regular season. Yeah, that makes it worse somehow. Also, lest we forget, Dallas had an incredibly tough road to get to the Western Conference Final. I don't think there would have been two tougher first round opponents than Vegas in the first round and Colorado in the second. Well, I was going to say that. Yeah, that probably took a lot out of their sales. I think the key for the Canucks next season is get off to a slow start fire rick talkett bring in a new coach

and then you've got some success because chris knob block could become the latest of a growing list of teams that win the stanley cup with head coach, and I'm talking about the Edmonton Oilers here, with a head coach that was a mid-season replacement. You should probably mention you're joking about the docket thing because we're already getting calls about that. No, I'm not joking. This is actually quite serious. The 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins fired Michelle Terrian

and then brought in Dan Bilesma, won the Stanley Cup. The 2012 LA Kings fired Terry Murray, brought in Daryl Sutter, won the Stanley Cup, beating the Canucks along the way. Yep. The 2015-16 Pittsburgh Penguins fired, God, remember Mike Johnston got that job? Yeah. Fired him, brought in the guy who is mostly known as John Tortorella's right-hand man and Mike Sullivan. And then Sullivan did an incredible coaching job, won the Stanley Cup.

And the 2019 St. Louis Blues, they fired, who was it? Mike Yo. They fired Mike Yo, brought in Craig Berube, and left the Sad Club and won their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. And now we could see this happening again with Chris, don't call me Chuck Knobloch. Yeah. Now, speaking of escaping the Sad Club,

the Florida Panthers are one of the few teams that actually had eligibility for said Sad Club, and they might be ruining that eligibility in a few days' time because they punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup final for the second straight season with a 2-1 victory against the New York Rangers in game six on Saturday night in Florida it was Ben and Tarasenko with the goals Bobrovsky 23 saves all you really need to know about this series is that Florida choked the life out of the New York Rangers and their star players you know a lot of people will go into this series talking about Matthew Kachuk, and rightly so.

He's kind of the face of the Panthers. But for me, and for the Edmonton Oilers, I think the biggest challenge will be two players. Barkov, the Selkie Trophy winner, and Gustav Forsling, who might be the best shutdown defenseman in the NHL. So I was unaware of just how prolific Forsling was as a shutdown guy in these playoffs. I did not realize he got every single tough matchup,

but courtesy of Shana Goldman of The Athletic, he faced off, I think it was 48 minutes head-to-head against Kucherov in round one, 52 against Pasternak in round two, and then primarily with Zbigniew. The numbers weren't as high, so he was just out there. It's funny. I'm just thinking the Canucks should have kept that guy. You think?

But the Adam Glendening memories, we'll never forget those. So will that go down as one of the worst trades in Canucks history? It's not a good one. To be fair, he went through numerous other NHL franchises before landing in Florida, including getting waived by Carolina. So the hard matchup for Barkov, this playoffs,

Kucherov, zero goals first round, Kostronak, one goal second round, Panarin, one goal third round. So that, okay, the Rangers series. It's actually a terrific matchup. Yeah, it is. It's an enticing matchup. I don't care for Florida,

but they did go last year to the Stanley Cup final. Again, I think I'm on record saying like. Why don't you care for them? They're fun. They're good. They're fine. It's just not really. They're more interesting than Dallas.

They're more interesting than Dallas. I think they're a better They're good. They're fine. It's just not really. They're more interesting than Dallas. They're more interesting than Dallas. I think they're a better version of Dallas. I think this series with Edmonton in it is very tantalizing. Stylistically, it's fantastic. No, I just think overall. I'm curious to see what the building's going to be like in Florida. How many Oilers fans are going to be down there? Right.

Because that was the one thing for me. It might be cheaper to go to Florida, buy tickets to go see the Panthers than it is to get into the arena in Edmonton. That is very possible, right? Because I remember distinctly watching a few games of that Eastern Conference Final and being like, wow, there's a ton of Rangers fans in here, right? It's Florida. It is what it is. I've been there. You know, the hockey team is there. They have their fans, but it is by no mean a teaming market. Like it is what it is. I think everyone understands this. I think it has the potential to get nasty too well that's the good part about this is because of the style that the panthers play right is that they they are a suffocating team they want to um i mean they're very physical

and that's sort of embodied by and it's it's really bennett and kachuk that lead that part of it and then barkoff is such a good, responsible two way center. He's the he's the new Bergeron. Yeah, essentially. And then they kind of developed this blue line where, you know, I think a lot of people identified Ekblad as being their number one. But if you look at it in realistically, Forsling's that guy like Forsling makes the whole thing go.

You see Bennett's look like completely shaved with a big ass beard. Looks like a Confederate soldier. Right. And I'll say, oh, did they shave their heads back then? During the Civil War? Yeah. It was a big look at the time. Don't look that up.

Here's what you need to know about what they did. Because the New York Rangers came in. President's Trophy winner. High-flying offense. You know, Kreider and Panarin and zabinijad were among the three top scorers in the eastern conference throughout the entire regular season of playoffs zabinijad crider panarin combined for two goals two goals in the eastern conference final and one of them panarin scored late in game six when they were trailing to nothing so barkov and forsling are

going to roundly shut down McDavid and Dreisaitl and sweep the others. Stylistically, that's the matchup. It's this defensive lockdown against the two probably best dynamic scoring duo in the NHL. That's why it's great. Do you think the Panthers, having gone to the Cup Final last year, gives them any sort of experience advantage?

I know they're healthier than when they went to the Cup Final last year. But we've seen a team in the salary cap era get to the Stanley Cup Final and lose, only to win it the next year. The Penguins did it in 2009. Before the salary cap,

the Oilers did it themselves back in 1983. They met the New York Islanders in the Stanley Cup final. Then there was a rematch of that Stanley Cup final, which switched who won. In 83, the Islanders won their fourth straight. And in 84, the Edmonton Oilers finally won their first Stanley Cup, and they would go on to win four of the next five. A team has not lost consecutive Stanley Cups since the St. Louis Blues lost three straight

from 1968 to 1970. And that was kind of a weird one. Like the Blues got swept, I believe, in all three of those because they put all the expansion teams post-1967 in the same division to guarantee one of these teams would go to the stanley cup it was a weird thing i don't know but like so what you know the picture of bobby or

flying through the air that famous picture that was one of the the stanley cup final losses for the blues no team since then has gone to back-to-back stanley cup finals and lost so um it's an interesting point to bring up because i do think it's going to play to the Panthers advantage because they've carried a real chip on their shoulders about how the Stanley Cup Final went last year. Part of it was, hey, we were completely beat up. I'm pretty sure that it was Montour, Bennett, Lusterinan, and Ekblad were all hurt. Remember Kachuk broke his sternum during the Vegas series?

So he was like nowhere near as effective as well. But I don't know if you guys remember, like the final game was 9-3. Remember that? They just got absolutely trounced in the clinching game in game five of the Stanley Cup final. Yeah, they were done. It was never really close.

So they've carried that all season. And I don't know if you saw Kachuk crowing on the ice after they beat the Rangers on Saturday, saying, I told you we'd be back. I told you we'd be back. I told you we'd be back. They were very determined to, I want to say, make amends. I know they had built-in excuses why they crumbled in the final. They were beat up.

But they really want to make amends for what happened because I think they felt that they didn't put the best showing to themselves against Vegas. You know what was the funniest moment of the weekend? Was Paul Maurice's panic going around, yelling at everyone not to touch the conference final trophy yeah because they touched it last year like that was pointing his finger that was do it that was some hands-on coaching yeah he was running around the behind the bench and Kachuk was kind of laughing at him but it was funny I don't think the Oilers

no they didn't touch the trophy either um the way, Sportsnet 650 did a poll question, and it's been up for about 10 hours. It's got 1,200 votes. Who are you cheering for in the Stanley Cup final, Florida, Edmonton, or neutral? Florida got 71% of the vote. I get it. Overwhelmingly, and I think there's a lot of

hardcore Canucks fans, hardcore sports fans who would vote actually follow Sportsnet 650 on Twitter. I think, does this sound right? Does this sound right? The casual hockey fans in Canada will be cheering for Edmonton.

Sure. But the hardcore hockey fans who identify with one Canadian team in a big, big way will be cheering for the most part against the Edmonton Oilers. That's fair. I think so. You think that's fair? Yes, totally.

But the casual fan will be like, it would be nice to see a Canadian team win. And guys like me would be like, no, that is the worst case scenario. If any team is going to break this drought, I only want one team to do it. All the other ones, it's a disaster. Think of Flames fans right

now. Think of Flames fans. Who would they cheer for? It's funny. It's got to be Florida. But they have to cheer for Florida. But then they're cheering for Matthew Kachuk. Cheer for Sam Bennett. To hoist. It's the Larry David meme.

No, but yeah, they're just like, okay, it's great that the Oilers didn't. But here's a guy that essentially broke our team apart. I know Johnny Gaudreau was part of it. But don't forget, it was really the Matthew Kachuk trade that really, I don't want to say, screwed them. Johnny Gaudreau leaving was bad, definitely.

But to get Kachuk, they brought in Huberto and then signed him to that big contract, which is now considered one of the worst contracts in the NHL, and the Flames are into a rebuild now. You know, that is a tough, tough scenario if you're a Flames fan. It's hard enough as a Canucks fan, but it's brutal as a Flames fan.

If you're a Calgary Flames fan, you might consider just sitting the Stanley Cup final out. Just being like, I'll get back to you in October when hockey starts up again. But that's a tough, it's a tough one either way. They might be the neutrals on that one. The other thing you have to consider when you're talking about the sort of casuals or non-hardcores that are going to pick a side in this one, there are going to be people that are going to want to see Connor McDavid win a Stanley Cup.

All right. They're going to say that he's the best player in the NHL and he's one of the greatest players of all time. And they're going to want to see that ascension of his, or the further steps towards cementing his legacy as one of the greats, which you need a cup to do. If the Oilers hadn't have beaten the Canucks, I probably wouldn't care too much, really, to see him win a cup.

Yeah, nice, but that's my only argument, is I just kind of want to see greatness win. Yeah, I get that. But they beat the Canucks, so screw them. Yeah, well, that's, yeah. And it's going to be real difficult now. I mean, I was thinking about it all last night. I was like, you know, Dallas didn't even push Edmonton to seven.

They only made it to game six. Like, I keep looking at it and say all the what ifs. What if, what if, what if, what if. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It makes it so much worse. What if Chuck Knobloch, Chris Knobloch decided not to take Stuart Skinner out of that series and give him the reset, right? Like, what if he just let him play through it?

How different that series could have been? Because to me, that's the biggest coaching move that I've seen in a while. And what Knobloch did, and I give him credit, it worked brilliantly because he gave him the reset and got him back. And look at what Skinner did last night. I would have never have thought,

halfway through the Vancouver series, that Stuart Skinner was going to give me 34 on 35 in an elimination game. Never. But doesn't it kind of, isn't it kind of awesome for Canucks fans if Edmonton wins to be like, we gave them the toughest time? No. No. Is that not like, we lost to the champs?

You know what? I've seen that story before. I've seen it. I don't need to see it again. I saw it in 89 when the Canucks pushed the Flames to seven games in the first round, and the Flames went on to win the Stanley Cup. 2010 against the Blackhawks. For whatever reason this year.

There's lots of teams that have beaten the Canucks on the way to a Stanley Cup win. I don't know if you can always say that the Canucks were the toughest out, but I've seen the story before, and I don't want to see it again. For whatever reason this year, be it, it was just a matchup thing or it was part luck or they had their number or whatever. Vancouver was a huge thorn in the side of the Oilers, perhaps more so than any other team

during the regular season and playoffs. No one had their number more, right? So you just, when you think about it, you're like, well, it's great that they, you know, they challenged this team so thoroughly, but at the same time, you're like, that's an's great that they, you know, they challenged this team so thoroughly. But at the same time, you're like, that's an opportunity there. When you've got someone's number and you just beat them. Like, it doesn't really make sense sometimes.

You're down 4-1 in a playoff game and you come back and win 5-4. Like, things happened where the Canucks had an ability to beat the Oilers. And it would have been great if they'd been able to. I mean, it was one goal in game seven, despite the fact that the shot disparity was so lopsided. So I did make a slight mistake earlier. The listeners corrected me. One of them was Stephen North-Sanish said, didn't the Bruins lose back-to-back finals in 1977 and 1978?

Yes, indeed they did against the Montreal Canadiens. John Cherry was the head coach of the Boston Bruins back then. So I apologize for that error. I will resign after the show. David Amber is going to join us next. We'll talk about this Stanley Cup final, and we'll probably hear some complaining from the various media members who have to travel between Florida and Edmonton. Yeah, I checked the map.

That's really far away. And people will say, you get to cover the Stanley Cup final for a living. Stop complaining. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. 802 on a Monday. Hey, dog, why does this sound familiar to me? This is his theme

song, Sans Lyrics. Right. But I'm cooking. Andy's currently making the lyrics beside me. I remember this, then. Yeah. You are listening to the Half and Brush. It's Randy. Didn't have to do it. Brough Show. It's Randy. You didn't have to do it.

Randy Janda time. It's Randy Janda. Et cetera. Not bad. It goes on like that. You are listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650, featuring the musical stylings of A-Dog. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda.

Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. Now that's in my head. Dang it. It is Randy. Yeah, it's right in there. Hockey.

Yeah. What? It is Randy talking hockey. OK, work on it. I am. He's working on it right now. Vancouver Honda has a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for,

sales, financing, service, and parts. We are in Hour 3 of the program. Hour 3 is brought to you by Campbell & Pound, real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider,

powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec,. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. What are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. To the phone lines we go. Randy Bjanda joins us now on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Randy. How are you? What's going on, boys? I'm good. This Andy jingle for me is like the most

anticipated unreleased thing since like Dr. Dre's album. Remember there was all this talk about him coming out with another one after 2001 and it never did i'm eagerly waiting here this is a genius on the works by the looks of it mine has even more swearing really okay uh randy we are playing the what if game here this morning much to texter paul's chagrin uh and we're going back it's hard not to after the edmonton Oilers dispatched of the Dallas Stars in six games.

As we go back to the series against the Canucks and what if this, what if that, do you have a biggest what if that you're thinking about on this Monday morning? Well, first of all, I think it's natural to go back and say, hey, what would the home team, what would, you know, what would be required from this team to actually get that done? And I think it's natural, right? So the biggest what if for me is, I think the obvious one is two really big ones,

which is, after Demko, if he's in the series, do you have that much more of a dominant goaltending performance? And does that get it done for you? And the other one is, obviously obviously you can't control health, but Elias Pettersson also along the same lines of, all right, if he's able to give you a little bit more guys, are you able to win some of those matchups on the ice and get you over really, you know, that, that chance,

just give you a little bit more offense, give you a little bit more production. So those are the health ones. I don't really like dealing in that space too much because that's hockey, that's the way it is. When it comes to X's and O's specifically, guys, this team needed maybe two power play goals in that series, maybe a couple,

one opportunity in game seven, or even early in game six where you go oh for seven uh so i think from a non-injury perspective it comes down to power play for me you get a little bit of confidence in that power play in the final two games and maybe just maybe that gets it done so that's what i look at when it comes to x's and o's uh randy earlier in the show we were talking about the month of june that we are now in and all the things that are going to be happening in the world of sports. And that led us into a conversation about timing for the Canucks moves. Philip Hronik is an RFA.

So in theory, you could kick the can down the road for the summer. But what if you don't get something dealt with with Hronik? It's a tough negotiation. And then you're past July 1st and all the right shot UFAs are gone guys like Chris Tanev are off the board then you're in a sticky situation so which dominoes do you think are going to fall first for the Vancouver Canucks? Yeah I think the decision on Philip Hronik is the one that probably needs to. Will it? There's a couple other options. Obviously, the Tyler Myers deal, it is a much smaller deal.

In theory, you know, it seems like it's heading in the right direction. It gives you an option on the right-hand side. But, guys, we have to be clear. The decision on Filip Kronik in the short term is so important for this team because it solidifies that first pair, potentially second pair, and depending on how they want to use him here in the next couple of years, if long-term he is not a fit,

then you have to make sure that you're ready to go on July 1st or in and around the draft to make a deal. So when it comes to that player specifically, with Philip Brunick, a couple of questions I have. Can he drive his own pair? Because when we're talking about the numbers we're talking about, whether it's, you know, on the low end, some people are advocating

for six and a half, which I'm sure Alan Walsh is not one of those people. But in this market, I'm sure that number has popped up a little bit as a fair number. But when you start going further up, obviously that $8 million number comes up as the ask that's been rumored. So two questions for me.

Can he drive his own pair? And the timing on this one. In order to commit upwards of $50 million to a player who is, A, very important, has a great start to the year. I think he showed, especially when he was on pace for 70 points, he can be a key player alongside Quinn Hughes. But when you're starting to commit, you know, big time dollars, you also have to ask the question that if you need flexibility, if you need Quinn Hughes to play with somebody else, maybe a Tom Villander down the road, can Philip Hronick be your answer on that second pair? Can he drive his own pair? Is he a guy that can, you know, skate puck out of trouble? Can he

make those passes? Can he drive offense? That's a very, very important question. That has to be settled first because if you're committing that much money, you've got to be sure about the player. Secondly, if you're not committing that money, if you're making a move, you've got to be

100% sure you're ready to go on July 1st because there are a lot of right shot defenseman options on in free agency this year which is rare but uh i think that decision has to be made well in advance of july 1st so how did the canucks answer that question without very much evidence of philip peronic playing with anyone except quinn hughes yeah that's the tricky thing right i think looking back at last year you'd like to have a larger sample size of, can he do it, you know, away from Quinn Hughes?

And they were so good, especially at the beginning of the year, where, you know, you saw Philip Hronick and Quinn Hughes be a dynamic duo. They were the best pairing in the NHL for a long stretch. And it's tough to go away from that. But once it started to get a little stale, they stuck with it for the most part.

And, you know, that might have been the time for experimentation. Coaches don't like experimenting during the regular season too much, even though we saw elements of that in the forward group. So the timing on this is a little tricky. And, you know, with Detroit, they obviously had some younger guys coming up through the system that didn't want to pay Philip Hronik,

and they made that decision to flip him. Vancouver's got a really tricky situation here because, yeah, so you're going to have to make a judgment call here. And a part of this is, I think also Philip Hronik recognizing where he's at right now and figuring out that dollar number because, you know,

we look at Colorado and Devon Tate signing for 725 to play alongside Kale McCarr on the open market, guys. He probably would have made more based on just the run he was having with Kale McCarr, so took a little bit less. Now, Filip Ronic, it depends on what your mentality is. Do you feel like you can get more? Do you see this as a long-term fit and unfortunately yeah we don't have that sample size so it is a risk and it's a risk that uh you have to if you're looking at finding him long term

uh you have to have a lot of confidence the players say all right we saw what you did in detroit we want an element of that here away from Quinn Hughes. If, you know, if we require that. Randy, in the AHL, the Canucks have a number of players that are going to be auditioning for roles in the NHL next season. Is there a guy that you're especially optimistic about? Yeah, that's a, you know,

it's an interesting question because there's a couple of guys, you know, we talk about sample size again, right? Like even the guy with probably the largest sample size is Vasily Podkolzin, but we saw the element of trust was not necessarily there this past playoff. So even though he got 19 games in the NHL, he was only able to pick up two assists. The point production wasn't there. We saw a more confident player compared to the previous year. He was attacking that open space in the middle of the ice.

He was, you know, as Rick Taka was calling for players to do in the playoffs, Vasilipad Kovac, at least during the regular season when he was playing those 19 games, and I would say it's, you know, for those first 10 games, he was comfortable carrying the puck through the neutral zone. Now, the playoffs come around, it's a different ball game. We didn't see that as much, but I think Vasily Podkolzin is still the leader in that regard where he's got that experience. Now you just want him to ramp up a little bit more.

Essentially, Vasily is in that situation where Nils Hoaglander was, you know, last offseason where it was, all right, you've got to make this team. You've got to make sure that you're playing in the bottom six. So Vasily Podkolzin is the one I look at. But there are a couple of guys that, you know, you start looking at and saying, all right, could they feature? I think Atu Ratu is probably a little bit away. You can use a little bit more seasoning,

but he's a guy that put up 52 points last year in the AHL. This is a guy that's that much closer. He's providing himself to be an option for next year. R.C. Bantz, obviously, is a guy that had got to look last year. I think we saw some good parts of his game, but what we also saw was him needing to mature a little bit more physically, I would say, and decision-making in more physical games. And Max Sasson, to me, is the guy that keeps on getting mentioned,

put up 42 points guys but um you know that's one that Patrick Alvin keeps on bringing up his name uh so he is an option and has to have a really good camp but I look at Vasily Podkholzhin as that guy can you bring some physicality can you bring the element that every team needs in the bottom six young players cheap players, physical players, and that have an element of speed. Of those four guys I mentioned, Vasily Podkulzin's that guy. Speed is important.

Patrick Alveen said he'd like to add some speed. Do you have any guys in mind? First of all, do you agree that the Canucks need to get faster? And second of all, how do they pull that off? Yeah, no doubt they have to get faster. That's a team that I thought they played faster in certain stretches of the season. Even in the playoffs, they had their moments, but you need to bring that consistently. And I felt as you look at a team like Florida play right now,

and A, sure, they have some depth. They're getting some production from guys further down the lineup, but they also play this game very quickly. And part of this is also just being aggressive on the forecheck, being able to bring that heat up the ice. And Vancouver needs more of that. So when you're relying on a Sam Lafferty or a Phil DiGiuseppe, I thought those guys worked hard this season,

but you can see they weren't able to get home as much as you need to throughout the season and definitely in the playoffs. The power of a four-trick in the playoffs, guys, we are seeing it with Florida. The last two years, their foot is on the gas pedal all the time. They're relentless relentless and it just puts so much pressure on a team and a defensive you know unit because you got to make that push that you know decision in in a quick second in a in a in a split second so I look at

Vancouver needing to add a little bit more of that and that's going to have to a come internally as I mentioned with Pod Colson I think players like vance need to you know bring a little bit more uh speed he's got to work on his skating his first five steps essentially um bring a little bit more physicality and i think that's an element that you can't overpay necessarily uh in ufa status we've seen that in the past where if you overpay in the bottom six it does hurt. So internally is where you need to get these guys to get better, get faster, get stronger. And the two guys that played NHL games last year, Pod Coles and R.C. Benton, I would even say Linus Carlsen, right?

This is a guy that, sure, he didn't have that offensive pop to him, but he's a big body. Now, can you get a little bit faster? Can you get home a little bit quicker um externally of course you look at bringing in one or two players that can help with that and this regime has shown that they can find players on the cheap to do that whether that's a Dakota Joshua whether that's a Sam Lafferty but I'm always wary when you're looking for those players in free agency because it might cost you. Randy, how do you see the Stanley Cup final matching up?

Yeah, I love this matchup. I know that's going to hurt a lot of Canucks fans, but listen, you know, going back to that last round, I think the Vancouver Canucks actually woke up the Edmonton Oilers in game three of that series. When Calvin Pickard went into that series, Edmonton committed more defensively and credit to Chris Knobloch for making the right adjustments. And since then, he's been able to do that.

Whether it was going to Pickard, whether it was splitting Dave Harney and Nurse, whether it was, you know, splitting up McDavid and Dreisel at the right time and bringing in depth players. But when you start looking at this series, a couple of things, right? I mentioned the forecheck for the Florida Panthers. They skate, they're fast, and they are so good defensively, guys. The New York Rangers stars, Panarin, Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, had nothing in that series.

They looked dejected. It was like they were suffocated, man. This was like the godfather scene of Luca Brasi in the bar, right? Like that was the New York Rangers stars. They had no chance. And I think a great moment in that series was late in game six where it looked like Wenberg had a chance, and then Brandon Montour just steps into him,

separates Madden from Puck and saying, yeah, you got no shot. Didn't matter if you felt like you had a lane or not. So I think that element of just skating hard, playing hard, the defensive structure is so good for Florida against you know the superstars of the Edmonton Oilers the special teams of the Edmonton Oilers and as I mentioned before you know Vancouver woke up that defensive side to them as well where after game three against Vancouver they were able to really lock in defensively and that continued against Dallas.

So I think this is going to be, the key for me is going to be that forecheck of the Florida Panthers. If they can pressure guys like Darnell Nurse, Dave Harnais, even Evan Bouchard, who's had a fantastic playoff, that's going to pose a lot of problems for Edmonton. But when you got McGavin and Dreisaitl, guys, in a couple of seconds, I think it's a fascinating fascinating matchup.

Randy, thanks for this bud. Enjoy the Stanley Cup final as it eventually gets underway. We'll be checking in again next week. Cheers boys, take care. Thanks. Randy Janda, Canucks radio color analyst here on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Would you like to start doing some What We Learns here? Yeah, why don't you start?

Sure. Okay, a friendly reminder that some What We Learns here? Yeah, why don't you start? Sure. Okay, a friendly reminder that your What We Learns can win you a pair of tickets to see Snoop on June 25th. Snoopaloop. Snoopaloop. Bring your green hat. June 25th, Rogers Arena. We're giving away a pair of tickets every day this week to the best What We Learned.

Hashtag it WWL. Put a ticket emoji into your text. Send it to 650- so i'm gonna do snoop dog by the way let's not confuse it with other snoops right just in case the myriad of snoops out there this is snoop dog specifically now snoopy i'm see dog don't don't do that i'm going to do a baseball parlance a baseball double header for what we learned i'm going to start with the resurgent Toronto Blue Jays. Hey, hey! If you haven't been

paying attention, the Jays are on fire right now. It has to do with the fact that they played the Chicago White Sox and the Pittsburgh Pirates, but never mind. They're winning ball games. They're slowly climbing back to respectability. On the weekend, Ross Atkins said,

it doesn't make any sense for us to trade Bo Bichette or Vladimir Goro, because they've had such a great May. And now we're headed into June. Here's what Ross Atkins had to say to MLB Network Radio over the weekend. It just doesn't make any sense for us. You know, we, you know, oftentimes, not often, there will be occasional times as you're talking to other executives that they'll ask if we'll consider. And we just say it's not something that we have spent any time on. But because they're so talented and such great teammates, they are attractive to other teams. So they will call.

I was disappointed to see a report that that was something that another executive had commented on about our team. But it just doesn't make sense so really excited about what's ahead for them and how well they've played in may so they're getting traded no i'm just well it was ross that it was ross atkins gonna be the guy that's gonna be responsible that's exactly what i said to ben though before the show started like as soon as a gm starts saying like that, the guys are getting moved. I was thinking more like it doesn't make any sense for us because if I trade

those guys, I'm probably not going to have my job anymore. He had to address the report because this is how these things start. This is classic. If you're a GM that wants to mess with someone, this is what you do. An anonymous executive said that the Blue Jays had been accepting calls.

No, but think about it, though. If Ross Atkins leads the charge to trade Bichette and Guerrero, wouldn't the conclusion be you failed with this core? You had all this money invested in, like only those guys but like building around those guys so why should you be the guy that gets to do the retool or rebuild oh yeah i get it you know he's kind of in a tough position he made these guys the bedrock the foundation of this of this crew and this group and if you're the owners just a great company that owns the Toronto Blue Jays. If you're the owners, don't you have to make a decision on who's going to lead the team going forward before you make a decision on Guerrero and Bichette?

Believe it or not, I joke when I came back and I'm like, so they're getting traded. I actually think that they're going to ride this thing out. And I think that it's going to be, if they're going down, they're're all going down together schneider atkins bow vladdy all of them together i wouldn't be surprised if they try and add to this group because i think he genuinely believes to the group yeah i think he genuinely believes that the early season struggles are early season struggles then these guys bats are going to come alive the way that he's talking about it their feel for the barrel he threw that one out there in that interview as well, by the way. They're 28 and 30.

Yeah, I know. It's like a significant negative run differential. I'm just telling you what I think is going to happen. I'm not telling you that it should or that it's logical. I just think it's going to happen. Congratulations on sweeping the White Sox and taking two of three from the Pittsburgh Pirates. You needed extras in the game eight to one, and you won the third game by one run.

So awesome. Even John Schneider was like, yeah, we've been playing pretty good. And he's like, of course, this is the soft part of our schedule. Like he acknowledged that they got a four game set against the Baltimore Orioles. Mook out next. Mook out that. But speaking of the aforementioned Chicago White Sox, I got to play this audio from Tommy Pham on the weekend.

So Pham got thrown out at home in Sunday's game against the Milwaukee Brewers. And the White Sox are terrible. They don't win a lot of ball games. It was a shallow fly ball. I think Pham was also pissed off that the third base coach sent him to go. He was out by a country mile at the plate, but

the catcher, William Contreras, he kind of gave it to him at the plate. He was barking at him. Yeah, he was giving it to him pretty good. Now, I don't know how many people are familiar with Tommy Pham, but he's wired differently. He's built different, as the kids would say.

But he did not like Contreras barking at him when he tagged him out at home because he was out by a mile. It wasn't a great play. Yelich made it nicer, but he was out by a mile. And then he proceeded to strut around the infield trying to take on Contreras and actually did a little shadow boxing routine showing how he was ready to fight the fight never materialized on the field but then fam was asked about it afterwards and uh a couple good lines in here that I might use

for the future here's Tommy fam on his dust up with William Contreras I'm going to the dugout, and I hear the tough guy with all the hoorah. So I'll never start anything, but I'll be prepared to finish it. There's a reason why I do all kinds of fighting in the offseason, because I'm prepared to f*** somebody up. So you can take it as what it is. Guys, there's a reason why there's so much fighting in the off season You should start saying that

You should be like I do karate Bring it back I don't want to throw this out there or anything Do you remember when the karate kid first came out? I'm aging myself now But like The Jaden Smith one?

Now you're aging yourself Thank you for that Because a piece of bruff just died karate was big with kids and then they they got to the lessons and they were like this is so boring is that true though because i was i was karate it came out it came in 84 so you're because i'm not i'm not suggesting karate is boring but it's like the beginning parts are it's incredibly it's slow moving it's disciplined yeah it's like the simpsons... It's incredibly... It's slow moving. It's disciplined. Yeah, it's like The Simpsons episode. It's methodical.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I remember my kid, when he was really young, like five or six, he was in karate. And I remember asking the sensei, I'm like, is there like a evil dojo around? I mean, just... He wants to do a little more striking. Yeah.

Is there a dojo that just teaches me how to mess people up? Right. You know, all the illegal things. No reading. You can't do it. The All-Valley Karate Championship. Like, I want to do a little more striking. Is there a dojo that just teaches me how to mess people up? Right. You know, all the illegal things you can't do at the All-Valley Karate Championship. Like, I want to learn that stuff. It's got to be out there. That's cool. I didn't know that, though, bro. I didn't realize karate was such a big thing.

It was huge. That's crazy. You know what another class I took? I never actually took karate. Or karate. Karate. Thank you. I did take a breakdancing class.

Wow. Based on a movie as well well or just on a large? Michael Jackson. Footloose. Oh, okay. There wasn't Footloose. Did you see him from Footloose? Did you see him from Breakdancing?

Yeah. I don't know what year was that. There was Choreographed Dance. Are you sure? But it was. Wait, you took Breakdancing because of Michael Jackson? Breakdancing was massive back in the day. Well, it was big recently, too, in the last 20 years.

It's an Olympic sport. It's an Olympic sport. Brough was ahead of his time. It's continued to be big. All I wanted to do was learn how to moonwalk. Didn't learn it. Yeah, I was going to say, I don't think they teach that at breakdancing, do they? Yes, they do. Can we get that on the stream?

What do you think they teach at breakdancing? The waltz? Popping and locking? A moonwalk is breakdancing. Really? Come on. I'm currently googling what is breakdancing. I don't think a moonwalk is consistent is breakdancing. Really? Come on. I don't think so. I'm currently Googling what is breakdancing. I don't think a moonwalk is consistent with breakdancing. I mean, I know what breakdancing is, and I know what a moonwalk is, but I don't think those two things are the same thing.

So breakdancers don't do the moonwalk. I don't think so. I could be wrong with this, but I don't think it's the same thing. I don't know what the moonwalk is dance-wise. I don't know what you'd call it. A style of hip-hop dance in which soloists perform acrobatic moves. This is fascinating, by the way. Michael Jackson.

I know what it is, but... The first time I ever saw MJ do that, I was like, I want to learn how to do that. It takes incredible athleticism and energy. Okay, I've got it official here. The sixth step in which the B-boy, that's the breakdancer, uses his arms to support his body. It's considered one of the foundational breakdancing moves. Along with freeze, flare, float, kick, spin, suicides, windmill, moonwalk. Yeah. Swipe and hand.

Nails one of the big ones. It was one of the big ones. It was one of the big ten. That's about what we learned. I didn't know that. We all learned something. Moo cow that. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.